Weekend Trip #5: Monteverde

This trip occurred the weekend of Friday, November 6- Sunday, November 8.  We only were out of town through Saturday, though.

Monteverde
Monteverde is best known for its famed cloud forest.  The town itself is actually called Santa Elena, but they're essentially two names for the same place.  Lindsay and I decided to go to Monteverde in order to accomplish a specific goal: zip line!  We'd heard from multiple other travelers that the zip lining course there was gorgeous and really fun.  While Lindsay had zip lined her first weekend here [the one trip she took without me], her experience was lackluster, so I managed to convince her it'd be fun to try again; I, on the other hand, had never been.

We figured this weekend would be a good one to hit Monteverde, because our services as volunteers were required in Atenas Saturday afternoon, so we could only stay over some place for one night [we'd promised the volunteer coordinator we'd help set up for a major dance recital she was putting on through the community center].  Since we'd booked a 7:30am tour for Saturday morning, we felt confident we could both fit in zip lining and helping with the recital....  Yeah, to assume things makes an ass out of u and me.

Let the Chaos Commence
By this point, it's a given that our carefully researched transportation information would fail us, so Lindsay and I barely glanced at the route from Palmares [where we'd be starting from right after work] to Monteverde.  All we saw was that a direct bus existed from San Ramon, so figured we'd just head into the town and go from there.

We debated about stopping for lunch at a small restaurant, or /soda/, that we always pass on our walk to the Hogarcito, but decided we could wait until we got into San Ramon- a wise decision we'd realize later.  We made it to the bus station in San Ramon around noon, and ambled over to the dollar store where our "informer" works [<- a nice lady who's helped us out in terms of bus schedules at least three separate times.  We've come to feel so thankful for her, we legit discussed bringing her a flower that day.  Maybe it was better that we forgot to...].  But when I asked her about the direct bus to Monteverde, she looked very confused and shook her head.  No, there was no direct bus to Monteverde.  You had to catch a bus to Puntarenas first, and then find one to the cloud forest.  Lindsay and I thanked her, and made our way to the other bus station to catch the 2.5 hour bus ride to Puntarenas.  Figures it wouldn't be as easy as a "direct bus."

We took the 12:35pm [which showed up closer to 1:00pm] to Puntarenas, getting in around 3:00pm.  This is where our decision not to grab lunch in Palmares proved itself to be a life-saver: there were no more buses from Puntarenas to Monteverde on Friday.  What?  How does saving 20 minutes by not having lunch make a lack of buses any better?  Here's how: while there was no bus to Monteverde itself, there was a bus leaving at 3:15pm to Liberia, and we were assured that the driver could drop us off at the entrance to Monteverde- whatever that meant.  Had we sat down and gotten a real lunch, we would've had to spend the night in Puntarenas.  So yay for not eating!

Another traveler also happened to be in our exact situation [a guy who's social skills had severely regressed thanks to just coming from 8 weeks of volunteering in the jungle...], so the three of us boarded the bus to Liberia.  An hour into the ride, the bus pulled over beside a gas station, and we were informed this was the entrance to Monteverde.  Huh?  Extremely confused, we exited the bus and were immediately enshrouded in the dust cloud the bus left behind.  We walked over to the store inside the gas station and asked the lady behind the counter how to get from there to Monteverde.  She assured us a bus would arrive at 5:15pm, and we'd just have to flag it down.  That gave us an hour to wait at the gas station, which we passed by becoming friends with the clerk [a motherly Nicaraguan named Maritza], and encountering yet another backpacker trying to get to Monteverde- Nonny, a volunteer in Nicaragua who was in Costa Rica to renew her visa.

So darkness begins to fall, 5:15pm comes and goes, and we've yet to catch a bus to Monteverde.  We're sure we didn't miss it because a few locals are also waiting by the gas station, and just as Lindsay's on the verge of a panic attack- an empty tourism van drives by, backs up, and the guy inside says he'll take us to Monteverde for $4 each.  We're so relieved to have a ride there that we just nod and climb in- turns out we payed $2 less than if we'd caught the public bus, anyway.  It turned out to be a good thing we were in a small van, since the road was quite pockmarked by potholes, the street was scarily narrow, and [most noteworthy] the weather was terrible.  By terrible I mean it was sleeting and windy and cold.  But for Costa Rica, where even in the rainy season there's only precipitation a few times a week for a couple hours, the cold and the wind felt extremely foreign.  [Lindsay later remarked it was almost refreshing to experience something other than heat and sun.  Not sure if I agree, but I know what she means.]

We were dropped off in the center of town around 7:00pm, and said goodbye to Weirdo and Nonny [though we'd convinced Nonny to sign up for the same zip line tour as us, so we planned on seeing her again], as we'd all booked different hostels.  Our hostel turned out to be small and sort of dumpy, but the wifi worked, an adorable fluffball of a dog lived there, and the guy who ran the place was totally awesome and into having a good time [he offered us shots even before we'd checked in...].  Plus, we'd find out later that the free breakfast was an amazing smorgasbord of food.  

While grabbing dinner at a nearby restaurant [having braved the wind/rain to get there], Lindsay and I developed our new favorite time-passing game to play [trying to name all 50 states, and then their correct capitals.  You may scoff now, but I dare you to try.  We've tried it on other Americans, and most people can only make it to the low 40's before giving up], and then raced back to the hostel.  We were content to just relax, seeing as we had to be up early tomorrow, but not having some sort of fun on a weekend in a hostel is pretty much impossible.  The five other guests plus the host and Lindsay and I ended up playing some card games, and then Alonso [the person in charge of the hostel] suggested we go out to a bar in town.  It wasn't an extremely appealing offer, but Lindsay and I figured we'd be stuck videotaping a little kids' dance recital the next night, so we might as well.  

The bar we went to was sort of a weird situation because 1) you had to pay to get in [the first time I've come across that in Costa Rica- luckily, Alonso was nice enough to pay for Lindsay and I], and 2) there was a live band playing Latin music, but barely anyone was dancing, Tico or not.  Luckily, Lindsay and I always bring the party ;). But actually.  After hanging off to the side for a bit, we were both invited by Ticos to go dance, and after that I never left the dance floor- just swapped one partner for another.  Eventually everyone had had enough of dancing, though, so we snuck downstairs for a quick game of [terrible] pool, and then headed back to the hostel and hit the hay.

Into the Jungle...
Saturday morning Lindsay and I awoke to our alarm blaring at 6:15am.  We were getting picked up at 7:00am for our tour, so we wanted to give ourselves enough tine to wake up.  Unfortunately, the day didn't look promising.  Especially not for zip lining.  We'd been hoping that the wind and rain would've died down overnight, but no such luck- it was just as nasty and wet and gray as when we'd arrived.  After much debating about whether zip lining in these conditions would be worth it [we already knew it was going to be miserable, but the question was whether the tour would be cool enough to outweigh the misery or not], we decide to just go for it- we had come all this way to zip line, after all.

We were picked up by one if our guides, grabbed Nonny at her hostel, and headed out to the forest.  After being suited up in harnesses, gloves, and helmets, we signed our waivers and were off!  The two guides showed the three of us [the only people on our tour] to a huge Tarzan swing first, which swung you through a clearing out over the tree tops- extremely exhilarating.  Then we began the actual zip lining.  There were 15 cables we zipped on, as well as a huge fig tree we descended and then climbed up through.  Zip lining was fun, and even in the not-so-great weather, the views were amazing.  However, besides the first and last few cables [one of which the wind was so strong it stopped me 15 feet from the ending platform, and I had to pull myself the rest of the way], zip lining itself wasn't all that exciting.  I guess I was just expecting something a bit more adrenaline-inducing.  We had a good time, though.  And luckily the weather eased up throughout our time in the tree tops, until eventually we could see bits of blue sky and the rain had pretty much stopped.  The tour took about two hours, and afterwards we thanked our guides, stopped by the bus station to buy tickets to San Jose on the 2:00pm bus, and headed back to the hostel.

...And Out to the Town
We spent the time between the tour and catching our bus chowing down on our hostel's free breakfast [bananas, chocolate cereal, peanut butter, bread, and coffee- what more could you ask for?], visiting the local ice cream shop, and checking out a souvenir store.  Eventually we said goodbye to Alonso and Nonny, and walked over to catch our bus.  The ride took four hours to get to the highway leading to San Jose.  Remember, we were supposed to be back around 5:00pm to help set up and then attend this dance recital.  We figured we probably wouldn't make it in time to set up, but we could definitely be there to help clean up around 9:00pm, no problem, right?  Not quite....

We would've made it, had it not been for a bridge that was down.  Thanks to being unable to continue on its normal route, our bus turned off the road we were familiar with [and where our sketchy highway stop is located] and instead headed to downtown San Jose.  As soon as we realized where we were headed, we knew we were screwed.  Going into San Jose was an hour more bus ride in itself, not to mention the amount of time we'd have to wait at the bus station to then catch another hour-long bus back to Atenas.  Grrr.  We got into the capital around 7:00pm, and [thanks to being escorted by a kind, young, paramedic-to-be] made it to our bus station only to learn that we had an hour and a half to wait before the next bus to Atenas.  We sat in the creepy station trying not to fall asleep [by trying to name the state capitals, actually], and finally hopped on the 8:30pm bus home.  Needless to say, we arrived well after the dance recital ended....  We're sorry, Tina!

A Day in Atenas
Sunday, November 8th was the only entire weekend day Lindsay and I spent together in town.  It was actually quite relaxing to wake up and not have to do... anything.  No volunteering, no bus rides :to miss:, no nothing.  We spent out free day just chilling in the morning, venturing out for iced coffee (her) and scalding hot coffee (me), and then she accompanied me to the grocery store [ohmygodilovethoseplaces] so I could buy ingredients for the chicken & wild rice soup I was making. <- I'd brought wild rice down as a present for my host family, but seeing as they didn't even know it existed, I offered to make them a meal with it.

The soup took me four hours to make.  I attribute this to 1) I hadn't cooked in over two months, 2) I'd never actually made the soup before, and 3) only one burner worked on the stove.  But by 7:00pm there was piping hot soup ready, and while it didn't look or taste anything like what my mom makes at home [oh the joys of eyeballing measurements and improvising ingredients], it was still deemed "rico" by my host family, so I guess it was successful.  Or they just were kind enough not to hurt my feelings....

Yep, the weekend of zip lining and soup.  Pura vida.

xoxo, Cleome

Atenas- Intro and General Life

I guess it´s about time I posted about the second part of my time {of service} in Costa Rica- I have been here for two weeks (since October 5th) now....

Atenas
So alrighty, I´m now stationed in the small, mountain community of Atenas, Alajuela, Costa Rica.  The town is one hour west of the capital (San Jose), meaning it´s located nicely in the very center of the country.  The town itself is pretty sleepy and uneventful- there´s exactly one {unpopular} sports bar, one church, one "mercado," and one bus station.  Although if you were looking for shoe stores or dental clinics, Atenas is the place to be.  But I didn´t realize exactly how small it was until I set out my first day here to explore the place, and ended up walking down every street in town in less than two hours.  Definitely a change from the Twin Cities.

While the lack of activity and excitement at first made me hesitant about whether or not I was going to like it here, I´ve decided that the comfort of a small town is a much better place for a home base than some large, crazy city.  Especially after a fun-filled weekend of traveling (<-- more on this later), having a safe, quiet town to return to {and recover in} is quite welcome.  And it´s nice to be able to walk around at night (though, yes, usually with at least one other person), and not feel like I´m going to be molested by every guy I see.  {However, while the guys´ manners here are better than on the beach, or in San Jose, walking around is still always accompanied by whistling/hissing/honking- men in Atenas just don´t feel the need to enter your personal space as much.}

Familia Nueva
So what exactly is my home base like?  Well, I live with Arelis Rodriguez (my "mom" while I´m here) and her two boys, Alejandro (17) and Fernando (almost 16).  They´re a middle-class family who have a house only five minutes from the center of town.  I´ve also gotten acquainted with the grandparents, aunts, cousins, etc., since staying connected with {extended} family is a big thing here.  And interestingly enough, no one in the family really speaks English.  They´ve been having {primarily American} volunteers living with them for at least five years now, but from what it sounds like, there´s always been some communication issues, since most of the volunteers haven´t spoken much Spanish.  They were happily surprised that I could hold at least basic conversations.*  And my Spanish has definitely improved since being here.  I just need to work on verb conjugations and some vocab, and I´m golden.

*Funny story: the first night at dinner, I was sitting at the table alone (having been served first).  The younger brother grabbed his plate and sat down awkwardly next to me, and then looked up and asked in Spanish if anyone else was going to come sit at the table.  When his mom asked why, he replied "So I won´t have to eat alone."  I looked at him pointedly, and said in {halting} Spanish, "You are not alone.  I´m here."  It caught him so off-guard, and everyone started laughing.  He mumbled a sorry to me while looking down at his plate, cheeks red.  He confided to me later that he had no idea I could understand what they were saying.

From speaking with other volunteers about their families- and specifically their host moms- I´ve realized there are two general types: those where the host mom babies the volunteer, and those where the host mom doesn´t.  I´m experiencing the latter; it´s a good thing.  I´ve just come from 18 years of having a mom {I swear, nothing negative is implied here, Mom}, and it´s a nice change (plus what I´m sort of looking for in my year off) to be an essentially independent being.  Arelis is nice and I like her a lot (and she´s a good mom to her boys), but besides cooking and changing my sheets, she lets me take care of my own shit, sola.  Which is just how I want it.   I mean, I´ll soon be traveling entirely alone in Europe, and it´d be a lot harder to visualize taking care of myself  if I´d been under motherly care up until that point.  {I think the reason she´s not a babier is because she´s pretty young (about to turn 33), and still has kids at home, so I in no way represent a chance to have a child living at home again- she´s currently got two.} 

I have my own room upstairs to sleep in, but when I´m at home I generally spend time downstairs in the living room- reading, talking, using the computer, or watching dubbed American movies/over-the-top dramatic Spanish soaps on the TV {which is almost always on}.  Besides the first few days, I haven´t spent too much time at the house.  Generally I´m out volunteering, at the community center through which the volunteer program is run, taking dance/exercise classes, running, or hanging out with the two other volunteers currently living here.

Arrival
Right now, I´ve completely settled into a good routine here, and am really happy with how everything is going- but it wasn´t always like this.  The first three days I was in Atenas, I was miserable.  I felt homesick, awkward, unhappy, uncomfortable, bored, etc.  It was just not a good point in my trip- but I´ve found that´s pretty common of {my} transition periods.

I think I was feeling so down because I´d just come from the turtle project, where I´d gotten familiar with the routine, I had met some great people, and I was having a lot of fun.  Instead, I found myself in a small, boring town {with no beach} where I didn´t know anyone, was living in a home full of strangers who spoke only a foreign language, and {since my time at the orphanage didn´t start until Tuesday, and I arrived Friday afternoon} I had essentially nothing to do all day.  I found myself doubting my decision to stay in one place for a whole two months- a lifetime, considering I´d only done a little over two weeks at the turtle place.  Plus, I could finally make contact with my family (and friends) through email, facebook, and Skype, and I suddenly felt an overwhelming need to speak with my family, and hear their voices.  

But luckily, literally the day after I Skyped with the fam for my first time ever {a horrendous ordeal... long story short, bad internet connection + confusion about whether or not to press the microphone button on the headset when speaking = major frustration/possible tears}, it all changed for the better.  I had my orientation with the volunteer coordinator, was given a mini tour of the town, met both Lindsay and Dean {which was an amazing experience, considering just learning of their existence filled me with joy, aha}, had my first Spanish class, and went out that night to the sports bar where I ordered my first "legal" beer.  A life-changing day, let me tell you.  And from then on, I´ve been in an extremely positive state of mind.  It´s amazing the difference one day can make {<-- a thought I´ll be storing for later use in Europe}.


{Week}Day in the Life {of an Orphanage Volunteer Living in Atenas, Costa Rica}
This is my general schedule Monday-Friday morning:
5:30am- wake up {usually naturally- it gets light/loud outside early}
6:00- run
7:00- shower, eat breakfast, fill up my water and grab a snack for later
7:45- meet Lindsay {more on her later} and walk to the bus station
8:00- get on the bus to Palmares {where the kids´ home is located}
9:20- arrive at the childrens´ place after a 20 min. walk from the bus stop
9:30-11:40- play with kids!
12:15pm- catch the bus back to Atenas, eat aforementioned snack
1:20- arrive home for lunch, write emails/blog posts, read
2:30- head to the community center Su Espacio with Lindsay for Spanish classes (the first week)/ independent-study (now)
4:30- Spanish studying ends, leave either for home or to the town center {if I need to buy something}
After 4:30- dinner happens sometime between 6 and 7, and some nights I´ll go out to dance/spinning classes, to the sports bar, or out to hang with Lindsay and/or Dean,  Otherwise it´s more writing/reading/relaxing.
8:00-10:00pm- bedtime occurs within this window, on average around 9:00 or 9:30, but last night it was 7:30, and the night before it wasn´t until 11:00 {since I was watching the Costa Rica vs Guyana "futbol" game- veerrryyyy important; luckily they won}
Repeat

The weekends are when the schedule goes out the window, and craziness ensues.  I´ll have to go over those in a different post, haha.

Other {Important} People
Not sure how surprising this is, but I may actually interact more with the two other volunteers stationed here right now than my host family.

Lindsay and Dean are the two other volunteers in Atenas right now, and with whom I´ve been spending lots of time with (especially {as Dean likes to point out, in a total show of FOMO, aka fear of missing out} Lindsay).  They´re both American, in their early 20´s, and pretty cool.  Lindsay is not only volunteering for almost the exact same period of time as me (she´ll be leaving only one week earlier), but she´s also working at the childrens´ home- we´re together a lot.  Dean is teaching English in the community center, and actually only has about 1 1/2 weeks left here in Atenas.  But Lindsay and I traveled with him last weekend, and I´m pretty sure we´ll be doing so again this coming one, so I´ve definitely gotten to know him.  It´s fun having the three of us together- we´ve got a good dynamic going: Dean meets people, who then invite Lindsay and I to go do stuff, and we bring him along.  It´s also become a thing to make fun of him, so Lindsay and I are a little worried about how we´re going to pass the time once he´s gone....

I´m so glad there are those two to hang out with here, because like I learned at the turtle project, it´s the people who really help make an experience.

So yeah, that´s my situation for the past few weeks now.  I´ve officially been in Costa Rica/away from home for more than a month, and I honestly couldn´t tell you whether it feels like I´ve been away for shorter or longer.  My perception of time has gotten so screwed up here.  But however long it´s been, I´m not ready for it to end anytime soon.

Off to a spin class with Lindsay {Dean, feel the FOMO}.

xoxo, Cleome

The Deets: Costa Rica

Pretty much all of my time spent in Costa Rica will involve volunteering.

I chose to volunteer for the first portion of my gap year, because I felt like 
1) I wanted to spend some significant time giving back (but in a really fun way, which is why I decided on a gorgeous location)
2) volunteering in a foreign country is a great way to begin meeting other travelers 
3) you can't aid sea turtle conservation too late into the year, since the turtles aren't physically present at that point, and 
4) by volunteering through a program, I won't be completely left to my own devices just yet (so it'll be a great way to ease into independent traveling).

I'll be volunteering through a program called Institute of Field Research and Expedition (IFRE).

IFRE is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization based in Dallas, Texas, USA. We founded IFRE’s volunteer abroad program in 2005 after realizing the need for safe and affordable volunteer abroad programs. So far, nearly 3000 volunteers have participated in our meaningful volunteer programs in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

(Source) 

I chose IFRE for a few reasons.  Most importantly, they offered programs that fit my criteria- looked interesting, involved traveling, had a language component (either French or Spanish, since those are the two foreign languages I sort of know), were long term, and didn't cost a fortune to do.  Additionally, when I looked up reviews of different programs, it became apparent that some organizations were pretty sketchy/scam-like.  Luckily, IFRE's reviews sounded legit.  And when I contacted them, they've been very good about prompt communication and personalization of programs.  There of course were tons of other similar options, but I've been happy so far with how accommodating and helpful IFRE has been. 

Here is a closer look at what I'll be doing through IFRE in Costa Rica:
-I'll arrive in the middle of September, and take a boat to Pacuare Beach (on the Northeastern, Caribbean side) to work in sea turtle conservation for about one month.  At the time of my stay, Hawksbill and Green turtles will be the kinds I'll encounter.  

Yeah, Pacuare's the circled area.  

The living situation sounds sort of intense.  It's a pretty remote beach (you have to take a 30 min boat ride to get there, and that only comes twice a week), with sketchy electricity and no running water.  Apparently (hopefully) 10-15 other volunteers will be there at that point, so I'll have potential friends.  We'll be bunking together in rustic cabins with outdoor toilets, yay.  

Besides chatting it up with fellow travelers, volunteers work between four and eight hours each day.  The types of activities I'll be doing include: night patrols on the beach (mainly to keep poachers/predators away?), egg collection, releasing turtles, working in the rescue center, and other manual labor-type stuff that goes along with living on a remote beach.  Oh, and maybe I'll fit some relaxing into that schedule somewhere.  It is a beach after all....

-Then I'll move from saving turtles on the coast to a more centralized, inland location (Atenas, in the Alajuela region) to work in an orphanage for the remaining few months.

I'll be somewhere within that circle.

This time, I'll be living with a Costa Rican host family (!).  I get stuck with to have a few little brothers in my family there, so I probably won't miss my biological sibling too much- just kidding, Ash.  I won't lie, I'm a bit nervous about living with a family that's not my own.  But I'm excited as well; it'll be a great way to throw myself into the culture, language, and (hopefully) make some lasting connections.

Unlike the turtle project, I'll have a good amount of free time for those two months.  I'll be volunteering at the orphanage for only four hours a day, from 8:00-12:00 Monday through Friday.  I guess some time will be taken up by transportation (since the orphanage I'll be volunteering at is actually located in a neighboring village- a 40 min bus ride + a 20 min walk every day).  And I'm hoping to take some Spanish classes.  But otherwise I get the rest of the day to myself... right now I'm hoping I make some good friends that I can hang out with.  Plus I can always read and write and explore the town.

Right.  Now you know roughly as much about the first few months of my walkabout as I do.

xoxo, Cleome