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Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Where did my vacation go??
So it has come to my attention that we really only have tomorrow, Thursday, and then Friday left in Costa Rica. Pretty much three and a half days. What the hell?? This trip has flown by faster than I ever could have imagined. I could probably rattle off a pretty big list of firsts I've had on this trip that a lot of people will never get to do, and for that I'm humbled. On the other hand, I think I'm finally ready to go home. The ironic thing is that I'm going to have to learn to switch back to some things at home that I've gotten used to here. Mainly this involves the food. I definitely think it will be weird for a day or two with no gallo pinto. Then again I want a fat steak and a cheeseburger when I get home. I've thought about telling my mom to have a triple from Wendy's ready for me when I get off the plane. One thing is for sure, if the world doesn't end within the next 20 years due to our lack of sustainability (our class topics), I'll definitely find myself back in Costa Rica at least one time. I really want to come back for a couple weeks in 10 or so years to retrace our steps. Now that I look back, although I came here with the full intent of vacationing, I've actually learned a lot from our classes and our "vacations from vacation". In one way or another they all tie together in a big mess of Costa Rican economics and sustainability. This trip was well worth the 6 grand I blew on it... and my fat credit card bill I get to pay off for the rest of the summer. Damnit.
Eco-Tourism is Unreal
Eco-tourism, especially on our trip, continues to be a dominant theme here in Costa Rica. I'm pretty sure that every trip we embark on deals with eco-tourism and our participation in it. This last weekend we experienced yet another beach town completely geared towards eco-tourism. Just like Manuel Antonio, Puerto Viejo is a town that was completely transformed to accomodate tourists trying to visit a beach in the tropics. All throughout town you see restaurants, bars, and shops clearly trying to draw that tourist crowds. These crowds, of course, are there to hang out with the natural beaches that dominate the coastline for miles. Even outside of the town and for miles down the beach there are hotels lined up either on the beach or close to it. Our hotel utilized their land to make almost every room have a clear view of the Caribbean. They had also collected an assortment of exotic birds and put them on display in a large cage next to the bar. It's just funny to think that every single trip we've gone on outside of San Jose has been for eco-tourism. It's not hard to see why it is the dominant industry in Costa Rica. Not to mention it's an awesome thing to experience.
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Mas Cafe
I´m afraid I don´t have much to report on coffee this time around. We´ve passed several coffee plantations, some of which seemed much smaller and poorer than the ones we had visited. They didn´t seem to be organic in any way, but in typical Costa Rican fashion, I´m sure their coffee is delicious. Everyday, it´s evident how much of a part of the culture coffee is down here. Everywhere I go, I´m offered coffee promptly with every meal, and our host family has an unknown brand of delicious coffee every day at breakfast. That´s really about all I have for now. Bebe café para tu salud.
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Chiquita Bananas
So on Friday after La Selva, we stopped at the Chiquita banana plantation on our way to Puerto Viejo. Upon entering the plantation, all you could really see were rows and rows of banana trees, and some random columns of rain forest placed in between fields of the bananas. As it turns out, these columns of rain forest is actually a very eco-friendly practice done by some banana farms. These columns allow for wildlife to continue living in the area where the farm is, and it also allows species to travel easily from column to column, and eventually across the entire farm. Not to mention it´s a lot more trees helping out with carbon cleaning and water collection. Chiquita claims they keep well in mind the preservation of ecology and worker health. They provide their workers with proper protection and do blood tests on them every three months checking for whatever illnesses they might acquire. They also say they use the safest pesticides and fertilizers possible, although I question if the safest ones are even slightly safe at all. Also, in Cafe Britt fashion, they decided to give a very weird performance for us. The problem with this performance was that they did it completely in spanish, and hardly any of us could understand what was going on if it wasn´t translated by someone. It was interesting to say the least. We also got to see their sorting process, which was actually fairly interesting. They were sure to clean the bananas, but also to keep enough good water circulation so that workers would not have to come in contact with the soap. The water circulation also helped ensure that the cleaning agent was removed from the bananas by the time they were stickered and boxed. Any rejected bananas were taken away to be used in food products which did not require whole bananas. The workers looked content, and the working conditions seemed very friendly. Finally, after their theatrics, we left the plantation and headed for the coast. Lets eat bananas.
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Caribbean Rasta Fun
Finally, it´s time for me to elaborate on our phenomenal Caribbean trip. We´ll start with our Thursday night pitstop at La Selva research station.
Basically, this largely known research station was founded in the Costa Rican rain forest due to Costa Rica´s large abundance of biodiversity and wildlife. We took a little nature hike when we got there, and we actually saw some pretty cool stuff on this one. Poison Dart frogs were very abundant in this area, which is awesome because I´ve been wanting to see some of those. We also got some up close looks at some Spider Monkeys. Other than that we just saw some various animals and such, like wild hogs. After the hike we had dinner, then proceeded to do some fun new things like play cards most the night (sarcasm). In the morning we had another nature hike, but this time we had a guide. This time we mostly saw the same things, but he could better explain some other random things, like the walking palm trees, which move 1 to 2 feet a year towards sunlight. We wanted to see a frickin snake... but we still had no luck.
Finally, after we ate, we headed off for the caribbean. We arrived in Puerto Viejo and found a much different side of Costa Rica. We had arrived in the ¨Rasta¨ territory, where most people there were of Jamaican decent. We walked around to some little shops they had set up where they were selling handmade jewelry and the like. It was here where we were offered the best weed around by 5 different people and yayo by one guy. Yes, we declined all offers. Our hotel there was pretty phenomenal. Three guys got the party room, which had a full kitchen, two bedrooms, and two baths. We played some various drinking games before heading to a nearby bar. Once there, we sang karaoke as a group and quickly scared away any locals by our drunken singing. After a couple cervezas there, we went down the street to a club. This place was pretty awesome, and what was more awesome was the random lingerie show they put on near the end. Luckily I took pictures, because for some reason most of the show had slipped my mind by the time I woke up... as did the entire walk home and my purchase of hot dogs from a vendor. Sadly, since I´m a jackass and left my USB cable at home, and since no one else has the same USB connection as my camera, I won´t be able to post any pictures on here before I go home.
Moving on... The next day we went to Manzanillo to our new hotel. By our new hotel, I mean our resort on the beach. This place was one of the places you look at in a brochure and say holy shit I could never afford that. As it turns out it was cheap enough for us to stay there for two nights. These were basically our only free days/nights of our weekend vacations, which could not have come at a better time. The views were amazing and so was the food and service. We had a standard Saturday night, except for a few people who stayed up all night to see the sunrise. Surprisingly, I didn´t stay up with them, but that allowed me to get enough sleep to prepare me for the next day.
Sunday, I was up and ready to go at 7AM... even though for the first time the entire trip, we were able to sleep in. It was all good though, because it took no more than 45 seconds of convincing at breakfast to talk Jamie and Plump into drinking with me at 8. So by noon we were drunk, and since we were drunk so early, we forgot to apply sun tan lotion... So by 3 we were passed out and hot pink. It all worked out for the best, as we were able to wake up and power through the night. We had a bet with Glenn, which we won, where he had to finally drink a night with us. Eventually we all made it out to the beach (except Chase actually...) where we started a little fire and chilled out for a while. Afterwards a select few of us ran amok around the resort, waking up a naked European who came out and yelled at us... balls cupped. Then we proceeded to make our room as messy as possible only to leave it that way in the morning out of spite for the expensive drinks.
Monday we ate breakfast and came home. We all wanted to stay around the blue water and the random cage filled with exotic birds at the resort, but we knew that we actually have to do some schoolwork while here. Hopefully I didn´t miss anything or I´ll be upset. Hasta luego nerds.
Burf
Basically, this largely known research station was founded in the Costa Rican rain forest due to Costa Rica´s large abundance of biodiversity and wildlife. We took a little nature hike when we got there, and we actually saw some pretty cool stuff on this one. Poison Dart frogs were very abundant in this area, which is awesome because I´ve been wanting to see some of those. We also got some up close looks at some Spider Monkeys. Other than that we just saw some various animals and such, like wild hogs. After the hike we had dinner, then proceeded to do some fun new things like play cards most the night (sarcasm). In the morning we had another nature hike, but this time we had a guide. This time we mostly saw the same things, but he could better explain some other random things, like the walking palm trees, which move 1 to 2 feet a year towards sunlight. We wanted to see a frickin snake... but we still had no luck.
Finally, after we ate, we headed off for the caribbean. We arrived in Puerto Viejo and found a much different side of Costa Rica. We had arrived in the ¨Rasta¨ territory, where most people there were of Jamaican decent. We walked around to some little shops they had set up where they were selling handmade jewelry and the like. It was here where we were offered the best weed around by 5 different people and yayo by one guy. Yes, we declined all offers. Our hotel there was pretty phenomenal. Three guys got the party room, which had a full kitchen, two bedrooms, and two baths. We played some various drinking games before heading to a nearby bar. Once there, we sang karaoke as a group and quickly scared away any locals by our drunken singing. After a couple cervezas there, we went down the street to a club. This place was pretty awesome, and what was more awesome was the random lingerie show they put on near the end. Luckily I took pictures, because for some reason most of the show had slipped my mind by the time I woke up... as did the entire walk home and my purchase of hot dogs from a vendor. Sadly, since I´m a jackass and left my USB cable at home, and since no one else has the same USB connection as my camera, I won´t be able to post any pictures on here before I go home.
Moving on... The next day we went to Manzanillo to our new hotel. By our new hotel, I mean our resort on the beach. This place was one of the places you look at in a brochure and say holy shit I could never afford that. As it turns out it was cheap enough for us to stay there for two nights. These were basically our only free days/nights of our weekend vacations, which could not have come at a better time. The views were amazing and so was the food and service. We had a standard Saturday night, except for a few people who stayed up all night to see the sunrise. Surprisingly, I didn´t stay up with them, but that allowed me to get enough sleep to prepare me for the next day.
Sunday, I was up and ready to go at 7AM... even though for the first time the entire trip, we were able to sleep in. It was all good though, because it took no more than 45 seconds of convincing at breakfast to talk Jamie and Plump into drinking with me at 8. So by noon we were drunk, and since we were drunk so early, we forgot to apply sun tan lotion... So by 3 we were passed out and hot pink. It all worked out for the best, as we were able to wake up and power through the night. We had a bet with Glenn, which we won, where he had to finally drink a night with us. Eventually we all made it out to the beach (except Chase actually...) where we started a little fire and chilled out for a while. Afterwards a select few of us ran amok around the resort, waking up a naked European who came out and yelled at us... balls cupped. Then we proceeded to make our room as messy as possible only to leave it that way in the morning out of spite for the expensive drinks.
Monday we ate breakfast and came home. We all wanted to stay around the blue water and the random cage filled with exotic birds at the resort, but we knew that we actually have to do some schoolwork while here. Hopefully I didn´t miss anything or I´ll be upset. Hasta luego nerds.
Burf
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
How could I forget Whitewater?!
This past Thursday we went whitewater rafting! I don´t know how I forgot about that. I had wanted to do that for a long time, and why not do it in Costa Rica where it´s one of the highest rated whitewater rivers in the world (apparently). Also, I forget the name of that river... haha. Either way, it was 17 Km long and consisted of class 2, 3, and 4 rapids. Our raft (Team Laser), only had one person fall out the entire time, and she was only out for a couple seconds. Ironically, it was Steph Laser, our team captain whom I believe we fired. Don´t get me wrong though, I almost flew out several times, and so did others. Steve and I had to catch PJ a couple times before he went flying out of the raft. There was another time I was late getting to the right side (so as to avoid flipping when we hit a rock on the right side), and the force of the impact sent me across the raft and into Heidi... which she didn´t appreciate at all (my bad). The craziest part was when two rafts hit eachother, then both lifted up and flipped. 12 people all went in the water at once (none of which were MU students), and the other rafts had to stop and pick them up real quick. It was cool to see, but also pretty scary being that any of them could have been injured pretty badly. It was definitely one of my favorite trips, but I think I say that about everything we do. Ok ahora estoy consado. Hasta Luego.
El Osa Peninsula
So we just got back from the Osa Peninsula. It was moved back due to a tropical storm that decided to mess up the pacific coast, but it ended up being a fun trip. There was actually a bridge out on the way due to the storm... I believe it was completely washed away. Anyway, as usual it was raining the entire first day we were there/traveling there. I was pleasantly surprised by the boat trip we needed to make from a small town to the place we were actually staying. The boats were fast and a lot of fun to ride on. However, apparently one of the boats capsized last year with a bunch of Miami students in it... haha. They all turned out okay, but that made everyone a bit nervous at first. They took us through a forest of trees that actually grow on higher ground in the middle of the river-lake thing we had to cross. When the water is low you can see the ground, but when the water is high it looks like the trees are randomly growing in the middle of the lake. The place we stayed is still being worked on. We basically had to rough it a bit, but it wasn´t too bad at all. The place is already pretty nice and I´m thinking it´s going to be really nice in a year.
Moving on... the next day we took those boats a half hour down the shore line to do some rain forest hiking. This rain forest hike was really sweet compared to the Monteverde one. First off, it wasn´t raining. Also, we saw a lot more wild life that you can´t see in the U.S. The natural beaches were gorgeous as well. We ate some fresh coconuts, swam in streams that led to the Pacific (they had nice little waterfalls in them and such), and saw some sweet animals and insects. The monkeys and scarlet mackaws (sp?) had to be the coolest. (A scarlet whatever is a stereotypical parrot... all red blue and yellow and likes to eat nuts). After lunch we hiked 20 minutes to another waterfall. This one was pretty standard, until I saw the more adventurous tour guide and 6 or so guys I´d been hanging out with heading upstream. Good ol´Peter and I decided to follow, and although all the sharp rocks hurt like hell on our feet, the trip was well worth it. At the top was a 50 foot awesome waterfall. We had to rock climb up, but we made it to the pool where the water falls. The water was shallow enough we could actually stand in the waterfall... it was big enough that it was really hard to stand. You could walk behind it as well. Pretty awesome. After that we headed back to our hotel of sorts and had the standard night of playing random card games for hours.
Tuesday we took an hour boat ride to an island out in the Pacific to go snorkeling. We went in two separate groups due to lack of equipment, but it was sweet. The water was absurdly blue, clear, and warm. The downside, however, is that I wear size 13 shoes and my flippers were for sizes 5-8... I was in pain the entire time. The other problem is that I have an ear infection in my left ear, and this inhibited me from diving down lower than 8 feet. At that point I´d hit my pain threshold and have to level out or go back up, which sucked because I wanted to touch stuff and chase fish that were only 5 more feet below me. Either way, it was still really cool to swim with the tropical fish and see all that stuff. Then on the boat ride back we finally got to see some dolphins. We had a lot of free time during the rest of the day (for once), so we just napped then played random card games and had a four wheeling adventure.
Finally, on Wednesday we just came home. Sadly, the bus ride was 10 hours long... 11 including lunch. This would seem near impossible to some seeing as how Costa Rica is approximately the size of West Virginia. I´m pretty sure the roads in the U.S. are efficient enough that you could almost circle WV in 10 hours, but this is still somewhat of a developing country in a lot of parts. Imagine a tour bus going over a bridge that has no more than six inches on each side of the tires of extra room. Then imagine this bridge spanning about 200 feet over a river which was still high from the tropical storm. After crossing said bridge, we would proceed down a large gravel road (which is thankfully being paved or worked on as I type) until we reach the next bridge of the same type. I thought of the ways to die that would piss me off most, and falling off a bridge on a tour bus and drowning in a river is probably top 5.
So tomorrow we´re going on some trip to some random Medical facility. It will probably be boring and non-relevant to class with our altered class material. I´m over it. Because Friday, we´re going to Puerto Viejo... which is that Caribbean beach. If it´s not sunny every day we´re there, I´m going to fight mother nature. That bitch has not given us a single sunny beach day yet. Okay I´m done. Adiós.
Moving on... the next day we took those boats a half hour down the shore line to do some rain forest hiking. This rain forest hike was really sweet compared to the Monteverde one. First off, it wasn´t raining. Also, we saw a lot more wild life that you can´t see in the U.S. The natural beaches were gorgeous as well. We ate some fresh coconuts, swam in streams that led to the Pacific (they had nice little waterfalls in them and such), and saw some sweet animals and insects. The monkeys and scarlet mackaws (sp?) had to be the coolest. (A scarlet whatever is a stereotypical parrot... all red blue and yellow and likes to eat nuts). After lunch we hiked 20 minutes to another waterfall. This one was pretty standard, until I saw the more adventurous tour guide and 6 or so guys I´d been hanging out with heading upstream. Good ol´Peter and I decided to follow, and although all the sharp rocks hurt like hell on our feet, the trip was well worth it. At the top was a 50 foot awesome waterfall. We had to rock climb up, but we made it to the pool where the water falls. The water was shallow enough we could actually stand in the waterfall... it was big enough that it was really hard to stand. You could walk behind it as well. Pretty awesome. After that we headed back to our hotel of sorts and had the standard night of playing random card games for hours.
Tuesday we took an hour boat ride to an island out in the Pacific to go snorkeling. We went in two separate groups due to lack of equipment, but it was sweet. The water was absurdly blue, clear, and warm. The downside, however, is that I wear size 13 shoes and my flippers were for sizes 5-8... I was in pain the entire time. The other problem is that I have an ear infection in my left ear, and this inhibited me from diving down lower than 8 feet. At that point I´d hit my pain threshold and have to level out or go back up, which sucked because I wanted to touch stuff and chase fish that were only 5 more feet below me. Either way, it was still really cool to swim with the tropical fish and see all that stuff. Then on the boat ride back we finally got to see some dolphins. We had a lot of free time during the rest of the day (for once), so we just napped then played random card games and had a four wheeling adventure.
Finally, on Wednesday we just came home. Sadly, the bus ride was 10 hours long... 11 including lunch. This would seem near impossible to some seeing as how Costa Rica is approximately the size of West Virginia. I´m pretty sure the roads in the U.S. are efficient enough that you could almost circle WV in 10 hours, but this is still somewhat of a developing country in a lot of parts. Imagine a tour bus going over a bridge that has no more than six inches on each side of the tires of extra room. Then imagine this bridge spanning about 200 feet over a river which was still high from the tropical storm. After crossing said bridge, we would proceed down a large gravel road (which is thankfully being paved or worked on as I type) until we reach the next bridge of the same type. I thought of the ways to die that would piss me off most, and falling off a bridge on a tour bus and drowning in a river is probably top 5.
So tomorrow we´re going on some trip to some random Medical facility. It will probably be boring and non-relevant to class with our altered class material. I´m over it. Because Friday, we´re going to Puerto Viejo... which is that Caribbean beach. If it´s not sunny every day we´re there, I´m going to fight mother nature. That bitch has not given us a single sunny beach day yet. Okay I´m done. Adiós.
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