So last night our entire town was evacuated because of an impending tsunami. It was actually pretty scary for us. Deborah and I were in our room when Angela came in our room with her daughter to tell us that our coast had been issued an alarm for a tsunami and that we needed to pack what was necessary and leave immediately.
The television weather advisors were telling everyone in our vicinity to evacuate, and they predicted the tsunami to come a few kilometers inland. And we can see the ocean from our house.
Joshua, the little boy, was crying and and breathing hard and Angela was scurrying around her house, putting anything of importance into plastic garbage bags.
When people are speaking at a normal pace, I can generally understand what they are saying, but with everyone´s voices raised and talking so quickly I only got the basic message, which was, we need to leave, and we need to leave now.
The worst part was just how scared everyone seemed...you could feel that something was very, very wrong.
Debs and I put our passports, all our money, our camera, journal, first aid kit, one change of clothes, and our journals in a backpack thinking that everything else would be gone when we came back.
We went outside and there was a stream of cars leaving the city and throngs of people walking, trying to hitchhike, carrying a plastic bag with them.
Luckily our family´s dad is a taxi driver and he was able to take us several miles inland to wait out the storm. He and Katy´s husband dropped us off at a gas station and then returned to help tourists staying in hotels evacuate to the highest floor of a condo building.
We slept in the car they had left behind for several hours until the television report indicated that it was safe to return.
Luckily, the storm missed our piece of coastline, but that didn´t make those few hours any less scary.
On a brighter note, the day before was gloriously sunny and were able to drive to a remote and deserted beach that is pretty much inaccessible unless you know exactly where you´´re going and happen to have 4 wheel drive.
We kayaked on the ocean and saw dozens of crabs and played the beach game that involved throwing heavy balls as close as possible to a smaller ball.
It was Katerinas )the Slovakian) birthday, so we at cupcakes, although the icing had melted before we were able to eat them )but it was definitely still delicious)
We were lucky to know a classmate of Deborah´s, who´s husband is currently working to develop some land in that area. It was a beautiful beach and we were very lucky to see it.
We also saw the workers who are currently counting every single tree in the area by spray painting them in order to complete an environmental analysis of the area. They live in bodegas, or metal shacks with no electricity or running water, and work 16 hour days for $2 an hour.
They live in the mountains and come down to work for several days at a time. One had just come back from finding his girlfriend murdered by a jealous acquaintence who had slashed her head open with a machete.
Tonight is our last night here in Brasalito, tomorrow our last day at C.P.I. flamingo. I can´t wait to see J and my family, but I´m sad I can´t stay here and learn more Spanish and live with my amazing Tico family any longer......
Pura Vida!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Monday, August 13, 2007
August 13
Of course, our last week on the beach has consisted of the following amalgam of weather: normal rain (pelo de gato), annoying sprinkles that make just barely puts going to be beach out of the question, and then rain so hard and so loud that you start to be concerned that you might need to be evacuated by helicopter from the country.
Our roof is made of metal, which makes the rain seem even louder than it actually is.
We are still enjoying the pura vida and are learning a lot of Spanish. Deboarah doesn't really ask me to translate anymore, and isn't hesitant to talk to people or ask them for something.
Today Angela cleaned our clothes (AGAIN....THE WOMAN WON'T STOP) and so I went to hug her and thank her. Of course she only comes up to my neck so she gave me a big kiss on my neck since she couldn't reach my head.
We've been spending our time joking with the famila, reading, and talking. I really feel like I've finally gotten to know my baby sister, which has been one of my favorite things about the trip.
Tomorrow we were going to kayak out to an island and go snorkling with a friend from Debs's class who lives here in Costa Rica, but with the weather being the way it has been, it's going to take some luck.
I'm looking forward to classes this weeks because I will be the only student in my class, which means every day (except Wednesday, which is a national holiday on par with Memorial Day in the US, so no school) I will be talking one on one in Spanish with my teacher for 4 hours...I'm really excited about that.
That's all for now....only 5 minutes left of internet time and if I'm lucky it won't take that long for to post my entry on this impressively slow computer.
Our roof is made of metal, which makes the rain seem even louder than it actually is.
We are still enjoying the pura vida and are learning a lot of Spanish. Deboarah doesn't really ask me to translate anymore, and isn't hesitant to talk to people or ask them for something.
Today Angela cleaned our clothes (AGAIN....THE WOMAN WON'T STOP) and so I went to hug her and thank her. Of course she only comes up to my neck so she gave me a big kiss on my neck since she couldn't reach my head.
We've been spending our time joking with the famila, reading, and talking. I really feel like I've finally gotten to know my baby sister, which has been one of my favorite things about the trip.
Tomorrow we were going to kayak out to an island and go snorkling with a friend from Debs's class who lives here in Costa Rica, but with the weather being the way it has been, it's going to take some luck.
I'm looking forward to classes this weeks because I will be the only student in my class, which means every day (except Wednesday, which is a national holiday on par with Memorial Day in the US, so no school) I will be talking one on one in Spanish with my teacher for 4 hours...I'm really excited about that.
That's all for now....only 5 minutes left of internet time and if I'm lucky it won't take that long for to post my entry on this impressively slow computer.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
August 11
Hola
Apologies for delayed update- internet access here isn't exactly ubiquitous, the connections are slow, and the one internet cafe is usually full.
But who cares when you've got pura vida!
Pura vida is a Costa Rican expression that basically sums up their philosophy of life, which is pretty much equvilant to gather thy rosebuds while ye may, or carpe diem, with as little hassle as possible involved.
Our padre tico, Henry, says Pura Vida! at least 5 times a day.
We saw a whale!! Debs and I went parasailing over the coast and we saw a mother whale with her calf. She jumped so high out of the water-just this immense and beautiful creature. I felt so lucky that the world revealed that to me.
Our guide steered our boat over to where the whale was (they come up for air about every 4 minutes or so) and we got several glimpes of the amazing animal.
Later when we got back to school we told some people in the office about what we saw, and one older tico insisted that it couldn't have been a whale, because the water was too warm for them (bellanas son immensos, fue un dolfino..........) and Katy, another tica, started arguing with him in rapid Spanish that there were too whales, so the argument bascially sounded like (Bellena, Dolfino, Bellena, Dolfino) it was pretty funny. It was definitely a whale, though.
Yesterday a monkey swung across the coconut trees in our front to the telephone pole across the street. I love their curly little tails.
We also saw a woodpecker pecking at a coconut, and Henry cut a coconut down for us so we could drink the coconut water, too. That will be the last time Debs and I drink any, I think
Deborah and I went to Playa Conchal today, which is a beautiful stretch of coast where the sand is comprised of zillions of broken shells that clear blue water washes over. I found several shells that I hope to make necklaces out of and Deborah and us both are pretty much completely roja. Our tico family finds this incredibly amusing.
The whole family really likes Deboarah and jokes with her a lot. The family is just amazing...we keep trying to get our madre tica to stop doing things for us, but she won't!! She does our laundry all of the time and she cleans constantly, but the worst part is that she won't let us pour our own water or cereal. She does it all with a smile and I think if anything she'd be offended if we insisted to do our own dishes.
One day her daughter got sick and so we told her not to worry about cooking dinner, that we'd just go out to eat, and she really did get a little bit offended. SO different. Next week is Mother's day, which is national holiday here (i.e., banks close, schools close, etc) so we're going to do something special for her.
Deboarah got her hair cut in a little beauty shop next to our house and let's just say it was an interesting experience.
Everyday we get more conversant---debs is talking a lot more now and I don't have to think about it as much. We need more time, though!
See everyone next Saturday!
Love,
Sara & Debs
Apologies for delayed update- internet access here isn't exactly ubiquitous, the connections are slow, and the one internet cafe is usually full.
But who cares when you've got pura vida!
Pura vida is a Costa Rican expression that basically sums up their philosophy of life, which is pretty much equvilant to gather thy rosebuds while ye may, or carpe diem, with as little hassle as possible involved.
Our padre tico, Henry, says Pura Vida! at least 5 times a day.
We saw a whale!! Debs and I went parasailing over the coast and we saw a mother whale with her calf. She jumped so high out of the water-just this immense and beautiful creature. I felt so lucky that the world revealed that to me.
Our guide steered our boat over to where the whale was (they come up for air about every 4 minutes or so) and we got several glimpes of the amazing animal.
Later when we got back to school we told some people in the office about what we saw, and one older tico insisted that it couldn't have been a whale, because the water was too warm for them (bellanas son immensos, fue un dolfino..........) and Katy, another tica, started arguing with him in rapid Spanish that there were too whales, so the argument bascially sounded like (Bellena, Dolfino, Bellena, Dolfino) it was pretty funny. It was definitely a whale, though.
Yesterday a monkey swung across the coconut trees in our front to the telephone pole across the street. I love their curly little tails.
We also saw a woodpecker pecking at a coconut, and Henry cut a coconut down for us so we could drink the coconut water, too. That will be the last time Debs and I drink any, I think
Deborah and I went to Playa Conchal today, which is a beautiful stretch of coast where the sand is comprised of zillions of broken shells that clear blue water washes over. I found several shells that I hope to make necklaces out of and Deborah and us both are pretty much completely roja. Our tico family finds this incredibly amusing.
The whole family really likes Deboarah and jokes with her a lot. The family is just amazing...we keep trying to get our madre tica to stop doing things for us, but she won't!! She does our laundry all of the time and she cleans constantly, but the worst part is that she won't let us pour our own water or cereal. She does it all with a smile and I think if anything she'd be offended if we insisted to do our own dishes.
One day her daughter got sick and so we told her not to worry about cooking dinner, that we'd just go out to eat, and she really did get a little bit offended. SO different. Next week is Mother's day, which is national holiday here (i.e., banks close, schools close, etc) so we're going to do something special for her.
Deboarah got her hair cut in a little beauty shop next to our house and let's just say it was an interesting experience.
Everyday we get more conversant---debs is talking a lot more now and I don't have to think about it as much. We need more time, though!
See everyone next Saturday!
Love,
Sara & Debs
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
August 7
This morning I woke up at 5 and ran barefoot along the beach that is a 3 minute walk from my house. Ive always wanted to run down a beach with the tide flowing over my toes, and I finally did it today.
It gets really light very early so 5AM doesn{t seem like 5AM here.
Spanish classes are going well and both of us are talking more and more with less difficulty. Our family that we{re living with talks a lot and watches tv a lot, which is great for learning Spanish.
The mom is a great cook, and I keep asking her for recipes for picadillos, but she keeps telling me that there isn{t a recipe, which is a sign of a good cook.
Debs and I are waiting for a bus to Tamarindo, a beach that{s supposed to be white sand and good for suring (not that I know how to surf) so today we{re going to study on the beach and try to not get completely scorched.
Muchos Abrazos
It gets really light very early so 5AM doesn{t seem like 5AM here.
Spanish classes are going well and both of us are talking more and more with less difficulty. Our family that we{re living with talks a lot and watches tv a lot, which is great for learning Spanish.
The mom is a great cook, and I keep asking her for recipes for picadillos, but she keeps telling me that there isn{t a recipe, which is a sign of a good cook.
Debs and I are waiting for a bus to Tamarindo, a beach that{s supposed to be white sand and good for suring (not that I know how to surf) so today we{re going to study on the beach and try to not get completely scorched.
Muchos Abrazos
Monday, August 6, 2007
August 6
Hello,
We{ve been without internet and phone for several days, exploring different parts of the country. In short, we have seen lava flowing from an active volcano, swam underneath a 70m tall waterfall, hiked through the jungle in torrential rain, and visited hot springs heated by the volcano. I also got to hold a toucan.
Our family here in Brasilito lives maybe 3minutes away from the beach by foot. They are a lot more animated than our first family. The dad used to ride bulls and his daughter and he box together. Our mom is super cute and sassy and they like to joke a lot and listen to music. So there{s always something happening. Also, here we have our own bathroom. There is no hot water here, but it{s so hot it doesn{t really matter.
My teacher here wasn{t very good, but the school was really great about changing my class tomorrow...
Right now there are several people waiting to use the computer, so I will stop here for now and we{re going to explore the beach!
They ran out of phone cards but I{ will try to call people as soon as I am able.
We{ve been without internet and phone for several days, exploring different parts of the country. In short, we have seen lava flowing from an active volcano, swam underneath a 70m tall waterfall, hiked through the jungle in torrential rain, and visited hot springs heated by the volcano. I also got to hold a toucan.
Our family here in Brasilito lives maybe 3minutes away from the beach by foot. They are a lot more animated than our first family. The dad used to ride bulls and his daughter and he box together. Our mom is super cute and sassy and they like to joke a lot and listen to music. So there{s always something happening. Also, here we have our own bathroom. There is no hot water here, but it{s so hot it doesn{t really matter.
My teacher here wasn{t very good, but the school was really great about changing my class tomorrow...
Right now there are several people waiting to use the computer, so I will stop here for now and we{re going to explore the beach!
They ran out of phone cards but I{ will try to call people as soon as I am able.
Friday, August 3, 2007
I almost forgot
Yesterday, before we left to visit the cheese factory, our hermano tico, who is barely two years old, finally let Deborah hold him. We had been trying to get him to let us hold him all week long but he wouldn´t let us. Finally, yesterday he reaches up his little chubby arms for Deborah to hold him. It was a really precious gesture.
I started to feel something wet, and I looked up to see if it was raining, but it wasn´t. Then I looked at Jonatan´s nose, and it was running a little so I said that I thought he was getting snot on us. Then we realized that he was actually peeing on Deborah. HAHAHAHAHAHA
It was sooooo hilarious. He´s still our little amigo, though. Just thought I´d share that with ya´ll.
Hasta Luego
I started to feel something wet, and I looked up to see if it was raining, but it wasn´t. Then I looked at Jonatan´s nose, and it was running a little so I said that I thought he was getting snot on us. Then we realized that he was actually peeing on Deborah. HAHAHAHAHAHA
It was sooooo hilarious. He´s still our little amigo, though. Just thought I´d share that with ya´ll.
Hasta Luego
August 3 2007
Today was our hermana tica´s birthday. We had a party with a lot her friends and family, which was a wonderful experience. We sang songs and played games with Costa Ricans )for the record, telephone is much harder in Spanish and they got a huge kick out of watching try to repeat what they said in Spanish).
They also have a wonderful tradition in which the birthday girl gets the first slice of cake, but they have to bite into the cake so that icing gets all over their face. Ana´s mother pushed her face into the cake and it was hilarious. Yorleny, our madre tica, made SO much food....ice cream, cake, candy, and some sort of rice and meat dish. Then afterwards we just sat and talked and made fun of ourselves. It was nice to just spend time with the family.
Deborah and I almost made them cry from laughter. We kept joking in Spanish about how the sugar made us happy and that we couldn´t live without sugar. I also told her that I was sad to be leaving her because our next family couldn´t possibly be as wonderful, so she told me she would give me a bag of sugar to take with me to make me happy when we left her house.
I´m a little nervous because our home at the beach is actually in a little town called Brasalito, and we have to take a 30 min. bus ride to school every morning, which I´m not looking forward to. The problem is that the school is in a resort area, but we´re living in small fishing communities.
Anyhow, I told Yorleny that if I didn´t like the bus I was going to live on the beach with the turtles who are my friends. She thought that was really funny.
I love what Costa Ricans call the ´pura vida´ which is just their whole philosophy about enjoying life in the moment. They are, from what I´ve seen, generally relaxed about everything. They work hard, but take time to enjoy themselves, too. They aren´t so preoccupied with material possessions, partly because they don´t have as much money, but also because they don´t need or want more than they have. I guess I mean that they are content with what they have. At least that is true for our family. They just talk and drink a lot of coffee.
They also have a wonderful tradition in which the birthday girl gets the first slice of cake, but they have to bite into the cake so that icing gets all over their face. Ana´s mother pushed her face into the cake and it was hilarious. Yorleny, our madre tica, made SO much food....ice cream, cake, candy, and some sort of rice and meat dish. Then afterwards we just sat and talked and made fun of ourselves. It was nice to just spend time with the family.
Deborah and I almost made them cry from laughter. We kept joking in Spanish about how the sugar made us happy and that we couldn´t live without sugar. I also told her that I was sad to be leaving her because our next family couldn´t possibly be as wonderful, so she told me she would give me a bag of sugar to take with me to make me happy when we left her house.
I´m a little nervous because our home at the beach is actually in a little town called Brasalito, and we have to take a 30 min. bus ride to school every morning, which I´m not looking forward to. The problem is that the school is in a resort area, but we´re living in small fishing communities.
Anyhow, I told Yorleny that if I didn´t like the bus I was going to live on the beach with the turtles who are my friends. She thought that was really funny.
I love what Costa Ricans call the ´pura vida´ which is just their whole philosophy about enjoying life in the moment. They are, from what I´ve seen, generally relaxed about everything. They work hard, but take time to enjoy themselves, too. They aren´t so preoccupied with material possessions, partly because they don´t have as much money, but also because they don´t need or want more than they have. I guess I mean that they are content with what they have. At least that is true for our family. They just talk and drink a lot of coffee.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
August 1
Today we walked through the cloud forest and saw the most amazing array of butterflies. Blue morphos are common, but I never get tired of seeing them because they are so beautiful. We also saw a lot of hummingbirds, and one species in particular had an electric blue head. There are so many brightly colored animals. Bright reds, neon green, orange.....
The diversity of wildlife here is amazing, and I love how the people here live right in the middle of it.
We also visited an insect museum today and saw litereally thousands of specimans of butterflies, beetles, and strange insects that looked like crosses between spiders and scorpions.
Our host mom, Yorleny, is wonderful. She loves to sew, and she makes the most beautiful embroidery. Deborah had a button fall off, and she seemed almost excited to sew it back on. She has also been very accomodating about food. I told her I like vegetables and every single night we have had all types of fruits and vegetables, several that I´ve never tried before. We´ve had mostly vegetarian dinners, which is awesome. It makes us feel less bad about eating ice cream all the time )we walk past the ice cream store every day on our way home=
I am loving the nature here. We´ve gone on a hike every single day. This is also another way we excuse our ice cream habit.
As for the Spanish school, it has been wonderful for me. All week we have been practicing irregular past tense verbs, and I finally feel comfortable switching tenses. It´s wonderful to come home after school and talk with our famila tica )costa ricans call themselves ticos=
I feel like I´ve learned more in the last 3 days than I did the entire course I took in Spain. I am very impressed with how much Deboarh understands. She´s still working on feeling comfortable talking, but she pretty much understand everything people say.
Another thing that I like about Costa Rica is that every couple of hours, they take a break to drink coffee. Costa Ricans LOVE coffee.
Tomorrow we are going to visit the nature reserve. My new mission in life is to see a quetzl.
The internet cafe doesn´t have a USB connection, so no photos today. !Qué Lástima!
Disclaimer the keyboards here are hard to use, so I apologize for the puncuation errors, especially the parentheses, which I still can´t figure out how to use. Oh well. Write us back!
The diversity of wildlife here is amazing, and I love how the people here live right in the middle of it.
We also visited an insect museum today and saw litereally thousands of specimans of butterflies, beetles, and strange insects that looked like crosses between spiders and scorpions.
Our host mom, Yorleny, is wonderful. She loves to sew, and she makes the most beautiful embroidery. Deborah had a button fall off, and she seemed almost excited to sew it back on. She has also been very accomodating about food. I told her I like vegetables and every single night we have had all types of fruits and vegetables, several that I´ve never tried before. We´ve had mostly vegetarian dinners, which is awesome. It makes us feel less bad about eating ice cream all the time )we walk past the ice cream store every day on our way home=
I am loving the nature here. We´ve gone on a hike every single day. This is also another way we excuse our ice cream habit.
As for the Spanish school, it has been wonderful for me. All week we have been practicing irregular past tense verbs, and I finally feel comfortable switching tenses. It´s wonderful to come home after school and talk with our famila tica )costa ricans call themselves ticos=
I feel like I´ve learned more in the last 3 days than I did the entire course I took in Spain. I am very impressed with how much Deboarh understands. She´s still working on feeling comfortable talking, but she pretty much understand everything people say.
Another thing that I like about Costa Rica is that every couple of hours, they take a break to drink coffee. Costa Ricans LOVE coffee.
Tomorrow we are going to visit the nature reserve. My new mission in life is to see a quetzl.
The internet cafe doesn´t have a USB connection, so no photos today. !Qué Lástima!
Disclaimer the keyboards here are hard to use, so I apologize for the puncuation errors, especially the parentheses, which I still can´t figure out how to use. Oh well. Write us back!
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
July 31
LAST NIGHT we saw a TWO TOED SLOTH, a tarantula, a wolf spider, a scorpion that glowed purple like a blacklight, bioluminescent wormy things, crazy vines that do strange things, a grey fox, porcuipines, a coati, racoons, and a ton of other things, all IN THE WILD
It was awesome.
Today we zoomed for miles in the rainforest on ziplines.
The computers are extrememly slow here....so I´ll write more later.
WE LOVE YOU ALL
oh also our classes and teachers are wonderful and we´re learning loads of spanish. And our family is amazing as well. Super nice. We don´t understand why no one is returning our emails )estamos muy tristes=
It was awesome.
Today we zoomed for miles in the rainforest on ziplines.
The computers are extrememly slow here....so I´ll write more later.
WE LOVE YOU ALL
oh also our classes and teachers are wonderful and we´re learning loads of spanish. And our family is amazing as well. Super nice. We don´t understand why no one is returning our emails )estamos muy tristes=
Monday, July 30, 2007
MONOS
I can´t believe that I forgot to say that yesterday we SAW MONKEYS just hanging out in trees while driving to our school. Just hanging out on the side of the road, like cows in Texas. They were howler monkeys. There were also little baby monkeys and they played with each other a lot. SO cute. There were several hanging from their tails, too. SO ADORABLE!
There were also leaf cutter ants here....it was a little hard to get good pictures because they were pretty high in the tree, but I will now try to post some pictures.
There were also leaf cutter ants here....it was a little hard to get good pictures because they were pretty high in the tree, but I will now try to post some pictures.
July 30th
Our family, los Arroyos, are marvelos. They have a precious 2 year old son that Deborah and I couldn´t stop playing with. There is also a daughter. The food has been excellent.... for breakfast gallo pinto, fresh pineapple, and an egg.
when we arrived, our family led us down a chalky bumpy road to our little house in the dark, and our madre tica, or costa rican mom, told us not to worry if the house seemed to shake in the night because of the wind, that it was completely normal.
We went to sleep listening to a drum circle and woke up to roosters crowing at the dawn.
Deboarah HATES insects which I find hilarious. We have amused ourselves by spraying bug spray on the walls and watching the bugs run away. Deborah has been awesome...she is embracing everything and living in the moment. She is very adaptable and I am very impressed.
We live about one block away from an ice cream store )that is the actual address, and about a 5 minute walk from the school.
Classes are great, I think we both got good teachers and we were put in the right level. We took a written an oral test this morning.
Then we had an orientation. The school gives us a snack each morning for free. Today it was a little donut, fresh pineapple, papaya, and watermelon, and of course, coffee. Costa Ricans LOVE coffee.
Our school makes it very easy to sign up for activities, and so far we are signed up for a night hike through the cloud forest tonight, rain forest zip lines tomorrow, and the free dancing classes the school gives.
We walked down an incredibly huge and steep hill to get to this internet cafe, and I am not looking forward to the climb back up it, so I hope everyone appreciates this!! haha It´s good exercise.
I love all of you, especially Jared, and will see ya´ll soon stateside. Take care, your are in my prayers.
when we arrived, our family led us down a chalky bumpy road to our little house in the dark, and our madre tica, or costa rican mom, told us not to worry if the house seemed to shake in the night because of the wind, that it was completely normal.
We went to sleep listening to a drum circle and woke up to roosters crowing at the dawn.
Deboarah HATES insects which I find hilarious. We have amused ourselves by spraying bug spray on the walls and watching the bugs run away. Deborah has been awesome...she is embracing everything and living in the moment. She is very adaptable and I am very impressed.
We live about one block away from an ice cream store )that is the actual address, and about a 5 minute walk from the school.
Classes are great, I think we both got good teachers and we were put in the right level. We took a written an oral test this morning.
Then we had an orientation. The school gives us a snack each morning for free. Today it was a little donut, fresh pineapple, papaya, and watermelon, and of course, coffee. Costa Ricans LOVE coffee.
Our school makes it very easy to sign up for activities, and so far we are signed up for a night hike through the cloud forest tonight, rain forest zip lines tomorrow, and the free dancing classes the school gives.
We walked down an incredibly huge and steep hill to get to this internet cafe, and I am not looking forward to the climb back up it, so I hope everyone appreciates this!! haha It´s good exercise.
I love all of you, especially Jared, and will see ya´ll soon stateside. Take care, your are in my prayers.
First Impressions
I´m trying to quickly type up journal entries, so please don´t look for eloquence or flair here
July 28th,
Been up since two thirty AM, couldnt´t sleep last night for excitement and nervousness
Jared and I left at three thiry to pick up debs. Got to airport about 4, went through security at 5.
7.30 and we´re still in Houston waiting for our plane to Costa Rica!
Rolling into Costa Rica the pilot veers unexpectedly to the left, comes on the intercom and says, ´Some of you are probably confused, and that´s understandable. One of the disadvantages of travelling in this part of te would is the air traffic controllers don´t know what they´re doing' we noticed another plane in our runway taking off so we decided to get out of the way
upon landing, we sit still, and the pilot comes on again and says...yeah, the aiport´s really a mess today...thgere´s a few planes in between here and our gate so we´re just going to sit tight for a bit.
Heridia is a charming town, with green everywhere and mountains, there was a gorgeous sunset and you could see twinkling lights dotted through the trees.
We met a blind traveler named Caleb who was traveling alone. He lost his sight when he was accidentally shot in the head by his younger brother when he was 19. I told him he must be very braved to travel so far alone without being able to see and he simply told me that life is too short not to do something you want to do.
There are several medical students here
In costa rica, they do not use the tu form and are offended if you use that form. I messed up pretty quickly but it is actually easier to only have to remember the usted form.
I led caleb through the town of very bumpy and uneven gravel...there were lots of holes and I was amazed at how adept he was.
500 colenes equals one dolor.
It is very difficult so far to find internet cafes or banks or phone cards.
I saw leaf cutting ants!!! Breakfast was fresh mango and pineapple, gallo pinto, and fresh coffee. Gallo pinto is delicous. I told the lady at our B/B that I thought so, and she brought me into her kitchen and showed me the recipe. It is, and I highly recommend that you try it,
Black Beans
White Rice
Mixture of chopped garlic, onion, tomato, parsley, cilantro, maybe celery
put a little oil in the pan, cook onion mixture, pour in beans and rice and mix together.
This lady also tried to talk to Deborah even though we told her that Debs didn´t know much yes, she still tried to talk to her for at least a half hour while we were waiting for the bus. Very cute and fleshy woman....
Right now I´m sitting under a mango tree and there is also a papay tree and banana tree within view. There is also a very odd species of cow. Big long ears and a camel like hump. We can also see horses from our B and B
there was a large festival going on in the town in which children were dressed in elaborate costumes with huge, cartoonish masks.
There are absolutely no street signs here. The streets literally have no names. physical address are given in references to well known landmarks, which is completely useless to me. Even on maps, streets are labelled numerically and very haphazardly.
I met the most amazing girl, my age, named michelle. She´s from Manchester and has been travelling for four months. She volunteered in an orphanage in Bolivia for children with cleft palletes and also in a jungle in Peru. She is staying for at least another 3 months, more if she can find work. Right now it is winter in Bolivia and is frequently 40 below.
She was traveling with a friend, and they went ice climbing, river rafting, body rafting, parasailing, multi week trekking, and then her friend slipped while walking in a village in a crevice and fell 30 feet. She broke her spine in six places, her hip in two, both of her arms, and her foot. Michelle looked down and thought her friend was dead, and she was unconcious and unresponsive. She waited for an ambulance for an hour and a half and they did not have proper neck braces, and travelled for two hours on an unpaved road to the nearest hospital with Michelle holding her friend´s leg and the paramedic holding down her shoulders so she wouldn´t be paralyzed. They had to operate in Bolivia and she was tied to a board for a week and had to stay in the hospital for three weeks before she could be flown back to London. Amazingly, she is not paralyzed. It just shows you how anything can happen anywhere, when you least expect it. They had done so many dangerous things and then got hurt while just walking.
July 28th,
Been up since two thirty AM, couldnt´t sleep last night for excitement and nervousness
Jared and I left at three thiry to pick up debs. Got to airport about 4, went through security at 5.
7.30 and we´re still in Houston waiting for our plane to Costa Rica!
Rolling into Costa Rica the pilot veers unexpectedly to the left, comes on the intercom and says, ´Some of you are probably confused, and that´s understandable. One of the disadvantages of travelling in this part of te would is the air traffic controllers don´t know what they´re doing' we noticed another plane in our runway taking off so we decided to get out of the way
upon landing, we sit still, and the pilot comes on again and says...yeah, the aiport´s really a mess today...thgere´s a few planes in between here and our gate so we´re just going to sit tight for a bit.
Heridia is a charming town, with green everywhere and mountains, there was a gorgeous sunset and you could see twinkling lights dotted through the trees.
We met a blind traveler named Caleb who was traveling alone. He lost his sight when he was accidentally shot in the head by his younger brother when he was 19. I told him he must be very braved to travel so far alone without being able to see and he simply told me that life is too short not to do something you want to do.
There are several medical students here
In costa rica, they do not use the tu form and are offended if you use that form. I messed up pretty quickly but it is actually easier to only have to remember the usted form.
I led caleb through the town of very bumpy and uneven gravel...there were lots of holes and I was amazed at how adept he was.
500 colenes equals one dolor.
It is very difficult so far to find internet cafes or banks or phone cards.
I saw leaf cutting ants!!! Breakfast was fresh mango and pineapple, gallo pinto, and fresh coffee. Gallo pinto is delicous. I told the lady at our B/B that I thought so, and she brought me into her kitchen and showed me the recipe. It is, and I highly recommend that you try it,
Black Beans
White Rice
Mixture of chopped garlic, onion, tomato, parsley, cilantro, maybe celery
put a little oil in the pan, cook onion mixture, pour in beans and rice and mix together.
This lady also tried to talk to Deborah even though we told her that Debs didn´t know much yes, she still tried to talk to her for at least a half hour while we were waiting for the bus. Very cute and fleshy woman....
Right now I´m sitting under a mango tree and there is also a papay tree and banana tree within view. There is also a very odd species of cow. Big long ears and a camel like hump. We can also see horses from our B and B
there was a large festival going on in the town in which children were dressed in elaborate costumes with huge, cartoonish masks.
There are absolutely no street signs here. The streets literally have no names. physical address are given in references to well known landmarks, which is completely useless to me. Even on maps, streets are labelled numerically and very haphazardly.
I met the most amazing girl, my age, named michelle. She´s from Manchester and has been travelling for four months. She volunteered in an orphanage in Bolivia for children with cleft palletes and also in a jungle in Peru. She is staying for at least another 3 months, more if she can find work. Right now it is winter in Bolivia and is frequently 40 below.
She was traveling with a friend, and they went ice climbing, river rafting, body rafting, parasailing, multi week trekking, and then her friend slipped while walking in a village in a crevice and fell 30 feet. She broke her spine in six places, her hip in two, both of her arms, and her foot. Michelle looked down and thought her friend was dead, and she was unconcious and unresponsive. She waited for an ambulance for an hour and a half and they did not have proper neck braces, and travelled for two hours on an unpaved road to the nearest hospital with Michelle holding her friend´s leg and the paramedic holding down her shoulders so she wouldn´t be paralyzed. They had to operate in Bolivia and she was tied to a board for a week and had to stay in the hospital for three weeks before she could be flown back to London. Amazingly, she is not paralyzed. It just shows you how anything can happen anywhere, when you least expect it. They had done so many dangerous things and then got hurt while just walking.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Eve of Departure...
AGH!
I'm less than 8 hrs away from leaving for Costa Rica....on what is seemingly my endless quest to become fluent in Spanish.
This is my first trip out of the country with my youngest sister, and so I'm excited about getting to know her better and share in an adventure with her.
First we are staying in a cloud forest in Monteverde with a host family. The father is a construction worker and the mother is a housewife. In Spanish housewives are called alma de casa, which translates to 'soul of the home,' which I think is much nicer. They have two daughters, ten and two years old.
I had read in the guidebook that Costa Rica has a pretty unreliable mail system, a problem which the author of the guidebook claimed was exacerbated by the lack of street addresses throughout the country. I thought maybe he was exaggerating until I received the "address" of our home which we will be staying in, which is: 100 meters north of the ice cream shop.
So I guess he wasn't exaggerating. I personally think it is awesome that my address is 100 meters north of the ice cream shop, which incidentally also serves coffee as well.
It is my mission to see a monkey while in Costa Rica (hence the web address, although it isn't really a jungle, but rainforest was taken, so). That, and several birds to add to my life list. And to learn Spanish (of course).
AH! So excited/nervous.....
Peace.
I'm less than 8 hrs away from leaving for Costa Rica....on what is seemingly my endless quest to become fluent in Spanish.
This is my first trip out of the country with my youngest sister, and so I'm excited about getting to know her better and share in an adventure with her.
First we are staying in a cloud forest in Monteverde with a host family. The father is a construction worker and the mother is a housewife. In Spanish housewives are called alma de casa, which translates to 'soul of the home,' which I think is much nicer. They have two daughters, ten and two years old.
I had read in the guidebook that Costa Rica has a pretty unreliable mail system, a problem which the author of the guidebook claimed was exacerbated by the lack of street addresses throughout the country. I thought maybe he was exaggerating until I received the "address" of our home which we will be staying in, which is: 100 meters north of the ice cream shop.
So I guess he wasn't exaggerating. I personally think it is awesome that my address is 100 meters north of the ice cream shop, which incidentally also serves coffee as well.
It is my mission to see a monkey while in Costa Rica (hence the web address, although it isn't really a jungle, but rainforest was taken, so). That, and several birds to add to my life list. And to learn Spanish (of course).
AH! So excited/nervous.....
Peace.
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