Blisters, Bug Bites and Babies, Oh My!

I will have to write a post about Quito another time because what I have been doing for the past four days is much more worthy of a blog post.

While in Quito, Jose and I were wondering how we were going to spend our three weeks in the beautiful country of Ecuador, especially since going to the Galapagos Islands was WAAAAAY above our price range.  I wanted, no, needed to see the jungle.  We looked into tours into the Amazon and the cheapest one was $240 for three nights, four days.  It would have been wonderful, but also too expensive.  Jose, with his masterful internet seach skills found a site describing a family that lives in the jungle and often has tourists and volunteers come to stay with them: Cinimp Tuna.  It sounded perfect.  I sent an email to the "contact us" address and hoped to hear back within a couiple of days. 

Two days, three days went by and I still hadn´t gotten a response.  We made plans to head south to Baños and then possibly to Puyo in hopes of finding an affordable way to get into the Jungle.  Then I got an email.  Abbie (a former volunteer with Chinimp Tuna) gave us all the information we had asked for, and then some.  And the price was affordable: $25 a day, or if you stay a week it is $75 per person.  We talked it over and then replied to her to let the family know to expect us within the next couple of days. 

A 1.5 hour bus ride from Baños to Puyo, the purchase of rubber boots in Puyo, then a bus headed toward the Chico Copataza Community for 2 hours.  As we are on the second bus we enter the forest.  Granted this is probably tertiary forest (it has been cleared and regrown at least twice) so there aren´t as many big trees, but it is still the jungle.  Around some corners we could see over a cliff and as far as I could see there was jungle.  Green, green and more green.  Different textures, colors and shapes.  I was going to the jungle!  We stepped off the bus in what felt like the middle of nowhere and are greeted by no less tha six people, with at least 4 children watching from a distance.  They shake our hands, the women kiss my cheek, the chickens on the ground dare to venture closer, the children just stare.  They takes us the main house that they use for gatherings and Manuel welcomes us to Chinimp Tuna (named for a bird and a waterfall).  They seem a little perplexed to see us, and then we find that no one told HIM that we were coming.  Huh.  They scrambled to make dinner for us, to prepare two beds upstairs and to clean off the table where we could eat.  I felt kind of bad, but we had no way of knowing that they were not informed.  We were given juice and we both looked at is skeptically.  The water here was definately NOT safe to drink, but what were we to do?  The family obviously drank water and it was rude to not drink it.  We looked at each other and drank up.

We went up to our "room" which was filled with 11 sets of bunk beds and two of them had been made up for us.  No mosquito netting, the rooms were far from being sealed from bugs and the beds shook a little whenever anyone walked up the stairs to the second floor.  This was going to be an experience! 

After a dinner with rice, noodles, tea and fish:

we went back upstairs to relax.  Soon we began to be attacked by bugs.  Josè went down to ask for a "mosquitero" (mosquito net) and they only had one.  He, awesomely, let me use it the first night and it was a god send.  Lulled to sleep by the jungle symphony of insects, frogs, toads and the occasional unknown sound, we fell asleep in the Jungle.

The next day we were greeted by a lazy rooster (he crowed maybe twice), a hen that wanted to be a rooster, and the sound of a crying baby (which turned out to be the pet parrot).  Our first task after breakfast was to snort this liquid up our nose, which would help us have a better experince in the forest, clean our our sinuses and I´m sure some other benefits. It was water that had tobacco leaves soaking in it.  There may have been other things but I am not sure.  Josè went first, fearlessly and I hestitantly followed.  Its an adventure, right?  It burned, making my nose tingle and my eyes water but eventually that went away.  Then there was a little dizziness and the colors became a little more vivid.  Hrm.  I think I was a little high. 

We ventured into the forest with Dario yeliding his jungle sword (machete) and followed by 5 children.  About 5 meters in we were very thankful for the rain boots as the ground was extremely muddy and more than once the jungle tried to claim our boots for itself.  Our entourage soon ventured off without us, climbing trees and following paths that only their experienced eyes could see.  We tasted fruits and vegetables from the forest as well as seeing brightly colored as well as huge spiders, millipedes and a lot of evidence of monkeys. 

While walking along the river bank I slipped and fell on the rocks banging up my knee, my ribs on the left side and my finger.  My camera was safe though.  Phew!  We finally reached our desitnation and I discovered the real reason the kids came with us.  There was a beautiful waterfall of clear cold water.  The kids had already stripped down to their skivies and were jumping and diving off the rocks into the pool below.  Following their lead I got down to my bathing suit and after some hesitation I jumped into the water.  Cold, but when I lay back to float on my back I saw sunlight, green all around and butterflies fluttering overhead.  I quickly forgot the temperature of the water. 

I swam over to the base of the waterfall (only about 5.5 feet tall, so easy to climb and not too powerful) and tried to climb up the rocks the same way I had seen the kids doing it.  I guess they just knew where to grab because I must have spent a good minute or two struggling to get up.  The kids laughed at me and finally one girl, Yocanda, offered me her hand.  Now Yocanda is 11 years old and skinny as a stick.  I didn´t want to risk her falling down if I slipped so I hesitantly took her hand. 

Carolina (left) and Yoconda (right)

It wasn´t until one of my feet begin to slip and I felt her arm pulling me up when I realized how strong this young girl was.  She grew up in this forest, climing trees, swimming, fishing, running.  When I looked at her again she was skinny, but ALL muscle.  She had a six pack!  Yet another lesson in "first impressions are often wrong".

Carolina helping me up

We all swam and jumped and climed until it was time to go. 

Yocanda, me and Carolina

Yoconda, Josè and Carolina

The girls (Yocanda, Nelba and Crolina) were especially fascinated with my skin, especially the back of my hands that were sunburned.  They would touch them and watch them turn white then back to red and ask me how it happened.  I would try to explain to them that it was the sun but it was such a foreign idea to them that I don´t think they understood what I was talking about.

On our way back home we ate grubs (I ate the small one but the big ones, the ones that were bigger around than my thumb, I couldn´t do it.  I did try though!), watched the kids climb different trees to gather palm fruits and papaya, Yocanda cut down a palm and extracted the heart of it (I had NO idea how much waste went into that little bit of tender food!) and once again the girls helped me through the forest, telling me to watch my head or to look out for the spider web.  

Back home we had lunch and a rest, then Dario took us to Rio Grande (the big river) also called Rio Cotopaza.  He painted our faces with the pigment of a fruit saying it keeps away the bugs, fish and alligators.  At the river we found the children with inner-tubes, playing in the water and in the sand on the other side of the river.  We once again bathed/swam in the river and when the sun started to go down the three of us dried off and went home, the kids stayed to play until the sun was gone.

The next day, Sunday, Jose learned to fish with a net, and I did a lot of holding the machete and watching.  I don´t have time to go into it all right now but it was a fascinating day watching them complete tasks that are hard and frustrating to me, but they have grown up doing it and it is part of their life.  That afternoon and into the evening we both learned how to make the jewelry they wear in that community.  I was in heaven!  There were kids ALL around, mostly watching Jose and I to see (I think) if we could do it.  Another falling down incident occurred when I tried to jump for something while wearing flipflops, on slippery rocks that were not flat and I landed almost on of one of the kids hitting my knee (the same one I banged the day before) and jamming my right pinky when I fell.  The kid started to cry but I learned later that it was probably mostly out of surprise.  The kids have fallen from the second story and are totally fine.  Wow.  

Yesterday we joined Manuel and three of his sons for their daily work in the forest.  We were all given machetes and we were told to cut down everything within a certain area, except the palm trees.  I know what you are thinking.  “YOU CUT DOWN THE RAINFOREST?!” but these people use it for their livelihood.  They are not commercial growers and they don´t do mono-crops.  They plant three or four things in the same plot of land and cut down only as much as they need.  It was hard work and José and I both had blisters by the time we quit for lunch.  Cutting open an orange for a snack (energy to get us back to the house pretty much) we then began the trek back home.  Lunch was wonderful soup with the best papaya I have EVER had.  It was amazing!  Then we had rest time for an hour, then back into the forest to plant things.  We gathered bags of sticks and took them to a cleared place that they already had yucca growing in.  The two men sharpened stick and used them to make holes in the ground where José and I planted the sticks.  The plant was something that they used in fishing.  The mash it up and put it between rocks and it, essentially, drunken the crabs and kills the fish so they can just pick them up out of the water.  Interesting.  Then we planted the jungle version of potatoes.  We finished rather quickly and then had more papaya as a snack.  We trekked back to the house and had a couple hours to bathe (in the river by the way) and then rest until dinner.

Today our hands are sore and we have more bug bites than we can count but it has been so much fun so far!  Tomorrow we are going to do another type of work and then on Thursday (our last day there) we will hike to the big waterfall where the water is so clear you can see the fish when you swim in it.

Shamans, Brides and Devils.

I realize that I haven´t updated in quite some time but things have been busy and the computers have been slow.  We´ll see how this one does.

Last week we left Quito for the quieter, safer and greener town of Baños.  Known for its natural resources and the spas that seem to be around every corner, it was a perfect escape from the fascinating, but loud, city of Quito.  It is a tourist destination so the food was a bit more expensive but there were decently prices hostels, lots of things to do that didn´t require you to pay $40 and we met a lot of fun people in the hostel we stayed at for three nights.  On our first wander around the city in the daylight we saw quite a few interestingly painted buildings (mostly bars) but this one stuck out quite a bit.  Can you name all of them?

With one of our new friends (Amelia) we visited the natural hot springs baths.  They were crowded but it felt SO good to soak in the water!

The next day we found three other people that wanted to do the waterfall bike ride with us and the five of us headed out at around 11 in the morning on our rented bikes.  Rory (from Australia), Kate and Oliver (from New Zealand) rented bikes from a place near our hostel.  They didn´t have ones that worked well for Jose and I so we traipsed across the town to another place that had many bikes to choose from, different sizes (small for me, large for him), comfortable seats and REAL helmets (not just skid caps).  I am SO glad Jose found that place...you´ll find out why later.

The first part of the bike ride was mostly downhill.  I was telling myself "Its ok that you haven´t rideden a bike in years, you can do this!"  Then we reached the turn off for the first waterfall.  I looked at is in astonishment.  The hill was REALLY steep and I could barely walk up it so riding up it was totally out of the question.  By the time I reached the top I could barely breathe.  I haven´t had any issues with asthma in years but something about the sudden change in altitude (I hadn´t had any issues up to that point, even in Quito) or having to push the bike up the hill with me just about did me in.  Once I could see again I looked around and saw a very underwhelming waterfall.  I did all that work and all I got was this:

Cascada de Chamana (Waterfall of the Shaman)

Pretty, but I wasn´t sure it was worth it.

Back down the hill we got back onto the road, ready for the next waterfall when Rory´s back tire got a flat.  Fortunately the shop had provided an extra tube and a hand pump.  The boys made quick work of changing the tire and when we looked at the old inner-tube we saw it had three patch jobs, all of which were not very well done.  Well, at least they had given them a spare.  Heaven help us if someone else got a flat.

Oliver in orange, Rory is the one "helping"

Back on the road and onto the next waterfall we passed a dam, some workers on a bridge that were wearing hard hats but no ear or eye protection using a sledghammer, welding or cutting steel rebar with an electric saw.  Goodness.  Then Rory looked down at his tire and it was flat again.  I guess the extra tube they gave him also had a hole in it.  Well then.

The second waterfall was beautiful and we could see it from the road, no need to climb a horrid hill!

Agoyan

This is what we were looking at as we were riding.  Not half bad huh?

The third waterfall was really pretty to see.  From the road you had a very clear view of both of them and there were places to rest and just take in the beauty of the scenery...and for Rory to pump up his bike tire again.

Manto de la Novia (Mantle of the Bride)

Looking around we saw a path that you could take to get to the base of the waterfall.  With our trusty waterbottles in hand we went down the hill (probably at least 1 km down) and across a bridge to get to the entrance to the waterfall.  There we were greeted by a lady who wanted 50 cents from each of us to enter her property.  The thing was that they had made a wall with barbed wire around her property to prevent anyone from going around and getting there anyway.  While 50 cents isn´t all that much, it was kind of a jerky thing to do.  Once at the bottom Oliver and Rory told us that we should take off our shoes and socks before going closer because they were completly soaked.

At the base of the waterfall we could hear the thundering of the water on the rocks and we could feel the force inside our chests.  Removing our shoes and socks, we ventured closer, pushed back by the force of the water, the sound reverberating through our ears and bodies.  Soaked within seconds, I turned tohave the sun at my back, and saw a circular rainbow going around my body.  

What a fantastic place this was!

 A little farther down the road we came across a superman cable that was 1 km long, for only $10.  Jose talked the lady down to $8 and Oliver and Rory decided to go.  The three of us then rode down the road to meet them.  Jose took one of the extra bikes and one of the ladies rode the other one down.  Rory´s tire was once again flat.  (I began to be extremely thankfull that Jose and I got our bikes from a different place)

Down the hill to what we hear is the best waterfall on the ride, we pass the turn off at first and then see a glimpse of it from the road.

Pailon del Diablo (the Devil´s Cauldron

We backtrack a little, park and lock up our bikes and make the 1km hike down the hill to the waterfall.  This time the cost was $1.50 but once we got there and saw all the work that had been done to make it a wonderful experince we didn´t mind.  The path down the hill was well maintaned, there were stairs and platforms that you could stand on and feel the waterfall.  

There was even a little pathway/tunnel thing that you could use to get to the upper viewpoint and then get behind the waterfall.  It was phenominal! 

Kate took this from the first platform, we are on the second platform.

Hiking back up to the top we were looking at our map and seeing that there was one more waterfall that we could see.  However we were all pretty tired, hungry and it looked like it was going to rain.  We all opted to get somthing to eat and then catch a bus or something back to Baños.  There was a woman with a sign for empanadas near where we parked our bikes so we stopped in there and ordered a couple.  They were unbelievable!  Cheese, chicken and cheese, banana and chocolate, banana and mora (like blackberry).  We were SO happy.

Then we found a man with a truck who was willing to take the 11 of us (we ended up in the same place as another group of 5 riders) for about $1.5 each.  It wasn´t a better deal than a bus but it probably would have taken longer to wait for and ride the bus.  We piled into the back and then the bikes were loaded in.  We hoped that the driver didn´t make any sudden stops or accelerations because otherwise we would have been smashed by the bikes.  Not the safest ride I´ve ever gone on.  We drove thorough some tunnels of questionable structural integrity and around some corners that were a little narrow.

Back in Baños we showered and collapsed in our respective rooms to relax.  Back at the hostel I realized that the back of my hands were really irritated.  I looked down and saw that they were blazing red.  I had remembered to put sunscreen on before our 6 hour adventrure in the sun...except the back of my hands. It turns out they were second degree burns.  This is what they looked like a week later:

Baños was fun and beautiful however the next journey we set out on has given us such fantastic experiences that it needs a post all its own.

Too Many Magos

One of the things I was looking forward to during this trip was experiencing the local cuisines and having access to amazing LOCAL fruits.  One of my favorites is mango.  In Oregon we can get decent mangos, but nothing like the red and yellow mangos that when peeled look like gold on your plate.  They are sweet, a little tangy and you can get them in many different ways.  You can buy pre-cut and peeled green mango, you can put salt on it, or chile on it, or both (which is actually pretty amazing).  However, my favorite still remains to be the simple ripe mango.

On our last night in Granada Nicaragua I went in search of more mango.  I like to buy the whole ones and peel them myself because the pre-cut ones are often greener, which is good but not my favorite.  So in the market on the streets I am asking different vendors what they are asking for mangos and the common one is 3 for $1 (pretty cheap I know, but I can get better if I shop around).  We eventually found a person willing to sell me 12 small mangos (about half the size of the ones we get in the states usually) for $1.  It was the end of the day and I don´t think he wanted to carry them home with him.  So I picked out 12 perfect mangos with the intention of eating some for dinner and then sharing the rest with the friends we have made at the hostel.

So our dinner was fresh mango, avacato (they were amazing!!), local cheese, bread, salad (and in Nicaragua it is cabbage, some carrot, a little spice and a vinigar kind of dressing, very light and refreshing), and some of the most amazing pastries I have EVER had.  However the name of this post is Mangos, not Pastries (I´ll leave that one for Jose to write). So between the two of us we ate four of the mangos.  I ate most of them since they are my favorite and Jose prefers the slightly green ones with salt and chile.  I was in heaven.

The next day I find myself left with 8 mangos still and I don´t want to carry them with me back to San Jose.  I cut up 6 of them to share with our new friends at the hostel, which they appreciated a lot, and I again ate another mango´s worth of the golden deliciousness, maybe more.  I didn´t know when I would next be able to have such wonderful mangos so I took advantage of the opportunity.

The next day however, my body was not pleased.  I suddenly very aware of where the nearest restroom was and I stayed away from fruit for three days.  I, hoever, am not deterred.  I will find more mangos and eat them ALL...just at a more reasonable rate.

My body may have told me that I had had enough mango, but my mouth still waters at the thought of the sweet and tangy flavor of fresh, local mangos.

House or Home?

The word home in English, what it means literally as well as the feelings that often go along with it, is not easily translated into Spanish.  "Casa" is house, the physical place but there is no reference to the emotional connection that often goes along with the word "home".

Leaving Oregon for this adventure, leaving my home, was hard.  I was ready to travel and wanted to have some new experiences, but leaving my home has always been difficult for me.  Driving up the mountain to Monteverde in the dark was not as satisfying as driving in the day time and being able to see the green of the mountains that surround you as the bus climbs the rocky roads, but I could feel the air getting cooler and the familiar smells welcomed be back to the place I used to called home. 


After we settled into a hostel, we went in search of our new friends.  We didn´t find them, but we did find family.  We first met my younger host sister, Johanna, and she told us that her sister, Milaydi, bought the Pizzaria down the street, so we wandered that direction.  

Before we saw her, Milaydi sees me and says "Did you think I would not recognize you?  How are you here?  When did you get here?"  She jumps up and hugs me and leads me to her restaurant.  On the walls are very silly drawings that she designed herself but give the place a fun and inviting atmosphere.  

She hands us the menu and then tells us to choose something and she will make it for us, for free.  Then she begins to talk about family and how important it is.  A bit of history: she has always worked hard to keep her family together, working extra hard and making sacrifices that allow her mother to have a place to live and keep her brother in school.  Now she has a business and she can give back.  She told me that there is nothing more important than having people that you want to give to.  She made us an amazing pizza, she told us that she would pay for us to stay someplace nicer, and she would organize a zip-lining tour for us at a discount.  We ate our pizza and then talked for more than an hour.  Her brother, Andres, stopped by and when he realized that it was really me, (he saw me earlier when he was on his motocycle but I don´t think he believed it) he gave me a big hug and the traditional latino kiss on the cheek without hesitation.  I was on the verge of tears several times.  Being sleep deprived has a tendancy to put my emotions very close to the surface and all of this was a big surprise to me.  I had no idea I would be welcomed in such a way! 


My time in Monteverde was fun what with new friends, strangler fig climbing and zip lines, but the most amazing feeling was on the last night we were there, and Milaydi picked us up, took her to her house and, with her Mom, made dinner for us.  We laughed and I got to hear more fun stories about Marlenne´s childhood and more jokes with her fantastic humor.  The food was simple but by far the best we had had so far in Costa Rica. 

This was family.  
Good food that was simple but made with love.  
Sharing stories what were sometimes embarassing but always fun.


I hold a special place in their hearts, just like they do in mine.  


I may have left my house in the states, but I managed to find home in Monteverde.   

A Lesson In Pain

So most of you know that I am a bit of a wuss when it comes to spicy foods.  Costa Rica doesn´t do much in the way of spicy food but in Nicaragua they do put a little bit of spice in some of their dishes.  Today Jose and I decided to try some of the local fare by taking a chance with the street food.  We got several things to try and brought them back to the hostel to eat, after washing our hands.  There was this one local dish that was amazing!!  They put it in a couple of banana leaves as the bowl, some plantains, yucca (a potato and yucca cross kind of thing), meat and some cabbage salad that is kind of pickled but it was really good.  I was eating the food with a little of everything in each bite and drinking my bottled water when, in one of my bites I suddenly bit into something that went "pop" in my mouth.  I immediately felt excruciating pain throughout my entire mouth.  The burning was horrendous and the pain didn´t seem to end!!  Jose is laughing at me, my mouth is on fire, my nose is running, I was crying...it was SO painful!

The culprit?  A bright green seed-like thing that was about the size of a pomegranate seed.  I had seen them in the salad, assumed they were spicy and thus avoided them.  That final bite had one hidden in it and Jose  didn{t believe me.  Now I have to find more, make him taste it, and (hopefully) have him say: "oh yah, that is kind of spicy."

I can check off a couple of things from my Central America "to-do list":
I have had my favorite kind of beer once again, Toña, and it is as good as I remember it.
I got to hear the rain fall on a corregated aluminum roof and I was rushed back to the small house in Monteverde that I lived in two years ago.
I got to climb the strangler fig in Monteverde
Jose got to meet my host mom.

I have yet to see a rainbow, but I have a feeling that it will happen soon.

Lessons Learned

Some things I have learned in my travels thus far:

Roosters (gallos) that crow between the hours of 8 pm and 5 am should be turned into pollo (cooked chicken)!!

Weed whackers should be used only for their title purpose, not for mowing one´s lawn.

Having a gas station in town is not always a good thing.  The easier it is to get gasoline for your cars, motorcycles, dirt bikes, ATV´s and the like, the more they are used and the louder the town is.

Costa Rica may be beautiful, but it is expensive and the food in a restaurant isn´t that good. ( My host Mom´s cooking was amazing though.)

When crossing the boarder into Nicaragua you have to pay the taxes in two different currencies.  $10 (in dollars) and about $2 in cordobas (the local currency).

When you buy a ticket for a public bus, you are not garaunteed a place to sit.  A one hour bus ride seems VERY long when standing.

Making friends while traveling is easy, you just have to start the conversation with "so where are you from?".  New friends can make traveling an even more rewarding experience.

Having three different types of currency in your wallet is confusing.

Key boards in Latin America are frustrating.  The punctuation marks are in all the wrong spots!  Instead of an apostraphe, I get a {.  Instead of the @ symbol, I get ".  Instead of a semi-colon, I get ñ.

Jose doesn´t sweat unless dancing enthusiatically.  I think I hate him a little for that.

I really should just memorize my passport number.

Family is one of the most important things that a person can have.  I love my family, the true and the chosen members.

¡Los quiero todos!

Un Dia Sobre Adrenelina!

As I am looking for my water bottle on the porch of the house, I hear a scream and I turn to see my host sister Milaydi running over peices of wood and broken stones with the flashlight in her hand.  I hear a crash and I realize that the car I had just gotten out of has rolled down the hill with my host mom, Melene,  and Jose still inside.  I run after her and find Jose and Melene standing outside of the car that had run into the bank of bushes on the side of the driveway.  I have never been more scared in my life.  I joined Melene in thanking God aloud for keeping my loved ones safe.

So let me back up a little...yesterday was very relaxed.  I slept a lot and am finally feeling better.  I think I as so deprived of sleep after the red-eye flight, the walking in San Jose for three hours and the 6 hour bus ride up the mountain.  I just needed sleep!  We met up with some friends that we had met on the bus the day before around dinner time and made our way to Bar Amigos to play pool.  Daniel (from South Carolina), Fayn (from Canada) and Alex (from Britian), Jose and I played a couple round of pool and then went in search of a place where the drinks were a little cheaper.  We ran into Evan and he told us that if we mention his name at Taberna and we could get the "local" price for drinks.  We spent the night talking, sharing our different travels, dancing, playing games and just enjoying the company of good people!

Our day today, however,was full of adventures and adreneline.  Jose and I slept in (10:30) after being out until 2 am with our new friends.  Then we walked up the dreaded hill to the school I taught at.  In all the time I lived here I had NEVER been able to walk up the hill to the school.  Well, today I did it!  I went to say hi to Bethany from the school and we chatted for a bit before I ran to join Daniel and Jose at the Strangler Fig.  A tree that is hallow because it killed the original tree.  It has changed a lot in the two years since I have been here but I suppose I should have expected that.  Living things grow you know!

Jose and I then ran most of the way back down the hill to town to catch the bus to our Zip lining tour.  Milaydi set things up so we didn´t have to pay full ´prince for the tour.  It was really fun.  The tarzan swing was very different from the ones I did a couple years ago.  You walk out on a sky bridge, they hook you up to the swing, and there you are being pulled against a gate, 50 stories above the ground, and then they open the gate and you have no choice but to fall.  I screamed like a little girl the entire time.  Mema - you did the other one, but you wouldn´t have survived this one.  It was such a rush!!

After the tour Milaydi picked us up and took her to her house.  Well, a house in the making.  She has but a ton of work into it but there is still a ways to go.  It is absolutely beautiful.  It is in the reserve so there are animals all around and it was just beautiful!  She has come such a long way since I was here two years ago.  She owns her own business, is married, has a house and has some fantastic dreams and aspirations about her future!  At her house Melene was also there and they cooked us a fabulous dinner!  The way they cooked the plantains was different but it was SO good!!!!  I´ll have to write it down.

Here enters the car incident.  Melene was so thankful for Jose and I was just thankful that everyone is fine, including the dog in the car.  This is family.  I have missed them so much and I am so happy to have had the oppotunity to return and find my family happy and healthy.  Monteverde itself has changed a lot, and not entirely in the best way, but my family has changed for the better.  I only hope it doesn´t take me another two years to visit again.  Even if it is only for a couple of days.

I can hardly believe it has only been a week since I left Portland, so much has happened.  Tomorrow morning Jose and I are going to depart Monteverde and head north to Nicaragua.  it wasn´t in the plans but everything here is SO expensive and I have seen and done what I really wanted, well, needed to do. 

The most fantastic memory that I have so far is the love on Melene´s face as she kissed us good-bye tonight.  She told Jose to take good care of me, she sent love and health to my parents and my aunt and she told me she loves me.  What more could I ask for?

Is it really only Thursday?

 Yesterday was SO long but it was full of fun and adventure!  Our flight was ok, but on this airline, being in the emergency exit row means you get more leg room, but your seats do not recline.  Neither of us got much sleep.  We spend several hours wandering around San Jose, finding stores, watching the different people walk by and changing our monies at the bank (the exchange rate at the airport was HORRIBLE but we needed some money for the bus into San Jose (the airport is in Alejuela...you don´t want to walk it) since a taxi would have been 25 dollars where the bus cost us a little more than a dollar.

The bus up the mountain was as I remember it.  Long, sometimes hot, sometimes cold, a little crowded and the last hour is very bumpy.  We both slept on and off for the first couple of hours and then made fun conversation with the people around us on the bus.

Once in Monteverde (it was dark but it still felt familiar) we checked out a couple different hostels, chose one and went to find our new friends.  We couldn´t find them but I ran into my two host sisters!  Johanna (the younger) barely recognized me, but we didn´t spend much time together anyway.  She told us that my other host sister, Milady, bought a restaurant and so we went to check it out.  Walking in she saw me before I saw her.  She hugged me, welcomed me and made the rediculously long day worth it!  She took us to her restaurant, gave us food and when we told her where we were staying she said "what?  why there?  you sure you want to stay there?"  We made our argument about why we chose the hostel and she offered to put us up in a friend´s place, for free.  Private bathroom, balcony, quieter...I almost cried.  She wanted to give to me.  It was almost overwhelming, there were almost tears.

We ate pizza, talked for about an hour and I got caught up on some of the things that have happened since I was last here.  Other than Milady buying the business, she has bought a house,  Andres (my host brother) lives with her, my host mom, Melene; lives in an apartment off of Johanna´s house and Andres is going to Washington next year for his 12th grade year in school!  Andres stopped by and was also happy to see me.  He´s all grown up!!!   It was fantastic to catch up but soon my lack of sleep caught up with me and I needed to sleep.  Today we are going to move to the different room, go zip-lining and hopefully I will get to see Melene.  

Hollywood!

Unfortunately this has to be short, since we are going to be flying out of Los Angeles in a couple hours.  Jose was able to get his passport renewed in San Francisco yesterday but it took longer than planned so we didn't get into LA until midnight.  The first part of our journey was wonderful as we drove through the hills that were topped with wind-mills of many sizes and shapes.

Today our adventures began with walking down Hollywood Boulevard!  We saw Walt Disney's Star, the hand prints of Clark Gable, Judy Garland, and Kerry Grant.  We saw the signatures of the entire Star Trek cast as well as the hand and food prints of the Harry Potter Trio.  Emma Watson and I are pretty close to the same size!  

I ate MIND BLOWINGLY good burritos and have made some wonderful new friends!

In several hours I will be in Costa Rica once again.  I can't wait!

Part One - PDX to San Fran

Yesterday Jose and I made pretty decent time on our drive from Portland to San Francisco.  We managed to set up a ride share passenger and he was an amazing guy.  He has done some very impressive trips, including a four month bike trip from Santa Cruz to Juno Alaska with his backpack, sleeping bag, tent and fishing pole.  He went through three different bikes, worked when he needed to and caught or foraged for most of his own food.  What a life!

There were some absolutely fantastic sights as we drove South and it was a lot of fun to see new things.  This is a quote from what I wrote in my travel journal yesterday:
"Over the mountains in Southern Oregon and Northern California were covered with different shades of green.  Sometimes they were mostly the dark green of the conifers with small patches of the brilliant deciduous trees.  Other places were kelly green with occasional dark green spires of evergreens that towers over their short green cousins.  As we drove farther south we saw young orchards, vast farm lands, rustic barns brimming with hay and the feather-like grasses on the side of the road waving in the wind.  When the wind blows just right it looks like a sea anemone flowing with the waves."

San Francisco itself was absolutely fabulous!  The weather was perfect!  I prepared myself to see the Golden Gate surrounded by its traditional fog.  However as we drove into the city the weather stayed beautiful and as we walked across the bridge I could see the thousands of sailboats on the water and Alcatraz.

We spent the day adventuring and if I had more time I would write more.  Expect more stories!

K

Empacando para irse

As I finish packing my bags and make the last minute plans for the drive tomorrow night I am remembering the last time I was in Costa Rica almost exactly two years ago.  I was hugging my host mom tightly with tears falling down my face.  She was telling me how amazing I was, how I was going to finish school, earn a lot of money, fall in love and be successful.  I can't wait to see her again.  I get to climb the trees, smell the flowers, follow the rainbows and chase the butterflies again!

I will try to keep this up to date as I travel with my boyfriend, Jose, from Portland, to San Francisco, to Los Angeles, to Costa Rica and then on to Ecuador.  I am going to try to immerse myself in the Spanish language so my posts won't be too long, and I can't promise any pictures since I am not bringing my computer but I will have plenty to share when I return.

With a Master's Degree under my belt I am headed off on a new adventure.  Thanks for keeping up and don't forget to comment!

(anything in spanish can be translated easily at translate.google.com)