Sunday in the Cloud Forest

Our day today started at 8, when the Costa Rica Crew began our drive up to the cloud forests in the mountains of Costa Rica. We drove up to an elevation of 9000 feet above sea level! Before we began our hike in search of the beautiful Quetzal bird through the forests, the group spent time in the hummingbird sanctuary, waiting and hoping that one of the birds might land on our fingers. Throughout the trail we stopped to learn about different types of trees, some being over 1000 years old. Unfortunately it wasn’t Quetzal season, but we still had a lot of fun in the forest. We played games prepared by Javier that helped us practice our skills for spotting different unnatural things in nature. Once we got back to the resort, we all enjoyed a delicious meal that left us all full. The fresh trout was “muy rico.” We ended the day with a movie night at Nick, Hale, and Felix’s house. We all watched Date Night and ended the day with laughs.

Making Our Trip Carbon Neutral

The Costa Rica Crew began this morning by waking up and boarding the van at 8:30, an hour and a half later than usual. Today, instead of working at the elementary school, the crew drove to a large mountain in the town of Copey. There, we carried young trees to an empty space on the mountainside. The crew cleared spaces three feet in diameter, and dug holes just big enough to hold the small-sized roots of the trees. For two hours, taking small breaks to rehydrate and reapply sun block in between, the group planted sixty plus trees. What was once a barren space with a few weeds and other plants had transformed into a lush forest of baby trees.

The crew then traveled back to the bottom of the mountain and began a discussion about green house gasses. The group named a few of the gasses and brainstormed ways how we could lessen the output of said gasses. The crew touched upon buying less, traveling by car less, and reusing more. By that time, lunchtime had rolled around. We drove in the van down the mountainside to a local trout farm. However, the whole town had gathered in the cemetery for a funeral, forcing us to return to our home stay families for lunch. Hours later, the Costa Rica Crew met up once more at the Cafeteria Privilegios for milkshakes, cake, and coffee. Some of the pictures and videos taken today are posted here on the blog. Hasta Luego!   - Ryan

San Rafael Day 2

Today was a heavy work day, balanced with fun. Our projects consisted of painting the outside of a classroom and inserting a drainage ditch. 
Here is a picture of one of the completed walls:

The other wall was a bit more complicated because we had to work around windows.  Here is a video showcasing the work involved with the other wall of the classroom and the beginning of the drainage ditch:

The video isn't uploading...

So, I'll just describe everything. 

For the drainage ditch, we had to chip away at the existing concrete in order to make room for the half pipe.  After several hours of intense labor, the pipe fit into the ditch and we had to make the cement in order to hold the pipe in place. 

On the other side of the classroom, a few of us labored in the sun, working to delicately paint the wall/windows.  Claire handled the finesse work, while the rest worked at covering as much wall as possible with big paint rollers. 

Pictures!!!

We intermittently took breaks to play soccer with the children.  They are all very good. One little boy, about 7 years old, weaved his way through Felix and Ryan and neatly put the ball into the goal past Eleanor.

That's all for today. 

Hasta luego!

Videos from Day 1 - San Rafael

First Full Day in Santa Maria

The crew in the ditch of rocks they moved.



Olman lowering the septic tank into the hole.



Clare painting a red-eyed tree frog on the side of the new classroom

            At the beginning of the first full day in Santa Maria, the Costa Rica Crew awoke at the unearthly hour of 7:00 and headed to the San Rafael School to begin its first day of work. Upon arriving at the school, the crew was introduced to the school’s principal, Omar, and the head contractor, Olman, who explained the group’s project. After applying supple amounts of sunscreen and undergoing intense hydration, the crew began its work day under the hot sun in the “cool”, “dry” environment of Santa Maria. The first task of the day was transferring stones from a gigantic pile in the school’s courtyard to the drainage channel for the septic tank that the crew aims to install.



The crew moving rocks - nice squats!



Using squat techniques that would make the infamous Ian Healy proud, the crew was able to lift the heavy stones and escort them to the channel via wheel barrow. After the crew “handily” diminished the large pile of stones, it began the task of removing water from the hole for the septic tank. At this time, the very artistic Clare and Mrs. Bauer began painting in drawings of indigenous Costa Rican animals on the walls of the classroom that last year’s group completed. In the manual labor group, Eleanor courageously stepped up to the plate and voluntarily jumped into the murky, water filled hole to become the key link in a quite efficient bucket line. After some tedious, wet work, the crew was able to mostly drain the hole through its bucket line in which Eleanor filled each bucket from the source and passed it down the line of workers where it was finally emptied into the drainage channel. At this time, Olman and the crew attempted to install the septic tank only to discover that the hole was much too deep. Consequently, the crew broke out the shovels and began the difficult task of filling the hole with rocks and the hard, rocky soil. After a few hours work, the hole was raised to within half a foot of the correct depth. At this point, the crew had been working hard for hours under the hot sun and had accomplished much more than expected. Therefore, Olman ended work for the day and the dirty, tired crew returned to their home-stay families for showers and lunch.

After a few hours, the crew was picked up from their separate homes and brought to the center of Santa Maria for an urban scavenger hunt. Prodded by the promise of prizes for the completion of the hunt, the crew broke up into groups divided by the home-stay family arrangements and quickly set off on the hunt. After about an hour and half of discovering Santa Maria’s history and key land-marks, the crew arrived at the Santa Maria’s Coffee Coop Café for the conclusion of their quest. In the end, each group accomplished the task and attained the prize of a delicious beverage at the Café Privilegios, a shop that the Lonely Planet travel guide rated as one of the top ten places to have coffee in the world! In addition, Javier passed out tickets for a hyped soccer match for later that night. At the conclusion of their coffee break, the crew had a deep discussion about world issues until returning to their home-stay families for a quick dinner before the match. Although it was tiring and busy, the Costa Rica Crew had a great first full day in Santa Maria.

-Hale

Hale, Felix and Nick enjoy their post-race treats

Vince, Ryan, Eleanor and Clare opt for cake and milkshakes

Arrival in Santa Maria de Dota

After an early morning hike at Hacidena Baru, where we saw a 3-toed sloth, toucan and mangrove hawk, the crew ate breakfast and left for the curvy, slow drive over the mountains to Santa Maria de Dota. We arrived just before lunchtime and the students met their homestay families. The rest of the afternoon was spent getting to know each other and tomorrow we will begin working at the school.

The Beautiful Beach and the Wonderful Waterfall!

Before Zip Lining!

The Costa Rica Crew at the Beach!

Day two with the Costa Rica crew was an exciting day! This morning we got to breakfast at 7:30, well at least some of us, the rest of us had some "alarm trouble". After a quick, and I mean quick bite to eat the crew was out to the rainforest for some awesome and fast zip lining. It was very hot on the hike up to the top of the zip line, but totally well worth it. Going down the zip lines was refreshing and the crew got views that look like they should be printed on post cards!

After some flying through some trees with monkeys and other wild life the crew packed their bags and hit up the “beautiful beach” and went out to lunch. The pizza made the crew feel like they were in Italy for a few minutes, so good! Soon after, the crew headed to the beach. This beach is a black sanded beach with epic waves and caves and so many amazing views! I happen to have my flying disk that came in handy to play with on the sand. Mrs. Bauer as kind as she is bought the crew very fruity tasting pops after the beach. Vince even said he wants his home stay family to keep some for him in their icebox. Then the crew went to the fresh water waterfall and it was so much fun to jump from rocks (don’t worry parents we were VERY careful). Then we returned to the resort for a mid day swim and played “marco polo”. Well what a day, a lot of swimming so the crew needs to sleep well tonight! The joke of the day was when everyone called every single animal a “tapper”, funny because no one in the crew has seen a tapper. So long story short for family and friends “today was great”.

Clare Jessey