Last day in Uvita

Happy Father's Day!  We had a little extra time to sleep this morning and the group took full advantage of it.  Breakfast was at 7:15 because our community service project was just up the road.  We left at 7:45 for Playa Hermosa.  Normally the Rustic groups clean up the beaches in the national parks; however, with 3 other Rustic groups currently in the area, Bahia Ballena was looking pretty good.  Playa Hermosa is a busy beach located between Uvita and Dominical and it is particularly busy on a beautiful day like today.  Lots of families celebrating together.

Playa Hermosa

We split up into groups of 4 and 5 and we were assigned different sections of the beach.  I worked with Ben, Ryan, Marley, and Alyson.  Our area was primarily in the shade around the entrance.  They have a couple little stands selling coconuts, ceviche, popsicles, cold drinks, etc.  90% of our trash was plastic straws.  They put a hole in the coconut and give everyone a straw to drink the coconut water.  The coconuts get tossed in a pile because it's organic waste.  But the straws were everywhere.  We found a lot of candy wrappers and bottle caps as well.  Once our area was clean, we moved toward the beach.  We found one Croc shoe, a plastic letter "A," and other odd items.  Other groups found a large metal bucket, boots, shoes, plastic clothespins, and a plastic toy cow.  Our bags were pretty heavy considering that most of it was small plastic items and wrappers- all that stuff adds up.

We took a break to use the bathroom, to drink more water, and to eat bananas and ice cream.  The groups got back together and we moved down the other side of the beach.  This time around the weirdest things my group found were a child's flip flop and a toothbrush.  The three hours of work went by quickly thanks to each other's company, watching the thousands of hermit crabs move around, following the trails of leaf cutter ants, and looking for iguanas sunning themselves on the branches.  We ended up with 4 FULL bags of trash, primarily plastic and foam, and actually had some of the Ticos applauding our efforts.

A few of them swam with the half hour of free time before lunch.  Lunch was special today because of Father's Day: it was a special chicken and rice dish that is a traditional Costa Rican meal.  We are celebrating our bus driver, Marco, today because he can't be home with his two kids and we can't be home with our families.  Marco takes very good care of our group!

Surfing lessons didn't start until 3:30, so everyone participated in their favorite past times until then: playing cards and swimming in the pool.  Today was probably the hottest day since we've been here, so they didn't last as long in the pool or playing cards outside.  We met briefly to recap our community service experiences.  It was encouraging to hear them reflect on how just little things, or on how just a little bit of time, could make a big difference.  Hopefully they are compelled to do some projects back home based on what they saw and felt over the last week.

We hopped on the bus up to Dominical for our last surfing lesson of the trip.  It's been great to see the students' interactions with their surf instructors.  They have actually grown pretty close in just a few days, some of them with their own handshakes and inside jokes.  We had better weather than yesterday.  It was very hot, but there was a nice breeze on the water and eventually the clouds rolled in.  The downpour waited until our last 5 minutes on the beach.

Our lesson was from 3:30 until 5:30, resulting in a race back to the hotel to see the game.  We had to stop at the grocery store first to pick up snacks for the game and for the bus ride tomorrow.  We managed to make it in and out of the grocery store in under 15 minutes (an absolute miracle with our hungry crew) and only missed a few minutes of the start of the game.

The game was on in every single room until dinner at 7.  It was a pleasant surprise when we showed up at the restaurant and they had the came on for us!  We enjoyed our salads and lasagna through the second quarter.  Another Rustic group came in and their leader had on a LeBron jersey.  He's a Spanish teacher at Brady Middle School (Orange's school district) and was born and raised in northeast Ohio.  Small world!  It was nice to enjoy part of the game with other Cleveland fans.

After instructions for tomorrow, it was a mad dash back to the rooms to continue watching the game.  With every big play, you can hear loud cheers from the first and second floor.  I'm going to wrap this up and post it before the end of the game so I can enjoy a little of it :)

Tomorrow we head up to Turrialba.  It will be a 5 to 6 hour drive from Uvita.  There aren't any big highways in Costa Rica, so it's kind of like driving through West Virginia only using back roads.  They get to sleep in after the game and we'll leave around 9 AM.  The plan is to bring boxed lunches to minimize the amount of time spent off the road.  We hope to arrive in Turrialba between 2 and 3 PM, which will give the students a few hours to explore the town and shop for something other than Oreos and Milanos.

I'm not sure what the WiFi connection will be like at the next hotel, but I will let you know ASAP when we arrive in Turrialba.  Pura Vida and GO CAVS!