THINGS I MAY NOT HAVE EXPERIENCED IF I HADN'T BEEN ON THE BUS FOR 16 HOURS THIS WEEKEND:

1) There are lots of narrow, one lane bridges around Lake Arenal. When we came up on one, there was a small herd of cows on it. A teen aged boy had to chase them out of the way and up into a nearby driveway.

2) We traveled most of the way to Liberia with a woman, her daughter and their Chihuahua. It had its own little travel box.

3) We stopped to pick up passengers at a tiny airport. It was so small and empty that most of the workers were just sitting around outside.

4) Laura and I were in Tilaron on the way back for 3 hours between busses. We ate lunch at a soda where the waitress was apparently the local amazon goddess. Men just periodically came in the restaurant to ogle her and flirt.

5) The same restaurant had homemade hot sauce, decoratively displayed on the table in an old hair gel container.

6) My watch alarm hadn't been working, so I got it repaired and a new battery for less than 2 dollars at a local watch shop.

7) I also bought a three inch long switchblade from a nearby jeweler. It cost 5 dollars. I wanted something to peel fruit with and ended up with a deadly weapon. Now I can shank anyone who gives me problems.

8) The landscape in Guanaste (the province above the one I live in) reminds me of Africa. It is really dry and scarcely vegetated. All of the cows there were white.

9) We saw a parade as we passed on town on a side street. I'm pretty sure that it was a Tope, a kind of agricultural procession to show off livestock. There were tons of gaited horses, cattle, and several ox carts. The music was pumping.

10) I began to notice that nearly every town and city here is set up similarly with a central park backed by a large catholic church. They have numerous geometric paved walkways and cement benches every 10 meters. There are usually vendors selling pipas frias (coconuts to drink) and chicharones (fried pig skin).

11) There are lots of random vendors around bus stops. People sell tooth brushes and sandals from duffle bags.

12) In another town, I bought a pumice stone from a little old abuela. Laura said that she'd seen her for the past two years and that this is all she sells.

13) Busses just don't transport people. Apparently through some kind of prior arrangement, our bus dropped off a shipment of chain-saws, weed whackers and other yard/construction equipment. It must have filled the entire space under the bus.

14) One of our bus drivers was flying around the corners and an older lady fell out of her seat and into the isle. Everyone around jumped to help her and everyone else yelled and glared at the bus driver.

15) I saw my first wild parrots - a flock of 5 medium sized green ones.

*16)When I got back in to Ciudad Quesada, I saw a group of teenaged boys awkwardly passing a football (American) around in their back yard. As the bus passed, they were charged by another boy riding a horse.... also in the yard... in the middle of the city!

Mariachi Mia

My propietario, or land lord, the Mariachi, is back from the hospital (he'd been having trouble with his diabetes) and has been working on repairing the apartment next to mine all day. He's singing to the radio, so I feel like I'm getting a free serenade. The best part is he's not wearing anything except for white boxers! No shoes, no shirt, no pants. This was also the case when he was cleaning the canary room earlier this am as well. I love it!

Soda el Jardin

This morning, after running, I headed out to cancel my lost debit card (the ATM in Liberia ate it), all by myself (like a big girl), and then eat lunch at an outdoor Soda that Adam and I really liked. I managed the pay phone with out any hitches, which is an accomplishment in itself, but when I tried to go eat, my soda was closed and my other favorite, Soda Lorena, was suddenly under construction.

I walked down hill, away from the city center, to look for another small soda that had caught my eye in the past. Soda el Jardin is one of the smallest places I've ever eaten (only about 6 small round tables) and in spite of its name, does not, in fact, have a garden.

However, it may now be my new favorite. The women working there were extremely nice and the cook even sat down with me to talk. She helped correct my spanish (which few people seem willing to do) and told me about a really amazing waterfall and hike that I should do in La Fortuna.

The food, typical Tico fare, is even cheaper than usual and my grand total for a heaping pile of Gallo Pinto (literally spotted rooster - basically seasoned rice and beans), jamon y heuvos revueltos (ham and scrambled eggs - and we are talking like 3 eggs here), a side of natilla (sour cream, which sounds gross but is absolutely amazing here) and dos tazas de cafe con leche was less than four dollars. I'm so full that I had to come home and rest for a bit before heading back out so that I don't throw up!

My agenda for the rest of the day: go talk to the shoemaker down the road, visit the saddle shops, buy a machete for Adam and hang out in the park and read my spanish vocabulary book until someone comes up and starts speaking to me in spanish. Tonight I'll type up and submit all of my lesson plans and reflections for last week and next week and go to the movies. Trying to decide between Alicia en el Pias de Las Maravillas and Como a Entrenar tu Dragon. (Alice in Wonderland... again... or How to Train your Dragon). Kids movies are just my speed :)

Tilaran y Lago Arenal

It was really nice riding the bus with Laura because 1: she knew where we were going and 2: she knew a lot about the areas we were in.

I had heard that Lago Arenal was significantly enlarged after the volcano erupted in the 60s and that it was used as a hydroelectric source of power for Costa Rica. I had not heard that it provided most of the water for the dry regions to the north or that it was man made.

I also had not heard that there was a town underneath! Apparently when Arenal erupted, most of the people in the nearby town of Arenal died. Even though there wasn't that much damage to the town itself (the gasses, ash and smoke were enough to wreak havoc), no one wanted to move back because of the bad memories. Some people even thought it was cursed. So, the ICE, which is the electricity monopoly here, bought up all the land and damed up a nearby river, putting the entire town underwater!

When it is really dry and the water is low, you can supposedly see the church steeple out in the middle of the lake and the graves of a cemetery near shore (many are above ground cement deals here). An underwater ghost town - pretty creepy!

Tilaron, which is the big town on the other side of the lake, has a large hill that they suspect to be a dormant volcano. You can see the volcanic rock all over it and there are tons in the area, so it's possible that it is. To protect and bless themselves, the people of the town erected a huge cross on top of it. I'd be worried to, especially if I had lived long enough to see what Arenal had done to my neighbors!

Lastly, a picture of of some of the hundreds of wind turbines in the area. They are also owned by ICE and work really well because it is ALWAYS very windy in that region. It has something to do with the lay of the land and the added flat expanse of lake. Lake Arenal is supposed to be one of the best places for wind surfing in the world.

Busses and Beach

The public bus system and Costa Rica may be cheap and a bit of an adventure, but it is certainly not the most time efficient means of travel. To get from San Carlos to Liberia, I had to take 4 different busses. With time spent waiting in towns along the way, and at paradas (bus stops), the entire trip took about 7 and a half hours.

The trip, however, was very scenic and got us where we wanted to go. There are no (reasonably priced) hotels near the beach that we went to, so we stayed in the city of Liberia in a really neat little rustic hotel with shared bathrooms. It had a tiny courtyards filled with random things (ancient bicycles, oxen yokes, water pumps, hay bales, papaya trees, fish tanks and christmas tree lights) and our room was decorated with a lamp made out of an old sewing machine, frayed ship ropes, and an antique meat grinder.

We arrived around one thirty in the afternoon and based on the bus schedule, did not really have time to go to the beach that day. After settling in, Laura gave me the tour of the town, showing me where she used to work, live and eat. We wandered around looking for sandals and shopping for our picnic the next day. It was very hot there and we bought some pipas frias (cold coconuts) to drink and eat (they cut a hole for a straw in them with a huge knife).

The next day, we headed for the beach as early as possible, changing busses in Tamarindo before arriving at the coast. The beach that we wanted to go, Conchal, had been taken over by a large resort style hotel and the only way to get to it now is to travel to a small nearby town and walk about half a mile down the beach. The initial beach looked pretty good to me, but once we rounded the corner, I could see why going to the next was worth the added effort. The water was an amazing turquoise blue, the beach was lined with trees, and in many places, there were crushed shells so deep that you sunk in up to your ankles when you walked through them.

We swam, sat under our tree, read the news paper in Spanish, napped, swam, people watched, talked, ate, looked for shells, laid around and swam some more. It was pretty amazing and definitely the most beautiful beach I have ever been too.

This bird came over and enchanted me for about 15 minutes. He was not shy at all and was paying close attention to us. Then I realized that he wanted our watermelon (sandia). Don't worry, I don't feed wild life ;)

Playa Conchal y Liberia

Headed North for part of Semana Santa to Liberia with Laura, my coworker and former "muffy" (St. Lawrence). She used to live in this city and says that one of the nearby beaches, Conchal, is one of the best in the country. Instead of sand, apparently the beach is made up of tiny shells. I'm headed to the bus terminal a little before six tomorrow morning and meeting her outside of La Fortuna on the way. We should get to Liberia around one, where we will spend at least two nights, going to the beaches by day. After I get back, my Aunt Cindie and Uncle J will be arriving in San Jose early Wednesday afternoon. Life is good.

apartamento

I'm renting an apartment in the city for 54,000 colones for one month. For a little over 100 dollars I get a room the size of a college single (plus small bathroom), wireless internet, hot water and access to a kitchen and washing machine. My room is one of seven and is safe, relatively clean and surrounding a tiny courtyard behind the owners house. Other teachers have stayed here in the past and the landlady, Ana is very nice. Her husband is a handy man / mariachi who also breeds canaries in his spare time. The building that the kitchen is in houses about 40 canaries and four finches in a room bigger than my apartment. They also have a very pregnant little dog.

There are lots of lizards around (I've seen geckos and little brown ones with bright orange heads), probably because there are lots of bugs around. I've seen Ana spraying for bugs, but there are still tons of dead roaches in the kitchen and thousands of tiny ants in my room. Haven't had any major problems yet, but I'm wary!

My room gets cleaned once a week and garbage changed and I didn't sign a lease and had to ask them to take my money. My shower is heated by electric coil and you can tell when the water is about the get warm because the lights dim. I'm still doing my best to remember to put my toilet paper in the trash, but still slip up sometimes. The washing machine gets filled by hose and you have to manually change the cycles. There is also a separate machine to spin dry. Then you hang every thing up to dry... The bed has a beautiful wooden headboard (all of the wooden furniture I've seen has been beautiful), really stained sheets, a flat pillow and foam mattress. Its kind of comfortable.

Anyways, overall its an experience, and while I was taken aback at first, I kind of enjoy it now. I would have preferred a home-stay, but whatever!