Why wasn't Peace Corps always this fun?

Beautiful beach, beautiful people

Un atardecer Chireña

Fueled up for the ride

Nice crater!

Getting silly in Tarbaca

My audience losing interest fast

Does this waterfall make me look fat?

Very Important People

It has been an awesome last few weeks, namely because the work:fun ratio has shifted significantly in favor of fun. It kind of feels like the last month of college, except with better weather and more beach time.

My one main order of business was the first national Peace Corps/FINCA conference, which was hosted in San Cristobal Norte, the cold, cozy mountain town where I attended my last two FINCA trainings and always stay with the same nice host family. There were about 60 people there, volunteers and their local counterparts, and it was an intensive two days of sharing experiences, passing on knowledge, and learning how to grow and strengthen our Community Credit Enterprises. I brought Guadalupe, our ECC secretary, and although I found it sometimes aggravating to sit through these sessions that I had heard before when I am already kind of checked out, I'm really glad she got to have the experience and bring her excitement back to Quebradas to get people motivated with new ideas.

Then the real fun began. Saturday night I cam back to San Isidro for a Malpaís concert. They are one of the biggest bands in Costa Rica and were actually really fun performers and had some download-worthy songs. Plus, we had VIP tickets on the floor of the local gymnasium...

The next week entailed a trip to Nauyaca Fallas, a pretty cool set of waterfalls on the road to Dominical, a dinner party with some neighbors (I made thai peanut pasta and Betty Crocker cake, the latter being way more of a hit), nachos and gossip at my hairdresser's house, a final site visit from Vinyela from the PC office, and karaoke night with my over-30 single lady friends. They made me sing Selena, but I think the pity applause I received after ensures that won't happen again.

Then on Friday I got on a bus to San José and headed to Tarbaca, where I met up with Mark and Brigitte and later Liz, Elena and Davie from Tico 20 and we had a fun dinner and night out dancing with Grandpa Gerardo and family. I hadn't been back to visit for a year, but it is so wonderful how warm and excited to see us they always are, and I truly believe it when they say I always have a place to stay there. Although my host family situation during training was not ideal, I feel so lucky I got to be a part of the greater Tarbaca family.

The next day I met up with my friends Diego and Marcos who are students in San José and we took a day trip to Irazú volcano in Cartago, which was a beautiful drive and has a really cool looking crater with a bright aqua lagoon in the middle. That night was my third and final VAC dinner, which was changed to VAC-tail hour this year because there are too many volunteers in the country (almost 200!) to organize food, so we just had drinks at this cool loft space/art gallery/bar called Steinvorth which was super fun/weird feeling like an old senior girl around all these new, young eager faces I didn't recognize. Also, as I once learned in college but chose not to remember, pre-dinner drinks on an empty stomach is never a good idea for me, and I unfortunately didn't make it out dancing post-dinner, nor did I get to say many formal goodbyes to the people I wouldn't see again, but it was fun while it lasted.

I spent the next day exploring Heredia, another part of the Central Valley area I hadn't visited. It seemed much more liveable and family-friendly than San José, and it is definitely the most architecturally and culturally interesting city I have visited in Costa Rica. I had a nice lunch at the home of Luis Fallas, the president of FUDEBIOL, and his family, and then I met up with Angelo and his friend Kregg who was visiting from the states at Saprissa stadium for their quarter-final game against San Carlos. It was much more of a scene than the Guerreros game I had gone to in San Isidro, fireworks and glitter included. And it was pretty good soccer to watch.

The next morning we were picked up at our hostel by David Gómez, former Peace Corps safety and security officer, who just started his own business called Costa Rica on a Bike (CROAB). He does private bike tours all over the country, equipment, food and good company included. Our journey started at the top of the Cerro de la Muerte with a giant Tico breakfast at the well-known diner Chespiritos. We then started our ride down into the Zona de los Santos, a cluster of sleepy mountain towns that are known for producing the best coffee in the country. Things started to get tough as we made our way up out of the valley, but the roads were good and the view was beautiful and we were rewarded with snacks at the end. Then there was a loooooong bumpy downhill as we cycled out towards the coast, which hurt my hands more than anything else from having to constantly grip the breaks. After one minor flat tire that was soon resolved by a Tico with a compressor for his motorcycle, we took a refreshing dip in a nearby swimming hole and then continued on the last leg of the journey to Quepos.

We made it feeling pretty good, but then of course the option was posed to ride all the way up one last gigantic hill to Manuel Antonio for sunset, and being arguably the two most competitive Peace Corps Volunteers, Angelo and I went for it. Kregg intelligently followed behind in the support car. We made it pretty far amidst traffic and honking until our legs/bikes would take us no further up the seemingly never-ending hill. After about a quarter mile of pushing our bikes up on rubbery legs, it did indeed end and we cruised down to the beach as the sun was setting. It made the butt, hand, back, neck and leg pain I would be feeling for the next few days totally worth it. After a victory swim in the ocean, we all got in the car back to Quepos, where we had some very satisfying casados and tried not to pass out in our food.

The next morning after Bagelman's breakfast (it was the closest I could get to celebrating Passover), Angelo, Chase and I got on a bus to Puntarenas, where we met up with Brigitte and got on a tiny lancha to Isla de Chira, where Mark has been hiding out for the past two years. I complain about my bus ride over the Mountain of Death to get to San José, but his commute entails a choppy boat ride. My respect for him only grew from there after experiencing the oppressive heat and dust on the island and realizing how different our daily lives have been since we parted ways after Tarbaca. His is more what I imagined Peace Corps might look like, while I live a 20 minute bus ride from McDonald's, but I have no complaints.

We spent the next two days exploring the island by bike, foot and boat. We went out with some local fishermen and collectively succeeded in catching some fish, though I contributed nothing to the pot. The highlight of the visit was definitely our evening boat ride with Juan Carlos, Mark's ECC counterpart who I had met at the conference the previous week. He invited us out and then of course his motor wasn't working and we thought it was going to be a bust, but somehow they figured it out and we were off boating through mangrove swamps and out to Yucca island, which is basically a floating mountain. We scrambled to the top of for an amazing view of what I think I can safely say was my favorite Costa Rican sunset. We then stopped by a beach where a family of enterprising Ticos had set up a chinamo for Semana Santa and sold us cold beers. Then we boated right up to a lovely seafood restaurant overlooking the water and ate mounds of garlic shrimp, ceviche and clams by candlelight. It felt like a pretty special only in Peace Corps moment, and the evening continued in that direction.

We boated back through the mangroves under the stars, completely trusting Juan Carlos' sworn memorization of the route since there were no lights around. Because of the tides we couldn't dock the boat and had to trek through slippery swamp mud to get back to land. We arrived back to Juan Carlos' home relatively unscathed, though Mark stepped on some thorny plant that he spent the next few days trying to pick out of his toes.

The next morning we were off at 6am on a private boat to the Nicoya Peninsula for the grand finale, a beach house we had rented for 25 volunteers in Santa Teresa, which is on the eastern tip of the peninsula, to celebrate Semana Santa and the end of (most of our) service. It was a great space, right on the beach with four colorful bungalows, a common area equipped with a full kitchen, couches and tables, a ping pong table, fooz ball, a yoga dojo, and hammocks galore. It was in the middle of a cute surfer town with a big extranjero population and lots of good restaurants. We spent the next couple days drinking, eating, playing games, swimming, reminiscing, drinking and eating. Highlights included: a fiercely competitive beach soccer game in which I almost lost my right foot, group yoga session, group barbecue that included chicken, hot dogs, veggies, guac and frozen watermelon, my first and only ping pong win against Angelo, and amazing playlists day and night. We ended the trip with a dance party on the beach, which seemed only appropriate.

After one more evening of vegging out in San José, I'm not back in Quebradas for my last two weeks. I feel good about the PCV goodbyes I've had so far, especially because I am confident I will see the people I care most about again soon. That's harder to say with the people of Quebradas, but I am looking forward to a low-key last couple weeks and quality time with the people who have been the biggest part of my life over the last two years. I have a feeling that will entail a lot of cafecitos, bread, rice and beans, but I think i can handle it now knowing there is an end in site.

Me AGUAnté!*

My 5 seconds of fame

Finishing with a smile

The salida next to Parque Central

Pre-race in Pérez (you can't fully appreciate it here, but Henley is clad entirely in Nike Women's apparel)

Cappuccinos with the Scouts

COLLEGE!

Relieved survivors of a swim through crocodile-infested water

Drake with Jake

The survivors of what started as a 25-person English class

It has been an action-packed couple weeks, both work and fun. The rest of Ashley’s visit was great and included Tica pedicures, English class party, day trip to Dominical, lots of good cooking, a tour of the Thursday feria, and then a bus to San José where we met her brother, Colin, and parted ways the next day, the two of them to travel up north to La Fortuna and me to the dentist. And then the lab to get blood taken. And then the Peace Corps doctor. And then a micro-finance training session for Tico 21. Not as awesome, but all stuff I had to get done before COS-ing and things got better from there.

Friday night Brigitte and I went to her old host mom from Tarbaca, Jacky’s house for dinner and a sleepover with her and her two daughters Stephanie and Melanie, which was a blast since I hadn’t seen any of them for a loooooong time. They are crazy and energetic as ever, and we spent most of the night on Jacky’s cozy couch watching Miss Costa Rica.

The next morning I got up super early and took a bus all the way down to Palmar Norte, where I met Angelo and David and we were picked up by Jake in a turquoise Jeep. Yes, this is Jake Elliot from my early blogposts in Tarbaca. He lived with Mark on Gerardo’s compound and was a great friend but unfortunately left Peace Corps after a month of service. However, he came back to Costa Rica and has been working at a cool lodge called Poor Man’s Paradise in Drake’s Bay, which is on the northern end of the Osa Peninsula. He has been trying to get us to come visit for a while, and I’m so glad we were finally able to.

We picked up Chamisa and her mom in Sierpe and then took a cool boat ride down the river through lots of Mangroves to the town of Drake’s Bay, where we picked up Mark and Chase, and then our eclectic group of seven (plus Jake and some other tourists) made our way down to Poor Man’s Paradise, a beautiful spot right on the beach with cabins on stilts hidden in the rainforest and hammocks galore.

We spent the weekend swimming, tanning, eating, drinking, taking a hike with a crazy tour guide who convinced us to swim in an alligator-infested river and then left us to fend for ourselves coming back from a waterfall (we later found her passed out on the beach), spear-fishing and enjoying beautiful sunsets and evening bonfires. I wish we could have stayed longer, but it was a worthwhile trip and so nice to catch up with Jake and see him in his element there. He was a very good host and seems to have found a good life for himself there, though we still miss him and constantly wonder how much more interesting things would be if he were still a part of Tico 19.

Last week was spent preparing, both mentally and physically, for a big weekend in Quebradas. On Friday night we had our quarterly ECC asamblea. Our president officially resigned and we elected a new president and vice president to the board of directors. The behind-the-scenes build up to the resignation and reelection was a bit stressful, but I feel good about the end results, and most importantly the turnout at the meeting and the support the ECC is gaining from community members.

Friday night Adrienne and I went with some friends in San Isidro to the National University college night at a discoteca in town. It was a stoplight dance, meaning you dress in red, yellow or green according to your availability. Just like when I was in college, I think I was the only one to take the theme seriously and showed up in a green dress, red top underneath, and yellow sandals to send mixed signals. Nobody seemed to get it/care, but it was fun to check out the local college scene and try to fit in.

Saturday morning I took the Scouts to an organic coffee processor on the Cerro de la Muerte. They gave us an interesting tour that ended with cappuccinos and iced coffee for all in a beautiful wooden cafeteria overlooking all of San Isidro. This was definitely the most exciting part, and we ended up walking all the way home down the mountain hyped up on caffeine.
That afternoon was the annual Scouts assembly for our group. There was even more drama leading up to the elections for this meeting, as our president and treasurer had both resigned in December and we have kind of been struggling to keep the group together since then. There was an okay turnout, but I was pretty worried there wasn’t going to be anyone willing to fill their spaces. But amazingly, when the time came, people began to step up and say things about the importance of strengthening this group for the future of the community and volunteer to be a part of it. There was some shifting around of current positions and inventing of new ones, but we ended up with a very strong and motivated board of directors and others interested in helping out as dirigentes working with the kids, which is more than I could have hoped for.

So both of these meetings provided me with some closure around the two projects I helped start up and have devoted most of my time to in the past year. There have been various points along the way when I felt so frustrated and disillusioned by the politics of the groups that I lost motivation and didn’t even care if the groups continued on or not, but I am so glad that I am leaving at a point where both groups have been strengthened and decided to carry on not because I am pushing it or they feel like they owe me something but because the community recognizes their value. To me, the most important part of my job was getting them to that point, and I have to trust that they can take it from here.

Saturday night Angelo and Henley came over and we made a big carbo-loading meal of pasta and garlic bread in preparation for the all uphill 12K I had somehow convinced them to run with me on Sunday from the central park in San Isidro all the way up to FUDEBIOL. It was the first annual Carrera del Agua, organized by the Pérez Zeledón Sports Committee, as part of the continuing celebrations around International Water Day. My counterparts were very excited that they had chosen FUDEBIOL to end the race, as it would provide another opportunity to do publicity for all the new amenities at the reserve and would begin what will hopefully be an annual tradition with lots of new visitors. They also told me from the beginning that I had to run it and I had to win, seeing as I run 45 minutes a few times a week so it would be easy enough to complete an entirely uphill 12K race.
But anyone who knows my running style knows that I am much happier on flat surfaces, and I pretty much could not have designed a more hellish race for myself at that distance. Not only was it full of unrelenting hills, but it started at 9am, which is already peak sun time.

Anyways there were about 100 people in the race, and I ran into a lot of people I recognized from running in Quebradas. As soon as the gun went off I of course jetted ahead of Angelo and Henley, even though I had asked them to help set an even pace and told myself not to get overly excited early on, as it would make for a long, slow death at the end. But I kept spotting the few women who were in the race and then wanting to pass them, so off I went.

About 35 minutes into the run, when I thought the uphill would never end and the sun couldn’t get any hotter, we finally got a long downhill in the shade and then turned back onto the main road in the center of Quebradas. All of a sudden I heard all these people shouting my name, and for the next 500 meters or so I felt like a celebrity as everyone was cheering for me, and I even mustered a smile. The last 2.5 kilomters up to FUDEBIOL were the worst of all, but I was reenergized by the cheering and knowing I was close-ish to the end of my pain. Henley caught up to me and pulled me along for a while, and he finished just ahead of me and Angelo just behind, which was pretty cool despite us not running much of the race together.

Lightheaded and nauseous, I was greeted with big hugs from my counterparts and cameras and microphones from the local news channels. Apparently I was the second woman to finish, and everyone wanted to know how to spell my name, which takes more breath to explain in Spanish than one might imagine. I didn’t finish in a particularly fast time and it wasn’t a very competitive field, but nobody there really knew that and they were all just very excited that I was the second woman and first in my age group. I got to go on stage to accept my award, which was 70 thousand colones (about $140!) and a certificate for a free lab test at the local health clinic…hmmmmm.

I was mostly relieved that I hadn’t let down my counterparts or totally hit a wall halfway through the race, as I have known to do from time to time. It was really cool to have so many people cheering for me and to feel like they were proud of me for representing Quebradas and being a strong woman. It was also really nice to have my Peace Corps friends there to run with and enjoy the post-race meal and festivities. And tonight I have invited everyone in town to Bar Pelos for a celebratory drink with my newfound cash flow…

*Copyright Angelo Coclanis, bi-lingual pun-master

Feria del Agua, super-sized

Last andaribel ride of the day

Water-ballooning with the Scouts

Our very intimidating women's soccer team

The ladies of AJAQ (Alianza de Jóvenes Ambientalistas de Quebradas)

Lamb or sheep? You tell me...

Dancing in the dark

Ribbon-cutting ceremony

This weekend was the culmination of many of my projects in Quebradas, and definitely a high point in my Peace Corps service. I think the experience is best represented by the fact that I wore three different uniforms in one day, as pictured above.
The excitement began on Friday night, when I met Ashley Campbell at the bus station in San Isidro. As promised, she was able to make time in her crazy med school schedule to come visit me before I left, and it was so great to give her a hug after a year and a half without seeing each other.

After a delicious meal at El Gato Sin Dueño (the best restaurant in San Isidro which I am sad to report is closing in June), I mentally prepared her for what was going to be a whirlwind weekend, and even more so for her in a foreign language.
On Saturday morning we went up with two Scouts’ mothers to Gilberth’s house, where he handed us giant raw legs of sheep and pig to chop up into pieces and marinate for the kebabs we were going to be selling on Sunday. Luckily, the mothers knew what they were doing and took charge, and Ashley and I stuck to the vegetables and the marinade.

We then headed over to FUDEBIOL, where at 11am there was a formal inauguration of three big new projects, two of which I helped fund. The mayor of San Isidro and local assemblywoman were there, as well as representatives from other organizations that had helped fund projects with FUDEBIOL, and all the former presidents of the foundation. They did a little presentation and the Junta members of FUDEBIOL said really nice things about all my contributions to the organization and presented me with a certificate, and the mayor recognized my accomplishments in his speech as well, which was pretty cool. Then we went outside for the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the renovated office, the solar panels and the andaribel, a new installation which is kind of like a zipline except you sit down and have to peddle your way across the rainforest. I got to cut the ribbon for the solar panels, and everyone was really interested in the project and curious as to how it worked.

After a big lunch at FUDEBIOL, we got a ride back down to Quebradas, where I had to make an appearance at our development association’s annual assembly. Although I have hardly worked with them and they have never seemed very open to working with me, they insisted that I be there, so I knew they were planning something. After starting an hour late and sitting through all the formalities, they finally said they had someone special they wanted to recognize this year and called me up and actually apologized for not being more willing to work with me because now they saw how many contributions I had made in the community and they wished they had taken more advantage. Unfortunate that it took them this long to figure it out, but it was a really nice gesture, especially coming from a culture that does not like to acknowledge conflict or mistakes. They then presented me with a box of Costa Rican kitch: a Pura Vida t-shirt, a hot pink beach bag that says Costa Rica, and a magnet in the shape of a flip flop. Amazing.

THEN, we started making our way back up to FUDEBIOL, along with new additions Nisha and David from Tico 20, who came up for the weekend festivities. Luckily we were able to hitch a ride and had time to put on our party dresses before the evening’s event, a full moon concert in the woods, began. We settled into the albergue where we would be spending the night and then came down for our welcome cocktail, where we made Adrienne and Jostin and my friend José, who were all my guests for the evening. The concert began at around 6:30 with some classical pieces by high school students from the school of music in San Isidro. After a short intermission, “El Big Band” from the National University came on the stage and played some fun rock and roll and tropical music, which was really upbeat and even got some of us dancing on the grass by the end. At around 7:20, they called us all out from under the tents where we were sitting because the moon was beginning to rise above the trees, and they turned all the lights off on stage and started playing some jazz pieces. As we all stood there watching the full moon rise, the musicians came out into the crowd and serenaded us. I don’t think I have ever consciously watched the moon rise before, but it was pretty cool to do surrounded by nature, music and friends.

The celebration continued later that evening with a barbeque at Gilberth’s house. The menu included polenta, bleu cheese and caramel popcorn hors d’ oeuvres, followed by meat, meat and more meat. All the members of the FUDEBIOL Junta were there with their families, and everyone was in good spirits after the very successful evening. An in-depth conversation ensued about the difference between lamb and sheep (or cordero and oveja in Spanish) as we tried to figure out what we were actually eating. Conclusion: I’d rather not think about it. Then I broke a wine glass and we decided it was time for the gringos to go home.
Sunday morning started with a brisk hike through the FUDEBIOL trails with David, Nisha and Ashley, and then it was time to work as people were already starting to arrive for the Feria del Agua. I put on my first uniform, newly printed t-shirts that had our names on the front and the AJAQ logo and slogan on the back for the environmental youth group that was in charge of giving tours of the butterfly garden all day. They did a great job of getting organized and had even written down some talking points beforehand to help them on the tour.

After running back and forth for the first few hours between AJAQ, the Scouts mothers selling kebabs, and the Empresa de Crédito group selling snowcones, I suited up in my Scouts gear for our water-themed games, which included a water balloon toss that degenerated into everyone throwing balloons at each other. It got a little crazy, but a good time was had by all. After shoveling my face with my almuerzo campesino lunch, I changed into my final uniform of the day for our women’s soccer game and then stopped by the renewable energy charla that Purasol was giving before heading to the field. I was really excited to see that all day people were stopping by the solar panels and asking about them and seemed really fascinated by the technology. A nine-year old boy even asked how much the solar water heated cost because he was hoping to bring one home with him!
We had enough girls show up to the soccer game this time to have two subs, which is a huge success in itself. Unfortunately, we don’t have anyone who likes/knows how to play goalie, and we got beat pretty bad, but everyone seemed to have fun and I scored two goals and Ashley played some solid defense, so no complaints.

Finally, it was time to change into regular clothes and pack up and help clean up and say goodbye to everyone. Ashley and I snuck in to be the last people of the afternoon to get to ride the andaribel, which was a fun way to end an exhausting but exhilarating weekend. We got a ride down from FUDEBIOL with Pierre and Arine, the Belgian and Dutch couple from Purasol, along with their baby, two students from the National University, don Jesús, and a solar water heater. It was a tight fit, but resulted in a dinner invitation for Indonesian food and wine at their house in San Isidro on Wednesday night, so again, no complaints.

So that’s the play-by-play of Feria del Agua weekend, which is something I have been working up to in various ways for a long time, and was a really fun and satisfying way to see a lot of my projects come to a head. Ashley commented about how cool it was just to see that everyone there knows me and relies on me to get things organized and asks me questions about what’s going on, and although that sometimes drives me crazy, it also is the best part. I feel like such an integral part of this community at this point, and I will probably never again know my neighbors so well and love them so much.
I’m so glad I got to share this weekend with great friends, old and new alike, and I am already penciling in the date to come back and visit for spring break next year!

Hooray!

The modern version of tree-hugging


Team Purasol


A Herculean effort to install


Already blending in with nature


The ICE team giving their seal of approval

I am THRILLED to report that just in the nick of time, the Quebradas Biological Center has three highly-functional solar panels planted in its verdant gardens. The installation process only took two weeks longer than expected, which isn’t so bad by Costa Rican standards. And most importantly, they are ready for their big debut at the Feria del Agua this weekend.
Three representatives from ICE, the national energy and telecommunications company, came to FUDEBIOL yesterday and officially approved the project and switched on the panels, thereby connecting them to the national electricity grid. We are only the eighth project in the country, and the first in Pérez Zeledón, to fulfill the requirements to participate in the ICE pilot renewable energy project.
I just wanted to thank everyone again who donated to the project. It could never have happened without your support. I feel pretty proud of this achievement and excited about the possibilities it will open up for FUDEBIOL and hopefully other interested environmental organizations or environmentally-minded individuals in the future. For me, this moment was, well…electric.

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.

Closing Time

The 46 survivors of Tico 19

Team CED

The CED mafia survivors...a few hours later

Late-night shake at Soda Tapia

Well the final Peace Corps acronym is upon me: COS. Although I feel like I have been looking forward to this moment for many months, it somehow snuck up on me and I am feeling more conflicted and nostalgic than I imagined I would at this point.

We had our official Close of Service conference last week, which was the last time all of Tico 19 would be together as a group. We came with 52 people two years ago, and 46 made it to the conference. Not a single person in our group left willingly (mostly medical reasons), which is pretty rare. We got to spend three nights at the fancy Crowne Plaza Hotel in San José and spent our days talking about the logistical and emotional components of finishing up our time as PCV’s in Costa Rica.

It was definitely the most fun and rewarding Peace Corps conference I’ve been to. Instead of worrying about what we were going to do with the rest of our service, we were reflecting on all that we had (and hadn’t) done and enjoying our time together.

Some of the highlights for me included: a session on strategies for readjustment in which we had to do skits about things we might feel inclined to do when we get back to the US and other people will think is weird – for example, greeting every person you walk by, hanging out at people’s houses uninvited for an entire afternoon, and slipping into Spanglish when the Spanish word articulates what you want to say better.

There was also a panel of four returned Peace Corps Volunteers who were all living and working in Costa Rica, and it was interesting to hear about the paths they’d taken. All of them had either married host country nationals or another Peace Corps Volunteer, so that sparked a lot of curiosity from the many PCVs in my group who are involved in serious relationships with Ticos and trying to figure out the next step.

On the last day of the conference, each project group was responsible for making a presentation to the entire Peace Corps staff about the projects we had achieved and the impact we had made. Of course, the Children, Youth and Families team did a tear-jerking slideshow with Bar Mitzvah video classics such as Time of Your Life and Imagine, while my Community Economic Development group took a more individualistic and ironic approach. We called ourselves the CED mafia and did a lineup (the boys dressed in Crowne Plaza bathrobes, which was a nice touch) and showed pictures and facts about each volunteer and then the staff “witnesses” had to guess the culprit – all to the soundtrack of Bad Boys. I’m just saying, I think we got the most laughs.
Afterwards, each staff member presented us with a signed thank you card and we had our final session, which I thought was going to be painfully cheesy but ended up being kind of beautiful. Throughout the week, we were each responsible for coming up with a six word memoir of our experience and writing it on the front of a card, and then on the inside our fellow PCV’s had to write six words about us. In our final session, we got in a big circle and were each handed a card that we had to present to the person it belonged to. Maybe two years as a PCV has softened me, but I got a little emotional, and I was not the only one. It’s weird because we didn’t all see each other as much as you see your high school and college friends since we were scattered all over the country, but the shared experience we went through and the times we did spend together created a bond and respect among everyone in that circle. I guess it was the first time it hit me that I would miss all these people, and mostly being a part of this group.

Thursday evening festivities started off with the Skill Slam, a challenge that fellow PCV Chase Adam had put upon us during Pre-Service Training to devote some of our anticipated free time in the upcoming two years to developing a totally new skill. We each put in 2,000 colones, which meant a pot of about $200. Twelve people ended up participating, showing off everything from lock-picking to assembling a Rubik’s cube at record speed to walking from the Nicaraguan to Panamanian border in 15 days to Latin dancing, which was ultimately the winner. We then got a big group out to Steinvorth, the one hipster bar in Costa Rica, followed by a serious dance party at Bar Morazán and ending where all the best nights end, having late-night French fries and milkshakes (Chase opted for gallo pinto) at a 24-hour diner.

Now I’m back in Quebradas helping sell snow cones at our community parties and preparing for our annual women’s soccer game tomorrow. The karaoke outside my window last night was incessant until midnight, but instead of shoving in earplugs and trying to shut it out, I went down and ate chicarones and bizcocho with my friends. And I thought, I’m actually going to miss this…

Panamania

Locked in!

Snorkeling, swimming and sunning on the island

Rebuilding after the fire

Me and the Kuna ladies

Rainbow in Boquete

Fun with Barry and Jane

The rest of January continued to be busy and fun working with the Quebradas youth on fixing up the butterfly garden at FUDEBIOL, swimming in the river (although that kind of ended after I severely bruised my butt trying to show off and jump off a bridge), and attending the Peace Corps-sponsored environmental conference with the two youth group leaders. This was a really exciting opportunity for them to meet other volunteers and youth from communities around the country and to talk about the environmental problems and projects they are working on.

I was also going to LOTS of meetings with the Scouts, ECC and FUDEBIOL. Now that I only have three months left, I am feeling a lot of pressure to make sure I do everything I can to leave these groups and my projects in a functional state, but I also know that I need to start easing out instead of working overtime. I think people here are also realizing I’m leaving soon and finally realizing they need to take advantage of me as a resource before I go, which is great, if only it had happened 20 months earlier…

Anyways all of this is to say that it was a perfect time for a break, and that’s just what I got. After a marathon Saturday or trash pick-up with the Scouts in the morning, a regional ECC meeting from 9 to 12, and Feria del Agua planning commission meeting from 2 to 4 and then a FUDEBIOL Junta meeting until 7, I got up Sunday morning and packed my things, had a hearty breakfast of pinto and eggs with some friends, and headed to San José where I met up with about 50 other PCVs for a Super Bowl bash at Hooters. I never thought I would say this, but there is no place I would have rather been.
It was a really fun night of catching up with friends, as well as meeting some new people from Tico 21 (it made me feel like a high school senior seeing all these new, eager volunteers coming onto the scene), drinking beer, eating wings and sliders and oh yeah, watching football…Followed by a dance party at one of San José’s classiest establishments. It was a great beginning to a great vacation.

The next evening began my Panamanian adventure. I met Dan, who came straight from the actual Super Bowl, in Panama City, where we spent the next three days exploring Casco Viejo, the oldest part of the modern city whose gorgeous colonial architecture is now being renovated, the canal zone (by foot, boat and train!), and the Caribbean coastal town of Portobelo, which hosts a few forts that could use some renovation.

Upon arrival to Panama City, I was immediately struck by how different it is from San José, and I imagine most other Central and South American capital cities. Downtown is cluttered with skyscrapers all the way out to the water, though apparently many of them are vacant or minimally occupied. The roads are all in good repair, which ended up being true throughout the country, and the city just seemed a bit more planned and organized than anything I have seen in Costa Rica. I took a great run on a bike and pedestrian path that runs all along the coastline next to the city. However, people still use landmarks instead of street names or signs to give directions, and we got just as lost trying to find things.

Major highlights included our partial transit through the canal, during which we went through two sets of locks and could really grasp the magnitude of the operation and how amazing it is that they came up with this technology more than 100 years ago and it is still functional today. We also took a beautiful train ride across the isthmus to the Caribbean coast, a route that was developed during the California gold rush because it was the fastest way for people to get from the east to west coast. And finally, we were conveniently staying on the same block as an amazing homemade ice cream shop, where we made multiple visits.

Our next stop was the San Blas islands, which was one of the most unique and wonderful places I have ever visited, and I am already hoping to make it back there someday. We were picked up in a tiny wooden lancha and taken to Yandup Island, which is a lodge with 12 cabins along the water, a restaurant that serves whatever the catch of the day is, and a small beach. That is the whole island.

We were greeted by the very small and very friendly Kuna staff. Men were dressed in collared shirts and jeans, while all the women were dressed in their typical mola blouses, colorful skirts that looked like they could have been made of leftover curtain material and layers of beads adorning their arms and ankles. We immediately had a connection with Boris, who was excited that we were from Los Angeles because he is a big Lakers fan.

The San Blas islands are part of the Kuna Yala Comarca, a self-governed indigenous region, in which only Kunas can own land. It is made up of about 300 islands right off the eastern Pacific coast as well as a thin strip of land on the coast that is currently uninhabited. There are about 43 islands that are packed with homes with roofs made of palms and dirt floors and thin alleyways between homes (no cars), and the rest of the islands are either uninhabited or have small lodges like the Yandup.

Besides the setting being like a picture from a postcard, I loved it there because it did not feel like just a beautiful beach getaway. It felt untouched and far away, which is a huge credit to the Kuna people for preserving their land and containing development. We snorkeled and swam and hiked and lazed in our hammocks and socialized with the other guests, who all had interesting stories and were adventurous travelers (our favorites were a children’s book author who writes a series called Adventures Abroad and a couple from Philadelphia who both do some kind of sex therapy).

The highlight for me was definitely the visit to the community of Playón Chico, where all the staff at the Yandup live, which made it particularly interesting to get the tour from them. As soon as we got off the boat, we were struck by the amount of young kids running around (with and without clothes), and later found out that 60% of the population are children.
There had just been a fire on the island a week before and 52 houses had burned down, but amazingly no one was hurt. The whole community had woken up in the middle of the night to put out the fire, and they were already rebuilding the houses with the help of the local government. The government also gives every home a solar panel and battery, which is the only source of electricity for most families. The island has 3000 inhabitants, and it seemed impossible that even one more could fit, but apparently they keep making room.

One of the most interesting parts was visiting the congress house, where the “Shiloh” presides as the political and spiritual leader of the community. He spends all day there, attending to women in the morning and men in the afternoon. When we peaked in, we saw him standing up and addressing a group of men, some of whom were laying in hammocks and smoking cigars. Now maybe that’s the way to get things done in government…

Our final stop was Boquete, a mountain town in the northwest of the country by the Costa Rican border. We found our Inn, La Montaña y el Valle, on a small gravel road just outside of town. There, we were greeted by Barry and Jane, the friendly Canadians who would be our hosts for the next two days. They came to Boquete almost 20 years ago after deciding to leave their stressful IT jobs behind and pursue their shared passion for gardening in Central America. They fell in love with this piece of land and built their home there, eventually adding three bungalows and opening a bed and breakfast. All of this and more can be seen in their 23-minute documentary film, Recreating Eden.

We spend the next couple days hiking and driving through the mountains and enjoying incredible views of the valley and farmland below. Even when the sun was out, there was an almost constant mist in the air, which made for some amazing rainbows. We also enjoyed Barry’s homemade bread, fresh-squeezed orange juice and just-roasted coffee from their garden every morning. We took Barry’s coffee tour one day and got to see how it is harvested and roasted, which I should know from living in Costa Rica but somehow have never gotten around to doing a tour. This was particularly interesting because he does it all himself, for the love of the process and the product, not for income generation. It was really cool and inspiring to meet two people who had made such a bold change in their lives and are so clearly enjoying the outcome.

It was sad to say goodbye, and getting dropped off at the chaotic David bus terminal where people were yelling at me from all directions to get on their colectivo to the frontera jolted me back into Peace Corps mode, but I do feel very refreshed and ready to approach my last 11 weeks(!) as a Volunteer. My main goal for the end of my service is to enjoy myself and my friendships, both within my community and among other Volunteers, and to not worry so much about keeping all my projects together, because it shouldn’t be up to me at this point anyhow.