We knew that April was going to test the mettle of our little family but we thought that we were out of the woods. Just like the Minnesota winter, April was not quite done with us. It was a week worthy of a blog post.
Our guests were scheduled to leave San Jose on Tuesday after their ten-day vacation around Costa Rica. So on Monday afternoon I loaded Grandma's suitcase in the rental car to drive her to San Jose. Little did I know that the car had other ideas. We have all heard the familiar sound of a car engine cranking slower and slower and slower as the battery gives its last few electrons up in a valiant effort to start the engine. I guess this is why we gave ourselves plenty of time to get to the airport but c'mon! The rental car place was very professional, they sent a mechanic with a new battery and we were on our way better late than never. But this meant I had to spend the night in San Jose and return via bus the next day. No worries, it all worked out just fine in the end.
We mostly got back on track at school and work but we were all a little tired. Emotions ran high as we transitioned back into our life here. So on Saturday morning we decided as a family to conduct our weekly marketing excursion. We loaded onto the bus at about 8:30, ran to the school supply shop then to the grocery, bank and fresh produce stands to load up on mangoes and tomatoes. It was busy and hot, the packages got heavy and we were all a little weary when we climbed back on the bus. Hot, did I mention hot? It is like hot and dry August here. So when we got off the bus and prepared for the mile walk back to the house we knew we had our work cut out for us. We were doing fine until thirst set in. We needed water. Luckily the school was at the halfway point and they have these beautiful, heavy, outdoor, tiled sinks that would serve as a wonderful oasis for all of us. You know how real life scenes sometimes play out in slow motion? As I arrived at the sink I turned to see Mags running eagerly towards the me, trip, fly through the air and bash face-first into the ceramic corner of the sink. As I scooped up my screaming kid, I knew this was not good. Fortunately, she was screaming (not unconscious) and fortunately I could see cars in the parking lot and a door open where people were milling around. Help was nearby! Janet ran ahead and I held Mags close. Within minutes Janet and Mags were safely in the back of Don Alfredo's car (he is the school principal) and off to the hospital.
My goal all along has been to experience as many aspects of the culture here as possible but I was not hoping that the emergency room would be one of them. The Turrialba hospital is old but staffed with caring professionals who have good equipment to work with. Fortunately the wait was short and Maggie was in the care of a doctor in no time. They irrigated, cleaned and put three stitches near her right eyebrow. As the doctor announced that they where just about finished, Janet let out a sigh of relief and passed out. No really. Hit the floor. Keeled over and everything. Again, fortunately for us help was nearby and she was well cared for. Even if it did mean the doctor had to joke with Maggie about who the real patient was.
We are all back home this afternoon. Mags seems fine, Janet has napped and we are all wondering what surprises are in store for us in the month of May. Stay tuned.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Happy Easter
Today we awoke with the sun and the birds to watch the kids hunt for Easter eggs and baskets. Yep, the Easter Bunny made an appearance even in Costa Rica, but I think our house was the only one he visited.
Here in Costa Rica, we have been celebrating the whole week of Semana Santa, or Holy Week. It is a week break for all of the schools across the country, and Thursday and Friday are national holidays for everyone. And it has been a very interesting combination of activities and observances.
On the one hand, it's a lot like spring break. An enormous number of people made their way to the beach to camp and swim and grill out during the extended weekend. The revelry at our beach side hotel on Wednesday night went into the wee hours of the morning. We were quite thankful to be ending our beach time on Thursday and heading back to Turrialba while everyone else seemed to be going in the opposite direction.
When we returned to Turrialba, we got to experience a whole different side to Semana Santa. As a predominantly Catholic country, Costa Rica observes Good Friday with processions and dramatizations to capture the last day of Jesus' life. As with most of our experiences here, it would have been moving and interesting if it had been just Greg and me alone. But adding in the children created a whole new layer of perceptions and understanding. All three of the kids were fascinated by the various images and symbols used in the procession - things they are not used to seeing or hearing much about in our liberal, progressive protestant church. So many sights and sounds are hard to capture with the full force of the emotion they elicited: the men dressed up as the twelve disciples whose faces showed they'd really been crying; the women carrying the bloody crown of thorns, the nails, and the hammer on pillows; the Roman soldiers marching along to a hollow drum beat - accompanying Jesus' body (in a glass coffin) to the tomb; the crowd of observers, dressed in mourning clothes, who followed the procession in the exact same way they follow a real funeral procession to the cemetary. Maggie clearly understood when she asked me to pick her up, looked at the gathered crowd and said with the most earnest expression on her face, "This is NOT good for Jesus!"
We spent Saturday afternoon at our friend Gera's house, visiting with her family and enjoying a traditional Semana Santa dish of arroz con leche with conserve de chiverre (a clove-and-cinnamon- infused-marmalade-like-spread made from a vegetable that is similar to spaghetti squash). Our conversation lingered over the intensity of the processions. Gera's comment was that she cries every year, even though she knows how it ends.
And so today, Easter Sunday, I am missing my home church. After all the grief and mourning, I need a little celebration. But as Greg said in his last post about the turtles, we are all learning that a little sacrifice leads to some really cool gains - and experiencing Semana Santa here in Costa Rica has been well worth it.
Here in Costa Rica, we have been celebrating the whole week of Semana Santa, or Holy Week. It is a week break for all of the schools across the country, and Thursday and Friday are national holidays for everyone. And it has been a very interesting combination of activities and observances.
On the one hand, it's a lot like spring break. An enormous number of people made their way to the beach to camp and swim and grill out during the extended weekend. The revelry at our beach side hotel on Wednesday night went into the wee hours of the morning. We were quite thankful to be ending our beach time on Thursday and heading back to Turrialba while everyone else seemed to be going in the opposite direction.
When we returned to Turrialba, we got to experience a whole different side to Semana Santa. As a predominantly Catholic country, Costa Rica observes Good Friday with processions and dramatizations to capture the last day of Jesus' life. As with most of our experiences here, it would have been moving and interesting if it had been just Greg and me alone. But adding in the children created a whole new layer of perceptions and understanding. All three of the kids were fascinated by the various images and symbols used in the procession - things they are not used to seeing or hearing much about in our liberal, progressive protestant church. So many sights and sounds are hard to capture with the full force of the emotion they elicited: the men dressed up as the twelve disciples whose faces showed they'd really been crying; the women carrying the bloody crown of thorns, the nails, and the hammer on pillows; the Roman soldiers marching along to a hollow drum beat - accompanying Jesus' body (in a glass coffin) to the tomb; the crowd of observers, dressed in mourning clothes, who followed the procession in the exact same way they follow a real funeral procession to the cemetary. Maggie clearly understood when she asked me to pick her up, looked at the gathered crowd and said with the most earnest expression on her face, "This is NOT good for Jesus!"
We spent Saturday afternoon at our friend Gera's house, visiting with her family and enjoying a traditional Semana Santa dish of arroz con leche with conserve de chiverre (a clove-and-cinnamon- infused-marmalade-like-spread made from a vegetable that is similar to spaghetti squash). Our conversation lingered over the intensity of the processions. Gera's comment was that she cries every year, even though she knows how it ends.
And so today, Easter Sunday, I am missing my home church. After all the grief and mourning, I need a little celebration. But as Greg said in his last post about the turtles, we are all learning that a little sacrifice leads to some really cool gains - and experiencing Semana Santa here in Costa Rica has been well worth it.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Tortuga!
While on a second adventure to the Caribbean coast we decided to take a side trip to the Gandoca Nature Preserve just north of the Costa Rica-Panama boarder. The drive in itself was interesting as we summitted a mountain on a gravel road, passed through banana plantations owned by Chiquita and Del Monte and crossed single-track wooden bridges that surprisingly held the weight of our rental car. But something we have learned in our adventures is sometimes you have to make sacrifices in order to reap the rewards that this planet has to offer. In this case we sacrificed a little time, a little comfort and a good-nights sleep in order to witness the breathtaking spectacle of a female Leatherback turtle laying her eggs on a beach under the light of a full moon. With only 25,000-40,000 females nesting around the world each year, we were really lucky to be in the right place at the right time.
The critically endangered female Leatherback turtle comes ashore in April to lay up to 80 eggs in a nest dug in the sand of the same beach where she hatched 20 years before. The fact that the turtles lay eggs in the same sand where they were born is one of the reasons their survival is threatened and one of the reasons the Gandoca Preserve is so carefully managed. Another threat to the turtles is pollution. Turtles love to eat jellyfish and when plastic bags wash into the ocean the turtles mistake them for jellyfish and choke on the plastic. People are another threat to the turtles. Humans have taken over many of the beaches they used to use as nesting grounds.
When we arrived at the nesting beach after dark we had to stay well back as the turtle was laying her eggs, we couldn't take pictures and had to speak softly as not to scare the turtle. When the turtle finished laying her eggs volunteers gathered the eggs and placed them in a special "nursery" where they are protected from humans and other predators. It takes up to 70 days for the eggs to hatch, after which the volunteers allow the turtles to crawl through the sand just enough to imprint the beach into their radar and then carefully shepherd the turtles to the open ocean.
After our turtle finished laying her eggs she created a "false nest" in the sand to camouflage the actual nest from predators. It was at this time that we got to take a closer look at the enormous prehistoric animal. Leatherback turtles are the largest of the sea turtles, weighing up to 1500lbs. The turtle this night was 152cm long (5 ft), 115 cm across the back with an estimated weight of 700 pounds. Truly remarkable were the flippers, some of which can be as long as two meters! As the turtle dug and moved in the sand, the sand flew far enough to "splash" us we watched.
We sat in the sand for almost two hours watching this spectacle. Mags was dozing quietly in my lap as the turtle slowly turned and began her journey back to the ocean. When she was about 10 ft away our guide asked us to move away to give her plenty of room for her trek home. But that was OK as we too had to begin our trek home.
The following day we tried to re-create an image of the turtle as we played in the sand on the beach. While we may have gotten the size about right, we certainly didn't capture the majesty that Mother Nature provided for us the night before.
The critically endangered female Leatherback turtle comes ashore in April to lay up to 80 eggs in a nest dug in the sand of the same beach where she hatched 20 years before. The fact that the turtles lay eggs in the same sand where they were born is one of the reasons their survival is threatened and one of the reasons the Gandoca Preserve is so carefully managed. Another threat to the turtles is pollution. Turtles love to eat jellyfish and when plastic bags wash into the ocean the turtles mistake them for jellyfish and choke on the plastic. People are another threat to the turtles. Humans have taken over many of the beaches they used to use as nesting grounds.
When we arrived at the nesting beach after dark we had to stay well back as the turtle was laying her eggs, we couldn't take pictures and had to speak softly as not to scare the turtle. When the turtle finished laying her eggs volunteers gathered the eggs and placed them in a special "nursery" where they are protected from humans and other predators. It takes up to 70 days for the eggs to hatch, after which the volunteers allow the turtles to crawl through the sand just enough to imprint the beach into their radar and then carefully shepherd the turtles to the open ocean.
After our turtle finished laying her eggs she created a "false nest" in the sand to camouflage the actual nest from predators. It was at this time that we got to take a closer look at the enormous prehistoric animal. Leatherback turtles are the largest of the sea turtles, weighing up to 1500lbs. The turtle this night was 152cm long (5 ft), 115 cm across the back with an estimated weight of 700 pounds. Truly remarkable were the flippers, some of which can be as long as two meters! As the turtle dug and moved in the sand, the sand flew far enough to "splash" us we watched.
We sat in the sand for almost two hours watching this spectacle. Mags was dozing quietly in my lap as the turtle slowly turned and began her journey back to the ocean. When she was about 10 ft away our guide asked us to move away to give her plenty of room for her trek home. But that was OK as we too had to begin our trek home.
The following day we tried to re-create an image of the turtle as we played in the sand on the beach. While we may have gotten the size about right, we certainly didn't capture the majesty that Mother Nature provided for us the night before.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Trabajo Extra Clase
One of the things that I love about our new house on the CATIE campus is that we are only a 1/4 mile walk from the kids' school. No more bus ride in the morning, no more getting all the way home only to realize that the needed book for homework is still in Gracie's desk (well, that still happens - but now we can just walk back to school and get the book!).
This new advantage has come in handy during the past week, because it has been "Trabajo de Extra Clase" week. Originally I thought that meant "extra credit", but I was wrong. During each term, students are assigned an extra project to be completed at home for each and every subject - and they are all assigned and due within a 2 week time period. The first week of this term's "extra clase" season fell during our Nicaragua trip, so we have been scrambling like mad to get the kids' projects done and turned in on time. Here's a list of the projects so far:
Math: a worksheet on "agrupaciones" - a method for understanding exponentials
English: creating postcards to send to Grace and James' classmates back in the States
Music: creating rhythm instruments made out of recyclable materials
Art: painting realistic forms using tertiary colors (think of a plum using red-violet)
Spanish: defining terms used in communication, cutting out a magazine ad, labeling the sender and receiver, and articulating the message being sent
Environmental Studies: a summary of tsunamis - definition, how they are formed, damage caused, diagram
Computers: making flashcards of all the parts of the CPU and their characteristics
Social Studies: making a poster about a Costa Rican National Park, complete with maps, pictures, etc. The park was chosen by the teacher (James got one we've been to - Cahuita; Grace got one we'd never heard of - Carara)
Once again, I am struck by the differences in the educational system and how those differences affect my own attitude toward things. My gut reaction to the idea of doing all these projects in such a short space of time is that it is ridiculous. How can we possibly get all the materials needed to complete the projects, do all the research, and get things done neatly without losing our minds? Don't any of the other parents work? Greg and I are bending over backwards to help the kids get all of this done - and we're barely working at all!
But as I step back to look at it from a different perspective, I can see a whole lot of beauty in this system. First of all, the projects are great learning opportunities and get the kids thinking in a way that the traditional Costa Rican classroom doesn't naturally encourage. Second, most families have these supplies on hand (we would in the States) - my frustration is simply at not having all the things I have at home right at my fingertips. And third, there is a whole population of adults who make their living by tutoring students after school. They help them study for the intense week of exams each term; they help them complete the extra clase projects. Parents hire others to make sure their children are doing the projects correctly and learning the information at the same time. It is a system that not only educates the students, but also provides a way for other families to make a living. Kinda neat.
But for us, this is a chance to spend quality time with the kids and learn about National Parks and exponentials. Tonight we will be finishing the Social Studies posters and hoping that a surprise project for Science does not find its way home. Next week is Semana Santa, a much needed spring break for the whole country!
This new advantage has come in handy during the past week, because it has been "Trabajo de Extra Clase" week. Originally I thought that meant "extra credit", but I was wrong. During each term, students are assigned an extra project to be completed at home for each and every subject - and they are all assigned and due within a 2 week time period. The first week of this term's "extra clase" season fell during our Nicaragua trip, so we have been scrambling like mad to get the kids' projects done and turned in on time. Here's a list of the projects so far:
Math: a worksheet on "agrupaciones" - a method for understanding exponentials
English: creating postcards to send to Grace and James' classmates back in the States
Music: creating rhythm instruments made out of recyclable materials
Art: painting realistic forms using tertiary colors (think of a plum using red-violet)
Spanish: defining terms used in communication, cutting out a magazine ad, labeling the sender and receiver, and articulating the message being sent
Environmental Studies: a summary of tsunamis - definition, how they are formed, damage caused, diagram
Computers: making flashcards of all the parts of the CPU and their characteristics
Social Studies: making a poster about a Costa Rican National Park, complete with maps, pictures, etc. The park was chosen by the teacher (James got one we've been to - Cahuita; Grace got one we'd never heard of - Carara)
Once again, I am struck by the differences in the educational system and how those differences affect my own attitude toward things. My gut reaction to the idea of doing all these projects in such a short space of time is that it is ridiculous. How can we possibly get all the materials needed to complete the projects, do all the research, and get things done neatly without losing our minds? Don't any of the other parents work? Greg and I are bending over backwards to help the kids get all of this done - and we're barely working at all!
But as I step back to look at it from a different perspective, I can see a whole lot of beauty in this system. First of all, the projects are great learning opportunities and get the kids thinking in a way that the traditional Costa Rican classroom doesn't naturally encourage. Second, most families have these supplies on hand (we would in the States) - my frustration is simply at not having all the things I have at home right at my fingertips. And third, there is a whole population of adults who make their living by tutoring students after school. They help them study for the intense week of exams each term; they help them complete the extra clase projects. Parents hire others to make sure their children are doing the projects correctly and learning the information at the same time. It is a system that not only educates the students, but also provides a way for other families to make a living. Kinda neat.
But for us, this is a chance to spend quality time with the kids and learn about National Parks and exponentials. Tonight we will be finishing the Social Studies posters and hoping that a surprise project for Science does not find its way home. Next week is Semana Santa, a much needed spring break for the whole country!
Monday, April 11, 2011
What were we thinking?!
We just returned from a five day trip to Nicaragua that was completely and totally unforgettable. And if you had told me a year ago all of the things we would experience in five short days, I would have laughed uncontrollably. Never in my wildest dreams would I have believed that Greg and I would make so many absurd decisions for our family. And yet... well, perhaps I should just tell you the story.
First of all, this is how we prepared for the trip:
1. Find out that we have to leave Costa Rica at 90 days to renew our visa
2. Talk to a few other non-Costa Ricans and figure out that we should either go to Nicaragua or Panama.
3. Use the internet to find a cool house in Granada, Nicaragua that we can rent for cheap. Decide to go to Nicaragua.
4. Stop thinking about it until the week before, then buy bus tickets.
So on Wednesday, April 6 we took a taxi to the bus station in Turrialba, then rode the bus to San Jose. Then we took another taxi across San Jose to a different bus station. Then we rode the bus to the Nicaraguan border where we got off and followed some people around who had our passports and some of our money. Eventually we got back on the bus (with our passports, thank you) and drove to Granada, where we were let off the bus on a deserted road in the dark. Here a friendly taxi driver was willing to charge us an arm and leg to drive us to the address we had for our house (across the street from the Pollo Rico agency). Again, we were left on a deserted street in the dark. Luckily the house had a guard who was able to call someone else who had keys and could let us into the house. But of course we are a hungry family, so the guard then walked us to a great little street vendor where we got some dinner - and then we all walked back, through many deserted streets in the dark, to our rental house.
The next morning, when the sun came up, we decided to go in search of coffee and breakfast. We found a chocolate museum with an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet and decided that Granada was much better in the light of the day (that is until James ate too many chocolate covered pancakes and drank too much guava juice and had to throw up on the bathroom - yes on, not in). So we trundled back to the rental house and chose to lay low. Greg and I took turns venturing out. I found a grocery store and some food that would not cause major digestive distress. He found a cool tourism agency offering some exciting opportunities. We both discovered that if we went in the opposite direction from where the guard had taken us for dinner, we would find the heart of downtown Granada, a fabulously historic spot. The kids had rallied by then (a quick dip in the cold pool at the rental house helped enormously), so we all ventured out to check out the big cathedral and the main square in town. The promise of a return trip to buy souvenirs allowed us to drag the kids away before we were forced to walk through the streets in the dark one more time.
Friday morning we started what can only be described as the biggest day in Maggie's whole life. We ate a small, safe breakfast at home, then walked back to the Cathedral to go up in the bell tower. Greg was disappointed that he was not allowed to ring the bells, but we all enjoyed the amazing view of the city of Granada. Next we took a guided tour of the oldest city in Central America in a horse drawn carriage. The highlight of the tour was seeing the house where William Walker had spent some time (William Walker being the American despot who raped and pillaged most of Central America - and was played by Gracie in the recent 3rd grade re-enactment of the Battle of Santa Rosa in which Costa Rican citizens formed a militia and ousted Walker to prevent his establishing a slave economy). And then we got to buy souvenirs. Lunch was a simple meal at a simple restaurant so we could go back to the house and rest during the hottest part of the day. At 2:00 we were picked up by the wonderful folks from LeoTours and headed to Masaya and the artisan market. More souvenirs! Definitely ask Greg about his Nicaraguan baseball jersey. Gracie and I could have spent all day there, but we were forced to get back in the tour van and head to Masaya Volcano National Park. What a great decision. We did a quick tour of the museum and then headed up to see the real thing. This is one of the few volcanoes in the world where you can drive right up to the crater's edge. It is considered one of the six gates to Hell in the world, and has been used for human sacrifices for centuries. We looked over the edge until the poison gas being belched forth started making the kids cough - then we walked up the 180+ stairs to get an even better look. As I said to a young woman who was also at the top while hugging my children close to me, "Ah, the fears I never knew I had until becoming a parent." We hurried down the stairs and back into the van so we could get to the next lookout point by sunset. Getting to this lookout point involved climbing up the side of a different peak within the same volcano. And while Maggie has gotten pretty darn tough since leaving Minnesota, this was asking a bit too much. I was much relieved when I made it to the top of the climb and was able to set her down to watch the sun set.
But wait, there's so much more. We went back down the hill and received helmets and flashlights so we could go in one of the caves. If you ever need a five-year-old to find her second wind, give her a costume and props and let her go hiking in the dark! We walked down into a cave that was originally used by the leaders of the indigenous tribes to decide who would be sacrificed in the volcano. In more recent history, the same cave was used as a hide out by young boys who did not want to be forced to fight in the war in the 80s. The cave itself was amazing with tree roots as pillars, stalactites and lots of bats - but knowing the history of its uses made it even more powerful. At the exit we were able to sit at the mouth of another cave and watch hundreds of bats make their night time exit to go eat. It was unbelievable. The walk back up to the main road from the mouth of the cave was probably the longest walk of the day - Maggie's second wind had expired and we were all exhausted. The only thing that kept us going was the promise of seeing the glow of the lava. So we returned to the edge of the crater and looked down in to the center of the Earth. The glow was absolutely incredible, and the subtle, subterranean explosions that we heard were something out of a science documentary. I barely remember the drive back to Granada and getting the children all tucked into bed.
Day four was a well-earned lazy day. We let the kids sleep in and then play in the pool. I snuck out at one point to go back to LeoTours and book us on another adventure for the afternoon. When we got hungry, we ventured out to the center of town again and found a great hot dog spot. Our afternoon adventure was a boat tour of some of the islands in Lake Nicaragua. The disparity between the privately owned islands with enormous homes and the ones occupied by the indigenous families was startling. We also saw monkeys on Isla de los Monos (you really can never see too many monkeys), and another beautiful sunset over the water. Dinner that evening was at a restaurant we had passed every day on our walks to and from the center of town - but we took a taxi home because our tour guide informed us that we should definitely not be walking through that part of town after dark (a great thing to find out on day four!).
Day five - the journey home. We arranged to have someone pick us up at the house at 6:00 am and deliver us to the bus station (for about a quarter of what we paid the guy on the first night). We then loaded onto the bus to start the eight hour drive back to San Jose. We were almost congratulating ourselves on having survived the trip when we got to the border. (Parents/teachers/guardians - you may not want to read this next part out loud to kids) Things seemed to be going smoothly on the Nicaraguan side of the border - we all got out of the bus and were hanging around outside in the open-air food court/market/waiting area when we heard a loud POP! I looked over at Greg and said, "I really hope that wasn't one of our tires." Greg was as white as a sheet and told the kids to look the other way, then pointed out that a man had just been shot by border patrol agents - less than 2 bus lengths away from where we were standing with the kids. I know that gun violence is commonplace - more in the States than in most other places - but I was not prepared for the fear that an actual shooting can evoke. Evidently the man who got shot was the one who brought the gun into the area in the first place, and it appeared that he did not receive any life-threatening injuries, but it was still just plain scary.
We made it into San Jose a little early, knew exactly how much to pay the taxi driver to get to the other bus station, and got on the familiar bus back to Turrialba. And while the ride was hardly a walk in the park (we had to drive past what looked like a car that had driven off the side of the mountain), it was a feeling of utter relief to be back home.
First of all, this is how we prepared for the trip:
1. Find out that we have to leave Costa Rica at 90 days to renew our visa
2. Talk to a few other non-Costa Ricans and figure out that we should either go to Nicaragua or Panama.
3. Use the internet to find a cool house in Granada, Nicaragua that we can rent for cheap. Decide to go to Nicaragua.
4. Stop thinking about it until the week before, then buy bus tickets.
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| Our deserted street. |
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| The Pollo Rico agency across the street. |
The next morning, when the sun came up, we decided to go in search of coffee and breakfast. We found a chocolate museum with an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet and decided that Granada was much better in the light of the day (that is until James ate too many chocolate covered pancakes and drank too much guava juice and had to throw up on the bathroom - yes on, not in). So we trundled back to the rental house and chose to lay low. Greg and I took turns venturing out. I found a grocery store and some food that would not cause major digestive distress. He found a cool tourism agency offering some exciting opportunities. We both discovered that if we went in the opposite direction from where the guard had taken us for dinner, we would find the heart of downtown Granada, a fabulously historic spot. The kids had rallied by then (a quick dip in the cold pool at the rental house helped enormously), so we all ventured out to check out the big cathedral and the main square in town. The promise of a return trip to buy souvenirs allowed us to drag the kids away before we were forced to walk through the streets in the dark one more time.
 |
| Inside the house - cool pool in the background. |
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| Cathedral in the main square. |
Friday morning we started what can only be described as the biggest day in Maggie's whole life. We ate a small, safe breakfast at home, then walked back to the Cathedral to go up in the bell tower. Greg was disappointed that he was not allowed to ring the bells, but we all enjoyed the amazing view of the city of Granada. Next we took a guided tour of the oldest city in Central America in a horse drawn carriage. The highlight of the tour was seeing the house where William Walker had spent some time (William Walker being the American despot who raped and pillaged most of Central America - and was played by Gracie in the recent 3rd grade re-enactment of the Battle of Santa Rosa in which Costa Rican citizens formed a militia and ousted Walker to prevent his establishing a slave economy). And then we got to buy souvenirs. Lunch was a simple meal at a simple restaurant so we could go back to the house and rest during the hottest part of the day. At 2:00 we were picked up by the wonderful folks from LeoTours and headed to Masaya and the artisan market. More souvenirs! Definitely ask Greg about his Nicaraguan baseball jersey. Gracie and I could have spent all day there, but we were forced to get back in the tour van and head to Masaya Volcano National Park. What a great decision. We did a quick tour of the museum and then headed up to see the real thing. This is one of the few volcanoes in the world where you can drive right up to the crater's edge. It is considered one of the six gates to Hell in the world, and has been used for human sacrifices for centuries. We looked over the edge until the poison gas being belched forth started making the kids cough - then we walked up the 180+ stairs to get an even better look. As I said to a young woman who was also at the top while hugging my children close to me, "Ah, the fears I never knew I had until becoming a parent." We hurried down the stairs and back into the van so we could get to the next lookout point by sunset. Getting to this lookout point involved climbing up the side of a different peak within the same volcano. And while Maggie has gotten pretty darn tough since leaving Minnesota, this was asking a bit too much. I was much relieved when I made it to the top of the climb and was able to set her down to watch the sun set.
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| Old cathedral once burned by William Walker. |
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| Buying souvenirs |
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| Looking down into the volcano. |
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| Carrying Maggie up the side of the volcano. |
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| Ready to go spelunking! |
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| The steps down into the cave. |
Day four was a well-earned lazy day. We let the kids sleep in and then play in the pool. I snuck out at one point to go back to LeoTours and book us on another adventure for the afternoon. When we got hungry, we ventured out to the center of town again and found a great hot dog spot. Our afternoon adventure was a boat tour of some of the islands in Lake Nicaragua. The disparity between the privately owned islands with enormous homes and the ones occupied by the indigenous families was startling. We also saw monkeys on Isla de los Monos (you really can never see too many monkeys), and another beautiful sunset over the water. Dinner that evening was at a restaurant we had passed every day on our walks to and from the center of town - but we took a taxi home because our tour guide informed us that we should definitely not be walking through that part of town after dark (a great thing to find out on day four!).
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| One of the islands in Lake Nicaragua. |
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| Isla de los Monos |
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| The sun setting over Granada. |
Day five - the journey home. We arranged to have someone pick us up at the house at 6:00 am and deliver us to the bus station (for about a quarter of what we paid the guy on the first night). We then loaded onto the bus to start the eight hour drive back to San Jose. We were almost congratulating ourselves on having survived the trip when we got to the border. (Parents/teachers/guardians - you may not want to read this next part out loud to kids) Things seemed to be going smoothly on the Nicaraguan side of the border - we all got out of the bus and were hanging around outside in the open-air food court/market/waiting area when we heard a loud POP! I looked over at Greg and said, "I really hope that wasn't one of our tires." Greg was as white as a sheet and told the kids to look the other way, then pointed out that a man had just been shot by border patrol agents - less than 2 bus lengths away from where we were standing with the kids. I know that gun violence is commonplace - more in the States than in most other places - but I was not prepared for the fear that an actual shooting can evoke. Evidently the man who got shot was the one who brought the gun into the area in the first place, and it appeared that he did not receive any life-threatening injuries, but it was still just plain scary.
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| The open-air area on the Nicaraguan side of the border. |
We made it into San Jose a little early, knew exactly how much to pay the taxi driver to get to the other bus station, and got on the familiar bus back to Turrialba. And while the ride was hardly a walk in the park (we had to drive past what looked like a car that had driven off the side of the mountain), it was a feeling of utter relief to be back home.
Monday, April 4, 2011
A change will do you good.
You know that sinking feeling when you begin to realize that something just isn't quite right? It could be as simple as outgrowing your favorite pair of shoes or as awful as knowing it is time to end a relationship. Somewhere in between these two things has been our last three months. We LOVE Costa Rica, but we were far too unhappy with our housing arrangement to be healthy. We haven't been talking too much about our discomfort as we were trapped in an awkward position. But now that we have moved into our own house just a block from the CATIE campus, we can say that our previous living situation was far from ideal.
I'm taking an aside here to say that I just deleted a large block of text where I went on a very vicious rampage about the views and opinions of our previous roommate and her pee-on-everything cats. This was exactly the kind of negative poison that permeated the air we breathed and had to move away from. So, lesson learned, RISE ABOVE! as Mr. Morgan would say. Learn from this experience and move on knowing that we as a family choose to focus on the positive and the good in all people. We were sad to leave San Cayetano behind, but we are ready to continue our adventure in Costa Rica with a new found appreciation for the warmth, openness and generosity of this amazing culture.
Oh, and by the way, our kids can actually reach the light switches in the new house. Now that's looking on the bright side of life!
I'm taking an aside here to say that I just deleted a large block of text where I went on a very vicious rampage about the views and opinions of our previous roommate and her pee-on-everything cats. This was exactly the kind of negative poison that permeated the air we breathed and had to move away from. So, lesson learned, RISE ABOVE! as Mr. Morgan would say. Learn from this experience and move on knowing that we as a family choose to focus on the positive and the good in all people. We were sad to leave San Cayetano behind, but we are ready to continue our adventure in Costa Rica with a new found appreciation for the warmth, openness and generosity of this amazing culture.
Oh, and by the way, our kids can actually reach the light switches in the new house. Now that's looking on the bright side of life!
Friday, April 1, 2011
Getting nothing done is something
A few people have been wondering about the work I have been doing here. By definition I am a chemist working with some professors and students here who specialize in sustainable tropical agriculture. In some ways this is a bit of a stretch, in other ways the collaborations we are creating can advance the science quite dramatically. Overall I feel the work is very valuable both to me and to the researchers here.
But on a day-to-day basis it is often difficult to get things done. The professors here have a full plates and really don't need to open up too many new projects. They have classes to teach and papers to grade and office hours to hold. It is a busy life for them, no different than I would be back at St. Olaf. But more than that there are certain cultural differences here that one just need to embrace.
First, it is hot here! I mean sit at your desk and sweat hot. This is not conducive to getting a lot done. Secondly, there is the door-to-door fruit vendor who trolls the hallways of our building. What can I say, I am a sucker for a really nice mango. And if you haven't eaten a mango, freshly picked that morning, still warm from the sun - you need to get yourself to someplace tropical. There is no finer distraction than a fresh mango. Except coffee. You know the drill, just when you start making progress on a writing project and the smell of freshly brewed coffee wafts down the hall, mmmmm....coffee...and maybe one of those little pastries - the ones with the pineapple marmalade...OK, just a quick break-only to socialize though. And third are the puppies. Puppies? Cute little dogs roaming the halls looking adorable, and they smell good too. So there I am minding my own business when one of these puppies wanders into my office and begins chewing on my shoe, which happens to contain my foot at the time. Oh, well. Perhaps adopting the pura vida mentality is what we all need to make the days at the office much more appealing.
Respectfully submitted,
El jefe
But on a day-to-day basis it is often difficult to get things done. The professors here have a full plates and really don't need to open up too many new projects. They have classes to teach and papers to grade and office hours to hold. It is a busy life for them, no different than I would be back at St. Olaf. But more than that there are certain cultural differences here that one just need to embrace.
First, it is hot here! I mean sit at your desk and sweat hot. This is not conducive to getting a lot done. Secondly, there is the door-to-door fruit vendor who trolls the hallways of our building. What can I say, I am a sucker for a really nice mango. And if you haven't eaten a mango, freshly picked that morning, still warm from the sun - you need to get yourself to someplace tropical. There is no finer distraction than a fresh mango. Except coffee. You know the drill, just when you start making progress on a writing project and the smell of freshly brewed coffee wafts down the hall, mmmmm....coffee...and maybe one of those little pastries - the ones with the pineapple marmalade...OK, just a quick break-only to socialize though. And third are the puppies. Puppies? Cute little dogs roaming the halls looking adorable, and they smell good too. So there I am minding my own business when one of these puppies wanders into my office and begins chewing on my shoe, which happens to contain my foot at the time. Oh, well. Perhaps adopting the pura vida mentality is what we all need to make the days at the office much more appealing.
Respectfully submitted,
El jefe
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