Costa Rica camp has been eventful to say
the least in the past couple of weeks. After intense treks throughout
the vegetation you’ll often find me lounging around in a hammock on
deck, book in hand, or ipod on replay and wafts of deep fried food
hitting my senses. It has been during these delightful moments of
relaxation and reflection that I have stumbled across some of the most
surreal experiences.
For instance, whilst waiting for our
dinner one afternoon (we eat before it gets dark) Mikol, one of the
local guys, rocked up into camp on horseback, escorting a rather large
water buffalo. I say rather large; this mammal was built like a
machine. Completely astounded by its random appearance we went over to
get a few close up photos. It was at this point that Mikol asked if we
wanted to ride the water buffalo. I hadn’t even touched it yet for fear
that it would flick its tail and wipe me out, and now he wanted me to
clamber on top of it! So naturally, I did. It was one of the most
exhilarating moments of my life, feeling the warm muscle mass below me,
my legs barely touching either side of its body it was so wide, and
knowing that in any other normal circumstance this would be incredibly
dangerous gave me a rush of adrenaline that had my hands shaking for a
good five minutes afterwards. Talk about once in a lifetime
opportunities and Costa Rica continues to throw these at me!
Another example I can draw on occurred
yesterday, whilst chatting to Sarah in the morning and swinging from
side to side in the hammock completely unsuspectingly when the whole of
the deck began to wobble. I paused for a moment, confused, and half
convinced it was my hammock swinging that was causing the weird movement
of the earth when Sarah said “yeah, this is an earthquake”. Of course, I
should have guessed! My first earthquake certainly startled me, and I
later found out it also startled the spider monkeys, who screamed at the
group on trail as the trees shook.
We’ve done various satellite camps as
well in the past fortnight; the one I participated in was on Piro
beach. After setting up camp next to the turtle hatchery, we strolled
up and down the shore, with the moon lighting our way. It wasn’t until
Nathan paused in his tracks abruptly, that I knew I was about to see
something spectacular, a sight I had been patiently waiting for my whole
life. Ahead of us was a single track, and in that moment my heart hit
my stomach, both myself and Cara knew one thing, and continued to repeat
it in an excited whisper and Nathan went to investigate “there’s no out
track!”. The green turtle was the most beautiful creature I’ve seen. I
held back my tears as I watched her strength rivet through her flippers
and pull her wrinkled face and large shell forward through the black
sand faster than I’d ever have imagined a turtle could move. Later than
night we lay out on the sand, eyes cast upwards and surround by amazing
people I’ve grown to call good friends, whilst a meteor shower exploded
above us, and I saw my first shooting stars inspiring us to call our
first turtle ‘Meteor’. I woke up the next morning and watched the
sunrise, blissfully happy. Life is beautiful.
The rest of the two weeks were spent
like this; eating sugarcane, playing rounder’s under the sunset at the
beach, learning to surf at Matepalo, eating cake and watching Nathan
almost take out volunteers during a hard core birthday piñata! Plus we
got cheeseburgers with a side of beer and salsa dancing in town. As far
as sightings go, it’s been a pretty special few weeks seeing a sloth
with her baby as well as glass frogs, a pygmy kingfisher, a caiman in a
river, a coral snake and astounding views across the rainforest canopy
at Cerro Osa that will crumble even the hardest of hearts.
Basically, everyone needs to come to Costa Rica; the experience has an endless supply of happiness and unforgettable moments.
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