Pura Vida Coastal Style

Hola Familias!

Now on the Caribbean coast, we have been spending the days moving through some much warmer weather and soaking in the sun. Yesterday was the highlight of the trip. We traveled into the interior  mountains to the Guaymi community, an indigenous group in Costa Rica. We spent the day at the school meeting the students and working on a variety of service projects. The newly built school is the shining star of this community. The government has recently granted more funding for education to isolated regions and this has resulted in better access to education for Costa Rica's rural populations. The Guaymi people speak their own language, and many also speak Spanish as a second language. While at the school, the PC students worked the entire day on a variety of tasks. With the help of the Guaymi students and the one teacher/ principal (on crutches) we planted over 80 trees on the school property. In addition, we resurrected an old overgrown vegetable garden. We weeded and planted watermelons, zucchini, cucumbers, mustard greens, cilantro, and tomatoes. This was a tremendous undertaking! We also established a germination area for a variety of other plants including almond trees. At one point, Maria turned to me and said, "This is the best part of the trip. We are lucky to be here." That awareness that service is a two way path and beneficial to all involved was amazing. With the mountains of Panama in the distance and our new friends waving us on, it was sad to say goodbye to this beautiful community.

Today, we headed to the end of the road... Manzanillo is the last town in the southeastern region before Panama. Manzanillo is a small, sleepy Caribbean beach town. There we met our naturalists guides Tino and Michael who led us on quite an expedition hike through the coastal jungle. We spent the morning tasting different fruits, vegetables, and even insects! Ask us later about our termite snack!!! The coastal ecosystem has an abundance of birds, sloths, howler monkeys, and snakes. Oh yeah, we saw two eyelash vipers. It was crazy! After our long hike, our team needed some beach time! We swam in the warm waters of the Caribbean all afternoon...blue salty waters, palm trees, coconut water, and soft sand. Tomorrow is our last day here. We are heading to a wildlife rehabilitation clinic and then back to San Jose. In some ways, our students are ready to reunite with their families and return to their home lives. In other ways, they are super curious about the world here and excited for more... This has been quite a journey!

Signing off!
Alice