Costa Rica: Our First Ever International Group Trip

I've been home for a week and a half now, and I still haven't fully processed and integrated how powerful and connecting our time in Costa Rica was.

Women in the Wild in Costa Rica

Our 6 days together was an absolute whirlwind of adventure, and it all started 11 months ago when these 20 women said "F*CK YES" to what may just have been an absolutely crazy idea: let's go on our biggest adventure yet, without ever having met these women before.

"Is it just me or does anyone else think... "I'm flying to a foreign country to meet 21 strangers... and I've never been more excited!"?" -Lee

When I launched our Costa Rica trip on February 1st, I knew I had to sell a minimum of 8 spots for the trip to run. Based on how quickly the community was growing, I thought, "ya... I could do 8! Wouldn't it be so cool if there were even more who wanted to go with me?" and woman, was there ever more! Those first 8 spots sold within 40 minutes of the trip going live, and the remaining 12 spots sold over the next 4 days. It. Was. Wild.

First of all, I want to extend the biggest, most heart-felt THANK YOU to the 20 of you for putting your trust and faith in me and Women in the Wild. There were a few groups of two who came on this trip together, but most of you came alone, and every single one of you are absolute QUEENS of adventure, and bringing the good times!

Second, the fact that our trip went off without a hitch and not a single activity was canceled despite a tropical storm hitting Costa Rica the week prior, was a miracle. The worst of the storm had passed, but there was still daily rain, and sometimes it was intense. Let me remind you that I live in Vancouver Canada, aptly nicknamed "Raincouver," and this rain in Costa Rica was intense. It came down fast and heavy, and within a split second you were completely soaked. Thankfully those downpours weren't frequent, but there were a couple throughout our time in Costa Rica.

Let's get into the trip.

I invited Kayla along to Costa Rica, and as the months went on and I realized how big Women in the Wild was becoming, we had a chat and decided Kayla would become a Trip Host, along with a couple other women. Kayla and I arrived to Costa Rica 3 days before the official trip started and spent our time in San Jose, the country's capital, and where the rest of the group would be flying in to. We did a walking tour, explored the central market, stayed in a hostel which was in one of the oldest buildings still standing in San Jose, and hopped on the struggle bus to buying SIM cards, as my eSIM was not working.

The Group Tour

Day 1: When the rest of the group started to arrive, we met them at our first hotel where we spent the first and last nights of our journey together. Due to the tropical storm, many flights were delayed, and instead of arriving the night prior, most ladies arrived the day of the start of our trip. It was hectic for many, but everyone made it!

In the evening, we met in the lobby for our first official gathering of the group where we met our guide and made some quick introductions, then headed off to our welcome dinner. Dinner was a 3-course meal, and we got to choose one of 3 options the night before so the restaurant could prepare enough food for all of us. I'd also like to add, that everyone's dietary restrictions were accounted for. There were 5 of us who don't eat gluten (including myself) and one that is vegetarian, and there were options for everyone at every meal.

Day 2: We woke up early and loaded our private shuttle for a long day. Thanks to that tropical storm, the main road from San Jose to the Caribbean Coast was closed from 6pm - 6am every day because there was a risk of mud slides washing across the road, and to keep the public safe, the government decided to close the road at night. This caused a looong line of vehicles to be parked at the gate to that road, waiting to be let through at 6am and because of this, what should have been a 3 hour drive turned into a 4 hour drive. But eventually we made it to our destination: Siquirres. There, we had breakfast and met our guides for our first activity: white water rafting on the Paquare River!

Now I personally had only been white water rafting once, and it was on a man-made river in an adventure park in Mexico. So for me, this experience was extraordinary. But to give you a better perspective, several of the women on our trip had been white water rafting in actual rivers before, and said that this experience was WAY better! We were on the water for 3 hours with a quick 15 minute break to snack on some delicious Costa Rican pineapple and stretch our legs. Along the way we hit class 3 rapids and one class 4, saw lots of waterfalls and local birds, and we got to swim for a bit down the river through a canyon! Plus the calm bits of the river in between the rapids were incredible opportunities to watch in awe as the lush Costa Rican landscape passed us by. Also, the weather was perfect: sun with some clouds, so we weren't too concerned about getting sun burnt, but unfortunately some thighs did get burnt. So far, this trip was off to a fantastic start.

After rafting we ate lunch and packed back onto the bus for our 3 hour drive to our hotel in Arenal/La Fortuna. Along the way, our guide, Tati, arranged for us to stop at a local market to taste a whole table of different local fruits and treats. This was an unexpected stop that wasn't on the schedule, but some of us had mentioned to her that we wanted to try some of the local fruits so she made a call and had this organized for us!

Upon arriving to our hotel we were greeted with fresh starfruit juice given to us as we got off the bus. We checked in, had our bags taken to our rooms, and went for dinner. We were all exhausted, so we went to bed to be ready for the next day!

Day 3: With a slower start to our morning we were able to sleep in and get breakfast at the hotel before meeting in the lobby to head out for the day, and we had no idea that today was going to be the best day of the trip.

Remember what I said about the occasional downpours? Today was one of those days. It came down at breakfast and continued on our way to meet our canyoneering guides. We got there, got geared up and oriented... then we waited. The wind and rain were too heavy to go canyoneering, so we waited in hopes it would calm down enough to go. The high amounts of rain had increased the water levels in the canyon, and it wasn't safe. Canyoneering involves rappelling down water falls, and you end up feeling like a fire hose is spraying you right in the face as you get into the water falls, so you may be able to imagine that higher and faster flow rates would not be a safe situation to be in. Eventually and suddenly, our guides said "LET'S GO!" so we loaded into the 4x4 shuttles and made our way to the canyon.

I personally had never been canyoneering before, but for those who had, just like the white water rafting, this experience blew their expectations out of the water. We had SO much fun, and were completely, undeniably soaked - but it didn't matter. This was such a cool experience, and we couldn't stop talking about it for the rest of the trip. We got to rappel ourselves, zipline, walk through the river, climb down rocks, and see the wild Costa Rican landscape like we'd never imagined. It was truly an unforgettable experience. After we finished we went to have lunch, and then back on the shuttle to head to the La Fortuna waterfall!

Typically at this waterfall you're able to walk right to the base and swim in the water. However, due to the heavy rainfall, the flow rate of the waterfall was incredibly high and the waters were absolutely churning. So unfortunately, we weren't able to swim, but we did still climb down (and back up) the 600 steps to get to the base of the fall and take photos. Surrounded by the lush greenery and enveloped by the overpowering sound of the crashing water, even without swimming, it was an awesome experience. After about an hour at the falls we headed back. We had the rest of the evening to do as we please, so some of us got dropped off in town as the shuttle passed through to go to the hotel, and some went back to the hotel. I was in the group that stayed in town, and we got some food at a local, family owned restaurant called Organico. It had lots of gluten free options, and it was absolutely delicious. After that we got an Uber (which was SO unbelievably cheap!) and headed back to the hotel to rest.

Day 4: Our last big adventure day went off without a hitch. We started by heading to a ziplining tour where we rode 7 ziplines, zig-zagging overtop a lush rainforest with a view of Arenal Volcano on one side. We had dance parties, drank pineapple juice, got lots of photos and videos and overall had an awesome morning. We had lunch at the restaurant there before heading to our afternoon activity: mountain biking.

Now, this one wasn't everyone's favourite activity, and I'll tell you why. If you haven't ever been whitewater rafting, sitting (and bouncing) on the edge of those rafts for 3 hours can cause some discomfort and soreness on your sit bones, similar to riding a bike for a long time. Two days later, we were still feeling it. So riding those bikes was a painful experience, and although we really did have fun and I personally felt like my inner child got to come out and play for a couple hours, we were hurtin'.

Oh, and someone neglected to tell any of us about the thigh-high raging river crossing that we were going to have to carry our bikes through. Yeah. That was a surprise. But we made all the way to the end and back, although someone jealous of those who decided to stay at the hotel and in town for a rest day. They made the right choice.

Day 5: Today was a pretty chill day before we headed back to San Jose. We went for a short hike in the foothills of the Arenal Volcano, where Tati gaves us time to be present and appreciate the beauty of where we were, and the gift we've all received by being together for the week. Although we couldn't see the volcano (thanks, fog), we got to walk among huge trees, massive roots, twisting vines, grass fields that were twice as tall as us, and over volcanic rock. Although we were tired and wanted to sleep in, I think it was a lovely final activity to begin to integrate some of what we'd all just experienced together. After the hike we had the opportunity to get some coffee or tea and chocolate at a cafe on site, and got on the bus to drive back to Arenal where we had the opportunity to opt-in to a coffee and chocolate making tour.

Oh, and I almost forgot. On the way in, before the hike, we stopped at the restrooms at the park entrance where Jamie barely made it out with her life. While doing her business, she pulled the toilet paper roll down to find a massive spider on the TP itself. The group heard her scream and BURST out of the washroom, and they all swarmed in to take photos of the beast (sorry, I didn't get any of the pics!). Jamie, you survived all of our worst nightmares. You are a brave, brave woman.

The chocolate and coffee making tour also wasn't on our itinerary, but likewise to the fruit tasting, several of us had asked Tati for some recommendations for things to do in town and she gave us a few options. When she mentioned this tour, we hopped on it, and we don't regret it! It was really cool to learn about the processes and to see the cacao and coffee plants themselves, and we even got to make our own chocolate bars! We learned a lot, got to taste a lot, and even got to see a couple sloths!

After the tour we had about an hour and a half to do as we please in town before heading back to San Jose for our final night. We split up into smaller groups to get food, then met up at the bus. Here is where we said goodbye to Vanessa, as she had made arrangements to stay in La Fortuna for a couple more nights. She found a beautiful, bougie Air BnB to stay in which made all of us jealous when she sent pics to the group chat later that night!

We arrived to San Jose late, but not without one more surprise from Tati: she arranged a private dinner for us with entertainment from local dancers and a singer! We were treated to about 5 songs before we got to join in on the fun and learn one of their dances on stage! After we we all felt complete, we made our way to the hotel.

Day 6: Departure day. We had no idea how emotional and sad we were going to get saying goodbye to the women who we'd only just met 6 days ago. There were lots of tears, plans already made to see one another, and plans in the works to do another group trip to get us all back together. We all had different flight times, and some decided to stay one extra night at the hotel, so we went on our separate ways, but we still talk almost every day in the group chat!

The Post-Group Unwind

After the end of the tour, Kayla, Amber and I headed to Jaco, a small surfer town on the Pacific Coast. We arrived Monday afternoon, spent two full days there relaxing by the pool and watching the sun set over the ocean (well, the one night we could see it without too many clouds), getting absolutely soaked during the daily afternoon rain storms, and I spent a lot of time on my laptop trying to get semi-caught up on running Women in the Wild.

Kayla and I left Thursday morning to head back to San Jose, because our flight left at 6:30am Friday morning. We checked back in to the hostel we stayed at before the group trip started, dropped our bags, and headed to a couple stores that we'd scoped out on our first couple days in San Jose to get some gifts and souvenirs for our loved ones at home. Then, after the least restful night of sleep the entire trip, we got to the airport and headed home.

Here's some feedback from the ladies who came on this trip:

This was the trip of a lifetime! Being surrounded by such uplifting and supportive women was absolutely life changing. For the first time in a long time I felt like I’d found community and I’m very grateful for the opportunity to be a part of something so great!

This trip was exactly what I needed. It helped me rebuild my confidence in myself again and build friendships with a whole group of strong women!

This was a trip of a lifetime for me. It exceeded every expectation and was life changing. The connections, the location and adventures were everything. Trish was organized and communicated in just the right way to keep us informed and up to date leading up to the trip. Then, she and host Kayla kept the group happy and encouraged the whole time. They are an exceptional team and I’m looking forward to traveling with them again.

It’s hard to put words to everything this trip was to me, as even a week later I’m still processing and smiling back on memories made. It was incredibly empowering to come together with such a diverse group of people. Seeing how each woman was excelling in life in their own way just proves there is no one definition of success, and gave me courage to continue to take the path less travelled, as so many of the women on our group have done. Having an underlying thread of loving adventure and the outdoors tied the group together in a crucial knot, that meant we were able to connect with everyone on some level. The activities were on another level entirely, and looking back it still gets my blood pumping thinking of some of those waterfalls we went down! I’d like to say it was a once in a lifetime trip, and in some ways it was, but how special that we could keep the adventure going by joining another trip! Truly blessed to have been a part of the first of many international trips, I’m sure!

I wasn’t sure what to expect; over 20 women who had never met adventuring in a different country together. Things could have gone wildly wrong, but instead they went wildly perfect. I started to find my peace on this trip, something I have been trying to do for over two years.

Thank you again, to all the ladies who came on our first ever international community trip. You put your faith in me and this community, and it truly feels like that faith wasn't wasted. I am so grateful to have met every single one of you; it would not have been the same without you.