Many updates. I almost abandoned this blog but decided to at least give some highlights, since I think at least two people might occasionally check my blog. As a side note, I`m actually getting back to the states the 19th of August. I decided to come back early because my grandma broke her ankle and moved in with us while I was gone. This was too much excitement for me to miss so I decided to come back while she was still recooperating at our house. So if you`re anywhere nearby Orange County, let me know!
Alex (my little brother) ended up coming to visit! There was a significant period where I thought it wouldn´t happen--Shai and Jonathan both left the country thinking I`d be roughing it on my lonesome out here--but last Friday my parents told me Alex was going to come to Buenos Aires the following Monday, so I left Cordoba and took a 10-ish hour night bus (semi-cama, or half bed, which is like economy class on an airplane) to meet him in the big city. Stayed at a great hostel there called Pax.
After spending three days in BA, we took a 13-hour bus to Mendoza, a region that produces a significant amount of Argentina´s Malbec (a type of red) wines. We rode in style, on their first class cama (full bed) bus. Meals came with free wine and champagne, and they sponsored a game of bingo that had a bottle of champagne as the grand prize. (We didn´t win.) I hadn´t had a bus company offer bingo since taking Cruz del Sur in Peru, and I loved Cruz del Sur, so it was a nice moment.
We`ve enjoyed Mendoza. It´s a cute town with a happening downtown area, although the majority of people come here to spend time outside the city at the surrounding wineries. In Maipú (pronounced my-poo. i still find this a little funny.), around 10 wineries exist along a 12 km stretch of road so most people tour the region by bike. Two days ago we rented bikes and stopped by about 5 wineries, which was actually kind of fun despite the fact that neither Alex nor I like wine. By about 5pm though, a hot dry wind picked up. We were taking a tour of the oldest winery open for tourism when our guide found out the tourist police were coming to pick us up and take us back to our bike rental office since it was too dangerous to bicycle back.
These winds apparently only happen once or twice a year, but they cause so many problems that they caused the bus pass between Chile and Argentina to close. Alex and I are now stuck in Mendoza as a result. We were going to take a 10 hour bus ride on Saturday that went through the Andes to reach Santiago, our departure city for the States, but the road shut down and nobody knows when it will reopen. Luckily, we changed our flight so we now fly out of Mendoza instead of Santiago; it´s just too bad neither of us appreciate wine or else we could spend the next three days visiting more wineries.
That´s what´s going on right now. Before my brother and I met up, I traveled to Bariloche, a skiing town that doubles as a mountain mecca for ice cream and chocolate makers. After just two days, I had to get the heck out of there. I headed to Cordoba and spent about three days there. It was a nice enough city, although I had the best time when I left with another Californian on a daytrip to a desert ravine. It was gorgeous. Unfortunately, I lost my camera so there aren´t any pictures for it, though.
I come home in a few days, ending my 3 month Latin America adventure. I`m excited to see what will happen next. Thanks for reading my blog!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Iguazú, Buenos Aires
The Iguazú Fallswere absolutely amazing. They´re a series of waterfalls located on the border of Brazil and Argentina that are larger than Niagara Falls. The park itself is also set up like Disneyland, which I actually really appreciated considering the poorly developed parks that we´ve been used to seeing. (By comparing it to Disneyland, I mean that the reserve put a lot of thought into the development and structure of the pathways and the organization of the site. All the paths were paved, with signs and park employees everywhere.) We got pretty wet trying to look at some falls called Devil´s Mouth. There was so much spray from the falls that the view couldn´t be captured in a photo, or at least a photo taken by me.
On a different note, today I heard Sigur Ros played in my hostel and it made me very nostalgic about being at Grinnell and holing myself up either in my room or the library on a Saturday, studying for midterms and finals. I remembered this just now because at the internet cafe I´m at, the song ´Call on Me´ came on, made famous by Titular Head.
We´re in Buenos Aires right now and have been here for a week. BA is such a great city! The ice cream really is amazing. It´s a derivative of gelato, brought over here by the thousands of Italian immigrants that made the city their home. We´ve met up with Shai and Jonathan´s family a few times (they have a whole slew of relatives that live here), and each time we´ve seen them, they´ve taken us out for ice cream. I´ve had it once a day the past three days.
They serve it differently here than in the states - you pick two ice cream flavors, one for inside the cone and another for the top, and then they shape the ice cream tip to a point so, if done correctly, it looks like the hair of a Troll Doll. These places also have about 30 flavors each, which apparently are all delicious. We went to one place in a hip section of town, Palermo, with Shai´s cousin and her husband, after they had us over for dinner. It was 12am and the place was going strong--we had a hard time even finding a table. A few families with their toddlers and young children were ordering ice cream and coffee as we sat. The shop didn´t close until 3am, and Joana, Shai´s cousin, said that the line for ice cream trailed out the door at closing time during the summer. (For the record, it´s winter here right now.)
Shai leaves on Wednesday, and Jonathan on Sunday. As of right now, I leave September 29th. I have no idea what I´m going to do once they leave! There is a pretty fierce rumor that Alex, my younger brother, will come traveling with me for a few weeks, which would be really fun. I´m thinking about working on a dairy farm either in Chile or Mendoza for a month or two. I really want to learn how to make yogurt and cheese. I´m also beginning to miss home (it´s true, Mom & Dad!), which is out of character since normally I get really involved in the places that I visit or live in. I´m looking forward to having down time in Irvine once I get back.
If any of you are heading to South America, let me know! My plans are really flexible at this point.
On a different note, today I heard Sigur Ros played in my hostel and it made me very nostalgic about being at Grinnell and holing myself up either in my room or the library on a Saturday, studying for midterms and finals. I remembered this just now because at the internet cafe I´m at, the song ´Call on Me´ came on, made famous by Titular Head.
We´re in Buenos Aires right now and have been here for a week. BA is such a great city! The ice cream really is amazing. It´s a derivative of gelato, brought over here by the thousands of Italian immigrants that made the city their home. We´ve met up with Shai and Jonathan´s family a few times (they have a whole slew of relatives that live here), and each time we´ve seen them, they´ve taken us out for ice cream. I´ve had it once a day the past three days.
They serve it differently here than in the states - you pick two ice cream flavors, one for inside the cone and another for the top, and then they shape the ice cream tip to a point so, if done correctly, it looks like the hair of a Troll Doll. These places also have about 30 flavors each, which apparently are all delicious. We went to one place in a hip section of town, Palermo, with Shai´s cousin and her husband, after they had us over for dinner. It was 12am and the place was going strong--we had a hard time even finding a table. A few families with their toddlers and young children were ordering ice cream and coffee as we sat. The shop didn´t close until 3am, and Joana, Shai´s cousin, said that the line for ice cream trailed out the door at closing time during the summer. (For the record, it´s winter here right now.)
Shai leaves on Wednesday, and Jonathan on Sunday. As of right now, I leave September 29th. I have no idea what I´m going to do once they leave! There is a pretty fierce rumor that Alex, my younger brother, will come traveling with me for a few weeks, which would be really fun. I´m thinking about working on a dairy farm either in Chile or Mendoza for a month or two. I really want to learn how to make yogurt and cheese. I´m also beginning to miss home (it´s true, Mom & Dad!), which is out of character since normally I get really involved in the places that I visit or live in. I´m looking forward to having down time in Irvine once I get back.
If any of you are heading to South America, let me know! My plans are really flexible at this point.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Now Argentina
I´ve been super bad about updating! This is just a short post to commit myself to posting a real update. We were in the desert of San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, for about 4 days after having left Peru. We just left Atacama today on a 12 hour bus ride to Salta, Argentina, where we are right now.
We just got back from at an amazing meat restaurant tonight where we had the first red meat I´ve had in a really long time. It was delicious, and think $8 to split a bunch of ribs between two people. Tomorrow, we´re going to this Lebanese restaurant Shai´s really excited about.
Salta also has non-food related things to do, surprisingly enough. I´m hoping to check out this museum here that has the frozen body of a woman who was supposedly an Incan sacrifice. She´s supposed to be perfectly preserved--hair, clothes, skin and all. I don´t think Shai or Jonathan particularly care, but I´m looking forward to it. Then at 3pm, we embark on a 21 hour bus ride for Iguazu Falls. Apparently they serve one meal on this ride, so we´ll have to get creative about what food we bring with us. I´m imagining eating a bell pepper and a lot of yogurt. (The yogurt here is amazing! I´ve never eaten so much of it in my life.)
We just got back from at an amazing meat restaurant tonight where we had the first red meat I´ve had in a really long time. It was delicious, and think $8 to split a bunch of ribs between two people. Tomorrow, we´re going to this Lebanese restaurant Shai´s really excited about.
Salta also has non-food related things to do, surprisingly enough. I´m hoping to check out this museum here that has the frozen body of a woman who was supposedly an Incan sacrifice. She´s supposed to be perfectly preserved--hair, clothes, skin and all. I don´t think Shai or Jonathan particularly care, but I´m looking forward to it. Then at 3pm, we embark on a 21 hour bus ride for Iguazu Falls. Apparently they serve one meal on this ride, so we´ll have to get creative about what food we bring with us. I´m imagining eating a bell pepper and a lot of yogurt. (The yogurt here is amazing! I´ve never eaten so much of it in my life.)
Friday, July 3, 2009
Food
There are some things that we eat a lot of, here in our travels. Shai randomly gets cravings for apples and generally buys them in bulk from either a grocery store or the covered and usually crazy food markets. I´m trying to only buy my food from these markets, I love them so much. She also consumes a lot of this watery thing that people sell along the side of streets unrefridgerated. It comes in a plastic goblet with small chocolate balls on top, which you´re supposed to pour into the yogurt.
I´ve been on a quinoa kick and have tried to prepare it in different fashions, although I´ve really only had one success: quinoa with tomatoes, onions and garlic. I tried to cook this when we were in Arequipa, except with the addition of bell pepper. I bought two big, round peppers from the central market. I chopped them all up and mindlessly slipped a piece of pepper in my mouth as I was finishing, only to die from its spiciness. I had no idea that peppers that look decievingly like sweet bell peppers could be so horrifyingly hot. My lips burned for a good 20 minutes after eating it. They had black seeds, but I still don´t know if that was a sign or if all peppers here have them.
I think I forgot to mention our transportation fun, so I´ll mention it now. There have been a bunch of transportation strikes throughout the country due to a few factors, none of which I fully understand but I´ll skim over anyway.
1) Some people (possibly indigenous) are protesting the privatization of water.
2) Local indigenous peoples are protesting oil drilling in the Amazon.
So we got into Arequipa from Ica at around 9am, after being on a bus for 13 hours. We checked into our hostel (Home Sweet Home - it was cute, although a little far from the center), wandered around the town for a good majority of the day, and got back at around 6pm to find out from someone sharing the dorm with us that the road to Cuzco was going to be blocked for a week starting the next day at 6am. We had been planning to hang out in Arequipa for a few days and then meander over to Lake Titicaca, from where we would head on to Cuzco. This was bad news, since it meant we wouldn´t be able to get into Cuzco for at least a week if we didn´t leave before 6am. I had been cooking the quinoa when we found out, so I hurried it up, threw the quinoa in a plastic bag (this wasn´t the first time) to bring with me, and we headed straight for the train station to find out what was going on. We ended up buying bus tickets for Cuzco that night and left at 8:30 pm, to arrive in Cuzco at 6am. So we spent 12 hours in Arequipa, after having traveled a total of 17 hours (Lima to Ica to Arequipa) to get there. And that´s how we got to Cuzco. (For the record, the blocade ended up not even happening. Tuesday was supposedly a nation-wide transport strike, which also didn´t happen. We´ve also heard that there are blocades occuring between here and La Paz, which is our next destination after Macchu Pichu, but who knows what´s actually happening.)
Today we´re meeting up with Josie, another friend from Grinnell who moved to Cuzco to become fluent in Spanish, and then we´re going to Chabad (an Orthodox sect of Judaism who has centers set up in popular travel spots for Jews) for dinner tonight to celebrate Shabbat (Friday sundown to Saturday sundown is special in Judaiasm, celebrated on Fri with prayers and dinner). I´m really curious about who these people are that run the center, who will go, what we´ll eat. It should be an interesting experience.
I´ve been on a quinoa kick and have tried to prepare it in different fashions, although I´ve really only had one success: quinoa with tomatoes, onions and garlic. I tried to cook this when we were in Arequipa, except with the addition of bell pepper. I bought two big, round peppers from the central market. I chopped them all up and mindlessly slipped a piece of pepper in my mouth as I was finishing, only to die from its spiciness. I had no idea that peppers that look decievingly like sweet bell peppers could be so horrifyingly hot. My lips burned for a good 20 minutes after eating it. They had black seeds, but I still don´t know if that was a sign or if all peppers here have them.
I think I forgot to mention our transportation fun, so I´ll mention it now. There have been a bunch of transportation strikes throughout the country due to a few factors, none of which I fully understand but I´ll skim over anyway.
1) Some people (possibly indigenous) are protesting the privatization of water.
2) Local indigenous peoples are protesting oil drilling in the Amazon.
So we got into Arequipa from Ica at around 9am, after being on a bus for 13 hours. We checked into our hostel (Home Sweet Home - it was cute, although a little far from the center), wandered around the town for a good majority of the day, and got back at around 6pm to find out from someone sharing the dorm with us that the road to Cuzco was going to be blocked for a week starting the next day at 6am. We had been planning to hang out in Arequipa for a few days and then meander over to Lake Titicaca, from where we would head on to Cuzco. This was bad news, since it meant we wouldn´t be able to get into Cuzco for at least a week if we didn´t leave before 6am. I had been cooking the quinoa when we found out, so I hurried it up, threw the quinoa in a plastic bag (this wasn´t the first time) to bring with me, and we headed straight for the train station to find out what was going on. We ended up buying bus tickets for Cuzco that night and left at 8:30 pm, to arrive in Cuzco at 6am. So we spent 12 hours in Arequipa, after having traveled a total of 17 hours (Lima to Ica to Arequipa) to get there. And that´s how we got to Cuzco. (For the record, the blocade ended up not even happening. Tuesday was supposedly a nation-wide transport strike, which also didn´t happen. We´ve also heard that there are blocades occuring between here and La Paz, which is our next destination after Macchu Pichu, but who knows what´s actually happening.)
Today we´re meeting up with Josie, another friend from Grinnell who moved to Cuzco to become fluent in Spanish, and then we´re going to Chabad (an Orthodox sect of Judaism who has centers set up in popular travel spots for Jews) for dinner tonight to celebrate Shabbat (Friday sundown to Saturday sundown is special in Judaiasm, celebrated on Fri with prayers and dinner). I´m really curious about who these people are that run the center, who will go, what we´ll eat. It should be an interesting experience.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Cuzco Updates
Shai and I yelled at a woman working at the tourism office yesterday.
Randomly ran into Ami Freeberg, a friend from Grinnell, on the street in Cuzco. We met up yesterday and made lunch, then went to a cultural dance performance last night and today we walked 4.5 miles around some really amazing Incan ruins just up a hill from Cuzco proper. I´ll add links later for info about the sites.
Went to a restaurant today with a menu in Spanish and in Hebrew with Shai and these Israeli guys we met. The other patrons appeared to all be other Israelis too. There are some buildings here that just have signs in Hebrew, targeting the many Israeli travelers that pass through. It´s actually ridiculous how many Israelis we´ve met on our trip.
Today I began a 5-word-a-day program for learning Hebrew. My words: peelpal (pepper), melach (salt), zifra (syphilus and also the name of a food dish), and I forget the rest. I´m pretty confident I´ll be fluent soon.
I´m awful at updating here, so I apologize! I´ll keep posting stuff, but I can´t guarantee a constant rate. Hope you´re all well!
Randomly ran into Ami Freeberg, a friend from Grinnell, on the street in Cuzco. We met up yesterday and made lunch, then went to a cultural dance performance last night and today we walked 4.5 miles around some really amazing Incan ruins just up a hill from Cuzco proper. I´ll add links later for info about the sites.
Went to a restaurant today with a menu in Spanish and in Hebrew with Shai and these Israeli guys we met. The other patrons appeared to all be other Israelis too. There are some buildings here that just have signs in Hebrew, targeting the many Israeli travelers that pass through. It´s actually ridiculous how many Israelis we´ve met on our trip.
Today I began a 5-word-a-day program for learning Hebrew. My words: peelpal (pepper), melach (salt), zifra (syphilus and also the name of a food dish), and I forget the rest. I´m pretty confident I´ll be fluent soon.
I´m awful at updating here, so I apologize! I´ll keep posting stuff, but I can´t guarantee a constant rate. Hope you´re all well!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Come Peru, Ica
I´m sorry; I´ve been super bad about updating the blog since we´ve gotten to Peru! We were in Lima and I might explain that more later, but we had a really great time. Definitely the most beautiful city I´ve seen in Latin America so far.
We met up with Angie, a classmate from Grinnell who´s from Lima, and she showed us around her side of Lima. It was so great to see her and she gave us such a great tour. She took us to this outdoor mall built into ocean cliff, which was something that seemed like it belonged in Orange County but there´s probably no way in hell any company could afford to buy the property to build it. I´d never seen anything like it. I also finally tried lomo saltado, a typical Peruvian dish consisting of meat, tomatoes, potatoes and onions. We saw super cute botiques, the private school she attended, beautiful churches, her house. She also told us our (or at least my) most profound discovery on this trip: you can buy clothes in parts of Lima made by big clothing companies (Gap, Michael Corrs, Abercrombie & Fitch, etc.) for ridiculously cheap because the clothes are made in local factories. If any piece has some type of mistake, the clothing gets taken to one of these stores for locals to buy at super cheap prices. It´s like shopping at a thrift store, with boxes of clothes to sort through to find the gem in the sand dune (I hope that´s the phrase). So if you go to Lima and like to shop, you should find one of these stores!
We then took a 5 hour doubledecker Cruz del Sur bus from Lima to Ica , where we are now. (We´re following a path loosely called the "Gringo Trail," where travelers make a loop from Lima to Cuzco. This path breaks up the 24 hour bus ride between the two cities and enables us to explore more of Peru.) So thisbus was crazy, in a good way. They gave us a blanket, a pillow, dinner, and even provided a screened movie (Lady of the Lake), and a bus-wide game of bingo, which Shai and I did not win. They also offer bathroom assistance, particularly when one gets locked in their restrooms, which Shai discovered. The entire back of the bus heard Shai scream, "I´m locked in!" when she couldn´t figure out how to let herself out of the bus´s small bathroom. The attendant had to yell directions lound enough for Shai to hear her, which caught the attention of anyone who didn´t hear Shai´s initial pleas for help. It was hilarious. I crying from laughing so hard by the time Shai got back. Describing it, this situation really doesn´t seem that funny but trust me, it was great.
We just took a tour of a local bodega, or winery, and had some very sweet and very tasty wine. They produce pisco here, which is a type of hard alcohol used to make pisco sour, a Peruvian specialty. We´ll wander around Ica for an hour or two and then head to Huacachina to go sandboarding. At 8:30 pm we board another bus to get to Arequipa, a trip that will last 12 hours.
We met up with Angie, a classmate from Grinnell who´s from Lima, and she showed us around her side of Lima. It was so great to see her and she gave us such a great tour. She took us to this outdoor mall built into ocean cliff, which was something that seemed like it belonged in Orange County but there´s probably no way in hell any company could afford to buy the property to build it. I´d never seen anything like it. I also finally tried lomo saltado, a typical Peruvian dish consisting of meat, tomatoes, potatoes and onions. We saw super cute botiques, the private school she attended, beautiful churches, her house. She also told us our (or at least my) most profound discovery on this trip: you can buy clothes in parts of Lima made by big clothing companies (Gap, Michael Corrs, Abercrombie & Fitch, etc.) for ridiculously cheap because the clothes are made in local factories. If any piece has some type of mistake, the clothing gets taken to one of these stores for locals to buy at super cheap prices. It´s like shopping at a thrift store, with boxes of clothes to sort through to find the gem in the sand dune (I hope that´s the phrase). So if you go to Lima and like to shop, you should find one of these stores!
We then took a 5 hour doubledecker Cruz del Sur bus from Lima to Ica , where we are now. (We´re following a path loosely called the "Gringo Trail," where travelers make a loop from Lima to Cuzco. This path breaks up the 24 hour bus ride between the two cities and enables us to explore more of Peru.) So thisbus was crazy, in a good way. They gave us a blanket, a pillow, dinner, and even provided a screened movie (Lady of the Lake), and a bus-wide game of bingo, which Shai and I did not win. They also offer bathroom assistance, particularly when one gets locked in their restrooms, which Shai discovered. The entire back of the bus heard Shai scream, "I´m locked in!" when she couldn´t figure out how to let herself out of the bus´s small bathroom. The attendant had to yell directions lound enough for Shai to hear her, which caught the attention of anyone who didn´t hear Shai´s initial pleas for help. It was hilarious. I crying from laughing so hard by the time Shai got back. Describing it, this situation really doesn´t seem that funny but trust me, it was great.
We just took a tour of a local bodega, or winery, and had some very sweet and very tasty wine. They produce pisco here, which is a type of hard alcohol used to make pisco sour, a Peruvian specialty. We´ll wander around Ica for an hour or two and then head to Huacachina to go sandboarding. At 8:30 pm we board another bus to get to Arequipa, a trip that will last 12 hours.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Back in Heredia
Shai and I are back in Heredia, staying with my friend Coralia, who I met in San Ramón and stayed with me and my family for a week last winter break.
We had a monumental bus trip yesterday, one of many. We left Ometepe at 7am on a ferry to San Jorge, then took a cab to the Ticabus station. The woman selling tickets for Ticabus was ridiculously rude so we protested by leaving and decided to take a cab all the way to the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border and cross by foot, which was incredibly stressful the last time we did it. The system is ridiculous - there are no signs telling you which way to go and people try to charge you for the government customs documents that you can get inside for free. We survived it, though, and managed to get a bus to San José at 10:30 am. We got in to San José by 4:00 and met up with Coralia after having gotten a little lost in Heredia.
Now we´re just chilling out, eating oatmeal, and probably will go into Heredia today. I leave tomorrow at 4am for my cousin´s wedding in Wisconsin and then go home on Monday (my birthday) for my brother´s graduation from high school. Hopefully I´ll be able to see some of you guys when I get home! I´ll leave the following Sunday (21st) for Peru.
We had a monumental bus trip yesterday, one of many. We left Ometepe at 7am on a ferry to San Jorge, then took a cab to the Ticabus station. The woman selling tickets for Ticabus was ridiculously rude so we protested by leaving and decided to take a cab all the way to the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border and cross by foot, which was incredibly stressful the last time we did it. The system is ridiculous - there are no signs telling you which way to go and people try to charge you for the government customs documents that you can get inside for free. We survived it, though, and managed to get a bus to San José at 10:30 am. We got in to San José by 4:00 and met up with Coralia after having gotten a little lost in Heredia.
Now we´re just chilling out, eating oatmeal, and probably will go into Heredia today. I leave tomorrow at 4am for my cousin´s wedding in Wisconsin and then go home on Monday (my birthday) for my brother´s graduation from high school. Hopefully I´ll be able to see some of you guys when I get home! I´ll leave the following Sunday (21st) for Peru.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
isla de ometepe!!
So I made a quick dash to San Ramon at the last minute - I decided Friday morning to head there from Granada. It ended up being about a 6 hour bus ride and I got in at like 7pm. Nobody (minus Emma and Max, who I´ll get to in a sec) knew I was coming, so it was kind of fun just showing up. Emma and Max, both from Grinnell, were doing internships there so I popped by and visited them. The three of us left at 11am to get to la Isla de Ometepe, which itself was an epic journey that lasted about 7 hours and involved a horrific movie and some freaky driving.
We coincidentally met up with Shai on the boat just as I was freaking out about how she and I were going to get back in touch. Now we´re all hanging out at this really sweet hostel where we´re paying $2.50 a night for a private room. We went kayaking today around this really pretty area. I might expand on this later, depending on internet access. Tomorrow Emma and Max have to leave, which is too bad, but Shai and I will head to another part of the island to see some really cool ancient petroglyphs. We´ll probably be staying here until Tuesday, after which I´ll head back to San Jose, C.R. to fly to Wisconsin for my cousin´s wedding.
We coincidentally met up with Shai on the boat just as I was freaking out about how she and I were going to get back in touch. Now we´re all hanging out at this really sweet hostel where we´re paying $2.50 a night for a private room. We went kayaking today around this really pretty area. I might expand on this later, depending on internet access. Tomorrow Emma and Max have to leave, which is too bad, but Shai and I will head to another part of the island to see some really cool ancient petroglyphs. We´ll probably be staying here until Tuesday, after which I´ll head back to San Jose, C.R. to fly to Wisconsin for my cousin´s wedding.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
What's red and white with stripes all over?
A zebra with a sunburn!
Ha ha ha ha ha. I just remembered that joke. Coincidentally, I am also red all over - ridiculously sunburnt. We're in Mal Pais right now, which is this great beach town, and are staying at a really relaxed (and appropriately named) hostel, the Tranquilo Backpackers Hostel. It's got hammocks everywhere, tons of mango trees, free pancake breakfasts, free internet, and is right across the street from the beach (although separated by a mini forest). I actually just picked a mango off the ground right now. I might regret this decision later, but someone told me they were fine to eat as long as they weren't already split open. So we'll see how it goes.
I spent a good majority of the morning trying to clean my cooking oil-stained pack. It exploded in the taxi yesterday from Montezuma to Mal Pais. Oh gosh, I just realized I have so much to update you all on. I left my passport in our really awful hostel in Montezuma (Pension Jenny - don't stay there! It's just as expensive as a hostel on the beach but is incredibly dirty and bad.) and didn't realize it until we drove the 45-min passage to Mal Pais, so I had to go back to Montezuma, retrieve my passport (luckily Pension Jenny is honest even if it's not clean), and wait two hours for the next transportation to Mal Pais to arrive.
Now that we're here though, it's great. We were thoroughly disappointed with Montezuma, which was disappointing in itself since a lot of other people really enjoyed it. Sorry to everyone out there who's been and who liked it - I think we were expecting a real beach town and were surprised to find it so developed and so focused on tourism. Montezuma is this hippie town with yoga classes, wheat grass shots and organic ice cream stores, and vendors sporting rasta dreads. All of this seems to be for tourists, though. The signs were all in English and almost everyone working in the tourist industry speaks the language, which is really interesting considering that the majority of Costa Ricans don't know English.
So we left Montezuma for Mal Pais and have been really happy with it. I rented a boogie board today and went to the beach with some friends here. They rented a surf board and let me try it, and it was actually really fun! So I think tomorrow I'm going to swap my boogie board for a surf board and try it for reals. It's strange coming from Southern California and having this be the first time I've ever tried to surf. But after today's adventure, I'm pretty badly sunburnt on my legs.
The tropics have not been too good to Shai or me. In addition to our burns, we're also getting eaten alive by the mosquitos. Shai just doused herself in DEET, this miracle potion that protects us from these awful bugs. Last night, in bed, as I was blindly grabbing into the air with the hopes of killing the mosquitos that buzzed in my ear, I considered that the people sharing our hostel dorm would think I was crazy. I hit my face a few times, slapped my ear, and eventually retreated under my bed covers. I'm sure the battle will wage on when we cross the border for Nicaragua in a few days. Until then, I think we'll have to figure out a way to make peace here in Mal Pais with both the mosquitos and the sun.
Ha ha ha ha ha. I just remembered that joke. Coincidentally, I am also red all over - ridiculously sunburnt. We're in Mal Pais right now, which is this great beach town, and are staying at a really relaxed (and appropriately named) hostel, the Tranquilo Backpackers Hostel. It's got hammocks everywhere, tons of mango trees, free pancake breakfasts, free internet, and is right across the street from the beach (although separated by a mini forest). I actually just picked a mango off the ground right now. I might regret this decision later, but someone told me they were fine to eat as long as they weren't already split open. So we'll see how it goes.
I spent a good majority of the morning trying to clean my cooking oil-stained pack. It exploded in the taxi yesterday from Montezuma to Mal Pais. Oh gosh, I just realized I have so much to update you all on. I left my passport in our really awful hostel in Montezuma (Pension Jenny - don't stay there! It's just as expensive as a hostel on the beach but is incredibly dirty and bad.) and didn't realize it until we drove the 45-min passage to Mal Pais, so I had to go back to Montezuma, retrieve my passport (luckily Pension Jenny is honest even if it's not clean), and wait two hours for the next transportation to Mal Pais to arrive.
Now that we're here though, it's great. We were thoroughly disappointed with Montezuma, which was disappointing in itself since a lot of other people really enjoyed it. Sorry to everyone out there who's been and who liked it - I think we were expecting a real beach town and were surprised to find it so developed and so focused on tourism. Montezuma is this hippie town with yoga classes, wheat grass shots and organic ice cream stores, and vendors sporting rasta dreads. All of this seems to be for tourists, though. The signs were all in English and almost everyone working in the tourist industry speaks the language, which is really interesting considering that the majority of Costa Ricans don't know English.
So we left Montezuma for Mal Pais and have been really happy with it. I rented a boogie board today and went to the beach with some friends here. They rented a surf board and let me try it, and it was actually really fun! So I think tomorrow I'm going to swap my boogie board for a surf board and try it for reals. It's strange coming from Southern California and having this be the first time I've ever tried to surf. But after today's adventure, I'm pretty badly sunburnt on my legs.
The tropics have not been too good to Shai or me. In addition to our burns, we're also getting eaten alive by the mosquitos. Shai just doused herself in DEET, this miracle potion that protects us from these awful bugs. Last night, in bed, as I was blindly grabbing into the air with the hopes of killing the mosquitos that buzzed in my ear, I considered that the people sharing our hostel dorm would think I was crazy. I hit my face a few times, slapped my ear, and eventually retreated under my bed covers. I'm sure the battle will wage on when we cross the border for Nicaragua in a few days. Until then, I think we'll have to figure out a way to make peace here in Mal Pais with both the mosquitos and the sun.
Monday, June 1, 2009
From Mountains to Ocean
Ziplining was awesome! Shai didn't want to go because she had already done it in Mexico, but Monteverde apparently is where ziplining was born. So it was great. The group I was in included 'Team Kickass,' which comprised three awesome guys in Costa Rica for a wedding, and people studying abroad from a community college in Philly. The experience was surprisingly not that scary - even though a hook is the only thing connecting you to a wire 450 ft above the ground, you feel pretty secure. So we all zipped around primary canopy forest in Costa Rica. I really didn't see anything at all except the treetops, which was still gorgeous. At one point, I thought I heard howler monkeys but that easily could have been someone being a jerk and mimicking their sound.
The most awesome and terrifying part of this whole ziplining experience, though, was the tarzan swing. The guy at our hostel talked to me for like five minutes about the different tarzan swings available. I felt like I was buying life insurance or something, he told me so much information. I must have zoned out because I was thoroughly surprised when we got to this point of the ziplining experience. The guide asked for a volunteer to go first and I naturally made sure I didn't even breathe loudly so he wouldn't pick me out of our 12-person group. Some girl in front of me raised her hand but no, he went straight for me. He probably thought I would shriek really loudly on the swing.
I walked up this giant platform (about three stories tall?) and was hooked onto this giant rope. The guy then tried to convince me to use both hands to hold on. In order to do that, I had to lean forward, off the edge of the platform, which I was not keen on doing since that meant I would most likely fall off this platform rather than control my 'jump.' Regardless, I'm pretty sure the guide pushed me off once both my hands were touching that rope. I didn't even think about screaming once I fell; the wind got knocked out of me so it wasn't an option. Once I almost hit the ground and the rope kicked in to yank me back up, I realized I was actually notgoing to die. So the swing turned out to be really fun!
That night, Shai and I met up for dinner with 'Team Kickass' at the Treehouse Cafe, a touristy but neat restaurant in Monteverde. The guys were all really cool. After dinner, we went to a bar to hang out and ended up sitting around this really nice bonfire for the majority of the night, and later were joined by a lot of other tourists (and locals who followed them) who were attracted to fire.
Yesterday (I cannot believe this was just yesterday), Shai and I woke up at 5am to catch a bus to get to the beach. I'm going to end this story here because I am tired, but hopefully it will be continued.
The most awesome and terrifying part of this whole ziplining experience, though, was the tarzan swing. The guy at our hostel talked to me for like five minutes about the different tarzan swings available. I felt like I was buying life insurance or something, he told me so much information. I must have zoned out because I was thoroughly surprised when we got to this point of the ziplining experience. The guide asked for a volunteer to go first and I naturally made sure I didn't even breathe loudly so he wouldn't pick me out of our 12-person group. Some girl in front of me raised her hand but no, he went straight for me. He probably thought I would shriek really loudly on the swing.
I walked up this giant platform (about three stories tall?) and was hooked onto this giant rope. The guy then tried to convince me to use both hands to hold on. In order to do that, I had to lean forward, off the edge of the platform, which I was not keen on doing since that meant I would most likely fall off this platform rather than control my 'jump.' Regardless, I'm pretty sure the guide pushed me off once both my hands were touching that rope. I didn't even think about screaming once I fell; the wind got knocked out of me so it wasn't an option. Once I almost hit the ground and the rope kicked in to yank me back up, I realized I was actually notgoing to die. So the swing turned out to be really fun!
That night, Shai and I met up for dinner with 'Team Kickass' at the Treehouse Cafe, a touristy but neat restaurant in Monteverde. The guys were all really cool. After dinner, we went to a bar to hang out and ended up sitting around this really nice bonfire for the majority of the night, and later were joined by a lot of other tourists (and locals who followed them) who were attracted to fire.
Yesterday (I cannot believe this was just yesterday), Shai and I woke up at 5am to catch a bus to get to the beach. I'm going to end this story here because I am tired, but hopefully it will be continued.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Nice failures
Short post because the internet's slow. But we're in Monte Verde, C.R. right now. We took a guided hike to see the lava of volcano Arenal, but we didn't see anything because it was cloudy. Apparently if that happens, the tour company gives a free tour the next day but we had to leave for Monte Verde. The hike ended with a really sweet stop at natural hot springs, which were *amazing*!
Shai and I also tried to go to this cabaret show put on by the Monte Verde community, which was about 2km uphill from our hostel. We left at about 6:30 pm and it was already dark. After climbing up this super steep hill and having no idea where we were going, the fog started to roll in. When the windy road turned from paved to dirt and the sidewalk ended, we paused on the side of the road to check our bearings with our little map. The longer we waited, the thicker the fog got. We ended up just going back. This dog followed us halfway back and almost got run over at least twice. Really, this story is not very good. You had to be there - the fog seriously made everything more ominous! At one point we turned around and all we saw were the outlines of two figures walking behind us, as we're walking along this curvy highway in the forest. Creepy.
Tomorrow I'm going ziplining. I think Shai's going to a reptile museum and a butterfly garden. We'll also go for a hike. We're trying to decide where to go from here, but we're thinking Montezuma, a beach town in the Gulf of Nicoya.
Grinnell's grades are up. That's terrifying.
I'd love to hear from you all so feel free to send me e-mails or comments. (Thanks for the note, Jamie!)
Shai and I also tried to go to this cabaret show put on by the Monte Verde community, which was about 2km uphill from our hostel. We left at about 6:30 pm and it was already dark. After climbing up this super steep hill and having no idea where we were going, the fog started to roll in. When the windy road turned from paved to dirt and the sidewalk ended, we paused on the side of the road to check our bearings with our little map. The longer we waited, the thicker the fog got. We ended up just going back. This dog followed us halfway back and almost got run over at least twice. Really, this story is not very good. You had to be there - the fog seriously made everything more ominous! At one point we turned around and all we saw were the outlines of two figures walking behind us, as we're walking along this curvy highway in the forest. Creepy.
Tomorrow I'm going ziplining. I think Shai's going to a reptile museum and a butterfly garden. We'll also go for a hike. We're trying to decide where to go from here, but we're thinking Montezuma, a beach town in the Gulf of Nicoya.
Grinnell's grades are up. That's terrifying.
I'd love to hear from you all so feel free to send me e-mails or comments. (Thanks for the note, Jamie!)
Thursday, May 28, 2009
We´re in store for a Volcano
Shai and I left Coralia yesterday and took a 6 hour bus ride to La Fortuna, which is in the northern region of the country and located near the base of the Arenal volcano. This volcano erupted in 1968 after a 400-year dormancy and has been spewing lava ever since. La Fortuna is super touristy, but almost everyone speaks English, which is helpful for Shai. It starts to pour rain here by like 1pm, so I´m not quite sure how the tour is going to go down. I also only packed a pair of sandals, so hopefully nothing gross appears out of the dirt and attacks my feet.
Before taking a tour at 3pm today to check out the lava, we´re going to walk over to a watering hole because it is super hot and humid here! It´s the type of hot where you sweat when you stand still.
Tomorrow we leave La Fortuna at 8:30 am for Monteverde, via a strange route popularly known as ¨jeep-boat-jeep.¨ You take a van to Lake Arenal, where a boat meets you and takes you across the lake. Once you cross the lake, a van meets you at the other end and takes you to Monteverde, which is one of the most popular nature reserves in Costa Rica. I´m curious to see it, mainly since I had read academic articles about the tourism there when I was studying tourism in Costa Rica with my class on sustainable development.
I´ll probably update after Monteverde. I feel like I really haven´t had all that much to update about yet, but hopefully this will soon change, and won´t include stories about getting our stuff stolen at the local watering hole or being abandoned on a boat in Lake Arenal. Only time will tell!
Before taking a tour at 3pm today to check out the lava, we´re going to walk over to a watering hole because it is super hot and humid here! It´s the type of hot where you sweat when you stand still.
Tomorrow we leave La Fortuna at 8:30 am for Monteverde, via a strange route popularly known as ¨jeep-boat-jeep.¨ You take a van to Lake Arenal, where a boat meets you and takes you across the lake. Once you cross the lake, a van meets you at the other end and takes you to Monteverde, which is one of the most popular nature reserves in Costa Rica. I´m curious to see it, mainly since I had read academic articles about the tourism there when I was studying tourism in Costa Rica with my class on sustainable development.
I´ll probably update after Monteverde. I feel like I really haven´t had all that much to update about yet, but hopefully this will soon change, and won´t include stories about getting our stuff stolen at the local watering hole or being abandoned on a boat in Lake Arenal. Only time will tell!
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Heredia, Costa Rica
I got into Costa Rica safe and sound! I´m staying with my friend Coralia, who stayed with my family and me in December when she toured Soka University, a college founded by the SGI sect of Buddhism. We had a sleepover last night at Coralia´s friend´s house with her friend and a girl from Soka University who´s studying abroad here. Everything´s going really well! It rains for much of the day. This is a really bland post but I want you all to know that I will occasionally be posting updates about the trip! Tomorrow Shai gets in and I have no idea what will be in store for us after that. It will be exciting, whatever happens.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Experiential Learning Trip to Nicaragua
I know I haven't posted in an incredibly long time, but I was told to update at some point with a "where am I now" type thing, and I actually have news that you might be interested in!
I'm planning a trip for students at Grinnell College to go back to San Ramon with me and do some experiential learning over spring break. It's been an incredible process and I've already learned so much, despite not even having left yet. Nothing currently exists at Grinnell like this, so it's been an exciting journey of meeting people incredibly motivated to help pave the way to establish a formal, concrete relationship between the college and the community after a few years of connections via its students. I hope that this trip will continue for years to come, and will contribute to a sister city-type relationship between Grinnell and San Ramon. In particular, I hope that professors will supplement class coursework (whether in development studies or ecology) with trips to San Ramon to deepen the applicability of Grinnell's educational experience and provide real-world examples for textbook knowledge.
I'll post the project description from various funding applications I've filled out.
Taken from my Center for Peace Studies funding application:
During Spring Break 2009 (March 16th-27th), a group of eight Grinnell students will volunteer in San Ramón, Nicaragua, which is located in the Northern region. (The spots were highly competitive – twenty-two people applied for seven spots.) We will specifically be working with a community organization run by women, el Centro Promocional Cristiano por la Paz y la Vida (CPC). CPC also runs its own micro-lending office, a pharmacy, a health clinic (which was created through efforts of Jamie Zwiebel ’08), a community tourism office, and educational services for women and youth.
We will be in Nicaragua for 10 days, staying with homestay families organized by CPC. Our work will involve Finca La Hermadad, a primary cloud forest reserve that is home to howler monkeys and sloths. Our primary service project will be to work in the park, cleaning existing trails and clearing new ones. The reserve stems from the efforts of a shade-grown coffee plantation owner to preserve the local environment in light of increased deforestation in the region. Many farmers surrounding La Hermandad decide to clear primary forest and farm their property to garner an income from the land. Thus, the reserve maintains a quickly-disappearing environment that has yet to be examined by biologists—to this day, no species list has been created for the region’s cloud forests. The farmer lacks the economic resources to maintain the reserve, however; thus, any help would be much appreciated as he wishes to make the reserve available to locals who lack opportunities to see the surrounding natural environment.
As a group, we will also conduct interviews with recipients of microloans to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats within the microloan industry in San Ramón, Nicaragua. This project would bolster the microloan industry that has enabled individuals—women, in particular—to economically gain control of their lives. The interviews would be meshed into a document, which would be presented to CPC and to the recipients of microloans, thus placing emphasis on the voices of recipient populations. We will also take a tour of two women’s artisan cooperatives which are funded by microloans.
This trip builds upon the community’s pre-existing relationship with the college through its students and student groups: most recently, I held an internship in sustainable community tourism with CPC during the summer of 2008; Social Entrepreneurs of Grinnell (SEG) is currently lending CPC a microloan; Jamie Zwiebel ’08 studied abroad and worked with CPC, fundraised to help construct their health clinic and also created a sewing cooperative through a Davis Project for Peace in the community during the summer of 2007.
After a rigorous application process in which 22 students applied, a total of 7 were selected to participate in this trip. I've been able to acquire $3190 of funding as of now, which is incredibly exciting. This will make the trip cost about $350 per person, not including myself. That's less than the cost of the plane tickets. It'll be great!
When we get back, we'll be making at least three presentations on campus: first, we'll present to the campus at large to describe the trip and how it went, and second, we'll talk about microfinance in the region at a conference hosted by the Wilson Program. Third, we'll present to the college's board of trustees to describe the trip and where we'd like things to go from here.
I'll update after the trip. Maybe a little bit during as well, if we have time. If you want more information, feel free to send me an e-mail or post a comment and I'll get back to you.
I'm planning a trip for students at Grinnell College to go back to San Ramon with me and do some experiential learning over spring break. It's been an incredible process and I've already learned so much, despite not even having left yet. Nothing currently exists at Grinnell like this, so it's been an exciting journey of meeting people incredibly motivated to help pave the way to establish a formal, concrete relationship between the college and the community after a few years of connections via its students. I hope that this trip will continue for years to come, and will contribute to a sister city-type relationship between Grinnell and San Ramon. In particular, I hope that professors will supplement class coursework (whether in development studies or ecology) with trips to San Ramon to deepen the applicability of Grinnell's educational experience and provide real-world examples for textbook knowledge.
I'll post the project description from various funding applications I've filled out.
Taken from my Center for Peace Studies funding application:
During Spring Break 2009 (March 16th-27th), a group of eight Grinnell students will volunteer in San Ramón, Nicaragua, which is located in the Northern region. (The spots were highly competitive – twenty-two people applied for seven spots.) We will specifically be working with a community organization run by women, el Centro Promocional Cristiano por la Paz y la Vida (CPC). CPC also runs its own micro-lending office, a pharmacy, a health clinic (which was created through efforts of Jamie Zwiebel ’08), a community tourism office, and educational services for women and youth.
We will be in Nicaragua for 10 days, staying with homestay families organized by CPC. Our work will involve Finca La Hermadad, a primary cloud forest reserve that is home to howler monkeys and sloths. Our primary service project will be to work in the park, cleaning existing trails and clearing new ones. The reserve stems from the efforts of a shade-grown coffee plantation owner to preserve the local environment in light of increased deforestation in the region. Many farmers surrounding La Hermandad decide to clear primary forest and farm their property to garner an income from the land. Thus, the reserve maintains a quickly-disappearing environment that has yet to be examined by biologists—to this day, no species list has been created for the region’s cloud forests. The farmer lacks the economic resources to maintain the reserve, however; thus, any help would be much appreciated as he wishes to make the reserve available to locals who lack opportunities to see the surrounding natural environment.
As a group, we will also conduct interviews with recipients of microloans to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats within the microloan industry in San Ramón, Nicaragua. This project would bolster the microloan industry that has enabled individuals—women, in particular—to economically gain control of their lives. The interviews would be meshed into a document, which would be presented to CPC and to the recipients of microloans, thus placing emphasis on the voices of recipient populations. We will also take a tour of two women’s artisan cooperatives which are funded by microloans.
This trip builds upon the community’s pre-existing relationship with the college through its students and student groups: most recently, I held an internship in sustainable community tourism with CPC during the summer of 2008; Social Entrepreneurs of Grinnell (SEG) is currently lending CPC a microloan; Jamie Zwiebel ’08 studied abroad and worked with CPC, fundraised to help construct their health clinic and also created a sewing cooperative through a Davis Project for Peace in the community during the summer of 2007.
After a rigorous application process in which 22 students applied, a total of 7 were selected to participate in this trip. I've been able to acquire $3190 of funding as of now, which is incredibly exciting. This will make the trip cost about $350 per person, not including myself. That's less than the cost of the plane tickets. It'll be great!
When we get back, we'll be making at least three presentations on campus: first, we'll present to the campus at large to describe the trip and how it went, and second, we'll talk about microfinance in the region at a conference hosted by the Wilson Program. Third, we'll present to the college's board of trustees to describe the trip and where we'd like things to go from here.
I'll update after the trip. Maybe a little bit during as well, if we have time. If you want more information, feel free to send me an e-mail or post a comment and I'll get back to you.
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