mastatal

Well i successfully embarked upon my first costa rican adventure and survived, although it wasn´t what i expected it would be. I had class early so that i could have the afternoon to hike in the nearby national forest, la congreja. i left at one, walked 40 minutes to the trailhead, and then went in. marcos told me it was a loop trail and it could take up to 2.5 hours if i stopped to find animals etc. i was taking my time taking pictures and enjoying it all, its really the jungle here. vines connecting everything and weird mushrooms and enormous ferns, kinda like being in a huge greenhouse. about an hour or so in i came to a big intersection of four trails which i hadn´t expected, and only one of them was marked. it said cascada 200 m, so i decided id check that out first. the trail continued past the turnoff for the waterfall but it looked small compared to the other ones at the intersection and i figured it wouldn´t take me back around. so after seeing the waterfall i went back and tried a different one, which dead ended at the river. so i went back and tried the last one which was really the one i thought was most likely to lead back as it was by far the biggest. so im on it and it occurs to me after a while that its more like a dry river bed than the man-made trail i was on before, but i had no way of knowing one way or the other so i kept going. i started to get a little worried after an hour had gone by, but by marcos´estimation of the time it would take i could presumably still have been on the right path. eventually i came to a big river, the rio negro, at which 4 guys were working on building a bridge across. i stood on the bank laughing to myself knowing that this couldn´t be right any more, and eventually shouted to the guys. they motioned for me to come across on a tree connecting the banks, which i did. then through the language barrier we determined that i was alone had been (maybe still was) walking in the park, and was trying to get to mastatal. they told me the the path on their side of the river would lead up to the main road back to mastatal, but i still didn´t know actually how far away i was. so i walked out and when i hit the road i saw a bunch of people playing soccer who ended up being english irish and scottish volunteers. they got a crack out of my situation but were sympathetic and informed my that i was about an hour and a halfs walk away, but if i hurried to the main road i might be able to catch the bus. i had no money on me but at that point it was about 4 30 and if i walked it it would be dark long before i got back and there aren´t many street lights here. so when the bus came by i just got on, and luckily some other volunteers from mastatal were on it and spotted me. so i made it back safely but dirty and a little sore. of course the correct path back was the one past the waterfall, and it turns out i walked about 10 km in total. other than that not too much has happened. the spanish is getting better. wildlife-wise there have been frogs and hundreds of small lizards, one large bright green hummingbird and a treeful of small brown ones, a spiny green caterpillar, and a very large koati (kinda like a big racoon with a longer nose). also poison dart frogs! and a moth as big as both of my hands. that about sums it up for now, ill write soon.

gus

mastatal

vocab of the week: while in english a llama is a large furry horse-like animal, in spanish it in fact means fire, resulting in the tv news headline "en llama" set over a house ablaze

things are slow as ever here, and its safe to say spanish is squarely kickin my ass. while i have all of the grammatical and structural information needed in conversation, it has been quite hard for me to transfer it into actually talking. i know i just need to talk to people, thats what everyone and their mother tells me. i feel like kina an inconvenience when i try tho. and its unbelievable to me that anyone here understands each other, they all talk so fast and slur all of the words together so much. i like to think that in english there are spaces between words, although i don´t know how it sounds to a foreigner, but this is just like one long endless river of noise that somehow has meaning. on the bug front i have seen 3 extremely strange ones and have pics to prove it. the first was this bizarre beatle with weird clumps of red stuff all over it and a really big nose. the second i guess was a locust but was bigger than i imagined locusts to be and an irridescant green. the third and most exciting flew directly at me last night. aside from its legs its body was extraordinarily flat and bright green and it had a head kinda like a hammer head shark. i got my camera and started taking pictures and then i looked at the one id taken from the front and realized it had arms and was in fact a preying (praying?) mantis at which point i got kinda scared cuz i have no clue if they can hurt people. so i went back to my chair but it was pointed and looking directly at me so i moved to another chair, and it angled itself with me so that it was still looking right at me, which creeped me out even more, like it was stalking me or something. so i went and brushed my teeth and when i got back it was on the wall above my bedroom door haha so i ran in and shut the door and went to bed. it hasn´t been as rainy lately, but still in the mid-eighties during the day. ill write again soon, my times up.

gus

mastatal

i have come to report i found out what people here do when they have to be inside. well, at least what my family does. they watch tv. for hours. its mostly really bad soap operas that they inexplicably love, but last night there was a dancing show, kind of like dancing with the stars. except on this one neither person is a professional dancer so they´re both very unskilled. as if things couldn´t get worse there is also very poor reception. the end result is that i have now, in 5 days, finished to 400 page books. livin the costa rican life woohoooo. No, i dunno, i´m working on finding some way to spend my time that wouldn´t be readily available to me in the u.s. Ive taken a couple hikes, both in an attempt to find a waterfall i remembered going to. i was successful the second time. but on both i was kinda scared that something large and/or poisonous was going to get me. the second time i was blessed to have a dirty stray dog follow me the entire time for protection. the showers continue to be too cold to stand under, and aside from rice and beans we haven´t had the same main course again yet which is wonderful. i just realized that unless you have been here or somehow found pictures online, you probably don´t know what Mastatal is like at all, so: There is a bar, called the cantina, and a very small restaurantish thing called a soda where you can get hot meals. there is a craftsman. there is a communtiy center, which is just a large building with one open room. it has two basketball hoops in it but from one to the other is probably about half a normal court. there is a soccer field thats really muddy, an elementary school, and a one room building called the high school. most kids go to the regional high school in la gloria which is much bigger. there is a small police station, and the internet place, which is a room with 4 computers in it or which only 3 seem to work. and then there is the Ranch, which is a sustainable living establishment for volunteers. the population here is a whopping 150, and the houses are very spread out along a dirt road. the scenery is unbelievable, its in the middle of the mountain rainforest, and if you walk 30 seconds off of the road you´d have no idea that there was civilization nearby. its humid and around 80 during the day, but more comfortable at night. last night was by far the hardest rain ive ever experienced, and the lightning lit everyting up. one thunder was so loud it actually made me jump, which arabella and carol (the mom and sister im with) just thought was hilarious. ive seen an armadillo, tarantula, one definitely non-poisonous baby snake (marcos told me), and one maby poisonous baby one i saw when i was alone but either way did not bite me. i also think i saw monkeys but they were really high up in the trees and dropping things onto the ground/me. i ate picarillo i think its called yesterday and it was delicious. its potato-like in taste and i think comes from the palm trees. well thats all i can think of for now, hasta luego!
gus

Mastatal

Both bus rides were successful, the entire thing smooth except for the small realizations during each that i had absolutely no way to recognize when i was supposed to get off. luckily things worked out and i found my way from san jose to mastatal. by the time i got here it was already dark and i therefore didn´t recognize much. it was also once again pouring which it seems to do pretty consistently after about 1:30 pm. so far its resulted in a lot of reading because i really can´t understand anything anyone says so any attempted conversation is pointless and for the most part uncomfortable. i had my first spanish lesson today though, and it was fine. unlike most classes I´ve been in i am really eager to learn the subject in this one. when i was here last time i was with american kids and only got to know the costa ricans that spoke english. alone this time, its really pretty bad not being able to say anything. anyhow i found lili, my homestay mom from last time, and she didn´t recognize me at first until marcos asked if she did and then i told her my name and it was like you could see a physical lightbulb switch on in her head as she remembered. the housing is basic, the showers are cold, and the food has been good. mosquitos also aren´t bad in the house. i have yet to find out what everyone here does for entertainment while it rains. my times up, ill write soon.
love gus

san jose

my first post! I left seattle at about midnight, got into san jose, CR at about noon, and got about 3 hours of sleep in between. the flights were smooth and i was comfortable enough with how everything was going, but that feeling was promptly gone upon landing here. firstly there weren't any signs for where to go to get our luggage so everyone was just standing around outside the gate looking left and right (our only options) and having no idea what to do. eventually someone went right and that got us to customs. that was fine and easy, and then i got my bag, and then tried to get money but the atm was broken. so then i got directions to the bus stop but to get there i had to get through the gauntlet of taxi drivers one of whom told me it was too dangerous to walk from the bus to my hostel so that was uplifting. i went to another atm first and accidentally got more american dollars but then successfully got some colones. at the bus stop, i told one of the guys where i wanted to go, and he said hed tell me what bus to get on. and so i waited as about ten similar looking buses all of which seemed to say san jose passed by, until one stopped and he told me it was the one i wanted. so i got on and there was throw up on the first seat i went to so i chose another one. about ten minutes in it started absolutely pouring outside, and i had from my estimation at least a 20 minute walk ahead of me. which reminds me! when i checked my bag i thought i'd hafta pay extra because it was so freakin heavy but it was only 48.5 pounds (the limit is 50) so that was lucky. in any case, after a while i realized i had no idea where i was supposed to get off so i asked the guy next to me and he said he was getting off there too so he'd show me. he also said i should take a taxi since it was raining so hard which seemed pretty reasonable. so we got off, i got in the taxi, got to the hostel, may have exeedingly overtipped the taxi driver I'm not really sure, and then i was in the hostel! after that it was all gravy, i got my room and it was all as i expected it to be. they have signs everywhere here with rules on them, the last of which is always "and be tranquilo!" the night was uneventful as i fell asleep at about 7 since i was so tired. it was also still raining. i didnt meet anyone too amazing here, tho it has its diversity down. the 4 people i talked to were from italy, holland, and norway. two were from norway. so now after a breakfast of pancakes i am about to leave for the bus out of here and i have no idea how its gonna go and very little confidence that it will be smoothly. but here goes! talk soon.

love, gus