Well I’m sitting here typing away with a bump on my head, a sore neck, and a nice skid-burn on my back. Would you believe it’s all thanks to a waterslide?
Spent this weekend on a trip to a beautiful place called Arenal. It’s an active volcano that’s about a 5 hour bus ride from San Jose. The bus left the ISA office at 6 in the morning on Saturday, so we had the pleasure of waking up at 5am. We were kinda smart the night before, deciding not to give’er hell. However, we did still go out to a place called “Jazz Café.” Care to guess what they do there? Anyhow, we got there at about 9, paid our 2500colones (5 bucks) cover charge, and grabbed a table. There were about 15 of us. The bar was really cool; it was very dark on the inside with only dim lights on the walls, and candles on every table. Then the stage was lit with a kind of bluish light. The band came on at 10, and started the night off with a couple jazz songs in English! They played for over an hour, and sounded great. It was a neat change of pace, a really mellow night with some chillin music. Good sendoff before Arenal.
So 5 in the morning came real fast. Rosalba (my Tica madre) was up earlier than that to make us some breakfast. The woman must never sleep! (Actually, that night she didn’t get much sleep thanks to some drunk person misdialing our house at 3:15 that morning. Apparently she didn’t really get back to sleep after that). We got to the bus on time, got our seats, and promptly passed out. The bus stopped at a restaurant at 8 for breakfast (yeah I ate a second one. What of it?), and hit the road again till 11:30. We found ourselves at a huge waterfall, looked like about a 200 foot drop into a large pool. Most of us went for a dip, some people thought it was too cold but the water was actually really nice once you got in. We tried to swim to where the water was falling, but the current made by the falling water was incredibly hard to swim against. As soon as you got within 15 feet of the fall, you couldn’t really see where you were going and you were pretty much swimming on the spot. When you stopped, it just pushed you right back to the shore. It was fun to try tho, and one of the guys had a waterproof camera so he got some good pics.
From there, we went to a small town near the base of the volcano called La Fortuna. We got some lunch, had some fantastic fish n chips, and went up the road to our hotel. This place was nutty! We were staying at the base of an active volcano! Mind you, the lava flows down the other side of the mountain, so it was safe and all. But the thunderous sounds the volcano put out at regular intervals were a constant reminder of the power of that mountain.
One nice thing about staying at the base of a volcano is the natural hot springs that occur there. We spent the rest of the afternoon and part of the night at a place called Baldi Termae, a group of 25ish hot pools heated by the volcano. It was great to be able to relax in the hot water… until we found the waterslides. Anyone who knows me should know that I freakin love waterslides, so I led the charge up the stairs to the top of the highest one. None of us had any idea what we were in for.
The first 10 feet or so had to be wet by hand, so there was a guy there with a bucket of soapy water. I heaved off, and tightened my body into the luge/rocket position. Went around the first corner gaining speed, and then went down the drop and into the second corner.
I’m pretty sure whoever designed this slide designed it to hurt people. And he was a good designer. You drop into the second corner with the sideways momentum from the first, and it sends you up the wall. Then the slide sorta just drops away. So after being unexpectedly flung airborne, you come down hard moving sideways (this is the point where most of us nailed our heads, weren’t really expecting the whiplash y’know?). Then you are dumped into the water before you really have time to understand what just happened.
Well it was a hell of a ride, and of course we didn’t really admit how much it hurt once we got to the bottom. We just cheered and told everyone else how much fun it was and how they all just HAD to try it. So there ended up being about 30 of us who all went down, halfway through that group we started congregating at the bottom and cheering the people who got the most air, laughing at the people who came down hard, and booing the people who didn’t have enough speed to go airborne and consequently avoided any pain. That’s weak. I rode 4 times. Hahaha
That night we had a great buffet dinner, then headed back to the hotel and randomly gathered on the balconies of our rooms to sit and stare at the volcano. It was pretty unreal, the clouds were kinda thick up there but most of the time you could see the orange glow at the top of the mountain. And like I said, every little while there was a loud rumble that reminded you that the mountain must’ve eaten some Mexican food recently. Or drank too much tequila, depending on which end you think a volcano represents.
It wasn’t a late night for most of us, since Sunday was now our day to do whatever activities we wanted to get done before noon. Me and 5 others shelled out a little more dough than the rest of the crew in order to participate in a rousing morning of “canyoning.” I’d never heard of it before, but it basically consists of rappelling down waterfalls. Seriously.
We strapped on our harnesses, made sure everything was out of the way (any guy who has worn one knows what I’m talking about…), and headed to the first platform. They gave a quick talk about how to rappel, since you get to control your own speed and jumps and such. They do, however, have a safety at the top and the bottom to stop you if it looks like you’re straight up falling. That was reassuring. But the first drop was 160 feet, and safety lines or not, that’s a little daunting to look at. No time to think about it tho, they just tell ya to swing around and get ‘er done! So that’s exactly what we did. The first one was beside the waterfall, and it was a total thrill. Once you get moving, the fear disappears and you’re left with the rush of descending the face. The second one was smaller, 85 feet, and it was down the center of the waterfall. So you got soaked, but it was a blast. The third was a 100 foot drop down a dry face that I did in 3 jumps. That video is
the one I posted on facebook, it was my best descent of the day for sure. The last 2 were down the falls as well.
So, understandably, the weekdays are spent in anticipation of the coming adventures of the weekend. This weekend we are going to head to Montezuma, supposedly one of the nicest beaches in Costa Rica. I’m really looking forward to it, because it is the first trip that we organized without the school, so anything goes. I can’t wait to finally sleep in… I haven’t slept past 8am since I got to this country 2 and a half weeks ago. That’s the other thing. I can’t believe it’s only been 2 weeks. When I walk around the neighborhood, it feels like I have been here for months! January 5th is a distant memory; so much has happened since. Everything keeps moving forward, there’s always something to look forward to and constantly things to stop and appreciate. My grasp on the language is coming along; I’m able to talk about simple things with my Tica madre and can understand what she’s getting at most of the time. It’s pretty cool.
What else…
Perhaps some random thoughts and shout-outs:
- Read a Mark Twain book called Pudd’nhead Wilson. Pretty good book, short, but definitely worth a read.
- Shout out to Michelle, Byung, and Allyson: we gotta hit up a sake night soon. I’m very interested, especially if there is tempura involved.
- I miss snowboarding.
- Shout out to the dude that sells the burgers and burritos in the courtyard at school. I know you probably aren’t reading this, amigo, but you kick ass.
- I miss my car. And driving my car. And listening to loud music in my car.
- Shout out to Rhawn for his comment on my last entry. That was hilarious.
- I don’t miss McDonald’s. Not because I no longer like it, but because a few of us went there last Thursday and I had a big mac. Countries I have eaten a big mac in: 4.
- Shout out to Nicole Sewall for her b-day. Happy Birthday cuz!
- Lindsay so stupid.
- Shout out to Aaron for helping me get this on the internet on a Spanish computer.
- And last, but not least, yes, I miss my family. Mom, I know you were probably reading this thinking “what the hell, he misses his car and shouts out to random people, but no mention of me” or something along those lines. So rest assured I miss ya, and you too fazha, and perhaps rinzy as well. Not Sydney. Unless she’s not whining about going up the stairs, then maybe Sydney too.
If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to write me. Your feedback is welcome and appreciated.
Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
Week 1 is done!
Hola mis amigos!
Well it's Monday, the start of my second week in Costa Rica. The first was incredible, there is a lot to tell, so I'll try to break it down.
Well the flights down weren't so bad, as I was taking off from Calgary I started talking to the girl beside me. Her name was Carmen... I think. But she was from Red Deer, heading to Florida for a cruise. Nice girl, 29 and a real estate appraiser for commercial properties in Red Deer. Apparently they are having a boom in that section, so if you're looking to invest in commercial real estate... :)
Bottom line of this story is that I had a friend to sit with in Seattle for 3 hours. We went and got a beer and some hearty stew in one of the lounges there, and then did a little shopping. There are a ton of stores in the airport there, it's like a little mall. Kinda weird.
The next leg of the tour was uneventful, except that I sat beside two sketchy looking characters who were speaking what I thought was an arabic language, which made me kinda nervous... But after listening for awhile and not hearing... well... ask Rhawn for the words, I don't want to post this and catch unwanted international attention. In fact, I realized after a few minutes that they were speaking spanish! This was a little disconcerting, seeing as how I thought I would be able to understand it better than that. I later found out that people from the Dominican Republic (I covertly checked their passports) have really strange spanish accents, and it's not such a bad thing that I couldn't understand what they were saying. Sweet.
Got to SJO Saturday at 12:30, made it through customs without any problems, picked up my bags and wandered out to meet my group. There was a small mob outside the airport, I guess someone told the paparazzi that I was comin in... haha or maybe it was just a bunch of cab drivers trying to get my money. One person happened to have an ISA sign, so I went to her. She walked me over to where some of my new friends were sitting, and we waited for the rest of the crew to arrive so we could catch our shuttle to town. It was the beginning of a long line of Americans that I was to meet over the next several days.
The bus ride from the airport to Veritas University took about 25 minutes, and all the families were waiting there to meet us. I got introduced to my Tica (Costa Rica) madre, got/gave the kiss on the cheek cuz that's what they do when they meet people here. After we determined that I speak very little spanish, we hopped in their car and headed down to the house. It's about a 6 or 7 minute walk downhill from the University, which is really handy since classes start every day at 8am. And here I thought I might actually have a chance to sleep in. Shoulda known better.
I'm living in a nice house, with my Tica madre Rosalba, her daughter Camilla, and her grandson Kevin. Also, their family friend Alvaro lives there, and he's a good guy. Speaks english when he can tell that I have no idea what's being said. Other than that, it's all spanish all the time, because it helps the students learn the language better.
My second translator is my roommate Aaron. He speaks the language really well, because he lived in Bolivia for 12 years. So it's kinda interesting around the house, the spanish flies all around me and I pick up what I can. Every day I'm understanding a little better, and am more able to communicate with mi familia. But it's still pretty tough.
Our first day here we had an orientation with ISA, and they showed us some of the activities available to us throughout the semester. They look great, everything from hiking, ATVing, horseback riding in the mountains or on the beach, bungee jumping, surfing, canopy tours in the forests... the list goes on and on, and they all look great! It's going to be a lot cheaper than I thought, the activities range between 15 and 60 dollars, give or take. I'm planning on heading out of San Jose every weekend, and seeing what the country has to offer.
Don't get me wrong tho, San Jose has it's fun too. We've made it out to a few of the bars and had a good time. There are 52 students in the ISA Costa Rica program, and on any given night 20 or so are up for whatever. Our second night here we wandered up to a bar that had a bunch of heineken signs all over it, they were playin some spanish and some top 40 kinda music so it was a good mix. Even better - they had foosball! So a bunch of us played for a while, then me and this guy Greg got challenged by a couple Ticos. We beat them the first game, and then they whooped us the second game. The beer needed refreshing at that point so we let them have the table.
Beer down here is great, everyone drinks "Imperial" or "Pilsen". The exchange rate here is kinda wonky, it rests at about 500 colones to 1 dollar. So a beer here ranges from 700-1000 colones... and last time I checked, 2 bucks a beer is freakin phenominal.
We have also managed to find our new neighborhood pub, it ain't Dixons, but it gets the job done. It's called Pescadita (little fish). Beer there is 800 colones, but the best part about it is the owner, Jose Alberto. Apparently he's been in America a few times, and has always been treated really well, so he likes to return the favor whenever he can. I've been there 3 times, with a group of 12-15 people each time, and he's bought a round of shots every time. Unreal guy. The other night we pulled the tables to the outsides and made a little dance floor, and he threw on some salsa music and a bunch of us gringos danced in the middle of the bar. Mind you, this bar could probably only hold 40 people, and every time we go there, we pretty much run the place. It's great.
What else...
You gotta understand, i should be updating this more often than I have been and as such, I'm bound to forget a lot. But this is an unreal experience.
Fast forward to the end of the week, I've met most of the 52 people and haven't found one that I don't like yet. Everyone seems to be here for the same reason - to have a good time, make friends, share experiences; and if we can learn spanish at the same time, all the better.
We all met on Friday to head to Monteverde, a cloud forest in the mountains. The bus ride took about 6 hours, but some of the views were awesome. The best part of that night was actually just settling into our hotel rooms, havin a couple beer and playing some pool, and hittin the hay since we knew we had to be up at 6:30.
We were up the next mornin and headin out at 7:30, up the mountain towards the adventure tours base. Started the day with a 3 hour ATV trip, down some back roads and across some small rivers, but they also hit some straights and let us open 'em up and kick 'em sideways a bit, so it was a great morning. After that, I went on a canopy tour through the treetops. This was unbelievable, I've never done anything like it in my life. You stand on these platforms in the treetops, and clip onto cables stretched through the forest. Then you take off! Next thing you know, you're sliding through the forest 50 feet off the ground. And those are the tame ones. Halfway through, you do a tarzan swing, where they walk you up a 30-foot platform and clip you to a rope. Then they basically shove you off, and you go swinging way out over everything. There's a video of me doing it on facebook, you can't really see the initial jump but you can see the swing out. It was wild.
But the last line was the craziest by far. The stats they gave us was that the line is 1000 feet long, and 300 feet in the air. That is no exaggeration. It was the weirdest, craziest, coolest thing I've ever seen. You look out over this huge valley, and you are suspended on a single cable that seems to stretch away forever. You're moving so fast that the heights don't even really get to you, you can look down and see your tiny shadow just rocketing along on the ground way below you. I would recommend this to anybody who ever gets a remote chance to do it. And if you don't have a remote chance, you're not being positive enough. Find a way.
Like I said, the people here are awesome. Gotta shout out to my MAPS (it's the spanish equivalent that we made up for BFF). Don't tell me it's lame, you weren't there. Hahaha. In fact, a bunch of us are headin out to the pub for a couple tonight, so I should get outta here and start some homework. We have it every day so that we don't get it on the weekends, which is handy cuz by the looks of it we're never gonna have time for it on the weekends anyhow!
One last thing I should mention - the food. It's some of the best stuff I've ever eaten. I have fresh pineapple, banana, papaya, or some random fruit every morning for breakfast with my gallo pinto (a traditional dish of rice and beans, very tasty). For lunch it's some sort of meat (chicken, often, with some sort of sauce) with a double starch which is the custom here. Rice with potatoes is pretty common. Dinner is fish, beef, chicken, lasagna, spaghetti, or some other unbelievably flavorful concoction that our madre makes. There is always fried peppers or onions in everything, but I haven't encountered anything overly spicy yet! It's great! The only problem I have is that they don't seem to understand that I have a small appetite, so I have to throw out some every night. Maybe they'll catch on soon. Oh and the coffee is great too.
Well my fingers are tired, I know I've forgotten a lot but I did my best to convey that this is an amazing trip and I'm going to have a really hard time going home. Just have to continue to live it up eh!
Thanks for reading.
Well it's Monday, the start of my second week in Costa Rica. The first was incredible, there is a lot to tell, so I'll try to break it down.
Well the flights down weren't so bad, as I was taking off from Calgary I started talking to the girl beside me. Her name was Carmen... I think. But she was from Red Deer, heading to Florida for a cruise. Nice girl, 29 and a real estate appraiser for commercial properties in Red Deer. Apparently they are having a boom in that section, so if you're looking to invest in commercial real estate... :)
Bottom line of this story is that I had a friend to sit with in Seattle for 3 hours. We went and got a beer and some hearty stew in one of the lounges there, and then did a little shopping. There are a ton of stores in the airport there, it's like a little mall. Kinda weird.
The next leg of the tour was uneventful, except that I sat beside two sketchy looking characters who were speaking what I thought was an arabic language, which made me kinda nervous... But after listening for awhile and not hearing... well... ask Rhawn for the words, I don't want to post this and catch unwanted international attention. In fact, I realized after a few minutes that they were speaking spanish! This was a little disconcerting, seeing as how I thought I would be able to understand it better than that. I later found out that people from the Dominican Republic (I covertly checked their passports) have really strange spanish accents, and it's not such a bad thing that I couldn't understand what they were saying. Sweet.
Got to SJO Saturday at 12:30, made it through customs without any problems, picked up my bags and wandered out to meet my group. There was a small mob outside the airport, I guess someone told the paparazzi that I was comin in... haha or maybe it was just a bunch of cab drivers trying to get my money. One person happened to have an ISA sign, so I went to her. She walked me over to where some of my new friends were sitting, and we waited for the rest of the crew to arrive so we could catch our shuttle to town. It was the beginning of a long line of Americans that I was to meet over the next several days.
The bus ride from the airport to Veritas University took about 25 minutes, and all the families were waiting there to meet us. I got introduced to my Tica (Costa Rica) madre, got/gave the kiss on the cheek cuz that's what they do when they meet people here. After we determined that I speak very little spanish, we hopped in their car and headed down to the house. It's about a 6 or 7 minute walk downhill from the University, which is really handy since classes start every day at 8am. And here I thought I might actually have a chance to sleep in. Shoulda known better.
I'm living in a nice house, with my Tica madre Rosalba, her daughter Camilla, and her grandson Kevin. Also, their family friend Alvaro lives there, and he's a good guy. Speaks english when he can tell that I have no idea what's being said. Other than that, it's all spanish all the time, because it helps the students learn the language better.
My second translator is my roommate Aaron. He speaks the language really well, because he lived in Bolivia for 12 years. So it's kinda interesting around the house, the spanish flies all around me and I pick up what I can. Every day I'm understanding a little better, and am more able to communicate with mi familia. But it's still pretty tough.
Our first day here we had an orientation with ISA, and they showed us some of the activities available to us throughout the semester. They look great, everything from hiking, ATVing, horseback riding in the mountains or on the beach, bungee jumping, surfing, canopy tours in the forests... the list goes on and on, and they all look great! It's going to be a lot cheaper than I thought, the activities range between 15 and 60 dollars, give or take. I'm planning on heading out of San Jose every weekend, and seeing what the country has to offer.
Don't get me wrong tho, San Jose has it's fun too. We've made it out to a few of the bars and had a good time. There are 52 students in the ISA Costa Rica program, and on any given night 20 or so are up for whatever. Our second night here we wandered up to a bar that had a bunch of heineken signs all over it, they were playin some spanish and some top 40 kinda music so it was a good mix. Even better - they had foosball! So a bunch of us played for a while, then me and this guy Greg got challenged by a couple Ticos. We beat them the first game, and then they whooped us the second game. The beer needed refreshing at that point so we let them have the table.
Beer down here is great, everyone drinks "Imperial" or "Pilsen". The exchange rate here is kinda wonky, it rests at about 500 colones to 1 dollar. So a beer here ranges from 700-1000 colones... and last time I checked, 2 bucks a beer is freakin phenominal.
We have also managed to find our new neighborhood pub, it ain't Dixons, but it gets the job done. It's called Pescadita (little fish). Beer there is 800 colones, but the best part about it is the owner, Jose Alberto. Apparently he's been in America a few times, and has always been treated really well, so he likes to return the favor whenever he can. I've been there 3 times, with a group of 12-15 people each time, and he's bought a round of shots every time. Unreal guy. The other night we pulled the tables to the outsides and made a little dance floor, and he threw on some salsa music and a bunch of us gringos danced in the middle of the bar. Mind you, this bar could probably only hold 40 people, and every time we go there, we pretty much run the place. It's great.
What else...
You gotta understand, i should be updating this more often than I have been and as such, I'm bound to forget a lot. But this is an unreal experience.
Fast forward to the end of the week, I've met most of the 52 people and haven't found one that I don't like yet. Everyone seems to be here for the same reason - to have a good time, make friends, share experiences; and if we can learn spanish at the same time, all the better.
We all met on Friday to head to Monteverde, a cloud forest in the mountains. The bus ride took about 6 hours, but some of the views were awesome. The best part of that night was actually just settling into our hotel rooms, havin a couple beer and playing some pool, and hittin the hay since we knew we had to be up at 6:30.
We were up the next mornin and headin out at 7:30, up the mountain towards the adventure tours base. Started the day with a 3 hour ATV trip, down some back roads and across some small rivers, but they also hit some straights and let us open 'em up and kick 'em sideways a bit, so it was a great morning. After that, I went on a canopy tour through the treetops. This was unbelievable, I've never done anything like it in my life. You stand on these platforms in the treetops, and clip onto cables stretched through the forest. Then you take off! Next thing you know, you're sliding through the forest 50 feet off the ground. And those are the tame ones. Halfway through, you do a tarzan swing, where they walk you up a 30-foot platform and clip you to a rope. Then they basically shove you off, and you go swinging way out over everything. There's a video of me doing it on facebook, you can't really see the initial jump but you can see the swing out. It was wild.
But the last line was the craziest by far. The stats they gave us was that the line is 1000 feet long, and 300 feet in the air. That is no exaggeration. It was the weirdest, craziest, coolest thing I've ever seen. You look out over this huge valley, and you are suspended on a single cable that seems to stretch away forever. You're moving so fast that the heights don't even really get to you, you can look down and see your tiny shadow just rocketing along on the ground way below you. I would recommend this to anybody who ever gets a remote chance to do it. And if you don't have a remote chance, you're not being positive enough. Find a way.
Like I said, the people here are awesome. Gotta shout out to my MAPS (it's the spanish equivalent that we made up for BFF). Don't tell me it's lame, you weren't there. Hahaha. In fact, a bunch of us are headin out to the pub for a couple tonight, so I should get outta here and start some homework. We have it every day so that we don't get it on the weekends, which is handy cuz by the looks of it we're never gonna have time for it on the weekends anyhow!
One last thing I should mention - the food. It's some of the best stuff I've ever eaten. I have fresh pineapple, banana, papaya, or some random fruit every morning for breakfast with my gallo pinto (a traditional dish of rice and beans, very tasty). For lunch it's some sort of meat (chicken, often, with some sort of sauce) with a double starch which is the custom here. Rice with potatoes is pretty common. Dinner is fish, beef, chicken, lasagna, spaghetti, or some other unbelievably flavorful concoction that our madre makes. There is always fried peppers or onions in everything, but I haven't encountered anything overly spicy yet! It's great! The only problem I have is that they don't seem to understand that I have a small appetite, so I have to throw out some every night. Maybe they'll catch on soon. Oh and the coffee is great too.
Well my fingers are tired, I know I've forgotten a lot but I did my best to convey that this is an amazing trip and I'm going to have a really hard time going home. Just have to continue to live it up eh!
Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Welcome to my ROE
If you are reading this, you probably have nothing better to do right now.
Props to Brett Jones (who? Brett Jones) for suggesting that I make one of these, por que it will be much easier to type this stuff out once instead of having to send the mass e-mails or multiple facebook messages. Also, this is more convenient since only the people who really want to know what's goin on down here will bother to check this out!
Being my first time making a blog (and I don't even like calling it a blog, sounds way too techno-weenie), I'm not too sure how it's supposed to go. Therefore, I'm going to refer to it simply as an R.O.E. - Record Of Events. That way, I know that all I have to do is record my events, and I will be fulfilling it's purpose. Facile, no?
Anyhow, I gotta run, I will make the first actual post about the events of the past few days soon. Just wanted to get this ROE off the ground.
Thanks for reading!
Props to Brett Jones (who? Brett Jones) for suggesting that I make one of these, por que it will be much easier to type this stuff out once instead of having to send the mass e-mails or multiple facebook messages. Also, this is more convenient since only the people who really want to know what's goin on down here will bother to check this out!
Being my first time making a blog (and I don't even like calling it a blog, sounds way too techno-weenie), I'm not too sure how it's supposed to go. Therefore, I'm going to refer to it simply as an R.O.E. - Record Of Events. That way, I know that all I have to do is record my events, and I will be fulfilling it's purpose. Facile, no?
Anyhow, I gotta run, I will make the first actual post about the events of the past few days soon. Just wanted to get this ROE off the ground.
Thanks for reading!
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