Viva la Vida

This morning, the majority of our group headed out to see the Harry Potter Premiere. Greg, Emily, Brandon and I, however, headed over to downtown Heredia at 8:00am to see what entertainment we could find. And of course, the first entertainment we found was pigeons, for which we spent half an hour looking to buy bread. Finally succeeding we allowed ourselves to be fascinated by the swarms of pigeons that flew at us at the first drop of a crumb.

To continue our morning we made our way down to the market, this time with the intent of purchasing some sort of food. We began with mamones chinos, this strangely spiky fruit that we'd seen our peers eating for lunch. It's small enough to comfortably fit in your hand and is of a dark red/pink color. We bought a quarter pound (about 6 mamones chinos) and each of us cracked one open. On the inside was something that looked similar to a lychee. There is a seed on the inside around which you have to eat, and it is absolutely delicious. It is such an intensely sweet and soft flavor, if that makes sense.

Our next round was blackberries, or moros. In the market they sell this mixture of small just ripe blackberries and unripe ones. Once we finally got to try them, after doing a good rinse and such, they were extremely tart, but regardless tasted like candy. Emily went on to purchase a mango and avocado. The mango was essentially butchered so that Emily could eat it and the avocado was eaten hummingbird style. Emily poked a hole in it and started digging it out with her fingers. She also bought a guanava, but when she broke it open it wasn't yet ripe. We knew we were safe eating these though, as we'd talked to our host parents before hand to check. We also purchased these sweet, hard circles from a bakery for our snack. They were very similar to the Russian Bubliki I love so much (if that's the right name for them?)

In general, the food here has been amazing and unique. This morning I tried this spaghetti egg pancake food. I think it was essentially spaghetti with an egg omelet around it to make a sort of pancake. On my first night I tried this amazing black soup with egg and last night in particular was delicioso. It was a sort of yuca dish. Yuca is a lot like potato and it was this sort of lasagna like dish, but without the pasta part, leaving just yuca, meat, and cheese. As for the drinks, just like Mexico, most everything is freshly made. Ice cream is equally amazing, I've especially come to love blackberry (moro) ice cream. I've tried strawberry juice, guanavana juice, among many others, and there will be many more to come.

After our new experiences with the children's museum, we finally went to our first traditional museum – El Museo Nacional. The museum began with a walk through a butterfly room. Though it wasn't as impressive as the one in the InBioParque, it was still beautiful. In the InBioParque, there were a lot of butterflies in a very small amount of space. Here, there was a large amount of space which was tastefully covered with vegetation and a relatively small amount of butterflies, which made encountering one that much more special.

As we moved through the museum, there were various artifacts from Costa Rican history and their descriptions, classic museum design. Apparently, throughout Costa Rica, round balls of cement like material have been found in all different sizes, ranging from being the size of me to being small enough for me to pick up without exerting too much effort. They have yet to definitively figure out the purpose of these balls. There are many theories that fly around. One suggests that they were just for decoration. Other theories suggest that they were used as a method of keeping track of time and date, which was important for growing crops and keeping track of the rainy seasons and such. Often they were found arranged in lines to make angles or other formations.

Once we got to the basement of the museum, the style changed. In the basement was various rooms that the army of Costa Rica used (back when they still had an army). Though I don't remember for sure, apparently the building used to be some sort of headquarters for the leader of Costa Rica, and the army stayed in the basement. There was a hallway with small rooms stemming off. There wasn't a door covering them and the graffiti on the walls was the original graffiti from the soldiers who stayed there. These rooms were used for people they held hostage or for soldiers that needed to be punished. They would only have a wooden box for a bed and few other luxuries. Another room contained the bathrooms of the army men, which at some point were built over to display more artifacts in a museum that owned the building before El Museo Nacional. Another room involved the cafeteria and another the showers. Just a walk back through the butterfly room and a step over a couple of the famous balls and we were off to school for the day.

Another life goal has been accomplished. I finally got to be inside a bubble. This morning we visited El Museo de los Ninos, or The Children's Museum. This museum is inside a building that was once a prison that fell into disuse after a war. There was talk about knocking the whole building down until the idea came along of turning it into something society needed – a children's museum. The museum presents information about almost everything. You can find information that ranges from how a body works ranging to how light works. Of course, there are also exhibits that are more purely just for enjoyment.

One exhibit that caught my eye was the bubble exhibit, of course. This is where I finally received my experience of being inside a bubble. There was a circle in which you stood and pulled up a metal circle around you that had been dipped in bubble fluid. There was also large bubble wands that allowed us to create the biggest and longest bubbles I've ever seen, which is something else I've always wanted to do – make huge bubbles.

In another room, there was a wall onto which you'd lean and turn on the light. The wall was glow in the dark and after a minute or so, you would turn off the light and your shadow would be semi-permanently stuck on the wall, until the next light application. We called these magic shadows. Another exhibit featured a house that was on an angle with the ground. It produced odd, dizzy feelings in everyone since our brains told us we were supposed to be standing up straight, but we had to stand on an angle to actually keep our balance. It was very cool.

All the Costa Rican woman here wear these original hair clips that sort of work like a ponytail holder and sort of work like one of those large hair clips. I finally found one for 50 cents at The Children's Museum, so I got it. But I think its smaller and more fragile than normal, so I'm still on the lookout, but I definitely like how it looks. Whatever it takes to make me feel more Tica!

The ziplines provided endless fun for us. As we moved on, the ziplines kept getting longer and longer, and more and more people needed guides to help them get across. Some simply refused to or weren't able to stop without having the assistance of the tree trunk in front of them. Others got in trouble for releasing the grip of either of their hands to take pictures or videos as they flew across the sky. I was all set as I strapped my GoPro to my head and zoomed on.

The last couple ziplines were the most spectacular, as they were the highest, giving us an amazing view of the mountains below us. These ziplines were long enough that they gave you time to relax and stop thinking about braking in time. You could stop and smell... the greenery. In all honesty though, the air there was something different. In Monteverde, the air felt extremely fresh and just smelled amazing. There were moments where we all just stopped to breathe, and just breathe.

As a grand finale to our zipline experience, we got a chance to go on the Tarzan swing – a mix between a bungee jump of 120 feet and a swing, similar to the Dare Devil Dive at Six Flags Great America. You had to walk out on a long bridge which at some point just stopped, and you were attached to a couple ropes and would jump from there. The wait was filled with anticipation, since as you watched the people in front of you, you would see the person on the bridge, on the bridge, on the bridge, and then gone. Suddenly, without warning, they would disappear, and we were all waiting for our own turn to do just the same.

I finally got out to the platform. I was one of the first of my friends to attempt the jump and any of my friends who already did it were way ahead of me in line. And there I was, on the edge. “Las dos manos aqui.” …This is all I can hold onto? “Bend your knees.” “What?” “Bend. Your knees. Bend.” ...Umm, Okay. And then without further warning I was essentially shoved off the edge. I managed to scream for the first half second of the drop and then my stomach fell behind my body, leaving me breathless. Finally the rope caught, and I swung above the tree tops to catch one last glance at the green mountains that I got to marvel at on the ziplines.

On Saturday, we all stumbled out of our beds at 5:30 in the morning, falling into the bus one after another to drive down to Monteverde, a town in the mountains of Costa Rica. This town was originally founded by Quakers from the United States who were seeking a safe place to build their community. This city now produces amazing dairy products and boasts lush rainforests through which you can find many a canopy tour (ziplining). Some years ago, National Geographic covered this city and discovered that it was a great city for Quetzal bird sightings, so many tourists and photographers started to visit the city. The roads leading into this city were not paved back then, and because the residents of Monteverde wanted to keep the town the same, a sort of private, secluded city, they petitioned to not have the roads paved, even though this was the plan. The same unpaved roads that wound up the sides of the mountains were the ones on which we entered.

The first thing that struck us was the endless rolling mountains of green that stretched out before us as we drove. The expanse seemed endless, and pictures didn't do it justice. We were scheduled to stay at a 4 star hotel for that night, and as we drove up to the resort worthy hotel, we couldn't believe that this didn't have all five.

The rooms were absolutely gorgeous and pristine. The pillows and blankets were super fluffy, there were carpeted floors, and the bathroom sported both an oversize bathtub and a spiffy shower. This shower filled the bottom with water, so your feet were standing in water while you took your normal shower. The room also had rocking chairs to pull out on your balcony/patio, depending on what level your room was on. We got the ground floor, which was preferable as people would congregate outside and it was easy to just go out and meet up with them.

What was particularly amazing was the view. A look out your window brought you face to face with the same rolling, gorgeous, green mountains we saw as we were driving. The view was breathtaking, and I spent all my free time sitting outside, either on the rock outside our room or on a rocking chair, as did other members of our group. No matter how many photos we took, it wasn't the representation we wanted of the spectacular view.