Bookmundi’s 2018 Travel the World Scholarship Winner

Ana’s Winning Essay

When I was eleven years old, my grandparents told me they would take me anywhere I wanted when I turned thirteen (an eternity away!). I couldn’t believe my luck – here was my chance to visit the perfect destination, which I blurted out immediately: “Costa Rica!”

It was at this point that my mom pulled me aside and gently persuaded me to choose an alternate trip, perhaps to someplace closer to home that my grandparents were already familiar with and where they would speak the language. All these years later, though, my dream of visiting Costa Rica is still alive, and hopefully on its way to becoming a reality.

My first inkling of the possibilities of such an excursion came even before the promise of a grandparent-funded voyage in my early teens. My parents fueled my passion for science and culture through a subscription to National Geographic Kids, which published an article on ecotourism in Costa Rica that hooked me the moment I read it. How could a kid obsessed with conservation resist the description of a country where a full fourth of its incredibly biodiverse land is protected area? That kid is now studying at the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation for a semester intending to make a career out of that obsession, and the more I learn about the value of species richness and cultural preservation, the more amazing I find Costa Rica’s dedication to both. There’s a reason the country’s unofficial slogan is “Pura Vida”- Pure life.

Despite this latent desire to journey to Costa Rica, I have never made any substantial plans to go. As a high school and then college student, both money and time have been a little hard to come by. It’s always seemed like a vague future prospect. When I discovered Bookmundi’s Travel the World Scholarship, it was a no-brainer which country I’d choose to search tours for, though it felt more born of duty than interest.

That sense of obligation dissipated quickly. Having never used a travel booking website before, I was blown away by the variety of tours, activities, and opportunities available. In my head I had this expectation of travel packages as sheltered, privileged getaways, shuttling tourists between resorts and beach towns. That’s all well and good, I suppose – at least it contributes to a country’s economy, and hopefully doesn’t cause any harm – but I always figured if I was going to spend the time and money (not to mention the travel-related emissions) to visit some far-flung locale, I’d rather treat it as a learning experience than as a bubble.

That’s exactly what Bookmundi offered me. I spent a frankly unreasonable amount of time playing with the filters and investigating all the possibilities. Knowing I wanted a multi-day group tour, I finally settled on two, both operated by G Adventures: one exploring the fascinating natural facets of the country, and one focusing more on its culture and traditions.

The first tour, Costa Rica Quest, has a good amount of unstructured time to explore and learn on one’s own. With all the nature trails, rainforests, wildlife and even volcanoes described in the itinerary, I would relish the opportunity to experience this naturalists’ paradise at my own pace. The planned activities are also right up my alley. The Guided Cloud Forest Night Walk would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to see beautifully weird tropical nocturnal creatures, and the tour of Mi Cafecito Coffee Cooperative sounds especially exciting – sustainable agriculture and community development hold a deep interest for me. Visiting a cooperative plantation would be an incredibly meaningful and educational experience.

If I were to go on this tour, I would want to bring my mom with me. After listening to me yak about the country for over a decade, the dream has infected her too – she’ll say things like, “Someday we’re going to go on that big trip to Costa Rica!” She is also a lover of nature and a big people person, so the free roaming aspect would appeal to her greatly. As native Spanish speakers, we could visit the towns and chat with the locals, maybe getting suggestions as to places we should visit or dine at. My mom and I are close, and I think we’d have a blast experiencing the natural wonders of Costa Rica together.

For the other tour, however, I’d probably go alone. The Trek Hidden Costa Rica tour is longer, more expensive, and more intense, but it might be my preferred of the two. Especially intriguing is the notion of staying in three family’s homes and learning traditional recipes from them. I’d be a little apprehensive about swooping in from a foreign country and imposing on their lives, but presumably, this is their family business, which is really interesting. I would hope to be conscientious during this tour and comport myself like a traveler rather than a tourist, immersing myself respectfully in whatever cultural context I find myself in.

Apart from the homestays, this tour also contains a significant amount of nature viewing – but higher-octane. Rafting, hiking, swimming, cave camping… I think after all that, the downtime built into the itinerary would feel even more welcome than a vacation normally would. That’s part of the reason I wouldn’t take anybody with me: I need my alone time when I’m exhausted! This would be a sweet kind of exhaustion though, born of an experience I know I’d remember forever, and that, hopefully, might even teach me to see the world a little differently.

Both these tours are pretty pricey for a college student (and that’s before factoring in things like meals, airfare, and activities that aren’t covered in the cost of the tour). Thus, my dream vacation remains part of a future in which I have disposable income, but it’s good to know I have a tool to help me plan it. The price range filter was helpful in this regard since I was able to select tours under $1,500 – still a pipe dream for now, but a cap that seems achievable relatively soon after graduating, assuming things go according to plan. And hey, now I’ve got some concrete numbers to save up to. It’s always nice to have a plan.

I had never heard of Bookmundi before I started looking for scholarships, and I hadn’t seriously thought about my Costa Rica dream in a while. But doing the research for this scholarship has revived my interest and, better yet, made it seem like a concrete possibility and not just my go-to answer for “Where would you go if you could go anywhere?” As I continue to pursue my education in the preservation of the natural world, I know I’ll have the idea of a Costa Rica vacation floating in the back of my mind, and I’ll know where I can start going about planning it.