30 Going On 13

By Julia

Coopesilencio, Costa Rica

It doesn`t come as a shock to anyone in 21st Century USA that Tom and I are a cohabitating unmarried couple. Thanks to the astronomical rental fees in Jackson Hole (and, of course, the mutual fondness), Tom and I moved in together after a mere 5 months of dating. It was a leap of faith, but it felt right. And happily for us, we`ve found this living situation so amicable that we see fit to continue with it into the conceivable future.

We`ve spent this week in Coopesilencio, a beautiful, quaint farming cooperative in the Central Pacific region of Costa Rica. We came here primarily because they have a well-known wildlife sanctuary that cares for injured, vulnerable and confiscated wildlife. The co-op also sustains itself with a large African Palm plantation, small dairy, poultry farm, and vegetable gardens.

View of the African Palm plantation

The community of 500 is also heavily involved with eco and agro-tourism. They have a gorgeous thatched-roof lodge and matching cabins that attract tour groups, university students and tourists who come to learn about the way of life at Coopesilencio. Their volunteer program houses participants with homestay families and incorporates them into daily life at the co-op. Volunteer wake at 5:30-6am and work alongside the farmers until the afternoon rains begin.

Julia with her homestay family

They are also quite Catholic here. You can guess what that means for this cohabitating, SINFUL duo from the United States. We were promptly placed with separate families and meant to act like a proper, courting couple.

Our main project this week, besides trying our best not engage in anything that could be construed as `funny business`,was to help Coopesilencio vamp up its volunteer program. Tom and I spent our first couple days taking tours of each project site and worked one day at the wildlife refuge. That basically required us to chop fruit for the macaws, capuchin monkeys, spider monkeys, toucan, and parrots at the sanctuary. I think the labor was a little below Tom`s pay grade, now that he`s a Master and all, but not that far below it, because he is a biologist.

Tom making friends

So to aid in improving their volunteer program, we wrote up a welcome packet for volunteers to recieve when they arrive. It details the town amenities and how the daily schedule runs at Coopesilencio. In order to increase their online presence, Tom and I created a website, which will hopefully bring them many volunteers in the future!

Although we had a wonderful stay at Coopesilencio, tomorrow we are moving on. This is partly because Tom and I are anxious to once again act like a couple pushing 30 instead of a couple pushing 13. The other reason is that Juan Carlos and Lucia, my homestay parents, did us the huge solid of calling up the Catholic Church in Quepos and inquiring about their wedding schedule. We have been invited to one tomorrow! If all goes well, our next post will be our first wedding blog. I`m so excited to see a Costa Rican wedding!

After the weekend, we will be making our way up to the greener (in this case, cheaper) pastures of Nicaragua. A note to budget travelers: Costa Rica is EXPENSIVE! Before we came to Coopesilencio we were getting by on two meals a day to stay within budget. They say Nicaragua is what Costa Rica was like 30 years ago, so off we go!