Puerto Viejo de Talamanca

2018!!

The first day of the year and we were awoken by sunbeams. I couldn’t have imagined the weather to be better. It was the perfect beach weather. But first I decided to go on a walk and discover the small town to get to know the place where I actually was landed. So far I hadn’t left the Loft and even if Puerto Viejo is a very small Caribbean sea town it has a lot of interesting shops and places to go to and have different types of typical Costa Rican food for example. The whole town has only one „calle principal“ (main street) and most of the places are located at this street right beside the beach. But nevertheless, it is still very calm and a simply peaceful place to be - apart from the music that plays everywhere as for instance in restaurants, hostels, shops or private houses. Because I had all the day off I had enough time to go unhurriedly through all the shops. I could have bought so many things if it wouldn’t have been so expensive. But nearly everything is handmade and simply unique. When I came back to the hostel I immediately put on my swimsuit and jumped into the refreshing water.

The next day was the first working day and first working shift. The shifts are divided into morning shift, midday shift and evening shift and take 5 hours each. In total I have to work 5 days a week and get 2 days off. Because of the New Year's stress my boss Nicole and her husband Khalil, an American couple who runs the hostel, forgot to plan a Trainee shift for me. So I was alone in my first shift what turned out be very stressful and forced me to find always some other volunteer to help me with special cases. But thanks to my hotel experience I could manage the whole shift passably. Nevertheless it was a good experience and I learned a lot this day. At the reception you always get to know a lot of people. They are from all over the world and mostly in the same age than we volunteers.

In the evening was the weekly ladies night - TASTY Tuesday. Every evening is a ladies night in some other club - except for Wednesdays. Girls get free drinks from 10 to 11 p.m.. To get to the club we have to walk 15 minutes because it is located between two towns but the journey is worth it and we are always accompanied by one of our dogs. With a big group of volunteers and hotel guests we made our way through a jungle like environment. This is my favorite club so far. The DJ plays a mix between HipHop, Black Music and Reggaeton, people play beer pong and the club is half open so people dance under the open sky. On the way back we always get some Yuka or Empanada with cheese from a street food stall. It's like the Costa Rican Döner after a party night - simply delicious!! The hostel is always watched by our guard at nighttime, so nobody else than the hostel guests can enter the building. Because I had to get up early in the morning I made my way straight into bed.

Buenas noches!Read more