Raking our way to the top

We started the day by getting up early for an activity the group has been waiting for since the trip began. After catching taxis at around 6:45am, we left downtown shortly after 7:15 and made the 15 minute drive to Sky Trek - the local zip line course. We got our gear, heard some directions, and then headed out to the first line. There was no practice run, as we have had in the past. We made our way through eight zip lines, three of which were tandem runs. Fiona and I did not have enough speed on a run together, and we had to manually get to the finish line. Embarrassing? Sure. Fun? I suppose it was.

Only about 60 minutes after we began, we were finished. The longest line was about a half mile long, and others were up to a third of a mile. Still, it does not take a long time to travel from one end of a line to the other. We headed inside for a snack and relaxed a bit before going to the school.

The remainder of our morning consisted only of dragging supplies into the forest and raking leaves off the trail.

We had a nice sized lunch break. I took a group of five students for a hike up to the kiosk - a structure I helped to build some seven years ago. While we did that, another group visited a 2nd grade classroom and a few of our other students joined the kids for soccer.

After lunch, it was back out to the trails. We started raking again as a group. So much raking. Really, we raked a lot. In fact, this time, we raked a trail we never saw before. The path kept increasing in elevation, and we ended up spending about 30 minutes climbing further after we stopped raking. The hike ended up serving as a considerable workout. Somehow, we ended up at the very same kiosk my group had visited a couple hours earlier, but we came from a different direction. Needless to say, our group left the forest tired.

Not too tired, though! Ten of the students joined me and Trini for a dance class with, by all indications, an excellent dance teacher. He only spoke Spanish, but we knew what he meant and learned by watching. Everyone had a great time - even me, and I generally find it tough to express the extent of my distaste for dancing. We danced an hour away, and then we took taxis back to our home stays.

James and Nick decided to forego the dance class and head home on the buses. James spent his afternoon organizing a big soccer game with our students, their host brothers and sisters, and others. They should be playing right now. All is well in Monteverde.

We will go to the school tomorrow one last time. We will enjoy a party after working through the morning and then depart for La Fortuna, our last stop before flying home Monday.

Unless the wind knocks out internet again, photos should all be up by late evening. Below is a group shot from just before the first zip line.