Costa Rica: Our Adventures.

I've lacked in my blogging skills....

clogel — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 08:43:00 GMT

I must say I haven't kept up with this blog as much as I thought I would, perhaps its becasue I didn't bring my personal computer, and I son't like spending all my free time on the computers at Maximo! Anyways, last weekend, we went to Montezuma, one og\f the most larid back and beautiful beach towns I've seen. Tommorow we start our week of travling with Jackie, and have 3 days at the beach, 3 days at a horse ranch, and 2 days at Arenal Volcano on the agenda.

Our volunteering ended today, and it was sad to say goodbye to the kids. But it was also great beacause we passed out many Komen tshirts that Lauren gave us to the kids. Also, the last two days we visited another volunteer site in the morning called Europa. They are constructing a school and community center there. This morning I got to live out my dream of painting giant palm trees as part of a mural that Steph, Abby and I painted along with another girl.

I cant beleive three weeks has already passed, but its been amazing. And Im not even tired of the rice and beans yet, and we've had them every day, 2 a day. I am excited, however, to see everyone when we get home! But first we have a 9 day adventure ahead of us. And I promise to upload pictures and write more in depth after the trip. Pura Vida!

Week 2 Tortuguero

clogel — Tue, 8 Jun 2010 07:13:00 GMT

Hello again!

So we have been here in Costa Rica for a total of 1 week and 3 days, and I've enjoyed every second of it! Last week our night activities included seeing Prince of Persia in a mall, which made me feel like I was in the US, we also took salsa lessons and went to Bar Nena twice. On Friday morning we left for Tortuguero. Imagine a place that you can only get to by a 45 min. boat ride, has no cars, and dogs sleep under tables at restaruants. Well that describes the place we went. Named for its gigantic sea turtles that nest during the summer months, Tortuguero was a destination that Im so glad I experienced. We awoke at 5:30 am on Saturday morning for a canoe tour of the Tortuguro canals, inside the national park. We did not see turtles, but saw 3 types of monkeys climbing in the trees, along with caimans, similar to crocidiles. An interesting fact about parrots, they mate for life! I learned that fact when we saw pairs of green parrots flying over head. The rest of the weekend included hammocks, rice and beans, some markets, and laying out. Awesome weekend.

One thing I've learned about my adventure thus far is that not all aspects of this trip are focused on volunteering, but also on learning the city, the country, and trying new things. For example, Costa Rica's bus system is amazing, I think, since I have never really used public transportation. But you can literally hop on a bus to take you anywhere. Also, I am finidng that my converstaional level of Spanish is paying off, as I can get around alot easier with small conversations. We went to PANI, our volunteer sight this morning, and it went well. Like I've said earlier, its a governement funded foster home. This kids are looked after very well, and have ample toys to occupy themselves with. We are beginning at a new site tomorrow, a soup kitchen for kids after school. I think it will be a good experience.

Our host family is great, and quite humorous. Last night at dinner one of the sons was eating with us, and his dad came out and did a magic trick. I must say, we could not stop laughing. And I have more stories about that later...

Adventure to the Rainforest and 1st day with the kids!

clogel — Tue, 1 Jun 2010 16:42:00 GMT

Hi everyone! So I haven’t been good at updating this yet, but we've actually done a lot since arriving on Friday morning. After a long night of traveling on Friday, we arrived into San Jose where Ingrid, the taxi driver for Maximo Nivel picked us up. We hung out there for awhile, and then decided to take a trip to Manuel Antonio National Park for the weekend, which I'm glad we did because we didn't know what else to do around San Jose for the weekend! So we took a 20 min cab ride into downtown San Jose to the Coca Cola bus station, and our taxi driver bought our tickets as we stayed inside with doors locked. Everything feels pretty safe around here, but certain areas you have to be more careful!

Anyways, we took a four hour bus ride on Saturday morning to Manuel Antonio through the mountains, beautiful views, and interesting driving! We arrived at out Backpackers hostel and headed top the beach. Although, the touristy atmosphere added to the cost of dinners and lunches, the beach was beautiful, and we even saw a monkey eating a banana on the side of the road. We shared a hostel with about 6 others, and the entire hostel atmosphere was perfect. We met other travelers from around the world, hung out on the sofas Saturday night. The next morning we awoke early, then went to the National Park where we bargained with a tour guide, then took a tour of the national park. The guide used his telescope to spot sloths, frogs, monkeys, etc. in the trees! The beaches were our next priority, where the water felt like a bath and the sand was bordered by palm trees and forests. Oh and the monkeys trying to steal people's things.

Our host family is awesome... there are many volunteers that stay there, and there are probably 9 extra rooms in the house. Our host mom, Marita, cooks delicious food and is very laid back about our comings and goings.

Our volunteer placement is at a government run foster house, PANI, where about 10 kids live. I was very impressed with the house, as it even has an in ground swimming pool. This morning when we arrived, Abby and Stephanie immediately were given the task of washing all the windows, and I was given the 2 month old, Jedrech to burp and hold for 2 hours. He is absolutely adorable, and I learned a lot about caring for tiny babies in the first day! I found out from one of the caregivers, called "Auntie" that he has a sickness from his mom using drugs during pregnancy. We did some exercises to help increase his movement.

Anyways, I love it down here! The people are very nice, food is good, and I am very happy with the volunteer placement.

If you've read this far, I apologize for how choppy my writing is, I’m in a hurry! I will write more later in the week, and I hope you are all doing well!

A Small Intro.

clogel — Sun, 16 May 2010 05:43:00 GMT

Hola! In 12 days, myself, my twin sister (Abby), and one of our closest friends, Steph, will be embarking on a 4 week long stay in Costa Rica. Recent grads of Butler University, we all decided that we needed one last hurrah before embarking on the "real world." Well, I think it is a little ironic because, in the end, I hope to be more enlightened about the "real world" than I can experience working in an office all day.

In November of 2009, the three of us decided we wanted to go somewhere, and as thrifty college students, went to Priceline to find the cheapest airfare. Our next step was to find a reputable non-profit volunteer organization that we could go through to find a volunteer placement in Costa Rica. So we found International VolunteerHQ, an organization based out of New Zealand and with a partner organization called Maximo Nivel based in San Jose.

To sum it up: The plan is to stay with a Costa Rican family for three weeks, and to volunteer about 5 hours a day in childcare. This will be in an orphanage, school, homeless shelter - we will soon see! Even though I am traveling to a Central American country with about 4% of the entire world's natural diversity, and volcanoes, beaches, jungles, etc., my hope is to see the heart of the country: the people. It's so easy to travel to a popular destination and never leave the resort, never to see who lives there, what they do, how they live. Never to see the poverty. I'm so excited to see the real world as it is, pure and alive.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm equally excited to see the beaches, jungles, monkeys, etc. The last week of our trip, we will be accompanied by our friend and fellow traveler, Jackie. We plan on traveling the country, hopefully with about 3 destinations. As with all travel, these plans may and will change!

So there's the details. Stay tuned for further updates of our day-to-day living, some photos, and I promise some great stories as well.