Day One
Set off from Turrialba bus station to San José with Blue and Tess at 7am. From there we got another bus to Puriscal, where we waited for four hours for Simon. The morning and early afternoon, as with the last long wait in Puriscal, involved the park, and mostly looked like this:
We went to meet Alpha 3, the Turrisantos trek team, in the arsehole of nowhere. We trekked for a bit to try and find them and then waited for a bit. It was very pretty.
They eventually arrived and after some minor faffing, we went to sleep in a community centre, where the pups had a creative way of setting up mozzie nets. Like demolition, it was interesting from a safe distance.
Day Two
Up at 4am, leaving Tess with Alpha 3 for a bit, myself, Simon and Blue headed for La Cangreja to the Alpha 4 team. We were greeted with a banner and fruit and juice. The proposed accommodation from the Project Planning Area, across the road from the national park they were working in, was in use and looking much more homely. We chatted with them for a bit and then they brought us over to the park, where they cooked us lunch and then brought us down to a river for a bit of a splash about.
Then it was back up to the camp for dinner and chilling. After dinner we had a fantastic presentation from the pups about their time on project. Then we had a yoga session led by one of the pups. I'd never tried yoga before. It was just like an extension of the stretching I've been doing with karate for twenty years.
After yoga it was time for bed. I had to put Nirvana on in my ears. The pups appeared to have no knowledge of guitar music!
Day Three
Awoke at 5am to the sound of The Bee Gees Stayin' Alive. Maybe there was hope for their musical tastes yet? After breakfast, we headed to work on a trail in the park. During a break, I had a silly chat with one of the pups who was very desperate for a cigarette. Peata bocht:
"Ronan, do you smoke?"
"Yeah."
"I knew you smoked because I had a dream where I was talking to you and you were smoking."
"That's really weird."
"Have you got cigarettes?"
"Yeah, what are they worth to you?"
*Silence from smoker, laughter from the rest of the group*
He tried another angle:
"Do you want to go to one of the restaurants tonight?"
"I'm not bothered."
"But they sell cigarettes."
"I'm OK for cigarettes."
"What about tomorrow, when you go, are you going to the restaurant? You could get me some cigarettes then?"
"When I leave tomorrow, I'm going back to Fieldbase. I'm not coming back here to bring you cigarettes. You know you could use this opportunity to cut back?"
"I have cut back!"
In a last ditch effort, he tried the sympathy angle...
"I just want a cigarette! We've had to resort to smoking roll-ups without filters!"
"What?"
"Things are so bad we're smoking roll-ups without filters."
"Jesus Christ, will you ever man the fuck up?"
*Silence from smoker, laughter from the rest of the group*
We worked until 11am, because it got too hot. We headed back to camp, lunched, showered. The pups worked on some planning activities and I slept, read and listened to music. I was pleased to get quite a bit of my book read - The Passage by Justin Cronin.
Had a few chats with some of the pups. Stairway to Heaven started on one of their speakers. "Yay!" I thought. "There's hope for them yet!" But the dude skipped it about a quarter of the way through. He skipped to Alive by Pearl Jam. Still a great tune, so couldn't be too upset... but then he skipped that! I told him to stop skipping the good songs and then he put in earphones. Good. He could skip all the great songs he wanted without teasing me with hope of hearing a great songs from start to finish.
Tess was brought back from Alpha 3. After dinner and a chocolate drink with more sugar than legally ought to be allowed, it was time for bed.
Day Four
Up this morning at 4am to go watch the sun rise at the ranger's station in the national park. It was very lovely, apart from the bugs. The pups complained of the length of time it took the sun to rise. It occurred to me that it was the first time I'd gone out of my way to watch the sun rise. Obviously I'd still been up on occasion when the sun was rising, but that was either at Relay for Life or just getting home from a night out, I'd never specifically got up to watch the sun rise. It was nice though. We had breakfast after, then myself Tess and Blue went for a wander up a path and a stream and saw some lovely pools. Then we headed back to camp, packed our stuff, and headed back to Fieldbase, via the restaurant, which happened to have a stunning view, where I had pinto (rice and beans) and beef for second breakfast. I did not return to Alpha 4 with cigarettes.
Back at Fieldbase, I had lunch, washed clothes, had a shower, and got stuck into a blog post for publishing over the weekend. The weekend will be the end of phase one, so all the Project Managers and pups will descend upon Fieldbase for reallocation. It will be manic.
Tomorrow, I head for San José at 8am with Blue and JJ. We have to leave one of the Land Rovers in for repair at 10am, and meet the Explorers tomorrow night at the airport. The Explorers are Venturers who are only doing the second and third phases of the expedition. We'll be staying at the British School tomorrow night. Between dropping of the car and picking up Explorers, the day will involve shopping for sandals, flip flops, and a coconut ring. Then probably eating bread and cheese in a park. I can do that.
At La Cangreja, Project Manager Mel was reading a book called The Chimp Paradox. It's a life management book, which I was really skeptical of, because I always find that kind of thing to be a load of gumph. She read me a bit from it and I was surprised at myself by how much I related to it. Basically, it uses a model where people have human logic and their inner chimp which is emotional, and the book talks about balancing them.
But the bit that got me interested was about how somebody being human and using rational logic communicates with somebody who hasn't got control of their inner chimp. It really struck a chord with me, because in my old life, I struggled with presenting logic to people who just wouldn't have any of it - people who I now recognise as chimps - and because I was getting paid less, my logic couldn't go anywhere. I got back to Fieldbase, looked it up on Google Play, and it was only a fiver. If I end up working with chimps again in the future and need to get stuff through to them, it could be a fiver very well spent.
Anyway, I've to be up early to hang out in San José. Buenos noches!
Pura Vida!
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