We’re finally leaving!! These past 2 weeks have flown by completely but here we are! Starting off the day at 7:30 AM, instead of eating breakfast first, we started off with final reflections. In these reflections we evaluated our time spent in Costa Rica, the people we were with, our activities, program coordinators, and our food. After this, we had our last breakfast together ( 🙁 ) which was rice, eggs, bread and fruit, yum! Once we were finished, we began to bring our packed luggage onto our porch and started to prepare for our last activities, by this point we were way ahead of schedule (thanks to me and Rickia hehehaha). We started by writing Big loves!! This is an activity where we spent exactly 60 seconds writing what we think of the person whose name is on the paper. A little stressful but we prevailed! It was very nice to read everyone’s kind messages and hear their final thoughts on our time together. After that Memo called us into the living room to play a game called tap someone who. In this game, we received a series of statements beginning with “tap someone who…”. For example “Tap someone who inspired you”. 5 people were pulled into the middle of the circle while everyone else was facing away with eyes closed.  By the end, there was ALOT of unexpected crying. Like a lot. It was very heartfelt that so many people have thought so highly of each other just in these past 2 weeks. It was a very sentimental and vulnerable moment for everyone. Lots of hugging and crying,,, and more crying. After, we made our final trip to El Chino. No Chester today but he lives in our hearts forever! Then we made our way back home to eat our last lunch together, another sad face :(. Lunch was pasta with beef, garlic bread, and salad. Then we checked our rooms one final time and waited for about an hour and 30 min for our bus to finally arrive. As we loaded onto the bus we began to reminiscence on our journey together in Casa Aquiares. All the laughs, all the cries, all the cats and dogs, it was hard to believe our eventful stay was over.  As the bus began to drive off, we said our final goodbyes to the town we called home these last 2 weeks. After a 3-hour drive with lots of spunky music, we arrive at Hotel Quality where we first started our journey. Here we ate dinner, had a pool party, and did our last and final nightly meeting in the pool! Everybody expressed how much they changed, how much love they shared for the group and how much they will miss seeing each other. It was a bittersweet moment for everyone. On this trip, we made memories that will last a lifetime and met so many people we will never forget. From our daily meals, slumber parties, hikes, history lessons, group discussions, cap projects, nightly meetings, tears, and laughter we can all admit this is something we will miss. Home here we come!

With lots of love, Ari and Rickia <3.