March

We had two hikers who decided to have a little adventure and went off the trail.  They were gone for two nights and three days lost in the forest.  The police, Red Cross, the community and the Cloudbridge volunteers were all involved in the search effort.   They were ultimately found; tired, cold, and hungry but not seriously injured.  

Our next rescue was more fun.  We received a call from residents near Rivas.  They had a sloth on their front porch and wanted us to remove it.  We decided that the area wasn’t a good location for sloths because of the lack of trees, the busy road nearby and domestic dogs.  John Titan held the sloth in the back seat of the car while we transported it a short distance to the Monte Azul Hotel property.  We felt this would be a safe site for him, away from a main road and on a property which is well forested and connects to Chirripo National park.

Scared but still smiling
At his new home

 

Three botonists from the University of Costa Rica herbarium came to Cloudbridge to help out with training in tree identification.  We spent 2 days hiking the trails, marking trees and learning about the identifying characteristics and medicinal properties. 

Annie our resident biologist organized  educational days at Cloudbridge with the students from the San Gerardo school.  They did guided hikes, nature art, and played environmental games.  We were happy to see the participation of many parents as well.

Artists at work
Students getting directions for games

 

David from Massachusetts volunteered for two days and put his carpentry skills to work.  He helped build the hydro electic bodega for the classroom.

We also had help from our two German volunteers Phillip and Alec who worked at Cloudbridge for 10 days!  They spent their time preparing lumber to be used for table construction.  They were involved in the search for the two missing hikers as well.

Sanding

 

Jasmine is an intern from a local university who is studying tourism.  She is volunteering for 10 weeks, greeting tourists and providing information about Cloudbridge

Work on the classroom continues:

Hole for septic tank dug by Alonzo
septic tank completed

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