Cloud Forest

As I write this I am sitting at an internet cafe, sipping a pina con leche, and admiring the view of downtown Santa Elena. I finally left San Jose on the 26th only to find myself in Alajuela, a suburb of San Jose, which seemed if possible more crowded and hot than San Jose. I met the rest of the volunteer group that night at the hotel. We had dinner which disappointingly consisted of very American type food.

The group is a very mixed bunch. There is one other college aged girl, an older retired couple, two eight year olds with their moms, a few older people traveling by themselves, a family of four from Chicago, and a mom and daughter team. Everyone is very plesant but it seems a little weird to be moving around with such a big group of Americans.

Sunday morning we were briefed on the trip and at noon we headed out of town and towards Monteverde. The best part of Global Volunteers is their matched work policy. This means for every volunteer working there must be a local person working as well. This way the locals are equally involved and strong friendships are built between locals and volunteers.

We took the Pan American Highway most of the way to Monteverde but the last twenty five miles consisted of steep gravel hills. Overall the trip took about three and a half hours. At one point we were at a high enough elevation that we could look out and see the Peninsula of Nicoya and the Pacific ocean. Costa Rica is really small. Santa Elena is also very small and very touristy. The small mainstreet consists of a few souviner shops, cafes, a bakery, grocery store, and oddly enough a sushi restaraunt.

Today, Monday, we got up at 5:30 ate breakfast at 6 and made it to the bus stop by 7am. We took the bus a little ways out of town to Canitas. We are working with the town of Canitas to update and fix their ¨club house¨. The club house is a large one room building with a kitchen where all the local activities and events are held. We spent the day preping the outside walls for painting and pulling weeds and in the afternoon, after the paint was purchased, we were able to start applying the primer layer. The best part of the day was meeting Ramone. He is eight years old and lives in Canitas. As he pulled weeds with us he helped us with our Spanish. Very adorable.

Feliz Navidad!

I hope everyone is having a fun and relaxing Christmas.

It is a quiet snow-free morning here with the exception of a few trilling birds. Yesterday I managed to make it to the countryside. I was accompanied by Martin, a pleasent college teacher from Kentucky originally from Quebec. We started out in down town San Jose trying to find a bus that would take us to Cartago. There are few bus stations in Costa Rica mostly designated stops that are not very well marked which made finding our buses for the rest of the day a little challenging. In Cartago we transfered to Orosi which took us even further south east. Now that we had gotten out of San Jose I was able to get a good view of the landscape. Large hills covered with lush vegetation sloped down into a valley and nestled within was the town of Orosi.

In Orosi we found out about a local coffee farmer, Nino, who lived on the hillside. He loved to give tours so we decided to check it out. The climb up was very steep. We passed banana trees, coffee bushes, bamboo, pines, and lots of other foliage I don't know the name of. It turns out (Nino told us this) that a lot of the plants in Costa Rica are not native but were imported or accidently transported from other countries. My favorite was an apple tree that had beautiful red flowers (I am not sure if this tree was native or not). The tree, Nino said, would bear fruit in the fall. Nino was this wonderful character. Probably in his early fifties he was lean and muscular. He lives by himself in a house he built from a fallen tree. His house was modest but the view from the second story porch was breath taking. It looked out and down across the hills and into the valley (though we could not see the town). He showed us the thirty foot waterfall that ran near his house. It was very pleasant to wade in the warm water and enjoy the cool breeze of the mountain. We drank strong black coffee as Nino also told us about the parks of Costa Rica and showed us a book that pictured most of the volcanos in the area.

Leaving Nino's house we took a trail that wrapped around the hill. Nino showed us his coffee bushes and even let us eat one of the berries. A fresh coffee berry is sweet and moist and the green coffee bean is fun to suck on as it has a thin coating of flesh. Nino picked us some fresh limes to eat as we walked. Refreshing but incredibly sour. The trail led us to a look out that gave us a wonderful view of Orosi. Nino said that on the days when there are no clouds (which are very few) you can actually see both oceans from that look out. Not surprisingly there were clouds but we did manage to spot one of the near by volcanos.

Back in Orosi we stopped at a Sopa to refresh ourselves. It still surprises me a little that the frescas they serve are not made from fresh fruit but poured from a plastic jug. None the less I welcomed a cold drink after the long walk.

Returning to Cartago we had some trouble finding a bus. Our search through the city led us to a small parade of dancers and drummers. And as we continued to ask for directions we stumbled across a beautiful ruin. People attempted to build this church (a couple hundred years ago) but after several earthquakes that ruined the building the project was abandoned but the walls still remain. Inside there were nice flowers and a life size nativity scene. I threw a colon (Costa Rican money) into the pond for good luck even though this trip so far has been filled with good fortune.

It is a beautiful sunny morning in San Jose. It will be interesting to see where today leads. I have already found that things change quickly when you are traveling and sometimes the best made plans can fall to pieces in a minute. That is part of the adventure I suppose.

Yesterday afternoon I met Jessica, another backpacker in the hostel. She is from Canada and is very used to the whole hostel/backpacking thing. She introduced me to down town San Jose. We walked through lots of street vendors and tons of people all shopping for the holidays. There was a huge indoor market that sold all kinds of wears: shoes, trinkets, fish, t-shirts, herbs, yummy snack food, mirrors, clocks, hammocks, watches, pots and pans. It was all there crammed into this maze of stalls and shoppers. When it started raining a bit we decided to get a drink at a little sopa on the second floor of this building. We sat by the open windows looking down at the shoppers as we drank our pear juice. Jessica left this morning to go back home. It was lovely to spend a little time with someone who is a practiced traveler. She gave me some great advice and really helped me transition into this trip.

Today I am going to try a head out of San Jose and into the country side but we shall see....

Touch Down!!

I am in COSTA RICA!!! Wahoooo! I will write more later but right now I need to digest everything. I love you all!

I made it to Denver. One step closer to the rain forest. Unfortunately last night driving into the city it was too dark to see the mountains but we did manage to enjoy some Denver cuisine before the night was up. Pat (my cousin), his friend, and I ate dinner at this cozy Italian restaurant called Stella. The waitress was chatty and enthusiastic and the line up of Beatles music made the whole experience very enjoyable. Not to mention their pumpkin ravioli is out of this world!

Up and Running

Hello! Hello!

As promised I started a blog to stay connected as I journey through Costa Rica and beyond. I am not feeling very wordy today but over the next three weeks I will try to keep you all informed of my travels. Now I must go finish packing!