Next Stop...Costa Rica! (03/13/2017)
What excites me most...
What excites me most about this trip is the fact that I am about to travel to my 8th country in 2 years. I have encountered so many different types of people and have learned so much about different cultures. I am thrilled to see the cultures of Costa Rica!
That being said, I am still a bit nervous about traveling. I am an introvert so it has always been hard to put myself out there. Going abroad is the most uncomfortable thing for me to do. You'd think that I'd be used to it by now! But no, I am not. Even so, I know that I will open right up when my plane touches down in Costa Rica. Getting there is a tough mental ordeal. But once I am there, I am set to go!
What excites me most about this trip is the fact that I am about to travel to my 8th country in 2 years. I have encountered so many different types of people and have learned so much about different cultures. I am thrilled to see the cultures of Costa Rica!
That being said, I am still a bit nervous about traveling. I am an introvert so it has always been hard to put myself out there. Going abroad is the most uncomfortable thing for me to do. You'd think that I'd be used to it by now! But no, I am not. Even so, I know that I will open right up when my plane touches down in Costa Rica. Getting there is a tough mental ordeal. But once I am there, I am set to go!
What is Cultural Immersion? (03/16/2017)
Cultural immersion is when you dive in head first into a different country or culture. It is putting aside everything that you consider "normal" in favor of adopting someone else's norms. Cultural immersion is the act of gaining a deeper understanding of the world around you.
This CHP 199 Cultural Immersion course that I am taking is going to allow me to gain a deeper understanding of the Costa Rican culture. I plan to immerse myself by trying a bit of every single piece of food that I come across, participate in all the activities that have been set up for the class, communicate with my host family, and keeping a positive attitude throughout!
I look forward to the exciting adventures that await me!
This CHP 199 Cultural Immersion course that I am taking is going to allow me to gain a deeper understanding of the Costa Rican culture. I plan to immerse myself by trying a bit of every single piece of food that I come across, participate in all the activities that have been set up for the class, communicate with my host family, and keeping a positive attitude throughout!
I look forward to the exciting adventures that await me!
Day 1 in Costa Rica: First Impressions (03/17/2017)
Wait...I'm in Costa Rica?
First, a disclaimer for all of these blogs: I'm a writer. I write A LOT. I will write about everything. Normally I keep a journal, but since this blog is a requirement for this trip, I have decided to write everything that I would normally write in my journal on here (nothing scandalous, I promise....mostly :)) to save me the trouble of writing the same things twice. That just means that whoever grades this is going to have to read through a novel for each of my entries. But at least the readers at home (if there are any, probably just my parents to be honest) will be able to hear the full narrative of my Costa Rica trip. I don't proof read my journal entries (because they are too darn long!) so I don't intend to proof read these blog posts. I'll keep the grammatical errors to a minimum, but you will have to excuse the occasional one that might pop up. Also, I take a lot of pictures. Like, a LOT. I have historically taken as many as over 1200 pictures in ONE day while I was abroad in China. Of course I will not post every single one of my pictures on here. Normally I shoot for just a hundred pictures per day to post on Facebook alongside an entertaining (well, I think that it's entertaining) narrative that ties all the pictures together. Since I don't think posting 100 pictures per day for 10 days on this blog would be appropriate, I might still do the Facebook album thing to supplement this blog. Any who without further ado, I bring you my Costa Rica blog: See, it hasn't hit me yet that I am in Costa Rica. I blame the fact that I didn't get to sleep last night! Our bus departed from Nugent Hall at 2am. So after finishing my ME 360 homework, I went home, took a shower, finished up packing, then traveled across campus to the bus pickup location. Let me take a moment to give a shout out to our awesome sponsor Brian Moffitt for giving all 10 students a bag of snacks (in addition to our t-shirts and cameras). It had everything from chips to gummies to cookies to a snickers bar...everything! Definitely made my night! It was about a 2.5, 3 hour drive to O'Hare airport from campus. I slept--well, tried to--the entire time. At the airport we got our tickets and went through the quickest security check that I've seen at O'Hare. They brought out the K9 dog. We didn't even have to take off our shoes. We literally just dumped all of our stuff in a single bin, walked through a metal detector, and that was it! Wish it was always like that... We had about an hour before our 7:15am flight to Charlotte, North Carolina via American Airlines. So in the mean time, I got me some Starbucks (tall caramel frappuccino because why not?) The only thing that I--or my fellow traveling companions--did not like about the flight was that it seemed that our trip adviser booked ALL of us in middle seats. Anyone who has every flown on a plane knows that the middle seat is hands down the worst seat to get on a plane. I personally favor the aisle seat because I don't have to worry about climbing over people if I have to use the restroom or something. The window seat is cool too because you get to take some pretty neat pictures and video. Yeah, so I was in a middle seat and I had to battle the guy to the left of me for the arm rest. Rule number 1 of flying: always yield your armrest to the person in the middle! At least, that is what I always do because I know that the person in the middle is in an uncomfortable spot. The least that I can do to help him/her out is yield the arm rest...give them that one comfort. But nope, I had to sit with my arms awkwardly placed in from of my body for two hours. I was able to catch some glimpses of sleep for the duration of the flight. I only woke up to change my position (not many position options in the middle seat though :/) and get the complementary snack service. Ever since my Hong Kong trip, I've only gotten the Cranberry/Apple juice as my beverage. I used to go for the ginger ale. Also something that I have changed recently is that I no longer wear ear plugs during takeoff an landing. My ears used to pop like crazy on planes so I had to wear the ear plugs or my head would explode. But a few weeks ago, during my three back to back graduate school visits to Michigan, Florida, and UT Austin, I've stopped wearing them altogether. Now I just use my ear phones and play music the entire time. Handy :) Any who, we got to Charlotte, North Carolina where we had the shortest layover in the history of layovers. It was probably like only 20, 30 minutes. I didn't even have time to use the restroom between the flights! But that's probably because I was contacting the photo company that handed pictures of the Knights of St Patrick's ball. My pictures were not uploaded on their website with the others so I had to call them to make sure that they hadn't lost them. They didn't! It was just on a different camera than the rest. Glad that I got that taken care of because I've been itching to change my Facebook profile picture! We boarded the plane that was to take us from Charlotte, North Carolina to San Jose, Costa Rica. This time all 11 (ten students and the sponsor) of us got decent seats! I think we all of us were either at a window or aisle seat. I got the window seat. Also in my row was the sponsor! #Row15PartyRow The guy in the middle of us "graciously" offered to switch seats with one of us so that we could sit together, but me and the sponsor politely declined so quickly that I found it comical. Nope. Sorry dude. I had my fill of middle row seats for the day. I did give up my arm rest to him. The one comfort that I could offer him. It was a 5 hour flight and just like in the previous flight, I did a lot of on and off sleeping. I only woke up to change positions (not many options, of course, because it's a cramped plane seat. I did like that I could rest my head against the window though. Also handy was that the window was to the right of me which is the direction that I naturally like to rest my head). I also woke up for the "lunch" that they served. It was a....turkey? sandwich with a brownie, chips, and an option of cookies or pretzels (cookies all the way!). Not very filling, but I was too tired to actually be hungry so I was fine. I queued a bunch of songs on my phone and by the time we landed, the playlist hadn't even finished yet! After 5 hours! There were still a few songs to go. Oh, also since I was at a window seat this time, I got some pretty cool videos of us taking off in Charlotte and landing in Costa Rica. And I got some pretty sweet pictures while we were in the air as well. At the San Jose airport, our merry band assembled outside to jet bridge. I snagged a nice picture of me standing next to the plane on the jet bridge (PC to Brian!). We went through customs. That line was ridiculously long! I did use the time wisely to learn the names of all of my travel companions. We shall see if I can still identify everyone tomorrow when they are wearing different clothes. We have (in the order that I learned them): Claire, Andy, Kelly, Kate, Leyda, Tanner, James, Justin, and Charlie. James and Justin are twins so this is probably going to cause me all sorts of trouble. I'll be fine though :P They only asked me one question at customs: how long am I staying? To which I said, of course, 10 days. US passports do not need a visa to enter Costa Rica so it was a painless process. We retrieved our bags, I exchanged some money (they use the colon--there's supposed to be an accent on that second o--here) and took a picture of my money wad as one does. Sadly, I'm not a millionaire here like I was when I went to Indonesia (of course a million in either of these currencies is not actually that much) but I still have like 77,000 colons. Also at the airport, we met David who was to be our guide for the trip. He is a Spanish teacher at the Instituto San Joaquin de Flores--the university that we will be studying at during our stay here. David walked us to the bus which took us to the institute. At this point I had gone full picture/video mode and was taking pictures and videos like crazy. You're welcome...or sorry. Depending on who you are :D At the institute, David showed us a video that advertised the institute as a study abroad location. It was like 10 minutes long and contained testimonials from American students who chose to study abroad in Costa Rica. They chose Costa Rica to refine their Spanish skills and escape the norm or choosing a European country like most other people do. They spoke about how much they loved their host families--everyone who studies here lives with a host family as opposed to a university dorm room. They talked about how they could easily travel to Panama and Nicaragua (fun fact: apparently a one way ticket to Panama only costs like $60USD according to David). Also, since Costa Rica is such a small country, they can easily travel around it. There are also a variety of extreme sports to do including zip lining, rafting, and bungee jumping off waterfalls. One guy talked about how he had never camped before but here he got to go camping like every other weekend. After the video, we got to finally meet our host families. None of the older hosts spoke English, so when I met my host mother, things got...interesting. Through my travels, I've gotten better at guessing what people are trying to say to me in a different language to the point where I can sometimes even translate entire sentences accurately (it probably helps that I did take basic--and I do stress the word basic--language classes in Spanish, French, German, and Japanese so I could recognize familiar words). But I still do not know Spanish so holding a conversation with my host mother was impossible. She was really kind though. I found out that he was a lawyer and social worker--boss! We picked up the lunch that they served for us. She translated the fruits that she picked out for me as she served them to me. She even got me coffee. I don't drink coffee straight up, but I am making an exception for this trip since Costa Rica is known for its coffee and I have resolved myself to "try everything." It tasted like coffee...so not very good to me, but I still enjoyed the experience. Me and my host mother left early so we missed the group picture that everybody took. That's fine though. We have a whole 10 days ahead of us! My host mother's house was literally like a 2 minute walk away from the institute. By the by, the institute seemed relatively small. We only got to see one room, but it was the same room that we saw all of those American students in the video speak from. Definitely a big change in campus size compared to Illinois, but Illinois is ridiculously huge itself. My host mother's home is gorgeous! Very well kept and I love her home decor. Lots of Christian relics around--crosses, a picture of the Last Supper, and some other images of Mary and Jesus around the house. But it is not overwhelmingly so. Everything ties in well together. Also at the home I got to meet my host mother's 24-year-old son who (thankfully) speaks English! He also speaks like Japanese, Portuguese, and I think another language which is pretty freaking amazing. He gave me the tour of the house and showed me to my room. I also get my own bathroom! Most importantly, of course, he signed in my phone and laptop to their wifi which will make writing these blogs so much easier. It was only like 5pm by the time that I got to the host home, but of course I was pretty tired at this point. It had been a long day and I didn't actually go to sleep because of the early bus ride. But I made sure that I did not go to sleep instantly! I went ahead and purchased my Knights of St Patrick ball photos and posted them on Facebook and finally changed my cover and profile picture! Bring on the likes! :P Of course, now I am conflicted because I am anticipating some cover photo and profile picture-worthy photos while in Costa Rica. Does this mean that I will change my pictures again so soon or just make temporary profile pictures? Ahh, first world problems. I also contacted the parental units (my parents for those of you who are new to my journal writing and how I reference things) to let them know that I am alive and will be staying in a really nice house. The mothership (my mom) gave her approval, so we are good. I played a round of Dwarves vs Zombies on a new map. I joined the game late, so I had to spawn in as a mob. But it was pretty neat exploring the new map. Uh...I'm not going to bother explaining what this game is. All you need to know is that it's a minecraft thing. I then started sifting through my pictures from today and now I am here writing to you lovely people! I took a short break to eat the really good dinner that my host mother had prepared for me: salad and pasta with cheese. It tasted SOOOO good. That pasta was amazing. I need more of it in my life. It's only 8:01pm now. I have to wake up at 6am so that I can eat breakfast and get to the institute for 7am. I don't think that I will sleep until like around 10pm earliest though. Too much sleep will make me tired ironically. Given that I have had only like 6 legitimate hours of sleep in the last 96 hours--blame my two senior design classes--this will be very difficult, but I am determined! I'll watch Netflix or something...yeah... UPDATE: Netflix did not happen. By the time I finished uploading all of the pictures, unpacking,showering, and getting things ready for the next day it was already 10pm so I went to sleep. |
Day 2 in Costa Rica: The Time I Caught an Actual Fish (03/18/2017)
Slideshow this time to start it off? Why not? Let's see how this goes.
The program for the day started bright and early at 7am so I had to get up at 6am. I’ll be honest, it was a struggle getting out of that bed, but I somehow managed it. My host mom made me a delicious bean and rice dish with a side of eggs and bread with jam and lactose free cream cheese for breakfast. We ate together this time. My Spanish hadn’t improved any in the last eight hours so the morning “conversation” was exactly as you can imagine. The son was not around to translate for us so I was on my own. It was good though. She told me about how the dish that we ate was pretty typical for a Costa Rican breakfast. She talked about how all the fruit juice that I was drinking was all natural, freshly squeezed, with no added sugar. She talked about the lactose-free cream cheese and pineapple spread. I understood all of that without any outside help. I used Google translate to ask her if she liked hosting students like me. I could not really understand her response for this, but I imagine that it was positive. I found out that she was cousins with the Institute’s owner’s wife so she always volunteered to help out and take in extra students whenever she could.
After breakfast, my host walked me the two seconds to the Institute where I met up with my fellow students. It turns out that I am probably the closest to the institute. One person was a solid 15 minute walk away. A couple of people were even dropped off by car (though they were still in walking distance). There are train tracks in the middle of the road in front of the institute. Two trains passed by while we were waiting for people. THEY WERE SO LOUD. They kept blasting their horns as they passed. I guess to make sure that cars did not accidently drive in the way of them, because, you know, the train tracks were smack dab in the middle of the road.
Once we all fully assembled, we gathered on the van where we met Henry, our guide for today, and Carlos, our van driver. Henry is a University of Illinois alum. He has a PhD in Genetics and actually helped start the institute. U of I was looking to have a location in Costa Rica to teach Spanish and so asked alumni with ties to Costa Rica for help doing that. Henry was one of them and I am pretty sure that he runs the place. On our way to Tarcoles, Costa Rica—a fishing village off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica that was about a 2 hour ride from San Jose—Henry gave us a history lesson about Costa Rica. We found out that when Columbus found—not “discovered,” Henry emphasized because you can’t discover something that people already knew about—Costa Rica, they did not stay too long because they did not have gold. Some other things that he talked about was how immigration was an issue. About 20% of the 5 million population of Costa Rica were from Nicaragua, some illegally. They would work here and send money back to their families in Nicaragua which was bad for Costa Rica because that meant that the country was losing money. I also found out that continental Costa Rica was about the third of the size of the state of Illinois.
We made a short pit stop at a bridge over Rio Tarcoles to see the crocodiles that gathered there. Yeah, that particular spot was known for its crocodiles. We saw at least 15 of them in the water and on land where we stopped. There were other tourist there too, but not overwhelmingly so. After taking a bunch of pictures, we all got smoothies at the nearby snack area. I got something called “Monkey Killer” (don’t know why it was called that) which contained Soursop, Mango, and Strawberry. I got so excited when I saw that it had soursop because the last time I had something with soursop in it was in Singapore. I used to always get drinks with that fruit in it. My favorite combination was strawberry soursop. It was SOOOOO good. Super refreshing which was perfect on a hot day like it was today. I convinced another guy to try it out and he loved it too. Some of the others got coconut with rum in it. Another two people got the Monkey Killer with rum in it as well. The shop owner offered to add rum in any of the drinks that we ordered. I of course opted out because, ya know. Not about that life. I left my wallet on the bus as we looked at the crocodiles so Brian had to spot me the $4 (or 2000 colons) that it cost (you rock Brian!). Like many places in Costa Rica—except like super markets—they accepted both US and Costa Rican currency.
Smoothies in hand, we all got back on the van to finish the ride to Tarcoles. At the village—more of a “neighborhood” really as Henry described—we were given a lecture about the fishing cooperative that they had going on there by a fisherwoman while Henry translated. There were, I believe, 90 fishermen in the cooperative. Together, they fished along designated zones on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica that they fought hard for. Large companies used to fish in bulk along the coast which was damaging to the ecosystem since they took without giving back. The cooperative fought for years to get the Costa Rican government, who previously did not have any regulations for fishing, to create the fishing zones. The cooperative supplies each other with fishing nets and other resources. They had a pretty cool system going on there. If I had taken notes, I would be able to tell you more but sadly I do not remember all that was said during the lecture :D The fisherwoman did show us some fish that she had caught. They sold both whole fish and things like fish fillets. They used QR codes that would show buyers when the fish was caught, where it was caught, a picture of the fisherman that caught it, the weight of the fish, and more. They gave us some fish to try. I personally was not a fan of fish, but I tried it any way. It tasted…okay. Surprisingly, it didn’t taste overwhelmingly fishy but I still was not a fan of it.
After the lecture, Henry showed us the fruit that cashews came from because someone had pointed it out. It was this red, bell pepper like thing that apparently tasted like tomatoes (Claire and Tanner ate some). The cashew itself was beneath the skin of the stem-like thing on the end of the fruit. Pretty neat.
We took a group picture, and then changed into our bathing suits before going on the beach. This beach had black sand, much like the one that I saw in Bali, but had way more rocks on it. The fisherman there showed us the nets that they used to catch the fish. The typical one had holes that had a diagonal size of 7 inches. During particular seasons, they were allowed to use holes that were 3 inches. This was all to regulate what fish that they caught. A particular thing that they were concerned about was making sure that they only caught the mature fish, not the children. The larger hole sizes ensured this. In addition to nets, they also used hook lines as well. They showed us these and told us how they would use the plastic containers that they casted out with the hooks to determine whether they caught fish. Once the containers flipped over, that meant that there were fish on the line. The guy also told us how he would catch like 100 pounds worth of lobster each day using his bare hands. He would have to go diving for this, and he can hold his breath for quite a while under water. They also catch eels that were apparently the size of sea monsters the way that they described them. Apparently they were like a foot and a half in diameter and just wickedly long. He showed us where he got bit by these creatures as he tried to catch them.
Finally, they showed us the job of another fisher lady. She would take a giant pile of hooks and place them meticulously along the edge of a giant cylindrical bin. This was a job that she has had for the last 3 or 4 years. She also worked as a maid. She would earn $12 for every bin that she finished. Most days it would take a full day to complete one bin, but depending on how organized the hooks are when they get to her, she might be able to get up to 3 taking about 4 hours per bin. There was an order to the way that she had to line up the hooks on the bin. Putting a hook out of place would make her look really bad and apparently have the other fishermen “remember her mother” or something. I’m pretty sure that it was something about bringing dishonor to her family or something.
They took us out on boats to go fishing afterward. We split into 2 boats, one with 4 and the other with 7. I got on the 4 person boat with Claire, Tanner, and Charlie. We were definitely the better boat :D They gave us actual fishing lines to use—no fishing poles attached. We used shrimp as our bait and there was also some rocks on the end of the line to help the bait sink to the bottom. None of us knew what we were doing at first. Well, except for Charlie who had apparently done this before. The instructions were simple enough. Hole the line and when we felt a tug, pull it up. The problem was that it was that there were so many waves that it felt like the line was always tugging. It was hard for the inexperience fisher person, like myself, to distinguish between a wave and a fish, but I eventually grew to feel the difference. Fish gave a more solid, constant tug when they were on the line while waves were slightly weaker and shorter tugs. I had several failures. Fish kept eating my bait then swimming away. One time my line caught onto Tanner’s and I thought I had caught a fish so I was reeling in my line so excitedly, exclaiming that “this I definitely a fish, yesssss.” But then our fisher guide person told me to stop because I was actually pulling Tanner’s line back into the water :P It was such a HUGE disappointment. I felt like we all felt that one, not just me even though I probably felt the most crush by it. I was SO excited guys. I was so confident. The other boat—who apparently caught like 3 fish—left us like 30 minutes into the ride. Our fisher guide person asked if we wanted to leave, but we said no because we wanted to catch a fish first. We were determined! Our fisher guy was able to catch a fish too so we wanted one for ourselves. FINALLY, I felt the tug on my line again. I reeled it in and low and behold I had a fish on my line! It was a glorious moment for everyone on the boat. I passed it around so that we all could take a picture with it. Our fisher guy asked us if we wanted to keep it to eat it, and we said no because we thought that he meant that we would have to carry it home with us on the 2 hour ride back to San Jose then like ask our home moms to cook it for us. It wasn’t until we got off the boat to eat lunch with the rest of group that we discovered that our lunch place would cook it up for us to eat. The other boat cooked their 3 fish and we got to eat it.
Speaking about the other boat, they went swimming without us! They drove to another beach area without us :/ It turned out that when our fisher guy asked if we wanted to go back to shore and we asked to keep fishing, that that was when we were all supposed to drive to that other beach to swim. Oh well. I still had fun J
Lunch was at a local restaurant at Tarcoles. It was a delicious meal with fried fish, rice, beans, plantain, fries, and salad. The ketchup tasted so sweet! The lemon that was on the side looked like an orange. Luckily I was corrected before I took a bite out of it! I used it to squeeze over my salad and fish. The juice that they served with the lunch was also pretty good. It was made from a fruit that was apparently similar to a guava.
We stopped by a souvenir store on our way back to San Jose. I bought a machete! I’m not even kidding. I asked Henry if I could put it into my checked luggage on the plane and he said yes, as long as I wrapped it. So I got it! I really liked the case that it was in too. I also bought some gifts for my family. Hopefully I can find other stuff to buy people later on. The stuff at this particular souvenir shop were a bit too expensive for my taste :P There was a smoothie/ice cream bar right next door so I and a lot of the other people also bought smoothies and ice cream. I got the mango, orange, and pineapple water smoothie (as opposed to an ice cream smoothie) along with chocolate chip ice cream. The smoothie was refreshing, not as good as the one I had early, but still good. The ice cream also tasted good, but nothing spectacular. I was also pretty full at this point, so that did not help.
Back at San Jose, we all decided to stop by a local Taco place before going back to our respective homes. I was eating way too much on this trip, but I still got a small Costa Rican taco because why not. It had mustard, ketchup, mayo, and a whole bunch of cabbage on top of the pork taco which I found interesting.
Several of the students planned on doing a bar crawl after going to their homes to drop things off and change. I luckily found a band of fellow non-drinkers to hang out with who al happened to people from the boat that I was in earlier (told you that we were the better boat :P). Well, it was everyone except Charlie who we passed while he looked for a super market for toothpaste. We intended to go to our respective homes first to change before meeting back up, but when Tanner and I saw that Claire didn’t quite remember where her house was, we decided to turn back around and help her out. Good thing that we did too because it ended up taking us 3 hours! The funny part was that we did pass by it the first time we went looking for it. During our epic, impromptu adventure, we ended up stopping by Tanners house since we go so close to it and we were hoping that someone from his home could point us in the right direction for Claire’s house. It was cool to see a different host family house. The family owned a pet dog and pig! They had a cute 4 year old daughter who eagerly showed us around the house when we got there. The only other person home was I think a son who looked like he was in his 20s? 30s? Either way, he didn’t speak any English and we could not properly convey to him that we needed help finding Claire’s home. We went by my home next and I got to finally drop off all of my stuff and change (keep in mind that I was still carrying around a machete and the other souvenirs in addition to my giant book bag with my change of clothes. I still had a bathing suit on beneath my clothes). It felt good to drop all of that stuff off and finally get out of my bathing suit. We should have asked my host brother—who was playing a dungeons and dragons-like game with several friends in the house—for directions to get to Claire’s house, but apparently Tanner had found it using Google maps so we didn’t. Google led us to an abandon store… Discouraged, we decided to just go ahead and head to the karaoke bar that we all spotted earlier after the tacos. That turned out to be a bust. None of the other students from the program were there. It was ridiculously loud and cramped because it was so small. And the singing was in Spanish and sounded terrible. To top it all off, this one drunk dude dropped his glass of beer on the floor next to our table and tried to blame Claire on it so that he could get her to pay her. It was so annoying and frustrating and all in Spanish (of course) so I really could not understand all the words that he was saying. I just knew that Claire—who probably knew the most Spanish out of the three of us but still on a basic level—was ready to leave, so we left after like the 5 minutes of being there. We searched for Claire’s house again and ended up stopping by my home again to ask my host brother for directions. He was able to give them to us, and after a little more snooping around we finally found it! It was a happy moment that was short lived as we realized that we could not open the front gate. After another good 10 minutes or so fumbling with the key and two locks, Tanner was able to finally open the gate.
Wow, what a day! Our squad parted ways after finding Claire’s house. We figured that searching for it was adventure enough. Oh, side note. There were a lot of dogs everywhere. The big ones were pretty chill. The small ones, however, were vicious and kept barking at us. Luckily, the small ones were also the ones locked behind gates. One particular dog walking with another dog looked like a dog and its shadow so I decided to name them “Dog” and “Shadow” because why not.
At home, my host mom asked me if I wanted anything for dinner. I wasn’t all too hungry because it felt like I had eaten all day, but I asked her to warm me up some of the pasta from yesterday just in case that I got hungry later. It is currently 10:43 pm and my host brother is still playing dungeons and dragons with his friends. I think now is a good time to nap…right after I finish uploading all these pictures. Urgh.
After breakfast, my host walked me the two seconds to the Institute where I met up with my fellow students. It turns out that I am probably the closest to the institute. One person was a solid 15 minute walk away. A couple of people were even dropped off by car (though they were still in walking distance). There are train tracks in the middle of the road in front of the institute. Two trains passed by while we were waiting for people. THEY WERE SO LOUD. They kept blasting their horns as they passed. I guess to make sure that cars did not accidently drive in the way of them, because, you know, the train tracks were smack dab in the middle of the road.
Once we all fully assembled, we gathered on the van where we met Henry, our guide for today, and Carlos, our van driver. Henry is a University of Illinois alum. He has a PhD in Genetics and actually helped start the institute. U of I was looking to have a location in Costa Rica to teach Spanish and so asked alumni with ties to Costa Rica for help doing that. Henry was one of them and I am pretty sure that he runs the place. On our way to Tarcoles, Costa Rica—a fishing village off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica that was about a 2 hour ride from San Jose—Henry gave us a history lesson about Costa Rica. We found out that when Columbus found—not “discovered,” Henry emphasized because you can’t discover something that people already knew about—Costa Rica, they did not stay too long because they did not have gold. Some other things that he talked about was how immigration was an issue. About 20% of the 5 million population of Costa Rica were from Nicaragua, some illegally. They would work here and send money back to their families in Nicaragua which was bad for Costa Rica because that meant that the country was losing money. I also found out that continental Costa Rica was about the third of the size of the state of Illinois.
We made a short pit stop at a bridge over Rio Tarcoles to see the crocodiles that gathered there. Yeah, that particular spot was known for its crocodiles. We saw at least 15 of them in the water and on land where we stopped. There were other tourist there too, but not overwhelmingly so. After taking a bunch of pictures, we all got smoothies at the nearby snack area. I got something called “Monkey Killer” (don’t know why it was called that) which contained Soursop, Mango, and Strawberry. I got so excited when I saw that it had soursop because the last time I had something with soursop in it was in Singapore. I used to always get drinks with that fruit in it. My favorite combination was strawberry soursop. It was SOOOOO good. Super refreshing which was perfect on a hot day like it was today. I convinced another guy to try it out and he loved it too. Some of the others got coconut with rum in it. Another two people got the Monkey Killer with rum in it as well. The shop owner offered to add rum in any of the drinks that we ordered. I of course opted out because, ya know. Not about that life. I left my wallet on the bus as we looked at the crocodiles so Brian had to spot me the $4 (or 2000 colons) that it cost (you rock Brian!). Like many places in Costa Rica—except like super markets—they accepted both US and Costa Rican currency.
Smoothies in hand, we all got back on the van to finish the ride to Tarcoles. At the village—more of a “neighborhood” really as Henry described—we were given a lecture about the fishing cooperative that they had going on there by a fisherwoman while Henry translated. There were, I believe, 90 fishermen in the cooperative. Together, they fished along designated zones on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica that they fought hard for. Large companies used to fish in bulk along the coast which was damaging to the ecosystem since they took without giving back. The cooperative fought for years to get the Costa Rican government, who previously did not have any regulations for fishing, to create the fishing zones. The cooperative supplies each other with fishing nets and other resources. They had a pretty cool system going on there. If I had taken notes, I would be able to tell you more but sadly I do not remember all that was said during the lecture :D The fisherwoman did show us some fish that she had caught. They sold both whole fish and things like fish fillets. They used QR codes that would show buyers when the fish was caught, where it was caught, a picture of the fisherman that caught it, the weight of the fish, and more. They gave us some fish to try. I personally was not a fan of fish, but I tried it any way. It tasted…okay. Surprisingly, it didn’t taste overwhelmingly fishy but I still was not a fan of it.
After the lecture, Henry showed us the fruit that cashews came from because someone had pointed it out. It was this red, bell pepper like thing that apparently tasted like tomatoes (Claire and Tanner ate some). The cashew itself was beneath the skin of the stem-like thing on the end of the fruit. Pretty neat.
We took a group picture, and then changed into our bathing suits before going on the beach. This beach had black sand, much like the one that I saw in Bali, but had way more rocks on it. The fisherman there showed us the nets that they used to catch the fish. The typical one had holes that had a diagonal size of 7 inches. During particular seasons, they were allowed to use holes that were 3 inches. This was all to regulate what fish that they caught. A particular thing that they were concerned about was making sure that they only caught the mature fish, not the children. The larger hole sizes ensured this. In addition to nets, they also used hook lines as well. They showed us these and told us how they would use the plastic containers that they casted out with the hooks to determine whether they caught fish. Once the containers flipped over, that meant that there were fish on the line. The guy also told us how he would catch like 100 pounds worth of lobster each day using his bare hands. He would have to go diving for this, and he can hold his breath for quite a while under water. They also catch eels that were apparently the size of sea monsters the way that they described them. Apparently they were like a foot and a half in diameter and just wickedly long. He showed us where he got bit by these creatures as he tried to catch them.
Finally, they showed us the job of another fisher lady. She would take a giant pile of hooks and place them meticulously along the edge of a giant cylindrical bin. This was a job that she has had for the last 3 or 4 years. She also worked as a maid. She would earn $12 for every bin that she finished. Most days it would take a full day to complete one bin, but depending on how organized the hooks are when they get to her, she might be able to get up to 3 taking about 4 hours per bin. There was an order to the way that she had to line up the hooks on the bin. Putting a hook out of place would make her look really bad and apparently have the other fishermen “remember her mother” or something. I’m pretty sure that it was something about bringing dishonor to her family or something.
They took us out on boats to go fishing afterward. We split into 2 boats, one with 4 and the other with 7. I got on the 4 person boat with Claire, Tanner, and Charlie. We were definitely the better boat :D They gave us actual fishing lines to use—no fishing poles attached. We used shrimp as our bait and there was also some rocks on the end of the line to help the bait sink to the bottom. None of us knew what we were doing at first. Well, except for Charlie who had apparently done this before. The instructions were simple enough. Hole the line and when we felt a tug, pull it up. The problem was that it was that there were so many waves that it felt like the line was always tugging. It was hard for the inexperience fisher person, like myself, to distinguish between a wave and a fish, but I eventually grew to feel the difference. Fish gave a more solid, constant tug when they were on the line while waves were slightly weaker and shorter tugs. I had several failures. Fish kept eating my bait then swimming away. One time my line caught onto Tanner’s and I thought I had caught a fish so I was reeling in my line so excitedly, exclaiming that “this I definitely a fish, yesssss.” But then our fisher guide person told me to stop because I was actually pulling Tanner’s line back into the water :P It was such a HUGE disappointment. I felt like we all felt that one, not just me even though I probably felt the most crush by it. I was SO excited guys. I was so confident. The other boat—who apparently caught like 3 fish—left us like 30 minutes into the ride. Our fisher guide person asked if we wanted to leave, but we said no because we wanted to catch a fish first. We were determined! Our fisher guy was able to catch a fish too so we wanted one for ourselves. FINALLY, I felt the tug on my line again. I reeled it in and low and behold I had a fish on my line! It was a glorious moment for everyone on the boat. I passed it around so that we all could take a picture with it. Our fisher guy asked us if we wanted to keep it to eat it, and we said no because we thought that he meant that we would have to carry it home with us on the 2 hour ride back to San Jose then like ask our home moms to cook it for us. It wasn’t until we got off the boat to eat lunch with the rest of group that we discovered that our lunch place would cook it up for us to eat. The other boat cooked their 3 fish and we got to eat it.
Speaking about the other boat, they went swimming without us! They drove to another beach area without us :/ It turned out that when our fisher guy asked if we wanted to go back to shore and we asked to keep fishing, that that was when we were all supposed to drive to that other beach to swim. Oh well. I still had fun J
Lunch was at a local restaurant at Tarcoles. It was a delicious meal with fried fish, rice, beans, plantain, fries, and salad. The ketchup tasted so sweet! The lemon that was on the side looked like an orange. Luckily I was corrected before I took a bite out of it! I used it to squeeze over my salad and fish. The juice that they served with the lunch was also pretty good. It was made from a fruit that was apparently similar to a guava.
We stopped by a souvenir store on our way back to San Jose. I bought a machete! I’m not even kidding. I asked Henry if I could put it into my checked luggage on the plane and he said yes, as long as I wrapped it. So I got it! I really liked the case that it was in too. I also bought some gifts for my family. Hopefully I can find other stuff to buy people later on. The stuff at this particular souvenir shop were a bit too expensive for my taste :P There was a smoothie/ice cream bar right next door so I and a lot of the other people also bought smoothies and ice cream. I got the mango, orange, and pineapple water smoothie (as opposed to an ice cream smoothie) along with chocolate chip ice cream. The smoothie was refreshing, not as good as the one I had early, but still good. The ice cream also tasted good, but nothing spectacular. I was also pretty full at this point, so that did not help.
Back at San Jose, we all decided to stop by a local Taco place before going back to our respective homes. I was eating way too much on this trip, but I still got a small Costa Rican taco because why not. It had mustard, ketchup, mayo, and a whole bunch of cabbage on top of the pork taco which I found interesting.
Several of the students planned on doing a bar crawl after going to their homes to drop things off and change. I luckily found a band of fellow non-drinkers to hang out with who al happened to people from the boat that I was in earlier (told you that we were the better boat :P). Well, it was everyone except Charlie who we passed while he looked for a super market for toothpaste. We intended to go to our respective homes first to change before meeting back up, but when Tanner and I saw that Claire didn’t quite remember where her house was, we decided to turn back around and help her out. Good thing that we did too because it ended up taking us 3 hours! The funny part was that we did pass by it the first time we went looking for it. During our epic, impromptu adventure, we ended up stopping by Tanners house since we go so close to it and we were hoping that someone from his home could point us in the right direction for Claire’s house. It was cool to see a different host family house. The family owned a pet dog and pig! They had a cute 4 year old daughter who eagerly showed us around the house when we got there. The only other person home was I think a son who looked like he was in his 20s? 30s? Either way, he didn’t speak any English and we could not properly convey to him that we needed help finding Claire’s home. We went by my home next and I got to finally drop off all of my stuff and change (keep in mind that I was still carrying around a machete and the other souvenirs in addition to my giant book bag with my change of clothes. I still had a bathing suit on beneath my clothes). It felt good to drop all of that stuff off and finally get out of my bathing suit. We should have asked my host brother—who was playing a dungeons and dragons-like game with several friends in the house—for directions to get to Claire’s house, but apparently Tanner had found it using Google maps so we didn’t. Google led us to an abandon store… Discouraged, we decided to just go ahead and head to the karaoke bar that we all spotted earlier after the tacos. That turned out to be a bust. None of the other students from the program were there. It was ridiculously loud and cramped because it was so small. And the singing was in Spanish and sounded terrible. To top it all off, this one drunk dude dropped his glass of beer on the floor next to our table and tried to blame Claire on it so that he could get her to pay her. It was so annoying and frustrating and all in Spanish (of course) so I really could not understand all the words that he was saying. I just knew that Claire—who probably knew the most Spanish out of the three of us but still on a basic level—was ready to leave, so we left after like the 5 minutes of being there. We searched for Claire’s house again and ended up stopping by my home again to ask my host brother for directions. He was able to give them to us, and after a little more snooping around we finally found it! It was a happy moment that was short lived as we realized that we could not open the front gate. After another good 10 minutes or so fumbling with the key and two locks, Tanner was able to finally open the gate.
Wow, what a day! Our squad parted ways after finding Claire’s house. We figured that searching for it was adventure enough. Oh, side note. There were a lot of dogs everywhere. The big ones were pretty chill. The small ones, however, were vicious and kept barking at us. Luckily, the small ones were also the ones locked behind gates. One particular dog walking with another dog looked like a dog and its shadow so I decided to name them “Dog” and “Shadow” because why not.
At home, my host mom asked me if I wanted anything for dinner. I wasn’t all too hungry because it felt like I had eaten all day, but I asked her to warm me up some of the pasta from yesterday just in case that I got hungry later. It is currently 10:43 pm and my host brother is still playing dungeons and dragons with his friends. I think now is a good time to nap…right after I finish uploading all these pictures. Urgh.
Day 3 – The Time I Ascended: Hiking up Poas Volcano (03/19/2017)
Yeah, so sleep did not happen until past 1am last night and I had to wake up at 6am again today. But it’s all good! It’s part of the experience! For breakfast my host mom got me corn flake cereal served with soy milk that came in a jar and tasted like there was some kind of bean-type thing in it. It tasted relatively warm to and I was reminded by what one of my fellow colleagues said about milk that his host family had served him. Apparently they let the milk sit out until it grew fungus. Then they would scrap the fungus off and drink the milk. I don’t know if that was how the milk I drank was made. My host mom also cut a banana for me to put in my cereal and served it with bread, orange juice, and tea. She did not eat with me this time because she had to attend church at 7.
Today we got to visit two volcanoes and do a coffee tour at Doka Estate. It was about a two hour drive to Poas Volcano. Today happened to be Saint Joseph’ Day which meant that a lot of locals also visited the volcano as part of a tradition. Since we left so early, we were able to arrive and leave just before the crowds got too crazy. There was a long line of cars and a bunch of people walking on foot coming up the mountain was we were leaving.
So we got there when there was not many people around. Poas Volcano is a famous National Park in the Central Valley Region of Costa Rica. It was actually pretty cold up there. We all had to wear jackets. There were two major points of interest at the park: a green lake and a lagoon. From where we parked, it took us maybe 10, 15 minutes to make it to the green lake. I did not read about Poas before visiting so I was pleasantly surprised by the lake. It looked so surreal while I was actually there. We were so high up that the clouds were spilling over the cliffs of the lake and seemingly pouring into it like a bowl. The clouds were so close that I felt like I could touch them. Being so high up in elevation, I did have trouble breathing especially when we had to climb up stairs (urgh stairs!). I felt my heart was racing after just a few steps and I had to keep taking deep breaths since I felt myself getting light headed several times. It was weird because I did not actually feel “tired” but my body was having trouble functioning. It was probably a 30-45 minute walk up to the lagoon. Had we made this climb at sea level, it probably would have taken us only 15-20 minutes. The problem was that the path was so steep—there were stairs at a few places—and the ground was so wet that you had to watch your step so that you did not slip. We had to stop a few times to catch our breaths. At one of our stops, I must have looked so miserable because an old couple coming down asked if I was alright. I was okay! Despite my being hunched over and gasping for breath, I actually was feeling fine. Just weirdly out of breath. I did get one really cool photo coming up. There was a beam of light poking through the tree cover so I stood in it with my arms up and it looked very angelic.
We did make it to the lagoon eventually and the view was just as gorgeous as the green lake. I did prefer the green lake in terms of scenic views, but I was not disappointed by the lagoon. Apparently the water was so acidic in the lagoon that the only thing that could live there was algae.
We stayed at the lagoon for a solid 20 minutes, mostly sitting and chatting with other after the initial burst of photo-taking, before heading back down. The descent was not as bad as coming up. Coming up, my heart and lungs hated me. Going down, it was my ankles. Luckily it was just like a 15 minute descent.
We stopped at a souvenir shop afterwards. I didn’t buy anything because the prices were way to ridiculous. I wanted to buy a Costa Rica license plate but it cost like $22. No thank you. We bumped into some fellow Illinois students who were also here for spring break for a class. They were taking a sustainability class and so were visiting a bunch of National Parks and such. We tried shouting “I-L-L” but were met with a weak “I-N-I.” I was very disappointed. I did get to chat with this one girl that I knew my freshman year in WIMSE so that was pretty cool.
A local band started playing near the entrance of the park so we watched them play. There were also adorable child dancers who danced for us. They were SO cute! During one of their dances, they each grabbed people from the audience to do a slow dance with them. It was so precious! My heart was melting! They handed everyone sugarcane candy after their performance. I Didn’t like it too much. The texture was weird.
As I mentioned, the traffic coming up the mountain as we left was pretty bad because of the Saint Joseph’s day. We did stop to take a pretty epic picture on the way down the mountain at a spot where there was a gorgeous view of Central Costa Rica framed by mountains and volcanoes in the background.
Our next stop was Doka Estates which was 30, 40 minutes down the mountain. They produced high quality coffee here. We were all pretty hungry by the time we got to the estates. Actually, we were all really hungry like 2 hours ago at 10am because of all the climbing we had to do and the early start to the day. So we were all grateful for the buffet that we got to eat at the estate. They served salad, rice and beans, vegetables, plantains in sweet syrup, and a choice of chicken or fish. I got the chicken. I also grabbed some of their dessert, coconut fudge. I don’t like coconut and I am not a fan of fudge, but I figured that I had to try it anyway so I did. It tasted alright. I really liked the plantain and rice and beans so I got a second helping of that. I got to drink it with passion fruit juice which tasted AMAZING.
We then had like a solid hour to explore the grounds on our own. Since my boat group from yesterday grew so close, we decided to explore together. We even had Charlie this time! We visited a butterfly garden where I got scared of butterflies “chasing” me—I wasn’t the only one who got afraid! Some of those butterflies were huge and would be super creepy to have hand on you! I am reminded of that one Spongebob episode with the butterfly that traumatized me as a child. I blame that. We visited a bonsai garden next where I finally realized that bonsai plants were all miniature trees. I think that I knew that on a basic level, but it did not click until I saw the garden. We then went on a quest to find a sugar mill. There were signs that pointed in the supposed direction of it, but we never actually found it. We found a reception area and a beautiful manmade lake overlooking the coffee fields. There were a bunch of tadpoles in it and we even saw a dead frog. On our way back, we took a detour through a path that we probably weren’t allowed to walk through (it was really overgrown and we had to jump up a steep slope at one point) but walked through anyway. Nobody died, so it was fine!
It was Andy’s birthday today so we all sang happy birthday and ate a cake. The cake was made by Henry’s wife who we found out owned a bakery.
We then went on the coffee tour. It was a really good tour—like really good. The tour guide was very informative without being overwhelming and his presentation skills were impeccable. I recorded a majority of it. He told us how they made their coffee. They used coffee plants different from the ones in, say, Africa. He walked us through each of the major processes from how workers (mostly people from Nicaragua) would pick the plants by hand—earning maybe $30-$60 a day—to how they used a wet mill (now a historical monument, the oldest wet mill in the nation) to sort through the low, medium, and high quality beans, to where they used machines to peel the skins and sort the beans by sizes, to where they bagged and stored the beans, to where they sun dried the beans. The tour ended with samples of their high-quality coffee, which I tried even though I dislike coffee. I did not like the samples :P I did like the sample that he gave to us at the beginning of the tour though! It had a bunch of milk and sugar in it as well as cinnamon.
I bought a couple of bags of coffee to give to people back at home. I couldn’t get that much because, you know, money but I’m sure that my friends and family back at home would be pleased with their gifts.
We stopped by an ice cream place on the drive back to the institute. Brian paid for all of us (shout out to Brian for being the real MVP). I got a “red mango” which consisted of a bottom layer of mango ice cream, followed by a layer of strawberry ice cream, then another layer of mango, and topped with whip cream. The mango layers tasked okay but I really liked the strawberry layer.
We all went our separate ways when we got back to the institute. My boat squad, minus Charlie, stopped by my host family house briefly with the intent of asking my host brother about some cool places to go that weren’t bars. When we got there, my host mother directed us to a restaurant which we decided to try. I was pretty happy with it. I got a soursop drink along with beef cabob (I hadn’t tried beef in Costa Rica yet), fries, and coleslaw. The beef tasted really good, as did the soursop drink. I was pretty full so I couldn’t finish everything, but it was worth it I think. We sat at our table for a while, chatting and watching a soccer game between what we think may be two Costa Rican cities? Two different Hispanic countries? We got invested in the team with the red shirts, especially since the game went on for an hour before a team finally scored—the red one! When we left, the red team had scored another goal which was pretty cool.
We parted ways after the dinner and that brings me back here with you lovely people J Now time to upload these pictures! Yesterday I sifted through over 500 pictures and narrowed it down to like 150. Today it looks like I have at least 750 to narrow down. Oh boy :P
Today we got to visit two volcanoes and do a coffee tour at Doka Estate. It was about a two hour drive to Poas Volcano. Today happened to be Saint Joseph’ Day which meant that a lot of locals also visited the volcano as part of a tradition. Since we left so early, we were able to arrive and leave just before the crowds got too crazy. There was a long line of cars and a bunch of people walking on foot coming up the mountain was we were leaving.
So we got there when there was not many people around. Poas Volcano is a famous National Park in the Central Valley Region of Costa Rica. It was actually pretty cold up there. We all had to wear jackets. There were two major points of interest at the park: a green lake and a lagoon. From where we parked, it took us maybe 10, 15 minutes to make it to the green lake. I did not read about Poas before visiting so I was pleasantly surprised by the lake. It looked so surreal while I was actually there. We were so high up that the clouds were spilling over the cliffs of the lake and seemingly pouring into it like a bowl. The clouds were so close that I felt like I could touch them. Being so high up in elevation, I did have trouble breathing especially when we had to climb up stairs (urgh stairs!). I felt my heart was racing after just a few steps and I had to keep taking deep breaths since I felt myself getting light headed several times. It was weird because I did not actually feel “tired” but my body was having trouble functioning. It was probably a 30-45 minute walk up to the lagoon. Had we made this climb at sea level, it probably would have taken us only 15-20 minutes. The problem was that the path was so steep—there were stairs at a few places—and the ground was so wet that you had to watch your step so that you did not slip. We had to stop a few times to catch our breaths. At one of our stops, I must have looked so miserable because an old couple coming down asked if I was alright. I was okay! Despite my being hunched over and gasping for breath, I actually was feeling fine. Just weirdly out of breath. I did get one really cool photo coming up. There was a beam of light poking through the tree cover so I stood in it with my arms up and it looked very angelic.
We did make it to the lagoon eventually and the view was just as gorgeous as the green lake. I did prefer the green lake in terms of scenic views, but I was not disappointed by the lagoon. Apparently the water was so acidic in the lagoon that the only thing that could live there was algae.
We stayed at the lagoon for a solid 20 minutes, mostly sitting and chatting with other after the initial burst of photo-taking, before heading back down. The descent was not as bad as coming up. Coming up, my heart and lungs hated me. Going down, it was my ankles. Luckily it was just like a 15 minute descent.
We stopped at a souvenir shop afterwards. I didn’t buy anything because the prices were way to ridiculous. I wanted to buy a Costa Rica license plate but it cost like $22. No thank you. We bumped into some fellow Illinois students who were also here for spring break for a class. They were taking a sustainability class and so were visiting a bunch of National Parks and such. We tried shouting “I-L-L” but were met with a weak “I-N-I.” I was very disappointed. I did get to chat with this one girl that I knew my freshman year in WIMSE so that was pretty cool.
A local band started playing near the entrance of the park so we watched them play. There were also adorable child dancers who danced for us. They were SO cute! During one of their dances, they each grabbed people from the audience to do a slow dance with them. It was so precious! My heart was melting! They handed everyone sugarcane candy after their performance. I Didn’t like it too much. The texture was weird.
As I mentioned, the traffic coming up the mountain as we left was pretty bad because of the Saint Joseph’s day. We did stop to take a pretty epic picture on the way down the mountain at a spot where there was a gorgeous view of Central Costa Rica framed by mountains and volcanoes in the background.
Our next stop was Doka Estates which was 30, 40 minutes down the mountain. They produced high quality coffee here. We were all pretty hungry by the time we got to the estates. Actually, we were all really hungry like 2 hours ago at 10am because of all the climbing we had to do and the early start to the day. So we were all grateful for the buffet that we got to eat at the estate. They served salad, rice and beans, vegetables, plantains in sweet syrup, and a choice of chicken or fish. I got the chicken. I also grabbed some of their dessert, coconut fudge. I don’t like coconut and I am not a fan of fudge, but I figured that I had to try it anyway so I did. It tasted alright. I really liked the plantain and rice and beans so I got a second helping of that. I got to drink it with passion fruit juice which tasted AMAZING.
We then had like a solid hour to explore the grounds on our own. Since my boat group from yesterday grew so close, we decided to explore together. We even had Charlie this time! We visited a butterfly garden where I got scared of butterflies “chasing” me—I wasn’t the only one who got afraid! Some of those butterflies were huge and would be super creepy to have hand on you! I am reminded of that one Spongebob episode with the butterfly that traumatized me as a child. I blame that. We visited a bonsai garden next where I finally realized that bonsai plants were all miniature trees. I think that I knew that on a basic level, but it did not click until I saw the garden. We then went on a quest to find a sugar mill. There were signs that pointed in the supposed direction of it, but we never actually found it. We found a reception area and a beautiful manmade lake overlooking the coffee fields. There were a bunch of tadpoles in it and we even saw a dead frog. On our way back, we took a detour through a path that we probably weren’t allowed to walk through (it was really overgrown and we had to jump up a steep slope at one point) but walked through anyway. Nobody died, so it was fine!
It was Andy’s birthday today so we all sang happy birthday and ate a cake. The cake was made by Henry’s wife who we found out owned a bakery.
We then went on the coffee tour. It was a really good tour—like really good. The tour guide was very informative without being overwhelming and his presentation skills were impeccable. I recorded a majority of it. He told us how they made their coffee. They used coffee plants different from the ones in, say, Africa. He walked us through each of the major processes from how workers (mostly people from Nicaragua) would pick the plants by hand—earning maybe $30-$60 a day—to how they used a wet mill (now a historical monument, the oldest wet mill in the nation) to sort through the low, medium, and high quality beans, to where they used machines to peel the skins and sort the beans by sizes, to where they bagged and stored the beans, to where they sun dried the beans. The tour ended with samples of their high-quality coffee, which I tried even though I dislike coffee. I did not like the samples :P I did like the sample that he gave to us at the beginning of the tour though! It had a bunch of milk and sugar in it as well as cinnamon.
I bought a couple of bags of coffee to give to people back at home. I couldn’t get that much because, you know, money but I’m sure that my friends and family back at home would be pleased with their gifts.
We stopped by an ice cream place on the drive back to the institute. Brian paid for all of us (shout out to Brian for being the real MVP). I got a “red mango” which consisted of a bottom layer of mango ice cream, followed by a layer of strawberry ice cream, then another layer of mango, and topped with whip cream. The mango layers tasked okay but I really liked the strawberry layer.
We all went our separate ways when we got back to the institute. My boat squad, minus Charlie, stopped by my host family house briefly with the intent of asking my host brother about some cool places to go that weren’t bars. When we got there, my host mother directed us to a restaurant which we decided to try. I was pretty happy with it. I got a soursop drink along with beef cabob (I hadn’t tried beef in Costa Rica yet), fries, and coleslaw. The beef tasted really good, as did the soursop drink. I was pretty full so I couldn’t finish everything, but it was worth it I think. We sat at our table for a while, chatting and watching a soccer game between what we think may be two Costa Rican cities? Two different Hispanic countries? We got invested in the team with the red shirts, especially since the game went on for an hour before a team finally scored—the red one! When we left, the red team had scored another goal which was pretty cool.
We parted ways after the dinner and that brings me back here with you lovely people J Now time to upload these pictures! Yesterday I sifted through over 500 pictures and narrowed it down to like 150. Today it looks like I have at least 750 to narrow down. Oh boy :P
Day 4 – The Time that I Learned how to Salsa (03/20/2017)
I got a good night’s sleep last night. We didn’t have to meet at the institute until 8:30am so I got a solid 8 hours of sleep, which has been the most that I’ve gotten in a while. That was a perfect start to a good day. My host mom made me corn tortilla with eggs in the middle served with a pastry and freshly cut papaya. I met their maid today as well. Having a maid was not uncommon for middle-class families like the host families (though my host family is probably a step up because her house is so big and nice compared to a few others). The maid did laundry, wash dishes, and cleaned around the house.
Today we visited a local private school (Saint Nicholas of Flue School). The school was small and had no more than about 100 “high school” students. The campus was gorgeous though. It was a really relaxed day compared to the previous days. We were inside the whole time. Of course, “inside” in Costa Rica is pretty different than in the States. I’ve noticed that buildings and even homes are really open. Many of their doors and windows are just screens, so even when you are indoors you still feel kind of like you are outside. When I go to sleep at night, I can hear cars and people passing as if they are right next to me. It was really weird at first, but I have gotten used to it. Something that I have not gotten used to are the cold showers. Hot water does not exist. There is either super cold or slightly less cold—not even lukewarm which kind of stinks. I have to mentally encourage myself to take my shower each day. First world problems, I know.
Anyhow, back to the private school. As soon as we got to the school, which was about a 10 minute drive from the institute, we were directed to their cafeteria where we were served a “snack.” I put the word “snack” in quotes because it was totally not a snack! It was a full sandwich! Since most of us had just eaten a large breakfast, it was a struggle to finish it. It tasted really good (I think that it had tomatoes, chicken?, mayo, some other stuff…), but I definitely could not finish mine. They served it with sweet tea. I am from the south, y’all, so when I say that this sweet tea was pretty darn good that means that this was REALLY good sweet tea. It was actually sweet! The cafeteria where we ate was really tiny, maybe twice the size of a typical high school classroom. They had a counter where students could purchase snacks and drinks during the snack and lunch times. We had arrived when one grade level of student were doing their snack/break time. I think that it might have been the seniors (11th graders in Costa Rica) since I recognized one of the students who I met in the senior classroom later.
The school held a short rally for us in their gym where 4 female dancers performed a Costa Rican traditional dance for us and two Illinois students (Justin and Leyda) were asked to give words of wisdom to the student .
We were all separated into different classrooms. Myself and two others (Andy and Kate) went to a senior classroom. Their English were really good. They were able to ask questions and understand our answers. Some of my colleagues—especially those who went to the classrooms with the younger students—had a harder time communicating in English. Since my classroom were all seniors, they had a lot of questions about college and applying. Two of them were applying to US schools. One was considering Illinois as one of his choices! Another student was interested in engineering which made me proud J In addition to us telling them about how to apply and how college life was, they also told us about their system. Education was free for them up until high school and a high school diploma was a typical stopping point for a degree. University was considered to basically be trade school. Costa Rica has three major universities. Students filled out one general application for the schools. Part of the process was taking what sounded like a really difficult test, harder than the SAT and ACT. They were timed and seemed to have way more components than US standardized tests, including a section that sounded like they had engineering problem solving. A perfect score was an 800. Your score dictated what profession/major that you could apply for. The hardest profession, medicine, required at least a 700. Later on when I was talking to students during a different breakout session, I found out that people with medical degrees had a hard time finding jobs. Indeed, it was not unusual to see a person with a degree in medicine as a taxi driver. There were just too many of them. One girl seemed particularly distraught about this because she wanted to be a doctor but was worried about finding a job in the future. Going to the US would provide better job opportunities but she was not very confident in her English.
After visiting the classrooms, we played sports with the students at their gym which was also pretty small. It had concrete floors and lines for both basketball and soccer. I participated when the students shot some baskets, but sat our when they started to play a 5 v 5 game with a Costa Rican and US team. The US team did pretty well, especially since a couple of our players were decent, but the Costa Rican team also had a few good players. It was a very lighthearted game. Our team kept passing the ball to Kate to shoot because we desperately wanted her to get at least 1 basket. We got her the ball 12 times and she was unable to make any of the shots. But it was a valiant effort!
I played volleyball on their outside court with two other Illinois students (Claire and Tanner) and 7 Costa Rican students. We had a pretty good game going. The net was not set up so it was a super chill game. I’m pretty sure that my volleyball coach would have cringed at my technique but I put up a good rally—at least better than I expected.
After the Costa Rican students were called in for their lunch break by a bell system that sounded like a fire alarm, the Illinois students chilled at the gym since we were all still pretty full from the double breakfast. Some of the Costa Rican students came back to the gym to shoot more baskets and pass the volleyball back and forth with each other. Claire and I decided to start a rally between ourselves which attracted other Costa Rican students to join us. It was quite the work out! Between the volleyball game outside in the hot sun and the volleyball rally in the gym I had generated quite the sweat with all the running around. A few of the Costa Rican girls then taught us some dance moves. One of the girls was a really good dancer, and I do mean REALLY good. I found out later that she was apparently in a music video of a popular local band. She taught us how to salsa and another dance that moved to the rhythm of “tss-tss-tss-tss” (if that actually made sense). I was having all sorts of trouble. I did have a few good moments, but largely I had problem commanding my body to do the proper movements. It was even worse when the girl did a partner salsa dance with me. My one job was to continue to move my feet in the forward-backward salsa motion as she followed and did a twirl at the end and I was still having problems. But at least I can say that I tried! The girl was also well versed in popular American dances including the Nae-Nae, Dougie, Quan, and of course the Dab. Before you ask, no I cannot do any of those dances. I gave them a few solid Dabs and that was it. I was a hot mess even attempting the other dances :P
We were split up again to help the students with various projects. Today was Saint Nickolas day and the students were trying to put together a program for this coming Friday at 3pm. We were supposed to help them with their various tasks including setting up a play, teaching choreography for a dance, writing music for a ceremony, cooking, sculpting, painting, and making digital drawings on the computer. I was with the music group because I said that I knew how to play the piano. The other Illinois student with me, Tanner, knew how to play the viola but they had neither of our instruments (just a clarinet, guitar, and cello). So our time with the students ended being this one kid showing us his wicked moves on the clarinet which somehow ended up with a conversation about college and careers with him and then two other girls—one of them was the one interested in pursuing medicine.
We were eventually called in for lunch which was another sandwich, but this time smaller and made with cheese, ham, and I think egg. I also bought a Gatorade and some fruit snacks (those tasted really good! I ended up buying another pack). I found out how the other Illinois students’ projects went. The food people (Andy) encountered a problem when they found out that the girl who was tasked to bring the potatoes did not show up to class today and it was a potato dish. They found potatoes eventually though. The digital painting on the computer guys (the twins) were apparently having a miserable time because they weren’t expecting to draw on the computers (when we heard about the projects, this one was just simply introduced as “something on the computer”). They eventually came to love their group though. We had a hard time peeling them away from their new friends. The sculpture girl (Claire) had a difficult time because apparently her group spoke nothing but rapid Spanish the entire time and did not give her much instructions to work with. The dance choreography girl (Layda) probably had the most fun out of all of us. She had to come up with the choreography to the American song Waiting for Love by Avicii. She ended up teaching them a line dance, and the gym teacher absolutely loved it. The play person (Kate) also had an interesting time I hear. I did not hear too many details about her experience, but there was apparently an interesting thing with something about a kiss in the play or something. I did not hear anything about the painting people (Kelly and Charlie) except that apparently Charlie is a good drawer.
We got to see the students do some of their performance as they practiced in the gym after lunch. The dance was adorable. The play was also adorable, but confusing. Clearly there was a marriage at the beginning of it. Then the husband and wife got into a fight? They had a kid at some point??? I think the husband died at some point because next thing I knew, he was lying on the floor and the people were gathered around like it was a funeral.
It was a sad time when we eventually had to leave. We all had grown so attached to the students. But alas, all good things must come to an end eventually. We got back to the institute really early, like 3pm. Most of us went to a clothes store afterwards because one of us was looking for sandals. I ended up buying this rather strange snow cone (it had condensed and powdered milk mixed in it). It tasted pretty good though. We also stopped by a local super market where most of us split off. Myself and boat squad headed back to my host family’s house. We were going to ask my host brother for things to do in the area but he was pretty immersed in his World of Warcraft game and I did not want to disturb him. My host mother was taking a nap so I did not want to bother her either. We ended up deciding to just pick street and walking down it. We ended up by a restaurant that others had decided to go eat dinner at, so we decided to wait up for them. It was Chinese restaurant. I did not buy food there because I was still full. I did order a rather delicious strawberry smoothie.
After dinner, we all went back home to our host families where I ended up asking my host mom to make me fried rice with chicken (it was recommended to me by a fellow colleague) for dinner. She served it with a side of salad (tuna, potatoes, and mayo) and beans and it overall tasted pretty good.
I only took like 250 pictures today which will make picking out good photos really easy this time. Huzzah!
Today we visited a local private school (Saint Nicholas of Flue School). The school was small and had no more than about 100 “high school” students. The campus was gorgeous though. It was a really relaxed day compared to the previous days. We were inside the whole time. Of course, “inside” in Costa Rica is pretty different than in the States. I’ve noticed that buildings and even homes are really open. Many of their doors and windows are just screens, so even when you are indoors you still feel kind of like you are outside. When I go to sleep at night, I can hear cars and people passing as if they are right next to me. It was really weird at first, but I have gotten used to it. Something that I have not gotten used to are the cold showers. Hot water does not exist. There is either super cold or slightly less cold—not even lukewarm which kind of stinks. I have to mentally encourage myself to take my shower each day. First world problems, I know.
Anyhow, back to the private school. As soon as we got to the school, which was about a 10 minute drive from the institute, we were directed to their cafeteria where we were served a “snack.” I put the word “snack” in quotes because it was totally not a snack! It was a full sandwich! Since most of us had just eaten a large breakfast, it was a struggle to finish it. It tasted really good (I think that it had tomatoes, chicken?, mayo, some other stuff…), but I definitely could not finish mine. They served it with sweet tea. I am from the south, y’all, so when I say that this sweet tea was pretty darn good that means that this was REALLY good sweet tea. It was actually sweet! The cafeteria where we ate was really tiny, maybe twice the size of a typical high school classroom. They had a counter where students could purchase snacks and drinks during the snack and lunch times. We had arrived when one grade level of student were doing their snack/break time. I think that it might have been the seniors (11th graders in Costa Rica) since I recognized one of the students who I met in the senior classroom later.
The school held a short rally for us in their gym where 4 female dancers performed a Costa Rican traditional dance for us and two Illinois students (Justin and Leyda) were asked to give words of wisdom to the student .
We were all separated into different classrooms. Myself and two others (Andy and Kate) went to a senior classroom. Their English were really good. They were able to ask questions and understand our answers. Some of my colleagues—especially those who went to the classrooms with the younger students—had a harder time communicating in English. Since my classroom were all seniors, they had a lot of questions about college and applying. Two of them were applying to US schools. One was considering Illinois as one of his choices! Another student was interested in engineering which made me proud J In addition to us telling them about how to apply and how college life was, they also told us about their system. Education was free for them up until high school and a high school diploma was a typical stopping point for a degree. University was considered to basically be trade school. Costa Rica has three major universities. Students filled out one general application for the schools. Part of the process was taking what sounded like a really difficult test, harder than the SAT and ACT. They were timed and seemed to have way more components than US standardized tests, including a section that sounded like they had engineering problem solving. A perfect score was an 800. Your score dictated what profession/major that you could apply for. The hardest profession, medicine, required at least a 700. Later on when I was talking to students during a different breakout session, I found out that people with medical degrees had a hard time finding jobs. Indeed, it was not unusual to see a person with a degree in medicine as a taxi driver. There were just too many of them. One girl seemed particularly distraught about this because she wanted to be a doctor but was worried about finding a job in the future. Going to the US would provide better job opportunities but she was not very confident in her English.
After visiting the classrooms, we played sports with the students at their gym which was also pretty small. It had concrete floors and lines for both basketball and soccer. I participated when the students shot some baskets, but sat our when they started to play a 5 v 5 game with a Costa Rican and US team. The US team did pretty well, especially since a couple of our players were decent, but the Costa Rican team also had a few good players. It was a very lighthearted game. Our team kept passing the ball to Kate to shoot because we desperately wanted her to get at least 1 basket. We got her the ball 12 times and she was unable to make any of the shots. But it was a valiant effort!
I played volleyball on their outside court with two other Illinois students (Claire and Tanner) and 7 Costa Rican students. We had a pretty good game going. The net was not set up so it was a super chill game. I’m pretty sure that my volleyball coach would have cringed at my technique but I put up a good rally—at least better than I expected.
After the Costa Rican students were called in for their lunch break by a bell system that sounded like a fire alarm, the Illinois students chilled at the gym since we were all still pretty full from the double breakfast. Some of the Costa Rican students came back to the gym to shoot more baskets and pass the volleyball back and forth with each other. Claire and I decided to start a rally between ourselves which attracted other Costa Rican students to join us. It was quite the work out! Between the volleyball game outside in the hot sun and the volleyball rally in the gym I had generated quite the sweat with all the running around. A few of the Costa Rican girls then taught us some dance moves. One of the girls was a really good dancer, and I do mean REALLY good. I found out later that she was apparently in a music video of a popular local band. She taught us how to salsa and another dance that moved to the rhythm of “tss-tss-tss-tss” (if that actually made sense). I was having all sorts of trouble. I did have a few good moments, but largely I had problem commanding my body to do the proper movements. It was even worse when the girl did a partner salsa dance with me. My one job was to continue to move my feet in the forward-backward salsa motion as she followed and did a twirl at the end and I was still having problems. But at least I can say that I tried! The girl was also well versed in popular American dances including the Nae-Nae, Dougie, Quan, and of course the Dab. Before you ask, no I cannot do any of those dances. I gave them a few solid Dabs and that was it. I was a hot mess even attempting the other dances :P
We were split up again to help the students with various projects. Today was Saint Nickolas day and the students were trying to put together a program for this coming Friday at 3pm. We were supposed to help them with their various tasks including setting up a play, teaching choreography for a dance, writing music for a ceremony, cooking, sculpting, painting, and making digital drawings on the computer. I was with the music group because I said that I knew how to play the piano. The other Illinois student with me, Tanner, knew how to play the viola but they had neither of our instruments (just a clarinet, guitar, and cello). So our time with the students ended being this one kid showing us his wicked moves on the clarinet which somehow ended up with a conversation about college and careers with him and then two other girls—one of them was the one interested in pursuing medicine.
We were eventually called in for lunch which was another sandwich, but this time smaller and made with cheese, ham, and I think egg. I also bought a Gatorade and some fruit snacks (those tasted really good! I ended up buying another pack). I found out how the other Illinois students’ projects went. The food people (Andy) encountered a problem when they found out that the girl who was tasked to bring the potatoes did not show up to class today and it was a potato dish. They found potatoes eventually though. The digital painting on the computer guys (the twins) were apparently having a miserable time because they weren’t expecting to draw on the computers (when we heard about the projects, this one was just simply introduced as “something on the computer”). They eventually came to love their group though. We had a hard time peeling them away from their new friends. The sculpture girl (Claire) had a difficult time because apparently her group spoke nothing but rapid Spanish the entire time and did not give her much instructions to work with. The dance choreography girl (Layda) probably had the most fun out of all of us. She had to come up with the choreography to the American song Waiting for Love by Avicii. She ended up teaching them a line dance, and the gym teacher absolutely loved it. The play person (Kate) also had an interesting time I hear. I did not hear too many details about her experience, but there was apparently an interesting thing with something about a kiss in the play or something. I did not hear anything about the painting people (Kelly and Charlie) except that apparently Charlie is a good drawer.
We got to see the students do some of their performance as they practiced in the gym after lunch. The dance was adorable. The play was also adorable, but confusing. Clearly there was a marriage at the beginning of it. Then the husband and wife got into a fight? They had a kid at some point??? I think the husband died at some point because next thing I knew, he was lying on the floor and the people were gathered around like it was a funeral.
It was a sad time when we eventually had to leave. We all had grown so attached to the students. But alas, all good things must come to an end eventually. We got back to the institute really early, like 3pm. Most of us went to a clothes store afterwards because one of us was looking for sandals. I ended up buying this rather strange snow cone (it had condensed and powdered milk mixed in it). It tasted pretty good though. We also stopped by a local super market where most of us split off. Myself and boat squad headed back to my host family’s house. We were going to ask my host brother for things to do in the area but he was pretty immersed in his World of Warcraft game and I did not want to disturb him. My host mother was taking a nap so I did not want to bother her either. We ended up deciding to just pick street and walking down it. We ended up by a restaurant that others had decided to go eat dinner at, so we decided to wait up for them. It was Chinese restaurant. I did not buy food there because I was still full. I did order a rather delicious strawberry smoothie.
After dinner, we all went back home to our host families where I ended up asking my host mom to make me fried rice with chicken (it was recommended to me by a fellow colleague) for dinner. She served it with a side of salad (tuna, potatoes, and mayo) and beans and it overall tasted pretty good.
I only took like 250 pictures today which will make picking out good photos really easy this time. Huzzah!
Day 5 – The Time that I Literally Climbed a Mountain (03/21/2017)
My body definitely hates me after today—partially my calves and ankles. But it is okay! It’s part of the immersion experience, right? Yeah, so today we went to Huetar Indigenous Community in Quitirrisi, Ciudad Colon. The town is Ciudad Colon and Quitirrisi is the name of the indigenous reserve.
For breakfast my host mom made me corn flake cereal again served with freshly cut banana, some sort of cinnamon sticks, tea and orange juice. We met at the institute at 8am so I did get a good night’s rest last night. Apparently electricity was out in many of the host families’ homes this morning due to a car accident somewhere close by. I still had electricity in my home, so it did not affect me but it sounded like it was an interesting experience for others. I know that one girl was actually happy about it because it gave her a chance to converse with her host mom instead of trying to talk over a TV like she usually has to do.
Today we had Ana, the programs director at the institute, as our guide since I think both David and Henry were teaching classes. It was about an hour car ride to the reserve. We drove through what we dubbed to be the Silicon Valley of Costa Rica because there were so many nice looking houses and businesses. We even passed by a super fancy private school that apparently only the richest of the rich can afford to send their kids to.
At the reserve, we met with the chief of the community which had around 5000 people. The community was located on a mountain and the reserve expanded across several mountains in the area. The view from the chief’s house was amazing. It must be so cool to wake up to such a sight every day.
The chief wanted to take us to see a waterfall, so we left his house, crossed the busy mountain road—careful not to get run over by speeding cars—and entered a narrow hiking trail. One of the indigenous ladies gave us each a bag with a banana and orange for the climb. None of us were expecting to have to hike today so a few of us were ill-prepared. One guy even had on flip flops. I was lucky. I was wearing my walking shoes, but that only helped me out so much. The trail had many steep climbs and descents. I fell and slipped many times and so did my peers. Never have I felt so mortal than navigating around the cliff of that steep mountain. I was painfully aware of the fact that one wrong move could send me plummeting down to my death. I’m sure God was tired of hearing me call on his name so many times throughout the hike!
Since the trail was so difficult, I had to stop many, many times along the way to catch my breath. In fact, I found myself falling down with exhaustion several times. You guys better like my pictures of the journey! I risked my life to get them! I also managed to take them while fighting total exhaustion. I am actually really proud of them.
When we reached the peak of the first mountain, two of our numbers decided to stay behind and not continue on to the waterfall. I envied them. They were in a really nice spot too—sitting under the shade of a bamboo tree overlooking a valley. The view was breathtaking.
Also along the way of our hike, the chief told us about some of the plants and trees that we passed by. I was near the back of the group for most of the climb so I did not catch everything that was said. There was one tree whose red sap they used to brush their teeth. We passed mango tree and Carlos, our van driver, climbed up it for us to retrieve some of the fruits for us to try to eat. The chief instructed us to put salt on it first, which we did, but I found the taste to be too sour and salty.
From the breathtaking spot where we left two of our people behind, we climbed down the mountain. Going up, my calves wanted to kill me. Going down it was my ankles that wanted to murder me. If I had a quarter for every time that I rolled my ankles…well I would not be rich, but I would have a lot of quarters! Luckily I did not roll them enough to cause pain. We passed by an orange tree by a shack and got to try the fruit. The orange was really sour but still kind of refreshing after having climbed so much. There were three giant wasps’ nests at the shack. We weren’t close to them, but I was still pretty spooked. As we passed the shack and continued down the path, we passed by two cows and a bull: the source of crap-ton (pun intended) of cow poop that we have encountered during our treacherous journey. That bull was creepy man! After we passed by it, we saw it again a few minutes later looking over a cliff that we were passing under. It was following us! Speaking about animals following us, the chief had a dog and it followed us throughout the entire trip. He did not stay next to us the entire time but rather sprinted ahead and went back many times. I wish I was that dog! Way better at climbing this mountain than I was!
We finally made it to the river after who knows how long of hiking. There was not much water because it was dry season. Ana told us that during rainy season, the entire bank would be filled with flowing water. The waterfall was small but still beautiful. At least worth the hike. We took a break there for at least 15 minutes. We even climbed to the next level of the waterfall using a rope that Carlos pulled us up from at the top. Guys, I have no idea how I managed to get this far in my long jeans skirt.
I ate my banana. Drank a bunch of water. A girl found a spot to pee at somewhere down where we just climbed. That must have been an experience! And then we began our hike back.
I thought getting to the waterfall was hard. I had seen nothing yet. The struggle was REAL. It was around noon at this time so the sun was hot and bright in the sky. The steep descent turned into a steep ascent under a glaring sun.
I was miserable.
Not my finest hour, I’ll admit, but I still managed to make it back to the spot where we left our two companions that we had left behind. Carlos used a machete to cut several of us walking sticks from the bamboo tree that was up there. I gladly took one for myself and it definitely came in handy. I have no idea how I made it up some of those slopes because I am pretty sure that it would have been impossible for me to make it back down without the bamboo walking stick. I still fell down multiple times, of course, but definitely less times than on the way to the waterfall.
When we returned to the chief’s house, we were fed food that was literally made from the land. They served us two types of corn tortillas, one made from sweet corn and the other from regular corn. The corn was grounded using a corn grounder that one of the women let us try out before we went on the hike. They topped two of the tortillas from a plant called cas. One topping was made from the leaves of the cas plant while the other was made from its flowers. They also passed around a bowl of sour cream to spread on the tortillas. I’m not sure if it was the desperate hunger, but I thought everything tasted amazing. I preferred the regular corn tortilla to the sweet corn tortilla. (EDIT: The cas plant had properties that made the people who consumed it very sleepy. This would explain my later exhaustion)
After lunch, the artisan women showed us how to make plates and bowels using stems from a plant that they dried and dyed themselves. The different pigments were made using different flowers. Two of the colors (pink and blue I believe) however were created artificially. There were three different professions in the community. I am having trouble recalling the other two at the moment (EDIT: One of the two was farming), but I do remember that to be considered an artisan you have to at least be able to weave a straw hat using a single strand of plant stem. With the amount of trouble that I was having weaving my simple plate, I was very impressed with that. It would have been difficult to make the plate had the instructions been in English, so it was even more difficult to follow what they were saying in Spanish. I could not even start the plate (and neither could any of my colleagues for that matter) so the lady had to do it for me. It was pretty simple from there once I found my rhythm weaving through the strands. I had difficulty changing to different colors and had to ask for help several times, but I was eventually able to kind of do it for myself in the end. I got a cool craft that I made myself at the end of it which is all that matters J
I was one of the last ones to finish my craft since I was determined to finish up my color pattern (going through all 4 colors twice) whereas others stopped sooner and so had smaller plates. I wish that I could have made a bowl though like two of my peers did. It required a different setup which the person who helped them did for them whereas the person who helped me encouraged us to make plates since they were simpler.
We did finish eventually so we hopped back into our van for the ride back to the institute. We stopped at “Silicon Valley” for a proper lunch first since the meal that they served us was not filling enough. By popular demand, we went to McDonalds which I know sounds bad, but I feel like we deserved it after all that climbing that we did. The menu apparently looked very different from what we used to. I would point out the differences but I don’t eat McDonalds in the States so I would not know. I took a picture of the menu so you can just see for yourself.
Rush hour traffic turned out 1 hour drive back to the institute to like 2.5 hours. Since it was so late, we dropped a few of the students who lived further away from the institute right by their host family houses.
At my host family home, I immediately took my shoes to the shower to wash them. The climb plus walking in the river plus the climb back made my shoes filthy. I’m hoping that they dry by morning because apparently tomorrow is the day that we are actually supposed to be hiking so I will need them. My host mom made me dinner as soon as I got back (like 7pm-ish). I was not all too hungry since we had just eaten at McDonalds earlier, but I wasn’t going to turn down a meal J She served me spaghetti with salad and it tasted good.
I am hoping for a good night’s rest tonight since my body definitely needs it. I’ll probably be sore in the morning. Y’all pray for me.
For breakfast my host mom made me corn flake cereal again served with freshly cut banana, some sort of cinnamon sticks, tea and orange juice. We met at the institute at 8am so I did get a good night’s rest last night. Apparently electricity was out in many of the host families’ homes this morning due to a car accident somewhere close by. I still had electricity in my home, so it did not affect me but it sounded like it was an interesting experience for others. I know that one girl was actually happy about it because it gave her a chance to converse with her host mom instead of trying to talk over a TV like she usually has to do.
Today we had Ana, the programs director at the institute, as our guide since I think both David and Henry were teaching classes. It was about an hour car ride to the reserve. We drove through what we dubbed to be the Silicon Valley of Costa Rica because there were so many nice looking houses and businesses. We even passed by a super fancy private school that apparently only the richest of the rich can afford to send their kids to.
At the reserve, we met with the chief of the community which had around 5000 people. The community was located on a mountain and the reserve expanded across several mountains in the area. The view from the chief’s house was amazing. It must be so cool to wake up to such a sight every day.
The chief wanted to take us to see a waterfall, so we left his house, crossed the busy mountain road—careful not to get run over by speeding cars—and entered a narrow hiking trail. One of the indigenous ladies gave us each a bag with a banana and orange for the climb. None of us were expecting to have to hike today so a few of us were ill-prepared. One guy even had on flip flops. I was lucky. I was wearing my walking shoes, but that only helped me out so much. The trail had many steep climbs and descents. I fell and slipped many times and so did my peers. Never have I felt so mortal than navigating around the cliff of that steep mountain. I was painfully aware of the fact that one wrong move could send me plummeting down to my death. I’m sure God was tired of hearing me call on his name so many times throughout the hike!
Since the trail was so difficult, I had to stop many, many times along the way to catch my breath. In fact, I found myself falling down with exhaustion several times. You guys better like my pictures of the journey! I risked my life to get them! I also managed to take them while fighting total exhaustion. I am actually really proud of them.
When we reached the peak of the first mountain, two of our numbers decided to stay behind and not continue on to the waterfall. I envied them. They were in a really nice spot too—sitting under the shade of a bamboo tree overlooking a valley. The view was breathtaking.
Also along the way of our hike, the chief told us about some of the plants and trees that we passed by. I was near the back of the group for most of the climb so I did not catch everything that was said. There was one tree whose red sap they used to brush their teeth. We passed mango tree and Carlos, our van driver, climbed up it for us to retrieve some of the fruits for us to try to eat. The chief instructed us to put salt on it first, which we did, but I found the taste to be too sour and salty.
From the breathtaking spot where we left two of our people behind, we climbed down the mountain. Going up, my calves wanted to kill me. Going down it was my ankles that wanted to murder me. If I had a quarter for every time that I rolled my ankles…well I would not be rich, but I would have a lot of quarters! Luckily I did not roll them enough to cause pain. We passed by an orange tree by a shack and got to try the fruit. The orange was really sour but still kind of refreshing after having climbed so much. There were three giant wasps’ nests at the shack. We weren’t close to them, but I was still pretty spooked. As we passed the shack and continued down the path, we passed by two cows and a bull: the source of crap-ton (pun intended) of cow poop that we have encountered during our treacherous journey. That bull was creepy man! After we passed by it, we saw it again a few minutes later looking over a cliff that we were passing under. It was following us! Speaking about animals following us, the chief had a dog and it followed us throughout the entire trip. He did not stay next to us the entire time but rather sprinted ahead and went back many times. I wish I was that dog! Way better at climbing this mountain than I was!
We finally made it to the river after who knows how long of hiking. There was not much water because it was dry season. Ana told us that during rainy season, the entire bank would be filled with flowing water. The waterfall was small but still beautiful. At least worth the hike. We took a break there for at least 15 minutes. We even climbed to the next level of the waterfall using a rope that Carlos pulled us up from at the top. Guys, I have no idea how I managed to get this far in my long jeans skirt.
I ate my banana. Drank a bunch of water. A girl found a spot to pee at somewhere down where we just climbed. That must have been an experience! And then we began our hike back.
I thought getting to the waterfall was hard. I had seen nothing yet. The struggle was REAL. It was around noon at this time so the sun was hot and bright in the sky. The steep descent turned into a steep ascent under a glaring sun.
I was miserable.
Not my finest hour, I’ll admit, but I still managed to make it back to the spot where we left our two companions that we had left behind. Carlos used a machete to cut several of us walking sticks from the bamboo tree that was up there. I gladly took one for myself and it definitely came in handy. I have no idea how I made it up some of those slopes because I am pretty sure that it would have been impossible for me to make it back down without the bamboo walking stick. I still fell down multiple times, of course, but definitely less times than on the way to the waterfall.
When we returned to the chief’s house, we were fed food that was literally made from the land. They served us two types of corn tortillas, one made from sweet corn and the other from regular corn. The corn was grounded using a corn grounder that one of the women let us try out before we went on the hike. They topped two of the tortillas from a plant called cas. One topping was made from the leaves of the cas plant while the other was made from its flowers. They also passed around a bowl of sour cream to spread on the tortillas. I’m not sure if it was the desperate hunger, but I thought everything tasted amazing. I preferred the regular corn tortilla to the sweet corn tortilla. (EDIT: The cas plant had properties that made the people who consumed it very sleepy. This would explain my later exhaustion)
After lunch, the artisan women showed us how to make plates and bowels using stems from a plant that they dried and dyed themselves. The different pigments were made using different flowers. Two of the colors (pink and blue I believe) however were created artificially. There were three different professions in the community. I am having trouble recalling the other two at the moment (EDIT: One of the two was farming), but I do remember that to be considered an artisan you have to at least be able to weave a straw hat using a single strand of plant stem. With the amount of trouble that I was having weaving my simple plate, I was very impressed with that. It would have been difficult to make the plate had the instructions been in English, so it was even more difficult to follow what they were saying in Spanish. I could not even start the plate (and neither could any of my colleagues for that matter) so the lady had to do it for me. It was pretty simple from there once I found my rhythm weaving through the strands. I had difficulty changing to different colors and had to ask for help several times, but I was eventually able to kind of do it for myself in the end. I got a cool craft that I made myself at the end of it which is all that matters J
I was one of the last ones to finish my craft since I was determined to finish up my color pattern (going through all 4 colors twice) whereas others stopped sooner and so had smaller plates. I wish that I could have made a bowl though like two of my peers did. It required a different setup which the person who helped them did for them whereas the person who helped me encouraged us to make plates since they were simpler.
We did finish eventually so we hopped back into our van for the ride back to the institute. We stopped at “Silicon Valley” for a proper lunch first since the meal that they served us was not filling enough. By popular demand, we went to McDonalds which I know sounds bad, but I feel like we deserved it after all that climbing that we did. The menu apparently looked very different from what we used to. I would point out the differences but I don’t eat McDonalds in the States so I would not know. I took a picture of the menu so you can just see for yourself.
Rush hour traffic turned out 1 hour drive back to the institute to like 2.5 hours. Since it was so late, we dropped a few of the students who lived further away from the institute right by their host family houses.
At my host family home, I immediately took my shoes to the shower to wash them. The climb plus walking in the river plus the climb back made my shoes filthy. I’m hoping that they dry by morning because apparently tomorrow is the day that we are actually supposed to be hiking so I will need them. My host mom made me dinner as soon as I got back (like 7pm-ish). I was not all too hungry since we had just eaten at McDonalds earlier, but I wasn’t going to turn down a meal J She served me spaghetti with salad and it tasted good.
I am hoping for a good night’s rest tonight since my body definitely needs it. I’ll probably be sore in the morning. Y’all pray for me.
Day 6 – The Time that I did Ecotourism (03/22/2017)
Today was a really relaxed day. We visited ASADA Carrizal to learn about organic agriculture and native species production for reforestation. We also got to hike through an ASADA forest. Asada means “local water administration.” There are many of these areas around Costa Rica that supply water to nearby cities. In Costa Rica, water is a right so no citizen pays for water, only the service to get the water to their house. So water bills are typically around $10 a month.
I got my full 7 hours of sleep and my host mother woke me up with grilled cheese (made with soy) and tea for breakfast. I also asked her to help me with my laundry since yesterday’s hiking trip pretty much wrecked my clothes.
Ana was our guide again today along with another professor from the institute whose name I have forgotten. He taught agriculture and similar subjects there. He didn’t speak English so Ana had to translate for us.
It was about an hour van ride to the forest. Once we got there, the new professor sat us down to lecture us about the asada. He told us about how they would grow native species of plants here and use them to regrow natural areas that have been destroyed. It was perfect because mountain plants can only be grown in certain areas. Since this asada was on a mountain, it worked perfectly to resupply other mountainous areas. We found out that yesterday while we were walking through a part of the mountain with a bunch of ash around, that that fire had occurred just 2-3 weeks ago and was caused by someone who did it out of spite. That area was once bustling with beautiful trees and now it was all gone. That’s crazy. Especially since the trees are used to help keep water on the mountain.
We learned that many cities got their water from asadas, but not San Joaquin which is the city that we lived in with our host families. In fact, San Joaquin is known to have poor water supply. The water pressure is really low. Oh! I did find out that the reason why I did not have hot water at night was because I was opening the water supply to my shower too wide. The thing that makes the water hot was in the shower head itself; therefore, to get hotter water, I need to open the water supply only a little it so it gives the showerhead enough of a chance to heat the water coming through it up. I’m going to have to try that tonight!
Once the lecture was finished, a random dog came out of the woods and gave us all quite a scare. Brain thought it was a mountain lion at first because he had just read something that said to beware of mountain lions in the area. The dog seemed to really like Brian though because it went to him first and kept trying to climb on top of him. The dog acted as our companion as we toured the asada forest. I really did not like this dog as much as the one that followed us around yesterday because it kept weaving through our legs as we tried to hike the trail. The trail passed by some pretty steep cliffs too so it made me really nervous. We weren’t too far from a dog shelter that apparently housed around 600 dogs. In fact, every now and then we could hear a bunch of barking coming from the direction of the shelter.
As we walked through the forest, the professor did talk about the plants that we were seeing. I was near the back for most of the walk so I could not hear everything that was being said. The guide did specifically point out a plant called Haplophyton also known as the cockroach plant because I was singing La Cucaracha before. It was a medicinal plant that if used with enough quantity could be used for apportions.
We also stopped by where they would filter the water before sending it to cities or back to the river. They never took all the water at once. A portion always went back to the river. They only filtered the water with chlorine whereas in the States they filtered with both ozone and chlorine so this water would make us sick if we drank it because we do not have the proper bacteria in our stomachs to handle it. Since the water in San Joaquin does not come from an asada, this does not affect us. We can still drink from the tap if we wanted to.
We ate a snack of ham and cheese sandwiches with cookies and juice boxes (apple, pear, and peach). The juice tasted really good. Very sweet. The pear juice especially tasted like it was the juice that you would find in canned pears.
They allowed us to plant two trees afterwards to. Since Kelly and Charlie were the ones to actually plant them, the plants were named after them and they will be sent email updates of how their plants are doing as they grow. Pretty neat.
We were taken to another filtration place by van further down the mountain that we were on. We found out how they would use 2 chlorine tablets each day to filter the water. They would sometimes even use a powder or liquid to do this.
We stopped by Pops again on the way back to the institute to get some ice cream. We got back really early, at around noon, so we walked around the institute. It was really small, 6 classrooms and currently had only 9 students. All of them were international, from the US, 3 were from Illinois and the other were from other schools. The institute is only 14 years old. It’s designed in such a way that if it does not work out, the building can be turned into an apartment. We encountered a few students as they were about to attend their 1:30pm class (it’s a 3 hour long class!). Two were from Vermont and the other was from Illinois.
Since we got back so early, we decided to go out and do things on our own. A few of us were going to go watch Beauty and the Beast since they did have English with Spanish subtitle showings but the earliest 2D time didn’t have any good seats left, the next 2D showing was too late, and no one wanted to watch the 3D version. So myself, Tanner, and Claire decided to go to City Mall, the largest mall in Central and South America, instead. We took an Uber there, about a 15 minute ride. Once we got there, we just explored around and walked into a couple of shops including a bookstore, comic book store, manga store, and even a Caterpillar (yes the machinery manufacture company) clothing store. The mall was pretty big, 5 floors. There were two car dealerships inside including one for Hyundai. I found that pretty ridiculous. It also had a movie theatre. We ate at an Italian restaurant. I got the fettuccine alfredo which tasted amazing. We explored some more and found an arcade on the top floor. The ferris wheel that you can see from the outside turned out to be just decoration, we think, because we didn’t see a way to get to it. We took an Uber back to the institute after exploring and parted ways.
My visit to Costa Rica has shown me a lot of things. For one, I feel like the people of Costa Rica and the States are more similar than I had initially imagined. Just watching the relationship between my host mother and her son reminds me of a typical American family. The son loves playing World of Warcraft and has a game night with his friends every weekend. The mother has no reservation of interrupting his gameplay to go help her with something even if he would be in the middle of an important play. Basically what my mother did too while I was growing up (love you mom <3). It sounds like the other host families have their own family dramas as well that you could see in American families as well. My host mom is very nurturing and makes sure that I have enough to eat and having a good time. Just today she offered to drive me for souvenirs at some point. I hope that I can take her up on that offer this Sunday. Even though my host family does not have a father around and has only one child, I can’t help but feel that they are still kind of similar in their own way. The mother is a combination of my mother and father and the son has a blend of me and my other two siblings.
So far the thing that has made me feel this most “foreign” is the fact that I cannot speak Spanish. I have managed to get by so far though, so it’s not too bad. It’s making me want to learn Spanish or another language though. I think that it would be cool to be at least bilingual.
Visiting the asada today was a good example of us participating in what is known as ecotourism. Ecotourism is when you visit a place while making sure to produce as little impact to the environment as possible. One of the goals of this trip is to get us to become more aware of the impact that we have. The coordinators told us that if they could get at least one of us change our habits, then they would have succeeded. This made me think of the U.S. a bit differently and made me realize just how much of an impact our everyday lives there have on the environment. We aren’t a very sustainable country. Even though we have started see companies adopt more sustainable models and people start taking steps towards conservation, we still have a ways to go before we become truly sustainable and we each do have a social responsibility (a moral obligation for people to act for the benefit of society) to do so. The visit to the asada helped me to see just that.
I got my full 7 hours of sleep and my host mother woke me up with grilled cheese (made with soy) and tea for breakfast. I also asked her to help me with my laundry since yesterday’s hiking trip pretty much wrecked my clothes.
Ana was our guide again today along with another professor from the institute whose name I have forgotten. He taught agriculture and similar subjects there. He didn’t speak English so Ana had to translate for us.
It was about an hour van ride to the forest. Once we got there, the new professor sat us down to lecture us about the asada. He told us about how they would grow native species of plants here and use them to regrow natural areas that have been destroyed. It was perfect because mountain plants can only be grown in certain areas. Since this asada was on a mountain, it worked perfectly to resupply other mountainous areas. We found out that yesterday while we were walking through a part of the mountain with a bunch of ash around, that that fire had occurred just 2-3 weeks ago and was caused by someone who did it out of spite. That area was once bustling with beautiful trees and now it was all gone. That’s crazy. Especially since the trees are used to help keep water on the mountain.
We learned that many cities got their water from asadas, but not San Joaquin which is the city that we lived in with our host families. In fact, San Joaquin is known to have poor water supply. The water pressure is really low. Oh! I did find out that the reason why I did not have hot water at night was because I was opening the water supply to my shower too wide. The thing that makes the water hot was in the shower head itself; therefore, to get hotter water, I need to open the water supply only a little it so it gives the showerhead enough of a chance to heat the water coming through it up. I’m going to have to try that tonight!
Once the lecture was finished, a random dog came out of the woods and gave us all quite a scare. Brain thought it was a mountain lion at first because he had just read something that said to beware of mountain lions in the area. The dog seemed to really like Brian though because it went to him first and kept trying to climb on top of him. The dog acted as our companion as we toured the asada forest. I really did not like this dog as much as the one that followed us around yesterday because it kept weaving through our legs as we tried to hike the trail. The trail passed by some pretty steep cliffs too so it made me really nervous. We weren’t too far from a dog shelter that apparently housed around 600 dogs. In fact, every now and then we could hear a bunch of barking coming from the direction of the shelter.
As we walked through the forest, the professor did talk about the plants that we were seeing. I was near the back for most of the walk so I could not hear everything that was being said. The guide did specifically point out a plant called Haplophyton also known as the cockroach plant because I was singing La Cucaracha before. It was a medicinal plant that if used with enough quantity could be used for apportions.
We also stopped by where they would filter the water before sending it to cities or back to the river. They never took all the water at once. A portion always went back to the river. They only filtered the water with chlorine whereas in the States they filtered with both ozone and chlorine so this water would make us sick if we drank it because we do not have the proper bacteria in our stomachs to handle it. Since the water in San Joaquin does not come from an asada, this does not affect us. We can still drink from the tap if we wanted to.
We ate a snack of ham and cheese sandwiches with cookies and juice boxes (apple, pear, and peach). The juice tasted really good. Very sweet. The pear juice especially tasted like it was the juice that you would find in canned pears.
They allowed us to plant two trees afterwards to. Since Kelly and Charlie were the ones to actually plant them, the plants were named after them and they will be sent email updates of how their plants are doing as they grow. Pretty neat.
We were taken to another filtration place by van further down the mountain that we were on. We found out how they would use 2 chlorine tablets each day to filter the water. They would sometimes even use a powder or liquid to do this.
We stopped by Pops again on the way back to the institute to get some ice cream. We got back really early, at around noon, so we walked around the institute. It was really small, 6 classrooms and currently had only 9 students. All of them were international, from the US, 3 were from Illinois and the other were from other schools. The institute is only 14 years old. It’s designed in such a way that if it does not work out, the building can be turned into an apartment. We encountered a few students as they were about to attend their 1:30pm class (it’s a 3 hour long class!). Two were from Vermont and the other was from Illinois.
Since we got back so early, we decided to go out and do things on our own. A few of us were going to go watch Beauty and the Beast since they did have English with Spanish subtitle showings but the earliest 2D time didn’t have any good seats left, the next 2D showing was too late, and no one wanted to watch the 3D version. So myself, Tanner, and Claire decided to go to City Mall, the largest mall in Central and South America, instead. We took an Uber there, about a 15 minute ride. Once we got there, we just explored around and walked into a couple of shops including a bookstore, comic book store, manga store, and even a Caterpillar (yes the machinery manufacture company) clothing store. The mall was pretty big, 5 floors. There were two car dealerships inside including one for Hyundai. I found that pretty ridiculous. It also had a movie theatre. We ate at an Italian restaurant. I got the fettuccine alfredo which tasted amazing. We explored some more and found an arcade on the top floor. The ferris wheel that you can see from the outside turned out to be just decoration, we think, because we didn’t see a way to get to it. We took an Uber back to the institute after exploring and parted ways.
My visit to Costa Rica has shown me a lot of things. For one, I feel like the people of Costa Rica and the States are more similar than I had initially imagined. Just watching the relationship between my host mother and her son reminds me of a typical American family. The son loves playing World of Warcraft and has a game night with his friends every weekend. The mother has no reservation of interrupting his gameplay to go help her with something even if he would be in the middle of an important play. Basically what my mother did too while I was growing up (love you mom <3). It sounds like the other host families have their own family dramas as well that you could see in American families as well. My host mom is very nurturing and makes sure that I have enough to eat and having a good time. Just today she offered to drive me for souvenirs at some point. I hope that I can take her up on that offer this Sunday. Even though my host family does not have a father around and has only one child, I can’t help but feel that they are still kind of similar in their own way. The mother is a combination of my mother and father and the son has a blend of me and my other two siblings.
So far the thing that has made me feel this most “foreign” is the fact that I cannot speak Spanish. I have managed to get by so far though, so it’s not too bad. It’s making me want to learn Spanish or another language though. I think that it would be cool to be at least bilingual.
Visiting the asada today was a good example of us participating in what is known as ecotourism. Ecotourism is when you visit a place while making sure to produce as little impact to the environment as possible. One of the goals of this trip is to get us to become more aware of the impact that we have. The coordinators told us that if they could get at least one of us change our habits, then they would have succeeded. This made me think of the U.S. a bit differently and made me realize just how much of an impact our everyday lives there have on the environment. We aren’t a very sustainable country. Even though we have started see companies adopt more sustainable models and people start taking steps towards conservation, we still have a ways to go before we become truly sustainable and we each do have a social responsibility (a moral obligation for people to act for the benefit of society) to do so. The visit to the asada helped me to see just that.
Day 7 – The Time that I Played Soccer with a Costa Rican Soccer Team (03/23/2017)
This blog is being uploaded a day late because I did not have wifi since we spent the night at a farm resort.
The day started off bright and early at 6am. We got a new bus driver and a bigger bus because we were going to spend the night at a farm/agricultural resort. Yup, today we visited Finca Siempreverde. Last night I did try the small open faucet and it worked! I got a relatively hot shower! I was SO happy!
As I requested last night, my host mom made me rice and beans for breakfast. She also added eggs, sausage, and toast with raspberry jelly on the side. While eating breakfast, I watched the news with my host mom. It was all in Spanish so of course I could not really understand what was happening. I did see that they talked about the recent attack in the UK. There was also something happening either in an airport in Costa Rica or Mexico. I’m not sure though. They said “Mexico” a lot and there were a bunch of police officers at the airport appearing to prevent people from boarding their flights at their gate.
I arrived at the bus a few minutes past the 7am deadline because I was helping my host mom with the dishes. It was alright though because I still was not the last one to get there.
It was about a 5 hour drive to the resort (you can see why we are spending the night here). We stopped twice, first to take a bathroom break and buy snacks at a rest stop and second because the twins both had to use the restroom really badly and ended up having to just go at the side of the road. The bathroom at the rest stop was weird. There was a person who handed us toilet paper before entering the bathroom and the toilets didn’t have toilet seats on them. We got lost on the way there and had to circle back once because we missed our turning. There are no street signs in Costa Rica so you basically have to know where you are going or you are just going to be lost. It was okay though because we were able to ask for directions. The first time was from a lady sitting at a bus stop who told us we had to turn around because we had missed our turning. We also asked cars along the road as we were moving. It was pretty cool to watch. Henry, who was our institute sponsor for today, was talking to people through our bus door which our bus driver had opened for this very purpose. We also asked a man who was walking along the road with his machete in hand. They all seemed really friendly and happy to help.
When we all got to the resort, they showed us to our cabins. The boys and girls got their own cabins and I think the bus drive and Henry also have a cabin to themselves. The girls’ cabin has three rooms, two bedrooms and a bathroom. One bedroom is a master bedroom and the other has a pair of bunk beds and a full size bed. There are 5 of us so two of us have to share a bed. The two sick girls volunteered to take the master bed and we have thus dubbed it the sick room. I grabbed the top bunk in the other room.
The cabin feels pretty open. We did find a lizard in our bathroom and there were three bats outside our cabin when we got back from visiting the river. You can definitely hear people from anywhere in the cabin since the interior walls do not reach the roof.
Once we put our stuff down, we headed to the dinning cabin for lunch. The pork was fresh—they did just kill the pig only yesterday. They also served us rice, beans, some kind of sweet chips, salad, squash (which was really good), and fruit in condensed milk for dessert. The drink was lemon mixed with some type of plant. It was refreshing.
After lunch, we were given like an hour to explore on our own before heading to the river. Boat squad decided to team up again for this. We found a species of fern that closes its leaves when you touch it. We also sat on some hammocks and drank water from coconuts that Andy and Kate hit with a stick. Our adventure was cut short when after Claire and Tanner were trying to get me to smell this fruit that apparently smelled like rotten eggs (I could not smell it), Tanner leaned on a wooden sign that broke at the bottom. It looked like it was rotting at the base which is why it snapped so easily. We leaned the sign against a tree with the intention of telling someone, but things got worse when Tanner accidently stepped on an ant hill. This was just not his day! The ants were biting him like crazy so we got him to remove his socks and shoes as I sprayed his feet with my water bottle. I then used a stick to pick up one of his ant-covered shoes while Claire and I took turns kicking his other shoe to our cabin where we drowned them with water in our sink and sprayed a bunch of bug spray on it. Finished with our adventure, we decided to just hang out with the others who were chilling by the hammocks.
It was a relatively quick walk to the river. We passed over a gorgeous wooden bridge and went by a tree that had a bunch of spider monkeys in it. That excited us because we all have been itching to see monkeys since we got to Costa Rica. I think we will see more on Saturday or Sunday though. Along the way, our guide told us about some of the things that we were seeing. We did spot some toucans in the trees which was exciting. He also told us about how having cows could be sustainable: using the poop as manure, eating the meat and bone, etc. The guide has eight dogs, one was a husky that was blind. It kept growling and barking. Sounded scary, but he just wanted attention and to play. The dogs just kept randomly following us throughout the day. One even was on the field as we played soccer.
At the river, we were allowed to just do our own thing, so I got people to take pictures of me. Then I went off on an adventure down the river. I climbed over rocks and wobbled through the current. It eventually turned into a boat squad thing. Tanner, his luck ever improving, almost lost one of his slippers to the current. It fell from his foot and got pretty far downstream before he was finally able to retrieve it. Poor guy. There was a part of the river where a large tree trunk was just lying across it. Tanner and Claire braved a crawl across it. I took one look at the rocks and rushing current below and decided that I was not about that life so I found a way through the current instead. Up until that point I had made the brave decision to keep my backpack which had both my camera and phone (to take pictures of course—the others left their stuff further upstream), but since the current was moving relatively fast at that particular spot, I left it behind. I still was able to get people to snag some good pictures of me from the other side.
We were given some more free time after the river before our big soccer game. We were to play the local team here which really intimidated all of us since we were all pretty inexperienced. I mean, I was goalie in high school but I haven’t played in a while and I am definitely not as fit as I used to be.
We were told that the whole village—all 200 people—would come out to watch. A lot people did show up and I am pretty sure that they were making fun of us (I know that I would have! :P). Instead of doing the Americans vs Costa Ricans, they split the Americans—5 and 5—between the two teams. They were obviously going easy on us. Whenever one of the Costa Ricans had the ball, they went hardcore. Whenever one of the Americans got the ball, they back off a little to give us a chance to kick the ball (often very softly and/or in the wrong direction). It was fun though. They put me on forward and I did have possession of the ball quite a few times. I probably looked like a hot mess, but I contributed to the team. Almost had a shot on goal too!
After the first half, the Costa Ricans suggested to let them play against each other so that they could show us what they could do (which I am pretty sure was a polite way of saying “you suck and we don’t want to play with you anymore”). We let them and it was pretty entertaining to watch. They had a big game tomorrow at 2pm so they needed to practice anyway. They gave us some snacks while they played too: some kind of pastry with ham in it along with some kind of I believe it was freshly squeezed orange juice but mixed with a lot of water.
Once we got back, we had about an hour and a half to ourselves so I decided to get started on this blog before dinner at 7:30pm. A lot of us chilled by the hammocks until dinner. It was really nice because we did 5 minutes of complete silence and we could hear the forest around us come alive.
Dinner was really good: rice, mashed beans, plaintains, salad, creamed tomatoes, and fruits with condensed milk for dessert again. After dinner we built a campfire where we sat peacefully until it died down.
Today was a good day.
As I requested last night, my host mom made me rice and beans for breakfast. She also added eggs, sausage, and toast with raspberry jelly on the side. While eating breakfast, I watched the news with my host mom. It was all in Spanish so of course I could not really understand what was happening. I did see that they talked about the recent attack in the UK. There was also something happening either in an airport in Costa Rica or Mexico. I’m not sure though. They said “Mexico” a lot and there were a bunch of police officers at the airport appearing to prevent people from boarding their flights at their gate.
I arrived at the bus a few minutes past the 7am deadline because I was helping my host mom with the dishes. It was alright though because I still was not the last one to get there.
It was about a 5 hour drive to the resort (you can see why we are spending the night here). We stopped twice, first to take a bathroom break and buy snacks at a rest stop and second because the twins both had to use the restroom really badly and ended up having to just go at the side of the road. The bathroom at the rest stop was weird. There was a person who handed us toilet paper before entering the bathroom and the toilets didn’t have toilet seats on them. We got lost on the way there and had to circle back once because we missed our turning. There are no street signs in Costa Rica so you basically have to know where you are going or you are just going to be lost. It was okay though because we were able to ask for directions. The first time was from a lady sitting at a bus stop who told us we had to turn around because we had missed our turning. We also asked cars along the road as we were moving. It was pretty cool to watch. Henry, who was our institute sponsor for today, was talking to people through our bus door which our bus driver had opened for this very purpose. We also asked a man who was walking along the road with his machete in hand. They all seemed really friendly and happy to help.
When we all got to the resort, they showed us to our cabins. The boys and girls got their own cabins and I think the bus drive and Henry also have a cabin to themselves. The girls’ cabin has three rooms, two bedrooms and a bathroom. One bedroom is a master bedroom and the other has a pair of bunk beds and a full size bed. There are 5 of us so two of us have to share a bed. The two sick girls volunteered to take the master bed and we have thus dubbed it the sick room. I grabbed the top bunk in the other room.
The cabin feels pretty open. We did find a lizard in our bathroom and there were three bats outside our cabin when we got back from visiting the river. You can definitely hear people from anywhere in the cabin since the interior walls do not reach the roof.
Once we put our stuff down, we headed to the dinning cabin for lunch. The pork was fresh—they did just kill the pig only yesterday. They also served us rice, beans, some kind of sweet chips, salad, squash (which was really good), and fruit in condensed milk for dessert. The drink was lemon mixed with some type of plant. It was refreshing.
After lunch, we were given like an hour to explore on our own before heading to the river. Boat squad decided to team up again for this. We found a species of fern that closes its leaves when you touch it. We also sat on some hammocks and drank water from coconuts that Andy and Kate hit with a stick. Our adventure was cut short when after Claire and Tanner were trying to get me to smell this fruit that apparently smelled like rotten eggs (I could not smell it), Tanner leaned on a wooden sign that broke at the bottom. It looked like it was rotting at the base which is why it snapped so easily. We leaned the sign against a tree with the intention of telling someone, but things got worse when Tanner accidently stepped on an ant hill. This was just not his day! The ants were biting him like crazy so we got him to remove his socks and shoes as I sprayed his feet with my water bottle. I then used a stick to pick up one of his ant-covered shoes while Claire and I took turns kicking his other shoe to our cabin where we drowned them with water in our sink and sprayed a bunch of bug spray on it. Finished with our adventure, we decided to just hang out with the others who were chilling by the hammocks.
It was a relatively quick walk to the river. We passed over a gorgeous wooden bridge and went by a tree that had a bunch of spider monkeys in it. That excited us because we all have been itching to see monkeys since we got to Costa Rica. I think we will see more on Saturday or Sunday though. Along the way, our guide told us about some of the things that we were seeing. We did spot some toucans in the trees which was exciting. He also told us about how having cows could be sustainable: using the poop as manure, eating the meat and bone, etc. The guide has eight dogs, one was a husky that was blind. It kept growling and barking. Sounded scary, but he just wanted attention and to play. The dogs just kept randomly following us throughout the day. One even was on the field as we played soccer.
At the river, we were allowed to just do our own thing, so I got people to take pictures of me. Then I went off on an adventure down the river. I climbed over rocks and wobbled through the current. It eventually turned into a boat squad thing. Tanner, his luck ever improving, almost lost one of his slippers to the current. It fell from his foot and got pretty far downstream before he was finally able to retrieve it. Poor guy. There was a part of the river where a large tree trunk was just lying across it. Tanner and Claire braved a crawl across it. I took one look at the rocks and rushing current below and decided that I was not about that life so I found a way through the current instead. Up until that point I had made the brave decision to keep my backpack which had both my camera and phone (to take pictures of course—the others left their stuff further upstream), but since the current was moving relatively fast at that particular spot, I left it behind. I still was able to get people to snag some good pictures of me from the other side.
We were given some more free time after the river before our big soccer game. We were to play the local team here which really intimidated all of us since we were all pretty inexperienced. I mean, I was goalie in high school but I haven’t played in a while and I am definitely not as fit as I used to be.
We were told that the whole village—all 200 people—would come out to watch. A lot people did show up and I am pretty sure that they were making fun of us (I know that I would have! :P). Instead of doing the Americans vs Costa Ricans, they split the Americans—5 and 5—between the two teams. They were obviously going easy on us. Whenever one of the Costa Ricans had the ball, they went hardcore. Whenever one of the Americans got the ball, they back off a little to give us a chance to kick the ball (often very softly and/or in the wrong direction). It was fun though. They put me on forward and I did have possession of the ball quite a few times. I probably looked like a hot mess, but I contributed to the team. Almost had a shot on goal too!
After the first half, the Costa Ricans suggested to let them play against each other so that they could show us what they could do (which I am pretty sure was a polite way of saying “you suck and we don’t want to play with you anymore”). We let them and it was pretty entertaining to watch. They had a big game tomorrow at 2pm so they needed to practice anyway. They gave us some snacks while they played too: some kind of pastry with ham in it along with some kind of I believe it was freshly squeezed orange juice but mixed with a lot of water.
Once we got back, we had about an hour and a half to ourselves so I decided to get started on this blog before dinner at 7:30pm. A lot of us chilled by the hammocks until dinner. It was really nice because we did 5 minutes of complete silence and we could hear the forest around us come alive.
Dinner was really good: rice, mashed beans, plaintains, salad, creamed tomatoes, and fruits with condensed milk for dessert again. After dinner we built a campfire where we sat peacefully until it died down.
Today was a good day.
Day 8 – The Time that I sat by a Waterfall (03/24/2017)
We were allowed to sleep in until 8am for breakfast which was wonderful. I got like 9 hours of sleep last night and I savored every second of it.
Breakfast was organic, same as our previous meals on this farm. The rice, beans, eggs, fruit, and salad were all grown on the farm. We ate emu egg and I got the opportunity to help prepare it. James drilled two holes in the egg, one on the top and bottom, while I held it. Then I blew through one of the holes to get the yolk out. The egg was pretty hard so it took a while to drill the holes. I was not too pumped blowing through the holes on the egg because that meant getting raw egg on my mouth. But I did it anyway for the experience. Now I can say that I helped prepare emu egg on a Costa Rican farm. They scrambled the egg for us and it tasted like any typical egg except it was softer.
After breakfast, we had a short break before the farmer, Ernesto, gave us a tour around his farm. He took us by his colorful shack where he painted the history of his farm, where it came from, where they are today, and where they want to be in the future. It even included pictures of the predators that have threatened his farm animals. In fact, he now has to lock up his animals at night since he has lost animals to pumas and jaguars. The jaguar is actually dead now since the village went on a hunt to kill it. They laid meat out and waited in a tree for hours. When it showed up, they shot it with their guns.
Ernesto also showed us his compost area and walked us through his garden where he grew everything from celery to cotton. He even has the plant that smells like the good kind of bug spray and a cinnamon tree. He then led us through his livestock pins where we got to see his pigs, emu, chickens, and goats.
They slaughtered one of his pigs this morning since it was ready—it weighed about 100 kg. For reference, they killed a smaller pig to feed us lunch yesterday and we collectively only ate a single leg. This pig was likely going to be used for the larger tour group that was coming through this weekend.
He explained how they went about killing the pig. First, they would boil hot water and set up a table outside their butchering hut. Then they would drag the pig outside of its pin where they would strike its head with a large mallet to knock it unconscious before slitting its throat. Using the hot water to soften the skin and a machete, they would remove the hair on the pig. They would then take it into the butchering hut where they would segment the meat.
We were touring through the garden when they butchered the pig. It made a lot of noise as it was being taken to the spot where it would be slaughtered. Then there was silence. Yeah…
The emus were cute. There were two of them. They were definitely afraid of the dogs and weary of us (probably because they could smell the emu egg on our breath). We got to hold a baby goat in our arms and it was so adorable! So fluffy!
After a final group picture, we said our goodbyes to the farmer, the farm, and the town of Las Milpas and left. On the way back, we stopped by a waterfall called Llanos del Cortez which was a tourist spot. It was obvious why it was. The view was stunning. People changed into their swimsuits to take a plunge in the refreshing water, but I stayed in my dress because I did not feel like attempting to change into my swimsuit on the bus like the others did. Too much of a hassle. I still went into the water until it reached my knees. Very refreshing. Also since I did not actually go swim, it gave me plenty of opportunity to snag a bunch of quality pictures.
We stopped once more after the waterfall for lunch at the same rest stop that we went to yesterday on the way to the farm. They had a cafeteria-like restaurant inside. I got rice, beans, pulled pork, plantain, and pound cake. I did not realize how hungry I was until I took that first bite. It didn’t take me long to finish it all so I grabbed ice cream afterwards.
We encountered some heavy traffic on the way back and ended up turning around in the middle of the standstill traffic to take a country road. It was way hillier and had a lot more curves than the road that we were on but at least there was no traffic. The road was apparently an old colonial road that they used to drive carts over. We almost ran into a bus at one point. The bus took a sharp turn at one of the bends as we were approaching it and did not allow for enough clearance for us to get by. Good thing that Costa Rican drivers are professionals so we stopped before the head-to-head collision happened.
It was supposed to be like a 5 hour drive back to the institute but because of the two stops that we made to the waterfall and lunch as well as the heavy traffic causing us to take a back road, it ended up taking us 8 hours! The guys had to stop for another bathroom break while we were on the country road and ended up relieving themselves by the side of the road. At least they had a pleasant view of the central valley of Costa Rica. Haha, one guy had to do more than just pee so he waddled more into the bushes so that he could squat. Shout out to all of the girls who have bladders of steel!
We did eventually make it home in one piece. This was Henry’s, one of our sponsors from the institute, last day with us so we said our goodbyes and took a group picture with him.
At home, my host mom made me dinner of potatoes, fish, and pasta with chicken with a side of salad. She also packed me a snack for tomorrow morning since I have to be after the institute at 4:40am and thus will not be able to get breakfast. She rocks!
Breakfast was organic, same as our previous meals on this farm. The rice, beans, eggs, fruit, and salad were all grown on the farm. We ate emu egg and I got the opportunity to help prepare it. James drilled two holes in the egg, one on the top and bottom, while I held it. Then I blew through one of the holes to get the yolk out. The egg was pretty hard so it took a while to drill the holes. I was not too pumped blowing through the holes on the egg because that meant getting raw egg on my mouth. But I did it anyway for the experience. Now I can say that I helped prepare emu egg on a Costa Rican farm. They scrambled the egg for us and it tasted like any typical egg except it was softer.
After breakfast, we had a short break before the farmer, Ernesto, gave us a tour around his farm. He took us by his colorful shack where he painted the history of his farm, where it came from, where they are today, and where they want to be in the future. It even included pictures of the predators that have threatened his farm animals. In fact, he now has to lock up his animals at night since he has lost animals to pumas and jaguars. The jaguar is actually dead now since the village went on a hunt to kill it. They laid meat out and waited in a tree for hours. When it showed up, they shot it with their guns.
Ernesto also showed us his compost area and walked us through his garden where he grew everything from celery to cotton. He even has the plant that smells like the good kind of bug spray and a cinnamon tree. He then led us through his livestock pins where we got to see his pigs, emu, chickens, and goats.
They slaughtered one of his pigs this morning since it was ready—it weighed about 100 kg. For reference, they killed a smaller pig to feed us lunch yesterday and we collectively only ate a single leg. This pig was likely going to be used for the larger tour group that was coming through this weekend.
He explained how they went about killing the pig. First, they would boil hot water and set up a table outside their butchering hut. Then they would drag the pig outside of its pin where they would strike its head with a large mallet to knock it unconscious before slitting its throat. Using the hot water to soften the skin and a machete, they would remove the hair on the pig. They would then take it into the butchering hut where they would segment the meat.
We were touring through the garden when they butchered the pig. It made a lot of noise as it was being taken to the spot where it would be slaughtered. Then there was silence. Yeah…
The emus were cute. There were two of them. They were definitely afraid of the dogs and weary of us (probably because they could smell the emu egg on our breath). We got to hold a baby goat in our arms and it was so adorable! So fluffy!
After a final group picture, we said our goodbyes to the farmer, the farm, and the town of Las Milpas and left. On the way back, we stopped by a waterfall called Llanos del Cortez which was a tourist spot. It was obvious why it was. The view was stunning. People changed into their swimsuits to take a plunge in the refreshing water, but I stayed in my dress because I did not feel like attempting to change into my swimsuit on the bus like the others did. Too much of a hassle. I still went into the water until it reached my knees. Very refreshing. Also since I did not actually go swim, it gave me plenty of opportunity to snag a bunch of quality pictures.
We stopped once more after the waterfall for lunch at the same rest stop that we went to yesterday on the way to the farm. They had a cafeteria-like restaurant inside. I got rice, beans, pulled pork, plantain, and pound cake. I did not realize how hungry I was until I took that first bite. It didn’t take me long to finish it all so I grabbed ice cream afterwards.
We encountered some heavy traffic on the way back and ended up turning around in the middle of the standstill traffic to take a country road. It was way hillier and had a lot more curves than the road that we were on but at least there was no traffic. The road was apparently an old colonial road that they used to drive carts over. We almost ran into a bus at one point. The bus took a sharp turn at one of the bends as we were approaching it and did not allow for enough clearance for us to get by. Good thing that Costa Rican drivers are professionals so we stopped before the head-to-head collision happened.
It was supposed to be like a 5 hour drive back to the institute but because of the two stops that we made to the waterfall and lunch as well as the heavy traffic causing us to take a back road, it ended up taking us 8 hours! The guys had to stop for another bathroom break while we were on the country road and ended up relieving themselves by the side of the road. At least they had a pleasant view of the central valley of Costa Rica. Haha, one guy had to do more than just pee so he waddled more into the bushes so that he could squat. Shout out to all of the girls who have bladders of steel!
We did eventually make it home in one piece. This was Henry’s, one of our sponsors from the institute, last day with us so we said our goodbyes and took a group picture with him.
At home, my host mom made me dinner of potatoes, fish, and pasta with chicken with a side of salad. She also packed me a snack for tomorrow morning since I have to be after the institute at 4:40am and thus will not be able to get breakfast. She rocks!
Day 9 – The time that I saw a Sloth (03/25/2017)
We had to meet at the institute at 4:40am so sleep did not happen last night. I asked my host mother to pack a snack for me instead of attempting to wake up super early just to make me breakfast and she did. I got like 3 different types of crackers (Oreos, saltines, and some sort of wheat cracker) along with some peach tea in a juice pouch. Normally my host mom sets an alarm (as I found out the hard way a couple of nights ago when I accidently set it off as I walked out of my room in the morning) but she clearly did not do so last night because I walked straight out the front door without a problem.
We had Carlos back as a driver (good, because we missed him!) and Ana as our guide from this institute. It was not the exact same van as before, but it similar. Navy blue exterior instead of white. Seats were a darker color. Trash can was slightly smaller.
We had to wake up so early because it was 4-ish hours to the Manuel Antonio National Park and if we wanted to see monkeys and sloths, we had to get there relatively early. We did stop for breakfast along the way at like 7-ish at an outdoorsy restaurant. I got some Gallo Pinto (typical Costa Rican breakfast dish that is basically just rice and beans), plantain, and a slice of pineapple with the drink as guanabana (soursop) juice. Admittedly not the best meal that I had since coming here, but it satisfied my hungry stomach so I am good.
We also stopped at an outdoor market close to the park where I purchased two blankets for just 9,000 colones. I wanted something that said “Pura Vida” (well-known phase said in Costa Rica which literally means “pure life”) on it and these had just that.
We did a guided tour through the park. Our guide was nowhere near as great of a speaker as the awesome tour guide that we had at the Doka Coffee plantation but he clearly knew his stuff. I felt kind of bad after the tour because a lot of people in my group kept questioning whether the creatures that he pointed out to us were real. He would take out his telescope and even take pictures of the wildlife that he spotted along the path. There were lizards, birds, dragonflies, monkeys, sloths, and more all along the trail. But since they were hard to spot with the naked eye, people kept questioning whether there was some sort of slideshow in the guy’s telescope that he was just flipping through. Or if they actually could see the creature with their eyes, they would say that it was fake because it was not moving enough for them. I was chatting with the guide throughout the tour and he showed me his license and talked about how all the guides at the park had to be certified through a two-year training program and re-certified every few years afterwards. He has done this for 16 years. I’d be annoyed if I were him to hear people questioning my skills after all those years of experience.
People were eventually able to see the creatures for themselves after a while and see them move too. Monkeys were hopping from tree to try and sloths were…well, being sloths. The tour ended at the beach where we spent a solid 2, 3 hours soaking in the sun and (especially in my case) taking a bunch of pictures. I even got into the water despite my better judgment. I did have an enjoyable time. Beaches are not usually my thing and I wanted to go after like the first half-hour, but I’d say that it was still time well-spent.
After the beach, our group did the long walk back to our van. It was almost a mile long. Since our clothes were still pretty wet and we were all covered in sand (I’m never going to get this stuff off of me) it was a pretty miserable experience. But we made it.
Layda knew of a good restaurant just a few miles up the road so we went there. It was pretty cool. It was built around a plane. I got the chicken sandwich with fries and treated myself to a guanabana ice shake and an apple pie a la mode. That apple pie was SO good.
On the way back to the institute, Carlos stopped by the side of the road so that we could take pictures of the gorgeous sunset. We got back at like 7pm. I came back to my host family home to see my host brother with his friends playing various board and video games. I forgot that it was Saturday which basically means game night for him. I did not ask for breakfast since we ate lunch so late and I got so much.
We had Carlos back as a driver (good, because we missed him!) and Ana as our guide from this institute. It was not the exact same van as before, but it similar. Navy blue exterior instead of white. Seats were a darker color. Trash can was slightly smaller.
We had to wake up so early because it was 4-ish hours to the Manuel Antonio National Park and if we wanted to see monkeys and sloths, we had to get there relatively early. We did stop for breakfast along the way at like 7-ish at an outdoorsy restaurant. I got some Gallo Pinto (typical Costa Rican breakfast dish that is basically just rice and beans), plantain, and a slice of pineapple with the drink as guanabana (soursop) juice. Admittedly not the best meal that I had since coming here, but it satisfied my hungry stomach so I am good.
We also stopped at an outdoor market close to the park where I purchased two blankets for just 9,000 colones. I wanted something that said “Pura Vida” (well-known phase said in Costa Rica which literally means “pure life”) on it and these had just that.
We did a guided tour through the park. Our guide was nowhere near as great of a speaker as the awesome tour guide that we had at the Doka Coffee plantation but he clearly knew his stuff. I felt kind of bad after the tour because a lot of people in my group kept questioning whether the creatures that he pointed out to us were real. He would take out his telescope and even take pictures of the wildlife that he spotted along the path. There were lizards, birds, dragonflies, monkeys, sloths, and more all along the trail. But since they were hard to spot with the naked eye, people kept questioning whether there was some sort of slideshow in the guy’s telescope that he was just flipping through. Or if they actually could see the creature with their eyes, they would say that it was fake because it was not moving enough for them. I was chatting with the guide throughout the tour and he showed me his license and talked about how all the guides at the park had to be certified through a two-year training program and re-certified every few years afterwards. He has done this for 16 years. I’d be annoyed if I were him to hear people questioning my skills after all those years of experience.
People were eventually able to see the creatures for themselves after a while and see them move too. Monkeys were hopping from tree to try and sloths were…well, being sloths. The tour ended at the beach where we spent a solid 2, 3 hours soaking in the sun and (especially in my case) taking a bunch of pictures. I even got into the water despite my better judgment. I did have an enjoyable time. Beaches are not usually my thing and I wanted to go after like the first half-hour, but I’d say that it was still time well-spent.
After the beach, our group did the long walk back to our van. It was almost a mile long. Since our clothes were still pretty wet and we were all covered in sand (I’m never going to get this stuff off of me) it was a pretty miserable experience. But we made it.
Layda knew of a good restaurant just a few miles up the road so we went there. It was pretty cool. It was built around a plane. I got the chicken sandwich with fries and treated myself to a guanabana ice shake and an apple pie a la mode. That apple pie was SO good.
On the way back to the institute, Carlos stopped by the side of the road so that we could take pictures of the gorgeous sunset. We got back at like 7pm. I came back to my host family home to see my host brother with his friends playing various board and video games. I forgot that it was Saturday which basically means game night for him. I did not ask for breakfast since we ate lunch so late and I got so much.
Day 10 – The time that I went to Costa Rica (03/26/2017)
Last full day in Costa Rica! Wow, this week went by fast. I have mixed feelings about this trip coming to an end. On one hand, I love it here. Costa Rica is gorgeous and it’s nice not to have to worry about a bunch of classes. On the other hand, I miss being able to set my own schedule and sleeping in my own bed.
So the day started off by meeting at the institute at 7am. My host mom made me a huge breakfast. So big in fact that I could not even finish it! She served me this giant…blob that was made of mashed corn, potatoes, pork, and I am sure a few other vegetables in there. I spent most of the half hour trying to finish that one dish. She also set out bread and the usual tea and juice but I could not make it to that. So I just gulped down the juice and tea as quickly as possible and she put the bread in a Ziploc bag to take with me. I left my house exactly at 7am as a result, but it was alright since the institute is just like a minute walk away for me.
Four students work up sick today. All of them went on an impromptu trip to San Jose (that day when I and my group went to City Mall instead) so we were speculating if they got sick from a soup that they ate there. I’m not entirely sure. All I know is that apparently they had been vomiting all night and sweating like crazy. Andy and Kate stayed at home for the day while the twins decided to power through and come rafting and zip lining with us. I was impressed, albeit a little worried that they might have thrown up in the van. It was a 2 hour van ride up a very hilly road that had a lot of twist and turns. Definitely not a pleasant ride for someone whose stomach is not doing too well. The twins survived the ride though. We also stopped several times for bathroom breaks. We even stopped by a cool waterfall to take pictures.
We had both Ana and David as our institute sponsors today and Carlos was driving as usual. Since Kate and Andy did not come, David and Carlos decided to take their spots for the zip lining (we had already bought the tickets ahead of time anyway). They did not go rafting with us because they did not have a change of clothes.
Rafting was first. There was another group that went with us. There were like 9 of them and judging by some of their accents, I think that they might have been Australian. We were all split up in 2 groups of 4 and 2 groups of 5 so our group did remain separate from them. My raft had original boat squad (Claire, Tanner, and Charlie) plus Layda because she had a GoPro. The other guy in our group with the GoPro went in the other raft just so that everyone had some cool footage to work with for when we have to make our video documentary when we get back.
I had a blast during rafting! Our guide, Randal, was super chill. He let us jump into the water twice when we reached calm spots. The first time was planned, but the second time Charlie just asked him if we could jump into the water and he said yes! We got into several raft wars with other groups who kept flinging water at us. That water was cold too! We did our best to defend our honor by flinging water back but I am pretty sure that we lost. In our defense, the guides on the other boats helped fling water at us while Randal just sat there on our boat! Randal did redeem himself by pointing out wildlife throughout the ride. We saw monkeys, iguanas, swallows, blue herrings, and vultures. He let us go through a set of rapids backward and on the last set of rapids, he had one side of our boat paddling forward and the other side backward so that we could spin 4 times as we went down. It was so fun! He called it “the washing machine.”
About halfway through the 7 mile course, all 4 boats stopped along a tame bank for a 10 minute break. They cut pineapples for us and let us swim in the calm waters. I somehow cut my finger on one of the rocks at the bottom (the water wasn’t that deep), so I had to get a band-aid for that. It doesn’t hurt though. It certainly did not stop me from jumping into the water the two times that we got the chance.
Yeah, it was a great experience. Randal said that we were a good group. Probably one of his favorites. We were definitely the coolest boat out there today! The Australians never jumped into the water and not everyone on the other boat from our group went into the water. I’m pretty sure that we were the loudest group on the water too. We kept making jokes, talking about Disney movies, making puns (well, I guess that was me), and interacting with our guide.
At the end of the course, we put our rafting gear at the back of a truck and they gave us towels to dry off. We all then boarded two big vans and drove back to the entrance of the park. We were giving some time to change before zip lining. This time it was just our group and two other people who I believe said that they were from Panama or some close by islands in Central America. One could speak English, so we chatted a lot.
It was like a 10 minute van ride to the first set of zip lines. There were 8 of them that we did in a series of 3 then 4 then 1. Before hooking us up to go, they gave us a short safety lecture (as they did with rafting too, of course). One of the key points that they made that stood out the most to me was to not lean against the trees or walk ahead of them as we traveled between sets of lines. The reason was because there were poisonous snakes and bullet ants in the forest that we were in. Bullet ants are known to have the worst bite known to man (according to one of biology enthusiast in our group). She claimed that the pain came in waves for 24 hours and that the bite was so bad that it felt like you had been shot with a bullet (hence the name “bullet” ant). Those ants were huge too! They picked one up on a stick to show us just to emphasize their point. We did see several of those ants throughout the course, but no one got bit. We did not see any snakes, but one of the guides did pull out his phone to show a snake that they saw on the trail just 4 days ago.
Zip lining was fun. I did it once before in Brotas, Brazil last year and also had a blast. This course was much longer though, 9 lines instead of 3. I wasn’t nearly as afraid this time as I was back then. I volunteered to be the first person to go down the lines in my group, right after the two other guys that had joined our group for zip lining. The coolest (and scariest) part was standing on those tiny little platforms between some of the lines. We were hundreds of feet in the air and so close to the ledge. But the guides (like 5 of them in total) made sure that at least one of our hooks was attached to a line at all times.
We had to drive to the final line. This one was over a river and a guy was there to take our picture as we crossed and during the end.
After zip lining, we ate a buffet lunch at the activity park. I decided to go ahead and by all of the pictures from rafting and zip ling because why not. I think that it was worth the investment.
On our way back to the institute, we stopped several times for breaks. One stop was at a bed and breakfast that Brian, our supervisor for the trip, would have stayed had he not decided to stay with a host family. It was cute.
We said our goodbyes to Carlos, Ana, and David when we got back since we will not see them again. It was definitely a sad moment. I am going to miss them.
I stopped by the supermarket with boat squad before coming back to my host family’s home. I set off the alarm when I entered the house and could not turn it off because I did not know the pass code. Luckily my host brother and mother came home like 10 minutes later. They had stepped out briefly to go pick something up.
Now I am packing and getting ready to meet at the institute at 4:15am tomorrow to catch our flight back to the States. But before I sign off for today, I have a few more questions that I have to answer that I haven’t been able to answer in my other blog posts yet. (Remember, this blog is counting as a grade for me J)
Some of the cultural differences here in Costa Rica have definitely made me aware of the culture that I grew up with in the States. For one, Costa Ricans typically do not take long showers. They also turn off the water as they soap themselves. I was forced to adapt to this way of bathing. While I was able to figure out that I could get hotter water by opening the faucet only a little bit, the hot water flow did not last long—maybe a minute. So I had to shut off the water quickly then turn it back on again if I wanted a hot bath. It’s awkward for me, especially with the lower water pressure here since I am used to taking long, hot showers in the States. It made me more aware of just how much water that I was using with those long baths. I have definitely used up less water to shower during my stay here. It got me thinking that this should be a practice that I take back with me. I talked a little about social responsibility in a previous blog. Using less water is part of that responsibility.
Probably one of the most shocking experiences that I have had while in Costa Rica was the entire idea of having a host family. Sure, I had heard of such a practice before and have known people who have stayed with host families while they were abroad, but I’d never experienced it for myself. I found it strange that people were willing to open up their homes to total strangers for weeks at a time and feed and take care of them. I can see that they do this because they really want to show people their country and have them learn about it. They are so invested in the concept of experiencing other cultures that they want to play their part in helping others achieve this goal. It made me realize that the world is a much more open place than I had originally given it credit for.
One new thing that I have learned about myself during this trip was how well I have grown to adapt to new cultures so easily now both mentally and physically. I have traveled abroad so many times in the last couple of years that I no longer feel intimidated by it. I used to be terrified about the thought of leaving the comfort of my home to go to a place that was completely different than I was used to. I also used to get sick at least once during these trips, but I haven’t gotten sick once during this trip while I think everyone else who came got sick at least once. I feel great! This is important because I know that I am going to need to be able to interact with people from around the world in whatever job that I wind up in. Engineering is an international profession; therefore, I need to have international experience.
This trip to Costa Rica hasn’t individually impacted my future. Rather the sum of all of my international experiences over the last two years is what has really impacted me. I feel more aware of the world around me which has changed the way that I interact with people. I feel like I am more sensitive to cultural differences.
I am glad that I decided to go on this trip. I will hold on to these memories for the rest of my life.
So the day started off by meeting at the institute at 7am. My host mom made me a huge breakfast. So big in fact that I could not even finish it! She served me this giant…blob that was made of mashed corn, potatoes, pork, and I am sure a few other vegetables in there. I spent most of the half hour trying to finish that one dish. She also set out bread and the usual tea and juice but I could not make it to that. So I just gulped down the juice and tea as quickly as possible and she put the bread in a Ziploc bag to take with me. I left my house exactly at 7am as a result, but it was alright since the institute is just like a minute walk away for me.
Four students work up sick today. All of them went on an impromptu trip to San Jose (that day when I and my group went to City Mall instead) so we were speculating if they got sick from a soup that they ate there. I’m not entirely sure. All I know is that apparently they had been vomiting all night and sweating like crazy. Andy and Kate stayed at home for the day while the twins decided to power through and come rafting and zip lining with us. I was impressed, albeit a little worried that they might have thrown up in the van. It was a 2 hour van ride up a very hilly road that had a lot of twist and turns. Definitely not a pleasant ride for someone whose stomach is not doing too well. The twins survived the ride though. We also stopped several times for bathroom breaks. We even stopped by a cool waterfall to take pictures.
We had both Ana and David as our institute sponsors today and Carlos was driving as usual. Since Kate and Andy did not come, David and Carlos decided to take their spots for the zip lining (we had already bought the tickets ahead of time anyway). They did not go rafting with us because they did not have a change of clothes.
Rafting was first. There was another group that went with us. There were like 9 of them and judging by some of their accents, I think that they might have been Australian. We were all split up in 2 groups of 4 and 2 groups of 5 so our group did remain separate from them. My raft had original boat squad (Claire, Tanner, and Charlie) plus Layda because she had a GoPro. The other guy in our group with the GoPro went in the other raft just so that everyone had some cool footage to work with for when we have to make our video documentary when we get back.
I had a blast during rafting! Our guide, Randal, was super chill. He let us jump into the water twice when we reached calm spots. The first time was planned, but the second time Charlie just asked him if we could jump into the water and he said yes! We got into several raft wars with other groups who kept flinging water at us. That water was cold too! We did our best to defend our honor by flinging water back but I am pretty sure that we lost. In our defense, the guides on the other boats helped fling water at us while Randal just sat there on our boat! Randal did redeem himself by pointing out wildlife throughout the ride. We saw monkeys, iguanas, swallows, blue herrings, and vultures. He let us go through a set of rapids backward and on the last set of rapids, he had one side of our boat paddling forward and the other side backward so that we could spin 4 times as we went down. It was so fun! He called it “the washing machine.”
About halfway through the 7 mile course, all 4 boats stopped along a tame bank for a 10 minute break. They cut pineapples for us and let us swim in the calm waters. I somehow cut my finger on one of the rocks at the bottom (the water wasn’t that deep), so I had to get a band-aid for that. It doesn’t hurt though. It certainly did not stop me from jumping into the water the two times that we got the chance.
Yeah, it was a great experience. Randal said that we were a good group. Probably one of his favorites. We were definitely the coolest boat out there today! The Australians never jumped into the water and not everyone on the other boat from our group went into the water. I’m pretty sure that we were the loudest group on the water too. We kept making jokes, talking about Disney movies, making puns (well, I guess that was me), and interacting with our guide.
At the end of the course, we put our rafting gear at the back of a truck and they gave us towels to dry off. We all then boarded two big vans and drove back to the entrance of the park. We were giving some time to change before zip lining. This time it was just our group and two other people who I believe said that they were from Panama or some close by islands in Central America. One could speak English, so we chatted a lot.
It was like a 10 minute van ride to the first set of zip lines. There were 8 of them that we did in a series of 3 then 4 then 1. Before hooking us up to go, they gave us a short safety lecture (as they did with rafting too, of course). One of the key points that they made that stood out the most to me was to not lean against the trees or walk ahead of them as we traveled between sets of lines. The reason was because there were poisonous snakes and bullet ants in the forest that we were in. Bullet ants are known to have the worst bite known to man (according to one of biology enthusiast in our group). She claimed that the pain came in waves for 24 hours and that the bite was so bad that it felt like you had been shot with a bullet (hence the name “bullet” ant). Those ants were huge too! They picked one up on a stick to show us just to emphasize their point. We did see several of those ants throughout the course, but no one got bit. We did not see any snakes, but one of the guides did pull out his phone to show a snake that they saw on the trail just 4 days ago.
Zip lining was fun. I did it once before in Brotas, Brazil last year and also had a blast. This course was much longer though, 9 lines instead of 3. I wasn’t nearly as afraid this time as I was back then. I volunteered to be the first person to go down the lines in my group, right after the two other guys that had joined our group for zip lining. The coolest (and scariest) part was standing on those tiny little platforms between some of the lines. We were hundreds of feet in the air and so close to the ledge. But the guides (like 5 of them in total) made sure that at least one of our hooks was attached to a line at all times.
We had to drive to the final line. This one was over a river and a guy was there to take our picture as we crossed and during the end.
After zip lining, we ate a buffet lunch at the activity park. I decided to go ahead and by all of the pictures from rafting and zip ling because why not. I think that it was worth the investment.
On our way back to the institute, we stopped several times for breaks. One stop was at a bed and breakfast that Brian, our supervisor for the trip, would have stayed had he not decided to stay with a host family. It was cute.
We said our goodbyes to Carlos, Ana, and David when we got back since we will not see them again. It was definitely a sad moment. I am going to miss them.
I stopped by the supermarket with boat squad before coming back to my host family’s home. I set off the alarm when I entered the house and could not turn it off because I did not know the pass code. Luckily my host brother and mother came home like 10 minutes later. They had stepped out briefly to go pick something up.
Now I am packing and getting ready to meet at the institute at 4:15am tomorrow to catch our flight back to the States. But before I sign off for today, I have a few more questions that I have to answer that I haven’t been able to answer in my other blog posts yet. (Remember, this blog is counting as a grade for me J)
Some of the cultural differences here in Costa Rica have definitely made me aware of the culture that I grew up with in the States. For one, Costa Ricans typically do not take long showers. They also turn off the water as they soap themselves. I was forced to adapt to this way of bathing. While I was able to figure out that I could get hotter water by opening the faucet only a little bit, the hot water flow did not last long—maybe a minute. So I had to shut off the water quickly then turn it back on again if I wanted a hot bath. It’s awkward for me, especially with the lower water pressure here since I am used to taking long, hot showers in the States. It made me more aware of just how much water that I was using with those long baths. I have definitely used up less water to shower during my stay here. It got me thinking that this should be a practice that I take back with me. I talked a little about social responsibility in a previous blog. Using less water is part of that responsibility.
Probably one of the most shocking experiences that I have had while in Costa Rica was the entire idea of having a host family. Sure, I had heard of such a practice before and have known people who have stayed with host families while they were abroad, but I’d never experienced it for myself. I found it strange that people were willing to open up their homes to total strangers for weeks at a time and feed and take care of them. I can see that they do this because they really want to show people their country and have them learn about it. They are so invested in the concept of experiencing other cultures that they want to play their part in helping others achieve this goal. It made me realize that the world is a much more open place than I had originally given it credit for.
One new thing that I have learned about myself during this trip was how well I have grown to adapt to new cultures so easily now both mentally and physically. I have traveled abroad so many times in the last couple of years that I no longer feel intimidated by it. I used to be terrified about the thought of leaving the comfort of my home to go to a place that was completely different than I was used to. I also used to get sick at least once during these trips, but I haven’t gotten sick once during this trip while I think everyone else who came got sick at least once. I feel great! This is important because I know that I am going to need to be able to interact with people from around the world in whatever job that I wind up in. Engineering is an international profession; therefore, I need to have international experience.
This trip to Costa Rica hasn’t individually impacted my future. Rather the sum of all of my international experiences over the last two years is what has really impacted me. I feel more aware of the world around me which has changed the way that I interact with people. I feel like I am more sensitive to cultural differences.
I am glad that I decided to go on this trip. I will hold on to these memories for the rest of my life.
Back in the States (03/27/2017)
I am back home!
The day started off bright an early as usual. I woke up at 3:30am so that I could get to the institute at 4:15am. I said my goodbyes to my host mother the night before and we embraced in a long hug. She had her son walk me to the institute just to be sure that I would get there safely. Because he had to get me there so early, the son didn't sleep at all last night. He was up playing online games the entire time. I found that impressive.
We had the bigger bus again today but Carlos was not the driver sadly :/
It's a good thing that we got to the airport so early because it took FOREVER to check our bags. It took us like 2 hours to get through just the general check-in lane. There were only like 3 clerks in charge of the general lane so that is probably why. Also one of the clerks just got up and left sometime when we had just reached the front of the line which made our wait that much longer. We eventually did all check-in. The security line was long but it did not take nearly as long to get through.
I was supposed to have an aisle seat for the flight from San Jose to Miami, Florida but there was a group of people traveling together that asked to switch seats with me. I said yes, of course, and I was supposed to get the person's window seat but another person in my group who was in the middle seat decided to grab it instead and I was too nice to object. We were on a plane with personalized entertainment at each seat which was supposed to cheer me up, except it did not work for half the flight. And when it did work, whenever an announcement came on, I had to restart the movie back to the beginning because the screen would freeze. So I tried watching Queen of Katwe but of course I could not finish it due to technical difficulties.
Luckily customs at the Miami airport was quick and painless--the complete opposite of Dallas, Texas when I came back from Hong Kong where it took nearly 3 hours to get through the lines and I almost missed my connecting flight as a result. Unfortunately, Charlie did not have the same luck. Since he is not a US citizen, it ended up taking him like 1.5 hours to get through customs.
The flight from Miami to O'Hare was pretty painless. I had the window seat and got to sleep a little bit. The bus ride from O'Hare to Champaign was also pretty painless, albeit a little uncomfortable since the seats were small.
What was painful was getting from where the bus dropped me off near Transit Plaza to my apartment. I live in a very sketchy neighborhood (99.9% of the crime alerts that we get come from this area) so I was already no looking forward to having to get to my apartment at night while carrying a giant suitcase. I was going to take a bus, but I got "ghost-bused," meaning that the bus that was supposed to show up did not show up. Since I did not want to wait another 20 minutes for the next bus, I decided to walk. My suitcase decided to blow 2 wheels during the long walk so I was essentially dragging a 50 pound bulky weight in addition to my heavy book bag and handbag. I stopped caring about how unsafe it was walking down the dangerous part of Champaign in the middle of the night. With how stressed I was feeling, I dared somebody to cross me. I had (still have) a giant pile of work waiting for me so all I wanted to do was get home and get started on it ASAP. I do not anticipate sleeping at all tonight or much for the following 2 days since I have to attend NSBE nationals this weekend and we are leaving at 4am on Thursday.
Yup, no sleep for the weary. I'm just looking forward to the weekend after this one because it will be literally the second weekend out of this entire semester where I will actually be in town and not have any other commitment beside homework and studying.
Well, I guess that I better get back to work! Cya!
The day started off bright an early as usual. I woke up at 3:30am so that I could get to the institute at 4:15am. I said my goodbyes to my host mother the night before and we embraced in a long hug. She had her son walk me to the institute just to be sure that I would get there safely. Because he had to get me there so early, the son didn't sleep at all last night. He was up playing online games the entire time. I found that impressive.
We had the bigger bus again today but Carlos was not the driver sadly :/
It's a good thing that we got to the airport so early because it took FOREVER to check our bags. It took us like 2 hours to get through just the general check-in lane. There were only like 3 clerks in charge of the general lane so that is probably why. Also one of the clerks just got up and left sometime when we had just reached the front of the line which made our wait that much longer. We eventually did all check-in. The security line was long but it did not take nearly as long to get through.
I was supposed to have an aisle seat for the flight from San Jose to Miami, Florida but there was a group of people traveling together that asked to switch seats with me. I said yes, of course, and I was supposed to get the person's window seat but another person in my group who was in the middle seat decided to grab it instead and I was too nice to object. We were on a plane with personalized entertainment at each seat which was supposed to cheer me up, except it did not work for half the flight. And when it did work, whenever an announcement came on, I had to restart the movie back to the beginning because the screen would freeze. So I tried watching Queen of Katwe but of course I could not finish it due to technical difficulties.
Luckily customs at the Miami airport was quick and painless--the complete opposite of Dallas, Texas when I came back from Hong Kong where it took nearly 3 hours to get through the lines and I almost missed my connecting flight as a result. Unfortunately, Charlie did not have the same luck. Since he is not a US citizen, it ended up taking him like 1.5 hours to get through customs.
The flight from Miami to O'Hare was pretty painless. I had the window seat and got to sleep a little bit. The bus ride from O'Hare to Champaign was also pretty painless, albeit a little uncomfortable since the seats were small.
What was painful was getting from where the bus dropped me off near Transit Plaza to my apartment. I live in a very sketchy neighborhood (99.9% of the crime alerts that we get come from this area) so I was already no looking forward to having to get to my apartment at night while carrying a giant suitcase. I was going to take a bus, but I got "ghost-bused," meaning that the bus that was supposed to show up did not show up. Since I did not want to wait another 20 minutes for the next bus, I decided to walk. My suitcase decided to blow 2 wheels during the long walk so I was essentially dragging a 50 pound bulky weight in addition to my heavy book bag and handbag. I stopped caring about how unsafe it was walking down the dangerous part of Champaign in the middle of the night. With how stressed I was feeling, I dared somebody to cross me. I had (still have) a giant pile of work waiting for me so all I wanted to do was get home and get started on it ASAP. I do not anticipate sleeping at all tonight or much for the following 2 days since I have to attend NSBE nationals this weekend and we are leaving at 4am on Thursday.
Yup, no sleep for the weary. I'm just looking forward to the weekend after this one because it will be literally the second weekend out of this entire semester where I will actually be in town and not have any other commitment beside homework and studying.
Well, I guess that I better get back to work! Cya!