Freaking Cold

So....I have been home a week and I have a couple funny stories....the first thing to note is that it is 32 degrees...and my thin blood and my toes are not happy about the cold.....

So, I keep saying things like "si" "gracias" "buenas dias" to people randomly as I would have in C.R. Half of the time, I don't even know I have said it. Until the other day when I was walking by a gentleman of an non descript ethnic descent. He could have been from the US or latin america or from the Philippines or from asia ..you get the picture. Instead of saying "good morning" I pulled out my randomly selected Spanish and said...."bueanas dias" and he looked at me like I just insulted him....and of course it was insulting and I tried to explain why I said it...and it just got worse and embarrassing...I am actively trying NOT to use spanish now.

I did sign up for a tutor though which should be fun.

:)

Home Again

So, I am finally home, back in Ann Arbor and it is certainly with mixed emotions. I am thrilled to sleep in my own bed, eat green veggies and most of all connect with all of my friends and family, but a part of me is still on that beach!

So one last funny story, well maybe not my last, but one funny one was when my Mom sent me an email saying that before she and my father had kids, that she could have been one of the hippies I described in Montezuma and that should would have loved that.

I responded with NEWSFLASH!!! you were a hippie and I have attached photos above to prove it!

Notice the VW Bus, my mother's pig tales and the hippie kids above...I am the littlest one.... :)

frogs, bugs and the rain forest

The green bug is a one that poses as a leaf...I saw a brown and green one...v. cool...aye?

The Cloud Forest of Monte Verde

freaky big male beatle- yikes..

you all know what this is!

waterfall in the rain forest

this is a really cool type of tree that actually grows from the top of another tree. Instead of growing up out of the earth, it grows down from hanging roots and it forms this cool huge funky hollow tree!

big bug....the fingers are to scale it to size...

this snail looks not that big, but it was about 3 inches long...yowsers....

this frog is almost extinct in CR - we were lucky enough to see it at night in the forest!

the next set of photos are from the frog zoo....v.cool

volcanos

Behind me is the lava flow from 1992. Instead of a hike, I just went for a run. After the lava flow, I ran into the next sign. Don't worry Mom, I took the photo as I was leaving the dangerous area!

this is volcano at night...if you expand the photo you can see the red stops where the lava flow is coming down

this is a video that I took, its not the best, but its what I could do with tools I had!

my birthday shots

So, now that I am home, I can post some more pics...these are from my birthday. The two lovely ladies to the side are Melanie and Dagmar at dinner. Dinner was cut short by this powerful storm that knocked out electricity

below is Monique, John and I - they were helping me blow out a candle for my bday, though it was the candle lighting up the room, I don't think the Tico Resturant owners understood what we were going to do....but we quickly restored the light

This is me in my favorite outfit.....bikini, tang top, shorts and flip flops....at lunch... on the beach...nice

finally, the last shot is of me...a self portrait after the lights went out....it was a great day!

last day in Costa Rica

well, if it is at all possible, today is my last day in CR. I am sad and excited to get to a home with my own bed, laundry facilities and green veggies. (all of which, I can have in Costa Rica if I move here...just fyi)

Yesterday, I went back into the rain forest which was v. cool, though at the beginning of a 4 mile hike it started to rain....(it is a rain forest) and so the view we went to see was just think with clouds...(not only is it a rain forest, it is a Cloud Forest) so there you go. It was pretty awesome, until I started getting bit by these flea like wasps....strange....but please refer to my earlier comment...it is a rain forest.... Even though I was probably only bit a couple of times, I couldn{t shake the feeling that I had creepy crawlys all over my body and could not get out of the forest fast enough. I tried to be a bit zen about it, but I was too focused on teh bugs crawling all over my body :)

after that fun times, we took the bus back to town...it was funny b-c it was a real yellow school bus from the States with a [no bullies[ sign to boot. I then found my way to a yoga class a quaker school. Monte Verde Rain Forest Reserve was started basically by a group of quakers who came down here 50 some years ago. This school is one of hte last things about the quakers and it was cool to do a yoga class there.

At dinner, during another one of the many deluges I have experienced in Costa Rica I realized that i was eating in an entirely enclosed area.... meaning 4 walls, a door, a roof....etc...it might be the first time for me in a month...it felt v. claustaphobic

this morning -i went for a run, pretty much straight up hill...it felt good to run i suppose, but in retrospect it may not have been one of my best decisions...you run on teh road with the buses, cars, motorcycles, quads, pedestrians....the roads are moutain roads, twisty, turning nad there is the constant smell of diesal.....it was curious

so I am leaving in an hour or so for San Jose on a 4 hour stomach churning bus ride, I have gingerale and crackers in hand!

photos to go up when I get home!

pura vida
Amy

For My Parents

So, I am safely away from Hurricanes, in fact, I am in probably one of the safest places to be in that matter. We will likely get a lot of rain, but its the rainy season in Costa Rica, so that is just par for the course.

I fly out on Friday through houston, so hopefully I wont be delayed, but i have a 4 hour lay over, so I will have plenty of time to think of it...

Dad, I have to go to another country more often...Carl Rove and alberto Gonzeloz both stepped down while I was gone.....

wow.....

volcanos and a costa rican/swedish massage

So, I just spent two and half days at the Arenal Observatory lodge, completely mezmerized by the volcano. I had no idea how cool it was...but turns out...volcanos are pretty cool....I also went to these hot springs called Tabacon, which was also pretty cool, even if its a bit cheesy at the same time. I splurged and got a massage by Fernando....so...it was not as intersting as the last massages that Ashley and I recieved in Thailand, but it certainly bordered on it....I believe my friend Fernando took a couple ganders and the like....it was weird...but pura vida aye?

I am now at a cute little eco lodge in Monte Verde which is famous for its cloud forest, we are at 1300 meters (about 4,000 Feet) so its not as warm and its also a rain forest, so i might actually experience goose bumps for the first time in a while. I am missing yoga and might go see if i can find a class. I am going on a night time forest walk to see all the cool animals

last night at the lodge I saw the biggest toad i have ever seen, I had no idea they could be this big...I would say it was the size of a small rabbit....it was huge, but the poor guy was scared b-c all of us humans were staring at it....you know how when you pick up toads they usually leave you a urine based gift? I had thought about picking it up to take it outside, but thought better of it, b-c I did not want to think about the size of the gift it might give me :)

off to the forest

best,
A

new addition - I just learned the huge toad I saw is actually poisonous---but the person said that the poison gives humans a hallucinogenic effect....good to know, aye?

Missing Montezuma!

So I left Montezuma and I hope I have not left my chillness there...I was a bit worried as I don´t feel nearly as chill, but it could be that I am again traveling alone and I have to be a little more alert...which is probably a good thing....

I knew I wasn´t in Montezuma anymore when Monique and I were sitting on the Ferry and we were sitting...just sitting and chatting...in fact we were eating chocolate, it was 9:30 in the morning and 2 tables full of men were facing us instead of the front of the boat....i have to say, that is just sort of annoying...In montezuma after 1 week, everyone sort of sees you as a regular and they start saying ¨buena¨ and ¨buenos dias¨ and the like and you start to make friends and feel pretty safe...if that makes any sense....

The other thing that was so nice about Montezuma were all the friends I made. By the time I left I felt like I had a community and could really see how people go there to visit and just never leave. My yoga instructor, Dagmar, who by the way has a really great story of how she went from Germany to a beach on the CR coast... said that if I wanted to move there, I have to think about what I missed most about home and just start it as a buisness....unfortunately the thing I missed most was long bike rides and a 50 meter swimming pool...could be hard to start a business on that...though Thien you and I could start our triathlon training program here...maybe exterra biking though....hmmmm

There were a group of 4 of us who were all in transition...my friend Melanie from Atlanta who quit her job and has been living in CR for 2 months, my friend Monique who is a nurse who quit her job....and is waiting to get into grad school to be a midwife... and our friend John from Belguim who also quit his job and is toying with the idea of staying in CR to do engineering here....if you noticed a theme it was that we all quit our job...it was nice to be around other poeple in a similar space as I was....one of our teachers, Andrea who is super cool and can tear up the dance floor...wowsers...and our yoga instructor Dagmar who did something special on my birthday which was really awesome and powerful...i actually had some tears in my eyes at the end of class when she read a reading about taking chances, keeping faith and always moving forward...it was exactly what I needed and it was really cool as we did our last OM for the night, the rain started raining so hard, we couldn´t hear ourselves anymore....(incidently that night the biggest storm to hit montezuma in 10 years hit and knocked out all power- i´m not sure what that means for my 36th year but there it goes!)

My spainish instructor named Rebecca lives in a cool house on the top of the hill over looking the ocean and has monkeys hanging out side her porch....I have to say, going to her house, I had some thoughts again about what I could do to live in Montezuma.....because its a really nice life...

okay, I have rambled enough for one day...

more later!

Pura Vida!

hmmmmmm

today at the Arenal Observatory lodge...(thanks for the reccomendation Sheri and Paul) its so cool...I can´t even say how cool it is...you literally sit and listen and watch lava flowing down the side of the volcano all night and day...the rumplings of the volcano are intense and cool...i was a little freaked out at first when I went to sleep, but then it sort of was comforting....

but this morning...I encountered a 60 year old gringo from florida with 2 young tica women and it seemed to be an intense connection between them...(to read between teh lines, I think they were all together as a threesome)....this is the first time I saw prostituition in CR, if it was indeed that, but I am pretty sure it was...when my friend Ashley and I were in Thailand we saw a lot of it, but I have read that Costa Rica is new destination for this as prostitution is legal here....

general thoughts

So....I have now been here a month...which is shockingly hard to believe...it feels like a week and a year all at the same time....I left Montezuma on Saturday and I have to say, it was really really sad...I think I am sadder now than when I left. but before I talk about Montezuma and the friends I met, I have some general thoughts that have been swirling in my head...

• so I realized that its not Americans that frustrate me when I travel...its americans and any tourists really who get to another country and then complain how that country is not like the country they came from. I realize that I am no saint in this respect...like I really really miss spinach, but I am trying the best I can to get my needs met through other means....but I was actually relieved that it wasn´t Americans that frustrated me...if that makes any sense
• men always hit on the women....
• Second....I smell....before I get a dozen comments from my brother and Dave Morris, I have to say, that in general, I never wear deodorant b-c I don´t generally smell...seriously...its a nice perk of being me, that was until I came to costa rica...many a day, I will be doing something and thing...wow...someone is really ripe...who smells only to discover it is in fact, me, letting out all those wonderful smells.....
• everything always get wet - including you...especially since I am here during the rainy season....you just get to a point were you accept a general sense of wetness...which in fact likely contributes to the smell...but the wetness is from rain as much as sweat...(was that one fact too many?)
• Men always hit on women...
• let go of expectations of things such as time, travel schedules, electricity, water working....all of that...you just never know....and if it doesn´t go as it seems...you just repeat...pura vida...(pure life)
• Dancing....the Ticos can really tear up the dance floor...I danced with a bunch of guys on my bday celebration, take 2, since the power went out on my bday, and figured out that the guys just twirl you around so much that you lose all sense of anything...who needs alcohol when you can dance with like that!
• when I speak spanish....here are two things that make me understood better.....any letter ´R´ in a word that is in the middle or the end...I need to pronounce as a ¨d¨....and the less I move my mouth when I speak...the better....
• Men always hit on the women...
• Ants...bugs....really are everywhere...I have moved on to a small fascination with Ants...I mean...where are they going and why are they always in such a hurry and why do they all travel the same path....curious....
• bus riding--generally is not fun...especially for this motion sickness prone girl...if I never ride in another bus in Costa Rica, it will still be too many rides...I still feel sick from yesterday....the roads are windy and bumpy ---but still its beautiful!!