Weird Tico Turkey

Last Wednesday, Tony and I met with Carlitos (dance teacher) to learn our bolero routine. We recorded the whole thing on video and vowed to practice later. Tony had Dengue Fever last week, which has similar symptoms as malaria, but he was lucky and didn’t have it too bad. He did get this gnarly rash all over his body. The rest of the week was uneventful (no cooking class). Oh! That’s not true- the B&B that Josh lives at started serving food last week. The owners (Robb and Kathy) did margarita Monday and I had dinner there one day. Veggie sandwich with gouda cheese, avocado, corn, cilantro, and tomato and a baked potato. I was so excited to have something baked- my mom doesn’t have an oven! Anyway, Robb and Kathy are so nice and everything they’re always giving us tasty snacks and drinks. Robb’s Spanish is terrible and he is always saying the funniest things in Spanglish to the workers at the hotel. One night he kept saying “gratas french fries,” and we had no idea what kind of fries were gratas. Finally we realize he was saying “gratis” (free). It was hilarious.
On Friday, Loren, Robb (student), Aaron, Stephanie and I left for Turrialba. It was pouring all day, but we have been lucky since it hasn’t rained much since we’ve been here. We wandered a bit trying to find a hotel in the dark, a guy approached us and said he had a hotel in his home. We followed him a little while until we started going into dark allies. Then we ditched him and found a decent place. Played cards with Loren and Robb (rummy) and then I taught them to play Oh, Hell! It was so much fun. In the morning we caught the bus to Guayabo- a national archeology monument. This site was inhabited between 1000BC and 1400AD. Although this site is tiny and not as impressive compared to Mayan and Aztec sites- we thought it was cool. We had a local student as a guide, she spoke slowly so we would understand most of what she was saying. She warned us that is was going to start raining and asked if we had umbrellas or raincoats- unfortunately we had forgotten them at the hotel. We told her it was ok, and proceeding on our 1.5hr tour. Our guide was correct- it poured and we were so soaked. But since it wasn’t too cold, we were fine. We saw aqueducts, graves, petroglyphs, and a cool road was built in a line up to the local volcano. We ran around in our sopping wet shoes and had the whole place to ourselves. It finally let up enough for pictures- I posted some. Later, we had Papa Johns’ pizza in Cartago- I headed to San Jose (to meet Tony the next day) and the rest of the group went to Orosi (I had already been there). I went to the hostel that we always go to- Tranquilo Backpackers. I started chatting we a couple of guys (Seth and Tyler) who are two professional kayakers on the most incredible journey- they are driving from Alaska to Argentina in a truck that runs off veggie oil. Along the way they are working with local embassies to do alternative energy education. They have met with heads of government in many Central American countries. I heard some amazing stories. They were heading through Puntarenas to go and relax on the beach for a few days so I invited them to come speak to our Conservation Biology class. Such neat people. Later in the evening, a German girl named Lillian, heard me talking about salsa dancing and asked if I wanted to go out with her. We went to Castro’s (one of the places I had been before) and had a BLAST. I danced most the night with a young Tico who was a high school teacher, so we had a lot to talk about. He was an awesome dancer too. I met up with Tony on Sunday afternoon and we decided not to dance Bolero because its so difficult and we had just began learning it. We switched to salsa and began choreographing our song. It took us hours just to get one minute done! So crazy. The past student, Jennifer, was here when I returned. I really wanted to dislike her, but she’s really cool. Her Spanish was really good and we spent lots of time with the whole family. She’s going to study abroad again next semester in Alicante, Spain.
We made “meat bread,” potatoes, and sweet potatoes on Monday in cooking class- not exactly my favorite meal, but was ok. On Tuesday I had to go the US embassy to have some papers notarized- it was such a nightmare. They were so rude and it took so long! Yuck. I did meet up with Seth and Tyler in San Jose and they drove me back to Puntarenas in the alternative energy vehicle. They spoke to our class and we all had lunch. The students really enjoyed seeing their truck and hearing about their journey.
Tuesday and Wednesday Tony and I worked really hard with Carlitos to perfect our dance. It took so many hours. I had a huge blister on the bottom of my foot from doing so many turns. I also went out dancing with Jennifer, my cousin Fernando, and my bro Mario. I taught Fernando a little merengue and finally got to dance with Mario for the first time. He’s a great dancer!
Yesterday, after morning classes, we headed to San Ramon (about 1.5hrs away) to a big recreation/banquet ranch area. There was a pretty waterfall, a huge pool, and a place for soccer and volleyball. It was a little chilly so most of us didn’t swim, just explored the area. Many of the students started drinking early in the day and were acting like idiots. Tony and I practiced our dance a little, then wanted to work with the music. I couldn’t find the CD that I had left out on my stuff. I asked the borrachos (drunks) where it was. Then a CD comes flying past us all. It turns out, they thought it would be hilarious to use a CD as a Frisbee. We tested the CD, but it was too scratched up. I was seriously heartbroken- Tony and I had practiced so many hours to get everything perfect. Carlitos said we could dance to a different story (all salsa songs have the same rhythm) but we had so many points in our dance that were based off music cues. We decided to dance, but our concentration was shot. We had NEVER even heard the song we danced to and it was shorter than our other song so we had to try to cut out some stuff and we didn’t even know when the end was coming. It went ok- we forgot a lot of the routine but danced until the music stopped. Everyone said that we did well and they liked it- but it was half of what it could have been with the really music. I was so upset and disappointed. I really hate my generation sometimes. They are so apathetic- all they care about is “having a good time,” which to most means lots of alcohol. It’s sad. I pouted and fumed for a little while, but felt better after dinner. We had turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy, rice, salad, and a weird potato, ground beef, breaded patty. Then apple pie which was the closest thing to American food. We had a dance party afterwards- some American music, then reggaetone, cumbia, and finally salsa and merengue. It was a long night- we were exhausted when we got back to “the Punt.” Ok. Whew- that’s more than enough for today. Hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving. Happy Birthday to my Aunt Kathy! I love you!