Culture, Sea Turtle Conservation & Art in Mexico

Morning: Each morning we woke up to a breakfast of fresh fruit, cereal, and fresh Costa Rican coffee (which was so good that we visited the local market and bought and stuffed our bags with as much as we could fit on our return home) prepared by our wonderful host mom. We then walked to town with a group of volunteers that were staying with other families in the neighborhood. The view on the walk to town was breath-taking, and the cool air in the morning refreshing. We awaited the bus at the ACI Costa Rica office in town (always accompanied by a gang of local stray dogs - both friendly and a persistent!) and then rode to the reserve up the winding bumpy roads of the mountain.

Upon arriving to the reserve at 8:00am we waited for our supervisors, who became our friends in the short week we spent working with them. The morning work was intense, but it felt good to sit down for lunch with an appetite! We usually spent the mornings hauling sacks of small rock up the trails to different locations for use on the trails, and yes, it was as hard as it sounds, but our two supervisors worked right along side us each morning (usually carrying twice the load).

Afternoon: Our lunch was packed each day by our host mom, and we ate with the other volunteers and employees in the cafeteria/gift shop at noon. The lunches were always filling and delicious, and coffee for volunteers was free and plentiful so we were always re-energized for the afternoon. In the afternoon we continued trail maintenance, but usually on the less-labor-intensive end. Some days it was loading wheel barrels with rock to patch roads, but more often we cleared brush from the trails because the daily rains constantly crowd the trail with leaves, branches, etc. This last task was definitely our favorite. We got to work almost all of the gorgeous trails in the reserve and saw a lot of beautiful wildlife (an armadillo, crabs, several different birds, etc.)

Evening: At 4:00pm we wrapped up, washed up, and had coffee with our supervisors before taking the same bus back to town. The walk back home from the reserve always offered a taste of the typical Costa Rican weather - beautiful days with an hour or two of rain in the afternoon. Though we were a little damp upon arriving home, it was always a warm, light rain that was not at all unpleasant.

Highlights: As the nature of our volunteer experience was not academic I cannot speak to the area schools. However, as a high school Spanish student-teacher, I can say that I learned more about the language in that week than in a semester of any class I have taken. The "ticos" (word for Costa Rican) love the language and insist on helping you speak it because they love their language and culture, and want nothing more than to share it with you as much as possible. This leads me to my absolute favorite part of the trip, the people.

I cannot say enough about the people that we met during this experience. Our host family took us in with open arms - we watched telenovelas with our host mom and sister, and played soccer in a parking lot across the street with our host brother and his friend. Our host mom's sister and her husband lived down the street, and they became like family as well. When we left our family (with heavy hearts) to travel for the following week of our trip to CR, our mom and her brother-in-law called to double-check all of our travel arrangements and made sure someone was with us when we waited for our bus in case anything went wrong.

Though we really enjoyed traveling the country the following week, we both agree that our time in Monteverde with our host family, our fellow volunteers, and the employees at the reserve was our favorite part of the trip. Our only regret was not having more time to spend there. It has been over two months since we returned home, and I still talk to our mama tica about once a week, she will forever be family to us.