Costa Rica
As the busy summer travel season officially kicks off, Southwest Airlines is proud to offer customers the option of adventure and beauty in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is a beautiful Central American country that has a variety of landscapes to offer: mountains, rainforests, and beaches. Costa Rica has a very diverse set of people but there is a very large population of rural Costa Ricans, especially women, who are without access to resources or work. With the donations of leather and cash grants, Southwest Airlines will provide these women support, gaining knowledge and skills to not only craft beautiful products made from the upcycled leather, but also how to market the products to generate economic impact for their families and community. We welcome you to journey along with Danitza and Esteban for a trip of a lifetime to Costa Rica.
To kick off our summer adventures we ventured off to the land of Pura Vida – Costa Rica. Southwest Airlines offers flights to both Liberia and San Jose Costa Rica International Airports with a robust flight schedule and their one-of-a-kind value and hospitality.
Although Costa Rica is small and covers only 0.03 percent of the surface of the globe, it is home to 5 percent of the existing biodiversity in the entire world making it one of the most biologically diverse places in the world. Costa Rica’s focus on living in harmony with nature has been a benefit as it is thefirst country in the world to reverse deforestation.An intense respect for the environment creates a landscape devoid ofgarbage, free of extreme development and full of undeveloped, pristine areas, landscapes and beaches. This environment is home to thousands of animals, all protected, respected and free from interference from tourists- selfies with animals are strictly forbidden!
We decided to visit Arenal, Costa Rica’s best-known volcano located in the town of La Fortuna. The iconic Arenal Volcano is in the northwestern of Costa Rica, surrounded by the Arenal Volcano National Park and Lake Arenal. The region is home to many hiking trails, hanging bridges, untouched forests and the well-known hot springs and cascading thermal waterfalls. Through our adventures we saw sloths, frogs, toucans, macaws and countless other wildlife.
To continue our Costa Rican adventures we drove to the southern beach town of Quepos. Located on Costa Rica’s central Pacific Coast and home to Manuel Antonio National Park, the smallest national park in Costa Rica but one of the most popular. We saw Capuchin, Howler, and Squirrel Monkeys, sloths, iguanas, agoutis and various species of birds.
On our adventure, we learned about the partnership between Southwest Airlines and CATIE, reimagining thousands of pounds of materials from the airline every year, diverting them from landfills. Since 2016, Southwest Airlines has donated more than $1.3 million dollars in grants and 1.4 million pounds of leather to provide employment, skills training, and other social benefits for our communities. Costa Rica has a very diverse set of people and through leather and cash grants from Southwest Airlines, this program provides these women support, gaining knowledge and skills to not only craft beautiful products made from the upcycled leather, but also how to market the products to generate economic impact for their families and community.
Costa Rica offers rainforests, volcanoes, biodiversity, beaches, national parks and more making it a perfect ESCAPADITA.
