So after a magical three months in this beautiful country,
we bid Costa Rica a very affectionate farewell. We came here because we’d heard
so many great things about this luscious land and its ability to buck the
global trend and let its forests regrow, and we were rewarded with some of the
most breath-taking experiences of our entire trip.
Of course the story is never black and white-we have since
found out that in the 80s Costa Rica had the most rapidly declining forest in
the world, so it has a lot of rebuilding to do, and like with any country, it
has its own pretty severe cocktail of social and environmental problems which
it seriously needs to address. But at least its doing lots of things (in terms
of the environment) right that put many a more developed countries to shame,
and there aren’t many countries in the world who can boast protecting 25% of
their land.
So Costa Rica, your pristine beaches, your glamourous women
in their skin-tight lycra and acrylic toe-nails, your forbidding and thrilling waves,
your cheery ‘holas’ and your ‘pura vidas’, your succulent forests and their
grand old trees, your giant morphos and your tiny little bees, your beans and
your beers and your bellies full of rice, your crazy rains and your unforgiving
sunshine, your calf-busting mountains, and your icy cool streams….we bid you
not a goodbye, but a hearty “Hasta Luego”. Until next time…
Pura Vida!
Hello Emma,
ReplyDeleteI can't find an option for a personal message (I don't have Google+), so I guess this will have to go in a comment. (Hm, seems like I had to sign up even to leave a comment :( stupid system but oh well ...)
I stumbled over your blog while searching for volunteering projects in South East Asia, and it's very nice! I've read some posts here and there and they're very fun to read -- and wow, amazing pictures!! (What kind of cameras are you guys using??)
But the main reason, why I am writing this, is that I wanted to ask about how you find your volunteering projects. I am currently taking half a year off from work in order to travel. But now, after almost four months, I think that besides all the travelling I want to do something worth while for a week or 10 days or so.
But I don't want to partake in one of those voluntourism projects which are mainly about my money. I want to do something where my work is actually helpful (not minding hard physical work and such). Something with animals or nature preservation would be nice, but anything else worth while is also definitely an option.
I'm currently in Peninsula Malaysia, heading towards Indonesia and Borneo, where it seems somewhat hard to find projects that aren't commercialized. Do you maybe have any tipps on how to go about finding one?
Thanks for any input you can give me! And keep on enjoying life the way you seem to be :)
Best
Katharina
Hi Katharina, Thanks so much for getting in touch and for your lovely message. Glad you're having a great trip! I would definitely recommend volunteering-much as we love just travelling, we sometimes find it feels a little empty or superficial until we stop somewhere and get stuck in- Certainly our most valuable experiences have been our volunteering ones.
DeleteI'm afraid I can't be much help in Indonesia as we didn't head that way, but we did look for volunteering opportunities there and found it hard to find anything worthwhile.
If you're heading to Borneo and want to do some volunteering, I would definitely recommend contacting these guys to offer your help-http://www.mescot.org/ Ask for Jai or Martin (persist if you don't hear back straight away). This is an incredible community who are trying to rebuild their forest and fight an invasive weed that is threatening this beautiful lake in their community. You do have to pay a token amount for your accommodation and food, but it all goes straight back into the community and it's such a beautiful place to be. Your work will be valued so it's definitely worth it. Have a look at my blog posts from June-August to get an idea of what it's like (we actually got engaged there so it has a special place in our hearts).
If that doesn't appeal, I'm afraid we actually found it really hard to find volunteering in Borneo (which baffles me!!)-we just sent LOTS of emails to everywhere we could. Another option would be to try this website if you only have 2 weeks - http://www.workaway.info/ We've had some great experiences through this (just check the reviews).
In terms of cameras, I use a Canon 60D and Brodie was using a 5D Mark II until it was stolen in Cambodia, and since has been using a 6D...pretty hefty to carry around, and make us slightly larger targets, but we've definitely not regretted bringing them (zoom lens is a must too if you like the wildlife!).
I hope that helps, but do let me know if you want to know any more! :)
Happy travels
Emma