Today was an amazing day. I got up really early to meet the group going to the cloud forest at LASP. I met a few other girls at the bus stop and when we got to LASP we quickly loaded up the bus for San Gerardo de Dota. Almost immediately after we started driving, our driver had to stop for directions. This started a stream of 13 stops for asking the way over the course of about four hours. QREK, the research center we are staying at is really remote in one of the highest cloud forests in Costa Rica.
When we got here there were 6 students, an intern and a program coordinator here to greet us. They were super friendly and helped us settle in before leaving us to explore the area on our own. Megan, Haleigh, and I went to the stream b the center and it was incredibly beautiful. Around lunch time, some of the students here took us to an awesome bakery that took about 40 minutes to hike to. At the bakery we had some delicious pizza, cinnamon rolls, and chai tea. The food was totally worth the hike...delicious!
After lunch we all got changed to go on a hike through the forest. On our hike we saw 2 beautiful waterfalls, and all kinds of cool plants. There were some amazing views that pictures just couldn't capture. It was fun to climb through the forest and cross some hanging bridges over a river with water so clean that it doesn't need to be filtered even for us to drink it. Some of the QREK students led our hike, so we learned a lot about the nature and history of the area. It was a lot of fun.
When we got back, everyone took nice hot showers with fantastic water pressure. I enjoyed it immensely. We went to a restaurant down the street where there was an incredible buffet for dinner. Everyone enjoyed getting to pick what and how much we ate, and it was a nice change to be able to eat vegetables (something none of our host families eat on a regular basis) for a change. The dessert buffet was also a nice addition to our evening.
Dinner was followed by free time during which a bunch of us chatted and then Haleigh and I went out to look at the stars. There were so many out and the moon was amazingly bright. We had a great time reflecting on what God has been teaching us this semester and pointing out constellations (both real and made up) to each other. Its so great to have a short break for the weekend in order to prepare for Nicaragua. I've been blessed by the time away, the great friendships, and God's presence today. This weekend feels like a breath of fresh air and its helped me feel better prepared to finish out the semester trusting God day by day.
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