Tom´s central-american adventure

Hello! ( Thursday, time: 01.38, date: feb 21st, current location San Jose and been up since 05.45 this morning )

I managed to steal a few minutes on the computer in the hostel, thought it would be only right to
fill you in on my week so far.

Wednesday i left busy San Jose for the quiet Cabo blanco national park.
2 hours bus, 1 hour ferry and 2 more hours driving if you count the waiting for 2 more buses.

The Cabo Blanco Nature Reserve is situated at the extreme southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula.
With its unique combination of climate and geographical location, it ranks among the most beautiful nature reserves in Costa Rica.
Cabo Blanco also holds a special place in the history of National Parks in Costa Rica. It was the first protected area of the country, established in 1963 by a swedish-danish couple.
Sadly the husband was murded after taking action against hunters sneeking in to the park to kill exotic animals.
The widow continued her work until she died in 1994.

Sweden has a project called " amigos de Cabo Blanco (Friends of C.B) collecting money to still keep the park running and also teach young swedish school kids about the rainforrest and how they can help making a greener planet. I was lucky to meet the current chairman of the organisation, a nice man just retired and had been living in the park for 2 months before returning back home to Stockholm next week.

I arrived in a minibus with a " postman-Pat"- vibe, as this is the only bus connecting the small village of cabuya, the tourist place Montezuma ( not so nice) and the national park with the "main-village", Cobano.
Also on the other side of the coast is a place called Malpais, a surfers paradise and very laid back.
It's name derives from the Chorotega Indians who inhabited the area, they discovered a very smooth stone with wich they could draw, "mah pah" was the name they called it, hence the name according to one version.
In spanish i think Malpais is translated to "badcountry"not sure why this is...

The heat was intense,but it was worthwhile as i was escorted to the voulenteer house by an englishman from Wigan.
My room was shared with him and a german called, Tilo.
The rest of the voulenteer area was basically showers,toilets and two hammock overlooking the ocean.

For all the voulenteers we had 3 different duties.

1:

Trek to the beach ( 2hours each way), wait until 2 o´clock,then get all the tourists on there way back as the park closed at 4 o´clock.
I did this the first day,as it is a tradition for all the newcomers.

2:

Stay at the casetta and sell tickets, cold drinks (no alcohol) and open/close the front gates.
I never did this, dont really feel i missed out on anything

3:

Work on the trail, cutting plants and other things that had grown to big, collect logs that would be used to make "steps" so the tourists didnt wonder off tracks and ruin the natural fauna.

06.30, breakfast was served.

08.00, work started

13.00, lunch for the people coming back from work on the trail

18.30, dinner for everyone.

All meals included the traditional rice and beans and especially the breakfast took some time getting used to.

The rangers were really nice if not abit cold and macho in the beginning.
Also staying in the main house were two guardacosta´s ( Costa rica coast guard)
They have an important job checking the marine area around the park every night for illegal fishing or any other kind of criminal act, often recieving telephone calls if somebody hears or sees anything abnormal.
All around Costa Rica they have stations that are manned 24/7 and are highly respected by the locals.

Including all of these people were howler monkeys waking us up 4-5 in the morning, white faced monkeys climbing in family groups,birds,bats, coatimundi (called pizote locally), Iguanas, Geccos Lizards and racoons.

One day i was walking on the path to the main building when i stood face to face with a white-tailed deer!
and on the trail we spotted a snake,very little and not dangerous to humans so i really wanted to pick it up,however it was gone by the time i had made up my mind what to do

The first day i had beach dutie.
The rest of the time i was on the trail working so hard i´d come back soaked in sweat!
How´s that for hard work
I helped clean a part of the trail, cutting everything green in the way.
This ofcourse was against anything i´ve ever been taught, but had to be done for the "tourist´s sake".
The rest of the time (exept sunday,my day off) the days were pretty much carrying logs up the trail, hard enough as most parts of the trails only go up or slightly down.
Knees were shaking to say the least
The last day was really hard as it had stopped raining only hours before we started work.
Muddy and tired we managed some how though.
I stopped ever so often to take in the scenery, sounds and smells the park has to offer.

How lucky did i feel? VERY lucky
This is something you see on tv or read about in National Geographics.
You dont acctualy think its you telling the story to others,exciting stuff!

The climate is also well worth the mention.
Hot, humid and at times abit too much, but the last days it was cloudy and we even saw lightning without the thunder,how is that possible? To tell you the truth.. i have no clue !

Voulenteers staying at the park were mostly germans, one dutch girl,one englishman,one belgian girl, an icelandic student and three costa rican girls from Limon,who actually were considering sandals the day it had rained.They ended up in converse all stars,nike and puma,topped by jeans or very small shorts. Im sure they also scared every living creature in the forrest for miles, screaming"dios mio"(oh my god) every hundred feet! Never knew girls could be so annoying

And there you have it, another week down here.

This evening i went with one of the germans from Cabo Blanco to see the new Tim Burton movie, Sweeney Todd with Johnny Depp.
Brilliant, if you like Depp and Burton movies
A special bonus tonight was the moon eclipse.
Didn´t see anything other than the moon looking more like Mars,but still nice

Tomorrow im off with the gang from spanish school on a trip leaving san jose 6:30am (!)

Thursday night stay at Monteverde Backpackers hostel
friday night at el castillo in cabineros with view of lava (hopefully)
saturday La Fortuna ( hotsprings)
Sunday or monday home.
A busy end to the week you might say!

Hope you are all doing well and to all that will be a year older during february, Happy Birthday!

I seem to forget dates in this country so please dont think bad of me if i forget you, its just old age or the lack of a computer!

Pictures will come whenever time allows it!