Blog

Hope for the Urban Culture in San Jose: ChepeCletas

Change is always a difficult thing to be a part of, especially when it means a complete alteration of how a city approaches transportation. This change, however, is one that the local San Jose organization ChepeCletasintends to make – it’s also one that we here at Outward Bound Costa Rica are excited about. ChepeCletas, a hodgepodge [...]

More Recipes from Outward Bound Costa Rica!

One of the best parts of Outward Bound Costa Rica is learning more about the fantastic people that are a part of our organization. One such member is programming intern, Monica Chen, a passionate runner and health food aficionado. Monica hails from Berkeley, California and brings with her a love for cooking quinoa, a staple [...]

Bike riding in Costa Rica

Costa Rica is a country of many adventures that always challenge the body and mind. A very popular method of challenging oneself in Costa Rica is by taking up mountain biking, one of the most popular sports in the country. Building off of the popularity from the famed La Ruta de Los Conquistadores, bike races and [...]

Recipes from Outward Bound Costa Rica!

Here at Outward Bound Costa Rica headquarters lunch is often a time for the staff to share stories of their time on course over a nice group meal. On certain days, that group meal is good enough to really get the group talking, and today was no exception! A recipe for fried chicken by instructor [...]

The sights and sounds of Costa Rica

Costa Rica is certainly home to a very rich environment! Take a look at a video recently put together showing the sites and sounds around the rich coast, which turn any trip into an adventure!

I Like Big Boofs and I Cannot Lie

Every once in awhile you learn a word that, despite having no home in the dictionary, seems to wedge its way into your vocabulary where it resides instead. After a week of kayaking with our Water & Wave semester course, my brain’s language center has a new onomatopoetic roommate – in this post I’ll introduce [...]

Leadership Profiles: Past and Present

Planting seeds of leadership, watering them with outdoor activities, and cultivating fully grown student leaders is a crop cycle we’ve been refining ever since our inception. This is especially true of our Leadership Semester Course. In this post, we’ll briefly discuss benefits of the course and why it might be an alternative worth looking into. Don’t [...]

Top 5 sites for discounted outdoor gear

Every so often we get phone calls or emails from students and parents looking for suggestions about where to buy outdoor gear before arriving in Costa Rica. As an organization that lives and works in the outdoors, we too like to find good deals on new equipment, which is why we often direct people to [...]

The outdoors takes the national stage

In case you missed it, yesterday President Obama gave some inspiring, albeit slightly short-winded remarks about the America’s Great Outdoors initiative that he began 10 months ago. As an organization that supports environmental preservation, outdoor pursuits, and experiential learning in wilderness settings, we were excited to tune in for his comments about these subjects. Besides, [...]

The Outdoor Retailer Show and why we’re excited about it

Much to our dismay, we often miss out on what’s happening in the outdoor world. And while Costa Rica has its fair share of adventuristas, our geographic location limits the number of outdoor conferences and events we get to attend. If a private jet was parked outside our office, however, our calendar would be marked [...]

Trying to make Dr. King proud

25 years after one of the most devastating moments in the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King, Jr. remains one of the most celebrated figures in modern American history. His assassination was a near-paralyzing blow to the entire movement, but his ideas and principles resounded too deeply with the social psyche for the legacy to [...]

Pura Vida: The True Meaning

Having lived in Costa Rica for a staggering four weeks, I’m going to be bold in honor of the coming year – I’m going to define what perhaps one of the most ubiquitous national expressions really stands for. But first, let’s review pura vida in its fundamental form. Literally translated, it means “pure life.” In a way, [...]

Happy Holidays, Version: Tic.O

If you subscribe to our newsletter and caught our recent December issue, you likely read the blurb about Costa Rica’s grandiose end-of-the-year celebration, the Festival de la Luz (links to the Costa Rican Municipal page). Although it provided a good basis for understanding the premise of the Fesitval de la Luz, you may have missed out on the event firsthand. [...]

Allow me to introduce myself

As the new Social Media Coordinator for Outward Bound Costa Rica, I wanted to properly introduce myself since I’ll be managing our social networking platforms, including Your Hanashita. Having just graduated from the University of Washington with a marketing degree and an emphasis on international business, I’m excited to bring our followers updates about what’s going on here in [...]

A Costa Rican Thanksgiving

Cross cultural exchange is one of the things we value here at Outward Bound Costa Rica: both learning about someone else’s culture and sharing our traditions with others. This week is Thanksgiving, and us gringos here on base are excitedly preparing a Thanksgiving dinner that we can share with our Tico friends. However, it’s not [...]

How to Treat a Burn Outdoors

Outward Bound Costa Rica Fall 2010 Leadership students act out burn victim scenarios during their Wilderness First Responder training. Burns are a common injury for outdoor aficionados. Between sun exposure, cooking accidents and campfire burns, knowing how to treat a burn can be invaluable if you plan on spending time outside. Here are a few [...]

Expeditionary Learning: The Outward Bound Philosophy

Ten Expeditionary Learning Principles Outward Bound was founded by Kurt Hahn, Hahn’s educational philosophy was based on respect for adolescents, whom he believed to possess an innate decency and moral sense, but who were, he believed, corrupted by society as they aged. He believed that education could prevent this corruption, if students were given opportunities [...]

Wilderness First Responder Training

Executive Director Jim Rowe and Instructor Phil Perez Teach CPR Our Fall 2010 Leadership students have been here on base at Tres Ríos taking their Wilderness First Responder Training. Wilderness First Responders are individuals who are trained to respond to emergency situations in remote wilderness settings. Wilderness First Responder training is an 80-hour course covering topics [...]

Getting A Passport

Before you can travel internationally, you need to have a valid passport. There is no minimum age for getting a passport in the U.S., but everyone who travels internationally is required to have one. Getting a passport in the U.S. is a little complicated and can be time consuming, but there are ways to expedite [...]