Vúlcan Poas

A friend and I made the day trip from Heredia to Vúlcan Poas (Poas Volcano) this weekend. The bus ride was pretty short, maybe an hour at most including the obligatory reststop at the choosen roadside stand. (I wonder how they choose those stops… friends of friends, relatives?)

We actually didn´t see anything at all of note because a giant cloud had descended on the top, rendering our trip completely pointless. The trails were less than exciting, consisting of short paved loops through forest that left even my young knees in pain. We covered the whole park in about an hour, leaving us with with two more hours to kill until the bus left again. So yeah, that was about it. If you go, check the weather first and figure out a way to get there earlier than the 8:30 bus, that way you can see something besides thick fog.

Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

Upon review of my blog entries, I realized that I’ve been sounding pretty negative lately. Lest that mislead anyone, I’m actually having a really great time. This is especially evident any time I have a few drinks in me, as I’m prone to loudly declaring how much I love this country over a plate of pinto at 1 in the morning. (Where else can you buy a huge plate of pinto and eggs for $1.50 at 1 in the morning?)

Case in point, I spent the weekend relaxing on the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen!
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What´d you say mai?

As my second week of classes is coming to an end, I feel as though it’s time to reflect. Before classes had started, I had been feeling confident about my Spanish and wasn´t at all worried about understanding my professors. Well, apparently my confidence had been falsely built up by a supportive family and professors who are accustomed to dealing with non-native students, because understanding the Spanish spoken in my classes is a struggle.
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Death to Rice!

Usually I try to look at the good side of things, but there comes a time when even my high-level of tolerance is breeched. Every day, my family makes me breakfast, lunch, and dinner. At first, this seemed like a premium arrangement, as I never have to do any cooking or cleaning. As it turns out, it´s awful. I would rather cook and clean for 5 people 3 times a day than eat rice one more time.
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Dominical, Costa Rica

This weekend 21 of the 29 people from my program decided to take an independent trip to Dominical. It was really obvious that the trip was planned by gringos who don´t fully understand the bus schedules, because we took an unnecessarily long bus ride (6 and a half hours!).
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San José, Costa Rica

The other day I took a field trip with my compañeros to the capital San José to experience the big city. Although it was generally dirty and dangerous as most cities are, it certainly had some redeeming qualities.

Hands down, the best part about San José is its little mercados, or markets. The first market we visited was Mercado Central, and it was teeming with Tico farmers and bustling buyers. Everywhere you looked, you could find exotic little fruits and strange looking vegetables. A big hit with my group were these little citrus fruits called granadillas. They look like ovular orangish-green oranges on the outside, but are filled with grayish purple seed sacks. You eat the sacks and the seeds together which is a very messy, and therefore fun, affair.
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Saved by a Knight in Shining Armor

On my second to last day in Monteverde, we took a horseback ride through the country to a coffee plantation in San Luis. Everything was absolutely beautiful! It was so beautiful, in fact, that I got lost while my head was in the clouds.
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Original Costa Rica Art

Most of the time it seems, most web sites, even the cool ones, don’t really offer anything original or unique. Saul Bolaños is a Tico who creates a pretty unique product. He uses coffee, presumably the excellent Costa Rica cafe, to create art… and it is waaaay cool!
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