A Day in the Life

We left our jungle cabin in Costa Rica more than two weeks ago so it´s high time I recount our time volunteering...

We posted a lot of pictures on Facebook of all the cute and fuzzy critters we worked with at the Jaguar Rescue Center. This definitely was a highlight of volunteering, but our time in Costa Rica wasn´t all baby sloths and monkeys. We worked our asses off, faced the challenges of living off the grid, paid ridiculous amounts of money for basic groceries, and at times, were genuinely concerned for our safety.

To paint you a picture of our time in Puerto Viejo, I´ll walk you through a typical day in the life of Joy and Chris´s time in the jungle.

Each morning at 5:30 a.m. we were awakened by cacophony of howling monkeys, barking dogs, and crowing roosters. Annoying? Yes. An effective alarm clock? Absolutely.

We´d lie in bed until about 6 a.m., convincing ourselves that we could get a few extra minutes of sleep, which never happened. We´d withdraw ourselves from our mosquito-net coccoon and prepare for the day. First we´d boil water to make coffee using our weird coffee sock, then we´d open the shutters in our kitchen to welcome in the morning sights and sounds of the jungle.

We´d enjoy our coffee and breakfast on our deck each morning. We were greeted by toucans roosting in the trees in the distance, lorakeets squawking, and howler monkeys calling out from the emerald green tree tops. Oh, and we always got a kick out of neighbors who had no problem singing and talking loudly at 6 a.m.!

After breakfast we´d pack up our lunch, our garbage (may I remind you, you can not flush toilet paper down toilets in most of C.A. so all t.p. goes in the garbage... sweet), and recycling from the night before and head down the mountain for our 25- minute walk to work.

We prided ourselves on our promptness. We were to be at the center at 8 a.m. and usually arrived 15 minutes early. The minute we arrived at work we´d throw down our back packs, and start the daily grind.

In the morning we´d grab a rake and start cleaning up the jungle leaves in the yard, a Sisyphusian task that we nonetheless found ourselves enjoying and apparently we were pretty good at it too -- is raking a viable skill to add to my resume??

If we weren´t raking in the morning, we were cleaning out animal enclosures. This was actually the first chore we did at the center... First day we met our super cool and chill boss, Joel; he told us to grab a rake, some disinfectant, and a few rags, and showed us the sloth enclosure.

In addition to two, three-toed sloths, living in the enclosure were a five-foot iguana and a rather large and one-winged hawk named Wingie. Entering into a cage with a bunch of wild animals was rather daunting, but no better way to learn than by diving right in, no?

After cleaning and spiffing up all the cages for the first tour at 9:30 a.m. we either continued raking for TWO hours, baby sat sloths, or kept the baby monkeys company.

Because the larger female monkeys preferred male humans (the females are alphas and considered human females a threat) Chris was on monkey patrol more often than I was. I was OK with this. I was a supreme sloth baby sitter. I know what most of you are thinking... how hard could it be to baby sit sloths?? Well, let me tell you it`s rough!

Two kinds of sloths live in Costa Rica, two-toed and three-toes sloths. Three-toed sloths are very docile and slow moving. They never attack humans and even a full-grown wild three-toed would pose no threat to a human. Two-toed sloths on the other hand are a whole other story! They have strong claws and razor sharp teeth that they use to defend themselves. They hiss, and move surprisingly quickly. Now imagine trying to pick up one of these bad boys using only your bare hands and a blanket!

At the end of our three weeks volunteering I was a master sloth wrangler. I learned quickly who were the trouble makers. Little Lola, a six-month old, five-pound two-toer caused the most problems. She was fast and curious and did not like being messed with. Shocking that such a small cute critter could be so terrifying! Then there was Andrea, a heaping chunk of a sloth who was ready to be released into the wild. During the day she´d sleep lazily in the sun, but when it came time to bring her into her night time enclosure she was PISSED! I was never able to wrangle her myself.

So while I was watching sloths, Chris spent a lot of time with the 12 baby howler monkeys. These little guys and gals were quite a handful! They´d crawl all over Chris´s head, constantly attempt to escape, and thought nothing of pooping and peeing on him! He managed to adapt quickly and in just a few days was best chums with the two biggest monkeys.

When the last tours of the day were over at 12:30 p.m., it was baby monkey jungle play time. The monkeys knew when it was play time and would gladly jump on the shoulders of volunteers to head out to their jungle tree.

Chris and I got to do this several times and it truly was an amazing experience. One day a wild monkey climbed down a tree, sat in my lap and started eating fruit from a tupperware container! Turns out she had been released into the wild a few months ago and was still used to humans, which hopefully will change, since trusting humans could lead to trouble.

So once the monkeys were out in the jungle, we`d head back to the center and clean enclosures, feed the animals, and make sure everything was ready for the next day... then we´d head home dirty, stinky and sweaty and prepare to start the whole thing over again.

So that´s about it for a typical day at the center. We did this four days a week for 8-9 hours a day. Would I do it again? In a second. In addition to working hands on with animals, the people we worked with were awesome: our fellow volunteers, our boss Joel and his buddy Eugene, and the other staff members who worked their asses off.

Chris and I did have mixed feelings about Puerto Viejo. Our mountain cabin was beautiful and I grew to appreciate the peace and tranquility of living deep in the jungle. Having very sweet considerate neighbors who went out of their way to watch out for us was also nice. What wasn`t so cool was the combo of high crime and high prices in the surrounding area. The two just don´t mix.

So that´s about it for our volunteer experience. It left a huge impression on us and will definitely be a higlight of our trip.

We really need to be better about posting on our blog more often. I feel like I´m leaving out so many stories from Costa Rica. Who knows, maybe we´ll write a short story about our experience.

Chris has posted about our last few weeks in Nicaragua, so we´re pretty caught up... we´re heading to Leon tomorrow and then will spend a few days on the isolated beaches in NW Nicaragua. Have I mentioned how much I love peace and quiet? :)

Adios mis amigos!!!