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Published: February 3rd 2007
We didn’t go far after our surf bumming; or at least it doesn’t look it on a map, in true Central American style the direct route down the coast was not passable unless you happened to be driving a tank or a boat so we had to go round the long way inland and then back out again!
We eventually arrived in Montezuma in the early evening, which was a much nicer, smaller coastal town than Tamarindo, there were even some Costa Rican people actually living and working there!! We stayed at a small hotel right on the sand on the smaller of the towns two beaches and ate in a small Italian restaurant that was also right on the beach! Nothing is very far away in Montezuma.
The following morning we decided we should go and make our presence known at our next planned project as we had not written ahead to let them know we would be coming. After a short bus ride we arrived and were greeted by Mary and Simon who owned the sanctuary and also met the other volunteers who were already there Joe (from New Zealand) and Robin (from Scotland). We thought we
Our home on Stilts
Picture courtesy of Joe.were going to be faced with same problem we had in Nicaragua when we were told that the volunteers were paying to stay and only working a half day but after some negotiation we convinced Mary that we were more than capable and willing to do a full day in exchange for our lodgings.
That afternoon we also met the sanctuary’s other residents; the animals. The sanctuary is still in development but they already have a Peccary Pig called Gallo, an Agouti (with a little baby), some river turtles and a Parrot called Lola. After meeting the animals we spent the rest of the afternoon getting to know the other volunteers and settling into our new lodgings; an opened ended rancho building raised up on stilts with a kitchen area underneath.
All the volunteers took it in turns cooking for everyone; there was a small supermarket at the bottom of the road that had a decent selection of food. The supermarket also had a huge range of pastries, Joe informed us that the cheese straws were particularly good (and were what he had been eating mostly since he had arrived!!). Whilst we were there we managed to cook
Careful with the compost. . . .
Here's one of the residents of the compost heaps we were moving around, carrying it's babies on it's back. quite a variety of dishes, and ate the supermarket out of cheesy snacks!!
We started working properly the following day and began by feeding the animals. Gallo (the pig) had been rescued after his mother had been killed by hunters, he had been given to a local lady to look after but she couldn’t afford to keep him so he came to the sanctuary. Because he had been used to being around people (and being fed by people) you had to sit with him whilst he ate his food and hand feed him some to start off with. Gallo was very friendly and would rub his head against your legs when you came into his pen - he liked being scratched in return, a very social animal!!
Mary also brought Lola down to Gallo’s pen and she sat on one of the bushes whilst we fed him. Lola was pretty difficult to handle and didn’t really like men much so Mary was the only one who really handled her! Lola was completely bald and had a badly injured leg when she had first arrived but now had almost a full set of feathers and her leg had healed
Ascending the waterfall
Simon making his way up the waterfall in Cabo Blanco (although she occasionally fell off her perch!) We also had to feed the four river turtles every few days, they ate little balls of meat and pieces of banana, with a little encouragement (picking them up and placing them in front of their food)!
The main site for the sanctuary was not down where we were going to be living; the project also owned a larger plot of land further up the hill with a view out to sea. We went up the following day to help Simon with some of the landscaping work as the site was basically just jungle when it had first been bought and needed to be converted to include various enclosures for different animals. With a recent lack of volunteers prior to our arrival Simon had done much of the work himself, clearing huge areas of vegetation by hand using a machete. The amount of work that had already done was pretty impressive when you found out it was just the work of one person!
All the stuff that had been chopped down and cleared needed to be sorted out and moved to places where it could rot down to be used for
Hard at work
Joe working on one of the sets of steps at the sanctuary site mulch for other new plants. We also used some of the larger logs to build raised flower beds round the new plants. There was a lot of stuff to move so we were doing this for several days; it was a beautiful location to be working - really hot and sunny every day and with a great view of the sea through the trees.
We had two days off during the week and for one of our first days off Simon had offered to take us on a guided walk through the Cabo Blanco National Park that was close by. Simon was Costa Rican and had lived in the area all his life so knew the park very well. We had a great walk - very much off the beaten track (which also allowed us to avoid park entrance fees!). We saw loads of wildlife - Monkeys, Deer and a snake (which Tash nearly trod on). Our off road route wound through dense forest, crossing over and following a river and even climbing up a small waterfall.
Back at work again we were working through more of the landscaping and preparation work for the sanctuary site. We had
Not so hard at work
The boys relax after lugging some rocks from the beach! a turn over of volunteers with Robin leaving and Sean arriving; Sean was American and had come to the project with the plan of doing a slightly longer stint than Joe or us. We showed him around and introduced him to the slightly eccentric animals! He was a little surprised at the few animals owing to the sanctuary’s website (which unless read very carefully) giving the impression of a much bigger operation. He was still happy to stay and give it a go anyway and as it turned out the first whole day he was there was going to be our day off.
We ended up taking our next two days off together so that we could go and visit another town on the other side of the peninsula that was known for its beach and good surf. We decided to walk there as there was not really any other convenient means of transport available. Simon said he would show us a short cut to save us some time - taking us across some of the local farm land and through the edge of Cabo Blanco. Although technically shorter the amount of mud probably slowed us down enough to
Santa Teresa
Now lets find a good spot to sit...... make it not much quicker than taking the longer (and drier) road route! We did however see a troop of howler monkeys on the edge of Cabo Blanco so it was definitely worth enduring the mud!
It took us about three hours to walk to the two neighbouring towns of Santa Elena and Mal Pais. We were going to stay at Hotel Pacha Mama who were friends of the Rainsong project and so would give us a good price for a room. After checking in we took a wander down to the seafront, which was only 2 minutes from our room to grab some breakfast at a tiny little café nestled amongst some rocks looking out over the beach. We had left the sanctuary very early before breakfast so were definitely ready to eat, especially after our long walk! You could see all the way down the beach from the café, watch the sea birds catching fish in the shallows and see a couple of big iguanas sun bathing on the rocks.
Feeling much better after breakfast we walked down the beach into Mal Pais to see about hiring some surf boards for the rest of the day.
Beginners Luck
Joe standing up on his first attempt! The weather was scorching hot so it was going to be nice to be in the sea. We found a shop to hire from called the S**t Hole; the sign outside had been censored after numerous complaints about the name! We got a couple of boards between the four of us and were recommended a safe spot to go by the girl in the shop.
The beach was deserted so we had the easy rolling surf to ourselves. Sean had surfed a bit before and went off to try and catch the larger waves further out. The rest of us just messed about catching the white water in the shallows. Joe had never surfed before so we gave him a brief lesson on how to “pop up” on the board and then went out to give it a go in the water. With only a little help getting on the board needed and a shout to start paddling Joe stood up and caught a wave on his first go!
We surfed until lunch time by which time we needed to get out of the sun for a bit as we had all started turning pink! There was no
All surfed out
Sean making his way back up the beach shortage of restaurants to choose from in Mal Pais as the town as basically sprung up to service the people that come to enjoy the beach. We took our time over lunch enjoying nice cold beer and ended up going back down to the beach in time to do little more surfing whilst enjoying the sunset. While not as impressive as Tamarindo you never get tired of sitting watching the sun dip behind the horizon.
Knackered after spending nearly all day in the water, we literally went had dinner in the same restaurant where we had had lunch and then came back and went to bed! The following day we caught a bus to Cabano, where we were able to check our email and stock up on some food that wasn’t available in the supermarket near the sanctuary. We bumped into Mary who had also come into town to check her email and caught a lift back with her to the sanctuary, which saved messing about catching two more buses to get back!
Our landscaping work continued when we got back with steps needing to be cut in two steeply sloped areas of the property. One of the
sets of steps was in a clearing in the forest and so was directly in the sun; one particularly hot day we had all been drinking some kind of sugary drink and had subsequently started sweating out sugar to the point where my sweat was sweet enough that butterflies started landing on me! You could tell the property was going to be a prime site for wildlife from the amount that was already living there and in the surrounding area. A strip of the property had been deliberately left untouched to act as a “wildlife corridor”, this was regularly used by birds and also by monkeys; on a couple of occasions we downed toolds for a half an hour or so to watch troops of monkeys work their was down the corridor, some of them carrying little babies - but still making daring leaps from tree to tree! You could also regularly hear the deep growl of the howler monkeys echoing across from Cabo Blanco.
We had also started to let Gallo run around more out of his pen with mixed results - he was generally quite curious and didn’t like to miss out on anything so would follow
Waiting for the perfect shot
Well you don't think we just wandered down to the beach and came out with all those sunset pictures without putting the effort in??!? you around, especially if you were digging anything where he could get his nose in and root around in the fresh earth. One time however he had lost interest in what ever we were doing and wandered off into the neighbouring property, which was densely overgrown. It ended up taking us an hour to get him to come back and to catch him to put him back in his pen!
The other major job we discovered needed doing was to improve the drainage at the smaller site where we were living, which received not only all the water from the heavy evening rain but also all of the runoff from the neighbouring property. To combat the rising mud we were bringing rocks from the nearby stream to raise up the pathways and line new drainage ditches. It had a certain prison-like manual labour feel to it, as Joe put it “lugging rocks for the man”, but it was satisfying to see the paths briefly free from mud!
Our three weeks passed pretty quickly, Joe left a couple of days before we did but we thought we’d probably catch up with him again and two new volunteers arrived just
Monkeys 1
Picture courtesy of Joe before we left so Gallo wasn’t left with no one to play with!
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Gem
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Gallo... the perfect pig!
Hola! Gallo is so cute... maybe we can suggest Dad getting one as an Archie substitute!!! He seems just as demanding whilst thinking he's also human!! (Apart from a lot stinkier!). That Scorpio is terrifying!!! Never knew they carry their babies on their back... pretty cool though. It's definately gonna be a shock to the system for you both when u get back to England for your flying visit! Looks like ur building up ur toned six-pack there Kev!!!