volcanoes y futbol

Another Sunday. Therefore the end of our third week in Costa Rica! Also another day off. And a really long blog entry to boot! With awesome pictures. Get ready.

Firstly, on Thursday morning, I went bird watching with Edgardo! This was really cool. We just walked very slowly down our street starting at 6, but we saw a lot of birds. (Mom, this is for you!) I don't remember any of their names except the grackle, which is basically the lamest bird in CR. But it was cool!

On Friday we got up at six and got into field trip mode and headed out to Carara national park. Our first stop was at the crocodile man tour. Very similar to the swamp tours in New Orleans.

Our purpose, of course, was not to go on a swamp tour. Rather, we motored down the Tárcoles River for a couple minutes to the mouth where it conjoins with the Pacific. Here, we got to witness the shocking effects of the lack of enforcement of waste treatment here. We parked on a beach that was literally a trashcan. The banks of the river were simply blanketed with garbage. It was disgusting. And the water was poop brown. Achim gave us a lecture on this beach about how companies upstream just dump all their shit in the water and that’s about it. The town of Tárcoles apparently was a happening spot in the 60’s for Ticos.

After the beach and a quick lecture about mangroves, the scariest trees ever (see picture), we walked through the ‘town’. It is all but abandoned. There is trash EVERYWHERE. In theory, it would be a really nice beach and tourist destination but it’s been completely ruined. Pretty depressing. We did see a fake coral snake though, which was pretty sick.


As we went to get back on the boat, we discovered alas the tide had gone out and the boat was beached. So we spent about twenty minutes pushing the boat back into the water. This was very comical.

Then we drove to the visitor’s center of Carara. Well, I don’t know if you can call it a visitor’s center. It’s what should have been a visitor’s center, but instead is just completely empty. Except for several jars of pickled creatures preserves (fer de lance, armadillo, etc). Gross. Carara, to the say the least, wasn’t too poppin’. As we were waiting to go on our little hike through the dry-to-wet rainforest of Carara, a little male deer emerged from the woods and started attacking Ross. This was probably one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my life. Ross stepped out onto the grass and the buck got super territorial and just started walking toward Ross. When it approached it put its head down and started pushing him! Ross tried to push back but basically just failed. This went on for a really long time. It was adorable. Then I pet the wild deer. I thought this was a very cool thing. Luckily I got it all on video.

The most notable thing about the Carara hike were the leafcutter ants. Have I mentioned them yet? They are INCREDIBLE. And there are so many. Like every ten feet we walked, there would be thousands of chunks of leaves just marching across the path. They’re crazy. After the hike, we stopped briefly at a bridge where a bunch of crocs hang out because businesses around the area feed them to create a tourist attraction. Kind of sad. There were 23 crocs all just chillin in one little area.
my friend carrie and the crocs
cool fungus
leaf cutter ants all marching in a row!
leaf cutter ant riding on another ant's leaf! there is some purpose to this that i don't remember.

Home again home again, then we went to a bar to sing karaoke. I copped out pretty early and went to bed.

Sunday, again, off at six for Poas national park. This is the most visited park in the country! And guess what happened! JUST GUESS. You won’t be able to guess, it was absolutely unreal. WE WERE COLD!!!!!! I was wearing LAYERS and WOOL SOCKS and I was still cold!!!!!!!!!!!! This was probably the most homesick I’ve been since I’ve been here. I wish it weren’t so humid all the time and I miss (I never thought I’d say this) altitude! We were at 10,000 feet… I want to go snowboarding and wear warm clothes. Just sometimes. This was also the moment I realized why I couldn’t live here. I really dislike humidity. LOOK WE ARE COLD!!!!!:


Anyway, we got to the park super early and it was cold and rainy and foggy and we couldn’t see the crater at all (above pic). But we hiked around and learned about the leaves and tourism and you know, all the stuff you learn about on a sustainable development program. Then we hiked back down and were supposed to survey some people about their experience at the park. We attempted this, but then just went back to see the crater and the lagoon, which, if you can’t tell by the pictures, was definitely worth it (me and nellie in front of the volcano crater, and my friend nick in front of the lagoon. Much better view than the one in the morning!). I have never seen a volcano before! This was very cool. It reminded me of Yellowstone.


Lecture from the park management (in translated Spanish, very difficult to pay attention) and lecture from Sergio and then we got back on the bus. To head to the Costa Rican club futbol game! An hour later we would be in Alajuela, pregaming for the event. NOT. Alas, somehow we ended up behind a funeral procession for two hours. Because funeral processions just decide to walk down a major road for hours and block traffic. That’s all they do. We literally moved twenty feet in two hours. Many Costa Ricans, with little regard for traffic laws, would just speed down the other side of the road. Somehow we didn’t witness any head on collisions. With 26 college kids on a tiny bus, this made everyone a little crabby.

By the time we finally got to Alajuela (the line of cars was absurdly massive) we were “late” to the game, as in we weren’t three hours early we were only an hour and a half early, so we stopped briefly at a mall with overpriced American food to buy our own dinner and then crammed back on the bus to drive to the stadium. As soon as we got to the stadium, one of our site managers Yendry stepped on the bus as soon as the door opened and rallied us like sheep. We were herded to the entrance of the stadium and then seated at the first available, terrible seats that she found.

Now for a little bitching, because if you can’t tell, I was not pleased. Firstly, I hate sporting events. I have no interest in watching them, I can’t focus; they’re boring. Why did I go you ask? Well, I was being a team player. The aforementioned Ross wanted to go to a club soccer game and if everyone in the group went we would be able to take the bus cheaply and we could all just party together and go to the game and it would be great. So we all said we’d go (all but two). I was not informed that we were going to be babysat all night, that you can’t leave the game and come back in, that not alcoholic beverages are sold in the stadium… All I wanted was a couple drinks. Or five. But no. That was a bust. In looking upon it as a cultural experience (as I was told to do after complaining about my bitterness for a good while), Costa Rican soccer is CRAZY. You can’t bring anything into the stadium except cash dollars (no cameras, coins, credit cards) except people still sneak it massive quantities of paper rolls and confetti that they all throw onto the field as soon as the game is supposed to start. Most of the crowd spends the entire game singing and gyrating in the stands. There are police everywhere. And as for the game, I have never seen a dirtier sport. Basically it’s just a competition to see who can trip the other team more. Anyway, the team we were rooting for won. And after three hours we were able to leave five minutes before the game ended to avoid crowds and got on the bus back home. (No pictures of this, obviously, because we weren't allowed to have cameras. Awesome.)

I slept in this morning. Til nine. This was the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me. And I’m going to sit on my butt all day and relax. Pura vida.