2010 Ralston Valley Costa Rica Program

Hola Amigos,

I am writing this blog poolside with a tropical breeze in my face and listening to waves crash against the white sand beach 50 meters away. The Ralston Valley program is on the home stretch and it has been pura vida so far!

We spent a night in the famous cloud forest of Monteverde where the group did a canopy tour consisting of 12 zip lines through the thick foliage of this beautiful microclimate. After Monteverde it was off to La Legua, our beautiful host community. Our students spent five days living with local families, working on a rewarding community service project and making friends. Our two principal projects were painting murals on a wall that faced the community soccer field on one side and the school on the other. After some serious deliberation, we decided on a sports theme facing the soccer field and a nature scene facing the school. With our artistic students leading the way, the sports side displayed a soccer player (we named him Orlando after our great local foreman) kicking a ball into a goal and the words, “La Legua,Pura Vida” carefully scripted nearby. The nature theme was very Costa Rican as a wonderful sunny beach faded into a nocturnal volcano scene. Our other large project involved mixing over 25 sacks of cement by hand to pave a section of the community gymnasium. We labored hard and took great pride in the “pools” formed as we added water to our cement and sand mix. Both projects were completed on our last day in the La Legua and look great.

When we weren’t painting or mixing cement, our students (and teachers) were busy practicing Spanish and making new friends. We played soccer, learned to make local food, milked our family’s cows and more. Members of the community, especially the youngsters, helped us with the service work and made us feel like part of the community. We were able to take an afternoon off the work to visit La Fortuna, a small town at the base of the famous active volcano, Arenal. We explored the town and bathed in the beautiful natural hot springs of Baldi resort. We were sad to leave La Legua, but felt great about the service work and more importantly, made new friends, really experienced Costa Rican culture and improved our Spanish.

We arrived at the beach yesterday and took the afternoon to swim and enjoy the perfect weather on one of Costa Rica’s most beautiful beaches. This morning we went into the national park and saw three types of monkeys, sloths, lizards and more before hitting the pristine beaches. We swam, relaxed and enjoyed a picnic lunch in this tropical paradise. Tonight we roasted marshmallows in the bonfire we made on the beach and are excited for our surf lessons tomorrow morning.

We will be visiting an ecological retreat in the rainforest tomorrow afternoon and heading back to San Jose on Easter Sunday in preparation of our return home. It has been a great adventure so far and we look forward to the rest of our journey!!!

Gabriel and Alec
Leaders