COMMUNITY

For years Iguana Lodge has been proudly involved in the community. We built the Puerto Jimenez Public Library (and continue to fund it), and have started and funded the Save the Osa Turtle Project. This year we are extremely excited about our new project: Todo Es Posible (Everything is Possible). Todo Es Posible provides scholarships to high school graduates wishing to attend university. We are presently funding eight students (everyone who applied). Isabel Esquivel Carranza of Osa Tropical and Crocodile Bay Lodge have each donated generously to our project, and together we hope that someday every student who wants to attend university on the Osa Peninsula may do so. Specifically we plan to make sure that the best and brightest in our community have all the resources they need to see their dreams come true. Pura Vida. 

Regarding the Puerto Jimenez Library, it continues to flourish. It is small and useful. Others have helped immesenly with book donations, and originally when the library was built the community chipped in. Now Iguana Lodge is the sole funder of the library.  This year we have started a new program to promote young reading in the schools.  We raffle off brand new bicycles, and children qualify to enter the raffle by reading five small books or one big one.  Cool!  This year Lauren has taken on teaching English classes in town, and you can find her there at least this month on Saturdays and Sundays from 2 - 4 PM.  She is very excited and is offering a new twist on learning English, promoting basic English speaking, and promoting it with the idea that English is easier to learn than Spanish for two reasons:  Verb changes are extremely minimal when compared to Spanish, and a table is a table...we don't have to determine if the table is a male or female table (which is pretty darn tricky to figure out with a casual or even detailed inspection). 

As to the turtle project, for years Iguana Lodge was the only one involved in this project on our beach, but recently Black Turtle Lodge (our neighbor) has become involved as well. 

Toby meanwhile is the chief of local road maintenance, driving his motor grader with a pride that can be seen in the eyes of young children when first acquiring a large Tonka truck. 

We are also strong supporters of a variety of other worthwhile groups, such as the Osa Campaign. We always hire Costa Ricans first, and purposely choose to not offer tours ourselves, but arrange for local entrepreneurs to provide tours to our guests. Iguana Lodge prides itself in participating in local activities too. We consistently donate funds to the local schools, Red Cross, and other assorted community projects. Thanks to Judge Robert Crew and family for donating the shiny basketball hoop to the fair town of Puerto Jimenez.  A couple years ago Lauren tutored high school kids in geometry to help them pass the National High School Math Examination (that took a lot more review than she anticipated!). The Iguana Lodge also is very active in the local Puerto Jimenez soccer scene. We also have arranged equipment donations from States-side teams to the local soccer maniacs. Lots of kids play barefoot, not out of choice, but out of necessity: they just have to play soccer! 

Meanwhile, on Playa Platanares we continue to please the local wildlife by planting trees and flowers. You will see these ever-growing gardens and the wildlife we are attracting when you come for a visit. Thanks to gardener extraordinaire, Mark Robinson from San Diego, for working in our gardens while on vacation. Isn't it about time for another visit, buddy?