Updates and other boring info.

Hello from Seattle!


My travels have ended, for now, and I've decided to keep my blog for awhile. After all, my life is pretty exciting even though I am no longer co-habitating with snakes, rain forest, and ticos. (That's a lie.) Here's an update on all those quasi-exciting weeks you, my reader, have missed.


June 6th-9th


Sheila flew in from Scotland and met me in Atlanta, Georgia, where we spent the night in a stunning hotel. It had hot water and a complimentary (and oh-so-american) breakfast. A day of indulgence, and processed foods. Very decadent.


We drove up to North Carolina together after getting a rental car hook-up from Pape, an african working at the rental place. It was sweet. The guy in the office, Arthur, was snide and snotty (oooh, alliteration). When Sheila turned down a 90 dollar upgrad to a larger vehicle, he told her "you people (europeans) never upgrade to the bigger car". Normally I would think this a compliment, but the way our dear friend Arthur said it, it sounded like Sheila was one of those cruel and unusual terrifiers of small children or something. I actually think that he sneered after smirking over her oddness.


Out in the parking lot, we wandered around looking as if we knew exactly what we were doing. I had my complete collection of 'I've been away for 3 months and bought too many presents' luggage with me, and Sheila had a packed bag that is normally used for holding enough gear to take you up a mountain (poofy jackets galore). At some point we dropped our bags and Sheila went looking for help.


That's when we met Pape! There weren't any miniscule cars ready, so he told us to take one of the jumbo fancy cars, and then preceded to hang out. He spoke about how important it was to help people out, and bonded with Sheila over her travels in Africa. Then he insisted that we take his phone number 'just in case', and especially if we wanted to stay with his family while in Africa.

Personally, I think it was a great welcome back to the U.S. One snarky guy to remind you how ridiculous people can be, and one generous person to keep you from tossing in the towel.


The rest of the trip Sheila and I spent finding a hotel with a pool, enjoying Asheville, and relaxing. I was really tired, and wanted to sit around and dry out-which sounds odd, but my favorite part of returning was having dry sheets. Wet sheets are horrible. Just plain wrong. Dry sheets are delicious, so crisp and cozy! I also got to wash my clothes, which was much needed. I spent a lot of time in Sheila's clothes, mainly because it felt good to be out of the two shorts and tank tops I'd been wearing for the larger part of three months.

Asheville is a cool town. Lots of artsy things and people, cute streets and shops, and yummy food. The place had a great vibe.

After our time alone, we headed out to a beautiful house near Asheville for our time with the family.

June 9-16th

My family spent the week hanging out and adoring the little guys. It was great for the aunties, we got to have a lot of play time with our nephews and neice, which is priceless!

Quinlan is active and precocious, he's intense and gives you a run for your money. He asked searing questions like, "Why?" and "But, why?" I never realized how hard that question is to answer! Myla Rose seemed more tentative at first, but warmed up to the plethora of adoring Aunties. She walks like a little sumo wrestler, and has a well-loved blanket and stuffed puppy dog. Understanding attachments to things like this, I feel like we'll have a lot in common. Atticus Zane dislikes sleeping. He seems to adore eating, being held while someone runs in circles, and keeping his mom up whenever possible.

Much time was spent making ridiculous faces and dancing in order to make the babies laugh. (Yes, you did read that right, our dancing is *good* enough to entertain babies.) They are a tough crowd! You really have to work for those smiles.

The best part of the trip was getting to know these guys. They are growing up so quickly, and have such amazing personalities. Each time I see them, I learn something new. I'm looking forwards to learning more about who they are, and seeing who they'll become.

June 16-17th

By the time the 16th rolled around, I was ready to get back to Seattle and unpack (ohhh so ready). I was also pretty excited to see Brian (understatement). Sadly, fate had a little lesson in patience in store for me.

Sheila and I drove back together, and then hung out a little before she hopped on a plane back to Scotland. After that, I had about 6 hours to kill before my flight, so I headed to downtown Atlanta via their fantastic train system. I caught the Annie Lebowitz exibit at the art museum, which was fantastic. I really enjoy her photography, and it was a great way to spend some time.

I also checked out Underground Atlanta, but I'm not a huge fan. It's basically a bunch of shops underground, but it looks like a street. A cool idea, but it wasn't something I'm in to. There were a lot of left over and slightly sad looking Olympic Games paraphinelia, which was kind of cool and kind of depressing. It gave the area that feeling of-the parade was yesterday and you missed it.

Back at the airport, I learned that my flight was delayed (after checking in of course) three hours. This would not normally be a problem, but it caused me to miss my connecting flight to Seattle. When I arrived in Houston, Texas at 1 am, I was rushed to a line outside of the security check. They put me on a flight at 730 the next morning, and told me that I would not get a voucher for a hotel since I was on a domestic flight and the cause was 'natural'. Umm...Right. So since I had left the secured area and it was now too late to get back in, I would be lucky enough to spend the night on one of the two chairs provided. Not my idea of fun. I argued, which did nothing except make them annoyed.

It sucked. I was tired (Sheila and I left at 8am and it was now 130am) and had been so looking forwards to finally being home.

So! After wandering around and looking bereft for a while, I called the hotels to find that most are booked and the rest are really expensive, and nearly had a hissy fit. Just not my night.

More wandering around looking bereft ensued before I found another ticket counter. A wonderful man, whose name I meant to remember but didn't, hooked me up with a hotel room. I think it's because I looked so pitiful. He also got a church group to take me under their wing for the ride to the hotel-which was awesome because they sprung for a taxi (I didn't have any cash on me, I know, very smart).

You would think that I would be rearing to go for that early morning flight. I had set my alarm, asked for a wake-up call, and Brian was going to call. This may seem extreme, but I really wanted to get out of there, and would only be getting 3 1/2 hours of sleep. I barely had enough time to admire the dryness of the sheets before passing out.

I woke up at 9am.

What's that they say about the best laid plans?

The airport was chaos, but I managed to get on a 3pm flight. Then, I found another flight and was put on stand by. It left at 12pm. Both flights were delayed, but I managed to leave Houston at some point. I'm not even sure when.

When we flew into Seattle, I felt good. I felt like I was home.

June 17th-July 2nd

Once back in Seattle, Brian and I hung out for a few days before heading to the Sierras (woo hoo!). His truck sprung an oil leak right before we were supposed to leave so our plans changed slightly. One of our roomates works for Mountain Madness, a guide company, and he was due to guide someone up the nose of El Capitan. He offered us a ride, so Brian and I condensed our climbing and camping gear into two packs and joined him for the long drive to Yosemite.

Luckily, they were both more into driving in the middle of the night than I am.

They dropped us off in Tuolome Meadows, where we climbed Lumbert's Dome and Cathedral Peak and did some mellow front-country camping and hiking. Climbing Cathedral Peak was a memorable experience. It's a beautiful peak and a very popular climb, which meant that there were crowds even though we hiked a few miles just to get there. We left around 530 am and got back to our campsite around 730 pm. Needless to say, it was a long day.

Cathedral Peak

Lembert Dome

After a rest day, we hiked from Tuolome Meadows to Yosemite Valley in 5 days. We were going to take 6, but I burned out-just ready to sleep in a bed and eat food that isn't dehydrated. The hike is relatively short, around 30 miles, so we took our time and enjoyed the many lakes along the trail. I wish I could say the same of the mosquitos...(Didn't I leave those in Costa Rica? Apparantly not.) I had fun preparing meals for the trip, using the cookbook that Devon gave me-Lipsmakin' Vegetarian Backpacking. Some of the meals were horrible, and some of them were great. Our favorite is the Pine Valley Couscous. Basically couscous with tons of spices, pine nuts, mushrooms, and tomatoes. Mmm...Gourmet camping food! One of the worst was an oatmeal dish that turned out to be flavorless goo. Ugh. Very wrong. I couldn't eat it.

Then back to Seattle.

July 2nd-July18th

We've been house and dog sitting in Kirkland, which is very close to where I have my new job. Betsy's office needed a temporary receptionist, and decided that I fit the bill. It's great, I owe her one (maybe ten).

This past weekend we spent moving into a beautiful apartment in Fremont-the artsy/funky neighborhood. It's closer to a food co-op, and still close to the bike trail that takes me to school and Brian to work-which is great. And we're done moving-which is fabulous.

That's my news!

If I haven't heard from you in awhile, send me an email! Let me know how you're doing, I now have actual internet access so I will even return your email. Amazing, I know.

No more classes

A very posed running shot








Group photo on our last night









That´s supposed to be me (sarong, pigtails, goatee) and my running buddy (Robin was having a wardrobe malfunction)







Using the phone at San Miguel, with Chingo in the foreground










I´m done! I officially survived the school portion of the trip. Whew! Definitely had some snags towards the end, but it was fun.

Last week I took one of my friends to the city hospital with our Costa Rican TA (Nacho!). It was an adventure. The hospital was really nice, and she ended up making it through.
Then, back to the ranch to finish up papers and tests. Good times.

I have so many stories to tell! It´s going to be interesting to try to get them out there...Where to start...

On our last night, the volunteers and owners of the ranch treated us to a pizza dinner and show. The pizzas were phenomenal. I had the luck to share a pizza with Greg, who told me that he had skills due to a stint at Dominos. He made us a gourmet pizza (pineapple, squash, roasted garlic, pesto, need I go on?) and Robin fired it up in the cob oven. It was amazing!

The skit was fun. My face hurt from laughing and smiling so hard. They made in fun of each of us, and sometimes themselves, with surprising accuracy. It´s interesting seeing how other people see you. Especially since they only saw us at mealtimes or in between travels. The wannabe Bridgid wore a sarong, pigtails, and ran. Hmmm...
It was really cute, Robin played my running buddy, who tends to wear head wraps. (I´ll put in a photo, you have to see it. By the way, I definitely do not wear sarongs while running.)

I made a movie of some of our class photos with a couple of people, it turned out really well. I´ll bring it to the family vacation so that you guys can see it.

Going back in time (isn´t there a great 80s song that starts that way..?) my presentation went really well. There was a huge turnout-all the ranch people and at least 15 locals. The projector went out during my power point presentation, but it only made it more interesting. The spider pictures turned out so well!

Amelia, Jen, and I are now in the busting city-San Jose. We managed to find a really cool neighborhood to stay in until Monday, when Jen will go back to the hospital for some more tests. The houses and buildings are old and have a lot of character. It was a great surprise, most of the city is really ugly. Shanty towns next to gated mansions, Hooters next to family-run sodas (little restaurants with casados and other typical Costa Rican meals). Yesterday we hung out with another student, Arwen, until her family arrived. We checked out the central plaza and ate and an amazing restaurant. It was sooo good-we tried something new, plantains stuffed with beans and guacamole-and it was muy delicioso!

I have until the 6th before I leave, so I´ll be updating my blog when I find the patience.

Hello from Jaco

So somehow it's been nearly a month since my last update. Hmmm...

We've been busy, and the internet has been scarce. But, a lot of
exciting things have happened. Right now we're spending our last
'free' weekend in a busy beach town. The beach is beautiful and the
town is ugly. Seems to be the case with the more popular beaches. If
you ever come this way, head to the less popular locations!!

I'm recovering from some type of stomach sickness. We're not sure what
happened, but I couldn't get out of bed for a day. It was horrible,
nasty cramping and nausea, and really put me behind with my work. Very
frustrating. Also frustrating because there are so many cool foods to
try in town! Anyhow, I'm taking it easy, no worries. It will be nice
to let my body recuperate a bit more once the program is over.

Next week we wrap up our individual projects, present them to the
community, and then we're done! I'll be hanging out in CR for a few
days before heading to a family vacation in North Carolina. Hopefully
I'll get to see another volcano (!). The plan, unless I'm still
feeling under the weather, is to go to Arenal. It's a pretty popular
spot, and the visibility might be low since we're in the rainy season
now...but we still might go. Maybe. = )

Due to a time constraint (aka-the bus leaves soon and I forgot to do
something, aack!), this will be short.

Mastatal has been great. The ranch is beautiful, and I've been getting
to know some of the community members. Living with twelve people has
been a real challenge, and I'll be happy when we're done. It's so
green right now, the rains have brought out even more beauty than
before. Flowers are blooming, green things are getting green, the mud
is getting deeper.

Last weekend I played in a Gringas vs. Ticas soccer game. It was great
fun, even though the field is covered in mud holes and more of a swamp
than a field. Amazingly enough, the Ticas didn't win! It had very
little to do with our skill. We actually scored two goals for their
team (no comment). I spent a lot of time on the ground, in the mud,
but had an awesome time.

One of the local guys, the town shaman, came by and showed a few of us
how to weave baskets. It was an interesting experience, and I now have
a lovely (lumpy) basket to take home. He's an amazing guy, he knows
every plant (with the wall of green that is the outdoors, this is
really impressive), and he's the local thatch expert. He's helping one
of the students build a shelter for the kids to hang out in. It's been
interesting watching it go up, and watching him. Once he built the
structure, he popped off his shoes, pulled himself onto the roof, and
started walking around in his socks. It's a weird sight to see a
little old man hopping around (25 feet off the ground) in his socks.
With a machete in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

I've spent some time with the kids at the school too. They're all
smart and constantly moving. Their teacher is amazing. I'd lose
patience with them after an hour. It makes for fun games though!

Tim taught some of us to make mead. Yes, I can now make mead, but I
can't promise that it will be good. It's fermented honey, and can turn
out really sweet. Too sweet for me even! It was fun to make, and I'd
do it again.

Another local guy took a few of us to the highest peak (only ~4,000
feet, don't get too excited) in the area. It was a beautiful hike, and
we had great weather. I was battling a funky prickly rash-thing on my
back, but still enjoyed the hike. We saw a huge snake on the trail, it
actually eats Fer-de-lance snakes!

As for snakes, a local guy was bitten by a Bushmaster (super poisonous
and aggressive) three times. He was reaching for his toothbrush,
beneath a sink, and didn't look first. They think that the snake had
just eaten, because he actually lived. It was kind of creepy, I had
danced with him a couple of weeks before (he's a horrible dancer, but
very nice), and got to chat with him afterwords. Crazy!

I'll try to remember all of our other adventures and catch up later.

Must catch a bus!

Mastatal, Dominical, Baru, oh my!

Too many places and too little internet!

 

Our classes and activities have picked up in Mastatal, and we´re getting less travel/internet time. I wanted to tell everyone all about my recent adventures, but the internet connection is going in and out today. (hurrah)

 

We´ve been hanging out in Baru, a nature reserve that is near the dirty beach town (Dominical). Last night I went for a night hike/camp out with a few other students. It was intense!!! An amazing experience. I´ll give details later.

 

Other excitement, I´ve officially fallen in love with rattle snakes. They´re so cool! They let you know where they are and if they´re pissed. How great is that? Fer-de-lances and pit vipers on the other hand...We did forest measurements and came within a few feet of a fer-de-lance. Crazy. It´s a beautiful snake, but I don´t feel like I need to see it again in order to confirm that. Then, I was doing measurements with a smaller group later in the day, and a pit viper fell out of a tree and landed next to my foot. Yikes!

 

Life is good. My professor told me that they´re pretty mellow snakes. Riiiight.

 

We´re back to Mastatal tomorrow. Remind me to tell you guys about homestays, soap making, and the big town dance...so much to say!!

 

 

 

Photos added

Don't get too excited, I've only added a handful. It takes ages to upload the photos and we're limited on computer use (12 cranky students, 2 laptops-good times). That's my excuse...

I put a few into the older posts, one under Heredia, and a few under Update from the coast. The rest are in the new posts.

No monkey photos as of yet...or video...but it'll happen.

Enjoy!

Where does your coffee come from?

Have I mentioned Arturo yet?

The man is amazing. He's a little dynamo-he tends to gesture wildly, walks around when making a point, spits a bunch...awesome guy. We met Arturo at the coffee mill near his farm and coffee plantation. Arturo has managed to bring coffee farmers in his area together and has helped many of them to become organic farmers. He took us around both the mill and his own farm, and gave us a crash course in the coffee trade. It's a complex topic, and I definitely won't do it justice. My professor, Susan, recommends the book Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How it Transformed Our World.

Although I've seen the fair-trade stickers, and had heard about shade-grown coffee, I never knew the details. Here's the scoop: fair-trade means that the coffee farmer gets the profits from the coffee they grow. Not the businessmen and not the middlemen (known as coyotes in Costa Rica). This is a big deal. One coffee farmer is like one coffee bean within a ton of coffee. He's a little guy, and doesn't have a lot of power. Middle men take advantage of the coffee farmer. Coffee is only harvested once a year, and a lot depends on that yearly harvest of the Costa Rican coffee farmer. They get desperate, and if they sell out to a middle man who pays below the worth of the coffee, then the farmer will suffer for the rest of the year. If you buy fair trade, then you know that you are buying directly from the farmer.

Shade-grown coffee takes the efficiency out of coffee farming. *gasp!* What will we do without efficiency?!?!

Shade-grown means that the coffee is not grown as a mono-crop, but that it is grown alongside other plants, such as banana trees. The trees, a natural part of Costa Rica, provide key habitats for birds. Without the trees, you lose the birds. Since I've been here we've driven along many roads that have coffee plantations covering the hills (did you know that the quality of coffee increases with the altitude?), and the hills are barren of any trees. The other problem with the lack of crop diversity is that it taxes the soil. In order to grow that much coffee, year after year, the farmers coat their fields with chemicals.

Organically grown coffee means that it is grown without chemical fertilizers, fungicides or pesticides. Most of the farmers who are growing their coffee organically are also a part of fair-trade and shade-grown coffee. It gets kind of complicated, since the farmers need certifications for each of the three, and the certifications cost a lot of money. The small-time farmers in some areas have formed groups, and pay for the certifications together (it's like buying in bulk, it's cheaper if there is more of them doing it at once).They also do outreach-they educate farmers on what the three different elements mean.

Arturo is a big part of the organic coffee farmer group in his area. He also travels directly to the US to sell his coffee (it actually costs less!). He is trying to figure out a way to get the three certifications condensed to one, mainly so that the farmers will only have to pay for a single certification. If anyone can do it, it'll be Arturo.

He introduced us to a friend of his, a guy named Minor. Minor is also a coffee farmer, his family owns one of the largest privately owned coffee plantations in the area. After learning more about organic farming, he decided to try it out on his own land. Against the wishes (and without the support) of his family, he stopped using chemicals on a part of his family plantation. It's been about 8 years, and he thinks that it will be ready in 4 more years.

The soil was nearly dead when he began, drained of any health by the chemicals his family used in order to keep producing coffee crops year after year. With Arturo's help, he's learned to make organic fertilizers and to grow plants that are helping restore the nutrients in the soil. I was really impressed by Minor, but also reminded of the struggle it would be for those less fortunate than him. He was able to use finances from the other plots in the family plantation while he worked on switching to organic methods. What about farmers without that support system?

Guys like Arturo are important. He's fighting for the little guys, the small-time coffee farmers that are up against the Goliath corporations that buy coffee from everyone else. He's also supporting sustainable methods of farming. Growing plants side by side that complement one another (check out permaculture if you're interested, I basically mean that one plant helps replace the nutrients that another plant uses), using what the land provides instead of forcing it to grow what you want and how you want it and using the land in a way that will ensure future generations that same privilege.

The most important thing

Food!

I've gotten a couple of questions on what I'm eating down here, and thought I'd talk a little about one of my favorite topics.

The diet is primarily vegetarian here, but meat is definitely available, especially in the super-americanized areas. Our group normally sticks to casados (fun fact from my Spanish instructor: casado is the word for married, and is also used for this dish b/c it's combinations of things that go very well together). Casados vary, and I can definitely attest to that. No two are the same! Each normally has rice, beans  and a veggie. Some have had fried plantains, fried eggs, a lettuce-based salad (the locals put mayonnaise and ketchup on it, sooo wrong, and this is from someone who used to consider ketchup a food group!) or other local specialties. I've only gotten the vegetarian casado, but they also make fish and other meat casados. There is a topping, kind of like ketchup, that is ever-present. It reminds me of Taco Bell hot sauce packets (the mild one), and people put it on everything. It's really good on eggs.

Fresh fruit is readily available, especially pineapple, mango, papaya and passion fruit. At Mastatal they have a type of white pineapple. It's really good, and is less fibrous than the yellow pineapple. I'm not a huge fan of papaya, but the people who like it loooove it here. I am a huge fan of mango, and I've been eating some amazing mangoes. Hurrah! There are other unique fruits that we've been trying along the way, and fresh juices as well. I'm not a huge fan of juice, but I've been trying the juices here. They're very intense, and really good.

The vegetables are amazing as well. Not a lot of dark leafy greens, but plenty of avocados!!

In the cities the food tends to be greasy and they rarely use fresh ingredients. I've definitely appreciated staying at Mastatal and Durika, where everything is fresh and delicious. A couple of the places we stayed used a lot of frozen vegetables and milk or butter based sauces. I think they thought it would be more appreciated by us, but I'm definitely not a fan.

We've made a couple of stops at bakeries, but I haven't bought anything yet. I did try an empenada (spelling on that?) filled with a squash, sugar and spices. It was really good, but very bready. It seems like most of their treats tend to be bready. Since it's so hot, they're not really appealing to me. My favorite treat has been chocolate covered guava beads. They're about the size of a raisin and really good. I've only bought them once (we're tracking all of our waste!) but I'm going to try to bring some home for people to try. I'm usually really into sweets (*ahem* understatement?), but haven't been down here. I feel pretty good about it. I've been trying to eat less sugar, especially uber-processed, and there's no time like the present.

For the coffee drinkers out there (who? what? coffee? never!), it's amazing. I've had coffee twice, which is big because since I've quit drinking coffee it normally takes a really good brew to get me to drink it. The drip coffee is always good here, even at the random places. It makes sense, with all the coffee plantations. The coffee drinkers in the group have been really happy. Gabriel reminded us that we'll be giving up coffee once we get back to Seattle, unless they start growing it locally. Amelia and Jen have decided to start growing once we get back.