Adventures with Dan

6/7/09

As promised, it has been an action-packed and fun-filled week. Before the adventure with Dan even began last Friday, I spent the afternoon at the local elementary school “observing” English classes so I could get a better sense of how they are taught if I am going to help the kids. Or at least this is what I had explained to the teacher beforehand. But he decided it was an opportunity for me to teach the English classes, so I had to come up with some activities on the spot, including telling an American legend in Spanish and translating. The only legends that came to mind were Paul Bunion and Johnny Appleseed, and I realized I didn’t actually know the story of either, so I went with Goldi-locks and the Three Bears, which about halfway through I realized I also didn’t know how it ended. I had the bears come home and eat Goldilocks, but that didn’t seem quite right. Anyways, that is now the Costa Rican version of the fairytale…Friday night I was invited to Christian families night at home. My host parents hosted four other families and their kids for a biweekly discussion of an important issue in family life. This week was money management. It started with some Bible reading of key passages that discuss saving and giving, and then we got to going around in a circle and answering questions about who should make the big decisions regarding spending in a household. Let’s just say the answers and reasoning were a little different than I would expect to hear back at home, but it made for a very interesting discussion.

Saturday I passed the time helping a local entrepreneur sell her jam to a visiting student group, taking a long hike into the mountains, and going to the mall with the other volunteers to see Up in Spanish, most of which I actually understood. Sunday morning there was a parade in town that everyone marched through with their animals. It was mostly horses and cows, but my family and I did, indeed, join the parade with Luna, our three month old toy poodle. And she was wearing a ribbon in her hair.

Then it was finally time to pick up my visitor, and the real fun began. Dan survived the three hour bus ride through the Mountain of Death (whose name I did not inform him of until after the trip), and we were reunited in the big city of San Isidro. We spent our first night at a nearby mountain lodge, where we were the only guests and had our own personal river to swim in, fruit grove to pick from, array of hammocks to lie in, and dining room to be served in (we decided the ratio of staff to guests was about 3 to 1, though they didn’t seem to be working too hard). The next morning we decided to try one of the activities offered in the hotel booklet, a hike through a cloud forest reserve and a dip in the natural hot springs. Our cab driver, Carlos, picked us up at 8 and we negotiated a price for the trip ahead of time. He did NOT know what he was getting himself into. We headed down the road that leads to Chirripo, the tallest mountain in Costa Rica. I realized we could be passing through Canaan, the site of another Tico 19 CED Peace Corps volunteer, and what do you know she is the first person I see as we arrive at the soccer field. So we stopped to say hi and see her new home and then made plans to meet in a couple hours at the hot springs. Then Carlos took us on our way to Coudbrige, the reserve, which proved more elusive than the hotel suggested. It was WAY up in the mountains off a road that a taxi had no business being on (luckily his was an SUV) and there were only two tiny signs on the whole trip pointing us toward the reserve. So when we finally arrived, Carlos knew he wasn’t going to have time to go back into town and do any more business, which was the original plan, so he joined us for the hike. It turned out to not be awkward at all. He was pleasant company, knew a lot about nature, and spoke some English because he had lived in New Jersey a couple of years driving a garbage truck. The big question he stumped us with was whether there is a difference between the words “trash” and “garbage” in English. Thoughts? After seeing some waterfalls and very old trees, we headed back and met Adrienne at the hot springs, which were not so refreshing after a sweaty hike, but cool that they are natural I guess. Then it was back to town for a late pizza lunch before heading up to Quebradas where my third family that Dan has had to meet was anxiously awaiting our arrival.

Our time in Quebradas was wonderful. My family was excited to have a visitor and did their best to make Dan feel comfortable despite the language barrier. I gave him my room, Winnie the Pooh comforter included, and slept in Nazareth’s room while he was here. He helped me teach my English class on Monday night, and Tuesday he accompanied me on the long trek up to FUDEBIOL for a day of cleaning, sandpapering, and painting with cold rice and beans for lunch. The best part was that we decided to spend the night up there, so when everyone left after English class in the pouring rain, it was just the two of us surrounded by a LOT of nature. We cooked spaghetti for dinner after the slight setback of finding a giant toad in the kitchen and realizing there was no practical way to get rid of him. We ate by candlelight under a tin roof and fell asleep (kind of) to the sounds of a lot of rain and a lot of living creatures.

Wednesday morning we had coffee with Jesus before heading back down for a recycling charla at the school which ended up not happening because the kids were not in class for no apparent reason, so it ended up being a low key day. I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for the family and for my first English office hours, which three people showed up to. Nonetheless, all the cookies were gone before dinner. I had an artesan group meeting that evening, and Dan wisely decided to pass on trekking 15 minutes through the rain to a meeting that only three other people showed up to, so I left him at home to have family dinner without me, and apparently there was enough communication to get by, much of which centered on Michael Jackson, everyone’s favorite topic in this country.

Thursday morning began our real vacation. We took the bus to Uvita, a beach town about two hours down the coast. We got off at the tourist center and what do you know but we run into another Peace Corps volunteer from Tico 17 who is living there. She got us a cab to our hotel as well as a discount on a boat trip we took Friday. EVERYone we met for the rest of the trip asked if I knew Kirsty. Small, small country…We arrived at our eco-lodge, La Cusinga, and it was more beautiful than I had even imagined from the website. All the wood is this heavy, sleek-looking local teak and every structure consists of teak and stones. Very simple and natural but beautiful. From just about every spot in the hotel, including our room, you can see the bay, which is met at the shore by rainforest. The lodge is nestled up against Mario Ballena national park, so the entire coastline is undeveloped. There were cool-looking birds and butterflies right outside our back porch, and we could hear some crazy howler monkeys in the forest, though they refused to show their faces. We hiked down about 15 minutes to what appeared to be our own private beach, except for the hundreds of thousands of little crabs scurrying around. But once we picked a spot on the sand they seemed to leave us alone. The ocean was clean and clear and warm, and everything was pretty perfect for about a half an hour before the rain started. We hurried back to our room and escaped the downpour that soon followed. At dinner we met David, the hotel chef who buys all his ingredients fresh and organic. He served us chilled carrot ginger soup, red snapper caught that morning with some delicious sauce, and the most delicious chocolate cake and home made cacao ice cream. The man is living proof that healthy, delicious food can indeed be prepared from the ingredients available in this country. Maybe he can come to Quebradas and give some lessons…

Friday morning we went on a boat and snorkeling tour. We saw some beautiful coastline but it got a little tiresome as our driver went further and further out into the open water searching for the dolphins we were promised to see. Their company, after all, was called Dolphin Tour. We had pretty much given up and were more than ready to be back on shore when he started speeding up and we found ourselves in the middle of a pack of spotted dolphins who started showing off for us, coming right up to the boat and jumping around and swimming under the boat and then popping up again. It was pretty cool. In the afternoon I got a tour of the organic garden and compost they do at the hotel as I am searching for ideas for my own environmental projects in Quebradas. My conclusion is that it is pretty complicated and my best bet is to partner with someone who already knows what they’re doing. Then Dan and I checked out some of the other hotel trails, one of which led to a natural swimming whole. On our way, we ran into a bunch of monkeys snacking in the trees. They, too, are playful creatures that did not seem to be afraid of us. We attempted to catch the rumored amazing sunset over the bay, but unfortunately it was pretty cloudy and didn’t amount to much. Dinner was fresh sea shrimp and mandarin cake with berry ice cream. Didn’t match up to the night before, but no complaints here.

Saturday we took one last hike and dip in the ocean and then packed up and headed into town, where we ate lunch at a local soda run by a Colombian woman before boarding the bus back to San Isidro, only to board another bus back to San Jose. I thought we had gotten pretty lucky to make the next bus because sometimes they are full, until we realized we had the very last seats in the back of the bus next to a window that didn’t open and a family with a pregnant mother who spent the first half of the trip throwing up in a bag. Not the highlight of the vacation, but it could have been worse. We got to San Jose by 7:30 and arrived at our fancy hotel in time for an 8:30 4th of July dinner. Everyone there spoke English and most of the guests seemed to be American, but there were no fireworks or red, white and blue (which happen to be Costa Rican colors as well). But it was a lovely final evening, though sad to know it was our last together for a while. The next morning we were off before 6 for Dan to make is 8 am flight and I caught a bus back to San Isidro.

Now it’s back to “work” for me. After being away for a few days and speaking mostly English and getting to spend every second with Dan, I am feeling a little down and lost, but I know I will get back on track and things will keep moving, slowly but surely. And if I have the opportunity every once in a while to get away and go on adventures like that, I’m sure I will be just fine.