Trip to Arenal Volcano

Laying out coffee beans to
dry at the organic farm

Another week just flew by. Monday was a full day of classes, but Tuesday we had a field trip to an organic coffee farm in Los Altos, just outside of Atenas. We got a tour of the actual coffee field and then we got to see how they process the coffee. It was cool to see both parts and the requirements they have to fulfill to be certified organic. As if the tour wasn’t enough, the family fed us afterwards as well; we dined on a slightly sweet bread, some sort of custard, lemonade, sugar cane, and of course coffee. I’m ashamed to say that the half a cup of coffee that I tried at the farm was the first I’ve tasted since I’ve been in Costa Rica. But I figured if there is a place to try coffee for a tea drinker, a local organic farm would be it. The coffee tasted good, although I have no standards to compare with other than the nod of approval from everyone else. I am, however, still a tea drinker. More class on Wednesday, but in the afternoon four of us reserved a tennis court at Finca Huetares just down the road from the center. Finca Huetares definitely looks like it’s seen better days, but it at least provided us with a tennis courts, four racquets (one of which was a wood racquet), and five less than new tennis balls. It was pretty weird to try and hit a tennis ball again, but it was still fun to be out on a court. We had a miraculous afternoon of dry weather, so everything was perfect! We were expecting to have to sprint back in a torrential downpour, but that never came.  We had our briefing for the field trip to Arenal Volcano and that was the end of the ‘normal’ part of the week.

Arenal in the distance (on
Saturday when it was clear)

Thursday morning we left for our two night trip to Arenal Volcano and the Tilaran mountains. We had a relatively uneventful drive to Arenal but were pleasantly surprised with the view from the lodge we stayed at, Arenal Vista Lodge. Their motto was “…It’s Beautiful” and while there is no denying that, the view could have been done a bit more justice than simply “It’s Beautiful”. We didn’t actually get to see the volcano because a wonderful weather feature called clouds, but being able to see the base of the volcano behind Arenal Lake was gorgeous. We had a TE lecture on the lawn overlooking the lake, which proved to be a bit distracting, especially when combined with sitting on some ants. After lunch at the lodge, we went to the nearest little town called El Castillo and worked on another outreach project. I was in the mural group again, but this time we were much more efficient (because we had to be) and finished the mural for Escuela El Castillo in three hours flat. All the teachers and kids that walked by gave their approval, which is always nice to hear. After finishing at the school, we were done with scheduled activities for the day and had the evening to relax.

Yes, we went up to the base of the
volcano and passed the 'danger' sign

Friday was our day for orientation hikes in Arenal National Park and to see the volcano up close. Unfortunately it rained almost the entire day, so we had a very quick hike, too some more photos of the base of the volcano and then trekked back to the dry bus. The one thing the weather couldn’t put a damper on was our trip to the hot springs at Los Lagos resort. We got a pretty good deal to be able to use the hot springs at the resort and luckily it didn’t matter that it rained the whole time for that. Los Lagos had quite the set up with a couple of pools and a pair of waterslides as well. We spent over two hours relaxing in the hot springs with the providing a bit of cool respite from the heat. After two water filled activities we were free to do what we pleased. Most of the group went out for pizza, but those of us who stayed at the lodge were treated to a very nice dinner of rice and beans (of course), good fish, plantain chips and guacamole, and salad. To finish off my relaxing day, I read most of the evening away and cracked 100 pages in Harry Potter y el misterio del principie.

The view of Arenal from
my room Saturday morning

Saturday morning found me awake at 6.00 because of the sun shining in the room. In my groggy morning state it took me a few seconds to realize that if it was sunny out then there probably weren’t any clouds, meaning the volcano was probably visible. I then jumped out of bed, grabbed my camera and went out onto our porch and sure enough I was greeted with a view of the volcano. I promptly took my camera and wandered around to take 30+ photos of the volcano before breakfast. That was a good thing, because shortly after we sat down for breakfast the clouds rolled in again and we didn’t see the entire volcano again. We packed up and moved out of Arenal Vista Lodge and made a few stops on our way back to the center. The first was a visit to a wind farm near Tilaran, which is just on the other side of Arenal Lake. It was pretty amazing to stand under the wind turbines, and very windy. One of the EcoEnergia employees showed us the control room and gave us a bit of information about the wind farm, and then we also had a field lecture about renewable energy. So, yes, I did just have class sitting under wind turbines in Costa Rica. The next stop was lunch in Tilaran where we went to a buffet and souvenir shop combined. It was definitely an overload on food, which was a shame because the desserts looked delicious. After lunch we got back on the bus for the last stop before heading back; Las Pumas Rescate, a wildlife rescue not far from Tilaran. Unfortunately I got sick after lunch and wasn’t able to go to, but I heard it was amazing, but also pretty sad. After that we started on the last leg of our trip and got back to the center in a few hours. Now we’ve got another short week at the center coming up before we leave for our weeklong trip to Nicaragua at 3.00 am on Thursday.

Me standing in front of the
turbines

Midterms, Homestay family dinner and a weekend at Manuel Antonio

The week of October 4^th contained quite the variety of activities, ranging from studying for midterms to experiencing an earthquake to helping prepare a dinner for 200 people to relaxing at the beach in Manuel Antonio. Both Monday and Tuesday were pretty much consumed with reviews and studying for our midterms. On Wednesday we had our TE midterm in the morning and then the NRM midterm in the afternoon. It was a bit of a stressful day, but that made it feel even better once it was over. Then on Thursday we had our Econ midterm in the afternoon to wrap everything up. We were able to talk Gerardo, the center director, to extend our curfew to midnight if we made him cookies. So, I made some cookies. Liz and I were able to crank out a double batch of Snickerdoodles before dinner, which was really fun and everyone enjoyed them. Then we were able to go out and celebrate being done with exams.

The table settings that I helped make

All the girls in the program before the dinner

Friday entirely revolved around the Homestay family dinner that we hosted for all the families who hosted us the weekend before. I was busy from 9 am until 3 pm nonstop working on place settings, decorations and preparing food (I poured the flan in the cups and diced onions until the cooks started laughing at me because I was crying). Our cooks were amazing for putting together a wonderful menu for almost 200 people – rice, meat, a vegetable stew type thing, soy meatballs, flan and juice. The only problem was I wasn’t able to eat at the same time as my family because I was helping serve the dinner. It was nice having time to talk to them before and a little bit after dinner as well. We had quite the shock though when part way through dinner we had 5.9 earthquake.  A few people jumped up and started running out of the outdoor classroom where we were eating, but my host family said that earthquakes like that aren’t that uncommon. I have to say that it took me awhile to realize that the earth was shaking and that it wasn’t normal. It definitely added some excitement to our night. We also put on a talent show for the families, and it was pretty entertaining. We had a group perform a couple of songs, some guys doing some soccer tricks, people telling jokes, and then a dance competition modeled after Bailando por sus Sueños that was judged by our professors. We also had some activities for kids, like card games and a piñata. I took Issac, my host brother, over to the games and we played Uno and he also smashed open the piñata. People started leaving around 9.30 and then we all did a quick cleanup and went to bed because most everyone was planning on leaving early the next morning for the weekend away.

The view from our hostel, Vista Serena

Surfers on the beach

Sunset Saturday night

The public beach at Manuel Antonio

Saturday saw me up and out of the center by 6.30 so we could take the 7.00 bus to Manuel Antonio for our weekend trip. I traveled with Sara, Elissa, Meagan, Courtney and Anna., and then two of our other friends, Laura and Liz, were also going to Manuel Antonio but they were staying at a different hotel. The bus ride took just about three hours, so when we got to Quepos (the town just outside of Manuel Antonio) we had plenty of time. We grabbed some snacks in town and then took at taxi to our hostel, Vista Serena. The place definitely lived up to its name, the view was wonderful. We dropped our stuff off in the dorm style room we were staying in (for only $10 a night!) and then took the bus into Manuel Antonio with a guy who was staying at the hostel who offered to show us around. It was a nice sunny day so we immediately hit the public beach for some sun, sand and waves. There was supposedly a surfing contest going on, but we didn’t make it that far down the beach. We met up with Liz and Laura on the beach and we all stayed there to watch the sunset, but the clouds foiled our plans. We all decided to go get dinner after that together at a restaurant called El Avion, which is built around this old airplane from WWII that the owner bought and then reassembled in Manuel Antonio. The last time we were in Manuel Antonio, we stayed right beneath the restaurant, so I had an idea of what to expect, but everyone else didn’t. It was a fun, relaxing dinner with all eight of us. After dinner we took the bus back to our hostel and got there just before it started pouring. We had a minor crisis when Elissa picked up her backpack and saw that it, and her bed, were covered in little bugs. She immediately jumped to the conclusion that they were bed bugs, but I went and did some research and they were definitely not bed bugs. Someone at the hostel said they were just little ants that were attracted to sweet things, so Elissa probably just had something in or on her bag that attracted them. She switched beds and everything was fine. The hostel had a main house/reception area with hammocks, couches, tables and a tv, so I went down there first to use the internet, but then I met some people who had been there for awhile. I tried to pick their brains about what would be the best to do the next day, but no one had any really great suggestions. We did find out that we needed to get bus tickets in the morning since the office closes at noon on Sundays. It was a relaxing evening spent in a hammock talking with other travelers (from Colorado, California and New York) and listening to good music.

Me, Courtney, Anna, Meagan, Elissa
and Sara at the waterfall

Squirrel monkey

White faced monkeys at the beach

Sunday morning we had talked about mobilizing by 7.00, but we weren’t all up then, so that didn’t happen. We had to check out, grab a little to eat and then Meagan and Courtney went into Quepos to get the bus tickets and the rest of us walked all the way into Manuel Antonio, which took about 45 minutes. We had a bit of a miscommunication on my part because I said we should all meet by the bus stop by the entrance, but you actually had to walk down a little path a couple hundred meters to get to the entrance. It was hard not having cell phones now, but we waited at the entrance for awhile and we were all able to meet up. Once in the park, we decided to do one of the short hikes off the main trail before going to the beach and we all decided that the waterfall hike would be a good choice. It was. The hike itself was under two kilometers, but it took a bit longer than expected because we had to wade through at least four pretty good sized streams. I was really glad that I wore my Chacos instead of hikers, because I would have had very soggy shoes. The waterfall was gorgeous and we were the only ones there. It was definitely worth plodding through the mud and water. Once we made it back on to dry land (i.e. the main trail) we headed straight to Playa Espadilla Sur, the most popular beach in the park. It is a gorgeous white sand beach that’s in a fairly sheltered cove that also hosts a very aggressive and outgoing population of white faced monkeys and raccoons. We snacked a bit and then immediately packed our food away in our heavy backpacks with all our stuff that we had been carting around all day. It was a good choice to pack the food away, because the people that were sitting next to us had a monkey come up and steal a bag of food and sprint off. He jumped up in the trees and ate a banana while watching everyone take pictures of him. We only spent a few hours at the beach reading and relaxing in between chasing off monkeys and raccoons. Everyone decided that they wanted to hike to another beach so we set our sights on Playa Escondida and Playa Las Gemelas. Las Gemelas was really close so we kept going on the trail to Escondida but that trail ended up being closed. We realized that after we made in down a really steep, poorly maintained section of the trail. It was definitely an adventure. We ended up back at Playa Las Gemelas and sat there for awhile before the incoming tide pushed us off the beach. At that point we hit the main trail again, and just at the right time. We saw a tour guide point something out to a group, which turned out to be a sloth! Then we hadn’t walked 50 meters before we saw a bunch of squirrel monkeys right on the side of the path. Luckily we had decided to leave a bit early, because the animal sightings caused a bit of a delay. We made it out of the park and then caught the 4.00 bus from Manuel Antonio to Quepos and that got us to the bus station just in time. We had been at the bus station long enough to bump into Laura and Liz again and then our bus to San Jose pulled up. It was reassuring to know that we already had our tickets so we didn’t have to stress and jump to the front of the line to make sure we could get on the bus. All eight of us made it on and at 4.45 started the trip back to Atenas. The bus system here is quite different from anything I’ve seen in the U.S. because at one point we turned down this dirt road and made a detour to drop a couple of people off on a road not on the route. It was a pretty easy bus ride back to Atenas, no problems other than the state of my neck after trying to sleep in those seats. We were back at the center at 8.30, plenty of time before our 10.30 curfew. A very rewarding trip after a long week, now back to the grind. 

Homestay Weekend

Wednesday the 29^th was a day full of classes, but our Spanish class at the end of the day was pretty fun because we took a field trip to the market, mercado, in Atenas. We walked around like the group of American students that we are learning the names of some of the fruits and vegetables they have here. It was nice to have my Spanish teacher show us around because she took us to some shops that I never would have found or know what they carried without her showing us. When we got back from town, I went over to the kitchen because I had told the cooks that I would go over then to make the muffins for breakfast the next morning. I love to bake, but I have never baked for around 50 people. I had to split the recipe for Banana Chocolate Chip muffins in half because the bowls weren’t big enough to hold 12 ½ cups of flour, let alone 10 more cups of banana or 10 eggs. After 2 ½ hours of slaving away in the kitchen I made, with the help of one of my friends, 60+ muffins for everyone at the Center. It was \ a successful night, especially when Gerardo, the Center director, came in and tried one of the muffins and after he gave his approval he asked what kind of technology this was because they apparently don’t have muffins often in Costa Rica.

Almost done! I worked on the toucan,
clouds, waterfall and shading on the tree

Thursday and Friday were both consumed with working on the second Field Exercise, this time it was for my Economic and Ethical Issues in Sustainable Development class. Luckily our deadline was pushed back from Thursday at midnight to Friday at midnight, which means I turned mine in on Friday night at 10.00. Thursday morning we had our 3rd outreach, and I was back at the Salon Comunal working on the mural. It's almost finished now! Also on Friday night we finally had our homestay prep and we found out who our homestay families were. I was excited after being able to read a little slip of paper with some information on my family, but it was also cause for a bit of nerves.

I did the flowers for the outside!

Saturday (October 2^nd already!) was the much anticipated morning of the homestay. We all were shuttled into the square in Atenas where we sat around waiting for our families to come pick us up. My family was one of the first to arrive and once Yendry checked me off the list, I hopped in the car with my new Tico family for the weekend. My Tico ‘parents’ were Luis and Yesenia Sanchez-Monge and they had two boys, Josue who was 13 years old, and Issac who was 10. On the way back to their house we stopped at Luis’ computer repair/supply store. My family had a very nice house, but when we arrived they prefaced the tour of the house by saying it was so small. I tried to tell them that it was a very nice house and size doesn’t matter. Luis had to go back to work, even on Saturday, and Josue left with some friends, so Yesenia, Issac and I stayed at the house. I helped Yesenia with the laundry because she was showing me the mountain of laundry that had piled up while it rained all week. Without a proper dryer, she doesn’t do laundry unless it’s sunny out so the clothes will actually dry. It was interesting to compare the differences of doing laundry here versus in the States. We did find some common ground when we hung the clothes out and after a little bit we had to sprint back outside to bring the clothes in when it started pouring. Of course it only rained really hard for a few minutes, and I tried to tell her that I do the mad dash to bring in the clothes a lot when I’m at home. After laundry, Yesenia and I started cooking the meat for lunch. I was excited to help cook, but Yesenia said that she doesn’t really like to cook that much. She had quite the chunk of meat and I was amazed at how small of a pan we were able to cook it in. It seems like everyone comes home for lunch, so it was Luis, Yesenia, Issac and  I for lunch and we ate out on the patio (a covered one that is, since it was still raining). In the afternoon, Yesenia had an appointment in town, so Josue, Issac and I stayed at the house and I played Wii sports with Issac for over an hour. Both of the boys were pretty shy, so I wasn’t able to get more than a one or two word answer out of them. I did find out that they like Harry Potter, so I told them about visiting Platform 9 ¾ at Kings Cross Station this summer. Josue had the 6^th book and in some of the down time we had, I read a bit and tried to work on my Spanish a bit more. For dinner we made some pasta, which tasted delicious (even with red sauce) after so much rice and beans. After dinner we watched a Costa Rican show called Bailando por un Sueño, which is pretty similar to Dancing with the Stars. It was fun to watch for a little bit, but after awhile I just ended up talking with Luis and Yesenia. I tried to tell them about Colorado, my college, tennis and my family. It took awhile, but finally my conversational Spanish started kicking in. Unfortunately it was also past 10.00, which is my bed time here. It appeared that it was also Yesenia’s bed time because we were both yawning a lot, so it was off to bed at 10.30.

Beach at Puntarenas

Driftwood at the beach

I slept in until the late hour of 7.30 on Sunday morning. I didn’t know exactly what the plans were for the day, so I didn’t want to sleep in too late, but this was still almost two hours later than I woke up all week. I had a nice breakfast of tea (chamomile, not the black tea with the caffeine that I needed), fresh pineapple, banana and a pancito, which was some type of hard, sweet bread. After everyone ate, we packed up and piled into the car to go to the beach at Puntarenas. Not even a half an hour out of Atenas we came to a dead stop. We were lucky and only sat around for a few minutes and then we were moving again. It turns out that with all the rain we got the day before, there were quite a few derrumbes, or landslides. We passed three pretty big ones and then a lot of smaller ones before we got out of the mountains. Most importantly it was still sunny and very warm when we got to the beach. I hadn’t brought my swimsuit for the weekend, but Yesenia and I took a nice walk down the beach. After the rains, the beach had collected quite a bit of driftwood and unfortunately also a lot of trash. It was still very nice to be at the beach and in the sun after a long week full of rain and work. I’m ashamed to say that even though I’ve been in Costa Rica for almost a full month, this trip was my first to the beach. After Yesenia and I got back from our walk the boys were burnt out on the beach and sun so we moved into one of the beachside restaurants for lunch. In the restaurant they had the La Liga soccer game on, which was one of the options that was on the table for today. I think that got nixed when I mentioned that I had been to a Saprissa game the week before. La Liga and Saprissa are the two local teams and there is quite the rivalry between the two. I had a delicious lunch of arroz con camarones (rice with shrimp) and we all watched the game. Unfortunately, La Liga lost, but then I heard that Saprissa lost as well. After lunch we got back in the car and prepared for a longer drive back than normal. Little did we know exactly how long it was going to be. We got so close to the top where all the landslides had been earlier, and then we came to a complete stop for almost an hour. Some people in one of the towns we passed through told us about a back road we could take through the mountains, so after flipping a coin, we turned around and went back down the mountain and turned off onto a very bumpy, steep road. I was amazed at how steep this road was, and I was equally amazed at how well the car did. There were a couple of times that were a bit sketchy when the tires spun out a bit on all the mud. But we made it to a paved road and only had to make sure we were on the correct road about 10 times. In the end, we took a 3 ½ trip home instead of an hour and a half. But we made it all in one piece. When we were back at the house I gave them the Colorado calendar I brought and the Celestial Seasonings tea. The calendar was perfect because it had a map of Colorado on the inside so I was able to show them where Fort Collins is and told them to come visit if they ever want to go to the U.S. In return, Josue gave me the copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, so I can keep practicing my Spanish, which was very sweet. They all drove me back to the Center before they went off to church. It was a wonderful weekend and I didn’t really realize that I’d been speaking Spanish the whole time until I got back realized how weird it sounded to be speaking in English. It will be nice to see my Tico family again for the dinner that we host for all the families of Friday. 

My Tico family and I eating at lunch
at Puntarenas