With 23 Calvin College students invading Costa Rica, we had to send a lot of our best instructors out on course to handle the load. We also had to split the group into two Patrols. Meet their instructors:
Danny Jiménez, Lead Instructor, Patrol 1
Hometown: San Isidro, Costa Rica
About: Danny loves cars. In fact, he owns one right now that is quite popular. It catches ears and eyes with both its distinct bright lime green color and deep muffler hum. Danny has hurt his knee multiple times playing his favorite sport, soccer, but that hasn’t stopped him yet from rafting, hiking and kayaking.
Mauren Granados, Land Instructor, Patrol 1
Hometown: Piedras Blancas, Costa Rica
About: Mauren is one of our toughest female instructors. She is known as “Mau” by her friends, and she got married last year to another adventure guide.
Orlando Zamora, Lead Instructor, Patrol 2
Hometown: Piedras Blancas, Costa Rica
About: Orlando is arguably the strongest instructor we have at Outward Bound Costa Rica (and possibly in the entire country). He not only built his house for his wife and five kids, but he carried their cast iron stove 15 km to his house on mountainous rainforest terrain. More recently, he carried the large cistern (water tank) 12 km to the small village of Valle Escondido when University of Alabama did a water supply service project there last month.
Emma Zamora, Land Instructor, Patrol 2
Hometown: Piedras Blancas, Costa Rica
About: When Emma, Orlando’s oldest daughter, is not on course, she is living and working back on our base as the chef. Known to pass the time in between meals watching telenovelas and puppet shows, she also loves to get dressed up for special occasions.
Antonio López, River Guide
Hometown: Piedras Blancas, Costa Rica
About: As our Logistics Manager, Antonio lives on base with us, long distance from his 17 brothers and sisters (most of whom work with us as instructors, too). Known as the loco of the family, he loves to test his kayak skills in the white water of Costa Rica’s most dangerous rapids.
Joe Ewing, River Guide
Hometown: Castle Rock, CO
About: Joe is Outward Bound Costa Rica’s new River Manager. He has had years of experience on the river, including when he attended Colorado’s Outward Bound High School and guided for Outward Bound Mexico. He has always been active, playing football since he was a kid.
Felipe López, River Guide
Hometown: Piedras Blancas, Costa Rica
About: Also one of the 18 López children, Felipe is known as one of the more serious and talkative sons. But that’s to be expected, as he is also a husband and a father of two precious toddlers.
Carlos Castro, Surf Instructor
Hometown: San Jose, Costa Rica
About: Unbeknownst to his students, Carlos’ dreads and surf moves hide the fact that he was once an IT businessman. He now focuses his non-surf time on fixing up cars to resell them. With the way his students love him and his instructing style, it’s questionable as to why his nickname is “Diablos” (meaning “devil”).
Jim Rowe, Surf Instructor
Home state: Colorado
About: Jim started Outward Bound Costa Rica with his own two hands, but it began in 1992 as a simple adventure school. To get this project started, he lived out of his car, leading rafting and SCUBA trips to tourists. Now, 16 years after being awarded the Outward Bound charter, he works on base as the Executive Director.