Backpacking Trip 2010

I´m leaving Monteverde tomorrow at 8am! I´m headed to Arenal for what is to be a four week volunteer work exchange program! The destination is Rancho Margot, a working ranch near Lake Arenal. I´m told I´ll be bartending! I´m going to be working six days a week, six hours a day, in exchange for free three meals a day, housing, and complete complimentary use of the facility and amenities during  my off time (which include free yoga, horseback riding, etc). I am greatly looking forward to working again, being productive and making myself useful. Even though I´m excited to bartend, I am going to insist on working on the ranch, getting my hands dirty. I can not believe my good fortune in getting accepted to do this! I´ve heard from many people who come to Costa Rica to stay with a host family to learn spanish, people who just come to Costa Rica to volunteer with various projects. I have no idea why I hadn´t heard about staying with host family’s, etc, before, as I would´ve wanted to do something like this, myself. I am just thrilled to be doing my own volunteering now, though. I hope this will be as amazing an experience as I think it will be! I will miss Monteverde though, and what this place has meant for me. I can´t get attached to any one place because I do want to see every where and if I stay in one place, I will miss out on that. I will be traveling and won´t stay in one place, but if I could, I´d seriously consider Monteverde, population 4,000! So, I´ll be in Arenal four weeks for the work exchange program, then we´ve got a losely based plan: north to Guanacaste & the beaches there, then down the coast to Santa Teresa, Montezuma, back through Monteverde (possibly), definitely back through San Jose (would greatly like to see Richard again), and then down to Manuel Antonio, then down into Panama, then down the west coast of South America (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile), over to Argentina, then back up the east coast of South America and across, then back up to San Jose where I´ll be flying back to the States. Basically, we´ll be done with the volunteer work exchange in the beginning of August, which will give us the rest of August, September and half of October to travel South America and be back again. It does not seem like enough time. It´s insane for me to even say two and a half months isn´t enough time, but it truly doesn´t feel like it will be. After all, we´ve been in Monteverde for nine days alone! I just can´t wait to see what is out there and see every thing! We´ve seen so much already and we´ve been here 22 days and only in Costa Rica! I´ve seen so much and I wish I could share it with the people back in the States. I wonder if anyone there thinks about me, because I think about them. I don´t know, I wish I knew. I think about the stuff going on back home, wondering what people are doing for the 4th (I can´t wrap my mind around the fact that it is Independence Day again already, let alone July!), and I wish I could convey to them that I am thinking about them. Traveling provides a lot of time to think and reflect. I have met many incredible people, seen unbelievable sights, tasted the most delicious foods, heard fascinating stories, laughed heartily and often, had the most enjoyable times. It is nice to do these things but it´s also nice to be able to share them with people I care about. I climbed HUGE, old fig tree today. I climbed the tree from the inside, up and out of the top. It was intense. I went ziplining a few days ago and flew through the trees, over mountain tops, and passed water falls. I flew!!!!!  I am loving mine and Katie´s time together! Equipo A y K! I feel most fortunate to have her in my life, for us to be doing this together. The people we have met have all been lone traveler´s, unless they are couples traveling together. But I haven´t met anyone who came traveling with a friend, either with their significant other or alone. So, for us to be doing this together feels pretty rare, and completely amazing. Now we´re leaving tomorrow for the next adventure in our travels! I miss everyone dearly, think about everyone constantly, but also am having the time of my life and having the best experience anyone could imagine and I wouldn´t trade it for anything in the world. Happy Independence Day!!!!!

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This entry was posted on Sunday, July 4th, 2010 at 5:58 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.