First of all, can you believe it's November? I definitely can't. The days are always around the same length here, and the weather pretty much never changes, so my body and mind don't believe that it's getting closer and closer to winter at home. It's going to be SUCH a shock to step off that airplane and get that first blast of winter air...but as I've been telling my mom, instead of holing up inside the house and cursing winter for three months, this year I've decided I'm going to embrace it! I'm even going to buy a legitimate winter coat for the first time in five years, that's how serious I am about this whole thing. But anyway, it doesn't feel like winter here at all, obviously, so my mind is still pretty much in summer mode, which is fine by me.
I guess that first I should write a little bit about my weekend trip to Puerto Viejo (looking back, I wish I would have taken photos, because it was a pretty cool place). I went with my Canadian friends Bryan and Cole, who I've mentioned before. The bus ride there wasn't too long for once (only 4 hours, which might sound like a long time to you, but you try taking a 7 1/2 hour bus ride back from Tamarindo and then tell me what you think of 4 hours). They had scheduled a shuttle bus (a much smaller bus, more like a van, really, with only us and three other people on it) and I was lucky enough to be able to hop on it with them. It was interesting to be driving to the Caribbean side of the country, since I'm so used to driving over the mountains and over to the Pacific side. There are mountains towards the Caribbean as well, but you cross over them much more quickly, and there is a lot more flat land to drive over; thus the large amounts of banana plantations on that side.
Puerto Viejo was pretty much exactly as I had imagined it. Super chill, lots of Rasta/Bob Marley everywhere, and lots of warm, beautiful ocean. The hostel we stayed at is named Rocking J's, and this is where I wish I had taken pictures, because it's hard to describe the place without actually being able to show you what I mean. First of all, this hostel is gigantic, and the entire thing is open air, with a big yard in the middle, lots of random places with hammocks and chairs and beanbags to hang out, and a public eating area as well. The entire thing is covered in mosaic...and I mean the ENTIRE thing. All of the walls, all of the poles, all of the buildings...it's ridiculous. I don't even know how long it took to do all of it. There is a giant tent city where people could stay, and there are also two huge hammock rooms where people can choose to sleep, which was the cheapest option. The bathrooms are all shared and are right in the middle of the yard, and the hostel has its own restaurant/bar with delicious food. It's also right next to the ocean, but there is so much coral that it's really not the best swimming beach, so you have to take about a 10-15 minute walk, either along the road or the beach, down to the public area, with lots of sand and green-blue water to swim in. Gorgeous. We did that a few times during the weekend, and the rest of the time was spent walking around the town finding places to eat or browsing the shops, and also napping and going out at night, or lounging around in the hammocks talking...we chose a private room, but nothing there has air conditioning, so it was incredibly damp and hot all weekend long, which meant a huge lack of energy and lots of dehydration, no matter how much water we drank, so we were pretty sluggish the whole time. It was a very relaxing weekend, though, and I'd like to go back again, but I'm not sure if I'll get the chance.
So last time I wrote was on October 20th, only a couple of days after I got back from Puerto Viejo, and a couple of days after that I left, once again, for my favorite place in Costa Rica: Tamarindo. Once again, I went with Bryan and Cole. We stayed there Thursday through Monday, and it was pretty much just like every other time I've gone there (this was the third time): surfing, watching television in the common area of our amazing hostel, meeting new people, going out and having fun at night, lounging on the beach, drinking smoothies, taking naps if the occasion called for it (which was quite often =]). All in all, a very challenging life experience for me (ha).
We got back on Monday, and then Bryan and Cole left on Tuesday afternoon, which was very sad for me, since over those past three weeks they had become my traveling buddies and we ended up spending a lot of time with each other. They headed off to LA for a week before going back home to Vancouver, and I headed back to my house for the first time in almost a week, and got ready to settle back down into what I hoped was going to be a productive few days at work. And guess what?! It WAS productive! I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but one of our biggest projects for the rest of my time here is going to be remodeling/redesigning this bathroom/the area around it in the hostel that is attached to CAP. This hostel is one of the main sources of income for the organization, because all of the money it gets goes towards funding any projects/trips/etc. that the organization needs to do. The bathroom is one of many throughout the hostel, but it's the one that is in plain view of the kitchen/eating area, and it really is disgusting. It is all orange and peeling, and there is mold growing in the shower, and lots of stains everywhere, with dirty cement floors, and it's super enclosed and claustrophobic. In other words, it's not the best selling point of the hostel. They've been wanting to fix it up forever, but they've never had anyone really focus in on the project, since the organization has such a small staff and many things to do. Neil (the other volunteer) and I decided that this would be a good hands-on project to work on that would help the hostel and give us something to do other than research and sit in on meetings. This past week we finally got a ton of planning done (taking measurements, figuring out costs, figuring out exactly what needs to be done and what kinds of materials we are going to use, etc.), and wrote up a plan to send out to the people who are going to be working on it. On Friday we got together at Isabel's house (my boss) and I helped her organize/format the report she wrote about her trip to the UN while Neil wrote out a couple of letters asking for donations/support from local businesses to try and get some of the materials that we need for the bathroom, like tile, paint, skylights, etc. We also went to the supermarket, made lunch (delicious), and had a big talk about spirituality and religion, which was very enlightening (Isabel has had a really cool life). It was a very nice, relaxing, productive day, and I left the week feeling accomplished and like I had been at least somewhat useful.
That brings us to this past weekend. Halloween! People celebrate Halloween here, but it's definitely not as big of a deal as it is in the United States. Some stores/companies decorated, but it wasn't very prominent (that and the lack of cold weather are probably why I kept forgetting it was almost Halloween). My mom also sent me a Halloween package with a giant bag of candy (don't even ask me how much of that candy I have eaten on my own...don't worry, Mom, I've been sharing it too), so that helped set the mood a little bit. For Halloween I was going to be the Spice Girls with three of my friends (we didn't have a Ginger Spice), but they decided to go to the beach instead, so I ended up being Little Red Riding Hood, because my friend Bernie found a red cape in a closet at his house, and I didn't want to spend any money on a costume since my funds are running veeeeeeery low. I could have gone to the beach, but I wanted to see what a legitimate Costa Rica Halloween party was like, and I figured that none of the small beach towns would have any big parties, especially since it's low season right now and there aren't a lot of people around.
It turns out I made a great decision, because the party we went to was awesome! It was at this club/bar about twenty minutes away from my house, and we had to buy tickets to get in because so many people wanted to go to it. The decorations were amazing; there was a giant screen outside to make it look like a haunted house:
There were lots of decorations inside, as well. And EVERYONE was dressed up, there were so many different costumes, most of them pretty elaborate. It was a great night full of dancing and laughing at other peoples' costumes...our friends Bernie and Alberto went as Bert and Ernie, and they were the celebrities of the night; more than 45 people asked to take their pictures with them. Here are some photos from the night:
I forgot to mention that on Friday night we went out to see Bernie's friend's comedy show at a small restaurant in San Jose. It was a very small audience, and a really funny show. On Sunday Mikaela and I went with Bernie to Hooters (again, second time I have been there in my life, and both of them have been in Costa Rica...) to watch the Vikings dominate the Packers for the second time this season (woohoo!). It was very quiet in there, since most Costa Ricans obviously do not watch NFL football...but we made up for it by cheering loudly.
So there you go, all caught up! I've said this before, but I'll say it again: I'm going to try to update this more regularly. I can write in more detail and make everything sound more interesting if I do that...it's just a matter of motivation. Miss you all! 7 weeks left. Wow. Time flies. Much love.
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