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What is a Costa Rica Outward Bound Experience?
At CRROBS we combine adventure activities including hiking, rafting, kayaking, surfing, rappelling, scuba diving and tree climbing with the culturally rich experience of learning firsthand about the Costa Rican way of life and environment by staying with local families and immersing themselves in wilderness settings.
Cutting people loose from the safe moorings of home, family and familiar routines to experience the uncomfortable, the unfamiliar, the difficult and the adventurous is an integral part of Outward Bound courses.
Outward Bound asks people to face tasks that may seem impossible. Confronting these tasks, participants must call upon individual reserves of strength and perseverance they might not think exist. At other times they might find that success requires the help of companions and reliance upon the overall strengths represented within a group.
Outward Bound is not a vacation. It is an investment in who you are and who you want to be. The challenges are great – as are the rewards.
We offer a range of courses and activities, but each one of them have the following traits in common:
Challenging: Expect to be challenged physically, emotionally, and intellectually. Our courses are designed to be difficult and to push every student to their limits. Be it mounting steep-altitude hikes, learning to pop up on a surf board, or doing a waterfall rappel, students will humbly discover their capacity to push beyond limits in ways they did not know possible, and their ability to overcome obstacles in unimaginable ways.
Group-Focused: Outward Bound courses attract individuals from a variety of backgrounds who have met other triumphs and challenges in their lives, and part of the Outward Bound experience is interacting with one's group on a daily basis. Groups gather for nightly meetings to discuss their "highs and lows" of each day, and students are offered "open space" to compliment fellow students, comment on the group dynamics, and discuss anything else they have thought about when participating in the activities.
Centered Around Personal Development: Outward Bound is not only about physical activity. Our instructors approach wilderness activities as a metaphor for personal development and introspection. Individuals will each complete a solo*, where they spend time by themselves, reflecting on their individual goals, their position in life, their family and friends, and anything else. In addition, Outward Bound focuses on developing leadership skills and pride in one's responsibilities. Everyday group members will be given individual roles, such as cooking breakfast, waking the group up in the morning, or leading nightly meetings.
*Logistics and Philosophy of Solo: The solo exercise is designed to allow students to make an introspective evaluation of their personal progress on their course and in life. This is not a survival exercise, but rather a more meditative one. The solo experience leaves a lasting impression on the students. For many it is the first time they will experience this type and duration of seclusion in a natural environment.
For the solo, students are equipped with a whistle, water, a lamp, food rations, pen and paper, a sleeping bag and a tarp. Students are assigned small adjacent plots, putting them just out of sight of their fellow course mates. In the event that a student would need the assistance of an instructor, they would blow their whistle to summon their instructor – who stays within earshot of all students.
The length of a solo is proportionate to the length of the course. Courses that are 15-30 days have an 18-24 hour solo; courses 60 days are longer have a 48-72 hour solo.
The solo experience leaves a lasting impression on the students. For many it is the first time they will experience this type and duration of seclusion in a natural environment.
Introspective and Instructor-Supervised: Outward Bound uses the journey into the wilderness as an opportunity to connect with the outdoors and to reflect on life minus everyday distractions. At the beginning of each course students leave wallets, iPods, computers, cell phones, etc. in secure lockers at our base. All activities are carefully supervised by our instructors to insure individual and group safety.
A Cultural Experience: Groups will be lead by at least one native Costa Rican instructor who speaks Spanish as a first-language. Instructors always relay safety information in English, but will speak as much Spanish as individuals demand. Instructors will teach students about rainforest wildlife, beach ecology, and other environmentally focused subjects pertinent to each course. Students whose courses include a hiking phase will stay at home stays in a remote rainforest village with whom we have a long-standing relationship. Students will milk cows, make cheese, cut down sugarcane, interact with village children, and spend time in this preserved, luscious village.
The Leadership Mandala
Leadership development is one of the central pillars of Costa Rica Outward Bound. One tool we utilize in this area is the Leadership Mandala.
The Leadership Mandala allows for an exploration of different leadership styles and allows individual students to identify their individual character traits and life tendencies.
Because a true leader must embody all a wide range of characteristics and strike a balance between all directions, Costa Rica Outward Bound instructors guide students through a process of developing new skills and perspective, reflecting on how one's leadership style in the rainforest parallels other challenges in one's life.
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