San Jaun del Sur and Parque Madaras

Last week was amazing! We arrived in San Jaun del Sur last Sunday and made our way down a nonexistant road through a river to the beautiful Playa Madaras and Parque Madaras. Parque Madaras was absolutely amazing, whatever any of us had been expecting, this was not it! Our rooms all had ocean views and we were served the best food of our entire trip here. We each even had our own double beds! The first few days we learned about permaculture and sustainable living and all the work that Tyler, the owner of Parque Madaras, had put into this project. We spent most of our afternoons playing at the beach or trying our hands at surfing. The waves there were incredible. On Wednesday, we started building two solar ovens. It was really interesting to see how they work and how these ovens were made. We all had a wonderful week and were very sad to leave on Saturday.

Saturday, we took a charter bus across the border into Costa Rica. It was around an eight hour drive, but totally worth it in the air conditioning. We got to our hostel, Costa Rica Backpackers, around ten and then spent the day Sunday exploring San Jose and shopping in all the markets. Later tonight we are going to go and watch the new James Bond movie.

Tomorrow we leave for our turtle project on the cost and will be out of contact for the week. After the project we will be spending the following week at Punta Mona, a spirital and meditation retreat place.

We all also have agreed on going to Panama for our week of free travel. We will be heading to Boca del Torro in the North of Panama on the Caribbean side.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful November!!

Melanie