Español

Un foto de mi familia de ILISA, en graduación miyo
(a photo of my ILISA family, at my graduation)

Hace algunas semanas, Brandon me preguntó <¿Como le va con el español?> Una buena pregunta, porque esa fue la razón de este viaje. Mi repuesto fue: ¡Muy bien! Aprendí mucho, entendí mas, y puedo hacerla una conversación, mas o menos. El único temor es sin suficiente practica, voy a perder todo que aprendí. De ser posible, me gustaría vivir en Costa Rica por 6 meses o un año, pero eso no es posible ahorita, voy a practicar en los estados. Espero practicar con algunas personas de mi trabajo y asistir a una iglesia de español. También, compré libros en español y lado-a-lado español y ingles. Estoy segura que si yo los leo en voz alta, voy a entender y hablar mejor. ¡Muchisimas gracias a todos mis profesores y amigos en Costa Rica!

A few weeks ago, Brandon asked me how my Spanish was coming along. A good question, since that was the reason for this trip. My answer was: Very well! I learned a lot, understand even more, and can carry on a conversation, more or less. My only fear is that without enough practice, I'm going to forget all that I learned. If it were posible, I would love to live in Costa Rica for 6 months or a year, but since that isn't possible right now, I'm going to practice in the States. I hope to practice with some people at my work and attend a Spanish-speaking church. I also bought books in Spanish and side-by-side Spanish and English. I'm sure that if I read them aloud, I will understand and speak better. Many thanks to all my profesors and friends in Costa Rica!

Francisco, a wonderful teacher!

The director, Ana Lorena, on the left,
and one of my other GREAT teachers, Maribel

My last weekend in Costa Rica

Well, this was my final "fin de semana" in Costa Rica. I went to Tortuguero, which is on the Caribbean side of the country to the north. It was another GREAT trip! First we went to a banana plantation, which was quite interesting. The "recinas" are really big - 80-82 pounds of bananas (110-120) on one cluster. With machetes, the workers cut bunches off and put them in water to clean them. The plant I went to also shipped some to a factory that makes baby food (Gerber, I believe, but here the company is called Frutas). After cleaning and inspecting them, they get put in the boxes that you see in the stores and get shipped primarily to the U.S. and Europe.

How do you like this Rhinosaurus beetle? That's one BIG BUG!!

Next we went on a boat ride in Tortuguero. The canals of Tortuguero are REALLY long! We saw Roseate Spoonbills (the only pink bird in C.R.), and a beautiful bird called a Northern Jacana that has big "toes" so it can walk on the water plants on the river . Our hotel was called Evergreen and had beautiful cabañas (cabins). I just loved this place!

After lunch, we went to an area for shopping (always!) and then went back to the hotel to wait until the turtle walk that night. Tortuguero is known for the turtles that come back to nest. This is the beginning of the high season for the green turtle (tortuga). Our tour didn't start until around 10 and then we walked for what seemed to be hours and hours. The good thing was that we were rewarded with being able to see two! You walk behind the beach on a trail with only a few flashlights. Once you get on the beach, only the guide is permited to carry a flashlight and it is red so as not to disturb the turtles. The first turtle we saw was busy covering her nest with sand. Then we walked another good distance and were able to see a turtle actually laying her eggs. She makes a deep hole, lays the eggs, covers it up, then often makes another hole so as to confuse any predators. They lay about 100 eggs at a time and the turtles are really big. I couldn't take any pictures, because they don't want to do anything to disturb them, but it was really interesting. We didn't get back until 12:30 or 1:00 and then after a shower, Katherine and I went out to do some stargazing for a few minutes. What a great day!

Baby crocodiles

We met a nice man from Bogotá, Columbia on this tour. We were able to speak with him in Spanish and most of the time we understood each other just fine, which was pretty cool. On Sunday, we took another boat ride on the canals of Tortuguero and saw more monkeys, birds, iguanas, and some baby crocodiles. On the walk afterwards, we saw snakes, lizards, birds, and other animals and on the beach we saw the tracks of the giant turtles and also of a jaguar! What a great last weekend!

Our weekend in the rain forest

A view of the rain forest from the aerial tram.

Our tour in the rain forest didn't leave San Pedro until 10:30, which was very nice for a relaxing morning. Our guide in the bus told us all kinds of interesting information about the history of Costa Rica. After stopping for lunch, we got to the Arial Tram in the rain forest. Katherine and I left our bags in the cabin and then saw a video about the rainforest and how it is being endangered and then took the arial tram. Our guide was very interesting and pointed out lots of plants, trees, and flowers. Afterwards. we had a private walking tour with our guide, Leo. He was one of the most knowledgable people I've met. He seemed to know the names of every plant we saw! We saw a sloth, toucans, and a bird somewhat similar to a wild turkey, as well as wicker growing down from the trees, and tons of ferns and other plants. Below is the "hot lips" flower.

The picture below is of a tree with giant buttresses. Because the trees don't put down deep roots, this is one way for the tree to anchor itself. There are many types of trees that do this - very interesting to see!

After dinner we also went on a night walk, which was nice for seeing the stars, listening to the cicadas and owls, and even seeing a whole line of army ants making their way back home. One very interesting thing was that the night was pitch black! You couldn't even see your hand in front of your face. And at 9:00, the generator shut down and all the lights went out! The next day Leo took us on the tram again and we got off halfway through for a short hike. We saw a great view of the area, more toucans and a beautiful blue trogon, which is not spotted very often in that area. We also heard a macaw, but didn't see it. After the arial tram, Katherine and I got brave and did the canopy zip line!! Yes, we really did zip through the canopy strapped to a cable! It was a lot of fun, once I got over my initial fear. What a fantastic weekend!

Symphony in San Jose

First the rain. Yikes! Friday afternoon it POURED down rain! My friend Katherine and I had planned to go the the National Theater of Costa Rica for a performance, but first we went home after school to drop off our books. By the time we got to our homes we were both drenched. I changed, but I couldn't leave the house again because there was about a foot of water coming up into the open garage area (it is a fenced-in area in front of the house where they park the cars) as well as pouring down the street like a river. Finally the rain let up and our comedy of errors continued. Katherine called a cab and they came to pick me up. Unfortunately, in Costa Rica there are no house numbers. So my address is: "from the Supermercado Si-Mart, go one block east, then one block north - it's the house with the brick columns". Well, Katherine didn't know exactly where my house was and the poor "taxista" couldn't find it. They just kept driving around in circles until finally she just had him take her back home. Fortunately, about that time, the son of my family said he was going into San Jose and would be glad to take us there. We got directions to Katherine's house and the same thing happened! Jose couldn't find the house! But we were in luck because he had a cell phone and called. Finally, about 5:00 we made it to San Jose. We bought tickets to the National Symphony performance and then walked to the Parque Central and to the National Cathedral. We then had a very nice, relaxing dinner in the cafe of the National Theater. The performance was first-class, with the Symphony as well as several guest singers. At one point, there was even a dancer with the beautiful native dress - white with brightly colored flowers. I enjoyed it tremendously!

Another "vaca" named "Cafe con Leche"

- it is totally covered with coffee beans!

4-in-1 tour

Pretty interesting, huh?? This is one of MANY vacas (cows) in the middle of San Jose! There is an exposition going on right now and they are all over the downtown area. Katherine and I spent the day Saturday in San Jose. Apparently the cows will be there for 3 months total and then there will be an auction and probably some of the hotels, etc. will buy them. The artists have donated them to the city, if I understand correctly. The thing I enjoyed most about visiting San Jose was simply the hustle and bustle of all the people. There is an "Avenido Central" that is closed to traffic where there are lots of people, and as you can see from the picture below, plenty of street vendors selling various articles. There were also people singing, preaching, playing musical instruments, etc. We went to the Gold museum and also to a small museum of Costa Rican money. We had lunch at a fabulous restaurant in the Grand Hotel, which has an outside patio which is great for watching the people. We also went inside the National Theater, which is very beautiful. The other main activity was shopping at the Mercado Central. It was quite amazing! There were LOTS of different kinds of shops selling souvenirs, meat, chicken, fish, leather goods, herbs, spices, etc. You name it - you could probably find it there! We got lost a couple times, it is so big!

Sunday we went on a "4 in 1 tour" which included a coffee plantation, Poas Volcano, La Paz waterfalls, and a trip on the Sarapiqui river. I really enjoyed the coffee plantation. It was so interesting seeing the "cherries" and the whole process by which they produce coffee. Below is a picture of the cherries. They pick them by hand when red and then wash them and process them. If I remember correctly, they go through about 4 different times and pick them because they ripen at different times. Different types (European roast, French roast, etc.) are roasted for different amounts of time. All of the coffee produced in Costa Rica is Arabic, which is the highest quality. They don't have as much land as many other countries, so they make it up by having the best instead of the most!

The next stop was Poas Volcano. It is up in the mountains and was freezing cold! Unfortunately, we couldn't see anything because of all the clouds that rolled in. Oh well - such is life. Next we visited La Paz. There were areas with exotic birds and monkeys, a butterfly garden, and a hummingbird sanctuary. I really enjoyed sitting and watching the hummingbirds (colibris) and could have spent a lot more time there. After a good buffet lunch, we walked to the spectacular waterfalls. They really were quite beautiful. Finally, we drove to the River Sarapiqui where we got on a boat to view the wildlife. We didn't see a lot, but we did see a large black iguana, a caiman, some howler monkeys, and an anhinga. I've now seen (in the wild) two of the three kinds of monkeys Costa Rica has.

Templo Waterfall - 85 feet

I apparently have some kind of stomach virus, which is not much fun, but fortunately it doesn't seem to be too bad. It could be from some food we ate, but there are a couple others at the school who seem to have something as well, so we are surmising that it is a virus. Hopefully it will run it's course and I will be well very soon! Classes this week are good, with just two of us with one teacher and then in the afternoon I have private tutoring. In the afternoon we've been going over my diary. I've been writing it in Spanish - very good practice, but it sure takes a lot of time. It has provided some very good examples for my professor to correct me and help me understand the grammar!

Manuel Antonio National Park

This last weekend (el fin de semana pasada), I visited Manuel Antonio Park with a new friend I met at ILISA. Her name is Sandy and she is 23. We had a great time and got to see many animals! Manuel Antonio is on the Pacific side of Costa Rica, a little more than halfway down the coast. We took the public bus from San Jose about 2:30 in the afternoon on Friday and I got to see all the pictures Sandy took. She was in Costa Rica and Panama before coming to the school and she will also be visiting Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru afterwards! The ride was mostly uneventful, but there were a couple of VERY narrow bridges we went across and we tried not to look! We stayed in a hostel in Quepos, which is about a 20 minute bus ride from Manuel Antonio. In the morning we hired a guide for the park, which was well worth it, since he was able to find and point out WAY more animals than we would have seen on our own. We saw lots and lots of sloths:
I even got a GREAT video of one climbing up the tree! The black iguanas were all over, including on the beach. We had to shoo them away by throwing sand! Once, when we were laying on the beach, one went between our towels and then scampered across my foot - boy, was I surprised!! We also saw white-faced monkeys, very colorful insects, honeymoon bats (so-named because they are always found in couples), Jesus Christ lizards (because they can walk on water), and a red-eyed tree frog. Very interesting!
After the tour of the park, we visited the beach and swam in the ocean. We had GREAT weather the whole weekend, with lots of sun, which is a little uncommon at this time of year. The view was beautiful. And there were many venders outside the park selling beautiful sarongs and towels of every color and tropical animal imaginable. Beautiful! The next day we went back to the public beach and bought some fresh coconuts, which was fun and delicious besides. We took a bus back in the afternoon and then took a taxi back to our homes. All in all, a very good weekend!

My second week at ILISA

Above is a picture taken from the cafeteria area at ILISA. It's a beautiful view of the mountains and area around San Pedro. I just love sitting here and looking out. It's a great place to have classes. We have the opportunity of taking optional classes and excursions in the afternoons. Mondays are "reunion" days - Happy Hour at a nearby restaurant and the school pays for the first "cerveza" and some appetizers. It's a great way to get to know the students a little better and practice Spanish as well. On Tuesdays it's a dance class. I went the first time, but not this week. I just didn't seem to have the knack for it - maybe I'll go again next week, we'll see. On Wednesdays there is some kind of class at the school. The first week it was a cooking class - this week it was a lecture on Latin American body language and gestures. It was all in Spanish and the amazing thing was that I understood nearly all of it! It was very, very interesting. Did you know that in Latin America if you touch one hand to the other elbow (while nodding your head a little toward another person), you are saying that the other person is a cheapskate?? On Thursdays there is usually an outing. Last week it was to a "mercado" where there are a bunch of shops, mostly full of things tourists like to buy. I bought a gift for my "mama tica", since it was her birthday that day. This week was to the famous church "La Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles", which is the second picture. The story goes that there was a young girl who went to the river to get water (or forest to get firewood, depending on the version) and found a statuette. She took it home and put it in a container. The next day she went again to the river and found another statuette. When she got home, the first one was gone, so this time she locked it up. The third day, it happened again, so she took it to the priest. The next day it was missing from his home, so he went to the original spot and it was there. Then they decided to build a church at that spot. Very interesting, don't you think? Anyway, on August 1, people from all over the country walk to the church to pay their respects. My host family walks for about 3 1/2 or 4 hours to get there, but many walk much further. Often they pray for healing, etc. at their homes and then come on August 1 to say thank you and there is a place they can put a symbol of their thanks (a small metal symbol of an arm, leg, or other part of the body, etc.). On August 2, there is a huge day of celebrations. I think it would be great to see it all, but I'll be back home by then.

This weekend I'll be going to the beach (playa) Manuel Antonio, which is said to be very beautiful. I'm praying for nice weather and will post pictures sometime after I get back!