lessons learned

Playa Blanca, Cahuita National Park

A combination of laziness and procrastination has prevented me from updating this blog. Sorry for the delay! To start, I went to Cahuita last weekend: a sleepy town on the Caribbean coast. When we got to the bus station, the 10 am bus had already sold out so we bought tickets for 12 pm and hung out playing cards (or reading philosophy in my case) for a few hours.

Product of boredom in the bus station: our album drops May 1st.

On the bus ride, I tried to stay awake to see the scenery. (Internal dialogue: “How many times am I going to be driving through Costa Rica? Oh. Probably every other weekend. Zzzz.”) but failed miserably and slept most of the way. We arrived in Cahuita pretty late, around 4 pm. After haphazardly strolling through Cahuita in search of a place to stay, we found Cabina’s Smith, a pretty decent hostel considering it only cost us $7 for the night.

Cabinas Smith

After equally haphazardly strolling through the town in search of some food, we settled upon a “Caribbean Tipic” restaurant. The waiter was either high, slow, or high and slow as it took forever to get our food. About twenty minutes after he had taken our orders, he came back to tell us that even though there were 7 of us eating, he only had 5 orders. Needless to say, it took a while to get our food. I ordered pescado, and indeed, fish I got. Filets are for wussies right? If I’m going to eat something I should be able to stare it in the face, or eye and slightly ajar gaping, toothy mouth.

Not as gross as it looks, but still not that good.

The night ended pretty early as sitting for four hours is surprisingly tiring. The next day started early so that we could do as much as possible before the 4:30 bus home. After waking up at 6, we got breakfast at the grocery store (slim pickings) to save money and walked to the Parque Nacional.

Beach.

BAMF yellow snake.

Leaf.

Sign.

Waves!

Mo' beach.

The Cahuita National Park is sort of half jungle, half beach with monkeys, snakes, sloths, lots of ants and lots of pretty vegetation. We played around with the waves for a little bit on Playa Blanca, then left to find lunch and Playa Negra (at about 10 am…) Playa Negra was a small walk away, and totally worth it. The sand actually sparkled purple and black when the sun hit it and the waves were perfect (if not a little scary) for playing in. Pretty much the whole day was overcast, which was preferable for me. I wasn't worried about being, "blinded by the lii-iight" or getting sun burned. (But I still wore sunscreen, Mom.)

On the walk to Playa Negra.

Walk to Playa Negra, again.

Sand on Playa Negra. You can't tell here, but the sand sparkled purpley. Really cool.

After our early-beginning day at the beach, we headed back to the hostel, washed up and left for the bus. (But not before an early dinner!) We wouldn’t be getting back to Heredia until about 9 or 10 so we stopped at a small Soda (diner-ish small restaurant) called Soda Tranquilo. Here is the lesson learned: when you spot a restaurant that is two stories tall and boasts “Caribbean Tipic” food (or exactly what you’re looking for), steer away and head for the unassuming, humble soda with just a few tables and some dang good food. Because we had to catch the bus soon after, said Soda food was scarfed down in about 10 minutes, aka not the most enjoyable eating experience, but the food was still good.

Mmm. Rice, beans, "pollo en salsa" (saucey chicken), patacones (green plantain patties), beet-y salad, cabbage salad. About $4.

(part of a) Sweet mural of Cahuita.

And so ended our trip to Cahuita—but not before a check up from the immigration police on our bus ride home! Everyone had to de-board the bus while group of policeman made sure we all had our passports or a copy (A few others and I didn’t—we got a, “Well bring it next time.”) Once back on the bus, the obnoxious tourist in me came out in full swing and I took pictures of the policemen from the window. All was well and good (and unnoticed by gun toting police) until a friend asked me to take one with her camera, and I didn’t realize the flash was on. Whoops, not so incognito now.

Monday was spent feeling blah. I went through sleeping with the chills, sleeping with a fever, and achey-ness all over. That has since passed, por dicha, but my digestive system has been through a roller coaster ride of thrills since. Didn't drink any water in Cahuita, but did eat a few wee salads. (On another note, beans—as much as I like them, are not the best food for an upset stomach.) The school week came and went with lots of procrastination. I thought I was a pro-procrastinator at UNC. No no. Here I am THE procrastinator. Philosophy is still slightly terrifying. We had a practice exam but it wasn’t too bad. My Health and Environment class makes me feel like I’m 4 years old. We do collages and talk about what the environment means to us. It sort of makes me want to punch myself in the face. (Did I mention that "Wikipedia" is in the bibliography for this class's course pack?) Tomorrow I have my first philosophy exam (essays, woo…), and still have lots of studying to do… so naturally, I chose now to update my blog.

This weekend, Friday night was spent out in Heredia. I went to Alcatraz, a bar I hadn't been to before, where the scene is classic/90's rock/random stuff. While I was in there, they played the "what if God was one of us" song, Cranberries (zoombieee) and other more hardcore songs. We barhopped for a bit, and when I got home, my host mom wasn't waiting up for me, sweeet. I think I have blazoned a trail for future students who stay here, because she went from telling me that a taxi driver will probably try to kill me, to being very chill about everything.

Saturday I went to a friend’s house somewhere in Alajuela. It was a really rural area that I don’t know the name of, but it was really beautiful. I figured the ride was only an hour and a half, and that I didn’t need to delve into my supply of don’t-throw-up-drugs. But, another lesson learned. Always. Take. Anti-Motion. Sickness. Stuff. Always. I spent most of the ride concentrating on not throwing up, but in vain. I’ll spare you the details but just say that it involved a few plastic bags, and a stark realization that, man, I really need to chew my food better. And made me want to never eat beans (or any other food for that matter) ever again. Saturday night was fun. Seven of us spent the night in a cabin eating spaghetti, playing spoons and walking around in oversized fleece blankets. Bonnie and I took the earliest bus home in the morning—my reason? Philosophy. I heard that we missed some awesome sliding down rockslides at a nearby waterfall. Maybe someday I’ll brave the ride back to the unidentified little town in Alajuela, anti-motion sickness drugs in tow, and rockslide down a catarata. That would be stellar.

They say house guests are like fish—they start to go bad after three days. If that’s the case then I must be rancid beyond belief. I really, really like my host family, but sometimes things get a little awkward. You can’t expect a family to be perfect all the time and of course, spats happen. When someone is in a bad mood, I am simply a bystander who tries not to talk a lot and pretends that I don’t understand the argument between mother/son/father/daughter, etc. Awky turtle family style. That doesn't happen too often, luckily.

In other news. I think my host mom is a mind reader. I was randomly thinking, Hm, butterscotch candies are good. And later in the day, she knocks on my door with a handful of candies, butterscotch included. How does she do that? Well I have surely spent enough time procrastinating. Future plans? Perhaps traveling to Volcan Arenal, Nicaragua (during our weeklong vaca (yes i just said vay-cay) for Semana Santa) and Mom and Claire are coming to visit mee! Un amigo from Nicaragua suggested Leon, Granada, Lake Managua, and San Juan del sur to visit during Semana Santa.

In other other news:

1. I'd really reeaally reaaaaaaalllllllly like to start doing some volunteer work. The way it works with this program is one of the coordinating ladies contacts people who would fit our volunteering needs. I'm getting sort of restless.

2. I got into the Health Policy program in the School of Public Health! The week after I found out was spent checking my e-mail religiously to see if there was a "Whoops, we didn't mean to send that e-mail to you," e-mail but there hasn't been and apparently the "official" notification is on its way.

3. The soups my host mom makes are out of this world.

4. I miss Chinese food.

5. I've been here for over a month. Wow, that feels weird to say/type.

6. My host sister and her boyfriend are very cute together. They go to Lord of the Rings conventions, and study computer science together.

7. My host bro spends an ungodly amount of time putting gel in his hair.

8. Taxi services here on the weekend are a hit or miss. On Friday, I called 5 taxi services--all with busy signals for a loooong time.

9. My dance class is pretty fun. We're learning salsa, cumbia/Costa Rican swing, bolero (boring-o), merengue and cha cha. We have this warm up period where the "teacher" (I think she's younger than me) shakes it in ways that I don't think gringos/chinos were made to shake.

10. My computer battery has mysteriously decided to suck. Apparently, the comp. has detected "irreparable damage" and it needs to be replaced. Bah.

11. My digestive system hates me.

Sooooo I am doing stellar-ly and I hope you all are, too. Cuidense, until we meet again.

Abrazos,
Erin

P.S. I'm not sure why the entry says February 23rd. It's February 25th.