Day 4 en Costa Rica

Day 4 of Chilamate, Costa Rica: 

We woke up with a cool breeze and noisy rainforest at 8:00 in the morning without any of the teachers asking us to. We all walked to breakfast with sleepy, tired eyes and (some of us) poured ourselves coffee to wake ourselves up. Then we ate! There were many types of food for breakfast, the main ones being pancakes with syrup, eggs, yogurt with raisins, fruit such as watermelon and pineapple, and beans with rice (gallo pinto). In addition to that, there was also a cinnamon bread and a sort of breakfast tortilla that was served to us. After the full but delicious meal, we had some free time.  Many people rested in the comfy hammocks, calm and mellow, while other people played foosball intensely.  

At 9:00, we walked over to the Chilamate School, less than a mile a way. The work today was different because the teachers were on strike; the teachers are on strike because the teachers don’t get paid very much. Today we cleaned the entire school since it was empty.  There were three groups that we were placed into; one made cement for the bleachers, one washed the walls with brooms and mopped the floors, and the third group cleaned the dirt, rocks leaves, and garbage out of the canals or gutters. We began to switch off every 30 minutes and we even had two breaks of soccer on the school’s field, which went on for about 30 minutes. After the intense work, Davis gave us popsicles to congratulate us for our hard work. Then, we walked back to the eco-lodge and we got ready for the families that we would be spending the next couple of lunches with. We walked in the hot and humid sun to the families for about 15 minutes. We were split into groups of 3 so that each group would go to a different house with a different family where they weren't going to speak any English at all! When we arrived at the families, we all talked with the families, only in Spanish, a little bit about ourselves and about them.  We talked about how things in San Francisco and Costa Rica were different and unique. Then we were served lunch by the family. Each family had different things, but ours had dried and crisp bananas, fruit such as watermelons, and a sort of pasta. The food was so different from the San Francisco meals that it was as though ­we’ve never tasted such food like this. It was delicioso!  

After, we walked back to the lodge to wait for the bus. When the bus came, we hopped on and took the short ride to zip lining. When we got there, we signed a waiver and then took the bus to the start of the zip line. The zip lines were covered in trees and branches but the views in open spaces were priceless. In total, there were 9 zip lines that we rode. The last zip line was interesting. From the 8^th line, we took a short ride to the start. The zip line crossed the Rio Sarapiqui. The ride was at least 30 seconds long. The river was mainly rock but the line was very high and fun.

Bloggers:  Marco & James