Cloud Forest

As I write this I am sitting at an internet cafe, sipping a pina con leche, and admiring the view of downtown Santa Elena. I finally left San Jose on the 26th only to find myself in Alajuela, a suburb of San Jose, which seemed if possible more crowded and hot than San Jose. I met the rest of the volunteer group that night at the hotel. We had dinner which disappointingly consisted of very American type food.

The group is a very mixed bunch. There is one other college aged girl, an older retired couple, two eight year olds with their moms, a few older people traveling by themselves, a family of four from Chicago, and a mom and daughter team. Everyone is very plesant but it seems a little weird to be moving around with such a big group of Americans.

Sunday morning we were briefed on the trip and at noon we headed out of town and towards Monteverde. The best part of Global Volunteers is their matched work policy. This means for every volunteer working there must be a local person working as well. This way the locals are equally involved and strong friendships are built between locals and volunteers.

We took the Pan American Highway most of the way to Monteverde but the last twenty five miles consisted of steep gravel hills. Overall the trip took about three and a half hours. At one point we were at a high enough elevation that we could look out and see the Peninsula of Nicoya and the Pacific ocean. Costa Rica is really small. Santa Elena is also very small and very touristy. The small mainstreet consists of a few souviner shops, cafes, a bakery, grocery store, and oddly enough a sushi restaraunt.

Today, Monday, we got up at 5:30 ate breakfast at 6 and made it to the bus stop by 7am. We took the bus a little ways out of town to Canitas. We are working with the town of Canitas to update and fix their ¨club house¨. The club house is a large one room building with a kitchen where all the local activities and events are held. We spent the day preping the outside walls for painting and pulling weeds and in the afternoon, after the paint was purchased, we were able to start applying the primer layer. The best part of the day was meeting Ramone. He is eight years old and lives in Canitas. As he pulled weeds with us he helped us with our Spanish. Very adorable.