El Sur mi Amor

Joan Hong: So we are about halfway through our trip and I can't even begin to explain how amazing this experience has been. I have seen many faces of Costa Rica, from the green environmental havens to the lush tourist resorts, but the one I have fallen in love with is neither of those. No, the Face of Costa Rica that I have come to love in my brief time here is that of the small towns that work with nature like El Sur. Carara National Park is located just a 30 minute (uphill) walk from the town. Carara itself is a beautiful forest with so many birds it made my head spin. A clay colored robin here, a scarlet macaw flying over there, a Guan or a turkey vulture perched in a tree in the distance, there was always something to look for. (Let me just add here that I am on the bird team so the birds really stick out the most to me.) My team spent six mornings listening to and counting bird calls in Carara and the peacefulness of the forest never ceased to awe and amaze me. El Sur boasts a tight-knit community of about 50 who live in harmony with nature. Although we only spent ten days in beautiful El Sur, I definitely shed some tears when I left. We hiked together, cooked together, danced together, drank together, laughed together and played some intense games of futbol together. One of our hosts even let the girls sleep in his home when army ants invaded our cabin. I often found myself wishing I could spend the entirety of the trip in El Sur. The community was so full of spirit and love, and in El Sur I could clearly see that Costa Rica is indeed the happiest place in the world.