Casa Camarona Lodge Puerto Viejo

... planks that had been laid over trainline bolsters, that unforunately seemed to feature enormous nails poking out. One false move and it could have been bye bye Panama, hello River Stix. As we approached the lorry we were forced to move on to the rusting walkway that ran alongside small stretches of the bridge. It had huge holes in and I had visions of plummeting to my watery death once again.

Fortunately, this wasn't to be my final curtain and we were stamped on our ...

... main function of the sanctuary seems to be to allow crusty hippy ladies and well-meaning volunteers to coo at the cutesy-wootsy baby sloths and to give them silly names like Floppy and Dozy and the like.

Our guide (a well-meaning retired American lady who wuvved little Spidyman, didn't she? Awwwwwwww) did, however, mention a worthwhile scheme that the sanctuary is trying to work on with some zoos. In this scheme, the sanctuary would provide the zoos with young ...

... to our lodging at El Silencio del Campo in La Fortuna around 7:00 that evening and Eliomar at the reception desk already knew about us and talked about David like he was an old friend. He informed us that our cousin was taking a massage currently. No suprise there! He also told us that my cousin had been ziplining earlier in the day!!!!! It seems that my cousin had taken Doug's pleas to heart and had stepped outside his comfort zone. We ...

On the eastern most Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, the small surfing and hippy town of Puerto Viejo exists. I found it to be not too touristy here, but that was probably because it was low season. As opposed to the drunken centre of Bocas de Toro, the vibe we got here was very chilled out and easy going. We were told by another traveler that ...

... nightcap...pura vida. So in case you didn't get the point, I've got a pretty awesome life here. So much so that its hard for me to step out of it long enough to reflect and write which is why it took me 2 months to come up with this first blog entry. So although I can't do justice to my experience so far, I can at least let those of you who may or may not be living vicariously through me what has happened so far. First, since this is my ...

... people from the mountains who were trapped in the landslides and underground. This is just the way it is when you live in a country like Costa Rica. We appeal to other countries' hearts for special help. Even ...

... area of Talamanca, specifically in the community of Bambu for over three years already. Here we have been lucky enough to find people who are natural leaders, like Danilo Layan Gabb ...

... with the contractor discussing how to finish the security wall. He and I had talked a couple of days earlier about it and there was a big difference of opinion on where to start. I was trying to convince them to start at the back and cut off the escape route. The contractor and some of the deacons were saying start at the front to improve the looks and worry about the back later. Doesn't God have great timing when a need has to be waved in front of some ...

... to learn by doing games and drawing. When they began to draw, they expressed a strong feeling about their country and their families. I was a little part of their world and before I came back to Italy, visibly moved, I collected messages and colored drawings... Sure I will never forget. It wasn't a vacation, it was the desire to live ...

... of Spanish from them. They even recognized me when I passed by the school 8 weeks later - that was a wonderful feeling - and for me it showed that my work meant something to them as well. That's the experience I was looking for when I planned to volunteer. I spent the next 2 weeks in Bambu, a little community on ...