Boston City Singers Costa Rica Tour- 2015 : Summary of Monteverde

Here is a beautiful description of our time in Monteverde written by Josh Holtzman:

I knew it would be hard to say goodbye to my host family, but I didn't know just how hard it would be until the day came. As we drove away from our host house in their family truck, the dog belonging to our neighbour's house who was very beloved to all of us came running down the rocky road, trying to follow us. We called desperately for the dog to run, but no matter how hard he tried, he just never could catch up. And when we finally got to the community centre, Gabriel, one of our 3-year-old host brothers who was adored by the entire choir, ran up to me and nearly tackled me to the ground, attempting to finally win in our famous tickle-fight rivalry. When I picked him up from off the road, he commenced to call me "Loco! Loco!"-- his favourite nickname for me. After I finally peeled the hyper-energetic child from my legs, I joined the rest of the choir in lethargically climbing into the bus.

The ride itself was fairly uninteresting besides the half that was held on bumpy, unpaved roads winding up the steep mountainside slopes (yikes, talk about carsickness!) But our first destination before our hotel was much more exciting and somewhat more nauseating than the ride up-- walking the sky bridges above the cloud rainforests. Throughout the two-hour walk, we experienced the various and plentiful wildlife in the forests, the colourful and moist scenery, and, most importantly, the incredible bridges, dangling in the sky as daintily and delicately as the banana spider's web in our host family's shower (we named him Fred, by the way. Don't worry, he didn't hurt us, beside potentially scarring us mentally for life). These bridges hung many feet above the ground, only a few arms-lengths away from the green canopy of the mist- and cloud-shrouded rainforest. Honestly, it was the closest thing I ever felt to flying in my life, besides maybe ziplining (which I was honestly too busy screaming my head off to fully experience).

After leaving the luscious forest, most were just a wee bit nauseous (as our chaperone David would say). But when we arrived at our hotel, that feeling was taken away, along with our breaths. The vast hotel property was located on a large slope near the top of a mountain. We were near the top of that slope, with an absolutely stunning view--the slope below with the Pacific Ocean a few miles away at the very bottom, glistening in the pink sunset light, surrounded by the mist-shrouded mountains. For some people, probably the most glorious part of all of this was the return of AC after a week of living without it in the muggy, buggy jungle. For me, it was the buffet dinner at the bottom of the property. After a brief rehearsal and whole group games, we went to bed, ready to start our adventures in Monteverde.

With most people renewed from a night of air conditioned sleep, early morning workouts, a buffet breakfast, and dearly missed hot showers, we headed out down the mountain to explore Costa Rica's four main exports: sugar cane, chocolate, coffee, and tourism (it's true: tourism is a major source of income for Costa Rica! But not chocolate, sorry, I lied). We went to a sugarcane farm called El Trapiche, the name for the sugar cane mill. During the tour of the farm, we learned the processes of producing the three products, whilst getting tastes along the way (for Kimani, that meant all-out ripping a stalk of sugarcane out of the ground and slicing open its sweet bark inside. He eventually monopolised our consumption of sugarcane during our walk through the mountainside fields). Some of the tastes we got included the coffee and cocoa bean at various stages of its production, sugar cane (duh), a chocolate treat, and eventually, a brown sugar fudge-y treat hand-made by members of the chorus! (I was one of the lucky few who got to make it, so I'm bringing some home. Better be nice to me!)

After a delicious lunch made by members of the farm accompanied by brown sugar lemonade, we visited the gift shop where a lot of singers bought fresh grown coffee, and then we left for the Quaker school. This Quaker school dated back to the 50s, when a group of Quakers protesting the Korean War settled in Monteverde, hoping for a new life. Eventually, their school became a leading source of peace education for the members of the community. After a brief talk about this history, we joined a few students in a game of Ultimate Frisbee (my team won, obviously) and chatted with them about their experiences with the school. We then performed some of our best pieces for them before going back to the hotel.

After a couple of hours of free time, we hopped on the bus and drove along the cliffs of Monteverde to the "new" church of the Monteverde community, which was an open-air building right next to a small holiday carnival. As distracting as the flashing lights and spinning rides just outside were, we pushed through the Mother's Day church service we sang at. But we had a problem: the space was nearly impossible to fill! The acoustics were far too dry to sing in without sounding like a choir of oompah loompas who didn't know how to project, or a bunch of mice who were trying to sound like larger mice! But we pushed through, and we pushed through the additional short concert following the mass. After leaving the church, Juan Carlos took us to the best Italian place in Monteverde, where we laughed it up over unlimited food and ice cream, before going home for the night.

The next morning, we got up, "worked out", had a buffet breakfast, and departed for Punta Leona in all of its beauty and glory, but that's another story, and I'll let someone else tell of its beauty...oh wait, they're not gonna do that? Oh well, I guess you'll just have to imagine it.

Josh Holtzman