Since Emily requested it...

January 10 to January 16, 2011

What a week! This past week included 4 days of traveling and encompassed visits to numerous locations of interest around Costa Rica, stays in several different hotels, much exhaustion, and concluded with meeting our host families for the entire remaining duration of our semester in Costa Rica. Well then, I would guess we had better start at the beginning…

Day 1: The week began with a visit to Volcán Irazu in one of the numerous mountain ranges in Costa Rica. Unfortunately I don’t have many pictures, because the high elevation coupled with the end of the rainy season led to much mist and little visibility. Alas, I managed to get a picture of someone’s extremely cute, time consuming token of affection.

We then drove down the mountains to the town of Cartago to visit the Basilica de Nuestra Señora do los Ángeles (aka La Negrita, for the unitiated).  La Negrita is in actuality a small, dark statue of the Virgin Mary found by a slave girl in the 1600’s that mysteriously kept returning to the location on which the Basilica is built despite the fact that it was twice tucked safely away in protective custody, if you will. There is also a spring on the premises that is thought to contain holy waters, and it is extremely common for believers to leave small tokens on the alter of the church in the shape of the things which they hope to have healed or otherwise restored to them. Thus, the basement of the basilica is filled with small figurines of pets, vehicles, elbows, noses, etc. You name it, La Negrita was asked to fix it.

Following our visits to the volcano and the basilica we arrived at CATIE, an agricultural/environmental research center in Turrialba, where we stayed for three days. Can I just tell you—the rainy season is not a joke on the Caribbean side of this country. Seriously. Nonetheless, CATIE was lovely and our guide, Elena, was beyond fantastic.  And the week is only beginning…

Day 2: Tuesday included a visit to the Guayabo national monument. Although scarcely acknowledged next to the Incas and Mayas, the Costa Rican pre-Colombian tribes that inhabited Guayabo were absolutely amazing. They built their houses on raised mounds and constructed underground aqueducts with stones weighing up to 2 tons each! Perhaps the most beautiful part of their settlement, however, was their vast entry road, complete with two sentry posts. The trip to Guayabo also marked our first trek into the rainforests of Costa Rica! We ate lunch in a local soda (like a little family owned diner thing) and then spent the rainy afternoon at a lovely family owned dairy farm, complete with some of the cutest pigs you have ever seen.

Day 3: On Wednesday we visited a conventional sugar cane plantation in the morning, and then an organic, family owned sugar cane farm, complete with trapiche, in the afternoon.  The two visits were separated by a delicious lunch at a family-owned restaurant with an AMAZING view of a dam and the surrounding lakes and mountains. Lunch also involved some surprise encounters with some beautiful Costa Rican wildlife!

Day 4: Thursday we visited a gorgeous pineapple plantation, although, unfortunately, the majority of what they produce goes to Dole rather than to local markets. There is nothing more delicious than a pineapple cut straight from the bromeliad! In the afternoon we visited a remote (but worth the long, windy drive) rainforest preserve. We rode sky trams down into the forest, managed to see THREE sloths along the way, and walked through the very rainy rainforest in order to see even more interesting plants and animals. Very Jurassic Park-like. It was awesome.

Baby pineapple!

Day 5: On Friday we made the final 3-hour trek up the mountain to Monteverde to see the institute where we will be studying and to meet our host families. I can’t lie—I was a sweaty, anxious, freaked-out mess for the entire day. BUT, despite my nerves, I survived to meet my host family, composed of mis padres, Roy and Yorlenny, their 2 hijos, María Paula and little Roy, Yorlenny’s mama, a rabbit, a parrot, and a dog. Yorlenny speaks English well (she is the receptionist in a hotel) and Roy is very patient with me, so so far so good! My house is small, like most houses in the area, and has a locking front gate like most of the houses in high-theft areas like San José, although as far as I can tell there is very little crime here.

Well I think that’s enough for one post! I am going back down to a town near San José on Sunday to pick up the kids and their grandma and to meet most of Yorlenny’s family—sounds kind of intimidating, but I have made it this far, haven’t I? Then it’s back to Santa Elena Sunday night to get ready to start classes at the instead on Monday!

P.s. This was written a couple of days ago, but, considering that the internet here is slower than a sloth, things are getting posted slower than I would like. Expect posts everyday for a little bit until I can catch up on pictures, updates, etc!