Week 5: La Flor
- M Sande
- Jul 30, 2025
- 5 min read
I've noticed that when I am not consistently checking the day and how long I have left in my internship, the time passes so much faster. This past week was the perfect example of that, busy, fun, tired, and went so fast. I spent the week at EARTHs La Flor campus with good people and doing fun activities every day.
After our Sunday travel day we were up Monday for a class and then to a tour of the campus. We started by walking around and seeing the courtyard and pool area, where most of us would end up spending a good amount of time during the trip. The architecture and landscaping here was all so pretty and very manicured, and that with the air conditioning and warm showers made it feel like a fancy vacation. Then after our little walk around we got onto the bus and drove around to see some more of the land that makes up the campus. Some of it is dedicated to hay bales, some to cattle, lots to mangoes and much more. We stopped and all got out to pick some mangoes, though most we found had worms since it's a bit late in the season. The rest of the day consisted of lunch, some down time, a soils class where I got very lost trying to map an area of the campus on QGIS, and ended with more pool time and games.
The rest of the week followed a similar daily schedule with one class after breakfast and one after lunch, though always pretty relaxed. On Tuesday the morning class was soils again and this time we went out to the field we has mapped the day before to get some data about the soil. That afternoon following the second class most of us quickly changed and headed to the pool to play some pool volleyball and swim for a long time. One of the big differences I have noticed here at EARTH (and mentioned previously) is how close-knit of a community it is, in this case being that even the professors were at the pool with us just as competitive and ready for some volleyball. I think it was this day that started our week long obsession with the game "Werewolf", a mystery game where 2-3 person are werewolves, one a doctor, and one a seer (detective like position), and the rest villagers. The goal of the game for the werewolves is to eliminate everyone without being caught... so the goal for everyone else to eliminate them. In short a very fun game full of backstabbing and competitiveness.
Wednesday consisted of a morning class where we headed to see some cattle and hear from the farmer there about these specific ones. This was followed by some games of Uno, lunch
class, bus to see cows, rest after lunch, drone flying after trying (and failing) to set up an app and flight plan for the specific drone. Dinner that night was the parillade, like a bbq party where we had a dress code of enemy of fashion. And the dress code wasn't just for people to show up like that, there was also a fashion show and a competition for the best (or worst in this case) dressed. Following dinner we played many games of werewolf and hung out.
Our last full day across Costa Rica was probably the best of the trip, though every single day make my list of top 10 in Costa Rica so far. We started our morning by getting on the bus and heading to Ricón de la Vieja National Park. The main attraction for the park is the volcano, but we were headed on a different hike. Originally it was going to be a pretty easy, shorter hike but students convinced the professors that we should do the 10km hike out to a waterfall, and not only was it 10km, it had some steep climbs. Although it was a pretty difficult hike, especially the was back, it was also so much fun and the waterfall and views along the way were so worth it. I mainly hiked with 3 other students, Ajani, Irene, and Benedict, and it was a super fun group where we definitely laughed and enjoyed the hike together. Once we were halfway through at our destination, the waterfall, my heels has awful blisters and we were tired but oh was it worth it. I am a sucker for waterfalls and this one was so pretty and had a nice cold pool under where we dipped our feet in, some of our group getting fully in. We took some pictures and hung out for a bit before starting the 5km trek back. I did end up running out of water about halfway through as I was the only one in our group who had brought water, but that just meant the ice tea with lunch was that much better once we had made it back. In addition to ice tea, we ate our lunch sitting on the ground around the bus, waiting for the last groups to return from the hike. On our way back to the campus we stopped in Liberia for an hour to get some ice cream and explore the city a bit. This is one spot I definitely would've enjoyed spending more time exploring, but in the end we were all tired and happy to get back to La Flor for our last night. Right when we got back I was planning to shower but instead ended up at the pool again! Then finally a nice shower and then lunch followed by more games of werewolf. Ended the night hanging out with some friends I made that week and truly happy with how good of a week it had been. I know can't imagine how I was so nervous about not knowing anyone as I met some amazing people while there.
Kicked off Friday by waking up early to pack as I hadn't even started the day before. Followed by a 6:30am breakfast and heading out on the bus at 7:00 for the 6 hour ride back to the main EARTH Campus. Oh wait did I say 6 hours... sorry I meant 8 hours as there were floods and roads were completely stopped as some vehicles couldn't cross the water. Well in the end we got back to EARTH around 3:00pm and were all very tired and ready to head to our rooms to rest after a fun week.
I love the photos! It’s fun to see where you have been.