Since
returning from my day off on Thursday, I’ve been very busy here at the center
adjusting and adding on to enclosures. Today has been especially busy because
this afternoon we were switching the enclosures for the kinkajous and olingo.
So in one afternoon, while the animals were sedated in the animal hospital, we
had to deep clean and disinfect both enclosures and move a bunch of stuff
around. The enclosures are pretty tall and one of them had a little wooden
house high up that needed to come down, so a portion of my afternoon was spent
climbing up the enclosure fence repeatedly to remove the wire and zip ties that
held the house in place, despite the other volunteers telling me I was crazy
for doing so. No better place than Costa Rica to channel your inner monkey!
Yesterday
evening was really quiet here at the center. A lot of volunteers went into San
Jose to have dinner and see the Super Bowl. Even volunteers that didn’t really
care about the game itself went because they just wanted to get away from the
center for an evening. I opted to stay here and enjoy the peace and quiet
upstairs in one of the hammocks. Now, 24 hours later, I’m back here in the same
hammock enjoying the cool night air. I think this is my favorite spot in the
entire center.
A big group
to new volunteers got here yesterday. It’s a group to eleven boys aged fifteen
through eighteen from England, along with three adult chaperones, all of whom
are staying for a week. I was talking to one of the chaperones at dinner
yesterday and he said that every year they bring groups here to Costa Rica,
though I think he said this is the first time that they’ve come specifically to
the animal rescue center.
Yesterday
was also the presidential election here in Costa Rica. At both of the daily
meetings yesterday the staff mentioned that they would be going to San Jose for
a while to vote. They also talked to us about things like the importance of
voting, and why this election mattered to them. Of course, the election didn’t
have much of a direct influence on us volunteers, but it was still interesting
to be here in the country while it’s going on.
Some of the
volunteers, including Taylor, took today off to go down to Jaco for a beach
day. They invited me along, but I’m saving my last days off for this weekend,
when I’m leaving the center for a couple of days to go on my big tour of La
Fortuna. I’ll be leaving here Friday, heading to La Fortuna, checking into my
hostel, then Saturday I have the big, all day long tour of the Arenal Volcano
and the area around it. I’ll return to the center on Sunday. Even though I’ve already
been to La Fortuna now, I’m still super excited since this tour involves things
that I didn’t get to do, like the hanging bridges, hot springs, and waterfall.
I wish I had
more exciting news to report, but the past few days have mostly just been the
same kind of stuff, so I’ll end it here. This post’s food for thought: “If you
go around being afraid, you’re never going to enjoy life. You have only one
chance, so you’ve got to have fun.”-Lindsey Vonn
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