Dream Trip 2009

Great Travel Moment

I've learned that my most rewarding experiences when I travel occur when I wander away from my friends, and this experience was no different. While on a trip to Costa Rica this past summer I found myself in a small isolated town on the Caribbean coast. I quickly seized the opportunity to abandon my group, and being a school teacher in the US I was most interested in finding children to converse with. The three young boys in the photo were sitting not too far off the path and seemed to typify the Costa Rican way of life known as "Pura Vida!", so I proudly attempted to engage them in conversation using my 6 years of Spanish from grade school. After failing to understand their explanation of why they weren't in school, the boy in the middle extended his arm and in rather clear English said "Money?". I guess I had all my answers.