One Week

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This is Kate.

So... I have been at Cloudbridge for 1 week. It has been an interesting experience so far. I finally got acclimatized and also used to hiking in my rubber boots, although my feet are still covered in medical tape & bandaids because of blisters. For awhile my quadrocepts were so sore it was difficult to walk, but that has passed and the soreness has moved on to my gluts... me bum. Nick, our new volunteer, arrived this past Sunday. He is from Scotland and we've been getting along great. I am glad there is someone here who I feel more comfortable with! He's like a real person... not so scientific seeming as the others. Well, I will say the French girls aren't that "scientific seeming", but sometimes the langauage barrier discourages us from interacting too much. They are leaving soon anyway, and then it will be me, Nick (Scotland), Andrew (New Zealand) and Tina (Canada). Tina is pretty cool, and Andrew is nice too, but he always gives me looks like I'm a complete idiot. For instance, Nick, Andrew, and I stayed the night at Gavalon last night, the remote research station. There is no electricity, so we were using the wood stove. I have never used a wood stove. The burning wood looked to be under one burner that was already being used, so when I needed to put my rice on, I asked what to do. He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "put it on the other burner". I mean, I didn't know if I needed to put more wood in somewhere else or if that burner was going to work since the burning wood was under the first one! Sheesh. I called him out on it though. He looked kind of sheepish. :P

Our night last night was interesting. We ate dinner and played cards by candlelight. We were playing cards to see who would get the big bed. We played a Scottish game that I can't remember the name of, but it is really fun! The first person to win 3 games got to choose what bed they wanted... guess who won it??? 😊 Me! Yay! We played some more after it was established that I won, and I immediately started losing. Good thing I won those first three! This morning I had to meet Victor, one of the workers here, down the mountain at 6:30am, so I woke up at 5:30am to head out.

Once I met Victor, we started hiking back up the mountain. He is older, maybe in his 70s, but that guy can move! He is a tico guy and only speaks Spanish, so I had fun praciticing with him. I was hiking with him because he knows all the trees in the area, and he was helping me find the Red Quinine. The red quinine tree has been wreaking havoc in other tropical areas such as the Galapagos. An ecologist in Montana saw on our site that it exists naturally at Cloudbridge. He was interested to find out how the tree is interacting with our forests here. Quinine is also something extracted from the tree to treat malaria. So... I was following Victor today, and this trail is straight uphill. I was huffin' and puffin', but pushed on for as long as I could. After awhile, Victor suggested that I go in front since his pace is very fast. He was allowing me to set the pace. I thought that was nice, but after a little bit, I felt bad because he had a lot of work to do and I was slowing him down. I asked him if the path was easy to see the rest of the way and he said yes, so I told him I would take a little break and catch up. He was fine with that, and on he went. It was incredible to see. He used to live in the mountains of Cloudbridge, but has since moved to San Gerardo once the land became a reserve.

With him up the path aways, it gave me the chance to go at my own pace without any worries, and look for the red quinine tree. I found a few trees that I suspect are what I'm looking for. I brought some leaves with me to compare to pictures I have. When I got back, Tom told me a publishing company wants some hi-def pics of this tree. The camera I have with me is not good enough, but I may be able to use Andrew's.

As of now, it's 10:30am and I will probably eat lunch in about 30 min. and then do a little research on this tree. I am looking forward to a nap though, so I might take a litttle siesta before research time. I have to hike back up to Gavalon later today because I need to stay there 1 more night. The trees that I found are all around there, so it is easier if I stay there tonight. Hopefully I will win at cards again! :D

In Quepos news, Steve has leased the villas for the next 4 years to the TEFL school. This is a good thing! Very good for Steve, because now he doesn't have to worry about running them and getting guests in. Very good for us, because now we don't have to worry about disappointing him by leaving. Eric and Steve went out to celebrate last night. Eric said Steve is very happy and wants to travel now. He wants to travel with us actually! 😊 I think that is fine, but not on our trip to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. That has to be special and PRIVATE. :P After that, it's cool! I am looking forward to traveling and seeing new places. I hope to see a big variance in cultures as well. So, the TEFL school will take over the villas sometime around mid-Sept. They have offered Eric a room still if he continues to do what we have been doing for Steve (TEFL students will be staying there and everything will have to be cleaned as it is being done now), but that is around the time we will start traveling, so we won't have to worry about that. Hopefully we can still keep some of our stuff there while we travel.

I think that is pretty much all the news so far! I will probably only write in the blog once or twice a week to keep from being redundant. I am going to try to put some pictures up soon and maybe video if I can get it to work.

Pura vida!

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