By Special to the Town Crier

Forty members of Girl Scout Troop 321 traveled to Costa Rica this summer, after two years of planning and research.

The girls gathered information about the country and possible destinations to create a trip that included a variety of adventure activities, cultural exchanges, visiting and learning about the rain forest, and service activities, such as bringing school supplies and computers to rural schools and helping to move eggs of endangered turtles to locations safe from poachers. Below are two girls’ accounts of the trip.

Sandra Voss: Most people can only dream of having experiences like hiking through the rain forest, seeing scarlet macaws and crocodiles in the wild, watching a mother sea turtle cover up her eggs on the beach, and holding a sloth. However, the Girl Scouts of Troop 321 were able to do all of these things and more.

Troop 321 is a Los Altos-based Cadette and Senior Girl Scout troop led by Leslie Carmichael. On June 25, 40 girls and adults from this 80-person troop left for Costa Rica. Two weeks in this country was not nearly long enough to see all that there was to be seen, but everyone who went on the trip agreed it was two weeks well spent.

Doing everything from a homestay with Costa Rican farm families to flying through the rain forest on zip lines, the girls and adults agreed this trip was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Said Rachel Moshier, 14, “Traveling to Costa Rica with 40 of my best friends was an amazing experience! I just wished we stayed longer!”

Meera Patel: In the short lives that we live, opportunities come and go. Some are better than others. This past summer I was given the opportunity of my lifetime. I was given the chance to go on a two-week tour of Costa Rica with Girl Scout Troop 321! I can honestly say that this was one of the best experiences I have ever had. From day one, we were on the edge of our seats waiting and watching for the next adventure.

One of our first sights was a turtle reserve on the Caribbean coast. Here our group was allowed to watch and help with the female leatherback turtles laying their eggs on the beach and the hatching of their baby turtles. It was an incredible experience … being able to hold those tiny hatchlings in our palms and knowing that someday they would grow to be over 200 pounds. It was similar to one of those Discovery Channel specials, but this time I wasn’t seeing it on the TV screen.

Another adventure we had was a tour called the canopy tour. Here we got to attach ourselves to zip lines and zip through the forest, starting from one of the highest trees, making our way down. The view while zipping through those trees was incredible.

One of my favorite adventures was white-water rafting. Our rafting guides were so energetic and lots of fun. Since it was raining that day, the whole group started out wet, but during the trip almost everyone ended up in the water somehow.