After 85 days with us in Costa Rica and Panama, the time has come to bid farewell to our students from Hurricane Island Outward Bound School. From surfing in Playa Dominical to scuba diving in Bocas del Toro in Panama, the students pushed their limits and earned their Whitewater Rescuer Technician and NAUI Scuba Diver certifications.
The homestays on the hike were a highlight for many of the students.
“My favorite part of Panama was getting to experience a different culture and see how drastically different people’s lives are from my life in the United States. Along with that, I think the natural beauty is really something else. It is so much less developed and absolutely gorgeous,” said Charlie V. from Chesapeake, Virginia.
The two-week sea kayaking expedition around the archipelago of Bocas del Toro in Panama opened their eyes to a different world under the sea.
“I really enjoyed our last few weeks in Panama. Scuba diving was something I’d never gotten to experience before and getting to see all the wildlife and turtles, fish, coral, a shipwreck, and diving at night was really spectacular. I had done sea kayaking before but doing it traveling from village to village and playing with all the kids and experiencing their culture was a lot of fun. I’ll definitely miss that going back home, but it gave me an awareness of our actions at home and how different our life is from theirs. I really enjoyed the whole course. I made a lot of good friends and learned a lot. Now I’m going to work on transferring all I’ve learned here to my life back home,” added Sam A. from Oberlin, Ohio.
“I really enjoyed sea kayaking. It was a really good chance for the whole crew to put the skills that we’ve learned in the past 85 days into play. We were able to function as an independent group which was really nice and we had some really great achievements, such as our 25 mile kayak day, it was really nice knowing that we had done that all by ourselves with very little input from the instructors. It was a really good accomplished feeling and we were all very proud of ourselves. And just getting to live in a different community every night and getting to see how they live. WE got to play soccer with the kids and do a service project taking inventory for next years kindergarten classes and it was just a lot of fun walking around the communities. I made some really good memories. I have really enjoyed the past three months and I’m really sad to go,” said Flora D. from Connecticut.
We wish all our students the best of luck in all their future endeavors. Be sure to visit our Facebook page to see photos from their course experience.
The homestays on the hike were a highlight for many of the students.
“My favorite part of Panama was getting to experience a different culture and see how drastically different people’s lives are from my life in the United States. Along with that, I think the natural beauty is really something else. It is so much less developed and absolutely gorgeous,” said Charlie V. from Chesapeake, Virginia.
The two-week sea kayaking expedition around the archipelago of Bocas del Toro in Panama opened their eyes to a different world under the sea.
“I really enjoyed our last few weeks in Panama. Scuba diving was something I’d never gotten to experience before and getting to see all the wildlife and turtles, fish, coral, a shipwreck, and diving at night was really spectacular. I had done sea kayaking before but doing it traveling from village to village and playing with all the kids and experiencing their culture was a lot of fun. I’ll definitely miss that going back home, but it gave me an awareness of our actions at home and how different our life is from theirs. I really enjoyed the whole course. I made a lot of good friends and learned a lot. Now I’m going to work on transferring all I’ve learned here to my life back home,” added Sam A. from Oberlin, Ohio.
“I really enjoyed sea kayaking. It was a really good chance for the whole crew to put the skills that we’ve learned in the past 85 days into play. We were able to function as an independent group which was really nice and we had some really great achievements, such as our 25 mile kayak day, it was really nice knowing that we had done that all by ourselves with very little input from the instructors. It was a really good accomplished feeling and we were all very proud of ourselves. And just getting to live in a different community every night and getting to see how they live. WE got to play soccer with the kids and do a service project taking inventory for next years kindergarten classes and it was just a lot of fun walking around the communities. I made some really good memories. I have really enjoyed the past three months and I’m really sad to go,” said Flora D. from Connecticut.
We wish all our students the best of luck in all their future endeavors. Be sure to visit our Facebook page to see photos from their course experience.