Hey everyone! Sorry this update is so late. I have not had wireless in my room since I got home from my field trip on Sunday, so I have had to use the cord downstairs, which has given me an excuse to put this off…
Friday: Four other girls (Kelsey, Rachel, Bethany, and Holly) and I went to a city close to San Jose called Heredia. We met at 330 at the school and waited for a couple other people, who were late so we had to leave them (no one here has phones, so it’s impossible to let people know if you are not coming anymore, so we just assume 15 minutes late they are not coming). We walked for about 20 minutes to get to this train station, then bought our tickets (for about 40 cents). The train was PACKED and we had to stand smushed together. It was still fun; however, then we got off one stop too early (all the people still on the train didn’t give us a clue), so we had to ask for directions and walk another 15 minutes to Heredia.
When we entered Heredia, we were along a strip that had Taco Bell, McDonalds, Burger King, and some other American fast food restaurant. It was strange. Then we walked around, found central park, the train station, an open air food market, some friends in a bar (from school), and then we found Rachel, Holly, and I’s communication professor’s house. He had given Rachel directions to come visit (even though he is in the middle of renovations). I must preface this by saying professor-student relationships here are much looser and there is less crap attached. Our professor is always super helpful with any of our questions about our families and the culture, and he invited anyone in his class to Heredia and to his house. He was on his way to the hardware store, but decided to stay and talk to us instead. We took a tour through his house, which is really cool and will be even better once his terrace is finished. Then he made coffee for people and gave us cookies. We just talked about culture and looked at some of his pictures. It was a little awkward, but really fun and chill at the same time. After we left his house, we stopped at a gelato place (where I broke out of my shell and got ice cream with fruit. Even though it was still chocolate ice cream, I usually never mix the two. It was pretty good, though!). Then we walked to the train station and got a ride back home to San Jose (and got off on the right stop this time).
Saturday: I arrived at the school at 7:30 a.m with my bag packed and ready for La Selva (even if my attitude about missing a weekend at the beach with my friends was a little cranky). We stopped at a supermarket then had about a 3 hour drive to La Selva (which translates literally to the jungle but is also a research/conservation center). We had a while to chill after lunch, then we had a lecture where we learned all about La Selva and what kinds of projects are going on. It’s a really cool mix of long and short term scientific projects, ecotourism, and ecology education. La Selva is actually the only place in Central America where there is a corridor between the highlands and the lowlands, and is a huge biological asset, which makes it teeming with biodiversity.
We crossed this massive suspension bridge over a crocodile infested river to get to the main part of the preserve, and we were about to go on a guided hike through the jungle when we found some things within the camp to examine. First of all, there was a huge iguana way up in a tree by the bridge; there were spider monkeys, macaws, and the dreaded bullet ants!! Ahhhh!!! These ants are literally huge and get their name from the fact that when one bites or stings you, it feels like you have been shot. Yeah. We ran from those many times during our weekend! During our actual trail hike, we saw some really super cool looking little white fruit bats sleeping under a leaf, lots of bugs, TONS of peccaries, and an armadillo. We learned a lot about different species of plants and animals, and we got comfortable walking around in the jungle (even though it was pouring rain and taking notes for our ecology paper was hard). We met some really cool people at dinner – 2 elderly men, one from Boston and one from Montana. They were at La Selva for a couple days, and the guy from Boston had been going there for years and years and years. They raved about the night hikes and told us to feed the fruit piranhas in the morning (more on that later). That night we went on a night hike, and man was that cool! We saw lots of snakes (mostly nonvenomous, but we did see a baby viper, a cousin to the fer de lance, the most poisonous snake in CR!), spiders, frogs, and insects (like leaf cutter ants – those things are pretty sweet!!)
We enjoyed some hot chocolate and card games, then settled in to go to sleep. I, being the worry-wart that I am, didn’t sleep very well because I was worried we would sleep too late since I didn’t have an alarm and the girl who did felt like she would sleep through it. I woke up when it went off after having only drifted a little during the night.
Sunday: We had a delicious breakfast bright and early at 6 a.m., and snatched a banana piece or two for the fruit piranhas. They really do exist!! We dropped bananas over the side and they all dog-piled trying to get the pieces! It was like at the zoo when you can feed the fish, but these fish were even bigger. Then we spent the next few hours doing our assignment (which would only take 5 minutes, but everyone got an opportunity to explore the jungle). Rachel, Sara, Holly, and I were a group of 4 and set off to explore. We picked a path that would take us to a swamp and spent a good 2 hours or more just walking around and exploring (and peccarie stalking). It wasn’t as easy to find animals and stuff as it was with the guide, but it was still really fun. We saw a couple snakes, lots of spiders, lots of peccaries, some birds, and of course heard the howler monkeys and parrots. Holly got bit by some giant horsefly type thing and almost got bit by a bullet ant, so once we were done in the forest we relaxed in a study area of the preserve. There we found a bullet ant just hanging around, saved a twig bug, and found a HUGE beetle, which we named Ricardo and rescued from his back.
Back at the main complex, we talked about the interactions we had seen (our assignment) and chose the one we were going to use in our paper. Then we went to the gift shop and enjoyed ice cream and purchased t-shirts (only $8 and the money goes to conservation research – great purchase in my mind!) and sat around and waited for the bus. And waited. And waited. The driver was about an hour and a half late. We didn’t want to miss the Superbowl, so we all jumped on ASAP and headed back to San Jose.
The plan in San Jose was to meet my friends at this restaurant for the game. Turns out they are closed Sundays, so everything just kind of fell apart and I ended up watching it at home alone, as did all my friends. I didn’t have a good night, because of cleanliness issues with my host brother (who is much better now that I used the Costa Rican passive aggressive way of telling him to clean up and asking him where the food money is – he now does his dishes and buys the food using the money I’m pretty sure he took from his mom), the fact that I hadn’t showered in days but no water was working, and general tiredness. Everything turned out well, though.
Monday: Went running, had breakfast, did homework/thesis work, and went to the bank. Met my friends for lunch/bible study then went to the mall, where I bought new sandals for $6!! We also went grocery shopping and I bought a whole pineapple for less than $2!!!!! I was so happy with myself lol. When we were at the grocery store, I didn’t know how to pick a ripe pineapple, so I asked a lady there, who told me then went and got someone from the store to help her find a good one for me. They were so darn sweet!!! Other than that my day was boring and full of thesis work and other generally boring things.
Tuesday: Worked out, had breakfast, did thesis work, had a picnic lunch with friends (followed by Dos Pinos ice cream!), had class (and found out another 4 hour session will take place on Thursday), chilled at home for awhile, had ecology class, then went to dance class, where I learned some fun new turns because I have missed the last 2 weeks. I danced with the instructor at one point because there was an odd number, and she asked if I had been practicing. I said yes even though in reality I really haven’t lol. But yea, I’m just that good lol. It’s a lot of fun and our dance instructor is taking us all to a Latin dance club on Thursday for about an hour after class to practice with Ticos (who can actually dance, woo-hoo!). Tomorrow is my friend’s and I’s lunch out day of the week, and I think we are going to see 127 hours for half price tomorrow night. Fun fun in the sun! Sorry to all my Iowa people who are suffering in the sub-zero windchills right now!!
There are no pictures in this update because of the whole internet situation, sorry! Not sure when I will get them posted on facebook, but when I do I will add some here.
Pura Vida!
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