Our meeting point for the induction would be the airport, and getting there proved to be a very entertaining task. I knew I could quite easily get a taxi, but a bus seemed a relatively simple and cheaper option. So I headed to the bus station and used my best Spanglish to ask the bus driver if the bus went to the airport, he never answered me and instead just held out his hand for the money... I should have seen this as a sign.
I hopped on the bus and sat intensely watching for the airport stop, as we got close rather than go the airprt the bus suddenly veered off towards Alajuela. I immediately jumped up and got off. So now I'm about a mile from the airport, I can even see the place... but I can't get to it. Standing in my path is a six lane motorway. It's now getting pretty close to the time I'm ment to be meeting everyone, so I decided to just go for it.
So I'm there with my two big backpacks running down the central reservation of this motorway in the blazing sunshine. By the time I arrived I looked like I'd been pulled through a hedge backwards. I turned up and our coordinator was like 'where the hell have you come from?', my reply was 'well, I just had to run down the central reservation of the motorway' as though it was the most normal thing in the world ;) fun times.
Once I arrived I found out it wasn't just the conservation volunteers who were in town but instead about 70 people doing various volunteer work, ranging from building house's to saving turtles, and before heading off to our various projects we would have a couple of days of induction together.
We were split across two hostels and with various people arriving across the course of the afternoon it was a good time to get to know everyone.
First night bonding session
Literally the first person I met was a guy called George, who by a crazy coincidence turned out to be from Ilkley. We quickly became thick as thieves and George would become the person who kept me sane whilst living in a cupboard in the jungle. As we were meeting everyone we were all discussing our various projects and I had to admit that because our projects had changed around so many times I actually had no clue where we were heading or what we would be doing... At which point George said 'thank god, I have no idea what we're doing either', I think that was the point we bonded.
Taking it real easy... with George breeeeeezzzyyy
George had managed to travel to Costa Rica in the rainy season with no form of waterproof clothing, so the next day we headed to a second hand store to try to pick one up. Whilst in there we couldn't resist trying on some entertaining atire. Moments after the below photo was taken we were politely asked to leave the store haha. And in hindsight it was a good job we did as our early departure from our shopping trip lead to a chance meeting with a certain someone*
Evening wear
As I say, on our return to the hostel we met a few volunteers from the other hostel who were going to go Bungee jumping at a place just outside of Alajuela. I had no intention of jumping myself but was quickly talked into going along to spectate.
The below photo shows the guy from the bungee jumping place climbing down the front of the bridge with no form of safety harness what so ever, to say health & safety doesn't exist in these places is a major understatement.
mental mental chicken oriental
This isn't me I'm quick to point out
Bungee jump spectators
In the evening we all got together for a meal and then headed to Casino for ladies night... this basically ment the girls got in for free and didn't pay for drinks... it's all very sexist in central america.
Grub
Casino entertainment
Like every good casino, no natural light or clocks on the walls
The next morning we all got up with not enough sleep, some people's wallets being significantly lighter, and headed to our various projects.
Heliconias bound
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