Cristina's Refuge
Anyone who wishes to help out in Cristina’s refuge a few hours per day or per week while they are vacationing in La Tigra, Costa Rica, is welcome to do so entirely on their own terms and subject to Cristina’s availability. There are no obligations, restrictions, expectations or fees involved (other than the obvious personal costs related to your trip) in this initiative. Before you leave, just confirm your arrival and departure dates here and briefly introduce yourself. Once you are at the hotel, subsequent arrangements are made on site directly with Cristina. I can also answer any questions or clear up any uncertainties you may have in advance.
With heartfelt thanks,
Johanna
In April 2019, I discovered some of us are more tuned in to animal “sentience” than others, but the human beings with this rare gift are unfortunately rare themselves. Even though I’d heard about Cristina when we visited Costa Rica in early 2017, I would never have actually met her two years later but for a twist of fate. My husband and I rescued a homeless dog (we named her Yiuka) only 48 hours before our flight back to Montreal, giving us just enough time to get her to a clinic for a thorough check-up and settled in with Cristina for her new life.
Since finding Yiuka, the discussion of abandoned animals here at home has been raised. Canada is a wealthy nation. I have never come across a puppy on our streets in the condition that I found Yiuka but if I ever did, I would rescue it and care for it the same way we do now for our Costa Rican adoptee. This fortuitous event took on a life of its own. All we can do now is everything within reason to make life easier for Cristina’s dogs and for her, so that she can continue caring for them as long as possible.
When we handed over Yiuka to Cristina, she was in the midst of moving 32 dogs to a new place and now she had a starving, mange- and flea- covered 1-year-old patient to add to her load. Yiuka was on my mind during our drive to the airport, on the plane, when we landed, and the next morning when I woke up. We were barely at cruising altitude when I decided we had to come back to Costa Rica again, soon, to personally see Yiuka’s progress. Within two weeks of returning to Montreal, we’d booked a trip back to San Jose.
Somehow, the sickliest and most abused and neglected calleperros (street dogs) in the community have found their way into Cristina’s care. Many were on death’s door when she took them in; otherwise, she would not accept them. Some are old and crippled like Bianca, her white Great Dane, who is deaf and blind. She nurses them to health, makes sure they’re all neutered and loves them fiercely. She likes to call her project Albergue casa hogar de animales en total abandono (Shelter home for totally abandoned animals).
Cristina occasionally finds families to adopt her dogs, but she follows up to make sure they are well treated. She once had to take one back when she found out it had stopped eating at its new home. When I commented that one of her dogs from a family of three would be a perfect match for a friend in Canada, Cristina choked up at the suggestion of separating them. Her devotion to them is absolute.
For our April trip, I chose a hotel in La Tigra, the town we’d visited twice before and where we had found Yiuka. As we turned off the main road, we were stunned when we realized it was but a 5-minute walk from Cristina’s property. The hotel property is nestled in a luxuriant Garden of Eden, has a marvelous swimming pool, a full dining room that offers dinner, if you wish, and scrumptious breakfasts (included).
Rates are around US$90 per night, depending on the season, with special arrangements made for volunteers. The owners are impeccable! “Awesome personalized attention” says Trip Advisor. Giovanni is attentive and accommodating, and the grounds are supervised by his magnificent, sociable German Shepherds.
"There is no therapy in the world like a puppy licking your face (Ben Williams)."
If you’ve ever loved and lost a dog, or know someone who has, then you know the magnitude of the intense grief such a loss can cause. For me, travel as a remedy for dealing with the pain of loss has always been positive. After I met Cristina’s dogs, I thought about dog lovers who’d lost their companion and how therapeutic her refuge could be. The environment is as far away from our North American reality as can be and being around these dogs who are infinitely grateful for having been rescued is a balm for the soul.
After finding Yiuka and then Cristina’s refuge, I started thinking that there must be others who love dogs like we do and who have wondered about how to turn a vacation into a unique experience where they’d feel useful and productive, but don’t know where to start looking for such a place. I spent only a few hours per day helping Cristina with whatever needed doing: grooming the dogs, giving flea treatments, bathing them, helping to clean the property and secure it to prevent defections, or sharing a meal with her. Her appreciation is genuine and profound and, to their credit, her dogs slobber ever so politely when they’re thrown a few treats.
If you’d like to improve or learn some basic Spanish while helping Cristina, volunteers are totally immersed in the language. What a bonus! My husband and I were also surprised to learn that we could be very content living more simply, Costa Rican style. But the best part in all this is discovering you can be selfless, generous and empathetic, qualities you may not realize you had before.
La Tigra (pop. under 8,000) is a little town in the valley of San Carlos, surrounded by magnificent landscapes. It’s about a 2-hour drive from the San José airport, or 4 hours by bus (with a transfer in San Ramón). It’s central to national parks, fabulous hiking trails, and the well-known tourist attractions of La Fortuna, Monteverde and Arenal, not to mention the stunning waterfalls in the region. On our past trips, we easily combined our rainforest visit with a week on either the Pacific or Caribbean beaches.
La Tigra’s convenient location and the hotel San Rafael Ecolodge near Cristina’s refuge make it so easy to enjoy the region. The hotel is about 500m to the bus that takes you to La Fortuna or the airport. Grocery stores, a gym for working out, cheap sodas (fast-food stands) and a bakery (owned by a Columbian family and quite delicious!) are less than a kilometer away so you could easily manage without a car. However, if you plan to visit remote areas like the Children’s Eternal Rainforest, you’d need a 4x4. In La Fortuna, which is a one-hour bus ride, there are numerous car rental agencies.
With our lives so upended in 2020, I decided to introduce the option to sponsor one of Cristina’s “children”. Cristina accomplishes incredible feats, alone, with the occasional, random donation: she feeds her 30 dogs twice daily, or will collect old bread from the local bakery if she’s missed a dog food rendezvous because her Jeep’s broken down; she nurtures them and brings them to the vet as needed. She’s 60 years young and tireless in caring for her brood. If one of her dogs captures your heart and you’d like to do something, you can adopt it from afar. Even $10 per month will improve a life! Cristina’s PayPal account is: Albergue refugio de animales Brunetta. Just click on the button below to make a donation using PayPal or a credit/debit card.
