Costa Rica – (CRL2) – July 2 – July 29

Welcome Global Works travelers, parents and friends.  We are excited to share with you trip updates from around the world.  As our main office receives updates from the trips we will update the page as we receive news from the field.

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Greetings from your Global Works Costa Rica leaders!!

¡Hola, chicos! We hope you are as excited as we are to embark on a Costa Rican adventure this summer. As leaders, we are thrilled to be able guide you through this trip and provide you with the best experience possible. We are especially looking forward to uncovering your individual skills and talents as we traveling with purpose this summer. Get ready to meet new people, work hard and try new things!

Pura vida!

Travis, Dayla and Jenny

Update #1: July 3rd, 2011
¡Hola desde Costa Rica!

We are all very excited to be together and have enjoyed getting to know each other the past couple of days. After a long day of traveling, the group arrived at La Dehesa in Heredia, a suburb of San Jose.

The following morning we learned more about fellow travelers and came up with a group contract. Also, we reviewed our itinerary- we will be busy with lots of exciting activities this month!

Later, we took a walking tour of San Jose and learned about the architecture, culture and history of San Jose. A rainstorm came upon us but we were prepared with raincoats. No worse for wear we arrived at a café and dried off. We ate a delicious lasagna lunch and explored the art-filled café.

Back at the hostel, Randall, the dance teacher, greeted us. The group had a blast learning salsa, merengue and cha cha cha. This is a great group of dancers! After dinner, we signed our group contract and packed for our overnight river trip. It is an early night for this group before a fun-filled rafting trip over the fourth of July.

We have only just begun the adventures. More to come in a few days!

¡Adios!

 

Update #1:
Sunday, our first full day in Costa Rica, we woke up at the hotel La Dehesa and had breakfast; afterward we left for a tour of San Jose. We walked around the city and visited various sites of historical importance and visited multiple parks that had unique artwork. Then we got touch cork trees, which were soft and malleable. It then started to rain heavily as it does every afternoon in the rainy season. We learned that San Jose had a reputation for being unsafe and ugly. Our guides, however, stressed that although this is true in some places there is still much beauty in the city. After a long, wet walk we entered an art café. This café both had a gallery to show off the beauty of the city and delicious lasagna. After a long day in the city we left for the hostel and went to sleep.

On Monday we got up very early today, 5:00 to be exact, to travel to el Rio Pacuare, one of the best rafting rivers in the world. Two guides showed up at our doorstep, bringing with them a bus. After the better part of 2 hours, we arrived at a stop owned by their parent company Exploradores and had a hearty breakfast before our eventful day. Soon enough, we arrived at the top of the river, and were set upon a very hot and steep trail leading to the riverbank. We put on our equipment, and embarked on the river. After some amazing rapids, we stopped for a short swim and ate delicious pineapples and watermelons. Some time later, we arrived at a beautiful riverside lodge, also owned by Exploradores. We ate lunch and hiked to a gorgeous waterfall, where we once again took a short swim. After all this activity, we were all exhausted, so we ate dinner and went to sleep looking forward to what the river might bring us on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning were awakened at 7:30 to go eat breakfast before an eventful day on the river.  We stopped midway through the day to swim in a different waterfall and have lunch.  We got back on our rafts and pushed through the rest of el Rio Pacuare; all 22 miles of it.  We went back to Exploradores to change and shower.  We went back to La DeHesa. We rested until our dinner at a restaurant then we walked to a local soccer game where we did Spanish activities and then watched the game.

Wednesday also began with an early bus ride, but this time we were traveling to Terraba, an indigenous community in Costa Rica. On the way we stopped at Walmart to pick up snacks and supplies. We boarded the bus for a long ride until we arrived at a local restaurant for lunch. We returned onto the bus for a little over an hour. Then we arrived at Terraba and met our host families. After a quick introduction we left with our families to eat dinner and sleep.

The next morning we woke up to the unusual sound of roosters, and ate breakfast with our families. We then met up at the community center, which we would soon begin to renovate. Before that, we were debriefed on our projects and the culture of Terraba. Later in the morning we took a walk through the community and ate some delicious litchis given to us by a local pulperia owner. We broke for lunch at our houses, and went to work in the community center and elsewhere. After four hours of hard work we returned to our houses and ate dinner. At 7:00 we visited the house of the community leader, Paulino Arias. He gave us refreshments and talked about his son, as well as the plight of the indigenous in Latin America. We returned home and went to sleep.

Friday morning we awoke in our houses and had breakfast with our families. At 7:30 we met up at the community center and continued work. Some of us poured cement for the bridge, others cleaned the fence around the elementary school, and the rest worked on taking out the corners of the community center so we can renovate. At 11:00 we stopped for lunch with our families, then at 1:00 we returned to do more work. The work here is difficult because the sun is so strong but after work we had a mejenga, (pick up soccer game,) with the local kids and a few of the parents who we are staying with. Tonight we will have a community meeting to learn more about Terraba’s culture and to share some of the special regional differences from the United States.

Photo Update:

 

 

Update 2:
¡Hola todos!  For those of you who don’t speak Spanish, that means hello everyone.  Over the past few days, we’ve made a lot of progress on our construction projects here in Terraba. Within the first two days we completed our first project of building a bridge connecting the community center to the road. At first we seemed to be destroying more than we were building because we had to break down the four corners of the community center in order to replace them with new concrete columns.  This will allow them to eventually raise the roof of their community center.  It’s been hard work, but it’s worth it as we are now beginning to see the payoff.  The most tedious work is on the fence outside of the school, where we weeded, brushed, and painted.  Although more work needs to be done, it’s awesome seeing what we’ve already accomplished here.

Nightlife in Terraba is filled with adventure.  We’ve made tortillas, learned the native language, danced the night away, and planned classes to teach English.  Exhausted from our long days of work, we go to bed at 9:00 pm, while our host families invite their neighbors over to drink coffee and discuss the latest partido de futbol.  Unlike back home, we’re woken up by a natural alarm, the roosters!  Just as we begin to fall asleep, our new enemies let out loud cries throughout the night until we get up at 6:30 am.  Here in Costa Rica the term “Pura Vida” is fitting.  We all enjoy the relaxed lifestyle in Terraba as we experience this unique culture.

Photos:

 

Update #3:
7/14/11-7/16/11
Costa Rica Trip 3
This entry concludes our experiences in Terraba. Thursday was filled with much of the same work on projects that we had been pursuing earlier in the week. We painted the fence and worked on the community center from about 8:00-12:00. Our afternoon was comprised of a fair-like set of activities. We had sack races, dizzy races, capture the flag, face painting, and bracelet making. That night we gathered in the community center to see the Artesanía the people of Terraba had to offer. Most of us purchased something from their wonderful selection of traditional masks, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and water gourds. Each was wonderfully made, with the gourds and masks being especially detailed with nature themes.

Friday, our last day, was filled with rain. We started working on the fence and community center at the usual time, but around 9:00 the rain proved too much of an intrusion for us to continue painting the fence. Thus, many of us went to work on murals, which we created for the community. They were meant to represent our experience in Terraba; we filled them with various Terraba themes and tried to express our appreciation towards the community. Among these themes were masks, soccer balls, mountains, rain, the global works logo, and a chain of people that were meant to represent the people of Terraba. After the murals were completed we went back to our homes for a small respite before we continued the rest of our day. This was comprised of mainly hanging out in the Trapiche, a sugar cane fixing area. At around 6:00 we ate tamales, and after consuming them we danced until after 9:00.

Saturday was a very emotional day for many of us. We were woken for the last time by the chickens that had disturbed our dreams for the past ten days. We had our breakfast, and moved our stuff out of our houses and up to the community center. It was a tearful goodbye for many of us as we left the community center and entered the bus. After 6 hours of driving, eating pizza, and going to medical clinics, (everyone is ok!) we arrived back at the original hotel, where we are staying tonight. We’re looking forward to the cloud forest, which (believe it or not), is supposed to be quite cloudy and rainy.

As we reflected on our time in Terraba and what we accomplished there we decided to compile a Top 10 of Terraba to share with you guys back home:
Our homestay families and getting to know the people in the community, especially the kids!
La comida; rice and beans, fried plantains, mamones chinos, empanadas and arepas.
Marcela and here homemade ice cream.
Improving our Spanish and having the opportunity to learn about Terraba indigenous culture and language.
Our dance lessons with the community in the Salon Comunal.
Seeing our hard work pay off; building a bridge, mixing and pouring concrete, building the corners of the Salon Comunal, and painting the fence around the primary school.
Tortillas in the Trapiche; learning how to make tortillas, eating them and hanging out with the community.
Tamales in the Trapiche during the Despedida.
The views of the Región Terraba, (Puntarenas Province.)
Buying Artesanía from our families and local community members.
*    NOT painting the fence!    *

PHOTOS:

 

Update #4

7/17- 7/22/11

On Sunday, the 17^th, we drove from San Jose towards the town of Monteverde for our stay at San Gerardo. The drive to the Cloud Forest was beautiful even though we couldn’t see more than two car-lengths in front of us because we were driving in a cloud. The hike down was quick because it was all down hill, and we only had a couple wipeouts due to slippery mud. The building we arrived at was made out of beautiful wood. We were all happy with it because it had two hammocks and a ping-pong table.  The next day work began. We were to dig a large trench to make room for a natural filtration system that would filter the kitchen and shower water before releasing it into the forest. Digging was much faster than in Terraba because the dirt was like sponge. The next day a group including Aviva, Max, Ben, Mark, Naiara and I, (Jeff,) hiked down deep into the rainforest for a second project. We were to clear a spot for a new hydroelectric generator off of a river. We also had to go to knock down the old building and hike back with some of the building materials. Neither job was finished but we were 75% done with them both, and the people who lived there had plenty of materials to finish the job.

In the afternoons everyone marveled at the beautiful sights from the balcony of our building. We could see a giant lake, and next to it an active volcano named Arenal, which erupted every 15 minutes. Travis said you can actually see the lava on a clear day, but we never caught a glimpse. The last day we took a leisurely hike to a cool waterfall and later we had a talent show. People did acts such as dancing, singing, rapping, and making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with other people’s hands. Even the locals came in to be volunteers for some acts. It was a fun night.

The next day we woke up early, packed, and hiked out. The hike out was a majority uphill hike that took a long time. Everyone was pooped on the bus ride out to the beach, but we stopped for some delicious ice cream and pizza to give us back our energy. After 15 minutes of giant bus off-roading we arrived at another beautiful building. We got dinner quick and met some of the other Global Works kids. Some of us actually knew each other. That night we swam in the pool and looked at the stars. We also went on to the beach to listen to the waves and throw our glow-in-the-dark Frisbee. Waking up the next morning was amazing because you could hear the waves and it was very sunny.

After eating our breakfast we all ran down to the beach for our surfing lesson and jumped in the water.  At first it was difficult, but once you got the hang of it, it was awesome.  The rest of the day was relaxing. We all sat by the pool tanning and most of the guys surfed. San Gerardo and the beginning of surfing were indescribable. Jeff and I can’t wait for the rest of the trip! Pura Vida Mae!

- Written by Jeff Milling and Lauren Slavin

 

Update #5:
7/24/11 – Tonight will be our last night here at Playa Grande and although some of us may be a little redder than we want it has been an extremely memorable three days. Each morning we had surf instructors from Tamarindo surf school come and work with us, teaching us the proper form for riding waves, and pushing us onto the waves when we needed the help. The weather was very cooperative giving us warm days with little wind and consistent waves. Those of us who did not catch the surf bug spent their time tanning by the pool or walking the shoreline looking for shells and working on their photography. On Friday we went to the offices of Baulas National Park for a presentation about Leatherback Sea Turtles, their fight for survival, and how important the beaches at Playa Grande are to their nesting process.

Although we are excited to move on toward Rincon de la Vieja National Park in the morning, these past few days on the beach and in the water will most likely be the highlight of the trip for many of us. As we count down the dwindling number of days left on our trip together it is encouraging to think of all the things we have accomplished and the opportunities we may still be able to seize. This afternoon we watched as the travelers paddled onto their last waves, took pictures of the sunset and soaked in their last rays from the Guanacaste sun. It was a fertile moment reminding us that anything is possible in this life if you are willing to put yourself out there, take chances outside of your comfort zone and make an effort to get to know people and places in other parts of the world.

Dayla, Jenny and Travis

 

Update #6: In the heart of the dry forest : Rinconcito
After saying good bye to the waves at Playa Grande and stopping for typical casado and horchata drink in Liberia (the largest city in northem Costa Rica ), yesterday we made it to Rinconcito, an ecological lodge strategically located between the Ricon de la Vieja and Miravalles volcanoes in the Coordillera of Guanacaste.

The landscape is impressive with Marveleos views of the mountains and the far away ocean.
We are at the heart of the dry forest, which make us so lucky to visit such a diversity of forests in a month (rain forest, cloud forest and now this one) everything feels different and the air is definitely drier than the rest of the country where rain is more usual at this time of the year.

Rinconcito is full of adventure activities and today we are going on a hike to a hot spring and some waterfalls, beside we will learn more about the Costa Rican dry forest and its ecology! Tomorrow we would be zip lining in 7 different platforms, but you need to wait for that update.

I can’t go without mentioning that today´s most important event is about to happen, because Jeff MILLING is turning 17 and we have some delicious chocolate with dulce de leche icing cake waiting for all to celebrate his birthday!!  Sorry we can’t share it with all of you.
We will send another update soon!