Greetings from Costa Rica! A week ago at this time Rachel, Leah, and I were on a bus from Nicaragua to Cañas. The bus trip was fine, though the border crossing seemed to take forever, but once we got to Cañas we had a hard time finding where we were supposed to wait to catch our next bus. We waited for about an hour at a bus stop and when we gave up on the bus and stood up we realized that Rachel's daypack was gone. She lost a lot of stuff, but was most disappointed about losing her passport. Tomorrow she is going with someone from the farm to the embassy in San Jose and hopefully she'll be able to get another one quickly. We filed a report at the police station and with that document they said it would be easier to get it replaced. After leaving the police station we saw our bus go by and not wanting to wait another 3 hours until the next one we hitchhiked to Arenal, spent the night there and then went to the farm the next day. The guy that we hitched a ride with was very friendly and gave us a history lesson about the area as we drove along.
Apart from Rachel getting robbed, we've had a really positive experience in Costa Rica so far. The farm where we are volunteering is beautiful! There are about 50 employees at the farm and we live in a bunkhouse with most of them so we've found ourself in an interesting little community that we weren't expecting. Everyone has been very friendly and welcoming and our nickname here is Charlie's Angels (one of the cooks gives everyone a nickname when they arrive and considering some of the other nicknames we heard, we feel pretty lucky with ours).
I spend my mornings with the veternarian checking on all the animals and feeding them. The farm has a rescue center for animals and even though it isn't officially open yet, they already have 6 deer, 5 monkeys (3 capuchin monkeys and 2 spider monkeys), a tucan, a raccoon, and tepezcuintles (large rodents). They also have other animals that are not part of the center such as horses, cows, chickens, and dogs. My favorite is a baby spider monkey named Sukia that is 4-5 months old. She has a lot of personality and has been warming up to me more and more each day. The veternarian is leaving is leaving today for four days so it will be up to me take care of them for the next few days. In the afternoons I've been working on a reforestation project with a guy who knows everything about nature. So far I've mainly just been helping to fill small plastic bags with dirt to plant the seeds in, but I'm hoping that I'll get to plant more trees in the future. Leah has been working mainly on construction projects and Rachel has been in the gardens planting and weeding and also is in charge of the chickens (which often means chasing after them when they escape).
My work day starts at 6am and ends between 4-5pm with breaks for breakfast and lunch, Yoga class is offered every afternoon at 4:30 and I've been a few times so far. It feels great after a long day. Dinner is at 6 and by 8 we're usually in bed. We only have Sundays off so we won't be able to do much traveling while we're here, but we're planning on spending a couple days in San Jose after we finish at the farm and before we bus to Panama.
xoxo, Katie
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Nicaragua
We've been in Nicaragua for about one month now and tomorrow morning we are going to take a bus to Costa Rica. Last week we agonized over whether to go back to Guatemala, go to Costa Rica, or go to Panama and finally decided to go spend a month on an organic farm in Costa Rica. The farm is called Rancho Margot and it is pretty close to the border with Nicaragua and it sounds really nice. We're looking forward to a cooler climate and spending some time in nature!
Our last week in Nica has been pretty hectic with getting a lot of last minute stuff done. Last weekend we took Engel, David, Marlon and his siblings and two nephews to Granada for the weekeend (14 people total). We spent the night in a nice hostel and in the morning went for a boat ride on Lake Nicaragua.
On Wednesday we went and visited the city garbage dump in Managua. We have a local friend who works with a project at the dump and so she arranged for someone to drive us through the dump and then drop us off at a school located within the dump to hang out and meet some of the kids. I was curious to see how the dump compares to the one in Guatemala City and it is completely different. The dump has not been walled off like the one in Guatemala so people live within the dump boundaries and can work whenever they want. When we first drove in, I was surprised to see cows grazing everywhere in trash. The guy we were with said that the people who work in the dump always graze their cows there during the day. The school was much smaller than Safe Passage, it only has about 250 students, but before it was built 7 years ago none of the children currently in the school had the opportunity to attend classes.
Yesterday we had planned to spend the day taking Engel's house apart and then putting it back together with more materials. Leah's mom donated some money to buy more wood and tin because water was constantly getting into his house. We bought the materials in the morning and then the boys arranged for a man with a horse and cart to carry the materials from the market to his house. It took the poor horse about an hour to get all the way to his house and when we got there his neighbor had bad news for us. First he said that he was going to sell the land and that Engel had to leave that same day. We considered buying the land ourselves when we found out how cheap it was (around $175), but then the man came back and said that his wife wouldn't let him sell the land and that Engel had to leave anyway. The man with the cart had stayed with us throughout all this and offered a place on his land for Engel to build a room. Engel seriousely considered it, but then at the last minute decided to move in with an aunt so we loaded all the materials back onto the cart and it took an hour and half to get from Engel's house to his aunts house. It was a crazy day! I'm just glad that Engel found out that he had to move out of his house before we spent the day working on the house.
I gotta run...tonight we are taking all the boys out to dinner.
xoxo, Katie
p.s. Keep in touch!
Our last week in Nica has been pretty hectic with getting a lot of last minute stuff done. Last weekend we took Engel, David, Marlon and his siblings and two nephews to Granada for the weekeend (14 people total). We spent the night in a nice hostel and in the morning went for a boat ride on Lake Nicaragua.
On Wednesday we went and visited the city garbage dump in Managua. We have a local friend who works with a project at the dump and so she arranged for someone to drive us through the dump and then drop us off at a school located within the dump to hang out and meet some of the kids. I was curious to see how the dump compares to the one in Guatemala City and it is completely different. The dump has not been walled off like the one in Guatemala so people live within the dump boundaries and can work whenever they want. When we first drove in, I was surprised to see cows grazing everywhere in trash. The guy we were with said that the people who work in the dump always graze their cows there during the day. The school was much smaller than Safe Passage, it only has about 250 students, but before it was built 7 years ago none of the children currently in the school had the opportunity to attend classes.
Yesterday we had planned to spend the day taking Engel's house apart and then putting it back together with more materials. Leah's mom donated some money to buy more wood and tin because water was constantly getting into his house. We bought the materials in the morning and then the boys arranged for a man with a horse and cart to carry the materials from the market to his house. It took the poor horse about an hour to get all the way to his house and when we got there his neighbor had bad news for us. First he said that he was going to sell the land and that Engel had to leave that same day. We considered buying the land ourselves when we found out how cheap it was (around $175), but then the man came back and said that his wife wouldn't let him sell the land and that Engel had to leave anyway. The man with the cart had stayed with us throughout all this and offered a place on his land for Engel to build a room. Engel seriousely considered it, but then at the last minute decided to move in with an aunt so we loaded all the materials back onto the cart and it took an hour and half to get from Engel's house to his aunts house. It was a crazy day! I'm just glad that Engel found out that he had to move out of his house before we spent the day working on the house.
I gotta run...tonight we are taking all the boys out to dinner.
xoxo, Katie
p.s. Keep in touch!
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