Esta Semana (This Week)

On Saturday Dory and I took the bus from Alajuela to San José. In San Jose I ditched Dory and caught a bus to Cartago then to Orosi. Dory headed off to visit his brother in Mastatal. I got to Orosi at about 2 in the afternoon, very thirsty and a little tired from being nervous about traveling by myself. Orosi is a small town, about 8,000 people in the Orosi Valley. It is one of the few remaining areas that produces a lot of coffee. You can see coffee growing everywhere on the hills and on the road sides. The clouds hover just under the peaks in the near distance. My favorite part is that it doesn´t rain as much here as the other places we have been in the country. It rains for an hour or two every day around one O´clock.

Anyway, I got here on Saturday and signed up for a week of Spanish classes with the Montaña Linda Spanish School. I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to stay with a local family, they picked me up at noon on Sunday. Luis, Amana, Luis (13) and Aarón (8) were incredibly welcoming. We went to their house, ate lunch and then went on a walk around the area and they treated me to ice cream. I played Memoria (memory) with Aarón.

The house, me and Aaron in front and Amana by the door

I started my Spanish classes at 8 AM Monday, and boy have I learned a lot fast... thought I´ve been studying 3-4 hours a day in addition to my three hour classes, which is something I didn´t know I´m capable of. That is pretty much the routine I´ve had all week. I wake up a little be for seven, get dressed, eat breakfast, go to class, come back and study a little, eat lunch, do my homework and study, then we drink coffee and have a snack, then I study a little more, hang out with the kids until supper. After supper I hang out with the kids more and study/finish my homework before bed. Aarón has school from 7 to 12, it is a block away. Little Luis has high school in Cartago starting at 7, I´m not sure what time he leaves and he gets back around 2 or 3 everyday. Big Luis works all the way in San Jose at a print shop. He leaves well before I wake up and doesn´t get back until after 5:30 everynight. I think he ends up riding the bus for over 3 hours everyday. Amana, the lady of the house holds down the fort.

Aarón and Me Playing "Chica Fea" (Ugly Girl), A game we made up

Luis, Aaron and I

Aug 14-21 Rainsong Wildlife Sanctuary

We left the Alajuela Hostel on the morning of the 13th and got on a crowded bus into town for about 2 minutes... we were standing and my heavy backpack was about tipping me over the stairs which led outside. We got off at the first stop to let the other people out then the driver wouldn't let us back on so we walked to the next stop on the south side of downtown, about 2 kilometers or so. Then this Taxi driver with the scariest blue eyes acting like a bust terminal worker approached us and gave us info on the bus to Puntaranaes before trying to con us into letting him drive there. He followed us and any other white person that set foot in the center around like a creep. Finally on the bus with our huge bags squishing us, the ride took about 3 hours. In Puntaraenas we hiked about a mile in sunny, humid, 90 degree weather to the Ferry, which was delayed an hour. The ferry ride was great. It took a little less than an hour, with air conditioning! It was dark when the ferry stopped but the bus we needed to take to Montezuma was right outside the gate. After about another hour we finally arrived in the little surf town and checked into the hostel Pension Jenny. It was nice and clean, with a fan a real bed! We were exhausted after the 10 hour? travel day so we sure slept well. In the morning we bought some groceries, changed money at the supermarket and had huge lunch we could barely finish at the Soda* El Caracol (?) before hopping on another bus to the tiny town Cabuya.

*A soda is Costa Rica's most common version of fast food. Usually they just have what I think are called casados which is a plate of rice, black beans, sometimes salad, a mini tortilla, and some meat or vegetables. They are super cheap and filling but get boring for your mouth if you frequent them too often.

The 14th we made our way off the bus and up a hill to Rainson Wildlife Sanctuary to begin working our buns off with tropical pets. In the morning we work on animal care, preparing food, feeding bottles, cleaning up a little poop and taking the ant eater hunting. My favorite task though is feeding the kinkajou a banana in bed, more like a midnight snack since she's a nocturnal creature. After breakfast we will work on other tasks the sanctuary needs or planting with the nursery. In the afternoons we feed the animals the supper meal and spend time with them.

August 18th, my fourth day of volunteering there I was feeding Tarzan like I had the day before. I guess a second date pretty serious for a monkey, today I had my hair pulled, humped and the back of myhead peed on by the one armed capuchin. He also thought it wasaffectionate to bite me and hang on to me with his teeth. Then trying to clean up his messy cage as quickly as possibly, I got bit up buy the fire ants in the corner of his cage. Finally done with that, I went to clean the stinky pools for the baby turtles and totally soaked my self when the hose I was pinching slipped out from my fingers! What a comedy. Overall though, it's pretty cool here. It's so pretty itdoesn't even look real sometimes. Tonight we had dinner at the Coyote Cafe. I had stewed pork and onions and Dory had garlic fish. It was so good. I had a beer for you dad! They have one computer with dial up internet that you pay for by the minute. I never thought I'd here that sound again! Today I saw three tarantulas, one was dead and being dragged by an elegent black beatle that was really long. The other I almost stepped on on our way back from coyote. The third was in the common area where everyone stays at rainsong. Though I wasn't convinced it was a tarantula, it looked different than the others.

The 20th the we started feeding birds in the aviary. They are so loud! The only excitement was tonight when Luke, one of the volunteers saw a scorpion on his sheet before going to bed. The scorpions here are tiny though, less than the length of my pinky.

August 21st, the last day of the week for us. Mary offered us a couple extra days off to go stay in Mal Pais, a little beach town just across the peninsula. The anteater is a funny creature she is scared of thunder and the green hose we use to refill her pool after cleaning it. When anteaters get scared, they want to fight. She stands on her hind legs and raises her arms then swings them around like a boxer. It looks really cute, but if she gets a hold of you she'll climb up your leg and pinch really hard with her claws. She got latched on to me and I could not stop the thunder so I had to holler for Dory to help get her off me.

The First Week

We got here alive, at about midnight August 6th... our flight was super delayed and I was really sick... maybe strep throat? By the time we got here the buses had stopped running and the Taxi drivers were getting ready to head home for the night. We caught the last cab from the airport, it was actually in the driver´s personal car on his way home. We stayed the rest of the night at the International Hostel (slightly more classy than Jess´s Osborne Inn) and then hiked about a mile to Alajuela Hostel & Campground where we have been camping since.


The hostel has an eclectic mix of people, sort of like a strange extended family in the same house... right now there are 3 people from California, 1 man from Seattle, an older gentleman (Bill) from Idaho, Irma from Nicaragua and her husband and son, and 2 Costa Ricans Johnny and Will.
Will makes his living as a bamboo artist, he´s in the picture on the right.

The people of Alajuela are really nice, many people speak some English. The town is nestled in a valley and volcanoes frame the landscape. There aren´t too many flowers on the ground, but plenty in the trees. There isn´t a ton of fresh fruit sold in the markets because it grows everywhere. In the front yard of the Hostel there is a tree with mandarin oranges and down the road there are big ol´grapefruits growing on a tree. Veggies are really cheap but any processed foods cost about the same as they do in the states.

Tomorrow we are heading out to volunteer at Rainsong Wildlife Refuge. It is in a small town? named Cabuya, near a Montezuma. It is right by the beach and waterfalls. http://www.rainsongsanctuary.com/