The Two-Year Mark

Team Chirripo

Happy birthday Howard!

Plastic bag leg-warmers: eco-chic

Mujeres poderosas

The San Francisco DeWitts arrive to Quebradas

Friday, March 11 marked my two years living in Costa Rica, with only two months to go until my Close of Service date. The occasion was celebrated in due fashion, with a group trip up Chirripo, which I had also summitted at my one-year in country anniversary.
After much back-and-forth trying to set the dates and make a reservation, we were able to assemble a dream team for the trip: Adrienne, Mark, Howard, Angelo (a guest star from Tico 20), Adrienne’s friend Veronica and her boyfriend Jostin, a key player who used to work as a porter there and got us an under-the-table reservation that only cost us a bottle of whiskey for the park ranger.
We started hiking a little before 6am on Tuesday morning and got to the albergue at 3400 meters by noon, enjoyed some coffee and snacks and then Angelo, Mark and I set out to explore another trail to a peak 3.1 kilometers away. When we had gone just far enough to not want to turn back, it started to pour rain, thunder and eventually sleet and hail on us. After multiple stops for cover under nearby trees and debate about which way to turn, we decided to go for it and made it to the top, soaked to the bone. Needless to say, there was no rewarding view awaiting us, but we thought everyone would be very impressed when we got back to the albergue.
Turned out, nobody really cared and we were stuck with a bunch of wet clothes and only the possibility of freezing cold jet-stream of water showers before us. Fortunately, just by saying we knew Jostin got us the in to use the staff drying machine, so all was not lost.
That evening we celebrated Howard’s birthday with boxed wine and Disney princess hats and passed out early in anticipation of our 3:30am wakeup time and general exhaustion. The next morning we started our hike a little before 4am, equipped with flashlights, many layers of clothing, and plastic bags over our socks to insulate our feet from our wet shoes. The stars at that hour were amazing, and we were hiking up to the summit of Chirripo right as the sun rose. It was breathtaking, literally (the last 100 meters or so are pretty straight up) and figuratively.
It was a clear and crisp morning, although a layer of clouds below prevented us from seeing both oceans. We could, however, see mountains and volcanoes popping through the cloud layer, and a full moon, courtesy of Angelo. We passed around a bottle of champagne in continued celebration of Howard’s birthday and took lots of pictures until we realized how cold we were and hurried back down the mountain.
We made it back down to San Gerardo that afternoon and after taking long, relatively warmer showers, had a very satisfying steak dinner at Bazooka’s, the American restaurant in San Isidro. Chirripo still remains one of my favorite places in Costa Rica the second time around, and it was so much fun to share the experience with some of my favorite people.

Meanwhile, back in Quebradas, things are busy as ever getting ready for the Feria del Agua, the annual event at FUDEBIOL that is going to be bigger and better than ever this year and entails the inauguration of many new projects, including the office renovation and renewable energy projects I helped fund. My main charge has been coordinating the programming and food sales with the community groups who will be participating as well as selling tickets and helping with publicity. If any of you are free next weekend, there’s still space!
On Friday, I had another very early morning, catching a 5am bus to San José with Karla, an 8th grade girl in Quebradas, and her mother, for a Peace Corps sponsored conference called Voces Valorosas in honor of International Women’s Day. The conference was for girls who had submitted entries to a publication that the Peace Corps Women in Development/Gender in Development Committee puts together and been selected to be published. I had encouraged Karla to submit because she has always liked to do creative pieces for our community newspaper and is super-motivated and intelligent. When she was selected, it took a bit of convincing to get her father to let her and her mother come to the conference, but they somehow managed and we had a great time. There was a great panel of female professionals in different fields and separate workshops for the girls and the moms about gender roles and careers and opportunities for women. It was a great way for young girls to meet other smart, motivated young girls from all around the country and find out about resources available to them. Although I could hardly keep my eyes open by the end of the day, Karla and her mom were giddy with excitement the whole trip home, which of course made it worth it.
Yesterday I learned more than I ever needed to know about butterflies during a charla that I helped organize for our youth group that is working on the butterfly garden project and planning to give tours at the Feria del Agua (most fun fact: they can’t bite their food, only suck it up through this coiled tube inside their heads). Then I played in a women’s soccer game that Adrienne joined me for in Morazán, and none other than Uncle Danny and Aunt Boo showed up to cheer us on for the second half. They had been traveling up north for the past five days and were ending their trip with a visit down south.
I spent the night with them at Monte Azul, where we were spoiled as always by actually hot showers and delicious food. The next morning we came back to Quebradas and I gave them the tour, starting at my apartment and making our way up to FUDEBIOL, stopping to talk to the artisan group that was painting a new rock, buy some jam from jam ladies and take lots of pictures of the India Dormida. After a picnic lunch and tour of the grounds, we were invited to don Gilberth’s finca for cafecito on his balcony overlooking all of San Isidro, a lovely end to an active day.
As I am starting to ponder how I am going to manage to get all the possessions I have accumulated over two years into two suitcases when I pack up in May, I sent Danny and Boo home with an eclectic assortment of goods I do not anticipate needing in the next two months, including my hand-welded menorah, alpaca sweater, broken computer and Peruvian ceramic bowl. It was great to see them and weird/exciting that I could say ‘see you soon’ when we said goodbye and mean it.
But the end still feels distant, as there is so much work to be done and fun to be had between now and then. Of course I wouldn’t have it any other way.