San Jose and Monteverde

Hey Peeps!!

I've been meaning to get on this thing and give you an update, but time flies when you're having fun! I've got a bit of downtime, so here goes.

Over the last few weeks I've been desiring to tell you about the city and life in San Jose, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Everyday I wake about 6 and leave the house at 6:45 for my commute. My walk to the first bus stop is uphill, as is most of the city. San Jose is a non-stop rolling landscape, and the roads are cracked up because of erosion and low maintenance. On my walk, I pass by a hole in the road that has been there ever since I arrived. One day, somebody decided to flag it down for caution using a stick and a fertilizer bag. The fertilizer flag has been there ever since.

Enough about fertilizer. My point was that there are a rediculous amount of holes in this city, on the road punching holes in tires, if gone unnoticed, and on the sidewalk, causing sprained ankles and feet covered in garbage (if gone unnoticed).

There is one thing that I will certainly not miss about San Jose, and that is the medium in which my lungs have become as dark as the night sky coloured with charcoal. How do I describe the black puff of smoke that coats each and every innocent bystander as they wait for the next ten buses to pass? San Jose is the bus centre hub of Costa Rica and there are literally thousands of buses that flood the streets every minute of every day. You can see my point, possibly even before I mention the trucks?

Each morning I get off the first bus, and make my way for twenty or so minutes through the city on foot, to the 2nd bus. On my way, I pass by many street vendors selling food, goods, and junk. They are so persistent everyday that I have memorized their sale chants, and sometimes chant along as I walk past.

When I arrive at Le Coca Cola ( this is the name of the cetral bus station for the city ) I bypass a plethora of fried chicken vendors, by now of which I am completely ready to puke because as you may recall, the day I had the migraine, my vomiting was induced by the scent of fried chicken. Yum!

So that's the Ugly. I've already told you about the Bad (through previous experiences) so let's talk about the Good.

- Everyone smells incredible. And mostly incredibly good.
- The guys love adorning the faux-hawk, and sometimes they even include a rat tail!
- Women don't leave the house without looking their best and without at least three inch heals. I don't know how they do it. Especially with all of those holes and cracked sidewalks!
- The women are beautiful (however short or fat)
- The men are beautiful (however short)

I really do like this place but I will tell you one thing: I do not love it.

Should I tell you about my past week? I think so.

On Wednesday of last week, Jenn returned home from taking the girls to their placement in Colonius. We hit up the cinema that night and checked out Robin Hood. I really like the film, it has motivated me to go to Northern England and explore the countryside. How beautiful.

On Thursday I had the day off because my English Teachers needed to take care of some union business here in SanJose. I came downtown to meet with them for lunch and we went to a cool place for some pizza. I was so in the mood for pizza. We got one called 'Hawaiian'. Heard of it? This one included jalopenos. Mmmm... Sounds good eh? Yah. I was so sick after this pizza that I had to go home and sleep, to rid my stomachache.

When I woke from my slumber, I thought my tummy had been grumbling. And then, the house began to shake. A size 6.1 Tremor had hit CR and shook the entire country. Luckily, no damage was done and no one was hurt. I must say it was a really cool feeling!

I know I am jumping alot between events, but I want to get through everything without writing a novel.

On the weeked, I headed to Monteverde, in central northern-ish CR. I had been wanting to go to Monteverde ever since I had started planning this trip. This is where they zipline!
I left SJ on Saturday at 6:30 and arrived by bus at 10:30. The ride to the small green town was fine, curvy like the one to Jaco, but at points, I was certainly scared for my life. At these points, the bus would crawl over loose rock and gravel alongside unguarded cliffs on the mountain.
I found a great hostel called El Pension, Santa Elena and stayed for one night ($7). The staff there was amazing, they helped me hook up with the Ziplining company, which I would do on Saturday. I bunked with three other people, a girl from France, one from Germany and a dude from Spain, all travelling alone.
I left at 12:30 for the Zipline tour in a bus full of English speaking tourists. I met Chris and Pam, from Chicago, and Andrew and Rob, from Scotland and England, respectively. This weekend seemed like the world was all coming together in one tiny town in the mountains of Costa Rica. Way wicked.

The ziplining was truly breathtaking. I was not afraid or nervous to do this; I'd never been, at even the thought. We cruised through and above the tree top canopy of the Santa Elena Jungle, over thirteen lines. I have to mention Andrew, and his grace. I don't know why, but Andrew reminds me of the funny, quirky, clumsy character in British films. He is tall, slim, and completely innocent to his character. He was quite nervous for the zipping and the lining, and his nerves had eventually reached the best of him, as he, as he puts it, "screwed up on the first two go's". Apparently the guides had to rescue him once or twice from the middle of the line. His entrance off the line (and actually, most people's) was as graceful as a kid getting jumbled up in their skipping rope over and over again. He was a great friend over the weekend, as we shared in many exciting experiences together. This Andrew was incredibly hilarious (as some of the other Andrews in my life are) and I look forward to meeting him again one day, hopefully while backpacking through Scotland. (Anyone wanna go?)

After ziplining, the crew had a "surprise" for us. That was to swing like Tarzan, from 100ft (or more, I'm a poor judge) in the air from a tree. Yikes! This was more fretful for me than any of the ziplines! You should know that I screamed bloody murder, embarrassingly.

Saturday night I was supposed to go on a night-hike, but it poured and poured and the rain won again. Instead, I made dinner (Croissant w bologna, cheese and tomato) and played cards with some folks from the Boston area. They taught me a game called 45's. It's similar to Euchre but more confusing and almost more fun! Mmmm Bologna...

Sunday was epic. The dude from Spain came with me on a hike down the road, to a Ecological Sanctuary where there were supposed to be trails full of wildlife, butterflies and waterfalls. Well, There certainly were alot of trees! And, we did see one kind of animal, something that looked like a mix between a fox and a groundhog. The path to the waterfall that I wanted to go on was the Epic part. We arrived at a vista look-out point, gorgeous, and decided to find the waterfall, which had signs pointing down a staircase, next to the look out. Well, that staircase turned out to be over a thousand feet (Again, I'm ball-parking) but we certainly climbed down a mountain side, and it took a freakin' long ass time. When we finally arrived at the bottom, my legs were shaking and that "waterfall" was nothing but a small creak, making a lot of unnecessary noise. ARGH.
Oh, and the best part? Only one way back. So we climbed. And climbed, and swore, and climbed some more. By the end of it Spanish Dude wanted to kill me and I looked like I'd jumped into a swimming pool with my clothes on. See pictures.

When we returned to the Hostel, I showered and took in some necessary food and seat time. I ran in to the UK boys and they were asking Marcos, the hotel dude, how to get to the Strangler Tree. OOOoooh. My body ached, but I wanted to go. Apparently it wasn't far (Yah right, just like the waterfall) and you could get right up inside and climb up the tree! For those of you who don't understand here goes: A strangler tree is actually a strangled tree, where a huge vine or many vines wrapped themselves around the tree and sucked away the nutrients and life from it. All that is left is a empty shell once the tree inside decomposes, and in turn, a jungle gym!

We went to the site, which (oh yay) was an uphill climb all the way, and scoped through the jungle and found the ever-so-cool tree. We played for a while and took some photos, and simply marvelled at the beast. Rob oh-so-wanted to see if we could get all the way to the top. Apparently it is possible!

I departed Monteverde around 2:30 and met some Israeli girls on the busride home (Yet another part of the world!).

At work this week they are having student-run elections for council president, so at recreo the halls are just filled with loud drumming (where did the drums come from?? I want to kill that person!!) and as usual, yelling and screaming. I tell ya, if I didn't get frequent migraines and headaches before CR, then I do now! I can't do elementary. I have realised this about myself. Again, props to those who do.. Mom.

Last episode of Lost is on tonight -- thought I might not watch it, as I had never seen an episode, and maybe I will start when I get home. I do need something to occupy me as Dexter isn't coming around again until September.

Hope that was enough for you,

Hasta luego