we are en Transition

En Route to Panama

2009-12-27T13:11:00.000-05:00

We spent the remainder of our Christmas making our way to San Jose. There was only one Taxi willing to come pick us up from the resort to take us to the bus terminal and he wanted double the going rate - $60. While debating on what t do from here, the concierge offered us a spot on the employee shuttle which was leaving (so we thought) momentarily. We rushed out to the pick up spot and waited for about 2 hours with a large crowd of Ticos waiting to get home to spend the last hours of Christmas with their loved ones.

The shuttle (a 1970's model school bus) arrived and everyone crammed in, setting off for Limon, and as we later found out with a couple pit stops along the way. After a nerve wrecking ride back to Limon, we finally arrived, and thankfully VERY close to the bus terminal! We made it in time for the final bus for the night by about 20 minutes.

We arrived in San Jose at about 11:30 and headed to a hostel that we had noticed on our last stop over in the city, the Malino Red Hostel. Since we had spotted the hostel on the bus, we decided to hike the 3k to from the terminal to the hostel, checked in and then headed out for some grub. The closest place that was open (it was Christmas and late for Costa Rica) was Soda Tapia, an American style 24hr-diner reminiscent of a Steak 'n' Shake. We had bean sandwiches and fries. Because they were out of apple pie and cheese cake I got Guanabana(Soursop) ice-cream for dessert.

The hostel, a new addition to the slew of hostels in the city, was very calm and right off the main drag. We spent the majority of our time there trying to figure out how to make it to Panama and observing a Tico Tradition- the December 27th Cowboy Parade. The parade consisted of thousands of Ticos lining the streets to grill steak, drinking whiskey, and watch the hundreds of dancing horses and cowboys prance through the city. It was freakish.

While the parade was in full force, Tiffany and I had to run around the city to all the different bus terminals to find buses going to Panama that had space. After a few strikeouts (Tica Bus was booked full for days) we were directed to Panaline. It took a while, but I finally found the new terminal on the opposite side of the city from all the other terminals. The Panaline bus would take us from San Jose to the border, through customs and to David Panama. David is still a long way from the city, but there are buses every hour from David to the city, so we were set. We stayed the night in San Jose then caught the bus for the 10 hour ride at 7am.

Parque National Ricon De La Vijia

2009-12-25T09:00:00.002-05:00

We took the bus to Liberia and a *gasp* cab to Ricon De La Vijia National Park for camping; or so we thought. Unbeknown to us there are not one, but two entrances and nearly separate parks – one completely public with camping available, the other blocked by a resort, that offers no camping in the park. Yet again, Costa Rica's cab drivers failed us.

We ended up hitchhiking to the Hacienda Guachipelin Resort (6Km) where we got a room and arranged for a day-long adventure tour. We spent the next day on our adventure, starting with 2 hours of zip-lining, rock climbing and Tarzan swinging through the jungle canopy weaving in and out of the river canyon. It's quite thrilling to fly through the air strapped upside-down to a steel cable!

To reach the next portion of the adventure, we traveled by horseback for about 45 minutes to the river head. This was my first time riding a horse (I'm sure my sister would be proud), and (accept for the part where my genitals were continuously slapped into the saddle) I really enjoyed it.

At the river head, we got stuck behind a really large group of elderly people (how they made it this far – beyond my comprehension), so we ended up waiting quite a while to make it into the river with our tubes. Though the wait was entirely worth it! River rafting is cool, but river tubing is a whole new ballgame. The rapids were really intense and there were a few sticky spots, but in all it was a lot of fun. At one point a very large woman went down a rapid backwards and got stuck vertically and eventually flipped – it was very amusing.

Due to the lack of hop-to-it-ness of the elderly group, our return transportation was not as timely as it could have been. However this gave Tiffany and I an opportunity to chat with some folks from British Columbia, Canada. The conversation revolved around the legal issues of medicinally accepted plants and the going rates, local terminology and quality (of which there is very little). The Canadians were great and ended up giving us a ride from the resort to the Symbiosis Spa. Included in our tour package was entrance to the spa and access to the hot springs, sauna and Mud bath!

For Christmas, we decided to take a hike through the National Park. We arranged transportation through the hotel and then set off to see the major sights of the park. The Ricon is rich in geologic activity (hence the spa and mud bath)- scattered mud pools, sulfur pools etc. Halfway through the trail loop we had chosen to explore, we decided to take the trail branch to the second part of the park and the accessible hot spring. The sign claimed the distance was 6k, though we are both convinced that the actual distance is closer to 10k. In any event we misjudged our timing and missed our ride back. Fortunately for us, a young couple in a renal car stopped to give us a ride about 10 minutes into our decent back to the lodge.

Amazing sites to see

2009-12-23T07:31:00.000-05:00

After our first big day of surprises, the next day went rather smoothly. We took a tour of one of the caves in Parque Nacional Barra Honda. The Terciopelo cavern is a 206 foot descend and was named because of a terciopelo corpse they found at the bottom of the cave when first exploring it. There are several other caves including one which they have found remains of humans who were thrown to the bottom for whatever reason. But only one cave was open to the public at this time. We hiked up the mountain with our two guides. Both of our guides were amazing. I walked behind talking to one of our guides. He picked plants as we walked along and shared them with me. I would smell them and he would tell me in Spanish what the Indians used them for and their Spanish name. He told me that he was very well traveled and had friends all over the world. I think he said something about Obama. Sadly I could only understand maybe half of what he said, but I would love to spend time at this park studying with him. Our other guide was the one to take us down into the cave.

We strapped on rappelling gear and followed him down the ladder. The cave was really beautiful. There were bats sleeping and large toads hopping about. We climbed down until we reached a wall with only a narrow hole. Jason and I both thought it was the end of the line, but our guide showed us how to squeeze through. He pointed out the way the columns were formed and what they had named some of the formations. There was one call, “The family” and others they referred to as “papayas.” He tapped on some of the rock formations showing us how they were hollow and would make different pitched sounds. Jason is going to post a video of him and our guide playing on the rock.
We stayed at Barra Honda a second night because the buses don't run on Sundays anyways. The rangers allowed us to stay for free and they also allowed us to use the kitchen for the volunteers. We had such a wonderful time and Barra Honda. Everyone was so kind to us. Thank you!!

On Monday we headed to Playa Grande and Parque Nacional Marino las Baulas. Baulas tortugas are the leather back turtles that come to Playa Grande to nest. During nesting season there are tours at night which allow you to enter the beach and witness the nesting. We tried to see it the first night we were there but you have to make the list and they can only take so many people out at a time. Some times turtle don't even come out. Jason and I had been up since 5 am and couldn't stay up longer than 11 pm so we packed it in and planned on seeing them the next night. We stayed in a pleasant hotel that is connected to a bar called “Kike's Place.” It was not very expensive and we got a bathroom which is really nice plus free wireless.

The next day we went out bike riding to see Playa Grande. It is just across the estuary from Playa Tamarindo which is the a much more built up beach. Playa Grande will be the same in a few years. There was a lot of land that was divide into small sections and being sold by Century 21 to what I'm sure is big building companies. Lucky the entire beach is part of the park and protected land just for the sea turtles.
The bike ride was lovely. We popped in and out of the beach all the way down to the estuary, where the salt and fresh water meet. If we had planned it better, we may have taken a boat tour up the river. There are apparently always boaters waiting to take tourists across or on a tour. We watched the sunset on the beach, which was actually rather boring compared to the sunsets of Mal Pais, and headed to the ranger station to check in for the sea turtles.

Now when you go to watch the sea turtles, you wait all night until one shows up. This may or may not happen. Then they take only a certain number of people out to see. When viewing the mother, everyone stands behind her in a half circle and hopes that she finishes her nest and lays her eggs. If there are too many people, you might not get to see the first turtle that comes up. In our case we waited until a short time after 11 to see the second mother come on to shore to lay her eggs. A family drove Jason and I to the site because we did not have a vehicle. We followed out in a single line and made a small half circle behind the mother. Because we were the last of the people there was only about 15 of us instead of 30. There were biologist counting the eggs and making sure the nest didn't fall in on itself. The most amazing part was watching this giant turtle (her shell 4 ft long) back herself into this hole she had dug that was about 3 ft deep and carefully scooping sand out. The way she moved her back fins seemed almost unnatural. Bending them inwards to make a shovel and lifting them out and flicking her fin in a way to throw the sand out. Our mother laid 71 eggs. They were slightly larger than golf balls, shiny and perfectly round. Sadly, no pictures were allowed so I have nothing to show you guys. I'm sorry. We did not get to see her return to the sea. But we did see the tracks that she had left when she came on to the beach. They were so wide, they looked like a 4 wheeler had driven out of sea.
That evening Jason and I crashed in front of the abandon museum. We wanted to catch the first bus out and didn't want to pay for a room for only 4 hours. There was what used to be a small circular bar. We laid out our sleeping bags and slept till the sun awoke us. (I don't know if I have mention this but you have to try really hard to sleep past 6 am in Costa Rica. The sun comes up at 5:30 and sets about the same time in the pm. 8Pm here seems like 10 or 11 pm. It's nice in a lot of ways.)

Costa Rican Hospital

2009-12-21T23:07:00.001-05:00

Today was our first day of our “vacation” exploring Costa Rica. We don't have another farm planned until January and are taking this time to do some touristy things.

We caught the first bus out of Cabuya at 7:20am on Saturday, after a extended 3 day goodbye to our new friends that we met at Rainsong. We then connected to a Paquera bus, where you would catch a ferry. So far so good. We got off the bus around 9 and had to find our way to Nicoya. A taxi driver told us we would have to take the ferry to Puntarenas and then another ferry back to Playa Naranjo and there we could catch a bus to Nicoya from there, but it would take us a long time. He told us that he could take us there for $100. Jason told him there was no way we could afford it and we would take the ferry. He was being really persistent and offer to take us for $19. Now this is quite the change in price. We ask him several times, “$19...as in 1, 9?” And he told us yes. After getting in the taxi both Jason and I knew it was a bad idea to have taken the ride. We rode mostly in silence watching the meter run, watching the landscape roll past, thinking about what's going to happen when we would get there... waiting for the punch line. During this time we decided to have our driver take us straight the Parque National Barra Honda which was our final destination instead of Nicoya. (We were only going to Nicoya because it's the closest major city to the park and no buses go directly to the park.) Two hours later we rolled into the hotel right outside the park. The meter read 42 some odd thousand colones which is roughly $80. We unloaded and the driver told us it would 50,000 colones, which is $100. Jason argued and gave him $20. The argument continued, the driver telling us he said, “$90” and Jason saying, “$19,” which of course is what he said. He showed us his meter, which was a total joke. He was trying to charge us $20 more than what his meter read and I forgot to mention the fact that he pulled over and made a couple phone calls on the way, the meter running to entire time. We settled up with him giving him 40,000 colones and he left acting upset, but we know he was pretty damn pleased that he had gotten the gringos to pay him. After this Jason and I made a pack, “No taxis if we can help it.”

The hotel was just down a hill from the park. We carried our things up to the park to see if there was any cheap accommodations there before booking a room at the hotel. There was camping for $2 a head. That's perfect for us because we had to try and make up the $80 we just blew on the cab. We set up camp. Jason and I were actually in really good spirits, laughing about the fact that we knew better and let ourselves be tricked. Jason set up a hammock next to our tent. He tied one end to rope on a tree and the other end he used a metal S hook to hook the rope to the hammock. He climbed in. The hammock sat really low to the ground. I said to him, “I wait to climb in with you but it doesn't look like a good idea.” The hammock was so low to the ground (perhaps 5 inches) that I figured, “I've fallen further down before,” and I climbed in. We both realized that it was going to fall at any moment and we couldn't really get out of it. Suddenly it snapped and the metal hook hit my elbow. Turns out the rope didn't break, the S hook just bent out of shape and the rope slipped off. I was holding my elbow putting pressure on it to make it feel better. It felt like I had hit my funny bone. Jason said, “Well, I don't see any blood...” I removed my hand. My palm had blood in it and the skin around my elbow had swollen up like a misshapen balloon. In the center of the balloon my skin was broken open, not from a cut, but just the force of the metal hitting my arm. I started to panic. The pain hadn't changed, not even enough to cry over. But I had never seen anything like this before. What if I had broken my elbow? What if I end up in a cast and can't do anything on our vacation? I started to cry and Jason calmed me. We walked down to the ranger station. The ranger told us to grab our stuff and they would take us to the hospital. He brought me a menstrual pad because that's all he had to soak up the blood and put a sling around my neck for my arm. My hand was beginning to feel numb in some spots and I believe this was due to the swelling putting pressure on a nerve. My adrenaline rush started to wear off now and I became nausea and developed a cold sweat. I imagine that I looked much worse than my actually condition but this was because I of my panicked state.

We arrived at the hospital and we sat down to wait. The hospital was all concrete, with the look and feel of an asylum only open air. The concrete walls had openings at the top and fans to circulate the air through the room. I was called back within 10 minutes and taken to a room with two bed tables. I explained what happened the best I could in my horrendous Spanglish. The doctor/ nurse that came in spoke a little English. He cleaned up the wound and injected it with some pain killer. The sight of a needle always freaks me out and he put it right in my little swollen arm balloon. While I was waiting for the pain killer to take effect, they rolled another patient into the room. They don't have nearly as much privacy in this hospital as what we expect in the states. I had already seen this man in the open foyer like room that lead to the treating room that I was in now. It looked as though his foot had been crushed. He seemed to be rather calm about it, as he spoke on his cell phone. The doctor/nurse man came back and put a stitch in my small wound. It really didn't need stitches but I guess he figured it was still bleeding, might as well be safe.

Then I went to the xray room. The xray was the real reason we had come to the hospital. If I could have been sure that I hadn't chipped, cracked, or shattered my elbow I would have not even gone. But I've never broken anything so I had no idea what to think. The nurse lead me around through the halls. What a strange hospital. I can only describe it as you would imagine a creepy mental asylum. It was all white and concrete. The floors were all different types of broken old tile. Where Jason awaited my return there was a very small narrow outdoor area. It was probably only 6 ft by 30 ft and had a broken TV on a TV stand jetting out from the wall. The white paint was cracked and peeling off the walls in some areas. Mostly where something had been mounted to the wall. The xray room was quite large but very empty. The machine was in the middle with a chair next to the table under it. There was a doorway that lead to the control area, and on the door that I had entered there was a rosary hanging by two pieces of masking tape. I waited for awhile before I met back up with Jason. Another doctor came in and showed me my xray. Everything was fine. He gave some prescriptions for Ibuprofen and an antibiotic. And then he gave us a bunch of instructions, most of which we couldn't understand because he only spoke Spanish. He lead me to another very small room, where I regain my crushed foot companion. He was having his foot dressed by another doctor who spoke English. This doctor told me to keep my arm rested and in the sling.

We left to pay, and opted out of filling the prescriptions. I am already on 2 antibiotics from the dog bite and we have Ibuprofen already. The entire bill only came out to 30,000 colones ($60) which was less than my visit to the pharmacist in regards to the dog bite.

Jason and I decided we would try and walk/hitchhike back to the park. It was about 10-13 miles back to the park which at the time we didn't realize. We were able to catch a ride in a pick up truck for about 3 miles. It took us 3 hours to get back to the park. It had begun to rain but not to terrible hard. We stopped and grabbed a snack size bag of chips. We had only eaten a banana and two granola bars each that day. But we made it back. We were hanging out by the visitor area because of the rain when a girl our age came from out of now where. She was a volunteer and very nice. We found out there we lots of volunteers working at the national park. We went to bed and fell asleep rather soundly under the rain. It was quite the day. Jason and I made another pack to start listening to our gut feeling.

Adios, Rainsong!

2009-12-20T12:24:00.002-05:00

My time at Rainsong was inspiring. Caring for fragile lives and co-habitating with colorful spirits. Each day seemingly a new episode in a reality TV show on the Animal Planet. The happenings, each intertwined event, created a truly comedic and emotional experience which will forever color my memories. As time goes on, I am sure to elaborate on each one in detail over drinks and casados (a typical Tico platter of rice, beans, ensalada, fried bananaos and a main veggie/meat) with those around me.

Thank you to all the friends I made at the Sanctuary, you are all wonderful people; enjoy the remainder of your adventures in "Ticolandia" (thanks to my cousin Alyssa for the term). I hope to see you all again one day, perhaps in your homes or while visiting other continents.

For now our adventure continues on to Parque National Barra Honda in the interior of the Guanecaste province...

Costa Rican Hospital

2009-12-19T23:07:00.000-05:00

Today was our first day of our “vacation” exploring Costa Rica. We don't have another farm planned until January and are taking this time to do some touristy things.

We caught the first bus out of Cabuya at 7:20am on Saturday, after a extended 3 day goodbye to our new friends that we met at Rainsong. We then connected to a Paquera bus, where you would catch a ferry. So far so good. We got off the bus around 9 and had to find our way to Nicoya. A taxi driver told us we would have to take the ferry to Puntarenas and then another ferry back to Playa Naranjo and there we could catch a bus to Nicoya from there, but it would take us a long time. He told us that he could take us there for $100. Jason told him there was no way we could afford it and we would take the ferry. He was being really persistent and offer to take us for $19. Now this is quite the change in price. We ask him several times, “$19...as in 1, 9?” And he told us yes. After getting in the taxi both Jason and I knew it was a bad idea to have taken the ride. We rode mostly in silence watching the meter run, watching the landscape roll past, thinking about what's going to happen when we would get there... waiting for the punch line. During this time we decided to have our driver take us straight the Parque National Barra Honda which was our final destination instead of Nicoya. (We were only going to Nicoya because it's the closest major city to the park and no buses go directly to the park.) Two hours later we rolled into the hotel right outside the park. The meter read 42 some odd thousand colones which is roughly $80. We unloaded and the driver told us it would 50,000 colones, which is $100. Jason argued and gave him $20. The argument continued, the driver telling us he said, “$90” and Jason saying, “$19,” which of course is what he said. He showed us his meter, which was a total joke. He was trying to charge us $20 more than what his meter read and I forgot to mention the fact that he pulled over and made a couple phone calls on the way, the meter running to entire time. We settled up with him giving him 40,000 colones and he left acting upset, but we know he was pretty damn pleased that he had gotten the gringos to pay him. After this Jason and I made a pack, “No taxis if we can help it.”

The hotel was just down a hill from the park. We carried our things up to the park to see if there was any cheap accommodations there before booking a room at the hotel. There was camping for $2 a head. That's perfect for us because we had to try and make up the $80 we just blew on the cab. We set up camp. Jason and I were actually in really good spirits, laughing about the fact that we knew better and let ourselves be tricked. Jason set up a hammock next to our tent. He tied one end to rope on a tree and the other end he used a metal S hook to hook the rope to the hammock. He climbed in. The hammock sat really low to the ground. I said to him, “I wait to climb in with you but it doesn't look like a good idea.” The hammock was so low to the ground (perhaps 5 inches) that I figured, “I've fallen further down before,” and I climbed in. We both realized that it was going to fall at any moment and we couldn't really get out of it. Suddenly it snapped and the metal hook hit my elbow. Turns out the rope didn't break, the S hook just bent out of shape and the rope slipped off. I was holding my elbow putting pressure on it to make it feel better. It felt like I had hit my funny bone. Jason said, “Well, I don't see any blood...” I removed my hand. My palm had blood in it and the skin around my elbow had swollen up like a misshapen balloon. In the center of the balloon my skin was broken open, not from a cut, but just the force of the metal hitting my arm. I started to panic. The pain hadn't changed, not even enough to cry over. But I had never seen anything like this before. What if I had broken my elbow? What if I end up in a cast and can't do anything on our vacation? I started to cry and Jason calmed me. We walked down to the ranger station. The ranger told us to grab our stuff and they would take us to the hospital. He brought me a menstrual pad because that's all he had to soak up the blood and put a sling around my neck for my arm. My hand was beginning to feel numb in some spots and I believe this was due to the swelling putting pressure on a nerve. My adrenaline rush started to wear off now and I became nausea and developed a cold sweat. I imagine that I looked much worse than my actually condition but this was because I of my panicked state.
We arrived at the hospital and we sat down to wait. The hospital was all concrete, with the look and feel of an asylum only open air. The concrete walls had openings at the top and fans to circulate the air through the room. I was called back within 10 minutes and taken to a room with two bed tables. I explained what happened the best I could in my horrendous Spanglish. The doctor/ nurse that came in spoke a little English. He cleaned up the wound and injected it with some pain killer. The sight of a needle always freaks me out and he put it right in my little swollen arm balloon. While I was waiting for the pain killer to take effect, they rolled another patient into the room. They don't have nearly as much privacy in this hospital as what we expect in the states. I had already seen this man in the open foyer like room that lead to the treating room that I was in now. It looked as though his foot had been crushed. He seemed to be rather calm about it, as he spoke on his cell phone. The doctor/nurse man came back and put a stitch in my small wound. It really didn't need stitches but I guess he figured it was still bleeding, might as well be safe. Then I went to the xray room. The xray was the real reason we had come to the hospital. If I could have been sure that I hadn't chipped, cracked, or shattered my elbow I would have not even gone. But I've never broken anything so I had no idea what to think. The nurse lead me around through the halls. What a strange hospital. I can only describe it as you would imagine a creepy mental asylum. It was all white and concrete. The floors were all different types of broken old tile. Where Jason awaited my return there was a very small narrow outdoor area. It was probably only 6 ft by 30 ft and had a broken TV on a TV stand jetting out from the wall. The white paint was cracked and peeling off the walls in some areas. Mostly where something had been mounted to the wall. The xray room was quite large but very empty. The machine was in the middle with a chair next to the table under it. There was a doorway that lead to the control area, and on the door that I had entered there was a rosary hanging by two pieces of masking tape. I waited for awhile before I met back up with Jason. Another doctor came in and showed me my xray. Everything was fine. He gave some prescriptions for Ibuprofen and an antibiotic. And then he gave us a bunch of instructions, most of which we couldn't understand because he only spoke Spanish. He lead me to another very small room, where I regain my crushed foot companion. He was having his foot dressed by another doctor who spoke English. This doctor told me to keep my arm rested and in the sling.

We left to pay, and opted out of filling the prescriptions. I am already on 2 antibiotics from the dog bite and we have Ibuprofen already. The entire bill only came out to 30,000 colones ($60) which was less than my visit to the pharmacist in regards to the dog bite.

Jason and I decided we would try and walk/hitchhike back to the park. It was about 10-13 miles back to the park which at the time we didn't realize. We were able to catch a ride in a pick up truck for about 3 miles. It took us 3 hours to get back to the park. It had begun to rain but not to terrible hard. We stopped and grabbed a snack size bag of chips. We had only eaten a banana and two granola bars each that day. But we made it back. We were hanging out by the visitor area because of the rain when a girl our age came from out of now where. She was a volunteer and very nice. We found out there we lots of volunteers working at the national park. We went to bed and fell asleep rather soundly under the rain. It was quite the day. Jason and I made another pack to start listening to our gut feeling.

Baby howler update

2009-12-11T12:20:00.000-05:00

We spent another long night with the baby monkey, though her condition did not improve. On the third day we decided to have the vet put her down while on his monthly inspection that afternoon. Our feelings on the issue remain mutual – it was better to put her down than subject her to a life of agony and intensive care.

Too little time to write!

2009-12-08T19:23:00.000-05:00

It's been a little while since I last took the time to write and a lot has happened. Quick overview:

Snorkeling/Tortuga Island trip - Had a good time, ate my money's worth in fish, though it left me slightly less than satisfied; the water was a bit too murky and choppy for snorkeling (it had rained the day prior), though the day was beautiful. It's definitely a tourist-trap type of thing.

Cabuya/Cemetery Island - Lots of fun; had to wade out to the island between the tides, left at low tide so we found the land bridge. The cemetery was really neat, the most recent marked site was from 2008; some of the headstones were really cool (pictures somewhere). No luck lobster hunting. It was beautiful day and we had a fun time and completely free.

Mal Pais/Santa Terasa/Plya Carmen - Waves were incredible (8-10ft). Surf board rental was cheap ($8/day) and surfing was a lot of fun. The towns run together and are mostly a really long road about 300' from the beach with tons of shops overpriced grocery stores & restraunts, and tons of folks from British Columbia Canada. We etrented our board from a little shop caled 'The Shit Hole' by recommendation from Joe Burger (Rainsong volunteer). The shop was awesome and the Italian guy running the place was awesome, treated us really well and when we returned the bord with a broken leash, he told us not to worry about it (we heard some horror stories about other rental places)! If you make it to Mal Pais and are looking for a board, get it from the Shit Hole! We stayed with Neils (a friend of Rainsong) at the hostel he's trying to get up and running for $5/person/night, which made the trip a bit less costly. Overall, we spent too much money between food, entertainment, and souvenirs - mostly because everything here in Costa Rica (especially the Gringo towns) are expensive by American standards.

My time here at Rainsong has been a mixed bag. There is a lot of dramaticism emanating from our host; everything is freak out, as opposed to a constructive conversation or lesson. Expectations run high, learning takes place through trial and error. Though at the end of the day when everything's been taken care of, her story begins to come out, which is very cool. If I can stand to, I'd like to write a book on her life of pirates, shipwrecks, Sea Turtles rescues, land disputes, and hidden treasures. Lots of seat-of-your-pants stuff.

Today is the 8th, and we've got 10 days left here at Rainsong. Our plans afterward are looking very open. We ended up deciding to push our visits to Dominical and Boruca until after we renew our Visas (by staying in Panama for a minimum of 3 days) which will give us a more time in Guanacaste and Panama before New Years.

TIffany has a nice travel itinerary worked up for the Nicoya Peninsula and Guanacaste Provence. All that's left is to figure out bus routes, our New Years plans and booking the Waterfall Hostel in David, Panama and We're waiting on some info from Tiffany's friend Rachel to see if meeting up with her is still a-go.

Voulnteers invade Mal Pais!

2009-12-07T19:39:00.001-05:00

This last weekend 6 of the volunteers, including Jason and myself, went to Mal Pais. A surf beach town that blends together with Santa Teresa and Playa Carmen. Danielle, Brad, Jason and I all walked. It's about a 7 kilometer hike on the road. We were going to take a short cut but Simon who was to be our guide had to deal with some other matters. At 8:30 in the morning we came across this lovely home at the top of our first mountain. With an Imperial (beer of Costa Rican chose) sign hanging on the side. We decided it was the perfect time for a cold refreshment. The owner of the home spoke English and was quite happy to serve us. We decide to do a bar crawl on the way to Mal Pais but didn't run into anymore places. Though we did pass Mel Gibson's Costa Rican hideaway, or at least the front gate.

The lost boys,Edwin and Joesph, are working over there while enjoying the scene. They are working where we stayed, at this place that a friend of our host, Mary, is fixing up. Nil's, the friend, is a pretty awesome guy who put us up for $5 a person a night. The hotel is run down but it has a lot of potential and I'm sure it used to be a really cool place. There is a large Hontei statue at the front and a platform in the back which could have been a stage or a yoga platform among other things. There is a tree house like structure. You climb a ladder about 10 ft and reach a triangle shape d little room that could be a crow's nest or a dj booth. Anyways, Jason and I are discussing the idea of working for Nil's a bit because we loved Mal Pais so much. And we would like to have the connection of coming back for a job at this hotel once it is up and running.

We walked through the town. There are surf shops, clubs, tourist rental places and many different restaurants. We stopped at an organic salad bar for some fresh juice. Jason and I also ate at a new age type restaurant with raw foods and all vegetarian. It's call Natura Mia, and if you're in Mal Pais you should go. It's mostly imported food items but the owners are super friendly and it's really delicious place to find fresh veggie dishes that just don't exist down here. Even the grocery store was exciting. It had real soy milk (we found some powdered stuff that we later realize the second ingredient was sweet milk), imported beer, tahini, sushi fixings, and I could go on and on about the stuff they had that you can't find in Costa Rica. Of course, it's all very expensive. Costa Rica is actually very expensive, mostly in food cost. We may dip out and head to Nicaragua because it's so much cheaper.

The first day we spent shopping and checking out the town. We ended up a the cool coffee shop that night where the lost boys hang out. They play their music and the owners of the coffee shop also played some great music. Nick Drake set the mood for me that evening.

Saturday Jason and I got up to catch a yoga class but got distracted collecting shells on the beach and missed it. So we got a surf board a The Shit Hole. Take note, The Shit Hole is amazing! The guy who runs it is Italian and the nicest guy. He knocked the price down for us. We lost a fin in the first hour and he apologized and gave us a new board. We went back the next day before our 24 hours was up and asked if we could keep it for longer for a couple bucks and he just told us not to worry about it. We could keep it as long as we wanted. The ankle strap broke that morning and he once again didn't seem to care and offered to replace it. We could have ended up paying a couple hundred dollars in damages if he wanted to charge us but nothing at all. A totally awesome deal. Go to The Shit Hole in Mal Pais.

Surfing is so much fun. I never got into skateboarding or bmx when I was a kid and I
kind of relate surfing to those sports but man, surfing is so much fun. Even if you just catch a wave and ride in our your belly, which is mostly what I did. I did stand up quite a few times which is really cool for it being my first time. The hardest part is getting out far enough. I think if I got to the area where the waves first begin to break I wouldn't want to catch one back because it's so hard to get out there. But it was a blast. I'm totally taking up surfing now guys.

Mal Pais is a really fun place. Everyone is friendly, everyone speaks English (though that's not really a plus when you're trying to learn Spanish) the hostels are all really nice and there are a ton of them. There are sports bars, night clubs, coffee shops, lots of hand made souvenir shops (I got me a bathing suit) but you should be there for the beach. The water is warm and inviting, and you have the jungle right behind you. In fact, there was a wild anteater where we stayed on Saturday. It was really hard to come back to Rainsong.

Saturday night we listened to the lost boys perform. I hoped to hear them solo but two locals sat in with them. I wanted to record but there is too much background noise. I took a walk on the beach back home. There was heat lighting over the ocean and I thought about how far I am away from my friends and home but I'm still doing the same thing. I'm completely satisfied and really happy here and now.

When we got home from Mal Pais, Gabbi and Siri were waiting for us. They had cleaned the volunteer house and cooked us dinner. It was really awesome. Thank you ladies for being so wonderful and fun. It's going to be hard to leave!

The boys drove us back to Rainsong Sunday evening. This was our last ride with them and our goodbye. It's my first rough goodbye of the trip. I really enjoy their presence and their music. They gave us a shell that we had been looking for as a gift and I almost cried. I know there is always facebook, but they want to travel is similar places, so maybe we will see them in South America or India some day. Edwin is writing a book so that's another thing I'll have to remember. Goodbye lost boys, take care of yourselves on your journey!

Life at Rainsong

2009-12-03T19:35:00.002-05:00

Everything has been going really well here at Rainsong. Generally Jason and I take care of the farm. I start my mornings letting out the chickens and feeding them. We have about 25 baby chicks right now and I'm in love with them. They all come running to me when I enter the pen. I've never been a fan of chickens but I really enjoy taking care of them now. Then it is down to the sanctuary for baby monkey feeding and mediation. Back up the hill to the farm to feed the rest of the animals. We have a 3 hour break before afternoon shift. In the afternoon it's laid back and time to hang out with most of the animals. Several of the volunteers take the monkeys out to play on the trees. I can usually spend most of my time at the sanctuary and finish the farm in the last hour of work. At night, we have been cooking communal dinners. Everyone really enjoys it and I love the idea that we all sit with each other and have our bonding time.

On Thanksgiving a few of us went to Isla de Tortuga for a snorkeling trip. We were supposed to go the day before so we could make a big Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday night but we were rained out. The island was really nice. They take you out on a boat and it takes about an hour. We stopped for photos a couple times (waterfall, Rainbow Island) and then we reached two small islands very close to Tortuga and hopped out for a swim. I've never really snorkeled before so it was a new experience. The water was more murky than I expected but you could still see the bottom. My ears don't equalize well so I just stayed at the surface, but I still could follow many brightly colored fish around. It's strange when you look under the water and realize that these things are always under you whether you can see them or not. Our guide caught a blow fish for us all to see and take pictures. They also served us beer which was awesome and kind of nauseating at the same time (being on a boat drinking). At the island we ate a nice lunch, swam, and wandered in the sun. It was a good day at the beach. The boat ride was the best part actually.

Because we had to cancel our Thanksgiving dinner, the rest of the volunteers decided to meet up with us in Montezuma so we could go out and party. They showed up in the back of the boys pick up truck honking and hollering. The night was then filled with drinking fancy drinks, large ham-burgers, Indian food in Costa Rica, and lots of dancing to what we thought was going to be reggae night. It was more just dance remixes and reggae-ton. But we had a great time.

The next day was Edwin's birthday. The lost boys and the Swedish girls all took off for Mal Pais for their long weekend. This meant that we were down to bare minimum volunteers for the weekend. It was a bit stressful but we were able to swing out to the local island. Isla de Cabuya has a cemetery on it and you can walk to the island. At low tide there is a land bridge and at high tide the water is up to your neck (depending on your height of course). We walked out during high tide which was really nice. We didn't know exactly where the land bridge was but it never gets very deep. We actually came on to shore about 50 feet or so to the right of the land bridge. We walked through the cemetery which I really loved. Lots of fake flowers and some really interesting grave stones. There is one with two back to back heads, one with prayer hands and a propeller on the other side. You can check out the pictures on my Picasa album. Huge agave plants surrounded the cemetery. Jason and I had gone with Danielle and met Jeff, another volunteer, out on the island. We went snorkeling and saw some really neat fish. I chased one that resembled the lion fish. It would rest on the rock with its fins holding it up like paws or legs. It swan away from me and I never got a picture. Supposedly there are lobsters you can catch and eat but we never saw any. We talked about spending the night a the island one day. To catch the sunset and sunrise. Maybe even a ghost.

Update Notice

2009-11-24T12:54:00.000-05:00

The wi-fi here at the wildlife sanctuary was "fried" just before our arrival, so updates will be very random and likley backdated, so be sure to look at the past few postings!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-23T13:04:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is my sister's birthday. I'm going to get her something really awesome to bring to her. I love my sister. I hope that tomorrow is her birthday. I can never remember the right day. Happy Birthday Tasha! I love you.

On the night of the meteor shower, we all wanted to see some shooting stars. We headed out to the beach and hopes that the sky would be clear. We went early to go swimming. The first beach we came to seemed perfect. We all jumped in and there was a drop off in the water so the water was up to our shoulders. We were having fun catching waves until suddenly we were under attack! It felt like a million little insects stinging our bodies under the water. Simultaneously we all ran out of the water screaming (which I'm such was a funny sight). It was a almost translucent tiny plankton that must have rolled in on that last wave. So we left to find another beach and ended up in Montezuma. Edwin and Joe have a pickup truck. So 6 of us rode in the back catching what shooting stars we could until we arrived. We swam but the clouds covered the sky. We had a small beach fire that took the boys forever to start because of the wet wood and enjoy some music from a local who sat down and played guitar and sang with us. It was a lovely night.

Two nights later we went to a going away party for a volunteer that was leaving. She was staying at a local hotel and that's where the party took place. We all drank a lot and danced a lot. And then we realized it was time to go because it seemed some of the locals had been sniffing something and were getting really rowdy. So we made our way to the beach. The sky was clear so we sat on the beach for a while just star gazing. So many stars, I wish I could share the view of the sky with all of you. But sadly my camera could never catch its beauty.

Yesterday the baby anteater died. He was gone by the time we got there to feed him in the morning. His mother was hit by a car and he was prematurely aborted. Someone had brought him to rainsong to try and save him. He was only half the size he was supposed to be. We don't know why he died, he ate and seemed alright the night before but we lost him. It was a really hard animal to lose. He required alot of care and it's sad to lose a baby. Rough morning.

Today the older anteater seemed to be bleeding from her nose alot and we got really concerned. Anteaters are apparently hemophiliacs so their blood doesn't clot like it should. So we feed her spinach juice and tried to stop the bleeding. I hope she will be ok.

WOW! I just got interrupted from my blog because there was a skunk in the chicken pen. We lost 3 chickens last night, and Brad (our Alaskan volunteer) heard something coming from there. Jason and Brad saved the chickens and got Simon. Simon caught the skunk but she got away because the cage door didn't latch. It's strange to me that the skunks kill so many animals. I didn't realize that they are hunters I guess. I always think of the skunk from Bambi that likes flowers. Anyhow, everything smells like skunk now.

Check out our picasa for new pictures!

Beginning of Rainsong

2009-11-18T12:56:00.000-05:00

We've been at Rainsong for 3 days now. Every morning we start with a 10 minute mediation. Today was the first day that Jason and I participated in that. It's kind of interesting. Our host, Mary, likes to have us manifest through mediation. So every morning we close our eyes we look into ourselves, connect with the prana of the earth and root ourselves, connect with the prana of the sky and open ourselves up to new possibilities and open our hearts to let out surround ourselves with a light of whatever color Mary chose and try to manifest what she requested. Today it was white and safety for the animals. There has been quite a few deaths here in the past week. The male peacock and at least one chicken was killed by a skunk, just their heads taken. And the female deer who was pregnant was found dead 300 meters from her pen with her throat ripped out. Our host believes that it was a Chucacabra. More likely it was a jaguar but it is strange that her body was not eaten. Luckily for myself I haven't witnessed any of this. Though I had met the female deer, Bambi, and she was so very sweet. She came right up and licks you and wants to be pet. Actually almost all of the animals here are tame. Many that have been released hang out around the farm and they are friendly. It's sad to lose any animals.

Let me tell you about the animals here. The sanctuary is divided into two parts. The main area with most of the animals and where Mary and her husband, Simon, live and the farm where there are birds and farm animals and where the volunteers stay. At the sanctuary there is: a white faced monkey, 3 baby howler monkeys, several parrots, two toucans, an iguana, parakeets and a few other birds, four turtles, two bunny rabbits, three red squirrels, a guinea pig, a kinkajou, three porcupine, a baby anteater and a larger anteater. Up at the farm there is: only one peacock now, several guans, pigeons, 4 adult goats and 3 kids, 3 horses, only one deer now, several chickens and chicks, 4 tepezquintles, a pig, and a one-eyed ocelot. Some of us come up to the farm and feed the animals here and the rest stay down at the sanctuary and feed and care for the animals there. Our day is split in half. 8 till 11 and then back to work 2 til 5. It's not hard to find things to do to take up the free time. Our first day we walked to a nearby waterfall. It's about a 20 minute easy hike. There's not really anywhere to swim because it's not deep enough. But it's really pretty and unique looking. The roots and rock have all been calcified from the water. So it's a really rough surface and the roots create small pools.

It's beautiful here. With a view of the water from the volunteer house and surround by rain forest. The morning the howler monkeys and of course, the birds wake us. I been doing yoga in the morning and I really find it easy to concentrate and find peace in my practice here. I'm not concerned with any of my surrounding unlike other places I have practiced.

Right now I'm surrounded by all the volunteers, everyone is reading, writing, playing music or visiting and I really love the atmosphere. We have started doing communal dinners which is working out really well and everyone is into throwing in and helping. I'm going to be really sad to part with any of these wonderful people.

Welcome to Rainsong!

2009-11-14T12:50:00.003-05:00

Our trip to Cabuyo went smoothly without a hitch. We arrived at the Montezuma bus stop in the late morning to an breathtaking beach-front view of the Pacific ocean; a very drastic change from the Central Valley mountains. After having lunch at the bar/restaurant on the beach, Max, a local taxi driver coaxed us to let him take us the rest of the way to Rainsong (he offered a great deal and the next scheduled bus was an hour away).

We were greeted by Simon (the directors husband and primary caretaker of the farm) at the Sanctuary gate and brought inside, and shown around by Edwin, a volunteer whom seemed very knowledgeable and helpful - it turns out he arrived the previous afternoon. This was to be our first indication of how things would unfold. Throughout the first afternoon/evening, we met a lot of volunteers, many of whom were in the process of leaving. At present time there are: Edwin and Joe ('the boys'; from the SE USA) whom are on a road trip originating in Chicago; Siri and Gabby ('the girls'; from Sweden); Danielle (Michigan, I can't recall which);and the most recent arrival, Brad (Alaska). They're all awesome, and great to get along with.

Our first day of work we were thrust in with no training and very few instructions. The director seems to be incapable of focusing on anything for more than a few seconds - scattered is a word she claims ownership over constantly. Our immediate assessment: Self sufficiency, self reliance, and hope we don't accidentally fuck up. Which won't be too big-a-deal since that's what we normally do, though it would have been nice to have a little bit of an orientation since we're responsible for the care and rehabilitation of a slew of different animals each with a specialized diet and treatment regimen. Definitely flying by the seat of our pants.

There's been plenty of bonding time with the crew in the evening between cooking/eating, partying and swimming at the beach! In all (aside from the nasty heat rash I've got) we're both having a great time and really enjoy the sanctuary, crew and animals.

Rio Pejibaye

2009-11-11T21:00:00.001-05:00

Our new friend Scott (a twenty-something gringo from Colorado) is an adventure guide. He travels the world seeking adventure and leading others into it. He arrived in Turrialba a little over a week ago for his second rafting season. We've been talking about our desire to check out some white water with Scott and thanks to a very generous gift from some very awesome folks - my Uncle Rich and Aunt Donna(Thank you, very much; you'll be getting pictures from the trip as soon as we get them) - we decided we should go on an adventure before we leave Esparenza.

Scott helped us book a rafting trip with a company he works for called Costa Rican Adventures. Since this was Tiffany's first white-water experience we opted to do the Rio Pejibaye in a raft with a guide. Rio Pejibaye is a very mild river as far as white water rafting goes but it offers crystal clear water and some incredible jungle scenery along nearly the whole trip. Scott followed us in a duckie (an inflatable kayak) as our photographer and is going to be getting us the picures soon!

As my father would put it, we had blast! Tiffany enjoyed it and I think we're both ready for more. We're planning on Rio Paquiate - one of the top 5 rivers in the world - which is located on the other side of Esparenza when we return (likley in Feburary).

After our incredible river trip we went into Turriaba with a sweet bonus ride from the outfitter. Scott joined us for the afternoon of meandering the streets of Costa Rica including a very nerve-wreacking trip to the ATM (conversions are scary especially when there's an extra couple zeros, you know, just hanging out). Though Tiffany helped keep me calm and we got through it.

We also scoped out a really neat book store (which I'm sure Tiffany will want to talk about), numerous "chino stores" (cheap crap from China) a neat and somewhat out-of-place looking bar (we felt like it should be overlooking the beach and not a street in the center of Turriabla) and did some grocery shopping for our journey to Rainsong this Sunday.

The bus ride back to la finca was a little intersting because it was dark out and difficult to find our stop. Thankfully, a friend of Marcos', Santiago, was returning on the same bus!

Esparenza Waterfalls

2009-11-08T20:00:00.003-05:00

For quite some time now, Marcos has been eager to take us on a hike to the Waterfalls here on la finca (en:the farm) on a Sunday morning (his day off). The last few Sundays have had us quite occupied with various events and this Sunday was our chance! After sleeping in a bit, we met with Marcos at his casa around 9am. Decked out in rubber boots and hiking gear with a small bag of snacks and bathing suits we set off up the mountain. Marcos with ~100' of rope draped over his shoulder, led us through a fairly steep and very muddy pasture to the trail head. The house dogs followed closely.

The hike was 30 minutes along a well tamed trail with numerous overlooks to the mountains of the Costa Rican interior. Absolutely Stunning views! We arrived at the first two waterfalls, pouring over-head and converging into the river. Here we crossed the river and began our ascent up the lower of the two falls to reach a pool-like portion of the river between very steep rock walls.

We hastily dropped our gear and changed into our swim suits to follow Marcos up the river. After a short swim we arrived at the third waterfall to find Marcos at the top lowering the rope to help guide us up the fourth and fifth falls - each ascent more difficult and frightening than the last. One climb in particular was nearly vertical along slippery wet rocks.

The hike and swim were incredible. Everything is so vibrant - colors and sounds - its difficult to decide what to focus on.

The Cubecer, Tsumari Village

2009-11-04T08:13:00.011-05:00

After nearly a week of deliberation and thought, I am finding it less and less important to detail all the moments of our week-long excursion to the Costa Rican Indigenous reservation. The idea of scripting pages upon pages of detail bores me to high hell. Despite the few gems of information that would be contained in such a walden-esque tale, (like walden-or any of the last 20 movies I've seen) most potential readers give up 3 sentences in.

That said, here's the trip in a nut shell:
We left on Monday 26th Oct, 2009, for a 3 day, 2 night trip to the Tsumari village within the Cubecer reservation in the Cartago Provence. Our goals: to meet the indigenous, bring them donations and have a little cultural exchange. Our guide: a 30-something Tico elementary school teacher, Jorge. Jorge ventures to the Tsumari village weekly to provide school lessons for the indigenous children; he makes the weekly journey in 3-4 hours. Backpacks loaded with some 30-40lb of donations for the village, our expected 4-5 hour hike crept to 10 hours with the last hours encroaching into darkness.

Over the10 hour hike we covered approximately 7-8 miles, 6000 ft of elevation(each way) 4 rivers numerous creeks and 3 hours of rain. Oh and did I mention it took 10 hours? We traversed dry rocky man-made trails; swamp-like mud; small patches of quicksand; extremely narrow ravines; single-wide-log bridges over rivers; passes large enough for a single footing; and waterfalls(which were climbed both up and down). The hike was strenuous, to say the least. There were definately points where I felt like laying down and giving up. "The jaguars will find me soon enough", and "where did my legs go?" were common thoughts.

After our 10 hour ascent to the Tsumari village our drenched zombie-like bodies we were welcomed by total darkness, many hours of rain, small biting insects, rambunctious pigs and Jorge's very full 15 x 15 school house with just enough room for two small hard wooden "beds" to share (between the four of us - Tiffany, Jorge, Lucia and myself) and our packs to fit very "cozily".

The sun came up at 5 am, as it does every day here in Costa Rica, though our limp bodies remained cacooned in sleeping bags for the better part of the day. Around 10am we arose to review or battle wounds - blisters and sores from the rubber boots; scrapes and scratches from various branches rocks and falls; and our many insect bites scratched raw through out the night and morning. We definately needed the rest and just one day wasn't going to do it. We very quickly decided that we would stay with Jorge until his return trip on Friday.

The rest of our stay was very laid back with LOTS of time for much needed R&R. The kids came to school for a few hours each day which gave us an opportunity to interact with them. They're about as fluent in Spanish as I am (if you can call a 20 word vocabulary anything close to fluent) so there were more hand gestures facial expressions than talking though we were able to communicate fairly well. The topics of 'discussion' were "how to brush one's teeth" (using the donated brushes we packed in), the large quantities of guava trees, which donations for which child, and an art lesson put together by Tiffany on how to make a parrot, pig or flower using stencils, glue and construction paper!

My observations of the village throughout the week seemed to support what I've heard - that the indigenous diet is predominantly government issued rice and beans (because they don't grow any on the reservation) which are brought in on foot by the indigenous. The rice and beans are supplemented with plantains, banana, chyote and guava which grow very well at the altitude of the village. The homes are more often than not, shacks with earthen floors. The beds are their second pair of clothes and their rubber boots are torn to shreds. They have no art (basket making, totems/statues, painting, drawing, architecture etc.).

Our return trip went much smoother and was far faster (7 hours) than the ascent due in a part to the downhill nature and the absence of about 90% of the pack weight (the donations). The whole experience was rather humbling and gives me great respect for the hardships that are undertaken daily by the Costa Rica's Indigenous population. All in all I'm glad I did it, though It'll never happen again (as of a week later my feet still have not recovered).

The locals

2009-11-03T21:31:00.000-05:00

We've been gone for a week in the mountains visiting the indigenious reserve up 4000 feet higher than we are currently. Jason and I are both working on stories about that adventure, but this is a little catch up of before and after our trip.

The past two days have been such a blast. We have been spending most of our time with the caretaker family. Marcos works for Ginnee and Phil. They built a house for Marcos and his family on the property and they provide him with a job that is right here so he has no travel cost, which is really wonderful. The small structure that is between the two homes is where Marcos and his family lived before the new house was finished. I would considered this to be a barn. There is not electricity it's made of wood but falling apart. The new home is beatiful. There is an outside kitchen that is the length of the house in the back. It is covered and has a little nook for a table and chairs at one end. The length of it is filled with a deep long stainless steel sink. There is two stoves, one which runs off methane gas that they collect from the cows (poopie), the other off propane. And at the very end there is a tile bar that was built facing the patio isq area to the side of the house. So it's a great place to host if it's not raining. And Zenia can stand behind the counter and overlook the work on the green house or some of the gardens. The inside is all tile. It is a small two bedroom home. The front living area has a couch and some chairs with lace lining placed in the seat. Then there is another dining table inside with a quarter of a wall separating the two areas. The windows are all covered in lace, some of the lace is bright pink to accent the rest of the room. There are paintings done by the daughter hanging around the home. They are painted on pieces of fibrolit that are left over from the construction of houses. I saw her collecting some more when we were at the soccer game to bring home. There are colorful flowers all over the house that will never die because they are not real, yet they bring a bright energy into the home. And of course there are pictures of the family around, though there are not many because they do not have a camera of any kind.
It's been great to be invited into the locals home and see how they live and what they choose as their daily surroundings. Last weekend, after picking the pejibaye we all dined together at their home, and the next night Marcos found out that we like to drink. He treated us to some Costa Rican liquor and beer before we left to stumble home.

Yesterday, when Jason, Lucia, and I were looking over pictures of the mountain trip with Ginnee, Marcos came over and invited us to go to Carlos' casa. Carlos is another worker of Ginnee's. He lives in a village not far from us. When headed up the mountain there is a fork in the road, to the right is Esperanza and Ginnee's, to the left is the Jimena's and the small village where Carlos lives (I don't know the name yet). We excitedly accepted the offer, and boy, we're we surprised when we arrived. It was a birthday fiesta for two little girls turning 2. There were at least 15 children there though I would estimate closer to 20. But just as many adults. Sadly it was hard to communicate because Jason's and my Spanish has not come very far yet. The house was small but I loved it. Made from wood with the traditional Tico tin roof, there was a patio with a cast iron stove and seating around all the walls. When you entered there was the small living room with just a few chairs and a table. You walked further back into the home and there was the kitchen and a little tiny nook just big enough for the sink and a prep area for food. The oven was around another wall. They used the spaces between the wood on their walls to hang pots and pan and the tops of them. I got to glance in the bedrooms. They have shelving to the ceiling with clothing and blankets and almost a communal sleeping area that was separated only by sheets hanging between beds. I love the patio. The stove reminded me of sitting around the bonfire with my friends back home. The bathroom was enclosed but because the ceiling sat so high from the top of the walls it gave it an outdoor shower effect and let in lots of natural light. We drank with Marcos and the other adults. We danced to the music. We sang happy birthday in Spanish twice. We also had some dinner of delicious rice and beans, cake, and jello with ice cream on top! Amazing food! On top of all of this it was a beautiful night out. On a clear night there is never a reason for a flashlight because there are so many stars. You can actually see some light pollution coming from around the mountain from I believe Tarrialba but the mountain blocks that for us. It was almost a full moon that night as well. We rode home in the back of the pick up truck and our dear friend Marcos asked if he could visit us in the states. Of course you can Marcos!

Today was futbol day! Every Sunday there is a gathering in Attiro, the closest town, for community futbol. The people that come have a few jerseys that they bring. Sometimes there are many teams, but I believe there were only two today. Players would switch out in the middle of the game or when a new game began. Lucia, Jason, and I went down with Marcos and Zenia and arrived about 30 minutes before anyone else. When someone came with a ball, the three of us kicked it around with a child that was there and a woman who obviously played regularly. Then the guys started to change into there cleats. I opted out of playing today because of the blisters on my feet from last week's hike up the mountain. Jason got in and played for half a game bare foot. A new friend Jose, offered Jason his cleats but Jason refused because he also has blisters. Jose pointed to his feet and said, "No fungo, no fungo." Neither Jason or myself understood until he left and we realized he was telling us he didn't have any fungus on his feet. Later Marcos explained to him that we have blisters and that's why we were barefoot. We were outside watching futbol for about 3 or 4 hours before everyone dispersed because of the pending rain. Marcos son, Wainer, is the one who can drive, so he ends up driving us everywhere. He came to pick us up. I guess he doesn't like futbol much because he didn't come. He didn't participate in the party last night either. But not many 18 year olds like to party with their parents at a 2 year olds birthday party so I understand. On our way back home we took the wrong turn up the mountain, or so I thought. Jose, the man that had offered Jason his cleats, had invited us to his home. He lives in Jimena's. Now the reason for the apostrophe is because it's the name of the village but also the entire village is related to each other. So it's actually their last name. Mira, Ginnee's housekeeper, lives there. The village was really lovely. The homes are taller because they stack bedrooms on top of the first floor. More like tree house though they are not actually attached to any trees. There are small gardens of flowers everywhere. There was a beautiful church painted baby blue with a pink trim. It was a beautiful place. I felt really happy and comfortable here. We saw two parrots sitting in a tree outside of Jose's front door speaking to each other in the rain. Since I've told you about the other two homes we were in I can't leave out this one. It was my favorite. It was wood with the tin roof but the tin sat on top of the second story most of the ceiling was wood. The house had several exits. The living room was a good size with a entertainment area, tv and radio, a couch, three chairs lining the walls, and a table in the corner with more seating. The room was filled with knic-knacks,some broken, many from mother's day, posters with excerpts from the Bible, many pictures of the family, some random pieces that were probably just found and brought home, and the bright fake flowers everywhere. The flowers were in vases and hanging from the ceiling all over the house. There was a separate room in the back with a sink that look outside through the wood boards into the mountains. If you continue to the right there is another table and counter space that all leads to two exits. One is under the stairway, the other goes to the left to another sink, prep area and an outdoor stove. Then there is a small trail that loops around through flowers back to the stairwell. They have two pet birds of some kind. I forgot to take a picture but they reminded me of a quail mixed with a chicken. Short legs, round body, they never really opened their wings but perhaps that's because they were caged. Maybe a pigeon of some kind but they are really pretty. Up the stairs there is about 5 very tiny bedrooms with just enough space for a bed and a small table, with cloth for doors that were access by the balcony/hallway. I really love this house. We were here for a long time, about 5 hours. Teaching some words in English, speaking spanlish, and lots more drinking. We had a delicious dinner. A stew with chayote (a tropical squash), plantains, and carrots, rice and beans, green beans, and some awesome coleslaw with radishes. Really great food and perfect timing because the alcohol was really having a strong effect on my empty stomach. There was Jose, Jason, Lucia, Marcos, Zenia, one of Jose's sons and myself and we all finish a liter of Cacique liquor and a 6pack of beer. It was another party but more intimate than the night before, so everyday we are feeling closer to the community that we have become apart of. Oh, I almost forgot about the walk up the mountain. Before dinner, Marcos's daughter and her boyfriend, Titi (who is another one of Jose's sons) took us up the mountain to their little futbol field that they built them selves. We are going up there to play on Wednesday with them. The entire family plays, it will be loads of fun.
We didn't get home until almost 9. Jason and I were both rather drunk so we hit our beds after making plans for tomorrow. Tomorrow we will build a shelf!

Marcos y familia

2009-10-25T01:18:00.001-04:00

We've been at Finca Qujiote for over a week now and we've been having a blast! Over the past few days we've been spending a lot of time with Marcos and his family collecting fruit from around la finca and improving our Español. Marcos speaks almost no English, so there's been a lot of cherades going on, and for the most part we're understanding one another. As a bonus, Lucia (the German girl whom recently arrived at the farm) knows some Spanish and even more English so we've got some what of a translator! In any case we're having a lot of fun together.

On Thursday I had inquired as to where I might find a fruit I had recently tried, pejibaye. Pejibaye is, as I now know, both a nearby city as well as a fruit. After we ha a laugh about the confusion, Marcos said, "mañana". Friday afternoon we meet with Marcos and his sons Waner and Michael to go pejibaye hunting. As I have come to find out this was not as easy as I had assumed. Pejibaye is the fruit of the spiny palm which tends to be both extremely spiny (similar to a cactus) and tall as all hell (hell being between 60-80 feet tall). Mind boggling, I know. One may think that there was a specialized tool used to attain the magical fruit. Nope. Marcos simply brought a few long (about 40' long) cane plants, then borrowed my newly aquired machete to chop down a forked branch from a nearby tree to create a hook then wrapped them together with an old bike tire - volia! A really long and wobbly vaudeville-esque cane.

After some breakage, repairs, spines in hands, a bit of hiking, pit stops for cacao fruit and sugar cane, and about 3 hours in the rain we returned with around 50lbs of fruit! Marcos invited us to his house to show us how to prepare the fruit by boiling it for an hour and half in a pressure cooker, peeling, halving, pitting, and adding a dollop of mayo or butter(it's a savory peanut like food). Ginnie added some fresh lime juice and I discovered that hot sauce, plain yogurt and German chocolate work really well!

Today following our trip to Turrialba, including la faira, a soda-small restaurant- and the feed store for a new pair of rubber boots (I had torn mine sometime while pejibaye hunting) we met back up with Marcos for naranja (orange) and limón (lemon) gathering. The citrus was much simpler than the pejibaye, but just as fun. We collected sweet oranges, sweet lemons, tangarines and sour oranges. Upon our return back to Casa de Gienne (Marco's house is nextdoor) we decided to take a short hike to go swimming in the the river and invited Marcos and his family along, they all came and had a great time.

On our way "home" (the Volunteer house, where we are staying) after dinner with Gienne, Marcos stoped us and invited us in for cervesas (beers) and a Costa Rican Liquor (I'll have to get back on the name as I don't recall it at the moment). We had lots of laughs and got to practice our cross cultural communication skills. A fantastic end to a fun day.

At the farm!

2009-10-19T21:23:00.002-04:00

Getting through customs was a breeze. A very time consuming breeze. The shock didn't set in until we got in the first cab to the bus station. The talk was fast and muddy; annunciation and pronunciation, as I quickly realized, is very different. This coupled with having to use a new currency made our travel to the finca (farm)a bit less than smooth than I had hoped. Thankfully everyone was very understanding - a wonderful part of Tico culture - a man at the bus station even gave me an extra couple cents to get me through purchasing the fair more expediently.

After the long and extremely bumpy and woozy ride through the mountain road at high speeds, we arrived in Turrialba, a decent size city, a short drive to Finca Qujiote. The concessions at the bus station are similar to that of a convince store, our selection was limited to say the least. I attempted to get agua mineral con gas (mineral water with gas or club soda) to calm our stomachs. The woman at the counter was perplexed and handed me a 7up. So that's what I got. I also got some pan (bread) with a light queso(cheese) sprinkling - similar to asigio fococia.

The money is really different here, "a mil" is what we call a thousand and everything is in Spanish and often times affixed with an extra suffix. Needless to say it was tricky to pick up, but with each purchase the transaction has been a bit easier to understand than the last.

We've been at the farm now for 4 days and most of our time has been spent bonding with Gennie (the owner) and eating. We're all getting along really well and have had a great time. On Sabado (Saturday) we went to la faria (farmers market) for some food and to check out town, which was really cool. Over the past 2 days we've been working on finishing up the volunteer house so that we can start staying there along with some new volunteers whom are expected to arrive this week.

First day of work

2009-10-18T12:09:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, Ginnee took us down to the Saturday market. It was a typical farmers market but exciting to have to try in buy food. We got cheap coconuts and so tamarind, which neither Jason or myself have had yet, among other typical things like tomatoes, watermelon, zucchini, etc.
Today we get to start working on the guest house. There is one other volunteer here right now but she is leaving on Wednesday. The guest house has 3 bedrooms. Today we will be putting up a ceiling to keep out the bugs and finishing one of the bathrooms. I'm hoping to do some painting on the walls while we stay in it. There is another girl from Germany coming tomorrow afternoon. So we'll all be staying in the guest house hopefully.

We have arrived!

2009-10-18T11:35:00.003-04:00

We made it! October 15^th at 11:37am Costa Rica time our plane had landed. We immediately made our way to the end of the line of immigration. That took us about an hour to get through. Lucky for us we had a rather talkative funny older man that was there with his wife. He told us he come down to Costa Rica for cheap dental care...who would have thought?? Everyone at the airport spoke English so it made getting started really easy. We had to take a cab to the bus station...oh and the stories about the driving down here are true! I keep thinking we were going to run over people or side swipe another cab. At one point we weren't in a lane, we were actually in between two lanes of traffic! At the bus stop we had to et bus tickets to Tarrialba, a two hour journey. We had a very nice gentleman behind us in line who didn't speak any English but helped us order our tickets and show us how much money we need to hand the cashier. I can't believe that I didn't think about how car sick I get sometimes. I sure the bus ride out of the city and central valley was beautiful but I was pretty much curled into a ball as the bus weaved around pedestrians and other vehicles on the small winding uneven mountain roads. I kept my head close to the window the entire ride.

Once in Tarrialba we set out to find a taxi with 4WD and another bumpy ride into the mountains. We got a bit lost because there are more than two villages in this area, though each village is only one family or just 2 or 3 families. The roads are all rocky and there are small rivers running through the roads. After asking a few locals for Senora Ginnee we finally made it!!

Ginnee was outside and welcomed us in! She feed us some delicious pumpkin curry soup. After finding out we were vegetarians she was a little disappointed. She told us that they had some negative vegetarian experience, mostly that they usually just eat junk. Jason and I promised to change her mind.

We spent the night opening up to each other and sharing stories.

Ginnee has showed us this amazing video about building beautiful houses out of dirt and a few more very cheap materials. They are call Earth Bag homes. It's incredible. Reminds me of low impact houses. I want to live in a hobbit home. Can I live in a hobbit home??? Please, ok. Not yet, but when I'm ready to have a home.

Today we got to meet some Ticos, Mira, Marcos, and Wayer. They help around the farm to make some extra money. It's great the Ginnee and her husband can provide these jobs for some of their neighbors. I hope to get to know them better and improve my Spanish. By the way, I'm already feeling like I'm picking up on it. I can kinda figure out what some people are talking about if they are speaking slow enough.

Jason and I then explored the farm. We walked down to the river and Ginnee took us on a ride the ...golf cart...thing to the end of the road. She explained to us where some beautiful hikes we could go on and where we could go swimming.

Last night Ginnee pointed out to us the volcano. The lava was flowing down the side of it. It looked like a far away mountain city that was light up from the house. The lava was glowing so brightly. I unfortunatly was unable to capture a picture of it but I will continue to try. Also, the lighting bugs come out after dark (which is at 5pm). So there are little dancing stars in all of the windows.

Ginnee's husband and daughter are in Florida collecting the rest of their possessions. They should be back in the next two weeks. That will be exciting to meet them. Jason and I already feel very welcomed and at home here.

Three weeks and counting

2009-09-26T03:38:00.007-04:00

Three weeks left and there's still so much to do and so much going on. It's getting to that point where I can't sleep too well (hence the 4 a.m. post) in anticipation of having so much going on. Thankfully most everything is set for Costa Rica!

Tiffany and I have put in our notices at work and my last day is Tuesday! Wednesday I head out with my sister, Kim to meet up with our dad and recently-stationed-in-Tuscon brother, Adam for some backpacking and sightseeing.

In preparation for the Tuscon trip I've been making some dehydrated meals (for the backpacking), using modified recipes/techniques from Chef Glenn. I've been honing in my dehydrating skills for years and learn something new each time! I hope we are able to make it to Finca Salverde to check out the solar dehydrator!

On the C.R. front, we've finalized arrangements for Finca Quijote de Esperanza and Rainsong; purchased Insurance through World Nomands; gathered nearly all the gear we wanted to get (and then some) from various online clearance, as well as local thrift and sporting goods shops. All that's left is the Gear Inventory (which we'll post eventually), solidifying banking details, and getting student loans and other debts put on deferment/arranging payments.

For now though we'll bide our time by catching up with friends, Austin and Sheila whom are coming tonight!

A visit from some good friends

2009-09-08T04:03:00.001-04:00

Tina, Leon and Yasmin came to visit for Labor Day Weekend! It's been a tedious couple of weeks mostly working, prepping for the trip and dedicating too much time to StumbleUpon. It was really great to have a little break from the routine and spend some time with some of our closest friends.

We had a great time just being lackadaisical and enjoying our time together. Since Laborday is one of those "cook-out" holidays, we did just that. Feasting on grilled veggies, homemade hommus, veggie-dogs, mashed-potato salad and cerveza!

We were also lucky enough to have appearances from some of our favorite Clearwater area residents (and best friends!) Chris, Susan, Alex, Dan, Tim, Karlen, Ilana... I'm sure the list goes on. It was a great and relaxing weekend.

6 Weeks away!

2009-08-31T11:52:00.001-04:00

Well, it's only been in the works for about 3 months and I haven't been too vocal about it on the internet. Amazingly enough planning has actually been relatively stress-free (it helps that there are 2 of us working on it), and the most difficult part for me has been working at a grocery store for just above minimum wage to save up some cash.

In any case Tiffany and I depart on October 15th from Tampa International to San Jose airport where we will take a bus to a farm in the central valley, "Finca Quijote de Esperenza". We'll be there for about a month on a work trade for room and board. There are goats, chickens, a hydro-electric project, tropical roots and fruits...

In mid November we head to the Nicoya Peninsula, on the North Pacific Coast to an animal sanctuary, "Rainsong". We'll also be doing work exchange there though it will be less "farm" type work and more animal rescue/rehabilitation and grounds maintenance. I may also be doing some grant writing and/or organizational development stuff for them.

Sometime after this we'll be heading to an as of yet undecided/unconfirmed farm or something to do similar things, possibly teach English, yada, yada. At some point (before the conclusion of our 90 visa) we'll be visiting some friends in Panama before we return to Costa for, possibly, another few months of farm/project hopping.

I assume that some where in there we'll be doing some sightseeing and other touristy stuff, you know, since we're there anyway. If you've got any suggestions, I'd love to hear them! We'll be in the region for a little bit, so we'll have plenty of time to check things out all over. We may make it to Nicaragua, Honduras ect, though as of right now it's very much an unwritten book with only the simplest of outlines.

Good-bye Orlando!

2009-06-21T12:20:00.006-04:00

It's been a solid run here in O-town, but it's finally time to say good-bye, and what a better way than a party where we see some of our awesome friends and get rind of a bunch of unneeded stuff! The party took place last night and it was great fun!

We had a lot of fun with our friends and meet some new folks. There was a bonfire, plenty of beer, a shirtless-street banjo player and some killer food including Tiffany's homemade jalapeno brownies and zucchini brownies, 8lbs of mozzrella sticks (from Sacks Grocery for $8) a pasta dish courtesy of Tina and Leon; Sara's fruit salad and Pat's flat ginerale!

Our final fire was spectacular! We've been collecting our waste paper and miscellaneous pieces of scrap wood for a while so we decided to start before everyone showed up just to be sure we were able to go through everything. Despite our initial efforts, we barely made it through our stockiple before the party died out; I was even albe to toss on the paper mache Kangaroo from our Christmas party last year which has been slowly diing in our back yard for months.

I had set up our back room with all the knicnacs we're trying to get rid of and set up some space in the front room for browsing of some records. Both areas were a success, we got rid of a TON of stuff, and sold a bunch of records. I'm left with my dad's ofld Seals and Croft records, some Ringo Starr, a John Denver album and a "Learing Russian" records set on 7". Maybe the Librbary will take them?...

2009-06-13T20:23:00.007-04:00

We are on our final stretch of time in Orlando. Jason has been working really hard to move or sell everything in our home. It's rather sad to see our first home slowly fall apart but it is still refreshing to let it all go. By the end of July, I hope to own nothing except clothing and camping gear.

The few days I have off from work have been rather eventful in this last month. Jason and I went to a small park with the US's 2 oldest cypress trees; the Senator, 3,000 years old and Lady Liberty, 2,500 years old.

In the last week, we have been keeping our spirits high and our body temperature low by swimming or biking around town. Wednesday night we took part of an Animal Collective show.

About a week ago we sent out an email to many WWOOF farms of Costa Rica to see if any one was willing to take on two very eager volunteers. To our delight, we had a great many responses. We have now started to map out the farms. I personally would like to cover as much of Costa Rica as possible, so I would like to work in 3 or 4 completely different regions . The variety of opportunities is incredible. There is everything ranging from gardening to reforestation to construction to yoga! The Rainsong Wildlife Sanctuary is one of the places I would really love to work. The idea of working with animals and traveling through the Nicoya Peninsula seems like a dream come true. Some other great news is that many hosts have told us they are willing to take on long term volunteers. Hopefully, we will have made some solid plans and have travel dates by the end of July.

Fund raising not so risen...

2009-05-30T21:41:00.003-04:00

So despite the pleasant weather today our 2nd Yard Sale fared very poorly, raising only $34 (and now we're without a TV to watch movies on). Since the weather was so pleasant we called it quits with the sale for the day and headed out to cross a couple things off of our "List of things to do before we leave Orlando"; dining at the Mediterranean Deli and floating down Rock Springs Run!

The Medi' Deli was INCREDIBLE; fresh Hummus, Falafel, Spinich & Feta pie, Greek and pasta salads. I hope there's places like this in Central America. Thankfully there's a place called Shlomo's(spl?) in Palm Harbor (not too far from Mom's house back home). What a better way to follow up an incredible lunch than with a float down Rock Springs! As a bonus while floating lazily down the river I was able to use a couple Spanish words; frío -in reference to the temperature of the water; and bueno -in reference to the tetas(thanks to Tasha)!

In keeping up with the spirit of the day, Tiffany and I ventured out and got pizza and saw the new Pixar flim, Up! The film was pretty touching, a great family film. Despite my strong desire to get popcorn to enjoy with the movie I held back -espoecially after noting the "Free Refils" policy on the American size (2 gallon bucket), so needless to say I scooped a freshly emptied bucket from the trash on the way out of the theater and proceeded to the concession stand for my "Free Refil. DELICIOUS!

Well, despite our lack of luck with the sale we still had a fantastic day and used some spanish (I jsut might get the hang of it before we are completely immersed)! Hopefully the continuation of the sale tomorrow goes a bit better.

Words to action!

2009-05-28T14:05:00.004-04:00

Yesterday we applied for our Passports! We should have them in early July, giving us plenty of time to inspect them for possible errors. After hearing about PG’s incident I’m a bit weary of the State Departments methods.

We shot the photos ourselves using a digital camera, EPassportphoto.com, and Photoshop (to crop them to the correct size) and printed them on photo paper using our home printer. In all this saved us about $15. We took our applications to the Courthouse and were charged a $25/per passport fee for (to the Clerk of Courts) processing and the Passports themselves were $75 (to the State Department).

In total each passport cost $100 and a sheet of 4x6 photo paper. Not bad for a 90 visa to each country in South America!

Just the Beginning

2008-01-14T01:38:00.001-05:00

After leaving school and my position with the Southern Energy network I have spent most of my time wondering what was next. For a long while I focused heavily upon my band,Black Hammock and later Tiffany. Though it seems that time is running thin with my current life; I'm at one of those critical points in Life where a decision must be made.

Music - or at least this incarnation of it - has reached its limits for me. I've poured more energy into this baby than most anything I've ever done musically but it still seems that it hasn't been enough. The band has experienced a wide range of typical problems that a band must face and it's becoming more and more a burden than an opportunity - time to move on.

Bringing Tiffany into my life has been incredible. I feel together when I'm with her - not so disjointed. We fit well together - constantly pushing each other to be better human beings while maintaining a very high level of respect for one another.