The world's most beautiful waterfall (And: more monkeys!)

What an amazing afternoon Michael and I spent today! His host father (Papa Tico) invited us to his family's farm, for a hike to a waterfall. Most of his extended family lives there. Only a few minutes into the hike, we saw several white-faced monkeys very close to us! The hike led us to the most beautiful waterfall I've ever seen.

Michael and Miguel (his Papa Tico) swam at the bottom of it. (The water was freezing, and it was already raining out, so I happily stayed on the rocks to take pictures.)
On the way back, we saw an incredibly beautiful rainbow! We finished the afternoon having coffee and chatting with Miguel's extended family...really nice people and great practice.



Y en espanol:
Que magnifica tarde Michael y yo pasamos hoy! Su Papa Tica nos invitio a la finca de su familia, para dar un caminata a un catarata. La majoria de su familia vive alla. Solo algunos minutos despues de comenzar la caminata, vimos monos cara blancas, muy cerca de nosotros! El sendero nos dirigio a la cascata mas bonita que yo he visto. Muchael y Miguel- su Papa Tico- nadaron en el agua de baja. (Hacia frio, entonces yo me quede felizmente en las piedras para sacar fotos.) En el camino para regresar, vimos un arcoiris increible! Terminadamos la tarde tomar cafe y hablar con la familia de Miguel ...personas muy simpaticos y practica magnifica.

Cloud Forest Walks

We have spent the past two afternoons after class exploring the cloud forest all around us here in Monteverde. On Tuesday, we went on a guided hike in the Monteverde Reserve, a privately owned and protected cloud forest. Our guide was excellent; he easily spotted birds I had no idea were there. We also saw a troup of spider monkeys, and a hummingbird in her nest right by the side of the trail!
Yesterday we went to Selvatura Park and walked a trail that had eight hanging bridges. It was amazing being so high in the canopy!
And we ended yesterday by walking into town with Michael's host family to get ice cream (from the cheese factory, which supported the town before eco-tourism did) to celebrate his birthday...a day belatedly, because the ice cream shop was closed the night before. On the way, we stopped at the Monteverde Serpentarium, where Michael's host brother works, and he let us come in for free to see some pretty amazing snakes!
Y en espanol:
Hemos pasado los dos tardes antes despues de clases exploradando el bosque nubloso todo aldreador de nosotros. Martes, fuimos a la Reserva de Monteverde para dar un caminata com un guia. La Reserva esta dado y proyectado privadamente. Nuestra guia estaba excelente; el pudio facilmente ver aves que no sabia estaban alli. Tambien vimos un troupo de monos aranas, y un colibri en su niedo a lado del sendero.
Ayer, fuimos a Parque Selvatura y caminabamos un sendero que tuvo ocho puentes colgantes. Que magnifica estar tan alto en los arboles!
Y terminamos el dia ayer para caminamos con la familia de Michael a la heladeria (a la fabrica de queso, que apoyo el pueblo antes del llegada de eco-turisma) para celebrar su compleanos, un dia tarde, por que el heladeria estaba cerrada el noche antes. En el camino, paremos al Serpentario, donde trabaja el hermano tico de Michael, y el deja nosotros entrar gratis, para ver unas serpientes increibles!

Getting to Monteverde (And: Michael's Doppelganger)

Ok, Michael doesn't really have a Doppelganger, in the truest sense of the word. Still, the connections one makes while traveling can be incredible. At Arenal, we met a student from the CPI Heredia campus named Rich. While we were hiking, Michael and Rich started chatting. They discovered they are both from Chicago, and they are both actors/improv comedians!! They are also about the same age, with similar relationship histories, and similar (I think) head shapes. :) Michael has assured me they also have many differences, but the similarities are truly striking.

I am now in Monteverde, up in the mountains of Costa Rica. It is beautiful here, cooler (highs in the mid-70s), and more naturalist heaven than party beach town. Our teacher for this week's class is truly excellent; I'm really glad to finish up my CPI experience with her...I think we will learn a lot. I'm staying with a family this week, and they are great. There's a LOT of conversation among family members that I can't understand - especially from the teenage girl- but I am trying not to feel frustrated, but rather just absorb and try to practice as much as I can. They are happy to talk to me. The house is very comfortable. And tonight the 2nd grade boy in the family helped me make flash cards with animal names. :) (I can speak 8 yr old Spanish decently well!) Spanish is definitely getting more natural for me...it's hard to write blog posts and emails in English without slipping in some familiar Spanish words accidentally!

So Monteverde is a good place to be. But GETTING HERE was another story. When we left Arenal, we were only told: your bus leaves for Monteverde at 2:40. In CR, what that usually means is, we'll aim for sometime before 3. :) But this time they were uncharacteristically stressed out about being on time. (The word "stress", by the way, is a cognate in Spanish: "estrés". We think this is because Central America had no such concept until English speakers came along!) We quickly discovered the reason for the promptness: we had to catch a ferry. Basically, we had no information or idea what was going on the whole journey! In a weird small world moment, a guide who was one of our neighbors in Flamingo was on our boat, leading a small private tour, so I had to ask him what was going on.  When I saw the boat, I quickly downed some Dramamine, which ended up being quite a good decision...though the boat ride (across Lake Arenal) was smooth, the subsequent bus ride to Monteverde was very bumpy!! The road is entirely gravel, for over 20km, and at points I thought for sure that either luggage would fall on our heads, or that we ourselves would fall on our heads, over a cliff. But, the scenery was truly spectacular.

So, safe and sound now, I am going to return to studying my irregular verbs in past tense...lest I throw some of these stem-changing verbs off one of those cliffs! :)

Arenal (Wildlife!)

 
I spent this weekend at Arenal Volcano.  Six of us from the Flamingo campus came, and we met four students from the Heredia campus.  We hiked yesterday, and soaked in really fabulous volcanic hot springs last night. On the way here, we also saw Lake Arenal, which is a man-made lake... when the volcano became active in 1968, it errupted and destroyed an entire pueblo.  Then they decided to fill the whole area in with water, build a dam, and create a hydroelectric power plant.  Though really sad, I would really love to take a boat ride on that lake and see the ruins of the pueblo under the water (but it was not one of the offered activities!). The view from our hotel is spectacular....and we finally saw the volcano come out from behind the clouds. The landscape is beautiful... we are in a humid forest, so it is very green and humid.

Yesterday was also great for wildlife sightings. On the way here, we saw coatis on the side of the road!  And here at the hotel, there was a beautiful toucan in the tree.




























This post may sound strange because I am not using any contractions, because I cannot figure out how to type an apostrophe on this keyboard!


Spanish coming soon.

Leaving Flamingo

Well, Michael and I are leaving Flamingo Beach today. I've met really great people here who I will miss! We are heading to Arenal volcano today and then transferring to the CPI campus in Monteverde- in the mountains- for our last week of classes.
Pues, Michael y yo estamos saliendo Playa Flamingo hoy. He conocido a  personas muy magnificas aqui quien voy a extranar! Vamos a Volcan Arenal hoy y despues transferemos al CPI en Monteverde- en las montanas- para nuestra ultima semana de clases.

 

Michael arrives

My brother got here this weekend! I saw him at school this morning...he arrived at his host family's house while I was in Nicaragua yesterday. Apparently I have improved my Spanish in my time here, because he and I are in the same class! (I had been telling my classmates and teachers that he speaks better than I do, which I still think is true.)

We had lunch after school with another girl in our class, Rachel, at a "soda" (fast, traditional food) on the beach. Delicious, authentic food with a great view. And, as promised, Michael spoke to me virtually entirely in Spanish. Should be a fun week!

En espanol:

Mi hermano llego esta fin de semana! Le vi al escuela esta manana...el llego a la casa de su familia Tica mientras estaba en Nicaragua ayer.  Al parecer, he mejorado mi espanol durante el tiempo aqui, por que el y yo estamos en la misma clase! (Habia estado diciendo a mis companeros y maestras que el habla tan mejor que yo, cual todavia creo que es verdad.)

Nosotros almorzamos despues de las clases con un otra chica en nuestra clase, Rachel, a una soda (comida rapida y tipica) en la playa. Comida deliciosa, con buena vista. Y, como me prometió, el me hablo casi solo en espanol. Debe ser una semana divertida!

Nicarauga

Jan, Cecilie, and I spent a very long but really nice day today in Nicaragua. We saw the city of Granada, Lake Nicaragua, the Masaya Volcano, and an artisan market. We also ate really delicious locally-harvested cashews and chocolate!
I learned from my teacher last week that all borders from Nicaragua north to Mexico are open and can be crossed without a passport. But Costa Rica keeps its borders closed, so I expected the border crossing to be a little intense. It wasn't...pretty easy (though not entirely clear) process. I also felt very safe in Nicaragua, despite its history and stereotypes. NOT violating stereotypes, however, were the other people on the tour bus with us. All North Americans and mostly Canadians, they drank ALL day, bargained perhaps too much with vendors, talked loudly about real estate investments, and spoke no Spanish. Jan and I were actually able to talk about them without them understanding, right next to them, by speaking in Spanish!
Some pictures from the day are below.
En espanol:
Jan, Cecilie, y yo pasimos un muy larga pero buen dia hoy en Nicaragua. Veiamos el ciudad de Granada, Lago de Nicaragua, el volcan Masaya, y un mercado con artesinias. Tambien comiamos semillas de marinan deliciosas y chocolate locale!
Apprendi desde mi maestra la semana pasada que todas las fronteras desde Nicaragua norte a Mexico estan abiertas y se puede atravesar sin pasaporte. Pero Costa Rica mantenen sus fronteras cerradas, entonces yo esperaba que el cruce frontizero estaria intenso. No estuve...estuve un bastante facil (si no del todo claro) procesa. Tambien me senti muy segura en Nicaragua, a pesar de la historia y los esteriotipos. NO violar los estereotipos, sin embargo, fueron las otras personas en el excursion con nosotros. Todos los norteamericanos y canadienses en su mayoría, ellis bibieron TODO el dia, se negociaba tal vez demaciado con los vendadores, hablaron ruidosamente sobre casas se vende, y no hablaron espanol nada. Jan y yo podía hablar de ellos, muy cerca, sin que ellos lo sepan, para hablar espanol!
Unos fotos abaja.

 

Celebrations

There were many reasons for celebrations around here this week: Mardi Gras, Dia del amor y amistad (Feb. 14th), a fellow student's birthday, our housekeeper Yeti's birthday, and the (semi?) annual weekend fiesta (festival) in the neighboring town of Brasilito.
On Tuesday, I joined Paula and Caio, my Brazilian apartment-mates, on an afternoon excursion to a nearby town known for its authentic indigenous pottery. (The only common language the driver and the three of us had was Spanish, so it was another fun, but exhausting, challenge.) When we returned to Flamingo, a Mardi Gras parade through the town was just starting! (I think this was started by the large contingent of North Americans in Flamingo, but I'm not sure.) Our van actually found itself in the parade line,  so we waved. :)
On Wednesday, we found out it was our housekeeper Yeti's birthday!  So John, our neighbor, friend, and fellow student, played a song for her on his ukelele!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdihRjAt9K0&feature=youtu.be
February 14th in Costa Rica is el dia del amor y amistad (love and friendship). I love that friendship is included! We celebrated with a pinata at school (the student whose birthday it was took the first strike), the staff gave us chocolate, and my friends Jan and Cecilie and I went out to a nice dinner.
This weekend there is a fiesta in the neighboring town of Brasilito, so a lot of us students checked it out last night. These festivals move around to different towns each weekend in the summer. There are carnival rides, games, churros (mmm), bull riders, and dances. There is a big arena, and each night they release bulls, with a rider, into the arena. Anyone who wants to can get into the arena and run with (or from!) the bulls! It's quite a sight. Three of the guys from school that were with us jumped in the ring.  We saw Yeti at the fiesta, too, and danced with her.

Y en espanol:

Había muchas razones para celebraciones por aquí esta semana: Mardi Gras, Día del Amor y Amistad (14 de febrero), el cumpleaños de un compañero de estudios, el cumpleaños de nuestra ama de llaves Yeti, y la fiesta de fin de semana en la vecina pueblo de Brasilito.

El martes, me uní a Paula y Caio, mis compañeros de apartamento brasileños, en una excursión por la tarde a un pueblo cercano conocido por su cerámica indígena auténtica. (El único lenguaje común del conductor y los tres de nosotros tuvimos fue el español, así que fue otro divertido, pero agotador desafío.) Cuando regresamos a Flamingo, un desfile de Mardi Gras por la ciudad estaba empezando! (Creo que fue iniciado por el gran contingente de norteamericanos en Flamingo pero no estoy segura.) Nuestra camioneta se encontraba en la línea de parada, así que nos saludó. :)

El miércoles, nos enteramos de que era el cumpleaños de nuestra ama de llaves Yeti! Entonces Juan, nuestro vecino, amigo y compañero de estudios, tocó una canción para ella en su ukelele.

El14 de febrero en Costa Rica es el dia del amor y amistad. Me encanta que la amistad está incluido! Lo celebramos con una piñata en la escuela (el estudiante cuyo cumpleaños se llevó el primer ataque), los maestras nos dijeron chocolate, y mi amigos Jan y Cecilie y yo fuimos a una cena deliciosa.

Este fin de semana hay una fiesta en el vecino pueblo de Brasilito, así que muchos de nosotros los estudiantes fueron anoche. Estos fiestas mover a las ciudades diferentes cada fin de semana durante el verano. Hay juegos mecánicos, juegos, churros (mmm), toros, montadores, y bailes. Hay un arena grande, y cada noche se liberan los toros, con un montador, en la arena. Cualquier persona que lo desee puede entrar en la arena y correr con (o de!) los toros! Es todo un espectáculo. Tres de los chicos de la escuela que estaban con nosotros saltamos en la arena. Vimos Yeti en la fiesta, también, y bailamos con ella.

Here are a few photos from the week!

Meeting a Real Tico Family

Yesterday, I found my way to a nearby town called Santa Rosa to visit a family that Laura lived with when she lived in Costa Rica, years ago. Laura gave me a gift to take to the family if I was able to visit them.  They don't speak any English, so I practiced what I wanted to say to them a lot before going there!

My friends were planning to spend the day at Playa Tamarindo, and Santa Rosa is only a few kilometers from there. So we all rode in a taxi together to Santa Rosa, and the driver helped me ask a few people in the town which house was theirs. After we found it and found them home, he took my friends to Tamarindo where I met them later.

How great to meet a real Tico family, and to be able to deliver Laura's gift and greetings! They were so surprised and happy to hear that Laura is well. I met Noemi and Julio, their son Diego, and their daughter Maria. I talked with them in their backyard for maybe 45 minutes, which was definitely a bit of a language challenge, but so rewarding! When they had to leave for church, Diego gave me a ride to Tamarindo. They were so warm and friendly to me, a stranger from another country, and I am so glad to have had the chance to meet them!

Y en espanol... (corrections still welcome, Spanish speakers!)

Ayer, me encontro mi camina a un pueblo cercano para visitar una familia con quien Laura vivia cuando ella vivia en Costa Rica, hace muchos anos. Laura me dio un regalo para traer a la familia si yo pudiera (?) visitarlos. Ellos no hablan nada ingles, entonces yo practique mucho lo que queria decirlos.

Mis amigas estuvieron planeando a pasar el dia a Playa Tamarindo, Santa Rosa esta solo unos kilometros de alli. Entonces viajamos juntos en taxi, y el chofer me ayudo preguntar unas personas en el pueblo cual casa es de ellos. Despues de encontrarla y de encontrar ellos a la casa, el trayo a mis amigas a Tamarindo donde yo los encontre mas tarde.

Que magnifica conocer un verdad familia Tica y poder traer el regalo y saludos de Laura! Ellos estaban tan sorprendidos y felices a oir que Laura esta bien. Conoci a Julio y Noemi, su hijo Diego, y su hija Maria.  Hable con ellos en su patio durante cerca 45 minutos, cual estaba bastante desafio, pero muy gratificante.  Cuando ellos tenimos que irse para iglesia, Diego me llevo a Tamarindo.  Ellos estaban tan amables y bienveniendos (?) a mi, un extrana de otro pais, y estoy tan feliz haber tenido la oportunidad de conocerlos!

Rincon de Vieja (or: Monkeys!!)

I spent today at Rincon de Vieja National Park, about 2 hours north of Flamingo Beach. I went on the tour with two couples close to my parents' age, fellow students. These two couples have so much in common, it's so cool they met  during their week here. My friends here and I agree they will probably be lifelong friends. I was glad to be able to hang out with them for the day.

Rincon de Vieja is a volcano, and the park has boiling mud pots and  fumaroles (thank goodness that word is the same in English and Spanish, because I can barely remember it in English!). We saw a lot of such geothermal features, along with a big geothermal energy plant (good use of resources,  CR!), ficus trees, a beautiful waterfall, and most importantly, so many monkeys!!! There were 2 white-faced monkeys (of "Friends" fame) and a big group of spider monkeys. I was thrilled. Our guide was great too, speaking to us 95% in Spanish so we could practice. We finished this great day by covering ourselves with therapeutic mud and soaking in volcanic hot springs!

I can definitely think of worse ways to spend a day. A few pictures are below.

Y en espanol (Spanish speakers, feel free to correct me!)...

Acabo de pasar el dia en el parque nacional Rincon de La Vieja, se queda dos horas norte de Playa Flamingo. Fui en el ture con dos parejas cerca del edad de mis padres, tambien estudiantes. Estas parejas tienen mucho en comun, es magnifica que ellos se conocieron durante su semana aqui. Mis amigas aqui y yo estan de acuerdo que ellos seran amigos de vida.

Rincon de Vieja es un volcan, y el parque tiene barro herviendo y fumaroles (gracias a Dio que esa palabra es la misma en ingles y espanol, porque no puedo nunca lo recordar en ingles!). Vimos muchos de estas caracteristicas geotermas, y tambien una fabrica de energia geoterma (buena idea, CR!), matopalo arboles, una cascada bonita, y, mas importante, tantos monos!! Habia monos de cara blanca (como en "Friends") y un grande grupo de monos aranas!  Estaba muy emocianada. Nuestra guia tambien estaba magnifica, hablando a nosotros novente cinco por ciento en espanol de modo que nosotros podimos practicar. Terminimos esta dia magnifica para cubrirnos con barro terapeutico y banarnos en las termas.

Puedo pensar de maneras peores de pasar un dia! Unas fotos estan abaja.