Zip line GoPro

First GoPro vid as promised :)  Zip-lining from hundreds of feet above the canopy floor.  I love my job.  The white in the back ground is a 50 foot waterfall.  It's hard to tell because the quality is poor due to the upload.

Jungle Jamz

 This garden produces 70% of what we eat on site.

 Passion fruit.  Quite alien looking if you have never had it before.

 Matt Hogan, the crazy tattooed gringo with a possibility altering vision.

 We will climb anything and everything.

 Sprinkling calcium on the trails to eat up the moss.

 Best movie theater in the world.

 Watering hole at base camp.  Awesome after a hard-days work.

 View from the office as I am writing this blog :)

 Suzie and Stephanie.

 Oso.  He's much less scary in person.

 The A-Team of voluteers!

 Building a shelving unit for the bunk house.  Dad, I hope you dig it!!!

 Wood pecker.

 Tree frog.

 Andres killin' it.

 Finished product.

 Boards + Waves + Cold Beer + Costa Rica = Heaven.

 The Sensei teaches.

 His pupils learn.

 Erica tight roping like a champ!

 We don't call him Sensei for nothing...

Style with ease = Steez


What a whirl wind life is… so many things happen in every minute millisecond. Outlook morphing, value shaking, plan altering revelations come to life at least 20 times a day. I have been learning so much about life and what’s important, I will do all I can to hold onto these gems when I return to the “bump and grind” (laughable if you know anything about the Butte!). I need to remember the soft sounds of the birds in the canopy and waddle of the lizards along the rock trails as I sit in fat tire to fat tire traffic on my townie bicycle this summer.

It is quite rejuvenating to laugh until you cry over things that consumed your life as a kid. Having a juggle session with the soccer ball in the wet grass. Getting blasted in the gut with the ball as Andres tries a goofy round house kick to keep the rally alive. We recently hung a slack line in the center of base camp. For those of you who don’t know, a slack line is an inch wide rope tied between two trees. The goal is to channel all of your ninja focus and circus talent and walk along this line, pivoting at the ends to do it all over again. Chris and I are hooked! It is such a cool setting too. You feel like Mr. Miagi from Karate Kid is sitting by offering words of encouragement as he cracks his bamboo rod when you fall yelling, “AGAIN!” The slack line is tied between an almond tree and two bamboo trees. There are no planes flying overhead. No buzz of traffic. Just you, the birds, about one billion insects, and your breath. Beautiful.

The bunkhouse (or Funkhouse to those that are down with the get down) is fully packed with hard working volunteers. Chris and I are living it up with The Oso, Suzanna (down to earth chick from Texas) and Andres (super positive ultimate chiller from Canada). Loving the family we have put together here at the finca. The cackle of laughter and clinks of cocktail glasses can be heard from one side of the valley to the other.

We are getting so much done here at the finca. Andres and I built a shelving system for the Funkhouse that includes six shelves and a bamboo rod for hanging clothes and the like. The Oso and Suzie have been kicking butt whipping up tasty treats in the kitchen and tending the garden. Chris, Andres, and I just started our biggest project yet…Re-working the trail system. It has been a lot of fun so far and our goal is to never have another hiker ask, “um…where am I?”

I bought a new surf board shred stick during our little surf get away last week. Matt, Erika, Andres and myself cruised up north to a town called Esterillo where we stayed in a hotel with a beach break out front. Life is good!

Thanks for keeping up reading this jumble of a blog. Please check out the www.fincabellavista.net website for more updates. There was a HUGE American Eagle photoshoot here just before Chris and I showed up. A few days ago the AE summer ad campaign launched with shots of supermodels giving you their “blue steel” all over the finca. It will be plastered all over Times Square in New York City for the next three months! Matt and Erika are so stoked and we couldn’t be happier for them. Please check out www.ae.com for the inside scoop. Much love to all!

“Rock on Rockers.” -Oso Polar

NEW VIDEOS!!!

Please watch the following:

Awesome look into what the finca is all about.

http://vimeo.com/22217881


American Eagle Video release (will run in Times Square)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY6gnYjUps4&feature=player_embedded

American Eagle photo shoot

www.ae.com

American Eagle just finished up a beautiful photoshoot a few weeks ago at the finca.  Super models. Entourage of 60 people doing wardrobe and make up.  The whole shabang!  There will be an ad running in Times Square in New York City for the next three months.  We're kinda famous now.  NBD :)

Oh and check out the finca website too.  There is a pretty picture of the new volunteers!

www.fincabellavista.net

Pura Vida

 

Space ship cloud shooting lasers over Texas.  Maybe I'm watching too many Star Wars movies...

1st view of Costa Rican mountainous country side.

Tranquilo, the first hostel we stayed at in San Jose.

Imperial, the New Castle of Costa Rica.

About to hop the ferry to the Nicoya Peninsula and Santa Teresa/Mal Pais.

Serenade of "Juantanamera" during dinner

View from inside our romantic bamboo cabana at Minihostel in Santa Teresa.

Heaven.

Chillaxin.

Kimbo Slice, the racist Finca bulldog.

Base camp.

Journaling...not keeping a diary.  Diaries are for girls.

Jeff (aka Oso Polar or Polar Bear) wrangling a Eyelashed Pit Viper in the kitchen.

Eyelashed Pit Viper.  Extremely dangerous but oh so pretty.

Sorry for the delay everyone! The internet signal is short and sweet here in the jungle. Cannot believe we have been on the move for a week already. So much has happened already…it would be impossible and boring to all our loyal followers to write it all out. I am going to go twitter style…short excerpts of writing with a majority of pictures/videos. Please provide feedback if you like it. So much is going on that it would be quite taxing to write every adventure out in detail (even though I’d love to).

We landed in San Jose with no problems (aside from getting our super food Chia seeds taken by Costa Rican customs). Funny part about that whole situation was that they let us keep our Hemp seeds and didn’t question our bulbous bag of climbing chalk which looks exactly like a kilo and a half of Columbian snow drift. Go figure.

We stayed in a chill hostel with the fitting name of Tranquilo. We were off the next morning to an off the path surf town on the Nicoya Peninsula called Santa Teresa. The name was spot on because it seemed like Santa himself would park his sled in the sand and admire the peeling blue waves and golden brown senoritas. Sleeping surf shack attendants spotted the coast as they “worked” from their hammocks with surf magazines in hand and eye lids half ajar.

After renting boards, Chris and I headed for the beach where the waves got progressively more inviting over the next 3 days. Chris was shralping so hard that he stood up on his board and cruised his first day out! We were yipping and cheering each other on over the rushing sound of the white water constantly rolling into shore.

We could have stayed in Santa Teresa weeks on end but duty called. With upmost reluctance, we caught the ferry/bus back to San Jose and jumped on 6 hour bus ride to La Florida/Finca Bellavista. Finding this “off the map” destination was easier than we thought as Chris negotiated our drop off spot with perfect Spanish. We found ourselves in front of the blue and grey school house building labeled “Escuela de Florida” in red hand-painted cursive. As we were about to haul our stuff up the 4 kilometer driveway, one of our new bunkmates, Suzanna, cruised by in a taxi and picked us up. What a life saver! Climbing that steep, rocky driveway would have been a nightmare with 100 lbs of gear.

We met Matt and Erika and were given a tour of the Finca. Jeff, our bunkmaster and super awesome chef, helped us settle in. This place is breath-taking in everyway. Heaven on Earth! Simply put. The pictures will tell the story better than I can.

I will sign off put leave you with a bunch of pictures. Oh and I got on the ziplines today…with the GoPro!!! Expect videos of us ripping it up very soon. PURA VIDA.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

From Too old to live in a tree house? NEVER!