Costa Rica

My trip to China was not my first time ever leaving the country. I had the opportunity to go to Costa Rica through my high school's science program. I went in the summer of 2000 (I had just finished 10th grade). The purpose of our trip was to study the rainforrest; we had to take soil and water samples. We also got the chance to go up into the canopy which was a lot of fun. We stayed in the middle of the rainforrest at a place called Salva Bananito Lodge. It was so beautiful! Since we were in the middle of the rainforrest we had no electricity. Everything we used had to be biodegradable because there also wasn't a sewer system. There were 4 people to a lodge, the lodges sat on four long poles so you had to take a ramp in order to get up there, each lodge also had one bathroom, and our lodge had a huge wrap around deck with 2 hammocks hanging from the rafters. We were very lucky to get the lodge that we did because we ended up having a hummingbird nest in our rafters; one of my favorite memories from the trip is hanging out in the hammocks on our deck and just watching the hummingbirds come and go from their little nest. One of my other favorite memories from Costa Rica is getting to hold a sloth, her name was Buttercup and she was so cute! That was a truly wonderful trip and I'm very fortunate to have gotten the chance to go and to have my first time out of the country be such a memorable one.