03/01/10

February passed incredibly quickly...March is upon us.

Three new volunteers arrived yesterday. One is from Toronto and is maybe in his mid 20's (?). He seems like a very nice guy and plans to be here for a month. The other two are biologists from Spain. (Story at a later date about superior races). The guy speaks great English and the girls at least understands almost everything.

A Day In the Life of Adam as a Volunteer.

Most days I am waking up around 6:15 or so. The latest I managed to sleep was maybe 7. The volunteers must be down at the sanctuary by 7:45. The first thing we all do is feed the four baby howler monkeys. The three youngest ones get bottle fed Isomil (baby formula) four times a day. While they are being fed, someone is preparing their food plates and cleaning out their cage. After the babies are all done we move on to the rest of the animals. Food is made for them all and cages are cleaned. After that is all done we take the baby howlers and the anteater out back to forage for food and play. Tarzan, our white-faced monkey gets let out of his cage as well to play and such. At about a quarter to 11 we feed the babies once again. When 11 o'clock rolls around we split from the sanctuary and have lunch. The full time volunteers staying up at the lodge house at the farm leave at 11 that is. The part timers leave at 12 and are then done for the day. We, the full timers, have until 2 for lunch and whatever else we please. Three hours in between shifts is plenty to eat, do laundry, read, and still have some free time. Although it feels like the break is getting shorter and shorter, it is still very pleasant. The afternoon routine is just about the same, but a little less food to be made. Afternoons tend to be more tranquil. At 5 o'clock we are done for the day. We head back up the the farm and get showered, eat, and then do whatever else for the rest of the evening. Sometimes we play cards, read, listen to music, have sing a longs, play Scattergories, talk, go for a swim in the ocean, hit the nightlife in Montezuma, etc. Many different things to do. A low key evening is very high on my list though. Usually by about 9 people are starting to retire for the night.

It is a good schedule for the day. In some respects I wish I had done part time so that I could do more exploring the area and swimming.

03/02/10

7:00 a.m.

Definitely ready to head on out.

Still short-staffed and things just feel as if they are heading downhill in various respects.

Evan, from Toronto, left to go to the sea turtle project in Manzanillo. A new volunteer, who arrived yesterday, left this morning at 6:30. So in terms of full time volunteers right now there are only four of us. Today is the last day for one of our two part timers. Luckily one of the best volunteers, although part time, will be here for a while longer. Supposedly we are going to get some new people today, but I'm not holding my breath. Yesterday we were supposed to have 5 new people and only one showed up.

I'm sorry to spend a whole entry complaining. There are other things as well that are factors in my readiness to go, but do not need to be discussed at this moment.

I was up this morning at 5:30 to see off 3 volunteers. There was a beautiful sunrise as well.

My last day working will be Thursday. We get the day before we leave off so this Friday I am not working. I'm trying to decide what to do with this day. It is almost too tempting to just plop down in a hammock and not leave it all day long. I was going to take one of my days off today, but that just wouldn't be fair to the other volunteers. There are only 4 of us today who know the ropes and two of them are only working in the morning.

One more thought for the moment.

I've been realizing it to be more and more true that I have come to this sanctuary at quite a large turning point in it's existence. Again, I'm sorry that I can't write this, but to those who are interested I will be happy to share the details.

Right now I'm going to run down to the sanctuary before we start for the day and do a quick e-mail check.

Tsunami

02/26/10

I just finished a trashy romance novel that I found on the bookshelf here. It is called “Love Overboard” by Janet Evanovich. Evanovich writes a series of novels that I have read all of and thoroughly enjoyed. Those were trashy mystery novels instead of romance though. This book wasn't anything special, but like the author's other books it was entertaining.

I have checked boa off my list. Yesterday morning Pipo, the only hired help at the sanctuary, told us to come to one of the aviaries. A few of us went out and low and behold there was a two foot boa with a nice little lump in the middle. Apparently last night the boa ate a baby bird or two. It always amazes me how thick boas are in comparison with their body length.

A week from tomorrow I leave Rainsong. I'm just counting down days. I am so excited. I will miss the animals and people here, but I will be very happy to go on to do something new and see Ben and Alison.

Two nights ago we had a last night dinner for one of the volunteers at the local panaderia which has delicious food. I had a pesto pasta Very tasty, but not really enough food. Unfortunately it is a bit of a pricier place to eat out at. That was only my second time eating there. The first time I had spaghetti with mushrooms, avocado, spinach, and a white sauce. So rich. Perfect amount of food as well.

I'm sorry a lot of what I am writing is not directly about the sanctuary. Stories and such in that category will have to wait until I am home.


02/28/10

In a following post in the near future, I will write about a day in the life of Adam the Rainsong volunteer.

Yesterday I arrived at the sanctuary in the morning to news that a tsunami was en route. Then after a quick internet check I found out about the earthquake in Chile. 8.8! Ridiculous. Different media sources were predicting different sized waves. One was saying 3 meter waves while another was saying 1.5 meters. Another said there will be no waves. The tsunami watch center (or whatever it might be called) issued a tsunami warning for Costa Rica.
I really should have written this post before I came to the internet cafe. I will write more and just post it with the next post. There are quite a few of us here so it is a bit harder to concentrate.

Until next time.

Red and yellow...

A couple days ago Alex and I spotted a Coral Snake. Anyone remember the mnemonic trick? “Red and yellow, kill a fellow. Red and black, put it back/friend of Jack.” This refers to which two colors are touching. This happened to be a red touching yellow patterned snake. There is another snake that looks very similar to Corals, but is not poisonous and has red touching black. It most definitely made my day. I've only seen one other type of snake since I've been at this sanctuary. The Sabanero. Not dangerous, but I've seen 3 or 4. One was no less than 2 meters long. Quite impressive. At the first sanctuary I saw a number of Fare-de-Lance snakes. Very poisonous and quite common. As with most snakes, people are very rarely bitten. I read in a book that one is more like to with the lottery in Costa Rica than get bitten by a snake. I'm sure that got a little grin out of me while reading it.

The bonfire last night was loads of fun. A few people flaked out at the last minute, favoring a party in Mal Pais over the bonfire. In the end there were 5 of us at the fire. Fine by me. The s'mores were delicious. Damn hot fire. It took no time to prepare the perfect, bronze-colored, luscious marshmallow over the fire. I'm not too good with my actors and actresses, but we played a fun game in which we competed in seeing who could connect two movies through actors in the shortest number of movies possible.

I leave here in 11 days. I'll be very happy to head on out for a number of reasons. As I learned at the first sanctuary, one month is just about the perfect amount of time at a particular sanctuary. Ben and Alison are also arriving on the day I leave as well. I'm incredibly excited for their arrival. I will miss my fellow volunteers here though. Fortunately a good number are leaving a shortly before I do. It sounds like there is going to be a large influx of new volunteers in the beginning of March. A new volunteer did arrive today. His name is Luke and he is from Salt Lake City. Seems like a nice guy, but I'm still getting to know him.

36 days left in Costa Rica. 109 days past since I arrived in Costa Rica. Almost 4 months. I promise I'm not keeping a tally of each day. I just did the calculations. It is a beautiful night and I'm not terribly tired.

I don't think I mentioned it in an earlier blog, but my plans have changed a bit. First off, the week with Ben and Alison is an itinerary change. After they leave on the 13 of March, I am going to head back to Orosi. Orosi is the little valley town where I spent my first two weeks in Costa Rica. I will be there for about 2.5 weeks this time. During the first week I am going to be doing a homestay. I will be living with a Tico family. It ought to do wonders for my Spanish and the cultural experience is definitely worth it as well. After that first week I will be back to the dorm-style room at the Montana Linda Hostel. I will be taking Spanish classes at the language school as well for those two full weeks. I'm looking forward to that very much. Orosi is absolutely beautiful and a very cozy town.

Pura Vida.

02/19/10

A beautiful breeze has been lazily blowing all morning. It is quite comfortable temperature-wise in the shade, but in the sun the heat is intense. The troop of capuchin monkeys that hang out around the farm seem to be taking their afternoon siesta. I would love to follow suit, but I just absolutely hate the feeling of waking up from a nap prematurely. I must be back at work at 2:00. It is a few past 1 now. Lunch consisted of crab-flavored ramen noodles and then a bowl of rice with some fried plantains, lizano, and salt in it. FYI crab ramen doesn't taste like crab. It does, however, taste good. According to the packaging there is a mushroom flavored one, but they don't have it at either of the supers in Cabuya. Word has it that it can be found in Cobano though. I plan on going into Cobano on Monday with Mary and then catching a ride back on the fruit truck. Some items there are cheaper and more readily available. We are planning on having a bonfire that evening so I will probably pick up bonfire necessities as well. There are the wonderful cookies called “Chiky”. They are pretty much a cookie with chocolate on one side and are delicious. When thinking in terms of bonfires they seem as if they would act as both the graham cracker and hershy's chocolate. I have also seen marshmallows around for about 250 colones...so about 50 cents. So I am definitely very excited for a s'more or two (or three?). There is a beautiful little plaza in the horse pasture that overlooks the treeline that is just prime for a bonfire. The stars out here are stunning as well. Absolutely no light pollution to ruin stargazing.

I completed my scholarship essays for Warren Wilson last night. One was a work scholarship that is to be awarded to two students who bring special, needed skills to the Work Program. For this I used both my experience at the animal hospital and the experiences I have had in Costa Rica. The second scholarship is an academic/honor scholarship.

Watched Inglorious Basterds two nights ago on my computer. I knew absolutely nothing about it beforehand, but it was pretty good. Caught me a little off guard with all the violence and the story, but none the less I enjoyed it. Speaking of movies I also heard that Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland' comes out in early march. I really hope it remains in theatres until I get home. It seems like one of those movies that really need to be seen on a big screen.

Have any of you Durhamites heard anything more about 'Main Street'?

I'm also trying to figure out what I want to do job-wise when I return to the states. I sort of want to return to the animal hospital because I just absolutely love it there, but I just don't want to deal with the early hours again. I could do with a more balanced sleeping schedule. Any suggestions?

So I was only able to upload 2 photos. I don't understand why though...

This is quite possibly the largest lemon I had ever seen. We were unsure of what it was so we had to take many picture and then cut it open. Not terribly exciting, but pictures will follow if possible.

This is the back view of our cabin/treehouse/whatever you want to call it. We sleep upstairs and downstairs is the common area and the kitchen.

 

Here is a view from right outside our 'door' looking toward to Pacific Ocean.

Hard to tell, but there are 3 baby howler monkeys on Erin's shoulder/head.

Better pictures of these babies to come at some point.

I will post more when I actually have a reasonable connection.

Salud.

Sanctuary Sitting

I tried to squeeze in a bit of e-mail time yesterday to answer e-mails and such, but got cut short by a tour that came before our lunch break was over. I mean we do have a 3 hour lunch break, but I had lunch first up at the farm before I came down. A wonderful lunch of gallo pinto (rice and beans) and a pastry type thing that I came across at the super.

I'm back to eating lunch right now. Today I cooked up some pasta and cut up some garlic for it. I definitely planned to make enough for two meals...and did so quite well...but then ate two meals worth in one sitting. Had spaghetti last night and the 3 preceding meals were gallo pinto. Quite easy to cook a lot of rice and a lot of beans and heat them up for a meal. I have yet to feel tired of them. I'm also very hungry by each mealtime.

After work yesterday Josh, Giulia, and I went down to the Howler Monkey (a hotel) to swim. They have a pool that we, as volunteers, get to use free of charge. Surprisingly the water was a bit too cold in comparison to the ambient temperature. We met two of the guys that I had met at the reggae party in Montezuma. Interesting fellows...one likes to play country on the guitar, but listens to no country. Quite peculiar.

Yesterday and this morning we woke up to rain. Apparently it was the first rain here in at least 3 weeks, if not more. It has made me realize how much I miss the rain. It keeps it tons cooler. As soon as the sun emerges, it heats up and it is back to sweating like a pig. I absolutely love all the sun here, but the heat in the sun is incredibly oppressive. I'm not usually the kind to literally be dripping in sweat, but I have had my fair share of that thus far here and at Osa.

Lets see. Some sanctuary news.

Woke up one morning to a collared peccary coming from around the corner of the staircase. Spent the good part of an hour trying to corral him back to his pen with food. Seemed like a great idea and probably would have been had he not spent a lot of the night going through our fruit and vegetables. Yesterday morning was goat wrangling. Nieve, the dominant male goat, had jumped the fence and had decided to come by and say hello. He has quite the horns and loves to butt things. We tried multiple times to get him back into his pen without obtaining any injuries. And succeeded at last. I'm sure he could have not cooperated nearly so much if he had really wanted. He is probably stronger than any of us are.

Alex and I moved the two pheasants from the sanctuary up here to the farm. Now each and every time we enter the cage to deliver to take food dishes we are attacked.

There is a troop of capuchin monkeys who have been hanging around the farm for the past few days. Today one kept trying to steal some of our plantains so, clearly, we tried to deter him. I suppose he got a bit frustrated and then was trying to steal a shirt of mine of the clothes line.

Carol Crews, from the Osa Wildlife Sanctuary where I was before here, is visiting with two of her friends on Friday. At least one of the friends is a part of the Noah Nature Alliance who may help this sanctuary fund raise.

Last Thursday or Friday a group of us went with Mary to a little community called Esperanza. It was about 45 minutes or so from here. We went to one of the schools to talk to the kids about species conservation and various things along those lines. We also made Valentines Day card with them, showed them some hygiene videos that Mary had on her computer, and best of all—played with stickers. It was a very enjoyable time.

Tonight I will be sanctuary sitting. Mary is going to be gone all night and possibly tomorrow night. She needs someone to be at the sanctuary at all times and I volunteered to stay there for the night. I'm quite looking forward to it actually. It is very tranquil and quiet at night. It will also be during the cool part of the day.

That is it for now. I will post this tonight and photos should follow if I can get them to upload.

Pura Vida

Here are some pictures of the new sanctuary. These are all from up at the 'farm'. This is where the volunteer cabin is located and some of the other animals.

Scratch that...Can't get any picture to load. The connection is quite good, but no pictures will upload. :-(

As with any place, there are definite pros and cons. I am going to leave out the cons. I doubt it would cause any problems, but just to stay on the safe side...

It really is great though to have all these other volunteers. Last night I went with another volunteer, Gulia, to Coyote Cafe. It is a little cafe with overpriced food and wifi. So we just got drinks and made use of the wifi. We met another volunteer, Chloe, there and we all decided to try out the panaderia/restaurant in Cabuya. I had the best meal. It was called spaghetti cabuya. It consisted of noodles, mushrooms, spinach, avocado, and a white sauce. Delicious. After we ate we went to the Super David because I needed a couple avocados. So fresh and tasty. Just had one of them with my lunch. After we got back to the farm all of us played cards for a while. It was a lot of fun.

A regular day here consists of being down at the sanctuary by 7:45. It makes for a very relaxing morning. I'm usually up by 6 or 6:15. Time for a leisurely breakfast and time to hang out before starting work. We then work until 11. We have to be back by 2. It is a great 3-hour lunch break. We get off again at 5 and have the rest of the day free.

Regularly volunteers work 6 days and then get a day off, but we have to ask for it in advance or Mary won't give it to us. A small group were planning on going to Cabo Blanco tomorrow on their day off and Mary asked if anyone else was going so I just said I would go as well. Haven't really been here a week, but I have been wanting to go visit this beautiful park. Also with a note from Mary, we don't have to pay the $10 entrance fee.