Push to Progress: A Journey Well Worth It.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit Piedras Blancas, a Metizo community tucked away deep in the rainforest. Our organization has been working with the Lopez Family (18 children) for quite some time and many of the children are guides for our courses we run in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama. The reason for our trip to Piedras Blancas was not only to have the opportunity to see the beautiful place, but also to enjoy their annual fiesta to raise funds for the little school located there.

I went with a few of my collegues as we took a 4 hour journey to San Isidrio. We stayed at one of our instructors parent's house where we were treated like royalty even though it was the first time we met them.

The following day was a long journey but well worth it.

We got in the back of a bright green Land Rover from the 80's and made our way up the mountains as I stood on the back bumper, enjoying the views of the valleys and ocean which I could see off in the distance. After about a 2 hour ride on the back bumper we arrived to Brujo - a town of about 200 people.

From Brujo we made the 18km hike to Piedras Blancas. The hike was intense, we left Brujo at 12 noon so the steep inclines combined with the intense heat of mid day made it pretty difficult.

Quite a bit was going through my mind during that hike - like - I hope I have enough water, I really don't want to see one of the very many extremely venemous snakes right now, and I can't believe I am hiking through the rainforest in Costa Rica.

We finally made it and this is what I came across - Antony trying to control a calf. He was having an extremely difficult time as the calf pulled him all about the field - a good glimpse of life in the middle of a rainforest.

Next I came across Antonio, Antony's father. He was busy cutting up the just hunted wild boar (something similar to a boar). I knew I was really far out in the country.

After settling in for some time and meeting several of the 18 children of the Lopez family we jumped in the nearby river and enjoyed the refreshing water for a few hours.