Sun, sun, sun!

Sun, sun, sun!

I begin this week’s entry rather worryingly with my cooking. Saturday it was my turn to take the reins over our gas stove. With endless trails happening throughout the day in heat that can reach 37degrees, people were expecting a feast (or as close to one as you can get to in the jungle). Let me start by saying that camp is entirely vegan (except powered milk), something I thought I would find difficult to stomach – pun intended- due to no electricity. Whilst this means no brie and mango chutney on crackers in one hand and a chilled Corona in the other, it does create a rather angelic atmosphere as we eat – and laugh – by candlelight. Regardless of our many setbacks, (which now include water being cut off from camp and resorting to drinking from the river, which is something rather special during  the century of chemically purified everything)  I have yet to not enjoy a meal here! For lunch I rustled up a sweet potato (which on a side note, is white here) mash and onion gravy. It went down well, considering I don’t cook, ever. At all.

After lunch we went on a stroll through one of the many rivers that intertwine across the landscape, soaking in our surroundings. On our return Elle suggested we head to the beach to gather drift wood, an idea I enthusiastically welcomed. There is no limit to the amount of times I can fall in love with the ocean. I walked across the lapping waves and watched the afternoon sea mist engulf the rainforest before swimming in the lagoon to cool down. On our way back Helen summed up our perfect Saturday afternoon by saying “don’t you just feel completely content right now?” and I did.

For dinner I stuck to the good old English spag-bol, although to ensure it fitted in with our camp’s hippy facade it was, of course, entirely vegan and made with soya. People lapped it up (probably shouldn’t say that as mum might actually get me cooking when I return home).

On Sunday Sam, Charlotte, Cara and myself headed into town via the cattle truck I’d previously mentioned. I have come to the conclusion that the collectivo’s lack of seatbelts, windows, comfy seats, rules and even properly formed roads is completely and utterly liberating.  You can stand and watch it rumble on through the jungle as the wind beats your hair and be lost in your own world. Three things in town made me a very happy girl:

1)      They had Heinz tomato ketchup. An essential for every meal.

2)      They had white Lindt chocolate. Looking back, this wasn’t my most sensible buy, but when have I ever been practical!

3)      I got a beautiful yellow sarong. I now live in it.

For lunch we had Margarita pizzas, beer, and pizza on a bench that had us literally seated in the sea, watching planes land overhead.

Mario the ‘bus driver’ waited rather happily for us for 10 minutes so we could make an entirely essential rum dash, which sums up the Costa Ricans laid back attitude. When I got back on the collectivo one of the elderly local men, who I had sat next to in all my previous rides, smiled when he saw me and tapped the seat next to him, which made me laugh. A drunken local also took our photo, claiming that white people were beautiful, so I took his photo to make it fair!

On Monday after a primates survey and double checking the canopy traps for butterflies, which required climbing under a tree that had fallen over a river creating a tiny gap I decided to sunbathe for half an hour at 10am. Sun in Costa Rica is entirely different from sun back in the UK, mainly because we rarely get it and we do it reaches 28 degrees max. And so, this is where my entry ends, as the rest of the week I have spent suffering through the not-so-nice end of the dehydration spectrum. Learn from my mistakes kids, sunstroke is awful and recovering in a tropical environment is not easy.

I am thankful for the tree frogs, millipedes and snakes for keeping up my amusement whilst spending all week at camp. And with my spirits high I am confident I’ll make a great recovery and roll into another week of jungle madness.

Adios!