Day 29

Somewhere along the way I think I messed up the numbering of the days here, but I am now back on track, thanks to my hand newly filled out calendar.

Today was a pretty cool day. It was another long day filled with a lot of driving. But with more interesting and useful experiences to fill in the time.

On drive up to Upala, we were stopped and asked to wait because there was a cycling race and it would be coming around that road soon. So we stopped and had a front row seat to see them coming around the corner, which they finally did 20 minutes later.

Enid told us that there were cameras with an international feed there and that we should wave to our families. Lol, somehow we resisted the urge, but if you should have been watching the _____ race and they are going around a turn in the Costa Rican mountains and you see a large white van with the word MUSADE on the sign. That’s me!

When most of the cyclists had passed we were signalled to carry on. What happened next I must admit surprised me.

After moving from the turn we saw 2 cyclists stuck behind a truck on one of Costa Rica’s many one laned bridges. We felt bad for them and decided to cheer them on, but as the truck and then passed us we saw them both grab onto the handles and hitch a ride up the hill.

Lol…I would have been affronted by the blatant display of cheating, except that they were too far back to have any real chance of placing well.

On our way we picked up Natilie in La Fortuna, she is a student here studying for her social world licence and her and I had a pretty interesting discussion on the different systems. I still believe that Canada and Costa Rica have a lot of similarities.

After the meeting in Upala, one of the police officers who had family on the Maleku reserve nearby offered to take us there so we could learn a bit more. Of course, none of us was turning down this opportunity and we went.

It amazed me how a lot of the core beliefs about the circle of life and using nature resonated and reminded me of first nations and six nations back home. They even had dream catchers! And very large wooden sculptures that reminded me of the totem poles out west, but which I was assured were masks.

They are self sustained community and only grow and farm what they need for themselves. Their only “export” are their artistic creations. Where are a sea of colour and vibrant design.

All in All this was a pretty good day. Tomorrow I meet with Enid to go over my practicum plan and potential projects for me to pursue. Yay!

The cyclists…woohoo!

My first taste of Costa Rican Beer….lol…both are Costa Rican, but I think Imperial is the more favoured drink. Both are pilsners and pretty similar in taste, except that the Imperial is much stronger from start to finish where as the Pilsen starts off smoother and has a slight kick at the end. I would still prefer a Corona.

Pictures from the reserve in one of the large community buildings, where they were working on masks and other artistic creations. Note the drum in the picture on the left. I am not sure how much of the skin pulled over the top you can see, it is pretty hard to tell without touching actually, but this is an iguana skin. They also eat the meat.

These are the earrings I bought, I am totally in love with the Blue Morpho butterfly. Always have liked it…but am not sure I can bring myself to buy one of the jewellery boxes with a preserved one between glass. There is a tag that said it was done in accordance with the preservation laws of Costa Rica, which have a reputation of being strict. But I am not sure if I could buy one, despite its beauty and rarity.

This picture is for those of you who really liked the other Arenal shots...it is my first set of sunset shots too. Not bad.

Random thoughts:

• Yup I am definitely an ale drinker…pilsners just don’t do it for me. Although yay I was able to finish this one without wincing.
• One of these days, I will learn that if I flip to the front of my dictionary I will get Spanish words translated into English, and at the back I will get English translated to Spanish. One of these days.
• Hmmm….a sign advertising clean bathrooms….