Live - Costa Rica - This is it!

One more week! I am starting to mentally prepare myself for the cold since I heard that it is still snowing! That is just wrong. This weekend was a quiet one, I just hung around San Jose. However, I did decide to go to this huge park in San Jose called La Sabana where they have soccer fields, basketball courts, an artificial lake, running trails, and really awesome rainbow eucalyptus trees! I knew it was far but I just looked it up on google maps and I walked 20k round trip yesterday. No wonder I am completely exhausted! Here are some photos from yesterday and a couple of randoms from the past week.

This does not look safe for the horse. The guys driving the truck were pretty please that I was taking a photo of them though.

Rainbow Eucalyptus (or so I was told)

The artificial lake at the park. There were also people in paddleboats!

The beloved National Stadium. This is where, as you might guess, all the big soccer games are held. Soccer is definitely king here.

What used to be the old airport a loooooooooooooooong time ago. Now it is an art museum.

Not even little old Costa Rica is safe from the power of U.S. fast food. From left to right: Taco Bell, KFC, McDonalds, Wendy's, Quiznos, and Teriyaki Experience. Wow, talk about one stop shopping.

A farmer's market that I just happened to see as I was starting my journey to La Sabana.

This is not a regulation curb. I guess they don't want you to cross the street.



The sugar company is trying to convince you that should eat sugar. Top left: sugar doesn't cause diabetes. some of the causes are obesity, genetics, and poor diet. Top Right: essential says sugar makes things taste good. Bottom Left: sugar contains vitamin A which promotes good vision, and helps in the maintenance of good bones, skin, and teeth. Bottom Right: Energy - sugar gives energy to our bodies which is used to make organs function, such as the brain and muscles. (I am aware that muscles aren't an organ, I am just the translator) There is also another packet that isn't listed here that says Healthy - Sugar doesn't make you fat, inactivity and poor diet do. A normal daily calorie intake is 2000 calories, this packet of sugar is only 20.
Wow, this is very interesting manipulation of the facts. I hope people here don't fall for it.

Yesterday they were celebrating life in general in the city centre with all kinds of activities, and posters with positive thoughts on them. These guys were promoting no smoking. The guy on the left had grey lungs painted on his chest, the one on the right had healthy pink lungs and the guy in the middle had the point of their demonstration written on him. People were definitely paying attention! Although, that lady on the left looks kind of horrified. Maybe that was part of the point!

Travel/Live - Costa Rica - Monteverde

This past weekend was my last big trip and it was the one I was most looking forward to as well. I went to the mountains of Monteverde where they have lots of coffee, zip lining, and trees! It was beautiful there and the small town of Santa Elena was extremely charming! It was about a 4 hour bus ride but the last 16km approaching Santa Elena were on a winding dirt road so we were moving pretty slowly. I went with a friend who is working at the same project as me and we stayed at a nice hostel and met some other girls who were also volunteers! On Saturday I went on my own to go zip lining through the forest and it was fantastic! I met a couple from D.C. who moved their family to Costa Rica for the year while the husband was on sabbatical. I thought that was amazing and their kids (4, 6, 8) are still young enough that they would feel like they were being dragged away from their already established lives. They were super nice, and the husband even went bungee jumping! The scenery was beautiful and although there was some uphill walking between the lines I didn't care because the air was nice and clean! The very last line was the "superman" where you are laying face down going along the cable, looking at a huge valley below. The cable was about 1 km long, so you get to enjoying it quite a bit. After that I had to wait a while and then I got to see 2 people go bungee jumping. This particular jump is the highest in Latin America. I wasn't prepared to jump but I did want to do the huge Tarzan swing which happens from the same point as the bungee. Instead of jumping you are attached to a rope that gets pulled tight and then they lower you out of the little car that you are sitting in and then they drop you! You free fall for a little bit and then the rope catches you are you start swinging! It was terrifying before I fell but then it was so fun! I have a video and photos from the zip lining so I will try and upload at some point.

Later that day I went on a tour of a coffee, sugar cane, and cocoa plantation. I elected to take the tour in Spanish and was happy with how much I understood. I was in a group with for people from Spain. I have decided that I like the accent here better than in Spain. My Spanish teacher told me that there was some reasearch done and the nicest sounding Spanish is actually found in Colombia! Anyway, I got to learn about the coffee process, how they grow and harvest the sugar cane, and how the cocoa beans go from fresh to ground. After lots of samples my stomach was not impressed, but it was definitely a once in a lifetime experience so I wasn't too worried about it.

On Sunday I went to mass, and my friend actually elected to come with me although she is not a practicing Catholic nor can she understand Spanish very well. Then we went to the hollowed out tree in the forest that required us to walk up a very steep hill. We went with the brother of the hostel owner and the three other volunteers that we had met. It was beautiful and the forest was very serene. After that we had some lunch and caught the bus back to San Jose. There was some rain which I would assume was the cause of the accident we passed so the trip lasted about 5 hours. The worst part was they double booked some seats so the aisle was completely full of people, either sitting or standing. We also met two more volunteers on the bus that were also doing construction but were with a different organization and a different city. They are actually building a house, which sounded awesome!

We changed projects this week, so I now have a few blisters from chiseling some concrete that was flaking off. Apparently the kids at the day care were eating it… not good. I have been told we are going to do some tiling, so I am really excited to see how that goes; I will take photos!

Going out on the tram; getting ready to drop

The view from the observation deck!

The old school way of peeling coffee beans

The view from the coffee plantation

Coffee Plants

Unpeeled versus peeled beans. This particular farms sells most of its beans in the green form. This variety is Arabica.

Roasted coffee beans

A cocoa plant

The cocoa pod

Drying out the cocoa beans inside banana leaves so they don't take on the flavour of the surrounding air.

Cocoa beans



Making fudge from pure cane syrup; it didn't taste good

Turning the machine that extracts the juice from the sugar cane

A very cool hollowed out tree. If I'm not mistaken I heard it being called a ficus tree.

Travel - Costa Rica - Manuel Antonio National Park

On Friday I survived a series of unfortunate events that got me to Manuel Antonio! Firstly, there was an accident on the highway so the bus sat still for over an hour. I think it is worth mentioning that these buses don't have air conditioning, it was 31 Celsius, the bus was full, and I was sitting right at the front so I had no window to stick my head out of. Then the people going to Manuel Antonio (the last stop) had to get off the bus and onto a different one. I am guessing this was because we were so late and he probably had another trip to do. The new bus driver was very nice though. However, I had no idea what I was looking for so I figured I would wait until the last stop and then take a cab. Turns out that wasn't how it was meant to go; that would have been too easy! I told the bus driver where I was staying and he said he hadn't hear of it so he said I could get off the bus and ask the police officer that was standing right there and that he could drive me backward if I needed. So I went and asked and no one seemed to know where it was. Eventually I realized I was saying National Pacific Suites instead of Natural Pacific Suites. I don't know if that was why they hadn't heard of it (my version still sounds pretty similar) of if it is because the hotel is off the main stretch. Anyway, a taxi driver said he knew where it was, but it was going to cost $8 to get there. My bus ticket, that was a 3.5 hour drive, was less than $10; what a rip off! So I asked if it was safe to walk, and I was assured that I would be fine. So I got back no the bus and the bus driver dropped me off at the top of the street. Unfortunately he couldn't drive me down because the road was too narrow. So I start my stroll down this seemingly harmless street. The walk was all downhill so that was good, but it was really dark where there were no lamp posts. Luckily I had a flashlight!? That was a complete fluke because I didn't pack it intentionally. They told me it was about a mile so I kind of knew that after 15 minutes I might not have been going to the right place. So I stopped to ask. The concierge at the hotel told me that she thought it might be the hotel next door because they had recently changed their name. So I went next door and that hotel was huge so I got lost trying to find it. Eventually I found the gate attendant and through my crying I managed to tell him I was lost, and he proceeded to direct me to reception. Well! This lady was AMAZING! She saw I was really upset and she told to me sit down and that she would be happy to help me. She even got me a glass of water and asked if I wanted an iced tea! Part of me just wanted to give up and stay there, but the place I had reserved already had my credit card information. I told her where I was staying and that no one knew where it was and that the lady next door thought it was here. It wasn't, but she looked it up for me and tryed to figure out where it was. This where I learned I was saying National instead of Natural. Then she called to confirmed that is where I had the reservation and spoke to the concierge there, who said he had been waiting. After she hung up she told me that she would call me a cab and that is would cost about $10. Oh brother! It was only 7:30ish so I said I would walk. She gave me a map and carefully explained where to go, and I was on my way. So now I was walking UPHILL and I started crying which led me to start hyperventilating. Yup. I thought that I would pass out and fall down the cliff next to me so I started breathing like in the movies when women are giving birth. It worked... kind of. So I got back to the top of the hill (where I started) and then went the correct direction but for some reason I second guessed myself and turned around. Oops. So after 10 minutes of walking I stopped to ask, and that's when I found out I was going the wrong way... again. So I started back and I stopped one more time just to make sure, and once I knew I was going the right way I continued on. So I had to turn off the main road and it got kind of strange because it was all residential and people were just hanging out on the street, clearly doing so to make me nervous. I FINALLY got where I was going and proceeded to take out my frusterations on the concierge. After I had a shower I had to go down and apologize because I felt really guilty. It wasn't his fault that I got lost! He was nice about it and said he understood I had had a bad night. Then I started watching Pleham 123 because it was in English. It was an odd movie; I don't recommend you watch it. Then I couldn't sleep. I think it was a combination of guilt for lashing out at the concierge, the noise from the A/C, and the change in bed. But... when I woke up I got to have pancakes for breakfast! They were pretty good, and a nice change from all the eggs I have been eating! I had booked a tour guide to take me though the park and I got pick up by a cab at 7:45. When I met up with my group there was a lady from Toronto, and a really funny couple from Oregon. The wife said that her husband's off colour humour was due to the lack of entertaining things to do in Oregon. I thought everyone was really nice! My tour guide was amazing! I found him through another tour guide that has great reviews on Trip Advisor but was already booked. All the tour guides seemed to know each other and helped each other out. One would see something and the other guides would show their group as well. We saw some cool animals and had a few laughs. My drama from the night before was long forgotten. After the tour, the guide brought me back to where I was staying and I had a quick shower before having to check out. My cleanliness was short lived because it was seriously hot, so I started sweating as soon as I walked out of my air conditioned room! I went to a small cafe for lunch where I had the best veggie wrap of my entire life! I don't even know exactly what was in it, but I could have eaten another one without even thinking about it! It had lettuce, grilled veggies and a spicy hummus. I am drooling just thinking about it. At that point it was about 1:30 and my bus wasn't leaving until 5, so I took the bus down to the beach and walked around for a while. I ended up walking past a store where someone was trying to scare away monkeys with a broom. That was a fail. There were probably 6 monkeys having a good ole' time, and that broom wasn't going to spoil it for them! So I stood there, looking up, for about 5 minutes while people started to collect around me to get a look at the crazy monkeys! Once the heat started to get to be too much I went to get ice cream to cool down. I had blackberry gelato and sat directly under a ceiling fan... the best 2 dollars I spent all day (apart from the money I paid for my FANTASTIC lunch of course). Eventually 5 rolled around and after a few random conversations with some locals I said goodbye to Manuel Antonio and hello to a very uncomfortable bus ride back to San Jose.

I have no idea how the tour guides see so much when everything is so well hidden. These close ups were taken through a scope.

This bird makes its nest in the ground!

Our first sloth sighting of the day! A mom with her baby.

A howler monkey doing what it is named for!

My awesome guide!

Another sloth and a way better photo!

A Jesus Christ lizard. Remember, the ones that can walk on water!?

 

Look at the cute monkey looking over the edge!

These were the monkeys I saw when walking around outside of the park.

Next weekend is time for ziplining!

Live - Costa Rica - Semana Santa

So Holy Week was packed full of stuff! I worked from Monday to Wednesday. On Thursday I went with my roommate to a butterfly farm. They breed butterflies for exportation. It was beautiful! Did you know butterflies on live for around 7 days!?

Monarch

Morpho (Extra cool because the outside of its wings are camouflage and the inside are blue!)



Adam's Rib - This grows at the top of the forest and lets the light through its hole.

 

 

Eating mangos and bananas

"Paper" flowers

It was an ombre flower!

Then on Friday, I went to the Passion procession downtown. It was a serious spectacle! The archbishop was there and lots of tv cameras. Apparently I was on TV, my host grandma saw me.

Check out this bike officer's protective gear. Safety first!

This is the Metropolitan Church of San Jose

Saturday I went to the Easter Vigil mass at the church near where I live and it was beautiful! They built a big bonfire in the middle of the street and everyone lit their candles and we processed into the dark church. It looked so amazing! I'm not going to lie, the mass was long, but it was worth it.

Sunday I ate myself sick with Easter treats. Literally sick. Not good. I now know you should never eat that many jellybeans at one time! Just take my word for it... don't do it.

Today it was back to work! However as I was walking to Spanish class it started to pour! I was completely soaked by the time I had walked down the hill. Luckily I am friends with the lady who owns the laundry mat near Maximo and she put my pants in the dryer so I wouldn't have to sit in them for two hours. Off to class now!