First off, my birthday celebration was quite fun. I ended up going out with lots of students and teachers from the school and around 2ish, Joshua and Maude were the only people left with me. We found this little food stand and they ordered me a triple-cheeseburger, which of course I gobbled down, with fries. I ended up passing out around 3ish, I think. All in all, I can´t say it was as fun as the 5-day celebration I had in Peru last year, but it was still a hell of a good time.
I left school a couple days early to start my real adventures, and I decided to go back to my favorite hostel so far: Pensión Santa Elena. As soon as I got there I was welcomed back by the guys who worked there who remembered me from our last night of partying (the same night of the big fight). That was pretty cool. I checked into a dorm and it was pretty full. I struck up a conversation with the people bunking next to me. One girl from France, a Turkish girl named Nour, and a Canadian named Ruth. I decided to take it easy that night and just get up the next day and do nothing.
The next day I started out doing pretty much nothing, then after overhearing one of the workers mention waterfalls in the area, which I had read about but didn´t have time to visit, I figured I would go check them out. I ran into Nour and she didn´t have anything to do, so she tagged along. We took a public bus that was heading to the Monteverde Reserve and got off early to start our walk. The first part was downhill on a semi-paved road, but because it was a pretty clear day, the views were just breathtaking. We could see all the way to the Nicoya Gulf, very very impressive. So green it´s amazing. We turned onto a trail that kept going and going and going, and eventually we were crawling over rocks and across wooden planks used as bridges going over deep rivers. It was a pretty cool little trail, it just went on forever. Eventually, we got to the infamous San Luis Waterfalls. It was pretty big, I´d say close to 20 or 25 meters. Nour and I sat there eating and talking for a while, just enjoying, when all of a sudden, lightning lit up the sky and thunder screamed over all the noise, leaving us in silence. We figured we should get out of there before it started to pour, but then all of a sudden a group of people showed up and said they were going swimming. The thought had crossed my mind but I didn´t have a towel and the water was freezing, but when Nour said she had one, I had to jump in. The water was freezing, probably some of the coldest water I´ve ever been in, but I got used to it after a while. It was well worth it after looking at the pictures. So after I dried off, it wasn`t raining that badly but it was thundering, so Nour and I started to head back on the trail, when the rain gradually came down harder and harder. Within a couple of minutes, I was completely soaked. It was as if I had gone swimming with the shirt I was wearing. Seriously, it was thunderstorming like a damn monsoon. We quickly made our way back to a lodge (it took us surprisingly only a short amount of time to go back on that seemingly never-ending trail). After ringing out our clothes and waiting for the rain to stop, Nour and I called a cab and took it back to Santa Elena, ready for a steaming hot shower and some dry clothes. After dinner, we gathered up the people at the hostel, and went to the one and only Bar Amigo´s. It was a good time, nothing too crazy.
I got up early the next day because I planned on going to La Fortuna, a popular spot to see Costa Rica´s most famous Volcano, Volcán Arenal. The fastest way to get there is to take a jeep to Lake Arenal, a boat across the lake, and then another jeep to the town of La Fortuna. However I was told that it´s possible for you to walk to the lake, saving money and letting you see some incredible views, then get on the boat across the lake and finally taking the last jeep. So I was planning on doing that, but then it started drizzling and grey clouds covered the sky. I figured it would be nice in the morning like it normally is. But not today. I really didn´t feel like getting caught in a rainstorm again, so I decided to just wait until the next jeep-boat-jeep transfer to La Fortuna, which left at 2 pm. Ruth, the Canadian in the same dorm as me, was scheduled to take it also, so we traveled across the lake and into La Fortuna together. The town is located about 20 kilometers away from the base of the volcano, so you can see the whole thing most of the time. The tip though is covered by clouds a lot, so when people take tours to go see the volcano, it´s hard to see lava and everything with clouds in the way. We got to our destination around 5, so after dinner, we figured we would check out the hot springs. Back in Santa Elena, I met these guys from Hawaii traveling around who had come from La Fortuna and they said that right next to one of the resorts, called Tabacón Springs (which was recommended to me by my cousins and other relatives who had been there), was a path that led you underneath a bridge that had natural hot water running through with little natural pools that you could sit in. I was also told by other travelers earlier that Tabacón was sweet as hell, but super super expensive, and that it was possible to just sneak into it if you acted like you belonged there (because people who stay at the same-named hotel get in for free). So Ruth and I took a cab there and just walked in, testing out our sneaking-in abilities. We were called back walking down the first stairs, saying we had to pay. I checked out the prices, and it was $40 just to get in, and more if you wanted to enjoy the buffet. Screw that! So we walked out, and literally 100 meters away down a path under a bridge ran a river with water that was probably between 65 and 75 degrees. It was absolutely incredible. Steam was rising up from it due to the heat. And it was all natural, none of that man-made crap. We brought a bottle of cheap liquor with us to fully enjoy the experience. It was beautiful, full moon giving us enough light to explore around, and just chillaxing in natural hot springs. We told our cab driver to come back and pick us up at 10, but when we got to the place where he dropped us off, he wasn´t there. So we just figured we´d stick our thumbs out and try and hitch-hike our way back until the cab showed up. About 2 minutes later, a van pulled over and let us in. It was an Argentinian couple with their son (who works in Puerto Viejo, a town on the Caribbean coast), and so I talked to them about what we were doing and asked them questions about what they were doing. They complemented me on my good Spanish!! Coincidentally, they dropped us off right at our hostel because they happened to be staying at a hostel across the street. We then randomly met these Slovakian guys and went to a discotheque with them, which ended up not being that fun. So we called it quits early and just went to bed.
I woke up at 8, because I had a lot planned to do, and told Ruth I´d meet up with her later. I first wanted to hike up Cerro Chato, which was a crater that used to have volcanic activity but then turned into a lake. First I had to get to the property though. That was about a 6 to 8 kilometer hike from my hostel, which consisted of walking on a road that ran through fields and eventually going uphill, where I could see pretty incredible views of La Fortuna. Unfortunately, it was a bit cloudy, but it was still beautiful. I got to the lodge where you need to pay to go to nearby waterfalls as well as to hike up Largo Cerro Chato. Obviously I didn´t want to pay to hike so I tried to get on the trail without paying. I was stopped by a guy who asked if I had a ticket. I asked if I needed one and he said of course. Then he asked if I was a citizen. I quickly said yes, and he said ok, only $5 then. I asked if there was a student discount and he said well normally it´s 10 but since you´re Tico...I figured I´d better not let this chance get by, so I ran in, bought the 50%-off ticket, and started my climb. At first it was just a steep climb up some farms. These views of La Fortuna were even more gorgeous. Just fields and fields of green on either side of the town. About 2 kilometers later, the hike turned into a climb through the jungle. The trail looked like someone had just taken a machete and gone through the jungle making their own trail. I was literally walking up a mountain covered in jungle-forest. It was pretty cool, but it was a very very steep climb. After a little over a kilometer and a half, I reached the top and then it was a quick 100 meter descent to the lake. It was pretty cool being in the crater, because I also could see part of Arenal. White cloud-smoke was at its tip, and I couldn´t figure out if that was coming out of the volcano or if that was just clouds coming off. Either way, it was sweet. I relaxed on a branch sticking out into the middle of the lake, keeping my balance so I didn´t fall into the freezing cold water. After about an hour, I decided to head back. The climb down was much easier and more fun. I saw a little snake slither its way off the trail. The views coming down were also better because the clouds disappeared. The hike down took a little over an hour. I was dead beat and made my way over to the waterfalls that were right next door. The lodge charges a $7 entry fee to see the falls, but of course I shimmied my way out of that by hanging out in the gift shop next to the gate and just walking right in when no one was looking. The gate was attached to a hanging bridge, so I walked quietly to make sure no one heard me and made it across with no problems. There was then about a 600 meter steep descent to the grand Cataratas de La Fortuna. It was at least 30 meters, if not more, and had a powering thunder-noise coming from the water hitting the pool of water. It was extremely powerful and impressive to stare at. After relaxing my dog-tired feet for a bit, everyone else there left so I had the waterfall all to myself. I jumped in and started to make my way around to the side to get behind it when all of a sudden a group of 15 teenagers arrived to the falls and started screaming and shouting. I got out, waited for them to jump in and leave, and then jumped back in and made it all the way around the falls. It looked even more powerful and impressive from behind it. Ruth showed up soon after and after more pictures, we started our walk back to our hostel. I was so exhausted and tired that the first car that passed I stuck my hand out and they made room for us two to get back to La Fortuna.
And that leaves us here. Tonight, I am going to try and get to some lookout spots to see the volcano and some lava, then hit up the natural springs again. Tomorrow, I´m not sure what to do. I was thinking of going to Caño Negro, where you can take tours around and see some cool wildlife. But I think it´s a bit too expensive, and I´ll save money for other stuff. Instead I may just hike around the volcano in the park. Haven´t decided yet. Either way, after I am going to go to Nicaragua, do stuff there, then cross the country doing stuff and ending my trip on the Caribbean side and dropping into Panamá. Should be a good time. More to come later.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
First Time Experiences and Manuel Antonio
Bueno, I apologize for the delay between posts. This weekend I was not around a computer at all, and during the week I just got a bit lazy, so here it goes.
Family: My family here in Heredia consists of one mother named Cármen who is not married (don´t know where the husband is or what happened to him) with several kids, one of whom is the director of the language school I am at. When I first arrived she was very friendly, very talkative, and it seemed like I was going to have a good time. Things started getting much worse after that. I decided to have a bowl of cereal that night, because I was a bit hungry, while watching some tv, right before going to bed. I put the bowl on the ground and put the milk away, and she woke up and walked with me to the couch to watch tv with me. I didn´t know whether to hide the cereal and risk her seeing it or just tell her (I didn´t think she would be that mad) so I just decided to be honest and tell her that I was eating some cereal before bed. She gave me this look, then continued to watch tv with me, which I thought was weird. It took literally 3 minutes to finish the cereal then I went to bed. The next morning at breakfast she told Elena (another student from New Hampshire staying with Cármen) and I that we could buy whatever food we wanted and keep it in the fridge but just don´t take anything of hers. I found this to be quite rude and odd, considering we were living with her. I glanced up on the shelf, and noticed the cereal was gone. She hid the cereal and gave me a lecture on not to eat food over a bowl of cereal. I couldn´t believe it. Throughout this past week, conversations with her have been horrible because she acts like she knows everything, including the laws of America, and when I proceed to correct her she says no and remains stubborn. It´s very frustrating. That is the least of the problems though. The food situation got worse. One night she made spaghetti and I wasn´t that full after one plate of it, so I asked if there was a little bit more I could have. She looked at me, chuckled a bit, and said, "Uhh, no." I was shocked. I just figured there wasn´t any left so I didn´t make a big deal out of it. What made it worse though was that Elena told me Cármen mentioned what happened to Elena the next day and started saying, "I gave him a big plate. I mean he didn´t pay twice," referring to me. I couldn´t believe this! This is not normal for a host family to deny a student more food. They are supposed to provide a sufficient dinner and breakfast. I have continued to sneak some food out of her fridge every night ever since, because she continues to not feed me a filling dinner. I have informed the school of this, and last week our class of 4 spent the majority of the time laughing and gossiping about her and how she is quite the character. I´m not going to bother switching families, because I only have less than week left, but it is just a bit frustrating and ridiculous at the same time. I will admit though, we have gotten into some pretty heated debates which I feel has made my Spanish better since I have to articulate my arguments to her because she speaks no English. So some good has come out of living with her. Ok, enough family talk.
School: Classes are better. I´m with really advanced students and the teachers are great and really don´t care what we do as long as we are constantly talking and using correct grammar. I have met a bunch of other students who are really great and who I may try and travel around with depending on our schedules. Nothing too exciting or interesting though.
Now on to the fun stuff!!!
Last Wednesday, after class, I did the most dangerous, nerve-wracking, adrenaline-pumping activity I´ve ever done in my life: I went bungee-jumping! I went with 2 other people, Chase and Kelly, and Elena came along even though she wasn´t going to jump. The drive was about 40 min. away and as we moved farther and farther away from the city and closer and closer to the mountains, I got more and more nervous. We turned off a main road onto a dirt road and there was an old bridge with a few platforms on both sides. When we got out of the car to look down, my heart rate definitely doubled. We were in the middle of these mountains that was just surrounded by green on a bridge that had a river running through it. There were rocks throughout the river, so not only was there no way we could touch the water on the jump (which I´ve heard people do in other places), but if there was an "accident", that would be the last "accident" any of us would have. Chase was designated by the group to go first since he didn´t seem that nervous. He survived, but watching him do it made the rest of us a bit more nervous. Next it was my turn. As they were strapping the ankle braces on to me, I tried to calm myself down but it wasn´t really working. I got on the platform and tried not to look down and just straight out, but that didn´t really help. When they gave me the go ahead, I started having second thoughts, and then......I just lept out. It was soooo damn scary, watching the entire world fly by, wind pushing my eyes and neck and head back into my body. And I was just screaming the entire time. I could feel all the blood rushing to my head, and even after the first jump, when I was dangling and swinging around, I was screaming from all the adrenaline. It was a huge rush. Probably the scariest part though was having to reach for the cable they dropped down and hook it up to a harness that was fastened on my waist. It wasn´t as tight as I would´ve liked it to be, but I managed to get pulled up with no problems. My legs and hands were trembling from it all. But it was so worth it. I later found out that it was an 80 meter drop - 80 friggin meters (over 260 feet)!!! The jump came with a video that a guy took from the top of each of us jumping, and I also had the guy that drove us to the place take a video with my camera. To say it was crazy is an understatement - definitely the most insane thing I´ve ever done. Jumping off a bridge with a thick piece of stretchy rope attached to you, who comes up with this stuff?? Anyways, I´m definitely planning on doing it again elsewhere in Costa Rica.
The next day after class, Chase, Elena, and I went into San José to check out a big music festival going on in the city. It was International Music Day around the world or something so there were a ton of local groups performing in different parks all around the city. The first group we saw was a rock band and they sucked, not to mention the fact that the lights and sound system didn´t work half the time. We walked down a street to another park and saw an African percussion group that had about 6 guys playing different types of bongos and drums and just making crazy beats. They were great. Then we walked about 2 miles to a gym that had performers because a guy from my class said he was going to be there. When I couldn´t find him, I remembered he said he was going to some dance performance with our teacher, so I wanted to go find him at this theater. Chase and Elena didn´t feel like coming, so I told them I would meet them at a bar called El Pueblo (The Town) at 10, which was when we were meeting other friends also. This was when things started turning a bit weird. I took a cab to this theater, and there ended up being no dance performance at this theater. I didn´t feel like going back to the gym so I walked to another nearby park where I could hear music playing. On the way though, I could hear people calling me over, and I turned around and it was two girls on the street. I debated going over just to talk to them, because that would have been quite weird, but when I took a closer look, I was pretty sure the two women were not women...I then briskly walked to the park a block away. Now this concert going on at this park wasn´t normal either. It was a heavy metal/death metal band, so there were literally about 100 kids with black lipstick, black eyeshadow, wearing black clothes, with either black or dyed magenta-red hair. Luckily, I was wearing a black shirt that night so I blended right in with everybody. To say the least, the music was not good. I knew there was a soccer game going on at that time, so after about 20 minutes of chilling in this park, I decided to go find a bar and just grab a few drinks and watch the game before 10. I noticed though that this area was covered with casinos. So for the next hour, I pretty much went from casino to casino (about 4 or 5 in all) pretending to play only so I could get a complimentary beverage. The time passed and I met up with the rest of the guys at El Pueblo. We were out till about 2 and by 2:30, I was home in bed.
Friday, I made plans to go to Manuel Antonio and catch the public bus out of San José after school around 5ish. Kelly (the one who I went bungee jumping with and who met us at El Pueblo the night before) was planning on going to Monteverde with some other people, but missed the pick up at a nearby park, so she showed up at my place and so I invited her to come along. It was great traveling with another person, even though I would´ve been fine alone, it definitely made things enjoyable. Manuel Antonio is a small small town on the Pacific Coast, so small in fact that most buses take you to another town called Quepos about 5 km away from Manuel Antonio. So our bus stopped in Quepos and we started our search for a hostel. After going to different places and failed bargaining, we found a new hostel that had only been open for 4 weeks (and so wasn´t in any guide book) that was located below a pharmacy on the road connecting Quepos to Manuel Antonio. It had several rooms with 4 bunk beds in each room, and was the cheapest one we could find. Plus it had a common kitchen and a nice big common room with a tv with cable and an XBox hooked up to it to watch movies or play games. There were also several groups of travelers staying there so it made things fun. We didn´t have that late a night that night because we wanted to get up early to go to the National Park in Manuel Antonio (that´s pretty much the only thing to do between these two towns).
Saturday we woke up a little after 6. Kelly took a shower and I got ready for the day. The hostel has a balcony that runs across the back, which you have to walk across to get from some rooms and the kitchen to other rooms and the common/tv room. This balcony though gives a view of the forest that is absolutely breathtaking. There were no clouds and the sun was beaming by 7, so there was just a fields and plains and blotches of different shades of green until the horizon. Suddenly, a monkey climbed across a couple trees right in front of me. That was a good sign that we were going to see lots of stuff in this park. We took a public bus to Manuel Antonio where you can walk to the entrance. But in order to get to the entrance you need to walk through a trail and in order to walk through the trail you have to cross a tiny stream. Now at high tide, this little "stream" can get a little above ankle-high, because it is fed from water from the beach right next to it. That´s right, ankle-high deep water!! Luckily, there are men with boats who are willing to take you across the 10 foot wide stream for a measly dollar. Kelly and I decided to brave it out and walk across this 10 foot stream that had water up to our ankles, risking everything in our day packs from getting destroyed. 5 seconds later, we made it across safely, with only our feet wet. That was close!! It was pretty damn hysterical watching people actually take a boat across from fear of water, even though we were at a beach. We got to the park by 7:30 and decided to walk a trail that took us around an isthmus with several look out points and different beaches to visit. We didn´t seem much wildlife besides several huge iguanas and lizards and lots of butterflies and other insects. Once we finished that, we saw a tour group heading to see some monkeys, so we jumped behind and followed. It was on the same trail we just finished, so we didn´t know what was going on because we would have seen them. But all of a sudden right next to us, there were about 6 white-faced capuchin monkeys crawling from tree to tree searching all over for food. Then one monkey grabbed a huge spider out of one tree and crawled to a branch about 5 feet in front of us all and started picking it apart and eating it. Very cool. After lots of pictures and oohs and aahs, the guide found a three-toed sloth about 20 feet above us. It was crawling on a branch ever so slowly. The guide said it only moves about 110 yards a day, and is only 5 times slower than a snail. What a lazy useless piece of crap! But watching it move almost in slow-motion was pretty interesting. On our way to another trail, everyone stopped and started staring at a backpack. I couldn´t figure out what was so great about it until I saw a monkey crawling over to it very cautiously. Then I heard screams from a couple in the water and I figured it out: we were watching a robbery in progress. When the monkey started to unzip the pack, the guide ran over and scared it away, as the couple ran over to make sure it didn´t take anything. But it definitely would have if the guide hadn´t done anything. Kelly and I decided to break off from the group and go ahead on another trail and on the way we saw tons of monkeys in the trees all searching for food, as well as another sloth hanging on a tree. I still can´t get over how lazy those things are! Along the trail I noticed a branch on the side had two different colors on it. When I looked closer, it turned out a snake was wrapped around the tree. It was very creepy looking and so after some quick pictures, we moved on. Then we ran into a tour group who had a scope set up looking at some zebra grasshoppers (brightly striped yellow and black grasshoppers). They asked us what we saw and we told them oh monkeys, sloths, and a snake. When we said snake, they turned right to us with a look of surprise. We told them it was right on the side of the trail a bit back and the guide was surprised he didn´t see it. Then a woman in the group said all we´ve seen are spiders and bugs. I felt bad. They paid $20 a person for this guide who couldn´t even find this snake on the side of the trail. The guide told us it was a rainbow boa snake, after looking at our pictures of it. We continued on to several other trails and later ran into another pack of monkeys that were even closer than before searching through the jungle for food. These trails also led to some great lookout points to the Pacific and the rest of the park. The trails were so damn awesome because everywhere I turned, there were lizards and iguanas scurrying about. It felt more natural there than in Monteverde and Santa Elena because of that, and the trails were less marked and there were fewer people. We got out of the park at 12:30. 4 and a half hours of hiking, at least 5 miles in total. We laid on the beach for about an hour, swimming in the water and body surfing the waves. The water was so amazingly warm, no need to get used to it. Like a bath. We got back to our hostel, made some lunch and passed out till it was time to party. We went out with the people in our hostel, good group of people who had been here for a little over the month getting certified to teach English. It was a good relaxing time.
Sunday, we packed our things and jumped on a bus after convincing the driver to fit us in even though we didn´t have a ticket. The drive was just UNBELIEVABLY BEAUTIFUL!! Equally, if not more so, than the drive from Santa Elena back to San José. We drove along the Pacific Coast and was on a ledge that just gave way to the most beautiful views of crescent-moon beaches. Got back into town around 4ish and was back at home with the wonderful Cármen by 5. For dinner, half a bowl of chicken soup with a few scoops of rice. Don´t worry, I filled up on other stuff that night.
I am currently figuring out other travel plans right now and getting excited for my birthday tomorrow. There is a teacher here named Samuel who has the same birthday as I do, so he´s going to get the teachers together and I´m going to get the students together and we´re all going to party hardy in town. Should be a good time. I´ll try to keep the rest of the posts more frequent and shorter. On the list of things to do: Volcán Arenal, river rafting, beaches on the Caribbean, Panamá.
Family: My family here in Heredia consists of one mother named Cármen who is not married (don´t know where the husband is or what happened to him) with several kids, one of whom is the director of the language school I am at. When I first arrived she was very friendly, very talkative, and it seemed like I was going to have a good time. Things started getting much worse after that. I decided to have a bowl of cereal that night, because I was a bit hungry, while watching some tv, right before going to bed. I put the bowl on the ground and put the milk away, and she woke up and walked with me to the couch to watch tv with me. I didn´t know whether to hide the cereal and risk her seeing it or just tell her (I didn´t think she would be that mad) so I just decided to be honest and tell her that I was eating some cereal before bed. She gave me this look, then continued to watch tv with me, which I thought was weird. It took literally 3 minutes to finish the cereal then I went to bed. The next morning at breakfast she told Elena (another student from New Hampshire staying with Cármen) and I that we could buy whatever food we wanted and keep it in the fridge but just don´t take anything of hers. I found this to be quite rude and odd, considering we were living with her. I glanced up on the shelf, and noticed the cereal was gone. She hid the cereal and gave me a lecture on not to eat food over a bowl of cereal. I couldn´t believe it. Throughout this past week, conversations with her have been horrible because she acts like she knows everything, including the laws of America, and when I proceed to correct her she says no and remains stubborn. It´s very frustrating. That is the least of the problems though. The food situation got worse. One night she made spaghetti and I wasn´t that full after one plate of it, so I asked if there was a little bit more I could have. She looked at me, chuckled a bit, and said, "Uhh, no." I was shocked. I just figured there wasn´t any left so I didn´t make a big deal out of it. What made it worse though was that Elena told me Cármen mentioned what happened to Elena the next day and started saying, "I gave him a big plate. I mean he didn´t pay twice," referring to me. I couldn´t believe this! This is not normal for a host family to deny a student more food. They are supposed to provide a sufficient dinner and breakfast. I have continued to sneak some food out of her fridge every night ever since, because she continues to not feed me a filling dinner. I have informed the school of this, and last week our class of 4 spent the majority of the time laughing and gossiping about her and how she is quite the character. I´m not going to bother switching families, because I only have less than week left, but it is just a bit frustrating and ridiculous at the same time. I will admit though, we have gotten into some pretty heated debates which I feel has made my Spanish better since I have to articulate my arguments to her because she speaks no English. So some good has come out of living with her. Ok, enough family talk.
School: Classes are better. I´m with really advanced students and the teachers are great and really don´t care what we do as long as we are constantly talking and using correct grammar. I have met a bunch of other students who are really great and who I may try and travel around with depending on our schedules. Nothing too exciting or interesting though.
Now on to the fun stuff!!!
Last Wednesday, after class, I did the most dangerous, nerve-wracking, adrenaline-pumping activity I´ve ever done in my life: I went bungee-jumping! I went with 2 other people, Chase and Kelly, and Elena came along even though she wasn´t going to jump. The drive was about 40 min. away and as we moved farther and farther away from the city and closer and closer to the mountains, I got more and more nervous. We turned off a main road onto a dirt road and there was an old bridge with a few platforms on both sides. When we got out of the car to look down, my heart rate definitely doubled. We were in the middle of these mountains that was just surrounded by green on a bridge that had a river running through it. There were rocks throughout the river, so not only was there no way we could touch the water on the jump (which I´ve heard people do in other places), but if there was an "accident", that would be the last "accident" any of us would have. Chase was designated by the group to go first since he didn´t seem that nervous. He survived, but watching him do it made the rest of us a bit more nervous. Next it was my turn. As they were strapping the ankle braces on to me, I tried to calm myself down but it wasn´t really working. I got on the platform and tried not to look down and just straight out, but that didn´t really help. When they gave me the go ahead, I started having second thoughts, and then......I just lept out. It was soooo damn scary, watching the entire world fly by, wind pushing my eyes and neck and head back into my body. And I was just screaming the entire time. I could feel all the blood rushing to my head, and even after the first jump, when I was dangling and swinging around, I was screaming from all the adrenaline. It was a huge rush. Probably the scariest part though was having to reach for the cable they dropped down and hook it up to a harness that was fastened on my waist. It wasn´t as tight as I would´ve liked it to be, but I managed to get pulled up with no problems. My legs and hands were trembling from it all. But it was so worth it. I later found out that it was an 80 meter drop - 80 friggin meters (over 260 feet)!!! The jump came with a video that a guy took from the top of each of us jumping, and I also had the guy that drove us to the place take a video with my camera. To say it was crazy is an understatement - definitely the most insane thing I´ve ever done. Jumping off a bridge with a thick piece of stretchy rope attached to you, who comes up with this stuff?? Anyways, I´m definitely planning on doing it again elsewhere in Costa Rica.
The next day after class, Chase, Elena, and I went into San José to check out a big music festival going on in the city. It was International Music Day around the world or something so there were a ton of local groups performing in different parks all around the city. The first group we saw was a rock band and they sucked, not to mention the fact that the lights and sound system didn´t work half the time. We walked down a street to another park and saw an African percussion group that had about 6 guys playing different types of bongos and drums and just making crazy beats. They were great. Then we walked about 2 miles to a gym that had performers because a guy from my class said he was going to be there. When I couldn´t find him, I remembered he said he was going to some dance performance with our teacher, so I wanted to go find him at this theater. Chase and Elena didn´t feel like coming, so I told them I would meet them at a bar called El Pueblo (The Town) at 10, which was when we were meeting other friends also. This was when things started turning a bit weird. I took a cab to this theater, and there ended up being no dance performance at this theater. I didn´t feel like going back to the gym so I walked to another nearby park where I could hear music playing. On the way though, I could hear people calling me over, and I turned around and it was two girls on the street. I debated going over just to talk to them, because that would have been quite weird, but when I took a closer look, I was pretty sure the two women were not women...I then briskly walked to the park a block away. Now this concert going on at this park wasn´t normal either. It was a heavy metal/death metal band, so there were literally about 100 kids with black lipstick, black eyeshadow, wearing black clothes, with either black or dyed magenta-red hair. Luckily, I was wearing a black shirt that night so I blended right in with everybody. To say the least, the music was not good. I knew there was a soccer game going on at that time, so after about 20 minutes of chilling in this park, I decided to go find a bar and just grab a few drinks and watch the game before 10. I noticed though that this area was covered with casinos. So for the next hour, I pretty much went from casino to casino (about 4 or 5 in all) pretending to play only so I could get a complimentary beverage. The time passed and I met up with the rest of the guys at El Pueblo. We were out till about 2 and by 2:30, I was home in bed.
Friday, I made plans to go to Manuel Antonio and catch the public bus out of San José after school around 5ish. Kelly (the one who I went bungee jumping with and who met us at El Pueblo the night before) was planning on going to Monteverde with some other people, but missed the pick up at a nearby park, so she showed up at my place and so I invited her to come along. It was great traveling with another person, even though I would´ve been fine alone, it definitely made things enjoyable. Manuel Antonio is a small small town on the Pacific Coast, so small in fact that most buses take you to another town called Quepos about 5 km away from Manuel Antonio. So our bus stopped in Quepos and we started our search for a hostel. After going to different places and failed bargaining, we found a new hostel that had only been open for 4 weeks (and so wasn´t in any guide book) that was located below a pharmacy on the road connecting Quepos to Manuel Antonio. It had several rooms with 4 bunk beds in each room, and was the cheapest one we could find. Plus it had a common kitchen and a nice big common room with a tv with cable and an XBox hooked up to it to watch movies or play games. There were also several groups of travelers staying there so it made things fun. We didn´t have that late a night that night because we wanted to get up early to go to the National Park in Manuel Antonio (that´s pretty much the only thing to do between these two towns).
Saturday we woke up a little after 6. Kelly took a shower and I got ready for the day. The hostel has a balcony that runs across the back, which you have to walk across to get from some rooms and the kitchen to other rooms and the common/tv room. This balcony though gives a view of the forest that is absolutely breathtaking. There were no clouds and the sun was beaming by 7, so there was just a fields and plains and blotches of different shades of green until the horizon. Suddenly, a monkey climbed across a couple trees right in front of me. That was a good sign that we were going to see lots of stuff in this park. We took a public bus to Manuel Antonio where you can walk to the entrance. But in order to get to the entrance you need to walk through a trail and in order to walk through the trail you have to cross a tiny stream. Now at high tide, this little "stream" can get a little above ankle-high, because it is fed from water from the beach right next to it. That´s right, ankle-high deep water!! Luckily, there are men with boats who are willing to take you across the 10 foot wide stream for a measly dollar. Kelly and I decided to brave it out and walk across this 10 foot stream that had water up to our ankles, risking everything in our day packs from getting destroyed. 5 seconds later, we made it across safely, with only our feet wet. That was close!! It was pretty damn hysterical watching people actually take a boat across from fear of water, even though we were at a beach. We got to the park by 7:30 and decided to walk a trail that took us around an isthmus with several look out points and different beaches to visit. We didn´t seem much wildlife besides several huge iguanas and lizards and lots of butterflies and other insects. Once we finished that, we saw a tour group heading to see some monkeys, so we jumped behind and followed. It was on the same trail we just finished, so we didn´t know what was going on because we would have seen them. But all of a sudden right next to us, there were about 6 white-faced capuchin monkeys crawling from tree to tree searching all over for food. Then one monkey grabbed a huge spider out of one tree and crawled to a branch about 5 feet in front of us all and started picking it apart and eating it. Very cool. After lots of pictures and oohs and aahs, the guide found a three-toed sloth about 20 feet above us. It was crawling on a branch ever so slowly. The guide said it only moves about 110 yards a day, and is only 5 times slower than a snail. What a lazy useless piece of crap! But watching it move almost in slow-motion was pretty interesting. On our way to another trail, everyone stopped and started staring at a backpack. I couldn´t figure out what was so great about it until I saw a monkey crawling over to it very cautiously. Then I heard screams from a couple in the water and I figured it out: we were watching a robbery in progress. When the monkey started to unzip the pack, the guide ran over and scared it away, as the couple ran over to make sure it didn´t take anything. But it definitely would have if the guide hadn´t done anything. Kelly and I decided to break off from the group and go ahead on another trail and on the way we saw tons of monkeys in the trees all searching for food, as well as another sloth hanging on a tree. I still can´t get over how lazy those things are! Along the trail I noticed a branch on the side had two different colors on it. When I looked closer, it turned out a snake was wrapped around the tree. It was very creepy looking and so after some quick pictures, we moved on. Then we ran into a tour group who had a scope set up looking at some zebra grasshoppers (brightly striped yellow and black grasshoppers). They asked us what we saw and we told them oh monkeys, sloths, and a snake. When we said snake, they turned right to us with a look of surprise. We told them it was right on the side of the trail a bit back and the guide was surprised he didn´t see it. Then a woman in the group said all we´ve seen are spiders and bugs. I felt bad. They paid $20 a person for this guide who couldn´t even find this snake on the side of the trail. The guide told us it was a rainbow boa snake, after looking at our pictures of it. We continued on to several other trails and later ran into another pack of monkeys that were even closer than before searching through the jungle for food. These trails also led to some great lookout points to the Pacific and the rest of the park. The trails were so damn awesome because everywhere I turned, there were lizards and iguanas scurrying about. It felt more natural there than in Monteverde and Santa Elena because of that, and the trails were less marked and there were fewer people. We got out of the park at 12:30. 4 and a half hours of hiking, at least 5 miles in total. We laid on the beach for about an hour, swimming in the water and body surfing the waves. The water was so amazingly warm, no need to get used to it. Like a bath. We got back to our hostel, made some lunch and passed out till it was time to party. We went out with the people in our hostel, good group of people who had been here for a little over the month getting certified to teach English. It was a good relaxing time.
Sunday, we packed our things and jumped on a bus after convincing the driver to fit us in even though we didn´t have a ticket. The drive was just UNBELIEVABLY BEAUTIFUL!! Equally, if not more so, than the drive from Santa Elena back to San José. We drove along the Pacific Coast and was on a ledge that just gave way to the most beautiful views of crescent-moon beaches. Got back into town around 4ish and was back at home with the wonderful Cármen by 5. For dinner, half a bowl of chicken soup with a few scoops of rice. Don´t worry, I filled up on other stuff that night.
I am currently figuring out other travel plans right now and getting excited for my birthday tomorrow. There is a teacher here named Samuel who has the same birthday as I do, so he´s going to get the teachers together and I´m going to get the students together and we´re all going to party hardy in town. Should be a good time. I´ll try to keep the rest of the posts more frequent and shorter. On the list of things to do: Volcán Arenal, river rafting, beaches on the Caribbean, Panamá.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Monteverde, Santa Elena, and Heredia
Catch up time!
So in Montezuma, I met a guy named Adam at the waterfalls, and he said he was going to Sámara. When I asked him where he was going next, he said Monteverde and Santa Elena, and since he had rented a car, he offered me a ride with him. How could I refuse a free ride? He seemed like a nice enough guy - 32 year old Jewish doctor - what´s not to trust? What I didn´t realize was how forward and talkative he was. I had seen him talk to other travelers, and he just doesn´t know when to stop talking (in Montezuma, our group was eating brunch and he came over, and ended up talking to us the entire time we ate, not giving us any time to ourselves). Well the car ride was just as bad. He continuously told me stories of his travels which were interesting but not so much that I cared for 4 hours of them. I basically kept my eyes out the window the whole time, enjoying the beautiful scenery: the country is just one layer of green, I´m convinced. In the middle of the drive, Adam was cruising at a pretty high speed, when all of a sudden we saw a cop walk out of nowhere with a radar gun and wave his hands at us. It looked like he was just giving us the slow down sign, but I told him to pull over in case it was serious - better than getting chased by the cops. So we pulled over and I saw the cop motion us to back up, so we reversed up to him on the side of the road. He showed us his radar gun, which said that Adam was driving 108 km/hr (which is only a little over 60 mph; hard to believe this is above the speed limit on a highway). So the cop asked for Adam´s license and passport, which I found a bit odd, then said that it was going to cost him 20,000 colónes plus 30% of that (which I figured out in my head pretty quickly was 26,000 colónes). Adam though for some reason couldn´t understand this, and kept asking what? How much? Finally the cop told him the full sum. Then the cop said that he could either pay now and not receive a `multa´(or fine), or the cop could just write the ticket up and he would have to pay that. So Adam just agreed to pay now. But when he pulled out his money, he didn´t have change, all he had were fives and tens, so when he asked if the cop had change, the cop just said "25 is fine", took the money, and left. A minute later on the road, we realized that that the cop just wanted the money - Adam basically bribed a cop out of a ticket. We then figured that he probably could have saved money and bargained the bribe to a lower amount, because the cop would definitely rather have preferred money in his own pocket than writing a ticket and having money just go to the police department. Unfortunately, we didn´t think of this at the time. It was still an interesting experience. We both decided to stay at this hostel recommended by Lonely Planet as being "one of the best hostels in Costa Rica" called Pensión Santa Elena. It´s run by a brother and sister (Ran and Shannon) from Austin, Texas, and they are the friendliest people ever. They sat down with me and gave me advice on anything I wanted to do and which company was the cheapest to do it with. They were just so helpful and laid back that it made the entire hostel that much better, even though it wasn´t all that special. Another reason why this hostel is the best one I´ve ever stayed at: they have agua caliente (hot water). That night was the first hot shower I´ve had since I´ve been in Costa Rica, so you can only imagine the sensation I got when I expected cold water and out came steaming hot water. That night, I drank a bottle of wine on my own and made friends with a bunch of random travelers. We later went out to the only bar in this small town called Amigo´s, and I returned around 12:30 or 1 (don´t really remember).
The next day I woke up at 6 am to catch the 6:30 bus to the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve. Now these two towns (Monteverde and Santa Elena) are high up in the mountains (only around 1600 meters, I believe), however, they are uniquely located on a range of mountains that divides the continent into the Caribbean (or east) side and the Pacific (or west) side. What happens is hot wind from the Caribbean mainly swings up to the mountains and brings with it lots of humidity and water vapor, thereby creating lots of clouds that are incredibly thick and dense. This inevitably leads to rain, however, on some lucky mornings, the clouds don´t roll in and you can have a very clear and visible sky (and forest). So I wanted to catch the earliest bus to these reserves to increase my chance of seeing more of the reserve and wildlife. Based on advice from Shannon, I decided to get a guided tour. Even though it was a bit expensive, Shannon told me it was the only way to see wildlife because there is just so much cloud forest, the animals know to stay away from the trails and the guides just are trained to see and hear animals that are really a good distance away. So my guide started off by telling us where we would be going and how he had gotten lost in this reserve twice, one time seeing a jaguar. Walking through the trails though was absolutely sensational. The trees were ginormous (gigantic + enormous) and just took up every little space in the forest, creating homes for the thousands of different species of wildlife. The reason for the trees being so big is because they all have to compete for sunlight, so only the tallest who can reach closer to the sun survive. Our guide told us some trees grow 4 meters a year!!! He pointed out a few millipedes, centipedes, and other various insects and plant life, until we got to one point in the trail. He said that yesterday he saw a snake in a tree being attacked by birds and he wanted to go check if the snake was still there (the reason he was being attacked is because the snakes are nocturnal, so in the day the birds try and attack the snake to get it out of the tree, while it doesn´t have much energy to fight back). So he climbed up this off-the-trail path. A minute later, he grabbed his telescope which he brought along and told us to follow him. Sure enough, through the scope, there wrapped around a tree was a green pitviper. I looked through the scope to see it, then looked out of it to see if I could see it with my own eye with no help, and I had absolutely no clue where it was. I asked the guide where it was and he pointed in the direction of where the scop was pointing, but that didn´t help at all. I was amazed at how good his eyesight was. We walked a bit farther on the trail and stopped again because our guide had spotted a sloth sleeping in a tree. He set up the scope and everybody else who looked couldn´t see it, because it was curled up as just a bundle of fur. When it was my turn to look, the furball started to move, so I got a great glimpse of his face and claws - that was totally incredible. It looked like something from Planet of the Apes - creepy but completely awesome. Continuing on the path, the guide heard the call of the quetzal, a very famous and beautiful bird that is well-known in Central America (it is Guatemala´s national bird and the currency is named after it as well). So our guide kept imitating the quetzal´s call and after hearing its response, we searched in the trees for it. Unfortunately, after 15 minutes of looking around (I was mainly standing there not doing anything because there was just no way I was going to be able to find this bird in all this wildlife), the bird stopped calling and we couldn´t find it. Out of nowhere though came a sort of screech, a bit like a horn honk but it had a bird-call-ring to it. The guide said that was the three-wattled bellbird, or as he so fittingly called it, the "Fu Man Chu" bird (due to its so-called whiskers that it had dangling from the sides of its mouth and on its beak). He said that he had seen one earlier and I was really eager to see just what the hell he was talking about. After hearing this bird call repeatedly, and knowing we were right underneath it, he was determined to find it. I thought there was no chance in hell it was going to happen. A minute later, I hear him say, "Found it." I thought no way so I ran over to his scope that he set up, and sure enough again, there lay the brown and white Fu Man Chu bird. I took some great pictures through the scope of this fascinating creature, which did in fact have three "wattles", one on either side of his mouth and one on the top half of the beak. Walking back was gorgeous; we were so high up I could see the clouds rolling in. On the return hike the guide spotted a glass-thin butterfly, so properly named for his transparent wings. It was pretty incredible. After that, and a small bite, I walked aboute 5 minutes down the hill to a canopy tour company called Selvatura and signed up for a canopy tour. This is basically a super long zip line that has different cables that you go across which take you throughout the cloud forest. Costa Rica is known for being the first country to create the zip line, if that means anything at all. The experience was great, but I had the unfortunate luck of signing up at the same time that a group of middle school students did, so the wait to go from cable to cable was particularly long on each different paltform and I was just surrounded by constant adolescent chat, which got very annoying. It was particularly funny though when one student cursed another and then all the students went AAAGHH, and asked their chaperone if they heard that. Aaah, the good ol´days. Nevertheless, the tour was awesome. Gliding through the forest over and through the trees was definitely a new experience. One cable was 550 meters long - a little over a quarter of a mile! There was also a Tarzan swing, where I was hooked up to some ropes and climbed up to a platform that was about as high as the waterfall jump and I was basically pushed off, but at the highest peak of the swing I could see the entire forest: an amazing sight! After it was all done and I got a ride back to the hostel, I decided to han out and play some cards with some other travelers, then made some spaghetti for dinner in the communal kitchen, and after another late night of partying, went to bed.
I woke up even earlier the next morning, at 5:45, to catch the 6:00 bus to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. Unfortunately, I didn´t realize the bus didn´t pick up outside the hostel the way the bus to the Santa Elena Reserve did, so I had to wait to catch the 7:15 bus. I got there and decided to not get a guide. I walked through some trails that led to the Continental Divide, a lookout point where it´s possible to see the Caribbean Sea on one end and the Pacific on the other...on a clear day. Unfortunately, unlike the day before, today was a particularly cloudy morning, so my visibility was only about 30 meters. It was still pretty impressive to stand on this mountain range with a view of both sides of the continent. I was not as big a fan of this reserve though, mainly because the trails were so wide and well-marked and clean that I didn´t feel like I was in a real reserve. It was still gorgeous though; the amount of wildlife and green in general was just incredible. I ran across some caterpillars and millipedes and butterflies, but nothing impressive. After I made my way back to the entrance, I had talked to some people earlier who had been to Montezuma and said they saw some quetzals, so at this ponit, I was just dying to see the bird, especially after not having found it the day before. So I kept asking random guides where I could find one and they gave me the same mundane answer: "Well they´re really rare so it just depends." Finally, one guide I asked pointed me in the direction of the entrance where the buses were and said there´s a couple of them over there that people were going to check out. So I ran over there, and asked a guide where it was and he pointed to me that it was in a hole of a tree and its long tail (which it is known for) was hanging out. I couldn´t see it for the life of me, so he eventually got so fed up with pointing that he just shoved me in front of his friend´s scope and there it was. The gorgeous blue, red, and green bird then flew across the way, and landed on a tree right in front of us, with no other natural life blocking the view. I got some unbelievable pictures after putting my camera up to the eyepiece of the scope. After that, I felt like I had seen everything I could see between these two cloud forests reserves. I then went back into town and went back to Selvatura to go to the Jewel of the Rainforest Exhibit, a display of the third-largest insect collection in the world. A man named Richard Whitten began his collection at the tender age of 5, and has continued his interest in entymology ever since, gathering species from all over the world. I had my own private tour and so asked the guide to do it all in Spanish for practice, and to my surprise, I understood nearly everything (except for a few words in Spanish that referred to specific insects). What was really cool was when I made my way over to the exhibit, on the second floor of the building was an old man with a thick white beard - Richard Whitten himself. We exchanged hellos and told me to enjoy myself. I thought that was pretty special that the collector himself lived above his own exhibit. Walking in, I was overwhelmed by the glorious display of the many colors and species of his insects. The collectin contains over a million different species, from elephant beetles (the largest in the world) to the moth with the death face (the one from the movie Silence of the Lambs) to the beetle in the movie The Mummy (the one that crawls in their skin). It was just incredible. Here´s a tip: take a museum tour in another language. This is the best way to practice a language. However, later that night I found just as good, if not a better, way to learn a language. Get involved in a fight! I went to the bar for my last night with some friends and random locals I met at the hostel. One guy named Sandro and another named Jordan were talking to me, and for about an hour, all they told me was that the Caribbean had real Ticos while the Pacific had foreigners and was too fake and touristy. But no matter how many times I agreed with what they said or even repeated it back to them, they would just say it again. It was pretty hilarious. They were clearly good friends, hugging and high-fiving each other. Then all of a sudden, they started shoving each other and things got really messy. It took everyone at the table (5 or 6 guys) to keep them apart. I found it absolutely ridiculous, and when they were split up and people were talking to each of them in Spanish, I just sat right next to them listening to every word they were saying. I ran from end to end of the bar just listening and chiming in when I didn´t understand what they said. It was a great way to practice Spanish. So like I said, want to learn a language? Get involved in a fight!
The next day, I took the 6:30 bus to San José. But after going to bed at 2 am, I didn´t wake up until 6:15. So to say the least, I was a bit rushed. This drive though was one of the most beautiful drives I´ve ever taken. We were descending from the mountain and it was a clear morning, so the landscapes were just unbelievably green with white clouds perched in the blue sky. The 4 and a half hour drive when by fast, after which I took a public bus to Heredia and met my new host family. My host mother, Cármen, is very friendly and talkative, which is great for me. And another student in the school, Elena, is staying with her so we converse a bit also. Now is dinner time and I´m starving. This weekend´s trip I think I´ll go to Manuel Antonio. But I definitely plan on returning to Santa Elena to reunite with Sandro and Jordan and the fellas at Pensión Santa Elena.
So in Montezuma, I met a guy named Adam at the waterfalls, and he said he was going to Sámara. When I asked him where he was going next, he said Monteverde and Santa Elena, and since he had rented a car, he offered me a ride with him. How could I refuse a free ride? He seemed like a nice enough guy - 32 year old Jewish doctor - what´s not to trust? What I didn´t realize was how forward and talkative he was. I had seen him talk to other travelers, and he just doesn´t know when to stop talking (in Montezuma, our group was eating brunch and he came over, and ended up talking to us the entire time we ate, not giving us any time to ourselves). Well the car ride was just as bad. He continuously told me stories of his travels which were interesting but not so much that I cared for 4 hours of them. I basically kept my eyes out the window the whole time, enjoying the beautiful scenery: the country is just one layer of green, I´m convinced. In the middle of the drive, Adam was cruising at a pretty high speed, when all of a sudden we saw a cop walk out of nowhere with a radar gun and wave his hands at us. It looked like he was just giving us the slow down sign, but I told him to pull over in case it was serious - better than getting chased by the cops. So we pulled over and I saw the cop motion us to back up, so we reversed up to him on the side of the road. He showed us his radar gun, which said that Adam was driving 108 km/hr (which is only a little over 60 mph; hard to believe this is above the speed limit on a highway). So the cop asked for Adam´s license and passport, which I found a bit odd, then said that it was going to cost him 20,000 colónes plus 30% of that (which I figured out in my head pretty quickly was 26,000 colónes). Adam though for some reason couldn´t understand this, and kept asking what? How much? Finally the cop told him the full sum. Then the cop said that he could either pay now and not receive a `multa´(or fine), or the cop could just write the ticket up and he would have to pay that. So Adam just agreed to pay now. But when he pulled out his money, he didn´t have change, all he had were fives and tens, so when he asked if the cop had change, the cop just said "25 is fine", took the money, and left. A minute later on the road, we realized that that the cop just wanted the money - Adam basically bribed a cop out of a ticket. We then figured that he probably could have saved money and bargained the bribe to a lower amount, because the cop would definitely rather have preferred money in his own pocket than writing a ticket and having money just go to the police department. Unfortunately, we didn´t think of this at the time. It was still an interesting experience. We both decided to stay at this hostel recommended by Lonely Planet as being "one of the best hostels in Costa Rica" called Pensión Santa Elena. It´s run by a brother and sister (Ran and Shannon) from Austin, Texas, and they are the friendliest people ever. They sat down with me and gave me advice on anything I wanted to do and which company was the cheapest to do it with. They were just so helpful and laid back that it made the entire hostel that much better, even though it wasn´t all that special. Another reason why this hostel is the best one I´ve ever stayed at: they have agua caliente (hot water). That night was the first hot shower I´ve had since I´ve been in Costa Rica, so you can only imagine the sensation I got when I expected cold water and out came steaming hot water. That night, I drank a bottle of wine on my own and made friends with a bunch of random travelers. We later went out to the only bar in this small town called Amigo´s, and I returned around 12:30 or 1 (don´t really remember).
The next day I woke up at 6 am to catch the 6:30 bus to the Santa Elena Cloud Forest Reserve. Now these two towns (Monteverde and Santa Elena) are high up in the mountains (only around 1600 meters, I believe), however, they are uniquely located on a range of mountains that divides the continent into the Caribbean (or east) side and the Pacific (or west) side. What happens is hot wind from the Caribbean mainly swings up to the mountains and brings with it lots of humidity and water vapor, thereby creating lots of clouds that are incredibly thick and dense. This inevitably leads to rain, however, on some lucky mornings, the clouds don´t roll in and you can have a very clear and visible sky (and forest). So I wanted to catch the earliest bus to these reserves to increase my chance of seeing more of the reserve and wildlife. Based on advice from Shannon, I decided to get a guided tour. Even though it was a bit expensive, Shannon told me it was the only way to see wildlife because there is just so much cloud forest, the animals know to stay away from the trails and the guides just are trained to see and hear animals that are really a good distance away. So my guide started off by telling us where we would be going and how he had gotten lost in this reserve twice, one time seeing a jaguar. Walking through the trails though was absolutely sensational. The trees were ginormous (gigantic + enormous) and just took up every little space in the forest, creating homes for the thousands of different species of wildlife. The reason for the trees being so big is because they all have to compete for sunlight, so only the tallest who can reach closer to the sun survive. Our guide told us some trees grow 4 meters a year!!! He pointed out a few millipedes, centipedes, and other various insects and plant life, until we got to one point in the trail. He said that yesterday he saw a snake in a tree being attacked by birds and he wanted to go check if the snake was still there (the reason he was being attacked is because the snakes are nocturnal, so in the day the birds try and attack the snake to get it out of the tree, while it doesn´t have much energy to fight back). So he climbed up this off-the-trail path. A minute later, he grabbed his telescope which he brought along and told us to follow him. Sure enough, through the scope, there wrapped around a tree was a green pitviper. I looked through the scope to see it, then looked out of it to see if I could see it with my own eye with no help, and I had absolutely no clue where it was. I asked the guide where it was and he pointed in the direction of where the scop was pointing, but that didn´t help at all. I was amazed at how good his eyesight was. We walked a bit farther on the trail and stopped again because our guide had spotted a sloth sleeping in a tree. He set up the scope and everybody else who looked couldn´t see it, because it was curled up as just a bundle of fur. When it was my turn to look, the furball started to move, so I got a great glimpse of his face and claws - that was totally incredible. It looked like something from Planet of the Apes - creepy but completely awesome. Continuing on the path, the guide heard the call of the quetzal, a very famous and beautiful bird that is well-known in Central America (it is Guatemala´s national bird and the currency is named after it as well). So our guide kept imitating the quetzal´s call and after hearing its response, we searched in the trees for it. Unfortunately, after 15 minutes of looking around (I was mainly standing there not doing anything because there was just no way I was going to be able to find this bird in all this wildlife), the bird stopped calling and we couldn´t find it. Out of nowhere though came a sort of screech, a bit like a horn honk but it had a bird-call-ring to it. The guide said that was the three-wattled bellbird, or as he so fittingly called it, the "Fu Man Chu" bird (due to its so-called whiskers that it had dangling from the sides of its mouth and on its beak). He said that he had seen one earlier and I was really eager to see just what the hell he was talking about. After hearing this bird call repeatedly, and knowing we were right underneath it, he was determined to find it. I thought there was no chance in hell it was going to happen. A minute later, I hear him say, "Found it." I thought no way so I ran over to his scope that he set up, and sure enough again, there lay the brown and white Fu Man Chu bird. I took some great pictures through the scope of this fascinating creature, which did in fact have three "wattles", one on either side of his mouth and one on the top half of the beak. Walking back was gorgeous; we were so high up I could see the clouds rolling in. On the return hike the guide spotted a glass-thin butterfly, so properly named for his transparent wings. It was pretty incredible. After that, and a small bite, I walked aboute 5 minutes down the hill to a canopy tour company called Selvatura and signed up for a canopy tour. This is basically a super long zip line that has different cables that you go across which take you throughout the cloud forest. Costa Rica is known for being the first country to create the zip line, if that means anything at all. The experience was great, but I had the unfortunate luck of signing up at the same time that a group of middle school students did, so the wait to go from cable to cable was particularly long on each different paltform and I was just surrounded by constant adolescent chat, which got very annoying. It was particularly funny though when one student cursed another and then all the students went AAAGHH, and asked their chaperone if they heard that. Aaah, the good ol´days. Nevertheless, the tour was awesome. Gliding through the forest over and through the trees was definitely a new experience. One cable was 550 meters long - a little over a quarter of a mile! There was also a Tarzan swing, where I was hooked up to some ropes and climbed up to a platform that was about as high as the waterfall jump and I was basically pushed off, but at the highest peak of the swing I could see the entire forest: an amazing sight! After it was all done and I got a ride back to the hostel, I decided to han out and play some cards with some other travelers, then made some spaghetti for dinner in the communal kitchen, and after another late night of partying, went to bed.
I woke up even earlier the next morning, at 5:45, to catch the 6:00 bus to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. Unfortunately, I didn´t realize the bus didn´t pick up outside the hostel the way the bus to the Santa Elena Reserve did, so I had to wait to catch the 7:15 bus. I got there and decided to not get a guide. I walked through some trails that led to the Continental Divide, a lookout point where it´s possible to see the Caribbean Sea on one end and the Pacific on the other...on a clear day. Unfortunately, unlike the day before, today was a particularly cloudy morning, so my visibility was only about 30 meters. It was still pretty impressive to stand on this mountain range with a view of both sides of the continent. I was not as big a fan of this reserve though, mainly because the trails were so wide and well-marked and clean that I didn´t feel like I was in a real reserve. It was still gorgeous though; the amount of wildlife and green in general was just incredible. I ran across some caterpillars and millipedes and butterflies, but nothing impressive. After I made my way back to the entrance, I had talked to some people earlier who had been to Montezuma and said they saw some quetzals, so at this ponit, I was just dying to see the bird, especially after not having found it the day before. So I kept asking random guides where I could find one and they gave me the same mundane answer: "Well they´re really rare so it just depends." Finally, one guide I asked pointed me in the direction of the entrance where the buses were and said there´s a couple of them over there that people were going to check out. So I ran over there, and asked a guide where it was and he pointed to me that it was in a hole of a tree and its long tail (which it is known for) was hanging out. I couldn´t see it for the life of me, so he eventually got so fed up with pointing that he just shoved me in front of his friend´s scope and there it was. The gorgeous blue, red, and green bird then flew across the way, and landed on a tree right in front of us, with no other natural life blocking the view. I got some unbelievable pictures after putting my camera up to the eyepiece of the scope. After that, I felt like I had seen everything I could see between these two cloud forests reserves. I then went back into town and went back to Selvatura to go to the Jewel of the Rainforest Exhibit, a display of the third-largest insect collection in the world. A man named Richard Whitten began his collection at the tender age of 5, and has continued his interest in entymology ever since, gathering species from all over the world. I had my own private tour and so asked the guide to do it all in Spanish for practice, and to my surprise, I understood nearly everything (except for a few words in Spanish that referred to specific insects). What was really cool was when I made my way over to the exhibit, on the second floor of the building was an old man with a thick white beard - Richard Whitten himself. We exchanged hellos and told me to enjoy myself. I thought that was pretty special that the collector himself lived above his own exhibit. Walking in, I was overwhelmed by the glorious display of the many colors and species of his insects. The collectin contains over a million different species, from elephant beetles (the largest in the world) to the moth with the death face (the one from the movie Silence of the Lambs) to the beetle in the movie The Mummy (the one that crawls in their skin). It was just incredible. Here´s a tip: take a museum tour in another language. This is the best way to practice a language. However, later that night I found just as good, if not a better, way to learn a language. Get involved in a fight! I went to the bar for my last night with some friends and random locals I met at the hostel. One guy named Sandro and another named Jordan were talking to me, and for about an hour, all they told me was that the Caribbean had real Ticos while the Pacific had foreigners and was too fake and touristy. But no matter how many times I agreed with what they said or even repeated it back to them, they would just say it again. It was pretty hilarious. They were clearly good friends, hugging and high-fiving each other. Then all of a sudden, they started shoving each other and things got really messy. It took everyone at the table (5 or 6 guys) to keep them apart. I found it absolutely ridiculous, and when they were split up and people were talking to each of them in Spanish, I just sat right next to them listening to every word they were saying. I ran from end to end of the bar just listening and chiming in when I didn´t understand what they said. It was a great way to practice Spanish. So like I said, want to learn a language? Get involved in a fight!
The next day, I took the 6:30 bus to San José. But after going to bed at 2 am, I didn´t wake up until 6:15. So to say the least, I was a bit rushed. This drive though was one of the most beautiful drives I´ve ever taken. We were descending from the mountain and it was a clear morning, so the landscapes were just unbelievably green with white clouds perched in the blue sky. The 4 and a half hour drive when by fast, after which I took a public bus to Heredia and met my new host family. My host mother, Cármen, is very friendly and talkative, which is great for me. And another student in the school, Elena, is staying with her so we converse a bit also. Now is dinner time and I´m starving. This weekend´s trip I think I´ll go to Manuel Antonio. But I definitely plan on returning to Santa Elena to reunite with Sandro and Jordan and the fellas at Pensión Santa Elena.
Friday, June 15, 2007
End of Sámara
I don´t have much time to talk, but right now I am in the small mountain town of Santa Elena, which neighbors the other town with a more famous name, Monteverde. The hostel I am staying at is the best place I have ever stayed at, ever. And there´s more stories to come from what I´m doing here and why this hostel I´m at, called Pensión Santa Elena, is so great. But that will have to come later.
The last several days, all I have done is gone to class and surfed. One day, I surfed for 3 hours without even knowing it and was late to class, but it was ok because this week I was the only student at my level. This was severely more helpful and better for me than I thought, because I was just talking and talking and talking nonstop with the teacher. I feel really comfortable using different tenses, even harder ones like the subjunctive and imperfect subjunctive. But that is the boring stuff. The surfing has been so intense this entire week. The tides have been in the morning and early afternoons now, so it´s right when the sun is out and there are just no clouds in the sky, only the horizon of the Pacific Ocean to gaze out at. I have moved to a shorter board in order to practice turning and maneuvering, allowing me to make my rides longer instead of just going straight and waiting for the wave to crash out. However, this came at a price. My chest and especially my nipples were ripped to shreds from the board and wax. It felt awful. Luckily, I have healed pretty rapidly, but it was still painful. Also my shoulders are super super sore. This I can deal with also. What has been hard though is paddling into monster waves and trying to get past them so I can catch some waves of my own. One time I was paddling into a giant wave and thought I could get past it before it broke. Unfortunately, I could not have been more wrong. The beast crashed literally right on top of me, after which I was thrown from my board and sucked in by the undertow and thrown around. I had to lunge myself up as I gasped for air. To say the least, it was pretty scary, since that was the first time that had actually happened to me. I decided to call it quits that day after that happened, but luckily, I haven´t had any experiences nearly as bad as that one.
I got to Santa Elena by hitching a ride with a random guy I met back in Montezuma who came to Sámara also. That was an interesting ride, more of which I will explain later. Right now, I am heading off to an insectarium, an exhibit of insects and other random things collected by a guy who started his collection at the tender age of 6. It is currently the second or third largest collection in the world. I have heard spectacular things about it, so I can hardly wait. More to come later.
The last several days, all I have done is gone to class and surfed. One day, I surfed for 3 hours without even knowing it and was late to class, but it was ok because this week I was the only student at my level. This was severely more helpful and better for me than I thought, because I was just talking and talking and talking nonstop with the teacher. I feel really comfortable using different tenses, even harder ones like the subjunctive and imperfect subjunctive. But that is the boring stuff. The surfing has been so intense this entire week. The tides have been in the morning and early afternoons now, so it´s right when the sun is out and there are just no clouds in the sky, only the horizon of the Pacific Ocean to gaze out at. I have moved to a shorter board in order to practice turning and maneuvering, allowing me to make my rides longer instead of just going straight and waiting for the wave to crash out. However, this came at a price. My chest and especially my nipples were ripped to shreds from the board and wax. It felt awful. Luckily, I have healed pretty rapidly, but it was still painful. Also my shoulders are super super sore. This I can deal with also. What has been hard though is paddling into monster waves and trying to get past them so I can catch some waves of my own. One time I was paddling into a giant wave and thought I could get past it before it broke. Unfortunately, I could not have been more wrong. The beast crashed literally right on top of me, after which I was thrown from my board and sucked in by the undertow and thrown around. I had to lunge myself up as I gasped for air. To say the least, it was pretty scary, since that was the first time that had actually happened to me. I decided to call it quits that day after that happened, but luckily, I haven´t had any experiences nearly as bad as that one.
I got to Santa Elena by hitching a ride with a random guy I met back in Montezuma who came to Sámara also. That was an interesting ride, more of which I will explain later. Right now, I am heading off to an insectarium, an exhibit of insects and other random things collected by a guy who started his collection at the tender age of 6. It is currently the second or third largest collection in the world. I have heard spectacular things about it, so I can hardly wait. More to come later.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Montezuma
Where did I leave off? It´s been so long, but luckily, I´ve been keeping a journal so I´ll remember every detail.
Thursday, after class and lunch, I got together a group of people who were all interested in going to Montezuma for the weekend. Montezuma is a small town on the very south of the peninsula I´m on right now. Irwin (the Swiss guy) and I went to a rental car company because booking the trip with the school is just ridiculously expensive. The car rental company was closed, and there was no way we could take a public bus. Taking a public bus meant waking up super early (on Friday, which would mean missing class, or Saturday, which would mean missing half the day) and taking it to a port town across the gulf, taking a ferry across the gulf back to the peninsula we just crossed, and then taking a bus to Montezuma. Instead, we looked into how much a bus with a private company would run us. After doing all the calculations and talking to the rental company, we found out it probably would be slightly cheaper if we rented a car. However, that price was not including gas or insurance, or the safety and sureness of arriving in Montezuma at all, since we don´t know exactly how to get there even though it looks okay on a map. The reason it´s so difficult to get there by car (private or rental; public buses just don´t run there from Sàmara anyway) is because it´s the rainy season right now, and normally in the dry season, you can just drive down the Pacific coast and take the road all the way down. Now, though, the rain has swelled up the rivers so much that it´s nearly impossible to cross them. So we would have to go north a little and then drive down the gulf coast of the peninsula and then to Montezuma. We figured it would be worth it to pay the extra money to ensure us getting there, so we booked it for the 6 of us (me, Elizabeth, Jonas, Irwin, Matt, and Roxy). I found out through signs and by talking to people that tonight was reggae night at that bar, La Gondola. I wasn´t sure what that meant, since it seemed like every night was reggae night because that´s all they ever play, but I knew it also meant that lots of people were going to show up. So the 6 of us planned on going to that bar and meeting up. After dinner and a quick nap, I made my way to La Gondola around 10:30. The bar was packed, and by packed, I mean 20-30 people. As soon as I walked in, I recognized all the teachers and administrators from the language school I´m at. This all just goes to show how damn small this town is. Around 11, after a few beers, we decided to make our way over to the inside room, where there lay a pool table, a ping pong table, a foosball table, and some dart boards. After a few games of all of them, and some more beers, I met a guy named Marco playing pool. Now Marco here is about 4'10 or 4'11 and was dancing like Usher. It was soooo hysterical. He would use the pool cue (which was at least a foot bigger than him) as a pole to dance around in a very sexual manner. He would do some limbo-esque moves all the way to the ground in front of girls who would just stare and walk away. It was very humorous. I then played him in pool, beat him, and bought him a beer because I felt bad beating him (he was AWFUL and I am really not that good). Eventually, it ended up just being me, Jonas, and Irwin at the bar. Apparently, reggae night is special because there´s a live DJ who plays the music, so everyone was on the dance floor while reggae, reggaeton, and various hip hop played over the loudspeakers. At one point, Jonas and Irwin were dancing alone together, while everyone else was with someone of the opposite gender dancing. They waved for me to come over but I was just relaxing with a beer, when Irwin came over to me and said (in very broken English with a foreign accent): "They (meaning the Ticos) are probably thinking, Look at these whyyte guys, but I don´t care." It was the funniest thing at the time, especially the way he said ¨white¨, with that broken Swiss accent. Close to 2, the bar closed up and kicked everyone out. Jonas and Irwin were kind enough to walk me home and I made it back safely, knowing full well that I had to wake up at 7:30 the next morning.
I woke up fine, made it to class, got through class, went home, packed up my things, and got on the bus to head to Montezuma - all without throwing up after the late night. The bus ride down was absolutely gorgeous. The whole country seems like it´s covered in green, from the forests to the mountains to the fields to the farms, it´s all just a vibrant, luscious, fresh green. We spent half the ride talking about various things (surfing, music, Mormons (Matt lives in a Mormon town in Hawaii and so we exchanged stories from his life and from the book I´m reading on Mormon fundamentalism), etc.) and slept the other half. The roads were so bumpy and windy though that a few of us, including myself, felt nauscious. We all fortunately made the 4 hour trip out with no projectiles coming out of our mouths. Once we got there and started shopping for hostels, Jonas realized he forgot to get money out of an ATM, so the whole weekend he relied on other people, because of course, there is no bank in Montezuma (the closest one is about 10 min. away in another town). Jonas made the whole scene funny though, when every time I or someone else would ask his opinion, he would always say "I don´t care. I don´t have the right to say anything," thanks to his bankruptcy. Every time he would change that phrase around in some way so it always got a laugh out of everybody. It was not hard to find places to stay though, because the town is literally a T-intersection. You can stand in the middle and see all 3 ends of it; it´s that small (smaller than Sàmara). Most of the hostels were $10 a night per person, but we found two places. One was this great place on the beach about a 2 min. walk from town, while the other place was right in town next to a very loud club. However, the latter hostel, Hotel Moctezuma, gave discounts on different tours to do around the town. We decided to stay at this hostel just for this night, only for the discount, then transfer to Hotel Lys (the other one right on the beach) for the next night. Elizabeth, Jonas, Irwin, and I signed up to do the Isla Tortuga tour Saturday, while Roxy and Matt signed up for a horseback riding tour (Matt had an ear infection so he couldn´t go in the water, and the island tour involved a lot of snorkeling so he would have missed out on a lot). For dinner, we ate at a little pizzeria next door which wasn´t too bad. Then we all turned in for the night after a quick stroll on the beach, knowing we had to get up early to check out of Moctzeuma and into Lys before our tours.
Saturday, we woke up around 7:45, got our stuff together, checked out, walked to the beach, and checked back in. Our island tour started at 9:30, so after grabbing some fruit (very cheap fruit, I might add) from the local supermarket (named Super Montezuma, something I find funny because super is not the adjective I would used to describe it), we split up from Matt and Roxy and got on the speed boat that was to take us to the island. The boat ride lasted about 45 to 50 minutes, speeding across the Pacific coast. The day was just beautiful. Seeing the different houses and hotels posted on cliffs overlooking the ocean with a few cloud formations across a bright blue sky was breathtaking. We made a quick detour to a rock formation that looked like a rainbow, and after a few pictures, our driver took us in and out of the little opening in the center. We then headed to our first snorkel site. After strapping on flippers and mask and taking pictures, we all jumped in. The fish were pretty cool; it wasn´t like snorkeling in the Red Sea in Jordan, but it was still fun. There were a few brightly colored fish (some bright sparkly blues and yellows), and at one point, I resurfaced to fix my mask and went back down and found myself in the middle of a huge school of fish. So i decided to hang out and follow them around for a bit. The current throughout the water was pretty strong though, so after a while of just floating around, my head started to hurt so I got back on the boat. At that point, it was time to head to the actual island. Isla Tortuga is actually a neighbor island from the one we went to, because that one takes the shape of a turtle more than the one we were on, but that´s ok. The white sandy beach and blue-green clear water complemented each other very well, not to mention the 90 degree heat. However, it was way too touristy for me. 98% of the island was marked off for no entering, so it limited you to stay on the one beach where gift shops sold overpriced stuff and water toys and beach chairs were ready for rental. The good thing was that a fresh lunch was prepared for us: grilled fish and chicken cooked right in front of us served with potatoes and a few veggies with bread, soda, and beer. For desert, a nice little fruit basket was cut up and displayed for us to pick at, consisting of pineapple (some of the best I´ve ever had), watermelon, and banana. It was all delicious. At 2, we were going to go snorkel again, so I decided to use my remaining time to lay on the beach, do some reading, and take a nap. The problem was that it was so damn hot that every time I touched a page, it would get drenched in sweat, and when I lay down for a nap, my towel just soaked up all my sweat so it was like it had been dunked in water itself. I then just walked on the beach and took a dip in. The water was so nice. Warm enough that you could walk in and have no problems but cool enough that it felt refreshing after laying in the sun. After the short swim, I took a nap and was then woken up by Elizabeth who saw our boat leaving without us. Luckily, we caught the driver´s attention and got him to come back to pick us up to go to the second snorkel site. There were bigger and more colorful fish, ,but again, the current was just pushing me along and after a while I got dizzy, so I ended up chilling on the boat and talking to the driver for a few minutes. He had been in Montezuma for about 15 years just living pura vida (the pure life, a phrase that everyone says that can be used as a greeting, a goodbye, or just to say how great life is). It was soon time to go, so everyone got back on the boat and back to Montezuma we went. We rode against the waves though, so every time the boat droppe down from riding on a wave, our speed created huge splashes that soaked everyone. Fortunately, I was in the very front so I didn´t get that wet at all. We got back to Hotel Lys, showered, and just relaxed waiting for Matt and Roxy to get back. This hostel is absolutely incredible; it´s right on the beach with lounge chairs, hammocks and tables surrounding the front while loudspeakers played reggae music with bongos laying out for anyone to play. One guy who works there with curly gray hair who wore typical hippie clothes (and looked like he hadn´t been anywhere else in his entire life but the tiny town of Montezuma) got on the bongos and started jamming with the music. He was absolutely crazy, just switching up the beats at random times to make some crazy sound that went along with whatever song played. It was really awesome. Standing against a counter rested a 35 inch flat screen tv that had a satellite dish. So we watched some soccer while listening to the music. The Gold Cup is going on right now, which I think is a tournament for all the Americas since the only teams I see play are from North, Central, and South America. We got a bottle of rum and coke and started drinking some mixed drinks once Matt and Roxy got back. After the soccer, the hostel put on Pan´s Labrynth. Eventually, around 10:30, I got all but Matt and Roxy to go to the bar, Chico´s. The music blasted my ears out of my head the minute I walked in. It was so loud I really had to walk outside to clear my brain out from the music a few times. The funny thing was that they played salsa music at first, and all the local Ticos were dancing while all the tourists and Americans just sat on the side drinking. Then, Akon started playing, and the Ticos shifted to the bar while a few Americans got on the dance floor. Then Coolio´s Gangster´s Paradise played and more tourists danced. Eventually, as the hip hop came on and the salsa turned off, the dance floor shifted from all Ticos to all tourists. The transformation was pretty funny and interesting to watch. I ended up staying there till about 3:30 in the morning; I was the only one out of the 4 of us left there. I stumbled back to the hostel only to find the door into the hostel locked. Freaking out about sleeping on the beach, I banged a bit harder until Elizabeth woke up and opened the door for me. I was very grateful. I got into bed and passed out with the fan blowing full speed on me.
Sunday, I had wanted to go to Mal País (which in Spanish means Bad Country), a coastal town that´s supposed to have awesome surf. But the bus schedule didn´t work out for us since we had to leave by 3 pm so by the time we would get to Mal País, we wouldn´t have much time to stay, and a private taxi was too expensive. So once we all stumbled out of bed around 9:30/10, we checked out, left our bags at a different hostel where Elizabeth was going to stay (she wasn´t coming back to Sámara with us as she finished the school this past week), and decided to walk to a few waterfalls that Montezuma is known for. The trail started off fine, walking across a few rivers and over rocks. Then we got to the first waterfall, which was very impressive, and then the path sort of came to an end, but you could climb up the mountain and get to another small trail to go even higher to more waterfalls. So of course we did that. The water though wasn´t clear blue because it had rained the night before unfortunately, carrying with it dirt and rocks. But it was all still impressive. The hike turned into a climb immediately, as we all grabbed onto trunks, branches, roots, rocks, anything sturdy enough for support in the climb. And it was all really slippery from the rain, so most of us took our sandals off to get a better grip with our feet. Eventually, after about an hour´s climb, we made it to the second and third waterfalls. The third was about 6 or 7 feet higher with a rope you could swing in to. But the second was a good 40 feet high, maybe more. And normally it´s deep enough to jump in to anyway, but because the rain, there was even more water in the basin so it was super safe - as long as you jumped out far enough. I was so anxious to jump in as I waited in line, and watched one guy do a backflip from a lower rock (there were multiple rocks at different heights you could use as a jumping ledge). When it was my turn though, my nerves started getting the better of me. I had Jonas, who got more and more sick as the weekend went on and by this time didn´t feel well at all, take my camera to get some good photos and videos, and once he was set up, I just hyped myself up. After a minute of looking down and strategically placing my jump, I just screamed and lept out into air. It seemed like at first I just went out and not down...then gravity took over. I flew down and down...and down. The plunge into the water was more than I expected, but overall I was fine. I had so much adrenaline running through me that I just started shaking after, while climbing up the rocks to the top for another jump. The second jump was much worse than the first, because you know you´ve already done it and you lived and you don´t want to screw it up. However, again, I jumped and was fine. My confidence boosted when I saw the backflipper do it from the highest ledge, backflipping over a brush that was in the middle of the rocks and landing fine. The grand total of my jumps was 3. After more videos of those jumps and some great photos of the waterfalls, it was time to head back. The climb down was harder, but we all made it out alive, still grabbing onto anything strong enough to hold our weight in order to help us make our way down. At the bottom, we found the most colorful crab I have ever seen. It had a bright red body, red and yellow legs, and purple pinchers. It was amazing. I got some good pictures of it, but it was super tough to catch. We made our way back into town and by 3, all of us said bye to Elizabeth and jumped on the bus to head back. This bus though was much more comfy and had screens behind the two front seats attached to a portable DVD player. The driver had Rocky (the new one) which I had never seen so he popped it in. It was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. The dialogue was just absolutely ridiculous (some lines are just so bad we all cracked up) and it was super slow. Matt and I had a good time making fun of it though, imitating Rocky´s accent to say anything in Spanish or English. At one point though, I accidentally passed some gas and it smelled kind of bad. I could tell everyone smelled it, but no one was saying anything. It was hilarious to watch everyone´s expression. About a minute later though, Irwin, in his broken English and foreign accent says outloud to everyone: "Hmmm. Smelly." It was the funniest thing to say at that time. Haha. I couldn´t stop laughing, I was just rolling all over it was so funny. The ride was shorter, lasting only 3 hours, and after I ran back to my host family in the rain. A good dinner and lots of journal writing while watching Any Given Sunday in Spanish took up most of the night, then I went to bed.
Now, I have class in about 3 and a half hours, so I´m going to lay on the beach and read. I only have two words to say about everything that happened: ¡Pura Vida!
Thursday, after class and lunch, I got together a group of people who were all interested in going to Montezuma for the weekend. Montezuma is a small town on the very south of the peninsula I´m on right now. Irwin (the Swiss guy) and I went to a rental car company because booking the trip with the school is just ridiculously expensive. The car rental company was closed, and there was no way we could take a public bus. Taking a public bus meant waking up super early (on Friday, which would mean missing class, or Saturday, which would mean missing half the day) and taking it to a port town across the gulf, taking a ferry across the gulf back to the peninsula we just crossed, and then taking a bus to Montezuma. Instead, we looked into how much a bus with a private company would run us. After doing all the calculations and talking to the rental company, we found out it probably would be slightly cheaper if we rented a car. However, that price was not including gas or insurance, or the safety and sureness of arriving in Montezuma at all, since we don´t know exactly how to get there even though it looks okay on a map. The reason it´s so difficult to get there by car (private or rental; public buses just don´t run there from Sàmara anyway) is because it´s the rainy season right now, and normally in the dry season, you can just drive down the Pacific coast and take the road all the way down. Now, though, the rain has swelled up the rivers so much that it´s nearly impossible to cross them. So we would have to go north a little and then drive down the gulf coast of the peninsula and then to Montezuma. We figured it would be worth it to pay the extra money to ensure us getting there, so we booked it for the 6 of us (me, Elizabeth, Jonas, Irwin, Matt, and Roxy). I found out through signs and by talking to people that tonight was reggae night at that bar, La Gondola. I wasn´t sure what that meant, since it seemed like every night was reggae night because that´s all they ever play, but I knew it also meant that lots of people were going to show up. So the 6 of us planned on going to that bar and meeting up. After dinner and a quick nap, I made my way to La Gondola around 10:30. The bar was packed, and by packed, I mean 20-30 people. As soon as I walked in, I recognized all the teachers and administrators from the language school I´m at. This all just goes to show how damn small this town is. Around 11, after a few beers, we decided to make our way over to the inside room, where there lay a pool table, a ping pong table, a foosball table, and some dart boards. After a few games of all of them, and some more beers, I met a guy named Marco playing pool. Now Marco here is about 4'10 or 4'11 and was dancing like Usher. It was soooo hysterical. He would use the pool cue (which was at least a foot bigger than him) as a pole to dance around in a very sexual manner. He would do some limbo-esque moves all the way to the ground in front of girls who would just stare and walk away. It was very humorous. I then played him in pool, beat him, and bought him a beer because I felt bad beating him (he was AWFUL and I am really not that good). Eventually, it ended up just being me, Jonas, and Irwin at the bar. Apparently, reggae night is special because there´s a live DJ who plays the music, so everyone was on the dance floor while reggae, reggaeton, and various hip hop played over the loudspeakers. At one point, Jonas and Irwin were dancing alone together, while everyone else was with someone of the opposite gender dancing. They waved for me to come over but I was just relaxing with a beer, when Irwin came over to me and said (in very broken English with a foreign accent): "They (meaning the Ticos) are probably thinking, Look at these whyyte guys, but I don´t care." It was the funniest thing at the time, especially the way he said ¨white¨, with that broken Swiss accent. Close to 2, the bar closed up and kicked everyone out. Jonas and Irwin were kind enough to walk me home and I made it back safely, knowing full well that I had to wake up at 7:30 the next morning.
I woke up fine, made it to class, got through class, went home, packed up my things, and got on the bus to head to Montezuma - all without throwing up after the late night. The bus ride down was absolutely gorgeous. The whole country seems like it´s covered in green, from the forests to the mountains to the fields to the farms, it´s all just a vibrant, luscious, fresh green. We spent half the ride talking about various things (surfing, music, Mormons (Matt lives in a Mormon town in Hawaii and so we exchanged stories from his life and from the book I´m reading on Mormon fundamentalism), etc.) and slept the other half. The roads were so bumpy and windy though that a few of us, including myself, felt nauscious. We all fortunately made the 4 hour trip out with no projectiles coming out of our mouths. Once we got there and started shopping for hostels, Jonas realized he forgot to get money out of an ATM, so the whole weekend he relied on other people, because of course, there is no bank in Montezuma (the closest one is about 10 min. away in another town). Jonas made the whole scene funny though, when every time I or someone else would ask his opinion, he would always say "I don´t care. I don´t have the right to say anything," thanks to his bankruptcy. Every time he would change that phrase around in some way so it always got a laugh out of everybody. It was not hard to find places to stay though, because the town is literally a T-intersection. You can stand in the middle and see all 3 ends of it; it´s that small (smaller than Sàmara). Most of the hostels were $10 a night per person, but we found two places. One was this great place on the beach about a 2 min. walk from town, while the other place was right in town next to a very loud club. However, the latter hostel, Hotel Moctezuma, gave discounts on different tours to do around the town. We decided to stay at this hostel just for this night, only for the discount, then transfer to Hotel Lys (the other one right on the beach) for the next night. Elizabeth, Jonas, Irwin, and I signed up to do the Isla Tortuga tour Saturday, while Roxy and Matt signed up for a horseback riding tour (Matt had an ear infection so he couldn´t go in the water, and the island tour involved a lot of snorkeling so he would have missed out on a lot). For dinner, we ate at a little pizzeria next door which wasn´t too bad. Then we all turned in for the night after a quick stroll on the beach, knowing we had to get up early to check out of Moctzeuma and into Lys before our tours.
Saturday, we woke up around 7:45, got our stuff together, checked out, walked to the beach, and checked back in. Our island tour started at 9:30, so after grabbing some fruit (very cheap fruit, I might add) from the local supermarket (named Super Montezuma, something I find funny because super is not the adjective I would used to describe it), we split up from Matt and Roxy and got on the speed boat that was to take us to the island. The boat ride lasted about 45 to 50 minutes, speeding across the Pacific coast. The day was just beautiful. Seeing the different houses and hotels posted on cliffs overlooking the ocean with a few cloud formations across a bright blue sky was breathtaking. We made a quick detour to a rock formation that looked like a rainbow, and after a few pictures, our driver took us in and out of the little opening in the center. We then headed to our first snorkel site. After strapping on flippers and mask and taking pictures, we all jumped in. The fish were pretty cool; it wasn´t like snorkeling in the Red Sea in Jordan, but it was still fun. There were a few brightly colored fish (some bright sparkly blues and yellows), and at one point, I resurfaced to fix my mask and went back down and found myself in the middle of a huge school of fish. So i decided to hang out and follow them around for a bit. The current throughout the water was pretty strong though, so after a while of just floating around, my head started to hurt so I got back on the boat. At that point, it was time to head to the actual island. Isla Tortuga is actually a neighbor island from the one we went to, because that one takes the shape of a turtle more than the one we were on, but that´s ok. The white sandy beach and blue-green clear water complemented each other very well, not to mention the 90 degree heat. However, it was way too touristy for me. 98% of the island was marked off for no entering, so it limited you to stay on the one beach where gift shops sold overpriced stuff and water toys and beach chairs were ready for rental. The good thing was that a fresh lunch was prepared for us: grilled fish and chicken cooked right in front of us served with potatoes and a few veggies with bread, soda, and beer. For desert, a nice little fruit basket was cut up and displayed for us to pick at, consisting of pineapple (some of the best I´ve ever had), watermelon, and banana. It was all delicious. At 2, we were going to go snorkel again, so I decided to use my remaining time to lay on the beach, do some reading, and take a nap. The problem was that it was so damn hot that every time I touched a page, it would get drenched in sweat, and when I lay down for a nap, my towel just soaked up all my sweat so it was like it had been dunked in water itself. I then just walked on the beach and took a dip in. The water was so nice. Warm enough that you could walk in and have no problems but cool enough that it felt refreshing after laying in the sun. After the short swim, I took a nap and was then woken up by Elizabeth who saw our boat leaving without us. Luckily, we caught the driver´s attention and got him to come back to pick us up to go to the second snorkel site. There were bigger and more colorful fish, ,but again, the current was just pushing me along and after a while I got dizzy, so I ended up chilling on the boat and talking to the driver for a few minutes. He had been in Montezuma for about 15 years just living pura vida (the pure life, a phrase that everyone says that can be used as a greeting, a goodbye, or just to say how great life is). It was soon time to go, so everyone got back on the boat and back to Montezuma we went. We rode against the waves though, so every time the boat droppe down from riding on a wave, our speed created huge splashes that soaked everyone. Fortunately, I was in the very front so I didn´t get that wet at all. We got back to Hotel Lys, showered, and just relaxed waiting for Matt and Roxy to get back. This hostel is absolutely incredible; it´s right on the beach with lounge chairs, hammocks and tables surrounding the front while loudspeakers played reggae music with bongos laying out for anyone to play. One guy who works there with curly gray hair who wore typical hippie clothes (and looked like he hadn´t been anywhere else in his entire life but the tiny town of Montezuma) got on the bongos and started jamming with the music. He was absolutely crazy, just switching up the beats at random times to make some crazy sound that went along with whatever song played. It was really awesome. Standing against a counter rested a 35 inch flat screen tv that had a satellite dish. So we watched some soccer while listening to the music. The Gold Cup is going on right now, which I think is a tournament for all the Americas since the only teams I see play are from North, Central, and South America. We got a bottle of rum and coke and started drinking some mixed drinks once Matt and Roxy got back. After the soccer, the hostel put on Pan´s Labrynth. Eventually, around 10:30, I got all but Matt and Roxy to go to the bar, Chico´s. The music blasted my ears out of my head the minute I walked in. It was so loud I really had to walk outside to clear my brain out from the music a few times. The funny thing was that they played salsa music at first, and all the local Ticos were dancing while all the tourists and Americans just sat on the side drinking. Then, Akon started playing, and the Ticos shifted to the bar while a few Americans got on the dance floor. Then Coolio´s Gangster´s Paradise played and more tourists danced. Eventually, as the hip hop came on and the salsa turned off, the dance floor shifted from all Ticos to all tourists. The transformation was pretty funny and interesting to watch. I ended up staying there till about 3:30 in the morning; I was the only one out of the 4 of us left there. I stumbled back to the hostel only to find the door into the hostel locked. Freaking out about sleeping on the beach, I banged a bit harder until Elizabeth woke up and opened the door for me. I was very grateful. I got into bed and passed out with the fan blowing full speed on me.
Sunday, I had wanted to go to Mal País (which in Spanish means Bad Country), a coastal town that´s supposed to have awesome surf. But the bus schedule didn´t work out for us since we had to leave by 3 pm so by the time we would get to Mal País, we wouldn´t have much time to stay, and a private taxi was too expensive. So once we all stumbled out of bed around 9:30/10, we checked out, left our bags at a different hostel where Elizabeth was going to stay (she wasn´t coming back to Sámara with us as she finished the school this past week), and decided to walk to a few waterfalls that Montezuma is known for. The trail started off fine, walking across a few rivers and over rocks. Then we got to the first waterfall, which was very impressive, and then the path sort of came to an end, but you could climb up the mountain and get to another small trail to go even higher to more waterfalls. So of course we did that. The water though wasn´t clear blue because it had rained the night before unfortunately, carrying with it dirt and rocks. But it was all still impressive. The hike turned into a climb immediately, as we all grabbed onto trunks, branches, roots, rocks, anything sturdy enough for support in the climb. And it was all really slippery from the rain, so most of us took our sandals off to get a better grip with our feet. Eventually, after about an hour´s climb, we made it to the second and third waterfalls. The third was about 6 or 7 feet higher with a rope you could swing in to. But the second was a good 40 feet high, maybe more. And normally it´s deep enough to jump in to anyway, but because the rain, there was even more water in the basin so it was super safe - as long as you jumped out far enough. I was so anxious to jump in as I waited in line, and watched one guy do a backflip from a lower rock (there were multiple rocks at different heights you could use as a jumping ledge). When it was my turn though, my nerves started getting the better of me. I had Jonas, who got more and more sick as the weekend went on and by this time didn´t feel well at all, take my camera to get some good photos and videos, and once he was set up, I just hyped myself up. After a minute of looking down and strategically placing my jump, I just screamed and lept out into air. It seemed like at first I just went out and not down...then gravity took over. I flew down and down...and down. The plunge into the water was more than I expected, but overall I was fine. I had so much adrenaline running through me that I just started shaking after, while climbing up the rocks to the top for another jump. The second jump was much worse than the first, because you know you´ve already done it and you lived and you don´t want to screw it up. However, again, I jumped and was fine. My confidence boosted when I saw the backflipper do it from the highest ledge, backflipping over a brush that was in the middle of the rocks and landing fine. The grand total of my jumps was 3. After more videos of those jumps and some great photos of the waterfalls, it was time to head back. The climb down was harder, but we all made it out alive, still grabbing onto anything strong enough to hold our weight in order to help us make our way down. At the bottom, we found the most colorful crab I have ever seen. It had a bright red body, red and yellow legs, and purple pinchers. It was amazing. I got some good pictures of it, but it was super tough to catch. We made our way back into town and by 3, all of us said bye to Elizabeth and jumped on the bus to head back. This bus though was much more comfy and had screens behind the two front seats attached to a portable DVD player. The driver had Rocky (the new one) which I had never seen so he popped it in. It was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. The dialogue was just absolutely ridiculous (some lines are just so bad we all cracked up) and it was super slow. Matt and I had a good time making fun of it though, imitating Rocky´s accent to say anything in Spanish or English. At one point though, I accidentally passed some gas and it smelled kind of bad. I could tell everyone smelled it, but no one was saying anything. It was hilarious to watch everyone´s expression. About a minute later though, Irwin, in his broken English and foreign accent says outloud to everyone: "Hmmm. Smelly." It was the funniest thing to say at that time. Haha. I couldn´t stop laughing, I was just rolling all over it was so funny. The ride was shorter, lasting only 3 hours, and after I ran back to my host family in the rain. A good dinner and lots of journal writing while watching Any Given Sunday in Spanish took up most of the night, then I went to bed.
Now, I have class in about 3 and a half hours, so I´m going to lay on the beach and read. I only have two words to say about everything that happened: ¡Pura Vida!
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Playa Sámara
Yesterday was just unbelievable all around. I woke up at 7:30, had breakfast (which is always gallo pinto, I realized; gallo pinto is rice and beans fried together, it´s not as bad as it sounds), and walked to school. I had the morning class, which I now find to be much better than afternoon class even if most of the sun is out in the morning, because that way I have all afternoon to do whatever I want. Class let out at 12, so after I went with Matt, his girlfriend Roxy (the guys from Hawaii), Elizabeth, and Irwin (another guy from Switzerland) to lunch. We then decided to meet back up around 4ish when high tide is in so we could all surf. Elizabeth and I hung around and decided to go for a swim and walk along the beach. It was absolutely beautiful. There were very few clouds, it had rained a bit earlier during our lunch, and the weather looked very promising for the afternoon/night. The waves looked great from the shore, and around 3:30, when I was in the water, I decided to just go and rent a surfboard. I started talking to the guys, who were all really helpful and fun, and picked out a board. Even though I hadn´t surfed in 2 years, I had no trouble getting up and riding waves all the way in. The waves weren´t that great for the Hawaiians, becaused they closed out really fast and didn´t last that long, but it was still super fun. I met a lot of people out on the water who were also surfing: another guy from Switzerland, a girl who´s in Sámara for 6 months working, and an older guy who has a house here but says he´s from California. Around 5:30, Matt, Roxy, and I made our way back to the school for a free salsa dance class. It was fun, nothing special, just learned a few basic salsa dance moves.
We all then agreed to meet up at a local bar after dinner and showering. That was really an experience. The bar, called El Gondola, is basically a hole in the wall looking from the outside, but once inside, wooden tables and chairs line against the walls and a pretty nice bar appears out of nowhere, serving cold beers for 800 colónes (a little over a dollar). Once a lot of the gringos left, and I downed a couple beers, I was excited to meet and talk with some of the local Sámarans. My Spanish is clearly improving, illustrated by my ability to have conversations with a few people in Spanish understanding almost everything. One girl in the language school with me named Brittney met a bunch of locals already so she introduced me to some cool people. One guy named Davyson (or Davidson, I can´t really tell from his accent) is a cook at a restaurant and all he does is work for half a day, go out and surf in the afternoon, and party at night. He´s absolutely insane. After a late night of playing foosball and ping pong, I thought it was time to head home. Passing out never felt so good. Playa Sámara awaits me now.
We all then agreed to meet up at a local bar after dinner and showering. That was really an experience. The bar, called El Gondola, is basically a hole in the wall looking from the outside, but once inside, wooden tables and chairs line against the walls and a pretty nice bar appears out of nowhere, serving cold beers for 800 colónes (a little over a dollar). Once a lot of the gringos left, and I downed a couple beers, I was excited to meet and talk with some of the local Sámarans. My Spanish is clearly improving, illustrated by my ability to have conversations with a few people in Spanish understanding almost everything. One girl in the language school with me named Brittney met a bunch of locals already so she introduced me to some cool people. One guy named Davyson (or Davidson, I can´t really tell from his accent) is a cook at a restaurant and all he does is work for half a day, go out and surf in the afternoon, and party at night. He´s absolutely insane. After a late night of playing foosball and ping pong, I thought it was time to head home. Passing out never felt so good. Playa Sámara awaits me now.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Sámara continued
I don´t remember where I left off last time, but today was the second day of classes. I was placecd in the advanced level with two other people, and all we do is talk and talk and talk and review some grammar and practice it by talking. It´s actually turning out better, even though at first it was really dull. 4 hours is a long time, but there is a 20 min. break at the 2 hour mark, which is refreshing, but then it´s back to class. Thankfully, we are right on the beach and so as soon as class lets out we get to go right to the water.
Yesterday, I had to wake up at 6:30 am to get to the school and do some logistical things, which was fine. But what I am learning more and more is just how the bugs and insects seem to multiply every day. If you think you have an idea, well guess again. Here´s a few examples to illustrate just how many mosquitos, bees, wasps, you name it, live here. My room has two windows, with curtains. Both windows were shut and my door was locked. I woke up with 3 flies-mosquitos on my bed sheet. In class, I opened my dictionary, and found a squished insect in it. What the hell kind of place is this??? The new game a few people I met and I play is where we´ll find a mosquito bite next on our body, since every day we all end up with new itches everywhere. I´m getting used to it. Also, my host family has an insane amount of random animals living around the house. I saw tons of frogs hopping around last night, and while watching a Yankees-White Sox game with David (my 10 year old host brother), I heard what sounded like a parrott squawk. It turned out to be an iguana crawling on the wall right above the small tv. Today, I was walking to school with a buddy and saw a squirrel-looking animal on a fence post, except it was shaded maroon on its underbelly, had a white strip above it, then darker on the top. Very weird. The guy I was with speaks little English and is from Switzerland, and when he saw the animal he said, "So it´s a male." I looked again to see what exactly he was looking at, and sure enough, he had noticed before I did the squirrel´s large "teste-satchel" (in the words of Borat). Every day I find new animals, pretty cool.
I´ve also met some really interesting people here. After my little oral evaluation which placed me in the advanced level, I took an hour long walk on the beach and met a guy named Matt from Hawaii, here with his girlfriend named Roxy who is also in the language program I´m in. They are big surfers and so this afternoon we are planning on getting our boards and testing the waves, even if they are a bit small. Matt took me to lunch with him and some other people, where I met up again with Elizabeth (the Canadian on the bus I met earlier), another guy from Swizterland named Jonas, and a girl from Wisconsin who goes to the University of Minnesota named Chelsea, who is here for 9 weeks. Most of them speak very to little Spanish, so I resort to English or even French (all but Chelsea speak French), so it´s actually not that bad.
I´m planning my weekend right now. I think I´m going to hit up Montezuma and Mal País if there´s time. Right now I´m heading off to lunch, then it´s the beach. It´s gorgeous right now, but it always is in the morning. In the afternoon, clouds storm over everything, and in comes the rain. But no matter what, even if it is pouring, I´m determined to get a surfboard and get out on the ocean. Unfortunately, high tide is synonymous with rain time this time of year. And it´s pretty much a guarantee, as I´ve experienced the past couple days, that it rains. But right now it´s sunny and the beach is so clear, with little islands off the coast. I´ll try to post pictures.
Tonight I´m going to try to get people organized to go out to bars, because using phones is not really an option. But I´m interested to see what the night life is like in Sámara. This place only has one computer that is on dial up internet at 36 mbps, so it´s very very very very slow. I´ll try and post updates as often as I can though. ¡Hasta luego!
Yesterday, I had to wake up at 6:30 am to get to the school and do some logistical things, which was fine. But what I am learning more and more is just how the bugs and insects seem to multiply every day. If you think you have an idea, well guess again. Here´s a few examples to illustrate just how many mosquitos, bees, wasps, you name it, live here. My room has two windows, with curtains. Both windows were shut and my door was locked. I woke up with 3 flies-mosquitos on my bed sheet. In class, I opened my dictionary, and found a squished insect in it. What the hell kind of place is this??? The new game a few people I met and I play is where we´ll find a mosquito bite next on our body, since every day we all end up with new itches everywhere. I´m getting used to it. Also, my host family has an insane amount of random animals living around the house. I saw tons of frogs hopping around last night, and while watching a Yankees-White Sox game with David (my 10 year old host brother), I heard what sounded like a parrott squawk. It turned out to be an iguana crawling on the wall right above the small tv. Today, I was walking to school with a buddy and saw a squirrel-looking animal on a fence post, except it was shaded maroon on its underbelly, had a white strip above it, then darker on the top. Very weird. The guy I was with speaks little English and is from Switzerland, and when he saw the animal he said, "So it´s a male." I looked again to see what exactly he was looking at, and sure enough, he had noticed before I did the squirrel´s large "teste-satchel" (in the words of Borat). Every day I find new animals, pretty cool.
I´ve also met some really interesting people here. After my little oral evaluation which placed me in the advanced level, I took an hour long walk on the beach and met a guy named Matt from Hawaii, here with his girlfriend named Roxy who is also in the language program I´m in. They are big surfers and so this afternoon we are planning on getting our boards and testing the waves, even if they are a bit small. Matt took me to lunch with him and some other people, where I met up again with Elizabeth (the Canadian on the bus I met earlier), another guy from Swizterland named Jonas, and a girl from Wisconsin who goes to the University of Minnesota named Chelsea, who is here for 9 weeks. Most of them speak very to little Spanish, so I resort to English or even French (all but Chelsea speak French), so it´s actually not that bad.
I´m planning my weekend right now. I think I´m going to hit up Montezuma and Mal País if there´s time. Right now I´m heading off to lunch, then it´s the beach. It´s gorgeous right now, but it always is in the morning. In the afternoon, clouds storm over everything, and in comes the rain. But no matter what, even if it is pouring, I´m determined to get a surfboard and get out on the ocean. Unfortunately, high tide is synonymous with rain time this time of year. And it´s pretty much a guarantee, as I´ve experienced the past couple days, that it rains. But right now it´s sunny and the beach is so clear, with little islands off the coast. I´ll try to post pictures.
Tonight I´m going to try to get people organized to go out to bars, because using phones is not really an option. But I´m interested to see what the night life is like in Sámara. This place only has one computer that is on dial up internet at 36 mbps, so it´s very very very very slow. I´ll try and post updates as often as I can though. ¡Hasta luego!
Monday, June 4, 2007
Arrival to Sámara
Right now, I am looking out at the beach in Sámara. The school is literally ON the beach. It´s a bit overcast and foggy, but still pretty incredible that I´m actually here.
Waking up at Tranquilo Backpackers in San José, I cleaned up and roamed the streets one last time before it was time to get on my bus. Walking down the avenidas of San José is quite interesting, with every department store salesperson standing at the door trying to entice you to come into their store and buy something. At one point a couple guys with a basketball passed the ball to me trying to get me into their store, but I didn´t feel like it. I then returned to that chicken place, buying two pieces for 500 colónes, and then made my way back to the hostel. I picked up my two bags and hurried to the bus station, as I only had 20 minutes until departure time. I made it to the station, put my big pack under the bus, and got on, only to find an old woman in my seat. After haggling with her that I wanted the aisle seat, which was mine, she finally gave up and relinquished it to me. I dozed off for the long trip, and woke up with another woman next to me. She and I began talking about where we were both heading. Once she got off, another traveler who was going to Sámara sat down next to me. She was a Bostonian named Allison who had quit her job to come to Costa Rica and spend some relaxing time here. Allison then introduced me to a girl she met at her hostel her first night who is in the same program as me, a Canadian named Elizabeth. I told her I spoke French and she got so excited, that she started speaking in rapid French with that weird Canadian accent telling me how glad she was to find someone who spoke her native language.
We arrived in Sámara in less than 5 hours (I left at noon), and walked to the school. They called my host family, and soon after the father came to pick me up. I didn´t catch his name in our introduction, but he still drove the quarter mile to his house, where his wife and child were waiting. My host mom is Maria, a short stout woman who showed me around her one-story two-bedroom house. It is well-tiled, with a cozy kitchen and dining area and hammocks surround the outside where the garden and bugs roam. They have a 10 year old son named David who is really fun to hang around, always playing with me. When I saw my room, I realized how it was David´s room, as little Disney and other cartoon toys were mounted and lying all over the place. But there is a fan, which I am grateful for. Maria then made dinner, which consisted of a huge portion of rice, beans, potatoes, and a few pieces of chicken legs. I have a feeling this is pretty customary and will be eating a lot of this. For desert, fresh mango. Man that was good!! I stayed up watching the Red Sox-Yankees ball game in Spanish with David who happens to really like baseball and is fascinated with how fast the pitchers can throw the ball. The slow pace of the ball game made me sleepy, and so I just went to bed.
Waking up at 6:15, I had breakfast (lots of rice, an egg, and a block of cheese), showered, which felt amazing, and got my school stuff together. I was amazed at how shortly after I got out of the shower, I was nearly dry. That is how hot and humid it is. I walked to school, took about 10 minutes, went through an oral evaluation, and they told me that I will probably take afternoon classes. I have a little under 4 hours until I need to get back to the school, so I´m thinking of just hanging around, walking around Sámara, and if the weather and beach look good enough, to take a swim. I am meeting several people who are also in the program, and can´t wait for the trip to really get started. More to come later.
Waking up at Tranquilo Backpackers in San José, I cleaned up and roamed the streets one last time before it was time to get on my bus. Walking down the avenidas of San José is quite interesting, with every department store salesperson standing at the door trying to entice you to come into their store and buy something. At one point a couple guys with a basketball passed the ball to me trying to get me into their store, but I didn´t feel like it. I then returned to that chicken place, buying two pieces for 500 colónes, and then made my way back to the hostel. I picked up my two bags and hurried to the bus station, as I only had 20 minutes until departure time. I made it to the station, put my big pack under the bus, and got on, only to find an old woman in my seat. After haggling with her that I wanted the aisle seat, which was mine, she finally gave up and relinquished it to me. I dozed off for the long trip, and woke up with another woman next to me. She and I began talking about where we were both heading. Once she got off, another traveler who was going to Sámara sat down next to me. She was a Bostonian named Allison who had quit her job to come to Costa Rica and spend some relaxing time here. Allison then introduced me to a girl she met at her hostel her first night who is in the same program as me, a Canadian named Elizabeth. I told her I spoke French and she got so excited, that she started speaking in rapid French with that weird Canadian accent telling me how glad she was to find someone who spoke her native language.
We arrived in Sámara in less than 5 hours (I left at noon), and walked to the school. They called my host family, and soon after the father came to pick me up. I didn´t catch his name in our introduction, but he still drove the quarter mile to his house, where his wife and child were waiting. My host mom is Maria, a short stout woman who showed me around her one-story two-bedroom house. It is well-tiled, with a cozy kitchen and dining area and hammocks surround the outside where the garden and bugs roam. They have a 10 year old son named David who is really fun to hang around, always playing with me. When I saw my room, I realized how it was David´s room, as little Disney and other cartoon toys were mounted and lying all over the place. But there is a fan, which I am grateful for. Maria then made dinner, which consisted of a huge portion of rice, beans, potatoes, and a few pieces of chicken legs. I have a feeling this is pretty customary and will be eating a lot of this. For desert, fresh mango. Man that was good!! I stayed up watching the Red Sox-Yankees ball game in Spanish with David who happens to really like baseball and is fascinated with how fast the pitchers can throw the ball. The slow pace of the ball game made me sleepy, and so I just went to bed.
Waking up at 6:15, I had breakfast (lots of rice, an egg, and a block of cheese), showered, which felt amazing, and got my school stuff together. I was amazed at how shortly after I got out of the shower, I was nearly dry. That is how hot and humid it is. I walked to school, took about 10 minutes, went through an oral evaluation, and they told me that I will probably take afternoon classes. I have a little under 4 hours until I need to get back to the school, so I´m thinking of just hanging around, walking around Sámara, and if the weather and beach look good enough, to take a swim. I am meeting several people who are also in the program, and can´t wait for the trip to really get started. More to come later.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Here at last - San Jose
After not going to bed at all in order to finish packing and get to my 6 am flight on time, I am in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. Once I went through immigration (which wasn't so bad, considering I was one of the first people off the plane), it was just my luck that my bag was one of the last ones off. My heart skipped a beat when it saw that pack, as I grabbed it off the conveyer belt and ran to exchange some money and get a taxi. The currency here in Costa Rica is colon (colones is plural) and it's around 470 colones to the dollar. Wow! So I got about 65,000 colones just to have on me, and went to get a cab to a part of town called Barrio Amon. Luckily, I was able to find someone going to that part of town also so I didn't have to pay full price. She said she was here volunteering and I told her my plans. Though she spoke no Spanish whatsoever, saying that she would be taking classes while here. I wished her luck as she got out at her hotel, thinking just how much deep shit she was getting herself into. I spoke with the cab driver about what hostels were good to stay at. One I had read about that sounded really cool was called Tranquilo Backpackers, which he was adamantly against taking me to because he said it was dangerous because a lot of people stayed there so lots of things got stolen. Instead he offered to take me to this other hostel which was near the bus station I need to go to tomorrow to get to the coast. I told him I'd take a look, walked in, saw a room, heard the price, and ran straight out. Even if it was a bit nicer and close to the bus station, it was not worth that price for one night's stay. So I told him to just take me to Tranquilo Backpackers. I walked up, keeping in mind how he said it wasn't safe, and saw how the whole hostel was surrounded by a high barbed fence. You have to ring a bell and the people at the desk have to buzz you in to get into the actual building, so I figured it couldn't be that dangerous. After getting a cheap room, I realized that one reason the cab driver may not have wanted me to come here was because he got a commission from other hotels if he got people to stay there. Whatever, this place is sweet. Hammocks and guitars lay around everywhere, free internet, free breakfast, free cable tv. And they said they'd hold your bags if you promise to come back and stay with them. Sounds awesome!
After putting my stuff down, I picked up a map and found out where the bus station was. Walking around Barrio Amon is interesting: dirt and trash everywhere, driving like there's no tomorrow, and vendors on the streets selling everything you can imagine. And since the streets are not well-marked, finding the actual bus station took even longer. Eventually I got there, got my ticket (I leave tomorrow at noon for Samara, the beach town on the Pacific coast), and started to walk back to the hostel. I was looking around at food places, and found a small restaurant type place that sold two pieces of fried chicken for 500 colones. Two HUGE pieces of chicken for a little over a dollar. How could I not take up that offer? Gobbeling down the chicken felt so good after the gross airplane food, and I realized just how easy, not to mention cheap, this whole trip is going to be in terms of food and beverage. I'm not sure if I'll go out and check out the night life tonight. I'm a bit tired, but if I meet the right people, who knows. Already the Spanish is getting better, and so far nothing has gotten stolen. More to come from Costa Rica. Ciao!
After putting my stuff down, I picked up a map and found out where the bus station was. Walking around Barrio Amon is interesting: dirt and trash everywhere, driving like there's no tomorrow, and vendors on the streets selling everything you can imagine. And since the streets are not well-marked, finding the actual bus station took even longer. Eventually I got there, got my ticket (I leave tomorrow at noon for Samara, the beach town on the Pacific coast), and started to walk back to the hostel. I was looking around at food places, and found a small restaurant type place that sold two pieces of fried chicken for 500 colones. Two HUGE pieces of chicken for a little over a dollar. How could I not take up that offer? Gobbeling down the chicken felt so good after the gross airplane food, and I realized just how easy, not to mention cheap, this whole trip is going to be in terms of food and beverage. I'm not sure if I'll go out and check out the night life tonight. I'm a bit tired, but if I meet the right people, who knows. Already the Spanish is getting better, and so far nothing has gotten stolen. More to come from Costa Rica. Ciao!
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