Excursion Recap Costa Rica: Brooke Ryan and Jonathan Livingston

An excursion is defined as a deviation from a regular path or pattern, and every late February, our school proves why that deviation is needed. For two weeks, classrooms are traded for real world experiences which can range from jogging the BeltLine to stepping foot inside the Coliseum. Each trip leads somewhere different and offers every student an unforgettable experience, but we often don’t hear those stories or multiples from every excursion. Until now, in this first fully collaborative article, students will share their individual experiences and reflect on what they have learned. 

Costa Rica: Brooke Ryan and Jonathan Livingston

Brooke shares, on the Costa Rica excursion: we spent our time in San Jose and San Juan where we all partook in adventures daily. To start the trip off, we spent the first day at the airport and unfortunately couldn’t make our city tour in time. Our first “real” full-day was spent helping at an animal rescue center and a rescheduled tour of the city of San Jose with our amazing tour guide, Javier. One of my personal favorite days was this day at the animal center as we got to see so many amazing animals (baby sloths, exotic birds, monkeys, and a lot more) and help clean their enclosures, feed them, and in one group's case-get attacked by parakeets! On the second day, we got to see firsthand a lot of culture in Costa Rica at a local school, later getting to eat lunch with them and play with the kids. Apparently, “6-7” is not just an American thing as the kids in Costa Rica were obsessively making the joke as well. After lunch we went and planted trees to help the environment. The evening was spent in the pool and later at a group dinner! I don’t have a specific favorite memory from the trip, but I really enjoyed the second resort we stayed at, there were even horses roaming outside our building since they offered trail rides! Unfortunately we weren’t able to partake in a trail ride, but being able to see the horses, and all the wildlife simply in the resort was amazing. It had an awesome pool and jacuzzi too! The first hike we went on, despite being the longest and rainiest, was my favorite as it was super fun to just get soaking wet–it was a reminder we were in a rainforest! We learned a lot about sustainability and biodiversity–the main curriculum of the trip. 

Jonathan also offered his perspective on the trip: one of the many choices for the 2026 catalog was “Costa Rica: Exploring Sustainability and Biodiversity.” It was unlike any other. We learned about the different types of ecosystems in the rainforest and how each can be sustained. I have never really enjoyed being away from home and being outside, so when I was in Costa Rica, I was very skeptical, but I can say that I ended up having an incredible experience. When first landing in Costa Rica, due to scheduling conflicts we could not do our welcome tour, so I think everyone assumed from that point the trip would be like it was, calm and collected. But the next day we quickly learned that wasn't the case, we went to an animal shelter where we worked with animals, some vicious yet some friendly. Or, the day where we went to Los Tenideros and hiked for 6 miles, while studying the biodiversity of the different types of organisms and species on the trees around us, like fungi and moss. We also got to join a local school as they taught us about their culture. Junior Sophia Artigue, stated “It was so special that the school took the time to prepare something for us as visitors, and it really put into perspective how meaningful the trip was to all of us.” Now I know it is unique that I am just deciding to write about this trip when the Excursion ended a while ago. But the reason I chose to write this article is because it is so much bigger than an excursion. I did things that I never thought or was comfortable with doing and grew as a person by taking in other places and cultures.