Costa Rican Geography

This map shows the seven provinces of Costa Rica. By the end of my trip, I will have visited all seven. 

This map shows a lot of the places I have been so far including San José, Cartago, Monteverde, Heredia, Alajuela and Tamarindo. Next weekend I am going to Nicaragua to the north. I am also trying to plan a trip to climb Chirripó, the highest peak in Costa Rica with some kids in my Tropical Ecology class. 

Third Excursion: Tamarindo!

This weekend, I finally got to see why Costa Rica translates rich coast. On Friday, I went on a field trip to el Parque Diversiones in Spanish class. We went on a scavenger hunt through a life-size recreation of a colonial Costa Rican town. My group actually finished first, so we all won free t-shirts. After returning from the field trip, I left for a five hour bus ride to Tamarindo in the Guanacaste province in Northwest Costa Rica. The drive was absolutely incredible, because we pretty much drove up the Pacific coast and through many towns and ranches. The Guanacaste province is known for its cowboys. It is the driest province, and there are many dry forests and some savannas.

About an hour and a half away from Tamarindo, our bus driver stopped along the road so that we could get out and see a group of Howler monkeys in the trees along the road. It was really cool to actually see them in the wild. We reached Tamarindo by the evening, but it was too dark to get a good look at the beach.

These are some of the monkeys we saw. There were about ten total
in this particular group including a couple of babies.

On Saturday morning, my friend and I woke up early to take a walk on the beach before it got crowded. It was absolutely gorgeous! We spent the rest of the day on the beach walking around, swimming in the ocean, playing soccer, shopping in town, attempting to surf, and swimming in the hotel pool. I even caught a crab on the beach. It was a beautiful blue and purple color, but it got its revenge when it pinched my finger and drew blood.

This is the crab I caught right after it relinquished my finger.
The picture does not do the colors justice.

The beach in the morning. It looks rather calm here, but
the waves were incredibly strong and the tides came in very fast.
Tamarindo is known for its extremely dangerous rip tides.

 My resident director's cousin owns a restaurant in Tamarindo, so we went there for lunch. I had a fruit sandwich with banana bread, kiwis, bananas, strawberries, mango, watermelon, oranges, and of course pineapple. I also had pineapple juice that was probably the most delicious drink I have ever had.

Later, in the hotel pool we heard howler monkeys. It turns out they were hanging out in the trees around the hotel. There were also a number of iguanas running around in the gardens. Before dinner we went back to the beach to wait for the sunset. It was absolutely gorgeous (and I will post the pictures as soon as my friend posts them- it was too humid for my camera )

This is the hotel we stayed at, and where I saw some of the monkeys.
The pool was very nice, and somewhat shaded for a nice break from the sun.

This is one of about six iguanas that I saw around the hotel.

For dinner, we all went to a fancy restaurant together. This meal was paid for by the program, so a lot of us were able to get seafood. I also had a different kind of juice called jugo de cas. It was green and had a kind of tart/sweet taste similar to a pineapple. It was amazing! After dinner, we took a walk on the beach and saw the stars.

On Sunday morning we woke up early to walk on the beach again. After breakfast, we drove out of town to a ranch for horseback riding. I got an awesome horse that was meant for riders with more experience. The horse was really good about trotting, cantering, and I even got to gallop a couple of times. Of course, I am really feeling it in my legs two days later. The trails were beautiful, and we got to see more monkeys in the forest. The trail lead us back to Tamarindo and let out on the beach. My horse seemed to really enjoy galloping in the sand. Overall it was an amazing trip!

Salsa Orchestra

On Monday, classes resumed as normal, and next Friday is the final. This is a good thing, because four hours of Spanish everyday on top of other classes, homework, trying to communicate, and walking miles everyday can be very draining. Monday night, our resident director Rebecca took us all to see the Costa Rican Salsa Orchestra, Madera Nueva. The orchestra travels around to different places in the city, but on Mondays they come to the Bar el Observatorio in San Pedro (a five minute bus ride from my University). 

The cover fee to get into the bar was paid by our program. We had the opportunity to see a number of professional Salsa dancers and their partners dance to the live orchestra. They were also very willing to dance with us Americans and to teach a lot of the important steps. I also got the chance to try my first Costa Rica style Piña Colada. Overall, it was a very fun but late night. Waking up at six on Tuesday morning was bit of an adventure. 

Today is Wednesday, that means 1000 colones movies at the cinema (about $2). My friend Melissa and I decided to go see Enradados (Tangled). It is quite the adventure to get to the San Pedro mall in the first place, because the bus system here in Costa Rica is interesting even without the language barrier. Crossing the streets here in San José is another story entirely. Luckily, we made it to the mall in very good time, and we had a chance to get popcorn and good seats. They sell Caramel corn in addition to popcorn here, and it is much cheaper than the crazy prices in PA. 



Enradados was completely in Spanish without any subtitles, but it was quite easy to understand because it was aimed for a younger crowd. I was glad that we got to the theatre early, because we got to experience the interactions between mothers and young, restless children waiting for the theatre to open. Although the theatre is very nice with seats that recline and whatnot, the movie stopped about half way through. It took the operators about ten minutes to get it up and running. During that time, a couple of the mothers in the theatre decided to entertain their kids by putting on a slideshow for everyone. It was hilarious.  I also thought the movie was absolutely adorable, and I definitely recommend the English version to everyone!

Sophia's Birthday

On Sunday, a whole bunch of people in my group decided to go to the beach, but I stayed in San José for my hermanita tica Sophia's birthday party. She turned four earlier this week. The party was held at Brinko's, a bounceplex party place for adults and children. I also got the opportunity to meet my abuela and abuelo tico (host-grandparents), a few tios and tias (aunts and uncles) and a whole bunch of primos (cousins). There were about twenty kids and their parents at the party. Brinko's included a huge slide and blow up obstacle course along with a bounce-house, air hockey table, and a lot of kid friendly toys.

This is all of the guest singing Feliz Cumpleaños to Sophia.
She is the one in the orange dress, and my host parents are to her right. 

Of course, what would a Costa Rican birthday party be without a piñata and queque (cake). Sophia loves Disney princesses, so the cake featured Princess Aurora from sleeping beauty. In this culture, parents generally attend birthday parties along with the kid, instead of dropping them off. I appreciated getting to meet all of the kids, and I especially enjoyed a lot of their names (although they were sometimes difficult to pronounce).

This is what Brinko's looked like on the inside. 

After the party, we went back to the house so that Sophia could open all of her regalos (presents). She got four different sets of playdough, which I spent almost two hours playing with later at the kitchen table. She also got a babydoll and a poodle that you can write on and then put in the washingmachine.

My host parents then invited me out to dinner at this beautiful Mexican restaurant in town with some of my host mom's family and friends. The food was absolutely delicious, and it was a wonderful opportunity to practice my Spanish. Overall, it was a really fun day!

2nd Excursion- el Volcan Poas, La Paz Waterfall and gardens, and Coffee Plantation

This past Saturday, I went on a day-trip to the volcano Poas, just outside of San José. However, "just outside San José" does not signify an easy journey. I have found in the places that I have travelled thus far, that if you are not in the city or on a highway along the coast, the roads are rather bumpy, windy, and hilly here in Costa Rica. The outter limits of the volcano actually reach to the edge of the San José's city limits, due to the fact that the volcano is so old. However, the cone itself is kilometers and kilometers away, due to millions of years of erosion.

We reached a coffee plantation at the base of the cone about one hour into our journey. I was able to drink authentic Costa Rican coffee (the most flavorful coffee in the world!) while looking out over fields and fields of coffee plants. The plantation also had a store that sold coffee beans that smelled delicious!

Here is a view of the coffee plantation from the headquarters.
If you look in the back of the field towards the middle, you can see a rainbow!
Since I got here, I have seen four rainbows. 

This is me, drinking authentic Costa Rican coffee.
In the background you can see the coffee plants.
The taller plants in between are meant to shade the coffee plants. 

Afterwards, we continued to drive up the side of the volcano, but we drove right into the clouds. The umbrellas that we had brought along were nowhere near sufficient enough to keep us dry. We all ended up purchasing rain jackets that kind of looked like space suits at a shop along the way. By the time we reached the national park, the air was absolutely saturated. You could not necessarily see the rain drops, but the moment we walked outside, we were drenched. But who cares really, I am in Costa Rica!

We hiked to the edge of the caldera. We were not able to see much due to the fact that we were in a cloud. However, we could kind of smell the sulfur from the .1 acid lake below. Many people decided to go back to the visitor's center after that. However, a small group of us decided to climb further up the volcano to see anything else. The forest was very thick and dark. The canopy completely obscured the sky. I really appreciated seeing all of the different trees, plants, and flowers along the way. When we reached the next lookout, we really could not see much more, but the journey was definitely worth it.

This is a picture I took from the top of the volcano looking down
 at the cloud forest we had just walked through.

Afterwards, we drove  twenty minutes further to La Paz waterfall and gardens. We ate a delicious buffet lunch that included the best arroz con leche (rice pudding) I have ever had in my entire life! The gardens included a lot of flora and fauna. There is a preserve that holds monkeys, many different types of birds, frogs, snakes, big cats, and many more animals. I got the chance to have a toucan land on my shoulder and to shake hands with a monkey!

The same tree frog that you see on all of the brochures. 

The most amazing arroz con leche in the world!

This is me with a real toucan on my shoulder.
My eyes are closed because it had just nibbled at my neck!

This is a monkey that I saw.
In this picture, he is actually shaking my hand.

This is a baby jaguar, one of the big cats that Costa Rica is famous for. 

There was another long hike to La Paz (Peace) waterfall. There were several waterfalls, and due to the fact that it had been raining rather hard all day, the waterfalls were massive!

This is me, next to one of the waterfalls.
Notice the silver (spacesuit)  rainjacket. 

Midterms already!

Today is only my second Friday here in Costa Rica, and I already had a midterm! I am officially half way through my intensive Spanish course. Luckily, the test was not too bad. Last night, my friends and I went to a Tropical Dance Class that is held in the evening at Universidad Veritas. This morning, after taking the Spanish midterm, my friend and I went to my new favorite soda (nice, cheap restaurant) around the school. It was this cute little pizza place right next door to the school. They serve fresh pizza like jamon y piña  (ham and pineapple) and té frio (iced tea) for only 1300 colones. (A little less than three dollars).

This is part of the group that went to the amusement park.

This weekend, most of the other groups have a three day excursion, but our group only has a day trip. So, our resident director took us all for an unplanned trip to Parque Diversiones for free. It was a theme park just outside of downtown San José that was surprisingly like Hershey Park. There were themed sections, a lake, water rides, roller coasters, food, and a lot of other crazy rides. These were actually a few of the coolest rides I have ever been on! There was a free fall drop that was kind of like the Tower of Terror in Disney World, but the nice part was that we got a 360 view of San José for a solid twenty seconds before dropping. Tomorrow, we will wake up early to go on a day trip to Poas Volcano.

La Fiesta y el cine

At the mall in San Pedro, a district within San Jose, there is a movie theatre that offers new releases on Wednesdays for only 1,000 colones (equivalent of two dollars). So, today my friend and I decided to walk to the bus stop and take a city bus to the mall to see our first "Disney Latino" movie. We ended up missing the stop at the mall, and we had to get off at the next stop and circle back. Therefore, we did not make it in time to see Entangled. However, we did make it in time to see Megamente (Megamind). This one was a little bit more difficult to understand because it was rated PG instead of G. However, we were able to follow along fairly well. I was impressed that I was able to understand so well after just a week and a half of intensive Spanish.

Today was also La Fiesta Crash or Crash Party at Universidad Veritas. The party was held in the main courtyard at the university. It was an attempt to have International students and Costa Rican students intermix. There was a lot of dancing, decent food, cheap beer, and my new favorite soda... Red Fanta (a Costa Rican specialty). We also got to see some really good Tango and Meringue dancers as well as a Costa Rican band with its own professional dancers. For not being a very good dancer (although I am starting to take Tropical Dance classes) it was still a good time. Unfortunately, I had to return to my house to start studying for my Spanish midterm. I cannot believe I am already almost half way through my intensive Spanish classes!

Noisy Neighbors :(

All I can hear right now is the barking of the two, huge dogs next door. Luckily my perro tico  (host dog) does not bark much at all. Other than that, it has been a very good day! The sun was shining all day, and it is about 73 degrees Fahrenheit right now. I went to a different mall today that is actually much closer to my house. My friends and I bought mantequilla de maní y pan (peanut butter and bread). Unfortunately everything is crazy expensive here, but we were able to find peanut butter for a good price at Pequeño Mundo. Peanutbutter sandwhiches for lunch is a much "greener" way to eat lunch. The alternative is spending a lot of money on too much food for any reasonable human being and wasting part of it anyway.

Today was my hermanita tica's (Little Costa Rican sister's) fourth birthday. She had a few friends over today, and I made her a birthday card. The family sang to Sophia in both Español y ingles because everybody is bilingual.

Like being a Freshman all over again...

Today was the first official day of classes where the entire university is open to ticos and international students. Last week, only international students and faculty were present. The school is much more crowded, but it was also very interesting to see how the Ticos interact with each other on the first day of their classes. However, it was like being a freshman all over again. I do not exactly know how things work or where things are quite yet, and the Ticos are like the upperclassmen. I am a bit of an intruder. Luckily, most of the Ticos were quite friendly and willing to talk to me in my Intermediate spanish.

This is the front entrance to Universidad Veritas. The university focuses on art, film, graphic design, etc. Therefore, the building itself is also very artsy. It is very "green" also.  Most the areas in the two buildings are open air so there is no need for air conditioning. 

Today I went to lunch with one my friends at a Costa Rican soda (simple, relatively cheap restaurant) that served really good rotisserie style chicken. Afterwards, a few of us gringos (it's actually not an offensive term in Costa Rica, but a description of an American) rode a city bus for the first time to the mall in San Pedro (a neighborhood within San Jose). Across the street from the mall there is a store called Pequeno Mundo where they sell food, toiletries, and clothing for really good prices. It is kind of like Salvation Army and the dollar store combined. Everybody goes there, but no one talks about it.

The mall was typical. The cinema on the third floor shows new releases on Wednesdays for the equivalent of two U.S. dollars. A group of us are planning to go see Tangled this Wednesday between classes. It will be dubbed in Spanish with no subtitles, so it will be quite the adventure!

First Excursion: Monteverde Cloud Forest, La Fortuna Waterfall, and Arenal Volcano

This weekend was my first planned excursion with AIFS. After Spanish class on Friday my resident director Rebecca, a tourguide, and thirty of my classmates got onto a coach bus heading for the Arenal Volcano, Northwest of San Jose. We made a couple of stops on the way including a suspension bridge that overlooked a beautiful river surrounded by our first glimpse of relatively untouched rainforest.

We reached the Arenal Volcano in enough time to get a rare glimpse of its summit. Most of the time, its summit is obscured by clouds due to the high humidity in the area. If you look closely enough at this picture, you can see the small sliver of the summit overtop of the clouds.

Arenal Volcano, look at the very top of the cloud to see the summit. 

That night we went to the hotsprings resort at the base of the volcano. There were dozens of pools of water naturally heated by the volcano. It was very relaxing, and every twenty minutes or so we heard a rumble of thunder. The rumble of thunder was actually the volcano erupting. It is quite active. If you look closely enough at night, you can see bits of lava spewing from the top.

The Saturday morning we woke up quite early to go on a long hike to La Fortuna waterfall. We hiked through the forest down hundreds and hundreds of steps to the waterfall and the river. Then we had a chance to swim in the rapids and the river for an hour or so before hiking back up to the bus.

La Fortuna Waterfall

Afterwards, we took these jeep-vans to the lake surrounding the Arenal Volcano. We took a ferry to a different part of the lake. This was approximately a 45 minute ride, because the lake was absolutely enormous. Unfortunately it was cloudy on Saturday, so we did not get to see the summit of the volcano, but we did ride past it in the boat. After we reached land, we took a two hour drive in the jeep-vans on the scariest road I have ever been on. In fact, they sell t-shirts that say, "I survived the road to Monteverde." It was a dirt/rocky road, that circled around the mountains. There were many times when I feared that we might fall over the edge of the cliffs. However, this was a really good opportunity to see the countryside, and the views were spectacular.

These were the girls who were in the same Jeep-van with me, our driver let us take a quick photo at the summit of one of the mountains. If you look off in the distance, you can see the Pacific Ocean. 

After reaching a town near Monteverde, we checked into the hotel. It was another nice hotel, and this was the first one that had both water pressure and warm water! That night we went to a local restaurant and checked out the town at night.

AIFS

Some of the girls

After a very early breakfast on Sunday, we drove to the Monteverde Cloud Forest. In a part of the cloud forest, there is a Zip-lining place. We were given harnesses, helmets, and gloves with a leather piece in them to hold on to the lines. There were fifteen different zip-lines total that overlooked different part of the Cloud Forest canopy. We started out with shorter ones. While on the zip-line, we were able to pick up a lot of speed, at the end we used the special gloves to hold onto the line and slowdown. At the end of each zip-line, there was a worker that transferred us to the next line. One of the lines was 3/4 of a mile long! I even got to do this Tarzan swing where that had a huge drop. It was practically like bungee jumping, but it was safer because we did not jump headfirst.

On the way back to San Jose, we drove past the Pacific Ocean. There were a lot of Ticos also returning to San Jose from the beaches, so the police closed the other side of the road to oncoming traffic. We ended up driving on the wrong side of the road most of the way back to San Jose.

My first close-up of the Pacific Ocean, later I will get a chance to swim and snorkel in it!

3rd Day of Classes

I am starting to get used to having Spanish for four hours a day, but my brain is tired of switching between Spanish and English. Every day I learn so much more during those four hours, and I go back to my Tico family and feel much more confident speaking with them and understanding them. The weather today was much warmer than it was the past couple of days but still very cool in the morning and evening. My host sister complained that she is cold, so I guess it is still cooler than usual.

Unfortunately, I had an upset stomach all day. Luckily, my Tica mom and dad make even just plain rice taste good! They also made me chicken with a garlic sauce, but I did not want to chance it. My mom also made me really good green tea with dinner. After Spanish and Intercultural Communication today, I walked home with two girls whose host mother is my host mother's mother. We stopped in a paneria or bakery on the way home. It smelled sooo good! I returned to school later in the day after my first skype session with my real family :) for Tropical Ecology.

Tomorrow after Spanish I will leave for the Monteverde Cloud Forest, the hot springs, and La Fortuna Waterfall. This excursion is with the other students in AIFS (American Institute of Foreign Studies), and it will be my first real look at the countryside. Monteverde is one of the most famous ecotourism attractions in the country, and we plan to take a zipline canopy tour. I am very excited for my first excursion, and I will be sure to write about it upon my return.

2nd Day of Classes

Today was the second official day of classes. I woke up this morning to the barking of the annoying dogs next door. I am glad that my perro Tico named Tiki is not like that. I ate breakfast and then walked to school with two girls who live behind my house. We were able to shave the time down to fifteen minutes this morning, but it is a bit of a hike to get there. Each day we have to cross this crazy highway. Pedestrians do not have the right of way here, and some of the cars speed up when they see people trying to cross the street. It is a four lane highway with two additional turning lanes. The only thing separating the traffic is a poor excuse for a median. It is kind of like playing frogger!

I had Spanish again today. The intensive Spanish class last one month, and it is four hours a day every day.  I am definitely finding Spanish to be a bit of a challenge, but I am learning a lot. For class today we had to interview a Tico or a Tica about the meaning of some words and how they celebrate holidays here in Costa Rica. Afterwards I ate lunch at Veritas with a few new amigas. For the equivalent of about four dollars and fifty cents, I got a plate with frijoles, arroz, plantanas, juevos, y pollo. (beans, rice, fried bananas, eggs, beets, and chicken) The meal also came with limonada o te frio (lemonade or iced tea)

After lunch I worked on my homework in one of Veritas' computer labs. They have a number of computer labs including those for pcs and macs, which I personally enjoy. Midday, I walked back to my house and got a relaxing view of the barrios (neighborhoods) Zapote and Cordoba (where I live).

At six I returned for my evening class, Documentary Appreciation and Production. I am very please with all of my electives. This one seems just as interesting and exciting as the other two. The only problem with taking evening classes Monday through Thursday is figuring out how to get home safely in the dark. There is a free shuttle normally, but we got out an hour and fifteen minutes early because it was the first day of class. Two friends and I had the Veritas security guard call us a reliable taxis to take us home. Luckily taxis are really cheap when you are riding with other people. For all three of us to get home, we only paid the equivalent of sixty-five cents a piece. Once home, I ate dinner while my host mom and sister were working on a puzzle in the kitchen. I had bisteak y arroz con jugo de "pears" (Steak, rice, and pear juice).

1st Day of classes

Today was the first day of classes. I got into every class I signed up for! Every morning, Monday through Friday I take a four hour long Spanish class. I surprisingly placed into Intermediate 1, so it is a challenge to keep up with my professor. It is also difficult to constantly transition between English and Spanish for my classes, host family, friends, and other interactions. After Spanish in the mornings, I am taking three elective classes in English. Today, I had Intercultural Communications and Competence and Tropical Ecology. Both of my electives seem really fun. The ecology class also includes two overnight field trips!

This is the view out of the window of one of my classrooms. All of my classes except Ecology have a beautiful view of the mountains surrounding San Jose which is situated in a valley. Luckily, I get to study a lot of the Ecology outside anyway.

I am quickly making friends, which is especially important because I do not have any housemates. This makes it a bit more challenging to find people to walk home with during the day and at night, but luckily I am quickly meeting the students that live in the houses around me. In fact, several of the students live in a homestay where their Senora is the mother of my host mother.

After getting lost yesterday, I figured nothing else could go wrong, but I managed to lock myself inside my house. Fortunately, my host mom was just a phone call away. All of the houses here are surrounded by gates with razor wire on top. There is a locked gate and door in order to enter my house, but I did not realize that it also locked from the inside.

 My host mother made breakfast for me this morning which included eggs, toast, bananas, and juice. I found it interesting that my family keeps the eggs in a basket on top of the refrigerator instead of inside it... it seems to work though.  For lunch I had to fend for myself, and I decided to try a burrito vendor on campus. Despite the fact that I am a picky eater, it was very good. For dinner, I just had tacos and tortilla chip while watching a bit of the Sugar bowl in Spanish and a bit of Shrek too.

Orientation Day

Today was Orientation Day at Universidad Veritas. I woke up and ate breakfast at my house with my host family. I had scrambled eggs with pepperjack cheese, toast, and applejuice. My host parents and host sister talk to me in mostly Spanish...only English when necessary. After breakfast, my family and my host dog and I walked to Veritas for orientation. I had the opportunity to meet with other international students, especially my classmates in AIFS. Veritas is gorgeous. There are two main buildings with a lot of open air spaces and plants. As you are walking up the stairs, you can look out and see the mountains and low clouds that surround San Jose. The view was breathtaking.Everybody took an oral spanish placement exam to accompany the online exams that we took before arrival. After an orientation session in the university's auditorium, we went for lunch as a group to Pizza Hut. It was much more formal that most Pizza Huts I have been to. It was a little cooler and windier than I expected today, but it was definitely still short-sleeve weather. We got a tour of campus and chose our classes for the next few months after lunch. Later, we were assigned a Spanish class based on the scores of the two exams. I was lucky enough to find a few people to walk home with, but I managed to get lost anyway. Luckily, my host mom was just a cellphone call away. For dinner, my host mom and dad made frijoles, arroz, pollo, y jugo de manzana (beans, rice, chicken, and applejuice).

Ready for Takeoff!

Me at Washington/Dulles Airport...Bright and Early

     Mother, Father, and I arrived at Washington/Dulles International Airport around 7:30 this morning. After a difficult goodbye, I was on my way through security. The process went smoothly and was not any different then when I went to Egypt last year, even with the new regulations. I met up with two other students from my group, and we boarded a rather small connecting flight. The flight to Newark, New Jersey was turbulent and very noisy, but I really enjoyed seeing all of the snow. We also had a clear view of the New York City skyline including the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty. Now I am enduring a five hour layover in New Jersey with my two classmates, luckily we were able to find Internet. Now I am a lot less nervous and even more excited than before!!!

View from the plane...New York City