Playa Avellanas

El 2 de febrero

I woke up around 8 and ate breakfast with Jose and Marlen in Santa Cruz. We had corn tortillas, cheese and scrambled eggs and coffee.
This was the day we were going to the beach! I was very eager to see it but we had plans to leave in the afternoon so that Jose could work that morning. So Marlen and i walked down to the river close to their house instead. I put on athletic clothes and running shoes, sunscreen and bugspray and we walked down the street to the left.

Their Santa Cruz house is on a dirt road, from what I remember, and it gets bumpier as you head towards the river. When the street hit a dead end, we turned to the right and separated the barbed wire in the fence of their neighbor's banana field and climbed through. We walked down along the edge until we reached another barbed wire fence, and we climbed through that as well, then turned left and walked on a trail downhill through the woods to the river.

Marlen made sure to warn me about certain plants where small ants build their homes, and said not to even touch the plants because the ants would come out to defend their home and their bites are worse than any other ant.

We walked down to the river that looked more like a creek, since it's the dry season here (December to July) and Marlen switched to her water shoes, while I took off my socks and put my running shoes back on. We walked around in the water and on the river bank, chatting the whole time and caught a glimpse of an iguana race on a hill above the river. We sat and read the Bible together and then headed back to get ready for the beach.

We packed up the car and drove about 40 min away to Playa Avellanas. The beach parking lot we stopped in had a huge pig in one corner, with its own hut and mud pit. Apparently the pic is legendary and the owners just keep it out all day on that part of their property for the surfers and tourists to see. We chose to park a little farther down so that we could have our own trees for shade and not be stuck in the sun or sharing shade with other people. We found another lot nearby and took about three trips back and forth bringing our bags and barbecue supplies out to a shady tree we found near a small lodge/restaurant's gate.

We arrived just before sunset and the view was amazing. I had a 180 degree view of beach and on the other side was trees and driftwood. Marlen and I swam in the water, collected shells and walked between the large black rocks looking for starfish. Jose sat back and watched until we returned and then he started grilling the chorizo, steak and pork we had brought along. We spread out a bedsheet on the sand for me and set out two plastic chairs for Marlen and Jose. We took pictures in the nearby trees as the sun set and once again found a dog that stuck with us the rest of the night, probably hoping to snag some food. We ate the meat with corn tortillas, pico de gallo, bean dip and corn chips. After we ate, Marlen and I walked down the beach a ways and she sang all the English praise songs she could remember and I sang as many Spanish ones as I knew. I also taught her some swing dance steps and she learned very quickly!

After that we went back to Jose and talked for a while, gazing at the stars and singing songs. On the way home we stopped and took pictures at the entrance of a resort, Hacienda Pinilla, run by the founder of the scholarship program that sends Guanacastecan students to universities in the United States.

Excursión en el río

El 1 de febrero, 2015



I woke up in a bunk bed where my friend Keilin slept during high school.



Marlen said "Buenos días" as she passed by the room and when I came out into to the main room, breakfast was ready. We ate corn tortillas with eggs, tomatoes and coffee.

After breakfast I got ready for exploring the river in the national park, wearing a bathing suit and shorts and packing up a bag with sunscreen and bug spray.

The ride to the river was very curvy and bumpy but the view of the forest and mountains was awesome. We finally made it to a stopping point along the bank and walked across to the park ranger station, but the only one who came to attend us was the resident sheep dog.

The dog followed us on our walk upstream, staying just a few steps behind us until I called it, and then it became my playmate. We walked for about an hour, stopping to drink and take pictures, and then arrived at a swimming hole where we stopped and got in. Since it is the dry season here the water level was very low and didn't cover much of the river bank.
After that we went home and ate pasta, salad, tortillas with cheese and pinto beans for dinner in the house. I got to help by cutting the tomatoes and cucumbers for the salad.

Later on we went "downtown" to the plaza/park called Bernabela Ramos, after the woman who donated the land to the city. Jose and Marlen showed me the four monuments that sit on the four corners of the square as well a large dome-shaped concrete pavilion that projects sound made inside. I sang on the inside to hear my voice amplified.

 (panoramio.com)

They told me about the cultural week that is held every January in Santa Cruz and how indigenous groups perform dances and traditional music. At Marlen's request we got some icecream from the corner store and ate it while we walked around.

While on the way home we stopped and got this photo at Keilin's school:

From San José to Santa Cruz by way of the Volcano Arenal

January 31, 2015

I woke up in the Gamboa's house in San Jose to a strange sound across the street and I could not for the life of me guess what it was. I thought maybe cats were mating but it turns out is was just the cows in the neighbor's yard. I tried to get back to sleep to no avail, until I got a phone call from Marlen saying it was time to get up.
I got to meet the youngest brother, Jose (same name as his father) and he showed me all the trees and plants he's growing in the back yard. I tried some cas, a small, round, yellow tropical fruit in between the taste of a pear and a lemon and pineapple. It was a little bitter since it still wasn't ripe, but I was still glad to get a taste of something we don't have in he states.

We all ate breakfast together and the parents and I packed up to go on our trip to the volcano and finally to Santa Cruz. We said goodbye and I made sure to get pictures of everyone.

(Left to Right: Ezequiel, Jose, Marlen, Jose)

We started out on the road at 10:30am and Jose (the dad) predicted it would be a 12 hour day. We stopped early on in San Ramon to get gas and oil for the car and Marlen and I got an icecream bar. I was pretty drowsy during the beginning of the trip and tried to sleep a little on my camping pillow.

Next we stopped in la Bajo Rodriguez to shop at a recycled tire and plastic craft and souvenir shop on the side of the road. The owner was very excited to practice his English with me since he could tell I wasn't latina. Jose and Marlen bought various wooden carvings for birthday gifts and we admired all of the colorful creations surrounding the shop.

The shop owner advised us to get lunch along the road not in the next town but in the one after that, so we continued down the road until we got to a huge bridge in La Tigra de San Carlos where we had to wait for the cars coming the opposite direction to pass, since it is only wide enough for one car. The bridge crossed over a river at the bottom of a deep gorge and we stopped after passing over it to take photos, then decided to eat in the cafe next to the bridge since it didn't look neither too touristy nor too simplistic. We all ordered tilapia, although Jose and I got a grilled filet with French fries and Marlen got a whole fried fish with yuca fries. I drank cas juice and enjoyed it much more than the bite of cas I had tried that morning.

We continued on the road towards the volcano Arenal, passing through Fortuna and eventually driving around the whole volcano and the lake that sits next to it. We stopped many times to take pictures of the volcano, but the top was always covered in clouds so we didn't really get the full experience, although it was very majestic.

The lake is the source of electricity for much of Costa Rica and when it was constructed the community Arenal that lived in the land had to be relocated to a place called Nuevo Arenal.
On the way we saw some cars stopped on the side of the road so we slowed down. There were tons of raccoon-like animals called pizotes surrounding the car and approaching people that fed them. We stopped and walked around them, taking pictures and eventually feeding them from the car window. They were surprisingly comfortable around humans and let me pet their tails. One even put its paws up on my leg, begging for food, which freaked me out a bit since it had long claws.

The next stop we made to see a huge ceiba tree near the lake that Jose (the youngest brother) had told us about. We decided to stop but only Marlen and I ventured to the top of the hill to see it while Jose rested in the car. We set out with our cameras in hand up a mossy hill, expecting to see a park ranger or guide, but all we found was a small, empty, wooden hut. We still couldn't see the legendary tree so we just kept walking for about 15 minutes, struggling not to slip down the hill. As we climbed the view revealed more and more of the orange yellow sunset, mountains and lake in the distance. There were a few houses up the hill to the left but still no one showed up to direct us. We continued up the hill and finally found a huge tree covered in vines with branches out stretching up to the sky. We took pictures and looked around, then started back down.

By that time it was already dusk and we could barely see. The hill resulted much more slippery at night and we slipped so often we had to stop and laugh every few steps. At one point Marlen ended up sliding into a split and I slipped and fell down on my butt, covered in mud. We had so much fun trying to make it down the hill and imagined that the neighbors were watching us stumble down the hill and laughing from their houses.

EXCEPTIONAL TREE AWARD 2006

Ceiba pentandra

FOR ITS HISTORICAL AND BOTANICAL IMPORTANCE

LA CEIBA FARM

New Arenal, Tilarán

NATIONAL TREE DAY

June 15, 2006

My pants and shoes were covered in mud but I didn't change and just sat on my jacket the rest of the ride. We stopped once more for coffee at Restaurante Tres Hermanas in Limonal de Avangares and all enjoyed huge brownie sundaes that cost more than our lunch. We also took photos with a huge bull statue that Keilin has taken pictures with many times.

We arrived at their house in Santa Cruz at 10:30pm, exactly 12 hrs later, as Jose predicted, and we settled in for the night.

Ciudad y cine

el 30 de enero, 2015

I woke up around 7 or 8 am with the sunlight streaming through my window. I slept in as much as i could and then settled on taking pictures through the window next to my bed of the surrounding countryside.

Marlen and Jose, the parents, and the middle brother Ezequiel gathered and we ate a breakfast of fried eggs, bread, butter, cheese, gallo pinto (rice and beans with cilantro) and coffee. I thoroughly enjoyed the meal. Marlen, the mom, and I had planned to leave around 10 to go to the university and meet up with Pablo, a friend I mine who also graduated from Berry, but a few years before. But in typical "tico time" we arrived at 1 after changing plans 5 times and bringing Jose, the dad along with us to drive.

Thankfully Pablo is also tico so he was not fazed by the change in meeting time, and he was waiting when they dropped me off at the school.
Pablo and I are lunch at a trendy Caribbean place and he helped me find the ATM. We took a bus to Plaza de Cultura and walked through the Gold Museum, which was quite impressive.

After the museum we got ice cream and sat overlooking a didgeridoo concert in the square.

Around 5 Ezequiel picked me up from the plaza and we went to the mall. We had about two hours to kill before seeing a Costarican film called Maikol Yordan de Viaje Perdido. We went to Starbucks and unfortunately they didn't accept my gift card, but we ordered anyway and chatted a while.

The movie was hilarious, although I didn't catch every joke or pun. It's about a hillbilly that goes to the capital city and eventually on to Europe to find a job or a way to make money so that his family won't lose their land. The film is very popular all over the country and grossed higher than Avatar did.

After the movie we went to Rostipollos and I ate dinner even though it was already 9ish. Then we went to see the baby nephew and I got to take a picture with him sleeping in the crib.

After that Ezequiel was hungry so we went to a bar called Mundo Loco for him to eat dinner. There was live music but unfortunately it was extremely loud and heavy metal so we sat on the other side, watching instead a tv that showed various music videos and concert clips. By the time we got back I realized how tired I was from walking around all day and speaking more Spanish then any other day in the last few months or even last year.

Off to Costa Rica

Hello friends and family!
This is my first post in quite a while and I'm writing because I'm going to Guanacaste, Costa Rica to teach English for the next three months. Today I took off to San José, the capital city.

I hurriedly finished packing and left my room a wreck (sorry again mom!). My grandfather took me to the airport and walked me through with his USO badge. He helped me balance out my 2 suitcases and backpack since one suitcase weighed 73 lb and the other one 30 something. Even after some shuffling, the larger bag weighed 54 pounds and ran the risk of costing me an extra $75. I took out my Spanish Bible and put it in my purse and moved my wooden wedge sandals to smaller suitcase, rounding one out to 51 and the other 49. My backpack is chock full of clothes and presents, not to mention my computer and iPad, but at least the checked suitcases are on their way with all the ESL books and packages for friends' families.

I was the last person to the board the flight and apparently the only standby passenger to make it on. The wait while during boarding was stressful because there were 0 seats listed as available, but every once in a whole that number changed to 2 or 11 and then suddenly changed back to 0. I kept getting my hopes up that I would get on the flight and after the last paying passenger boarded they called my name!


"Yes!" I exclaimed, wanting to be sure they knew I was there. The gate agent told me there was one seat but she had to be sure. So she called the flight attendants, but got no response. Then she walked back herself, came back and printed my boarding pass! I received seat 6B in the very last row of first class, on the aisle and seated next to a middle aged Hispanic gentlemen. I said hello and proceeded to send joyous texts to my family sharing the good news that I was on the flight.


Right before take off I took this shot of the Atlanta sunset. Thanks be to God for making the impossible happen and putting me on a flight with 0 seats!

My friend Keilin's parents will pick me up in San Jose tonight and we will leave on Sunday to drive to their house in Santa Cruz and then on to Palmira. On Friday I look forward to seeing a fellow Berry grad, Pablo, a tico who lives in San José and will start begin attending school there this spring.

----
We arrived in San José 30 min ahead of schedule and the passenger next to me let me use his phone! He's tico and showed me pictures of his family ziplining while we talked on the flight. I got in touch with Keilin's dad, Jose, and he said to wait in the waiting area, but I didn't know where that was. Arnoldo my seat buddy stuck with me, helping me get my colossal bags off the belt and showing me where to stand to avoid the pestering taxi drivers. I waited about 10 minutes before spotting Keilin's oldest brother Josue driving towards me. I was overjoyed to see a familiar face. Marlen the mom also rode with us and we took a small tour of San José, seeing the national theater, stadium and historic churches.

After that we met up with Jose (the dad) and Ezequiel (middle brother) and ate "bocas" (tapas/appetizers) at a pollo cervecero (something like a brewpub but with chicken, I think!). We chatted and ate and drank and I'm finally now in bed at 1:30 am. I'm tired and feeling so relieved to have actually arrived!

Ubicación:Moravia,Costa Rica

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