Today is my last day in Costa Rica. I fly out of San Jose at 1pm tomorrow. Right now I am in San Jose in our hotel. We got here earlier today after spending two nights in Arenal, right by the volcano(luckily it´s not volcano season...).  Wednesday was our last day of class and our last day in Monteverde . Tuesday we didn´t have class so(instead of studying or working) I went with a few of the guys in our group and one professor to hike through the the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. I saw a Resplendent Quetzal! The whole walk I didn´t see one and then right after we got in the cab to leave, our cab driver buddy Freddie pointed out the Quetzal so we all got out an looked at it.

In Arenal we went to a hot springs and did a hike to walk on some volcanic rocks that we from an eruption in 1992.

I am happy to report, in my final blog entry, that I did see a monkey! It was only for a second and he was running but nonetheless, mission accomplished!

Thanks for reading! I´ll try to get together some pictures to put online once I get home to my house with DSL!!! Another mission accomplished

Hello all! This is the first chance I've had to use the Internet or phone in about a week.
I'm in the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica at Puerto Viejo. We rode in the bus for 10 hours(including lunch and stops) on Friday to get here from San Luis. There are a lot of little stands selling jewelry, wraps, and souvenir type things but they are all expensive, even by US standards.

The first day we were here I got my hair braided on the top(because I was forced, I thought I would look ridculous with braided hair). Yesterday we rented bikes and rode around the town and down to a nicer part of the beach further down the road. The water here basically comes up to the road so there isn't a "beach"in the part of town we are in. The water here is really strong and you have to be careful not to get sucked out to sea. The scenery is pretty and the buildings are all pretty. There is a lot of Bob Marley and reggae-themed stuff here. Definetly a very chill place.
Our group seems to have been struck by the plague and a bunch of people got violently ill within the last 24 hours. Also, my legs seem to have been the victim of a mysterious insect attack (as the picture proves).  Fortunatly, everyone seems to be getting better so they won't be sick for the bus ride back tomorrow. Tomorrow we are going back to San Luis where we will spend the night in the Ecolodge and then return to our homestays on Wednesday after class. Only about one week left of classes!

Underdevelopment in the Developed World?

Today I was finally able to call my family after spending days trying to get to use the only phone here that is shared by about 100 people, with the phone card I had to travel 25 minutes (each way) to buy. Unfortunately, my family, in the "developed" United States, was using dial-up Internet(a severely antiquated technology) so I was unable to talk to them. Now, I am emailing them from a tiny Costa Rican town that doesn't even have paved roads, but yet manages to have faster Internet that DOESN'T use the phone line, than my house in the so called "first world." Being so frustrated by this situation, I now cannot focus on reading for my class.

Parents, please rectify this situation so that your lack of development in the "first world" does not create a lack of fun here in the "third world." Friends and family, please encourage my parents to join us in the path towards progress and development that we so love in the United States.

Happy July everyone!

Wednesday after I used the internet in Santa Elena I went home and my mom(Dona Alicia) had gotten back from San Jose). I ate dinner with her and a guy who is working on the finca, who is apparently the brother of one of the taxi drivers we know. He has 7 brothers and 8 sisters! I asked if it was usual for families here to have lots of children and my mom said that it used to be but now people are having few children so I think it's just a generational thing, to answer someone's question.

Thursday we had Spanish class and I had history in the afternoon at 3:30. In between lunch and class though it started to rain a LOT! We're talking almost monsoon with crazy thunder and lightening. So the power went out and we had to sit in the dining room to have part of our class because it was the only building on campus that had power. Thursday night after dinner I watched the Argentina vs. USA soccer game on TV(Argentina won 4 to 1!!!), I can't wait until the next World Cup. People here don't seem as big on soccer as I would have expected. I guess since it's a more rural lifestyle they don't watch soccer as much?

Friday I had Spanish and no history class int he afternoon so after lunch me, Shailee, Nikki, and Lauren walked back to my house to get ready to go to Santa Elena. We all spent forever deciding what to wear and my mom was joking that we were making ourselves "guapa" to find "novios." We got a ride into Santa Elena in time to meet everyone at 6:30 to go have dinner together. We split and one group went to Morpho's and I went to the Tree House Restaurant with 5 other people. The restaurant has a tree growing in the middle that actually makes up the roof and supports a few of the tables(including ours) so it was really cool! Afterwards we went back to the Bar Amigos. Bar Amigos has live music on Fridays so we had to pay 1000 Colones to get in(sounds expensive right? It was weird changing money the other day and getting 41,000 Colones, I felt so rich). We danced a lot and it was SO fun! Me, Nikki, Shailee, and Lauren ended up getting back to my house about 1:30am and they all spent the night.

Saturday we got up, had amazing hot chocolate and papaya, and went to the Ecolodge to go on a tour. We went to Finca La Bella where they have a project where people can't sell the land and they have to grow coffee and other things. One place has a Trapiche which is a machine that you feed the sugar cane through to make the juice to make sugar. It was really cool! After the tour and lunch, I went home and took a major nap. I watched some of the Argentina vs Czech Republic soccer game until it mysteriously cut off and the news came on? The other night they like cancelled the news for the soccer game so it seemed weird to me...

Today we met at the Ecolodge to go to a hot springs. We rode in a bus to a house right outside of Monteverde where we switched over to horses. We rode the horses for about an hour before we got to the hot springs. It was really pretty there and it was cool that we were the only people there!

Saturday when I got back from being in Santa Elena(when I wrote my last entry) at about 5:30pm, my host mom wasn't home. So after checking all the doors, I put my bookbag down and just wandered around the property, taking pictures and making videos to amuse myself until she got home at 7pm. I think this time was good because it gave me a chance to bond with our dog, Frijole(aka "Bean") so he doesn't bark at me or try to bite me as much anymore. I'm really bad with dog types but a girl told me he is a mini pinscher so maybe that will give you a good mental picture? Basically, he looks like a bean.

Walking around I saw our horses and cows, lots of plants, and some chickens. I was following one of the chickens and I clucked at it to get it to make a noise and then I heard a cluck back but I couldn't figure out where it came from. Then I turned around and the weirdest chicken ever was sitting in a banana plant!!!(Banana plants are tree sized but not technically trees--new fact I learned on this trip). It had the tiniest head I've ever seen on a chicken!

Saturday night we all went out(including our teachers...) to the Bar Amigos in Santa Elena, which is apparently THE happening place here(if not the only, I've heard rumors of some place called Cascada but never seen it). It's quite amusing to see your professors take shots. I guess they're not just a college thing. I talked to this hippie from Texas named Ronnie some and he told me about this other weird guy who was in the bar who has a plan to destroy the town to prepare people's souls for the apocalypse.

Anyways...in the morning on Sunday at breakfast I was taking to Dona Alicia about Saturday night and she told me that she likes to dance so she might come out with us some time!!! During the day on Sunday we went and did Ziplines in the forest and it was AWESOME! So fun and such amazing scenery. At dinner it was just me and Dona Alicia so we talked for a long time and she told me about her life and how the farm works. She was telling me about how she got married when she was 15 and that was too young and I needed to wait until I was older and I told her that my mom always says to wait until I'm 25 and she said "Or thirty!!!" Haha. She's never been out of the country or even to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. I can't wait to get her a present when we go to the Caribbean!

She told me that the electricity here is produced by a hydroelectric plant in the river further up the river! She said that someday Giovanni will take me up there to show it to me. I also found out that the water we drink and that's in the faucets comes straight from the mountains. People pay to build the tubes and everything and that's it. The water is high in the mountains so it's clean enough to drink without purifying. We also talked about jewelry and she made me show her all of mine, it was really cute. She especially liked my owl(lechuza) earrings and necklace.

Note to self: learn how to make arepa. For breakfast on Monday she made me arepas, which are like fat, sweet tortillas. She packed me some to take for a snack too and everyone tried them and loved it. Monday I also went to watch Giovanni milk the cows and she showed me around the property. We fed the chickens and picked oranges to make a drink(fresca). She has a lot of plants to make tea, coffee, corn, plantains/bananas, and all kinds of pretty flowers. Monday was also David's birthday so I called and talked to him for a little while and that was really nice because I hadn't gotten to talk to him in awhile.

My host mom's son Giovanni comes over every morning to milk the cows and work on the farm so I've been getting to know him. The last two nights my host mom has been in San Jose for a doctor's appointment so her son Giovanni and his family have been staying at my house with me. They have another student from our group living with them. I learned a new card game called "Tonto"(which means silly).

Giovanni's 11 year old son Dani walked while me and Cristina(the student who lives with Giovanni) rode horses to school on Tuesday! Hahaha how cool right? Tuesday I had to give a presentation for my Spanish class. I talked about the history and current tourism things in Monterverde(the reserve here) and San Luis(the town we actually live in). FYI...the original Monteverde residents were Quakers who came in 1951 from Alabama to escape military service. There is still a Quaker school here and they make famous cheese here. Interesting right?

I think I've neglected to mention that one of the "rivers" I have to cross (the one that is usually dried up) is called the Rio Bruja(aka the Witch River). No exciting story behind the name other than that the river sometimes has water and sometimes doesn't, but it seems ominous to me nonetheless. It has had water in it the last couple of days but today it was dry again.

Today we didn't have our history class in the afternoon so we all rode into Santa Elena and ate at Tramonti's, one of the nicest Italian places here. Then we had ice cream(also made by the Quakers) and now I'm here! I'm out! Pura vida!

Thursday the highlight of the day was when we saw a Toucan during Spanish class in the outdoor classroom! Someone commented that he looked just like the Fruit Loops Toucan, haha.

To follow up on the bird story, he returned Thursday morning too to bash his head into the window and I asked one of the guys that works at the Ecolodge, Giovanni, what the deal was. He told me that basically the birds are stupid and can't tell that the reflection in the glass is themselves BUT he also told me that sometimes monkeys come up on the porch of the cabinas and move furniture around and hit the glass! I'd be so afraid to see some crazed monkey beating the glass. Some other people saw a monkey do that later, but unfortunately I wasn't there so I still haven't accomplished my goal of seeing a monkey. Oh and Thursday night me and my roommate Nikki decided to do an experiment. So we cut out shapes of mouths(don't ask, it was her idea) and other birds(like they have on the windows in the rest of the Ecolodge) out of notebook paper with manicure scissors and used bandaids to tape them to the window. I regret to say that out experiment was only partially successful as the bird came back Friday morning, however he did adjust where on the window he hit because of the mouth shapes. Success!

Friday we had class and finished early so we could go to our homestays a day earlier than we had thought. We were supposed to be packed to go at 3pm and then we had to split into groups for the different areas so I ended up being the last one to get to my homestay at about 6pm. However, I'm not complaining because originally we were supposed to carry our bags up and/or down the mountains to get there, and I got a ride to my house.

I am staying with Doña Alicia(which basically means Mrs. Alicia) far away from everyone else. She owns the waterfall(catarata) here. She lives alone but she has 11 children(who are all grown and married) and she said that everyday one comes to visit. Last night her daughter Ana and Ana's grandson Diego(about 2 years old) came to eat dinner with us and then spend the night. After dinner the four of us sat outside on the porch and watched the giant toads and joked about how the toads wanted to drink coffee and from Diego's sippy cup(chupon), which made Diego really upset, haha. We went to our rooms about 8:15 and I ended up going to sleep about 8:45. This morning when I went to take a shower I was a little afraid because I had heard so many stories about cold showers and when I got there there was only one knob to turn and it had a big ole "C" on it. BUT! to my surprise, after a few seconds the water was warm!! So apparently I am one of the few who has had a warm shower! And my bed was extremely comfortable, so I'm pretty happy(go ahead parents, make your jokes). However, many of you will be surprised to know that I woke up at 6am this morning.

Today we got up, walked to meet at the Ecolodge, and then left to walk down the mountain to get to the Ecobamboo place. The walk took a little over an hour of almost straight downhill. Ecobamboo is a cooperative where a group of women work making handmade recycled paper. We helped them for a little while and then split ways(I returned to the town of Santa Elena, where I am writing from now).

The walk from my house to campus is quite nice. It takes about 15-20 minutes, depending on how fast I walk. Along the way I can hear a lot of different birds, and the scenery is really pretty. I have to ford two(or three depending on how much it has rained) little rivers on my walk. For the first I walk across a board laid across the rocks and the second has a little bridge made of a board and some rocks. So I really am traveling "over the river and through the woods" to get to school(ha ha ha?). Did I mention that I have to go uphill both ways?

Hola all! I`m sitting in an internet cafe in Santa Elena, a town about a 25 minute 10$ cab ride from the San Luis Ecolodge. We had to drive on La Trocha to get here, which translates to `the trecharous road.` The road is really steep and not paved so it was quite a bumpy ride, but the view up the mountain was incredible. To answer one question, one of the reasons I am here is because at the Ecolodge I only get 30 minutes of internet a week and it is 5$ an hour after that and it is extremly slow. (Hence the lack of updates.)

As for air conditioning, the temperature outside is really nice so airconditioning isn`t much of a necessity. It is sort of cool outside, like Spring weather. It is generally kind of windy, it feels like the beach sometimes. It also rains sporadically.

Abundant food choices...every meal so far has basically been gallo pinto(rice and beans), some sort of salad, a meat, vegetables, and some fruit juice. So not a lot of variety, but the food is all really simple, healthy, and good quality so no complaints here. In general I feel like I have very little complaints because of how amazing this experience is. We do have some bug visitors in our room but I they don`t really bother me.

Okay, so back to what I`ve been doing. We took the four our bus ride to San Luis on Monday and arrive about 1pm. (By the way, there is a 2 hour time difference). We put our things in the cabinas and then ate lunch. We got an orientation in which one of the naturalists Peter showed us a short slideshow with some animals and a little bit about the Ecolodge. We got our syllabus for the History class at dinner. After dinner(dinner is at 6 every day) a few of us went on a night hike. Our guide, the other naturalist Paul, took us on a trail by the Ecolodge. He had one flashlight that is so powerful that it has a safety on the one switch!! Anyways, we saw mostly bugs(butterflys, katydids, spiders, caterpillers, centipedes) and we found one snake and a giant toad. My goal for the trip is to see a mammal, preferably a monkey or one of the little raccoon relatives. I wish I had brought a book about the wildlife and I looked at one in a shop here but it was like 40 bucks!

(Sidenote: I totally forgot to say that on the way to rafting we saw a SLOTH!! aka un perezoso. It was SO cool!)

Tuesday we were awoken by a bird repeteadly ramming into our room`s window. At first i thought it was the door banging open and closed but when I finally looked, it was a little brown bird with yellow spots on the side of his neck who was sitting on a chair on our porch and then flying full force into the glass. He would then perch on the chair again and repeat until we walked towards the window. As soon as we walked towards him he would fly back to the forest as if he was embarressed to be discovered. Then he would come back later and do it again! It is the weirdest thing I`ve ever seen, I have no idea why the bird would do that! He did it again this morning too!

We have to walk down a path for about ten minutes to get to the main campus where we have class and meals. My favorite part fo the walk is this part where the trees clear and there is really tall grass that blows in the wind. At night you can see the stars really well from there. Breakfast was fruit, gallo pinto, eggs, and really good fried plantains. We had our spanish class at 9 until 11. Lunch at 12. Then I had a break before history where I took a nap and did some reading. History we just had a discussion about perceptions of Latin America and how we learned about Latin Americans and their history growing up. We had dinner right after class. Then I went to the little library on campus to look for information for my Spanish presentation.

That`s all I have time for now! Hopefully I answered some of the questions! I`d be happy to answer more if you have them!

(Mama and Daddy, I bought a phone card so be expecting a call soon, probably about 9pm your time tonight but it will depend on if I can use the phone, there is only one phone for the whole campus. Also, they said the cheapest way to do it would be for you to buy a phone card and call the campus. Buy one!)