Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica, is over 3,000 miles from Greenbelt. Located there is Café & Macadamia, a roadside restaurant and gift shop, where the scent of cinnamon and coffee mingle in the warm morning air to arrest your senses. After passing to the outdoor seating area, the panorama of Lake Árenal, a vast body of water as impressive as the volcano of the same name, halts your eyes. Cats lounge in the al fresco setting – drinking in the verdant hills enhanced by the Central American rainy season – as locals and tourists alike enjoy the sweet pastries and rich brews on a late June morning. Wind turbines stand sentry on the hills to the right, completing the fairy-tale feel to a location as pure as the Costa Rican lifestyle of “pura vida,” which translates to “pure life” – a reminder to appreciate each moment. The phrase permeates daily life in this tropical locale more than the omnipotent humidity reminiscent of Maryland’s annual summer saturation.
Upon reentering the café from the patio, there is a wall decorated with patches from police departments around the world. Amid this eclectic collection is one representing Greenbelt’s very own. Hundreds of visitors pass this patch each day leaving us to wonder, how did this piece of our community land here? Can any readers claim credit for this patch’s presence so far from its home?
While eight Greenbelt travelers, including your present News Review writer, who recently returned from the Costa Rican journey, cannot answer this question, they can advocate for the adventure, hospitality and warmth any explorers will find upon visiting Costa Rica. The group consisted of Roosevelt alumni from the last four graduating classes as well as a rising senior and two chaperones, both lifelong Greenbelt residents. Education First, a global education company, coordinates trips like this eight-day tour of Costa Rica that included sights of stunning waterfalls and activities like white water rafting along the Río Sarapiquí. Though finding a bit of Greenbelt wasn’t part of the itinerary, anything is possible in the age of airplanes, where small discoveries prove the world is as vast as it is connected.
