Getting back in the groove

It was a wonderful and rejuvenating trip home for Thanksgiving. Ten days of family and friends, good food, warm water, my own bed, and getting to wear scarves and boots for the first time in 20 months sent me back to Costa Rica sad as always to say goodbye but also re-enthused to enjoy the final months of my service.

It is still not full-fledged summer like it should be here in December, but the major rains have halted and the roads are no longer a muddy mess, though there are a lot of new potholes. I received a warm welcome back from community members, especially those who I brought special-requested items from the United States, which included bird-watching binoculars, trail mix and Victoria’s Secret scented lotion. They were not, however, as enthusiastic about my new haircut (10 inches off my ponytail to make the upcoming summer heat more bearable), as long hair is kind of a rule for young women here, no matter what the weather is like.

Of course when I went to the school for what was supposed to be my last day of environmental education of the year, it turned out students were already out for winter break, even though it was the end of November and school doesn’t officially close until December 17. So Jacqueline, a British volunteer in Quebradas for a few months, and I ended up closing up the garden ourselves and bringing home some good-looking organic tomatoes and radishes. I was mostly disappointed because while I was home in the U.S., I had a chance to visit the Quebradas 5th graders pen pals at the Gabriela Charter School, and they sent them some great letters and made a video that I know the Quebradas kids will love, but it will just have to wait until their end of the year party next week.

Last Saturday, I spend the morning going door to door with the Scouts collecting money for the Children’s Hospital in San José through their annual Teleton, and I was pleasantly surprised by how generous people were. I think the Scouts doing a visual community service activity was good PR for the group, as we got lots of parents asking how their kids could participate. That afternoon, I went over to my friend Glenda’s house for a Tica makeover before her brother Bryan’s wedding. She went all out, straightening my hair and giving me a little poof in front, lip liner and heavy gloss, shimmery eye shadow and blush. Not exactly my style, but I got the surprised looks I was hoping for from people who have only seen me in my workout clothes and jeans, and people don’t me I didn’t look gringa, which I guess was a compliment.

The wedding was at a church in San Isidro, but it turned out to just be a regular mass, during which the priest married two couples, one of which was Bryan and Dayanna, who was in a full-out bridal gown. It was basically just their close family and friends and then a bunch of people there for regular Saturday mass, which I wasn’t expecting, but it was a nice ceremony and afterwards everyone went back to Bryan’s family’s house for a small party. The musical entertainment was the Quebradas school music teacher, and food was cooked and served by the family. Some new traditions I observed/participated in included: before the bride and groom exchange rings, they exchange a packet of 13 coins to symbolize a prosperous marriage; everyone threw rice at the bride and groom when they entered the party; after the bride and groom do their dance and their dance with their parents, it is a free-for-all but anyone who wants to dance with the bride or groom has to pin a 1000-colones or higher bill on their suit/dress.

On Sunday evening, I had my second annual Quebradas Chanukah party with some local PCV’s, where I got to use the beautiful menorah that Jarred and Morgan had gotten welded for me last year from a local artisan in their community. It was a fun time, and I think the latkes were better than last year. We had Chamisa’s homemade applesauce and natilla (kind of a watery sour cream) as garnish, and I couldn’t find a dreidle but we did play travel Scattergories.

This week since there were no classes and the kids are all just watching TV at home, I decided to offer a mini Junior Achievement course designed for 5th graders that goes over the basics of how to organize a business. I got 10 kids to sign up, and the great thing is that they are all kids I know and who actually want to be there, so the class has been fun to teach and easy to manage. They all seemed to enjoy the course, and it was a good thing to get me back in the rhythm of work here.

I also gave a more adult-themed charla this week to some teenagers in Quebradas. In honor of National AIDS day on December 1, Morgan organized a presentation on AIDS awareness and prevention. Through a grant she secured for six PCV communities in the region, the deal is that if we could get six or more kids to listen to the charla, they get to play in a soccer tournament next week at the Polideportivo in San Isidro, lunch, ball and uniforms included. I got seven kids to show up, two guys and five girls, and they actually behaved more maturely than I expected and asked questions and seemed curious about the theme. The highlight was getting to do the condom on the banana demonstration, which until then I had only seen in movies. Of course that entailed having to buy condoms from the local pulpería owner who is also a student in my English class. I awkwardly explained to him the reason, but I think he bought it, as he even offered to be the model if we needed one…

This weekend there are big community parties and a family ranch off the main road in Quebradas, and the Scouts are in charge of preparing and selling food, which is a big deal because we could make a lot of money from it, but it’s also a big responsibility. Since I have nowhere near what it takes to actually work the kitchen under such pressure (a job only for the very experienced housewives), I will be helping out with the bingo and general logistics of setup and cleanup. On Saturday night is the annual FUDEBIOL Christmas dinner, another rare chance to dress up in Quebradas, but I think I will do my own makeup this time…

P.S. Pìctures to come when I have a faster Internet connection

Blah

After my triumphant blogpost last month, I have been hesitant to post again, as little of note has happened since then, hence the stark contrast in titles. I guess I knew my high point wouldn’t last forever, but while I’m up I tend to forget about all those times I’ve been down during this roller coaster experience, and then I am harshly reminded.

The past few weeks have been kind of a bummer, due mostly to the horrible weather. I have not really minded the seven-month long rainy season in Costa Rica because, at least where I live, it tends to be gloriously sunny and hot every morning, so by 2pm it’s not that big of a deal when it starts to rain. BUT, due to a “cold front,” it began to rain first thing in the morning two Tuesdays ago and has hardly stopped since.

Fortunately, the rains caused no serious damage in Quebradas. Everyone’s homes are still in one piece and nobody was hurt. But community life as I know it pretty much came to a halt. All meetings and activities were cancelled (except for my English class, the only thing I had control over…). School was out for three days, even though most of the students and teachers live in the community. Homes whose doors were shut tight and neighbors who would always greet me in the street were closed up inside. Peace Corps Volunteers across the country were put on emergency alert and were not allowed to leave our communities, which most Volunteers couldn’t do even if they wanted to because roads everywhere were closed due to landslides. There was really NOTHING to do.

Not seeing the sun or being able to go outside or socialize for so many days straight got me pretty down, and I finally cracked and went for a run one morning in the pouring rain. Now all the bus drivers think I’m officially crazy. Other than that, I did lots of reading and dvd-watching, which was nice for a couple of days, but the novelty wore off fast.

The most disappointing part of all was that this week, a group of new Peace Corps trainees were scheduled to visit Quebradas for five days for Tech Week, just like I visited Derek’s site in Guanacaste during my Tech Week when I was but a wee trainee. All the ladies in Quebradas were really excited to host them in their homes, and I had lots of fun activities planned and was looking forward to getting to know them and show off my work. Even though the roads had reopened, the trip was cancelled for security reasons.

Things have started to clear up the past few days, and the sun has even peaked out from behind the clouds the past few mornings. The Scouts meetings were back on this weekend, and I had my final Junior Achievement class at FUDEBIOL, where I invited all the participants for a pot-luck lunch. Despite the less-than-ideal weather, it was really fun. Some of the female students brought their kids, who ran around and got muddy on the trails. Everyone shared something about their experience in the course, and my heart was warmed, if not my shivering exterior, by all the positive things they had to say. More than any group I have worked with in my time here, these guys really took advantage of what I was offering and worked super hard and I think that’s why they got so much out of it. Some of them are talking about continuing with the business at least through Christmas to sell gift packages for the holidays. Unfortunately, the final awards ceremony was rescheduled for when I will already be back in the US, but I have a good feeling that they may win something.

And yes, the most exciting news is that I will be back in the US in three days! It has been 14 months, and I am SO ready to go home and sleep in my own bed and hang out with family and friends and eat turkey and all sorts of other delicious foods that I have missed. This trip couldn’t have come at a better time, and I hope that I return refreshed and inspired to enjoy my last five months here and that summer finally comes!

Euphoria (10/22)

Team Eco-Animos

The PCV's and our products

Mother-daughter dance group (don't get any ideas, mom...)

Swearing-in of the socios

Beautiful view, beautiful people

It is 10:40 pm and I have to get up in less than five hours to take a bus to San José, but I want to remember one of my biggest highs since I’ve been here. Tonight we inaugurated the Quebradas Community Credit Enterprise, and after six months of trainings and a few weeks of planning, during all of which I was unsure we could really pull this off, it was a beautiful event. Everything came together at the last minute, as things tend to do here, and we made it work. There was no stereo, so we put the microphone up to my computer as three ladies performed a folk dance with their children. Don Gilberth’s motivational video wouldn’t function, so he just decided to wing it and began drawing fantastic metaphors between the construction of the first road in Pérez Zeledón and building our CCE in Quebradas. A very well-known and loved man in the community died on Wednesday and his funeral fell at the same time as our activity, as well as the school’s bingo fundraiser, so there was the most traffic I’ve ever seen in the center of Quebradas. But everyone still showed up, and afterwards they went to pray, play bingo, or next door to the bar, in my case. There were tamales and gallos for all, we had a lovely passing of the torch ceremony accompanied by Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the violin by a nine-year-old investor, and somehow we were able to clean up in less than half an hour and everyone went home content. It is these rare moments in my Peace Corps experience that make me so happy and so sure I am in the right place.

10/24

I was not as happy when my alarm went off at 3:30 am the next morning, or when the taxi I was sharing with one of my students showed up at 3:31 and I had about four minutes to get ready. But before 4 am I was on a bus with 22 Junior Achievers on our way to San José for the product fair. We spent the entire day at the Plaza del Sol mall selling our shampoo, bath gel and aromatic candle packages amongst many other stands of students participating in the program throughout the country selling everything from candy to computer cases to car servicing in the parking lot. It was a pretty impressive production and of course I am biased but I think my group did great. Their stand looked really good and they were very professional in explaining and selling our product. There were eight judges walking around doing interviews and taking notes, and then just people passing through the mall whose attention they caught. They didn’t sell as much as they were hoping, and it was a very long and exhausting day that involved a lot of standing around, but I think it was a really good learning experience and everyone left seeming motivated and satisfied. We have four more weeks of the course, which entails selling all our leftover product, liquidating the company, and going to the closing ceremony where prizes are awarded to the best micro-enterprises and entrepreneurs.

Workwise, this was definitely one of my most fulfilling 24 hours as a Peace Corps Volunteers. Two of my big projects came to a head at once, and it was a bit overwhelming but people’s positive reactions to both our ECC inauguration and the project fair made me feel very satisfied and proud of what I have accomplished and helped other people accomplish in the past few months.

Rewinding a week, I had a wonderful visit from my mom and aunt Carrie for five days. The rented a car together and drove down to San José and despite getting seriously lost they made it over the Mountain of Death just in time to catch my Scouts meeting on Friday and give out chocolate to all the kids, followed by coffee and gallo pinto (which we forced my mom to try and she actually enjoyed it) at the home of a local artisan. On Saturday they came and bought some products from my Junior Achievers, helped make tamales with all the women from the ECC, ate lunch on Gilberth’s balcony overlooking all of San Isidro, and then had coffee and some mysterious sandwiches with the Board of Directors of FUDEBIOL before we headed down into San Isidro, picked up Chamisa and Adrienne, and drove to the coast for a lovely and relaxing weekend in Uvita. We stayed at a beautiful hotel in the mountains with a view of the national park and the ocean, ate and slept really well, and had lots of laughs. Aunt Carrie always brings life to the party.

My mom came back with me for one more day in Quebradas, came to my English class and talked a little about her job, which was really exciting for my students, came and watched the school kids plant and dig in our greenhouse, and spent a good chunk of time seriously cleaning my apartment. It looks better than it has since she helped move me in a year ago so I’m just hoping everything will hold up for my last six months.

Now I have less than a month before coming home for Thanksgiving, and things should be a little more low-key. Thanks to all who have donated to my renewable energy project so far and I will keep you updated on my progress!

Fun in the Rain

And then things got messy...

Breakfast of champions

Setting up camp in the rain

Pre-camping trip

All sorted out

Pre-Rubiks Cube Rumble

Bingo for kids of all ages

Eco-Animos: Lo natural lo siento y el ánimo me luce

Despite the endless rain that is September and October in Costa Rica, it has been a busy and productive few weeks. Our Junior Achievement product launch in San José was a big success. Although, in characteristic Tico planning, there was not enough room in the theater for all the groups that had been invited and half of my group got stuck outside until it was their turn to get onstage, they pulled it off and were all giddy with excitement about the trip. We are now in the production phase and facing some unanticipated obstacles, as the bath gel they are producing is too liquidy and the candles aren’t turning out the right color, two areas in which I am not at all useful, but they are working hard to get it together before the Product Fair back in San José in two weeks.
We organized a fun and successful Bingo Infantil to raise money for the Scouts group two weeks ago. I was pleasantly surprised at how many people showed up, and I think it had to do with a number of factors: First, we planned it right after church, so a lot of people stopped by on their way home to buy some food; Second, as it was a bingo specifically for kids with kids’ prizes and games in between each round, lots of parents showed up to help their kids win, as they take their bingos very seriously here. We had sack races, musical chairs, face-painting and balloon animals, good food, and fun prizes including some Karate Kids t-shirts courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which were a big hit.
Then I headed off to our Peace Corps three-day All Volunteer Conference in Tres Ríos, the only time of the year where every single volunteer in the country from both generations get together. It is all organized by volunteers, so it’s not as rigid and boring as our regular trainings, and there were lots of fun activities including a two-hour Tico 19 v. Tico 20 soccer game (I don’t think I even need to mention who obviously dominated), a staff bake sale and crafts fair, trivia night, a talent show, and our annual dance, whose theme this year was Rubiks Cube Rumble – you have to show up wearing all six colors of the Rubiks Cube and end the night wearing only one. So lots of good, wholesome Peace Corps fun, and it’s always nice to catch up with other volunteers and meet new ones.
This week marked the official end of my first English class, in which only four people remained of the 20-plus who I started with last July. That also meant it was my first free Thursday evening since last July, so I celebrated by going out dancing with some volunteer friends, which was a blast. Then on Friday night I hosted our final class party in my apartment. We ate nachos and buffalo wings and drank Imperial and sang a little bit of karaoke from my computer and then played bi-lingual Scrabble. The final four students were a really good group, and some of the people I have spent the most time consistently with since I got here, so I hope we will continue to be friends without English class. I am still going with my newer course that started in May, as we have 10 people right now, which isn’t so bad after six months.
This weekend was our first camping trip with the Scouts, appropriately planned at the peak of the rainy season. Eleven kids went, then José, Luis Carlos and me as dirigentes, and Ligia, Orlando, their daughter Angie and her baby, the official Scouts family of Quebradas. Por dicha, it was a sunny morning in Quebradas, so we made it to our campsite in the mountains dry and actually sweating. As soon as we starting setting up our tents the rain began, and from there things got messy. Unsurprisingly, all the boys began sliding around and fighting in the mud, only to tell us after that those were the only clothes they had brought. Somehow we made it through the evening with everyone clean, dry and accounted for and the rain let up for a fun campfire at night. I taught the kids how to make s’mores, which was a big hit except they were too impatient to roast their marshmallows so they would just burn them or eat them cold.
I was woken up at 4:40 am by all the girls who all had to go to the bathroom at once, and the day began from there. After a nice hike and some games and songs, someone suggested tug-of-war in the mud, which soon evolved into everyone throwing mud at each other, which soon evolved into throwing anyone who looked remotely clean into a mud bath, hence the pictures. We somehow managed to take down the campsite in our mud-caked state and made it back to Quebradas at 11am, as promised to all the worried mothers, who had their days’ worth of laundry to do. All in all it was a really fun trip and the first time a lot of the kids had slept away from home without their parents, and they all did really well. Next up will be a two-night trip and then the national Scouts camp in January, which is three nights, so we’ll see how they hold up.
Finally, many of you received my email that my renewable energy project at with FUDEBIOL was recently approved. I am very excited about having the chance to raise money back at home for an important cause that I have become increasingly interested in during my time working in New York City and now in Costa Rica, where the wealth of natural resources to produce renewable energy is immense. To learn more about the project and donate, check out this link: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=515-181

Madrugando

In Spanish, that is the verb for waking up super early, in the madrugada. It seems an appropriate title for my past couple weeks. The first instance was two Sundays ago, when we had a Scouts activity up at FUDEBIOL to plant trees as their buena acción of the week. At 7 am, about 30 of us headed up in the backs of various pick-up trucks and spent the morning planting on the side of a steep mountain where it probably wasn’t that safe to take 7-year-olds, receiving a charla about water from the directors of FUDEBIOL, eating cookies and playing orgolla de india, the official sport of the Scouts that is kind of a combination of soccer and ultimate frisbee. It was a super fun morning and totally worth getting up early for on a Sunday. Derek from the Peace Corps office was also visiting me that weekend for a special session he was leading in the community on how to improve the Peace Corps program in Costa Rica to better meet their needs. So we went straight down from FUDEBIOL, got soaked in the back of the pickup trucks as the afternoon downpour began, and shifted gears from getting to play with and act like kids to our roles as meeting facilitators. But it was a pretty insightful session and everyone I invited actually showed up, which is a rare occasion and made me happy that they must see Peace Corps as a valuable program that they would like to continue in Quebradas (or they just wanted free snacks).




The next instance was this past weekend, first on Friday morning to undertake the looooooooong trip almost across the entire country to the hot, dry region of Guanacaste, where 14 volunteers were meeting up to run the Tamarindo Beach Marathon, or some shorter version. The four other Zona Sur residents and me actually got a ride up the coast from Dominical in a buseta, which made the trip shorter, prettier and more comfortable. We got into Tamarindo around 7pm, got our free t-shirts at the race check-in, met up with the rest of our group at the house we had rented, and headed out for the all-you-can-eat pasta special at the Hotel officially sponsoring the race. Everyone passed out early after an exhausting travel day and knowing that we had to wake up at 4am the next morning for a 5am start time. It seemed crazy at the time, but when by 7am that sun was beating down hard and we were on our way to the beach instead of to the finish line, I was very glad my race was already over. I ran the 21k, or half-marathon, and it was my first competitive race since the NYC marathon in 2008. I felt really good considering my lackluster training schedule and ended up coming in 5th place among women in my race, which was pretty exciting. We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out at the beach, eating good food and playing games at the house. It was really fun to spend time with all the other volunteers and get a little break from community life.







Now this week is back to work…kind of. It turns out that Costa Rica Independence Day, which is on September 15, is celebrated on the 14th too, so it has made for a very short work week. Yesterday there was an activity where the 6th graders from Quebradas go to the nearest school in Morazán and pick up the antorcha, which they run up through Quebradas to the school, where it is picked up by the next group of kids from the Quebradas Arriba school and so on. Apparently it is a tradition that the independence torch has to be run throughout Costa Rica. At night, there was a parade of faroles, which I guess would be translated as homemade lanterns on a stick or fishing pole, from the school to the soccer field. Some kids had pretty creative ones, but it was pretty obvious that it had been their mothers putting in the effort. The next morning at 5am in the madrugada another parade began at the soccer field and headed up toward the school. This activity is called la Diana and the idea is that you make as much noise as you can to wake up everyone who is still in bed, in theory reenacting the delivery of the news of independence from Spain, although that really only happened in Guatemala, and Costa Rica found out about six weeks later. I went with the Scouts and brought a pan and spoon to make noise, and other kids brought tins full of rocks, recorders, tambourines, etc. Everyone ended at the school with a big breakfast and acto cívico by the students that included a typical dance group and a lot of hymn-singing. The rest of the day entails hanging out at home or going back to sleep, which is what I am about to attempt. All in all it was a fun cultural experience, but it doesn’t beat the 4th of July.



Finally, I have one more anticipated madrugada on Saturday. I am going with my Junior Achievement group from San Isidro to San José for our product launch. It starts at 9am so we have to leave at 5am and we come back that same afternoon. It will be another long trip, but the group is really excited and they have been doing a lot of preparing on their own, which is awesome. Their company is called Eco-Animos, and their product is a package of shampoo, liquid soap and a candle all with the same scent that represent an estado de ánimo, or mood. So there is lavender for enamorada (in love), green apple for feliz (happy), and mint for tranquilo (relaxed/peaceful). And it is all packaged in a recycled paper box. They have to do a Power Point presentation and then a creative presentation of the product, and the plan is to do a miming of the three moods and products. I think it is pretty creative and am excited to see how it turns out, even if it does mean getting up before light…again.

(Home)sick

Well, after more than a year of go-go-going and raving about how the clean air and proximity to nature in Quebradas has kept me healthy and energetic, I came down with a terrible flu this week, and all I wanted was to be back at home. Being sick definitely makes the unexpected twists of daily life here less entertaining, my open-air tree house apartment less glamorous, and cooking every meal for myself less fun.
For example, on my way back up to Quebradas from the grocery store on Monday, the bus just stopped about 3km (and many hills) away from my apartment and the bus driver said he wouldn’t be going any further today because of some construction up ahead. But, we could walk a kilometer and then wait two and a half hours for the next bus to come down from Quebradas. Great. Fortunately, as I started my journey, some friendly neighbors with an already overflowing car made room for me in the back.
Then, on Tuesday morning I want to take a shower but unfortunately there is no water in my bathroom. I call my landlady and she goes on about how she has never had this problem until I moved in and it is because the bathroom is on the second floor and it’s not her fault and I can move out if I don’t like it. Then she let me take a shower in her apartment. This on-and-off lack of water has also prevented me from being able to make comfort foods such as soup or tea, so I have been living off mostly cereal and sandwiches.
By yesterday I finally got the sense to cancel some of my classes and meetings to get myself better, and then this morning I had high hopes of sleeping in and taking it easy when a neighbor called at 6:30 and laughed when he realized I had been sleeping. Phone calls after 6am here are pretty much fair game.
Don’t get me wrong, people have been nice and sympathetic here and offered helpful suggestions such as rubbing butter and honey on my back or drinking milk with oregano, but this is all just to say that not feeling my best has made me miss and appreciate the comforts and conveniences of home more than I have in a while.
In other news, I am training for a half-marathon (though that was obviously put on hold this week) in Tamarindo in September, so have been doing some fun long runs with friends in the Zona Sur, including a beautiful run all the way from Adrienne’s community to San Isidro, followed by brunch at Bazooka’s. Kind of like my old routine in NYC, but very different scenery.
I also recently started a Junior Achievement course in San Isidro for students at the Casa de Juventud, an alternative education institution for people who did not/cannot attend regular high school for various reasons. Having learned much from what went wrong with my last attempt at the course in Quebradas, it is going really well so far. The group is more mature and very motivated and has a pretty wide variety of talents. So far we have a name, a vaguely defined product, and a market study in development. Will fill you in when we are ready to release the details…
And I am currently filling my downtime with beginning the grad school application process, which is not nearly as fun as reading on my hammock, but if there’s anywhere/time to have to reflect on my life path and achievements, this ain’t so bad. The lack of constant internet connection makes things more challenging, but I suppose it also gives me a better story to tell.
Finally, I am helping develop a renewable energy project at FUDEBIOL that could be really exciting and may involve me hitting you all up for some funding when the time comes, so stay posted.
Okay off to chug another Emergen-C and continue on the road to recovery…

Katie D's B&B

July brought a revolving door of visitors, from which I realized in retrospect I could have made some good money if I charged for room and board (except for the visitor who had to bring his own bed, so I guess it wouldn’t be fair…). Andrew and Maddie showed up in Quebradas the day of our big launch of the Scouts group, which was a lot of fun, and all the ladies of Quebradas thought Andrew was very handsome. The launch consisted of a short presentation from the regional directors and then an introduction of all the leaders and the board of directors in Quebradas and then all the kids split up into their age groups and did activities with another group that is already formed in a nearby community that came to help out. That was really cool because our kids could see the other kids in their uniforms with their patches and all the songs and games they know, which was a good motivator. The next day we all headed to Dominical for 4th of July, and we stumbled on probably the most gringo-ized celebration you can find in Costa Rica. It was a bbq and fundraiser for the lifeguards of Dominical, with a bunch of drunk Americans, hot dogs, a giant American flag and homemade ice cream. Unfortunately the fireworks were canceled due to the rain, but we got the idea. Then Andrew and Maddie came back to hang out and help out in Quebradas for a few days (I put them to work in the school garden and English class) before continuing on their travels up north.
Two days later, Dan arrived, queen-sized blow-up mattress in hand, for his 2-and-a-half week stay at Casa de Katie. It was so wonderful to have him down for a longer than usual period of time and to have some downtime at “home” together. He learned to do dishes and sweep like a true Quebradeñan, to stuff newspaper in his shoes after we got totally soaked and muddy on a hike with the Scouts in the pouring rain, and to kind of almost appreciate cold showers on a hot, humid day. He also helped up lay out the fifth version of La Voz Quebradeña, which came out in mid-July, got to watch some quality women’s indoor soccer, and figured out how to navigate the big city of San Isidro on his own, although he asked someone how to get to Korea before they finally figured out he needed a post office (correo).
We also got some fun weekend trips in and quality time with Liza. We went one day to visit her on the organic farm she was working at, and her philosopher-farmer host father took us on a longer-than-expected tour of the grounds, stopping to reflect and teach us life lessons regarding the environment, spirituality and the chicken and the egg. He was a very interesting man with a very different perspective than most of the people I have come across in rural Costa Rica.
Liza, Dan and I spent another weekend in Manuel Antonio, where we saw MANY monkeys, a sloth, went kayaking, swam at a beautiful beach inside the national park, enjoyed happy hour looking out over the pacific coast on a beautiful sunset, and ate really, really well.
On our final weekend all together, two more visitors were added to the mix. We met dad and Lynne in San José last Friday, where we went searching for a little culture in the big city and were pleasantly surprised to find a cool little art gallery, and even better, an amazing gift shop and café with lots of recycle-art products and incredible desserts. But the highlight of the night would have to be when we got back to the hotel and dad took us in to see the casino, which was basically what you would expect of a Best Western casino in San José, and as we quickly turned and made our way for the exit, who do we run into entering the building but the rabbi and his wife from the Pacific Palisades! They had just come from doing a wedding on the beach in Guanacaste and were just hitting up one of their favorite late-night spots in town. WOW. That’s a small world…
The next morning we headed out on our weekend excursion to Tortuguero National Park. It was a four hour bus ride through banana country and then an hour and a half boat ride to our river lodge. We stopped at the Del Monte factory to observe the process, and it looks like miserably hard and tedious work, especially for the guys who are in the fields hauling bundles of bananas in the oppressive heat through a system that looks like the guys who train for football by doing sprints with a string attached to a giant weight. The boat ride was beautiful and felt Amazonian, which is the way many people describe Tortuguero. Our jungle lodge was right on the river and can only be reached by boat, as can all the other lodges and even the community of Tortuguero, which is made up of walking paths and has no cars. It was pretty hot and buggy there, but it was a lovely setting and there was a ping pong table and many hammocks, so I was happy. The next morning we did a “jungle cruise” boat tour and saw beautiful birds, more monkeys, some cayman, and got rained on, which seemed only appropriate.
But that night was the really special experience that people make the long trip out to Tortuguero for. We took a night hike down the beach to where the green sea turtles come and lay their eggs every year from July to November. We saw various parts of the process, from the giant turtle shells floating in from the sea to make their trek up the shore, to one turtle actually in the process of laying her 50-plus eggs in the giant hole she had dug for herself in the sand, to another turtle who had finished the process, and, exhausted and slow, was making her way back to the sea. The whole process takes about two and a half hours, and the mama turtles never see their babies hatch, and only 1-2 of each group of eggs that is laid actually yields a surviving baby because of all the predators that lie between where they are hidden in the sand and the ocean they have to get to, unprotected. It was pretty amazing to get to see and to think that all of this is instinctive for these animals, and they do it without any help or anyone telling them what to do, and they do it six times in a row, with only 15 days in between! And they know exactly where to go. Definitely made me wish I had paid more attention in biology class…
On Monday morning we flew back to San José from Tortuguero, which only lasted about 30 minutes but was a great way to get a better sense of the geography of where we were and had some beautiful views, including the smoking Turrialba Volcano. Then we bid a sad farewell to Dan and dad, Lynne, Liza and I headed back down south. Liza went back for her final week on the farm, and dad and Lynne hung out with me until Tuesday, when they went to visit Liza and get to know her host families for a few days. So it was sad to say goodbye to everyone, but I had a great time having them visit and sharing in my experiences down here and having adventures of their own.
Now I have a pretty quiet month ahead of me, which I am looking forward to. I just attended ANOTHER training for Junior Achievement, so I am going to attempt that project again but with an organization in San Isidro and more support, and I am keeping busy with the Scouts and our micro-credit project AND I am (kind of) training for a half-marathon that a group of Volunteers is going to run in September in Tamarindo, which should be really fun, although I don’t think any of us are currently in the shape we would like to be. But it’s more just an excuse for a fun beach weekend and something to look forward to. Okay, hasta luego!