Hello, Jaco!

            Yesterday I took my day off of the week and headed to the beach town of Jaco with eight other volunteers, and it turned out to be quite a day! We left the center at about eight, and didn’t end up getting back until almost ten o’clock last night. The volunteers here really are from all over the place- there were two other Americans with me on this trip, as well as one girl from Canada, a girl from Portugal, a girl from New Zealand, a girl from Sweden, a girl from England, and a girl from Netherlands. It took about an hour and a half in the shuttle to get to Jaco, which is a pretty touristy town on the western coast of the country. We made a couple of stops on the way there, first to a supermarket to pick up some supplies to have lunch on the beach. Then we stopped at a bridge that overlooks a river with a bunch of crocodiles in it to get some pictures, so we ended up arriving at the beach at about ten. The sand looked different than any other kind of sand I’d ever seen; it was super dark! After finding a shady spot and setting our stuff down, I was the first one into the water. It was perfect! The water was cool but not frigid, it was a perfect mixture of strong crashing waves and calm swells, and there wasn’t even a strong riptide like we’d heard there might be. We spent a long time jumping through the waves, riding the swells, and watching people get surf lessons.

            While I was swimming around, I started thinking about where we were- the western coast of Costa Rica. That meant that we were swimming in the Pacific Ocean. Then, after thinking about it some more, I realized that this was actually my first time being in the Pacific Ocean! I’d been in both the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean in South Africa, but this was my first time in the largest of the oceans. I’ve now been in three out of four!

            Eventually we came out of the water to have lunch, at which point we learned the downside of really dark sand- it gets VERY hot! Thankfully we put our towels down in a shady area, but the walk from the ocean to that spot quickly turned into a sprint!

            After eating lunch, getting some pictures of the gorgeous area where we were, relaxing on the beach for a while, and spending some more time in the ocean, we returned to the shuttle at about 3:30, and headed into the town of Jaco to do some shopping, sightseeing, and stopping into one of the cute little mom and pop ice cream shops for a snack. Around sunset we returned to the beach just to see the last bit of color in the sky and get a few more pictures. For dinner we headed to a restaurant that had caught our eyes earlier called The Green Room. Including our driver Johnny, there were ten of us total, but we managed to all fit in one of the biggest tables in the place. It was nearly eight o’clock by the time we hopped in the shuttle to return to the center, and due to a wreck on the highway, it was ten by the time we finally made it back, at which point we all just wanted to shower and fall into bed.

            Today has been another day of focusing on enrichment for the animals- today I’ve mainly worked with birds, raccoons, and a little with the howler monkeys. We have two adorable young raccoons that live here, and they’re very smart and active- they love any toys and games that we give them. Tomorrow Erandi asked if I could rearrange and redesign the smaller howler monkey enclosure, so I’m sure most of my day tomorrow will consist of that. By the way, sorry for the lack of pictures in the last couple of posts- the wifi here makes adding photos to blogs pretty much impossible. This post’s food for thought: “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.”- Tim Cahill