Jim Rowe bought property in Manuel Antonio in 1995 when he first had a vision for an outdoor education adventure school. It's hard to believe fifteen years later that it serves as a supplement to a much grander rainforest base. No longer the central hub of business, students pass through it now for relaxation, surf lessons, service projects, scuba diving, sea kayaking, visiting the national park, and even lifeguarding training.
After so many years of abuse, this base needed a lot of improvements. So this past spring, many of our staff members drove the 2-3 hours there to fix it up based on students' and staff's feedback.
We introduce the improved Manuel Antonio base:
- two new - strong - ceiling fans for those warm Pacific nights
- new screens in the windows to prevent bugs
- nets and clothes lines for drying clothes and equipment
- new kitchen faucet
- outdoor shower fixed
- stronger portable stoves
Unfortunately, Costa Rica's Pacific weather didn't care about all of the hard work Antonio, Scott, Orlando, and Jorge Luis put into our base. On June 1, 2010, a huge storm blew in, throwing branches into all of the buildings and creating more work for our staff to do:
- removed 6"-8" of leaf build-up on the roof (see photo right)
- fixed a few holes
- cut up broken branches
- removed large, dead limbs
- "bug bombed" the indoor base
On top of all of the preparation work we have even hired one of our surf instructors, Alex Cook, to work there full-time this summer to maintain it and instruct surfing.
Now, we can honestly say, it's ready for students.
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