By Grace O’Reilly, Grade 10
When I first heard about this [optional overnight] trip [involving a three-hour hike up to Hacienda Baru], I knew right away that I wanted to do it. There were three main reasons why I wanted to do it. 1) Explore a new place 2) Face my fears of spiders 3) Get to know more of my classmates. Hiking up there was really fun. Seeing all the different plants and animals was a big experience to me. I loved seeing the monkeys, birds and bugs, and learning what type of species they are.
I loved our tour guides so much. I loved how they would stop to show us a bird or an animal and talk about it. They were very funny too, especially when I told them my fear of spiders. Asthey would say that there was one near me or that they were going to find one for me to hold. They helped me with getting over my fear. Even though I thanked them at the end, I wish to thank them again for taking us up there and showing us something so beautiful and special in our world.
The campsite was really nice when we got there. I was lucky enough to get a private room, which had a really nice view of the jungle. Our tour guides cooked us dinner, which was SO good! I also liked that we used natural light instead of man-made light. The nigh hike was really fun! I loved that we saw poisonous dart frogs and regular frogs, as well as snakes. The snakes were really cool. I got to wrap one around my arm, which I thought was awesome. The only scary part was the amount of spiders that we saw. There were hundreds of daddy long-legs and tarantulas of different sizes. There was this huge one that was orange and black! I think when I saw it, that was the final push over my fear. Speaking of the huge spider, next to it was this really big bull frog. It was massive! I never had seen a frog so big before!
Though everything on this trip was really fun, I thought that the best part was bonding with classmates I had never really bonded with before. The coolest part is that they are all classmates from Stuart Hall. Besides classmates, the chaperones that went with us were so fun and cool. I am so happy that I made a bold choice and decided to go on that trip because I know I will remember it for the rest of my life.
Convent & Stuart Hall Travel 