The Cloudbridge Nature Reserve, where we spent the last two weeks volunteering , lies right next to the Chirripó National Park - home to Costa Rica’s highest mountain, the Cerro Chirripó. From its summit you are supposed to be able to see both the Pacific and the Caribbean coasts on clear days. For me it was obvious: I want to walk up there!
Surprisingly I was not alone in that wish and four other volunteers joined the climb. That is where the challenge begins, though: the Chirripó National Park is limited to 60 visitors a day and the permits are sometimes sold out months in advance. One or two free places crop up now and then, but five? So we had to do the walk on weekdays rather than at the weekend as planned, so as not to let the work at Cloudbridge suffer. Jan dutifully decided to hold the fort at the nature reserve.
The registration process had been described to us by Cloudbridge manager Frank as exceedingly complicated, so that most people task an agency or a hotel with the bureaucracy. The process then turned out to be considerably simpler than expected. Only the fact that you have to collect the permit papers in person in the village the day before could have been done without. Mainly because walking down to the village (and above all back up again!) from Cloudbridge is somewhat laborious. But the permit process can hardly be blamed for us living so far off the beaten track.
On Thursday at 5 in the morning we wanted to begin the 1800-metre climb to the lodge, which sits at 3300 m. But as sure as amen in church, some people’s strengths do not lie in punctuality and time management… At 5:45 we finally set off - and sadly not at all at the pace I had imagined for the walk…
My attempt to pick up the pace by setting a good example failed miserably. At the beginning we still saw the odd little group of walkers, but before long we were alone in the wide open. Our average speed was under 2 km/h!
Our slow pace was not only down to a lack of fitness, though, but above all to the fact of travelling with biologists. Who would have thought that every single bird is interesting?! I can understand it with hummingbirds or brightly feathered birds, but when they are simply black or brown?!?
Admittedly, though, at my preferred walking pace I would also have missed all these lovely lizards.
After more than nine hours of walking (for a stretch estimated at six hours on average), we did finally arrive at the lodge, as the last group. And what a beast of a lodge it is! With 52 beds spread exclusively across 4-person rooms, it is simply enormous!
Finally time to put our feet up and above all to go to bed early, because our plan was to enjoy the sunrise from the summit. Since that lies a full 5 km from the lodge and the sun rises here at an ungracious 5:10 am, that meant: off we go at 2:30. Or rather, since we evidently did not count among the fastest, our plan was to leave at 2:15. But I have already said my piece on the subject of punctuality…
Sadly I could not sleep at all, not for a single minute, absolutely none. For no particular reason. So I also noticed that it kept raining all night long. At 2 as well, when our alarms went off. At 2:30 as we set off walking. At 3:30 as the climb got steeper. And all the more at 4:30 for the final part, where you practically climb up the mountain. Oh, and it was properly windy too, by the way. And properly cold. And the good wind blew my double layer of ponchos around my ears, so they no longer contributed to my rain protection either.
But at least: we stood on the summit right on time for sunrise. Only the sunrise was somehow not on time. Strictly speaking it never came at all. Instead we looked into a grey wall of fog. I would venture to say: you could not have had worse luck… Besides us, incidentally, about four other people had been optimistic enough to make the climb despite the rain…
Chilled to the bone, I walked back to the lodge as fast as I could. That was simply not the moment to adapt to the general group pace. Once at the lodge, in dry clothes with a coffee and a slice of cake for breakfast, I felt a great deal better straight away.
I tried to get the way back from the lodge to Cloudbridge over with just as quickly. Walking the same route you already know from the way out is simply too boring. I paid for not taking a break, though, with thick swollen ankles the next day…
At least there was a proper burger as a farewell meal in the evening. Except that Jan was the only one to order the Chirripó burger, which you really only earn by climbing the mountain of the same name.
And with that our two weeks of volunteering are already over. A short verdict: I had expected more from it. I really wanted to try volunteering and could imagine doing it more often during our journey. Cloudbridge is a beautifully laid out nature reserve with many interesting animals. The site where we lived is close to paradise as well. A bit much rain, but that is simply part of the cloud forest.
But I had the feeling that we were not really doing anything meaningful or necessary for the reserve. The reforestation is more or less complete; now a bit of research is done and now and then a school class or student group visits. On the whole, though, it comes across as rather unambitious and barely exploits the nature reserve’s potential. There is also no volunteering concept. After all, no volunteer sacrifices their time out of boredom, but to contribute something of value or to learn something.
Beyond that I found it hard to give up the freedom over my daily routine I have gained in recent months and to be ready and waiting at 7 every morning. By that I do not mean it was physically hard to get up early, but rather that it was mentally hard to give up shaping my own day for something whose added value I could not see.
I would not rule out volunteering again during our journey. But next time we would not commit to two weeks from the outset.
From Cloudbridge we travelled together with Alice, whose volunteering time ended at the same time as ours, to Costa Rica’s Pacific coast, to the small surf town of Dominical. The place basically consists of one street lined with hostels, cafés and surf schools running along the beach. Camila had come there straight from the Chirripó climb as well. I was actually tempted to take surfing lessons again, but in the end I was too sluggish. And so we spent a lazy weekend there, feasting our way from beach bar to beach bar.
By now we have already moved on to the next place, Quepos, or rather to Manuel Antonio National Park. Hopefully we will finally see sloths tomorrow! Where is the sloth emoji?!?