La Salida

My last pictures on Tica soil..

¡Hasta Pronto!

¡Pura Vida!

I have arrived at the airport hotel the night before my flight home.  As I am sitting here gathering my things together, I am also gathering my thoughts about all that has happened on this trip.  I can’t believe that in fewer than 24 hours I will be home.  The month flew by so quickly—much quicker than I expected.  And in that short time, I seem to have had a lifetime worth of experiences.  I learned so much in my classes, and I feel very lucky to have had two of the most amazing profs ever. I have lived with a wonderful, loving, family that opened their home to me, fed me well, and taught me more than they will ever know.  I have made lifelong friends who share a common goal of giving kids the best education possible.  I have seen first-hand the beauty of Costa Rica and her people. 

This past week has been really bittersweet.  It has been wind down week at school.  There were final projects and presentations, and saying goodbye to friends, and figuring out how to get everything into one suitcase.  (I ended up buying a second one.)  I am really looking forward to seeing my family.   A month is a long time to be away from the ones you love.  On Thursday, I lost a good friend due to a sudden illness.  And yet, for as much as I want to come home, I want to stay.  There is still so much to see and do and experience.  There are so many things I did not get the chance to do.  The last week has been a wild mix of opposing emotions, and I’m happy to have a little down time to sort through them all.  Overall, I would not change one thing about the trip here, and it is my hope to come back again in the not-so-distant future.  I am grateful for the scholarship from the National Spanish Exam, because there is no way I could have done this independently.  The opportunity you have given has provided me with an unforgettable experience of a lifetime, and I can’t wait to share everything I have learned with my students and colleagues.  ¡Mil gracias!

¡Por Fin!

So five days from leaving, and I finally get to witness it...a real aguacero!

I picked a fantastic day to come home early to work!  

Good luck to my classmates who are out and about in this!

El Último Fin de Semana Aquí

It is amazing how quickly time has flown here.  Right now, we are in the middle of our last full weekend and have only four more days of class left.  I had originally planned to go to the Pacific Coast this weekend to visit someone from our church in Dallas.  She and her husband have retired here and asked if I could bring down some things for an orphanage she works with.  I was going to bring her a suitcase full of items and see what the Pacific Coast had to offer.  Unfortunately, our plans had to change last minute due to unforeseen circumstances.  While I would have liked to travel this weekend, this gave me a lot more time to work on my final project for my Métodos de Enseñanza class.  However, being the consumate procrastinator, I have spent the last two days going to the movies, shopping, seeing more of downtown San José, and writing in my blog!

Since my last entry was of full of photos, I thought I’d give you a rundown of some of the cultural highlights from my experiences here. 

1.  You canNOT flush the toilet paper here.  Delightful? Yes, I know, but you get over it and move on with life.  Their septic system just can’t handle it.

2.  You CAN, however, drink the water if you are not in outlying areas, most of the time.  It’s a good idea to ask, but within San José, you’re pretty much good to go.  In fact, I think it tastes better than our tap water at home.

3.  The water supply comes mainly from runoff from the mountains.  This means the water is exceptionally cold.  Great for drinking, not so much for showering.  In order to get hot water, the showers—in homes at least—have electricity running in the shower head when the water is turned on.  Haven’t gotten zapped yet!

4.  Like many Latin American countries, the driving is…interesting, to say the least.  Most drivers follow road signs (although red lights and stop signs are optional on Sunday mornings in cabs, apparently.)  They drive fast and close, and motorcycles zip between lanes that have the width of an eyelash.  I learned to drive in New York City and would never try driving here.  Period.

5.  Please know that pedestrians NEVER have the right of way here.  If you’re in the middle of the street when the car has the right to go, you will not fare well, unless your goal was to get a VIP ticket for the Inside-Of-a-Costa Rican-Hospital tour. 

6.  Pharmacies are amazing, wonderful, magical places, and a lot of them are open 24/7.  You go in, consult with a doctor, and they give you drugs that in the U.S. you would have to get a script for after spending an absurd amount of time in your doctor’s office.  You would also have to sign over your firstborn child to pay for both the visit and the prescription.  Here, however, everything is reasonable, and you can have a medical consult, get the script and be done in 10-15 minutes. I know this because I got a raging head cold with the bonus cough of death.  My question is, why do we not do this in the U.S.?  (Getting off my soapbox in 3...2...1...)

OK, “6” is a weird number to end on, but I think it’s probably quite enough for now.  Besides, my final project is calling my name and telling me my time to procrastinate is over.  Tomorrow--Symphonic Jazz Concert at the Teatro Nacional with Ernie Watts!

¡Que les vaya bien!

Aventura en Tortuguero

Last weekend we went searching for adventure at Tortuguero National Park, and we were not disappointed.  It is on the Caribbean side of the country, close to the northern border with Nicaragua.  

It’s about a 2 ½ hour bus ride from San José.  Once you get there, you have to take a 45 minute boat ride to get to the actual park.  There are no motorized vehicles allowed on the grounds.  Here is some of what we saw on our way in…

Our water taxis await

Banana trees

We met one of the locals on the way...

We got to our hotel and didn’t take a lot of time to rest.  That afternoon, we had a walking tour of the town, saw the museum, and got to walk on the beach.  

Much darker sand than I've ever seen before

We signed up for several different activities throughout the weekend.  The next one we would go on was to see the turtles lay eggs.   With nature, you never know what you're going to get, and so at 8:00pm, we headed back over to the beach. There were 10 people in our group, and our guide told us all of the rules, and what to do if a jaguar approached us on the beach.  I'm glad that situation never came up, because staying calm and being quiet probably wouldn't be my gut reaction.  In any case, the rules are extremely strict so we don't spook the turtles, so there were no cameras allowed.  We were one of the last groups to get called out by the spotters.  When we got called, we almost ran to the spot on the beach, and then because of the unpredictability of nature, we had to wait.  Our turtle had picked a spot full of roots, and they weren't sure she would stay there.  We stood on the beach in the dark with lightning flashing across the sky for about a half hour, wondering if we would see anything, and hoping that the aforementioned jaguar didn't show up.  Finally, our guide called us over to see her laying her eggs.  Words cannot describe how amazing the process is.  The female turtles come out of the sea to complete the ritual.  They must dig a nest that holds 100-150 eggs, out of which only one or two might survive.  After they're done laying, they must cover the nest to protect the eggs from predators, and then they head back to sea leaving their eggs to become hatchlings which must fend for themselves.  

Our turtle, which LeAnn named Sarah Kate after our daughters, was making her first trip to the beach.  It is impossible to put into words what we were seeing, and if you ever have the opportunity to see it, I highly recommend that you do.  After Sarah Kate was done laying her eggs, she started the process of covering them.  She used her back flippers, and it was almost like big hands in a pair of mittens scooping sand on top of the eggs.  We did not have time to watch the final part of her process, which was going out to sea, but what we had seen was amazing enough.  We also felt very fortunate because some groups did not get to see anything at all.

The following day we met with another guide at 5:30am to go out on a canal tour of Tortuguero.  We saw a lot of birds and several monkeys.  I even got some video with a howler monkey making noise, and we learned from our guide that when they made Jurassic Park, that was the sound they used for the Tyrannosaurus Rex.  Here are some pictures...

At 9:00am came our second most exciting turtle encounter.  The Sea Turtle Conservancy is on Tortuguero and has an annual tradition Tour de Turtles.  They put a satellite on turtles that have come to the beach to lay eggs or sometimes get caught in fishing nets.  That way they're able to track their patterns and see how they're doing.  They do some really great work.  Here is a link to their turtle tracking page of their website:  http://www.conserveturtles.org/satelliteturtles.php

We happened to be there on the day they were sending Shelldon back to the sea.  It was crazy, with a good mix of tourists and people from the community, and even a news crew.  Here is some of what we saw...

Shelldon waiting to be set free,
satellite ready to go

People waiting for the big event

Lined up to cheer her on!

Carrying the star of the day!

In position ready to go...

 And, although some of you might have seen this already via Facebook, here is the video of Shelldon heading out to sea.

After all of this, we went on a zip-line canopy tour, hung out by the pool and relaxed until we left.  We had an amazing weekend!  I can't believe there are only 14 more days until I head back home!  I think it's going to go by quickly with all of the school projects and other travelling we'll be doing.  Check back to see what's up!

¡Viajes, viajes, y más viajes!

Well, it is the end of day 13 here, and we have been very busy, not only in class, but traveling as well.  We have gone to three very diverse and beautiful places since Saturday, so I thought I'd catch up on those before we go to our next very diverse and beautiful destination.

On Saturday, we had our excursion to la Isla Tortuga.  After our first week of rather vigorous classes, it was a nice change of pace.  We were on the bus for about two hours before we arrived to the port where our catamaran was waiting.  We were on the Pacific side of Costa Rica in the Gulf of Nicoya.  When we got to the island, it was breathtaking.  Here are some pictures from our day.

Disembarking

Coconut Trees

My view for the day!

This is Paco.

We had the opportunity to ride banana boats, snorkle, jet ski or go horseback riding.  I opted for the 5th option of being a beach bum, which I have missed dearly since moving to Texas from the East Coast.  We were served lunch on the beach and had a wonderfully relaxing day.  

The following day, we took a tour of Café Britt, which produces one of the most popular coffees (and chocolates!) exported from Costa Rica.  We had a very entertaining presentation, and learned a lot about coffee growing and processing.  I also purchased way too much coffee and chocolate in the gift shop, so if you get some when I get back, please act surprised.

The coffee growing cycle

Different stages of the coffee growing cycle

Two of our very entertaining tour guides

Our most recent trip was today, to the National Museum of Costa Rica.  It has a butterfly garden and is very well laid out.  We got to see a lot of artifacts and interesting pieces.  

There was also an exhibit of photography by Francisco Coto, who chronicled very important events in Costa Rican history through his art.  Unfortunately, we were not allowed to photograph the photographs, but they were excellent.  The photographs that I really took notice of were the ones after the eruption of the Irazú Volcano, and a very candid photograph of John F. Kennedy entering the National Theater.  The photo was taken just six months before he was assassinated.  After seeing the museum, we walked around the mercadito, which appears to be the souvenir capital of the country.  Overall it was a great day, except for the fact that this was our last official trip with Mónica, the best tour guide in the world.  I was hoping for a better picture with her, and I got it!

LeAnn, Mónica y yo

That is about it for tonight.  I have my individual presentation tomorrow in Métodos y Técnicas para la Enseñanza del Español como segunda lengua, but I'm pretty sure I'm ready, provided there's electricity for my powerpoint!  Next up on the travel agenda:  ¡El Parque Nacional Tortuguero!  

La Primera Semana

For the first time in a few (cough cough) years, I have completed a full week of classes.  The learning curve for figuring things out was much less than I thought it would be.  From finding my way around campus to figuring out the buses, all has gone very well.  It's hard to imagine that this trip is 25% done already!

There are some really amazing people in the MLSA program.  There are some very rich discussions in our classes because of the varied experiences we all bring to the table.  Both of my classes are small.  The first one is Methods of Teaching Spanish as a Second Language.  There are only 7 of us in there, and I love it.  The profesor is phenomenal, and it's been good to see how Plano fits into the history and methodology we are studying.  After that, I have Topics in Latin American Culture.  The professor is extremely passionate and animated about the things we discussed, and I think at this point, we have discussed just about everything!  There are 6 people in that class, and the subject is very intriguing to me.  The longer I am here, the more parallels I see between the United States and Costa Rica politically, socially and economically.  I won't bore you with the specifics, but I find it all very intriguing.

We have been on a couple of tours so far.  We have gone to Volcano Poas and La Paz Waterfalls (slide show in the last post) where we got to see some amazing wildlife and (most of) the crater of a volcano.  The butterfly on my hand did not want to let go, but did go to someone else who also happened to be from Texas.  It didn't want to let him go either, and we joked that he was trying to escape the butterfly area to Texas.  As soon as we said that, he flew away.  I presume he was trying to avoid the excessive heat.

We have also gone to the National Theater, 

(hi, LeAnn!)

and Cartago, the original capital of Costa Rica, along with the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de Los Ángeles.  

         ruins of the original basilica that 

                      never got finished

                         Finished Basilica 

On each trip, we have been with Monica, my favorite guide in the universe.  Here is a completely awful picture of her doing her thing...

She is amazing!  She knows so much about her country, and is so clearly in love with it,  that you have no choice but to love it, too.  We are going to Tortuga Island tomorrow for some much needed beach time, but sadly, Monica will not be with us.  I'm hoping to get a better picture of her on Tuesday when we go to the National Museum.  

For right now, though, I have to finish up because we have to be at the bus by 5:50am to leave on our trip.  ¡Que dios le acompañe!