Day 2 -Reserve Maintenance

The morning started with a yoga sessions with Linda and Paula and Monica from Texas.

Linda, Paula and Nia met for breakfast and Paula read her journal entry for day 1 and Linda read her Thought for the Day.

We then walked to the Conservation Office for the Colegio and met Walter, a graduate of the Colegio who graduated from the Colegio in his speciality of Eco Tourism. He gave us a presentation about the relationship between the Collegio and the Reserva Biologica Santa Elena. There are three agencies that work together....the Reserve, the Colegio and the Park Service. There is another reserve sponsored by children called The Childrens Eternal Forest to reclaim the forest for wildlife.

Linda and were pleasantly surprised by the change of work planned for today. We were asked if we would like to help with trail maintenance at the Reserve today because the manager of the construction project at the Collegio was not available....we were thrilled!

Walter, Nia, Linda and I jumped into a shuttle and headed for the Reserve and ,oh my gosh, it is more beautiful than I imagined.

Walter then proudly gave us a presentation and showed us videos of the animals captured at night on the cameras that had been placed at the Reserve in August.......they are the most breathtaking and exciting videos of animals I have ever seen.This was all made possible by a young tourist from the United States who raised money to purchase the cameras.

We then received rakes and followed Gabriel up the trail where he gave us our assignment....to rake up the fallen leaves that have fallen on to the gravel, pick up the leaves and throw them off to the side to make the trails safer for walking and to preserve the trails themselves.

We did that for a couple of hours and then had lunch in the cafeteria and returned to finish the project. We were surprised by a visit from Xavier from France who has been volunteering at the Reserve. He jumped in to help and we had a lovely conversation with him.

Then it was time to board the shuttle for the return trip to Santa Elena. We then walked into town and had coffee at the Common Cup Cafe. We had a lovely time talking about our day and other world happenings. The owner of the cafe told us that the small coffee growers do not like Fair Trade and they sell their coffee through the cafe and on the Internet.

We had some time before dinner and had another great dinner prepared at the Mar Inn and again talked and talked with a teacher from Texas. We then had our Goal Setting Session to better help us achieve our goals for participating in this Service Project as a Team.

Nighty' nite!

Paula