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Published: March 11th 2007
Setting off on our Rafting Day Out
Destination the beautiful Pacare RiverIt is Sunday morning here in sunny (well rainy today) Turrialba, today I got up like most days at about 6.30am, had a delicious breakfast, laughed through our daily meeting which I turned up like all days in shorts and a singlet and right now after about eight weeks in Costa Rica I am enjoying my first morning off, sitting in our lovely staff room overlooking Volcan Turrialba writing to you all!
So hands down my Raleigh experience so far has been one of the most intense, captivating, motivating and enjoyable experiences of my life.
I have so many words to write here today as over the last six weeks since I have written I have explored many new and rough lands in our trusty Landrover with our drivers Ian & Fraser, met a whole load of different and interesting people, have gone without a shower for days, taken a myriad of photos of everything from young people enjoying sunsets to children in remote villages receiving water for the first time to their houses, to amazing vistas, to beaches, to people with sore feet after a full day trekking with their backpacks.
I had a tear in my
Participant Arrival
The day 100 participants arrived at Field base eye after my first two weeks here when the participants piled off the buses at field base for the first time, and reveled in getting to know their names.
I have slept in 5 star hotels (well one anyways), on the floor of community centres high up in the hills, in adventure camps, and on the floor of mud homes and returned to field base missing our dorm of eight girls. I have got to know my backpack, mosquito net, mess tins and have become addicted to chocolate in the absence of alcohol!
I have eaten plenty of good food, some not so good food and enjoyed Costa Rican coffee for the first time. I have started to get fit again, taken daily swims in the local university pool with friends, walked to town, walked on Treks, walked through National Parks. My ankle is good and it feels good to be moving again.
I have made some new friends, “hablar un poco espagnol”, pero me olvide mas Italiano”, I have upset people, made people laugh and all around had a good time entertaining people.
I have had intense conversations with young people and their trials and
The Roads Less Travelled (our route!)
There are not many good roads in Costa Rica, we have gone to the edges of capability of our Landrovers in some cases, and escaped some near misses! tribulations, I have got to know some young people that I like and some that I dislike.
I have worked hard, most days usually 12-15 hours, if it is not writing and design, it is event planning, manning our field base shop with other staffers, printing photos and postcards of mine and Jo’s photos to sell, briefing designers, meeting printers in San Jose - and getting through business meetings with some help from my friends (Julian and Romano Espinoza thankyou).
I have made some new relationships with our suppliers, know the t-shirt supplier inside out, and the owner of the local internet café who we give so much business, I have established relationships with the local barber and beautician who come out on site and do fabulous things to those participants and staff who have been out on project sites for three weeks. I have made friends with Manuel the photo printer in Turrialba who loves seeing my smiling face as he takes me up to the lab each week to print off another batch of photos.
I have not had a drink of alcohol for several weeks, have danced upon several occasions like a crazy woman
Landrover Pose
One of the destinations for our Landrover Picnics between Playa Jaco and Playa Hermosa Pacific Coast Costa Rica (feels so good to be back to true form), I have hosted cooking competitions for 100 people, cooked often for 20+ people and taken my turn to empty the trash clean the toilets like everyone else.
I have cried a few times, my tolerance has been tested several times, and on more than on occasion I have put my foot in it.
I have reveled in such a supportive work environment, had blus’ with our bosses and then made friends again, have told it like it is, have complained, have smiled.
I have read books, written several letters to friends, and written about 10,000 words in the last week for our Raleigh Communications and spoken to Andy and other friends on the phone.
I have travelled extensively through Costa Rica, I have taken in the high roads and magical cloud forests, I have in one day gone from 40 degrees on the Pacific Coast then wound past the myriad of Palm oil forests, up to the high country and finished the day off with a magical sunset at 3,000 metres in 5 degrees.
I have rafted the Pacare, enjoyed some special times with special people
under waterfalls and in rivers. I have bodysurfed in Pacific beaches and enjoyed plankton biting my toes and setting the water alight in a glow in an after dinner paddle with 12 other young people.
I have enjoyed Landrover picnics with Ian one of our drivers, stopping by crocodile infested waters to put the Landrover in to get some shots, and have enjoyed “Mat Donalds” burgers in Domincal whilst sitting on an old car seat and drinking Coke out of a Heinz jar.
I have seen the delight in my English friends faces when they swam in the Pacific for the first time and enjoyed rock walks in a spectacular national park that meets the sea in Manuel Antonio.
I have become somewhat of a traveling counsellor on my visits in three weeks to six out of the nine project sites in Costa Rica and Nicaragua, I have become a confidant to several people who have needed to talk and have realized in the tough times that we are all in this to support each other.
I have seen the beauty of Nicaragua, marveled at how she lives life, admired the environment and loved the people.
I have stood on street corners for an hour taking photos of people living life and talked to those people and asked them how their day was.
I have been lost in the back-country of Nicaragua in 40 degrees, met some locals who were slightly drunk that wanted me to “quieries en camminata”, used the radio to hit field base from the car 1000kms away, and eaten Tip Top Chicken.
I cried and marveled at the joy of local village children seeing their photo I had taken for the first time. I have relished in gazing at faces of people in communities in remote Nicaragua that must have been through so many horrible things in their lifetime and peered behind their sometimes empty gazes to wonder what it must be like for them.
I have enjoyed simple pleasures in remote communities and played baseball with children, I have had children beg me to take their picture and watched them enjoy seeing water in a hose to their front door for the first time.
I have washed myself and my dusty clothes in wells, rivers, and waterfalls, and have been taught by an 18-year-old NZ guy which
Beautiful Manuel Antonio National Park
Where the Rainforest meets the Sea, Pacific Coast Costa Rica is the best rock around to wash your clothes.
I have smelt the rainforest, the savannah and the dust on the dry ground. I have rescued four dumped beautiful kittens from certain death off a Nicaraguan highway.
I have been surrounded by pigs, chickens, kittens, running in and out of the houses I have stayed in and seen piglets roam around the simple mud houses nose to the ground always snorting or eating, I even picked one up and held it for a dare.
I have been to community celebrations where old men sing and play their old treasured guitars and seen their faces light up in song and dance. I have made tortillas, seen the most beautiful biscuits being baked in a basic clay oven and the whole village arrive on horseback to buy those biscuits from our neighbor.
I have marveled at nature, photographed Zebra long wing butterflies and wished I could photograph the Blue Morpho butterfly that no matter how hard I try wont sit still for long enough. I have watched boys on the shores of lake Nicaragua with a beautiful volcano as their backdrop playing football surrounded by pigs, boats, cows
The long hard trek
Just outside of Sabanillas, Costa Rica and snake holes.
I kept my eyes open for life in Achuapa, saw the results of what a community can do when they pull together. I have shared a cup of strong coffee with community leaders that liaise with the Body Shop as the local cooperative supplies them Sesame Oil. I have sat back and admired the organisation and will of people in Achuapa to make their communities more sustainable.
I have thought about my self and others, I have worked on a list of things I need to work on within my self. I have received open praise and open criticism and have felt like part of a big family.
Each day brings a new challenge or a new marvel, right now a friendly little iguana is scurrying around just next to me.
I am preparing for the toughest mental and physical challenge of my life so far as I plan to take a trip for 17 days on foot from one side of Costa Rica to another with 20+kgs on my back.
I am also preparing for the future, enrolled to study again my post grad finance studies to finish them off, looking
Zebra Long Wing Butterfly
It took 15 minutes to capture this playful little guy forward to continuing my Italian, researching fun photography & design courses and started planning for what life might look life for me later this year…
I am enjoying peace and happiness with new friends and am eagerly awaiting the day I see Andy at the San Jose airport in just over a month so I can show him this beautiful country and introduce him to my new friends.
I am scared about this experience ending because I feel like this is my home and these people are my family however am content knowing I have made some new friends for life and enjoyed an experience few people have the opportunity to do.
I am eagerly awaiting post each day, and for those of you who have sent me post thank you and for those who have taken the time to acknowledge & provide inputs to my photos, website and writing I really appreciate it - you know who you are.
For those of you who have not stayed in touch, I would love to hear from you, and if you do write I will promise to write back, and perhaps send you one of my best
Sunset at 3,000metres
From 40 degrees and sea level, to 5 degrees and 3,000 metres in one day! pics made into a post card.
With love,
Bella Zanesco
C/- Raleigh International
Apartado 17
Codigo 7170 CATIE
Costa Rica
PS Will be heading to South America in May, Galapagos first, then Peru, Bolivia & Brazil (yes Gabby I am coming), Argentina and Chile. Will be home in time for Liv and Boris’s wedding…. if you are keen to join drop me a line. Or if you know anyone in these countries also let me know as would love to meet some new people.
PPS Also I will be looking for contract work in AUS ready to start early August. If you think you have or know someone who could have a job that perhaps I would be good at feel free to drop me a line and tell me all about it.
PPPS: If you want to know more about our Raleigh projects and adventures here in Costa Rica/Nicaragua and perhaps look at some more photos that I have taken alongside Jo our other photographer please check out the Raleigh blog that I write also, http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Raleigh-07B/
PLEASE CHECK THE SECOND PAGE OF PHOTOS: CLICK NEXT
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Fiona
non-member comment
severly impressed
Dear Bella, I've been reading your stories and marvelling at your photos. I remember Sebastien explaining you how to make a photo from a sunset and now it seems to me, like you can explain him quite a lot!! It sounds like you're having experiences of a lifetime. Do you think you can ever get used to "normal" life again, having a steady job? Everytime I come back from a holiday I'm depressed for at least a few weeks, because work pales by comparison. I've been studying the Raleigh website to see, if this could be something for me, still thinking though. At the moment I'm on a project in Berlin-Germany. It's a challenging job, therefore stressfull, but it takes a tax on my positive thinking capabilities. Any tips? Anyway I think it's great what you're doing and looking forward to your next entry! Take care, love Fiona