21st March 2010.
Dear All,
We seem to be back in routine after an exciting month away. The new premises in Ecuador are much nicer than the old so it did not seem so bad abandoning all the work we did before. Dave and Ana have a 3 story house plus basement with two separate bungalows which have been turned into classrooms. In addition, there are other outhouses in various states of repair, one of which houses the “Latin Link” dentist. The garden currently includes five large avocado trees, several citrus bushes as well as figs, custard apples and peach trees. Humming birds visited daily and condors circled above doubtless waiting for a “gringo” to collapse.
Mano e ManoOur initial charge was to build a sort of grandstand to shelter parents when they have open and community days. This would have been taxing without metal work but we spent a day planning and quantity surveying before they changed their minds and we turned our attention to building a classroom on the site of a damp rubbish dump and making an adjoining building waterproof. The tasks also included digging a soak away, repairing leaking roofs and rewiring areas with dodgy electrics. In addition, John and Jen were temporarily seconded to the nearby catholic school to install electricity in their classrooms. I was mainly in charge of the cement mixer and this is quite good for the figure at that altitude and in those temperatures.
Initial site 
Nearly completed
I had been asked to take out some vegetable seeds and was happy to establish a vegetable garden. Radish emerged in four days and French beans in a week! A first for me was planting a banana tree.
If it is any consolation for those of you who were feeling the cold, insect activity was intense and both Jen and Jean-Claude were bitten so badly that they needed medical attention. Also we spent quite a lot of time being wet, not just from sweat but we arrived during carnival and a quaint tradition is to squirt folk with shaving soap and then empty buckets of water over them. In addition, the culmination of the children’s holiday clubs was a quiz where correct answers were rewarded with the opportunity of throwing water over an Englishman.
Costa Rica was very exciting, after meeting up in the capital San Jose (including Kate flying out from a freezing UK) we spent a day there before we travelled to five other sites in contrasting regions. There were 11 in our group representing Canada, USA, South Africa, Germany and 6 from the UK. Our guide Alan was only 21 but excellent. We used public transport mostly which was a challenge as it was usually crowded. First stop was Tortuguero on the Caribbean coast, which necessitated a boat ride as there were no roads. This area is famous for turtles laying their eggs on the beach (but later in the year). We arose at 5 am and took canoes round the nearby jungle and were spoilt by seeing so much wildlife during the first trip: howler monkeys, sloths, otters, river turtles, caymen, iguanas, lizards and a host of birds.
Cayman
The temperature was well over 30°C so Dave and I swam in the sea for 30 minutes before were advised to get out as someone had been attacked by a shark. We visited the turtle research centre and took a jungle walk before moving on the second site Sarapiqui in the rain forest. We stayed at a site run by a hunter turned conservationist called Alex and he was quite a character. The rain forest lived up to its named and it did not stop for 3 days – they get 240” a year! Again we explored the jungle this time via aerial walk ways but actually saw more at the living quarters as Alex fed birds and there was a constant stream.
After the rain forest we moved onto the cloud forest at La Fortuna – less rain but higher and mainly cloud covered. There is an active volcano Arenal nearby and although we climbed some way up it the skies did not clear to see the summit but we could hear it rumbling away. Dave went horse riding and we spent a happy evening in a large thermal spring site. The wild life count was mounting with spider monkeys, toucans, snakes, insects, coati, kinkajou etc.
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