The kitty at my house. His name is Misingo (I think that is how you spell it). He is so precious!
Scorpion that was found and Daniel was playing with it. It isn't poisonous, just irritated.
A ridiculously huge walking stick!
Awesome flowers on campus. They are all so colorful and pretty. Thank goodness my camera does good close up shots. Besides animals and the ocean, I think they are my favorite things to photograph.
Well, things have been a bit rough for me this week. Things will be getting better though, I hope, and if all continues to go well, I will begin teaching on Wednesday to the 9th grade about human anatomy. Needless to say, I am doing some brushing up of my own! I'm nervous, but excited too. From what I hear, these are some of the hardest students to win over, the young ladies in particular are very judgmental. I should go. I have papers to grade and lessons to plan.
The most enormous fern ever! It was as tall as a tree and the fronds are as long as I am tall. These are from prehistoric times! Too fun.
Wicked cool flowers that I finally got good pictures of. They are obviously pollinated by humming birds, because of the long shape of the flower. I love the way they look.
This little guy is called a pizote. He is a mix between a badger and a raccoon. They are the scavengers of Costa Rica and get a little annoying at times but he was really cute. They walk with their tails straight in the air.
One of the more amazing stranger figs I have ever seen. The figs begin life as a seed deposited by birds on trees, and they grow down from there. These vines obviously had an interesting trip down. The path was then cut underneath the different legs of the tree. The original tree is probably dead, or close to it. I just thought it was beautiful!
One of the fantastic strangler figs at the reserve. I love the details all the vines make on the trees.
Waterfall we hiked to. One of the six or seven trails at the reserve.
This is a local artist who does glass sculptures right there at the reserve. We watched him make a little poison dart frog, and it was amazing the way he could heat the glass and then essentially draw the toes out with the heated glass. It was really cool to watch.
My host mom is named Marlene, but it is pronounced Marlenny. Sorry for the confusion.
The weather here is a little psycho. In the morning it is usually cloudy and a little rainy and windy, the afternoons usually warm up a bit, usually not exceeding 80 or 85 F (I think, my thermostat is a little confused up here). Once the sun goes down it gets pretty chilly and the wind really picks up. At night the wind usually whips around the house, over the roof and past the windows, making whistling noises and you feel like you should wake up in Oz! The windy season usually only lasts for a month or so, because the winds are switching. Sometimes when you look at the sky, the clouds are going the opposite direction that you are feeling the wind.
Ok, now to the beach.
I will upload as many pictures as I can, but I am very tired and very sunburned, so I will try my best.We went to Playa Samara (SamaraBeach).It was absolutely fantastic.Since there were eight of us going, we were able to pay for a private car to take us.So instead of having to take three different buses and seven hours, it was a comfy car with friends that only took about five.The hotel we stayed at, RBO, was small and out of the way, but very close to the beach and really practical.Amy, Ruth and I shared a room which turned out to be an interesting grouping, as you will find out soon.
The first night we got there, we changed and showered after a half day at school and a rather warm car ride.In attempting to find somewhere to eat that was cheap, we found that the hotel/hostel served food.So at a very large picnic table, we all ordered food (most of us got the pasta) and enjoyed the cool breeze and the company of each other.We laughed and chatted as we got to know each other better.
(Me, Amy, Stacey and Jane, and note how white I am)
(Stacey's papas fritas (french fries) came with toothpicks in them)
After dinner we walked down “main street” and onto the beach.[Now, for those of you who don’t know, I have been swimming in tropical waters once, but have not spent much time on a tropical beach.]It has also been a long time since I have been to the Oregon beach.Hearing the waves calling me, I quickly abandoned my shoes and felt the fine sand between my toes and ran toward the water.Samara is a small beach town with some local artists selling things and some small hotel/hostel places, but there are very few bright lights.So not only was I on a tropical Pacific Ocean beach, but it was a cool night, the warm water lapping at my feet and above me, the long arm of the Milky Way.Oh My Goodness!There were so many stars!It was incredible!!There are NO words for how amazing it was to stand there!I saw four shooting stars that night and I was in love with how warm the water was!
After a decent sleep in a queen bed, shared with Amy (fortunately I didn’t kick her or try to steal all the blankets) we woke up at nine, had breakfast downstairs on the open patio (pancakes!), and by ten thirty we were swimming in the water!Amy and I are both very fair skinned, but she doesn’t have the red head curse.We lathered up with sunscreen before we even left our room, but alas, it wasn’t enough.
The water was outstanding!!By Oregon ocean temps, it was practically hot!I was in heaven.I saw a couple fish swimming by and chased after them like a five year old yelling “Fishies, Fishies!”.My friends thought I was a little silly, but they care all the same.
(Allison and Charlotte sunning)
(REAL palm trees!)
After 45 minutes in the water, I couldn’t take the salt anymore so I got out, spread my towel in the shade and read my book, with the sound of the palm trees and waves in the background.Ruth had neglected her sunscreen at first and so 15 minutes after getting out of the water her back was already red.We took care of that, but some of the damage had already been done.By the end of the day, I had slept for about 30 minutes in the shade, been swimming three more times and watched a squirrel like animal break into a coconut, and spill the milk all over the sand beneath the tree.Amy and I were feeling the sun more than the other people so we headed back to the hotel around four to take cold showers.That felt almost as fantastic as the ocean.We then discovered how badly we had each been burned.Amy had sunbathed for an hour or so, but the equatorial sun was stronger than she had thought and she got pretty scorched.After our cold showers, and aloe vera for both we went back to the beach for the sunset and to find dinner somewhere.
At dinner: Amy, Jane and Stacey
(Stacey and I, note how burned my shoulders are)
(beautiful sunset)
The beach we were on didn’t face full West, so the sunset wasn’t the most amazing, but the colors were pretty to look at as the sun set behind the hill.Jane, Amy, Stacey and I went to find dinner and stopped at a little place to have empanadas, a tortilla filled with cheese, chicken, or beef and folded over and fried a little.They were pretty good!We all met back at the beach for a cool evening of watching the stars, listening to the waves and some other shenanigans that shall remain unsaid.Jane, Amy, Stacey and I were not down for such activities so we went for a walk down the beach, barefoot and feeling the cool sand and breezes on our sunburned skin.
That night Amy, Ruth and I slept ok, but we were three of the worst burned.We were the room of lobsters.Sunday morning we prepared for a less intense day at the beach.We began with a simple breakfast of tortillas, banana and some peanut butter! The peanut butter was very expensive but it tasted SO good!! There were two pastures across from the hotel and yesterday morning we had seen them all move from one to the other, without direction or anything. This morning we put the banana peels on a burn pile in the pasture and one of the larger females moved toward us and scarfed them up! We then put the rest there and watched the cow lick them up.
(Allison and the cow)
(Jane and the cow)
We covered up and didn’t swim as much.It was a lot windier, so we all ended up with sand everywhere!I took a two hour nap (how wonderful!) and watched as coconuts fell from the trees because of the wind.I was sitting under a palm that didn’t have any coconuts yet. Our driver got to the hotel by about 4 so we went back, rinsed off, packed up the last of our stuff and headed home.
The drive was a little rough on the sunburned skin but the stop we made at the halfway point was wonderful.There was a place that was selling postres (desserts) and I got some chocolate cake and a little piece of cherry cheesecake.Then in the trees near the store, were at least 5 scarlet macaws!They live in the warm weather places, so I didn’t think I would see one at all, but there they were!Granted it was dark, so the complete splendor of their colors wasn’t there, but you could see how big they were.I tried to get a couple pictures, but the flash wasn’t strong enough, which was fine, I didn’t want to blind them.I did get one that you can kind of see the red tail.It was very cool.
When I finally walked home from where the car dropped us, it was eight o’clock and I was ready for a cool shower and bed.
It was a fantastic weekend and one where I learned that me and sun and water don’t mix at all, unless a full body suit is involved.As much pain as I am in right now, it was mostly worth it.I had never seen such a beautiful beach and the water was fantastic.I think I still prefer my cold, windy Oregon beach, but this was a great opportunity and a perfect escape from the misty, cloudy and cool mountains of Monteverde.
Even here in Costa Rica people are celebrating. During the speech, the class we had brought one of the televisions into the classroom and tried to petition us to watch it instead of learning biology. Unfortunately, class work has priority over tv, but in the left over minutes at the end of the period we did watch part of it. It was dubbed over in spanish so I could only hear pieces of his strong voice, but it was enough. There are parties throughout the town, some in spanish, some in english. When I asked the students why they cared so much about the inauguration of an AMERICAN presidnet, they said "It is history, we are part of history!" So even in another country, they feel the change, they feel the potential with this new man as the head of our nation. And honestly, I feel it too.
Sara's horse loved the water. She got soaked from the knees down!
One of the calfs. It was so precious. It was a little freaked out about being near me, but once s/he calmed down it was so sweet!
The female boxer playing with the puppy. It was so precious!
Ridiculously cool flower
Pretty orchid
The national flower of Costa Rica: La Guaria. Also the name/region of the town where the farm was.
Precious pet rabbit!
Mommy and her puppy! So cute!!
The coolest chicken I have ever seen!
Weird chicken turkey things. Very loud call.
Sunset over the hills of Monteverde. 5:36 pm. How gorgeous is that!
The Ranaro exibit (aka the frog pond). A "red eyed" tree frog. How perfect is that picture! It was the only one that turned out well.
Rufus frog, the red eyes are so it can see at night.
Green and black poison dart frog. You can kind of see it, but the tour was at night (because most of the species are nocturnal) and this was taken through glass, by the light of a flashlight.
Primary forest picture. This was the path we came up. You can barely see it! It was fantastic!
Amy, the ever excentric Jane and Stacey. We all went for ice cream after school on Friday. Oh so yummy!
I'll try to put up the rest of the farm pictures tomorrow.
The kitty at my house. His name is Misingo (I think that is how you spell it). He is so precious!
Scorpion that was found and Daniel was playing with it. It isn't poisonous, just irritated.
A ridiculously huge walking stick!
Awesome flowers on campus. They are all so colorful and pretty. Thank goodness my camera does good close up shots. Besides animals and the ocean, I think they are my favorite things to photograph.
