Elon University football is in Costa Rica as a part of the Elon Commitment to its students achieving a global experience. Check in to elonphoenix.com to read blog updates from select football student-athletes on the team's overall experience! Be sure to also check out posts and updates on the team's social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
 
Elon' Michael Ebaugh writes about the team's trip to Hacienda Barú on the fourth full day of the global experience trip in Costa Rica.

Rise & Shine! Early this morning we embarked on a journey to Hacienda Barú, a National Wildlife Refuge, that covers 330 hectares, or 815 acres, to go on a nature walk. Upon our walk, one of our first encounters was a three-toed sloth, along with many others indigenous birds and wildlife. As we began to walk more around the park, our group was able to see more two-toed sloths, as well as monkeys, iguanas and the "Jesus Christ" lizard. Come to find out, Costa Rica is home to 6 percent of the biodiversity around the world, which is a tremendous amount for the size of this country. 

After our nature walk, our group took a short journey to a nearby school, Escuela Barù, where we were introduced to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders. After introducing ourselves, we wasted no time going outside to play some fun recess games! These games included penalty kicks against our team, where the little children kept scoring on us. After this, we brought out the water balloons and had a water balloon toss. The experience was beyond eye opening. It was so enlightening for us to gain a better perspective of education in the rest of the world. 
 
From here, we took off to a beach and enjoyed the rest of our day laying in the hot sun, swimming in the ocean and bonding together. That's it for me, but we can't wait to see what else is in store for us this week!

-Michael Ebaugh