(Incredible) adventure to Chirripo

Sorry for the delay in blog entries!! I am in the process of writing about everything thus far, so the blog will be caught up soon!! This entry is about our awesome adventure to Chirripo.

Starting at 6am in the morning, 24 people from the community of Tuis and us interns pack into the bed of a big truck ready for an adventure to the mountains of Chirripo. The ride took us through beautiful green mountains where we were able to see the smoke spewing out of a volcano in the distance. I was standing up for most of the ride, holding on as we drive on very bumpy dirt roads. On the way we stop by the last town before the mountains, this town has a clinic where a lot of the people from the indigenous villages walk many hours for help. From there we pick up a woman and her 3 children who are from the village we were headed to.

Shortly after, the road ends and we hop out with all our backpacks and 15 ft. planks of wood. The wood was brought for the construction of a house in the village. Each man was responsible for one plank and every two women were responsible for one. So Ali and I start carrying two planks between us (lets just say this definitely adds to the level of difficulty for this trek.) Each plank weighed about 10 lbs each. The hike was very strenuous, from the very beginning we inclined down 3,000 ft in less than two hours. The landscape is incredible- it looked like the Lord of the Rings movie meets the rainforest. I absolutely couldn’t believe my eyes.
After inclining down two mountains, we reach the valley where the path runs near a river. The path crosses the river over 15 times, and when rock jumping became to difficult I would just step right through the river. Dry feet are so overrated! Towards the end of the hike the river became very wide with some strong rapids. So, conveniently the locals constructed a zip line made of tree trunks and branches to cross the river. It was so interesting to see everyone zip across the line sitting on little woven bands. Incredible! So with us on the hike, there are a handful of indigenous people carrying things into the village with us. When we got to the river, they just crossed it like it was nothing, helping to carry all the boards across. Another incredible sight! Shortly after the zip line we arrive to the village. Wohoo! We all were very excited to have endured 6 hours of hiking, to release the boards, and that we made it to our destination!

The village was very small with a few wooden/bamboo houses, many chickens, stray dogs, and pigs running around. The majority of the people in the area speak a language called cacvec, but some also speak Spanish. The language is very interesting and not similar to Spanish at all! After we ate some food and got our things organized, we walked 15 minutes to the other part of the village. Upon arriving, we saw 3 structures- 2 houses and a gathering place- and another one being built by a handful of people from California! The people were building a church for this area, and would hold evening times of worship and show parts of the Jesus film. Every night from all over the region, people come to this event. It was incredible to see these people come and sing under the candlelight.
The next day we all were pretty sore and tired, but ready to serve in some way- most of the guys started building a house with the wood we had brought to the village, and most of us girls played with the kids. We brought some crayons with us and colored on the wooden benches. Then two girls started washing the hair of the women and girls, while Ali and I french-braided the girls’ hair. They all were very excited for something new; it was great to see their smiling faces!

After lunch, we gathered our backpacks and headed back the way we came. The hike back seemed easier for the first couple of hours until we hit the upward climb of the hike at which we hiked up the steep hills (some at over 45 degree inclines) for over 2 hours. This part of the hike was definitely challenging, but great when we finished and were back on top of the mountain.
It is very difficult to sum up this experience into writing, but I hope I explained it well. What an incredible experience! And for this I feel so blessed.