Storm Chasing (Manuel Antonio)

So I mentioned something about surfing last time, when in fact there was no surfing only falling. Its much harder then it looks, I got up once and proceeded to fall over... Oh well, next time.

Yesterday a couple gringos came in, Andy and Dan, a couple ER doctors from Philly, yes they do enjoy the show Its Always Sunny in Philidelphia. They were nice guys, we sat around drinking whiskey for awhile and all headed down to the ocean for a night swim. The rain was pretty intense, but it was warm so we didnt care, there was lightning and thunder to the point of blinding and deafening us and it was amazing. We got back and some of the girls started attacking us with towels. A bigger polish girl got Dan in a headlock as he screamed I am doctor you cant do this to me. It was a riot... I guess you had to be there. They had to take off today, but we might see them Saturday in San Jose for Halloween.

Yesterday in the late afternoon I stumbled upon a trail near our hostel and ran back to my room to gear up. With about an hour of sun left I headed in not knowing what I would find. It was a fairly touristy trail, with a guide rope and cinder block stairs at some points, which was actually a good thing as the hill was very steep and the terrain very slippery. I walked up and up and up for what seemed a very long time, the humidity makes hiking quite the challenge. At one point during my climb I heard a loud sound from some animal that made me question if I should actually be in the jungle by myself, but after hearing it repeated in response to the first sound around me in various pitches and patterns that it was just some monkeys claiming their territory. I finally got to the top and found a bench overlooking rolling jungle and sat and ¨meditated¨for awhile. I am really happy to have had that chance to clear my head, I realized that it has been awhile since I have been completely alone which is not commonplace for me. Back home I spend a fair amount of time with solely my thoughts for company and I love it. Dont get me wrong these new friends of mine are great, but some time a man has to be alone. So anyways I think I will go pack a lunch in an hour and go hike back up to my viewpoint.

I think tomorrow is it for Manuel Antonio, sadly. I might be headed up north to Jaco for some sort of halloween shindig, who knows... I am finding out more and more that Costa Rica is a Twilight Zone of sorts, time ceases to exist and nothing is quite what it seems or what you would expect. Until next time...

Another Day in Paradise (Manuel Antonio)

An underwater camera is great until you lose it underwater....

I arrived in Manuel Antonio on Saturday with intentions of being here only until Sunday, it is now Tuesday (I think) and I plan on being here until Friday (or Saturday.) This place is a slice of heaven if I may be cliche for a moment, there are geckos running around my room, iguanas above the showers, and monkeys in the trees in our courtyard. The people who own Hostel Costa Linda, are two crazy Germans who know how to have fun. If I wasn't off to Cuba next week who knows how long I would remain here. Anyhow off to my adventures thus far..

Soooo, Saturday was spent at the beach, after we got off the bus at 9:45 and checked in to our hostel. After dinner we all went into Quepos, a small town North of here, and went to this huge salsa and meringue discotec, it was a lot of fun and I would of posted some priceless photos if I still had my camera, more on that in a bit. Sunday morning we all got a late start and hit the beach again after a nice greasy lunch and burned up for a bit before half of are crew had to head back to San Jose (suckers!) The remaining few stayed on the beach and had some pina coladas in their honor. Sunday night after sitting around the hostel with some other tourists a few of us decided to go to the beach for some moonlight swimming, I decided to bring my camera and in a stupid mistake lost it in a wave because I didnt have it around my wrist, I ran back to the hostel to grab my headlamp for a rescue mission, in the process breaking my sandals and busting my foot, great night, I didn't retrieve my camera obviously and needless to say I was a little bummed about it yesterday. It didnt help that I had the beginnings of a cold that fully blossomed this morning. I was woken up by the girls because we were supposed to be heading to the national park this morning for a hike, I told them it wasnt happening for me because my head felt like a cement block and I was exhausted so Marina brought me some water and some cold medicine and I proceeded to sleep the day away in a miserable sweat. I woke up an hour or so ago feeling a bit disoriented but less congested and dizzy than this morning, thank god!

My time is running short on this prepay internet crap so I must be going folks. I will tell you about my surfing experience sooner then later. It's a lot harder than it looks. Until next time...

Shhhhh! Don´t Tell America...

So once again my plans have changed, I am now done with school. I cant take it, I need to travel. So tomorrow I am off to spend the weekend in Manuel Antonio National Park on the Pacific side, sunsets galore. I plan on hiking through the jungle and exiting on to a secluded beach somewhere to work on this pastey complexion and at night I will head to a town up north from there and entertain myself at some salsa bars. Rough life, aye? On Tuesday I head up north to Nicaragua for the rest of the week with my friend Leonora to hang out on the beach in San Juan Del Sur for a day or two and then over to the center of Lake Nicaragua to an island called Isla Ometepe, which houses two symetrical volcanoes threatening to erupt at any time or so they say. The next trip is top secret on the 2nd of November.... Well I will tell you, just don´t inform the US government... I am headed to Cuba for two weeks of adventure and old Caddillacs. No seriously, this place looks as if it has been frozen in time, 1950 Caddillacs roam the streets of Havana. Keep posted for pics in my facebook, they will be outlandish I promise.

As of my last post there has been no real excitement, I went and saw Inglorious Bastards (Bastardos sin Gloria) and had the luxury of trying to interpret the German and French dialogue through Spanish subtitles which I was relatively successful with. The movie was great and it only cost four bucks. Love this country. Well folks dont have much to add, I definately will be having some adventures in the weeks to come so stay posted. Hope all is well. Until next time...

Dreams of Meteorites

Where to begin? This last weekend was absolutely amazing, we went to Puerto Viejo as I said and partied like frat boys... Not really, but we had a lot of fun. After a four hour bus ride we arrived and it was very hot and humid there. The town itself is a very sleepy one, reggae music drifting from a lot of the bars and houses and the vibe mirrored the music. We rushed to our hotels and were all pleasantly surprised to find a beautiful courtyard surrounded by our rooms. We left to find food, cervesa, and dancing which is all very abundant there. We had pizza, of all things, and listened to live reggae which was both very good. After that we went to a bar directly on the beach called Jhonnys Place or something something similar and danced in the ocean more a less, a very surreal experience for all of us. We finished the night with some locals sitting and chatting. I am impressed with how much easier it is to speak and understand Spanish after a few imperials.

The next day we had breakfast at this amazing little spot called Bread and Chocolate, a very American breakfast but good none the less. (Oh, this may be a good time to point out that this town is overrun with tourist, not an ideal situation for me but it was kind of nice to run into some other gringos.) After breakfast it was off to the beach for some swimming and sun worshipping, we rented some bikes for like three dollars and rode a ways to the south. The sun was brutal and we were sweating our asses off but the grins on our faces spoke louder then words. We hung out on the beach for quite a few hours and none of us got to burned and then we all ran back home to shower and get ready for another night of dancing. See the theme here, Pura Vida. Johnnys was packed and they were playing top 40 mainstream stuff but I didn't care, the energy, the people, my friends, I couldn't ask for anything more. Why would anyone? That night was a long night to say the least, but the details are only available in hear say and photos.

The last day, or more appropriately the last morning, was bitter sweet. None of us wanted to go back to the city and so we laid on the beach until shortly before we needed to catch the bus and drank Pipas(?), which is coconut water out of yellow coconuts, delicious stuff really. We boarded the bus all very exhausted and I for one slept the entire way home.

Yesterday I was still very tired from the weekend and after school I came home and slept, woke up ate dinner, watched a bit of TV, slept through the night. During the night I had many a crazy dream, the only one I remember well at this point involved a bunch of my friends from Portland and I sitting on a hill watching a huge meteorite fall from the sky and land in the distance with a tremendous flash. Don't know what it meant but it was very beautiful and emotional for some reason. Until next time....

America...F%#& Yeah!

Last night was amazing! Went to my new watering hole, Caccios, and watched the USA vs Costa Rica futbol game. I was rooting for Costa Rica, believe it or not, because last nights game determined whether or not they would make it into the World Cup. The bar was crazy packed and Bram and I were the only two foreigners and we were sticking out like sore thumbs, which seems to work out in our advantage for many reasons. I had a journalist come and talk to me and I had my picture taken while holding a Costa Rican jersey. I am hoping that tomorrow I can find the article, it would be great to have that as a souvenir. Unfortunately Costa Rica lost, but it didn't put a damper on the festivities. We made some new friends, as we always do at Caccios, and shared drinks and stories until the wee hours of the night. Not such a good time this morning when I had to be up at 7 o clock.

I made the decision to cancel the sea turtle project and instead opted for two additional weeks of Spanish school. I like it a there lot and would like to learn as much Spanish as possible, if I had more money I would stay for a long time. After those two weeks I will travel around with Maya I think, but this trip has already been random and unexpected so who knows whatll happen.

This weekend several other students and I are headed to Puerto Viejo, a sleepy little town on the beach in the south Caribbean. I cant wait for the hot sun and cool breezes. We are arriving in the middle of Carnival, so that should be quite the spectacle... and who knows maybe I will find myself a nice Tica and never return to the states.

Short blog today as I am very tired and ready for a siesta. Until next time.......

Where to Begin...

It has been a few days since my last post, I have been keeping very busy. Lets see... Wednesday night I went out with Maya, her host brother Jonathan, and a friend of his, Raquel. We went to a place called Lubnan, which has amazing Lebanese food, during which I got involved an argument with Raquel, which I have had with four Ticos since, about the number of continents. Let me explain, we have all learned that there are seven continents; North America, South America, Asia, Europe, Africa, Austrailia, and Antartica, right? Don't tell Ticos that! They believe that there is only one America, they ask what continent is Central America apart of? It is a matter of great pride for them and after arguing some valid points for a while I give up and say we will agree to disagree and move on. After the restaurant we went to a bar connected to the restaurant and we had some drinks while listening to a dj play some electronic music which I found rather unpalatable, everyone else thought it was amazing. To each their own.

The next day was a little slow starting for me and after class I went and grabbed a beer with my classmates. The place very cheap, a bit over a dollar a beer, but the environment was lacking a lot. For instance the bathrooms were rather frightening, a small room with a dirty trough to do your business, my classmates said they saw several cockroaches in there as well. Despite that though it was a fun time, and we decided we should all go out that night and have some more fun, which I agreed to obviously. We all parted ways and I came home to take a nap and eat dinner here before our adventures. I called everyone to see if we were still on and Bram, the Dutchman, was the only one still down for the cause. "Guys night out could be interesting," we thought. We decided to go to San Pedro, a district right outside San Jose, to an area named La Calle de Amargura (the street of bitterness) We started out in a bar called Caccios whose slogan is "for a world without reggaton." They serve Imperial in a huge stein for just over two dollars. We sat there for awhile and enjoyed the scenery before being approached by a Tica who spoke amazing English. She is in medical school and off to an internship at Harvard next year. She was very nice and told us some tips on the area and what to do. She had to leave but gave us her phone number and said to call her sometime if we want to be shown around, could be fun. Not more then two minutes after she left the couple behind us started a conversation with us, the guy had been to Germany and was talking to Bram about it and the female had been to the states a few times and we were discussing that. She is a foreign relations major and so we had a lot to discuss obviously. At what point Bram and I were simultaneously arguing the fact of seven continents, it was rather funny in retrospect. That bar closed, so we went across the street to a place where they had some friends it turned out, so we all talked and laughed until the end of the night. The couple gave us their information and said to call them soon for another night of entertainment. We hailed a cab went on our ways.

Friday morning was rather rough and I looked forward to staying in that night, but Bram informed me that I promised we would go out again so I reluctantly agreed. Once again both girls bailed out, but we didn't care as the night before was one of the funnest nights ever. Again we went to the street of bitterness and had some drinks, but the atmosphere wasn't the same so we headed off to another place across San Jose, which Bram had been to the week prior. The name of this place is El Pueblo, its insane! Its essentially a huge mall full of different types a bars and late night eateries, and a lot of people. We went around checking out the different areas, getting a lot of attention from girls as there were no other tourists that I noticed, especially none that were 6'2 and 6'4. We went to some large discoteca, danced and admired the scenery for awhile, before we decided to leave because it was getting late, we both had early buses the next morning. Walking towards the exit we were intercepted by a couple cute girls who wanted us to come get food with them we agreed wholeheartedly. They took us to Taco Bell of all places and we chatted for awhile and then they told us that they had boyfriends they had to go see and gave us there contacts before taking off. Scandalous Ticas! We stumbled into a cab and went home.

Upon this writing I am very sore, yesterday morning after two hours of sleep I woke up and ran into San Jose to catch a van with Maya. We were late and the van was gone, but fortunately a gentleman offered to call them and after a bit he rushed us into his cab where we flew down the busy streets meeting the bus just moments before it jumped on the expressway. It was pretty epic. The tour guide jokingly gave us trouble about it before explaining to us the ins and outs of whitewater rafting. That's right, yesterday I risked life and limb on the Rio Pecuare, in Turriapal, about two ours outside the city. The place was absolutely beautiful, an insanely large river running straight through the jungle. The boat I was on was all American except for Maya and another gentleman who was a Tico. It was my first time whitewater rafting and will definitely not be my last. The rapids were insane, we were thrown left and right but never flipped (we did watch a boat of Americans behind us flip, no one was hurt so it was very funny.) We had a break for lunch in the middle of the jungle next to the river, I can't wait for my jungle treks I plan to do in the future. I saw all sorts of butterflies, an iguana, a couple small lizards (one of which was in our boat somehow and spent some time lounging on my leg), and a huge wolf spider. I love this place. After three hours, countless rapids and some much needed time spent swimming in the cool water it was over. We got a couple group photos, exchanged email, and parted ways.

The van ride was spent in and out of slumber for most of the group, myself included. I got home exhausted and a bit beat up. I was invited out by Christian, which I quickly declined. I need rest badly, so I passed out shortly after dinner and slept through the night easily. Today my body is stiff and sore, but the memories of yesterday are worth every shooting pain in my back and legs.

Until next time, for I am off to enjoy homemade sushi down the street...

Apartheid and a Drummer Boy

Today was the first day Maya and I navigated the bus system and San Jose entirely on our own, rather succesfully I might add. Well, despite the homeless man pissing on the sidewalk with his member in full view of anyone and everyone.... yeah, about that. Thanks for the show you dirty vagabond. We got to school and had our first conversation class before our standard classes, it was great, in fact I wish I was taking a few more weeks, maybe next year I will come for two months and become an expert.

I am beginning to form friendships with my other classmates, which seems quick to happen when you share the common trait of being foreigners in a strange place. Leonora, the girl from South Africa, and I have had a few good discussions about the politics of our countries, which is very depressing for me. I refuse to defend it, I am proud of my city, but not my country... Though listening to the gut wrenching stories from Leo make the problems in the US seem like Jerry Springer episodes. I will spare the details, doesnt need to be repeated. I knew a bit about Apartheid and events surrounding it but hearing first hand accounts is a completely different experience, very depressing. I look forward to hanging out with her tomorrow for some cervesas and conversation.

After school Maya and I went to the Museo de Oro Procolumbio (Museum of Pre Columbian Gold) It was beautiful. Along with the obvious there were exhibits on the history of Costa Rican currency, the history of stamps and letters in Costa Rica, and artifacts and history on the Pre Columbian natives. An older gentleman struck up a conversation with us and told us the following story, which I took the liberty of researching the facts for; Costa Rica declared independence as a soverign state from Spain in 1838, after which their only threat was in 1856 from an American adventurer, William Walker. He invaded from Nicaragua, which he had conquered the year prior, with a mercenary army. He had visions of turning Central America into slave states, fortunately the president, Juan Rafeal Mora, raised a volunteer army and ran them back into Nicaragua where they were met by various other armies from around Central America. It is said that William Walkers army sought refuge in a wooden fort near the border, where a poor drummer boy named Juan Santamaria volunteered to torch down the structure. He ran towards the building, torch in hand, and was shot multiple times and killed, but not before tossing the torch and succesfully burning down the fort. There is no way to know if all these events are true, but he is a national hero and every April 11th he is honored with a holiday. I found this to be a great story, but it was kind of embarrasing as well. Of course it was an arrogant American who tried to invade this lovely country. No wonder why the world looks so sourly upon us.

Rain Storms and Floods of People

So I now have a friend in this foreign land, Maya, she is the other student I mentioned in my last post. She is a sweet girl, also 24, from Switzerland. Her english is not bad at all and we were able to hold a decent conversation with only a few words needing to be pantomimed. I am very glad to have her for some interaction before and after school, she is not in my class because her level of spanish is a bit lower than mine.

San Jose is quite the spectacle, a dirty bustling city, that leaves much to be desired, but a very interesting place nonetheless. The bus ride into town was a whiplash inducing rollercoaster, I thought we were sure to hit a pedestrian, car, or other bus in the process. The constant riding of the horn is a nuisance to me, but a very common practice apparently. Every two seconds was a terrible meltingpot of horns from all directions, another thing to add to my list of Get Used to it. To top it off the motorcycles as I mentioned awhile ago are insane, weaving in and out of traffic like its the movie Fast and Furious. I will have to look into the number of motorcycle related fatalities in this city, I imagine its rather high.

Obviously I survived and made it to school and I really enjoyed my class which consisted of the teacher, Tatiana, a guy my age from Holland, Bran, a beautiful woman from South Africa, Leonora, and me. The class was fun, fast, and informative, I see myself learning alot in the next two weeks. After school Maya and I had a couple hours to explore the city before Liz came and showed us the bus route back home. We walked around Avenida Central in search of food and cervesa. It had begun to rain slightly and so I bought an Umbrella for less then $2 from one of the many, many people selling items on the street. We found a cafe shortly thereafter, just in time I might add, because right then the rain began to come down like a waterfall along with earthshattering thunder and blinding lightning which was quite the show from the balcony at which we sat. I had a delicious steak sandwich and she had some tasty looking pasta dish with redsauce and shredded beef. During the walk back I noticed the sychronized umbrella dance we were forced to become a part of, opening and closing, raising and lowering, to the left to the right, all to avoid colliding with the masses. I want to quickly point out that all the ticos I have talked to have found it very strange that we dont use umbrellas in Portland. We stayed dry until I managed to divert all the water from a torrential spill off from one of the roofs onto Maya, effectively soaking her from head to toe. She found this less amusing then I did and maybe was a bit unamused by my boisterous laughter, American humour I suppose, poor girl.

Well I believe that that rant was the longest thus far, I commend all who have stuck with it. I am now off to do homework and listen to the sound of the heavy rains abuse the tin roof outside of my bedroom window. Until next time...

First Day of School -Guadalupe

Ive got my clothes freshly starched and my shoes polished, all ready to go. Not really, but I am pretty damn excited. I hope that there are other english speaking students, Im sure there will be, but I could see myself getting stuck with a bunch of Germans. Marias family is hosting a student starting today as well, hopefully I like her.

Question, Is there such a thing as eating too much fruit? Like the opposite of scuuuuuurvy or something? I will find out I suppose.

Dolor en mi Cabeza -Guadalupe

Woke up to the neighbors playing the song 'Dancing Queen' and a pain in my head, too much Imperial (Costa Ricas signature beer) last night. I partied with Brian (19) and Christian (29) my host brothers if you will. It was Christian's birthday and man did he get drunk, mucho barracho. We went to a bar in an area of town that is, according to Brian, unsafe at night, especially if you are a gringo by yourself. There were big single family homes on the next family up with guard posts in the front of huge barbwired gates, being wealthy in this town has a cost.

Yesterday we went to Maria's, Liz's sister, house for lunch and these ladies can cook. We ate roasted pork with rice and salad with pico de gallo. The portions are insane, I think they may be trying to kill me with food, for instance, the breakfast I just ate was a heaping mound of red beans and rice and scrambled eggs with bologna as big as my face. As if that wasnt enough there was also a huge bowl of fruit on the side. I thought it might be considered rude to not finish it so I did my best, at one point I had to rest as I thought I was going to throw up, which would of been a lot more rude than not finishing the meal; 'Oh yeah, the gringo was great until he threw up all over the table.'

Today I am going to pick up a calling card, I think my mom is probably worrying about me in typical mother fashion and I forgot to call my bank and tell them I was going to be in Costa Rica, dont need my account frozen because they think someone has stolen my card and fled to paradise. I am finding it strange to be the minority, something I will have to get used to in this lovely, lovely country. Until next time...

Buenos Dias Costa Rica -Guadalupe

I awoke to church bells, thoroughly confused about my surroundings. It took a moment before I realized that I was in fact in Costa Rica, although it is a very surreal feeling even as I am writing this. I began my day with a cold shower, because I did not know how to operate the electric water heater thing-a-ma-jig, which Liz and her husband Luis got a kick out of. I was shown the proper sequence for a hot shower after breakfast, which consisted of strawberries, bananas, mango, watermelon, and papaya, along with some bologna on amazing fresh bread and pineapple juice. I offered to clean up after my self at which point Luis and Liz laughed and Luis said something along the lines of, that is her job, pura vida. I could get used to this real fast. I am thrilled with the amount of communication I can already have and I haven't even started school yet. All anxieties about this trip were washed away with that cold shower. I am ready for La Pura Vida.

Costa Rica! -Guadalupe (city outside of San Jose)

Alas! I am in a bed in Costa Rica, rather cozy I might add. It is a hot, sticky place, but thus far I find it absolutly fascinating. Before I continue let me add that I am still running off of an hour of sleep... Upon boarding the plane in Houston I had the pleasure of sitting next to a couple guys about my age, one from Argentina and one from Costa Rica, Richie and Leo, respectively. Talking with them managed to calm any remaining anxieties I had about my trip, the few beers I had aided in this as well I´m sure. So yada, yada, the plane ride was a party more or less and in the end Leo gave me the number to his cousins, where they will be staying. I may meet up with them after my homestay, let the randomness of travelling begin... Getting off of the plane I was hit with a wall of humidity and pouring rain, that along with the hoarde of people trying to coax me into there cab was a bit overwhelming. Thank god I opted to have the host family pick me up from the airport, although that was pretty overwhelming in itself. The women who met me at the airport spoke no english (hence, total immersion program) and when our ride pulled up it was full of people who also spoke no english. I was assaulted by rapid fire Spanish, that along with the new surroundings, and CRAZY traffic was pretty intense, but at least Ive finally arrived to my destination that I have waited for for so long. The drive to the house from the airport was maybe 20 minutes, but it seemed like time stood still as I watched the motorcycles weave in and out of traffic, the swarms of people standing inside and outside the bars, and the plethora of signs in a foreign tongue that I could and couldnt translate. I was taken back to my trip with Torin through the hispanic areas of Los Angeles for a moment before quickly realizing this was in no way like the city of angels. Liz and I were dropped off, bidding a buenos noches and hasta manana to the currently nameless passengers and entered through a tall locked gate surrounded by more metal and cement. Upon entering the house I was rather suprised, due to my impressions of Guadalupe itself, to find a lovely and immaculately cared for living space. I had a limited conversation with Liz in spanish, although I managed to recall a lot more vocabulary then I expected, and went off to my own bedroom, with my own keys, my own bed, thinking I am going to like this here Costa Rica.

Random Thoughts- Houston, Texas (George Bush Airport)

I´ve had only and hour of sleep in the past twenty-four, so I suppose all my thoughts are random at this point... I guess my thoughts are fairly random always. I am sitting at a bar two steps off the walkway drinking a Stella Artois ( which cost 5.50, while Bud costs 6.50, strange) and I didn´t have to provide identification, I´ve also spotted people sitting in the terminals with beers in hand, neither of which would fly in Oregon. Now say what you want about Texas,(believe me, I have said it all) but that is pretty amazing. With that being said, I did notice a store called Fox News Channel, so I don´t expect to be moving here in this lifetime nor any other lifetimes for that matter. Don´t mess with Texas! Over and out...

Random thoughts- Denver, Colorado (Airport)

Denver seems like a lovely city, I suppose I will have to come visit it one day. Although as a news broadcast just reminded me, pitbulls are outlawed here. Ridiculous. Thank you Micheal Vick and everyone like you. Why can´t, they fight poodles or pomeranians, I could do without these sorry excuses for dogs. Just in; I wonder if the french woman over the intercom is as pleasant to the eyes as she is to the ears? Oh yeah, Schlotzkys sucks!

Can't really believe it...

I can't really believe it, but reality is finally sinking in I suppose. For the past week I haven't had time to be excited about this journey I'm about to embark on. The stress has seemingly overwhelmed any other emotion or anxiety in my being, all the running around and last minute scrambling to clean up the apartment and what not... but now I am packed, the apartment's clean, and all I have to do is wait for my ride to the airport, AND I AM FREAKING OUT! The emotions are overwhelming, albeit good emotions, but the feeling of waiting to step into a complete unknown territory is an indescribable one. Hell, I've jumped out of an airplane TWICE this summer, I think I can do this. I'll keep you guys posted, provided I survive the plane ride. Peace, love, and all that other hippy crap.