Monteverde (continued)

So - we went on a night walk in Monteverde.  There wasn't a whole lot to see, however, it was still fun.  We saw a tree that had been taken over by a strangler Fig and the whole inside was hollow - pretty cool-looking when the guide shone his flashlight up the middle of the tree!  Probably the most spectacular thing was this Orange-kneed tarantula we saw.

The next morning, we took a bird-watching tour.  It was supposed to start at 6:30, but we managed to have the hotel owner get in touch with our guide and change the time to 5:30.  Really early, but that's the best time to see the birds!  It turned out to be a really good thing that we changed the time because we saw a ton of birds the first hour and then it started to rain.  After spending 30 or 40 minutes in a nearby bread shop, we continued on to the Monteverde Cloud Forest park to see more birds.  To get there, we hitched a ride with a friend of the guide's in back of his truck over a VERY bumpy road.  Wow - what a trip!  My knees were about shot by the end of the ride.

Despite the light rain, we enjoyed our time and were able to see quite a few more birds, although the first hour was definitely the best.  I was really hoping to see the Quetzal bird, but since I didn't, I'll just have to come back to Costa Rica again!  :-)

 This is an Orange-bellied Trogan

 - really quite beautiful, though my photo doesn't do it justice

Necklace and earrings in the form of the Mot-Mot bird made by a local artist

After walking through the village of Santa Elena, we returned to our hotel and got packed up to head back to San Jose.  We waited and waited, but our bus never came.  After the hotel owner did some calling, come to find out the bus company had made our reservations for the 22 of JULY, rather than June.  Oh dear!  We ran through some possibilities, including staying another night at the hotel (but we would miss our classes at the Spanish school), paying a good deal of money for a taxi, or trying to get to the place where the public bus would be going to San Jose in about 15 minutes.  Just as we were thinking we'd try the public bus route, a taxi driver pulled up.  The travel company that had made our reservations had sent the taxi for us.  It made for an anxious hour or so, but we did make it back safe and sound.

Our adventures in Monteverde

Well, a friend(Sue) and I visited Monteverde this last weekend. We left Saturday morning and went by bus for about 3 1/2 hours. The last 45 minutes or so is over a VERY bumpy road - we were glad to arrive!

We had a little under 2 hours to kill before our tour, so we walked down to a very pretty restaurant named Flor de Vida (Flower of Life). I was pretty excited because the waitress pointed out a beautiful bird that was right outside in the garden. It was a blue-crowned Mot-Mot. What a beautiful bird!!

Then we went on a tour of a sugar-cane plantation. It was very interesting! I started out by taking the tour in Spanish, and really understood the vast majority, however, there were some new words, so I decided to change to the English group so I could really understand the process and everything. They also had coffee plants, bananas, and pineapple on the plantation. They showed the system for processing coffee and then for the sugar. We ate pieces of sugar cane (well, not really ATE - more like sucked on...), rode in an oxcart, and made a candy from the cooked sugar cane juice. We also had a snack including juice from a fruit grown on the plantation, coffee, and a picadillo (a little like a stew) from another plant. A very good tour!!

More to follow!

Riding on a traditional oxcart

Sunday, June 14

Sunday we got up about 7 so that we could go to the National Gym in Sabana Park in San Jose. The daughter of my mama tica, Caro (short for Carolina) was in a competition. She competed in the floor exercise, the bars, balance beam, and the vault. She won quite a few medals, including best overall in her age group and level.

Here is a picture of my Costa Rican (Tica) family

Gaby, the 17 year-old is on the left, Caro (14) in the middle, and

my "mama tica" on the right.

To celebrate, I took the family out to eat. Since Caro was the guest of honor, she got to choose and chose Pizza Hut. Either I just haven't been to Pizza Hut in a very long time, or it's different here in Costa Rica, because they actually had quite an extensive menu, with salads, pastas, lasagna, and other dishes besides pizzas. It was quite good. We even had Cas juice instead of Coke, which was wonderful. They make a lot of fresh juices here, in all the restaurants and homes. Cas is a fruit that is green and the juice might remind one a bit of lemonade or limeade, but I think it's bettter. Muy Rico, as they say here! Oh - and here´s something I thought was very interesting - they were using motorcycles to deliver pizzas!! I forgot my camera, but one of the girls took a picture, s0 hopefully I can get it from her and put it on my blog at some point.

After lunch, we went back to the house to drop off the girls and Laura (my mama tica) and her friend Marco took me for a drive up one of the nearby mountains to see the view of the city. It was quite spectacular, although this picture doesn´t do it justice.

Below is a picture of the typical Costa Rican dish called casado. It consists of rice, beans (sometimes black, sometimes red), usually chicken (although this one was fish), salad, and fried plantains. This one also had a tortilla and was served on a banana leaf. Delicious!

Saturday, June 13

Well, this weekend certainly didn't go as planned!! You know what they say about the best-laid plans... I was supposed to go on a tour on Saturday, hopefully to see the somewhat illusive Quetzal bird. Unfortunately, it rained quite a bit Friday and there was a landslide in the area, so it was impossible to go. Bummer!! Instead, I called Jessica and we met with the other female student here, Sara, to go to San Jose. We went to the Agrigultural Fair which is basicallly a farmers market, but it was HUGE! We saw lots of fruits and vegetables that we didn't know.

This fruit is called guanabana, is sweet and is used to make juice.

This one is "manzana de agua" - water apple. It is sweet and a little like a pear.

This fruit is called "guayaba" and is a little tart, maybe a little like an orange,

but you eat the skin too.

After that we went to the Central Market. It's a huge enclosed market with all kinds of little stores that sell souvenirs, fruits and vegetables, chicken (and all the parts...), fresh fish, beef, flowers, herbs, coffee, and has places to sit down and eat. Basically, you can buy anything you want there!

Then we went to the movies at the mall in San Pedro (a suburb of San Jose, the same city in which the school resides). We saw Night in the Museum II in Spanish. It was rather hard to understand, but fortunately, there was a lot of action that didn't need all the words... Then we went to the house where Jessica is staying to watch a movie on her computer: Mall Cop. Funny! Afterwards I had all kinds of trouble trying to figure out how to get home. Couldn't reach the taxi company because the line was constantly busy. Couldn't reach my "mama tica". Couldn't reach anyone from the school. And Jessica's "mama tica" was out. Finally, after about 2 hours, I was able to reach my mama tica and she woke up to come get me. It was about 11 or a little after. I felt bad, but here it's just downright dangerous to be walking around on the streets at that hour of the night. Anyway, all's well that ends well, right?

And I think I'll leave Sunday's news for tomorrow.

Weekend at Cafe Britt and Irazu

Well, I've been learning a lot and remembering a lot of my Spanish. I think it's going pretty well. I've been writing my diary every day in Spanish and it's really great practice. Now I just need practice speaking.

I had a good time this weekend. On Friday, my new friend Jessica and I went to the movies. We were hoping to see Night at the Museum in English with Spanish subtitles, but since they didn't have that one, we ended up watching Angels and Demons. I thought it was good, but pretty intense!

Saturday I went with Jessica on a tour of Cafe Britt. On the way I practiced my Spanish with the driver quite a bit. Cafe Britt is the most well-known brand of coffee here in Costa Rica. They buy coffee beans from over 1,000 local growers. It takes about 3 years for a coffee plant to start producing, but once it does, it typically produces for 40 years! The coffee beans (called cherries when they are on the bush) are harvested over a period of several months by hand because they don't all ripen at the same time. The cherries actually have several layers that are taken off before the coffee bean is ready to be roasted. It was a very interesting tour with great demonstrations and visuals. Below is a picture of the basket that they tie around their waist to put the cherries in (thereby keeping both hands free for picking).

Then Jessica and I returned to San Jose where we took a tour of the National Theater. It's a beautiful building and the tour was very interesting as well. I think the most interesting thing is the picture that is painted on the ceiling. It represents the economy of Costa Rica and was on the back of one of their bills (that is no longer in use), but since the painting was done by a European, it is wrong in several places. For instance, the way the man is carrying the bananas is incorrect. In addition, coffee beans do not grow near the beach, only in the mountains. The faces of the women are also much more European than Costa Rican. After the tour of the Theater, we went to a small artisian marketplace where Jessica bought an Ox Cart very typical of Costa Rica. I think George will be happy that I didn't buy one! Here's a photo of the picture on the bill:
Sunday I went on a tour of Irazu Volcano. It was a beautiful day and we could see the crater very clearly. The water is a pretty green color because of the sulpher in it.

In addition, I went to the Lancaster Gardens where they have some incredibly beautiful orchids. The picture below shows the orchid that is the National Flower of Costa Rica.

It's taken me all week to write this blog because I've been so busy with classes and homework and other activities. This week I've had one class in the morning and then another in the afternoon. In the afternoon class I've been translating some of the notices that I've written for my job. A lot of work, but very rewarding and I think I've learned a lot. We also had a small cooking class, went to the big Central Market in San Jose, and last week I visited the family I stayed with last time. Hopefully I'll have time to write a bit more next week.
This picture shows us making tortillas and Picadillo de Chayote. Chayote is a vegetable that grows in abundance here. It is green and shaped a little like a pear and tastes a little like zucchini. I like it a lot. Picadillo is (as they say here in Costa Rica) "Muy Rico! This weekend I have plans to go on a nature tour and then Sunday I'm going to go to a Gymnastics competion in which the daughter of the family I'm staying with will be competing. Busy, busy, busy!

Costa Rica 2009!

Well, here I am in Costa Rica once again! I am attending the same Spanish-Language immersion school as I attended last year. This year I will take classes for 4 weeks and then the 5th week, George will join me and we'll celebrate our 50th birthdays this summer by traveling for a week. The tentative plan is to see San Jose and Arenal Volcano (both of which I've seen, but George hasn't) and then go down to the town of Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean side of the country to explore. This will be a new experience for both of us and should be lots of fun!
There are only 2 other students at the school right now. Thomas is a gentleman in his 60s or so who is from Palm Springs, CA and has been to Costa Rica 8 times now! Jessica is a college student from Alabama. This is her first time and she's only been here a week now. She hasn't explored much because she was afraid to go by herself, so we'll probably be doing some trips together.

Jessica in one of the classrooms at ILISA

I'm hoping this time to go to Monteverde Cloud Forest, see Volcano Irazu, and go on a bird-watching expedition, hopefully to see the beautiful Quetzal bird. I have my handy Birds of Costa Rica guide, so I'm ready! Thank you to Aunt Susan who got me started bird-watching with a hummingbird feeder many years ago!
This time I'm staying with a different family: a mother and two teenage daughters. After I arrived yesterday, I went with the family to a birthday celebration for the oldest who had just turned 17. I live a little further out than I did last year. I'll probably try walking, but after having my bunion surgery in April, we'll see if my foot does alright.
So - bye for now and I'll try to update when interesting things happen!

ANOTHER four month later...

Well, I haven't done very well keeping up with my blog, have I? Let's see - what has happened since I last wrote in November?? George and I flew out to California for Christmas.  We spent a wonderful day relaxing in Palm Springs, then spent Christmas with Aunt Susan in her beach cottage.  Brandon flew down from Washington and joined us. Here are the pictures of the Gingerbread cookies we created while we were there:

The bottom left is the one I did.  It is a likeness of a traditional Ox Cart from Costa Rica.  The upper left is a snow scene that Susan's artist friend made.  The dolphin was made by Aunt Susan, the fireplace was George's creation, and Brandon made the cool guitar. Lots of fun!

Then we went to George's mom's house to spend Christmas with that side of the family.  Renee and Devon and the girls drove down to be with us.  George's sister Brenda and her husband and 6 mo. old son flew in from Columbia (where they had spent Christmas) before returning to Seattle.  We all had a great time together.  Here is a picture of the 3 babies.

From left to right: Lorna, Shanna, and Adrian.

Shanna and Lorna got to visit the beach for the first time while we were in CA.  It was fun watching Shanna look at the ocean and experience the sand.  Here she is seeing what sand tastes like!

While in CA I was also able to visit my mom, who moved back there after having a stroke.  Fortunately, she has pretty much fully recovered.  She is in a very nice assisted living place in Riverside and seems to like it OK.  Her apartment has a great little deck with a view and she can keep her cute little dog, Barkley, there too.

Let's see - January and February were fairly quiet here.  I was busy at work in February with a Book Fair and then Inventory. Then at the end of the month I got sick.  When I went to the doctor, he said I had pneumonia in both lungs!  That was a big surprise!  He said I needed to take the whole week off work the following week.  My co-workers were great about arranging substitute teachers for me.  Fortunately, the antibiotic shot I got in the office along with the antibiotics I took over the next 5 days seem to have wiped it out pretty well.  I'm sure glad I live in this day and age of modern medicine!  I worked 1/2 days Monday and Tuesday, then regular days the rest of this past week. I think I'm pretty well healed now, but I'm going in for another appointment next week and we'll see what the Dr. says.

In just two weeks I'm flying over to CA again for a foot (bunion) surgery.  I'll recover for a week, then spend the rest of spring break visiting Renee and family in Portland.  I can hardly wait to see the girls.  Shanna is saying all kinds of things now and I hope she'll come up with a name for me - that will be fun.  AND my Aunt Susan is coming with me too.  Her excuse is that I need to have a "nurse" to travel with me since I'll still be healing from the surgery, but the truth is we're both really looking forward to the trip.  Lorna will be dedicated on the Saturday just before Easter, so that will really be special to be there.  I'll fly home on Easter Sunday, just in time to prepare for work the next day...