Life at Rainsong

Everything has been going really well here at Rainsong. Generally Jason and I take care of the farm. I start my mornings letting out the chickens and feeding them. We have about 25 baby chicks right now and I'm in love with them. They all come running to me when I enter the pen. I've never been a fan of chickens but I really enjoy taking care of them now. Then it is down to the sanctuary for baby monkey feeding and mediation. Back up the hill to the farm to feed the rest of the animals. We have a 3 hour break before afternoon shift. In the afternoon it's laid back and time to hang out with most of the animals. Several of the volunteers take the monkeys out to play on the trees. I can usually spend most of my time at the sanctuary and finish the farm in the last hour of work. At night, we have been cooking communal dinners. Everyone really enjoys it and I love the idea that we all sit with each other and have our bonding time.

On Thanksgiving a few of us went to Isla de Tortuga for a snorkeling trip. We were supposed to go the day before so we could make a big Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday night but we were rained out. The island was really nice. They take you out on a boat and it takes about an hour. We stopped for photos a couple times (waterfall, Rainbow Island) and then we reached two small islands very close to Tortuga and hopped out for a swim. I've never really snorkeled before so it was a new experience. The water was more murky than I expected but you could still see the bottom. My ears don't equalize well so I just stayed at the surface, but I still could follow many brightly colored fish around. It's strange when you look under the water and realize that these things are always under you whether you can see them or not. Our guide caught a blow fish for us all to see and take pictures. They also served us beer which was awesome and kind of nauseating at the same time (being on a boat drinking). At the island we ate a nice lunch, swam, and wandered in the sun. It was a good day at the beach. The boat ride was the best part actually.

Because we had to cancel our Thanksgiving dinner, the rest of the volunteers decided to meet up with us in Montezuma so we could go out and party. They showed up in the back of the boys pick up truck honking and hollering. The night was then filled with drinking fancy drinks, large ham-burgers, Indian food in Costa Rica, and lots of dancing to what we thought was going to be reggae night. It was more just dance remixes and reggae-ton. But we had a great time.

The next day was Edwin's birthday. The lost boys and the Swedish girls all took off for Mal Pais for their long weekend. This meant that we were down to bare minimum volunteers for the weekend. It was a bit stressful but we were able to swing out to the local island. Isla de Cabuya has a cemetery on it and you can walk to the island. At low tide there is a land bridge and at high tide the water is up to your neck (depending on your height of course). We walked out during high tide which was really nice. We didn't know exactly where the land bridge was but it never gets very deep. We actually came on to shore about 50 feet or so to the right of the land bridge. We walked through the cemetery which I really loved. Lots of fake flowers and some really interesting grave stones. There is one with two back to back heads, one with prayer hands and a propeller on the other side. You can check out the pictures on my Picasa album. Huge agave plants surrounded the cemetery. Jason and I had gone with Danielle and met Jeff, another volunteer, out on the island. We went snorkeling and saw some really neat fish. I chased one that resembled the lion fish. It would rest on the rock with its fins holding it up like paws or legs. It swan away from me and I never got a picture. Supposedly there are lobsters you can catch and eat but we never saw any. We talked about spending the night a the island one day. To catch the sunset and sunrise. Maybe even a ghost.