Costa Rica: Day One

Buenas Dias!

It is now Thursday, and I have just been awakened by the hundreds of shrieking birds that live in the palm trees here at the retreat center. I arrived yesterday afternoon with 54 other volunteers and couldn´t be happier to be here. After throwing my enormous bags from bus to bus, two flights, and customs, we got on a bus from the airport to the mountains. I practiced my Spanish with our Tico driver, Olman, who proved to be a very patient fellow. He took us to a large retreat area where we were greeted by flowering trees of purple, and of course palm trees. After the sweat and heat of the San Jose airport, the cool mountain breeze calmed us all, and put smiles on our faces. We explored the grounds to find a bluff overlooking a Costa Rican sunset. As the valley filled with pinks and purples, we retired to dinner. There, we didn´t have anything particularly unique: meat and potatoes. But it was good, and we were all so hungry that anything would have been fine. After a short discussion with our PC leaders, we went to bed and slept like logs. I woke at dawn and am thinking that I could definately get used to this.

Dave