Well, I'm back in the United States, though not home yet, after one of the most truly awful travel days I've ever endured. I'm in Atlanta (Decatur, technically) at my friends A. and J.'s place, and my friend P. is coming into town to get me later this afternoon.
The semi-short version of the trip back:
* Packing the van went fine, getting to the San José airport went fine, checking in & boarding went fine -- other than being 30 min. late to leave (nothing too unusual about that) and other than the idiot travel agent from the University misbooking the other two professors to return from a five-week program on June 22, not July 22. Had she booked me correctly the first time, instead of misbooking me to the wrong side of Costa Rica, that probably would have happened to me too). They were able to get rebooked onto our plane, though.
* The flight... 20-30 minutes in, we hit some nasty turbulence. OK, it wasn't fun, you get anxious & what not, but we've all been through turbulence. It calms down a bit... and then, boom... we suddenly hit a cell of turbulence like nothing I've ever been through -- food trays & other loose items go flying, people are screaming, and we nosedive for a very short while-- 5 seconds? Enough to register that we're falling fast & at a sharp angle vertically, and a far more banked horizontal angle than planes usually fly. The guy in the seat next to me, on his way back from his honeymoon, reaches to grab something, & instead of his table, latches onto my food tray with all his might, but misses, sending it flying (although I didn't get splattered by anything worse than ice cubes, he spent most of the rest of the flight apologizing -- and holding onto the seat in front of him with white knuckles). After a few moments of sheer terror, the plane levels out & calm is restored, and the pilot declares, "Whoah. That was not on the radar screen." Not surprisingly, everyone's jittery for the rest of the flight, and the regular turbulence we hit later was much more nervewracking than it'd normally be.
* From there: We land 15 minutes late, no big deal, but we wait on the tarmac for an hour, because there's no gate for us. Our hopes of getting the next-to-last shuttle of the day are dashed. We wait forever for our bags inside customs, get through customs and security smooth, and having had to re-check our bags for delivery on the carousels outside of customs, we wait there for even longer for the bags. Parents/siblings/significant others of our students are now there, & goodbyes are said.
* Our (the profs) luggage takes especially long. The last shuttle to Athens of the night is now promising to wait for us. The Spanish prof's luggage comes, & she makes it to the shuttle.
* Mine finally comes, & I dash over there with over 100 lbs of luggage, huffing & puffing & finally stealing a luggage cart & looking for the right bus spot, & getting sent to the wrong place twice - the van, of course, has left. The driver of the shuttle to Gainesville -- an older woman who's no doubt family, takes some pity of me, & offers to call her boss to see if the boss will allow her to take me after she drops people off in Gainesville, for an extra fee. But the boss says no, & is apparently nasty to her. I call the boss, and fake that I haven't spoken to the driver, and we get into a very nasty conversation - the second it's clear that I'm not happy, she gets defensive, and frankly, I'm just as happy that she feels more attacked than I actually was attacking her, since she's such a nasty person on the phone. (The one other time I used this van service, I had a driver making the occasional racist comment, so I was in no rush to use them again...) I promise never, ever to use their services again, which will be very easy for me to hold true to :) After her testy "good night," I hang up without replying in kind.
* When I call P., he has the smart suggestion of renting a car - alas, after a trip to Alamo/National, I discover that very few rental agencies a) are answering their phones at 11pm on Sunday night, & b) of those that are, most don't do one-way rentals or don't have an office in Athens, & c) Hertz does rentals & does operate in Athens, but had the rate of $169 for one day.
* After some frantic (trust me, an understatement) calling around, I end up taking the Alamo/National shuttle back to the terminal, grab a taxi, spend an insane amount of money on a cab ride to Decatur, & arrive around 12:30am at Decatur, where J. is kind enough to feed me & give me a stiff drink & otherwise get me feeling human again, and I finally collapse.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Costa Rica: Picture of the Day 1
On the beach at Puerto Viejo
Summer in the tropics is over; it's back to the grind in (the far warmer) Georgia.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
the last purchase
Greetings from Juan Santamaría International Airport, where unlike any US airport that I've visited, there's a free wifi hotspot. What was my final purchase in Costa Rica? I broke down, & bought Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal. Once I get through the books in English, I'll turn to Spanish.
It's not a big surprise that many passengers here are reading the brand-new book (the airport stores are still fully stocked), but I was amused-cum-scared to see two employees dressed up as Harry and (a dark-haired tica version of) Hermione. Pictures, of course, are forthcoming.
I'll post a trip wrap up at some point soon, plus I'll continue posting pictures, as I sort and process them. I'm thinking of posting a picture a day for some time - I could go for a couple years with what I've taken, but I'll aim for a selective sample of scenic, funny, political, or otherwise intriguing shots.
Alright, we board in about twenty minutes - I'm looking forward (ok, not so much) to spending the flight grading essays, journal entries, and final exams... three of my students are still finishing the journals, which are due before we land in Atlanta. This adventure is pretty much over, but the memories will last a lifetime.
It's not a big surprise that many passengers here are reading the brand-new book (the airport stores are still fully stocked), but I was amused-cum-scared to see two employees dressed up as Harry and (a dark-haired tica version of) Hermione. Pictures, of course, are forthcoming.
I'll post a trip wrap up at some point soon, plus I'll continue posting pictures, as I sort and process them. I'm thinking of posting a picture a day for some time - I could go for a couple years with what I've taken, but I'll aim for a selective sample of scenic, funny, political, or otherwise intriguing shots.
Alright, we board in about twenty minutes - I'm looking forward (ok, not so much) to spending the flight grading essays, journal entries, and final exams... three of my students are still finishing the journals, which are due before we land in Atlanta. This adventure is pretty much over, but the memories will last a lifetime.
The last night...
By this time tomorrow night, I'll be back in Athens, and Monday morning, I'll dive into the mad frenzy to pack my apartment and office for the great move northwards. For the moment though, I'm sitting in my hotel room in San José, watching South Park: Más Grande, Más Larga, y Sin Censura, after a final group dinner, and a brief trip downtown to a bookstore (where I briefly considered buying some of the Harry Potter books en español, but they weren't a whole lot cheaper here than they'll be in the States, and I didn't feel like schlepping los libros from San José to Athens to Boston. Some of you will be amused to know that the final book was already sold out in San José. (And though there's a copy of that final book waiting for me at home, I'm absolutely determined to avoid spoilers until I've re-read Order of the Phoenix and The Half-Blood Prince - I made it from the beginning of the series to the last 50 pages of Goblet of Fire before leaving for Costa Rica)
Though we've driven through San José a few times on our trips rafting & down to Puerto Viejo, this was my first time on foot in the city. Our hotel is very, very nice, though it's in a quite sketchy neighborhood; I would have liked to have a lot more time to explore downtown. We passed the national park, the national library, and the national theatre, along with a ton of anti-CAFTA grafitti (including one V for Vendetta reference) - I'll blog about the upcoming referendum on CAFTA soon. My interest in downtown San José was certainly not diminished by my gaydar (or oso-dar?) going off more in 10 minutes than it has in five weeks; I suspect I was checked out at least a little bit a couple of times, although it could just have been guys glancing at the gringo standing alone while the other profs were inside la farmacia. More generally, our brief time downtown was my only real direct exposure to urban Costa Rica, even though the overwhelming majority of ticos live in or within commuting distance of the capital.
We drove down from Arenal and La Fortuna today, stopping as noted in Sarchi, the country's center for crafts and the home of the apparently famous national symbol of the painted oxcarts (though I must admit that I didn't know about these until my friend M. visited). I got the last couple gifts I had in mind, including a small, build-it-yourself uber-mini ox-cart for my niece - my brother reports that she's really into art these days, & I know she's already had a Frida Kahlo stage, so I hope this works for her (I'm utterly unprepared to shop for an eight-year-old girl, I must admit). This came after almost two days in the shadow of the Arenal volcano - I'll post pictures soon, but we spent two nights in a set of cabins almost at the base of the volcano. The hotel was beautiful, what with hummingbirds flitting around the beautifully landscaped grounds and well-kept wood cabins -- I'll have to post pictures of the rose-petal covered "swans" made out of towels; it's too bad I'm not remotely in the mood for such romantic touches -- plus the view of the volcano itself (I never saw the howler monkeys, but I did hear them...) Unfortunately, it was only sunny for the first 30 minutes and the last hour of the time we were there, & we could only see the tip of the volcano just as we were arriving (we did a "jeep-boat-jeep" transfer from Monteverde, or more accuarately, a van-ferry-van transfer). Moreover, the lava changes where it flows out of the volcano every few months, and at the moment, it's flowing towards Lake Arenal and away from all the hotels, restaurants, and spas, which means you can only see the lovely forest-covered side of the volcano from said establishments.
Friday was our super-busy day in Arenal/La Fortuna. We started with a hike to the La Fortuna Waterfall, another stunningly beautiful waterfall that's maybe 150-200 feet high (I'm guessing here), which entailed descending 550 steps and then climbing back up. We then headed to the Arenal Volcano National Park, where we went to the lookout, & then did a 2km hike to an area with a clear view of the perfectly conical volcano. We climbed up on the lava rocks, took a gazillion pictures... and when we were able to quiet all the students down (not a remotely easy task), we could hear the volcano... churning? rumbling? gurgling? It was amazing, & I can't wait to come back when I can actually see the lava. We could see hints of the boulders coming down the top of the volcano - that required looking for the white trails of dust that represented the boulders being spit out of the volcano - at night, those glow red. Most people quickly turned around to head back - one student and I, both being of the attitude that we came to Costa Rica for the volcano, not for souvenir shopping in downtown La Fortuna, headed off for another hundred yards to the trailhead, where we had an even better view of the volcano & the lake as well, & listened quietly to the awesome marvel in front of us. Eventually, we headed back, hiked back 3km through some remarkably varied vegetation to the parking lot, and saw a very colorful lizard along the way.
After a tasty but slow late lunch in La Fortuna, we wandered around the town for an hour, which for L. and me, mostly entailed a quick look at the old church and walk through the town square, plus minor shopping (i now have a mission: to find a Saprissa soccer jersey in my size with their corporate sponsor's logo on the front: Bimbo baked goods). Following the brief trip back to the hotel, we headed off to Baldi Hot Springs, a complex of 16 thermal pools, including bars you literally swim/wade up to. That was fantastic fun, and the only minus was that we got there later than planned because of everything earlier in the day, and didn't have nearly enough time in the water. Still, it was great fun, and as relaxing as it gets when you're still chaperoning 14 students... and oh yeah, there was plenty of eye candy.
Alright, more soon from the States!
Though we've driven through San José a few times on our trips rafting & down to Puerto Viejo, this was my first time on foot in the city. Our hotel is very, very nice, though it's in a quite sketchy neighborhood; I would have liked to have a lot more time to explore downtown. We passed the national park, the national library, and the national theatre, along with a ton of anti-CAFTA grafitti (including one V for Vendetta reference) - I'll blog about the upcoming referendum on CAFTA soon. My interest in downtown San José was certainly not diminished by my gaydar (or oso-dar?) going off more in 10 minutes than it has in five weeks; I suspect I was checked out at least a little bit a couple of times, although it could just have been guys glancing at the gringo standing alone while the other profs were inside la farmacia. More generally, our brief time downtown was my only real direct exposure to urban Costa Rica, even though the overwhelming majority of ticos live in or within commuting distance of the capital.
We drove down from Arenal and La Fortuna today, stopping as noted in Sarchi, the country's center for crafts and the home of the apparently famous national symbol of the painted oxcarts (though I must admit that I didn't know about these until my friend M. visited). I got the last couple gifts I had in mind, including a small, build-it-yourself uber-mini ox-cart for my niece - my brother reports that she's really into art these days, & I know she's already had a Frida Kahlo stage, so I hope this works for her (I'm utterly unprepared to shop for an eight-year-old girl, I must admit). This came after almost two days in the shadow of the Arenal volcano - I'll post pictures soon, but we spent two nights in a set of cabins almost at the base of the volcano. The hotel was beautiful, what with hummingbirds flitting around the beautifully landscaped grounds and well-kept wood cabins -- I'll have to post pictures of the rose-petal covered "swans" made out of towels; it's too bad I'm not remotely in the mood for such romantic touches -- plus the view of the volcano itself (I never saw the howler monkeys, but I did hear them...) Unfortunately, it was only sunny for the first 30 minutes and the last hour of the time we were there, & we could only see the tip of the volcano just as we were arriving (we did a "jeep-boat-jeep" transfer from Monteverde, or more accuarately, a van-ferry-van transfer). Moreover, the lava changes where it flows out of the volcano every few months, and at the moment, it's flowing towards Lake Arenal and away from all the hotels, restaurants, and spas, which means you can only see the lovely forest-covered side of the volcano from said establishments.
Friday was our super-busy day in Arenal/La Fortuna. We started with a hike to the La Fortuna Waterfall, another stunningly beautiful waterfall that's maybe 150-200 feet high (I'm guessing here), which entailed descending 550 steps and then climbing back up. We then headed to the Arenal Volcano National Park, where we went to the lookout, & then did a 2km hike to an area with a clear view of the perfectly conical volcano. We climbed up on the lava rocks, took a gazillion pictures... and when we were able to quiet all the students down (not a remotely easy task), we could hear the volcano... churning? rumbling? gurgling? It was amazing, & I can't wait to come back when I can actually see the lava. We could see hints of the boulders coming down the top of the volcano - that required looking for the white trails of dust that represented the boulders being spit out of the volcano - at night, those glow red. Most people quickly turned around to head back - one student and I, both being of the attitude that we came to Costa Rica for the volcano, not for souvenir shopping in downtown La Fortuna, headed off for another hundred yards to the trailhead, where we had an even better view of the volcano & the lake as well, & listened quietly to the awesome marvel in front of us. Eventually, we headed back, hiked back 3km through some remarkably varied vegetation to the parking lot, and saw a very colorful lizard along the way.
After a tasty but slow late lunch in La Fortuna, we wandered around the town for an hour, which for L. and me, mostly entailed a quick look at the old church and walk through the town square, plus minor shopping (i now have a mission: to find a Saprissa soccer jersey in my size with their corporate sponsor's logo on the front: Bimbo baked goods). Following the brief trip back to the hotel, we headed off to Baldi Hot Springs, a complex of 16 thermal pools, including bars you literally swim/wade up to. That was fantastic fun, and the only minus was that we got there later than planned because of everything earlier in the day, and didn't have nearly enough time in the water. Still, it was great fun, and as relaxing as it gets when you're still chaperoning 14 students... and oh yeah, there was plenty of eye candy.
Alright, more soon from the States!
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
A glimpse
Yesterday, I spent the morning of my next-to-last full day in this area at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve with four of my students. Despite our plans to be there at 7am (we got there a bit after 8am), and some late-trip punchiness and sniping amongst the students, it was a rather lovely hike, and I have many pictures to post once I have a more stable internet connection. We didn't hire a guide, though, and that was a mistake - through the entire hike, we saw nothing in the way of wildlife, not even the frogs and funky insects that M. and I saw on a night-hike there in the rain two weeks ago. At the end, I took them to the hummingbird gallery where M. and I had gone this past Saturday while we waited for F., our ever-reliable cab driver. F. eventually showed up, and we were getting into his taxi when he heard something, and told us we should get out to see it. What did he hear?
This is why I bought a 12x zoom lens - sorry for the fuzziness, but this is probably 35 feet up and 35 feet over (¿cómo se dice "hypotenuse" en español?) In the parking lot, we saw the famed quetzal, the plumed bird at the heart of Central American indigenous mythology (more info about the quetzal is online here: http://www.cloudforestalive.org/tour/qcam/quetzaldetails.htm). Sightings of the quetzal are not all that common, and I think this is a great way to wrap up our time in Monteverde.
Off to prepare a final exam...
This is why I bought a 12x zoom lens - sorry for the fuzziness, but this is probably 35 feet up and 35 feet over (¿cómo se dice "hypotenuse" en español?) In the parking lot, we saw the famed quetzal, the plumed bird at the heart of Central American indigenous mythology (more info about the quetzal is online here: http://www.cloudforestalive.org/tour/qcam/quetzaldetails.htm). Sightings of the quetzal are not all that common, and I think this is a great way to wrap up our time in Monteverde.
Off to prepare a final exam...
Saturday, July 14, 2007
A quick update from San Luis
The internet at the research station has been down for two days, so I'm writing from downtown Santa Elena. One more week to go -- finals next Wed., we leave for the volcano at Arenal on Thurs., San Jose next Sat., & back to the US on Sun. My friend M. is visiting for a couple - we were heading out to do a canopy walk in the cloud forest, but it's pouring rain, so we're checking email at the internet cafe & checking out art galleries instead.
I have a LONG post about Puerto Viejo... but it's not something that can go up on here. If you're reading along & want to read it, I'll email you directly -- just leave a message on the comments section or email me directly.
I have a LONG post about Puerto Viejo... but it's not something that can go up on here. If you're reading along & want to read it, I'll email you directly -- just leave a message on the comments section or email me directly.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
A pig walks into an Internet cafe...
Literally, at this moment, there's a pig wandering around the Internet cafe here in Puerto Viejo, along with me, two other professors, and two students. The pig just wandered below my feet (I'm sitting on a bar stool), brushing up against me. Welcome to cyberspace, Caribbean style. All we need are a priest and a rabbi.
The Research Station installed a wireless cloud for the campus earlier this week, which means that the system promptly crashed, & we had extremely limited access to the world this week. My 4th of July deserves its own write-up, but briefly, I wandered around Monteverde and Santa Elena on my own all day, and had a fantastic time (& then had dinner with my old friend M., who's in country from New York for a week and a half, and a friend of his who came down from Los Angeles for a much shorter trip). M. & I also went night hiking in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve on Thursday, before Friday's all-day bus ride across about 3/4ths of Costa Rica to get down here to the Caribbean coast. In one day, we saw the Gulf of Nicoya, feeding into the Pacific Ocean, & then drove down & waded into the Caribbean. That gives a clear sense of just how narrow the Central American isthmus really is.
I promise more pictures - between the limited email and a glitch with my card reader for my second flash card, I haven't been able to download & post those pictures. But I'm still taking them, of course.
More from San Luis in a few days!
The Research Station installed a wireless cloud for the campus earlier this week, which means that the system promptly crashed, & we had extremely limited access to the world this week. My 4th of July deserves its own write-up, but briefly, I wandered around Monteverde and Santa Elena on my own all day, and had a fantastic time (& then had dinner with my old friend M., who's in country from New York for a week and a half, and a friend of his who came down from Los Angeles for a much shorter trip). M. & I also went night hiking in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve on Thursday, before Friday's all-day bus ride across about 3/4ths of Costa Rica to get down here to the Caribbean coast. In one day, we saw the Gulf of Nicoya, feeding into the Pacific Ocean, & then drove down & waded into the Caribbean. That gives a clear sense of just how narrow the Central American isthmus really is.
I promise more pictures - between the limited email and a glitch with my card reader for my second flash card, I haven't been able to download & post those pictures. But I'm still taking them, of course.
More from San Luis in a few days!
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Two weeks down, three to go
So we're two weeks into our program in Costa Rica, with three to go (I know I told everyone it was a six-week trip, but apparently my days of acing calculus and memorizing calendars are behind me, and I can no longer count to ten). The TESOL program folks left this Saturday morning, which included the only two people outside my program who have made any effort to talk to me so far this summer -- there's an odd clique-ishness among the English-speaking staff, the naturalists & the overall program staff and whomever else, and other than my specific program's director, who is fabulous (and a sci-fi-loving 80s pop culture fiend), the Internet has provided pretty much all of my adult companionships and conversations since getting here. It'll be interesting to see who shows up for our little Saturday night fiesta and/or our Sunday movie night (Goodbye Lenin and Km. 0 (Kilometer Zero) are the program.
We leave next Friday for Puerto Viejo, on the Caribbean coast, close to the Panamanian border. That trip is mostly for relaxation and to see this small, funky town and savor its reportedly pristine beaches, in the heart of the country's Afro-Caribbean community. Interestingly, all the ticos we've met have warned us that it's a little bit dangerous there, but the other University folks who have traveled there have had a blast and had no comment about safety. Whether those reports of danger are related to the fact that I have not seen one person of predominately African descent in Costa Rica so far (except for those on our University's programs), I can only speculate. Besides the beaches, our Puerto Viejo itinerary includes a tour of an organic chocolate factory and a trip to Punta Mona -- Monkey Point -- which is reportedly somewhere beautiful but I don't know much about it). A couple of us may go rafting again as well on our free day.
Saturday morning's excursion was lower key than ziplining or rafting the Rio Pacaure, but it was still fun -- we walked over to La Finca Bella, a 15-year-old cooperative, organic farming community here in San Luis, where one of our students is homestaying. Her family runs a trapiche, growing raw sugar cane and processing it into liquid form. We all got to walk through the stands of sugar and then work the machine, and enjoy both chewing on raw sugar and drinking a little bit of the raw sugar cane juice. The students clearly came away impressed and having had a better time than they had expected. (Well, except for the four students who struck out on their own this weekend for a trip to a town on the Pacific Coast, on a trip they originally tried to keep secret -- except for desperately needing help from the Research Station staff to actually plan how to get there, where they'd stay, and so on. ¡Ay, niños! Repeat after me: children are our future...)
The students are -- mostly -- well accommodated to their homestay families, calling them "madre" and "padre" and "hermano" and "tio" and so on, and getting used to not having the level of creature comforts they have in the States (A couple like to shower at the main campus site, or have arranged slumber parties with their friends who are staying with families in nicer houses). It's especially interesting to watch these 19- and 20-year olds interact with local residents their age who already have a couple kids and are working away, and are not part of the long, drawn out transition to adulthood that U.S. undergraduate life creates.
As promised, it is the rainy season, and we oscillate between stunning blue skies and downpours with some regularity. The humidity isn't too bad -- I'm certainly enjoying a far milder summer than I had before I left Athens or that I'll return to to finish packing. I am most definitely ready for some different cuisine (I see that Puerto Viejo has Thai food... yay!) -- the cafeteria workers does heroic labor in feeding all the visitors three times a day, seven days a week, though they tend to prefer beef and pork to chicken, to my exasperation, and three more weeks of rice and beans is not the end of the world. They do provide fresh fruit every morning -- pineapple, watermelon (with more flavor than usually found in the US), papaya, sometimes bananas or plantains. (A South Beach-friendly country this is NOT -- Carbo Rica is more like it. Once I'm settled in Boston, I'll get back on the regimen). Dessert, served at every meal, brings out the creativity of the kitchen staff, and we've had everything from sweet potato pie with an egg-white topping to homemade ice cream and fudge to a host of other sweets. They are served in far smaller portions than North Americans are used to, and there's a lot to be said for just having a small taste of those delicious desserts than the huge slabs of cake or mongo portions of ice cream we all know and often crave. Though tonight's banana bread might just require a trip back to the kitchen...
Other than a cloth bookmark embroidered with a quetzal (the national bird of Costa Rica, which I have yet to see, but hope to when hiking in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve at some point soon) made by the mother at the farm this morning, I have not bought any souvenirs yet. I think a trip into Santa Elena for a small bit of shopping is in the works for Monday, and at least, I want to pick up a Costa Rican national soccer team jersey. Am also debating what would make good gifts for friends (requests are especially welcome from any very close friends who happen to be getting married while I'm in Costa Rica...); other than a trip to the local doctor to be confirmed as having bronchitis and the resulting prescription drugs, I've spent amazingly little money so far (of course, my food is paid for and I'm at a research station 8km from town).
The bronchitis is slowly improving -- Friday's 1.5km hike on El Camino Real wasn't too rough (mud was a bigger issue than my chest congestion), and Saturday morning's walk uphill to La Finca Bella was rougher, but the healthy and thin 20-year-olds were huffing and puffing too, so I don't feel too bad. As far as going to the doctor, he spoke reasonable English, which was helpful, though he was also, well, a doctor with pretensions of grand importance -- apparently, one can get those either from Duke University's School of Medicine or El Colegio de Médicos y Cirujanos de Costa Rica. Another instructor had a far worse time meeting with him; I just got attitude, a reminder that I need to lose weight, and what's apparently the Costa Rican medical cure-all: a shot in el culo. Thankfully, my program's health insurance will cover all my prescription drugs in full, as the $53 doctor's visit took care of the deductible in full.
Well, that's it for this Saturday afternoon update - I'll post this when the Internet tubes are all cleared up, and wish everyone a great weekend.
We leave next Friday for Puerto Viejo, on the Caribbean coast, close to the Panamanian border. That trip is mostly for relaxation and to see this small, funky town and savor its reportedly pristine beaches, in the heart of the country's Afro-Caribbean community. Interestingly, all the ticos we've met have warned us that it's a little bit dangerous there, but the other University folks who have traveled there have had a blast and had no comment about safety. Whether those reports of danger are related to the fact that I have not seen one person of predominately African descent in Costa Rica so far (except for those on our University's programs), I can only speculate. Besides the beaches, our Puerto Viejo itinerary includes a tour of an organic chocolate factory and a trip to Punta Mona -- Monkey Point -- which is reportedly somewhere beautiful but I don't know much about it). A couple of us may go rafting again as well on our free day.
Saturday morning's excursion was lower key than ziplining or rafting the Rio Pacaure, but it was still fun -- we walked over to La Finca Bella, a 15-year-old cooperative, organic farming community here in San Luis, where one of our students is homestaying. Her family runs a trapiche, growing raw sugar cane and processing it into liquid form. We all got to walk through the stands of sugar and then work the machine, and enjoy both chewing on raw sugar and drinking a little bit of the raw sugar cane juice. The students clearly came away impressed and having had a better time than they had expected. (Well, except for the four students who struck out on their own this weekend for a trip to a town on the Pacific Coast, on a trip they originally tried to keep secret -- except for desperately needing help from the Research Station staff to actually plan how to get there, where they'd stay, and so on. ¡Ay, niños! Repeat after me: children are our future...)
The students are -- mostly -- well accommodated to their homestay families, calling them "madre" and "padre" and "hermano" and "tio" and so on, and getting used to not having the level of creature comforts they have in the States (A couple like to shower at the main campus site, or have arranged slumber parties with their friends who are staying with families in nicer houses). It's especially interesting to watch these 19- and 20-year olds interact with local residents their age who already have a couple kids and are working away, and are not part of the long, drawn out transition to adulthood that U.S. undergraduate life creates.
As promised, it is the rainy season, and we oscillate between stunning blue skies and downpours with some regularity. The humidity isn't too bad -- I'm certainly enjoying a far milder summer than I had before I left Athens or that I'll return to to finish packing. I am most definitely ready for some different cuisine (I see that Puerto Viejo has Thai food... yay!) -- the cafeteria workers does heroic labor in feeding all the visitors three times a day, seven days a week, though they tend to prefer beef and pork to chicken, to my exasperation, and three more weeks of rice and beans is not the end of the world. They do provide fresh fruit every morning -- pineapple, watermelon (with more flavor than usually found in the US), papaya, sometimes bananas or plantains. (A South Beach-friendly country this is NOT -- Carbo Rica is more like it. Once I'm settled in Boston, I'll get back on the regimen). Dessert, served at every meal, brings out the creativity of the kitchen staff, and we've had everything from sweet potato pie with an egg-white topping to homemade ice cream and fudge to a host of other sweets. They are served in far smaller portions than North Americans are used to, and there's a lot to be said for just having a small taste of those delicious desserts than the huge slabs of cake or mongo portions of ice cream we all know and often crave. Though tonight's banana bread might just require a trip back to the kitchen...
Other than a cloth bookmark embroidered with a quetzal (the national bird of Costa Rica, which I have yet to see, but hope to when hiking in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve at some point soon) made by the mother at the farm this morning, I have not bought any souvenirs yet. I think a trip into Santa Elena for a small bit of shopping is in the works for Monday, and at least, I want to pick up a Costa Rican national soccer team jersey. Am also debating what would make good gifts for friends (requests are especially welcome from any very close friends who happen to be getting married while I'm in Costa Rica...); other than a trip to the local doctor to be confirmed as having bronchitis and the resulting prescription drugs, I've spent amazingly little money so far (of course, my food is paid for and I'm at a research station 8km from town).
The bronchitis is slowly improving -- Friday's 1.5km hike on El Camino Real wasn't too rough (mud was a bigger issue than my chest congestion), and Saturday morning's walk uphill to La Finca Bella was rougher, but the healthy and thin 20-year-olds were huffing and puffing too, so I don't feel too bad. As far as going to the doctor, he spoke reasonable English, which was helpful, though he was also, well, a doctor with pretensions of grand importance -- apparently, one can get those either from Duke University's School of Medicine or El Colegio de Médicos y Cirujanos de Costa Rica. Another instructor had a far worse time meeting with him; I just got attitude, a reminder that I need to lose weight, and what's apparently the Costa Rican medical cure-all: a shot in el culo. Thankfully, my program's health insurance will cover all my prescription drugs in full, as the $53 doctor's visit took care of the deductible in full.
Well, that's it for this Saturday afternoon update - I'll post this when the Internet tubes are all cleared up, and wish everyone a great weekend.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
This is what it sounds like / when the bears fly*
One of the most renowned highlights of Costa Rica's ecotourism industry are the "ziplines," the networks of cables, pulleys, harnesses, and platforms that allow you to "fly" (that is, "zip") though the treetops, offering a profoundly unique perspective from which to view the forests. Walking on the wood bridges -- or better yet, hiking on the ground -- is better far better for trying to spot the birds, the monkeys, or the rest of the amazingly diverse fauna of this country (Costa Rica has more bird species than the US and Canada combined, and almost six times the number of species of animals per 10,000 sq km than the US... thank you, Lonely Planet Costa Rica). Nonetheless, the ziplines are a breathtaking experience, speeding through the treetops at (I'm guessing here) somewhere between 15 to 30 mph, and I did see one fleeting flash of yellow as I sped past -- thank the heavens, not into -- a butterfly at those speeds.
On Sunday, we spent three hours ziplining at the Selvatura park, on the edge of the Monteverde National Cloud Forest Reserve. Selvatura features 15 cables, which ranged from 250 feet long to over 1000 feet long, plus a "Tarzan" swing two-thirds of the way through the park. At the top of the first platform, my deep and abiding fear of heights kicked in, but, although I apparently lost all color in my face, I refused to give in to mounting sheer panic, and (after waiting for one or two other people to go), I got strapped in and shoved off. I was substantially calmer even a third of the way into that first cable ride, although I over-braked & stopped about 25 feet from the platform; one of our groups' guides came out & easily pulled me in. After riding the second cable, they added a chest harness, since, well, I'm not the most petite zipliner, and from there, my form improved dramatically, and I was able to enjoy rushing through the forest canopy far more. (On the first really long cable, the guide volunteered to "taxi" me, basically wrapping his legs around me & doing all the work while I literally just laid back and enjoyed the ride. I think he was concerned that I'd get stuck again, but after that, the guides realized I could take care of myself, and I zipped along on my own).
The "Tarzan" swing scared everyone the most (virtually everyone was somewhat terrified all along the way, while trying to act cool all the while, until "Tarzan" came along, & their cover broke). Basically, you're strapped in, and pushed off the hill to swing back & forth. Virtually everyone screamed or grunted (I'm a grunter, for the record), and with the very tight harnesses and the 20 foot drop, the undergrad guys discovered why they should have worn briefs, not boxers (there were several curses about so much for ever having children). Not surprisingly, my mass generated greater acceleration, & I swung back & forth a few extra times -- one of the pictures shows the guides trying to catch me with the mongo rubber band, after attempts to grab me by the feet failed -- one shoe flew off, then the other, as I kept on swinging back & forth.
By the last couple of cables, it began to rain, and on the last, long cable over a sweeping rainforest valley, the rain started coming down hard, battering my face on top of the air rushing past as I rode along. Words barely do justice to the sensory experience.
In other news, the entomologists arrived on Sunday, and with their pith helmets and their little tubes to trap bugs and with their disconcerting excitement about catching beetles and praying mantises and what not, I feel like I've walked into a "Far Side" cartoon just waiting to happen. Additionally, on Monday evening, one of the naturalists caught a living version of the Extremely Large FrogTM (we'll just call him Jeremiah... he was a friend of mine) whose unfortunately compressed counterpart I stepped into the other night. Jeremiah's body was bigger than my hand, and with his width, he looked like a small, ribbitting, slimy rugby ball, with legs (that's it, his name is Jeremiah Gilbert... that'd be an in-joke for the ruggers...). Apparently, Jeremiah Gilbert and his kin secrete some toxin, but the naturalist couldn't get J.G. to squirt on demand. I certainly prefer the frogs decompressed, with their organs appropriately contained, that's for sure.
*What, you expected "If a bear zips in the woods..."?
The Selvatura Park
Walking towards the ziplines
I'm riding WHAT into WHERE?
getting strapped in
Pushing off
Getting going, #1
Getting going #2
One of the guides
A student on the "Tarzan" jump
Me Tarzan, You Bear
This is what it looks like / when the bears fly
Bear catching, a new Olympic sport?
On Sunday, we spent three hours ziplining at the Selvatura park, on the edge of the Monteverde National Cloud Forest Reserve. Selvatura features 15 cables, which ranged from 250 feet long to over 1000 feet long, plus a "Tarzan" swing two-thirds of the way through the park. At the top of the first platform, my deep and abiding fear of heights kicked in, but, although I apparently lost all color in my face, I refused to give in to mounting sheer panic, and (after waiting for one or two other people to go), I got strapped in and shoved off. I was substantially calmer even a third of the way into that first cable ride, although I over-braked & stopped about 25 feet from the platform; one of our groups' guides came out & easily pulled me in. After riding the second cable, they added a chest harness, since, well, I'm not the most petite zipliner, and from there, my form improved dramatically, and I was able to enjoy rushing through the forest canopy far more. (On the first really long cable, the guide volunteered to "taxi" me, basically wrapping his legs around me & doing all the work while I literally just laid back and enjoyed the ride. I think he was concerned that I'd get stuck again, but after that, the guides realized I could take care of myself, and I zipped along on my own).
The "Tarzan" swing scared everyone the most (virtually everyone was somewhat terrified all along the way, while trying to act cool all the while, until "Tarzan" came along, & their cover broke). Basically, you're strapped in, and pushed off the hill to swing back & forth. Virtually everyone screamed or grunted (I'm a grunter, for the record), and with the very tight harnesses and the 20 foot drop, the undergrad guys discovered why they should have worn briefs, not boxers (there were several curses about so much for ever having children). Not surprisingly, my mass generated greater acceleration, & I swung back & forth a few extra times -- one of the pictures shows the guides trying to catch me with the mongo rubber band, after attempts to grab me by the feet failed -- one shoe flew off, then the other, as I kept on swinging back & forth.
By the last couple of cables, it began to rain, and on the last, long cable over a sweeping rainforest valley, the rain started coming down hard, battering my face on top of the air rushing past as I rode along. Words barely do justice to the sensory experience.
In other news, the entomologists arrived on Sunday, and with their pith helmets and their little tubes to trap bugs and with their disconcerting excitement about catching beetles and praying mantises and what not, I feel like I've walked into a "Far Side" cartoon just waiting to happen. Additionally, on Monday evening, one of the naturalists caught a living version of the Extremely Large FrogTM (we'll just call him Jeremiah... he was a friend of mine) whose unfortunately compressed counterpart I stepped into the other night. Jeremiah's body was bigger than my hand, and with his width, he looked like a small, ribbitting, slimy rugby ball, with legs (that's it, his name is Jeremiah Gilbert... that'd be an in-joke for the ruggers...). Apparently, Jeremiah Gilbert and his kin secrete some toxin, but the naturalist couldn't get J.G. to squirt on demand. I certainly prefer the frogs decompressed, with their organs appropriately contained, that's for sure.
*What, you expected "If a bear zips in the woods..."?
The Selvatura Park
Walking towards the ziplines
I'm riding WHAT into WHERE?
getting strapped in
Pushing off
Getting going, #1
Getting going #2
One of the guides
A student on the "Tarzan" jump
Me Tarzan, You Bear
This is what it looks like / when the bears fly
Bear catching, a new Olympic sport?
Saturday, June 23, 2007
OK, that was gross
Saturday night's theme appears to be "ewwww...":
1. I discovered a very large moth roasting, indeed smoking, in one of the light fixtures in the faculty house.
2. Stepping in a huge pile of freshly squashed frog (by a car or the like, not by me) -- not really the highlight of the trip.
Just be glad there are no pictures tonight. Really, trust me on this...
1. I discovered a very large moth roasting, indeed smoking, in one of the light fixtures in the faculty house.
2. Stepping in a huge pile of freshly squashed frog (by a car or the like, not by me) -- not really the highlight of the trip.
Just be glad there are no pictures tonight. Really, trust me on this...
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Snapshots from San Luis
Walking towards the main site
The famed morpho butterfly of Costa Rica
A hummingbird in a bush near our cabin
Children from the local village dancing at the main building
Sunset over the San Luis Research Station
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
settling in at San Luis
Well, I said I was looking for a furry roommate...
In addition to my first encounter with a tarantula, on Monday, I watched a gecko dine on various small insects, saw a cockroach almost as long as my hand, and ran into a praying mantis that I'm pretty sure did some stunt doubling work as a Cardassian warship once upon a time. There's plenty more mundane fauna all around here in San Luis**, from the horses at the stable just down the road to plenty of cows and dogs, and the rather large iguana hanging out at the tourist stop along the Pan-American Highway also deserves a special mention. This morning, a rather spectacular purplish-blue hummingbird was flitting around a bush on my way back to the faculty cabin.
We arrived here yesterday at the San Luis Research Station in time for lunch, after a 4 1/2 hour drive up from San José -- mostly on the one-lane Pan-American Highway that is the backbone of transportation through Latin America, then turning off for the last 30km or so on unpaved roads through the Tilarán mountains, just on the Pacific side of the continental divide. The stunning views of the lush mountainside, with the clouds sometimes below the peaks, and the occasional glimpse of the Gulf of Nicoya, left the grime and congestion of the capital far, far behind. (As one student gasped, "Wow! It looks just like the brochure!")
Classes start later today, so yesterday, we got to settle in and get our first tour of the campus, which we are sharing at the moment with some TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) students from our University, biology programs from Hendrix College, and miscellaneous other biological researchers, plus the dedicated support staff. Our students live on campus through Saturday, at which point they'll meet their homestay families, with whom they'll live for most of the rest of the program. The faculty, on the other hand, are sharing a rather nice cabin - the other two professors on our program are sharing the very large bedroom, while I have the small one to myself.
* since I wrote this, the cleaning staff has come to our cabin, & mi nuevo amigo, la tarantula, has gone to a better place.
** To clarify my earlier posts: we are actually in San Luis, a village of 380 people, sitting about 6-8 kilometers away from each of Santa Elena and Monteverde, neither of which is especially large but both of which at least make it onto maps of Costa Rica.
In addition to my first encounter with a tarantula, on Monday, I watched a gecko dine on various small insects, saw a cockroach almost as long as my hand, and ran into a praying mantis that I'm pretty sure did some stunt doubling work as a Cardassian warship once upon a time. There's plenty more mundane fauna all around here in San Luis**, from the horses at the stable just down the road to plenty of cows and dogs, and the rather large iguana hanging out at the tourist stop along the Pan-American Highway also deserves a special mention. This morning, a rather spectacular purplish-blue hummingbird was flitting around a bush on my way back to the faculty cabin.
We arrived here yesterday at the San Luis Research Station in time for lunch, after a 4 1/2 hour drive up from San José -- mostly on the one-lane Pan-American Highway that is the backbone of transportation through Latin America, then turning off for the last 30km or so on unpaved roads through the Tilarán mountains, just on the Pacific side of the continental divide. The stunning views of the lush mountainside, with the clouds sometimes below the peaks, and the occasional glimpse of the Gulf of Nicoya, left the grime and congestion of the capital far, far behind. (As one student gasped, "Wow! It looks just like the brochure!")
Classes start later today, so yesterday, we got to settle in and get our first tour of the campus, which we are sharing at the moment with some TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) students from our University, biology programs from Hendrix College, and miscellaneous other biological researchers, plus the dedicated support staff. Our students live on campus through Saturday, at which point they'll meet their homestay families, with whom they'll live for most of the rest of the program. The faculty, on the other hand, are sharing a rather nice cabin - the other two professors on our program are sharing the very large bedroom, while I have the small one to myself.
* since I wrote this, the cleaning staff has come to our cabin, & mi nuevo amigo, la tarantula, has gone to a better place.
** To clarify my earlier posts: we are actually in San Luis, a village of 380 people, sitting about 6-8 kilometers away from each of Santa Elena and Monteverde, neither of which is especially large but both of which at least make it onto maps of Costa Rica.
going down to the river
Having spent my first in-country post reflecting upon the neoliberal penetration of Costa Rica and the disquieting way that serving the consumer desires of North American and European tourists, I have to note that we spent Sunday in full tourist mode - and I had one of the most amazing days of my life doing so.
We boarded our bus by 6:30am and set off from San José. We passed briefly through the colonial capital of Cartago, passing the ruins of a colonial church destroyed several times by earthquakes, and by the spectacular Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles, the nation's holiest shrine. The church sits in the shadow of the Volcán Irazú, one of Costa Rica's numerous active volcanoes. From there, we wound our way northwards into the Talamanca mountains, passing the Volcán Turrialba, which had been thought to be extinct until just a few years ago. Surprise...
We stopped for breakfast at a restaurant high up in the Talamancas, enjoying our first taste of gallo pinto, the spiced rice and beans dish that is a national tradition for every morning, as well as some of the local pineapple from what has recently become the world's #1 exporter of the tropical fruit. From there, we headed northwards into Limón province, stopping on the side of the road to take photographs of a sloth hanging in the trees that our driver had noticed. Eventually, we began a slight descent, to head off on the real purpose of the day's trip: whitewater rafting on the Rio Pacuare.
Words can barely capture how spectacular the Pacuare is (hopefully, between my disposable camera and the CD we all pitched in for, I'll eventually have photos worth posting). We had three rafts (three out of the eleven organized by our tour group), and spent an amazing day going nearly 20 miles downstream through 52 rapids, including numerous class III rapids and perhaps five class IV rapids. Our guide, though not someone I meshed with personally, knew the river remarkably well, & steered us along, not only without losing a single person into the river (unless you count the student who was twice pulled into the river by another guide who clearly was smitten with her), but spun us around in such ways that we suddenly found ourselves facing - or in the spray of - some of the breathtaking waterfalls that cascade into the Pacaure. At times, the cliffs made you feel like you were in a tropical version of Lord of the Rings, local wildlife included toucans and vultures. At one point, right after lunch (more local pineapple and watermelons, plus wraps with ingredients all prepared by our guides), we passed an indigenous village - of the Awari, if Lonely Planet can be trusted - and our guide steered us over to drop off the leftover lunchmeats for the Awari kids.
Late in the trip, we passed through the pass at Dos Montañas, a narrow gorge with a wooden footbridge half-crumbled maybe 40 feet above us (one student speculated whether one of the Indiana Jones scenes had been filmed there). This was perhaps the most scenic spot of that 20-mile stretch of the Pacaure, and the students were horrified and stunned to discover that the Costa Rican Electricity Institute has been trying to dam the Pacaure right at that spot for some years now, a move that would flood the river basin and the indigenous villages, and destroy one of the world's greatest places for rafting. For the time being, local protests plus a glut of energy from other sources have stalled the project for the foreseeable future, but our river guide warned us we couldn't take the river's future for granted. It is fascinating to watch - not surprising, but fascinating to watch this in action - how locals can effectively leverage appeals to tourists on their behalf, as they can now argue more and more convincingly that the importance of the Pacaure to the ecotourist economy makes saving the river and dropping the dam plans once and for all is economically logical. This, of course, is also a lovely experiential introduction to my class.
We put in right past an old rusted bridge where local kids were jumping off from 20, 30, 50 feet and more up into the Pacaure. After drying off & changing, & buying the requisite souvenirs, we got back in the bus, and headed back to San José, this time for a longer time in the Caribbean lowlands of Limón, before climbing into the Braulio Carrillo National Park (which looked more like the Pacific Northwest than the tropical lowlands just a few kilometers back), crossed into Heredia province before re-entering the capital, right as we passed the Saprissa soccer stadium, home to both the most famous club in Costa Rica (for which the stadium is named) and to the national team. By day's end, we were utterly exhausted and thoroughly satisfied.
We boarded our bus by 6:30am and set off from San José. We passed briefly through the colonial capital of Cartago, passing the ruins of a colonial church destroyed several times by earthquakes, and by the spectacular Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles, the nation's holiest shrine. The church sits in the shadow of the Volcán Irazú, one of Costa Rica's numerous active volcanoes. From there, we wound our way northwards into the Talamanca mountains, passing the Volcán Turrialba, which had been thought to be extinct until just a few years ago. Surprise...
We stopped for breakfast at a restaurant high up in the Talamancas, enjoying our first taste of gallo pinto, the spiced rice and beans dish that is a national tradition for every morning, as well as some of the local pineapple from what has recently become the world's #1 exporter of the tropical fruit. From there, we headed northwards into Limón province, stopping on the side of the road to take photographs of a sloth hanging in the trees that our driver had noticed. Eventually, we began a slight descent, to head off on the real purpose of the day's trip: whitewater rafting on the Rio Pacuare.
Words can barely capture how spectacular the Pacuare is (hopefully, between my disposable camera and the CD we all pitched in for, I'll eventually have photos worth posting). We had three rafts (three out of the eleven organized by our tour group), and spent an amazing day going nearly 20 miles downstream through 52 rapids, including numerous class III rapids and perhaps five class IV rapids. Our guide, though not someone I meshed with personally, knew the river remarkably well, & steered us along, not only without losing a single person into the river (unless you count the student who was twice pulled into the river by another guide who clearly was smitten with her), but spun us around in such ways that we suddenly found ourselves facing - or in the spray of - some of the breathtaking waterfalls that cascade into the Pacaure. At times, the cliffs made you feel like you were in a tropical version of Lord of the Rings, local wildlife included toucans and vultures. At one point, right after lunch (more local pineapple and watermelons, plus wraps with ingredients all prepared by our guides), we passed an indigenous village - of the Awari, if Lonely Planet can be trusted - and our guide steered us over to drop off the leftover lunchmeats for the Awari kids.
Late in the trip, we passed through the pass at Dos Montañas, a narrow gorge with a wooden footbridge half-crumbled maybe 40 feet above us (one student speculated whether one of the Indiana Jones scenes had been filmed there). This was perhaps the most scenic spot of that 20-mile stretch of the Pacaure, and the students were horrified and stunned to discover that the Costa Rican Electricity Institute has been trying to dam the Pacaure right at that spot for some years now, a move that would flood the river basin and the indigenous villages, and destroy one of the world's greatest places for rafting. For the time being, local protests plus a glut of energy from other sources have stalled the project for the foreseeable future, but our river guide warned us we couldn't take the river's future for granted. It is fascinating to watch - not surprising, but fascinating to watch this in action - how locals can effectively leverage appeals to tourists on their behalf, as they can now argue more and more convincingly that the importance of the Pacaure to the ecotourist economy makes saving the river and dropping the dam plans once and for all is economically logical. This, of course, is also a lovely experiential introduction to my class.
We put in right past an old rusted bridge where local kids were jumping off from 20, 30, 50 feet and more up into the Pacaure. After drying off & changing, & buying the requisite souvenirs, we got back in the bus, and headed back to San José, this time for a longer time in the Caribbean lowlands of Limón, before climbing into the Braulio Carrillo National Park (which looked more like the Pacific Northwest than the tropical lowlands just a few kilometers back), crossed into Heredia province before re-entering the capital, right as we passed the Saprissa soccer stadium, home to both the most famous club in Costa Rica (for which the stadium is named) and to the national team. By day's end, we were utterly exhausted and thoroughly satisfied.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
¡Bienvenidos a McWorld!
On the list of topics for a possible first blog entry about arriving in Costa Rica, Schlotsky's Deli did not make the Top 10. Yet as we deplaned at Juan Santamaría Airport, the first thing we ran into was a Schlotzky's Deli cart, replete not only with sandwiches but a faux-mural of a Latin American man putting bread into a large brick oven, as if Diego Rivera had sold out and been hired to graphically brand the competitor to Subway and Quizno. Of course, we saw perhaps three Subways and one Quizno on the drive from the airport to La Amistad, our b&b near downtown San José. Heck, we hadn't made as far as customs control before we had passed two Burger Kings and a Papa John's. Once on the road, we discovered that Denny's appear as commonplace in San José as Waffle Houses are in Georgia, and if you're wondering where all the KFCs went, apparently, the colonel's beloved franchise now stands for Kosta Rican Fried Chicken.
Flight 245 from Atlanta to San José foreshadowed our arrival in this local outpost of McWorld, filled as it was with a very large Methodist mission group from Radford, Virginia; students and teachers from a Friends middle school in Baltimore; and, well, us. Who was missing from our flight? By and large, los ticos -- that is, what Costa Ricans call themselves -- appeared few and far between, and the few ticos arriving at Juan Santamaría sped past the chain restaurants and through the one line for costariqueños at custom, while we waited in a far, far longer line to go through any of the four checkpoints for visitors. Clearly, for los gringos, it will take a lot of effort to see Costa Rica above and beyond the tourist economy -- which, after all, has supplanted the historic coffee and banana economies as the key to the nation's prosperity.
Friday, June 15, 2007
And we're off...
I'm sitting in the lobby of the Marriott-Atlanta Airport, quickly checking email and logging in before the big adventure begins tomorrow. I got everything packed, cleaned at home, & everything's ready for my six-week sojourn. We'll be at the airport tomorrow at 7am, meeting the students & taking off for San José at 10am (I did get my plane ticket re-booked correctly on Tuesday, thankfully, so there's no extra adventures of me having to cross over most of Costa Rica's territory to meet everyone).
Don't have a lot else to add - this has been in the works for the better part of a year now, and has been almost all logistics up until now... so now it's finally feeling real, leaving for the cloud forests, & getting ready to co-lead 15 students for six weeks is finally here, and all that. I'll report when I have internet access, with stories and observations aplenty, no doubt.
Don't have a lot else to add - this has been in the works for the better part of a year now, and has been almost all logistics up until now... so now it's finally feeling real, leaving for the cloud forests, & getting ready to co-lead 15 students for six weeks is finally here, and all that. I'll report when I have internet access, with stories and observations aplenty, no doubt.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
geographical context
For those of you not familiar with the geography of Costa Rica, let me note a few things:
* Monteverde is the home of the San Luis Resesarch Station, where I'll be for most of the next six weeks.
* San José is the capital, where I'm supposed to be flying into on Saturday.
* Liberia, in the northwest, is where I'm booked to fly into on Saturday, a travel agent mistake I discovered this morning, and am working to rectify.
* The Rio Pacuare, home of some of the most dramatic whitewater rafting in the world, is where I'm supposed to be on Sunday if I do get to fly into San José instead of Liberia. The Rio Pacaure is to the east-southeast of San José, near Cartego.
* Puerto Viejo, to the south of Puerto Limón on the Caribbean coast, is not on this map, but is where we'll be spending about four days, after the July 4th holiday. Puerto Viejo is the heart of Costa Rica's Afro-Caribbean community & culture.
* Quepos (& nearby Manuel Antonio & Jaco) are some of the most popular Pacific Coast resorts, especially for gay tourists with their gay dollars & euros. I won't be making it down there on this trip.
* The Arenal volcano, near Monteverde, is where we will finish our trip before flying out of San José on July 22.
* Monteverde is the home of the San Luis Resesarch Station, where I'll be for most of the next six weeks.
* San José is the capital, where I'm supposed to be flying into on Saturday.
* Liberia, in the northwest, is where I'm booked to fly into on Saturday, a travel agent mistake I discovered this morning, and am working to rectify.
* The Rio Pacuare, home of some of the most dramatic whitewater rafting in the world, is where I'm supposed to be on Sunday if I do get to fly into San José instead of Liberia. The Rio Pacaure is to the east-southeast of San José, near Cartego.
* Puerto Viejo, to the south of Puerto Limón on the Caribbean coast, is not on this map, but is where we'll be spending about four days, after the July 4th holiday. Puerto Viejo is the heart of Costa Rica's Afro-Caribbean community & culture.
* Quepos (& nearby Manuel Antonio & Jaco) are some of the most popular Pacific Coast resorts, especially for gay tourists with their gay dollars & euros. I won't be making it down there on this trip.
* The Arenal volcano, near Monteverde, is where we will finish our trip before flying out of San José on July 22.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Georgia Magazine article
Somehow, the original link I posted to the Georgia Magazine article on the UGA Costa Rica program seems to have disappeared in one of the edits. So here it is directly:
http://www.uga.edu/gm/artman/publish/0706costarica.html
http://www.uga.edu/gm/artman/publish/0706costarica.html
Sunday, June 10, 2007
¡Bear Left in Costa Rica!
Six days from today, I will be leaving Athens, Georgia for six weeks in Costa Rica, where I'll be teaching at the University of Georgia's campus in San Luis, on the edge of the Monteverde Cloud Forest. I'll be one of three professors on the Spanish Language, History, and Culture Program, and I'll be teaching a new course, Beyond Banana Republics: Rethinking the Americas -- that is, a survey of political, cultural, and social relations between the United States and Latin America. We'll have 15 students, roughly, who'll each be taking an upper-level Spanish language course and either my history course or a literature class.
I'm launching this blog to keep family, friends, and other interested readers up to date on this great adventure. 17 years ago, I began keeping a paper journal when I was a summer study abroad student in Leningrad, in what was still the Soviet Union, and I remember quite well how that summer was critical for both my personal and intellectual growth. Now, as a professor, I'm hoping that this opportunity allows me to help undergraduates grow in similar fashions, and marks the beginning of my longer-term involvement in international study abroad programs.
To introduce the program, I'm blogging the June 2007 Georgia Magazine's cover story on UGA Costa Rica - it's a pretty good summary, even if it skips the somewhat shady origins of how the University purchased this 160 acre site, and it doesn't feature our specific progam.
Disclaimers
The views and opinions expressed in any of these posts here are solely those of the author, and should not be taken as those of the University of Georgia (including the Department of History, the UGA Costa Rica Program, the Office of International Education, and the San Luis Research Station), or of any other organization or individuals.
I'm launching this blog to keep family, friends, and other interested readers up to date on this great adventure. 17 years ago, I began keeping a paper journal when I was a summer study abroad student in Leningrad, in what was still the Soviet Union, and I remember quite well how that summer was critical for both my personal and intellectual growth. Now, as a professor, I'm hoping that this opportunity allows me to help undergraduates grow in similar fashions, and marks the beginning of my longer-term involvement in international study abroad programs.
To introduce the program, I'm blogging the June 2007 Georgia Magazine's cover story on UGA Costa Rica - it's a pretty good summary, even if it skips the somewhat shady origins of how the University purchased this 160 acre site, and it doesn't feature our specific progam.
Disclaimers
The views and opinions expressed in any of these posts here are solely those of the author, and should not be taken as those of the University of Georgia (including the Department of History, the UGA Costa Rica Program, the Office of International Education, and the San Luis Research Station), or of any other organization or individuals.
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