Beginning of the end.

First of all, I just looked out my window and my neighbor is standing on his huge metal roof painting it with a broom and one tiny bucket of green paint wearing shorts, a cut off tank and a cowboy hat.. picture to come, although I think the mental image is equally as comical. Also, a bum just passed with a Jonas Brother backpack. God, I am going to miss Costa Rica.
Today is my last day in my Costa Rican home. My host mom realized that last night was my last night sleeping here, and she started crying telling me she loved me as much as her own children. I could not have asked for a better living situation. I had a mom who treated me as her own daughter, laughing at me when I made mistakes, commenting on my clothes, giving me advice, cleaning (and snooping) in my room, a dad who minded his own business but still made me feel very comfortable, a host sister and brother who I could joke around with about the other volunteers (don't worry Alyssia&Laura, not you!) , and took me out with them and showed me real Costa Rican night life. It's so hard to leave a place that at one point in the past four months, I began to call home. I have had 5 places in the past year the I have called home, and I am starting to feel that I couldn't live any other way... The 9 to 5 sounds so unappealing when there is so much else out there in the world.
(side note: it's started drizzling, and the neighbor is still sweep painting away up there, and now singing also.. He's gotta run out of paint soon?)
Connor is en route to Costa Rica now. Im hopin' and prayin' that his flight isn't too delayed due to the absolute craziness occurring in NY, looks like Bloomberg could have used a few more sanitation workers... I love New York, but I am certainly not looking forward to being back in the snow. Anyway, I'm taking Connor to three of my favorite places here and am so excited to spend our first New Years together :) More blogs to come when we return to NY on the 11th!
It's definitely sad this trip is ending. But I am trying to look at it as a beginning. A beginning to a life where I will appreciate everything so much more and can be a better person.

From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life.

It's strange to see decorations with winter hats or snow men with a backdrop of palm trees, beaches and people in t-shirts and sandals. Most people here have never seen snow, but everything is commercialized and based on American television culture therefore, Christmas is still associated with snow and the cold, and Santa does live in the North Pole after all. There does appear to be a heavier relgious emphasis on the day as compared to in the U.S., mostly every house has a huge Nativity scene, taking up almost a whole room sometimes. My favorite nativity is outside in a soccer field on the way to San Jose (from my volunteer project). There are life sized mannequins, and the three kings are riding bicycles.. I have to remember to get a picture.


My Christmas was nice. It didn't feel like Christmas for the longest time, not only because of the weather difference, but also because I wasn't surrounded by my friends and family. All of my close friends here have gone home, so it was a little bit depressing being here alone, but thank god I have such an amazing host family! Christmas Eve (Buenanoche.. translation, the good night) I went to my host families Grandmas house. Everyone was sitting outside talking, drinking, dancing salsa, eating.. The typical foods for Christmas here are of course rice and beans, pork, salad, and tamales which are usually corn meal mixed with tomatoes, onions, rice, some meat, and chilies wrapped in a huge leaf and cooked "a la leña" over a flame. They also do a secret santa, but call it "amigo secreto," secret friend. Christmas morning we all woke up late and ate grapes and apples and more tamales. We went to the Grandmas house again for a large lunch.. Christmas is all about the food here! After eating and watching the bull fights on t.v, I came back to my house and skyped with family/ It's was so nice to talk to all of them, we are all truly blessed to have each-other. My grandma and grandpa sang me rudolph the red nosed reindeer, it was so cute! After my skype date I bummed around for a while and my family showed me the presents they got and we just sat around and had some nice conversations. The son, Esteban and a family friend Carlos were going to the parties in the nearby town, Zapote, and asked if I wanted to go. At first I was a bit hesitant but figured why not? Estebans friend drove us there and we parked a few blocks away because it was so crowded. The parties are in a huge parking lot of a stadium (where they have bull fights). Theres music and dancing in the streets, bars, mucho cerveza, tons of fried food, games, rides.. It's like a huge carnival that people come to from all over the country. It was a lot of fun, and definitely a cultural way to spend my first Christmas away from home!


In another aspect, Christmas is celebrated very similarly to the way we celebrate in the U.S., the city is overly crowded with people, the lines in the stores are painstakingly long, and everyone is always in a rush. Being here and working in poor communities has made me realize how ridiculous Christmas has become over the years.  Reading facebook statuses like "the worst part about xmas is the traffic at the mall!" makes me cringe a little bit because for some people the worst part about Christmas is being told their father doesn't want them and they have to go live in an orphanage, or not having any money to eat. I am not trying to sound pretentious or like I think I am the next Mother Teresa but the emphasis on shopping and material gift giving is a bit excessive. People stress so much over the perfect gift, how much money to spend, what to wear to a party, or preparing for company to come over and in the end is it really worth it? I like to think my family is pretty modest and of course there are presents(because honestly it wouldn't be Christmas without them), but the best part of the day is the quality time we spend with each other. When all is said and done are we really going to remember what gift we received or gave or for the memories we made? This Christmas my family decided to donate the money they would have spent on gifts for each other to the kids at Rayito. With that money, along with some money from Madeleines family, we bought all of the kids new shoes. I think my dad said it best in his email.. "certainly your kids would benefit from our gift money. We can live without more candles and bathrobes.." And they did. Some of the boys didn't even own a pair of sneakers, now they all have spiderman high tops. Upon recieving them, they were all so grateful, and Madeleine and I overheard some of the older girls saying they didn't want to wear their new shoes yet because they wanted to save them for church...

Feliz Navidad!

Rincon de le Vieja

So, I hiked a volcano this weekend! One of the physically hardest, yet most rewarding experiences here in Costa Rica, and really anywhere actually. I left with my two roomates on Friday afternoon, Laura and Alyssia (she's from Switzerland). We took a bus into Liberia, which is about 4 1/2 hours from San Jose, spent the night in a hostel and took a shuttle to the National Park at 7 am the following morning. You have to pay $10 at the main office when entering the park, and they take down your passport information and tell you to return to the office when you return to make sure you are not lost somewhere. When we left the office, they said 'Buena Suerte' aka Good luck. Our 8 km (almost 5 miles) up hill hike began in tropical moist forest, climbing past trees covered with epiphytic vegetation which got lower and lower to the ground in the harsher climate as we ascended. The first 4 km were pretty easy, it was hot so we were definetely tired, but nothing too strenuous.

The next 2 were harder, climbing through muddy steep areas with dense vegetation. 

The final ascent was on over exposed lava rock, and it looked like we were on Saturn, or some other planet with orangey red air filled rocks.

It was difficult climbing here because it was really steep and the volcanic rocks were airy and not reliable to grab onto to pull ourselves up with. Finally after this climb, we reached an open area where we took a break for lunch. We sat in this open area, surrounded by clouds so we couldn't see more than 100 meters around us for a while, and couldn't hear a sound, it was very meditative. After our short break, we continued, unsure of where the crater of the volcano actually was. We soon found a sign, and a very long, narrow path which led to the crater.

Once through the scene from the lord of the rings, we came to this on our left...

And this on the right..

So, of course the climb was totally worth it. At this point we had to turn around and start the trek back down because it had taken us almost 4 hours to hike up. We got a little lost, thankfully we had Alyssia, who guided us back down through rivers, steep ascends and descends and tons of beautiful flora and fauna. 
That night we took a bus to Playa de Coco. We wandered into town looking for a hostel and came across this little Tica woman who offered us her home for the night. She had an extra room that she rented out to travelers for $8 a night. It had a kitchen but the gas was off because she had been gone for a few weeks, so she welcomed us into her home and helped us cook and let us use her pots and pans and whatever else we needed. The next day we went to the beach for a while, I got far too much color, and even though we had to check out of her room at 12, Olga allowed us to come back into her home to shower and make lunch. It's so refreshing to meet kind people like her and open their homes to travelers for of course a little bit of money, but also just out of the kindness of their hearts. 

A sad story.

Yesterday I walked into Rayito and saw two of my favorite girls, Dicsy and Fresia, really upset. I asked them what was wrong and they explained to me that the night before, their mom (no more than 26 years old) had taken a bag with most of the girls clothes (for the three girls in their family they have about 6 shirts, 1 pair of jeans, 2 skirts and 2 pairs of shorts) and left with the 2 youngest girls, Mirian (4 yrs old) and the baby Stacy. Dicsy (5) sat on my lap and cried and Fresia (7) stroked her hair while telling her that their mother would return. The girls told me the reason that their mother left was because their dad was drinking too much. They continued to tell me that their mom also has 3 other boyfriends, and Fresia argued with Dicsy that the other men were just friends. While trying my hardest not to cry, I asked where their oldest bother, David (9) was, and they informed me he was out with the dad looking for their mom. At one point in the morning, the father came to the gate of they daycare with David, and told Fresia that if their mother didn't return, the kids would be sent to an orphanage because he couldn't take care of them. Fresia then started crying, but had to remain strong because Dicsy didn't know, and she didn't want her to find out. Fresia and David sat at a table eating lunch together discussing how they would escape from the orphanage. Finally, a few hours later, their mother appeared to drop off Mirian so she could eat. The girls were excited to see their mother, but were still upset because they knew that the chance of them having to go to an orphanage was still high.
Experiencing this with the girls was one of the saddest things I have ever been through. It's terrible to see these kids being exposed to these things at their age. The fact that they know about their mothers relationships with numerous men, and that their father is an alcoholic unfit to care for them breaks my heart. No child should ever have to endure these things. When I was asking them if there was anyone else they could stay with, an aunt or grandmother, they said no, grabbed onto my waist, looked up at me and asked if they could come live with me in the United States. On the verge of tears, I picked up Dicsy and pretended she was my suitcase and carried her around the room. I finally saw one of her beautiful smiles that I had been praying for all morning.
Today the girls were calling me Mom and saying that they were my daughters and they were going to come live with me when I leave Costa Rica. Leaving them is going to be impossible.

Dicsy

My random thoughts I wrote down while on the bus after work the other day...
You begin to realize all of your worries and complaints never had any importance. You think back to the time you were so concerned about not getting the new expensive item you "needed" or the time you wouldn't eat a meal that was served to you because you were really in the mood for something else. You think about all these moments and feel guilty for being spoiled and ungrateful.
It's really hard to imagine a life where your bed is the living room floor and you are uncertain when your next meal will be because it's a world so unknown to us. And you feel a little bit guilty again for wanting that big comfy california king and a four course meal in a four star restaurant. It's a life we have become so accustomed to where everything we could ever want is within our reach. We need to take more time and realize how privileged we all are and stop taking the little things for granted.

"As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let us down, probably will. You'll have your heart broken and you'll break others' hearts. You'll fight with your best friend or maybe even fall in love with them, and you'll cry because time is flying by. So take too many pictures, laugh too much, forgive freely, and love like you've never been hurt. Life comes with no guarantees, no time outs, no second chances. you just have to live life to the fullest, tell someone what they mean to you and tell someone off, speak out, dance in the pouring rain, hold someone's hand, comfort a friend, fall asleep watching the sun come up, stay up late, be a flirt, and smile until your face hurts. Don't be afraid to take chances or fall in love and most of all, live in the moment because every second you spend angry or upset is a second of happiness you can never get back. "

~ Unknown

Montezuma

Ah, what a perfect weekend! The only thing bringing me back to this city of San Jose is the kiddies at Rayito who I've missed, otherwise I could have stayed in Montezuma forever. 

Laura, Madeleine and I left early Saturday morning at 7:30 am to catch the bus from the city. We got to the Coca Cola bus station with a few minutes to spare but realized we had the times wrong, and had missed the 6 am bus. Not wanting to hang around San Jose with all of our belongings until 2 pm, we found out there was another bus we could take. We walked to the other station and got onto a bus which took us to Puntarenas, a cute little beach town where we caught the hour and half long ferry to the Nicoya peninsula. We then were hurried onto a shitty old school bus where we had to stand for almost 2 hours on our way to Montezuma. We met a guy who told us that Montezuma was really cool but if we were in the area we should check out Santa Teresa. The bus stopped in Cóbano and we decided to get off and get onto another bus which finally took us to Mal Pais/Santa Teresa.

We walked into town and settled into Tranquilo Backpackers hostel which was really nice, especially for only $10 per night. They had a great outdoor kitchen and it was nice to cook some of the food we had bought at a small organic farmers market which we stumbled upon on the beach.

After dinner, we sat around the hostel and drank a few beers while debating on whether to go out or not. One of our dorm mates, Mike from Baltimore, convinced us to check out the town so we walked with him to the local "club" called La Lola to check out the party they were having in honor of the surfing contests in town that weekend. We walked for almost 30 minutes when we finally hit this small bar on the edge of town pumping salsa and meringue. We practiced our dance moves for a while and then embarked on the trek back to the hostel. 

We heard that Santa Teresa is a great place to begin to surf, so the next morning we rented boards and headed out onto the beach. Struggling already only on the short walk from the street to the water, a Tico spotted us and offered to help us out. He gave us a few pointers and then brought us into the water and pushed us along with the waves. Smelling a bit like Guaro and being not all that helpful, I'm pretty sure he was a little drunk, but his intentions were good none-the-less. Laura got the hang of it right away and was standing up on a lot of waves! Madeleine and I on the other hand were not so lucky, standing up a few times, but mostly just practicing falling and eventually just sat on the boards and enjoyed the view.

After our arms felt like they were about to fall off and our knees were swollen from falling on the boards, we returned our surf boards, picked up our belongings from the hostel and waited for a bus to take us to Montezuma. 

We got to Montezuma and checked into Hotel Lucy, which was also only $10 a night and was absolutely beautiful! They even folded our towels into swans every morning! Shortly after arriving, Ryan and James met us at the hotel and we sat around outside and played drinking games with the sound of the waves in the background. Around midnight we headed into town expecting the towns one bar to be poppin off to find it closed and the town practically deserted. (It was a Sunday...) We came across a guy who we asked if there was anywhere else to go out, or at least a place to buy a few beers. He walked with us for about 15 minutes outside of town and we stopped at a large black tent on the beach that sold a variety of typical corner store items. We bought a few beers and headed back towards our hostel where we sat on the beach and enjoyed the night.

We woke up Monday morning to a beautiful blue sky and headed towards the Waterfalls. Ryan had gone to Montezuma a few weekends before with some friends and knew all the trails really well and he led us to the top. The hike itself wasn't too far, but it was a little scary! The trail was steep and you really needed to use the roots and the trees to pull yourself up in many parts. One part you have to use a rope to lower yourself down at a spot where Ryan later told us that someone had fallen off of and was seriously injured.. needless to say we were all extremely careful. 

Once at the top, the view was amazing! There was a pool to swim in and rope swing on one side, and the top of the waterfall on the other side where you could jump of into another pool. Ryan jumped first, having done it before. We were all a little hesitant about jumping (about 45 ft) but James, Laura and I soon followed, and I am so happy we did! 

Laura Paura.

Me jumping off.. or what appears to be running off..

Madeleine sat this one out..

Ryan. 

James.

After hiking back down from the waterfalls we went to the beach in front of our hostel and relaxed till dinner. That night we hung out at the hostel with some Cacique (Costa Ricas staple alcohol). We had a great time, but unfortunately some of the other guests at the hostel did not and when checking out the next morning we were asked not to return..

In the morning we bummed around till our  bus left at 2 and began our 8 hour journey home. It was one weekend where I did not miss San Jose at all and we all wanted to stay in Montezuma for.. well, forever. It was a perfect weekend in a beautiful place with an amazing group of people.

Paradise.