curiouser and curiouser...

I checked out Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass from the library a few days ago, and I've been reading a chapter or two a night... for some reason I feel it kind of parallels my experience here. I kind of feel like I'm living "The Real World: Costa Rica" + a summer camp + well, a parallel universe.

There isn't a day that goes by that doesn't surprise me, and I still haven't gotten used to going out to clubs and seeing students (as young as 14 or 15!) there. Thursday night's adventure was to reggae night at a club called "Babylon," which had a pretty big crowd and a good mix of both locals and gringo tourists. To say the least, it is more what I imagined when I thought of Costa Rica: chill reggae music, a soft breeze under a palm tree-surrounded veranda, lots of tan people, lots of people partaking in cerain illegal substances in flagrante delicto (not the least of whom were students at the high school. Oy.). Friday night involved some after-school teacher fun and an early bedtime, and Saturday was very similar to Thursday, except that Babylon was our third stop, and that it was Ladies Night instead of Reggae night. I get the feeling that I'm going to grow tired of going out in Tamarindo pretty quickly...

During the day Saturday, I ventured at last to Liberia, the capital of the Guanacaste province and the second-largest city in all of Costa Rica.



Liberia was... well, urban. I tend to prefer Tamarindo, also on the map above, and only about a 25-30 minute drive as opposed to the hour-long trek to Liberia. However, I did make some wonderful, much-needed purchases in Liberia, such as a brand new lovely blanket, a hair dryer (at last!), and a tablecloth that greatly improves the ambiance in my kitchen. On the way home we had an experience that was, for lack of a better term, very "Costa Rica." Jon, the student dorm manager, took us down a side road on the outskirts of Liberia where there was a river between two cliffs. And thus, four in our party decided to go cliff-diving. Now, if you know me, you know I am a pretty rational person who occasionally has a flair for adventure. But you could not pay me a large enough sum of money to hurl myself off a piece of rock into a river-- even if the river IS about 15-20 feet deep. (None of the people who jumped felt the bottom when they landed). I suppose it's one of those experience that will "make you feel alive", but seeing as how I've enjoyed my 22 years of life and plan on many more, I'll stick to the sidelines, thanks.


However, one awesomely cool thing was that high on the rock face on the other side of the river were petroglyphs (!!). Think of the cave paintings in Lascaux, France-- only much more Mayan-looking:




Below the moss, on the right, you can see where someone carved into the rock many, many years ago. It reminded me a lot of the carvings on the buildings at Chichen Itza (I know that's missing an accent somewhere). Anyway, that was maybe the coolest part of the whole experience for me. :) However, if you so desire, you can see the four daredevils (with commentary from myself and the other awed/terrified/amused spectators) below:

First Day!

Wow, this past week has flown by. Work started today, which was both exciting and a little scary... I was late to the full meeting this morning at 7:30, but only by a couple minutes, and I still arrived in time to introduce myself to everyone alongside the other new employees. The rest of the day went pretty smoothly except for this afternoon's torrential downpour, and I'm pretty pleased overall.

I'm trying to figure out how to upload this great noise I found of a Costa Rican gecko so all you excited fans can hear exactly what they sound like-- it's kind of a combination clicking/kissing/etc noise, and it cracks me up. Oh well, I guess you can all Google geckos if you're really that interested.

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So, Costa Rica. I am impressed every day by the natural beauty that surrounds me. After spending the past four years in an urban environment , the lush Costa Rican landscape is a welcome change for me. It's easy to see how one can get caught up in the "Pura Vida" lifestyle here and never want to leave. "Pura Vida" is sort of the Costa Rican motto. Literally, it translates as "Pure Life," but more than that it symbolizes the entire pace of life here in Costa Rica. Nothing is done in a hurry, and nothing is done stressfully. This is especially evident because I live in a beach community-- it's normal to see people wandering around in flip-flops, bathing suits, and other beachwear at all times of day. I have to say, I do enjoy it...

...this is a picture from Playa Conchal, which is about a 10-minute walk from where I live. We spent pretty much all morning there over the weekend (at least, until the rainy afternoon), and I think I might just be addicted to beach living.

Maybe I can just blame my lackadaisical blogging attitude on the Pura Vida lifestyle. :)

a different world

Okay, I had wholly intended to blog much more frequently than I have, but by the time I sit down to write, a dozen more blog-worthy events have transpired, and I don't know where to begin. This past Friday night was... interesting, to say the least. I went exploring the local nightlife with several of my co-workers; the evening culminated at one of the biggest bars/nightclubs in the area, which had great music but was filled with gringo tourists.

Also, interesting fact of the day: San Jose, Costa Rica was the third city in the entire world to get electricity in the 1880s, after New York and Paris. Crazy, huh?

...So every time I start a blog entry (like this one), I lose momentum part way through. Hm.

In more interesting news, yesterday morning I discovered a baby gecko (!) in the corner of my bedroom, and I am absolutely delighted about it. He looks something like this, but about two inches long:

Now, some of you might not like little lizard-y things, but I promise, the little gecko is adorable. Plus, he won major points with me by eating a bug; after all, that's what geckos do. Anyway, I totally terrified him, and he ran away, but not before he tried to sell me some car insurance. I have decided to name him Claude. He also makes this crazy clicking noise that I tend to enjoy, except for when it happens at 4 in the morning (as it did this morning) and wakes me up. Ah, gecko night terrors. But basically, ever since Claude showed up, the millipede numbers in my room are down (I used to see them everywhere), and I have yet to see another terrifying spider. So basically, Claude is my new best friend.

Not to be an old woman (it's 8:15pm), but I think I'm going to sign off and get ready for bed... I promise more exciting adventures (and/or gecko news) soon. :)

new beginnings

Today marks the end of my first week spent in Costa Rica. I am living here for (at least) a year on the Pacific Coast in the Guanacaste region.

Costa Rica is an absolutely beautiful country; flying in to San Jose involves descending into misty, lush mountains which you can see from almost everywhere in the city. The unit of money in CR is the colon; about 520 colons are worth one dollar, which means that most everything is cheaper here. Last Saturday I made the 200 mile trek (which took about 6 hours due to traffic and one-lane roads) across the country to reach Guanacaste, where I've been since.

The Pacific Ocean and a beautiful white sand beach are about a 10 minute walk away. One inevitable aspect of Costa Rica is the wildlife: some of this has been great so far, like the monkeys perched in the trees at a little roadside stand as I travelled cross-country, or the vivid green chinche (stinkbug!) that I saw at dinner-- harmless and so cute in shape and color that it didn't scare me. An unfriendly surprise awaited my return home my first evening when I entered my room and saw not one, not two, but five spiders. After disposing of the first (smaller) four, I begged a male neighbor to kill the largest (about 3 inches across). His reply? "Why do you want to kill him? He won't bite you. He'll eat the scorpions and other stuff." Which, as you might guess, did not make me feel much better. However, the profusion of creepy-crawlies here in Guanacaste is something to which I'll have to become accustomed, and I am definitely thrilled to be living in a foreign country again.

Lastly, my first impressions: Costa Ricans, as a whole, are extremely friendly and extremely polite. Costa Rica is a nation in transition: while most of the population earns the equivalent of $2000-$3000 annually, there are $1 million condos in San Jose, and expensive, beautiful five-star hotels here on the coast. At once there is the construction of a brand-new high-end shopping center alongside aged 'tico' buildings and small businesses that families have operated for years. I will be interested to get to know more of the locals here in Guanacaste to see how they feel about the boom of expatriates and foreign retirees in their country. Moreover, every Costa Rican I have met has been delighted to help me practice my Spanish, which is a huge plus, as I will be working in an English-language environment.

Lastly, the most amusing thing about Costa Rica is that they have no street names. Addresses are written using landmarks; for example, my hotel in San Jose was "400 meters west of the second cemetery". Needless to say, it makes driving an adventure, especially since the rainy season is in full swing.

Hopefully the future entries will be a bit more lively than this introductory post, and I look forward to any readers helpful hints about blogging.

All the best for now--