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Published: April 24th 2011
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Just got back from my week long Semana Santa trip and it was pretty awesome, probably one of the coolest trips yet. SO i sure your wondering where we went right? We went south... Actually the village ( because it was tiny tiny) is called Altamira and its about an hour north of the Panama border in the Puntarenas province. Eight of us got hooked up through our ISEP coordinator to this organization called ASOPROLA, located just outside of the Nacional Parque La Amistad (largest national park in Costa Rica which stretches into Panama). So its this really awesome group that has started to cultivate the land organically and makes several organic products such as coffee, marmalade, and shampoo. So it was really great because we got to go down there, stay in their cabins for volunteers, and work with them during the week and help out wherever they need us. We talked to Eric the Peace Corp guy who lives in this area and he told us that he community really needs ASOPROLA if it wants to grow in agro-tourism so his main project will be helping get the word out about them and what they are doing. Anyways, the
trip was pretty long, leaving San Jose at 6 in the morning, we took probably a five hour bus straight south to Las Tapas and then another tiny bus east to Altamira (took about a hour to go 20 km just so you can get a gist of the road condition) but we finally got there and this place was awesome. Apparently the whole community helped to put this organization together which includes a this beautiful central building with this huge crooked bar with built-in chairs surrounding it and a kitchen which was completely covered in mosaic tiles. So neat! i'll try to scrounge up a picture or two. The property also includes a couple of other neatly designed buildings and all the farm land. They served us three meals everyday and we payed about 18$ a day or so. On Sunday, we learned a little about the organization and we trekked up the mountain-side to see "Pancho's Project". Ok so try to imagine this skinny, in between 40 and 50 year old Costa Rican guy with long dark dreads and dirty clothes and you have picutured the mountain man that is Pancho. So he lives about a 30 min
walk up the mounatin in this super-sized tree house made of every piece of useless item you could think of, ropes, water floaters, bikes and tires. He is both and artist and a biologist and is working on a project to build trails throughout the mountain and has designed this tourist attraction which includes cabinas, a reception building, and a coffe house/library/anything buliding which will be included in this area ( we saw the drawings) . And he is also the one who designed all the funky buildings on the ASOPROLA property and taught the people how to do the mosaics as well as made a series of signs made out of tires and mosaic tiles that can be seen throughout the entire district of Biolley. On a side note, while all the towns people are pretty amazed by him at the same time think he is super loco because while in America Pancho could probably find a whole group of people who believe in the same things and lifestyle as him, in Costa Rica its super rare to find a middle-aged man who lives alone on a mountain in barely a house and doesn't believe in politics or in
Costa Rica's dependence on other countries for goods or ( and the worst of all) doesn't like soccer! Loco loco. Anyways so we walked around his place, ate some bananas, ( I played with his beautiful golden retriever Cooper), and walked through the trails a bit. Later that week we went back to help build some of the trails which was pretty fun cause I got to play with, I mean use a machete but then it started raining so we went back up to Pancho's outside kitchen and had "cafecito" (coffee break) and palmitos de maiz (popcorn) homemade on the fire and chatted until lunch. It rained almost every afternoon but we did get to play soccer one afternoon with the townspeople which was pretty fun and by play soccer I mean ( for me), run around and stand by the goal on the off-chance i get the ball and can attempt to take a shot. Never played soccer before that day. Other projects we helped out with were planting some on the organic plants like cabbage and brocoli, clearing out / weeding the property, and digging out another set of trails on the mountain. One of the funnest
things for us though i think was helping finish the mosaic on the floor in the main building which isn't quite done yet. We worked sunday, monday, tuesday, and thursday but wednesday and friday were free. Some locals took us to hot springs which was about an hour ride in the back of the truck through some beautiful mountain scenary and played with some kids that afternoon. We were invited Friday morning to have breakfast in one of the houses of the kids we were playing with. I almost want to cry writing this cause it was so sweet. We went to the house which is this tiny little three-roomed building without paint or windows. The mom who invited us is single with two girls of eight and ten and apparently just moved there a couple of weeks ago from Panama because it wasn't safe. We get there and they are so happy to have us, give us any and all of the food they probably had at the time, and let us share their table which doesn't really have anough chairs anyways. Damaris, the mom sent us each home with a used book, a flower that she picked that
morning, flower clips for the girls, and fingernail polish for whoever wanted it. It was such a sweet gesture and some thing i'll never forget. Mario, Wilberth and Daniel took us to some waterfalls that morning and we swam even thoguht it was freezing. We played with the kids again that afternoon in the school house on the ASOPROLA property and then some members of the community got together to thank us and wish us good-bye that night, then we played some really fun games I'm definitely bringing back. Trip back today was the hardest time I have had yet and I actually had to run up to the front to get a bag from the bus attendent so i could throw-up... ew. Anyone wanna send me some dramamine?? All in all the experience was really special because we got to see a little bit of the life outside of the city in the rural rural area of Costa Rica and how people live. Family values are the same but family size is much much bigger. Vocabulary is different and I think the people are friendlier. But i guess thats the same in the US too. Well thats all for
now i suppose... two months left! ayyyy!
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jlb
non-member comment
when you least expected it...
your awesome.