Pura Vida, Costa Rica!

I will definitely miss the cute sloths that live here

One of my favorite places in the center- the hammocks upstairs

I will definitely miss this spot

My final Costa Rican sunset...

            Well, I’m checked into my flights home. My bags are mostly packed up. My airport transfer from the center to the airport is set up. I have less than 24 hours left here in Costa Rica. I’ve heard that the San Jose Airport security often takes a really long time, so they require passengers to be there THREE hours before their flights, so I have to leave here stupidly early tomorrow. I think I made this trip just about the perfect length- I’ve loved all of my time here, but I think I’m ready to come home. Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of things about this place that I’ll miss, but there are just some comforts of home that I’m looking forward to getting back.

            Like the majority of my work here, the past few days have been focused on enrichment. As I’ve been walking around the center for the past few days, I’ve been noticing the changes that have been made in the month that I’ve been here. The smaller howler monkey enclosure looks so much more natural and less crowded since I’ve taken all the colorful plastic out and rearranged the ropes and platforms. The raccoon enclosure has also changed a lot- they love the hammock I added, and also like digging in the new soil box that we made in the corner of the enclosure. The two kinkajous are definitely using their new platform and house that we added a few weeks ago. Petunia the coati really likes the weaved palm leaves that we’ve added around the sides of her enclosure, and also likes digging around in the foraging tubes that I added in the ground. I can’t help but feel a little bit of pride when I look at these things; I feel like I might’ve made a bit of difference in the month that I’ve been here.

            If people asked me to describe this country in one word, that word would be green. As I’ve mentioned before, Costa Rica is 27 percent forest and, even though the entire country is only the size of West Virginia, it contains five percent of the world’s biodiversity, in both flora and fauna. But it’s not just the greenery that I love about Costa Rica, and that I’ll miss. There are so many things that I can put on that list. I’ll miss the taste of water from a coconut that’s just fallen out of the tree, or the taste of the freshest pineapple I’ve ever had. I’ll miss the sounds of all the wildlife around me- with one exception that I’ll get to in a moment. I’ll miss the wonderful climbing trees, and I’ll miss risking my life climbing up them to set up new animal enclosures. I love Costa Rican sunsets, and hearing the phrase “pura vida” at least ten times a day. I’ll miss relaxing on a hammock after a day of work, feeling the cool breeze gently rock me back and forth. I’ll miss the kitchen employees here calling out “listo!” at seven, noon, and six to tell us the meal is ready, and the following scramble of volunteers to get in line. I might even just slightly miss fellow volunteers Michael and Andrew using Spongebob quotes to make fun of the fact that I’m from Texas.

            On the other hand, I won’t miss the lack of air conditioning- I honestly don’t think I’ve been in an air conditioned room since I’ve left the states. I won’t miss the roosters calling right outside at five am- told you I was getting to that exception! I won’t miss the millions of mosquitos that have been feasting on my arms and legs over the past month, and everything that comes with living around them like constantly scratching, always having scabs up and down my arms and legs, always applying and smelling like bug spray (even though it hardly seems to make a difference), and sleeping under a mosquito net- that one I definitely won’t miss! I won’t miss the terrible wifi connection that can sometimes make publishing a blog post take two hours. And I won’t miss the inability to flush toilet paper- that’s right, you can’t do that here. I didn’t realize how incredibly convenient that was until that convenience was taken away.

            So here I am now typing up this post, sitting on this hammock, feeling the breeze against my face, smelling the plantain chips that are being fried up for dinner, listening to the other volunteers laughing downstairs, and watching the final Costa Rican sunset of this trip. Like the beginning, the end of these trips always brings so many emotions. I still haven’t gotten used to this “end of trip feeling”, and maybe I never will. Again, I know this won’t be the only traveling I’ll be doing in 2018, but it was certainly a good start. Pura vida, Costa Rica. Thanks for the memories. This post’s food for thought: “Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow.”-Anita Desai

Enjoy the Little Things

Yesterday's dazzling sunset here in Costa Rica. No picture does it justice

            The past few days have been full of more enrichment work here in Costa Rica! Yesterday I set up yet another new sloth garden, climbing up the tree to tie and attach five more baskets for their food and water, like I talked about in the last blog post. Yet again, I never used a ladder, and yet again, I didn’t die (though I might’ve come close once or twice). Taylor decided to make his trip longer than he originally intended- I haven’t seen him since before my La Fortuna trip. I’ve heard he should be back tomorrow though; we’ll see. Erandi has had a lot of administration type work to do, so I’ve mostly been working by myself the past few days, but I don’t mind that.

            I’m sad to say it, but my time in Costa Rica is coming to an end. I have four more nights in my bunk here at the center, four more nights of sleeping under a mosquito net (I honestly won’t miss that), four more dazzling sunsets to see here, four more days to spend among the monkeys, sloths, and fellow volunteer friends. I love the greenery of this country, the wildlife, the friendly people who always try to help me despite the language barrier, and the overall easygoing, “pura vida” attitude that Costa Rica has. I think I’ve picked a really good amount of time to be here. I’ve loved everything about the past month in this country and at this center, but I think that when I get on that plane Thursday morning, I’ll be ready to come home. I already know for sure that I’ll take at least one more international trip this year, hopefully two (but I won’t give away details about that yet), so my traveling for this year is just beginning. Costa Rica has been a great sixth country for me, and I want to really enjoy the last few days that I have here.

            I was just thinking about it recently and I realized that the day I return home, February 22^nd, will be exactly one year since I flew out for my second trip to South Africa. I’m glad I didn’t have to go a full year without gaining a passport stamp.

            Last night I was sitting on the second floor balcony here at the center watching a beautiful sunset stretch across the sky when I thought of something, which has been at the back of my mind ever since. Travel isn’t always about doing huge, expensive tours. It isn’t always about staying in five star hotels. It isn’t always about eating at very fancy, pricey restaurants. Travel doesn’t have to be super expensive, and it isn’t something that’s just for the rich. Travel can be pretty simple, and inexpensive, if you learn to simply enjoy the little things. Enjoy things like watching a lizard climb along a tree next to you, or sitting by a river and listening to the flowing water. Enjoy sitting on a hammock on a balcony and watching a bright sunset fill the sky with light. Enjoy drinking the water from a coconut that’s just fallen from the tree, or chewing on some sugar cane that’s been cut down in front of your eyes. I’ve done all of these things since being here in Costa Rica. These are experiences that I’ll remember and cherish for as long as I live, and they didn’t cost me a dime. That’s the main message I want people to take from this blog post- learn to enjoy and appreciate the little things, in travel but also in life in general. You’ll be a much happier person if you do. This post’s food for thought is a quote I’ve used before, and it’s perfect for this post: “Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”- Robert Breault

One Week More

Some of the baskets I risked my life to put up

They are loving this tree!

You can see one of the babies peeking out here

            I haven’t made a blog post in a few days because there hasn’t really been a lot of news from here at the center. Since I returned from La Fortuna on Sunday, it’s been back to enrichment work, as well as building and adding on to enclosures, and things like that. Not that it’s been boring; it just hasn’t been really blog-worthy. Still, after four days of silence, it’s time for an update!

            Taylor temporarily left on Saturday to go explore other parts of Costa Rica; he should be back later this evening. In the meantime, Erandi and I have been working mainly on setting up a new sloth garden. The way this center is set up, there are several areas that we call sloth gardens, which are basically large outdoor areas with one or two trees, secured off by a fence. There are between one and four sloths living in each garden, depending on the size, and there are baskets hung up in the trees for their food and water, which are attached to a pulley system so they can be brought down, cleaned, and refilled. This is a great setup for the sloths because they naturally spend almost all of their lifetime up in trees, and these enclosures allow them to basically have that same lifestyle. Since Costa Rican law no longer allows centers like these to rerelease animals, one of the main goals of this center is to give these animals a life as close as possible to one they would have in the wild.

            A few days ago some of the workers here at the center set up another fence around a tree that they thought would be good for a new sloth garden. It had a lot of branches stretching out all directions, gave a lot of shade, and wasn’t too close to other trees (so they couldn’t get out of the enclosure). Once the fence was set up, guess whose job it was to set up the baskets!

            The tree they picked is a fantastic climbing tree- low branches, lots of places to hold onto, the works. The majority of the day yesterday consisted of me being up in that tree, tying the pulleys in place, measuring the length of rope we needed for all six baskets, and feeding the rope for the baskets through the pulleys. I almost fell and broke my neck multiple times throughout the day, but “almost” carries no weight! Several times the other volunteers and staff offered to bring a ladder to help, but ladders are for quitters. After a few close calls, at the end of the day all six baskets were in place, attached to their pulley systems. This new garden is specifically for two sets of mother and baby sloths that were previously in a much smaller, less natural enclosure. This morning I was walking around, and went over to see how they’re taking to their new tree- and they clearly love it! The mothers have been climbing and exploring all around that tree, with their babies hanging onto them. Like I said in an earlier post with the kinkajous, it’s really nice to work hard on a project, and so quickly see that your work paid off!

            This afternoon Erandi went into town to get a few things for the center, so I was mostly working by myself. A while back some volunteers had set up a new enclosure to be used by the turtle- it involved a perimeter of cinderblocks and a small pool that they’d made with cement, which was built into the ground. Well, long story short, we no longer have a turtle, so this afternoon it was my job to take all of that down. The cinderblocks could just be moved back up by the toolshed and used for other things. The pool, on the other hand, needed to just be removed and thrown away. Of course, by “removed” I mean the cement pool needed to be broken down into little pieces and hauled away in buckets. Yes; that was my solo project for this afternoon. Moving the cinderblocks was the easy part- the real fun came when I got to the pool. I got the pickaxe from the toolshed, brought it down there, and spent a few hours swinging that thing, busting the pool to little pieces. Not going to lie- it’s very satisfying to absolutely destroy something like that. I may have strained my back a little doing it, but it was worth it. For people that think volunteering abroad is just like a long vacation- when’s the last time you spent an afternoon of your vacation sweating buckets under the hot sun swinging a pickaxe?

            As of today, I have a week left here in Costa Rica. I’ve had a great time in this country, and I’m going to make the absolute most of what time I have left here. This post’s food for thought: “All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.”- Calvin Coolidge

Welcome to the Jungle

Eyelash viper!

Hanging bridge number one

Me with the Arenal Volcano in the background!

            After being gone for more than twelve hours yesterday, out hiking around a volcano, trekking across hanging bridges, and swimming beside a waterfall, I was simply too exhausted yesterday to make this post… but what a day it was! Definitely one of my favorites since being in Costa Rica! At about 7:45 yesterday morning, I was picked up in the lobby of the La Choza Inn Hostel by Manuel, the man that would be my tour guide for the rest of the day. While in the car, he ran over the schedule for the day with me- first, the hanging bridges tour, which would be him leading me along a path right in the middle of the Costa Rican rainforest, pointing out some things as we passed them, and crossing six long hanging bridges. After that we would come back into town and pick up two more people from another hostel; I was the only person that day to have booked the mega tour, so it was just me and the tour guide for the hanging bridges tour! When we’d picked up the others, we would hike to the Arenal Waterfall, where we could swim if we wanted to. Then we’d have lunch at the restaurant there near the waterfall. After that we’d do the big volcano hike, followed by the hot springs, and finally end with dinner. Sounded like a very full day of fun and adventures in the jungle!

            It was about a half hour drive from my hostel to the start of the hanging bridges tour. After just admiring the great view of the volcano from the trailhead for a few minutes, I followed Manuel into the rainforest. Just a few minutes into the tour, we saw our first wild animal, and it was one I was most excited about seeing here in Costa Rica. Sitting on some leaves at just about eye level just off the path, perfectly camouflaged, was an eyelash viper! I was so hoping that I’d be able to see one of these here in Costa Rica, and just a few minutes into the tour, it happened! I spent a few minutes admiring it and taking some pictures while Manuel focused his binoculars on it to give me an up close view. Eventually, we moved on. In total the hanging bridges tour took about two hours, during which we saw a sloth, several beautiful birds, and a lot of different plants, as well as some very cool bugs. Manuel told me that this country is 27 percent forest, and what an insane forest it is! Costa Rica is only about the size of West Virginia, but it contains five percent of the world’s biodiversity- quite a feat! Being there in the jungle was really unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced. That place really is a living, moving, breathing organism.

            After the hike we returned to the van, drove back into town and picked up Nicolette and Zach, a couple from San Diego that were backpacking here together. Once we’d collected them from their hostel, we went to begin our hike to the waterfall. Hike probably isn’t the best word for it- getting to the waterfall basically just involves going down a bunch of stairs. A bunch, meaning over 500! Eventually, with legs turned to jello, we made it to the bottom. We spent a little while admiring the waterfall from the bank, but Zach and I especially wanted to get in the water, so we climbed over the big rocks leading up to the water and jumped in. The water was absolutely frigid! The spray from the waterfall felt good against our faces, and that cold water was a good way to wake us up! We swam around for about as long as we could stand the cold, then got out, dried off with our trusty microfiber towels, and headed back up the 500+ stairs to the restaurant at the top. By the time we got up there, we were all ready for some food!

            After a delicious lunch consisting of a berry smoothie, grilled fish, plantains (no Costa Rican meal is complete without one of those), rice and some ice cream to finish it off, we returned to the van yet again to drive to the beginning of the volcano hike. I could write for hours about all the Manuel told us about and all we saw on that hike, but I don’t want to make this blog post too long, so I’ll try to keep it brief. Along the hike we got beautiful views of the famous Arenal Volcano and the area around it. Manuel told us about the big eruption back in July 1968 that completely wiped out two communities and killed 87 people. A scientist that had done a lot of research on volcanoes and had apparently predicted the imminent eruption a few days before it happened. He’d let the government know, but the government had never actually warned the communities at the bottom of the volcano. By the time people knew what was happening, it was too late. Of those two communities, only two people survived the eruption!

            At the end of that long hike, it was hot spring time! Turns out that since I’d booked a slightly different tour than Nicolette and Zach, I was going to a different set of hot springs. Manuel checked me in and they gave me a wristband that included entrance and dinner. Relaxing in that fresh, hot water with the volcano in the background was the perfect way to end a long, busy day! At about eight, after about an hour in the hot springs and a nice dinner, I was picked up by the tour company and brought back to my hostel, where I basically just showered and passed out.

            Today, after checking out of my hostel and about another five hours sitting on a bus, I got back to the Costa Rica Animal Rescue Center at about 5:30. I’d only been gone two days, but walking in and setting my bag back down on my bed felt so nice! I didn’t think I would miss the place over those two days, but I did.

            This blog post is already more than long enough, so I’ll end it here. This post’s food for thought is one of my new favorite quotes: “Don’t let the tamed ones tell you how to live.”- Jenny Ox