Costa Rica Days 6-10: Rincon de la Vieja, Flamingo, Adios

After working so hard for five days in San Jose, it was time for us to head north for some much needed play time in the rain forest.

Rincon de la Vieja is a national park located in the northwestern part of Costa Rica -- very far away from San Jose, in both geography and way of life. Rincon de la Vieja is much more green than the urban landscape of San Jose, which was exactly what our group needed. There is a variety of wildlife within the park, including birds, mammals and tons of insects. In Rincon, we only had two days, so we needed to make the most of our time.

Our first day in Rincon, we spent a majority of our day zip-lining in the national park. What a treat! There were around ten total zip-lines that took us through canyons and over rivers, which included an abseil, a "Tarzan swing" and assisted rock climbing. The tour guides even assisted us in the "monkey" method, where you zip-lined upside down like a monkey. For many of us, myself included, this was our first time zip-lining, and the experience did not disappoint.

For our second day in Rincon, the theme was more rest and relaxation -- but not after a morning hike. The hike itself was very short, only around one kilometer long, but the reward at the end of the hike was incredible. Following our hike, we ended up at the Chorreras Waterfall, where two waterfalls cascaded together into a beautiful sky blue mineral water pool in an amphitheater canyon. It was the perfect place for us to cool off and enjoy our beautiful surroundings. This was the perfect time for us to take "artsy pics" and see the nature side of "Pura Vida" that we had heard so much about.

After our hike to the waterfall, it was time to take mud baths. Real, authentic, Costa Rican mud baths. Once again, this was a first for many of us (myself included once again), and the prospect of spreading mud all over our bodies was a bit uncomfortable to think about. Once again, and you're not going to believe this, but the mud baths did not disappoint. The mud baths were so isolated, yet had so much to offer in the form of scenery of the jungle, the nearby river, and the rope bridges we needed to use to get to the baths. Everyone had so much fun relaxing in the hot springs beforehand, which we needed to do to open our pores (for science), then spreading the mud on, letting it harden, then washing it off and going back into the hot springs. It felt like we could stay there all day, but we had to leave, because we had even more fun activities on the horizon. That's a well-placed pun that you will read more about in a future paragraph. But first, more pictures.

In the morning, we made our way to Flamingo, located on the western coast of the country. This would be the site of our final two days of community service, as well as our final excursions. For our community service, we worked on painting a house and making a porch. Easy, right? Wrong. Flamingo was HOT. Which meant that making cement was tiring. Yeah, that's right, we physically made cement. Mixed the rocks, shoveled the paste, everything. We picked up the cement, we laid it on, and we leveled it. We also spent hours painting a house for a family of eight, although the house it self was probably more suited for a family of four. That made the service all the more rewarding. The kids were there to see us work, and even help us, laughing all along the way. I don't have any pictures from this service, but it was really awesome to see what we could accomplish in such a short amount of times. I guess it was just one of those things where you really had to be there.\

In Flamingo, there was a lot of work, but also a ton of fun. On our second to last day, we visited Playa Potrero. Holy wow, what an incredible beach this was. Accompanied by the sounds and sights of howler monkeys on our walk there, Playa (Spanish for "beach") Potrero is a wonderfully tranquil beach that was perfect for us to relax and take in the beauty of this country. To the north, there was the small fishing village of Potrero. To the south, beach and rain forest. I do have some pictures of this place, but it's hard to encapsulate its beauty without being there for yourself to really experience a sunset over this black-sanded beach.

On our last day of the trip, we continued to work on service in the morning, then took professional surfing lessons in the afternoon. We were given our very own surf shirts, boards, and a lesson on the beach on the intricacies of standing up on the board. Trust me, there are many intricacies. After that, we were out on the water. Some of us were better than others at surfing. That's all I'm going to say about that. Regardless, we all had a blast. Following surfing, it was time to enjoy a final meal together, pack, and fly out in the morning.

This was an incredibly short trip by WestCoast Connection standards -- only 10 days -- but it was amazing to see how close our group got in such a short amount of time. In Costa Rica, we made an incredible impact on some of the communities here, and got to experience some of the breathtaking beauty that this country has to offer. This group truly turned into a "Familia" and embodied the "Pura Vida" spirit from beginning to end. I couldn't be more fortunate to have undergone this experience with this group, and will fondly remember my time here in Costa Rica forever.

From here, I will spend a few days in San Jose before embarking on the exact same trip a second time with a completely new group of kids. I won't be writing about it again, because that would be super redundant, but I will remain down here and will try to continue to work hard and play hard in Costa Rica. Cheers to everybody back in the states, and thanks so much for reading.

Pura Vida y Hasta Luego,
BD

Costa Rica Days 1-5: White Water Rafting + Community Service in San Jose

Buenos Dias from Costa Rica!

My name is Brad, and I have the unique privilege of working with twenty fantastic trip members and two equally fantastic staff for ten days down here in Costa Rica. This blog will serve as your  look-in to the activities we are doing, the work that we have accomplished, and some of the other fun things that we have going on down here, south of the border.

This specific trip is a ten-day community service trip. What that means is that the trip members we are working with understand that this is not just your normal vacation – we have traveled down here to challenge ourselves physically, emotionally and socially to make some pretty major changes. The work we are doing takes place in communities that are drastically different than anything any of us have ever seen before. But, before we talk about that, how did we get here?

Day One of the trip was a travel day. Many of the trip members met up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for our group flight. After a couple of card games, we boarded our flight and headed south. Once in Costa Rica, we checked into customs (alongside a local Costa Rican top level club soccer team…not a big deal) and then made our way to the hotel. The hotel is beautiful, tucked in between the Cordillera Talamanca mountains of San Jose. Once at the hotel, we gathered as a group for our first ever team meeting, where we talked about trip expectations as well as the “Pura Vida” way that people live down here.

In Costa Rica, “Pura Vida” translates literally as “pure life,” but for the people here (the Ticos, as they call themselves) it means so much more. “Pura Vida” means to appreciate what you have, to live life to the fullest, and to generally just enjoy the world around you! Similar to “aloha” in Hawaii, it is used in a multitude of ways – as a greeting, goodbye, or even as a sign of gratitude. For example, “Hey, thanks for the help.” “Pura Vida!” We embraced this mentality as we headed to sleep and prepared for our first push out of our comfort zones in the morning.

Day Two was white water rafting day! We went rafting at Exploradores Costa Rica, which we were told was ranked a top five white water rafting destination IN THE WORLD. Man, this place did not disappoint. In a word, I would describe the white water rafting experience as exhilarating. The trip took about three hours, as we rafted anywhere between class 2 and class 4+ rapids. The trip even included a lunch that was freshly made by our rafting guides, who were also local to Costa Rica, and included some of the most delicious pineapple any of us have ever had. As we made our way through the beautiful rainforests of Costa Rica, serenaded by the Cicadas up in the trees, you could tell that this group was growing closer together by the minute. We had a blast, but in the back of our minds, we knew the real reason that we had traveled down here was just about to begin.

Days Three through Five were service days. Our community service took place in a community called La Carpio, a neighborhood of San Jose. There, we worked with the Costa Rica Humanitarian Foundation. We heard from the foundation’s leader, who told us to “be ready” to do some really awesome work.

La Carpio is an extremely poor community located in San Jose. To give an idea of the conditions that the people here live in – we were told to play soccer with the kids. There was no field, so we played in the street. We were told to paint houses. We painted aluminum “fences” that served as walls for their homes. We were told to dig a walkway through a hill so that we could pour in cement so that the hill would not fall on a woman’s home. Okay, that one was actually very accurate. It was unbelievable to see our trip members’ (and my) reactions to these conditions – because as opposed to saying, “man, this is rough. This sucks. I don’t want to be here,” the response was the 100% polar opposite.

Our TM’s dove right into this work, doing everything imaginable – painting, coloring, digging, playing, donating, all with no regard for any of their personal things. It was fine that their shirts got paint on them, or that their shoes may have gotten a little scuffed up. Why? While our TM’s have done great work, we have all been inspired to do this work by the people who live in La Carpio. The people who live there have so little, but are pleased by so much. The TM’s LOVED playing soccer with us in the street; the adults were so grateful for us just to be there, and any work that we did was just an added bonus. We did so much good work, and it was so gratifying to see the finished product and all that we had accomplished over the course of our three days there. As a group, we reflected and came to the following conclusion: our time in La Carpio was life-changing, showing us the beauty in the simplest things that life can provide us.

Honestly, my most favorite part of this trip so far was the service. With that being said, we are now heading north in Costa Rica to Rincon de la Vieja, where we will be engaging in some very necessary down time (shameless plug to tune in next week to hear about some of the incredible things we will be doing!). From there, we will head west to Flamingo for our second service trip, as well as some really fun excursions.

It’s crazy to think that this trip is already halfway done. The group that is down here in Costa Rica is truly amazing, and is living life the “Pura Vida” way. I couldn’t be more proud of this group of honorary Ticos, and can’t wait to see them grow even more as we head into the second half of this trip.

I will close this blog in true Costa Rican fashion, by saying…

Pura Vida y Hasta Luego,
BD