Am I really heading back home tomorrow????

My Tico family - Juan and Kattia

As I boarded the bus this morning, in that little village of Quepos, Costa Rica, I was overcome with emotion. My mind filled itself with the myriad of memories I’d collected over the past 3 weeks. The lump in my throat wouldn’t leave as I reflected on what seemed like a years worth of experiences.

The kilometers clicked by with the blur of palm tree orchards, set against the lush, green landscape of mountains and sea. The faces of those I’d met, laughed with, lived with, traveled with and studied with passed through like portraits impressed forever on my mind.

For me, this wasn’t just a trip. I’ve been around the world but never spent more than a few days in any one place. This experience, this immersion in the culture and language is one I will process through for weeks to come.

Cooking with insructors after class

The class I finished up with

My second instructor - Julia

My first instructor - Marianne

It’s been a long time since I felt like a complete novice, a beginner, one struggling, desperately trying to accomplish a level of just getting by. It was quite freeing to accept my infancy in the art of speaking Spanish and the humiliation that came with that! I was the only student in school who could only speak one language as the 18-21 year old Germans, Swedes, Italians and Canadians could speak at least 3 languages and some even 6. I was in awe!

My “familia Tico”, Juan, Kattya, Jorge and Jonathan were so gracious. We shared hours around their table at breakfast and dinner. With each sentence I butchered, they just smiled back and patiently helped me along. They are such special people! They open their home week after week to new students, get close to them and then  have to say good-bye. Kattya faithfully cooks for everyone, does everyone’s laundry, cleans each room twice a week and through it all, never loses her beautiful smile. They are very special!!

Trip to Dominical - Apr 21-22

The San Clemente inn - Dominical

Dominical beach

Local beach vendors

We didn't mean to park it there. :-)

River emptying into the ocean

Fun camera shots

More fun camera shots

What struck me most was the one, real common denominator that drew each of us closer day by day despite our cultural, age and language differences – everyone loves to laugh! It was the laughter that crossed through all. It was so refreshing and created a bonding comradary whether in the classroom, the homes, at the beach or in the clubs. People love to laugh. It was so good for me, healing even, to laugh so much. It’s truly great medicine!

My shower head - it heats the water

The Gran Hotel in Costa Rica - San Jose

In closing, as I sit here at the outdoor café of the classic Gran Hotel in Costa Rica, located in the center of San Jose, it’s Saturday before Easter Sunday. The public square next to me is filled with local people watching and listening to the sounds and sights of street performers and shoppers. Each person is so uniquely made and it fits in with everything else I’ve been surrounded by here in Costa Rica. The visual and audio ensemble of the rainforest I experienced literally overloaded my senses. All in all Costa Rica makes up only 0.01% of the worlds landmass yet contains 5.0% of the worlds biodiversity. The awareness that there are over 10,000 species of plants, 850 species of birds, 800 species of butterflies, and 500 species of mammals, reptiles and amphibians confirmed even more for me that there is a God, a creator and His art is the ultimate 3-D experience.

Until the next experience I draw from the bucket, “Pura Vida” (pure life), as the locals say!!!

- David

Zip-lining in Monte Verde....Ohhhh Yaaaaa!!!!!!!

Hola Amigos!!

Bridge through forest canopy

Famous bird Monte Verde is known for

   This past week flew by! The class as a solo student was great – 3 hours each morning which was all my brain could handle at one shot. My ‘familia Tica’ is awesome! Katia is a fantastic cook and Juan, her husband is a lot of fun. He speaks fairly good English and is able to help me with the Spanish when I get stuck. They’re 12 year old son Jorge like to ‘high-five’ me when I get home in the evening. :-) I usually have coffee (Costa Rican – muy rico) and something small to eat for breakfast and then lunch is on my own. Dinner is a great social time – great food and lots of laughing as they speak Spanish and I try to understand and add my 1 cents to the conversation. I was the only student they had last week. This week, a married couple from Germany moved in as well and started the COSI school today.

Hotel Arco Iris in Monte Verde

getting ready to Zip! :-)

One of the 'gazillion' flowers

   This past weekend I went to Monte Verde (the cloud forest) with 2 of my friends here a COSI – a guy from the US and a girl from Germany. We had a great time walking through the forest canopy on bridges that have been suspended high up in the canopy above the forest floor. We also went zip-lining after that and I think the total was 13 zip-lines linked together like holes on a golf course. The last zip-line was incredible. It was one cable suspended 300-400ft above the canopy floor and went for over a ½ mile (3000ft).

My friend coming in on zip-line.

The average speed was 40mph and the ride lasted for 1 minute (See video of one of my zip-line rides at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrpwOXFKu2M). There were actually no clouds because the rainy season hasn’t started. Usually, there is a pervasive fog that sits in the tree tops for months on end. The companions I traveled with were so much fun and have a great sense of humor!

   The weekend was filled with lots and lots of laughter and I got to smoke one of the Cuban cigars I picked up at a local store – muy bien!!!

   It’s more class this week through Wednesday and then the country shuts down for the Easter holiday. No classes

Tree branches growing back down to the ground.

Thursday or Friday. So, the school has organized a trip to Nicaragua for 3 days and 2 nights. Many of the students here have opted to take that including me because this little beach town is going to be inundated with Costa Rican families from San Jose to celebrate Easter together and lots of things will be closed. I’m looking forward to Nicaragua because I understand things are very inexpensive and I get another stamp in my passport!! Very cool!!!

   Hope each of you reading this blog is in good health and has a wonderful Easter holiday! For me, as a Christian, it’s a special and very meaningful day! Until next time, ‘Que tenga une buena fin de semana!!

- David

OMG! is that a SLOTH......

3-toed Sloth that fell from tree

Where did the time go – wow ‘uno semana’ (1 week) gone. It’s been great! I’ve met some very interesting and smart people from everywhere. The class is predominantly Swiss and German, but there are Dutch, Italians, Americans and Canadians.

Class runs 8-12, then lunch at a local place (the ceviche is awesome!). The typical meal is casada and is rice and beans, salad and either fish or meat. After lunch it’s off to the ‘playa’ (beach) for a cigar and cerveza. It’s tough duty! :-)

La Avion restaurant - C-123 aircraft

Bar inside C-123 :-)

For those of you that remember the Iran-Contral scandal in the mid 80s, I ate a restaurant which was made around one of the aircraft used to run supplies in Nicaragua - based out of San Jose Costa Rica (C-123). Check out the pictures. The other C-123 crashed with a survivor which kind of kicked of the whole thing in the US.

Chillin in bay after 30min ride.

Thursday, I went jet skiing out on the open ocean followed by snorkeling and it was a blast!! The water temp here is so warm (78deg). It’s fantastic!

Talk about a green frog!!!!

More monkey business!!

The Aguti... is it a big rat???

tree branch we hung Sloth in

One of the many beautiful beaches!

Saturday I went through the National Park here in Manuel Antonio. It’s a preserved rainforest and it’s amazing! The beaches are pristine and there’s ‘mucho’ wildlife. I saw an aguti (guatusa in Spanish) and I’ve never seen one of 
these before – looks like a cross between a rat and a deer. There were monkeys galore, a few Sloths, birds, butterflies, bats, raccoons, deer, exotic frogs and birds of many kinds. However, my Sloth story takes the cake.

Photo opportunity :-)

My Aussie hiking outfit - :-)

Could they be any cuter
- 3 toed Sloth

I was finishing my hiking after about 3 hours and hadn’t really had a good look at a Sloth but really wanted to get a good view of one. I said a quick prayer. “God, please let me come across a Sloth I can actually see well”. Okay… what happened next was unbelievable and extremely rare according to the locals. I heard a crashing sound way up in the trees (150ft) far from me – then I heard a big thud on the hill and saw what appeared to be a log rolling down the hill towards me. The object stopped at my feet as I jumped out of the way. To my utter disbelief, it was a SLOTH!!! Talk about answered prayer. An Australian family came up the path at that time and we tried to figure out what to do. The Sloth appeared alive and I couldn’t believe it. Anyway, the Aussie man and I eventually picked the thing up and put it on a low tree branch. It proceeded to climb and hook up with a larger tree. Unbelievable! An encounter of a lifetime. See the pictures above and check out the you tube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifYImYC67Lc. :-)

those crazy capuchino monkeys!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MnE16WJznk

On Sunday, I changed lodging from my hotel and moved in with a host family in the town of Quepos. This will allow me to practice more Spanish as I eat breakfast and dinner with them. They’re great people and I still have my own room separate from the house like a hotel. It’s more of a studio apartment.

The Spanish is ‘muy dificil’ but going well and I’m in a one-on-one class with the instructor which is great! Until next time……. Adios

-David

Did I really sign up for this.... ?? :-

Yes, class started today. The placement test took 30sec as I quickly modeled a deer in the headlights. The senora thanked me and told me to wait with the others. I feared I may be the first ever not to actually get into class. As it turned out, probably because I paid money, they found a spot for me with 3 others - a Swede, an Italian and another American. As our group started, I realized I must still be in the wrong group, even though this was the most basic, beginner class. The instructor, or profesior (don't hack my Spanish spelling just yet) shot out of the gate in full Spanish all the while smiling. My mind began to race as I wondered how I'd ever know what she was talking about with no reference to the English equivalent. I was assured this was par for the course and my utter state of confusion was quite normal.

Things were fine until we had to tell each other our age in Spanish. My only hope at this point is that if I added together the ages of the other 3 students, their combined total would possibly exceed my age - ouch!! The Swede weighed in at 18, the Italian at 28 and the American at 26. Could I really be their dad - say it wasn't so. Well, at least we got that out of the way, but we had to turn the page in the book to find mine. :-) Four hours later we wrapped things up. I'm not sure what we wrapped up but the instructor was quite pleased with my dismal performance and deserves an Oscar for her acting ability.

The previous two acclamation days were fantastic! I hung out at my lush, open air hotel and pool, all to myself for Saturday. I enjoyed the hospitable staff, drank cervezas and had a fine cigar - all poolside. At around 3pm I felt as though the sky was falling. Stuff was coming down on me out of the trees above and I thought to myself, "this can't be just the wind".  I looked up and realized I was contending with monkeys and definitely they had a more advantages spot for this encounter. It appeared they were feeding on the little red fruit in the tree and were discarding the husks very accurately my way. Hmm... this is war! So, armed with my camera I began to fight back. I eventually ran them all off (actually, I think they were done eating). Having a look of victory on their little faces, they scurried off but not without me catching them on 'film'. Check it out. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MnE16WJznk)

Squirrel Monkey or Titi - on bungalow

White-faced Capuchin - culprit!!

I woke up to a beautiful day Sunday and decided it was time to venture out of my little bungalow and see the famous Manuel Antonio beach. After chatting with a local, I got the scoop. Take the bus to the beach, walk to the water, turn right and go 1 kilometer until you come to the rocks in the water - great views and breathtaking sunsets. After that, head up the little dirt road through the jungle and come upon the main road where you'll find another bus stop. It all sounded really good..... until the thunderstorm came rolling in.

Fortunately for me, I found a really cool beach, tiki bar and hid out there. Storm watching was great, I chatted with a couple foreigners, had some tropical drinks and suddenly it dawned on me that it was getting dark. I needed to go. I was directed to the little dirt road and began my trek in my swimming suit and flip flops donning a back pack. Note to self... this was a bad idea and getting worse. After trudging up what seemed like Mt. Kilimanjaro, soaking wet from the pouring rain, alone in the dark, jungle noises all around, in mud soaked flip flops, 2 wrong turns and 1.5 hours later, I found civilization and the bus stop - Hallelujah!!!! All I can say is the shower I took was truly a slice of heaven. Welcome to the jungle! :-)

Here are some photos.... enjoy and if you're wondering about my judgment, you should be :-) Until next time... Adios!

Manuel Antonio Beach

Yes I am really here! :-)

Village of Manuel Antonio

View from Pizzeria

Another view from Tiki Bar

View during rain from Tiki Bar

What can I say - beautiful!

 COSI language school

1st day of school - back balcony

Meditation after class.... :-)

Iguana eavsdropping during class

View of Pacific from COSI