Costa Rica

Today its a little warmer then it has been. I've made my way into town today on my day off to pick up a few things, mostly fruit. Volunteering has been interesting, everytime I start to think its boring something happens. Someone dropped off a big hawk at Nanci's for her to look after for one night. He never came back so she took it to the vets, meanwhile, I was left to run the soup kitchen by myself. It's not an overwhelmingly difficult task, there was only about 20 people to serve. However, its all about maintenance. More galletas (crackers), sopa, jugo(juice) and cafe. It mostly involves me running back and forth from the kitchen with this and that.

The time spent at Don Candido's was fantastic. We spent time cleaning the medicinal gardens and making handicrafts. The medicinal garden is pretty cool, especially learning about what plants cure illnesses, like cancer, diabetes etc. We are going back on Monday though I am unsure of what our work schedule is. THere are plans to hike to a waterfall, about 2kms away to clean up the garbage, and then go for a swim of course. On another day were going to a nearby reservation to do something.. not really sure what exactly. That is kind of the way things work, one day its soup kitchen the next day something else.

When I find a place to upload photos I will. There are some great photos, especially of the bugs and strange animals. Oh yeah, the beautiful ocean as well. So far, so good. I think after we leave Puerto Viejo on the 26th, we are heading back to the central valley to spend our last few days in San Ramon, Sarchi, in the Alajuela province.

Love,
Ashley

Whatever Ali said, ditto that. Things are pretty good down here, lifes treating me well. My dorky side is out in full force. Lots of bugs and animals to look at. Two bats flying around our room and an iguana eating a moth would be two highlights.

Barry and Nancy have been good to us. Things at the Soup (said soooo-pa) Kitchen are really great. We made bead necklaces with the families in Tuesday, they were a hit. On Mondaý we'll be heading down to Don Candido, the BriBri medicine man.

Updates early next week. Its nice to be away from the daily news of life.

So Barry and Nanci of the Bridge--El Puente are proving to be very interesting people as is their organization, mainly because of all the things they've committed themselves to...which invariably means giving up a variety of other things, some might call those other things luxuries, others would consider them nescessities...speaking of which the best part of volunteering with el puente are the BriBri. I've now had the chance to meet with various bribri families through soup kitchen and try to converrse with them using my very limited spanish..they're amazing even in their simplicity, especially the children! I expected as much from a people with a culture that has survived for as many thousand years as their's has...its also a cuture that is slowly being wiped out. On the note of bribri culture there is many valuable aspects...like Don Candido's knowledge of 1000's of plants and trees that cure all types of ailments from mosquito bites to cancer and diabetes!!...yeah tell me we wouldnt want a piece of that in our 'developed' countries...it all makes you appreciate the diversity of our world.
And then there are the BUGS...the things you witness in costa rica...what happens in costa rica, stays in costa rica...beetles bigger than a twoonie or 25 colones coin and lizzards that eat moths larger than their own head and thats inside our room at casa mar y tierra--which by the way is a very nice place to stay...

Alas in Viejo, I miss Orosi's small town charm with it's almost nonexistent tourist community...Viejo is not too touristy but it is enough to make things around here more expensive. The beach is really nice and for most of it there are few people ever roaming it. There just somethings you appreciate over looking the endless sea on a seemingly endless beach...
Town is about 2km from Casa Mar y Tierra, not too bad really unless you've got a few days of groceries with you...the place we are staying has its issues as does any but thats alright, it's sorting itself out...anyways met with barry and nanci from the bridge, they're good people, I look forward to working with them.

The weather is changing for the better. Its been rainy since we arrived, I think we brought it with us from Orosi. The bus ride here was alright, other then my left leg - I seem to have some sort of bug bite that swelled up really big and its getting smaller now, but its bruised. I think it was a spider or something weird. Other then that weird thing, I'm pretty well though I look like I have chicken pox.

Puerto Viejo is an interesting place, lucky us were staying further out about 2kms away from town, which is a nice walk if there is no rain. We're in to pick up some groceries and take care of some other business. Highlights so far here probably the fruit, wonderful everything which makes what we have at home taste like crap. We are going to pick up some bikes on the way home as well, we need those to make getting around a little faster, not easier. The roads here, if you want to call em that, are bumpy - similar to a road in vancouver after our winter this year. They arent paved here, its just compact gravel. You just have to becareful when the cars and trucks go by to get out of the way so you don't get splashed by the muddy puddles.

After the rain stopped yesterday we went over to Barry and Nancy's to say hello. We talked for a while, I'm not sure how long, time seems to be a forgotten concept here. We start volunteering tomorrow, though what we are starting is still up in the air. Im excited, they are warm and wonderful people full of great stories to tell.

Time to head back out, for our walk back home.

xox
Ashley