The Forgotten Post

So the posts have seriously been slacking off, but I'll just do an enourmous recap and then maybe go into some more detail. I'm workin on it.

So starting with last weekend. We went to Poas Volcano. Its just like a fun park you get to walk around and see some sweet volcanoes. I wouldn't say its super special, but its pretty. The park really consisted of like 2 walking paths and some scenic overlooks, not enough footpaths for my taste, but it was beautiful. Also we went to some like crazy spa/zoo thing. I really don't know, but I saw a sloth, and I hated it. End of story. It opened its mouth at me and like snarled, and I got scared, naturally. Then there was the first buffet I've had in Costa Rica, SUPER SATISFFYING. I basically ate everything and in the end found out I still had to walk quite a bit down to the sweetest waterfall ever, well maybe second sweetest, its all in the eye of the beholder here.

But ya waterfall walk was like a mile walk down, so naturally I just sat and started at a massive waterfall for a while because I did not want to walk back up like a thousand stairs. I'll try to throw some pictures of those two waterfalls down. But it was legit because water was just spraying everywhere and you were soaked just from standing there. So I loved it forever.

So that was a fun trip. Then white water rafting went down and everything was great. There was a point in White Water rafting were adrenaline was high, team spirits high, blah blah blah. We were coming up on a class 4 rapid, which is the hardest rapid that is aloud for a public rafting team, and basically the entire raft jus sat there and screamed so we couldn't hear our guide tell us to stop paddling and my roomate and I ran the raft straight into a wall, and we almost flipped, but we didn't so it was legit. Good story huh?!

Anyways so that was a very quick recount of the long ago weekend. Now for a more recent weekend, which would be Monte Verde. Very pretty. First night we were in a small town that had a sweet hot springs resort with this wicked fast waterslide that totally would not have passed any safety laws in the U.S. so basically you had to sit up on it otherwise you would just smoke your head on the bottom of the slide. But in this slide, it dives down so quick that you essentially free fall for a while, real crazy.

So that was that, that day we hit up some of the most gourgeous scenery ever. We drove through the mountains on, as usual, some horrible roads, but very scenic. Then we took a boat across I wanna say Nicoya Lake, I may be wrong about the name there. But that was about a 30 to 40 minute boat ride just chillin on this awesome lake surrounded by hills and green. Really pretty, I think I have pictures, and if I don't I'll make sure I get those goin from someone else. Logically I should have them, but for some reason I feel like I don't. Wait, I don't but someone does. FOR SURE.

Anyways, that was some thinking out loud. That night we stayed in Monte Verde at a real chill little hotel that was probs the most beautiful thing ever. It was situated on top of this long hill and from it you could see the gulf of something, I think Nicoya, yep Gulf of Nicoya, and the lake definatley wasn't Lake Nicoya. Anyways, you could see the Pacific Coast pretty much from the top of this hill and it was real awesome.

They had this little I guess what was local fast food, never real seen like a mom and pop joint pullin off the typical american definition of fast food, but this place totally did that. And it was sit down so this little resturant has a lot of redeeming qualities.
(Side Note: I really enjoy knowing absolutley nothing of where to eat or where to stay because it really pushes me to do things I usually would not have. Like I would never have found so many awesome little resturants if I was straight up told where to go and what to do, but because I have no idea what I'm doing I just find all of these real small mom and pop joints that are really inexpensive and super delicious. Same goes with really anything, like bars and all.)
But ya anyways we were trying to order our food and basically what went down was that none of us knew the word for wing or breast in spanish so we resorted to actions and we ended up like acting like chickens in the middle of this chill little resturant and had a good lil time with the owner who was taking our orders. I really love the language barrier because its just something to laugh about with the locals. I mean I'm at a point where I can communicate, but its bad communication essentially. So really I can covey we needs to be conveyed pretty easily but my phrasing is real bad because of Spanish grammar and sentence construction and what not. So overall its just great.

So anyways the next morning we woke up real early and went ziplining through the jungle, most epic experience of my life. I can't really explain it, and I don't have to many pictures simply because I didn't wanna drop my camera, but the final zipline went a little like this.....

They said we had to go in pairs for stability purposes because it was really windy. So naturally your sitting there thinking, hold up what does that mean, I mean we had been zipling through the jungle, there hadn't really been a whole lot of wind. So, we walk up this like 50 or 60 ft platform and just look out over this valley. This line they had rigged was so long, you couldn't see the end of it and I wanna say our ride lasted maybe, I don't know, like a minute or so. Anyways so naturally Tyler and I hook into this harness and were preppin for this, high fives, you know that whole deal. Then it starts, at first were traveling throught the rainforest maybe about 30 or 40 yards off the ground until suddenly we emerge and just watch this cliff just fly underneath us and suddenly we are probably 300 yards off the ground over the top of the rainforest just flyin down this line. From every direction was trees and greenery and everything. I really can say I have never experienced anything quite like that. One of the greatest sites ever, if your in Costa Rica and don't do that, you are seriously missing out.

So that concludes that weekend. Now lets see, anything interesting. Well elections are today and I think were gonna try to check out how these things work. There elections are run in a much better way, oh and let me tell you some of this. Alright so presidential canidates are given only so much from the government to run, so basically anyone can run then because there isn't all of that random run offs early in the year where canidates really need money for themselves and stuff like that. Anyways so they are only allowed so much money and basically can only spend that much, which I personally think is awesome because it becomes more of a legit presidential race than a popularity and flash contest which I feel is the direction of United States politics. Anyways.... also the voting turnout is huge, people really love the voting thing here. I think US turnout is like 30 or 40%, I'm not really sure, while Costa Rica turnout is like definatley at least 70% and it would not surprise me if it was higher than that. Also the president... check this out, lives in his own personal residence and just like walks to work. He has a presidential car, but its just like a chill little Toyota Camry. Not bullet proof. No armour on it. The president here is just another citizen. That would never fly in the United States, our president would be dead within a week if he were to travel like that. But it's pretty cool that Costa Rica is able to do that. Like the president just walks the streets, my Tico padre was saying that some foreign diplomat of sorts came to Costa Rica and was walking around just chillin and he ran into this guy, a little bigger, and basically they struck up a little conversation, I wanna say this guy was from Argentina. But essentially the conversation came to, so what do you do for a living, and the first guy was like, "Ya I'm a diplomat here for Argentina" and then this other dude was like, 'Oh yeah, I'm the president of the country". So thats how the president does his buisness. Like he just rides the bus and everything, its totally chill. I don't know if you saw a few months ago that Englands queen rode on their metrolink deal and it was this huge deal that was real publicizied. The pictures are actually really funny because she's just chillin out starin daggers at whatever publicist was making her do that.

But ya Costa Rica is awesome so far, highly recommend anyone who gets the chance to come down here. I would only say make sure you do your research. It can be very safe as long as you know whats up, otherwise it can be kinda dangerous because there are definatley ways to stand out and look American. Basically no fanny packs, and don't were your backpack in front of you, thats a dead give away, everytime I see that I just shake my head and die a little inside. You just gotta know who's gonna try to rip you off and when to keep your eyes peeled and all of that kinda stuff.

Puerto Viejo

I will try in my best ability to describe this next area we traversed to, but I fear that there is no real way to properly describe this small beach side surfing town. There is one paved road that runs down the main drag, and the off shoots are all gravel roads with numerous pot holes, and few cars. Every local seems to have either dreads or some crazy amount of hair, or something about them that makes you say, "there just a bit off" but at the same time everyone was very nice and inviting.

So first for the hotel we stayed at, it was nice, safe and comfortable and as the story goes I was locked out of my room and forced to sleep in a hammock outside on Friday night, but I'm not really complaining about that. There was an abundance of what appeared to be stray dogs, and the one that we had following us around and potentially saved me from absolutely nothing, we coined the name Doctor Good Friend as a compromise between my ambitions and Will's. Another note here, Dr. Goodfriend just hacked things up all day but never once did she fail to follow us to where we were going, not even to see the Reggae bands every night.

The town is obviously in horrible shape and a rather poor community, but I wouldn't say unhappy or in any sort of real danger. Thats what I think makes the atmosphere so strange, because there is obviously a feel of almost a seperate state originating out of this village because of its sharp split with the rest of Costa Rica. This place seems to operate more under a socail agreement made between the citizens inhabiting the area rather than any government operation. I say this because drugs are about as easy to obtain here as gum is back in the states. You are approached with offers of countless things, and obviously you don't just go grabbin that stuff. So this is not a family friendly little town, but definately an experiece.

There is a black sand beach which was pretty epic. The surf was much better except not really more fun because it had recently flooded and the water was super dirty, so real gross there in the water, yet these waves were probably the most dangerous waves I've ever seen mainly because they were massive, I tried to surf them but since I haven't mastered reading the waves so that I could ride with the wave and blah blah blah it was a short ride.

But overall this was the weekend I decided that I will come back and live here someday, hopefully teach English as a second language to some kids down here and just chill out and live in Costa Rica, just gotta get that spanish down.
Video of the area... maybe it will help, probably not

Sorry... I've been slacking off

Anyways... so beginning back with last weekend. I started with a night on the beach in a small tourist town. I always imagined tourist towns in foreign countries would be crazy weternized, and not that there are quick a few more western esque things, really if you didn't know any Spanish, it may be quite difficult to get around. Costa Ricans practically all know some English it seems, at least at the younger ages. So its not a huge issue but still the town was still very much rooted in Costa Rican culture.

So beach night was fun, next day was surfing all day. I some how managed to get up on the first try which was the point where I really never came out of the water except to make a sand castle, which lasted all of an hour until a naked baby used it to play Godzilla. And then just to add insult to injury here, another kid had a miniature ATV and just ran over it even more.... AHHH

So after that we had dinner on the beach, and it was maybe $6 a meal roughly, so not bad, well if you order cheap, I could easily get up to near $15 if you went for the seafood. But that was a good dinner, sunset everything right there on the beach at a small hole in the wall resturant. And there was a homeless guy there too, how apparently was from New York and had lived in Costa Rica for 16 years.

That night was a little beach time and then we all went dancing, which was a blast just because I love to dance. But basically I was up on the stage doing my irish jig kinda dancing and Im pretty sure people were impressed, I hope. And then there were some swim races and I got a massive sunburn and am now peeling.

School is school. The idea of time down here is only strict on classes, everything else is like 30 minutes late, always. Food down here is fantastic. Im mastering finding the $4 lunch still and finally got rid of all of my travelers checks. Those things were impossible to get rid of. I went to 3 different banks until I could find someone to cash them out, and I had to go to the main national bank in San Jose. This bank is huge, its the tallest building in San Jose, and you walk in and its got all of the refreshing sights and sounds of a government run building. You can also imagine how slow and inefficent it was as well, but as I have learned Costa Rica faced no internal financial troubles during the hit to most the rest of the worlds economies. Basically they lost a bit in the tourism industry and some of the other exports such as bananas and pineapples, the more expensive of the fruits. But as for everything else they were fine. There banks I guess have essentially 0 risk but then also very small gains. But ya cashing these travelers checks took 3 days and over an hour of standing in lines and waiting at windows. So it was probably the worst experience of my life, I hate my banker.

Tamarindo (Sorry I forgot to post this one, may repeat some stuff)

First excursion out, crazy weekend. It was full of injuries via a coral reef, surfing, and of course dancing. I'll begin without to Tamarindo because it is definatley worth mentioning.

We took two private bus/van's (hard to distinguish what they really were) and were told we weren't taking public because it would take 9 hours instead of 7. Keep in mind we didn't travel more than 250km. So that being a little over 100 miles or so just imagine our average pace in this trip. Costa Rica is a very small country but to drive across it is quite a experience. At one point we were stuck in a traffic jam for roughly an hour as a result of road construction. It was rather strange because they would never have done such a thing in the States. The roads really aren't in horrible condition at any one time, except for the last maybe 8 miles before Tamarindo where they become unneccesarily bumpy, even for a gravel road. As for sights along the way, you see quite a bit, such as mountains, rolling hills, lakes, etc... Very pretty.

Once we reached Tamarindo it was 9 but still the beach called our name and we quickly ran over there and did that whole thing till who knows when and we left. The next day was a surfing madness showdown. I have to say it is one of the more exhilarating deals I've ever done, well not quite but still real fun. I happened to stand up on the 2nd wave I caught and rode it in, which was a pleasent suprise, so after that I was pretty much hooked. By the end of the day I improved none and now have sunburn worse than ever before, so look as to what I have accomplished.

That night we went dancing, and that was quite the experience. I went up on a little stage deal and threw my legs into something weird, I guess it looked kinda like some sort of Irish dancing but whos to really know, but for whatever reason the locals seemed to love that, so needless to say I did that quite a bit. After maybe 3 or so times of me doing this a German dude, a huge guy, came and started to jump on the stage, stompin his feet, really pounding the ground only to find the stage shatter underneath his feet. Lesson learned, not really sure what it is.

Being in a tourist destination everything was pretty expensive once again, and honestly it all kinda disappointed me. There was very little actual culture in Tamarindo, mostly just a giant tourist destination, fun, but not really a cultural experience.

Oh dinner, I forgot, we had a tabel set up on the beach at some hole in the wall resturant and totally did the sunset dine thing. That was crazy awesome. We met a homeless dude from the states who had been living in Costa Rica for 16 years. This one girl kept going, "Hey do you know Spanish" and he'd say back "Well, I've been here for 16 years" only to find her asking the same question again, "But, do you know Spanish?" and on and on that cycle went for a few minutes. I just started laughing after a while.

6 de Enero

So today was pretty average until the bars were hit up that night, which was really fun. It wasn't anything crazy or anything of that nature, but it was fun, very laid back. Everyone seemed to get screwed out of some money somehow in someway, which was exactly what they warned us about. For starters the taxis are a fun game to play. First you have to find one which is actually pretty easy. Then when you get in you have to say "Tiene una maria" or "Ponga la maria" which tells them to use the meter and not just charge some obscene price for your taxi ride. Oh also when choosing a taxi you have to make sure its one registered with the state otherwise you could get driven out to the middle of nowhere and robbed. Anyways the indicators of a "legit" taxi are a yellow triangle on the side along with the other signs typical to a taxi as well as numbers on the side, and you need to remember those numbers so that you can report them if they screw you over. Anyways I actually was fine all night because as long as you don't open up a tab or draw alot of attentin to yourself everythings fine. You just always have to be careful and very skeptical with people. On the way home from the bar is when people got really taken advantage of. One taxi told someone that they didn't know where the college is, because Costa Rica doesn't use street signs, just landmarks and directions from there, there are no street signs. So basically this driver took him and the two people he was with for all he was worth. 4200 colones, or a little over $8, which doesn't sound bad, but the cab fare for me both ways was 1500 colones, or $3.

Anyways on the way home I had to walk home alone in the dark because my roomate got lost via taxi, so on my walk home I was fine, but theres always the small concern in the back of your mind that your gonna get robbed, but it was 3 blocks and I had this. So I was walking down the street, confident long strides, eyes straight ahead, giving the apperance that I know whats up. So after about a bolck and a half I was approached from the year by a man boy. I was deciding whether or not I should run, but I chose to face it, I had no money on me at all, so he couldn't have stollen anything from me. Ended up he just wanted a cigarette, and I just "lo siento" and "adios". But a succesful conversation in Spanish was achieved.

Also yesterday I went shopping all by myself for all the ingredients for quesodillas and other mexican dishes of sorts. Anyways basically while I was doing that my roomate went to get his haircut, I dropped him off at a really sketchy barber that we passed on the way to the supermarket. Apparently while I was chillin out at the super market he was getting his haircut by recovering crackheads and a random dude from Manhattan. So interesting.

Also at the supermarket this worker started talking to me and I had no idea what was going on so I said, "No comprende, Necesito queso" which translates into, I don't understand, I need cheese. So that was really funny, we just laughed at the fact that I can only talk and Spanish, not really understand unless your talking really slow.

5 de Enero

Today was good. Had only one class and it was drawing, so ya didn't do much. Well I did a lot during my 4 hours of nothing. Almost read the entire Farewell to Arms (Ernest Hemingway) and got my classes worked out, paid for these trip deals. Anyways not important.

For lunch we decided to find some a little resturante called a "Soda" which I guess is just a small little sit down place, hard to compare it to anything in the United States. It's like a sit down resturant run by one person, they had 4 tables inside and no menu or anything. We had to ask what she had and the kitchen was like a normal household kitchen, no commercial oven or anything, just straight up home kitchen that cooked legit homemade food. It was delicious, but expensive and slow. We sat down around 12:15 assuming a good 45 minute to an hour lunch, and it went easily till 2. Everything just moves so much slower down here, which I guess I should have expected. The food was also more expensive than I expected, 3000 colones, 6 dollars, and it really didn't fill me up, but it was delicious. Also besides simply eating some legit Costa Rican quisine, which is really any at least central american dish, pretty general, I walked into a new part of town today, which I was told was the bad part of town. Which was pretty obvious. I mean we were surrounded by people so it was legit, but at night, no bien. Also if you were to go off the main drag, as we did, you probably were like, should I be here, which I was. I mean it was my first encounter with a begger, which was just like America, honestly in America I feel there are more beggers, which is weird since the conditions are worse here, at least relative to America.

The walk down was fine, it was the walk back where I got scared because my little hijo acted like we were lost, and maybe we were, I can never tell with that boy. Also my roomate bought swin trunks for $8 and that was in a mall, so ya, muy barato.

Now for dinner, probably the funniest experience of my life, even if my Spanish wasn't firing on all cylinders. Like the little boy, the 4 year old was doing stuff, then he locked his older brother out of the house and the parents were cool with it. I mean honestly, the little boy was getting into all kinds of stuff and the parents just let it slide, they didn't even punish him or anything. It was strange, but also refreshing, hard to explain. But ya so overall today was filled with just lots of new things.

First day of Classes

So apparently in Costa Rica, time is extremley relative. Basically we were given all of these times to be places, like 8:00, 10:30 and 12:30 and we get there at about that time and always we waited around for at least like 20 minutes before anything happened. They even explained to us (American Students) this wicked theory on time and how cultures are with time etc... Basically in Costa Rica it seems there is a good 30 to 45 minute window were you can be "on time". No bien en America. Anyways, basically today was one of those days that any plans you had made got destroyed instantly because they didn't let us out of orientation until 4 and we all wanted to go to the tienda to buy things, such as beer and sunscreen but that didn't really work out, well we did get to the store and everyone filled their carts with only beer.

Dinner was fantastic tonight because I understood at least 80% of everything said, unlike every other meal before this. Still loosening up and what not, but its all good.