Paradise

Where is paradise?  I was asking myself that a lot this past month.  It’s been a roller coaster of emotions, that’s for sure! 

November started out a little rough…another challenge you could say.  I just like to keep things interesting, or just have bad luck when I’m abroad.  (We all remember when I was in Europe I had Shingles, the back injury, and the bug bite allergic reaction…)

So one sunny Saturday afternoon, Miss K., Kyle, and I were having a lovely day: hangin’ out at a coffee shop, walking around enjoying the sun, and then grocery shopping.  Little did we know we should not have gotten into this particular pirate taxi.

In Costa Rica, there are taxis, and there are pirate taxis.  We’ve used both.  On this particular afternoon, Miss K and I piled in the back seat with our groceries, and Mr. Roff in the front of a pirate taxi.  It was about a 2-mile taxi ride, but unfortunately that’s enough time for a city bus to crash into a pirate taxi. Scary.  Miss K and I hit heads.  After the bus hit us, naturally when one is in shock, I started gathering our groceries as quickly as possible that were all over the car and got out.  The taxi driver didn’t say anything to us, so we just walked home.  As one of my friends said we must have been trying to be action super stars who get in car accidents and walk away like it’s nothing;)

As we were walking, my head was hurting, we were all replaying this whole scene in our heads, and I realized how extremely lucky we were.  God was with us!  After the events started to sink in, we came home and started praying together.  Wow.

It wasn’t until Monday at school that I realized something wasn’t right.  I was in a fog, I couldn’t focus, I have no idea what, if anything I taught those little kiddos that day;)  With the help of Web MD and parental advice, and yes, a trip to a Costa Rican doctor we realized…both Miss K and I were concussed.

Here we are...not thinking, but finalmente on the road to recovery.

How to heal from a concussion: rest your brain.  So no thinking, no reading, no writing lesson plans, no looking at computer screens, etc.  Resting the brain is quite difficult to do as a teacher.  Of course these were also the weeks we were supposed to turn in 2 weeks of lesson plans and write assessments, lots of work to be done.

But instead, we took multiple naps a day and stayed in our little prison type house.  Kyle was so helpful in every way.   He went to the store for us, made us meals, got us medicine, even taught our classes.  What a good friend we have!

So Miss K and I were in un otro mundo for a couple weeks.  It was such a strange feeling to be injured, unable to be myself, to be far away from family, to be in shock from this accident, and to be unsure of what to do.  The kiddos were so sweet.  They all made us the best get well cards and some even gave little gifts.  So nice and thoughtful!  And yes, after a couple of weeks, we were finally coming back to normalcy!

Thanksgiving.  Well, it started out as just a normal day.  Went to school, not many knew what Thanksgiving was.  My mom wanted to skype during the day forgetting I had to go to work.  But after school and into the evening, it became amazing!  Miss K, Kyle, and I made a feast.  Squash, greenbean casserole, salad, corn bread, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin cookies:)  As the three of us were cooking, we were all able to skype our families:)  I called Al’s phone via skype, and they passed the phone around.  So amazing to be able to talk to the fam from CR!  Mom, Gramps, cousins…it made me miss home a bit.  But wonderful to hear their voices! 

We cooked a feast for some Ticos at Kyle’s landlord’s house.  They provided the chicken (no turkey this Thanksgiving), we brought the rest.  There was a nice group of 11 of us.  We feasted, went around and gave thanks, and enjoyed each other’s company.  God provided Miss K, Kyle, and I a little family away from home.  The Ticos’ first Thanksgiving.  The family wants all our recipes so they can now have a Thanksgiving every year in honor of the gringos:)  It was a special night.

It doesn’t feel like it’s December and my time is coming to an end…maybe because it’s sunny and nice, kids are on summer break, and people started putting up Christmas decorations in October.  They don’t have Thanksgiving to hold back the Christmas stuff…they put it up way too soon!  Still, when I walk down the street and see Christmas lights behind these portons, I am reminded Christmas is really coming.

School for the kiddos was really winding down…we were quite busy catching up on work for awhile..but then, last week, we finally had to say our good-byes.  It was hard.  Hopefully we’ll see them again, but who knows.  Good-byes are always hard.  I’m going to miss everyone.   My class, well, I’m going to miss all the little personalities: the dancer, the artist, the scientist, the writer, all of them.  I hope we meet again!

I’ve felt a lot of love here that’s for sure.  Lots of amazing experiences, and a few more to go!  We’re trying to see lots of people, check things off of our final To Do in CR list, and my dad comes today!  (I’m finishing my last day of school…class is packed, so I thought I’d finish up my blog).  1 day of school sin estudiantes, and 9 days left in this beautiful place.  Lots of changes are about to happen.  Lots of thoughts going through our minds: good-byes, the unknown is ahead, feelings of excitement for family.  It’s all very bittersweet.

We are trying to pack in SO much our last days in Costa Rica and a few more aventuras to come:)  We’ve had so many experiences this year, it’s quite amazing.  I’m sure I’ve changed.  I don’t want to lose who I have become.  

I’ve really been enjoying the song ‘Paradise’ by Coldplay.  It talks about ‘under the stormy skies…the sun must set to rise’.  We’ve been through some tough times, some wonderful times…many of those times are under stormy skies;) but the days keep passing.  My time here ending.  I'm really going to appreciate the moments with my family and friends when I return:)  It will be great!  T minus 9 days:)

I probably will only have one more blog installment after this.  Que raro.  Weird.

Tica or Gringa?

Not as many crazy adventures this month.  Surprised?  I know.  This blog can finally be an update of the daily life here in the yellow house, with the big, black gate, behind a plaza, in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Well, I’ve been here a little less than 9 months now!  Woah.  So the question is, am I a tica or a gringa; latinamericana o estadosunidense; Costa Rican or American? 

Tica: Costa Rican girl.   Characteristics: Brings umbrella everywhere; cooks/eats with rice, beans, tortillas, limes, avocado, pineapple; gets cold easily; steps on bugs; no car/internet; shares a house with a family of geckos, and speaks Spanish:)

My little buddy:)

1.  I now bring an umbrella everywhere I go.  Not a small, easy-to-put-in-a-purse umbrella; but a large, hope-this-will-keep-me-dry umbrella.  I’m pretty sure I never even owned an umbrella in Colorado.  Sure it rains in Colorado once in awhile, but when it does, no one has an umbrella with them anyway.   It doesn’t matter though becasue the rain goes away within a couple hours at most anyway.  In Costa Rica, an umbrella isn’t really optional; unless you and your belongings don’t mind being completely soaked to the bone for the rest of the day.  I’ve learned this the hard way.

I think a new calling for me is food photography:)

2.  Cooking/Eating gallo pinto, homemade tortillas, limes, avocados, mango, and pina…hmmm…very often!  We’ve been having fun experimenting cooking, and I’m getting hooked on the foods above!  We make the best tortillas from scratch, if I do say so myself…  I’m sure I’ve mentioned gallo pinto before; it entails rice, beans, peppers, onions, cilantro, and salsa Lizano.  So good!  We like to make it in bulk to last us for dinners, lunches, breakfasts…we’re flexible:) So, when I return, I will be cooking this wonderful food for you all to try.  So tasty!  Miss K and I also finally made a traditional dessert…arroz con leche.  A dessert, of course made with rice.  You can eat it warm or cold.  I prefer warm…especially because the weather has been…cold. 

3.  I live in the tropics...and I’ve been cold!  As you may recall, I talked about the heat…and humidity, and being HOT in previous blogs.  Well, I can’t believe I’m saying this, especially being from Colorado, but I have been COLD.  So rainy season…has been rainy to say the least.  There was a hurricane up in Mexico this past month, so we we’re getting some effects from that.  Which brought a lot of rain.  I believe the final count of lluvia was 15 days.  This was 15 days of rain, no sun, rain, dampness, and rain.  Where does all the rain go? 

Now I know why Costa Rica has gutters that go up to my knees if I stood in one.  It also makes sense why there are huge holes in sidewalks, gutters, etc.  They know… the water has to go somewhere.  Miss K and I were so surprised at all the holes in the sidewalks when we first got here.  Now it all makes sense!  I wish I knew what the temperature was during those weeks, I think 57 was the lowest it would get at night, and maybe 64 during the day?  Not sure.  But, these temperatures seem mild right.?  Well, I was FREEZING.  My nose cold, my hands purple.  I would come home from school and make hot tea, curl up in a blanket, take a hot shower, and still be cold. 

Perhaps it’s because my heaviest jacket is a thin Nike zip-up, or because everything was so wet and damp.  It seems I’m nearly always wet because of the following: sweating, my hair drying (or rather…not drying), umbrella didn’t keep me dry enough, putting on damp clothes, and getting into a damp bed at night.  Es la vida ahora.

I don’t know, I must be becoming a Tica!  Any other CO girl probably wouldn’t consider this place ‘cold’.  I used to think it was funny when the kiddos would wear coats and want to turn off the fan because they were cold.  Being cold at these temperatures?!  I never thought I would see the day.

October is known as the rainiest month, but even the Ticos were ready for their normal rainy season, not this frio, loco weather.  Finally the day the sun did return, my kiddos were cheering the first day it came…and so was I! 

Note: Cucaracha trap in the background.

4.  I’m now stepping on bugs with my shoes.  I feel like I’m growing up now;)  I even stepped on a small cucaracha.  I’m not brave enough to step on the latest bug we found in our house…a huge millipede looking thing!  Eww!  But, yes, killing bugs like a Tica…casi (almost).  I'm dodging moth of deaths in the school bathroom like a pro now...I don't know why there are always 2-3 in there!

5. No car. No phone.  No internet…mostly.  Oh, riding on public, humid buses in the rain isn’t my favorite activity of the day…We are so lucky we live only 2 minutes away from our escuela!

6.  We share our casita with a cute family of Geckos.  We aren’t sure how many there are…at least 3: Lil’ G, Mini G, and G2.  (Mini G is the smallest little gecko you’ve ever seen).  They surprise us sometimes, but we like them because they eat our bugs, and they’re cute:)

7. My Spanish abilities of course:)  I wish.  I hope.  Depends on who you talk to you.  Ask taxi drivers, adults who don’t speak English, yes, I’m good at Spanish:)  Ask my students…they just laugh at my Spanish or correct all my grammatical errors.  I have noticed I understand SO much more during the 2-hour church services though!  2 hours is a long time to focus...especially in Spanish.

Gringa: American girl.  Characteristics: Does touristy things; sweats more than Ticos; doesn’t like mold; watches American Football on Sunday; relies on the internet; enjoys the fall season; kind of speaks Spanish;)

1. I’ve definitely been doing touristy things!  You’ve read about the adventures:)  Visiting volcanoes, beaches, jungles, mountains.  I think I’ve been to more places in Costa Rica than our land-lady and most teachers at our school.  I guess when some people live in a place, they don’t feel the need to go and see everything.

2. When I work out, I still am the sweatiest person at the gym.  Maybe I’m not as used to the climate as I think.  Even the ‘army lady’ (as we call her), doesn’t sweat as much as I do.  She scares us a little bit…and she’s always there: working out, teaching exercise classes, or training people.

3. Annoyed at mold.  I’ve had to throw away quite a bit because mold took it over.  Not mold on food.  Mold on stuff!  I don’t have much here, so when I have mold taking over a belt, 2 hats, shoes, bags, books, even on my passport…it gets annoying.  But I’m learning, I now do a mold check every week or so, before it gets out of hand!

4. American Football:) We found a new favorite Sunday activity.  There is an American Bar with TVs everywhere!  And yes, they show all the football games!  It’s so weird to walk in there; see football of all the teams we’re so familiar with, hear English, and eat actual delicious pizza!  Let me say, Costa Ricans do not know how to make good pizza...but this place does!  It’s great!

5. I still rely on the internet a bit.  We rarely have it at the house (it’s so inconsistent); but I still get annoyed about it.  This semester I’ve been more accepting of the lack of internet, but it’s still hard sometimes.  Without having a phone or internet, I just feel a bit disconnected from the world.  (I actually wrote this about a week ago, but sin internet...it took me awhile to post this).

Miss K's Pumpkin Cookies!

6.  Missing the fall season.  Miss K has been baking pumpkin goods in honor of fall, which I have greatly enjoyed!  It’s so strange not having a fall.  But I think I’ll really appreciate the fall in the future.  It’s so pretty!

7. My Spanish.  I still tend to get timid when speaking Spanish.  But as I said before, it probably depends on who you ask.   I’m still speaking Spanish at lunch/recess and reading my Spanish kid books from the school library:) I think I’m on my 9^th book!

Tica or Gringa?  Let me know what you think.  Looks like I’m about half and half…

I can’t believe we only have 5 weeks left of school!  How is this possible!?  Here’s a little breakdown of the work I’ve done this year:

40 tests written, 6 more to write; 35 weeks of lesson plans written, 3 more weeks to write; 34 weeks of teaching/prep done; 4 weeks of teaching/prep to go + (1 week of a Christmas Course prep/teaching); 34 weeks worth if grading done/4 weeks worth of grading to go!

I feel accomplished:)  I’ve learned so much this year.  I’ve been doing more reflecting this past month also.  It’s all very bittersweet.  I’m really trying to enjoy my time here, and not to think too far ahead of what I’ll be doing in the future.  I’m not going to be here forever after all.  I must enjoy Costa Rica! 

I love my sticky notes!  

Since I’ve gotten so fast at writing tests and lesson plans (you can see I’ve had some practice), I’ve had a lot more free time.  Time that I don’t think I will always have.  Time I can have for myself.  I’ve been spending this time cooking all kinds of new recipes, practicing/studying/reading Spanish, listening to music, journaling, bible study, reading, working out, and taking random, creative photos of life (Some of which made in this month's blog installment).  It’s been good:)

I teach a guia (guide) class to the 4^th graders.  We’ve been reading about the 7 Habits of Healthy Kids.  It has also allowed me to reflect on my own healthiness of life.  The last habit is having balance in life. For your mind, body, heart, and soul.   I think I’m accomplishing all those things at the moment.  I’ll have to remember is all these things I’ve been learning.  I don’t know what God has planned for me next.  People are already asking.  I’m just living life in Costa Rica for a bit longer, then I will figure out the next step.  I’ll be open to suggestions;)  Well, that’s all for now.  Miss you all!  I appreciate your emails:)

Que Aventura!

How is it possible that a country 5 times smaller than Colorado can have so much diversity and so many things to do?!  I’m glad I’m teaching in a country that has so much to explore!  It’s great!!

Let’s see, another month has passed.  September flew, I think the consistent weather is messing with my ability to see that time is passing.  It still rains every afternoon, so with the consistent weather, it seems as if time is just standing still.  It’s strange to think that back home, the seasons are changing.  I’m in an alternate world or something.  School was busy, but it’s amazing how much more efficient I am now than last semester.  Writing lesson plans, grading, teaching.  It’s becoming easier.  The third quarter went really well.  The little Brazilian is speaking lots of English; Miss K, Kyle, and I are speaking only Spanish at recess/lunch; and well, I have of course more stories to report!  After parent-teacher conferences, we were lucky enough to have another week off of school.  I’m really taking advantage of our time off of school.  The end of the quarter is always busy, but we finished…and with lack of planning but an adventure in mind, Kyle and I were off to the Caribbean coast (unfortunately Miss K went stateside instead).

Puerto Viejo:)

First stop, Puerto Viejo.  One word that perfectly describes Puerto Viejo: tranquilo (calm, laid back, no worries).  It served as a nice midway point instead of going all the way to Panama in a day.   I did like Puerto Viejo!  It had that Caribbean vibe.  Dirt roads, reggae, dreadlocks, Bob Marley music/posters, fishing boats, clear water, bikes everywhere (we rented some for a couple bucks), several different languages, people grilling on the street, and tasty food!  Don’t worry, we’re still in Costa Rica so we didn’t stray too far away from rice and beans.  The Caribbean of course found another way to prepare rice and beans, Caribbean style.  Mix the rice and beans together and add coconut milk.  It was quite tasty.  I also enjoyed a delicious salad with chicken, fruits, veggies, and a platter of spicy dressings and peppers…needless to say that made me so happy!

In a few words, the Caribbean is hot, humid, and sticky.  I think I was in a continuous state of sweating.  I found it funny that so many hotels were advertising ‘hot water’ because everywhere we went I was gladly choosing to take cold showers!  Now that I’m back in San Jose, it almost feels cool.  The Caribbean has opposite weather of the rest of the country.  Right now is the Caribbean’s dry season, which worked out perfectly because we were able to get away from all the rain!  We actually were able to enjoy nice, sunny evenings for once!  It was pleasantly shocking to see the sun past 1pm!

One teacher at school told me to go to Puerto Viejo with the intention of returning.  So even though we stayed less than a day, we decided to stop there again after Panama.  See you soon Puerto Viejo…onward to Bocas del Toro, Panama.

The walk to Panama:) 

We got an early start and took a local bus to Sixaola, the rather interesting border crossing to Panama.  Unlike the Nicaragua border, there are several border crossings to Panama, which made the trip much easier.  In fact, it was quite entertaining.  To cross into Panama, you have to walk across a rather narrow, wooden bridge.  Some boards were unstable, there was a ‘lookout point’ with no railings at all, and watching a semi or bus go over the bridge was quite impressive!

Just imagine this bus crossing the bridge!

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  On the bus to Sixaola, we met some travel amigos who we ended up getting to be good friends with over the next 3 days.  Ogi and Shant are 2 interesting fellows, who live in Canada; Ogi is from Bosnia and Shant is Armenian.   They had just come from working on a farm for the past few days.  They were nice enough to share some starfruit and 100% dark chocolate from the farm.  Que rico!  They were headed to the island of Bocas del Toro also.  This is the first of eight months of their travel.  (I’ll admit, I’m a bit jealous of their travel plans).  Friendly, fun, adventurous guys!

So, we made it across the border crossing pretty easily.  It helps traveling with a bigger group…especially when it comes to bargaining.  We all shared a taxi to Almirante on the coast, and from there, were able to catch a water taxi to Bocas del Toro.

The water was so clear and even turquoise!   So pretty! 

Bocas del Toro, Panama!

We walked around scoping out where we would stay that evening.  This was all reminding me of backpacking through Europe.  Not knowing where we’ll sleep that night, walking around with our packs, exploring new territory.  It was good:)  I don’t know how Hotel Zapatilla was the big winner…but somehow we ended up there.  A new amigo, Santiago talked us into it somehow…or maybe it was because it was $7/night.  Either way, we stayed there.  It worked fine, just…hot.

That afternoon we ended up watching a track meet in town, that was bringing me back to my track running days!  It was interesting because they painted lanes right on the street on the main road in town.  It was so hot..how were they running?  Some were even wearing a warm-up sweat suit.  I’m positive their muscles were staying warm… I’m pretty sure I was sweating just as much as the runners and I wasn’t even running. 

Later we ended up renting $1 bikes and road around the island.  The island didn’t really having beaches like I expected.   But it was still very nice; a lot of diversity.  All different types of houses, cute streets, even ocean breezes at times.

Now to introduce the upcoming characters:  Jay, Finnish, born in Sweden, but lives in Norway.  He’s just one of those people who loves life, and hilarious!  How did he know so many funny English expressions?  He was like a Kramer…and yes, he speaks Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, English..and he wants to pick up Spanish now, traveling for 6 weeks.   Next, Elena from Germany is on her 14 month of travel and still 8 more to go!  World traveler that’s for sure!  So nice:)  Brett, a firefighter from Australia was also a character.  He’s traveling South America for the next 4 months.  He lives up in Darwin, a city up in northern Australia.  Another German girl, Jenny came the following day to join her friend for the next 8 months.  It was such an interesting dynamic we had going:)  Everyone was speaking in English as their second language, but then Kyle and I were able to translate and speak Spanish for everyone.  It was such a great time sharing our travels with such interesting people from around the world!

Santiago was telling us about better beaches on other islands, so we decided to take a water taxi somewhere nearby.  Our bargaining was getting quite easy now that our group was growing.  8 of us!  We talked Santiago down from $5/person to $2/person.

Such a pretty beach!!  Shant and Jay were determined to get a coconut from a tree.  Both had different methods and both succeeded.  We drank sweet water from the coconuts on this beautiful beach, swam in warm, Caribbean water, played cards on the white sandy beach.  Wow, what a life:)

The next morning, we all had a bargained $12 tour lined up with Santiago.  It was a GREAT day!  First, we all took a boat to Dolphin Bay, and yes we did see some dolphins!  Then, we went snorkeling and saw lots of creatures!  All kinds of fish, schools of fish, coral, jellyfish, lobster.  It was lovely!  We then went to a National Park/Beach called Red Frog.  And the last stop was another snorkel spot!  What a great day!

El grupo:)  What fun!

That night we had a tasty, cheap dinner.  Some nice guys from Jamaica owned it.  There were 3 things on the menu: ¼ of a chicken, ½ of a chicken, or 1 chicken; all come with platanos.  The boys loved that place, and went there every night.  It was good!  I was also enjoying how cheap everything in Panama was.  We had a great last night with our new friends just hangin’ and visiting.  It was a great trip..but it was time to part ways en la manana.

Now the travel was easy since we had just done it 3 days prior.  We took a water taxi, bus, Panama bridge, bus, back to Puerto Viejo. 

Another lovely afternoon in Puerto Viejo allowed us to rent bikes (which came with snorkel gear) to ride south to another nice beach called Playa Manzanillo.  I understand how ‘beach cruiser’ gets its name.  It’s perfect, riding a bike near the beach doesn’t require gears, and the basket is perfect to put towels and snorkel gear in:)  We road to the calm beach, which was so pretty!  Went swimming, and snorkeled right off the beach.  It was great!  I did scrape my leg on some coral..oops!  My legs went through a lot between the scrapes and thousands of mosquito bites!  My blood is definitely sangre dulce (sweet)!  Awhile later, a guy came and offered us to use his kayaks for free!  It was fun!  When we realized we were going to lose our sun fast, so we decided to ride the 8 miles back to Puerto Viejo.

Another travel day ahead.  People said all that we accomplished couldn’t be done.  But it was facil (easy) and fun!   A couple buses brought us to a tour/boat/taxi take-off point, that was going to take us to Tortuguero Village.  It was a pretty wild place.  It is a town without cars..and there is no way to get there by car; only by plane or boat.  We ended up joining a tour group on a boat to travel from Limon up the Caribbean coast to Tortuguero.  The trip took some time even though it was only 35 miles.  Granted we were stopping to see wildlife and such.. but it still took us 6 hours including a stop for lunch.  Oh, the wildlife…there was so much!   Crocodiles, Caimans (mini crocs), Howler Monkeys (you could hear them howling all over the place), White-Faced Monkeys, sloths, all kinds of birds, a sea otter, deer, iguanas, Jesus Christ Lizards (it’s called that because it can actually walk on water:) ).

Caimon (mini croc) babies on the left, with the mom nearby in the water.

Oh, the Howlers:)

They call it the Jesus Christ Lizard..they walk on water!

Yet again...big bugs!

So, we get to the cute town of Tortuguero.  Found a cute, friendly, relaxing, cheap place to stay right on the ocean, then signed up for our turtle-watching tour…it is prime season after all!  Since the ocean, beach, jungle, and canals are all part of the national park, there are regulations and restrictions in the area.  For example, the beach closes at 6pm-4am…for the tortugas!  For those who want to see the female turtles come up to lay eggs there are tour groups with limited numbers, sections, and times.  Our assigned time 8pm-10pm. 

We left with our tour guide, Ernesto around 8pm, and I must say, he was quite funny...flashlight and cigarette in hand.  We hiked through the pitch-black jungle a bit to some covered benches.  This is where we had to wait for the 'okay' from a park ranger who was out looking for turtles in our assigned section.  Ernesto was shining his flashlight all around obviously looking for something.  Finally, we found what he was looking for..a HUGE tarantula who lives nearby!  He told us lots of tarantulas like this area and he just wanted to know if/where they were.  Then he proceeds to tell us to take a seat.  Wearily I sit down just praying that no creature is going to come near me.  That was when Ernesto turned his flashlight off completely.  Kyle, Ernesto, the tarantula, and I are just sitting in the DARK jungle, talking..mostly in Spanish and waiting.  Ernesto was telling us turtle facts, the last time he saw a jaguar, and how much rain there normally is in Tortuguero.  Periodically Ernesto would shine the light up on the ceiling to make sure the tarantula amigo was still there.   Well, after 2 hours of waiting, our time was up.  No turtles.  Sad.  I was so hopeful to see a Tortuga…Ernesto was bummed for us.  He was hoping we’d see one.  So he told us to wake up really early to look for them on the beach.  That lifted our spirits a bit.

Canoe Tour...Jungle Book?!  It felt like it.

The next morning I didn’t wake up early enough to look for turtles, but we did take a 6am canoe tour, which was awesome!  It seriously felt like we came straight out of The Jungle Book.  We saw so much wildlife!  The jungle is very alive in the morning before the heat comes.  It was such a unique experience, silently gliding through canals under tree branches, vines, hearing howler monkeys in the background, seeing white-faced monkeys jumping from one tree branch to another over us, butterflies, iguanas with multicolored legs that looked like it belonged in Jurassic Park.  It was quite an experience!

Lookin' stylish, I know..

Since we saw the national park by boat, we later saw the national park by foot.  They require boots only in the park..sure enough a family who lived outside the park rented boots for $1.  The black rubber boots felt like heat warmers.  Lonely Planet says the driest word to describe Tortuguero is 'humid'.  It’s true!  It felt like the humidity was just surrounding us.  I can’t believe I’m saying this, but San Jose doesn’t feel humid to me now!  I think my skin has even been a bit dry this week.  Weird. 

After our hike through the sauna, we had a lovely afternoon playing with some local kids.  I loved Tortuguero because everyone was so nice!  It almost felt like we were locals because it was such a small town I felt like we knew so many people between the tour guides, people from our hotel, tours, the kids we kept seeing.  It was fun and such charm Tortuguero has!  Anyway, some kids we met the previous day really wanted to play with us..so we did!  It was so much fun!  Kyle played with the older ones (around age 10-12) and I was playing with a group of younger kiddos (4-5).  They were adorable!  We were playing tag, cops and robbers, ‘cooking’.  I was so entertained by them.  One drew a face on a seed or piece of fruit and put it on a stick as a gift for Kyle, another was bouncing a coconut with a stick, we were pretending to cook using dirt and leaves.  I had a great time.  They were sad when it was time for us to go. 

Who knew playing with local kids could be so fun:)

Tortuga!

Alright, our final day came, and our water taxi was leaving at 6am.  Our last chance to see a Sea Turtle.  We woke up at 4am to look..but it was pitch black and we didn’t have flashlights so even if there was a turtle on the beach, I wouldn’t have seen it.  There were the prettiest stars on the beach in this village at 4am though!  I went back to bed until 5am…then I went.  I walked for awhile, and an Austrian friend I had met at the hotel was motioning me to come!  She pointed it out…and I couldn’t see it.  Well, I was looking at a sea turtle, but I thought it was a huge boulder!  She was in a hole laying eggs.  I couldn’t see the eggs, or even her face..but it was amazing to a Sea Turtle that big!  I don’t know how she was going to get out of that hole because of her immense size; and I had to catch a boat so I couldn’t stay for longer than 10 minutes.  It was amazing though!  Walking back along the beach, watching the sunrise, reflecting on the trip; I was happy.

We caught the water taxi.  It was slow…it took us 2 hours to go 13km…the canals were so low, at one point el capitan had to get out and actually push us.  But we made it off the canal to proceed to the next series of buses back to San Jose.  A great trip indeed!

A familia pushing their boat of bananas, pigs, and bikes.

Here's a little map to show our viaje...San Jose, Puerto Viejo, Panama, Puerto Viejo, Tortuguero.

Well, that's all for the momentito.  I'll keep ya posted!  More to come.  Miss you all!

Friends of Joy:)

This month has been amazing in so many ways.  All I want to do is hold onto the memories for as long as I can.  Where to begin? 

It was a bit hard for me to get back into the groove of teaching after the July break, but it didn’t take me too long.  I think I had a little change of heart when I went hiking with Kyle, and his 5-week long visitor, Eric.  We were in the beautiful mountains, just enjoying Costa Rica.  And that’s when I remembered where I was, and it’s a great feeling! 

 The second week after break, we went with the 4^th and 5^th graders to camp.  It was great!  We had some great bonding-time with the students.   It brought me back to my camp days.  Even the teachers got to participate in some activities!  One highlight was probably the high ropes course, which entailed different ‘challenges’ high above the ground.  The food really was tasty, but since every meal only consisted of rice and beans, I was a bit tired of it towards the end.

I expected it to be cooler at camp since it was in the mountains, but it was actually hotter than San Jose.  The campfire just wasn’t quite the same considering I was already sweating before sitting by a roasting fire.  But it was still a lot of fun:) Warmer weather and camping in the jungle, of course means bigger bugs.  Seriously the bugs we saw made the bugs in San Jose look like tiny!  I can’t complain now…because if I ever found a spider in our house, like the one in the shower at camp, I might be packing my bags…But, we survived:)

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The weekend after camp, we had a little realization we aren't living in the states anymore.  We had a cleaning session at our casita that weekend.  Deep cleaning, mopping, and throwing away our stuff that molded during the month of July:(  Since our internet wasn’t working, and our floors were soaking wet from mopping, we decided to go use the internet while the floor dried.  During that time, we did leave some random belongings on our porch (still behind our huge iron porton). 

We weren’t gone long before we find out someone was climbing over our porton to steal our stuff!  (We aren’t even sure if our house was locked).  Luckily, we have a land-lady who is always watching out for us.  The guy didn’t even get all the way over before she chased him away.  Moral of the story, we are living in a foreign country, so we do need to be more careful.  The next day, our land-lady helped us out by putting what most fences/portons have in Costa Rica: barbed-wire; big, round, spikey barbed-wire.  I’ll admit it does make our house feel a little bit like a prison, but I do feel safer.

The week of the visitors finally came!  In anticipation of their arrival, I tried to finish as much work as possible.  Writing tests, lesson plans, Mother’s Day Celebration, grading, you name it, I probably had to do it.  But at the end of the week was a lovely reward though, my sis, Ali and my friend, Meghan!

Our favorite mountain top spot!

One Saturday morning, the six of us were about to embark on an adventure...and it was a great one!  We met at the bus station early to head to a new part of the country for me; La Fortuna and Volcan Arenal.  We arrived around 1pm, we were barely off of the bus, before our new best friend Julio was getting us sucked into his deals.  “It’s only $12/night, with breakfast” and “I can get you a tour in an hour of everything you want to do in an hour”.  So we went to check out this $12/night hotel.  At this point we are very hot and hungry..the place doesn’t look too bad, so we took it!  We not only agreed to the hotel, but we did sign up for a volcano, hike, waterfall, jungle, dinner, and hot springs tour.  We didn’t have much time, but needed some food.  So we went to a restaurant and as we were scarfing down our pizza, we were throwing money on the table since we were in such a rush to make it in time for the tour.

We arrived at the meeting spot, and no one is there.  I realized we already gave him all of our money.. what if he never shows!  This is exactly what Lonely Planet was warning us about.  But luckily Lonely Planet was incorrect, and they were just on Costa Rican time…a bit late.  After the 6 of us piled into the van, we stopped at another hotel to pick up more people.  All was going according to plan, until the van seemed to have some trouble.  It wasn't exactly starting.  But the Costa Rican way is “Don’t worry!”  Little Miss Sunshine style, the driver pushed starts us down a hill to get us going.  We are about 15 minutes outside of town before it actually broke down for good.

At this point, it was pouring down rain, and the 4 of us in the back (Kyle, Miss K, Megs, and I) are getting a bit ancy.  We are crammed in the back, the windows are fogging and don’t open, and we’re sitting on the side of the road, just waiting.  Keep in mind we have already had a 5-hour bus ride that morning, the last thing we want to do is sit in a humid, crowded van.  We are tempted to hoof it back to La Fortuna and do the tour the following day.  But between “don’t worry another van is coming" and Ali and Eric content in the front of the van saying, “It’s fine, let’s do it!”, we ended up pressing on with the tour.  

So we stuck it out, piled into another van, and continued onward.  We are all getting fairly silly in our state of being tired in combination of funny events and people.  The volcano was beautiful.  Different from the volcanoes I’ve seen thus far.  It was more of the typical mountain versus a big crater.  Our hike through the jungle was great.  We were all having a great time.  Taking photos, rubbing seeds on us to act as bug repellent, seeing waterfalls, and of course getting WET.  

It started to rain when we were out there.  All I had was a half zip, while others had rain coats and ponchos.  But really, all of us were just soaked!  It was actually very fun to embrace the rain.  It was coming down so hard, and the trails we were hiking on were looking like mini rivers.  Kristin, Megs, Al, and Eric made face, mud masks.  It was great!  I don’t know where all the wildlife go during the rain like this, it’s amazing!

We were...wet.

The next comical event, was waiting for our van that left us while we were hiking.  It didn’t return for…awhile.  We were all wet, hungry, and waiting.  Don’t worry, we’re getting very good at keeping ourselves occupied by now.  It was great bonding time.  Al spoke French with some French kids, we learned some tricks, drank some tea, laughed, and waited.

The temperature difference is amazing.  How could I go from being so hot to so cold?!  Perhaps because our sopping wet clothes were not about dry any time soon.  Needless to say we were ready for the hot springs and let me say, they were worth the wait!  20 thermal pools, of all different temperatures felt great, and were beautiful!  

There were also 3 slides at the Baldi Hot Springs…and these were not your typical water slides.  They were intense!  Slides like this would be illegal in the states.  Slide #1:  First the boys went, then Kristin.  When Kristin went, all we heard from the top was a painful rumbling, a scream, then silence.  Megs went, we heard a painful rumbling, a scream, then silence.  Al went, I heard a painful rumbling, a scream, then silence.  It was terrifying.  I eventually went down that slide as well!  So scary.  The scream was a straight drop off into the water (but you can’t see a thing in the tube)!  Good times:)

10:30pm we finally get back to our hotel, exhausted.  Long story short, we couldn’t go to bed quite yet..the girls room was finding dead flies, hairs, and worm-pod things in our beds.  Oh thank you Julio for the hotel recommendation.  When we finally did get new sheets (thanks Kyle and Miss K), we were ready for bed, in the beds.  Then all of a sudden, we heard a man’s voice yelling, coming from our bathroom!  Ali and I ran for the door, but stumbled and scared Megs and Miss K even more.  We turned on the light, and we realized our bathroom had a window, which connected to another bathroom.  Our hearts were pounding.  But by 12am or 1am, we did, finalmente go to sleep.

Sunday morning was a bit more relaxing, it entailed breakfast, pool, reading, shopping, lunch, playing soccer…Then that afternoon was the best.  Zip Lining.  We ended up booking the tour with our best friend Julio.  The Sky Trek.  We went around 4pm, suited up with all our gear, and took a gondola up.  As we were on the gondola, the guide was telling us about the zip lines.  At one point in the gondola, we were 200 feet above the ground, but the highest zip line is 600 feet above the ground!  My stomach was starting to sink, but there was no turning back.  We had a couple of practice runs..then #3 was the big one!  It was so long, and so high!  One at a time we went, each person got smaller and smaller as they flew over the jungle!  Finally it was my turn, and I was so scared; but as I let go, it was amazing!  Jungle 600 feet below, a huge lake on one side, the volcano on the other side, just flying at high speeds!  It was unbelievable!  We proceeded to have about 6 more runs after that.  Each was awesome!  Towards the end it was getting dark, so that was another experience.  Zip lining in the dark, it was wild!  The whole experience was definitely a highlight!

Zip Lining in the dark!

We just couldn’t say good-bye to Julio just yet, so on our last day at La Fortuna, we played a soccer game versus some Ticos.  6 on 6.  So much fun, the gringos even won!  Later that day we piled on the bus back to San Jose, a wonderful weekend indeed.

Tuesday, back to school; but this time with my visitors.  My kiddos were so excited to meet Megs and Al.  It was great having them at school! 

Since all of us bonded so well that weekend, on Tuesday night we made a big dinner at our house accompanied by some wine.  It was such a memorable night.  It’s amazing how having wonderful people together is what made it so amazing!  I think I really just appreciate people so much now.  Talking, laughing, speaking Spanish with each other, and just being with great people was the best!

The next day, I was able to take the day off to spend with Al:) We took a day trip to Jaco for some sister bonding!  It was a lovely day, bus ride, delicious breakfast, beach, shopping.  It was sad that her time in Costa Rica was coming to an end.  It went so fast!  It was such a unique experience to have my sis come visit me while I’m living in a foreign country.  We now have so many wonderful memories.

The next big event we had was rafting The Reventazon!  Alright, a couple of months ago, we rafted The Pacaure, which was big water.  Well, now I don’t even know how to express the amount of water in The Reventazon.  It was Class IV+ in Costa Rican terms..meaning it would DEFINITELY be Class V in the states.  I’ve grown up on rivers and feel very comfortable rafting..but this was rafting at a whole new level!  Especially when rapids have names like Frankenstein and Indigestion.  We would be headed for a wave that just looked like a wall of water several feet over our heads.  It was quite the rush!  It was awesome!

We had an amazing guide and the 6 of us made a great team (Al wasn’t there for that, but our friend Leslie was the 6^th soldier).  The back of the raft is the most dangerous spot because it’s more bumpy…so Kristin and I were brave and sat in the back.  I had a couple of close calls of falling out!  So scary!  I sat in the right spot near the guide because both times he grabbed my life jacket and told me “Don’t do that again!”.   Luckily the only injury I suffered was a hurt finger.  I think I tried to grab a rope and held on with a single finger before the guide grabbed me.  It was quite the experience!

We survived and finally it was Megs last night, we all made a delicious dinner, played cards, and went dancing. 

Then there were four of us.  We had to have one last hurrah before Eric left on his adventure to Ecuador.  So, we went to our favorite spot and spent a weekend in Manuel Antonio.  This trip is getting so easy now.  We know how to do it…and it’s great every time; food, beach, cards, dancing, and jungle.  It was a great weekend!

We just barely caught the bus after school and crammed on!

I realize my time in Costa Rica is already flying by!  I need to make a big push to practice my Spanish in the next few months.  I started a new project thanks to the push from Eric.  I must read 8 books in Spanish, speak only Spanish during lunch and recess with the kids, and I need to listen to at least 2 hours of Spanish radio every week.  I even made a deal with the kiddos:  They can only speak English during my classes and I can only speak Spanish during breaks and recess.  The kids are getting into it, which is great!  They are a great resource and can really help me!  So this is exciting! 

All good things must come to an end.  It is always sad to say good-bye to good friends.  I think we all became really close, and who knows where life will take us all.  Eric wrote a beautiful song while he was here, and it says “These faces will live with me forever, like a friend of joy surrounds me”.

In the meantime Miss K, Kyle, and I will be planning more adventures.  I'm so happy they're here with me!  God has been watching out for all of us.  It's been good:)

Well, sorry for the monton de informacion.  You are probably wondering if I'm actually doing any teaching down here.  Claro que si!  Working hard as always;)

Good Life:)

Looks like it’s about time to sum up the past 2 months of my vida!  Where to begin?  I left off with the lovely trip to a volcano, waterfalls, and a coffee farm…as well as some insect horror stories.

June was a lot of fun!  We were fortunate enough to have some visitors come keep us company for about a week…Brock and Becky!  Having visitors is a great excuse to do some really fun things!!  We had to introduce them to some local dishes…so we decided to make gallo pinto and arroz con leche!  And I must say, it turned out great!  Gallo Pinto is rice and beans (a great Costa Rican staple) along with some eggs, spices, hot sauce…and some fresh mango on the side!  Delicious!

The cooking and eating crew:)

Gallo Pinto, eggs, and the empty space is for the fresh mango!

Another favorite spot we discovered…(thank you Kyle), is a lovely restaurant looking over the valley of San Jose.   The twinkling lights are so impressive at night from this mountain top restaurant!  I think I have enough photos from up there to make an entire photo album:)  In addition to the great views…you can see some typical Costa Rican dancing!  The girls dance with a lot of dress, and the guys stomp their feet a bit.

Chicas!

The Guys!

Traditional Dancing

Hello San Jose

I don’t have any photos of our rafting adventure.  It’s a good thing I did not bring my camera..because I would have definitely been ruined from getting WET!  We were wet!  Picture green jungle everywhere, huge whitewater rapids, waterfalls, canyons…it was wonderful!  Now I understand where the water goes during rainy season-waterfalls and rivers!  I’ve never seen so much water.  We enjoyed it so much, we’ll being going on another excursion pronto:)

We also ventured back to our favorite playa, Manuel Antonio.  It was just as lovely as we remembered it!  The beach, jungle, and company was excellent!  We did even have some sloth encounters!  

Just the view from our hotel...horrible, I know.

Another reason I love Costa Rica…our walk back from dinner turned into a wildlife night hike!  We saw a sloth, toad, glowing eyes of a mystery animal, and all kinds of plants!  

Giant Ants.

Night Hike through the jungle!

We also went to our favorite 1,800 colone breakfast which includes gallo pinto, fruit, bread, eggs…What more could you want?!

Course 1

Course 2

It’s about time I showed a picture of my amazing class.  They are great!  They are good little workers and are always so excited to answer questions.  I'm enjoying 4th grade:)

4th Graders!

7th grade chicas

The end of the semester ended July 1^st.  All the teachers were running around like crazy that week!  We were trying to finish up grades (which is a bit of a tedious process), as well as teaching.  In the states you’d have a workday for this sort of thing.  It was a crazy, busy time…but as always, we got it done!  And we were all READY for break!  We finished up on a Friday, and were so happy to have completed our first teaching semester, as well as pack up and go home for our 3-week break in July.

But life doesn't seem to be quite as easy all the time, for example the rain.  That Friday afternoon it was pouring.  I’m talking about the most rain I’ve ever seen in my life!  It looked liked waterfalls were falling off of roofs; it was also so loud with some of the tin roofs and such around.  It was definitely raining gatos y perros!  We were soaking wet even having a huge umbrella taking the 3 minute walk home (but I made a fun purchase of fun rain boots yesterday:)).  When we managed to make it home afterschool, we came home to more water...our house flooded a bit.  Mostly in the bathroom and our bedrooms.  We were trying to mop as well as sweep the water out with a broom.  We didn’t want to leave a wet house locked up for 3 weeks since we were leaving the next morning at 4am.  Our landlady found a drain that was clogged, so that must have been the problem…but the rain didn’t stop anytime soon either, so it was difficult to dry the house.

Agua!

This day was becoming one of those days where things just aren’t exactly going the right way, but then it’s funny later.  The afternoon/night proceeded with Kristin and I going to the bank to empty our accounts here, and taking a Wal-Mart run to buy coffee and hot sauce to family/friends.  Well, the bank had closed 5 minutes prior to our arrival, and Wal-Mart was packed, and there weren’t any taxis in this poring rain.  So we took the bus, which is fine on a normal day, but it was so packed, humid (the windows were fogging), and there was an accident, so it wasn’t the fastest bus ride home.  

We finally made it home, the rain is lightening up a bit.   We are getting very exhausted at this point, but we made a delicious scramble for dinner along with a Costa Rica beer.  Then we cleaned, packed, and bug-proofed our house.  We tried to eat all of our food as it would definitely rot during July.  In order to throw away our trash, I had to army crawl under a fence to get to a dumpster..It was quite a night.  We were able to sleep a few hours, then got on a flight to the states!

It was a wonderful trip to the states!  I have such amazing family and friends!  Being away from home really makes me appreciate how great Colorado is.  I’ll admit, it was hard to leave home after those 3 weeks of family, friends, hiking, golf, weddings, and lovely summer evenings.  But after being here a little over a week now, I’ve realized I’m having an experience of a lifetime!  I forget that sometimes.  It’s great to be back:)  Just living the good life:)

Going to states, and now returning again has made me realize some definite cultural differences.  But I will write that in my upcoming news.  And yes, I will try my best to write more often!