Drake Bay - Ready or not, here I come!

Well part 2 of my Costa Rica adventure begins tomorrow. At 7am I will be picked up by Trans Leo and they will take Maddie and I to the bus station. We are off to Drake Bay on the Osa Peninsula on the pacific coast. 

Drake Bay is a remote beach where I will spend the next two weeks doing turtle conservation with the Corcovado Foundation. I am not sure if I will be staying with a family or at the turtle conservation facility. I'll find out when I get there. There is wifi but it is not very reliable so I  not sure how often I will be able to update my blog. I'll do my best to give you all updates. There is not much in Drake Bay. Houses, one store and the turtle conservation building which is also a hostel. I think there may also be a few hotels. But basically there is not much there but nature :)

Speaking of nature - we had some beautiful views from the trip back from Monteverde. Here are a few pictures from the bus ride back to San Jose this morning. 

Tonight was really nice. There are three cousins from Australia staying at my house now. I picked up a surprise at the grocery store and made chocolate chocolate chip cookies. They were a big hit. There are only a few left. I think Teresa appreciated that I baked and the cousins loved it. They want me to come back and bake more. 

I'm looking forward to the next two weeks and have no idea what is in store. I have heard Drake Bay is absolutely gorgeous. I'm leaving at 7am and have an 8-10 hour journey to get there. I was really nervous but during orientation Reese got me excited. It sounds absolutely amazing. I may even get to see some dolphins and whales. We are also basically in the jungle. I'm hoping there will be other cool animals to see. Hopefully I will have some great pictures to share. 

Signing off for now...hopefully I will be able to post again soon. 

I did it!

This weekend I traveled with Simone and Jessica to La Fortuna to see the Arenal Volcano and also to Monteverde. We left bright and early Saturday morning and we are headed back early tomorrow morning. 

Yesterday was a long but wonderful day! The bus was not as long as we had expected and we arrived in La Fortuna a little before 11am. The brilliant people at Red Lava tours have their office next to the bus station. They helped us find a hotel. It was ok. We also booked a great tour - we went to the volcano observatory deck, hiked to a waterfall, went over a suspension bridge, watched the sun set over Lake Arenal and went to the Baldi Hot Springs where we relaxed in the springs and had a buffet dinner. It was a great day. 

Today was another fun day. It started with a bus - boat - bus ride to get to Monteverde. We found a wonderful hotel - Sloth Backpacker Bed and Breakfast. It's clean and comfy. Across the street we discovered Orchid Coffee and Tea Shop where we went for lunch. We loved it so much we went back for dinner too. Our afternoon was filled with adventure as my friends convinced me to try zip lining again. We signed up for the Extremo canopy tour - 14 zip lines, a Tarzan swing (I skipped), rappelling, and two superman zips. No pics to post because I didn't take my phone but I do have a cd full of pics to share when I get home. 

Tomorrow I have orientation at 5pm to find out more about turtle conservation. I will head there early Tuesday morning. It's going to be an adventure. Definitely starting to get nervous. I feel like I am starting over again. 

Bittersweet

Today was bittersweet. It was one of my favorite days in La Carpio but also sad as I won't be going back. My morning started with a great game of duck, duck, goose (pato, pato, ganso). I was so excited I was able to get the game started with my limited Spansih. The kids were running around wild and figured a little structure might be a good thing. It worked well and everyone had fun. As the morning continued Teresa, their teacher, asked me to read a book with English and Spansih - she only had to correct me once. It was to teach simple words to them in English. It was fun! We brought a special snack today - we were all talking about fall and missing fall things so we made caramel apples. They were yummy! All in all a great day with lots of smiles and love. One of my favorite things is when we are all sitting on the steps or playing on the floor and someone comes and sits down in your lap. It always makes me feel special and loved. I only hope the past two weeks that I have helped them to feel special and loved. It was hard to say goodbye to one little girl named Luziana. She is little and not in the class yet but mom has been bringing her and staying with her. She is precious and we have bonded this week. She will play with me now and not cry for her mom - that's major progress. Yesterday her mom asked how long I was staying. I hated telling her Friday was my last day. 

I will miss these smiles :)

Today was also my last day of Spanish classes. Unfortunately classes are not offered at the turtles. I am making progress. My vocabulary is growing and I have learned how to conjugate verbs in the present tense. Today I had an introduction to the past tense. I think I am going to continue classes when I get home. Ana and Rolo are both great teachers and I am grateful for everything they have taught me. 

It's crazy that it's almost been two weeks. That's not very long. However, in some respects I feel like I have been here forever. It's weird. Everything is so familiar. I have made friends with the random people who are on similar schedules that I cross paths with. It will be weird when I don't see them next week after I leave. I'll miss hearing "hey cleveland" - that's what Kalee calls me. I watched part of the Cavs home opener with him. Or having someone walk by and say hi. I know I will meet new friends at the turtles but I'll miss familiar faces. 

Tomorrow morning I embark on an adventure to La Fortuna and Monteverde with Jess and Simone. We are leaving bright and early on a 6:15 bus. We'll be back on Monday so you may not here from me until then. Hopefully I will have fun pictures of Arenal volcano, the hot springs, waterfalls,cloud forest and more. 

Have a great weekend!

One more day...

I only have one more day with los ninos. I can't believe that two weeks have gone by so quickly. As I told Reece, one of the field coordinators, tonight - I am sad that tomorrow is my last day in La Carpio as it has been an excellent experience but I am excited for another adventure. 

The last few days I have found myself questioning my decision to stay a month. When I signed up, I was worried that a month was too long. In some respects I feel like it is not long enough. I am just starting to feel comfortable at the day care and I can sort of communicate with the kids and its time to move on. I will have only spent 8 mornings with the kids - one morning I had orientation and the other morning the day care was closed - it is the day I went to watch the women cook tamales and helped Viviana teach English. That being said, I am ready to get out of the city and away from the commotion of people, cars and buses.  

We had fun with selfies today! Here are some of the adorable kids I'm going to miss...

And the busy city I will be leaving on Tueday morning...

The first city pic is from San Pedro where Maximo Nivel is located. I walk this stretch often. The second pic is from a pedestrian street in San Jose at 7am. I'll take more pics with more people in the middle of the day :)

There is a first for everything...

I can't believe that I have already been here for one week. My second week is off to a good start. We didn't have as many kids in either class today. A decrease in numbers didn't decrease the fun.We colored animal coloring pages, played musical chairs and blew bubbles. Bubbles were a huge hit. I loved watching the kids chase after them. 

Viviana, the English teacher, gave us a ride to the Maximo so we didn't have to wait for the bus. There was a huge traffic jam and it took us a while to get out of La Carpio. While we were sitting there a little boy approached the car and asked Viviana for money. He was only 5. There is something I just don't understand about parents who send their young children to beg for money. Don't they worry about it being dangerous? Maybe they are just at the point where you do what you have to do to get buy. Within five minutes we watched a young teenager slowly opened up the back of the truck in front of us. He hopped in and grabbed the hand truck, got out and took off running. He stole it in broad daylight. I have never seen someone steal anything right in front of me. We couldn't even try to stop him because it would have been too dangerous. It is really unfortunate that teens here don't have much going on.  They seem to find themselves in trouble.  Theft has become a big problem. Another big teen problem is older teenage girls working as pimps to connect younger girls with men. Just last week a story hit the news about a 12 year old who was hired by a man. It was all set-up by an older teenage girl. It's crazy. La Carpio has its challenges - I hope that things will start to turn around in the near future. Hopefully I won't see or hear of anymore firsts. 

The rest of the day was status quo. Had lunch with frienfs, went on my usual walk and had Spanish. This week I am in a group lesson from 4-6. I have a different teacher too. At first that worried me but I think it will work out. Tried salsa dancing again tonight. I am terrible but it was fun. 

Good Night. 

Make new friends, but keep the old...

I am lucky to have a wonderful circle of friends. From Ohio to Atlanta, DC to Massachusettes and beyond. Thank you all for being so supportive especially throughout the last few months - moving home and going on this adventure. 

My circle of friends has grown this week to include other people volunteering with me as well as those I have travelled with. Yesterday I met some awesome people from Denver, Michigan, Ireland and India. It's so neat how a group of complete strangers can bond in a day. 

Today I had the opportunity to travel with two of my friends that I met at orientation on Monday. We went to the Doka Coffee Plantation - where I tried really hard to like coffee. It didn't work. Although the chocolate covered coffee beans weren't too bad :) 

Our next stop was at the Poaz Volcano. It is one of 8 active volcanos in Costa Rica. It doesn't have lava but there is steam activity. It was a very cloudy and misty day so our guide didn't think we would see much but we still made the walk to the lookout. Although the view wasn't great - it did clear a little to get some cool pictures. 

Our last stop of the day was to the La Paz Waterfall. It was much more than a waterfall - kind of a cross between a nature preserve and a zoo. The waterfalls were gorgeous but my other favorite part was the butterfly garden. The butterflies would let you hold them and they would land on you. It brought back special memories of one of our camp sunshine kids. After she died, her mom would always say she came for a visit when she saw butterflies outside. I thought of her a lot this afternoon. The picture below of the butterfly on the leaf has her name as part of its scientific name. Pretty cool! Miss you SW. 

The butterflies were just plain awesome!

As were the waterfalls. Here's a pic of Simone, Jessica and I...

"Thank you for being a friend..." (Golden Girls)

What an adventure!

Today was INCREDIBLE! It started bright early when I was picked up at 5:20am. I was off to Manuel Antonio National Park for the day. My morning started off by meeting Phillipe, our guide, and Andres, our driver as well as my five new friends: Tara (Ireland), Paula (Michigan), Brenda (Denver), Rahul (India) and Reynald (Denver). 

It was a 3.5 hour bus ride. We stopped for a delicious breakfast and walked across the 

That was a little less than half way into the trip.

Manuel Antonio is known for the wildlife. We were lucky to see a few sloths, monkeys, birds, an iguana and more...

This is a sloth. 

Picture of lizard taken with a telescope. 

A monkey. We also saw a holler monkey. They are easier to hear then to see. 

This is an iguana. 

The park was beautiful. The first stop was a waterfall and the second stop was the beach. 

It was a fun day with new friends! Getting home was another story. First roads were closed so we were behind schedule and late but then I waited and waited for my bus and got more and more nervous the later it got. I asked a girl for help - she did help but with the wrong info. I got on the wrong bus but immediately got off. Scared out of my mind I decided to call the Maximo emergency line. Paula saved the day and helped me get my host family address - I had forgotten it at home. Lesson learned. I will never do that again.