Welcome to Costa Rica

The first thing we did after a 21 hour journey was to get a typical Costa Rican meal called Pinto (rice with black beans). After that it was time to start our mission. We checked out the local hardware stores and building companies to find out about materials and prizes. We met the local skateboarders to find out what they want and need and looked for a decent property for which we can get the permissions from the city council to build on. We also met the Vida Nuevo organisation and its kids and workers, and, of course, we had a look around the town and its surroundings, too. About 40.000 people live in San Isidro.

There’s heaps of skaters here, around 30 locals, most of them between 12 and 18 years old. On Saturday we even were at a little contest in the parking lot of a local mall, which Ricardo had organized, the best skater in town who owns a couple of little ramps and rails. But most of the time they skate flat at the bus terminal since they get busted by security when they try to skate the nice ledges there. Of course there’re other streetspots, too, but because of the generally bad road conditions they’re pretty rugged and far from perfect. Besides that there’s too much traffic and people on the streets during the day to skate them. All in all this town definitely needs a skatepark and this is the reason that we’re here for.

Last Monday we picked up BOARDSTEIN Arne from the airport in San José, who came from California with 1,53 dollars in his pockets, completely broke. He had to beg people for money at the San Francisco airport to pay for his extra 20 kilo bag which contains the pool trowels we need for the concrete work that he bought in the States. Two days later Flori and Ali from Dresden arrived and the team is now complete and super motivated to start work. And here we really have to thank Henrik and Nelly, two of the german workers at Vida Nueva, who have been here for quite some time and speak perfect Spanish and have helped us a lot so far.

But the whole time the good vibrations were overshadowed by the political situation here in San Isidro, Perez Zeledon which is some kind of a bummer. The old mayor with whom we had so promising conversations in the past was kicked out of office and the new one hasn’t started her job yet. So nobody feels responsible or is able to give us permissions where to start building. Because our plan is or was to build the skatepark on common ground and then hand it over to the kids and the Vida Nueva organisation in April for its opening

Fortunatley this weekend there was good news for us, not from the city council though. But there is a private sports association called „Jovenes salven Jovenes“ in the suburb of Palmares whose owner is really into our project and always wanted to add a skatepark to his facility. And he has a perfect place for us. At 6pm today we have a last meeting with those guys and if everything goes smoothly, we can start building there Tuesday morning. And we really have to because our schedule is pretty tight considering we want and have to finish the park at the end of March. So we still have most of the work ahead of us, but we´re sure we can make things happen in time. So stay tuned!

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