Well, it´s not exactly ¨home,¨ but it feels somewhat like that just being in Costa Rica. My morning yesterday began at 4:30 when I awoke to cram the last few things in my backpack. Yes, I made it all fit, and it weighed in at about 39 pounds at the airport. Once again I was questioned about my lack of flight leaving Costa Rica, but I assured them I would be taking a bus in March to visit a friend in Panama--only a half-lie as I will indeed go to Panama, just not to visit a friend. My first flight landed me in Panama City and was immediately greeted with a Dunkin Donuts, which I happily purchased and slurped down. My second flight landed me in San Jose where I was happy to have my yellow fever vaccine and promptly caught a taxi. Oh, and immigration once again didn´t care that I didn´t have an exit flight. I had originally inquired about the buses to Montezuma and Santa Cruz, but the taxi driver shared with me it would be faster to go to Puntarenas and catch the ferry. Alrighty then.
The bus to Puntarenas was boarding when I arrived and I snagged one of the last few seats for the 2.5 hour ride. Once in Puntarenas I inquired about the ferry and I thought I heard it was 200 meters, so I set out walking. 200 meters later I asked again and heard 2 kilometers. Yep, that warranted a taxi. I grabbed a lunch to go and hopped in line for the ferry, and that´s when I had my moment of what was I thinking because it felt like the sun was searing my skin and I hadn´t worn sunscreen. But the feeling subsided when I thought about how cold the nights were in Ecuador. The ferry was an easy 1.5 hour ride and immediately upon embarking I hopped in a bus for Montezuma.
By bus I mean school bus with a creaky back door that seemed like it might fall open at any time and brakes that had to have been worn out two years ago. It was a 1.5 hour ride and we arrived at nightfall. I had tried to ignore discussions on the bus of sold out hostels and hotels, knowing full well that there are plenty of places to stay NOT in the Lonely Planet guidebook. Nonetheless, I was one of the first out of the bus and set about finding a room. I was successful on my second try and didn´t even bother saying I wanted to look at other places first. Which leaves me with a room without a fan or A-C. A-C I didn´t expect, a fan I did, considering it doesn´t cool down much at night. I do, however, have windows, which while providing a bit of ventilation, also provide lots of noise from the steps that are adjacent to them and lead to the upstairs rooms. Oh, well. It may only be for a few days.
I spent most of the day on the beach soaking up sun, reading, and eating in a beachside restaurant for lunch, oh, and missing my beach buddies from the summer--Jen, Jessica, Julie, and Em. Just the kind of lazy day I needed after a 13-hour commute yesterday. I also booked a diving tour for tomorrow. I had slightly more money in the bank account than I thought, so I decided I should treat myself. It was also interesting because I booked with a company that actually runs a volunteer program as well. I want to find out more about volunteering to teach English because that could give me something to do if I choose to stay here for a couple of weeks. And it was interesting because the co-owner, a Tico, actually asked the other co-owner, a US girl, if I was a Tica. Apparently my Spanish had convinced him I was a local girl. I think my dark tanned skin helped lend credence to that thought.
I haven´t decided yet when I will leave here. I´ve thought maybe Tuesday. I´ve thought maybe Wednesday. Unless I volunteer in which case I could stay here til the 8th. If I choose to leave, though, I´ll probably head to Dominical for its famous beach and then maybe back to Manuel Antonio for its beach. What better way to start the new year.
But the strangest part of my day happened just a few minutes ago. As I was opening up a new Internet window to start this blog, I heard a voice speaking with a German accent that I thought I recognized. I turned to my left, and two chairs down was Leoni, a volunteer I know from Silencio. She was as shocked as I was, and we turned a few heads when we exclaimed OMG and stood up to hug. She and her friend are only here for one more day, but nonetheless, I don´t have to eat alone tonight.
Yep, there´s no place like home . . .
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Friday, December 25, 2009
Craziness
Much craziness since the last post, which I just realized was 10 days ago. First, after getting an iffy response from the project here in Ecuador about whether or not they would have space for me, I decided to find out if I could change my flight. Turns out there´s no penalty and the flight didn´t cost anymore to fly tomorrow, so I decided I would rather return to Costa Rica where I can count on warm weather 24 hours a day rather than just 6 or 7. I leave in the morning on a 7 a.m. flight. Still waiting on a response from the turtle project in Costa Rica to see if I can go there. If not, I´m going to hang out on the beach in Montezuma for about 12 days. Not a bad way to pass the new year.
Wendy arrived in Quito Thursday night, the 17th, with many gifts in hand. My family surprised me with a Christmas card that they had all signed. Considering they live in four different towns and three different states, this was a remarkable feat for them that took some definite planning. And my grandmother was insistent that Wendy bring me some chocolate and peanut butter fudge because she knows it´s my favorite. Emily sent me more CDs than I had even asked her for, and I can´t wait to listen to them, and she sent me two packages of the blessed Tim Tams (one of which we consumed with Viviana and her family, doing the Tim Tam Slam!). I´m sending up a thank you right now to Pepperidge Farms for deciding to manufacture them again, and to Em for knowing that I´d want them. And then Wendy brought me my favorite toothpaste I had asked for as well as the lotion I wanted.
We hit the ground running on the morning of the 18th with a 2-hour taxi ride to Otavalo. We checked in with Viviana and my school and then headed for lunch followed by a trip to El Parque de Cóndors where they have different types of birds. There is a trail leading from the park to the Peguche waterfall where I had been the week before, so we had decided to do that. I asked Viviana and her sister if it was easy to find and they said yes; what they didn´t tell me is that the trail itself wasn´t easy--quite steep actually, nor that at times we might be completely and utterly confused about which trail to follow. Since there are lots of locals that live in and around there, there are lots of little worn paths that may or may not be the trail to the waterfall, and this isn´t a national park with abundant signage. In fact, there was no signage. We crept down the dusty, slippery trail and finally arrived a little after 5, at the same time the rain chose to arrive. A few quick pics and then we headed back the good trail and promptly became drenched. We had no luck trying to call a taxi when we reached the trail head, but only had to wait a few more minutes for a bus. Otavalo, of course, was completely dry, and when we walked into the kitchen, Viviana asked if we had swam in the waterfall. It sort of looked that way, but it had been much too cold for that.
Saturday dawned cold and rainy; in fact, our clothes were wetter that morning than when we had taken them off the day before. We passed time eating, using the Internet cafe, and occasionally walking around town in the market, though it was a sad, sad market day with the rain. Lots of vendors were absent.
Sunday´s weather was much improved and we headed up to Lake Cuicoche, where I had been the week before. We did the boat trip, and I´m glad it only cost $2.50 because it was worth even less than that. It´s one of those tourist traps that I usually try to avoid, and I can´t say that the chilly ride was worth it, especially given that the commentary was in Spanish. I understood only some of it.
That afternoon we quickly hailed a bus back to Quito in the street. It barely even stopped long enough for us to board. I threw my small backpack in the overhead compartment, thinking at the time it was a bad idea because my memory is crap, but without much choice since I already had another small backpack in my lap. Of course, when we arrived in Quito, I promptly disembarked and hopped in a cab. Only when we arrived at the hostel 45 minutes later and I looked for my bag did I realize where it was--in the overhead compartment on the bus. A few minutes later we were headed back to the terminal. The guys there were really nice and tried to be helpful, but given that we had hailed the bus in the street, we didn´t have tickets, so I knew neither the bus number nor the bus company, making it impossible to determine which bus had my bag. I was informed that since I was the last one off the bus, likely the ticket taker on the bus had taken it as there is ¨mucho corrupcion.¨ I don´t think you need a Spanish dictionary to translate that phrase!
Monday morning I hopped up bright and early because I wanted to elicit Franklin´s help with calling the two bus companies I thought might possibly have my bag. He didn´t answer his phone, and trying to find phone numbers for the companies proved equally impossible. I made the decision then to accept what I had lost and begin to replace what I could. Of course, every few hours I would realize something else I had forgotten was in the bag. In fact, just this morning, I realized I had lost a pair of shorts I didn´t know I had lost. I feel like two months from now I´ll still be thinking of things I had crammed in that bag. Here´s the tally on what I lost and what I´ve replaced (as far as my brain can remember at this very moment):
Of course, I´ll never get back the hours upon hours that I spent shopping for these things in Quito. Fortunately Monday night, Franklin was a big help (since all I had managed to replace at that point was soap, saline solution and a razor--the shampoo I bought was actually conditioner!). He´s not one of those guys who doesn´t like asking for help. You need tampons? Oh, let me ask the saleslady what aisle those are in!
Monday, I took a break from shopping for Wendy and I to visit the equator. I knew that there was both a real one and a fake one, the fake one being much more publicized. What I didn´t realize was that that fake one is literally a waste of $2. You can´t even go up in the monument as that´s another $3. After a brief, very brief stay there, we walked to the real one. We received a tour in English that included information about the indigenous tribes, the Amazon jungle, and then experiments on the equator. We learned that on the two equinoxes for three minutes at noon, a person has absolutely no shadow. And we watched as she drained water from a sink on the equator (no whirlpool--it drains absolutely straight down), and in both hemispheres where it circles in opposite directions. I tried to balance an egg on the head of nail, which is supposedly much easier to do on the equator, but I was unsuccessful and didn´t earn a certificate. Then again, nobody else in my group did either! Bunch of slackers!
Tuesday morning Wendy and I headed to Baños for two nights, taking a 40-minute cab ride and then a 3-hour bus. I´ve almost become immune to the scenery as I had no problem closing my eyes and trying to sleep the whole way. Once in Baños I realized my tennis shoes were among the items I had purposefully left in Quito to save weight in my backpack, but that that left me with only flip flops, not exactly ideal footwear for any of the activities we might want to undertake. So I had to do more shopping. No, ladies, this was not fun shopping. I finally found a pair of flats for $14 with rubber bottoms that I would be able to wear again and that would suffice.
With that task accomplished, we set out to book activities. We decided that night would be a trip to the hot springs, Wed morning would be horseback riding, Wed afternoon would be massages, Wed night would be a trip to the volcano, and Thurs morning would be the waterfall route in a go kart.
The hot springs left a little to be desired as it felt somewhat like a Turkish bath (as if I´ve ever been to one of those). There was just something a little creepy about murky water at night with lots of people I don´t know. We stayed about an hour until we were sweating and headed back to the really nice hostel for $9.50 a night. (They don´t know what hostels are in this country as many of them have private rooms and even private baths.)
The horseback riding Wed morning was fun, although we were both glad it ended early since our legs had had enough. We walked, we trotted, and we even galloped at times, and I talked as much as I could with our guide in Spanish who was wonderful. The scenery was gorgeous, and at one point we got to see the ruins of a house that had been destroyed by the volcano just three years ago. I hadn´t realized the volcano was still active. He did tell us, however, not to bother with the tour that night as the clouds would obscure the view, making it a waste of time. Fine by me, I already had blisters on my heels from the wonderful new pair of flats I had purchased.
Our afternoon massage was warranted after that horseback ride and only set us back $20 each. A small price to pay for an hour´s worth of luxury. That night we had planned to sit up on the rooftop terrace, but I found I was just as content relaxed in my bed with a book, and we opted to stay in instead.
Thursday morning we hopped into a go kart for a tour of the waterfalls, map in hand. We should´ve seen six waterfalls. We managed to see two on the way there, and one on the way back. We´re not sure where they´re hiding the other three. It was quite interesting that we shared the road with regular traffic, despite the fact that we couldn´t have been going more than 30 mph, including heading through mountain tunnels. At one point we stopped to take a cable car across the canyon and back, a quick little trip but well worth the time and the $1 for the views and photos. Not to mention the little flutter in the heart it will give my mom when she sees the photos! (Love you, Mom!)
We arrived back in Quito at the bus station, which is about a 45-minute cab ride from town, and tried to contact our cab driver, who told me he was stuck in traffic. A second phone call to him elicited an I´m sorry, please hire someone else because I can´t get there. Our ride back was eventful to say the least. Traffic on Christmas Eve here was crazy and in intersections where there are no stoplights, it´s literally a free for all. You simply creep into the intersection and worm your way through. At one point, traffic was stuck because of the angles of the cars (we´re talking four lanes of traffic in both directions), and the guy we were blocking wasn´t happy, making our cab driver exit the vehicle and approach his to yell in Spanish something like, What the hell am I supposed to do? I really wanted a birds eye photo of that intersection because I haven´t seen anything like it in my life. At another point we were riding in the part of the street designated for the trolley in order to pass a line of cars; you know you might need to be a little worried when your cab driver buckles his seatbelt. But we were thankful to have an aggressive driver or we would´ve been even later in arriving back to the hostel.
This morning we headed to old Quito to see the historic buildings. We were not prepared for the Christmas traffic. Apparently people here don´t stay home on Christmas morning as they´re all out shopping. After my jackpot at the used clothing store, which was probably the third store we entered, it was a lot of walking around, looking at things and not buying, and trying to avoid being knocked off the sidewalk. We finally extricated ourselves after a little over two hours.
Tonight we´ll have dinner one last time with my friend Franklin and then I´ll see how much stuff I can cram into the remaining space in the backpack. I think most of it will go, and what won´t will go into a plastic sack for me to have as a carry on. What can I say, I travel in style!
Costa Rica, here I come!
Wendy arrived in Quito Thursday night, the 17th, with many gifts in hand. My family surprised me with a Christmas card that they had all signed. Considering they live in four different towns and three different states, this was a remarkable feat for them that took some definite planning. And my grandmother was insistent that Wendy bring me some chocolate and peanut butter fudge because she knows it´s my favorite. Emily sent me more CDs than I had even asked her for, and I can´t wait to listen to them, and she sent me two packages of the blessed Tim Tams (one of which we consumed with Viviana and her family, doing the Tim Tam Slam!). I´m sending up a thank you right now to Pepperidge Farms for deciding to manufacture them again, and to Em for knowing that I´d want them. And then Wendy brought me my favorite toothpaste I had asked for as well as the lotion I wanted.
We hit the ground running on the morning of the 18th with a 2-hour taxi ride to Otavalo. We checked in with Viviana and my school and then headed for lunch followed by a trip to El Parque de Cóndors where they have different types of birds. There is a trail leading from the park to the Peguche waterfall where I had been the week before, so we had decided to do that. I asked Viviana and her sister if it was easy to find and they said yes; what they didn´t tell me is that the trail itself wasn´t easy--quite steep actually, nor that at times we might be completely and utterly confused about which trail to follow. Since there are lots of locals that live in and around there, there are lots of little worn paths that may or may not be the trail to the waterfall, and this isn´t a national park with abundant signage. In fact, there was no signage. We crept down the dusty, slippery trail and finally arrived a little after 5, at the same time the rain chose to arrive. A few quick pics and then we headed back the good trail and promptly became drenched. We had no luck trying to call a taxi when we reached the trail head, but only had to wait a few more minutes for a bus. Otavalo, of course, was completely dry, and when we walked into the kitchen, Viviana asked if we had swam in the waterfall. It sort of looked that way, but it had been much too cold for that.
Saturday dawned cold and rainy; in fact, our clothes were wetter that morning than when we had taken them off the day before. We passed time eating, using the Internet cafe, and occasionally walking around town in the market, though it was a sad, sad market day with the rain. Lots of vendors were absent.
Sunday´s weather was much improved and we headed up to Lake Cuicoche, where I had been the week before. We did the boat trip, and I´m glad it only cost $2.50 because it was worth even less than that. It´s one of those tourist traps that I usually try to avoid, and I can´t say that the chilly ride was worth it, especially given that the commentary was in Spanish. I understood only some of it.
That afternoon we quickly hailed a bus back to Quito in the street. It barely even stopped long enough for us to board. I threw my small backpack in the overhead compartment, thinking at the time it was a bad idea because my memory is crap, but without much choice since I already had another small backpack in my lap. Of course, when we arrived in Quito, I promptly disembarked and hopped in a cab. Only when we arrived at the hostel 45 minutes later and I looked for my bag did I realize where it was--in the overhead compartment on the bus. A few minutes later we were headed back to the terminal. The guys there were really nice and tried to be helpful, but given that we had hailed the bus in the street, we didn´t have tickets, so I knew neither the bus number nor the bus company, making it impossible to determine which bus had my bag. I was informed that since I was the last one off the bus, likely the ticket taker on the bus had taken it as there is ¨mucho corrupcion.¨ I don´t think you need a Spanish dictionary to translate that phrase!
Monday morning I hopped up bright and early because I wanted to elicit Franklin´s help with calling the two bus companies I thought might possibly have my bag. He didn´t answer his phone, and trying to find phone numbers for the companies proved equally impossible. I made the decision then to accept what I had lost and begin to replace what I could. Of course, every few hours I would realize something else I had forgotten was in the bag. In fact, just this morning, I realized I had lost a pair of shorts I didn´t know I had lost. I feel like two months from now I´ll still be thinking of things I had crammed in that bag. Here´s the tally on what I lost and what I´ve replaced (as far as my brain can remember at this very moment):
- charger for Zune and electronic book (ordered replacements, will have soon)
- camera battery charger and USB cable (ordered replacements, will have soon)
- dental retainers (my dentist had replacements already, and I´ll have these soon)
- glasses (won´t replace, too expensive)
- 3 pairs of disposable contact lenses (fortunately I have three more pair and if I don´t lose any, I can make these last until June)
- toiletries (replaced)
- two tank tops (replaced)
- two pairs of shorts (replaced at used clothing store today)
- camping towel and washcloth (replaced)
- flashlight (replaced)
- underwear (replaced)
- pair of camping pants (replaced with a skirt at a used clothing store today)
- $100--I think (Terri graciously donated $100, so I guess this has been replaced)
- backpack itself (not replacing; stuff just has to fit in less space)
- jump drive (not replacing; fortunately most everything important I had emailed to myself anyway)
- Keen sandals (not replacing as the cost to replace here is $117; I have a pair of Tevas at my family´s house in Costa Rica)
Of course, I´ll never get back the hours upon hours that I spent shopping for these things in Quito. Fortunately Monday night, Franklin was a big help (since all I had managed to replace at that point was soap, saline solution and a razor--the shampoo I bought was actually conditioner!). He´s not one of those guys who doesn´t like asking for help. You need tampons? Oh, let me ask the saleslady what aisle those are in!
Monday, I took a break from shopping for Wendy and I to visit the equator. I knew that there was both a real one and a fake one, the fake one being much more publicized. What I didn´t realize was that that fake one is literally a waste of $2. You can´t even go up in the monument as that´s another $3. After a brief, very brief stay there, we walked to the real one. We received a tour in English that included information about the indigenous tribes, the Amazon jungle, and then experiments on the equator. We learned that on the two equinoxes for three minutes at noon, a person has absolutely no shadow. And we watched as she drained water from a sink on the equator (no whirlpool--it drains absolutely straight down), and in both hemispheres where it circles in opposite directions. I tried to balance an egg on the head of nail, which is supposedly much easier to do on the equator, but I was unsuccessful and didn´t earn a certificate. Then again, nobody else in my group did either! Bunch of slackers!
Tuesday morning Wendy and I headed to Baños for two nights, taking a 40-minute cab ride and then a 3-hour bus. I´ve almost become immune to the scenery as I had no problem closing my eyes and trying to sleep the whole way. Once in Baños I realized my tennis shoes were among the items I had purposefully left in Quito to save weight in my backpack, but that that left me with only flip flops, not exactly ideal footwear for any of the activities we might want to undertake. So I had to do more shopping. No, ladies, this was not fun shopping. I finally found a pair of flats for $14 with rubber bottoms that I would be able to wear again and that would suffice.
With that task accomplished, we set out to book activities. We decided that night would be a trip to the hot springs, Wed morning would be horseback riding, Wed afternoon would be massages, Wed night would be a trip to the volcano, and Thurs morning would be the waterfall route in a go kart.
The hot springs left a little to be desired as it felt somewhat like a Turkish bath (as if I´ve ever been to one of those). There was just something a little creepy about murky water at night with lots of people I don´t know. We stayed about an hour until we were sweating and headed back to the really nice hostel for $9.50 a night. (They don´t know what hostels are in this country as many of them have private rooms and even private baths.)
The horseback riding Wed morning was fun, although we were both glad it ended early since our legs had had enough. We walked, we trotted, and we even galloped at times, and I talked as much as I could with our guide in Spanish who was wonderful. The scenery was gorgeous, and at one point we got to see the ruins of a house that had been destroyed by the volcano just three years ago. I hadn´t realized the volcano was still active. He did tell us, however, not to bother with the tour that night as the clouds would obscure the view, making it a waste of time. Fine by me, I already had blisters on my heels from the wonderful new pair of flats I had purchased.
Our afternoon massage was warranted after that horseback ride and only set us back $20 each. A small price to pay for an hour´s worth of luxury. That night we had planned to sit up on the rooftop terrace, but I found I was just as content relaxed in my bed with a book, and we opted to stay in instead.
Thursday morning we hopped into a go kart for a tour of the waterfalls, map in hand. We should´ve seen six waterfalls. We managed to see two on the way there, and one on the way back. We´re not sure where they´re hiding the other three. It was quite interesting that we shared the road with regular traffic, despite the fact that we couldn´t have been going more than 30 mph, including heading through mountain tunnels. At one point we stopped to take a cable car across the canyon and back, a quick little trip but well worth the time and the $1 for the views and photos. Not to mention the little flutter in the heart it will give my mom when she sees the photos! (Love you, Mom!)
We arrived back in Quito at the bus station, which is about a 45-minute cab ride from town, and tried to contact our cab driver, who told me he was stuck in traffic. A second phone call to him elicited an I´m sorry, please hire someone else because I can´t get there. Our ride back was eventful to say the least. Traffic on Christmas Eve here was crazy and in intersections where there are no stoplights, it´s literally a free for all. You simply creep into the intersection and worm your way through. At one point, traffic was stuck because of the angles of the cars (we´re talking four lanes of traffic in both directions), and the guy we were blocking wasn´t happy, making our cab driver exit the vehicle and approach his to yell in Spanish something like, What the hell am I supposed to do? I really wanted a birds eye photo of that intersection because I haven´t seen anything like it in my life. At another point we were riding in the part of the street designated for the trolley in order to pass a line of cars; you know you might need to be a little worried when your cab driver buckles his seatbelt. But we were thankful to have an aggressive driver or we would´ve been even later in arriving back to the hostel.
This morning we headed to old Quito to see the historic buildings. We were not prepared for the Christmas traffic. Apparently people here don´t stay home on Christmas morning as they´re all out shopping. After my jackpot at the used clothing store, which was probably the third store we entered, it was a lot of walking around, looking at things and not buying, and trying to avoid being knocked off the sidewalk. We finally extricated ourselves after a little over two hours.
Tonight we´ll have dinner one last time with my friend Franklin and then I´ll see how much stuff I can cram into the remaining space in the backpack. I think most of it will go, and what won´t will go into a plastic sack for me to have as a carry on. What can I say, I travel in style!
Costa Rica, here I come!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Passing the Days in Relaxation Mode
My days in Otavalo are past (well, sort of). One day, Viviana and Romina accompanied Suse and me (or maybe it was the other way around) to Lake Cuicocha. It´s a beautiful place, and if I´d had the time, I would´ve love to have walked the circumference of the lake despite the fact that it´s a very difficult 4-5 hour trek. Instead, we spent about an hour there and then went to Cotocachi where we had a wonderful Ecuadorian lunch. You can purchase an ¨almuerzo¨ for $4.50, which includes four courses. The first course was some cheese, salad, and beans that looked similar to lima beans but tasted better. As we were eating the second course, a soup, Suse scooped up something on her spoon and asked what it was. Viviana replied that it was pig skin (not a euphemism for a football!). I promptly removed it from my bowl onto the saucer and tried not to think about it as I ate the rest. A few minutes later, the topic arose again and Suse informed us that she had thought Viviana was joking and had actually taken a bite of it. When I asked her what it tasted like, she simply replied she´d rather not talk about it. The third course was meat with rice, vegetables, and salad. Our fourth course was strawberries and cream. Needless to say, we left stuffed to the gills.
Saturday we passed a pleasant evening watching a movie. I had purchased Slumdog Millionaire because Viviana hadn´t seen it, but we lacked the DVD remote control to change the language to Spanish. She said, I´m going to try to understand, but I knew that it would be futile. We ended up watching The Time Traveler´s Wife instead. I´m hoping to set the language on Slumdog to Spanish using a computer so that we can watch it this weekend. I have purchased quite a few movies since I´ve been here as they´re quite cheap and the quality not much lower than you would find with a new disc. For example, I purchased 3 DVDs (one of which contained all 6 Harry Potter movies) for less than $4. And I like being able to watch them in English with the Spanish subtitles (at times just so I can laugh at the sometimes poor translation).
Sunday, Suse and I took a taxi back to Quito. As has been the custom for her in the two weeks that she has been in Ecuador (the absolute first two weeks of her trip), she has had bad luck (one of them being she ended up with gray hair after she miscommunicated with the hairstylist about the color she wanted). The bad luck continued. We were stopped at a roadblock by the police and of course whose bag did they want to open? Hers! I told her I definitely don´t want to stand next to her in a storm because she´ll likely be struck by lightning, but she informed me that next to her would probably be the safest place to stand!
I don´t have a lot to do this week. I needed to print a photo of Romina and purchase a frame so that I can give them a gift Friday. That has been accomplished. I wanted to purchase a book in Spanish. That has been accomplished, and I am now almost 50 pages into Twilight in Spanish, at a rapid clip of 7 minutes per page. The good news is that my new dictionary (the other was falling apart already) is much better even if it still doesn´t have all the words. I could actually read a little faster than I am. At times I understand the meaning of a sentence but will sometimes look up a word for an exact definition. How long I´ll keep up that anal retentiveness remains to be seen.
I haven´t talked to too many people here in Quito, particularly in Spanish, but this morning and afternoon I had occasion to. I stopped in a panaderia (bread shop) to buy a coffee (which by the way sucks here) and a doughnut. As is custom for me, I needed sugar, but when I turned the sugar over to pour into the cup, I discovered quickly that the top was off. The hole of my doughnut was now filled with sugar as was my right flip flop. A local guy quickly informed me that I would have a good day because of this. Spent a couple hours on a blanket in the park and then ate an Ecuadorian lunch. On my return to the hostel, I felt a tap on the shoulder and then the guy from the morning, who I learned is Franklin, popped in front of me asking how my day was. We began to talk and then his friend arrived as well. Franklin works only a few blocks from the hostel and we agreed to have lunch tomorrow. It was a welcome invitation since I have nothing else to do while I wait for Wendy to arrive. When I arrived at the hostel, I had several wonderful emails, some of which I had been waiting for. So maybe Franklin was right--the sugar gave me a good day. Or maybe it´s just that I´m so sweet anyway!
I do actually have a to do list for this week. Today I managed to book my flight back to Costa Rica for the hefty sum of $591, which I booked on a Spanish website as opposed to Expedia who wanted $17 more. As you may know, I had hoped to catch a ride with a friend on a boat out of Columbia, but he already has two more passengers for that voyage than he can comfortably accomodate. He knows others who are making the journey with boats but at a cost of $350, it isn´t worth it since I´d have to spend an additional $100-150 and two days´ travel. I bit the bullet and booked the flight.
But it feels good to have a firm plan again. Those of you who know me know that I function better in life when there is some semblance of a plan for the future. I now know that at 7 p.m. on January 8, 2010 I´ll be back on Costa Rican soil and as soon as I clear customs and immigration, I´ll be back in the arms of someone familiar as he has promised to pick me up at the airport. Only 24 days. I´m hoping to pass a weekend vacation with him before we head back to Silencio, perhaps take him to the hot springs in La Fortuna. There is something comforting in returning to places I know, then again maybe we´ll go somewhere new.
Friday, Wendy and I will make the 2-hour taxi ride to Otavalo where we´ll stay with Viviana and Romina. I´m excited to return there (that whole comforting feeling again). It was a whole lot easier to leave last Sunday knowing that I would be returning shortly. It will be sad to leave their home this Sunday with the knowledge that I might never see them again. That´s the big downside to traveling.
As for this week, I´m spending a lot of time reading or watching movies, and I´m trying to cross some things off my to do list. Don´t worry, there´s nothing stress-inducing on my list, unless of course you consider watching a video of my former student give a speech in front of thousands stress-inducing.
I´m grateful to have no holiday stress-inducers on my list--no holiday cards to write, no shopping to do, no decorations to hang or tree to trim, no mandatory parties to attend, no worrying about whether to buy someone something or not, no cookies to make (truth be told, I gave some of these things up years ago!).
And with that said, I hereby publicly announce my aversion to the Christmas season with all its excesses and promise to have a drink on Christmas to toast my non-celebration of this completely overdone and wasteful holiday.
Saturday we passed a pleasant evening watching a movie. I had purchased Slumdog Millionaire because Viviana hadn´t seen it, but we lacked the DVD remote control to change the language to Spanish. She said, I´m going to try to understand, but I knew that it would be futile. We ended up watching The Time Traveler´s Wife instead. I´m hoping to set the language on Slumdog to Spanish using a computer so that we can watch it this weekend. I have purchased quite a few movies since I´ve been here as they´re quite cheap and the quality not much lower than you would find with a new disc. For example, I purchased 3 DVDs (one of which contained all 6 Harry Potter movies) for less than $4. And I like being able to watch them in English with the Spanish subtitles (at times just so I can laugh at the sometimes poor translation).
Sunday, Suse and I took a taxi back to Quito. As has been the custom for her in the two weeks that she has been in Ecuador (the absolute first two weeks of her trip), she has had bad luck (one of them being she ended up with gray hair after she miscommunicated with the hairstylist about the color she wanted). The bad luck continued. We were stopped at a roadblock by the police and of course whose bag did they want to open? Hers! I told her I definitely don´t want to stand next to her in a storm because she´ll likely be struck by lightning, but she informed me that next to her would probably be the safest place to stand!
I don´t have a lot to do this week. I needed to print a photo of Romina and purchase a frame so that I can give them a gift Friday. That has been accomplished. I wanted to purchase a book in Spanish. That has been accomplished, and I am now almost 50 pages into Twilight in Spanish, at a rapid clip of 7 minutes per page. The good news is that my new dictionary (the other was falling apart already) is much better even if it still doesn´t have all the words. I could actually read a little faster than I am. At times I understand the meaning of a sentence but will sometimes look up a word for an exact definition. How long I´ll keep up that anal retentiveness remains to be seen.
I haven´t talked to too many people here in Quito, particularly in Spanish, but this morning and afternoon I had occasion to. I stopped in a panaderia (bread shop) to buy a coffee (which by the way sucks here) and a doughnut. As is custom for me, I needed sugar, but when I turned the sugar over to pour into the cup, I discovered quickly that the top was off. The hole of my doughnut was now filled with sugar as was my right flip flop. A local guy quickly informed me that I would have a good day because of this. Spent a couple hours on a blanket in the park and then ate an Ecuadorian lunch. On my return to the hostel, I felt a tap on the shoulder and then the guy from the morning, who I learned is Franklin, popped in front of me asking how my day was. We began to talk and then his friend arrived as well. Franklin works only a few blocks from the hostel and we agreed to have lunch tomorrow. It was a welcome invitation since I have nothing else to do while I wait for Wendy to arrive. When I arrived at the hostel, I had several wonderful emails, some of which I had been waiting for. So maybe Franklin was right--the sugar gave me a good day. Or maybe it´s just that I´m so sweet anyway!
I do actually have a to do list for this week. Today I managed to book my flight back to Costa Rica for the hefty sum of $591, which I booked on a Spanish website as opposed to Expedia who wanted $17 more. As you may know, I had hoped to catch a ride with a friend on a boat out of Columbia, but he already has two more passengers for that voyage than he can comfortably accomodate. He knows others who are making the journey with boats but at a cost of $350, it isn´t worth it since I´d have to spend an additional $100-150 and two days´ travel. I bit the bullet and booked the flight.
But it feels good to have a firm plan again. Those of you who know me know that I function better in life when there is some semblance of a plan for the future. I now know that at 7 p.m. on January 8, 2010 I´ll be back on Costa Rican soil and as soon as I clear customs and immigration, I´ll be back in the arms of someone familiar as he has promised to pick me up at the airport. Only 24 days. I´m hoping to pass a weekend vacation with him before we head back to Silencio, perhaps take him to the hot springs in La Fortuna. There is something comforting in returning to places I know, then again maybe we´ll go somewhere new.
Friday, Wendy and I will make the 2-hour taxi ride to Otavalo where we´ll stay with Viviana and Romina. I´m excited to return there (that whole comforting feeling again). It was a whole lot easier to leave last Sunday knowing that I would be returning shortly. It will be sad to leave their home this Sunday with the knowledge that I might never see them again. That´s the big downside to traveling.
As for this week, I´m spending a lot of time reading or watching movies, and I´m trying to cross some things off my to do list. Don´t worry, there´s nothing stress-inducing on my list, unless of course you consider watching a video of my former student give a speech in front of thousands stress-inducing.
I´m grateful to have no holiday stress-inducers on my list--no holiday cards to write, no shopping to do, no decorations to hang or tree to trim, no mandatory parties to attend, no worrying about whether to buy someone something or not, no cookies to make (truth be told, I gave some of these things up years ago!).
And with that said, I hereby publicly announce my aversion to the Christmas season with all its excesses and promise to have a drink on Christmas to toast my non-celebration of this completely overdone and wasteful holiday.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
My Brain Has No Good Title for This Entry
The biggest news, which most have already read in Facebook, is that I made the decision on Saturday that I´m going to live in Costa Rica for a while. I´ve been thinking for two months that I want to, but I couldn´t figure out how I could swing the cost. For whatever reason, it suddenly hit me on Saturday that money isn´t really an issue. I had already decided last week to dump the timeshare as it is costing me too much money, but I knew I couldn´t rely on that money any time soon. It could take a while to sell. But then I realized if I want to live in Costa Rica, keeping a car in the States doesn´t make any sense, so I sent an email to my parents asking them to sell it. My father is still trying to ascertain a selling price for me. But if you´re interested in a 1998 Toyota RAV4 with reasonable miles on it and in really good shape, let me know.
With that decision made, I´m feeling more relieved and more anxious at the same time. It´s good to have plans, but I´m also anxious to return to Costa Rica. I´m trying to enjoy my time here in Ecuador, but thoughts of my friends in Costa Rica and plans for the future are filling my head on a daily, and nightly, basis.
I studied all of last week, mostly conversation without much grammar. I also spend the last hour of every lesson reading in Spanish and then discussing what I´ve read with my teacher. I´m consistently surprised at how much I´m able to comprehend. I plan to find a large bookstore in Quito next week where I can buy a Spanish version of The Time Traveler´s Wife. Since it´s my favorite book and since I´ve read it several times, I feel like I´ll be able to wade through it slowly, probably only a few pages a day, but it will be more interesting than the small Spanish reader that I currently have. A recent article I read was about Groundhog Day in the States--not exactly the kind of articles that excite me!
Saturday morning I rose early and went to the market with Viviana, her mother, and Romina at 6:30. We first went to the animal market, which doesn´t occur every week, because they thought it would be interesting for me to see. To say the least! Pigs and cows on the side of the road. I saw a woman carrying a lamb clutched to her chest with a child riding on her back. There were chickens, cows, turkeys, kittens, puppies, goats, sheep, pigs, etc.--all for sale and all for the bargaining.
After, we headed back into town to buy vegetables and fruits for the week, oh, and fresh fish of course. There are plenty of vegetables and fruits that I can´t identify because they are native here, and there are even some that have one name in Costa Rica and another name here. She also showed me ¨catzos,¨ a type of bug that can be fried and eaten. I was happy to hear she doesn´t like them and wouldn´t be buying them for our lunch. Her sister, however, does eat them. I almost (that´s almost) want to try one. Maybe when Wendy comes for a visit. Two hours later with probably 20 sacks of food that Viviana and her mother bought, we loaded into a taxi for the short ride home. Since then, I´ve enjoyed fresh fish, freshly squeezed orange juice, homemade blackberry jam, fresh strawberries for breakfast, homemade milkshakes with the fruits, and innumerable dishes made with the vegetables. This might be the healthiest I´ve ever eaten.
On Sunday another student arrived, Suse from Germany. Her Spanish is what mine was when I first arrived in Costa Rica on day one (or perhaps less), and I´ve done quite a bit of translating in the house, which still feels very strange for me. But it´s nice to have another face at the dinner table, and it has made for more and interesting conversations. And then of course I have someone with whom to hang out after class.
I´ve enjoyed studying this week. My teacher and I usually converse for the first two hours about any number of topics. At times, we start on one subject and drift into many others, just as I would do with friends in English. Then we spend some time on grammar as I learn the final few verb tenses (tomorrow I will have ¨learned,¨ or at least reviewed, all of the verb tenses). Yesterday about did my head in as I tried to learn more of the subjunctive tense. And then we end the lessons with reading. I´ve learned quite a bit about customs and holidays in Ecuador, including about Carnaval, a time when throwing water balloons is common. And one day I read about shrunken heads. I never really know what to expect with the readings.
On Wednesday, Suse and I went to the Peguche waterfall, about a 50-minute walk. I guess one never gets tired of seeing waterfalls, hey? I´ve seen my fair share. Afterwards, we began to follow a somewhat overgrown trail and considered turning back. We were persuaded otherwise by a local guy named Pedro, who was 35 and looked 50, who we let lead the way. It was a good choice as the scenery was a bit different returning.
We returned to Otavalo to use the Internet AGAIN (it´s a good way to pass the time here), and I began to write this blog. At 7:00 we lost electricity in the entire town, though we still don´t know why, so it´s now Thursday as I finish this. We remained without electricity until about 10 p.m. last night and ate our dinner by candlelight. Oh, that was after I took a cold shower in 50-degree weather (15 Celsius). After that dousing of cold water, I´m now positive that I could have a future as an opera singer.
Today I´m feeling, not under the weather necessarily, but less than stellar and without a real reason. Studying was difficult today. It was more difficult to understand the conversation, the writings were slightly more difficult (though I´m proud to say I did better with the verb tenses than I thought I would when I started writing), and the reading was virtually impossible. When studying another language, there are times when you feel like you´re on a roll and things are starting to come so much easier, and you think to yourself, Wow, I can really do this. And then you have days like today. It´s just part of it, but I definitely intend to crawl back into bed after lunch.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Un Blog en Español
Yo pienso que es el tiempo para escribir en español a pesar de los errores. He estado en Otavalo, Ecuador por casi una semana. Vivo con una família que tiene una madre se llama Viviana y una niña se llama Romina quien tiene seis años. Romina es una niña típica. Ella dice que ella piensa. El primer dia en la casa, ella señalo el cicatriz en mi rodilla y me preguntó, ¿qué pasó? Expliqué, entonces ella me dijo, su pierna es muy grande. (Yo sé, Romina, muchas gracias.)
Esta semaña yo estudié en una escuela por cuatro horas por dia. Hablé en español, escribí, y leí. A veces es fácil, a veces es frustrante. Ayer comencí hacer tarjetas para memorizar vocabulario. Tengo una semaña mas en la escuela y no más. Despúes la proxima semaña he estudiado por cuatro semañas totalmente. No necesito estudiar en una escuela mas; en cambio necesito hablar y leer para aprender vocabulario. La mayoria del tiempo me gusta hablar en español. Me di cuenta de yo he hablado por sólo trés meses aunque he viajado por cuatro meses. A veces me quedé en lugares donde hablar español no era necesario.
Mañana iré al mercado con Viviana. Los sábados ella compra comida por la siguiente semana. Ella es una buena cocinera. Sólo una vez no me gustó la comida. Era una sopa fría como ceviche. No pude comer y me sentí mal, pero a ella no le molestó. Ella me dijo que un costumbre para estudiantes es comer para la família, pero no puedo cocinar. En cambio, tal vez vamos al restaurante para comer mí último dia.
Me gusta mí família y Otavalo pero extraño mucho Costa Rica. Quiero volver pronto. Ayer llamé a Diego y hablamos por 50 minutos. Le dije que quiero volver en enero en cambio de febrero y me dijo, esta bien. Me gusta hablar con él porque siempre él me hace reír mucho. Voy a llamarle mañana también. La vida es difícil cuando él está allá y estoy acá. Cuando llegué en Costa Rica, no sabia que voy a sentirme como esto pero me alegro.
Estoy esperando por muchos correos electrónicos. Quiero ir a Panama en un barco con un amigo. Él es en los estados unidos ahora pero va a volver a Columbia en una semana mas o menos. Cuando hablamos en agosto, él fue a ir a Panama en enero. Sí voy con él es muy barato y mas interesante.
También estoy esperando por un correo de una chica en Uvita, Costa Rica quien enseña inglés allá. Ella trabaja por una organización y quiero mas información porque quiero trabajar y vivir en Costa Rica el próximo año. Pero yo necesito mas plata para eso. Tendré la plata sí vendo mí multipropiedad; espero que sí.
Yo sé que viviré en Costa Rica en 2010. Sí yo pienso que viviré acá, entonces, viviré acá. No estaré preocupada como pasaré.
Esta semaña yo estudié en una escuela por cuatro horas por dia. Hablé en español, escribí, y leí. A veces es fácil, a veces es frustrante. Ayer comencí hacer tarjetas para memorizar vocabulario. Tengo una semaña mas en la escuela y no más. Despúes la proxima semaña he estudiado por cuatro semañas totalmente. No necesito estudiar en una escuela mas; en cambio necesito hablar y leer para aprender vocabulario. La mayoria del tiempo me gusta hablar en español. Me di cuenta de yo he hablado por sólo trés meses aunque he viajado por cuatro meses. A veces me quedé en lugares donde hablar español no era necesario.
Mañana iré al mercado con Viviana. Los sábados ella compra comida por la siguiente semana. Ella es una buena cocinera. Sólo una vez no me gustó la comida. Era una sopa fría como ceviche. No pude comer y me sentí mal, pero a ella no le molestó. Ella me dijo que un costumbre para estudiantes es comer para la família, pero no puedo cocinar. En cambio, tal vez vamos al restaurante para comer mí último dia.
Me gusta mí família y Otavalo pero extraño mucho Costa Rica. Quiero volver pronto. Ayer llamé a Diego y hablamos por 50 minutos. Le dije que quiero volver en enero en cambio de febrero y me dijo, esta bien. Me gusta hablar con él porque siempre él me hace reír mucho. Voy a llamarle mañana también. La vida es difícil cuando él está allá y estoy acá. Cuando llegué en Costa Rica, no sabia que voy a sentirme como esto pero me alegro.
Estoy esperando por muchos correos electrónicos. Quiero ir a Panama en un barco con un amigo. Él es en los estados unidos ahora pero va a volver a Columbia en una semana mas o menos. Cuando hablamos en agosto, él fue a ir a Panama en enero. Sí voy con él es muy barato y mas interesante.
También estoy esperando por un correo de una chica en Uvita, Costa Rica quien enseña inglés allá. Ella trabaja por una organización y quiero mas información porque quiero trabajar y vivir en Costa Rica el próximo año. Pero yo necesito mas plata para eso. Tendré la plata sí vendo mí multipropiedad; espero que sí.
Yo sé que viviré en Costa Rica en 2010. Sí yo pienso que viviré acá, entonces, viviré acá. No estaré preocupada como pasaré.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Killing Time
Saturday, I made the 2+ hour journey by taxi to Otavalo. I normally would´ve taken the bus, but the school paid for the taxi, which incidentally wasn´t much more comfortable with 5 people crammed into a Kia. What model, you ask? It´s a Kia! Do you have to ask?
Almost immediately, the elderly gentleman in the backseat with me asked me where I was from and after my standard reply, ¨Los Estados Unidos,¨ he asked the standard next question, ¨¿Que estado?¨ I told him Connecticut and he said he used to live there. Of course, this was a joke. I usually have to tell people it´s near New York before I get any sign of recognition. And it seems that because I don´t always speak the language well, OK, never speak the language well, the people here like to joke with me. So I thought it was a joke until he said he lived in Trumbull. How could someone in Ecuador know the city of Trumbull unless he had lived there? As it turns out he went to school at Yale. Just another one of the coincidences and strange happenings here.
My mother greeted me at the door with a smile and chipper, ¨¿Como estás?¨ which to most of you will mean nothing other than how are you. To me, it not only was the question how I was doing, but it also signaled to me that the use of ¨tú¨ is common here; the people of Costa Rica rarely use the informal ¨tú¨ instead opting for the formal ¨usted¨ even among families. I already have to think before I speak, now it seems I have to think even harder or simply resort to usted.
I settled into a very comfortable room, which includes a bedroom and a sitting room with a table and chairs where I was told I could do my homework. (Thanks, Mom!) Of course, my mother is again younger than me. While she prepared lunch, Romina and her cousin Camila, who is five, introduced themselves to me by plopping on my bed and promptly taking dozens of photos with my camera. I taught Romina a game that my mom plays with my niece. One of them will write a number and the other has to draw something using the number. I am a terrible artist and don´t know why I even suggested the game; Romina was frustrated quickly, saying she couldn´t draw. Despite my encouragement, we abandoned this game quickly. It´s been a long time since I´ve had to entertain a six-year-old, and I was honestly hoping that the novelty that was me would wear off soon. (It both has and hasn´t.) Since this time, I´ve discovered that if I leave my backpack open, her fingers will wander. See exhibit A in the facebook photos where she is wearing my snorkel and mask! But she does keep us entertained, even if I can´t always understand her.
Shortly after lunch I decided to at least browse the huge market here. Though I knew I would have two more Saturdays, I always like to walk around on day one to get a feel for my new environment. Within a few moments I had stopped at a booth selling movies. I discovered in Costa Rica exactly how cheap you can buy movies and I was really wanting to buy some. I settled on Angels and Demons, Taken, and a collection of movies on one CD all starring somebody or other who I can´t remember right now--grand total $3. The movies always have subtitles so it´s either English audio with Spanish subtitles or Spanish audio with English subtitles. Angels and Demons was English audio with Spanish subtitles, which is great for helping me to learn the structure of sentences. I also wished it had Spanish audio with English subtitles, but no luck.
Monday I began my Spanish classes and discovered I would be studying not in a group, but alone. If not for the additional cost, I wouldn´t mind. In three days, it´s been mostly conversation, which while I know I need it, is also a little frustrating because I know there are other grammatical issues I haven´t learned that I want to. My teacher finally explained to me today that she wants to review with me to have things set in my mind before we move on to the next verb tense, which I mentioned the first day I wanted to work on. As with my last teacher, I understand most of what she says, and I am able to stumble through my version of stories and events in my life. At times I try to talk around words I don´t know (taking the long way around, so to speak), but I realize that I´m probably better off looking up the word when I´m with her since she doesn´t care. It´s a little more difficult when you´re lying in bed with your boyfriend talking in the dark without access to a dictionary, in which case I have to take the long way around. So I´m going to commit myself to looking up the verbs for the next 7 school days rather than talking around words I don´t know.
Yesterday my mother invited me to go with her and her daughter to Cotocachi, not for any specific reason I think other than just to give me something to do and show me another place. I spent about 20 minutes in a cultural museum (it´s not that I was uninterested, it´s just that small) and then joined them in the park. We spent a little time walking around the streets and went into a couple of shops. Leather is a popular item made there, so there were many stores selling very reasonably priced leather goods. I think I saw at least a dozen leather jackets I would´ve been happy to walk away with. After browsing one store, my mother asked if I wanted to go in another. I had to tell her these stores are dangerous for me because I want to buy but can´t. I managed to escape Cotocachi without buying anything other than my $1 museum admission and the 50 cent roundtrip bus fare.
Today I spent some time after lunch walking around looking for a bookstore in which to exchange a book, but I don´t think this town has any. Reading doesn´t seem to be a popular activity down here. And I spent some time enjoying the sun in the park. I have to enjoy the heat of the day because the evenings are quite cold. (In fact, when I return to the house in a few moments, I´ll have to take a cool shower, which I am definitely not looking forward to.) And then I´ve been sitting in the Internet cafe watching my newly purchased The Time Traveler´s Wife, which I found to be better than I expected.
The food here is quite different from my food in Costa Rica. In fact, I´ve only had rice three times and no beans to speak of. Viviana, my mother, was surprised that I actually ate rice and beans for breakfast every morning. Here I receive lots of fruits (mangos, plantains, papayas, strawberries) and most every meal is accompanied by a batido (milkshake), which while not quite as rich in the states, still makes me say, ¡Que rico! (how rich!). The food is usually a mix of meat (often chicken) and vegetables, including white corn, which is very big and quite tasty. Today was pasta with ground beef and vegetables that I absolutely devoured. And both yesterday and today the main course was preceded by a soup. In fact, yesterday it was three courses: soup, main dish, and dessert. I didn´t like the dessert, however, which was a traditional fruit (higo) marinated in honey. It remains the only thing I haven´t eaten that she has put in front of me. Of course, I did mention on day one that I don´t like salad.
Another difference here is the difference in the people. There are both indigenous people and mestizos (non-indigenous). The indigenous look very much like the Native Americans in the States and still wear the traditional clothing. When I asked my teacher about discrimination, she said that there really isn´t any today, though that wasn´t true 15 or 20 years ago. The people seem to mix fairly well here.
So I´ve settled into my home. I´ll be here until Sunday the 13th. My life here is about as tranquil as it was in Costa Rica with few obligations and not a lot to do.While in CR, I bought a book in Spanish with various stories and articles, and I´m slowly working my way through it with a dictionary by its side. And I´m also reading quite a bit in English to pass the time. Saturday I plan to attend the market with Viviana because I want to see how she shops. She usually makes two trips to buy food, and you can buy everything from fresh meat to grains to fruits and vegetables.
In many ways life here is similar and in many ways it is different, and though I´ve settled in and feel comfortable here, I can´t help missing the people I left behind in Costa Rica. I´d really like to watch a few games of pool in Silencio and then kick back in the albergue with a Smirnoff. However, I´ve been told here as I was told in CR, ¨Disfruta el presente.¨ Enjoy the present. I´m trying to do just that because I realize that regardless of whether I´m in Ecuador or Costa Rica, I´m pretty lucky.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
The Non Bucket List Bucket List
Like many, I have a bucket list, things I want to do before I kick the proverbial bucket, some of which I´m crossing off on this trip. But then I realized this trip is also satisfying the non bucket list bucket list. You know, those things which weren´t on your bucket list but that you now feel compelled to put on your bucket list since you´ve done them and they were pretty cool and should´ve been on your bucket list to begin with and you want to put them on there just so that you can cross them off. Here´s my evergrowing non bucket list bucket list courtesy of this trip, all of which I´ve already done (and if you didn´t know this then you need to do your homework by reading my blogs more thoroughly!):
- milk a cow
- help butcher a cow
- help butcher a pig
- drink liquor made only in another country (Cacique)
- find a boyfriend in another country who doesn´t speak English
- eat pig liver (sort of wish I could take this one back)
- ride double on a bicycle made for one (three times, once at night, always scared)
- touch a jellyfish
- make jokes in Spanish that make people laugh
- make a phone call in Spanish (which I´ve done numerous times now and which still makes me nervous); this item has prompted me to add to my real bucket list the following: ¨make a phone call in Spanish without having to say ´que´ even once because I understand everything¨
If you can think of other things that I´ve probably left off my non bucket list bucket list, please let me know. I´d hate to have an inaccurate non bucket list bucket list.
And then there are those things you see which you never thought you´d see. The three most recent ones I feel compelled to document here.
First, I saw a guy driving an ATV and brushing his teeth--at the same time. It was morning, and I´m guessing he was running late.
Second, I saw two people dragging car batteries down the street in Quito this morning. Strings tied to the batteries, just pulling them along as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do.
Third, I saw a guy with an IV in his arm and a drip bag (whatever those things are called) in the middle of the street panhandling. Panhandling is extremely common here in Ecuador as is walking down the middle of the street selling things. This guy was clearly playing his sympathy card, as were the little girls doing cartwheels in the street. I thought it was cute until I realized why they were doing it, and then I just felt incredibly sad for them.
As for my current location, I´d love to tell you, but then those insurance people might find me and force me to pay the bill that I really, really, really don´t want to pay. Then again, if you´re on facebook, you already know where I am. Hopefully, you can keep a secret cause did I mention that I really, really, really don´t want to pay that bill.
Friday, November 27, 2009
This is not the end of my good fortune
Made the decision to switch hostels yesterday when I checked out another one I had considered. It seemed much better and for only a dollar or two more. Packed my stuff--again--and have been quite proud lately that the backpack is much easier for me to handle now as I seemed to have gained some strength. Unfortunately, the stairs are slick, my shoes didn´t have traction, and I fell down a few stairs this morning (that´s what I get for being proud). My right leg went forward, my left leg bent under me, and of course as I was falling and feeling a stretch in the knee, all I could think was please let my knee be alright. OK, well the knee is alright. The left foot, however, isn´t. I´ve iced it and taken OTC painkillers. Neither the foot nor the toe are broken, but the joint where the big toe joins the foot is quite swollen and doesn´t bend too easily. Trying to decide if a trip to the hospital is necessary, and I´m thinking no at this point. Think it´s just a bad sprain.
Of course when I arrived at the hostel, further bad luck. I can´t stay two nights in a dorm bed for $6.50; I´d have to move to a private room tomorrow for $15 a night. Instead, I emailed the language school and asked to be picked up a day early. I´ve just received confirmation for that, so tomorrow I will be making a 2-hour journey in a taxi (paid for by the school, or my tuition rather) to Otavalo. I will be arriving on a Saturday, which is a huge market day, so I can only imagine the craziness that will greet me there. The driver will drop me off at my new home for 2 weeks, an Ecuadorian family. I am anxious to get there and find out what life is like here in Ecuador as compared to Costa Rica. This family definitely has big shoes to fill.
Today has consisted of the move to the new hostel, hobbling down the street to take breakfast, which I couldn´t enjoy because the painkillers hadn´t yet taken effect, lying on the couch in the hostel icing the foot, and then hobbling to the Internet cafe because Skype doesn´t appear to work in the hostel. My day, however, was made better when I was able to reach Diego on the phone, who as coincidence would have it is going to the hospital for an injury he sustained while at work this morning. What to make of that coincidence I really don´t know.
Feeling a big sentimental today, perhaps because of an email that I received yesterday. While I was in Bocas del Toro, Panama back in August, I met a Californian named Jazz. We were staying in the same room at the hostel and as coincidence would have it, we had both booked on to the same diving tour the next day. We had a great day diving and at the beach and then she was kind enough to make the call to Silencio for me to find out more about the project since she is fluent in Spanish, having lived three years in Guatemala. I emailed her a couple of days ago to express my gratitude for that phone call since Silencio worked out so well for me, as well as for leaving behind a great dress in the hostel that I have made good use of. I received an email back from her yesterday that meant a lot.
First I should say that when traveling you cross paths with many people. There are some with whom even exchanging email seems superfluous, and they fall out of your life as quickly as they fell into it. There are others with whom you find an instant connection (sometimes just by the nature of being fellow travelers) and with whom you exchange email; sometimes you contact them, sometimes you hook up on facebook, and other times the email address languishes in your travelogue for years to come. There are others with whom you find an instant connection and who then find a permanent place in your life. I´ve had many of the first and second, only a few of the third, among them Cat and Geoff, with whom I keep in regular touch with.
Up until I sent that email I thought Jazz would be simply another person who I enjoyed spending time with but whom I might never talk to again. Her email back to me, though, came as a surprise and left me thinking that she could end up being one of those people that you want to look up again. If I remember correctly, she´s only 21. For most 38 year olds, a friendship with a 21-year-old would seem odd, but then considering I have a whole circle of friends who haven´t yet seen 30, it´s not really odd for me. And then there´s the fact that she doesn´t seem 21 at all; after all, she´s been living in Guatemala for 3 years which has given her wisdom beyond her years. And then there´s also the fact that traveling has a way of wiping out age because we´re all in this together, doing the same things regardless of our age.
So why did the email mean so much? Because apparently I had more of an impact on her than I realized. For me, this trip seems completely normal. Even when friends at home tell me they wish they had the guts that I do, it doesn´t really register with me that I´m doing something out of the ordinary, maybe because so many people I encounter while traveling are doing quite the same thing. But I guess the reality is that not many people my age are able to do what I´ve done. She kind of drove that point home for me, and I copy part of her email here as the best way to illustrate this. She writes, ¨I just want to say it was really cool to see into my future a little. I dont mean that like you're old or something--please don't take it that way, cuz I totally don't mean that. But you are about 10 years ahead of me, have been through a little more of life, and have this great positive attitude that a lot of people lose real young for some reason. And there you are, adventurous, traveling the world by yourself still, like I hope to do. And I found that really encouraging.¨ I´m thankful that I was able to show her that she can still have whatever she wants when she reaches my age. And thankful that I just realized she thinks I´m only about 10 years ahead of her!
I´ll spend the rest of the day simply killing time here in Quito, probably making phone calls to people I haven´t talked to in a while, even some I haven´t spoken with since June who I miss and want to catch up. I might as well spend the day on the Internet. After all, it´s not as if I can really walk anywhere with this foot!
Of course when I arrived at the hostel, further bad luck. I can´t stay two nights in a dorm bed for $6.50; I´d have to move to a private room tomorrow for $15 a night. Instead, I emailed the language school and asked to be picked up a day early. I´ve just received confirmation for that, so tomorrow I will be making a 2-hour journey in a taxi (paid for by the school, or my tuition rather) to Otavalo. I will be arriving on a Saturday, which is a huge market day, so I can only imagine the craziness that will greet me there. The driver will drop me off at my new home for 2 weeks, an Ecuadorian family. I am anxious to get there and find out what life is like here in Ecuador as compared to Costa Rica. This family definitely has big shoes to fill.
Today has consisted of the move to the new hostel, hobbling down the street to take breakfast, which I couldn´t enjoy because the painkillers hadn´t yet taken effect, lying on the couch in the hostel icing the foot, and then hobbling to the Internet cafe because Skype doesn´t appear to work in the hostel. My day, however, was made better when I was able to reach Diego on the phone, who as coincidence would have it is going to the hospital for an injury he sustained while at work this morning. What to make of that coincidence I really don´t know.
Feeling a big sentimental today, perhaps because of an email that I received yesterday. While I was in Bocas del Toro, Panama back in August, I met a Californian named Jazz. We were staying in the same room at the hostel and as coincidence would have it, we had both booked on to the same diving tour the next day. We had a great day diving and at the beach and then she was kind enough to make the call to Silencio for me to find out more about the project since she is fluent in Spanish, having lived three years in Guatemala. I emailed her a couple of days ago to express my gratitude for that phone call since Silencio worked out so well for me, as well as for leaving behind a great dress in the hostel that I have made good use of. I received an email back from her yesterday that meant a lot.
First I should say that when traveling you cross paths with many people. There are some with whom even exchanging email seems superfluous, and they fall out of your life as quickly as they fell into it. There are others with whom you find an instant connection (sometimes just by the nature of being fellow travelers) and with whom you exchange email; sometimes you contact them, sometimes you hook up on facebook, and other times the email address languishes in your travelogue for years to come. There are others with whom you find an instant connection and who then find a permanent place in your life. I´ve had many of the first and second, only a few of the third, among them Cat and Geoff, with whom I keep in regular touch with.
Up until I sent that email I thought Jazz would be simply another person who I enjoyed spending time with but whom I might never talk to again. Her email back to me, though, came as a surprise and left me thinking that she could end up being one of those people that you want to look up again. If I remember correctly, she´s only 21. For most 38 year olds, a friendship with a 21-year-old would seem odd, but then considering I have a whole circle of friends who haven´t yet seen 30, it´s not really odd for me. And then there´s the fact that she doesn´t seem 21 at all; after all, she´s been living in Guatemala for 3 years which has given her wisdom beyond her years. And then there´s also the fact that traveling has a way of wiping out age because we´re all in this together, doing the same things regardless of our age.
So why did the email mean so much? Because apparently I had more of an impact on her than I realized. For me, this trip seems completely normal. Even when friends at home tell me they wish they had the guts that I do, it doesn´t really register with me that I´m doing something out of the ordinary, maybe because so many people I encounter while traveling are doing quite the same thing. But I guess the reality is that not many people my age are able to do what I´ve done. She kind of drove that point home for me, and I copy part of her email here as the best way to illustrate this. She writes, ¨I just want to say it was really cool to see into my future a little. I dont mean that like you're old or something--please don't take it that way, cuz I totally don't mean that. But you are about 10 years ahead of me, have been through a little more of life, and have this great positive attitude that a lot of people lose real young for some reason. And there you are, adventurous, traveling the world by yourself still, like I hope to do. And I found that really encouraging.¨ I´m thankful that I was able to show her that she can still have whatever she wants when she reaches my age. And thankful that I just realized she thinks I´m only about 10 years ahead of her!
I´ll spend the rest of the day simply killing time here in Quito, probably making phone calls to people I haven´t talked to in a while, even some I haven´t spoken with since June who I miss and want to catch up. I might as well spend the day on the Internet. After all, it´s not as if I can really walk anywhere with this foot!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Always Good Fortune Finds Me
Baldi Hot Springs in La Fortuna, Costa Rica, should definitely be on your list of places to go if you really want to relax. 20 pools of varying temperatures, some so hot they were void of people, and swim-up bars. Danny, an instafriend from Spokane who I met in the hostel, and I headed over there one afternoon and soaked for over 2 hours. The buffet meal was half Costa Rican, half American, and they even had a chocolate fountain that reminded me of my mom.Saturday Danny and I headed out for the walk to the La Fortuna waterfall, which is four miles, most of it uphill. Had I not run for 40 minutes that morning and stressed out my left leg, I probably wouldn´t have even complained. It took us a couple of hours to get there, but it was definitely worth it. As usual, I couldn´t resist a swim despite the lack of a bathing suit. Given the recent weather, we were certain that we would get soaked by rain on the walk back anyway, so I took a dip in my clothes. Sure enough, before I had even finished my 2 minutes, it started to rain. He took a quick dip and then we headed back, all 363 steps plus some unstepped inclines. And then there was the downhill walk back to town. I was certain I would sleep well that night.
Sunday, I said goodbye to La Fortuna and made the trip to Monteverde/Santa Elena via a van ride, a boat ride, and another van ride, none of which was as glamorous as the brochures make it out to be. It is, however, the shortest route between La Fortuna and that area. The weather was remarkably similar, rainy and chilly, and I was pleased to find both a fleece blanket and comforter on my bed, which I made use of both nights I was there. I wasted no time in getting started on activities.
Sunday afternoon I headed out with Extremo Adventures to do a canopy tour on the ziplines. I had been informed that they were the best company and had the longest ziplines. I was not disappointed, as my pics and video on facebook attest. Our third line was a 1 km line that we did tandem. All told we did 14 or 16 lines, not sure exactly, with the last being another 1 km line that we had the option of doing Superman style. It was more than worth the additional $5 it cost me. It was misting rain and the wind was blowing so hard that the rain was coming down sideways, but it only added to the exhiliration. I was a tad nervous doing it that way (just as I was a bit nervous for every single line), but I loved all but the very end when the line seemed to pick up more speed and made my stomach do a somersault. But it was a great way to spend an afternoon and I´d do it again in a heartbeat.
Monday I opted to sleep in and do an afternoon tour with El Trapiche. Trapiche is the name for a contraption that used to be used to process sugar cane into sugar. The tour included a tour of the farm where they grow sugar cane and coffee as well as the buildings where they process both of these. The farm is owned by a family who have resorted to providing tours as a way of staying afloat financially. I learned a lot about the processes, but there were some things that my time in Silencio had already given me knowledge of. For instance, the fact that when they harvest bananas they actually cut down the tree. What I hadn´t known was why. I learned that the banana tree will only bear fruit one time and if they don´t cut the tree down, it will only die more slowly and actually hinder the trees around it because of the water absorption. Thus, they cut down the trees and then use them as compost.
We had the opportunity to make a kind of candy from the sugar cane that really just tasted a lot like molasses, we drank some coffee, and we tasted piccadillo, which is a food made from the arracache plant. Because it takes so long to process, piccadillo is very rare and only served on special occasions, such as weddings. In fact, when I mentioned it to Diego, he wasn´t familiar with either piccadillo or arracache even when shown pictures. We also got to see how the farmers make their own homemade guaro (sold commercially as Cacique, that really nasty liquor that is made only in Costa Rica) through a still-like process, much like moonshine. Cacique is 30% alcohol; what the farmers make can be up to 80% alcohol, and it´s illegal to make, just like moonshine, not to mention a bit dangerous to drink.
The awesome tour was followed by an awesome phone call to Diego, in which he informed me he might be making the journey to San Jose the next day to see me. I couldn´t have been more stunned at the news. I dared to actually get my hopes up that I wouldn´t spend a lonely night in dirty San Jose. While I was on the phone, Simone, one of the volunteers I met in Silencio, spotted me from a restaurant. She had told me she was headed there, and I was glad that Santa Elena was small enough that she was able to find me. We chatted until 10 that night and made plans for lunch the next day. It was really nice to see a familiar face even if we had only known each other for one week.
Tuesday morning was an early rise for a walk through the Santa Elena Cloud Forest. On the one hand, if I hadn´t done it, I would´ve wondered what I missed. On the other, I really could´ve saved the $18 and few hours of sleep it cost me. I didn´t have enough time to walk with a guide, so all I saw were a few uninteresting birds and one tarantula. While the tarantula was cool, I can´t really say it was worth it.
Had lunch with Simone and then took in an ice cream at the Monteverde ice cream shop. I had been told the ice cream there was much preferable to Dos Pinos, the brand sold in the supermarkets. Yes, it was a little better, but I have to say that Costa Rica really doesn´t know how to do ice cream. I wasn´t impressed. Give me some Breyer´s strawberry, please.
My follow-up phone call to Diego at 2 confirmed my suspicion that he wouldn´t be able to visit in San Jose. He still wasn´t sure at that time, but his mood led me to believe that he wouldn´t be there. (He later told me sounded sad because he didn´t think he was going to be able to come.) So I boarded the bus at 2:30 for what I had been told was a 4-hour journey. Just as my mom would´ve wanted, I used the bathroom before I left AND when we stopped at 4, even though I really didn´t have to go. It was good I did because as it was, I still had two grueling hours from 5 to 7 (and you´ll realize that 4 hour journey was 4 hours of Costa Rican time) in which I would´ve paid someone a handsome sum for a pair of Depends undergarments. At various times I considered peeing in a bag and finally even resorted to having a go at it without success. I can safely report that man nor woman is not meant to hold his urine. I bounded off the bus in San Jose, quickly retrieved my oversized backpack, which I dragged it into a soda (one of those small restaurant-like places that serve typical CR food) and plopped it in front of the bathroom door, not even caring if it would be there when I returned. I still think that urologist I saw before leaving home was wrong and that there is something wrong with me. A bladder should be bigger than a walnut, and mine clearly isn´t. A few audible sighs of relief later I was actually able to consider hiring a taxi to go to the hostel.
Which is really easy to do. When you step off of any bus in any city, you are accosted with cries of, ¨Taxi? Taxi?¨ And good fortune continued to find me even in this. As usual, the driver asked me how much time I was spending in Costa Rica, what I was doing, etc. I responded with my usual, including that I had been living in Silencio, a small town south of Quepos. I was surprised when he said, ¨Yo conozco a Silencio. Tengo una casa en Matapaolo.¨ He knew where Silencio was because he had a house in the neighboring town. He wanted to know if I needed a ride to the airport in the morning, and I told him it depended on whether my boyfriend was able to make it into town that night, so he gave me his number in the event I needed a ride the next day and I promised to call if I did.
When I arrived at the hostel, I didn´t even know what to book without first making a call to Diego. I called and he joked with me that he was walking to San Jose. Actually, he was in the car on his way and it would be another hour or so before he would arrive. A few more phone calls later and it was decided that it was preferable that I meet him somewhere in San Jose that he was familiar with rather than his trying to navigate streets he didn´t know. Enter Carlos Perez, my friendly taxi driver, who promptly picked me up. I had called and told him I needed to go to the hospital that night and the first question he asked when I got in the car was whether or not my boyfriend had been in an accident. That possibility hadn´t even crossed my mind, and I laughed, saying no, it was simply easier for us to meet somewhere and that Diego was familiar with the hospital. He expressed relief and raced across town, running red lights to get me there quickly. We arrived and quickly spotted Diego, though I had to take a second look because he had had a haircut. We opted to follow Carlos back to the hostel rather than try to find it on our own. And, yes, I smiled the entire way.
San Jose isn´t a safe city at night and luckily there was a restaurant attached to the hostel where we took a later dinner at about 10:00 while I listened to more of his stories in Spanish, repeatedly reminding him to talk slowly. He´s like any typical person--when he gets going with a story, the words come rapidly. I admit I spent the entire night and the next morning, and even now somewhat, stunned that he came. It involved a rental car, a 3-hour trip in the car, and a day of missed work for which he had to ask permission. When he misses work, he doesn´t get paid, which means he´ll likely work 11 hours on another day to make up for the time he missed yesterday because like most people, he can´t really afford to miss out on a few days´pay. I´m a sucker for romance, and the fact that he did all of that seems pretty romantic to me and only confirmed for me even more that I want to return there in February. Who knows, maybe January?
We turned in late and had to rise at 5:30 in order for me to make my flight. This was one of those times I definitely would´ve traded for a later flight. We even had to say goodbye at the airport doors because international departures wouldn´t let in anyone who wasn´t a passenger. Despite the fact that he was wearing my backpack, I don´t think they would´ve believed us. So we said goodbye with his telling me that 9 weeks will pass quickly and with an agreement that I would call today, which I´ve been trying to do while writing this blog. It´s kind of hit or miss, though, because it´s his sister´s phone, so he´s not always there, and then sometimes the phone isn´t on. Not all things are simple in a country like this, but I will keep trying. He takes all three of his meals at his mother´s house, so sooner or later I´ll catch him there, or at least be able to leave a message with his sister with a time to call that he will be there.
When I checked in, I was told I would have to purchase a flight out of Ecuador before being allowed to check in. I was worried about this because Americans can only enter Ecuador for 90 days. I explained I wanted to take the bus because it was much cheaper but asked her to look for the cheapest flight out of Ecuador, which turned out to be $600. She consulted with another employee, who then moved on to another question. Was I returning to Costa Rica? Yes. To which I was informed I would have to have a yellow fever vaccine. Good for me that I once thought I was going to Bolivia because I have had that vaccine and promptly produced my verification. For whatever reason, this put me in their good graces and I was told I could buy an airline ticket when I arrived in Ecuador where it would be cheaper. Good fortune yet again it seemed.
The flights were uneventful as was the taxi ride to the hostel. The hostel is less than ideal, but at $5.60 a night, what really can I expect. It´s quite cold in the evenings, and the hostel seems to hold all of that cold air throughout the entire day, despite the fact that it´s quite warm in the daytime. I promptly set out looking for a great deal to the Galapagos. I had always read that you will pay less here than you would if you booked online from the States. That is certainly true as there are plenty of last minute deals. Nonetheless, the prices start with a $415 flight and $110 park entrance fees. That´s if you fly there and do nothing. So I was looking at spending around $1200 for 6 nights and 4 days, which would include a couple of dives. I took the information and headed back to the hostel where I did the math (after of course checking out my bank balances). While technically I have the cash to do this, it means making the decision to come home early. It´s a tough decision to come here and not do the Galapagos, particularly when that´s the reason I came to Ecuador in the first place. However, going there would significantly change the length of my trip, which isn´t something I´m willing to do.
Some have advised me to do it anyway, that I won´t regret it, that I may never get here again, that there are always credit cards. I certainly respect their opinions, but in response I say this. I wouldn´t regret the experience but having to leave CR early would break my heart. If I´m meant to be here again, I will be. After all, I did Australia twice. Using credit cards would allow me 6 days and 4 nights of fun but at a huge price: having to return home and get a job. My plans currently are to find a way to stay in CR for another year; barring that, I will be pursuing a PhD on a limited budget with no way to pay off credit card debt. No, the only option right now is to stay out of the tour shops lest I make an impulse decision that bankrupts me. If I´m able to sell my timeshare, then I can reconsider. I´m not leaving Ecuador for a while, so saying no to Galapagos today doesn´t mean I can´t say yes another day before I leave. And who knows what good fortune could find me in the meantime.
The other research I did upon arrival was figuring out how to get out of this place, which isn´t as easy as one would think. Turns out, having to buy that $600 plane ticket wouldn´t have been the end of the world, as I may have to buy it anyway. I had forgotten that because of the Darien Gap in Columbia, there is no overland route from Columbia to Panama. That area is riddled with drug lords and rebels and is the area most likely to result in a kidnapping. I want adventure, but I can think of better ways to find adventure than spending years living in a jungle with guerrillas.
That leaves two ways out of Columbia: air or water. Air isn´t significantly cheaper than flying from Ecuador, and considering I´d have to spend close to 2 days getting to Columbia by bus, I can´t say that that is preferable. Water remains an option, and not swimming, mind you. It is quite expensive, but as usual making contacts while you´re traveling is always valuable. While I was in Bocas del Toro, I studied briefly with a guy who is sailing for 2-3 years and just happens to be in Cartagena, Columbia at this very moment. And I´ve just happened to keep in touch with him in the meantime. (His blog is www.sailingforsos.com in case you want to check out his remarkable journey.) I know that he has plans to sail through the Panama Canal after the first of the year, so I´ve sent him an email asking what his plans are. I know that if the timing is right, and I could make the timing right I´m sure, then for a fee he´d let me tag along on his sailboat. Now that would be a cool way to travel. If not with him, then I know that he has met many sailors along the way, many in Cartagena even, with whom he could put me in contact. This option isn´t free, but combined with approximately $100 bus rides to Cartagena, it could save me a couple hundred and would definitely be a cooler way to travel. So I await his email and hope that good fortune continues to find me.
As for what I´ve been doing since I arrived, not much. I´m currently staying in Mariscal, which is considered the new part of Quito. Last night the streets were quite crowded, and I´m hoping it was because of some important soccer game that was going on. As I mentioned the hostel is cold, so I burrowed under the covers last night at about 8 and listened to a book on my mp3 player until I fell asleep. I have no idea where I left off in the book, which is one of the hazards of listening to a book. I couldn´t bear a shower this morning (even if it was hot) because it was too cold when I finally crawled out of bed at 9:45 (which incidentally is the latest I have slept in months). I took a long walk to get my bearings in town, seeking out a different hostel, and then a bar to watch the NFL game. The owner of the Irish American bar couldn´t find the game on the TV, so he loaded it up on the Internet and fed it through the TV to satisfy the Americans who had shown up looking for a football fix. I finally did find the other hostel, and I will be moving there in the morning where it is significantly warmer and looks much more comfortable.
And now I´m uploading the most current pics, writing this blog, and hoping to make some additional phone calls. (The first one to the family today was great, and here´s a shout out to the Lipskys who are apparently fans of this blog.) I´m now on the same time as my family and friends, but an hour ahead of Costa Rica, so I´m always having to think about who is doing what when.
I´ll be in Quito until sometime this weekend when the Spanish language school will be picking me up and taking me to Otovalo where I will live with a family and study for two more weeks. It´s a good way to pass a couple of weeks until Wendy´s arrival and won´t cost much more than if I just hung out in Quito doing nothing. It´s also better because I´m interested in learning what traditional Ecuadorian life is like and comparing it with Costa Rican life.
Lots of Internet access, so if you want to talk to me, let me know. Talking to people from home is a good way to pass the holiday season.
Happy Thanksgiving and may good fortune find all of you as it has found me this year.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Next Adventures
When I returned to the house Monday afternoon, my Tica mother greeted me with gifts, a mug that says I love Costa Rica and a keychain, telling me she was going to miss me much. I gave her a framed photo of her two daughters, Natalia and Jessica. When I had told her on Friday that I needed to take a picture of them, she asked if it was for me or my mother since I had taken a picture of her because my mother wanted to see her. I told her the photo was for me, but when I gave her the gift on Monday that I had actually needed to take the photo for her. She was very grateful. Shortly thereafter, Jessica came in saying that she needed to come to the house because the new volunteer (who had just arrived that day) was sick. Arianna asked me to come with her, and it turned out to be quite entertaining as she asked me to translate for her. The guy clearly spoke Spanish, maybe as much or more than me, but she would tell me things to tell him in English. Imagine that, me as a translator.
Spend my last evening in Silencio at the albergue with several of my friends playing cards. I passed out Hershey caramel kisses (besos) to all of them, promising to return in February. I gave Amanda her first taste of alcohol ever (yes, I corrupted a minor!) in the locally made Cacique. I thought she'd pass out from the tiniest taste I've ever seen anyone take. Leoni and Kirsten were surprisingly not grossed out by it, but then again they're German and much more accustomed to drinking.
The next morning was a somewhat tearful ending for me as I dropped Diego off at work not knowing when I'll talk to him again. He has email but isn't able to check it very often, maybe once every two weeks. Returned to the house to load up my backpack and was surprised by another good conversation with Arianna. The family seems happy that I will be returning to them in February. So certain was I that I will return that I actually left a few things there.
I spent Tuesday in Manuel Antonio National Park. Opted to not use a guide and it was a good decision. Within minutes of entering the park, there were guides with groups everywhere. I immediately was able to see a sloth with a baby and then moments later another sloth with a baby that was so new that the mother hadn't even passed the afterbirth. Saw howler monkeys, squirrel monkeys, and white-faced monkeys. The views were amazing, the beaches beautiful. Would've been better to enjoy with someone but then that's part of traveling alone. Interestingly enough, the guy who is in the room next to me here in La Fortuna was in the park the same day I was. Considering the park is several hours from where we are currently, it's quite the coincidence.
A 3-bus ride put me in San Jose Wednesday at about 9:30 where I had a chilly reception, literally. Was surprised by the weather. Another 4.5 hour bus ride put me in La Fortuna where the weather was quite similar, just add non-stop rain. Settled in at Gringo Pete's Too, which is quite possibly the quietest place I've stayed. At $6 per night, the price is right.
Yesterday I did the waterfall rappelling/canyoning trip that as at the top of my activity list. It's low season so there were only three of us on the trip, which was perfect because we didn't have to spend a lot of time standing around. That was good since it could get a little cold just waiting. We had three guides who were great, and if I could I think I'd totally steal their jobs. I think I could rappel those waterfalls every day and be quite happy.
Since then I've simply been passing the time quietly. Yesterday afternoon I heard considerable noise coming from across the river. Headed in that direction to a sportscenter where I watched some indoor soccer games. Had never seen 5 on 5 soccer before. Wanted to go to karaoke last night, but the rain refused to stop and I was simply too lazy and too cold to tramp through the rain. Instead, Danny (the guy in the room next to me who is from Spokane) and I had dinner at a local soda (I was craving rice and beans if you can believe that) and then sat and talked for a while. He sold his house in Washington and quit his job to travel for a while with no predetermined itinerary or destinations, which just goes to prove that more people could do this if they really wanted to.
Again this morning the rain stopped me from doing what I wanted, which was a hike. Decided it really wasn't worth it though. The animals aren't going to be out, and when you've seen one rainforest, you've seen them all really. I had also hoped to see the volcano while I'm here, but the owner of the hostel isn't even doing the lava flow tours because you won't see anything but cloud cover. I don't really see the need to pay to see clouds. At 3 I'm heading over to some natural springs for my first dip in hot water in over two months. Am really excited about this as well as the traditional meal again. I remember when I went to Panama back in August I refused to eat rice and beans because that's what I'd been eating for two weeks and it's what I would be eating for the foreseeable future. I didn't want to eat it if I didn't have to. Things have certainly changed. I've grown so accustomed to eating it that I actually want them. The occasional pizza or non-Costa Rican meal is nice, but I'd honestly rather sit down in a local soda among the locals and have a traditional meal than to sit down in a restaurant where there are only tourists.
And this town is full of tourists. Virtually every store, every restaurant, every kiosk offers tours and souvenirs. Clearly the only locals who live here are the ones who are work in the tourism industry. It's not a place I would want to spend any considerable length of time. In fact, I'm not even sure what I'm going to do tomorrow. I don't want to spend a lot of money on tours. And I keep thinking, hmmm, I could've spent two more days in Silencio!
Sunday I plan to transfer to Monteverde and do a canopy tour. Also hoping to catch some Sunday night and Monday night football there. You can take the girl out of the US but you can't take the US football out of the girl! I'm thinking that in a tourist town like Monteverde there will certainly be a Gringo bar where I can catch some games.
Until then, just hanging out . . .
Monday, November 16, 2009
The End Isn´t Always the End
It´s been a good last week. I worked at the lecheria for two more days, the orchard for two days, and then one day at the chicken farm with the other volunteers. I really enjoyed the orchard, but I was utterly exhausted after Wednesday. Five of us worked to create a new compost pile, which took us about 40 man hours. We started from the ground with old compost and then followed that with chopped up corn plants that had already been cut. We headed over to the papaya trees where Carlos had been weed eating, and we bagged up grass for layer number 3. I opted out of helping with layer number 4--cow crap. Layer number 5 was cut up banana trees that Carlos had been hacking away at with a machete. I wondered why they would cut down the banana trees, but then realized the next day that when they harvest the bananas, they actually cut down the tree. It was nice to see they actually use the fallen trees for something. The next layer was carbon followed with old compost again. We followed all of this with pretty much the same layers, though we substituted goat, horse, and chicken crap for the cow crap, which was actually nice because it smelled less. They told me that the compost will be ready to use in about 3 months (February), which coincides nicely with my return to Silencio (yes, I´m returning, more about that later).
This week I´ve spent time with Leoni and Kirsten, two volunteers who arrived on Monday. Initially, they didn´t like it and by Thursday night had decided they would leave Sunday. Sometime between then and Friday afternoon, they decided they didn´t want to leave and made arrangements to stay the second week they initially planned. I´m telling you, this place grows on you! Friday was also interesting because while the three of us were playing cards in the park, we all experienced our first earthquake. I was looking up at the store when I started seeing it shake. Because I´ve never experienced an earthquake, at first I simply thought someone dropped something really heavy in the store (yes, I know that´s stupid), but afterwards we asked the girl who was sitting with us (the 10-year-old who helped us at the chicken farm that morning), and she told us it was a ¨tremblor.¨ I wanted another so that I could really pay attention. The Internet tells me it was a moderate 5.0 on the Richter scale that was felt throughout the entire country.
This week Diego asked me if I knew any of the southern coast of Costa Rica and when I didn´t asked if I wanted to go this weekend. After some confusion Friday because of my pathetic Spanish, I was finally able to understand and we decided we would go to the border for the weekend. We left Silencio Saturday morning about 10:30 in a car I had rented. We stopped in Uvita to see Tre, the owner of the hotel where I worked for two weeks. He was really happy to see us, and it was nice for me to show Diego some place I knew in Costa Rica when he was providing constant commentary along the way. It was also nice because we stopped at the supermarket there and I bought peanut butter and jelly and made sandwiches. Still in disbelief that he doesn´t like peanut butter. We went to Golfito and did some window shopping and had lunch--typical Costa Rican fare of rice, beans, and meat--took some photos and then headed the rest of the way to the border.
This border is much different than the one on the east coast, much busier with people and cars. We spent some time walking around the numerous stalls selling clothes and enough shoes for everyone I know to have five pair. We quickly realized that I was the only extranjera there (non-native)--literally. We saw no other people who weren´t Costa Rican or Panamanian. We found a cabina for the night and headed to a restaurant for a typical Costa Rican meal, this after I realized he doesn´t like pizza.
The next morning we headed to a soda for another meal of rice, beans, and eggs, but I admit I enjoyed every single bite. There was something about being the only foreigner in this town and sitting down at a place where the locals go. I told him I wonder what the people think when they see him with me, but it wasn´t something I worried about. When we left the border, I started wondering how far it was to San Gerardo where my friends Alle and Kevin are living and volunteering. He wasn´t exactly sure but said it was far. I told him I wanted to go and was thrilled when he promptly said, ¨Vamos¨ (Let´s go). When we made the turn toward San Isidro, the biggest town close to San Gerardo, he asked me if I knew San Gerardo, as in, have I ever been there. Well, of course not. Did I know where Alle and Kevin lived? Well, of course not. How are we supposed to find them? I told him San Gerardo is smaller than Silencio and I knew that if we asked anyone in town where they lived, they would know. After all, if they came to Silencio looking for me, they could ask anyone who I was and where I lived and the people would know.
Along the way we stopped to ask for directions several times, including picking up a guy who was waiting on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere waiting for the bus. That´s one thing I love about this country. The people who live here can strike up a conversation with anyone and will put anyone in their car. I told him that would never happen in the States because it´s just too dangerous. But here it´s completely normal. We finally made the road to San Gerardo, but continued to stop and ask for directions--I should mention it was always him asking for directions obviously--and after one wrong turn, we were finally on the road there. As we headed up a narrow gravel road into the mountains, he said, ¨Si, San Gerardo es un pueblo.¨ Ahem, yes, I told you it was a small town. We´ll find them easily.
Two kilometers before San Gerardo, we passed through Canaan where there was clearly some kind of festival. As we drove away from there, he commented that they were probably there. We arrived in San Gerardo and asked in the store where they lived. The woman told us (see, I knew everyone would know) and we headed down a steep, steep slope to the house, where no one was home. We walked next door and were told they they were probably in Canaan at the festival. Why, of course. So we headed back to Canaan and walked around looking for them to no avail. Oh, did I mention we passed a bus on the way and we briefly wondered if they were on the bus? Had lunch in Canaan and he continued to ask after my friends and where they lived.
Back in San Gerardo we headed down the steep slope to the house where the door was open. While I crossed my fingers, he called out, ¨Disculpa.¨ Turns out Kenneth lives in the house, not Kevin. Halfway up the slope while I was feeling dejected, he told me to wait. He headed back down and went to the neighbors again and returned, running up the steep hill, with a smile. The guy had thought he´d said Kenneth, but when Diego said Kevin, the guy had more information.
We continued like this for another 30-45 minutes or so before we finally found people who actually did know where they lived. I kept telling Diego I was so thankful he´s patient and he said, we came a long way to see them, and we´re going to see them. And we did. (The pic is of the three of us in their house.) Turns out they had been at the festival and left around 3, shortly before we arrived. It only took us about 90 minutes to find them once we reached their small town of 200 people. Of course, they were completely surprised, which was really cool. They were disappointed that we couldn´t stay and that they had a dinner party to go to, but I felt my mission was accomplished. I saw them, and we had an adventure along the way. Diego told the story to his brother and sister today how I suggested we go to San Gerardo and halfway there he realized I didn´t even know where we were going. He now knows that´s completely normal for me. And they now all have proof that I´m somewhat crazy, though they´ve suspected it for quite some time already.
So my time in Silencio is almost up. I worked today at the chicken farm again to spend one last day laughing with Coco. I´ve invited virtually everybody I know in Silencio to the albergue tonight to say good-bye. In fact, one of the local guys was just in the Internet cafe here and I told him there´s a party tonight. He already knew. I also walked over to Lango´s house after lunch to say good-bye. He showed me a scorpion he had made from metal and told me if I wanted it, I could have it. My first going away gift--not counting the awesome weekend.
I´m trying not to be sad about leaving. I´ve made the decision to return in February for three months, so the thought of seeing all of them again does make it a lot easier to leave. Nonetheless, I have to say good-bye tonight as all of them will be working when I head out of town tomorrow. I definitely turned this place into a second home with a second mother in Arianna, a second father in Lango, multiple brothers in the friends I´ve made here, another grandfather, lots of uncles, and more friends than I can count with all my fingers and toes.
I know that some will wonder at my decision to return, thinking there´s so much of Central America I could see. Why return to a small town where there is so little to do? My answer is this. When I thought about returning, I thought back to my reason for traveling in the first place. What was my goal? And what I realized is that I´m accomplishing my goals in Silencio. First and foremost, I wanted to be away from home for an extended period of time. Second, I wanted to learn Spanish. Third, I wanted to volunteer. And fourth, I wanted to live with families where I can learn what it´s like to really live here, not just be a tourist. All of these are happening for me in Silencio, and if I´ve also found a second home, then why not return? Like I said in the last blog, there´s something really cool about making memories with the locals that just feels priceless. In fact, when I described it to Diego, I explained the Mastercard commercials and told him these are the types of moments I´m having here.
I am definitely one of those people who worry about staying somewhere because it´s comfortable and being afraid to take risks, and I´ve wondered if that´s why I´m staying. But I also know that right at this moment, the decision to return feels right, and I can´t imagine that spending three more months there next year is going to make me wish I had been anywhere else in the world. Now I just have to figure out how I´m going to afford it, which means tightening my money belt just a bit. I think that will be a bit easier, though, now that I have something tangible to tighten it for.
Tomorrow morning I head back here to Quepos. I plan to spend the day in Manuel Antonio National Park, which I haven´t yet seen, and then Wednesday morning I will travel several hours by bus to San Jose followed by several hours by bus to La Fortuna. There I will do some typical tourist things, like rappelling the waterfalls and seeing Volcano Arenal. I´ll leave there on the 24th to take my flight to Ecuador on Nov 25, the day before Thanksgiving.
The other good thing I have to look forward to is Christmas with a friend. Wendy will be arriving in Quito on December 17 and will stay until the 26th. I´m absolutely delighted that I don´t have to be alone for Christmas and that I´ll have someone to do some fun activities with.
If you read this tonight, be thinking of me and the tear-jerking goodbyes I have to say, which I will soften with some Malibu rum and juice, just enough to enjoy myself but not so much that I don´t remember the evening. This is one night I don´t want to forget.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Doesn´t Get Much Better Than This
This week was awesome. I´ll start with the best part, which was Thursday. By this time I had made friends with two volunteers who had arrived last week, Simone and Farina, and Diego and his friend Dano had invited us to go to the waterfalls at Coopecampesinos. I had seen pictures of the place and knew how beautiful it was, so I was grateful for the opportunity, especially since it was going to take a huge chunk of the day and a lot of walking and both of them had already spent about six hours working that day. We managed to get a ride to the river, which saved us close to a 2-hour walk, and then crossed the river in a cage suspended on cables, which we used to pull ourselves across. Or should I say that Dano used to pull us across. As soon as we let go of the platform, we realized that Juan Carlos, our driver, still had Farina´s camera, so the guys dropped us off and went back for the camera. One of just many generous things they did that day.
We walked for at least an hour, most of it uphill, to arrive at the soda in Coopecampesinos where we paid 8000 colones (about $16) for the five of us to enter. We crossed the most amazing hanging bridge, 40 meters above the ground, with a gorgeous view of the waterfall, before we hiked down to the waterfall. We swam a big, played in the waterfalls, the guys did stupid things as guys will do. It was perfect.
We started the trek back in the rain and were wondering exactly how we were going to make it all the way back considering it was already 4 and it begins to get dark at 5:15. Farina´s flip flop broke shortly after we departed and she walked the rest of the way with no shoes, something I definitely could not have done. Diego offered up his shoes again, but she declined. Crossed back across the river and made the walk back to Santo Domingo right around 5 o´clock. One of the things I love about this place, it´s easy enough to hitch a ride. Diego simply asked a local guy how much it would cost for him to take us back to Silencio: 5000 colones and a 15-minute wait. Totally worth it. Farina made me sing a capella all the way back to Silencio.
It seemed like an absolutely magical day. I don´t know if it´s because I´m getting sentimental about leaving or what, but I´d have to say it was the best day of my trip thus far. I told Diego he gave me a gift that day, but I don´t think he fully understands how much it meant to me, maybe because I don´t have enough words in Spanish to really express it. Saying, ¨me gusta mucho¨ just doesn´t capture the full extent of my feelings. It was really just a special, special day.
This week I worked at the rescue center, but only because I wanted to work with a friend, not because I really wanted to work there. I have to say, though, that it was worth it on Monday because of a funny incident with a monkey. At one location there are three cages of monkeys, and there is a wild monkey that has recently been hanging out there. We sat two bags and a bucket full of food on a bench while we were cleaning cages and taking photos. I looked over to see the monkey walking upright toward the bench while looking in our direction. Before I could get there he had snatched a bag of food and was starting to run away. When I yelled at him, he dropped the bag and fled. I´m still laughing about it because he reminded me of a small child sneaking into the kitchen to steal food from the table, walking in one direction but looking in another to avoid being caught. He later snatched food out of Farina´s hand.
On Friday I ended up not working because both of the places I contemplated working at were full of people. In the afternoon, I had to watch Simone and Farina depart, which was sad, so I cheered myself up by watching the guys butcher a pig. Watching them kill the pig definitely made me forget about the girls. I´d say I´m probably scarred for life for having watched that spectacle. I won´t describe it here because it´s just too graphic and horrifying. I did help scrape some of the hair and skin off, just so I could say I helped. And when you look at the photos of that, know that I´m smiling and laughing not because I´m enjoying it but because I´m in utter disbelief at not only what I´m doing but at the fact that my friend was taking pictures of me. I enjoyed hanging out there and watching, even if it was a bit disgusting, and I´m fascinated by the fact that those guys can consume 2 liters of Cacique while working.
The only downside to this week was the arrival of some volunteers for whom I really don´t care for. They arrived via San Jose where apparently they were living with families who had servants. They definitely aren´t accustomed to the kind of life that is led in Silencio, and they don´t care for the town at all. Rather than embrace the laidback lifestyle, they want to criticize. One of them said this morning that Andres was supposed to be work at 5 this morning but that he wasn´t up when she left the house, and the other one laughed that he meant 5 in the afternoon because it gets dark 5 minutes after that. Considering that Andres worked 12 hours yesterday butchering 5 hogs, I was more than a little annoyed. I tried to remind them that a) life here is different and you have to learn to not need entertainment 24-7, and b) that the work here is often hard. For instance, yesterday the guys working in the palm trees had to work with barillas (a long metal pole with a scythe on the end) that were extended to 8 meters. I´d say a few hours of that is a full days´work. Just a differing of opinions, I suppose, but I´m glad to see that two of them will be departing Monday, a week earlier than they planned.
This week I´m sure I´m going to be a little more than sentimental as it´s my last full week. But I´m consoling myself with the prospect of returning in January or February. I´m doing now what I came to do--learn Spanish and live the life of a local. I´m sure it´s possible I could also find that elsewhere in Latin America, but if I´ve already found it here, then why not return to it. This ¨vacation¨ is definitely different from others. When I went to Australia, it was a constant adventure with new places to see every day. I came to Costa Rica partly because I wanted some of that adventure, like the canopy tours and the whitewater rafting, and while there´s still a part of me that thinks that will be fun, I also know that what I´m going to remember most about this trip isn´t going to be the tourist attractions, it´s going to be my daily interactions with the people who live and breathe this air every day. Like walking across a hanging bridge with friends who live here, not a tourist guide. Like teasing Diego in Spanish about the reason his back is hurting. Like accepting a bracelet that David made for me. Like sharing french fries with mayonnaise and ketchup as if it´s the best food we´ve ever eaten.
Hasta la proxima semana . . .
We walked for at least an hour, most of it uphill, to arrive at the soda in Coopecampesinos where we paid 8000 colones (about $16) for the five of us to enter. We crossed the most amazing hanging bridge, 40 meters above the ground, with a gorgeous view of the waterfall, before we hiked down to the waterfall. We swam a big, played in the waterfalls, the guys did stupid things as guys will do. It was perfect.
We started the trek back in the rain and were wondering exactly how we were going to make it all the way back considering it was already 4 and it begins to get dark at 5:15. Farina´s flip flop broke shortly after we departed and she walked the rest of the way with no shoes, something I definitely could not have done. Diego offered up his shoes again, but she declined. Crossed back across the river and made the walk back to Santo Domingo right around 5 o´clock. One of the things I love about this place, it´s easy enough to hitch a ride. Diego simply asked a local guy how much it would cost for him to take us back to Silencio: 5000 colones and a 15-minute wait. Totally worth it. Farina made me sing a capella all the way back to Silencio.
It seemed like an absolutely magical day. I don´t know if it´s because I´m getting sentimental about leaving or what, but I´d have to say it was the best day of my trip thus far. I told Diego he gave me a gift that day, but I don´t think he fully understands how much it meant to me, maybe because I don´t have enough words in Spanish to really express it. Saying, ¨me gusta mucho¨ just doesn´t capture the full extent of my feelings. It was really just a special, special day.
This week I worked at the rescue center, but only because I wanted to work with a friend, not because I really wanted to work there. I have to say, though, that it was worth it on Monday because of a funny incident with a monkey. At one location there are three cages of monkeys, and there is a wild monkey that has recently been hanging out there. We sat two bags and a bucket full of food on a bench while we were cleaning cages and taking photos. I looked over to see the monkey walking upright toward the bench while looking in our direction. Before I could get there he had snatched a bag of food and was starting to run away. When I yelled at him, he dropped the bag and fled. I´m still laughing about it because he reminded me of a small child sneaking into the kitchen to steal food from the table, walking in one direction but looking in another to avoid being caught. He later snatched food out of Farina´s hand.
On Friday I ended up not working because both of the places I contemplated working at were full of people. In the afternoon, I had to watch Simone and Farina depart, which was sad, so I cheered myself up by watching the guys butcher a pig. Watching them kill the pig definitely made me forget about the girls. I´d say I´m probably scarred for life for having watched that spectacle. I won´t describe it here because it´s just too graphic and horrifying. I did help scrape some of the hair and skin off, just so I could say I helped. And when you look at the photos of that, know that I´m smiling and laughing not because I´m enjoying it but because I´m in utter disbelief at not only what I´m doing but at the fact that my friend was taking pictures of me. I enjoyed hanging out there and watching, even if it was a bit disgusting, and I´m fascinated by the fact that those guys can consume 2 liters of Cacique while working.
The only downside to this week was the arrival of some volunteers for whom I really don´t care for. They arrived via San Jose where apparently they were living with families who had servants. They definitely aren´t accustomed to the kind of life that is led in Silencio, and they don´t care for the town at all. Rather than embrace the laidback lifestyle, they want to criticize. One of them said this morning that Andres was supposed to be work at 5 this morning but that he wasn´t up when she left the house, and the other one laughed that he meant 5 in the afternoon because it gets dark 5 minutes after that. Considering that Andres worked 12 hours yesterday butchering 5 hogs, I was more than a little annoyed. I tried to remind them that a) life here is different and you have to learn to not need entertainment 24-7, and b) that the work here is often hard. For instance, yesterday the guys working in the palm trees had to work with barillas (a long metal pole with a scythe on the end) that were extended to 8 meters. I´d say a few hours of that is a full days´work. Just a differing of opinions, I suppose, but I´m glad to see that two of them will be departing Monday, a week earlier than they planned.
This week I´m sure I´m going to be a little more than sentimental as it´s my last full week. But I´m consoling myself with the prospect of returning in January or February. I´m doing now what I came to do--learn Spanish and live the life of a local. I´m sure it´s possible I could also find that elsewhere in Latin America, but if I´ve already found it here, then why not return to it. This ¨vacation¨ is definitely different from others. When I went to Australia, it was a constant adventure with new places to see every day. I came to Costa Rica partly because I wanted some of that adventure, like the canopy tours and the whitewater rafting, and while there´s still a part of me that thinks that will be fun, I also know that what I´m going to remember most about this trip isn´t going to be the tourist attractions, it´s going to be my daily interactions with the people who live and breathe this air every day. Like walking across a hanging bridge with friends who live here, not a tourist guide. Like teasing Diego in Spanish about the reason his back is hurting. Like accepting a bracelet that David made for me. Like sharing french fries with mayonnaise and ketchup as if it´s the best food we´ve ever eaten.
Hasta la proxima semana . . .
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