Griff R

Well its been a while since I wrote on the blog and I figure I should catch up and record what has been happening. I'm still sick and went to the doctor for the 4th time today. I have a 3rd round of antibiotics and pain killers, and I got a shot today so my throat would stop swelling shut. I dont know what it is, but I am very worried and frustrated that we cant find a cause. Also I was on bedrest for 3 days earlier in the week, and I didnt write much because I didnt have much to report other than staring out the apartment windows hoping to be better. Now I keep focusing on getting well but there seem to be a lot of things wrong and unknown with the health. ... read more

Well we went to the Bardas Blancas area today. We rode with the head ranger of the area and we visited the caves there. He also suggested doing projects to create wind power using turbines for the local ranger station. After we visited the caves, we went down into the village and met the local authority (representative of the mayor of Malargue). We saw where we would be staying for our trip to work on the well there. Unfortunately we also ran into problems because the well has a lot more sulfide within the well than what we previously thought. It turns out there is almost tripple the amount of sulfide than we predicted. We are looking into revising the system to take into account the high levels of sulfide. On another note it looks like ... read more

Wow what a week...it hardly seems like I have been here almost 4 months now and will be leaving soon. This past week was Thanksgiving and we managed to have a 4 day weekend. Most of my friends went off to Nicaragua to celebrate but some went out to the Osa Peninsula to go camping as well. I ended up staying around town and relaxing and savoring the time in Costa Rica. For Thanksgiving I ended up skyping with everybody at Grandmas while the family dinner was taking place. It was nice to see the extended family and chat about what I was doing and what was going on at the traditional feast. Thank God mom assured me that we'd have more Pecan Pie when I returned! That weekend I ended up attending choir practice on ... read more

So this past weekend I took another trip. I went with the other USAC group here in Costa Rica to Volcan Arenal again. I have been there before but I hadnt done the activities that we did this past weekend. The whole weekend was simply a blast! We left Friday for the volcano and that whole experience was an interesting thing. This past week has been a week of solid rain and there have been a lot of consequences. For example around 20 people died close to San Jose due to a mudslide burying houses and the road to Puntarenas was closed due to a mudslide as well. When we heard this news, it meant that I couldnt be picked up by the rest of the group (they were from another city but San Ramon was ... read more

Wow I never knew how much fun I could have! This trip was absolutely amazing and the only thing I'm sorry for was not getting enough pictures of wildlife. :( I saw pelicans, boa constrictors, freshwater crabs, ospreys, parrots, toucans, howler monkeys, spider monkeys, and more! So we arrived by boat to Tortuguero and apparently it's the only way to access this town. The boat ride was about 40 minutes as we cruised by different parts of the jungle. Right before we turned to head up a different tributary/ canal of the river we got to see the estuary where the river met the ocean. I cant describe how awesome that looked, to see waves coming upstream of the river and creating the mix of water was amazing! When we got to the resort, yes it ... read more