Final Thoughts

A bus is coming to pick me up at 2:00 am and take me to the airport for my 6:30 am flight, so with a little more than 18 hours left in Costa Rica I will share with you this list of the top ten things I learned here.



10) Coffee is a delicious and wholesome way to start your morning.



9) No matter your doctrinal or political views on the Catholic Church, you've got to admit they build gorgeous churches.



8) The Metric system.



7) There are mindblowingly dumb people everywhere.



6) There are amazingly intelligent people everywhere.



5) No matter what you do to a plantain in the kitchen, it will still be delicious.



4) Public transportation is a fantastic way to travel.



3) Alcohol is not a big deal: that goes for both the party crowd and for the teetotallers.



2) Spanish



1) We in the U.S. live like very few people in the rest of the world. We put emphasis on our wealth and our material possesions, equating them with "the American way". We then miss out on paying attention to more important things: our health, our environment, our education, our community. We justify this lifestyle through our God-given right to live as we please; in reality, this is little more than an excuse for self-centeredness and social irresponsibility. We see problems in the world around us and complain that nothing is being done, but do not realize that every single one of our actions effects something or someone in the world. If we want to solve global social problems, WE have to take charge of how we act, what we expect in our lives, whom we elect for office, what we truly value, and most importantly what we do on a daily basis. Seeing how another culture lives has really opened my eyes to the grave faults of the American lifestyle.



On that note, it has been a pleasure to share my experiences with you through this blog. I have a million more stories that I simply did not have the energy to recount here, so please find me and ask if you ever want to learn more. We'll chat over coffee and fried plantains!



Pura vida,

Eric

Cena de Despedida

We celebrated our cena de despedida or farewell dinner tonight among the students in my study abroad program. We took a private bus to the trendy suburb of Escazú and to a mountainside restaurant there overlooking the city. The restaurant served fantastic typical Costa Rican food, provided some traditional dance performances as entertainment, and offered a fantastic night view of the city.




I taped a few videos of the dances, but unfortunately they refused to upload themselves to this blog. I'm assuming the dances were authentic and traditional; at the same time they were performed at a touristy restaurant, so who knows? This picture is of a Spanish-heritage group dance with the city lights in the background.




We also saw a dance from the Caribbean province of Limón. The style was heavily influenced by the Afro-Antillean immigrants to Costa Rica; more "reggae" maybe than "flamenco". The song was partly in English Patois (similar to the English spoken in Jamaica) and partly in Spanish, a linguistic mixture typical of the people of the province. Ask me to show you the video when I'm stateside!

Home in about 40 hours!



Pura vida,

Eric

Daily Routine

I just realized I haven't posted too many pictures from my day-to-day life in Costa Rica. With today being the last day for three of my four classes, I was overtaken by a fit of nostalgia and decided to take a 40 minute walk home instead of the bus so I could take photos. Here are a few of them.

The corner bread store, where I've spent countless hours over the semester waiting for the bus in the morning

The Calle Blancos bus, which I take whenever I go to school or downtown

La Iglesia de San Francisco, a 19th century church I pass every day on the bus. Lots of elderly people cross themselves as we drive by it.

La ULACIT, my university (all contained within this one building)

The Parque Montelimar on my street, probably the ugliest park I've ever seen

The Perimercado supermarket where I often make multiple trips in one day

My house from the street

My house inside the gates (forgive the line in the pic; I'm using a prototype composite program to stitch together panorama photos)

Our courtyard

Our miniature poodle, Burusca, who might accidentally turn up in my luggage when I arrive home Saturday

Pura vida,

Eric

The Magic Tico Bus

A long, long time ago, I wrote that I would have an upcoming blog post on the buses of Costa Rica. After repeated complaints from my fervent mass transit worker audience, I will now make good on that promise. Two mains points on the buses:

1) SO. CONVENIENT. Like Visa, they are in fact everywhere you want to be. If you time it right and know where the stops are, you can get to almost any town throughout the country in a few hours' ride from San José. And it's cheap! The most I've ever paid for a domestic bus ticket was about $7 for a trip that takes 4-5 hours. The city lines also run through almost every neighborhood in San José and rarely cost more than 50 cents one way. I take the Calle Blancos-San José line almost every day to the university or downtown. Love it!!!

2) Jesus loves it too. That's because a great number of the buses have religious messages in or on the outside of the bus (remember, Catholicism is the state religion here!). The messages range from a simple Dios conmigo, nadie contra mí (God with me, no one against me) to the slightly creepy Jesús nos ve (Jesus sees/looks at/watches us) with a rendering of the crying Savior gazing at the Earth in his hand. I also distinctly remember a bus playing the Spanish covers of such quasi-Christian hits as "You Raise Me Up" and such Christian quasi-hits as "El Shaddai". I'll probably do a bit of research soon as to whether the Church has any hand in funding the buses, or if the company owners just want to prove that they are God-fearing folk. Until then,

Pura vida,
Eric

La Marta; or Our Town

I just got back from what may have been my last trip to the rainforest...I'd like to think I'll come back and revisit, but who knows? We wound through the mountains southeast of San José for two to three hours before reaching La Marta Wildlife Refuge. The protected area was built around the remains of a coffee plantation/factory which was decomposed and mossed over enough after 100 years or so that everyone thought at first it was an ancient Mayan ruin. We did some hiking, built a campfire, visited with local environmental activists: the usual.

I would, however, like to take this opportunity to salute all the small mountain towns across the Costa Rican countryside. Though I've really liked my experience in San José, every time I leave the city I wish more and more that I could have studied in one of the countless pristine rural villages of Costa Rica. They are surrounded by the perfect setting: rainforests, rivers and mountains. And toucans. Pejivalle, the town near La Marta, was one of those towns. It had the typical scattering of well-kept homes (compared to the nasty barrios in San José, anyway) and an architecturally new-age church overlooking the town plaza (often a field where local clubs play soccer on Sunday afternoons). The people are friendly, the vibe is relaxed and the ambience is breathtaking. Here's to all the Pejivalles, Bijaguas, Tucurriques, Orosis, Barvas and Tierra Blancas of Ticolandia!

Pura vida,
Eric

Volcán Irazú

I hopped on board the 8:00 am bus this morning for a quick day-trip up to the crater at Parque Nacional Volcán Irazú. This is what I found when I arrived.

I'm not quite sure what to call the weather. It was too wet for fog, too soft for rain and too hard for mist. Whatever it was, it was cold, damp and obscuring my view of the crater. However, it created kind of a surreal environment when combined with the volcanic soot on the ground and the 40 degree temperatures (F); it was like taking a bus from San José to another planet.

I did not let the "fog" ruin my trip, though: I managed both to finish my souvenir shopping at the gift store and to snap a photo of a wild coati, a kind of tropical opposum/racoon/lemur hybrid beast.

Pura vida,

Eric

Pura Vida

The ubiquitous Costa Rican phrase "pura vida", I'm beginning to think, can pretty much adopt any meaning you want it to depending on intonation. Here are the meanings I've heard it take so far:

• Hello
• Goodbye
• How are you?
• I'm fine thanks!
• Thank you
• You're welcome
• Are you alright?
• Great! or Awesome!
• Enjoy! Have a good time!
• Later!

Pura vida,

Eric

Cumpleaños

I celebrated my 20th birthday here yesterday! So. Much. Fun. My host mom bought a cake while I fried up some porkchops for dinner and smothered them in KC barbeque sauce. It was a great 'family' gathering and a chance to share a bit of U.S. culture with everyone.

I was joined by (from left to right) my host sister Natalí; Liza, another student from Sweden teaching English in a local school; Uriel, a Tico student living with us; my host dad Cesar; doña Angélica y don Nestor, two retired Chileans who joined us for Easter dinner (all their family still lives in Chile); and my host mom Nina, who I promise is looking uncharacteristically sullen in this photo.

Thanks to all of them for a great party!

A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama II: oroT led sacoBocas del Toro

Bocas del Toro, a set of islands of the northwest coast of Panama and setting for a recent season of "Survivor", was our beach destination for Holy Week. We arrived to the shore at 5:30 am, took a quick boat ride to the town bearing the name of the islands and desperately searched for a hostel. Unfortunately, this place was like Bethlehem during the census: no place to stay. We managed to secure a triple room for five people at a fairly nice hostel the first night, but spent the next couple nights at a hole-in-the-wall place with hammocks and periodic running water. Luckily, the company was great and it only cost $5 per night. We befriended a couple of Catalonians and a Panamanian and managed to explain in Spanish the rules for the card games B.S. and King's Cup (aka Circle of Death). Needless to say, it was difficult.

The trip itself was nothing special, just a basic beach trip. Some pretty places and some not-quite-as-pretty-but-I-don't-care-because-it's-still-the-beach places. The area was kind of cool because it had a bunch of buildings jutting into the harbor supported by stilts. Here's an example.

As far as beaches, we visited Playa de las Estrellas, which featured an abundance of starfish; Zapatilla, an isolated and environmentally-protected island outlined by pristine white sand beaches; and Red Frog Beach, overrun by both tourists and strong waves. We also saw dolphins in the bay and boated through a giant mangrove "forest".

The day before Easter, we woke early with the Catalonians, who guided us back to the mainland and to our bus to San José. I returned sunburnt and exhausted, happy to return to Costa Rica. I'll leave you with some random facts/observations about the country of Panama:

-Panama uses the dollar as its currency. The only difference is that it also mints its own coins, called balboas. After three months using colones in Costa Rica, it felt weird using dollars again. I actually felt more comfortable using colones again once we returned across the border.

-Panama's Spanish is pretty close to what you learn in American Spanish class. Nothing really stood out in the accent, and, like Spain, they almost always used tú to address you (as opposed to usted and vos in Costa Rica). The only idiosyncracy I noticed there was that many Panamanians used a la orden to say "you're welcome", as opposed to the typical de nada or the Costa Rican con gusto.

-The country seemed to me very different than Costa Rica. Panama is basically a mix of Nicaragua and the U.S.: more typically Central American than Costa Rica (like Nicaragua in terms of appearance) but with many English speakers, American restaurants and the use of the dollar. After having traveled to both Nicaragua and Panama now, I realize how unique a country Costa Rica is even among its neighbors.

Only three weeks left in my program now that I'm back in San José! Upcoming post on my thoughts on returning. Until then!

Pura vida,

Eric