It was an ordinary lunch break in an ordinary day in the routine that has become my life here in Costa Rica. Mari, Enid and I had returned to the house for lunch and the clear sunny day blinded us to the possibility of what was to come.
My mind filled witht houghts of the delicious conconction I smelled in the kitchen, I walked nonchalantley into my room and placed my bag on my bed. I was not prepared for what I saw when I looked up.
Bees. Abejas. Forty, no fifty or more bees swarmed around my window, buzzing and butting against the glas in a desperate attempt to go, somewhere, anywhere other than where they were.
How had so many bees made their way into my room? Why were they there? Who had let them in? Was this a hidden plot, initiated by the ants, to get to my stack of Mentos I bought in the duty free shop and hid in the back of my closet rapped in plastic? Were they controlled by demonic powers?
Unsure, and believing that my odds were better with more of my kinds to back me up I rand back to the kitchen, the smell of savory ground beef mocking the situation we faced and sought knowledge form Reina.
Once back in my room we reviewed the situation, consulted the texts, did chemical testing for pollen lining on my window, but could not figure out the reason for the bees being there.
But one this was for certain, we had to get rid of them.
And so the battle between good and ....creepy, began. There were moments where we didn’t know if we could win, there were so many and they kept coming back. They resisted our gentle carboard efforts to guide them out the openign in the window. They seemed determined to go somewhere else, perhaps they were working on developing a new power to shift through glass.
There were casualties, the little bodies of the bees who had resisted too hard, or could not bear life in the direction we pushed them, littered the flow, twitching for a seconds before moving on to the next life.
Finally we were down to two persistent bees, who for all our size and power we could not persuade to leave the their post at the window. Realizing that there were powers greater than our own at work here we decided to end out battle for now, regroup and enhance out powers with Reina’s cooking. And int he meantime left the window open hoping the problem would solve itself.
The bees were gone when we got back. We still don’t know how they got there, but the next day as I left my room to go have breakfast I saw a group of ants marching down the hall, they carried on their backs the body of one bee, they never looked up and they never halted their progress.
And a faint buzzing echoed through the house.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
OOOPS!
So I think I may have helped in the creation of a new myth here in Costa Rica abotu Canadians. Ooops.
It was quite unintentional I swear, and I was told the information I was providing was not actually going to be applied, otherwise I would revise it. I was not given time to prepare or explain or demonstrate.
Lalala....there is a possibility that some people in Costa Rica now think that a traditional Candian breakfast is straberry jelly with a layer of straberry cream chese filling, which we call Crepes. This is not what I intended....
I fear it is too late to stop it, the breakfast or desert has already been taken to a primary school and shared with the children.
You have been forewarned.
Nicaragua
So I was in Nicaragua last week...back now...will update with posts and pictures...which I am in the process of organizing as we speak, you might have to wait a little bit though, so just a heads up.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Day 50: Rosario
I am learning to take my time here one day at a time…assuming that the next day could have me off in any part of Costa Rica, this side of the Chirripo with little warning.
Today, I got to work late, I had stayed extra the night before and since I had no plans for meetings or anything that needed me to get to work early, I figured I could make up and hour of sleep and come in with Mari.
I hadn´t counted on the unpredictability that is Enid. I arrived at 10 am only to be told that I had to run and catch up with Gabriella and Sylvia who had just left to catch the bus to Naranjo. Cinzia was also on her way out with two other students to San Pedro…apparently today we were to help with the schools project. A fact that although I am happy about, my exact purpose in this project still eludes me, some weeks we spend a lot of time going to varying schools with the project leads and observing or helping run the workshops. Other weeks, such as last week, when we ask if can accompany them, we are told no by Enid, even though our only other plans for the day is more reading.
Jay, I begin to understand a bit more of your week by week lifestyle at your work...
Luckily, I managed to catch up with them, just as they were getting on the bus for Naranjo, which as it turns out was not our ultimate destination, which was a school in Rosario, about and hour out from Naranjo where we were we had first a children’s group and then one with parents (really only mothers, although it is opened to both parents).
The children’s group was fun to help run, although shorter then we would have liked. We began with a game of musical chairs that turned into an amazing lesson in organization and teamwork. We started out with 10 girls and 10 chairs, then as usually happens with the game, the number of chairs began to decrease with each round. The number of girls however did not. There resourcefulness and determination to make sure that everyone was sitting when the music stopped held them through until we have 1 chair holding up 10 girls between the ages of 8 and 10. They figured that if the tallest girl sat down on the chair and then they had one girl on each knee and so on and so forth they could manage it.
I still have no idea how the chair managed to hold up…somehow it did.
The next activity was to do a drawing representing various words of respect that we had presented to the class.
When that class was over we had 3 hours to kill before the parent’s workshop at 3 pm…and thankfully the school sold lunch for the kids and we were able to take part, the highlight being rosewater flavoured rice pudding that I would go back for if I could. I understood why the kids ran screaming to the lunch room when they heard that it was on the menu.
Then we sat down on benches in the hall and Gabriella reviewed the game plan for that afternoon.
Lol…our preparation time was interrupted when the kids had recess and a determined game of football (soccer) was started up by the younger boys. They really were determined, even though the space was a little small and they had to run down a hill to fetch the ball whenever if went out of bounds. One boy fell and we thought he had hurt himself as he was limping when he got up…it was a pretty good limp to, right up until he ball came his way and he gave it a sound kick into the other teams goalpost. The cheers were of course deafening.
I really enjoyed watching the various behaviour of the children during recess. The other kids had no fear of walking through the middle of the football, the younger girls in groups of 3, running around as well in what appeared to be a game of tag. The older girls walked around in smaller groups, talking secretively. I figured out that since they were required to wear uniforms here, that the sweaters were the way the girls expressed their fashion sense and showed off for the boys.
One girls, with a small pink sweater was particularly popular with the older boys, who were too cool to join into the soccer game, had two buttons undone in their shirts, with a t-shirt underneath (it is cold this week) and gelled hair. They did not have sweaters or sweatshirts and walked around with a bit more of a swagger.
Ah pre-teens I forgot what an interesting time puberty made the ages between 11 and 14. One boy, who was fairly tall and had already started to develop fairly pronounced shoulders surprised me when he opened his mouth and out came the high-pitched voice of a six year-old. I very nearly fell out of my chair; I guess I haven’t spent much time around pre-teens of late.
The afternoon session on self-esteem with the mothers went well, and uneventfully except for the fact that the coffee-maker had a connector in the power cord and we had to hold it on order for it to get coffee.
Afterwards we found out that the lady we were going to catch a ride into town with (the bus to Rosario runs about 5 times a day) had already left. Gabriella didn’t seem worried or surprised and said we could just hitchhike back to town. Both Sylvia and I were unsure of this and since it would cause problems if Sylvia’s organization ever found out we decided to wait for the 5:30 pm bus. The trick being we had to make it to Naranjo to catch the 6:00 pm bus to San Ramon.
We made it on time, said good-bye to Gaby in San Ramon and Sylvia and I went to catch a movie. The movie is called Bella and is one of those romances that jumps between the past, present and future, the plot line was not bad, but what actually interested me was how much it jumped between Englisha nd Spanish, although I am sure it was primarily an English movie there were many long scenes in Spanish. It was a nice blend.
Alright, I think I am done now...wow this was a longer post. I think I am getting more into the idea of perserving my memories of being here than necessarilywriting for those who read my posts. I hope you enjoy regardless. =)
Hasta leugo.
Today, I got to work late, I had stayed extra the night before and since I had no plans for meetings or anything that needed me to get to work early, I figured I could make up and hour of sleep and come in with Mari.
I hadn´t counted on the unpredictability that is Enid. I arrived at 10 am only to be told that I had to run and catch up with Gabriella and Sylvia who had just left to catch the bus to Naranjo. Cinzia was also on her way out with two other students to San Pedro…apparently today we were to help with the schools project. A fact that although I am happy about, my exact purpose in this project still eludes me, some weeks we spend a lot of time going to varying schools with the project leads and observing or helping run the workshops. Other weeks, such as last week, when we ask if can accompany them, we are told no by Enid, even though our only other plans for the day is more reading.
Jay, I begin to understand a bit more of your week by week lifestyle at your work...
Luckily, I managed to catch up with them, just as they were getting on the bus for Naranjo, which as it turns out was not our ultimate destination, which was a school in Rosario, about and hour out from Naranjo where we were we had first a children’s group and then one with parents (really only mothers, although it is opened to both parents).
The children’s group was fun to help run, although shorter then we would have liked. We began with a game of musical chairs that turned into an amazing lesson in organization and teamwork. We started out with 10 girls and 10 chairs, then as usually happens with the game, the number of chairs began to decrease with each round. The number of girls however did not. There resourcefulness and determination to make sure that everyone was sitting when the music stopped held them through until we have 1 chair holding up 10 girls between the ages of 8 and 10. They figured that if the tallest girl sat down on the chair and then they had one girl on each knee and so on and so forth they could manage it.
I still have no idea how the chair managed to hold up…somehow it did.
The next activity was to do a drawing representing various words of respect that we had presented to the class.
When that class was over we had 3 hours to kill before the parent’s workshop at 3 pm…and thankfully the school sold lunch for the kids and we were able to take part, the highlight being rosewater flavoured rice pudding that I would go back for if I could. I understood why the kids ran screaming to the lunch room when they heard that it was on the menu.
Then we sat down on benches in the hall and Gabriella reviewed the game plan for that afternoon.
Lol…our preparation time was interrupted when the kids had recess and a determined game of football (soccer) was started up by the younger boys. They really were determined, even though the space was a little small and they had to run down a hill to fetch the ball whenever if went out of bounds. One boy fell and we thought he had hurt himself as he was limping when he got up…it was a pretty good limp to, right up until he ball came his way and he gave it a sound kick into the other teams goalpost. The cheers were of course deafening.
I really enjoyed watching the various behaviour of the children during recess. The other kids had no fear of walking through the middle of the football, the younger girls in groups of 3, running around as well in what appeared to be a game of tag. The older girls walked around in smaller groups, talking secretively. I figured out that since they were required to wear uniforms here, that the sweaters were the way the girls expressed their fashion sense and showed off for the boys.
One girls, with a small pink sweater was particularly popular with the older boys, who were too cool to join into the soccer game, had two buttons undone in their shirts, with a t-shirt underneath (it is cold this week) and gelled hair. They did not have sweaters or sweatshirts and walked around with a bit more of a swagger.
Ah pre-teens I forgot what an interesting time puberty made the ages between 11 and 14. One boy, who was fairly tall and had already started to develop fairly pronounced shoulders surprised me when he opened his mouth and out came the high-pitched voice of a six year-old. I very nearly fell out of my chair; I guess I haven’t spent much time around pre-teens of late.
The afternoon session on self-esteem with the mothers went well, and uneventfully except for the fact that the coffee-maker had a connector in the power cord and we had to hold it on order for it to get coffee.
Afterwards we found out that the lady we were going to catch a ride into town with (the bus to Rosario runs about 5 times a day) had already left. Gabriella didn’t seem worried or surprised and said we could just hitchhike back to town. Both Sylvia and I were unsure of this and since it would cause problems if Sylvia’s organization ever found out we decided to wait for the 5:30 pm bus. The trick being we had to make it to Naranjo to catch the 6:00 pm bus to San Ramon.
We made it on time, said good-bye to Gaby in San Ramon and Sylvia and I went to catch a movie. The movie is called Bella and is one of those romances that jumps between the past, present and future, the plot line was not bad, but what actually interested me was how much it jumped between Englisha nd Spanish, although I am sure it was primarily an English movie there were many long scenes in Spanish. It was a nice blend.
Alright, I think I am done now...wow this was a longer post. I think I am getting more into the idea of perserving my memories of being here than necessarilywriting for those who read my posts. I hope you enjoy regardless. =)
Hasta leugo.
Day 49: My first Session!
October 14, the Conservatives got re-elected (boo!) for another term as a minority (Yay!) government and all the way in rainy Costa Rica, I led my first independent group session completely in Spanish.
So a psychology student here, Sara, and myself are coordinating and facilitating the Social Education group here at MUSADE, and we split up the work so that she leads two session, I lead two, two are done by speakers and two are the intro and the conclusion. My first session that I was leading was this Tuesday on the topic of Human Rights.
I won´t bore you will all the details, but I think it went well, and there was a lot of discussions, and I was able to relate examples and clarifications on the spot in complete intelligible Spanish sentences.
The parts of the UN human rights code I had to read out were less fluid, some of the pronunciation still eludes me, but all in all I am going to take this session as a success.
So a psychology student here, Sara, and myself are coordinating and facilitating the Social Education group here at MUSADE, and we split up the work so that she leads two session, I lead two, two are done by speakers and two are the intro and the conclusion. My first session that I was leading was this Tuesday on the topic of Human Rights.
I won´t bore you will all the details, but I think it went well, and there was a lot of discussions, and I was able to relate examples and clarifications on the spot in complete intelligible Spanish sentences.
The parts of the UN human rights code I had to read out were less fluid, some of the pronunciation still eludes me, but all in all I am going to take this session as a success.
Day 47: Jazz Concert in San Jose
Mari, Sylvia and I went to see a Jazz concert this evening in San Jose. The concert is a part of the “Japanese Week” festival going on in San Jose, right now….although the actual length of the festival has been grossly underestimated and spans 3 weeks, that come to an end on October 19th.
The concert featured Haruko Nara ( Japanese pianist who attended Julliard and the University of Columbia and has a masters and doctorate in composition and musical education), Gino Sitson (singer, composer, percussionist, from the Bamileke region of Cameroon in Central Africa, who studied under his mother, at the University of Sorbona and the University of Paris) and Yoshiaki Masuo (a Japanese guitarist, with no formal education, but who has been in the Jazz game for many years and has played pretty prominently).
I am writing out their bios, only because I found it fascinating how different their backgrounds are and wander where and how they ever met to become a group.
There music was amazing, it was all instrumental and vocal styling, but with almost no actually lyrics, which made it a great representation of international music. The songs were largely inspired by older folk music from various cultures that had been updates to fit their unique brand of jazz. Gino definitely stood out with his interesting vocals and myriad of percussion instruments, I really don´t know how he kept it up and how he made it different each time to fit the mood of the song.
And Haruka, you could tell that she is a very talented person, I think her and Gino must have composed most of the songs. Her piano playing rocked, she did songs where it sounded like to individual pianists must be playing, the parts were that different in sound and rhythm, but they worked well together and she was playing them simultaneously. But more impressively, I think we were all surprised when she started playing a samba drum for a song she and Yashiaki did together.
It was just pretty awesome, and unexpected since it was a free concert, held in a classical style theatre near the central park of San Jose. At the same time, not too far away, there was a children´s group holding a production in the Teatro Nacional.
I would really like to post a sample of their music on my blog…but am finding it hard to find copies on the internet, especially given my limited net time. But I promise to do so if I find any, or if anyone back home with a better connection who is intrigued by this post, looks them up and sends something my way. *grins*
Impressions . . .
- Wow, how did we manage to come at the right time to first level private balcony seats. Cool! These must be the best in the house.
- Love the lighting, it works with each song.
- Man, I actually am willing to go and buy a CD, but they aren´t selling any here….that´s new.
- There is not a single Costa Rican restaurant or Soda, in the food court off the central park. Damn U.S. fast food chains.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
A Dog´s Life in Costa Rica
Episode 2: Ashley
Ashley was a small white and black spotted part-terrier part-mutt dog who lived in Palmares, Costa Rica. Her favorite hangout was around the bus terminal, there were always a lot of new and interesting human type people coming and going in that area, and some of the nicer ones would share a part of their lunches with her.
Ashley had big brown eyes and fur that was glossy for about a week after her monthy bath, but that was dulled by soot and matted at other times. But the feature that really made Ashley stand out, ever since she had been injured at the tender age of 6 months, was her gimpy leg. When Ashley was only 6 months old, she had had an unfavorable run in with a fast moving bicycle. She had been barking happily in greeting to the medium sized human boy who had been riding it, she had been too young to realice thta he wasn’t going to stop and pet her as most smaller sized humans did.
But Ashley wasn’t bitter, the leg didn’t slow her down anymore and since it was shorter than the others, it didn’t drag on the ground as the broken limbs of other larger dogs she knew.
But her gimpy leg was not what was on Ashley’s mind on Wednesday October 8th at 1:30 pm. No what was on her mind was the horrible, all consuming itch that was at the back of her neck.
It felt like an army of fleas had taken up residence and were int he process of raking her neck so they could soften it up to plant their fall harvest.
It was a stubborn itch too, as it thwarted most of her efforst to conquer it.
She had tried to reach it with her paw but couldn’t quite make it.
She had tried appealing to passing by humans at the bus terminal, but althoghu they looked at her they wouldn’t oblige her. She figured either they didn’t understand (humans were simple that way, especially the larger sized ones) or that they were averse to touching her because she hadn’t had a chance tot ake her bath that month (humans could also be very flacky).
She tried using the wall, but any real grit the concrete wall had once posessed had been glossed over when they painted it a pale orange.
She tried jumping into the river of water at the side of the street, but since it had been sitting there for a while and was none too clean itself, it only intensified her itch.
She tried rubbing against an unknowning male type species of human, but only got shooed aside for her efforts.
Finally in desperationg, she lay on her back in a particularily rough section of concrete sidewalk and rolled form one side to the other. After a few minutes the itch started to subside and Asley let out a bark of pleasure. After a full five minutes she stopped, satisfied that for now she had conquered the demon plaguing her day.
She wagged her tail in pleasure over her victory.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Day 45: Why Tylenol is my new best friend.
Two reasons:
1) October is the rainiest month of the year here in Costa Rica, and that means the humidity has finally reached a level that my body can’t seem to get use to and thus is rejecting and lashing out by making my head feel like it is in a vice and my stomach slightly off kilter. I know it isn’t me it hates, it just doesn’t know how else to react.
2) Enid’s driving.
Yes, there is a story to go along with this, and I am glad I am alive today to tell it.
So Friday there were two presentations MUSADE was giving about an anti-domestic violence campaign, and I had helped with the preparation and was going to get to help with the presentation as well. Very exciting, since a lot of my practicum to date has been based in observation.
What we weren’t told, until 4:30 pm on Thursday, was that the first meeting was at 8:00 am in Upala, which is the northernmost town in this area of Costa Rica, about a half hour more north and you hit the Nicaraguan border. We were told that we would have to leave at 5:30 am sharp.
Now, to give you some perspective, by bus from San Jose, this is a 5 hour trip. Last time we did it in a car, granted with a couple of stops, it was a 3 and a half hour trip. This time we did it in 2 hours and 10 minutes. Thank god it was early enough that the roads were clear.
We didn’t leave at 5:30 am, but rather closer to 6 am, because one of our group was coming in from a neighbouring town and there just aren’t any buses prior to 5:30 am in her area. So she ran to MUSADE.
This, on top of Enid’s already un-Costa Rican need to constantly be running, seem to have brought out the speed demon in her and soon we were bouncing and whipping around mountain turns. Now, I am not exactly a slow driver, and I appreciate efficiency in getting from one place to another, but when you fishtail and have to swerve to avoid hitting a tractor trailer, IT IS TIME TO SLOW DOWN!!!!!!!
We all held our breath after that one and thanked god that there was a ditch on the side of the road we could have gone into had it been necessary, as oppose to well, nothing off the side of the mountain. You would think, this would have cautioned the women, but no, it didn’t, and we proceeded on at the same that makes your head rattle and your stomach want to strap on a parachute and jump ship.
I don’t think it helps the matter that we arrived at our location at exactly 8:00 am, only provides encouragement for the future.
The people for the presentation of course, all arrived at 8:45 am so that we could start at a “prompt” 9:00 am.
Oh Tylenol, how I love you.
Day 44: Birthdays and such . . .
Today was a nice day. They had a joint coffee and cake birthday party at MUSADE for Cincia, Bernaditta, and myself. I got a a pretty bracelet.
In the evening, five of us had discussed going to a restaurant/bar, and Mari recommended one that she liked going to, so we all headed there. But since we had had the party in the afternoon, most of us were too full to actually want real food, so we got a plate of nachos and beer.
Nachos in Costa Rica - yeah, prefer them without meat…the ones with meet have too much and it makes the chips soggy.
Beer in Costa Rica - in a restaurant you get offered beer with or without melachi, which is a wonderful salt rimmed lime concoction you can pour beer into, that actually cuts the horrible bitterness of a pisner beer, making the very strong tasting Imperial beer not too different than a Corona.
Why driveways should not be paved with glossy tile...
When I first came to Costa Rica, I was a naive little aesthetically oriented student, who thought the pretty glossy tiles that lined the driveways and sidewalks of some houses were a creative solution to the pothole riddled cement sidewalks. I mean, they were clearly a class distinction between those who could afford the custom work and those who couldn't. Since, however, these were generally in better condition, I felt they were practical as well.
As stated, I was a naive little aesthetically oriented student.
I have since learned a very painful lesson as to why glossy tiled sidewalk in a country with higher than normal annual rainfall is not a good idea.
When there is even the slightest bit of rain, these areas become dangerous to traverse, but when there is a real downpour, they better sidestepped and walked around, and to be treated with the fear us Canadians bestow upon black ice.
So, just avoid getting hit by a car, or get swept away in the current that forms in the half a meter deep canal system between the sidewalk and the street...and keep your eyes on the ground so you know which areas are concrete and which dangerous tile and you will be fine.
Just a little bit of advice and winsdom from me, my bruised hip, soaked pants and wounded pride.
As stated, I was a naive little aesthetically oriented student.
I have since learned a very painful lesson as to why glossy tiled sidewalk in a country with higher than normal annual rainfall is not a good idea.
When there is even the slightest bit of rain, these areas become dangerous to traverse, but when there is a real downpour, they better sidestepped and walked around, and to be treated with the fear us Canadians bestow upon black ice.
So, just avoid getting hit by a car, or get swept away in the current that forms in the half a meter deep canal system between the sidewalk and the street...and keep your eyes on the ground so you know which areas are concrete and which dangerous tile and you will be fine.
Just a little bit of advice and winsdom from me, my bruised hip, soaked pants and wounded pride.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Fern Gully
Day 39: Parque Nacional Braulio Carrillo
An absolutely gorgeous virgin primary rainforest park....which has the added benefit of being virtually undiscovered by most tourists...so we were the only ones there yesterday.
I am getting ahead of myself though...first we had to get there...and that mean some bus adventure in Costa Rica...the fun partbeing the bus that was suppose to let us off in the middle of the highway in front of the Zuriqi station.
The driver decided we would like to be dropped off at the Areal Tram station instead, about a 20 minute drive further in. Cincia was the one who spoke for him, so at least it wasn´t the language skills to blame. Now the problem is you can´t take unguided hikes from the Areal Tram station, but luckily the ranger there told us there was a smaller lesser known outpost abotu a 30 minute walk back down the highway in the direction we´d come from.
So we started walking, it is an interesting experience walking down a windy mountian highway with cars and truck doing 70 km/hr near you, but thankfully there was space for us to do so. And the dirvers were really all so supportive, about every second vehicle would toot its horn in greeting, after about 10 mintues we were a little annoyed, after about 20 we gave up and waved back.
We got to the parque entrance and were given the map by the ranger and told there were two trails from that point, one that was a 2-3 hour hike and about 5 km...and another that was abotu an hour and 1.6 km. In case anyone is wandering in Costa Rica they really over estimate hike times.
We set out on the longer hike first, running across the road to the entrance when there were no cars coming.
The hike was amazing...I have absolutely amazing, the forest is breathtaking, and there is ecosystem upon ecosystem existing there. We kept stoping to look at yet another new plant growning. And whoever said rocks aren´t living beings has never been to this parque, there was not an inch that was not govered in something green and full of life.
The mosquitos were not present, which was good because i forgot my Watkins and had to borrow some of Silvia´s OFF! whichis less potent. We were excited abotu this, but 3 out of four of us (myself, Cincia and Eva) did get bitten by some other mysterious but that none of saw and only felt, I managed to squish it and flick it off, but didn´t see what it was since I reacted too fast. Luckily, other than being very painful for the first 5 minutes there seems to be no effects whatsoever, and we proceeded bugfree.
We ran into a very large tree (picture bellow) and a vine that we tried to swing on, but wwas too slippery to get a good hold on. We learned that green and wet means absolutely no tractiona dn so avoided stading on most rocks, the trick beign that sometimes the other alternative was squishy and deep....
I don´t have any pictures of animals because they are smart enough to avoid humans ont hese trails, but we did hear them. THe howler monkeys in particular had a distinct sound...and if you have everheard one you will understand why Eva lost her balance and fell when we heard the first one. They have a deep resonating sound that is kinda between a wolf and a bear...neither of which live in Costa Rican rainforests. We also heard bird, and what was either a capuchin monkey or a very small tamarin...they are harder to tell apart.
I am so glad we did decide to do the hike on our own and didn´t fall for the guided tour option, because it gave us a lot of time to explore and go down smaller paths.
We stopped for lunch by a small river, with ridiculously clear water that I was so scared i was going to step in and pollute when we had to cross the river. The crossing was interesting since we had to do it across rocks holding onto this cable that was secured to the ground. The hight was definitely decided upon by a person much taller than I and there was a ppoint where I slipped into the water. Only ankle deep, and in case your wandering Gore-tek lining does work!
I was the second to slipp and by the end of the day, Sylvia won the traction award and was the only one not to have fallen. Poor Eva fell in a stream and got soaked, Cincia slipped on a wet duct thing, and I managed to missjudge a rock...it was more purple than green. A nice vine near by helped cushion my fall.
We saw lots of bugs, spiders, and even big butterflys! I was soo excited when I saw my first blue morpho (well and the only one so far) it was so cool it was flying across the river and sparkled blue every time the sun hit its flapping wings. It was actually bigger than I expected. We also saw an orange butterfly I cannot put a name to, but was probably as big as both my hands together.
Needless to say we were all absolutely in love with the forest, and it is only 2.5 horus by bus to get there from San Ramon...which is quite close. We decided we definitely had to go again, and next time we might try hiking up the volcano at the north end of the park.
We left just before 4, after completing the shorter hike in 30 minutes...including time to look around and headed across the highway to try and flag down a bus. We were told this was how it was doen here, but we all had our doubts. To our surpirse, 15 minutes later a bus to San Jose was passing by and stopped when eh saw us waving our arms. We were so happy we cheered.
Total cost of the day...including buses, lunch, tea/coffee, and park admission = $19
Not too shabby.
This is the big tree near the start of the longer hike. It is big and that is its trunk, not a concrete wall, despite how it looks. It is the largest we saw, but is definitely not the only tree of its kind in the forest. To help you picture it, Cincia, in the light blue shirt, is probably about 5´10" in hight. yeah.
The beginning of the trail, it got rougher soon afterwards, but stayed equally green. I love it!
The Rio Sucio (dirty river) and a vista of the mountains we found on one of our side trail adventures. The river gets its name because of the volcanic sediment that runs into it from Volcan Barva.
Our lunch spot. *sigh*
Some of the plant life we saw along the way....
On the banks of Rio Sucio, we decided to walk amoung the rocks, which paid off because we found some amazingly beutiful and so clear pools of water. I so want to hit up the north end of the park next time and see the waterfalls, because if the water ehre was this nice, I can´t even imagine.
An absolutely gorgeous virgin primary rainforest park....which has the added benefit of being virtually undiscovered by most tourists...so we were the only ones there yesterday.
I am getting ahead of myself though...first we had to get there...and that mean some bus adventure in Costa Rica...the fun partbeing the bus that was suppose to let us off in the middle of the highway in front of the Zuriqi station.
The driver decided we would like to be dropped off at the Areal Tram station instead, about a 20 minute drive further in. Cincia was the one who spoke for him, so at least it wasn´t the language skills to blame. Now the problem is you can´t take unguided hikes from the Areal Tram station, but luckily the ranger there told us there was a smaller lesser known outpost abotu a 30 minute walk back down the highway in the direction we´d come from.
So we started walking, it is an interesting experience walking down a windy mountian highway with cars and truck doing 70 km/hr near you, but thankfully there was space for us to do so. And the dirvers were really all so supportive, about every second vehicle would toot its horn in greeting, after about 10 mintues we were a little annoyed, after about 20 we gave up and waved back.
We got to the parque entrance and were given the map by the ranger and told there were two trails from that point, one that was a 2-3 hour hike and about 5 km...and another that was abotu an hour and 1.6 km. In case anyone is wandering in Costa Rica they really over estimate hike times.
We set out on the longer hike first, running across the road to the entrance when there were no cars coming.
The hike was amazing...I have absolutely amazing, the forest is breathtaking, and there is ecosystem upon ecosystem existing there. We kept stoping to look at yet another new plant growning. And whoever said rocks aren´t living beings has never been to this parque, there was not an inch that was not govered in something green and full of life.
The mosquitos were not present, which was good because i forgot my Watkins and had to borrow some of Silvia´s OFF! whichis less potent. We were excited abotu this, but 3 out of four of us (myself, Cincia and Eva) did get bitten by some other mysterious but that none of saw and only felt, I managed to squish it and flick it off, but didn´t see what it was since I reacted too fast. Luckily, other than being very painful for the first 5 minutes there seems to be no effects whatsoever, and we proceeded bugfree.
We ran into a very large tree (picture bellow) and a vine that we tried to swing on, but wwas too slippery to get a good hold on. We learned that green and wet means absolutely no tractiona dn so avoided stading on most rocks, the trick beign that sometimes the other alternative was squishy and deep....
I don´t have any pictures of animals because they are smart enough to avoid humans ont hese trails, but we did hear them. THe howler monkeys in particular had a distinct sound...and if you have everheard one you will understand why Eva lost her balance and fell when we heard the first one. They have a deep resonating sound that is kinda between a wolf and a bear...neither of which live in Costa Rican rainforests. We also heard bird, and what was either a capuchin monkey or a very small tamarin...they are harder to tell apart.
I am so glad we did decide to do the hike on our own and didn´t fall for the guided tour option, because it gave us a lot of time to explore and go down smaller paths.
We stopped for lunch by a small river, with ridiculously clear water that I was so scared i was going to step in and pollute when we had to cross the river. The crossing was interesting since we had to do it across rocks holding onto this cable that was secured to the ground. The hight was definitely decided upon by a person much taller than I and there was a ppoint where I slipped into the water. Only ankle deep, and in case your wandering Gore-tek lining does work!
I was the second to slipp and by the end of the day, Sylvia won the traction award and was the only one not to have fallen. Poor Eva fell in a stream and got soaked, Cincia slipped on a wet duct thing, and I managed to missjudge a rock...it was more purple than green. A nice vine near by helped cushion my fall.
We saw lots of bugs, spiders, and even big butterflys! I was soo excited when I saw my first blue morpho (well and the only one so far) it was so cool it was flying across the river and sparkled blue every time the sun hit its flapping wings. It was actually bigger than I expected. We also saw an orange butterfly I cannot put a name to, but was probably as big as both my hands together.
Needless to say we were all absolutely in love with the forest, and it is only 2.5 horus by bus to get there from San Ramon...which is quite close. We decided we definitely had to go again, and next time we might try hiking up the volcano at the north end of the park.
We left just before 4, after completing the shorter hike in 30 minutes...including time to look around and headed across the highway to try and flag down a bus. We were told this was how it was doen here, but we all had our doubts. To our surpirse, 15 minutes later a bus to San Jose was passing by and stopped when eh saw us waving our arms. We were so happy we cheered.
Total cost of the day...including buses, lunch, tea/coffee, and park admission = $19
Not too shabby.
This is the big tree near the start of the longer hike. It is big and that is its trunk, not a concrete wall, despite how it looks. It is the largest we saw, but is definitely not the only tree of its kind in the forest. To help you picture it, Cincia, in the light blue shirt, is probably about 5´10" in hight. yeah.
The beginning of the trail, it got rougher soon afterwards, but stayed equally green. I love it!
The Rio Sucio (dirty river) and a vista of the mountains we found on one of our side trail adventures. The river gets its name because of the volcanic sediment that runs into it from Volcan Barva.
Our lunch spot. *sigh*
Some of the plant life we saw along the way....
On the banks of Rio Sucio, we decided to walk amoung the rocks, which paid off because we found some amazingly beutiful and so clear pools of water. I so want to hit up the north end of the park next time and see the waterfalls, because if the water ehre was this nice, I can´t even imagine.
Because Alex asked....
Here are some random picture colleges...because Alex wanted more....so here you go.
These shots are from Puntaranus, a port town I went to a couple weekends ago...it reminds me a lot of Puno in Peru...it was a big port town, before Limon (which is on the Carribean and thus closer to Europe) got underway...since then it is trying to switch to tourism as a main income, btu that is hard, they have some serious renovating to do. Nice italian restaurant there though. And a lot of people enjoy the beach, we watched the whole second half of the soccer match...the shirts team won.
More sunset shots...the pink one is of San Ramon from the window by my desk...I liek these because witht he mountains and rain clouds, sunsets are hard to catch.
This is froma small mountain town called Palmares, it is near San Raom, and one of the elementry schools there is where MUSADE does some of its work with children. The views are from the school.
People!....the top picture is Deina, Sylvia, me, and the little girl is Celeste...the second picture is me, Mariko, and Mari ... the last one is Celeste (the chocolate was for your benefit) and Cincia.
These shots are from Puntaranus, a port town I went to a couple weekends ago...it reminds me a lot of Puno in Peru...it was a big port town, before Limon (which is on the Carribean and thus closer to Europe) got underway...since then it is trying to switch to tourism as a main income, btu that is hard, they have some serious renovating to do. Nice italian restaurant there though. And a lot of people enjoy the beach, we watched the whole second half of the soccer match...the shirts team won.
More sunset shots...the pink one is of San Ramon from the window by my desk...I liek these because witht he mountains and rain clouds, sunsets are hard to catch.
This is froma small mountain town called Palmares, it is near San Raom, and one of the elementry schools there is where MUSADE does some of its work with children. The views are from the school.
People!....the top picture is Deina, Sylvia, me, and the little girl is Celeste...the second picture is me, Mariko, and Mari ... the last one is Celeste (the chocolate was for your benefit) and Cincia.
Friday, October 3, 2008
A Dog´s Life in Costa Rica
Episode 1: Buster & Shortie
There are two kinds of dogs in
There are no real inbetweens, the closest thing would be a street dog who has gotten friendly with a pack of human children and as such runs around with a slight wag to his tail because he is enjoying humouring the cute weaker specicies. Humans are so easily pleased.
One such dog is Buster*, he
Buster is a street dog, his territory is Avenida Cerda and the adjoining calle. All visitors must submit themselves to a thorough sniff test, there have been rumours of a cocaine ring operating in Buster’s territory and he is determined to (pardon the pun) sniff them out.
On the morning of October 3, 2008 at 8:20 am Buster was making his usual rounds, keeping an eye on the passing humans, barking high to little Timmy, his favourite house puppy, when he saw two pit bull pups hanging out behind the mall.
Buster crossed the street, side-stepping the newly forming potholes and went in for the obligatory sniff test. Two sniffs around the butt and one at the collar. One of the pups, froze, fearing the authoritative feel to Buster’s stride. The second smaller pup resisted the test and tried to find his way out of the process.
Shortie* had been stopped by big dogs who thought they owned the street before, and it always meant trouble. She was only a year and a half old, but she remembered well what her mother had told her before leaving. “It starts with a sniff and then goes down hill from there, honey. Stop it before it starts.”
Being a smart dog she decided to use her small size to her advantage and when she passed the first house with bars out front (which in
End of episode one…tune in next time for episode 2: “Where´s a dog to pee in a country with no hydrants?”
*The names of the dogs have been changed to protect their right to privacy and so as to be intelligible to human beings. (I never was a good speller, so dog language is beyond me)
Aaaahhh politics...
Day 38
“Count up the results of 50 years of human rights mechanisms, 30 years of multi-billion-dollar development programmes and endless high-level rhetoric and the global impact is quite underwhelming. This is a failure of implementation on a scale which shames us all.”
Mary Robinson, Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Ok, so this quote is from the Global Fund for Women’s annual report, and is referring to Women’s Rights issues around the world, but I feel it could apply to many human rights and equality issues.
Last week I attended a community meeting held here at MUSADE (but independent from the organization) where the objective was to brainstorm ideas of on how to motivate people into speaking their mind on political issues and getting involved. Ah, apathy in the general public, a topic that is near and dear to many social workers and other advocacy driven individuals. Well, at least it isn’t only a Canadian problem.
The current topic of choice is encouraging the people to speak their mind about the Tratado de Libre Comercio, TLC, (known as CAFTA in
Many of the countries agreed to the accord fairly quickly, but
Each country needs to ratify certain laws to allow this process to take place before the agreement can be fully in place, and my understanding is that the process is as of yet incomplete in
There is, however, in many people a defeated attitude about the whole process, and hence the community meeting made up of many people, half of which are university students to try and get some momentum going. It has been very interesting and I love hearing the non-North American perspective, although I have been too timid to actually voice my opinion at a meeting, and I am not really sure it is my place to do so, not being Costa Rican, it has been interesting comparing their thoughts to Canada’s own experience with NAFTA.
I am the unique position of being able to be an observer without having to participate and I am finding it to be enjoyable. Although it is a condition that can only last a short time, with these issues I think there is always a point where people have to choose to either step out of their comfort zone and take a risk, or to bow out.
Relating back to the Global Fun for women (look a cyclical structure,
“. . . another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”
Arundhati Roy
- Lesson learned: Just because a person is in a position of trust and has been given a role of authority does not mean they won’t lie their ass off to you.
- Not that
Huh…concert on Saturday was not spectacular, although the one guy had a nice voice, but the after party was interesting.
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