Viva la Vida

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.

We woke up at the crack of dawn today to drive down to the Pacuare River to brave the rapids that made it into the top five rivers for white water rafting in National Geographic. At six o'clock in the morning, our bus departed from the university, and we all settled into our seats for the two hour drive to the lodge where we would have breakfast before our departure.

After changing, we loaded the buses again to drive to our final destination at the beginning of the river. We donned our life jacket and helmet, and I donned my video camera, attaching it to my head. We were given the basics of the controls of the raft, and even practiced rescuing people if they fell out of the raft (practice accomplished by pushing members out of the raft and then rescuing them).

Quite soon, we made our way out onto the rapids, warming up with Class I and II rapids and then later advancing to Class III and Class IV rapids. Somewhere in the middle of the run, we stopped by a clearing of rocks for lunch. At this clearing there was a cliff which everyone took the time to dive off and into the water. The fishes in the water weren't too shy to nip at us either. Greg was holding his hand above the water and a large fish with teeth jumped up and bit his finger.

Afterwards, as we were finishing the run, we went through a place called “The Two Mountains.” This was a particularly beautiful part of the rafting trip, as we floated between two mountains. However, a large electric company is looking to build a dam here. To do this, they need to turn the river into a lake in this area. This work will be done in about six years, which is a real shame, since the beauty that was there was incomparable to any other.

Throughout the whole trip, vegetation surrounded us. There were also calm parts of the rafting when we had the opportunity to jump off the raft and swim around as we floated down stream. The three hour rafting trip was nothing short of a roller coaster of a ride. As we paddled, we observed the Indian Reservation to our right, and even saw some Indians. There were also lodging stations for multi-day trips from which came camera flashes from visitors taking pictures. Maybe one day I'll be taking the picture as I wait for my own rafting trip to continue for the second or third day.

After every rapid, we celebrated our survival and success with a “high five,” which included raising our oars into the air together and yelling “Pura Vida!” So, here's an oar to you - “Pura Vida!”

Our morning excursion today was a trip to the Biodiversity Park in San Jose. Officially titled INBioparque, this park houses a sample of the biodiversity of Costa Rica. There is a representation of most of the types of environments in Costa Rica, and within these live various plants and animals that appear in the actual Costa Rican counterpart. As we were shown, this park houses a research facility that studies all the various species. Their main focus is insects, plants, and mushrooms, though they study other biodiversity as well. They've discovered hundreds of species over the past few years, and 78 in the last year alone. Even at this moment, they have tons of species that they discovered, but have not yet named, so this year will be a full year for them as well.

The park's story concerning mushrooms is an interesting one. In Costa Rica, the people really only eat one type of mushroom – the ones they put on pizzas. Through the park's studies, they know that there are many types of mushrooms that would provide a great type of nourishment for people. On top of that, mushrooms are extremely easy to grow. As a result of the combination of these factors, the center is trying to spread the word and convince the public to grow mushrooms for themselves and so that Costa Rica can have a mushroom exporting business.

As we explored the park, we saw various animals ranging from fish, to frogs, to white-tailed deer, to snakes, to crocodiles and turtles, to iguanas. We also saw a great variety of plants. One plant we saw was one we once tried to grow in my freshman year biology class. If you touched it, the leafs closed up. My favorite part was probably the butterfly emporium they had. The butterflies were absolutely beautiful and there were so many. If you spread your arms out like an airplane, they would consider sitting on you, and a lucky few got to have a gorgeous butterfly atop their arm or their hat. I, however, did not get my butterfly experience until after I left. The saying goes that if a butterfly settles on you, you get seven years of good luck. Does settling on my backpack count for at least three and a half?

The schedule just said Team Building. We were given no other clues as to what was going on. Were we going to do trust falls? Do a human knot? We had no idea what to expect, but what we definitely didn't expect were Costa Rican men with sticks that have feathers and attached to either end.

On Tuesday we all gathered together at the university to become more “united.” As we walked onto a sports field which included a worn down basketball court, we were told to throw our backpacks against a tree and then come to be divided into teams. We were divided by which program we were with: Summer 2 (green team, my team), Global Impact, and two week.

Our first activity involved us holding hands in various confusing ways and passing a hula hoop over the whole group without letting go. I was put at the front of the line, and when the whistle blew to begin I climbed through the hula-hoop, and though I planned to let go, my mind never really connected with my hand, and I continued to hold the hula-hoop, which pretty quickly developed into a winning strategy. I would move with the line holding the hula hoop up for my teammates to make it easier for them to pass through. The people behind me were kind of forced to be pulled along with me as I did this. In the first round, we finished before any of the teams had gotten even halfway, and in the second round all the teams tried to mimic our strategy. We still were faster and more efficient, having gotten practice in the first round. Lots of high-fives were passed around for our accomplishment.

Our next challenge was to flip a member of our team over in various ways while she was holding water and to have the water not spill, followed by a challenge to stand up and sit down while all of us were hanging onto a rope that was tied in a circle. There was also a contest to see who could build a sort of bridge over an imaginary river with blocks faster and another to carry a tennis ball using strings from point A to point B. The ultimate test we did was we were given a man made spider web and through each hole we could have only one person pass. There were just enough holes for all of us. Being one of the lighter ones, I got to be hoisted in the air for one of the holes that was higher up and essentially got to experience a little bit of crowd surfing – though that life goal still doesn't count as accomplished.

This morning, we had to be at our activity for the day a little later than usual, at 10:00am in the morning. So my friends and I took advantage of this spare time to wake up early and walk around Heredia for a while. We took a similar route to the one we took during our tour, and just spent some extra time enjoying ourselves and taking in our surroundings. We ended at the market with the intent to buy something, but we ran out of time.

We returned to the university to have an art class, where we were given three dimensional wall hangings of a typical Puerto Rican house to paint, with assistance and help on how to do it well. In the end, all of ours turned out better than originally expected, which was a welcome surprise, and we were allowed to add a pre-made figurine to it, which ranged from a small dog to a woman carrying a pot.

Over the past few days, we've been battling with the people at the mall who sell cell phones. Every day we came back looking for a phone line or a cell phone, the process seemed to become more difficult. Finally, today it worked out. I received a local service plan for extremely cheap which is activated by a new SIM card I had to put in my phone. This will allow me to more easily and cheaply contact my friends in Costa Rica, taxis, or directors in case I need them. My other friends got cell phones, so now we can all communicate more efficiently.

And random fact of the day: For the past couple days I have been furiously scrubbing at my feet. Its extremely muddy here because of all the rain, and my feet have been dirty wherever my sandals weren't. Today, looking down, I realized it wasn't dirt/mud. It's a tan. For the last two or three days, I've been trying to scrub my tan away.

When I received my information about who my family was going to be, I was told I would have a host mother, father, brother, and two sisters. My actual family, however, is bigger than this. They forgot to mention another brother and another sister. These siblings popped up because of their association with my immediate siblings. The extra brother is the boyfriend of Mariela, my 18-year-old sister, and the extra sister is the girlfriend of Eric, my 17-year-old brother. Over the weekend, they spent most of their time at our house.

Surprisingly, there wasn't that sort of awkward dynamic between the parents and the boyfriend/girlfriend of my siblings. They were treated exactly as family. It was Eric's girlfriend's job to wash down the place mats we used for dinner every day she was here. The parents would ask the boyfriend/girlfriend to go retrieve something from the house and they would know exactly where it was. They would sit at the dinner table with us and help set the table, and were just in general completely integrated into the family.

When we are just all spending time together, they sit on the couch with us and watch television, or just talk to everyone. I don't know how long these relationships have actually been going on, but there just seems to be a much smoother integration into the family which is a bit of a contrast I feel to the United States. Though a relationship may be supported in the U.S. by the family, and the family may approve, there's never fully a sense of “He/She is part of our family,” which is very apparent here.

Julia and I walked to the University for the first time today. It's about a half hour's walk, but this is how long it takes just about everyone to get there. Our oldest sister walked us and there was a large group of our peers both in front and behind us. We agreed that we would walk with a couple of our friends tomorrow morning.

We received a tour of the University today and in general talked about what was going on this week. Today was placement test day. They divided us up first by program. The 2-week students, the Global Impact students, and the Summer 2 students were all divided up. Next, they divided us up by level. Each of us then had to take a placement test to make sure they had guessed correctly where we belonged.

Our classrooms are actually in the mall next to the university, which is a bit strange. Supposedly, those are the best classrooms La Universidad Latina owns, so no complaints there. We take two classes, one in grammar and another in conversation and culture. Our grammar teacher seems to be really laid back, while our Conversation teacher has a very inflexible plan about how the next few weeks will go. My class is made up of five students, and together we've decided to work on the LPI scavenger hunt, where students go around and essentially find out what there is to experience in Costa Rica and then do it. We call it the Reta, or the challenge.

Slowly as the group gets to know each other the pieces are beginning to fall together. We are starting to get the hang of life here. We still have a lot to learn, but we're getting it.