For years, the Rev. Bernard Knoth, S.J., university president, has traveled to Costa Rica during the Mardi Gras break with no major problems — until this year. Now he travels across campus on crutches, with a broken ankle as a souvenir of his trip.Knoth visited Punta Leona, a city on Costa Rica’s northern Pacific coast, with Matt Kwasiborski, director of Loyola’s Big Brothers/Big Sisters Collaborative. “I really enjoy the Pacific coast, where the tropical forests are still primary, first growth,” Knoth said.Knoth has taken horseback jungle tours there for the past three years, and this year was no exception. Knoth and Kwasiborski decided to take a tour Feb. 11, their last day on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, and two days before Knoth was scheduled to return to New Orleans. The jungle tour guide led the horses to a waterfall about an hour from the stables. The waterfall was a series of five pools that began when water came out of a cave on the side of a mountain about 75 feet from the ground, Knoth said. The trip to the cave was beautiful but uneventful, he said.The journey down the mountain was not. At one point, the men had to walk along the edge of one of the pools to continue their hike down.”At that point,” Knoth said, “I stepped on a rock that was wet, and as I was going to step on the next rock, my right foot came right out from under me.” Knoth knew that if his ankle was not broken, it was severely damaged, because he heard a popping noise.”It felt like electricity running through my whole body,” he said.Knoth fell flat onto the lip of the pool and was able to grab onto a rock to avoid falling farther. Kwasiborski did not see Knoth fall, but he did not think Knoth was badly hurt. “I just thought it was mildly sprained, nothing serious at all,” Kwasiborski said. Kwasiborski and the guide helped Knoth down and placed him back on the horse for the hour-long ride back to the stable.”I forgot all of my Boy Scout training,” Knoth said. “I should have made or had them make some sort of splint. I didn’t even think of it.”When they reached the stable, Knoth and Kwasiborski faced a dilemma: The car was a standard, and Kwasiborski did not know how to drive a standard, but he was willing to learn, Knoth said.”But given that the first thing he would have had to have done was back up, and the second thing was drive about three-fourths of a mile on a jungle road that went down on a 45 degree angle, I said, ‘let me try.’ So I was able to do it. It was mostly downhill, which made it easier,” Knoth said.After arriving in the village of Jaco, Knoth went to a clinic. The clinic then sent him to the regional hospital by ambulance for x-rays.”[The hospital] was a grim scene. There were a lot of people who were obviously quite hurt, and even, in one case, bleeding.”The doctor spoke some English, Knoth said, and she showed him that he had a clean fracture in the lower part of his ankle.”They put an old-fashioned, all-plaster cast, all the way up to my knee,” Knoth said. “Then the fun really started.”Unlike in the United States, where receiving crutches or a wheelchair is expected, Knoth could not find either. After taking a taxi back to the hotel, Knoth was then faced with three flights of stairs back to his room. There were no elevators.”So the first thing I had to do was crab-walk backwards up the stairs,” Knoth said.The next day, Kwasiborski and Knoth switched the standard car for an automatic so Kwasiborski could drive to San Jose, where the airport was located.The hotel in San Jose, Knoth said, was more modern than the one in Punta Leona, and he was sure that they would have a wheelchair or crutches. But they didn’t.”The bell captain loaded my luggage on the luggage rack,” Knoth said, “and then he loaded me on the luggage rack and took me to my room.”Kwasiborski’s flight left San Jose earlier than Knoth’s, so Knoth had to make it to the airport and the plane alone. “I felt bad for Father Knoth,” Kwasiborski said, “especially because we were in a foreign country and didn’t speak the language.”Knoth said he had his first bad fall at the airport. After arriving at the airport by taxi, the driver helped Knoth out of the taxi, and two porters came to help him onto the curb.”I tried to do ‘one, two, three, hop,’ which I thought was universal language,” Knoth said, “except it’s not.””So as I’m saying ‘three’ and starting to hop, both of them turn to me to see what was going on.”Knoth then fell on all fours onto the sidewalk, using the plaster cast to break his fall.”There’s nothing like starting a trip from Costa Rica to Atlanta to New Orleans by kneeling on all fours teary eyed in front of the Delta terminal,” Knoth laughed.As soon as Knoth returned, he went to a specialist at Tulane’s medical clinic, who removed the plaster cast and replaced it with a fiberglass one.”I’m really hoping that by the time we have the President’s Open House, [the cast] is off,” Knoth said.Since returning to New Orleans, Knoth has been able to keep all of his appointments except a visit to Indianapolis to see his mother. If his ankle is doing well, Knoth hopes he will be able to take that trip over Easter weekend.Gail Howard, assistant to the president, said she teases Knoth a little because of his injury, but she is impressed about how he is managing.”I thought that it would really slow him down,” Howard said, “but he’s up and running full steam.”Getting around campus, Knoth said, is not that easy, but he does have help. He has been getting rides with University Police to make sure he’s on time for appointments and using his crutches for walking around campus.”I have tested myself, and I can walk to the Danna Center,” Knoth said. “But I have to stop about halfway for a rest — especially if it’s in the later part of the day — and it does take me the better part of 15 minutes to do it.”Everybody on campus, Knoth said, has helped him, from holding doors and elevators to offering him encouraging words.”It has been very touching to see how people are very helpful and thoughtful about it, and I appreciate it,” Knoth said.