Ok, so let’s go over last week. On Monday I threw up all afternoon, missed most of my politics class and cooking. It was pretty gross. I felt fine the next day, so glad it was just a little 24hr bug, or something I ate. I got my final grade for my first clase de espanol – A. Happy about that. We are progressing quicker now, finally learning past tense! Thank goodness, it’s so hard to only speak in present tense! ;)
There was a big soccer game here on Wednesday- I think some kind of championship. If the Puntarenas team wins another, they will play a team from Honduras (or some other country, can’t remember!) and then if the win that, a team from the states will come to play us (Puntarenas) here. The game was at 3, but I had dance class at 3:30 so decided not to go. I showed up at the school about 3 to e-mail and wait for class and it was totally deserted!! The dance teacher told me that we would wait until 3:30 exactly and if no one else came for class we would go to the game. There were about 5 (out of 15) in class, but it was so much fun since we are learning more salsa. It really helped practicing at real dance places- I felt more confident/comfortable and recognized the rhythms more easily. That night there were so many people in the street celebrating since Puntarenas won. The whole soccer phenomenon is crazy here (like most parts of the world besides the US). It’s hard to describe the wild fans- let’s just say there’s lots of yelling and jumping. Thursday was a big day. Before I left for CR, I had started to apply for an absentee ballot (since we have congressional elections soon) and I registered with Democrats Abroad (DA) also. I received an e-mail from a woman named Ruth who is the head of DA welcoming me and extending an invitation to join their monthly meetings in San Jose. We wrote back and forth about finishing my absentee ballot, then she asked about other students. Long story short, she offered to drive out and register all interested students for an absentee ballot and leave write-in ballots with me also. I organized a thing for Thursday, made guacamole and brought cookies. We ended up registering over 25 students, which is a pretty good turn out. I was very excited since most weren’t planning on applying for an absentee ballot. The professor from Reno was thrilled that I was able to organize it. His name is Steve and he teaches in UNR’s education department so we have had lots to talk about. We are going to coordinate something between the children’s theatre club (since I am the Pres.) and a program he runs for at-risk kids when we return. So many good opportunities have presented themselves.
Onto the travel stories! This weekend Loren, Maya, Kim and I went to the province of Cartago (south of the capital). We had to change buses in Cartago, and we saw some beautiful ruins in the center of town with a lovely garden on the inside. We ended up staying in Orosi, a town of about 10,000 that sat in a beautiful valley on a river. It was a very mellow place, we breathtaking mountains and very few tourists! We stayed at a really cool but deserted hostel (it’s the wet season!) that housed only 3 others and we had to go to the owner’s home just to pay and get keys. That night we had dinner at a local pizza place and played cards in the hostel with a couple from Colorado. Loren and a Tico played the hostel guitar and we sang along with familiar songs. It was a delightful evening.
The next day we got lucky and found the 2 buses that were needed to get to Volcan Irazu. This is really a miraculous feat since the bus stops change and everyone you ask tells you something different. We walked to about 5 different stations, then realized we were 10 minutes late for the bus we wanted to catch. Finally a group of Ticos started waving and yelling at us. They knew the gringos wanted to go to a volcano. ;) We got in line with them and went up into the cloud to Irazu. It’s the highest volcano in CR and if it’s clear it’s possible to see both the Pacific and Caribbean. It was clear enough to see the volcano, but not too far into the valley. See the many photos to the right. The clouds blew in and out so fast- getting foggy or clear in 2 minutes. Later that day we ate American food (I had Burger King and the others had Papa John’s) because not too many towns have fast food and we were all craving something familiar. We explored a big basilica in town, which was cool, but didn’t compare to any in Europe. We decided to stay both nights in Orosi since we loved it so much. The hostel had many hikes and sights listed in “things to do” so we picked one. We went to “Nano’s waterfall.” It gave directions on how to get there and requested that visitors go to Nano’s house to pay him since the waterfall is on his private property. We hiked up slippery rocks to a pretty little waterfall, but it was starting to get dark, so no pics. Then we hiked up a little trail to a shack where there were cows and misc. animals. We called for someone and finally a little crazy man came out and was so excited to have visitors. It was dark, but he showed his farm, and took us with him while he put a calf away and then brought us into his home. There was no electricity, but he lit candles and showed us photos so we could see what everything looked like in the daylight. He talked and told stories, we didn’t get a word in. Then he would go into town the bar since we needed a guide in the dark. He gave us a tour and made us taste the jam he was cooking on the coal stove. It was a crazy experience. We hiked down a treacherous trail where Nano used an old paint can with a candle in it as a lantern. We had a great local dinner of arroz con pollo and strawberry drinks. On Sunday we slept in, went to a local hot spring (undeveloped) and hung out at the river. We ate a coffee berry on the recommendation of Nano and it was pretty good. Not really sweet, but they tasted ok. We had to go back into the city (Cartago) to catch a bus back home and we ate American again- Papa John’s and I had mashed potatoes from Church’s Chicken too. We had pizza about 4 times over the weekend! We wanted to have something besides beans and rice I think. We are very excited about going to the Caribbean side and having some very different food. We leave for our week off next Friday and I have most of it planned out. It will be mostly beach locations, with snorkeling and kayaking and we are dipping into Panama too.
That’s all for now. I will try to post the photos today.
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