Costa Rica - Pura Vida!

Pura Vida!

I had the amazing opportunity to lead a service project to Costa Rica for March Break 2017. It was some of the hardest and most rewarding physical labour I have ever done, and my students met the challenge head on with smiles and lots of fun. I cannot say enough good things about my students, my co-leader Bee, or the trip itself. I definitely fell in love with the beauty of Costa Rica and did not want to come back.

We started off our trip flying from Toronto to San Jose, arriving late in the evening. After clearing customs and grabbing our bags, we met our guide Pedro for a quick ride to our hostel for a late night pizza dinner, a quick group meeting to lay out the coming days, and then into bed for a short nights sleep. To help us acclimatize our first full day in country was spent exploring some of the areas around the city. We took a long, bouncy, and beautiful ride to visit the Poás Volcano a few hours outside of San Jose. The views of the crater were spectacular when the low clouds and mist would occasionally lift, and as a group we learned a lot about volcanoes from Rodolfo who is a volcanologist at a local university.

Poás Volcano visible through a quick break in the clouds.

After some time exploring, we were back on the bus for a ride back to the city with a quick stop for lunch before heading off for a little cultural education. Our guide Pedro introduced us to a local man who makes traditional masks used in local celebrations. The origins of masks is a little hard to trace, with traditions coming from both indigenous and Spanish sources. They definitely made quite the impression, but unfortunately I did not get the full experience. A combination of the steep hike up to the workshop plus the heat and altitude conspired to give me a little wake up about pushing myself too hard. Upon finally arriving at the workshop I got a little light-headed from the exertion and ended up fainting! Fortunately I bounced back really quickly, and ended up only being embarrassed rather than hurt, but it was a good teachable moment for myself and the kids about the dangers of not pacing ourselves in a new environment.

With our tourist day over, we moved into the first of our three service projects of the trip. We spent two days working with some local people in the squatter's settlement of La Carpio outside of San Jose. I'm not sure what I actually expected, but the permanence of the houses, streets, and shops in La Carpio was not it. The people we were working with and in the neighbourhood we were working in were extremely friendly and welcoming. Our project here involved building cement sidewalks in front of several homes at an intersection to help with drainage, reduce flooding to the homes, and prevent the muddy mess that came with the frequent rains. 

Moving gravel and then mixing and moving cement was physical, tough, exhausting, and hot but the kids worked extremely hard without complaint. I was blown away by how willing these students were to help this community, especially since many of them had never done any labour like this before. They worked together as a team, took care of themselves with frequent water breaks, and even remember to constantly reapply sunscreen without anything more than the occasional reminder from me or Bee. I have never worked with a group of kids who started off a trip or project with this kind of attitude, and even before the first day was over I couldn't stop singing their praises.

Bee, Pedro, and me working hard to keep up with the kids!

Our work finished in La Carpio after two days, we packed our bags and spent the next day traveling to Yorkin to spend 3 days working with the Bribri people. The drive took a long time, but took us through beautiful country with many amazing sights. I've never been comfortable sleeping while in a vehicle, whether it be a car, bus, or plane, so while most of the kids caught up on some extra sleep I was constantly going from my book to just staring out the windows and appreciating the fact that I was in Costa Rica!

One of my students caught me just enjoying the ride. I spent a lot of time staring out that window.

The last leg of the journey to Yorkin involved just over an hour of travel by dugout canoe upriver. Not knowing what to expect on the boat ride I left the camera safely in my waterproof bag, something I regretted almost immediately upon taking in the absolute beauty of the jungle surrounding the river. I had a smile on my face the whole ride with my eyes constantly looking from one amazing sight to another. I really took this time to notice how happy I had been since arriving in Costa Rica, and that even with some of the toughest work I've done in years I had been enjoying every single moment of the trip. I truly feel like this kind of travel is something that I need to do.

Our time spent with the Bribri in Yorkin was perhaps my favour part of the trip. I don't have the words to be able to describe how welcoming and friendly everyone was and how much appreciation I felt for the work we were doing. We spent our mornings working on various tasks around the village: taking apart a dining hut that had been damaged by a falling tree, building palm frond roofs, and clearing a fallen tree that had wiped out a suspension bridge one night while we were there. The work was difficult, especially with the heat and humidity, but still very rewarding. The only change up was that assembling the palm fronds was pretty relaxing.

Working hard!

After our afternoons of work, we were treated to some amazing cultural lessons. Local people came each afternoon to teach us a little bit of the Bribri language, how to shoot their traditional bow, as well as some lessons on cacao and chocolate making! Each of these classes were an incredible look into the lifestyle and culture of these people. 

Our minds and bodies thoroughly worked by mid-afternoon, we took some time before dinner each day to take a short hike to some fantastic spots along the river for a little bit of swimming. One of the rivers near the village is the border between Costa Rica and Panama, so I may have gone for a quick swim to add one more country to the list of places I've been. All the kids thought it was amazing that swimming a distance less than 25 metres would bring them to an entirely different country and spent a lot of the hour we were there going back and forth. The other spot we went swimming was near the suspension bridge that was demolished by a falling tree. This spot had a great set of rapids for lounging in, and you could settle yourself into a comfortable seat to get a nice massage from the water flowing past you; a real treat after a hard days work!

The students (and two local boys) enjoying a well deserved swim break.

Before I knew it our time in Yorkin came to an end and it was time for the ride in the dugout canoes. This time I brought my camera, but the pictures hardly do justice to the immense beauty of the river and jungle that surrounds it. I could have spent the whole day traveling that river and enjoying the sights and peaceful reflection it inspired within me.

Our journey to our third and final project ended much like it started, a with a long boat ride with fantastic sights to be seen! This time everyone piled into some more modern boats (the group in one, the luggage and myself in the other) for a ride downriver to the Caribbean! The place on the river that we started at was fairly narrow and originally part of an irrigation system created to bring water to the many banana plantations, and as we traveled further towards the coast the river opened up more into a mixture of wetlands and rain forest. There were many stops along the river to take in the local wildlife; along the ride we found several groups of monkeys and a couple sloths hanging out!

Hanging out with my new best friend!

Our last service project was in two parts. For the last two working days we spent our mornings working at a local school and our afternoons working with Latin American Sea Turtles (LAST). At the school we were back to something we've had a lot of experience with: hauling gravel and mixing cement. These two days happened to be some of the hottest and most humid we had on the entire trip, but that didn't stop our group from continuing to put the same effort they had been giving. After lunch at the school (provided in a kitchen built by previous service trips from the school!) we were off to LAST to help work on their hatchery.

LAST patrols a 7.1 km section of beach used for nesting by three species: Leatherback, Hawksbill and Green sea turtles. This section of beach faces a lot of threats from local poachers, pollution, and beach erosion. LAST has volunteers who come from all over the world to help patrol the beach at night looking for nesting sea turtles. When a nest is found, they relocate the eggs to their hatchery where they are safe from poachers. However, putting so many eggs into one area on the beach increases the risk of diseases and predators attacking the eggs buried in the sand, so LAST has to frequently change out the "used" sand for fresh stuff.  This involves digging out an area 20 metres by 20 metres down to a depth of 1.5 metres, carting the used sand further down the beach, and then bringing fresh sand up from the near the water, sifting it to remove unwanted particles and crabs, and then filling in the giant hole. Since our students were too young to participate in the night patrols (due to the risk of encountering poachers, patrollers need to be 18 with our service trip provider) our students spent their afternoons working on the hatchery, hauling sand in and out of the hole.

Due to a shortage of volunteers at the time we were working with LAST, Bee and I were approached about helping out with some patrols ourselves. We worked out a schedule that had one of us always with the kids at the hostel, while the other got to go for a nice 4 hour walk in the dark. We both were really hoping to come across a nesting Leatherback turtle, but luck wasn't with us those nights and there were no crawls on any of the nights we were at the beach.

With the second day of work done, we were finished our working days of the service project! We had a couple of long days of travel ahead of us, but as a reward for all the hard work we got one wonderful afternoon at the beach and a night in a great resort hostel in Puerto Viejo. I really loved the atmosphere of Puerto Viejo, and the beach was absolutely spectacular. I plan on coming back sometime on my own and spending a lot of time enjoying the beautiful beach and exploring what the area has to offer.

After the wonderful night at the resort, it was time for the long drive back to San Jose. We would get back into the city close to 7 pm which left only a little time to spend as a group before an early night to bed. Our shuttle to the airport left the hostel at 5 am with our flight home taking off a little after 8.

This was an amazing experience for myself and for all the students. Not only did I get the opportunity to take part in some very meaningful and rewarding service projects, but I got to watch an amazing group of 12 students create new friendships and bonds with each other, while creating memories that will impact them for the rest of their lives. I would take that group of kids anywhere, anytime, without hesitation. The memories I have of this trip will stay with me for a very long time, and I can see this being the trip to which I compare all others.

Pura Vida!

The beach at Puerto Viejo