THINKING BACK TO COSTA RICA

Last summer Moe and I went to Costa Rica to volunteer with the organization Earthwatch. Each night, after a hard days work, we collapsed inside our tent which served as our little hideout in the forest. But on the final evening, Moe and I decided we had been spoiled with the luxuries of weatherproof tent life. As darkness fell, we crept from our camp with two foam pads and hiked a kilometre through the humid forest to the base of the Park’s monument. The huge cement platform towered above the dense canopy of lush green trees, and once we had scaled the structure, lightning flashed in the distance, illuminating the massive expanse of dark forest below and the silhouette of a billowing cumulonimbus looming over a massive volcanic mountain. Despite a chilling wind, Moe and I agreed that the once in a lifetime experience was worth the cold. For hours, we lay gazing at the stars and ignoring our goose bumps. When sleep proved difficult, one of us would cover the other with his sleeping pad and then lay on top of him to trap body heat. Every hour we switched. It was Mount Everest survival style. When morning finally came, we watched the sun creep over the tip of the Volcano and for the first time on our adventure could appreciate the warmth of its rays.

The other thing that comes to mind about Cosat Rica is that I can boast about my rare run-in with a creepy crawler one chumpy morning. So I got out of bed, and started get dressed- as usual- As I'm typing here I still get goosebumbs because I remember the exact sharp feeling I experienced as I put my dainty footsie in my shoe. '¡Joder! ¡Que coño es eso!' Out crawled the slithering slimy scorpian who had just finished sticking his thorned tail into the sensitive skin right under my big toe nail! So how many of you can say you have neen stung by a scorpion, eh!?