Leaving Costa Rica

Hi all,

Well tomorrow I am leaving Costa Rica. I have had an excellent time here. I have seen so many amazing things, volcanos, beaches, animals, and forests. I also have met some great people, made lots of freinds and danced a bit I also learnt quite a lot of spanish and stayed with a lovely family.

I feel sad to leave because I have enjoyed myself so much. but I know I need to continue on my journies and I am very much looking forward to going to Cuba.

Well, next time you here from me I will be living it up in Cuba.

Hasta Luego.

Monteverde Dos

Hey All,

Well my second day in Monteverde was interesting! In the morning I missed the early bus to the Monteverde cloud forest reserve so I decided to go to the Santa Elena reserve it is not as touristy as Monteverde reserve and everyone says it is better. Well I decided I would walk this trail that looked cool. I was walking along this overgrown muddy trail, I felt like I killed more plants than I saw when I walked along, and I managed to fall on my arse 3 times. I walked 3.5Ks over following the barely there trail, I crossed 3 rivers like the map said, then I hit a forth river that did not exist on the map and there was no trail on the other side. I was pretty upset as I had to hike all the way back. To top it off I saw only two birds and a tiny spider that had decided to make a web on my back pack.

After that horrible experince I went for a twilight night tour of the Childrens Cloud Forest Reserve, where we saw some sloths, tarantulas (¿sp?) and many birds. It was a lot of fun but buy the end of the day most of it hiking in 7kms in mud I was pretty tired it was off to bed early for the 6:30am bus.

Zip Lining

Well, got up early for the jeep boat jeep ride to Monteverde. It is the quickest option to get from La Fortuna to Monteverde. The distance between the two places is about 40Ks but a big lake and terrible roads make some journeys 3-4 hours. Ours was not as quick at it should be given our "jeep" (a minivan) overheated and we had to wait for it to cool.

I arrive in Santa Elena the town near the cloud forest. In the afternoon I went on a Canopy Tour. Which involves Zip-line (fying fox) cables that are suspended over the cloud forest, some go right through the trees. It is a blast, you are harnessed in and fly through and over beautiful trees and forests. There are 11 different cables, the fastests takes you to 35Km per hour, the longest is about 770m and the highest involves climing up a spiral staircase in howling winds to 130m above the ground. Given you are high up in the coutry anyway from the top you can see the pacific coast, and on a clear day you can see Lake Nicaragua. It was a fun and exhilirating experience.

I am staying at a cool really social hostel here, two guys staying here did the canopy tour in a cow cuit and parrot suit. I saw some video footage they had. Hilarious!! For your viewing pleasure I took a nice cheesy photo he he he

More Volcanos and leaving school

Well, On Friday I had my last day of school it was kind of sad because I had bonded well with the other students and we had lots of fun (hello to all you swiss and girls from Licktenstein, Sorry I can't spell your countries name). We went to the movies often (here it costs me $1.2 US to see a movie) and even developed a regular bar. My spanish has improved a lot but I worry about loosing it staying in hostels where most people speak English. As better as my spanish has become, I feel that I am like my dad in that I will only really be satisfied with my spanish until I am fluent. So after a big night of partying of the town (thanks for the dancing Claudio) and a very hung over class. I caught a shuttle bus to a town call La Fortuna. The bus ride was great I was the only one on the bus I spend most of the bus ride chatting with the driver. At one of the rest stops I got chatting with the guy at the counter who asked me if I had any Australian money, turns out I had a left over $5. He was really cute he collects money from all over the world and he asked me if he could buy my $5 note. I told him it was a gift ($5 Aus is kinda useless to me) he got so excited. After we started driving off his wife started chasing the mini van to give me a costa rica firdge magnet for a present it was so cute!

Anyway to the exciting stuff, my first night in La Fortuna I got convinced by this group of great girls (2 germans and a Mexican) to go to the local night club. I was so tired but after many a game of Table Football and Merengue dancing later I had lots of fun. The next day I headed to a tour of Volcan Arenal, after hiking for 45 mins in the rain I had low expectations of seeing anything (most of the time the volcano hides in fog). We waited until dark, even though it was still cloudy we got to see some lava and exploding rocks. Afterwards I got to go the nearby volcanic hotsprings which was cool. I met a lovely couple from london Carl and Karen who are working on a volunteer house here, we went out for again some more beers. Tried to but did not get to bed early ready for the ride to Monteverde.

Tortuguero

On the weekend I went on a tour to the area of Tortuguero. It is located in North East Costa Rica on the Carribean Coast. It is a remote area but is visited a lot by tourists. Mainly beacuse it is the area (one of only a handfull in the world) where Leatherback and Green turtles come to breed and lay there eggs. However that occurs in the rainly season (July-Nov) so I missed out. It does rain a lot there 6000mm (cubed) per year.I spend two days exploring the local area and had a fantastic time.

¿Going Bananas?
To get there you have to take a bus ride most of which is on unsealed roads, on the way we passed though huge banana plantations where we stopped and had a look at the Del Monte Banana processing plant. Where they select wash and wax the bananas for packing. ¿Did you know? They get women to select the bananas because they do a better job. Men are too lazy and pick the bad bananas. I have this whole new appreciation for bananas now after watching these people work.

? Muchos animales¿
After the bus ride you have to take a 25Km boat ride into the village. The village and national park of Tortuguero is inaccessable by roads and the village and surrounding national parks is actually a series of rivers and canals. You can see more on the boats as you can see the tops of trees where most animals are. We had a fantastic guide Fernando who is studying biology so he was really knowledgable and passionate about his job. Went boating down narrow canals, for walks through the jungle, and along the beach. I got to see heaps of animals such as:
- Monkeys (howler and squirrel)
- Numerous birds
- Crocodiles
- Leaf ants
- Morpho butterflies
- Poison Dart Frogs
- Sloths (both 2 and 3 toed)
I did also see a Toucan however it was in a cage which is kinda sad but they are still amazing birds to look at.

Back to School!
I still dislike Mondays (the only difference is that here they are called Lunes) it is hard to go back to studying after having such a fun weekend. Especially now we have a new teacher who I am not very impressed with. My last teacher was great this one is terrible. She does not explain concepts she just assumes we know them. When teaching us verb conjugations she only tells us regular verbs (and when we ask her to conjugate the irregular she seems unimpressed) frankly when we ask her any questions or for exlainations (basically to do her job she seems unimpressed). To top it off she taught us the incorrect conjugations for the past tense it was only until one of my classmates pointed it out to her 3 times did she realise her mistake. No good. Anyway Still having fun !Pura Vida¡

Volcanos and Ticos

Volcanos:
On the weekend I went for a day trip to Volcan Poas, which is a crater volcano located not too far outside of San Jose. When I first arrived, a mist had settled and from the viewing platform I could see only cloud. So I went for a walk in the nearby cloud forest which was very pretty and I got to see some hummingbirds (technicaly you hear them first then look for them, however they are very quick). I retured to the volcano to see an awsome sight. Poas is considered not really active, as a while ago it blew its top and now there is a big crater. There are still jets of steam that arrise from the volcano. The landscape is interesting the crater looks like something you would find on another planet. There is also a volcanic lake nearby, another volcanic crater which has been filled with rainwater. However the water is so acidic only some kinds of bacteria can live it. For those bird people on the way back we stoped the bus to see a Quetsal (a rather sepectacular looking bird and great to see, because apparently the die if put into captivity).

Elections:
Also the weekend, Costa Rica had its election. However the president has not been decided as at last count there was 0.6% difference between the two front runners. Here people wear there political preferences on their sleeve (well more like out the car window). Supporting your party involves driving around on the day of the election, and flying coloured flag (there is the green and white party vs the red and yellow) of your party out the window. If you see a fellow supporter you honk you horn like crazy, if you see an opposition car you also honk your horn like crazy. Basically all you could hear on Sunday was horns honking all day (what a headache!).

Ticos:
The ticos (what the locals call themselves, Costa Ricanese is a bit of a mouthfull) are pretty laid back people (tranquillo as they would say here) however there is still a ban on the sale of alcohol on the day before and of the election. Things do not get too roudy here. Costa Rica has not had an army for a long time so there is a relaxed culture among the people (that combined with the fact in terms of central america the country is reasonalbly well off) and apparently they will avoid confrontation. This is helpful as when people try to sell you stuff if you just say no politley they leave you alone (most of the time, except for that transexual with the dog in a pram). Also that still does not explain why secruity guards carry large shotguns. The most dangerous thing here is the potholes and roads. Apparently San Jose was built over several underground rivers. Hence massive holes in the ground just appear out of no-where on the street. The government is to tight to fix them which makes it dangerous for drinking and as for riding a bike forget it, it may only be possible if you have dual suspension.

School:
Is going well, my brain hurts after thinking, speaking, asking, listening to Spanish all day. IT is weird though everyother student at my school is Swiss German, kinda freaky it is a bit like the Australians in Canada they are everywhere. Two of the girls insist they are from Liktenstein (¿spelling?) but it is so small 30,000 people. Does that count as a country?

San Pedro Again

Just a quick update, my classes are going well I have decided to spend an extra week in class so I will be in San Pedro for 3 weeks. I am actually working hard I get up at 6:30am and get to school by 8am. I have 4 hours of language class, then 2 hours of dance. Come home dinner homework and I am in bed by 9:30pm. Some holiday but my spanish is getting better every day. I have decided to stay the extra week as I want it to get better, also I can travel on weekends easily. This also allows me to travel with just my day pack, and I can leave my 17Kgs in my house.

Dance classes are coming along ok, my cha cha cha is good, my costa rican salso too the cuba salsa has 70 different moves so it is a little tricky. The guy in the class is Swiss when I dance with him it is a bit like dancing with a wet fish but anyway we have a lot of fun.

Alicia xoxo