Off a volunteering I will go … and I want a sloth!!

So hugs, kisses and farewells to mama tica Xinia, Jim and diddy Dolly.  Back on the bus to an overnight in Alajuela.  Election day for El Presidente equals mucho flags, cars with speakers blaring, horns tooting,  t shirt and flyer handing out … alas on this occasion to no avail as no clear winner so it’s the same again for April.  Met some other volunteers – turtle conservation appears to be the most popular but a fluke encounter in OZ had me see about 20 of them bobbing in the sea and coming into nest.  For me I fancied a bit of manual labour and opted for the construction project building homes for local families.  Induction time includes … directions – 100m is a block, whether the block is a small block or humungous block 10 times that; don’t get the buses at night as there have been instances of being held up at gunpoint; keep your belongings in front of you as they cut through your bags behind you (petty theft pretty high here) reference was made to San Jose, oh and location … there is no ‘address’ per se – the pink house 2000m from the garage sign (even if the garage is no longer there and ditto for the sign).

So the next day Takuya from Japan and I head off with Carlos (our volunteering co-ordinator) to San Ramon to meet our respective homestay families.  ‘Here’s your mum!’ said Carlos as this smiley lady (Grace) with her daughter (Tati aka Tatiana) and niece (Carolina) come bounding up … Gulp my mum!! Ok ok I admit that I did well up, she was my mum ok?!  That evening we also meet Julius (know as Julios here) who already had 2 wks under his belt on the project.

The day after my arrival, it is Tati’s 17th birthday complete with pinata, cake and the works.  It has to be said that as well as the english/german lineage methinks that I must have a bit of costa rican thrown in as well.  Here I am kinda average height and yay I’m a dab hand and do the kissy hello/goodbye … aaah got loads of kisses that night :-D.

First day of volunteering and the location of our site is La Paz … route to work along with local ice cream parlour shown below.

The house is for the grandparents and the construction project was initially set up by the Canadian government but it now comes under the CR government.  Takuya and I are joining towards the end of this build but there was still mucho shovelling for which I am now a master in.  Our task was the septic tank hole (oh the glamour).  Now at the time said ‘ole was 1m deep and needed to be 1.5m deep.  Hmmm as the latter is my height it made more sense to leave the guys to that bit whilst I was the chief earth mover on top.  It doesn’t look much but there was mucho earth moved in the pic below – the far side was 4 times that height!  Fell in love with Dillon (age 6) who was soooooo cute.

Roberto – not sure if he was the son or son in law but anyway he was a very nice man!  He showed us around his land, which included sugar cane, pineapples, yuca and coffee plants.  It was my first time tasting sugar straight from the cane … basically you just bite into it several times to get the juice out … cue JB as a woman possessed with mucho sugar juice going everywhere. Aaah sooooo happy.

The weekend arrives and it appears to be the norm for volunteers to do Mon-Thurs with Fri off for exploring (yay).  Takuya, Julios and I head off to Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio which was stunning for both it’s residents and amazing beaches.  Here we did a guided tour to make the most of spotting said residents – howler monkeys, white-faced capuchin monkeys, gladiator tree frogs, mating crabs, spiders that créate 3D webs, well camouflaged lizards, mini bats, iguanas, pelicans and yes yes YES sloths!!!!  After a few bum shots (literally) I actually got some with their smiley face.  Think Sid from Ice Age.  They were beyond cute and I WANT ONE!

Julios planned our final day with military precisión … 7:00hrs get up, 7:30hrs go to the beach, 8:00hrs get to the beach – literally verbatim … cracks me up … that guy is so German! ;o)