COSTA RICA – Empowering Rainforest Communities – July 19

Hola,

All students have arrived safely in San Jose (minus the students with missed flights). We head to our new home, Rancho Quemado, by bus tomorrow morning. Please keep an eye out for upcoming updates. Please note that due to limited internet access, we will send blog updates as often as possible, every 3-4 days typically.

Today we woke up early for a traditional Costa Rican breakfast in San Jose, packed our bags and headed off to Osa. Along the way we made various stops such as a smoothie shop, a market and beachside lunch. To our surprise we caught a glance of a couple White Faced Monkeys.

Then after a long 8 hours and a bumpy dirt road we arrived with a warm welcome by the community of Rancho Quemado. Each of us received hand made heart shaped pillows from the townsmen, after that we were each individually paired with a community member and despite language barriers, we were able to connect. Soon after we were treated to a delicious dinner and talked about what’s in store for us tomorrow.

Yesterday, on the 21st, we visited our mentor Sandro’s organic farm where we enjoyed learning the process of refining cocoa beans into hot chocolate and cocoa face masks. Later in the day, we endured a crazy rain storm, and went to a field day rally with the locals of Rancho Quemado. Today, we split into two separate groups, one whose mission was to build water filters to clean grey water so that runoff in the community is safe for the plants in the environment, and one who will build a community garden with indigenous plants to help bring biodiversity closer to the town. Also, other than just doing service, the two groups had the opportunity to ride bikes deep into the rainforest to look for animals and animal footprints, and were able to explore a local farmers land and take a swim in a natural waterfall pool.

July 26, 2017

In the morning we took a trip to zip lining, where we got to experience an amazing view, and seven zip lines over and through the breathtaking rainforest. In the afternoon, we met at the school in Rancho Quemado where we assisted in setting up the party for one of there national holidays being held the following day. Our morning began at 7:20 with breakfast, followed by an 8 o’clockmeet up at three different locals houses, where we helped prepare traditional dishes to bring to the party at the school. At the school, we watched the students preform dances, the locals speak about the significance of the holiday, and a special musician which played the “marimba” or xylophone. We ended our day with our service groups, either working on the filter or painting a new sign for Rancho Quemado.

Blog 3:

Tuesday morning we woke up at the usual 7:20 breakfast followed by a morning of service working on the garden, or making filters. After a hard mornings work we had lunch and made our way over to a gold mine. There we spent the afternoon learning about the process and “mining” ourselves.

After a delicious snack of homemade bread and ginger tea, we then went on to a hike. We learned about the native wildlife, and experienced it while trekking back down after nightfall.

We then came back to Rancho Quemado where we spend a great night playing cards and singing songs at paraiso.

Wednesday morning we all went to service working on a trail in the rainforest. We shoveled to create stairs and raked all morning despite the torrential down pour. We then gladly made our way back to our houses for lunch and to prepare for an afternoon of games with the community. We organized and enjoyed a large game of capture the flag as well as sharks and minnows.

After dinner at respective houses we met up and had a bonding group meeting. We all opened up and grew as a group as we head into the next two days of snorkeling and swimming.

COSTA RICA – Empowering Rainforest Communities – July 19 – August 1, 2017

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