Almost Home

So weve made it out of our tiny little mountain town and are in the cuty of San Jose before we catch our flight tomorrow morning. The small town of 150 people, Mastatal, was a gem with extremely friendly locals, a small bar ( the most thrilling thing to do in town) and a few other fincas that ran the same type of volunteer situation like the Iguana Chocolate.. where we stayed. We did alot of different tasks and projects but the most fun and most frequent was the biweekly making of chocolate. We made flavors from mint to ginger, vanilla to rum. mmmmmmmm needless to say we stuffed ourselves on chocolate, brownies and Choco Banano milkshakes. Sonya and I noth learned how to milk cows.. not as easy as LIdiette, the mother makes it looks (squirting out abouit a gallon in two minute the wiping the sweat off her brow and resting for a spell) but a very valuable and fun skill to assertain. I also got to ride a horse for the first time that I can remember, and a ride filled with responsibilit, driving some cattle home from the escort of anothe bull that was to be sold. My horse, having a mind of its own, i couldnt panic and had to be a very responsible rider and master to my horse. Needless to say it all went smoothly. We did many other things including carrying 50lb. palms on our backs, doing some carpentry, cutting wood, and we gave them the idea to start a plastic construction project... you see there is nothing but piling trash in the village due to the lack of garbage service. So when we proposed that you could make buildings out of this trash by stuffing them into plastic bottles and using them as bricks in an adobe or cement combination, the family was just thrilled. Hopefully we can email them and get progress photos of our plastic project.

On sundays, our day off, we just usually relaxed, but the last sunday, when the rain had held off, there was a bit of a soccer tournament in the town a couple of miles away so we watched Mastatal´s team, the galacticos, a very good team, tie in their two games. It was really fuin watching everyone from the villages there, including the two bus drivers (weve dubbed them Marioo and Luigi due to their red faces and noses and their robust mustaches). There was even a raffle for a roasted chicken. Very sad to be leaving, we headed for the beach town of UVITA on the southern coast. We had a great time there camping through rainy afternoon and nights, swinging in hammoks, biking to the beach, and working on the last touch of our tan that we will take home.
Now we are in San Jose wherewe have actually found it quite hip and metropolitan with a few museums we THOUGHT would be a great time. Most of the museos have been way too expensive, or just a bunch of stands set up of people selling things like a fair, or just not open at all. Despite our museum flops, the plazas and parks have just been splendid, especially Parque La Sabana, where we went on sunday and there were about 250 pick up soccer games going on, no joke!!! We found a nice cheap place to stay with a really friendly yet twilight zonish feel... i feel like its 40 years before. and everyone speaks perfect spanish and perfect english and are relatively young but look really old. Anyhow we are coming home tomorrow eveing and WILL be celebrating so once you get that call, come bolting over.


This here is the last blog... hope you enjpoyed it.. until our next adventure... CIao!!!!!!