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
Saturday, 21 July 2007
Monday, 9 July 2007
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!
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!
Tuesday, 3 July 2007
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.
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.
Sunday, 1 July 2007
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!
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!
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