Coatis and Misty Mornings

After countless hours of travel, the Climate Change Mitigation crew finally arrived at our misty paradise in the hills. On our first night, everyone settled into their cabins, made new friends, and ate a late dinner before snoozing there way into Monday. Our first morning at CIEE Monteverde consisted of a delicious Tico breakfast, campus tour and farm visit, and a few essential orientation details. We even saw monkeys in the trees! (Though there was some debate as to whether it was a local coati family.) Either way, a very cool departure from the city squirrels and pigeons many of us are used to.

The real fun started after lunch, when everyone gathered in the "Tucan" classroom to meet Carolina, their "profesora" for the program. She had several clever activities planned, including having each student create a tile representing one of their favorite natural spaces. The art project had a twist ending to represent climate change that I'll reveal at a later post, just to keep you on your toes.

After a long day of academics, several kids embarked on an evening jungle hike. Many of them commented on how incredibly cool it was to see houseplants they have at home out in their natural habitats instead of ceramic pots on the windowsill. An excellent example of this is the giant monsteras that weave themselves around larger trees. Overall it was a satisfying (and busy) first day in the clouds.