Mis Vacaciones

So I have been back for 3 days and my head is still buzzing with memories. Here is a short list of the highlights of my week.

The first one is when the plane was descending to the Juan Santamaría airport. I was sitting by a window, taking in the view. It then started to rain a little bit but the sun was still shining strongly. For the first time in my life, I was looking down at three simultaneous rainbows. I've never even thought about being above a rainbow before. Today I see it was a good omen.

The next day, Saturday, is a little bit of a blur because I just had an overload of visual, intellectual and hearing stimulus. So much to take in. It was also the day I met the rest of my posse and we made our way to the village of El Sur.

Sunday is usually an off day in El Sur and to top it off, there was a Costa Rican futból final game on TV which made all the men pretty happy. We still managed to go for a couple hour hike in the forest, which was great.

Monday was work day. But it was a knarley day for The Dude and we laughed about it a LOT! His day first started with a scorpion in his t-shirt. I'm laughing right now, remembering the screech, the swears, the extra speedy removal of the said t-shirt, the red belly from him scratching it and the eyes as big as toonies (Canandian 2$). Hi-la-rious!!! Then as we were working, he poked a hole in his shin with the fence we were fixing. Not funny at the time. Under his supervision, I helped try and fix it. We must have done a good job because it looked pretty good by the end of the week. While we were working, Super Mario (guy taking care of us that can absolutely do everything) saw some fruits in a tree and decided we should have a taste. He then proceeded in throwing sticks and stones at the fruit. Well, a stick sort of rebounded of a branch and landed on the shoulder and back of the aforementioned Dude. Now, everyone was laughing. Even Mario and Henry! The chain of events was just too much. I'm not sure but I think it is the same night The Dude got a bug in his pants and had us roaring with laughter again with his reaction. In the afternoon, we were working on the road and I met my new love. He was this scared and super skinny dog that came on the road. I gave him my hand to sniff but he was too scared, keeping his nose to the ground, looking at me from below and just showing me the top of his head. The minute I touched him nicely with the tip of my fingers because he was full of ticks he was the happiest poochy (the dogs are usually kicked around over there). We later named him Manuel.

On Tuesday, we got up really early to do a half day hike in the forest and be back on time for lunch an Nena's. The hike was hard but fabulous. With the group we had, everything we did was fabulous. We didn't really see any big animals in the forest, just some insects and a couple of wild turkeys. It was really hot, my clothes were drenched with sweat and my legs got really scratched but I had no reason not to have a big smile in my heart. After lunch we were supposed to do some English/Spanish classes but it didn't really happened. After having a tasting of rice pudding, we hung out in the Salon for a while as it was raining pretty hard outside. We went back to our cabinas and to my super pleasant surprise, Manuel appeared out of nowhere. With my seesta's permission, I gave him some crackers and bread and he then came to lay down by us. At one point, he just left and went back home.

The next day was another fabulous one and it went by the fastest. We left our little village early in the morning with Julio our driver to go to Manuel Antonio (the inspiration for Manuel's name), a beach town (were I bought a couple of bags of dog food). We first had lunch at this little makeshift snack bar on the beach and then went for a walk in a type of provincial park were we saw lots of monkeys, bigger lizards, some forest crabs and loads of hermit crabs. After that walk, the moment we were all waiting for: the swim in the ocean. For those of you who know me well, your know I love being in the water. It's just the bathing suit part I have a hard time with. At the end of the day, we came back in traffic. I think it took us at least 1,5 hour more to get back home. Julio briefly showed us his town of Jacó before going for supper and then went back home to El Sur. During the ride back after supper I was feeling a little rough so Yayo decided to get my mind off things with the craziest flow of questions. I would be really curious to know how much of this Julio understood.
Message to the rest of my posse, I cannot be the only one, I think you all lied!! : )

Thursday was the cultural exchange day. We started by milking 2 cows. I now have a lot of compassion for these poor mammals. After the milking, we went back in the Salon, were Nena showed us how they make cheese from that milk and how to make tortillas to eat with the cheese. After lunch we went to trapiche (sugar making) with Carmen, the oldest man of the village I believe. It's pretty identical to maple syrup making with the exception that they crush the sugar cane to get the initial sugar water. In the afternoon, we all had different things happening to us. The boys were finishing the fence, J was running around and I was at the cabina giving an English lesson to 4 kids who thought I was a little weird for letting Manuel stick around. After supper at Ronald's (during which the electricity went out), we went beside the pulperia for smores. Almost everyone was there even if it was in the dark. It was the first time I tasted a smore. I don't want to offend smores fans, but I don't really dig them. But overall there was a lot of eating that day between the meals and the activities.

Friday was our last day in El Sur and I think we were all starting to feel the pain of the impending departure. However, in the morning we went for a horse back ride to el rio accompanied by Super Mario and 9 year-old daughter Alejandra. The road was so steep and muddy it freaked me out. All I was thinking about was the horse tripping and slipping and falling either on top of me or down a hill. I was also feeling guilty because the horse was breathing hard and I thought I might be too heavy for it. So Alejandra jumped on it and I finished the trek on foot with Mario and seesta J. The rio was amazing. The water was clear and there was little pools to swim in. Alejandra had brought some paint and proceeded in painting all of our faces. For lunch, we all went in different houses by ourselves (except the boys who ended up together). I went to Mario and Lourdes' house. It was a little awkward at first because they speak as much English as I speak Spanish. But after a while, the conversation was just going in both languages, with a lot of gestures and I had a pretty good time. I even managed to get a recipe from Lourdes. After lunch we hung out at the cabina for the afternoon with Manuel (what a cuty). In the evening, we went to the booming pulperia for a couple of Imperials and we bought a bottle of yummy stuff for our last night. We went for supper at the Salon with the 5 families we have grown fond of. Everybody had a few words to say; even the kids. I had seesta J translate my message but The Dude decided, to our big surprise, to break out his Spanish and do it solo. Way rad dude! ; ) We then had our own little party at the cabina with the bottle of yummy delight.

Next day was a bummer for me. We left early in the morning after saying a last goodbye to our new friends. We drove for a bit and almost got caught in the clayish mud before getting a flat tire. There is never a boring day in Costa Rica. The Dude was dropped off first at a rest stop, to be picked up by someone else later. I was next to be dropped off at another hotel but my reservation had been mysteriously cancelled over a month before. So me, seesta J and Yayo got to spend one last day together, missing our Dude the whole time. But a great day we had. We went for lunch at the market accompanied with a new friend Shannon from the hostel. Then ice-cream for desert where J had the staff sing me happy birthday, even if it was over a month ago. Then we went walking around and back to the hostel before going to a movie by bus and a drink in a hotel lounge were five other people from the hostel joined us. There was a couple of musicians at the lounge and again I was sung happy birthday. It was a great night.

The next morning was pretty hard. I got picked up at 9 a.m. and was holding back the tears not wanting to come back home. But here I am, back to a reality I'm not sure what to think of.

This was the absolute best thing that has happened to me. My heart goes out to my group and my Manuel. xx