four legs good: October 2007

welcome to asis! a small private wildlife sanctuary/education center near la fortuna in central CR. volunteers work directly with animals and help out around the property. they also offer private spanish classes and do environmental educational outreach to the local community and schools. their goal is to encourage locals to learn to live in harmony with nature and focus on conservation. when we were there they didn't have facilities to house volunteers so we stayed with a host family down the road. all my many pictures live here.

the main asis building as seen from across the pond. the whole place looks pretty much like this, carved out of the jungle so as to make as low an impact as possible.

the porch/classroom/nature viewing/afternoon nap/work table/lunch/coffee break area

resident lora (parrot) giving a lesson in the main room.

dr. marilyn and alvarao del castillo, owner of asis, greeting the 3 resident spider monkeys. locals sometimes take baby monkeys from the wild because they're cute, but then abandon them when they grow up. releasing them is tricky because they become comfortable around humans who use them as target practice. in the case of these guys, they have a better chance of making it in captivity than getting shot while going through someone's garbage. asis's long-range plan is to build bigger more naturalistic exhibits for all its residents.

the home of our host family, sabrina and carlos. they didn't speak a word of english and our spanish is not great, so it was a good thing they were such cool people. we managed to communicate pretty well, with lots of smiling and laughing and looking stuff up in our dictionary. sabrina made all our food, yum. the house was sweet and comfy, and very intimate. the walls didn't reach the ceiling so none of the rooms were soundproof, which was fine except when we came home after they went to bed and had to tiptoe around the house. certainly not a choice for those who aren't comfortable in close quarters with relative strangers, but a great way to experience local culture and make new friends.

sabrina, the cutest woman in costa rica

sabrina's nephew jose-andreas, the cutest kid in costa rica

nena the young howler monkey. her parents were killed and she came to asis as a baby. my baby . . .

helping to build a new ranchito for an outdoor classroom in the jungle on the asis property. the little parrotlet on my shoulder is telling me which big rusty nails to pull out this splintery wood. the red dots on my arm are bites from tiny little black ants that thought i was delicious.

framing the new ranchito

hubby thad the wheelbarrow king

this is benjamin the kinkajou, a nocturnal prosimian. during the day he sleeps in this cat carrier on the upper floor of the central building and at night he gets let out to climb around in the jungle.