More Family!

Hello again!

For those of you who didn’t know, my Aunt Mary (my mom’s eldest sister) and her friend Natalie came to visit me here in Monteverde. Their plane had issues and so they got to Monteverde a day later than planned. We had a great time during the four days that they were here. They went to the reserve and saw quetzals and some wonderful plant life. We had dinner together at one of the little Sodas in town where the food is really good and authentic.

On Saturday I had a commitment at the school until about noon, so they spent the morning at the Ferria (like a farmers market with fresh fruit and veggies) and just relaxing. I was up at the school by 8:30 getting ready for the spring fundraiser for the school called the Miniferria, kind of like a carnival. I had organized a tie-dye event! I ordered a kit from the states, had it shipped to the new volunteers that were going to come to the school the week before the fair. We had a lot of school t-shirts (that were white) and they wouldn’t be able to use them next year so we lowered the price on them, charged about 2 dollars for the dye and the kids could dye a school uniform shirt! It was a hit! Kids were asking their parents for an extra couple dollars so they could have one of the coolest shirts ever! This had not ever been done here and it was so much fun!! One student made three tie-dyed t-shirts! We had so much fun. The director and some of the teachers were really happy to see the students having so much fun!

At about noon, Aunt Mary and Natalie got to the school and they each made a t-shirt (supporting the school!) and then we had a small lunch of fresh mango, avocado and some yummy food from the Ferria. It was wonderful. After lunch we headed into the forest around the school. We hiked up to the kiosk, past some wonderful trees and plants and saw a very pretty view from the top. It was a little hazy so the view wasn’t the most spectacular but it was wonderful. On our way down we found the little aguacatillas (mini avocados) that the quetzals love to eat and often nest in the trees. I’d never seen them before so it was fun to peel one and see the inside. It was a very fun hike.

Then we took a cab up the hill to the women’s cooperative, CASEM, where there are lots of handmade crafts made by local women: embroidery, wood carving, jewelry and even some clothes. Then we walked a little ways to the Argentinean café and art gallery. They have the most amazing food, at a decent price too. We watched the clouds as the sun went down and enjoyed good food, coffee and company. Finishing our meal with a couple handcrafted Argentinean chocolates, we called a cab and went back “home”.

Sunday morning we got picked up at 8 am for our tour at the Selvatura Sky Bridges. It is a 3 km walk and there are 8 suspension bridges through the tops of the trees in the forest. It was so beautiful! My parents would have loved it, except my mom may not have been able to get across the bridges. They had a tendency to swing when you walked across them. We heard quetzals, bell birds and the heavenly sound of the black-faced solitaire. We only saw the black-faced solitaire, but I couldn’t find the bell bird that, I swear, was in a tree right above us at one point. We found some plants I had never seen and then there was this fascinating phenomenon we saw twice on our walk. There was a line of fuzzy white caterpillers moving together, with barely any space between each one. We thought they were connected at first but they were just really close together. It was amazing!

After our calm and laid back walk through the forest we went “home” to rinse out our tie-dye. They all turned out so cool! After a simple lunch of cheese, crackers, apple, fresh mango and avocado we walked to my house where I introduced them to my wonderful host mother Marlenne. My Aunt had taken photographs of my great grandmother’s crochet art and had them printed up as a gift. Marlenne loves to crochet and she is VERY creative and makes things, usually, by pictures alone and has been working out of the same crochet magazine for some time (given by how worn it is). She was entranced and her friend that was over at the time was also impressed. Along with the pictures she brought blue, yellow and multi-colored thread for her to use. It was wonderful! She has already made something with it! It was wonderful!

It was a fantastic weekend! I had a great time showing my “family” around my new home town. I was exhausted for school on Monday, but it was totally worth it. Monday afternoon they left to go to La Fortuna for a couple days. The weather was glorious all weekend and then a couple hours before they left the skies opened up and poured for an hour or so. It was so pretty and sounded gorgeous. I’m just glad it happened after all our weekend fun!

Hugs to all!

K