Highlights

I’ve gotten a little behind on the updates... sorry!  After I got back from my backpacking trip in Corcovado, life got really busy.  I was rushing to finish all my data collection before I left my field site to return to San José, while still finding the time to chat with my host mom or draw pictures with my host sisters.  To catch up, I thought I’d share some of the highlights of the last few weeks.  Luckily, every evening after I tucked in my mosquito net and got settled in bed I would write in my journal before going to sleep, so it’s not too hard to remember what I’ve done:

Monday, 4/9: My host father’s cousin, who used to own a panadería (bakery) in Pueblo Nuevo, came to show us how to make the pastry dough for costillas and empanaditas, which are both made from a croissant-like filled with savory ingredients (like ground beef or melted cheese) or sweet ones (usually homemade jams).  The only difference between the two is their shape: costillas are long and thin, while empanaditas are half moons.  Seeing the pastries in process made me realize why they taste soooo good: in addition to the oil that went into the batter, the panadero (baker) folded three sticks of butter into the dough as he kneaded it!  No wonder the costillas and empanaditas that we made, filled with homemade guava jam, were so flaky and delicious…

Empanaditas filled with homemade guava jam

Yum!

Wednesday, 4/11: I left to go to my San José host sister’s wedding on the beach in Nosara, which is on the Pacific  coast.  It was definitely a bit of a shock to go from the tiny, rural town where I was doing my research to a wealthy beach village where most of the population is foreign and doesn’t speak Spanish!  The whole wedding experience was absolutely gorgeous.  One of my host mother Vicky’s friends rented a house for us to stay in for the weekend which meant we could cook meals together and hang out by the pool.  I felt so content waking up in the morning and making breakfast (eggs, gallo pinto, and coffee) with Vicky – like I was with my own family.  We spent a lot of our time that weekend helping to set up for the wedding, but it was fun to be part of the preparations.  Vicky, my host sister Laura, and I made sangria to serve at the reception… mmmm… Even with all of the work to be done, there was time to hang out on the gorgeous beaches, watch the sunset from a restaurant, and go for a barefoot morning run in the sand (on my run I saw two baby turtles hatch from their nest and swim to the sea!)  And the wedding itself was stunning.  My host sister María José was beautiful, calm and happy.  She works as a teacher in a bilingual Montessori school in town, so she invited all of the little girls she teaches to be her flower girls.  The ceremony was right on the beach in the late afternoon, so just as it finished we were treated to a spectacular sunrise.  Then we walked up a few sandy steps to the restaurant where the reception was held.  We ate delicious food (shish kebabs with chimichurri sauce, baked potatoes with tahini dressing, beans and rice (wouldn’t be a Costa Rican meal without ‘em) and two kinds of salad) and then danced the night away, with a few breaks to admire the stars on the beach.  I felt like I was in a movie, the wedding was so perfect.

The wedding was right on the beach

Flower girls blowing bubbles at sunset

My host family with the bride and groom

Host nephew Julian Andres, host sister Laura, me and host niece Maria Ines

My host mom Vicky and me

Thursday, 4/19: I finally finished counting earthworms!  I figured out that over the course of my project I counted worms in 127 sites, for over 50 hours… yikes.

My study subjects.. we got really close.

Saturday, 4/21: I said goodbye to my host family in Pueblo Nuevo and headed back to my San José family for the last month of my project.

Sunday, 4/22: I ran a 10k trail race in Cartago with my friends Lauren and Tim.  We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into… when we arrived at the race site, we were excited because it was in a beautiful location with picturesque agricultural fields and pastures and rolling hills.  Emphasis on the HILLS… more like mountains!  We realized soon after starting that the course was insane: basically 5 kilometers of climbing straight up a mountain, and then 5k back down.  I ended up having to walk a lot of the way up, but the way down was a breeze ;) And the camaraderie afterwards with the other runners reminded me of why I love running races like this.  It was especially fun because all three of us got trophies (it was a suuuper small race) which will make a good souvenir to remember my trip… the race director had a hard time pronouncing our names when he announced us, though :)

Wednesday, 4/25: We went on a day trip with our class to see Irazú Volcano.  Even the drive up to the national park at the peak was an adventure; we drove through the clouds and suddenly emerged above them into sunlight and beautiful rolling hills planted with crops like potatoes and onions (these kinds of crops grow well in the colder climate at the high elevation), with a blanket of clouds underneath us.  It was a beautiful, surreal sight.  When we got to the national park and stepped out of the bus, the climate (pretty chilly) and the vegetation (clovers and dandelions!) reminded me of home.  We walked up to see the crater, which has a beautiful turquoise lake at the bottom.  We also took a short hike to see another volcano, Turrialba, which is quite active right now.  We could see a thick column of smoke coming out of the top… so cool!  On the way back to San José we stopped in Cartago, to see the Basílica.  I learned that this 400-some year old building is called a basilica, not a church, because it is dedicated to a patron saint, in this case La Virgen de Los Angeles.  Legend has it a figure of the virgin was discovered on a rock in the 17^th century, and even when moved would always reappear on that same rock, so the Basilica was built in her honor over that rock.  We saw that rock in the little museum attached to the basilica, along with displays of thousands of trinkets (called exvotos) that people give to ask favors of the virgin.  For example, someone with lung cancer might give a little pewter pair of lungs.

Driving up to the volcano

The main crater

Volcan Turrialba

Oles go to Turrialba

La Basilica

That night, I finally got to see the Hunger Games in the movie theater.  Most movie theaters in Costa Rica, along with many bars and restaurants, have two-for-one deals on Wednesdays, so the movie ticket that would normally have cost me 2000 colones ($4) only cost 1000 ($2)!  Movie theaters are one thing that is way cheaper in Costa Rica than in the US.  

Friday, 4/27: We took another ACM-organized trip, this time to the Pacific coast.  We left Friday morning for Tárcoles, where we learned about the sustainable fishing cooperative there.  The people of this beach town got scared after seeing the fish and shrimp populations plummet when big ships came into their waters and started bottom trawling for shrimp (conventionally-caught shrimp are really awful for the environment; the people in Tárcoles told me that for every one kilogram of shrimp that is caught in a bottom-trawling net, there can be up to 100 kilos of “bycatch,” any other aquatic animal that ends up caught in the net.  These fish and other creatures, all dead, are simply tossed over the side of the boat back into the water.  Several forward-thinking people in Tárcoles worked hard to get a one-year agreement for these ships to leave their waters, and are now fighting to keep them out for good.  Besides the fishermen, the coop also provides a livelihood for tour guides, local women who host tourists for meals or overnight stays, and lujadoras (women who spend hours a day untangling fishing lines).  After enjoying a mid-morning snack of fresh ceviche and a delicious lunch (more fish, of course), we headed to Punta Leona, which is a resort on the Pacific Coast.  We managed to get a great deal to stay here for the night, but we felt like we were in a much more luxurious resort than we should have been able to afford on college students’ budgets.  Our rooms had refrigerators, stoves, microwaves, and showers with hot water (not always guaranteed here in Costa Rica), and the resort boasted two private beaches and several pools!  We all really needed a weekend to just relax, so we spent a lot of our time swimming in the pool and reading on the beach.  The other sixteen ACM students and I were excited to see each other after two months by ourselves in the campo (our Spanglish term for our field sites), so it was nice to catch up.

Fresh ceviche...mmmm...

We stopped along the way to see crocodiles from a bridge.  I wish you could tell from the picture how big these were... probably around 12 feet!

This is a fishing boat used for long trips of up to several weeks.  The fishermen keep all of their supplies (sleeping bag, cook stove, food, even a tv!) in the net you can see at the top, and they sleep in the platform on the bottom.

…And now, I’m busy doing stats analysis and writing my final paper.  I can’t believe I only have two weeks left of this program.  The thing is, I’ve just recently started to feel completely comfortable here in Costa Rica, with the language, transportation, and the culture, and I’m not sure I’m quite ready to leave.  Of course, I can’t wait to see my friends and family in the US, and to buy some decent peanut butter… but it’s going to be hard to say goodbye.  For now, though, I’m trying to enjoy the time that remains as much as I can!