Internet's back! It was out for a couple days, so my apologies for the delay...
So, every 90 days my (tourist) visa expires and I have to leave the country for 72 hours. While this is rather obnoxious and expensive, I do love a good excuse to travel. Since my arrival in Costa Rica, I've heard all sorts of lovely things about Bocas del Toro, a bunch of islands (archipelago, if you will) off the northeast coast of Panama. Basically, it's paradise.
Sunday, Nov. 28, I flew out of the itty bitty Pavas airport (yes, I went the more expensive but significantly faster route via plane - so worth it) directly into the airport on Isla Colon, the main island of Bocas del Toro. There were something like 12 people on a tiny plane that was loud and cold and had big windows to look out of. I am currently kicking myself for not having taken any pictures.
Anyway, I arrived, stumbled upon a cheap place to stay (hostel Heike), put on a bathing suit and headed for the beach. The one thing I dislike about Bocas? For the most part, you stay and eat and drink on Isla Colon, but to get to a beach, you have to take a water taxi to another island. Lame, but water taxis cost $2, so it's not really that bad. So, I grabbed a water taxi and went to a beach. Watched the waves, spied on some crabs, took some pictures, it was a gorgeous day.
I came back to the main island when the sun was starting to set and as I was walking to my hostel to shower/change, I ran in to one of the California boys I met while in Monteverde. While Bocas isn't exactly big and it's easy to run into people there, Kevin is a giant (6'7" or something ridiculous) and sticks out in Central America like a sore thumb, so it's not all that crazy that I found this kid. What was crazy was his leg - apparently he had gotten bitten or scratched or something and his leg was swollen like crazy and bright red/purple. It was also his birthday.
Kevin and I walked down the street and found the rest of the crew I was to spend my short time in Panama with: Kevin & Mike (from California), Keegs (short for Kieran, from England), and Tamara & Amy (from Canada). That night, we all went out for drinks to celebrate Kevin's birthday before he took off to Panama City to get his leg checked out at the Johns Hopkins hospital there. It was a ridiculous evening of debauchery, complete with the boys taking poorly poured beer bongs and tequila suicides.
The next morning (Monday Dec. 29) Kevin left for Panama City and the rest of the five of us went out for a boat tour around the islands. Unfortunately the tour took off late because of some morning rain, but it was a pretty great day nonetheless. It started with a stop in dolphin bay, where we got to see, you guessed it, dolphins. Dolphins are pretty neat, so that was cool. Then there was some snorkeling, which is always a good time. Especially when you do it where there are so many beautiful, colorful fish to see. It was awesome. If it weren't for the salt water in my eyes/contacts, I could be happy snorkeling all day every day. We then stopped at a place for lunch before moving on to a beach. Sadly, by the time we got to the beach it was pretty overcast. It was, however, warm with a nice breeze so it was still worth the trip. When it started raining, we all went back to the main island to clean up and get ready for the night.
That night, the five of us + one other guy from the tour went over to the local Indian restaurant (Om Cafe) for dinner. They didn't accept cards, and the only ATM on the island was out of money, so the girls had to go to the tiny grocery story down the street and pay a ridiculous amount of money so they could get cash for dinner. Quite the expensive process. But it was SO worth it. Om Cafe was fabulous. The woman who owns it is Canadian, but her family's Indian, so all the food is made from her family's recipes. She, and her food, were awesome.
The next day (Tuesday, Dec. 30) Tamara and Amy headed out to get to their farming thing back in CR, and Mike and Keegs and I were stuck inside for the day due to rain. Sadly, it didn't really stop raining for the rest of the time we were all there, but we had a good time anyway, not to mention we saved a bunch of money by not spending it on boat tours and such. The day consisted of some walking around when it wasn't pouring, lots of reading and lounging around. That night we made friends with some fun people in the hostel and spent the night drinking and talking.
Keegs took off early Wednesday morning, while Mike and I slept in. It was still raining when I finally got out of bed, and didn't stop at all before I left. After doing nothing in the morning, Mike and I grabbed lunch and he walked with me to the airport. Yes, you can walk to the airport. My flight took off super late, so I ended up not getting back in time for my night class like I had planned, but Kerensa saved me and covered.
One thing I do love about traveling, especially when you travel alone, is you meet lots of great people. I had a great time in Bocas. Though I could have asked for better weather, I couldn't have asked for better company.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
More about November
So I got back from Monteverde Tuesday morning and did pretty much nothing that afternoon. Maybe I did some laundry? Who knows.
I worked the rest of the week, and it was pretty uneventful. However, Thursday did begin a bit of a change at work: my boss, Bernal, managed to get some paid planning time out of the owner. He divided up the staff in to four groups one for each level of English classes we teach - A1, A2, B1 & B2) and assigned a "team leader" to each group. I, for some crazy reason, was assigned as the team leader for the A1 team. Anyway, our goal was to develop some activities and resources for us teachers to be able to use when we are planning our classes, as well as write a standardized midterm exam. We met for the first time that Thursday, and got off to a pretty good start. Not great, but things got better quick and it ended up going really well.
That Saturday night I was going to meet up with my Californian friends, but it didn't work out so we met at the farmer's market (la feria) in San Rafael de Heredia the next day, which happens to be where my friend Kerensa lives. After the boys left, Kerensa and I wandered around the market for a little while until it started pouring. Kerensa left the next morning to do her visa run in Nicaragua, and I relaxed the rest of the weekend to plan classes and get ready for my mom coming to visit again. :)
Mom arrived Wednesday afternoon, and unfortunately I was in school all day and didn't get to see her until after classes ended at 9:30. The next morning we woke up late-ish, and had breakfast at the hotel. We then went back to my apartment to drop off what she lugged down here for me, and so that I could pack up some things for the next few days. We then hopped the bus to go over to InBioParque (where I went with Will when he came to visit). Apparently they don't get many English speaking visitors because the guide definitely remembered me. We ended the day with some chicken breast and cheese and crackers. Not exactly the most authentic Thanksgiving dinner, but it was tasty nonetheless. Regardless, it was a good Thanksgiving, and my mom seemed to enjoy it, so I was happy.
Friday during the day Mom and I woke up early to do another tour. This time we went to Braulio Carrillo park to check out the rainforest tram. The van picked us up and took us to the park, where we stopped at a hanging bridge along the way. I love hanging bridges, they are pretty awesome. Our guide then took us to watch a video and then to breakfast. There was enough food to feed a small country. It was delicious. We then rode the aerial tram to the top and got off and hiked around a little and then came back down for another mini hike and then even more food. The whole thing was pretty great. The views were beautiful and our guide was great. My mom was particularly happy to get to see a whole bunch of birds whose names I can't remember but I am sure she can tell you.
Friday night and Saturday morning I had to work, but after class on Saturday my mom and I decided to go see Harry Potter. Cultural, I know. The show we wanted to see was sold out, so we had dinner at this great Peruvian restaurant in the mall. I had the chicken stuffed with something and wrapped in bacon. Me choose the only thing on the menu with bacon on it? Shocking, I know. After dinner we ran over to get in line for the movie. Thankfully they have options of seeing the movie dubbed or with subtitles. Unfortunately it seems as though most of the people who choose to see the movie with subtitles do so so that they can talk the whole time. Kind of a bummer, but loved the movie anyway.
Saturday night I said bye to my mom and headed back to my apartment. She had an early flight (7am) and the hotel insisted on taking her to the airport 2 and a half hours early. Therefore, I opted to go home and sleep in before I took off to Panama later that afternoon (which I will leave for another entry).
While I wish I had gotten to spend more time with her (stupid job...), I'm glad my mom came. She's great. If you don't know her, you should.
I worked the rest of the week, and it was pretty uneventful. However, Thursday did begin a bit of a change at work: my boss, Bernal, managed to get some paid planning time out of the owner. He divided up the staff in to four groups one for each level of English classes we teach - A1, A2, B1 & B2) and assigned a "team leader" to each group. I, for some crazy reason, was assigned as the team leader for the A1 team. Anyway, our goal was to develop some activities and resources for us teachers to be able to use when we are planning our classes, as well as write a standardized midterm exam. We met for the first time that Thursday, and got off to a pretty good start. Not great, but things got better quick and it ended up going really well.
That Saturday night I was going to meet up with my Californian friends, but it didn't work out so we met at the farmer's market (la feria) in San Rafael de Heredia the next day, which happens to be where my friend Kerensa lives. After the boys left, Kerensa and I wandered around the market for a little while until it started pouring. Kerensa left the next morning to do her visa run in Nicaragua, and I relaxed the rest of the weekend to plan classes and get ready for my mom coming to visit again. :)
Mom arrived Wednesday afternoon, and unfortunately I was in school all day and didn't get to see her until after classes ended at 9:30. The next morning we woke up late-ish, and had breakfast at the hotel. We then went back to my apartment to drop off what she lugged down here for me, and so that I could pack up some things for the next few days. We then hopped the bus to go over to InBioParque (where I went with Will when he came to visit). Apparently they don't get many English speaking visitors because the guide definitely remembered me. We ended the day with some chicken breast and cheese and crackers. Not exactly the most authentic Thanksgiving dinner, but it was tasty nonetheless. Regardless, it was a good Thanksgiving, and my mom seemed to enjoy it, so I was happy.
Friday during the day Mom and I woke up early to do another tour. This time we went to Braulio Carrillo park to check out the rainforest tram. The van picked us up and took us to the park, where we stopped at a hanging bridge along the way. I love hanging bridges, they are pretty awesome. Our guide then took us to watch a video and then to breakfast. There was enough food to feed a small country. It was delicious. We then rode the aerial tram to the top and got off and hiked around a little and then came back down for another mini hike and then even more food. The whole thing was pretty great. The views were beautiful and our guide was great. My mom was particularly happy to get to see a whole bunch of birds whose names I can't remember but I am sure she can tell you.
Friday night and Saturday morning I had to work, but after class on Saturday my mom and I decided to go see Harry Potter. Cultural, I know. The show we wanted to see was sold out, so we had dinner at this great Peruvian restaurant in the mall. I had the chicken stuffed with something and wrapped in bacon. Me choose the only thing on the menu with bacon on it? Shocking, I know. After dinner we ran over to get in line for the movie. Thankfully they have options of seeing the movie dubbed or with subtitles. Unfortunately it seems as though most of the people who choose to see the movie with subtitles do so so that they can talk the whole time. Kind of a bummer, but loved the movie anyway.
Saturday night I said bye to my mom and headed back to my apartment. She had an early flight (7am) and the hotel insisted on taking her to the airport 2 and a half hours early. Therefore, I opted to go home and sleep in before I took off to Panama later that afternoon (which I will leave for another entry).
While I wish I had gotten to spend more time with her (stupid job...), I'm glad my mom came. She's great. If you don't know her, you should.
Monteverde
I am, obviously, extremely far behind, and will be covering the last two months in smaller installments, instead of trying to write (and make you read) one big one. Sorry for being a slacker, I'll try to get better.
So, the weekend after Jaco, Nov. 14-16, I made a last second decision to take advantage of my long weekend while I still had it and head out to Monteverde to see some cloud forest goodness. I packed my things Saturday night and woke up early to catch the bus in San Jose. There are two buses that run daily to Monteverde - one at 6:30am and another at 2:30pm. It's a 4 hour ride, so I got in at about 10:30 - plenty of time to wander around during the day and see some of what Monteverde is all about. SO worth it. I dropped my stuff, grabbed some food and headed off to La Selvatura park, where I spent hours (until almost sunset) wandering around their 8 hanging bridges. I opted out of doing the zipline canopy tour there - I figure I'll get that next time around, when I have someone to do it with - but loved getting to see some birds, flowers, a tarantula, and the raccoon of Costa Rica. I forget what it was called (coatil?), but it was funny looking.
When I got back I wandered over to the grocery store to grab some food for the rest of the trip and made some friends while I was cooking. I met two guys from California who were traveling from Honduras down to Panama, and who were on their way to Heredia after Monteverde and were potentially going to be in Bocas del Toro when I was thinking of doing my visa run. Turns out we got along real well and planned to meet up in Heredia and Bocas. Fairly uneventful aside from that, but it was a fun night.
I woke up early on Monday to catch the 6:15 bus over to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve entrance, where a group of us waited for the park to open. While waiting, I met a couple of guys who were going to be taking a birding tour. Inspired by them, when I bought my entrance ticket for the park, I signed up for a tour as well. It turned out to be a bit more expensive than I wanted, but it was well worth the money. Because I had a tourguide, I got to see a quetzal. Awesome. After the tour ended, I wandered around the park and ran into the two birders that I met in the morning. The three of us then wandered around the park together until it closed. It was nice to have some company, especially people who were good at spotting birds.
That night I decided to take the night tour my two California friends recommended. Everyone doing the tour piled into a big van and we promptly got in to an accident. Literally, we had just pulled away from the curb when the driver backed in to the van behind us. Ridiculous.
So, a half hour later, we finally got in to a different van and went on the night tour. It was pretty neat. I got to see a sloth, raccoon, snake, a mother tarantula and its babies, and a whole bunch of different kinds of insects. It was great.
All in all, Monteverde has been one of the cooler things I have done/seen since coming to this country. I highly recommend you all go there some time. I plan on going back. Though I have a few other stops to make first...
So, the weekend after Jaco, Nov. 14-16, I made a last second decision to take advantage of my long weekend while I still had it and head out to Monteverde to see some cloud forest goodness. I packed my things Saturday night and woke up early to catch the bus in San Jose. There are two buses that run daily to Monteverde - one at 6:30am and another at 2:30pm. It's a 4 hour ride, so I got in at about 10:30 - plenty of time to wander around during the day and see some of what Monteverde is all about. SO worth it. I dropped my stuff, grabbed some food and headed off to La Selvatura park, where I spent hours (until almost sunset) wandering around their 8 hanging bridges. I opted out of doing the zipline canopy tour there - I figure I'll get that next time around, when I have someone to do it with - but loved getting to see some birds, flowers, a tarantula, and the raccoon of Costa Rica. I forget what it was called (coatil?), but it was funny looking.
When I got back I wandered over to the grocery store to grab some food for the rest of the trip and made some friends while I was cooking. I met two guys from California who were traveling from Honduras down to Panama, and who were on their way to Heredia after Monteverde and were potentially going to be in Bocas del Toro when I was thinking of doing my visa run. Turns out we got along real well and planned to meet up in Heredia and Bocas. Fairly uneventful aside from that, but it was a fun night.
I woke up early on Monday to catch the 6:15 bus over to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve entrance, where a group of us waited for the park to open. While waiting, I met a couple of guys who were going to be taking a birding tour. Inspired by them, when I bought my entrance ticket for the park, I signed up for a tour as well. It turned out to be a bit more expensive than I wanted, but it was well worth the money. Because I had a tourguide, I got to see a quetzal. Awesome. After the tour ended, I wandered around the park and ran into the two birders that I met in the morning. The three of us then wandered around the park together until it closed. It was nice to have some company, especially people who were good at spotting birds.
That night I decided to take the night tour my two California friends recommended. Everyone doing the tour piled into a big van and we promptly got in to an accident. Literally, we had just pulled away from the curb when the driver backed in to the van behind us. Ridiculous.
So, a half hour later, we finally got in to a different van and went on the night tour. It was pretty neat. I got to see a sloth, raccoon, snake, a mother tarantula and its babies, and a whole bunch of different kinds of insects. It was great.
All in all, Monteverde has been one of the cooler things I have done/seen since coming to this country. I highly recommend you all go there some time. I plan on going back. Though I have a few other stops to make first...
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Halloween and Jaco
Not toooooo much has happened since the last post, but it's been a little while, so I figured I should get to writing...
Will left Wed. (10/27) while I was at work. It was definitely nice to have such good company for a bit, though I wish I hadn't been so sick while he was here. Speaking of, my cold/flu has since dissipated. Mostly. Being sick sucks. Being sick in a new country sucks more. Thank goodness that's over.
That weekend, mostly better, I went out with some friends from work for Halloween. I came up with a costume last second and went as Quailman, from the old Nickelodeon TV show, Doug. While almost no one here understood, it was funny nonetheless, not to mention comfortable. Halloween was a fun night, though, and it was good spending time with people I work with. We all met at one apartment and then went to Rumba, a bar that seemed to me to be in the middle of nowhere as I had no idea where we were. It was fun though, and the bar put on quite the show for Halloween.
The highlights included: the DJ was dressed as Elmo; a couple dressed as the Smurfs (or los Pitufos) won best costume; there was a Michael Jackson Thriller dance; a Brazilian drumline carnival thing... I stayed out too late. But it was fun.
The week of November 1 marked the last week of my TESOL classes. The three of us were scheduled to take the TKT test on Friday but we decided to take it on Thursday instead, cutting the number of times we had to commute out to Escazu short by a day, which was a really great change. Overall the classes were fine. I definitely learned some useful tips for teaching ESL, and am grateful Politecnico paid for half the class.
Last week also began all the rain. Due to the elections and disasters in other parts of the world, including Haiti, I know this didn't receive much coverage in the US, but it was a huge deal here. It poured and poured for about 4 days straight here last week, causing major flooding and landslides killing more than 20 people, closing many of the roads, and, ironically, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without water.
The president declared Thursday a day of national emergency, and Friday and Saturday were days of mourning. Check out www.ticotimes.net if you want to read a little local coverage in English.
With all the rain came the cold. For Costa Rica standards, it was really freakin cold here last week, so I decided to take advantage of my long weekend and try to get some sunshine. Sunday morning, my friend/coworker Sara and I hopped the bus to Jaco, on the Pacific side of the country. The bus ride was about 2-2.5 hours and we arrived and found a place to stay without a problem. Due to all the rain, there weren't too many people in Jaco this weekend, which was pretty nice. Jaco is the closest beach to San Jose, so it gets a lot of traffic, both from tourists and Ticos. Many Ticos, however, have strong anti-Jaco feelings and I can easily see why.
While the beach is nice, the town of Jaco is being built up and taken over by tourists and ex-pats looking to make a living off of said tourists. Regardless, it was empty enough that Sara and I had a great time. We did a whole lot of nothing, laying on the beach, eating and drinking, and sleeping. Monday (yesterday), Sara and I went over to Playa Hermosa, which is about a $7 cab ride from Jaco. Hermosa was full of surfers, a boy who couldn't have been more than 19 hitting on Sara and me, and lots of big, strong waves that were too much to swim in. Due to the floodings and all the rain, the water at the beaches was a little more brown than blue, but lovely nonetheless.
One note about Jaco: with the rise in tourism, there has followed a rise in drug and prostitution problems as well. Last night, while Sara and I were asleep, some drunk older (40s?) American men stumbled back to the hotel around 2am. They woke us up with their general drunken behavior: being loud, slamming doors, breaking bottles, etc. However, I did notice one Spanish speaking woman with them. As it turns out, after listening to what was going on a little, it became clear that much of the noise being made was coming from one man in particular, who was trying to trying to understand exactly what (how long) it was he had paid the woman for.... Classy.
Eventually they all quieted down and I was able to fall back asleep for the rest of the night. Despite this craziness, the hotel was good - clean, cheap and otherwise quiet - and our trip to Jaco was a success. We managed to miss all the rain, and were blessed with mostly blue skies and perfectly warm (not too hot) days/nights. It was a perfect weekend getaway. Furthermore, there are delicious smoothies available almost everywhere.
I head back to work and reality tomorrow, but am already planning my next get away. Literally. I have to do a border run to renew my visa by the end of the month. Given the situation with Costa Rica and Nicaragua fighting over where the borders lie (if you don't know anything about it look it up and keep in mind that CR doesn't have an army of any kind so there will be no actual fighting), I'm figuring I will be heading down to Panama to do that just to avoid any potential problems trying to come back in to CR. If anyone wants to meet me in Bocas del Toro for a long weekend let me know!
Other than my visa run, I'm looking forward to my mom returning for another visit in a couple weeks. :)
Love.
Will left Wed. (10/27) while I was at work. It was definitely nice to have such good company for a bit, though I wish I hadn't been so sick while he was here. Speaking of, my cold/flu has since dissipated. Mostly. Being sick sucks. Being sick in a new country sucks more. Thank goodness that's over.
That weekend, mostly better, I went out with some friends from work for Halloween. I came up with a costume last second and went as Quailman, from the old Nickelodeon TV show, Doug. While almost no one here understood, it was funny nonetheless, not to mention comfortable. Halloween was a fun night, though, and it was good spending time with people I work with. We all met at one apartment and then went to Rumba, a bar that seemed to me to be in the middle of nowhere as I had no idea where we were. It was fun though, and the bar put on quite the show for Halloween.
The highlights included: the DJ was dressed as Elmo; a couple dressed as the Smurfs (or los Pitufos) won best costume; there was a Michael Jackson Thriller dance; a Brazilian drumline carnival thing... I stayed out too late. But it was fun.
The week of November 1 marked the last week of my TESOL classes. The three of us were scheduled to take the TKT test on Friday but we decided to take it on Thursday instead, cutting the number of times we had to commute out to Escazu short by a day, which was a really great change. Overall the classes were fine. I definitely learned some useful tips for teaching ESL, and am grateful Politecnico paid for half the class.
Last week also began all the rain. Due to the elections and disasters in other parts of the world, including Haiti, I know this didn't receive much coverage in the US, but it was a huge deal here. It poured and poured for about 4 days straight here last week, causing major flooding and landslides killing more than 20 people, closing many of the roads, and, ironically, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without water.
The president declared Thursday a day of national emergency, and Friday and Saturday were days of mourning. Check out www.ticotimes.net if you want to read a little local coverage in English.
With all the rain came the cold. For Costa Rica standards, it was really freakin cold here last week, so I decided to take advantage of my long weekend and try to get some sunshine. Sunday morning, my friend/coworker Sara and I hopped the bus to Jaco, on the Pacific side of the country. The bus ride was about 2-2.5 hours and we arrived and found a place to stay without a problem. Due to all the rain, there weren't too many people in Jaco this weekend, which was pretty nice. Jaco is the closest beach to San Jose, so it gets a lot of traffic, both from tourists and Ticos. Many Ticos, however, have strong anti-Jaco feelings and I can easily see why.
While the beach is nice, the town of Jaco is being built up and taken over by tourists and ex-pats looking to make a living off of said tourists. Regardless, it was empty enough that Sara and I had a great time. We did a whole lot of nothing, laying on the beach, eating and drinking, and sleeping. Monday (yesterday), Sara and I went over to Playa Hermosa, which is about a $7 cab ride from Jaco. Hermosa was full of surfers, a boy who couldn't have been more than 19 hitting on Sara and me, and lots of big, strong waves that were too much to swim in. Due to the floodings and all the rain, the water at the beaches was a little more brown than blue, but lovely nonetheless.
One note about Jaco: with the rise in tourism, there has followed a rise in drug and prostitution problems as well. Last night, while Sara and I were asleep, some drunk older (40s?) American men stumbled back to the hotel around 2am. They woke us up with their general drunken behavior: being loud, slamming doors, breaking bottles, etc. However, I did notice one Spanish speaking woman with them. As it turns out, after listening to what was going on a little, it became clear that much of the noise being made was coming from one man in particular, who was trying to trying to understand exactly what (how long) it was he had paid the woman for.... Classy.
Eventually they all quieted down and I was able to fall back asleep for the rest of the night. Despite this craziness, the hotel was good - clean, cheap and otherwise quiet - and our trip to Jaco was a success. We managed to miss all the rain, and were blessed with mostly blue skies and perfectly warm (not too hot) days/nights. It was a perfect weekend getaway. Furthermore, there are delicious smoothies available almost everywhere.
I head back to work and reality tomorrow, but am already planning my next get away. Literally. I have to do a border run to renew my visa by the end of the month. Given the situation with Costa Rica and Nicaragua fighting over where the borders lie (if you don't know anything about it look it up and keep in mind that CR doesn't have an army of any kind so there will be no actual fighting), I'm figuring I will be heading down to Panama to do that just to avoid any potential problems trying to come back in to CR. If anyone wants to meet me in Bocas del Toro for a long weekend let me know!
Other than my visa run, I'm looking forward to my mom returning for another visit in a couple weeks. :)
Love.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Good Company Makes Time Fly
Sorry folks, I could have sworn I'd updated more recently, but it appears as though time is running away from me. There are definitely worse things, I suppose.
So my mom arrived Friday night, on October 8, just after the earthquake. Yes, I said earthquake. I was teaching my Friday night class and the building started shaking a bit. If it weren't for my students telling me, I wouldn't have had any idea what it was. It wasn't a big one and I am pretty sure it didn't cause any major issues in the country, but it was still big enough that there was a bit of noise and vibration. Interesting experience, though one I would prefer to never have to repeat if at all possible.
I met my mom that night at her hotel and she came to school with me the next morning to meet some of my students and see where I spend a good amount of my time. My students (these are the adults) thought it was great that she came to meet all them and watch me teach. After class we went by the feria (farmer's market) so she could see what I'm so in love with and then later on back to my apartment. We went out to dinner that night, and aside from that, our Saturday was quite uneventful.
On Sunday we took a tour and went to the Doka Coffee Estate to see a coffee plantation, then to Volcan Poas which was totally clouded over, and finally to La Paz Waterfall Gardens. The waterfall gardens were quite beautiful though, and I had a fun time trying to take photos of hummingbirds with my pretty new camera. Aside from waterfalls, they have a whole bunch of -ariams where they keep different wildlife for people to see. My mom and I were able to hold a toucan and check out different types of frogs, for example. Neat. Our guide was quite animated, and gave a completely bilingual tour which was pretty enjoyable. The tour itself was nice and convenient, but it would have been better had we been able to go at our own pace. However, the hotel owners were spectacular and if you ever come to Heredia, you should stay there.
Monday morning I went to the airport with my mom and then went directly from there to my TESOL class in Escazu and was quite late. There was a misunderstanding on my part about where I had to be and when, but it turned out to not be a big deal. I have since been taking classes in Escazu for my TESOL certification, and should finish on November 5. I will be glad to have my regular schedule and commute back then... Escazu is nice and I'm certainly learning good things/refreshing my memory for improving my teaching but I will be very happy to not have to trek all the way out there a few times a week.
The one productive thing about having classes in Escazu is that they are at the HSBC Bank building, where I was able to open up an account. I am still waiting for everything to be processed, though, and am hoping to have a real bank account in which to deposit my checks from work. Due to foreigners using Costa Rican banks to launder money in the past, it takes some time to open a bank account here (I applied almost two weeks ago).
Last weekend friend from work, Kerensa, invited me out with her and a couple of her friends for a much needed night out. We began the evening at a karaoke bar in San Rafael de Heredia and ended it at a dance club (Castro's) in San Jose, where our designated driver taught me some bachata dancing, among some other randomness that I immediately forgot after. He was kind enough to pretend that I wasn't an awful dancer, and it was a fabulous time.
This late night led to a lazy Sunday of doing a little homework, cleaning and watching tv with my roommate. It was a good day.
This Thursday afternoon (10/21) my friend Will, who I studied abroad with in Spain, arrived for a visit. We met after my class was over Thursday and headed back to Heredia so he could drop off his pack and get acquainted with the area and such. Friday morning we headed over to INBioParque in Santo Domingo de Heredia for a tour and to just walk around the park. As far as I was concerned, it was money well spent. The park is a refuge devoted to conserving and studying the different ecosystems found in Costa Rica. Built atop what used to be a cafetal (coffee plantation), INBioParque is pretty beautiful. Your entrance fee comes with a free guided tour (or audio headset if you prefer) and a map of the grounds. It's not that big, but it is pretty cool how it's set up and our guide (Esteban, I think?) was great. I got some nice photos of sloths.
Saturday I woke up sweating with a bit of a fever and went and taught my class anyway. My feeling like crap derailed plans of a walking tour Saturday afternoon, but by the time Saturday night rolled around I was feeling well enough to take Will out with Kerensa. We somehow managed to wind up at a bar playing amazing music videos reminiscent of our favorite bar in Granada, La Bella y La Bestia. It was a hilarious evening, and I'm glad we went out, and equally glad we went home early.
Sunday morning Kerensa joined Will and I in an adventure trying to get to Volcan Poas via public transportation. We tried to catch a bus in Alajuela that goes straight to the volcano, but unknowlingly ended up missing it because of traffic from Heredia to Alajuela. So, we ended up on a bus to Poas, thanking our luck for how easy it was. Unfortunately, this Poas is a town, not the volcano. We then had to wait a half hour in the town for the bus to the volcano. While we were on that bus it started pouring like crazy, of course. The bus we were on didn't actually go all the way to the volcano, haha, so we instead took the bus as far as it would go and we decided to wait out the rain in this cute little cafe. We sipped some coffee and watched a few hummingbirds fly around while we were waiting for the rain to pass. We ended up paying a guy from the cafe to drive us the rest of the way to the park, which was worth not having to hike the last 4km uphill in the rain.
Sadly, the crater was once again completely clouded over and we didn't get to see anything, and had to turn around almost immediately to catch the (correct) bus back to Alajuela from the volcano. It was a ridiculous day of traveling, transferring one bus to the other, only getting to spend about an hour walking around the actual volcano. We spent the majority of the day on the bus, after which I promptly came home and threw up. Despite the very end, I thought it was a fun day, and quite the learning experience. At least I know what bus we need to take to get to the volcano next time! Will kept in great spirits the entire time, despite not being able to see anything, and maintains that he had a great time. Sweet of him to say so haha. Sadly, the weather has not been so great for him as it was for my mom, and it has rained every day he's been here.
This morning Will took off for Monteverde to see the cloud forests, while I was to head to Escazu for more TESOL classes. Unfortunately, I woke up just as bad this morning as I felt when I went to bed last night. So, despite my efforts to force myself out the door in time for class, I almost threw up on the bus ride from my front door to the center of town (approximately a 5 minute ride), and decided I wasn't going to make in on another two extremely crowded buses out to Escazu and didn't go to class. Instead I napped for a little and then went over to the pharmacy to talk to a doctor about my poor health. The doc wasn't in, so I went to the pharmacist for some meds for my fever instead. My sinuses are still a mess and I still have a tiny tiny bit of a cough, but the fever's down and I'm holding down food. Definitely an improvement. I figure if I don't get even more better (yeah, I teach English grammar for a living) by the end of the week, I'll go see a doctor and figure out what's wrong.
In the meanwhile, I've got some homework to get done for classes tomorrow. I should probably eat something, too. And go through all these photos I've taken recently and post some.
I booked my flight home for Christmas/New Years and will be in Chicago from December 20 until January 9. Yay for having a college schedule with lots of time off :)
Love.
So my mom arrived Friday night, on October 8, just after the earthquake. Yes, I said earthquake. I was teaching my Friday night class and the building started shaking a bit. If it weren't for my students telling me, I wouldn't have had any idea what it was. It wasn't a big one and I am pretty sure it didn't cause any major issues in the country, but it was still big enough that there was a bit of noise and vibration. Interesting experience, though one I would prefer to never have to repeat if at all possible.
I met my mom that night at her hotel and she came to school with me the next morning to meet some of my students and see where I spend a good amount of my time. My students (these are the adults) thought it was great that she came to meet all them and watch me teach. After class we went by the feria (farmer's market) so she could see what I'm so in love with and then later on back to my apartment. We went out to dinner that night, and aside from that, our Saturday was quite uneventful.
On Sunday we took a tour and went to the Doka Coffee Estate to see a coffee plantation, then to Volcan Poas which was totally clouded over, and finally to La Paz Waterfall Gardens. The waterfall gardens were quite beautiful though, and I had a fun time trying to take photos of hummingbirds with my pretty new camera. Aside from waterfalls, they have a whole bunch of -ariams where they keep different wildlife for people to see. My mom and I were able to hold a toucan and check out different types of frogs, for example. Neat. Our guide was quite animated, and gave a completely bilingual tour which was pretty enjoyable. The tour itself was nice and convenient, but it would have been better had we been able to go at our own pace. However, the hotel owners were spectacular and if you ever come to Heredia, you should stay there.
Monday morning I went to the airport with my mom and then went directly from there to my TESOL class in Escazu and was quite late. There was a misunderstanding on my part about where I had to be and when, but it turned out to not be a big deal. I have since been taking classes in Escazu for my TESOL certification, and should finish on November 5. I will be glad to have my regular schedule and commute back then... Escazu is nice and I'm certainly learning good things/refreshing my memory for improving my teaching but I will be very happy to not have to trek all the way out there a few times a week.
The one productive thing about having classes in Escazu is that they are at the HSBC Bank building, where I was able to open up an account. I am still waiting for everything to be processed, though, and am hoping to have a real bank account in which to deposit my checks from work. Due to foreigners using Costa Rican banks to launder money in the past, it takes some time to open a bank account here (I applied almost two weeks ago).
Last weekend friend from work, Kerensa, invited me out with her and a couple of her friends for a much needed night out. We began the evening at a karaoke bar in San Rafael de Heredia and ended it at a dance club (Castro's) in San Jose, where our designated driver taught me some bachata dancing, among some other randomness that I immediately forgot after. He was kind enough to pretend that I wasn't an awful dancer, and it was a fabulous time.
This late night led to a lazy Sunday of doing a little homework, cleaning and watching tv with my roommate. It was a good day.
This Thursday afternoon (10/21) my friend Will, who I studied abroad with in Spain, arrived for a visit. We met after my class was over Thursday and headed back to Heredia so he could drop off his pack and get acquainted with the area and such. Friday morning we headed over to INBioParque in Santo Domingo de Heredia for a tour and to just walk around the park. As far as I was concerned, it was money well spent. The park is a refuge devoted to conserving and studying the different ecosystems found in Costa Rica. Built atop what used to be a cafetal (coffee plantation), INBioParque is pretty beautiful. Your entrance fee comes with a free guided tour (or audio headset if you prefer) and a map of the grounds. It's not that big, but it is pretty cool how it's set up and our guide (Esteban, I think?) was great. I got some nice photos of sloths.
Saturday I woke up sweating with a bit of a fever and went and taught my class anyway. My feeling like crap derailed plans of a walking tour Saturday afternoon, but by the time Saturday night rolled around I was feeling well enough to take Will out with Kerensa. We somehow managed to wind up at a bar playing amazing music videos reminiscent of our favorite bar in Granada, La Bella y La Bestia. It was a hilarious evening, and I'm glad we went out, and equally glad we went home early.
Sunday morning Kerensa joined Will and I in an adventure trying to get to Volcan Poas via public transportation. We tried to catch a bus in Alajuela that goes straight to the volcano, but unknowlingly ended up missing it because of traffic from Heredia to Alajuela. So, we ended up on a bus to Poas, thanking our luck for how easy it was. Unfortunately, this Poas is a town, not the volcano. We then had to wait a half hour in the town for the bus to the volcano. While we were on that bus it started pouring like crazy, of course. The bus we were on didn't actually go all the way to the volcano, haha, so we instead took the bus as far as it would go and we decided to wait out the rain in this cute little cafe. We sipped some coffee and watched a few hummingbirds fly around while we were waiting for the rain to pass. We ended up paying a guy from the cafe to drive us the rest of the way to the park, which was worth not having to hike the last 4km uphill in the rain.
Sadly, the crater was once again completely clouded over and we didn't get to see anything, and had to turn around almost immediately to catch the (correct) bus back to Alajuela from the volcano. It was a ridiculous day of traveling, transferring one bus to the other, only getting to spend about an hour walking around the actual volcano. We spent the majority of the day on the bus, after which I promptly came home and threw up. Despite the very end, I thought it was a fun day, and quite the learning experience. At least I know what bus we need to take to get to the volcano next time! Will kept in great spirits the entire time, despite not being able to see anything, and maintains that he had a great time. Sweet of him to say so haha. Sadly, the weather has not been so great for him as it was for my mom, and it has rained every day he's been here.
This morning Will took off for Monteverde to see the cloud forests, while I was to head to Escazu for more TESOL classes. Unfortunately, I woke up just as bad this morning as I felt when I went to bed last night. So, despite my efforts to force myself out the door in time for class, I almost threw up on the bus ride from my front door to the center of town (approximately a 5 minute ride), and decided I wasn't going to make in on another two extremely crowded buses out to Escazu and didn't go to class. Instead I napped for a little and then went over to the pharmacy to talk to a doctor about my poor health. The doc wasn't in, so I went to the pharmacist for some meds for my fever instead. My sinuses are still a mess and I still have a tiny tiny bit of a cough, but the fever's down and I'm holding down food. Definitely an improvement. I figure if I don't get even more better (yeah, I teach English grammar for a living) by the end of the week, I'll go see a doctor and figure out what's wrong.
In the meanwhile, I've got some homework to get done for classes tomorrow. I should probably eat something, too. And go through all these photos I've taken recently and post some.
I booked my flight home for Christmas/New Years and will be in Chicago from December 20 until January 9. Yay for having a college schedule with lots of time off :)
Love.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Laundry, Cold Showers, Sarchi and Birthday Cake
I'm sorry I haven't updated recently, I've been lazy/without consistent internet.
These last couple weeks have been pretty uneventful, so I don't have much exciting to write about, but thought I probably should anyway....
I have been spending the majority of my free time relaxing, procrastinating planning, picking up any extra shifts at work I can, and just walking around. And sitting on my lazy butt avoiding the constant rain. I have gotten to skype with a few lovely people, which has been wonderful. The highlight being skyping with my mom, Kelly, niece Lily, Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Flo... technology is a beautiful thing.
I did laundry, which was entertaining. Washing machines and dryers are crazy expensive here, as well as use a ridiculous amount of energy and water. So, what people who aren't rich do, is use what we have: a washing machine that is separated into two compartments and uses no hot water. The first compartment is the regular wash cycle, with a knob that you have to turn to drain the water when it's done.
The second compartment is the spin cycle, which does an excellent job drying everything as much as possible before you hang it all up on a line to dry. The thing about that one is that if your laundry isn't perfectly balanced in the spinner thingy, the entire machine begins to move across the floor. Hilarious. There is no such thing as a rinse cycle, so you have to do that by hand. It requires a lot more time and effort than in the states, but it's not really as obnoxious as it sounds.
Haha I know you were all just yearning to learn the details of doing laundry here.
A notable event would be that our shower head, which heats the water, exploded while my roommate was in the shower a couple weeks ago. Therefore, we went without hot water for a while. Cold showers suck. Regardless of whether or not it's warm outside. Not only are they cold, but they don't really make you feel clean. We have hot water again, but there was a good week and a half of cold showers and a general feeling of smellyness.
Last Monday (9/27), I ventured out to the small town of Sarchi, about an hour or so away. Sarchi is an artisan town, that in reality is not all that small, just not highly populated. It sprawls out a bit, and is divided in to Sarchi North, which contains the town's center, and not too much else, and Sarchi South. The road up through Sarchi South is full of souvenir/carreta (brightly painted typical Costa Rican carts) shops and woodworking studios. The artwork, both the carretas and furniture, is pretty spectacular, and you can go in and check everything out while drinking free coffee and watching the artists do their thing. According to my guidebook, you can take woodworking classes there, which I hope to do another time.
I stumbled upon a shop with a artist who was both deaf and mute painting a typical carreta. He was eager to explain to me what he was doing (as well as he could and as well as I could understand) and he pulled up a stool for me to sit and watch him work. Roberto was incredibly kind and friendly, and a remarkably patient painter. Trying to communicate with him while watching him paint was a nice break from walking around in the rain.
On an amazing note, on my way home from Sarchi, I went shopping for a new shower head and such, and I found a this which I clearly purchased for myself as a birthday present. For those of you who know Eggo the Eggwhisk, I am sure you have a small idea of how ridiculously happy this made me. And for those of you who don't know my favorite kitchen utensil, you are missing out.
My birthday was on Tuesday, and my roommate surprised me with a small party. She invited a bunch of her friends over, who were all nice as can be, to celebrate with me and have some cake. It ended up being a pretty hilarious evening full of me half understanding what was going on and getting another run down of Tican slang, none of which I remember.... I had a great time though, and drank a good deal of wine.
Other than that, aside from registering as a taxpayer (though I won't be paying taxes) so I can get paid and planning my classes, I haven't been up to much of anything.
I start taking TESOL classes on Monday, for 4 weeks, which will suck, but at least I'm not paying full price. I will, somewhat thankfully I suppose, be quite busy these next few weeks. Hopefully it will give me another opportunity to meet new people and make some more friends.
My mom is coming to visit this weekend, and she gets in tomorrow. :) I'm really excited. It will be nice to have a bit of home for a weekend.
The list of things I miss about home is quite long, but here are a few of the things I am loving about Costa Rica so far:
- Universal healthcare.
- You only pay taxes if you make a certain amount of money. Aka, if you are poor, you don't have to pay taxes.
- No military.
- Coffee. Even the crap is fabulous.
- Most of the time the taxi drivers will wait to make sure I get in the gate of my apartment building before leaving at night.
- I have a really awesome view from my apartment.
- Paying someone to clean your apartment for you costs practically nothing.
- The cost of living is beautifully low, but the quality of life is spectacularly high.
In other news, I have finally discovered my address for those that have been asking. Though, I'm unsure if mail is actually able to come here, but would love it if you tried anyway:
Me
Residencial Maria Cristina
300 metros oeste de los telefonos publicos
Contiguo a la Clinica Arvicana, Apartamento #4.
Heredia, Heredia, Costa Rica
That's all for now, I hope everyone's doing well!
These last couple weeks have been pretty uneventful, so I don't have much exciting to write about, but thought I probably should anyway....
I have been spending the majority of my free time relaxing, procrastinating planning, picking up any extra shifts at work I can, and just walking around. And sitting on my lazy butt avoiding the constant rain. I have gotten to skype with a few lovely people, which has been wonderful. The highlight being skyping with my mom, Kelly, niece Lily, Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Flo... technology is a beautiful thing.
I did laundry, which was entertaining. Washing machines and dryers are crazy expensive here, as well as use a ridiculous amount of energy and water. So, what people who aren't rich do, is use what we have: a washing machine that is separated into two compartments and uses no hot water. The first compartment is the regular wash cycle, with a knob that you have to turn to drain the water when it's done.
The second compartment is the spin cycle, which does an excellent job drying everything as much as possible before you hang it all up on a line to dry. The thing about that one is that if your laundry isn't perfectly balanced in the spinner thingy, the entire machine begins to move across the floor. Hilarious. There is no such thing as a rinse cycle, so you have to do that by hand. It requires a lot more time and effort than in the states, but it's not really as obnoxious as it sounds.
Haha I know you were all just yearning to learn the details of doing laundry here.
A notable event would be that our shower head, which heats the water, exploded while my roommate was in the shower a couple weeks ago. Therefore, we went without hot water for a while. Cold showers suck. Regardless of whether or not it's warm outside. Not only are they cold, but they don't really make you feel clean. We have hot water again, but there was a good week and a half of cold showers and a general feeling of smellyness.
Last Monday (9/27), I ventured out to the small town of Sarchi, about an hour or so away. Sarchi is an artisan town, that in reality is not all that small, just not highly populated. It sprawls out a bit, and is divided in to Sarchi North, which contains the town's center, and not too much else, and Sarchi South. The road up through Sarchi South is full of souvenir/carreta (brightly painted typical Costa Rican carts) shops and woodworking studios. The artwork, both the carretas and furniture, is pretty spectacular, and you can go in and check everything out while drinking free coffee and watching the artists do their thing. According to my guidebook, you can take woodworking classes there, which I hope to do another time.
I stumbled upon a shop with a artist who was both deaf and mute painting a typical carreta. He was eager to explain to me what he was doing (as well as he could and as well as I could understand) and he pulled up a stool for me to sit and watch him work. Roberto was incredibly kind and friendly, and a remarkably patient painter. Trying to communicate with him while watching him paint was a nice break from walking around in the rain.
On an amazing note, on my way home from Sarchi, I went shopping for a new shower head and such, and I found a this which I clearly purchased for myself as a birthday present. For those of you who know Eggo the Eggwhisk, I am sure you have a small idea of how ridiculously happy this made me. And for those of you who don't know my favorite kitchen utensil, you are missing out.
My birthday was on Tuesday, and my roommate surprised me with a small party. She invited a bunch of her friends over, who were all nice as can be, to celebrate with me and have some cake. It ended up being a pretty hilarious evening full of me half understanding what was going on and getting another run down of Tican slang, none of which I remember.... I had a great time though, and drank a good deal of wine.
Other than that, aside from registering as a taxpayer (though I won't be paying taxes) so I can get paid and planning my classes, I haven't been up to much of anything.
I start taking TESOL classes on Monday, for 4 weeks, which will suck, but at least I'm not paying full price. I will, somewhat thankfully I suppose, be quite busy these next few weeks. Hopefully it will give me another opportunity to meet new people and make some more friends.
My mom is coming to visit this weekend, and she gets in tomorrow. :) I'm really excited. It will be nice to have a bit of home for a weekend.
The list of things I miss about home is quite long, but here are a few of the things I am loving about Costa Rica so far:
- Universal healthcare.
- You only pay taxes if you make a certain amount of money. Aka, if you are poor, you don't have to pay taxes.
- No military.
- Coffee. Even the crap is fabulous.
- Most of the time the taxi drivers will wait to make sure I get in the gate of my apartment building before leaving at night.
- I have a really awesome view from my apartment.
- Paying someone to clean your apartment for you costs practically nothing.
- The cost of living is beautifully low, but the quality of life is spectacularly high.
In other news, I have finally discovered my address for those that have been asking. Though, I'm unsure if mail is actually able to come here, but would love it if you tried anyway:
Me
Residencial Maria Cristina
300 metros oeste de los telefonos publicos
Contiguo a la Clinica Arvicana, Apartamento #4.
Heredia, Heredia, Costa Rica
That's all for now, I hope everyone's doing well!
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Tortuguero and Such
Alright, it's been over a week since I last wrote which means this could be a long one, so I am going to try and stick to the interesting parts only. However, I make no promises and am likely, as per usual, to be long winded and overly thorough. Basically, I am going to tell you the things I hope to remember somewhere down the line...
In general, things are still going well. I am enjoying the job, and my students are pretty great for the most part. My Saturday students are mostly working adults, though there are a couple younger students in the class. They are eager to learn and participate, and while they don't catch on quite as quickly as my Wed/Fri students, they make up for it in enthusiasm.
My Wed/Fri students are slightly more reluctant to speak in English, but I think that has more to do with their age and egos than their willingness to learn. There are only two girls in this class and about 15 boys (some of whom have yet to show up), which is always an interesting ratio.
Last Saturday after class I returned home to find my roommate had bought a router and had internet set up for our apartment :) So my computer is finally online, although it isn't the strongest connection, it works well enough. Then she took me out to purchase a cell phone, which was surprisingly incredibly complicated. I think we went to about 7 stores before we found me a cheap (by Costa Rica standards) cell phone and then went to a few more places before we finally got me a SIM card. I believe I get free incoming calls hint hint.
CR's independence day was Wednesday so I had the day off, and therefore a long long weekend to take advantage of. Sunday I headed down to San Jose to meet up with my German friend Antonia to go to Tortuguero. The trek out was an experience in itself. In order to get to Tortuguero on your own (you can get transportation from tour companies for something like $60 round trip - pretty ridiculous considering it cost about $10 round trip on your own), you have to take a bus from San Jose to Cariari, another bus from Cariari to Pavona, and then a boat from Pavona to Tortuguero Village. It's a trek, but allows you to see a bit of Costa Rica countryside, including banana plantations, and meet some locals along the way.... as well as lose 5 pounds from excessive sweating.
Tortuguero Village is a tiny tiny tiny village on the northeast (caribbean) coast of the country. The village pretty much thrives on tourism, and 19 out of 20 locals make most of their living off it. The only way to reach the village is by boat, and it is the best and cheapest way of getting in to Tortuguero National Park. To do everything the village/park has to offer (aside from camping), you need at most a day and a half. Antonia and I, on the other hand, decided to take our sweet time and spend about three and a half days there.
We found the cheapest place to stay we could (a whopping $8 per night), and settled in... We arrived at dinner time on Sunday, and decided that going to bed at 8:30pm was probably dumb, we chose one of the village's local bars to have a drink or two to waste some time. It is slow season there right now, and considering everyone in the village knows one another, my fair-skinned blond-haired travel companion and I stuck out like sore thumbs and immediately drew attention.
For the most part, the people of Tortuguero are friendly and welcoming and great. While listening to some awful karaoke and watching a hilarious game of dominoes during which every player slammed down his piece when it was his turn, we were approached my a number of gentlemen. By far, the nicest of the bunch was named Antony, who after offering us a free canal tour the next day, became our guide and friend for the next few days. Antony, 25, attended only one year of school, but speaks 5 different languages (Jamaican Patois, Spanish, English, French and something else I can't remember) and was working on his 6th with Antonia as well as other German tourists. Pretty awesome.
Monday afternoon we met Antony and two other German tourists and went for a tour in the canals of Tortuguero National Park. This was the first time I had experienced Costa Rica outside the city setting, and it was absolutely incredible. While there are a thousand words I could use to describe it, I will go with green. Really really reallllllly freaking green. Absolutely beautiful and completely different from anything I have ever experienced. You read about the biological diversity of the rain forest growing up, but seeing it in person is simply breathtaking. Go there, fall in love, bring bug spray.
The canal tour was truly incredible, and among other things, I was able to see lots of birds, monkeys, spiders, iguanas, lizards, a poison dart frog, and mini alligators whose real name I can't remember. Photos will be posted on facebook soon.
Wednesday night we went back in to the park to do a turtle walk, which is the biggest draw to Tortuguero (translated means: turtle's place). From June to October, four different species of sea turtles come to the beaches of Costa Rica (mostly in the Tortuguero area) to lay their eggs. A turtle will come ashore and find a spot in the sand to dig a deep hole. A certified guide takes you out to the beach after dark to meet with an official "spotter," who leads you right to a turtle laying its eggs. Apparently when turtles start laying eggs, they enter into some kind of "trance" and can't stop until they are finished - they usually lay around 100 eggs 6 or 7 times a summer. So, while they are doing that, the guides lead you right up to the turtle (using their red lights so as not to disturb/scare the turtle with a bright light), moves aside a back flipper so you can watch the turtle laying eggs. Which I'm sure the turtles really appreciate.
When it's done, the turtle will use its flippers to bury the eggs and hide them best she can. Pretty awesome to watch. No photos are allowed, so you all will just have to go see it yourself some day.... Seriously... SO cool. We got to see 3 green sea turtles up close and a bunch more from a short distance moving along the beaches. Also, I should note, because it came as a surprise to Antonia and most other travelers we spoke with: the turtles are huge. The locals joke about how you can mount them and ride them like you would a horse. This of course is illegal, but funny to imagine nonetheless.
Antonia spent the rest of our time on the island eating, swimming in the ocean, walking around the town, sweating, and hanging out with Antony and meeting his friends, brothers, sisters and his some 48 nieces and nephews. Yeah. 48. He is the youngest of his mother's 11 children (not including his father's family in Florida), and is related to over half the people in the village. Antony was a wonderful guide, and was, apart from his professing his love for me and asking me to marry him, a great friend to have during our stay. He taught a couple other tourists how to make a kind of vegetarian soup using coconut as the base and saved us some. When I told him I hate coconut he replied that if I didn't like coconut I didn't like black men, haha. The soup was actually pretty good, as the taste of coconut was hidden by vegetables. Regardless, it was nice to have some authentic Costa Rican (slightly more Caribbean) food that didn't consist of rice and beans.
Not surprisingly, I was thoroughly attacked by mosquitoes, and my legs look like I have chicken pox. Mosquitoes love me. Always have. Probably always will. An interesting development I have encountered this summer (not just here in CR) is that my bites will swell, and then bruise before finally going away after about two weeks. Antony saw my legs, grabbed a plant growing alongside a local store, got the juice out of it and put it over my legs to stop the itching. It worked. I wish I could have bottled it up to bring back with me for the next time I am attacked.
Aside from the extreme heat/humidity of Tortuguero and the plethora of loud animal sounds, from dogs to birds to monkeys, that kept Antonia and I from sleeping as soundly as we would have liked (not a big deal of course), Antonia and I had only one real negative experience while in Tortuguero. The second night we were there (Monday) we went out with Antony for a drink at the bars. We spent the first part of the night speaking Spanish with Antony and his good friend Oscar, which was lovely. After Oscar went home to watch his telenovela (yes, that is what happened), the three of us relocated to bar #2, where we were approached by some other villagers.
After being harassed by almost every male in the bar to dance - they only accepted 'no thank you' after the 3rd or 4th time they asked along with an explanation why - a man old enough to be my father approached me and proceeded to hit on me. He admitted he was probably too old for me, but then made comments about how I should change my mind and leave the bar with him. I declined as politely as possible, but he lingered long enough to make me uncomfortable before he finally exited. This particular gentleman proceeded to make passes at me the rest of my stay in Tortuguero, though none quite so forward.
Shortly after he left, two other older men sat down with Antonia, Antony and I at the table. Because everyone knows everyone in Tortuguero, Antony introduced all his "friends." It was clear that the two who sat down with us had had a bit much to drink, and wasted no time in trying to figure out whether or not we were Antony's dates. The guy talking to me assumed I was going home with Antony and said something along the lines of "he can't do for you what I can." Adorable, really. Thankfully, that is where my conversation with that guy ended. Unfortunately for Antonia, she was not so lucky. The man that sat down next to her was outwardly asking her if she (and at times both of us) would go to bed with him, and when she said absolutely not he decided it was because Antony owned us and was refusing to share, and began to argue. We left at that and were mostly successful in avoiding them for the rest of our time there.
Aside from that small episode, Tortuguero was really a wonderful experience. I'd highly recommend going there, maybe just not for such a long amount of time. Antonia and I left Thursday morning and on our boat ride back to Pavona we saw a young (not quite baby) turtle making his way through the canals. Beautiful. Turtles are pretty awesome.
Since being back there hasn't been much going on, just planning and teaching. On the way back from class this morning I stopped at the market. There is a giant farmers market on the other side of the hospital (I live on the south side of the new hospital, and the market is on the north side) every Saturday, so I stopped to get some fresh goodness. I got 2 medium sized pineapples, a small watermelon, 3 bananas, 4 tomatoes and a block of delicious cheese for about $6. Be jealous ;)
Tomorrow I'm going to experiment with laundry. Wish me luck!
In general, things are still going well. I am enjoying the job, and my students are pretty great for the most part. My Saturday students are mostly working adults, though there are a couple younger students in the class. They are eager to learn and participate, and while they don't catch on quite as quickly as my Wed/Fri students, they make up for it in enthusiasm.
My Wed/Fri students are slightly more reluctant to speak in English, but I think that has more to do with their age and egos than their willingness to learn. There are only two girls in this class and about 15 boys (some of whom have yet to show up), which is always an interesting ratio.
Last Saturday after class I returned home to find my roommate had bought a router and had internet set up for our apartment :) So my computer is finally online, although it isn't the strongest connection, it works well enough. Then she took me out to purchase a cell phone, which was surprisingly incredibly complicated. I think we went to about 7 stores before we found me a cheap (by Costa Rica standards) cell phone and then went to a few more places before we finally got me a SIM card. I believe I get free incoming calls hint hint.
CR's independence day was Wednesday so I had the day off, and therefore a long long weekend to take advantage of. Sunday I headed down to San Jose to meet up with my German friend Antonia to go to Tortuguero. The trek out was an experience in itself. In order to get to Tortuguero on your own (you can get transportation from tour companies for something like $60 round trip - pretty ridiculous considering it cost about $10 round trip on your own), you have to take a bus from San Jose to Cariari, another bus from Cariari to Pavona, and then a boat from Pavona to Tortuguero Village. It's a trek, but allows you to see a bit of Costa Rica countryside, including banana plantations, and meet some locals along the way.... as well as lose 5 pounds from excessive sweating.
Tortuguero Village is a tiny tiny tiny village on the northeast (caribbean) coast of the country. The village pretty much thrives on tourism, and 19 out of 20 locals make most of their living off it. The only way to reach the village is by boat, and it is the best and cheapest way of getting in to Tortuguero National Park. To do everything the village/park has to offer (aside from camping), you need at most a day and a half. Antonia and I, on the other hand, decided to take our sweet time and spend about three and a half days there.
We found the cheapest place to stay we could (a whopping $8 per night), and settled in... We arrived at dinner time on Sunday, and decided that going to bed at 8:30pm was probably dumb, we chose one of the village's local bars to have a drink or two to waste some time. It is slow season there right now, and considering everyone in the village knows one another, my fair-skinned blond-haired travel companion and I stuck out like sore thumbs and immediately drew attention.
For the most part, the people of Tortuguero are friendly and welcoming and great. While listening to some awful karaoke and watching a hilarious game of dominoes during which every player slammed down his piece when it was his turn, we were approached my a number of gentlemen. By far, the nicest of the bunch was named Antony, who after offering us a free canal tour the next day, became our guide and friend for the next few days. Antony, 25, attended only one year of school, but speaks 5 different languages (Jamaican Patois, Spanish, English, French and something else I can't remember) and was working on his 6th with Antonia as well as other German tourists. Pretty awesome.
Monday afternoon we met Antony and two other German tourists and went for a tour in the canals of Tortuguero National Park. This was the first time I had experienced Costa Rica outside the city setting, and it was absolutely incredible. While there are a thousand words I could use to describe it, I will go with green. Really really reallllllly freaking green. Absolutely beautiful and completely different from anything I have ever experienced. You read about the biological diversity of the rain forest growing up, but seeing it in person is simply breathtaking. Go there, fall in love, bring bug spray.
The canal tour was truly incredible, and among other things, I was able to see lots of birds, monkeys, spiders, iguanas, lizards, a poison dart frog, and mini alligators whose real name I can't remember. Photos will be posted on facebook soon.
Wednesday night we went back in to the park to do a turtle walk, which is the biggest draw to Tortuguero (translated means: turtle's place). From June to October, four different species of sea turtles come to the beaches of Costa Rica (mostly in the Tortuguero area) to lay their eggs. A turtle will come ashore and find a spot in the sand to dig a deep hole. A certified guide takes you out to the beach after dark to meet with an official "spotter," who leads you right to a turtle laying its eggs. Apparently when turtles start laying eggs, they enter into some kind of "trance" and can't stop until they are finished - they usually lay around 100 eggs 6 or 7 times a summer. So, while they are doing that, the guides lead you right up to the turtle (using their red lights so as not to disturb/scare the turtle with a bright light), moves aside a back flipper so you can watch the turtle laying eggs. Which I'm sure the turtles really appreciate.
When it's done, the turtle will use its flippers to bury the eggs and hide them best she can. Pretty awesome to watch. No photos are allowed, so you all will just have to go see it yourself some day.... Seriously... SO cool. We got to see 3 green sea turtles up close and a bunch more from a short distance moving along the beaches. Also, I should note, because it came as a surprise to Antonia and most other travelers we spoke with: the turtles are huge. The locals joke about how you can mount them and ride them like you would a horse. This of course is illegal, but funny to imagine nonetheless.
Antonia spent the rest of our time on the island eating, swimming in the ocean, walking around the town, sweating, and hanging out with Antony and meeting his friends, brothers, sisters and his some 48 nieces and nephews. Yeah. 48. He is the youngest of his mother's 11 children (not including his father's family in Florida), and is related to over half the people in the village. Antony was a wonderful guide, and was, apart from his professing his love for me and asking me to marry him, a great friend to have during our stay. He taught a couple other tourists how to make a kind of vegetarian soup using coconut as the base and saved us some. When I told him I hate coconut he replied that if I didn't like coconut I didn't like black men, haha. The soup was actually pretty good, as the taste of coconut was hidden by vegetables. Regardless, it was nice to have some authentic Costa Rican (slightly more Caribbean) food that didn't consist of rice and beans.
Not surprisingly, I was thoroughly attacked by mosquitoes, and my legs look like I have chicken pox. Mosquitoes love me. Always have. Probably always will. An interesting development I have encountered this summer (not just here in CR) is that my bites will swell, and then bruise before finally going away after about two weeks. Antony saw my legs, grabbed a plant growing alongside a local store, got the juice out of it and put it over my legs to stop the itching. It worked. I wish I could have bottled it up to bring back with me for the next time I am attacked.
Aside from the extreme heat/humidity of Tortuguero and the plethora of loud animal sounds, from dogs to birds to monkeys, that kept Antonia and I from sleeping as soundly as we would have liked (not a big deal of course), Antonia and I had only one real negative experience while in Tortuguero. The second night we were there (Monday) we went out with Antony for a drink at the bars. We spent the first part of the night speaking Spanish with Antony and his good friend Oscar, which was lovely. After Oscar went home to watch his telenovela (yes, that is what happened), the three of us relocated to bar #2, where we were approached by some other villagers.
After being harassed by almost every male in the bar to dance - they only accepted 'no thank you' after the 3rd or 4th time they asked along with an explanation why - a man old enough to be my father approached me and proceeded to hit on me. He admitted he was probably too old for me, but then made comments about how I should change my mind and leave the bar with him. I declined as politely as possible, but he lingered long enough to make me uncomfortable before he finally exited. This particular gentleman proceeded to make passes at me the rest of my stay in Tortuguero, though none quite so forward.
Shortly after he left, two other older men sat down with Antonia, Antony and I at the table. Because everyone knows everyone in Tortuguero, Antony introduced all his "friends." It was clear that the two who sat down with us had had a bit much to drink, and wasted no time in trying to figure out whether or not we were Antony's dates. The guy talking to me assumed I was going home with Antony and said something along the lines of "he can't do for you what I can." Adorable, really. Thankfully, that is where my conversation with that guy ended. Unfortunately for Antonia, she was not so lucky. The man that sat down next to her was outwardly asking her if she (and at times both of us) would go to bed with him, and when she said absolutely not he decided it was because Antony owned us and was refusing to share, and began to argue. We left at that and were mostly successful in avoiding them for the rest of our time there.
Aside from that small episode, Tortuguero was really a wonderful experience. I'd highly recommend going there, maybe just not for such a long amount of time. Antonia and I left Thursday morning and on our boat ride back to Pavona we saw a young (not quite baby) turtle making his way through the canals. Beautiful. Turtles are pretty awesome.
Since being back there hasn't been much going on, just planning and teaching. On the way back from class this morning I stopped at the market. There is a giant farmers market on the other side of the hospital (I live on the south side of the new hospital, and the market is on the north side) every Saturday, so I stopped to get some fresh goodness. I got 2 medium sized pineapples, a small watermelon, 3 bananas, 4 tomatoes and a block of delicious cheese for about $6. Be jealous ;)
Tomorrow I'm going to experiment with laundry. Wish me luck!
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