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