photos!

I´m not sure how this will end up on the blog...but here goes...to the left is the waterfall next to my hotel...about a 10 min walk. Since its rainy season there was a constant rush of water outside my room...which was v. nice! the photo of the guys juggling is from the town of montezuma and some guys just hanging out selling jewelry and having a good life...

the guy with the surf board is my buddy John, who was only going to stay in Montezuma for 2 days and is still there a month later! John, remember you have to stay there so we can come back and live with you!!!

this photo of the river is literally outside my window of wear i stayed the water was really high from all the rain....we were worried about it coming inside..

the houses are some of the hippie houses...not too shabby, they are directly on the beach....looks good to me!

more photos

this is a photo outside of the bus we took to Mal Pias...bad country....there is a reason you need 4x4s around here...in fact, most people just drive around quads....which I have to admit is pretty fun....

below are more hippie houses...this one is in a different place, I ran by it every morning...i love the VW bus and wonder wear the bus started its life and if it was in the us...i think I see a grateful dead sticker in the rear window :)

this is a photo of me on one of my morning runs...it was so beautiful...i will really miss that run!

above is a crew out on Playa Grande, the surfing beach...a 2 mile walk, but well worth it...we had a sunday of surfing chilling out....and the next photo is of Melanie, me, John and Monique in Mal Pais in front of a surf shop...i loved the name, so we took a photo

strange.....

so....today as I finished running, a guy who had passed me in a truck while I was running was outside my hotel unloading stuff. When he saw me, he walked up to me and he we had a v. broken spanish sort of conversation....and I think what he was trying to tell me after showing me some nasty scars and lots of animation was that he was running down the same road some time ago and a big cat...(insert..panther, jaguar..etc) jumped out of the trees and attacked him....

hmmmm....

it was either that or he was trying to ask me out on a date....Im not sure which...

pura vida

A

surf shots

this is a photo of Andrea and I getting ready to surf on the big boards....you start out on these huge boards and then as you get better you go to the smaller cooler boards...not sure if i will ever graduate, but its still fun! Andrea is really cool and is also one of our spanish teachers.

so an hour has passes since i started to upload these photos and I think my patience is done for the day -

stay tuned, I have a lot more photos to upload...maybe it will be better tomorrow!

A

what NOT to do in costa rica

when you drop your pen cap and it falls into a dark space, like under a desk that you can´t see....DO NOT put your hands under there trying to find it....

I just pulled out something that certainly wasn´t my pen cap...it might have been a scorpian..it was dead...but i did not hang out to see what it was...

ick...

Bikinis, Whale, salsa dancing and fire ants.....

Hola!

So, I have now been in Montezuma for about a week and a half and am becoming more and more chill as the days go on and see the value of the hippie life...they have it pretty good, they do a craft, sleep on the beach every night, have good friends -

though i don't think I'm ready to start that life yet, I totally get the life...its pretty nice.

So I finally broke down and bought a bikini - which is something I haven't owned since i was 12, but I have to say a one peice is totally impractical with teh heat...so combine a bikini with a sarong and you have your outfit for the day...its pretty awesome --

i went on a boat ride last w/e to a little island and was able to snorkel with colorful fish, but it wasn't as good as when I was snorklening on the dry tortugas in the gulf of mexico when i worked on the schooner, it was still pretty good, we also got to see a hump back whale swimming with her baby...that was really cool...it even made me forget my seasickness...

Hurricane Dean has impacted us, only with a lot of rain, but its costa rica in the rainy season, so its too be expected.....its still warm, though I feel like i am getting used to it as my shorts are not as dripping wet with sweat as they were last week....does that mean i am getting used to it???? who knows...

so every night at the big bar in town, there is dancing...manly to something called ragaetone....not as nice as salsa....but the ticos come out in mass and show everyone else what dancing is all about....i have tried several times with some nice fella's but i feel like I am all left feet...but I have to say, it won't stop me from trying.

Fire Freaking Ants.....they are the vain of my existence in C.R....though if thats the worse thing...its not so bad aye? they do seem to only bite me and follow me everywhere tormenting my feet and hands with stinging bites that hurt for 20 minutes...and they never just bite once, i usually get 10-20 and then i scream a explitive...but then its over....i saw this girl, who i think is of the jewerly selling persuasion who had hundreds of red bites all over her legs, that I can only assume are from fleas from her dog...so it could always be worse...when I become a hippie, I must remember NOT to get a dog....

so thats the update for now, life is pretty slow, but I feel like I got a whole years worth of spanish in one week last week, so I am hopeful for next week...and the surfing is coming a long, I am certainly not a natural, though I did get on top of waves this week, which was good...and yoga is just incredible, my instructor, Dagmar, is just wonderful and I feel incredible from doing it every day.

hope this finds you all well!

pura vida
Amy

friends

Leo, Helen and Charlie, some friends I met on the ferry

Cat & Amy on the Beach -fellow sufers, Monique with our riding guide at the waterfalls... monique and I are roommates

Adena and Steve and I at dinner - Adena took yoga with me and Steve is a surfer!

yoga, surfing, horseback riding and learning

you can´t really see her, but my teacher Rebecca is walking into the surf, on the horse is my first roommate, Monique from LA...we rode through the mountains which was fun

below there is me with my surf board....and my surf teacher, Marcilio and the place where we are practicing yoga....its so awesome!!

bugs and stuff

can you see the iquana on the stump?
can you see the spider in the web??
The very hungry catapiller munching on a banana leaf
orange and black crabs that are everywhere..they live in the mountains and are the first sign of the rains during the dry season. They come out right before the rains to go to the ocean to lay eggs. They literally cover all of the streets and roads on their way to the ocean...they apparently scare the tourists away.....I have to say, I wouldn´t want to step on them....
this is just a moth...but i thought it looked pretty cool on these different colored lights at night....

Montezuma!

the beaches of montezuma...pretty awesome...aye, the waves were huge yesterday, but normally they are pretty great for surfing!!!


wine.......all around costa rica they make smoothies....my favorite is a mango and ice drink...it is v. yummy on a hot day...below is rasberry and mango...yum!!!
the little town of montezuma speciliazes in pizza and bars...it would seem....all very good, though don´t ever drink the

Hotel Cacades

This is where I have been staying, you can´t see it, but there is a waterfall to the right and the ocean straight ahead...the hammocks are out front and very cosy for resting in the shade out of the hot sun

pace of life in motezuma

So....Dave wants to know about the hippies in Montezuma....well...this is a strange little place, this is the place were theTicos, (ticos is short for Costa Ricans), go to be hippies as well as the place for people around the world.

Montezuma is this tiny town of 500 people, and is almost a 50/50 mix as far as I can tell of Ticos and ex-pats....the expats are from Europe, America and south america...I would say that there are a constant of about 50 - 100 hippies...define hippie as you like who just hang out around town making jewlery, selling other goods.....goods that you may not have for that longmeaning ganga.....they are an equal mix of ticos and gringos, and honestly I can't really tell, they are all tan and skinny and many have dreadlocks...they are young and old...the one thing the all have are dogs...there are dogs everywhere,

I have a roommate right now named Monique from newport beach, CA who is a nurse who just quit her job and is learning spanish as well....she is very fun, but is done on friday, though i think she may hang around Montezuma for awhile, There are 2 law students who just took the bar and are here for surfing, there is another guy who is starting his freshman year in college and came to take spanish/surf lessons, though i think his dad wanted him to take the spanish and he wanted to take the surf lessons.....Another woman is finishing her grad degree at Berekely and is getting some spanish in before she is done, they are all great...I am staying at this place on a waterfall in an all wooden room, and 2 fans which actually make for great sleeping - I even have to have a blanket often.....my days are crazy busy, today I got up at 645 to go for a run, had class at 830 until noon, granted today it was on the beach, vera nice, now I am going to surf lessons from 230-430, then yoga from 5-630....then I will be starving, so we will eat at one of the 6 pizza places in montezuma ....

its a great little life for now

you all should come and visit!

photos tomorrow, i promise!

A

a note on spelling

So, I will edit and correct spelling on the blog when I get to a place where the internet moves faster than a snails pace....Im on a spanish key board and spell check is so slow its not worth the time to check it, so please forgive my spelling for now!!!

Tsunami

well....

we were walking to dinner last night (i was famished) at 7ish pm and I ran into some british friends I had met who were walking swiftly away from town....when they urgently said
"seriously Amy, you need to get out of town a Tsunami is on its way...."

the next thing I know half of my group is running back to the hotel and it was only then that I realized that everyone from tourists to Ticos were moving quickly....you never see a tico move quickly, it just isn´t what they do, so I knew something was up....though I am not the person to think something is wrong until I hear it from a reliable source and in montezuma there were no so things...and for some reason, I thought they meant hurricane, and the weather seemed fine to me, so I wasn't too worried, but everyone was getting in cars and going to higher land and so I went and hoped there would be better info in the town we went too.....

we drove up to a little town called Capano, Because we didn´t have any information, I called my friend Sheri to put her on alert to call my folks incase a tsunami really did happen, I wanted them to know we got to higher ground, but at the same time I didn´t want to needlessly worry them, if that makes any sense at all.....anyway, we hung out and waited for more news....there wasn't a lot,but everyone was on the streets of this tiny town hanging out....

finally someone said that it was cancelled and we went to get some pizza....in costa rica time that took 2 hours, but by time we ate, someone had told the driver of our rental car that it wasn't really cancelled....it all seemed unclear, but the end result was we ended up sleeping on the floor of a warehouse of the local church with a bunch of other gringos, mostly german speaking people who talked half of hte night and a bunch of bugs... I can´t really think what kind of bugs but I will say they left their mark all over my body...nice.....anyway, my neck still sort of hurts...but in the end it just makes for another good travel story

that said, the earthquake in Peru was devasting and killed hundreds of people, so send good thoughts to the people of Peru.

7 Litres of Agua

Hola

So, I have had 8 hours of spanish so far and all I can say is, its hard...but hopefully it will get easier after 3 weeks

Yesterday was a busy day - I started out at 630 am for a run along the road - they are all dirt in montezuma and i had on my ipod. During the run, i heard this sound of dogs howling...but they sounded like there were howling after they were hurt, more of a crying.....i figured out quickly there were howler monkeys (congo in spanish)...thus the howling. I didn't know what sort of monkeys they were as they scared me enough that I almost turned around and ran back to town, but a nice man on a motorcycle sign languaged to me that they wouldn't hurt me, which was v. good.

then I had 4 hours of basic spainish....learning in humidy is okay when you can hear the waves of the ocean and a waterfall right by you.....

then I had to rush off to get my body beat up in surf lessons...I am happy to annouce that even though I felt like people kept punching me in the stomach, --the waves are pretty intense-- I was able to get up 3 times..not for a long time, but hey 3 times isn't too shabby

then I rushed back for an amazing yoga class in this great pavavillon in the trees over looking the ocean...

all in all, it was an exhuasting day, but totally fun. I will say that I went through 7 litres of water in one 24 hour period...so the part I am not saying is that I am basically sweating all day...all the time....its supposed to be good for your complexion...right?

today has been a little more chill as I am only doing surfing every other day....

my body was greatful of the rest.

that's all for now...more tomorrow with photos

pura vida

Arrived in Montezuma

I have arrived at my home for the next 3 weeks...it is a sleepy touristy town, sadly, but right on the beach, with amazing waves, my room is great, clean with its own bath a view of the ocean, and you can hear the waves, so far so good. I am supposed to have a roommate named Cat, but I have not met her yet.

there seem to be a lot of hippies both young and old who live here...I mean a lot of hippies, which is curious to me. I will do some asking as I bet they all have good stories to share :)

not too much to report yet, I basically traveled all day to get here and have a little motion sickness from the bus and ferry ride.

Tomorrow I plan to get up early to go for a run!!! Im so excited as I haven't done anything in a week.

hope you all had a lovely weekend,

Klinke

La Puta?

So....today, perfectly minding my own business waiting for the bus to go see some volcanic activity at 9am in the morning. It was already steaming up for a hot day. I was standing in front of the bus station, patiently waiting.....and waiting....

Wait, before I move on with the story. I should tell you that I did seriously consider my clothing options for the day and I did think that I should probably wear long pants, as that is considered more polite. However, I am the girl from Michigan who wears shorts and flip flops in January....how could I possibly consider wearing pants in hot tropical heat?? Seriously....

so for all my friends saying...."When in Rome....." you can pat yourself on the back with an I told you so, because that saying was proven right once again. As I was standing there in my shorts and shirt (you can see what I was wearing in the photo in front of the volcano) this kindly old man walks by and pats me on my bare arm and says...."something, something La Puta".....and I of course, smiled nicely and said something indistingishable back, but i met his warm attitude with a similar one, then as soon as he left, I pulled out my translation book only to find that Puta means....Whore....yes, those of you who speak spainish already knew the moral of this story, but I certainly had a good laugh and took the lesson that was to be taught.

Of course, to add irony to the story, when I got to volcano, turns out its at 7,000 or 8,000 feet and I was absolutely freezing the entire time and wished I had on long pants and a fleece, in fact, I am still wearing that outfit because I am still cold....

life is good isn´t it :)

So, I am off to Montezuma tomorrow and will be in touch to let you know how that is going!!!

By the by, i met some women who just spent three weeks there and said the place I am staying is literally on a waterfall on the beach....and there is an organic resturant v. close...curious...Im not feeling like I am in a different country so much, except for the language...

photos

below is the bathroom of my lovely jungle home and next to it, is what it looked like outside

to

to the right and below is Volcan Poas

the deck of the eating place in the jungle

above are my feet - relaxing and to the left are my honey mooning friends Jen and David

a




above I am literally on top of the jungle doing the canopy tour - it was so humid my sunglassed kept fogging up and to the right is my bed

fun with insects

A spider with coffee and a house mate out side my cabin

rafting, jungle lodges, insects and waterfalls

Well on Thursday morning I changed the atmosphere of what I was doing - I went from a backpackers lodge to fancy schmancy white water rafting trip with amazing food

So, this was some of the best rafting I have ever done, it was absolutely fantastically fun. I got to ride in the front of the boat most of the time, which doubles the excitement - in addition to the rafting, we slide down water slides ( not as fun as it sounds) walked across a waterfall, again, not as fun as it sounds and go feet first down some rapids....again - not as fun as you would think. Who knew? I can hear Annette Rook answering that question by saying she would know....:)

When I was in New Zealand, we did something called sledging where we did go down rapids on a boogie board, which is essential to not banging yourself up...that said, it was thrilling to go down some rapids. I roughed up my good knee and my elbow...all in the name of a good time, so I am not sweating it

So that bit, was cool, vera cool in fact, but the best part of the trip was this amazing jungle lodge. Sheri and Paul stayed here on their honey moon and, they had mentioned how incredible it was, and in fact, it was. You two will be happy to know they have now added a fancy resturant type place, with a great view and lodge, and your scary honey moon suite, now has a swimming pool.....(the honeymoon suite is about a 10 minute strenous walk up a hill in the trees, far away from everything and our guide just told us he has seen jaugar tracks up there) Good times...

Anywho, the lodge was an eco lodge, and incredibly fun and great - from the mosquito netted beds to the showers and toilets....I can promise you I have never raved about a bathroom...but this place, certainly deserves it.

I am starting a collection of insect photos - this seems to be a bit of a thing with me when I go to tropical countries, I am always amazed by the size of the insects ' so far the biggest things are spiders, and these spiders take the african spiders I talked about, hands down....i don´t know if they are more dangerous...but they certainly are more plentiful and colorful....also the butterflies are pretty darn amazing- there is a flourecent blue one which I am trying to figure out how evolutionary that works....how would being bright blue help you survive....who knows, I am glad it has survived, because it is beautiful.

tomorrow, I am going to a little volcano and perhaps if i have time a buttefly farm.

hope this finds you all well,

peace,
A

ps I forgot to mention this thing that seems to be all over costa rica call canopy tours. Basically zip lines and rapelling through the forest, which is fun. I was with a family from France and they told me that this is the new rage in France and that they are actually very challenging. I wondered with her if they are not in the US due to liabilty....hmmmm

people & sarongs

So I guess when travel by yourself and you are a talkative person you meet lots of people...and I mean other people like me traveling not native costa ricans.

yesterday I met a dudef from Key West who maxed out all his credit cards and came down here to party (his words, not mine) - he wants to blow 8,000 in 8 days - he was trying to find the "good stuff" and was amazed at how easy it was to get it. The entire time he was talking to me, he was scratching his body - I didn´t think he was off to such a great start - aye?

another couple i met reminded me of how my family aquired saddlebags island, but costa rica style. Their Dad had bought this ocean property 35 years ago and it is very remote and difficult to get too, but they have built a house and its sounds like the island in that, you have to work hard to get there, but once you are there its absolutely wonderful. He said Sting called last year and asked them to name a price - they said, it is not for sale - some things just do not have a price

I also have to say - that the sarong is the best travel invention ever!!!!!!!! - it comes in so handy, it can be a blanket, a sheet, a towel, a place to change -I was completely reminded of this when I stayed at this hostel. As some of you probably know, i am sort of picky about where i sleep. My sheet looked none to clean...so my sarong and the pillow case i always bring made for a somewhat peaceful night sleep :) peaceful if you discount loud rap music, and drunken 20 years old talking loudly.....

San Jose, Costa Rica

So after an uneventful flight I arrived safely and easily into Costa Rica - I made reservations with a youth hostel and there was a guy waiting to take me to the hostel -well a dude who hailed a cab for me - it wasn´t much of a deal, but what do you do

So upon arrival in the city of san jose - all i can think is - ah- the smell of diesal fuel - nothing says nonwestern country more than that smell - Paul and Warran you will have to tell me if they are more green or less green than our pullutants -

I think my days of youth hostels are over - Tonight, I will basically stay in a windowless closet, and despite the temperature being at least 15 degrees cooler than A2 '- it will still make for a pretty sticky night -- oh and everyone smokes and is under 22 years old......

my favorite travel quote is ¨Travel is only glamorous in retrospect¨and I suspect tonight I will experience that!!!

so tomorrow morning all will be well as I will go on a 2 day rafting trip and stay at a ecolodge and get to do this cool thing where you take a zip line over the rain forest - at least that is what I imagine -

I might not be able to post anything until friday - so until then

beunos nochos

Klinke

bye to A2

It's 5:30 in the morning and about 100 degrees with a 100% humidity. This is the time I always rethink AC in Michigan in the summer - but I suppose it will be about the same in Costa Rica.

Sheri Hall is picking me up in a few minutes so this will be quick - but I am off - I will only be able to check email via internet cafes -

My brother Chris is safely in Moscow getting ready to summit his 6th of the 7 summits - this time - Europe :)

Be Well,
A

where I am going

Hello Everyone -

thanks for checking out my blog!

I leave on Wednesday August 8th for Costa Rica! I will spend a month learn spainish, doing yoga and exploring this country! Right now my plans are to come back on September 7th -but depending on what happens in the world of job searching- it could be sooner -

here is the link of where I will be living for the next little while:

http://www.laescueladelsol.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=37

if anyone fancy's a trip down south - let me know!

be well!

Klinke

Starting out

Okay - so I am new to the world of blogging - but here I go -

for those of you who actually know what you are doing - please be patient as I make my way through -

I am heading out to costa rica for a month next week and want to keep you all updated on my adventures while I am down there -

so check in on the blog and hopefully I will be able to figure out how to post photos and any fun stories as we go on!!!