The glory of trains

Since I won't have reliable computer access for the foreseeable future, I apologize for the onslaught of blogging.  It is hard to type on a kindle fire without a keyboard.

I love the availablity of travel modes here.  Buses and trains that are fairly regular and on time (more than in the US anyway).  However, one big difference for me is that where you are going to "end" your trip is not the same place as where the bus or train is going to "end".  So this is my journey to York...

A little back story for those of you who don't know me that well: I like sleep.  I LOVE to sleep.  Also, if I am in a vehicle (car, train, bus, plane etc.) and am not driving, engaged in conversation or eating pretzels (don't ask) I will fall asleep.  In minutes.


My train left at 06.15.  And I was up late with my courchsurfing host the night before so I got about 5 hours of sleep.  This trip however requires 2 train changes.  So I fight to stay awake for the first 25 minutes, am successful and make the first change at King's Cross station.

I get off at the appropriate station and then onto the next train.  Again, I forced myself to stay awake, despite the gentle sway of the train.  As we near the station I'm supposed to get off at, I start to gather my things, but slower than usual.  The train stops, I'm still gathering.  I finish gathering and begin to walk to the door, but the door closes.  I push the door opening button but once they close, they are closed.  Damn.  So I sit down and take the train to the next station.  I get off there, cross to the other side, and wait the 20 minutes for the next train.

So I go back to the CORRECT station, wait for the next available train, then get on that one.  I'm now running 45 minutes behind schedule.  Sigh.  Fortunately my couch surfing host, Simon, who was going to meet me at the station to give me a key, agreed to hide a key for me in his yard since I was going to be much later than expected.

So I'm on the longest leg of my journey now and REALLY can't keep my eyes open.  I have an hour to kill so I allow myself to close my eyes and drift off.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  Set a timer!  But I forget that the station I was getting off at was not the END for this train.

I wake up 2 hours later.  I'm almost at the station 1hr PAST my intended departure.  So, while I'm feeling well rested, I'm feeling rather silly.  Simon texts me to see if I found the key alright.  I fess up and tell him. He replies: "I'm laughing my tits off right now.  Sorry.  Hope it works out soon."

I get off the train, find the platform for the train going BACK the other way, wait 20 minutes, get back on a train and manage to stay awake for the hour it takes for me to get to York.

I got there 3 hours later than planned, I felt really silly but I learned.

Fortunately York was fantastic and it helped me to forget the ridiculus turmoil I went through getting to such a beautiful desitnation.

So what I have learned:
Set alarms.  Yeah, more than one.
Double and triple check the trains you get on.
Arrive early.
GET A FULL NIGHT'S SLEEP the night before an early train.
Set an alarm!
Be waiting for the door to open before the train has even stopped.
Oh yeah, SET AN ALARM!!!!!!

London Baby!!

London.  Big.  Enormous.  AND OLD!!

I decided to venture into London right off the plane, on 3 hours of sleep.  The phenomenal Julz had picked me up at the airport, took me to breakfast and in her usual level of enthusiasm agreed to go into town with me.  I had warned her that I wanted to do the touristy shit.  Big Ben.  The London Eye.  Find a phone booth and take a cliche picture in one.  She may not have been smiling as she put up with me, but let's face it, smiling is rare for her to begin with.

I owe her about 8 pints for putting up with me on one thing though.  I wanted to see platform 9 3/4 in King's Cross Station.  We got there and she pointed me in the right direction and then, there was a que.  Of course.  Granted we were there in the morning, so it could have been much worse, but still it was a good 30 minutes before I got to grab on to that trolly and imagine I was finally on my way to the Hogwart's express after receiving my letter of acceptance 20 years too late.  

Turns out they have made the platform into even more of a tourist trap.  Before the remodel apparently the trolley was just there, in the middle of a wall, no fuss, no muss.  Now it has a fancy sign and there is a new "9 3/4 Store" next to it.  They now have a staff photographer out there to take your picture and then you can go inside and buy your overpriced photo  in a ridiculous frame.  Now, they also had a SECOND staff member who put a scarf around your neck (of the chosen house) and then holds the scarf out behind you as the photographer gets ready to click.  

Now, let us paint a little bit more of a picture.  I am surrounded by about 35 avid harry potter fans, from all over, speaking multiple languages and then Julz who is less than enthusiastic about the long ass que we are in.  The photographer was Spanish and talked in a lovely Spanish accent with a little bit of a lisp.  As he got ready to take the picture, the second staff member was holding the scarf out behind the photographee, I would hear, in that lovely Spanish accent, "1, 2, 3 aaaaaaaaaaand scaaaaaaaaarf".  Yeah.  EVERY. DAMN. TIME.

Yes, I got a photo of me running through the enchanted wall.  Yes it was a blast.  Yes, I am still in love with Harry Potter.  However, I will NEVER be able to look at a house scarf without hearing that voice saying (over and over again) "1, 2, 3 aaaaaaaaaaaaaand scaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarf".

Kalamata Olives

About four months ago I was living with a family in the Amazon Rainforest.  I was eating what they ate, worked like they do and was getting eaten by mosquitoes the way they might, if they didn’t have a sixth sense about when they were going to be bitten.  I miss it and think of it often but since then I have had quite a few other adventures.  I have visited Crater Lake, driven across the country, and have lived in Atlanta for a month and a half.  However, I was sitting down to dinner with my partners tonight and as I was eating a wonderful salad with lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, croutons, sunflower seeds, and kalamata olives, I suddenly felt as if I was being pulled into a time warp tunnel back to the Amazon Rainforest four months ago…

We had walked through the forest for two hours, jumped off of a 30 foot waterfall, walked for another hour and a half when one of the brothers from the family led us off the trail to this strange little grove where a tree had been cut down, and from the looks of it, quite a while ago.  With the warm rain falling on us, we watched as the brother took his machete and began to hack away at the next uncut foot of the fallen tree.  As I looked at the tree, I could tell that the tree had been felled for just this purpose, and whatever was living in it wasn’t harvested often.  The tree was tawny in color and in various stages of decomposition, as if only a foot of it was used at a time.  The grove was filed with an unusual, yet familiar scent.  As I was trying to recall what it reminded me of, Jose asked me

“What does this place smell like?” I closed my eyes and concentrated fully on the smell, then said,

The grubs.  Slimy, yet, not satisfying.

“Kalamata olives.”  He nodded in agreement.  As I turned again to the brother hacking away at the fallen tree, I saw that he was pulling grubs from the trunk and suddenly I realized why it had been cut down.  This tree harbored a specific type of insect larvae and by cutting the tree down they could have a predictable source of this nutritious food.  Having had a previous, and not so positive experience, with grubs only a few days before, I declined tasting this culinary delight.  Jose, having enjoyed his first grub, took one, popped it into his mouth, and chewed viciously (the outside of grubs are very chewy).  As we walked away with a leaf bundle of grubs to take home, Jose says,

“Those tasted like kalamata olives a little, like the tree I guess.”

“The tree was probably starting to ferment, and the grubs eat the tree.”  I replied.  Nodding his head he said,

“I liked the other ones better.  They were creamier.”

Now, four months later, I am still reminded of that grove, the way the scent of the fermenting tree filled the air around us, and Jose’s frank evaluation of the grubs every time I eat kalamata olives.  In time this memory association may fade, but part of me doesn’t really want it to.  However, I’m tired of thinking of grubs every time I bite into something delicious with a piece of kalamata olive in it.   

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.