Even out in the sticks, Brittany Spears brilliant vomit-show makes the news. Come on!!
Okay, when I last updated i was in Heredia - really beautiful plaza, the first place I actually truely enjoyed exploring. The Universidad Nacional is in Heredia, so I walked onto campus like the dorky student I look like and immediately found another cleanish bathroom. If you haven´t noticed the theme, finding toilets is of upmost importance to me. I don´t like to hold it.
Like all big universities, the area surrounding UNA is particularly groovy with bohemian eateries, bars, and lots of shops. And shoe stores. I found this cool vegetarian place (thank you Lonely Planet) and had my favorite treat so far. Un copa de yogurt - a gigantically huge ice crean sundae dish full of the fruit of my choice - piña, duh - and plain yogurt with granola and a couple of ginger snaps. Snap is right! It was damn good and totally refreshing after my recent diet of homecooked meals starring lard and carbs. The guys there couldn´t have been nicer and I loved it.
A word about the weather: its been totally nice. Not nearly as hot as I imagined ( I guess technically it is winter and I overlooked that fact as I packed all tank tops and sundresses), yes there are rain showers, and immediately after the showers it´s a sauna, but whatever. I read all the guide books, I figured it out. On my Heredia day however the sky opened up and didn´t let up until well after we all went to bed. Thank god (and Besser´s - Hi G, Mo, Janice and Stuart!! :)) for my umbrella. Regardless I was a drowned rat in thin khanki shorts - I shudder at the see-through factor.
The real adventure was walking home from Santa Barbara. The walk is a straight shot from town along a road with no sidewalk. I can´t remember if I´ve mentioned this yet, but as cars pass, you basically tightrope the edge of the road, lest you fall into the wide ditch on one side (filled with yuck, rotted mango, and whatever) or on-coming traffic on the other (and boy do I ever cuss as I do it.) A little scary, right? Try the tightrope, holding an umbrella, with cars and huge trucks CAREENING DOWNHILL IN THE RAIN. And oh yeah, honking. At you. They were either trying to alert me to their existence - thanks, sir, I see you - or cursing me for making them almost kill me. Regardless, obviously I lived.
After my last shower debacle, I asked mi señora for an official lesson. Yay, I figured out my mistake (TOUCHING METAL) and proceeded to take my first hot shower.
But it wasn´t hot. It was still cold. Freezing. So much so that I began to fantasize about finding a motel-by-the-hour in San Jose (lots of prostitutes, they gotta go somewhere right?) just to shower, when TA-DA! I did something that made it work! And I took a real shower. As Jill (Hi Jill!!) would say, ¨A whole new world...¨
The next day I had planned to do my first real Costa Rica thang. Seeing all these cities is fine, but I´m pretty well over it at this point. Charming or not, a city is a town, is all the same when you get down to it, and I wanted to see some real Costa Rica! I wanted to hike a volcano.
Volcàn Poàs. I was ready, got up early to catch the bus to Alajuela to transfer to Volcàn Poàs. Turns out, there is only one bus per day and it didn´t leave for a few hours (which is actually when the clouds were due to roll in and ruin all the glorious visibility. Me thinks they need to rethink the bus route, but who am i?). Fine - after killing time reading in the park, I returned to the bus station to board. When I tried to pay for my ticket I realized I had left the house with the equivalent of oh, 65 cents, and was SOL. The bus administrator was really bummed - we had formed a fast friendship as I plodded along asking him all sorts of questions in Spanish when I had first arrived. I promised him I would be back Monday. (Turns out, with the monster rains the night before, the road was essentially washed away. Mi señora told me she doubted the bus even made the trip.)
Dying to be anywhere, I hopped the first bus I saw that I could afford. Back to San Jose I went, fiuring I could change cash there, plus there was a museum I was interested in seeing. On my way into town, I spotted a cemetary that had caught my eye on my last trip in. I figured out how to walk there, and made my way once we got to the central terminal. I spent about an hour walking around and taking pictures of the super ornate and beautiful family monuments. One thing though - there was a lot of trash around. More than I though appropriate for what should be a place of respect. So I channeled my Grandpa H and picked up all the junk I could see.
As an aside: My Grandfather H was an amazing person. He and my grandmother helped found an organization called Carpinteria, Beautiful where they live, in which people adopt stretches of road throughout town and are responsible for picking up the trash people carelessly throw on the ground. Even when macular degeneration rendered him nearly blind and age had taken his mobility, he would get on his little grandpa buggy and do his pick up. My grandfather passed away recently, and my grandmother keeps up the family stretch of road, still. When I originally conceived this trip, I had wanted to volunteer for something, anything; as I began to make my plans I wasn´t able to easily find an organization that would let me volunteer without it being part of an expensive Spanish schooling and homestay package, so I figured at the very least, I could honor my grandpa H by taking some initiative doing what I could on my own.
Back to my story: The cemetary trash was totally gross and (sorry Grandma H) I didn´t have gloves (I did have handi-wipes, though). Regardless, it looked better.
Of course, it started to rain, so I walked back to the town center and made my way to change money and then to the museum I wanted to see: Centro Costaricense de Ciencia y Cultura - Galeria Nacional. The reason I was interested? It was in the, now converted, town penitentiary. The walk up the hill - because like all movie prisons, this one is out of the way of the city up an ominous hill - was a doozie, especially since I had logged some serious leg time already with the trek to the cemetary. It was cool, had some neat art inside, was totally free, and in it I met my favorite Tico so far.
An old guard began to quiz me about where I was from after I asked him for help - He was thrilled when I said Los Angeles, because he knew it. He immediately started hassling the two young guys doing some handyman work - You go to high school! Whats the capital of California!! he barked. One kid shrugged. The old guard screamed in agony! And then redirected the question to the other kid, who answered...Washington? The old man now screamed in frustration. NO!! You know nothing!! Then he looked at me and said gleefully, SACRAMENTO!! I howled.
After the museum, I happened to see a line of buses headed toward Heredia with a stop at Paseo de Flores. My family had told me I HAD to see Paseo de Flores, but I couldn´t remember the name of it, the day before in Heredia. I excitedly hopped the bus. I had searched and searched in my guidebooks for Paseo de Flores and couldn´t find anything. Imagine! A true hidden gem, recommended by native Ticos! As the bus made its way to Heredia, I finally saw Paseo de Flores. I got off the bus and couldn´t believe my eyes. It was a mall.
Whatever, I went inside and walked around. Clean bathrooms, ´nuff said. I left and noticed the University was near, so I decided to walk, not wanted to wait and pay for another bus. Why did i do that??
The University LOOKED close, but really it was far. Far, far away FAR. You know how they like to have huge shopping centers on the outskirts of town? Yeah, me too. Having gotten completely off the bus route, I just walked and walked. After an hour-ish, and finally reaching the University only to get lost inside because its more confusing than Paris and almost as big, I found my way to familiar ground. Exhausted, I treated myself to another copa de yogurt. Finally, finally, finally, I made it to the bus back to Santa Barbara...and started to feel a little precious.
So far, this trip I have thrown caution to the wind, eating and drinking whatever is put in front of me. As I started to feel increasingly worse on the ride home, I realized that might not have been the best idea. Still, I made the walk back home from Santa Barbara without dying - though I wanted to - and all of a sudden felt sorry for poor Brittany. Not that sorry, at least she had had a men´s room.
I´ll spare the details, but the episode was short. I´m fine now, as far as I can tell. And I lost a little weight in the process - Oh, spare me, you all think the same way!
Of course, my precious moment had to be the same time that the girls and I had planned to have our Yoga Booty Ballet class. Though I was a little weak, I felt totally fine and taught class as planned. It was a blast - but hard to teach in Spanish! All the women took the class - Gaby, Maga, Karen and even mi Señora!! I held class on the huge patio as dusk turned to night. (Hi Gillian and Teigh - Yay, YBB Internacionál!)
Today, I´m taking it easy, as my knees are kind of killing me. I did laundry this morning which makes me happier than you can imagine. Tonight I´m going with the family to Heredia because Maga is playing clarinet in a concert.
Pura Vida!
B
Okay, when I last updated i was in Heredia - really beautiful plaza, the first place I actually truely enjoyed exploring. The Universidad Nacional is in Heredia, so I walked onto campus like the dorky student I look like and immediately found another cleanish bathroom. If you haven´t noticed the theme, finding toilets is of upmost importance to me. I don´t like to hold it.
Like all big universities, the area surrounding UNA is particularly groovy with bohemian eateries, bars, and lots of shops. And shoe stores. I found this cool vegetarian place (thank you Lonely Planet) and had my favorite treat so far. Un copa de yogurt - a gigantically huge ice crean sundae dish full of the fruit of my choice - piña, duh - and plain yogurt with granola and a couple of ginger snaps. Snap is right! It was damn good and totally refreshing after my recent diet of homecooked meals starring lard and carbs. The guys there couldn´t have been nicer and I loved it.
A word about the weather: its been totally nice. Not nearly as hot as I imagined ( I guess technically it is winter and I overlooked that fact as I packed all tank tops and sundresses), yes there are rain showers, and immediately after the showers it´s a sauna, but whatever. I read all the guide books, I figured it out. On my Heredia day however the sky opened up and didn´t let up until well after we all went to bed. Thank god (and Besser´s - Hi G, Mo, Janice and Stuart!! :)) for my umbrella. Regardless I was a drowned rat in thin khanki shorts - I shudder at the see-through factor.
The real adventure was walking home from Santa Barbara. The walk is a straight shot from town along a road with no sidewalk. I can´t remember if I´ve mentioned this yet, but as cars pass, you basically tightrope the edge of the road, lest you fall into the wide ditch on one side (filled with yuck, rotted mango, and whatever) or on-coming traffic on the other (and boy do I ever cuss as I do it.) A little scary, right? Try the tightrope, holding an umbrella, with cars and huge trucks CAREENING DOWNHILL IN THE RAIN. And oh yeah, honking. At you. They were either trying to alert me to their existence - thanks, sir, I see you - or cursing me for making them almost kill me. Regardless, obviously I lived.
After my last shower debacle, I asked mi señora for an official lesson. Yay, I figured out my mistake (TOUCHING METAL) and proceeded to take my first hot shower.
But it wasn´t hot. It was still cold. Freezing. So much so that I began to fantasize about finding a motel-by-the-hour in San Jose (lots of prostitutes, they gotta go somewhere right?) just to shower, when TA-DA! I did something that made it work! And I took a real shower. As Jill (Hi Jill!!) would say, ¨A whole new world...¨
The next day I had planned to do my first real Costa Rica thang. Seeing all these cities is fine, but I´m pretty well over it at this point. Charming or not, a city is a town, is all the same when you get down to it, and I wanted to see some real Costa Rica! I wanted to hike a volcano.
Volcàn Poàs. I was ready, got up early to catch the bus to Alajuela to transfer to Volcàn Poàs. Turns out, there is only one bus per day and it didn´t leave for a few hours (which is actually when the clouds were due to roll in and ruin all the glorious visibility. Me thinks they need to rethink the bus route, but who am i?). Fine - after killing time reading in the park, I returned to the bus station to board. When I tried to pay for my ticket I realized I had left the house with the equivalent of oh, 65 cents, and was SOL. The bus administrator was really bummed - we had formed a fast friendship as I plodded along asking him all sorts of questions in Spanish when I had first arrived. I promised him I would be back Monday. (Turns out, with the monster rains the night before, the road was essentially washed away. Mi señora told me she doubted the bus even made the trip.)
Dying to be anywhere, I hopped the first bus I saw that I could afford. Back to San Jose I went, fiuring I could change cash there, plus there was a museum I was interested in seeing. On my way into town, I spotted a cemetary that had caught my eye on my last trip in. I figured out how to walk there, and made my way once we got to the central terminal. I spent about an hour walking around and taking pictures of the super ornate and beautiful family monuments. One thing though - there was a lot of trash around. More than I though appropriate for what should be a place of respect. So I channeled my Grandpa H and picked up all the junk I could see.
As an aside: My Grandfather H was an amazing person. He and my grandmother helped found an organization called Carpinteria, Beautiful where they live, in which people adopt stretches of road throughout town and are responsible for picking up the trash people carelessly throw on the ground. Even when macular degeneration rendered him nearly blind and age had taken his mobility, he would get on his little grandpa buggy and do his pick up. My grandfather passed away recently, and my grandmother keeps up the family stretch of road, still. When I originally conceived this trip, I had wanted to volunteer for something, anything; as I began to make my plans I wasn´t able to easily find an organization that would let me volunteer without it being part of an expensive Spanish schooling and homestay package, so I figured at the very least, I could honor my grandpa H by taking some initiative doing what I could on my own.
Back to my story: The cemetary trash was totally gross and (sorry Grandma H) I didn´t have gloves (I did have handi-wipes, though). Regardless, it looked better.
Of course, it started to rain, so I walked back to the town center and made my way to change money and then to the museum I wanted to see: Centro Costaricense de Ciencia y Cultura - Galeria Nacional. The reason I was interested? It was in the, now converted, town penitentiary. The walk up the hill - because like all movie prisons, this one is out of the way of the city up an ominous hill - was a doozie, especially since I had logged some serious leg time already with the trek to the cemetary. It was cool, had some neat art inside, was totally free, and in it I met my favorite Tico so far.
An old guard began to quiz me about where I was from after I asked him for help - He was thrilled when I said Los Angeles, because he knew it. He immediately started hassling the two young guys doing some handyman work - You go to high school! Whats the capital of California!! he barked. One kid shrugged. The old guard screamed in agony! And then redirected the question to the other kid, who answered...Washington? The old man now screamed in frustration. NO!! You know nothing!! Then he looked at me and said gleefully, SACRAMENTO!! I howled.
After the museum, I happened to see a line of buses headed toward Heredia with a stop at Paseo de Flores. My family had told me I HAD to see Paseo de Flores, but I couldn´t remember the name of it, the day before in Heredia. I excitedly hopped the bus. I had searched and searched in my guidebooks for Paseo de Flores and couldn´t find anything. Imagine! A true hidden gem, recommended by native Ticos! As the bus made its way to Heredia, I finally saw Paseo de Flores. I got off the bus and couldn´t believe my eyes. It was a mall.
Whatever, I went inside and walked around. Clean bathrooms, ´nuff said. I left and noticed the University was near, so I decided to walk, not wanted to wait and pay for another bus. Why did i do that??
The University LOOKED close, but really it was far. Far, far away FAR. You know how they like to have huge shopping centers on the outskirts of town? Yeah, me too. Having gotten completely off the bus route, I just walked and walked. After an hour-ish, and finally reaching the University only to get lost inside because its more confusing than Paris and almost as big, I found my way to familiar ground. Exhausted, I treated myself to another copa de yogurt. Finally, finally, finally, I made it to the bus back to Santa Barbara...and started to feel a little precious.
So far, this trip I have thrown caution to the wind, eating and drinking whatever is put in front of me. As I started to feel increasingly worse on the ride home, I realized that might not have been the best idea. Still, I made the walk back home from Santa Barbara without dying - though I wanted to - and all of a sudden felt sorry for poor Brittany. Not that sorry, at least she had had a men´s room.
I´ll spare the details, but the episode was short. I´m fine now, as far as I can tell. And I lost a little weight in the process - Oh, spare me, you all think the same way!
Of course, my precious moment had to be the same time that the girls and I had planned to have our Yoga Booty Ballet class. Though I was a little weak, I felt totally fine and taught class as planned. It was a blast - but hard to teach in Spanish! All the women took the class - Gaby, Maga, Karen and even mi Señora!! I held class on the huge patio as dusk turned to night. (Hi Gillian and Teigh - Yay, YBB Internacionál!)
Today, I´m taking it easy, as my knees are kind of killing me. I did laundry this morning which makes me happier than you can imagine. Tonight I´m going with the family to Heredia because Maga is playing clarinet in a concert.
Pura Vida!
B
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