Costa Rica with Tree /Workshop in Selva Negra
Trip Start
Jan 09, 2005
1
34
95
Trip End
??? ??, 2007
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Where I stayed
Costa Rica Backpackers Hostel
Puerto Viejo Hotel
Otown, Nicaragua
Tuesday, September 5, 2006
I know it¡¦s been a while since I¡¦ve written but I¡¦ve been so busy traveling around, hehe. The real reason is we haven¡¦t had electricity in Murra for a while so I wasn¡¦t able to type the travelpod up in my laptop¡K
Anyways, I hope everyone is doing well¡K I was really amped up to go on my two week trip to CR since I had such a frustrating month beforehand, lack of water, electricity, etc. Needles to say, I had a really great time and while I was dreading coming back to Murra in the beginning of the trip, by the second week I was really missing it.
I was lucky enough to be invited to stay the night before and after my trip to CR at my new friends house in Managua. I had met the Pastor in Murra when the missionaries came for that week back in May and he offered to let me stay any time¡K Well I took him up on his offer and him and his wife are really awesome hosts. They cooked amazing foods for me, let me use their washing machine for all my clothes when I got back from CR, let me use their satellite phone to call home for free, and I got my own room with a nice bed and AC!!! Needless to say, I can¡¦t wait to visit them again fº
So from Managua to San Jose I took the Tica Bus which is $25 roundtrip and is about 9 hours one way. When I arrived at the hostel, which I highly recommend, Costa Rica Backpackers Hostel, Tree was already there hanging out in the room. After an excited reunion we grabbed some food from a comedor and then went out to El Pueblo to dance until 5 in the morning. El Pueblo is basically an area with a ton of bars and clubs all on the same block so you can just hop around from place to place and while I¡¦m sure it can be really touristy at some times, we had a great time! One of the great things about this trip was it was off season so there weren¡¦t that many tourists and we got to hang out with a lot more locals. Sunday we tried to go salsa dancing but apparently they start early, like 2pm, and we didn¡¦t show up till right as they were closing, wah.
Monday we took off for the Atlantic Coast to Puerto Viejo, it was about a 5 hour bus ride that went by pretty quickly. Niether tree nor I had brought any kind of guide books and since we don¡¦t do the reservation thing,,, we sort of played things by ear ¡V we were lucky enough to pick up a let¡¦s go book at the first hostel for a guideline. We ended up spending the first night at Cabinas Casa Verde which is like an upgraded hostel. They have a nice pool and hot tub (that wasn¡¦t working f¼) but all the bathroom services are shared. We decided to save money and stay in a real hostel since we weren¡¦t in our room much- we spent the rest of the week at Hotel Puerto Viejo. The owner of this hostel, Kurt, is from Santa Cruz and by the end of the week, we started to feel like we lived there¡K
The week was spent doing a range of things from snorkeling with a guide on the reef of Cahuita, hiking in the national park Cahuita and Manzanillo, and hitting up the numerous beaches like Punta Uva with their black or white sanded beaches. The snorkeling was really fun because there weren¡¦t that many people and by the end of the session, tree and I were the only ones in the water. It was about the time when tree and I were alone that we saw a huge 4 foot(?) nurse shark hanging out near us and decided to stop snorkeling. he, he The disappointing part for me was seeing all the destruction from previous snorkelers that didn¡¦t snorkel responsibly and really damaged the coral reefs¡K The hiking was really fun, we saw all kinds of congo monkeys and sloths (perezosa in Spanish, or lazy, hehe) and some beautiful butterflies. The night time was spent dancing it up at Johnny¡¦s Place or one of the other bars, but we always seemed to make it back to Johnny¡¦s Place with their bar on the beach and disco.
Food-wise we just snacked it up till dinner time mostly.. we found this really good restaurant, Miss Sam, that we ate at a few times because they have really cheap, typical food. Finally, I got to try the yummy coconut gallo pinto!!! It was totally worth the wait, yum! The typical CR gallo pinto, however, just isn¡¦t the same as Nica¡¦s. I think they put too many spices and herbs in it or something and it just isn¡¦t the same. Tree and I also tried some new fruits, the Mamon Chino which is round and spiky red all over, very sweet and good. We also tried something called Cas, and it was kind of like eating a lime rind, in other words, bleh. I got Tree hooked on the yummy fruit drinks they make, called frescos; just like in nica, they take the juice and add milk or water and it¡¦s SO fresh and yummy!!! Anyways, overall it was hard for me to leave once Saturday came.
We met up with Tree¡¦s parents sat. night at the Best Western near the airport. That night the hotel had some promotion down in the bar and drinks were free for part of the night and they had club music till 1ish so ¡K we definitely took advantage of that after relaxing in the hot tub¡KSunday we drove all day on the bumpy roads to Monteverde and stayed in a nice little condo-esk place with one room, overlooking the forests.
Monday morning we woke up bright and early to meet out guide to hike at the reserve Santa Elena. We took a very informational tour through the rainforest and got to see some beautiful waterfalls and some wildlife. We kept joking that we had to get up so early to supposedly see all this wildlife that we never really saw, hehe. That night we got yummy fondu (man I miss food from home!!!) and a huge platter of typical Costa Rican food- yummy! Tuesday we did the zip lines which were AMAZING!!! They were so much longer than the ones in Nica and you crossed over huge amounts of forest going super fast. They even put in a tarzan swing where you jump off this huge tower into the forest and just swing like tarzan, SO fun! One of my favorite parts of this whole trip was when tree and I went for a walk that afternoon and found a soccer field with kids doing PE. Tree and decided to race the 4th graders in a wheelbarrow contest to which we lost, wah! Hehe But how cool was that teacher to just stop class and let some gringas come and play.. we stuck around to play kickball with them too! Tree and I ended the night meeting up with some Nica friends I made and, you guessed it, more dancing (hey, gotta make up for lost time living in Murra, hehe).
The following day we spent another day long, bumpy ride to Volcan Arenal which was definitely worth it once we got there. We stayed at this really nice resort that had a jacuzi!! (which I never got to use f¼) and a beautiful view of the volcano that spews lava which you can see at night. We never did get to see the lava but we did get to see the whole volcano once the clouds moved so that was cool.
Thursday we went to see this huge 70 meter waterfall (La Catarata) that was so strong you couldn¡¦t swim near it! Tree and I did manage to swim behind it and hang out a bit and play on the rocks. After that we went hiking around the volcano which was cool to climb on all the volcano rocks and putz around. Of course, right as we entered the thick forest the volcano erupted and it was just like hearing an earthquake, but without the earth moving. So I freaked out and yelled let¡¦s get outta here and we rushed back to the clearing to see if we were about to die¡K.. and¡K we were fine. It was just a ton of ash and smoke, silly Carrie. Hehe We ended the wonderful day with this amazing hot spring place called Baldi Termae, where all the locals go. There was this other really cool resort hot spring place but it was all booked up and just a day visit was $50!!! So yeah, CR definitely has American prices if you stick to only the touristy places. Anyways, this other more low key place was amazing with 7 different pools, a bar and it¡¦s all very natural feeling and relaxing (especially when it rained on us!). We ended this fun filled day karioking!!! Somehow we coerced tree¡¦s parents to come with us and we had SO much fun!!!! Once the place closed up tree and I headed over to another local bar to continue the fun fº We ended the night hanging out with some new-made friends who took us to this really cool hidden hot spring spot.
The following day we weren¡¦t quite as ambitious since we were out so late, but not ones to miss out, we did hit up the smaller volcano and hike around some. We went to yet another waterfall and tree and I played around in the water and on the slippery logs. There were also these huge hanging bridges to cross on and we had a lot of fun jumping around on them (despite the signs saying not to, opps!). As we were driving home we saw a huge family of howler monkeys just hanging out in the trees on the side of the road. It¡¦s amazing to think you can find such wildlife just on a typical road back into town. Want to guess how we ended the night? Yup, that¡¦s right, Tree and I salsa dancing our hearts out at the local club. SO much fun!
The following day we drove all day back to San Jose to stay the night and meet up with Tree¡¦s brother. I unfortunately didn¡¦t get to see him or really say goodbye to tree¡¦s rents since tree and I just passed out that night. I woke up super early the next morning for my long bus ride back to Managua to stay with Harriet and Jim.
After one day of relaxing I took off early Tuesday morning to meet up with Dona Candida and the rest of the PDM (Project Design Management) attendees to head up to Selva Negra. This workshop was really intense and at times, I think a little overwhelming for poor Candida. While she only has a 3rd grade level education, she really inspires with what she knows and can do but I think the tediousness of this workshop got to be too much; many times I would look over to find her drawing flowers instead of paying attention fº hehe Anyways, it was a nice transition to coming back from CR being able to see some friends and make new ones.
Overall I think the workshop went much better than I had anticipated it going¡K I really wish I could have received it much earlier in my service since I can¡¦t imagine doing a huge grant proposal at this point¡K We got to hike for one morning and saw some monkeys which was a nice break from the 9 hour days. I ended the week staying in Matagalpa with a bunch of Nica 40 (HE) volunteers and saw the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
Saturday night was the huge Fiesta Patronales party in Ocotal. They blocked off 4 blocks and had 3 stages of live music and one stage DJ¡¦d with reggaton music (all for the low low price of 80cords, or about $5). Me and about 12 other volunteers danced the night away to the Mocaunes and other band favorites. You would think I would be sick of all this dancing by now, 3 weeks in a row¡K but no, I wasn¡¦t, hehe. Finally, finally I tried to head up to my site Sunday morning only to find out that the buses weren¡¦t running anywhere near there because there was a huge political party thing (at the Sebaco, way far away) and they were using all buses for Jicaro and Murra. Just another fun excursion of hitchhiking, but this time in the torrential rain with all my stuff I had been traveling around with, wah! I made it as far as Lauren¡¦s site and stayed there the night, thank god for friends! He, he
These past two weeks have been pretty low key, just the usual. It took me about 3 days to get around to all my friends and let them know I was back.. of course, some thought I had gone back to the US. Sillies! I got thrown right back into Murra life and didn¡¦t have water for a week, which meant, yes, now shower or anything for a week. I finally couldn¡¦t take it anymore and spent the weekend at Lauren¡¦s with Caleb watching Family Guy and laughing and having fun.
There are a ton of people interested in the project I¡¦m pushing up in San Gregorio; to build goat pens and have goats for milk and meat (to eat and sell). There were about 7 people that went down to Casas Viejas (where Lauren lives) with me to hear Evelio Gusman give a well put together presentation on how to care for them and grow their food, etc. It¡¦s a really cool project if it¡¦s carried out right; the goats eat the organic food and their manure goes into the compost for the plants so it¡¦s like a big circle. We¡¦ll see the reality of this project coming to fruition¡K some people have decided to just do chicken pens instead too.
The biggest news for me when I got back to Murra was that one of my good friends, the Pastor Miguel, is going to be moving. His eldest daughter is pregnant from a married man (my host mothers nephew) and the congregation has voted him to leave, 31 -29. It¡¦s a Baptist church so I guess they are a little more strict but it was quite a shock when I found out. This man has really done SO much for this community and worked so hard improve the standard of living that I think Murra is really making a huge mistake. This of course also affects me in the project area. All my really cool projects that I was so excited about: the library, taking the kids to Octoal to learn to use the NET, the family garden projects, etc. are all going to fall by the way side. I actually got really teary when I went over to visit him the other day¡K it¡¦s very sad for me.
That being said, I have now decided to just give over all the hundreds of books, materials, and pamphlets I¡¦ve gotten from PC and USAIDE to the school. I am not sure how well used they will be in this new location.. just the other day we had a celebration and I brought those long balloons to blow up and use and the teachers just took them all and hid them in the purses for their own stash¡K There is really not much I can do though¡K
The celebration I mentioned was this huge ¡§battle of the bands¡¨ that took place on Friday. Bands came from all over, from Rosario to San Gregorio and rocked their hearts out on Friday for several hours. These kids have been practicing every single night and morning for hours since July or so¡K Every night all you hear are the beating of the drums to their own rhythm and it was really cool to finally see their presentation. They marched all around town and then took turns between towns showing off their talents. Murra, having the most experience playing, was the best; they really got into it! I was definitely impressed with all of them.
The other day while sitting at the table this huge 4 foot green snake called a Pakaya almost came right into my house! I yelled for my neighbor Nayo to come check it out and Lucha chased it across the street, but not before it got all mad at her and almost bit her!!! Um, yeah, things that just don¡¦t happen back home! Hehe
Something else that doesn¡¦t happen, blackouts for weeks at a time.. ugh. I know I¡¦ve written about the lack of electricity and water thing tons of times¡K but this is just the way of life here in Murra. It was interesting, the other day Nayo was asking me how often the electricity goes out back home.. and to be honest, I think I¡¦ve experienced it maybe 3 in my life? Am I remembering this wrong? Anyways, one of the things the Nica¡¦s always tell me that if anything, they want me to bring back all the things I¡¦m experiencing here in the Nica culture¡K They want others to know what their life here is like. And I feel for them, too. Jicaro is the next biggest town near us (1hr. or so) and everyone was saying that the only way for us (Murra) to get the electricity problem solved is for it to go out in Jicaro. I swear Murra is the bastard stepchild that no one seems to care about, except me hehe. Anyways, so I¡¦m just doing my part, letting you all know that this is their life and I honestly don¡¦t know what I can really do about it¡K
Next week I¡¦m looking forward to the seniors putting on a talent show of sorts (couldn¡¦t do it this weekend b/c lack of electricity).. I think it should be really fun! Other than that, same ole¡¦ women¡¦s groups, reforesting, bank meetings and you know¡K
I want to thank tree for bringing down all those packages for me from home!!! You are awesome!!! Thanks to Danielle, Dan and Roberto for sending stuff with Tree!
Also, big thanks to mom and dad for all those packages, 3!!! Mike, you are awesome, I¡¦m going to be eating candy for months!!! And Jazzy!!! All the way from London, you are so amazing sweets, I loved my gifts!! and of course, to Greg, thank you sweets for the camera and other goodies you send down with Tree!!!
Thanks to everyone for all your support, these past few months have been challenging and I really appreciate all the love!
