Garbage

Coming from Hawaii, I’m sure most of us have participated in at least one beach clean-up at some point since arriving on the island.

And if not, shame on you.

Anyway, I think people are slowly coming around to the ideas of environmentalism and at least picking up after ourselves. BUT some places in the world do not have the same resources for waste management that we have in the US. If somebody told you that there are terraformed landfills that extract methane gas and can be built upon, I’m sure you wouldn’t be too surprised.

Now if I told you that there are people who live off of landfills and supplement what (if any) income they have with scavenging from piles of waste for anything from scrap metal to food, that might be a bit harder to take. My program and I went to Panama for a weekend, considering it’s so close. We were excited to have a beach day and swim and all that jazz.

However, almost immediately after crossing the border into Panama, we could tell that the standard of living in these more rural areas was dismal at best. People are tied to the lands that are owned by large agriculture corporations. The wages they make are barely enough to live on, so they don’t have much of a chance to leave. This means that their children are also stuck in the same situation, and the cycle continues.

We saw an enormous landfill that went all the way up to the road, and a man sifting through looking for who-knows-what. In probably the most sadistic irony I've ever experienced, “We are the World” was playing on a 1970’s-80’s mixtape the driver had.

Nothing puts your socioeconomic status into perspective more than when you’re going somewhere to lounge about, spend money and eat fresh fruit (fruit probably grown by the same people I’m talking about), all the while passing people on the road that have to work 12+ hours a day in pesticide ridden fields making a wage that is barely livable by anyone’s standards.

And then you see things like this. This unnecessarily large boat is floating not even a ten minute boat ride from the same garbage piles and shacks we had passed coming into the country.

It took me studying abroad to put everything I had ever read about, heard about, or saw on TV to actually understand exactly what is going on in the world. Study abroad is an experience that you can tailor to whatever you want it to be.

You want parties? You got ‘em.

You want profound learning experiences? You got ‘em.

You want both? You got ‘em.

My recommendation is to just get out there and see the things you learn about in your textbooks.

-H

Cerro de la Muerte

One amazing aspect of living in a tropical environment is the excuses your professors make to get the class outside. This is especially true if you’re taking an ecology class, in that case everything you do in class is just a build up to the fieldtrips. One of these trips was to a place called Paraiso Quetzal (Quetzal Paradise), and although we may not have seen any quetzals, there was so much else to see that we didn’t even notice.

What kind of bird did you want to see?

A hummingbird?

Or maybe one of these guys?

Now, one morning we woke up impossibly early to go take a hike up a mountain. Have you ever walked blindly into the rainforest at night? It’s scary with all the different kinds of sounds and the feeling of just knowing that there’s probably a puma or a chupacabra watching you in the bushes.

So our mountain is called Cerro de la Muerte (Hill of Death). Now, to me, “hill” does not really convey a sense of dread, so why on Earth would anyone name this particular hill the Hill of Death? Believe it or not, Costa Rica actually does get cold. At high altitudes. Apparently high enough to coat the ground in a thin layer of frost sometimes when the humidity is just right.

This also means that it can get cold enough to induce hypothermia, and to the unsuspecting hiker or college student, this could (has done so) spell disaster. Three people have died somewhere on the slopes of this hill just from trying to hike up it without warm clothing.

So there’s that bit of valuable information. I have to admit though, the view was incredible and it would be hard to pass up a sunrise on anything called the Hill of Death. 

-H

So I have been trying to get an internship here in Costa Rica for a few months now. One of my professors of the International Relations of Latin America said he works for the congress (Asemblea Legislativa) and they offer internships for both international and local students. Naturally I was pretty excited, so I applied back in February to begin in March.

By the time March rolled around my professor seemed to keep making excuses about the internship and I doubted I would ever hear anything back. I had just about given up when one day he told me they had accepted me and I would start in April if I still had the time and willpower to participate.

I don’t know too many people that would pass up a chance to work the congress of another country, regardless of their major. As it turns out I work for the library of the congress, specifically their research division, CEDIL (Centro de Investigaciones Legislativas). They were pretty excited to have a native English speaker, and decided to take advantage of any translation skills I might have.

Now, I don’t speak much Spanish (keep in mind that I’m only in Intermediate II). I feel as though they expect a bit too much from me, because they plopped a 300 page document in my email and want me to translate the whole thing. I’ll be honest with you guys, I’m tossing the whole thing into Google Translate and making the minor corrections I know how to do wherever I need to. There’s no way I can translate this whole thing from English to Spanish within the limited amount of time I have, but hey, I’m learning all sorts of new words and it is definitely improving my language skills bit by bit.

Plus the people are really friendly. The others in the office take a coffee break around 3PM and they just sit around chatting and snacking for a bout a half hour. This happens pretty much all over the country, everyone tries to break around the same time to talk with coworkers, and on more than one occasion I've come home and my host family has a few cousins over for the same thing. Sometimes there's enough food for it to be considered a meal by most standards. At the office, even the intern who works only four hours a day i s invited, and that is certainly something I could get used to!

-H

Taking some time to think

As I enter my last few weeks in Costa Rica, I cannot help, but to think of how much I have grown and all of the obstacles I have overcome. Walking into someone else's home without knowing what to expect can be frustrating. The language barrier was only one of many things. There was no hot water and I had a hard time adjusting to not being able to put toilet tissue in the toilet and not being able to eat what I want when I want. Being that my diet was so strict and I was unable to say what I could and could not I have I spent my first week vomiting, but it got a lot better. After 3 weeks I was able to say much more and did not fear having conversations in Spanish. I was forced to speak Spanish because my roommate had to leave after a week and I was alone. Being in the house without someone who understands English was one of the best things ever because I had no choice but to learn. I was also able to embrace the culture more because I was unable to complain about what I did not have. Having a maid was the one thing I hated because it spoils me rotten and I want to do things on my own, but after learning about how little people make here I found that it was well needed and took a load off of my shoulders. I still have not gotten accustomed to someone else washing my clothes, but it is nice.
Another issue I found myself having (still happens) is not knowing when to speak Spanish or English. There are days when I am able to speak Spanish with no problems and days when I cannot remember it. There are days when I mix my English and Spanish and when I am unable to remember how to say words in English. Spelling is worse. Many times I find myself typing in Spanish when I am supposed to be speaking in English. I have fallen in love with the language and culture here and will forever remember the oppiortunities I have been awarded, but most of all I will miss the children in the orphanage (where I volunteer).

La Semana Santa / Spring Break

 

This past week was La Semana Santa, which is Holy week. Everyone in Costa Rica and much of Latin America have the entire week leading up to Easter off, including me! So, thank you Jesus, for giving me a week off of Spanish class. It could have not come at a better time.

My plans for La Semana Santa changed more times than I could count, we would plan something and something else would come up or all the hostels would already be booked, or we would find out there are only expensive hotels where we wanted to go. But in the end, we ended up having a great spring break.

The first four days Harley and I went to Manuel Antonio, where we first visited at the beginning of our study aboard experience. I was so amazingly beautiful we just had to go again. We spent an entire day doing nothing but lying on the beach and swimming, enjoying the rare chance to relax.

 

The next day we went to Manuel Antonio National Park. The day was filled with monkeys, raccoons trying to steal our food, sloths hanging out in the trees above us, and one of the nicest beaches in Costa Rica. I even managed to avoid getting a sun burn, which is a miracle with this creamy skin tone.

 

 

 

After the national park I was able to cross yet another thing off of my Bucket List: Parasailing. We booked the sunset tour and after some brief instructions we were high in the air dangling over the ocean with the sunset surrounding us. It was breath taking and completely worth the cost. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

 

 

 

The second half of spring break or La Semana Santa was spent in Nicaragua where I had some unfinished business. The first time I went to Nicaragua, I loved it.

We spent our time in León at the Bigfoot Hostel. The first day was just to relax and recuperate after the ever so long drive to Nicaragua from San Jose. We headed to the beach house that our hostel owns and swam all day. It was incredibly hot so the swimming was the perfect way to spend our time.

The next day had much more excitement in store. I went volcano boarding! It was the sole reason why I wanted to return to Nicaragua. After the large earthquake in Managua, the national park where the volcano is, had to close for a couple days because they feared it may erupt. Luckily, the park opened the day before we booked our boarding tour.

 

Before we could board down the very active volcano, we had to hike up it. The sun beat down on us and the strong winds pushed everyone around but we all made it to the top and were ready to ride down! Unexpectedly, there were a ton of bees at the top of the volcano and before I knew it, I was stung in the throat. The sting hurt so much that all my anxiety about boarding down a volcano flew away and I got to the front of the line.

 

 

We were told that we could control our speed and I fully intended to go a medium speed but without my consent I ended up flying down the volcano and before long I was flying in the air, falling. I remember getting up after rolling a couple times thinking “Okay, I fell once, I’ll just go a little slower this time and I’ll be able to avoid another accident.” But as fate had it, I ended up picking my speed up almost instantly and found myself once again crashing, but this time it was a little uglier. I rolled head over foot five or six times before I could force my body out of that position and slow down to a stop. I searched for my board and it was a good couple yards above me. All I was thinking was “I fell all that way?”

Once I managed to get back on my board my I was determined not to fall again, and I didn’t! I made it to the bottom of the volcano safe and sound, with only a couple bruises and scrapes. Not too shabby!

As I coughed the lava rock out of my throat I stared up at the volcano that I just rode down and enjoyed the view of my fellow volcano boarders biting it. It was defiantly a day I will never forget.

 

In the Rain Forest: La Selva

 

I had high hopes for La Selva. I was promised lots of critters and I was not disappointed.

La Selva isn’t really a tourist stop; it’s mostly used for research. I heard they produce one scientific journal every 72 hours or something insane like that. There are endless things to study in the rainforest apparently… and yet people still cut it down, stupid people.

Anyway, so last weekend was my second field trip with my Tropical Ecology class and I don’t think you can get much more tropical than the tropical rainforest. Once again, everything was paid for (except my ice cream, that was much needed) which again was amazing because as a broke college student, I will take a free trip wherever I can get one.

We arrived in La Selva and it was ridiculously humid and hot. You have not felt humidity until you have been in the rainforest, let me tell you. I felt disgusting and I also felt the need to avoid any and all photographs because, ew. But here is one..

 

As soon as we got to the rooms we saw the first blue jean frog, which is a super adorable little guy who is tiny and beautiful and poisonous. I was so excited. I saw one before, but it was in a mini-zoo so it didn’t count. This one was wild, therefore it was 20 times cooler to see. Although my professor said that there are a lot of blue jean frogs in La Selva I wasn’t going to take the risk and miss my opportunity to take pictures of it. Luckily, she was right and we saw too many to count, so naturally I have an absurd amount of photos of them and I regret none of them.

Before going on a walk with the class a couple of us were walking around taking pictures when I noticed a lot of things falling from the trees which made me think, “MONKEYS” and I was right! We got to see a group of howler monkeys eating in the trees above us. Did I mention I get really excited when I see animals in the wild, or in zoos, or like dogs walking down the street? Well I do, so I was pumped to see these cuties! At the time I had no idea that they made sounds that I can only describe as demon-like. As soon as the sun started to go down all you hear is the portal from hell opening up… it is frightening, especially walking the trails in the dark with them howling all around you.

 

 

Through our walks we saw frogs, pig-look-alikes, lizards, birds of all sorts, spiders, bullet ants (which are named that because if you are bit or stung it feels like you were shot), an armadillo, and of course tons of different species of plants.

 

 

  

 

While the day walks were fun, the night walks were just filled with horror. When people say ‘the freaks come out at night’ they mean it. Bugs were everywhere and when I say everywhere, I mean it. Bugs flying in the mouth and ears, crawling around my feet, and harassing me constantly, made me so on-edge I just wanted to go hide in a safe enclosed room. I saw spiders that were so freaky and huge that I almost screamed out loud. Somehow I found a little self-control. Luckily for you, I didn’t photograph all these little weirdos because I was trying not to pee myself from being scared every other second, so I will spare you from most of them, you’re welcome.

 

After a long night of struggling to sleep due to paranoia that I was covered in bugs and the howler monkeys summoning Satan to my doorstep, I was happy to go on our last walk, have lunch and go home to San Jose where I could sleep safe from the nightmares of the rainforest at night.

Paraiso Quetzal

This weekend I wore three sweaters, tights under my jeans, ear warmers, two shirts, fuzzy socks, and I was still freezing. Yes, I am still in Costa Rica. My Tropical Ecology class took us to Paraiso Quetzal. My teacher was warning us all week that it would be freezing in the mountains so I bought two more sweaters and ear warmers to be prepared. When we first arrived on Saturday all I could think was, ‘this is cold?!’ It wasn’t cold, it was sunny and beautiful. I was hoping it would get cold so I didn’t feel like I just wasted money when I don’t have money to waste. (Not that I spent too much… Pequeno Mundo is so cheap that you feel like you should buy everything, because you can.)

Everyone had little cabins as rooms. They were beyond adorable. My room had fresh flowers in it and a breath taking view. My room had to have the best view, we were on the side of the hill so nothing was there to distract from the mountains. I immediately was thankful that I was able to visit town, and even more thankful that it was completely free. That’s right, my meals, room, and transportation was covered. Can you imagine that happening in the US? Haha, what a laugh. That would never happen.

We settled and then went on a walk where my teacher explained a bit how to recognize certain types of plants and families of species. So I can walk through a forest in Costa Rica and can probably point out at least one thing and have a clue what I was looking at, besides moss. Everything around us was beautiful. There were flowers everywhere both wild and planted. It was obvious that this place is carefully taken care of.

After lunch and taking a mad amount of photos, it was time for the actual school work. Of course, this awesome trip has a downside, we still have to do work. We got a space of land and had to list and count all of the species, which involved having to invent our own names for plants such as “hairy girl legs” and “orphan tears.” Once all the plants were accounted for we got to explore more! I was having a really hard time with breathing for some reason. I was light headed most of the day and just could not regain my breath so I had to take it easy, but I still saw a lot!

My wishes of coldness were fulfilled when the sun started going down. Within an hour I went from, eh this light sweater is plenty, to HOW IS IT COLD HERE?! I NEED BLANKETS. TURN THAT SPACE HEATER UPPPPP. I think it’s safe to say that I am not too use to the cold anymore. It is terrible, no one likes shivering. People like shivering even less in Costa Rica.

After waking up at 4am, no that’s not a typo. I was awake at four in the morning. We had to hike up a mountain, death mountain. It was unbelievably cold. My skin and lungs were burning, all I could think about was being in a warm bed. The trail was pitch black, luckily I had a phone with me so I could make a makeshift flash light and avoid falling. We made it to the top before there was any daylight. The stars were amazing. If it wasn’t so cold and I wasn’t surrounded by people it probably would have been quite romantic.

 

The sun was starting to come out and everyone had their cameras ready. I’d like to say that I got amazing photos that really capture what it was like seeing it, but I can’t. I mean I have some photos, but a camera isn’t able to capture that level of beauty with all of its limitations. I guess you’ll just have to go freeze your butt off like I did to know what I am talking about!

 

 

Finally, I was able to feel my fingers and toes again and we ate a delicious and very much needed breakfast. I half napped before having to go to our next activity, hummingbird observation.

Hummingbirds can be very aggressive! I was shocked by how nasty some of them were, attacking others and trying to intimidate everyone. It was actually really interesting watching them and learning from their behavior. I am now proud to say I point out four species of hummingbirds and tell you a little about them. I am basically a scientist after this weekend trip.