Today the family arrived, albeit a lot later, or should I say earlier, than expected.
The morning started with a late rising on my behalf and I stayed at home while the family went out for church. When they got back, we were off to Sarchi with the grandparents.
We all piled into the van and headed off to buy a traditional wooden cart model for our family. When we first arrived in Sarchi it was lunch time, so we found a place to eat and did just that. While we were eating we saw a squirrel just running along a nearby fence. This one was different to others that I had seen by the fact that its fur was a lot darker than the others. Also, one thing about the drinks here, because they are so sweet and delicious I drink them very quickly. It is impossible for me to have a drink still by the time my meal arrives.
For lunch I had prawns done in a garlic butter with rice and salad. Guisella on the other hand had a mixed ceviche. She reckoned because of the amount of lettuce that was with the ceviche it was more like 'lettuce with ceviche' rather than 'ceviche with lettuce'. She even told the waiter this.
After lunch we started the search for a cart that balanced price, with size, with look. Souvenir shops are dangerous for me, because I just want to buy absolutely everything. I even told Jose that I shouldn't have brought my wallet with me.
When we had found the one we wanted, I also found something that I wanted, and something that everyone except Jose and Jorge wanted too. The Sarchi version of a Churchill dessert. This one didn't have ice cream, but other than that it was the same, and very delicious at that. The most awesome thing about it though was how the guy on the street selling them, made them. It was truly shaved ice that he used as he had a big block of solid ice which he used what was actually quite a sophisticated tool to shave the ice off into a little cup before transferring it into the cups for us. It was very cool to watch.
After the cart was all wrapped up and paid for it was put in the car. Back at the car, Guisella had struck up a conversation with these two people. It turns out that the wife was the sister of the husband of one of Guisella's cousins. I think. And they lived in New Mexico but were just here for a holiday with their two children.
We then headed back to the home. Once there Jose and I immediately went off to Walmart to grab some ingredients to make two things, scones and cajetas. Cajetas are a very sweet mixture of simply milk powder and condensed milk. They are amazing. I had tried them yesterday as the little food that came out with the bill for the meal on Turrialba.
Back at home I wrapped the Christmas presents I had brought for the family before getting stuck in to making the scones. The family was supposed to be arriving in only three hours from when I started as it was already 6pm. I did use the grandmothers oven, just because it would be safer, after what happened to the pavlova. One time when I went to check on the scones, the kitchen was filled with smoke and there was Oscar, the grandfather, just standing there. I was given such a fright by the smoke and rushed to the oven, but then Oscar told me that all was ok. It was just the stuff on the bottom of the oven that was burning up. Phew. I returned a little later, after realizing the oven had been turned off and turning it back on, and they were ready, and I must say looking pretty spectacular.
A bit later, Jose and I made the cajetas. Boy did we have some fun. At one point Jose made me put my whole hands into the mixture to mix it up, but all that did was transfer the mixture from the bowl onto my hands. We were in stitches laughing. Once they were all rolled into little balls and in the fridge, Guisella was left to clean the bowl, with a spoon and her mouth. She loves sweet food, like me.
Jose and I then just chilled waiting for the time to come when we were going to need to pick up the family. However, that time ended up coming much later than first expected as just after finishing the cajetas, Jose received a message from Nicola saying they were in Houston. At first both Jose and I thought that they must be using the WiFi that American Airlines now offers, and they were flying above Houston, but no, turns out there plane had taken a diversion and landed in Houston. There had been a fault with one of the hydraulic systems and while that particular one wasn't utterly necessary, the pilot wasn't comfortable landing in Costa Rica with only 2 of the 3 systems in place. So, they had make an emergency landing in Houston with a full emergency procedure activated on the ground with firefighters and police following the plane down the runway.
They ended up waiting quite awhile on the tarmac before waiting a bit longer in the airport. After hoping to fix the plane quickly and continue with the flight, they decided to bring an empty plane down from Dallas to pick them up and bring them to Costa Rica.
As a result of all this drama, they ended up arriving at 3:30am in the morning of the next day. Jose and I had pretty much stayed up the whole night waiting, lying around a bit, watching YouTube videos and dozing off at times. But at 3:30am we were there at the airport receiving the family, minus Guisella who had decided to sleep with the knowledge that she would have to be the first one up that day to get a breakfast prepared. It was very nice to finally have the family here, especially now with all the worrying that their little drama caused. All the luggage was piled into the back of the van and we headed home with the rest of my family. As we arrived home Guisella popped out of her room just for a second to say 'Hola' before returning to bed. The family had showers and a bit of a catch up with Jose, despite it not feeling like 2 years had passed, before heading off to bed after 5am.
It was a strange feeling for them to finally be here in the place that I had been staying at alone with Jose's family for the last 5 weeks. Strange but awesome.
I went to sleep happy to have all the families together at last. What a magical thing.
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Day 33: White Water Rafting
Today we conquered the river.
We had to get up nice and early today, at like 5am, to head through San Jose and Cartago, to get to our destination in Turrialba. But we weren't just alone. The van was full with 12 of us, all heading off to do the white water rafting. There was Jorge, Jose, Melania, Laura, her boyfriend, cousins and friends.
While going through Cartago, we got a glimpse of the big cathedral that is there. It is the main church of Costa Rica, and Jose told me this old story about the place that lead to the cathedral being built around a rock carving of the Virgin Mary. Every year there is a pilgrimage to the cathedral, and some people walk from as far away as Guanacaste. Jose has done it some years, but he has only ever walked from San Jose, which is still a distance, but not too far to walk in one day.
The ride was a bit cramped. My knees were almost up around my ears. But this meant I got talking quickly with all the others in between closed eyes.
Once we got to Turrialba, it took a while to actually find the company that we were going to do the rafting with. The problem was that there were no street names, and there were so many white water rafting companies in the area. Also, it turned out that the place we were doing it with, was quite hard to find as it had hardly any advertising or signage, just a banner saying 'Rafting'. We arrived there, signed our lives away on a piece of paper, slapped on sunscreen and bug spray, jumped in another van and were driven to the start of the rapids.
The 12 of us split up into two groups of 6 and were assigned a guide and a boat. Our guide's name was Mario, and he was awesome. Every time we went through a bigger set of rapids he would yell out 'oars up', in Spanish of course, and we would all lift up our oars and whoop. Before we set off down the rapids we had to learn the instructions that he would call. There were ones for paddling forward, backwards, one side forward one side backward, everyone to go to one side, and everyone to jump right inside the boat. We never had to use the last two.
One of the craziest things was when we would go down a rapid, and as we were doing so, my left side would start to paddle backwards while the right side continued to paddle forwards making us do spins while we were going down the rapids.
Mario told us that it was very important to stay in time with each other, and to be able to react quickly to his instructions during the rapids. I was at the back of the boat, opposite to Jose, so really we just had to follow those in front of us. But the guy at the front of my side wasn't the best at keeping in time so the paddles of my side kept being out of time. One time we ran into a bit of trouble with this as we weren't turning fast enough to avoid a rock, this was the fault of our side of the boat as we weren't in time with each other. This led us to bang the side of the raft into the rock. Mario had a bit of a talk with us about the importance of staying together. We did better the following times.
The view of the valley that we were traveling through was amazing with trees on either side. We were traveling as a group of three rafts with the same company. There was our two and another one which had a German family of 5. The actual company that we went with was called 'Loco's', which, yes, as I'm sure you all know means crazy. I thought that was quite apt for how the rafting was.
There were times when we would go down a rapid slightly sideways. When this would happen often you would get thrown about the place a bit. I was the first person to come out of the footholds that we had in the boat and I ended up on Jose's lap. At the time he thought that my falling on him was extreme. But oh, no, it got more extreme. At one point we went sideways down a really steep rapid causing the raft to sort of fold in half, which made all the people on the right side of the boat fall into our laps. This action caused the guy in front of me, Felipe, to fall out of the raft. He came up to the side of the raft like a drowned rat.
We stopped of for a lunch on the side of the river. There was so much to eat and drink, it was amazing to think that it was all only for $50 USD per person. One thing we had noticed while we had been paddling was that other than resorts on the banks of the river, there were stacks of stones that people had made. So at lunch time we took to making stacks of rocks and then trying to knock them down with other stones from a distance away.
Also at lunchtime we had a little talk with the Germans, and found out that the son of the family had been in Costa Rica for 6 months now, and was leaving tomorrow, while the family had arrived 16 days ago to meet up with him and have a holiday. His Spanish was very good, and supposedly, as Jose and Jorge said, he spoke like a 'tico' (a slang word for a Costa Rican).
After lunch we had another 2 hours of rafting. The most spectacular thing, other than Melania falling out of her raft, was when we passed through a canyon called 'The two mountain'. We had previously jumped out of the raft for a swim, but this time it was utterly spectacular. The sheer rock faces were amazing simply to be floating between. At one point we found a spot to climb a little way up and use as a jumping spot, it was very slippery to get up. Also in this second half of rafting, I did a thing called 'riding bull' where you go on the front of the raft as you go through the rapids. Turns out when I was at the front we went through the rapid backwards meaning that I couldn't see the big drop that made me fall backwards into the raft flinging my legs up into the air. It was quite hard to get back up from.
After making it the 18km through the river passing under a bridge near the end, we pulled the boat out of the water, got changed and headed back in the van. This was all after much conversation over whether we were going to buy the very expensive DVD of images that had been taken of us by a guy on a jet ski who followed us along. Turns out we got the DVD for a much cheaper price than the Germans.
By this time it was starting to get dark, so as we were heading back over the Turrialba hills, we stopped in at a little place for a dinner snack. I had a cheese tortilla because the cheese from Turrialba is said to be the best around. It was very cheesy and very rich.
After eating that, I did try to order a plate of alfajores, a type of biscuit, but turns out there wasn't any. We only found this out after about 15 minutes of waiting before actually asking the waitress to find out they didn't have any :(
We then headed back home through the dark of the night, passing through Catargo which had a fair on with rides and everything before returning home all very tired and ready for bed.
Before bed, the four of us in the family spent some time relaxing on Guisella and Jorge's bed watching a programme about a guy who had surgery to remove a huge tumor from his face. It was very interesting. Bed came shortly after.
P.S. Photos will come later. I am quickly trying to catch up on some blog posts, while still getting enough sleep.
We had to get up nice and early today, at like 5am, to head through San Jose and Cartago, to get to our destination in Turrialba. But we weren't just alone. The van was full with 12 of us, all heading off to do the white water rafting. There was Jorge, Jose, Melania, Laura, her boyfriend, cousins and friends.
While going through Cartago, we got a glimpse of the big cathedral that is there. It is the main church of Costa Rica, and Jose told me this old story about the place that lead to the cathedral being built around a rock carving of the Virgin Mary. Every year there is a pilgrimage to the cathedral, and some people walk from as far away as Guanacaste. Jose has done it some years, but he has only ever walked from San Jose, which is still a distance, but not too far to walk in one day.
The ride was a bit cramped. My knees were almost up around my ears. But this meant I got talking quickly with all the others in between closed eyes.
Once we got to Turrialba, it took a while to actually find the company that we were going to do the rafting with. The problem was that there were no street names, and there were so many white water rafting companies in the area. Also, it turned out that the place we were doing it with, was quite hard to find as it had hardly any advertising or signage, just a banner saying 'Rafting'. We arrived there, signed our lives away on a piece of paper, slapped on sunscreen and bug spray, jumped in another van and were driven to the start of the rapids.
The 12 of us split up into two groups of 6 and were assigned a guide and a boat. Our guide's name was Mario, and he was awesome. Every time we went through a bigger set of rapids he would yell out 'oars up', in Spanish of course, and we would all lift up our oars and whoop. Before we set off down the rapids we had to learn the instructions that he would call. There were ones for paddling forward, backwards, one side forward one side backward, everyone to go to one side, and everyone to jump right inside the boat. We never had to use the last two.
One of the craziest things was when we would go down a rapid, and as we were doing so, my left side would start to paddle backwards while the right side continued to paddle forwards making us do spins while we were going down the rapids.
Mario told us that it was very important to stay in time with each other, and to be able to react quickly to his instructions during the rapids. I was at the back of the boat, opposite to Jose, so really we just had to follow those in front of us. But the guy at the front of my side wasn't the best at keeping in time so the paddles of my side kept being out of time. One time we ran into a bit of trouble with this as we weren't turning fast enough to avoid a rock, this was the fault of our side of the boat as we weren't in time with each other. This led us to bang the side of the raft into the rock. Mario had a bit of a talk with us about the importance of staying together. We did better the following times.
The view of the valley that we were traveling through was amazing with trees on either side. We were traveling as a group of three rafts with the same company. There was our two and another one which had a German family of 5. The actual company that we went with was called 'Loco's', which, yes, as I'm sure you all know means crazy. I thought that was quite apt for how the rafting was.
There were times when we would go down a rapid slightly sideways. When this would happen often you would get thrown about the place a bit. I was the first person to come out of the footholds that we had in the boat and I ended up on Jose's lap. At the time he thought that my falling on him was extreme. But oh, no, it got more extreme. At one point we went sideways down a really steep rapid causing the raft to sort of fold in half, which made all the people on the right side of the boat fall into our laps. This action caused the guy in front of me, Felipe, to fall out of the raft. He came up to the side of the raft like a drowned rat.
We stopped of for a lunch on the side of the river. There was so much to eat and drink, it was amazing to think that it was all only for $50 USD per person. One thing we had noticed while we had been paddling was that other than resorts on the banks of the river, there were stacks of stones that people had made. So at lunch time we took to making stacks of rocks and then trying to knock them down with other stones from a distance away.
Also at lunchtime we had a little talk with the Germans, and found out that the son of the family had been in Costa Rica for 6 months now, and was leaving tomorrow, while the family had arrived 16 days ago to meet up with him and have a holiday. His Spanish was very good, and supposedly, as Jose and Jorge said, he spoke like a 'tico' (a slang word for a Costa Rican).
After lunch we had another 2 hours of rafting. The most spectacular thing, other than Melania falling out of her raft, was when we passed through a canyon called 'The two mountain'. We had previously jumped out of the raft for a swim, but this time it was utterly spectacular. The sheer rock faces were amazing simply to be floating between. At one point we found a spot to climb a little way up and use as a jumping spot, it was very slippery to get up. Also in this second half of rafting, I did a thing called 'riding bull' where you go on the front of the raft as you go through the rapids. Turns out when I was at the front we went through the rapid backwards meaning that I couldn't see the big drop that made me fall backwards into the raft flinging my legs up into the air. It was quite hard to get back up from.
After making it the 18km through the river passing under a bridge near the end, we pulled the boat out of the water, got changed and headed back in the van. This was all after much conversation over whether we were going to buy the very expensive DVD of images that had been taken of us by a guy on a jet ski who followed us along. Turns out we got the DVD for a much cheaper price than the Germans.
By this time it was starting to get dark, so as we were heading back over the Turrialba hills, we stopped in at a little place for a dinner snack. I had a cheese tortilla because the cheese from Turrialba is said to be the best around. It was very cheesy and very rich.
After eating that, I did try to order a plate of alfajores, a type of biscuit, but turns out there wasn't any. We only found this out after about 15 minutes of waiting before actually asking the waitress to find out they didn't have any :(
We then headed back home through the dark of the night, passing through Catargo which had a fair on with rides and everything before returning home all very tired and ready for bed.
Before bed, the four of us in the family spent some time relaxing on Guisella and Jorge's bed watching a programme about a guy who had surgery to remove a huge tumor from his face. It was very interesting. Bed came shortly after.
P.S. Photos will come later. I am quickly trying to catch up on some blog posts, while still getting enough sleep.
Monday, January 6, 2014
Day 32: Curly Hair Still
Today we met up with Fabi.
Jose and I were at the bus stop by 8:30 this morning waiting for the bus to take us to Alajuela. It ended up taking a while to arrive. There are actually so many buses here, while we were waiting for our bus, probably at least 10 other buses went past all with different routes and destinations.
We finally got on and were on our way to Alajuela. The heat was already getting to me.
Once we arrived in Alajuela we had to find a bus that would take us to Grecia, where Fabi lives. Jose really didn't know where the bus left from, so after a bit of walking and asking of different people, we finally found the queue for the bus. We waited for about 25 minutes before we jumped on the bus and headed off for Grecia. This bus trip took ages. Usually to get all the way from home to Grecia by car it only takes about 30 minutes. By the time we arrived in Grecia it had been more than two hours of traveling. After asking a kind lady on the bus when to get off, we headed to the main square of Grecia to wait for Fabiola. It wasn't long before I caught a glimpse of a person with very curly hair walking through the square. Turns out it was Fabi. My first impression was how much she had changed.
Jose had always told me that while she was in New Zealand she had been bigger, but only now I could believe him, she seemed half the size, having lost over 10 kilograms since returning to Costa Rica. Also she now had braces and her voice seemed different too, plus she had a more mature aura.
We jumped in her car and headed off to Volcan Poas. We stopped in at a little store to buy some chips and some guayabita lollies. On the way to the volcano we drove through Fabi's suburb of Grecia which is called Saint Gertrude North, she hates the name, and prefers to just call it 'North'.
Once we got to the Poas region I was told that lots of strawberries were grown there, and I could definitely tell by the amount of people on the side of the roads selling strawberries. We then started to ascend Poas Volcano, and we hit traffic shortly after. Fabi assured me that it was never like this and that it was just because I was there that there was traffic.
Jose and I got out off the car to walk around because the queue of cars was moving so slowly.
We finally got our tickets and parked the car. It was very cool to see Fabiola again, and this was another time when it felt like I wasn't in another country. While earlier I had thought her voice sounded different, when she spoke English, it was the same old Fabi that I knew. We first walked to the crater of the volcano. It was a little hard to see because there was quite a bit of cloud cover, but we did catch glimpses of it between the clouds. We then saw a little mouse playing around in a chip packet that had been left on the ground. Jose touched the bag one time when it had gone inside, and the mouse bit him. It was quite funny to watch.
We then headed to the crater lake. While walking there we got to see a squirrel. This one was busy munching on a nut, and it was the coolest thing to see. Fabi then told me that her boyfriend actually has a pet squirrel, that made me quite jealous. This was even harder to see, but again between the clouds we did get to view it. It looked so nice, and I had the urge to swim in it, or in fact going skiing just because it was so flat.
We then had quite a work out because of the course we took to get back to the main building of the place. Fabiola was so out of breath the whole time. While doing the walk we saw another squirrel running through the forest. We eventually made it back, and had a quick look around the souvenir shop that was there, I just managed to walk out without buying anything.
We headed back down the mountain in the car, stopping in to get some cash out for some lunch and for tomorrow. The place we went for lunch was similar to the place on Turrialba, the fact that the appearance of the place would make it seem like not a good place to eat. But Fabi knew the place and boy was she right, the food was very good. I had a strawberry smoothie, because I had to try the strawberries from the area, and a chicken fajita. Like normal, it was very cheap too, about $10 NZD.
We then headed back to Grecia to see Fabi's house. Despite having been back in the country for 2 years since being on the AFS exchange to New Zealand, Jose and Fabi had only meet up a few times. This was the first time Jose had been to her house. Her house was very nice, and grand, and big.
She had two dogs, one was crazy, and the other was nice. She also had a parrot that was the loudest thing ever, it sounded like a little girl crying out.
Fabi actually lives in San Jose now with her older sister, because it is better for her university, but she is there for the holidays. Jose and I played some foosball in her games/bar room before we all sat down and played some card games.
Soon after Fabi dropped us off at the bus stop in Grecia and we said our goodbyes. She is planning to come visit the whole family once they arrive.
We then did the long trip back to Heredia. But this trip wasn't as long as the other, almost half the time, because we took a different route that took the highway. We got off the bus by Hard Rock Cafe, and caught the next bus after waiting a little while.
Once we got of the bus in Heredia, we went to Curves, the gym where Melania works just to call in and see her at her job. The place had no one working out in it, I guess a lot of people had already given up on their New Year's Resolutions.
We then walked the rest of the way home. And when we got in, we noticed a huge difference. Guisella is a magician. All the rooms had been changed around ready for the arrival of the rest of the family. My room now had two beds in it, and Jose's room had been made to look like a hotel room, while the study had been turned into a bedroom. It was a very quick transformation.
The rest of the night was quiet, just having a quiet dinner, enjoying the tranquility before the family arrives :)
Jose and I were at the bus stop by 8:30 this morning waiting for the bus to take us to Alajuela. It ended up taking a while to arrive. There are actually so many buses here, while we were waiting for our bus, probably at least 10 other buses went past all with different routes and destinations.
We finally got on and were on our way to Alajuela. The heat was already getting to me.
Once we arrived in Alajuela we had to find a bus that would take us to Grecia, where Fabi lives. Jose really didn't know where the bus left from, so after a bit of walking and asking of different people, we finally found the queue for the bus. We waited for about 25 minutes before we jumped on the bus and headed off for Grecia. This bus trip took ages. Usually to get all the way from home to Grecia by car it only takes about 30 minutes. By the time we arrived in Grecia it had been more than two hours of traveling. After asking a kind lady on the bus when to get off, we headed to the main square of Grecia to wait for Fabiola. It wasn't long before I caught a glimpse of a person with very curly hair walking through the square. Turns out it was Fabi. My first impression was how much she had changed.
Jose had always told me that while she was in New Zealand she had been bigger, but only now I could believe him, she seemed half the size, having lost over 10 kilograms since returning to Costa Rica. Also she now had braces and her voice seemed different too, plus she had a more mature aura.
We jumped in her car and headed off to Volcan Poas. We stopped in at a little store to buy some chips and some guayabita lollies. On the way to the volcano we drove through Fabi's suburb of Grecia which is called Saint Gertrude North, she hates the name, and prefers to just call it 'North'.
Once we got to the Poas region I was told that lots of strawberries were grown there, and I could definitely tell by the amount of people on the side of the roads selling strawberries. We then started to ascend Poas Volcano, and we hit traffic shortly after. Fabi assured me that it was never like this and that it was just because I was there that there was traffic.
Jose and I got out off the car to walk around because the queue of cars was moving so slowly.
We finally got our tickets and parked the car. It was very cool to see Fabiola again, and this was another time when it felt like I wasn't in another country. While earlier I had thought her voice sounded different, when she spoke English, it was the same old Fabi that I knew. We first walked to the crater of the volcano. It was a little hard to see because there was quite a bit of cloud cover, but we did catch glimpses of it between the clouds. We then saw a little mouse playing around in a chip packet that had been left on the ground. Jose touched the bag one time when it had gone inside, and the mouse bit him. It was quite funny to watch.
We then headed to the crater lake. While walking there we got to see a squirrel. This one was busy munching on a nut, and it was the coolest thing to see. Fabi then told me that her boyfriend actually has a pet squirrel, that made me quite jealous. This was even harder to see, but again between the clouds we did get to view it. It looked so nice, and I had the urge to swim in it, or in fact going skiing just because it was so flat.
We then had quite a work out because of the course we took to get back to the main building of the place. Fabiola was so out of breath the whole time. While doing the walk we saw another squirrel running through the forest. We eventually made it back, and had a quick look around the souvenir shop that was there, I just managed to walk out without buying anything.
We headed back down the mountain in the car, stopping in to get some cash out for some lunch and for tomorrow. The place we went for lunch was similar to the place on Turrialba, the fact that the appearance of the place would make it seem like not a good place to eat. But Fabi knew the place and boy was she right, the food was very good. I had a strawberry smoothie, because I had to try the strawberries from the area, and a chicken fajita. Like normal, it was very cheap too, about $10 NZD.
We then headed back to Grecia to see Fabi's house. Despite having been back in the country for 2 years since being on the AFS exchange to New Zealand, Jose and Fabi had only meet up a few times. This was the first time Jose had been to her house. Her house was very nice, and grand, and big.
She had two dogs, one was crazy, and the other was nice. She also had a parrot that was the loudest thing ever, it sounded like a little girl crying out.
Fabi actually lives in San Jose now with her older sister, because it is better for her university, but she is there for the holidays. Jose and I played some foosball in her games/bar room before we all sat down and played some card games.
Soon after Fabi dropped us off at the bus stop in Grecia and we said our goodbyes. She is planning to come visit the whole family once they arrive.
We then did the long trip back to Heredia. But this trip wasn't as long as the other, almost half the time, because we took a different route that took the highway. We got off the bus by Hard Rock Cafe, and caught the next bus after waiting a little while.
Once we got of the bus in Heredia, we went to Curves, the gym where Melania works just to call in and see her at her job. The place had no one working out in it, I guess a lot of people had already given up on their New Year's Resolutions.
We then walked the rest of the way home. And when we got in, we noticed a huge difference. Guisella is a magician. All the rooms had been changed around ready for the arrival of the rest of the family. My room now had two beds in it, and Jose's room had been made to look like a hotel room, while the study had been turned into a bedroom. It was a very quick transformation.
The rest of the night was quiet, just having a quiet dinner, enjoying the tranquility before the family arrives :)
 |
| Fabiola and Jose in front of the crater |
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Day 31: Cleaning Doors and Hard Rock
Today started slowly. Jose and I both rose from our beds after 9am, yet were still tired.
I had my usual breakfast of 4 pieces of toast and strawberry milkshake before getting ready for the day.
All the time I have been here, so a month now, I have been wanted to meet up with Fabiola, a friend from the same AFS trip to New Zealand that Jose was on, but it hadn't happened yet. Jose had previously invited her to so many of the things we have done, but she had always been too busy. So, today I decided to take the matter into my own hands and message her myself. Within half an hour of me doing so I had a reply and we started organizing an activity for tomorrow. Sometimes you have to steer the ship yourself.
After this was organized, I saw that Guisella was cleaning the house, like usual. She is honestly always cleaning. Most mornings when I walk out of my room, there she is with the mop busily cleaning the floor. I think she cleans too much. She knows this, and makes an effort to always show me how much dirt is on the mop after she has finished, just to prove her point. She was about to rope Jose into doing some housework for her, when I offered to help. I ended up spending neigh on two hours wiping down all the doors in the house with a damp cloth. It felt good to help out, but man, I was tired by the end of it. I think I drew the better straw though as Jose ended up having to empty all the toilet rubbish bins and wash them. I was quite fortunate I think :)
After this Jose told me that we were going to go to the Hard Rock Café in San Jose (really it is barely in San Jose). This is because since I attempted to go with Nathalie and Louis I have kept bugging Jose about going. Today was finally the day.
However, it was only later in the afternoon that we would go. We had lunch, which afterwards I spent some time on the computer, while Jose was outside talking to Rodolfo who had arrived.
It was about 3:30 when we actually left, and we took the bus from just opposite Taco Bell straight to the area of Asuncion where the Hard Rock Café is.
I actually had no idea what a Hard Rock Café was, never having been to one before, and for that reason I was expecting a 'café'. But, no, it is actually a full on restaurant. This surprised me.
We just had desserts there, and the other two, Jose and Rodolfo, thought the prices were really expensive, like 12 NZD for a dessert. I explained that prices like those were normal in New Zealand, I think Jose had forgotten what restaurants in New Zealand were like. I had a apple cobbler with a chocolate milkshake, both were very good. I thought the atmosphere of the place was very cool, with the music and all the items of clothing of famous rock stars hanging on the walls. My favourite quirky thing about the place was how the lights for the cash register area were microphones on stands mounted upside down to the ceiling. The guy who served us had that most different voice I have heard here, it was so deep and monotone. When we were leaving he said to us, 'I hope you don't get diabetes after all that sugar'. That made me laugh.
After leaving, we went across the road to a small mall, just to have a little look. One thing about shops here is that the people are very pushy. For example, I went into this one shop which had lots of computer game merchandise, and the guy started off by asking if I was looking for anything particular. I said no, and that I was just looking. But the second I touched an Angry Birds cushion he swooped in like they all do. He started telling me all about it, then showed me an angry birds set of cushions that was on special and went on to show me all this other Angry Birds stuff. It can get quite annoying. Other times the shop keepers will be hanging around, quite close, and you go to head off to another part of the store, but you can't because they are physically in your way. It is quite interesting.
It was about half six when we left by bus back to Taco Bell. We left Rodolfo on the bus as Jose and I walked home.
At home was Naty and Teto. Turns out they were staying the night. Teto was adamant on me having to watch a TV programme with him, it was quite funny.
They all went to bed quite early. I followed a bit later.
I had my usual breakfast of 4 pieces of toast and strawberry milkshake before getting ready for the day.
All the time I have been here, so a month now, I have been wanted to meet up with Fabiola, a friend from the same AFS trip to New Zealand that Jose was on, but it hadn't happened yet. Jose had previously invited her to so many of the things we have done, but she had always been too busy. So, today I decided to take the matter into my own hands and message her myself. Within half an hour of me doing so I had a reply and we started organizing an activity for tomorrow. Sometimes you have to steer the ship yourself.
After this was organized, I saw that Guisella was cleaning the house, like usual. She is honestly always cleaning. Most mornings when I walk out of my room, there she is with the mop busily cleaning the floor. I think she cleans too much. She knows this, and makes an effort to always show me how much dirt is on the mop after she has finished, just to prove her point. She was about to rope Jose into doing some housework for her, when I offered to help. I ended up spending neigh on two hours wiping down all the doors in the house with a damp cloth. It felt good to help out, but man, I was tired by the end of it. I think I drew the better straw though as Jose ended up having to empty all the toilet rubbish bins and wash them. I was quite fortunate I think :)
After this Jose told me that we were going to go to the Hard Rock Café in San Jose (really it is barely in San Jose). This is because since I attempted to go with Nathalie and Louis I have kept bugging Jose about going. Today was finally the day.
However, it was only later in the afternoon that we would go. We had lunch, which afterwards I spent some time on the computer, while Jose was outside talking to Rodolfo who had arrived.
It was about 3:30 when we actually left, and we took the bus from just opposite Taco Bell straight to the area of Asuncion where the Hard Rock Café is.
I actually had no idea what a Hard Rock Café was, never having been to one before, and for that reason I was expecting a 'café'. But, no, it is actually a full on restaurant. This surprised me.
We just had desserts there, and the other two, Jose and Rodolfo, thought the prices were really expensive, like 12 NZD for a dessert. I explained that prices like those were normal in New Zealand, I think Jose had forgotten what restaurants in New Zealand were like. I had a apple cobbler with a chocolate milkshake, both were very good. I thought the atmosphere of the place was very cool, with the music and all the items of clothing of famous rock stars hanging on the walls. My favourite quirky thing about the place was how the lights for the cash register area were microphones on stands mounted upside down to the ceiling. The guy who served us had that most different voice I have heard here, it was so deep and monotone. When we were leaving he said to us, 'I hope you don't get diabetes after all that sugar'. That made me laugh.
After leaving, we went across the road to a small mall, just to have a little look. One thing about shops here is that the people are very pushy. For example, I went into this one shop which had lots of computer game merchandise, and the guy started off by asking if I was looking for anything particular. I said no, and that I was just looking. But the second I touched an Angry Birds cushion he swooped in like they all do. He started telling me all about it, then showed me an angry birds set of cushions that was on special and went on to show me all this other Angry Birds stuff. It can get quite annoying. Other times the shop keepers will be hanging around, quite close, and you go to head off to another part of the store, but you can't because they are physically in your way. It is quite interesting.
It was about half six when we left by bus back to Taco Bell. We left Rodolfo on the bus as Jose and I walked home.
At home was Naty and Teto. Turns out they were staying the night. Teto was adamant on me having to watch a TV programme with him, it was quite funny.
They all went to bed quite early. I followed a bit later.
 |
| Me outside the Hard Rock Cafe |
Friday, January 3, 2014
Day 30: Wet Hillsides and Popcorn
Today was New Year's day, and while we had already been awake today at the turn of the year, we got up very late from our beds.
It was about 11am when we got out of bed and had breakfast. Jose made pancakes for us. They were very nice, I actually hadn't had pancakes for quite a while. Everyone thought it was strange that I liked to have lemon with my pancakes. I mean, for me, it is normal.
I was then told that I was going somewhere. Really, I had no idea, like usual.
I soon found out that it was Jose, Melania, Francisco and I who were going. So we all jumped in Francisco's car, a small jeep buggy sort of car. Already as it was Jose and I were quite squeezed in the back, and of course, my head was touching the ceiling.
We stopped in at the petrol station, the bank, and a bakery before picking up Rodolfo in San Rafael de Heredia. Now with three people in the back, it was a nightmare. I felt like I was being pushed up against the window. There was actually no physical way I could wear my seat belt since the back was meant only for two people and Jose was sitting in the middle on top of the buckles.
Turns out we were going up a hill to a place called Bosque de la Hoja (in English: Forest of the Leaf), to have a small picnic. Turns out everyone else in Heredia was too, the place was very busy. As we were heading up the mountain road there had been people who had stopped on the side of the road to have their picnics.
At the place we met up with the family of Francisco. I didn't really get to talk to any of them, but they had these cool big mask things that the children would wear and dance around in. Really I think it was one of the parents who liked to wear them the most.
We were sitting down on some picnic blankets, well, I was actually sitting on the grass by accident, even though I was the only one on my rug, just chilling, enjoying the atmosphere.
And it would have been nice, except it was raining, and I had brought nothing for wet weather. Yet we continued to sit there just basking in the glory of the new year. We sung one of the children 'Happy Birthday' and shared in some delicious cake as well.
The family then started to drift away, and soon after we left too.
Since for the past week, Jose and I had been wanting to watch some good movies, we decided that we could go watch some movies at Rebe's house. So we called into the DVD store and picked up The Croods and New Year's Eve, fittingly.
It ended up just being Jose, Rodolfo and I who went round to Rebe's house, this was after calling in home and having lunch. Rebe, Naty and Teto joined us to watch both movies and we had iced tea and popcorn while watching. It was a nice way to chill out for the start of the year.
Rebe's dog was being so random while we were watching the movies. Despite having a sore ear, it was adamant in scratching it. However every time she scratched her ear she would yelp. It would have been more amusing had there not have been anything wrong with the dog's ear.
When then walked home, and said goodbye to Rodolfo on the way.
At home we just kept relaxing. It seemed to be the theme for today.
It was about 11am when we got out of bed and had breakfast. Jose made pancakes for us. They were very nice, I actually hadn't had pancakes for quite a while. Everyone thought it was strange that I liked to have lemon with my pancakes. I mean, for me, it is normal.
I was then told that I was going somewhere. Really, I had no idea, like usual.
I soon found out that it was Jose, Melania, Francisco and I who were going. So we all jumped in Francisco's car, a small jeep buggy sort of car. Already as it was Jose and I were quite squeezed in the back, and of course, my head was touching the ceiling.
We stopped in at the petrol station, the bank, and a bakery before picking up Rodolfo in San Rafael de Heredia. Now with three people in the back, it was a nightmare. I felt like I was being pushed up against the window. There was actually no physical way I could wear my seat belt since the back was meant only for two people and Jose was sitting in the middle on top of the buckles.
Turns out we were going up a hill to a place called Bosque de la Hoja (in English: Forest of the Leaf), to have a small picnic. Turns out everyone else in Heredia was too, the place was very busy. As we were heading up the mountain road there had been people who had stopped on the side of the road to have their picnics.
At the place we met up with the family of Francisco. I didn't really get to talk to any of them, but they had these cool big mask things that the children would wear and dance around in. Really I think it was one of the parents who liked to wear them the most.
We were sitting down on some picnic blankets, well, I was actually sitting on the grass by accident, even though I was the only one on my rug, just chilling, enjoying the atmosphere.
And it would have been nice, except it was raining, and I had brought nothing for wet weather. Yet we continued to sit there just basking in the glory of the new year. We sung one of the children 'Happy Birthday' and shared in some delicious cake as well.
The family then started to drift away, and soon after we left too.
Since for the past week, Jose and I had been wanting to watch some good movies, we decided that we could go watch some movies at Rebe's house. So we called into the DVD store and picked up The Croods and New Year's Eve, fittingly.
It ended up just being Jose, Rodolfo and I who went round to Rebe's house, this was after calling in home and having lunch. Rebe, Naty and Teto joined us to watch both movies and we had iced tea and popcorn while watching. It was a nice way to chill out for the start of the year.
Rebe's dog was being so random while we were watching the movies. Despite having a sore ear, it was adamant in scratching it. However every time she scratched her ear she would yelp. It would have been more amusing had there not have been anything wrong with the dog's ear.
When then walked home, and said goodbye to Rodolfo on the way.
At home we just kept relaxing. It seemed to be the theme for today.
 |
| Rodolfo, Jose and Melania |
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Day 29: New Year's Eve!
The last day of the year arrived today, and it was to be seen out with a big party at night.
However the day was filled with a trip to the mall to finish off buying Christmas presents. Yes, that's right Christmas presents, and no I'm not getting in early for 2014. I had decided that I would buy presents for my family in Costa Rica and give them belatedly once they arrive.
So, after breakfast and everything else that takes up time in the morning, Jose and I headed off to El Paseo de las Flores, the main mall in Heredia. It was actually after lunch that we left, but because we had risen from our beds at about 9 it didn't feel like the afternoon.
We took the bus from outside Wal-Mart. One thing about the buses here is that the prices are very specific and differ greatly from route to route. For example, this route cost 425 colones, while the one into San Jose costs 430 colones. That's about 1 US cent difference. One cent. I mean, I know petrol is about 70 cents cheaper here than in New Zealand, but I'm sure that 1 cent difference isn't necessary.
The bus took us right to the mall, and then the shopping started.
We did a bit of shopping, well, mostly walking, with a little purchasing, before we stopped at Cosechas for a smoothie. We both had Jose's favourite, the Colibri Morado, which has blackberries, blueberries, strawberries and cranberries. It was very good, and quickly became my favourite too.
We then kept shopping and I got pretty much everything I needed to get, it was a successful excursion.
To top it off though, we stopped in at a little dessert shop and I got an amazing looking chocolate dessert called 'Demisphere'. It was an impressive thing. It had a chocolate sponge base, chocolate mousse on top, then a very shiny layer of chocolate fondant. The ladies at the store were quite surprised that the card I used asked for a PIN since it is sort of like a credit card, but it isn't.
Then somehow we got talking to them about where I was from, how I knew Jose and also all about AFS (the exchange programme that Jose came to New Zealand with). One of the ladies was especially interested and wrote down the name so she would remember it.
Thinking that I would find the dessert very rich, the other lady brought out a drink of water for me. It wasn't needed. I am used to sweet desserts.
After this we walked back into Heredia. While walking through the streets a pretty scary thing happened. A young guy, probably my age, approached up from behind following us while he asked for about 300 colones. It is pretty normal for people to ask for money in the streets, but this guy was very persistent, despite Jose telling him 'no', and us continuing to walk. Finally he gave up and as he did he whacked the street sign that was just beside him, making a huge noise giving me such a fright. It definitely made the adrenaline pump and the 'karate mode' to activate.
We decided we would walked the rest of the way home, since it was only another 2km away. While we walked we had some pretty interesting conversations including one about the American girl in the souvenir shop we had quickly visited before leaving the centre of town. I won't go into details, but it caused a little dispute... :)
We got home at about 7pm, and had a small dinner which we organized individually. There was to be more food later on at the party.
At 9pm the party started. We all headed over to the ranch for drinks, food and dancing. As part of the event, we all had to wear a hat. I started off with a purple green and blue cowboy number, before changing to a Tigger inspired cap with floppy ears.
Now, Jose had kept warning me that there would be dancing on New Year's Eve, and that was no lie. The music was pumping and the feet were moving. Despite my reluctance, I got up and tried to mimic what everyone else was doing, even learning a few dance moves, before reverting to the universal dance move that works for any song, the side step. While people told me I was doing well, I could see them laughing as they watched me. But really, who cares :)
We had the TV on with a clock on it that was counting down the time till midnight, and with 3 minutes to go we all crowded inside the ranch, all in a big huddle almost, and watched the countdown. It was a strange feeling to do the countdown in Spanish for the first time.
Once it turned 2014 there were handshakes, kisses on the cheek, and of course fireworks.
The party kept going for a while longer before we all headed to our individual homes for bed.
However the day was filled with a trip to the mall to finish off buying Christmas presents. Yes, that's right Christmas presents, and no I'm not getting in early for 2014. I had decided that I would buy presents for my family in Costa Rica and give them belatedly once they arrive.
So, after breakfast and everything else that takes up time in the morning, Jose and I headed off to El Paseo de las Flores, the main mall in Heredia. It was actually after lunch that we left, but because we had risen from our beds at about 9 it didn't feel like the afternoon.
We took the bus from outside Wal-Mart. One thing about the buses here is that the prices are very specific and differ greatly from route to route. For example, this route cost 425 colones, while the one into San Jose costs 430 colones. That's about 1 US cent difference. One cent. I mean, I know petrol is about 70 cents cheaper here than in New Zealand, but I'm sure that 1 cent difference isn't necessary.
The bus took us right to the mall, and then the shopping started.
We did a bit of shopping, well, mostly walking, with a little purchasing, before we stopped at Cosechas for a smoothie. We both had Jose's favourite, the Colibri Morado, which has blackberries, blueberries, strawberries and cranberries. It was very good, and quickly became my favourite too.
We then kept shopping and I got pretty much everything I needed to get, it was a successful excursion.
To top it off though, we stopped in at a little dessert shop and I got an amazing looking chocolate dessert called 'Demisphere'. It was an impressive thing. It had a chocolate sponge base, chocolate mousse on top, then a very shiny layer of chocolate fondant. The ladies at the store were quite surprised that the card I used asked for a PIN since it is sort of like a credit card, but it isn't.
Then somehow we got talking to them about where I was from, how I knew Jose and also all about AFS (the exchange programme that Jose came to New Zealand with). One of the ladies was especially interested and wrote down the name so she would remember it.
Thinking that I would find the dessert very rich, the other lady brought out a drink of water for me. It wasn't needed. I am used to sweet desserts.
After this we walked back into Heredia. While walking through the streets a pretty scary thing happened. A young guy, probably my age, approached up from behind following us while he asked for about 300 colones. It is pretty normal for people to ask for money in the streets, but this guy was very persistent, despite Jose telling him 'no', and us continuing to walk. Finally he gave up and as he did he whacked the street sign that was just beside him, making a huge noise giving me such a fright. It definitely made the adrenaline pump and the 'karate mode' to activate.
We decided we would walked the rest of the way home, since it was only another 2km away. While we walked we had some pretty interesting conversations including one about the American girl in the souvenir shop we had quickly visited before leaving the centre of town. I won't go into details, but it caused a little dispute... :)
We got home at about 7pm, and had a small dinner which we organized individually. There was to be more food later on at the party.
At 9pm the party started. We all headed over to the ranch for drinks, food and dancing. As part of the event, we all had to wear a hat. I started off with a purple green and blue cowboy number, before changing to a Tigger inspired cap with floppy ears.
Now, Jose had kept warning me that there would be dancing on New Year's Eve, and that was no lie. The music was pumping and the feet were moving. Despite my reluctance, I got up and tried to mimic what everyone else was doing, even learning a few dance moves, before reverting to the universal dance move that works for any song, the side step. While people told me I was doing well, I could see them laughing as they watched me. But really, who cares :)
We had the TV on with a clock on it that was counting down the time till midnight, and with 3 minutes to go we all crowded inside the ranch, all in a big huddle almost, and watched the countdown. It was a strange feeling to do the countdown in Spanish for the first time.
Once it turned 2014 there were handshakes, kisses on the cheek, and of course fireworks.
The party kept going for a while longer before we all headed to our individual homes for bed.
 |
| The countdown is about to start |
Day 28: Steam Room and New Friends
We got up bright and early today, just before 7 as Jose was wanting to be picking up Cheng by 8.
After picking Cheng up from his B&B in San Joaquin just 5 minutes down the road, we got dropped off into town. We were there with heaps of time to spare, since the bus was coming at 9am, so we had a little walk around the town to show Cheng some of the main places since he hadn't been in the cities of Costa Rica at all. We then met up with some of Jose's friends, Pamela who was the member of the country club that we were going to, we were going as her guests, along with two of her friends.
While on the bus, Cheng showed Jose and I lots of his photos of his trip, it seemed as though he had a really good time. This bus was quite unusual, as there were 3 seats on one side, and 2 on the other. As usual though, my knees were touching the seat in front.
When we reached San Rafael, Rodolfo joined us on the bus. The church in San Rafael is very grand and quite a sight to see.
We then rode the bus for about 15 more minutes before getting off it when we had arrived at the gates of Castillo Country Club on the hills of Volcano Barva. This place felt very elite, and was very very large. The lanes were lined with huge trees, there was a swimming pool, tennis courts, football fields, basketball courts, a small castle, a lake, a train, a restaurant, mini golf, lots of sheltered barbecue areas and much more. It felt like a different world.
While we were walking up to the main building, I finally learned why the bottom of the tree trunks in many places here are painted white. It is because it isn't just white paint, but rather also a substance to stop the ants from crawling up the trees, I had been wondering for so long.
We all decided that we would do mini golf first. While we played, I had a speaker of one of the others sticking out of my bag which was playing music wirelessly from my iPod. You can never be anywhere without music. The 18 holes took just on 2 hours to play, and we battled through spouts of rain and a whole lot of wind. Cheng and I were both very hungry by the time we had finished, so we went into the main building area where the pool was to have lunch. My meal of a pizza took awhile to arrive and once it did we went outside to eat in one of the little hut places.
While we were eating, Pamela pointed out that there was a squirrel running along the fence railing that was just beside us. They are so cool. To me it doesn't seem real to be seeing squirrels because they are something from the movies for me. Also while we were eating there were some strange looking swans that were very interested in the food that we were eating. They had no fear of us, as no matter how hard I tried to shoo them away they just wouldn't go.
Rodolfo added up the scores of the mini golf, and turns out I won, by 19 points.
After lunch we had a little lie in the sun on a little hill. Cheng sat at the top of a slide writing his journal of his trip here. The slide was quite different, having tiles as the sliding surface, it made for a very bumpy ride. Jose and I ended up making some cool slo-motion videos using Pamela's iPhone while we were there.
A little later once Cheng had finished writing, we took a walk to the little castle that was at the top of the hill. We were hoping to be able to look out at the view of the cities in the valley below, but the trees were too high.
We then four of us, Jose, Rodolfo, Cheng and I, went inside to have a swim. However, once we were inside Jose and Rodolfo decided to go off to the sauna while Cheng and I wanted to play some of the games that were there. We were wanting to play some table tennis, but the table was occupied so we saw a foosball table that was unoccupied and decided to play that instead.
However there was no ball. But just then some people asked if we wanted to play with them, they had the ball. Cheng and I had met some new people. There were 5 of them, all from Heredia, and they were quite surprised when I told them that I am 17. There were two guys, Jose Eduardo and Alonso and three girls Carolina, Maite and Lucy. They were really nice.
We played a few games of foosball, before Cheng and I played some table tennis because the table had become free.
After awhile playing that, Cheng, Alonso, Jose Eduardo and I decided to all go off into the steam room and sauna. I had never been into a steam room before so it was a new experience for me.
It was horrible. I felt like I could hardly breathe because the air was so damp and hot. The two Costa Ricans found it the same as me, but Cheng absolutely loved it. He has used them quite a few times.
It was funny because there was the three of us gasping for breath while Cheng was just sitting there peacefully with his eyes shut enjoying it so much.
After about 15 minutes we moved on to the sauna, which again was too hot for me. I find the idea of both the steam room and the sauna quite strange. For me the idea of going into a really hot humid room doesn't seem relaxing for me.
Cheng was wanting to get back for dinner at his B&B by 7pm, so we knew that we would have to be leaving soon because it was already 4:30. Cheng and I thought the bus would be coming at about half five, but after only 5 minutes in the pool, Jose came and told us that it actually came at 5.
Cheng and I got out so quickly that we nearly forgot to say goodbye to our new friends. We got changed, I grabbed the number of one of the guys so we could all find each other on Facebook, and then ran out to the front gate. Jose hadn't been by the pool so we'd just assumed that he was already out waiting for the bus. Turns out all the others were still by the main building and were coming now, we'd been in such a rush that we'd ran straight past them.
The bus turned up at about 5:15 and we took it back to Heredia. I had a little freak out on the bus, when I thought that one of the girls had my iPod still yet they said they didn't. I found it when I checked my bag a second time :)
We got back to Heredia and left the others. While we were walking to a place to catch a taxi Cheng dashed into a optometrist to get the screws in his glasses tightened as they had been loose all day. It amazed me how Cheng, without knowing much Spanish was able to communicate so well still.
Then Cheng, Jose and I caught a taxi back to home, before dropping Cheng off at his B&B and saying our farewells. His flight was at 7am the next day, and he was getting up at 3am, ouch.
Back at home, I managed to find our new friends on Facebook. I think it is the coolest thing meeting new people coincidentally.
It was so awesome to be able to spend a whole day hanging out with Cheng. Today, I didn't feel like I was in a different country.
After picking Cheng up from his B&B in San Joaquin just 5 minutes down the road, we got dropped off into town. We were there with heaps of time to spare, since the bus was coming at 9am, so we had a little walk around the town to show Cheng some of the main places since he hadn't been in the cities of Costa Rica at all. We then met up with some of Jose's friends, Pamela who was the member of the country club that we were going to, we were going as her guests, along with two of her friends.
While on the bus, Cheng showed Jose and I lots of his photos of his trip, it seemed as though he had a really good time. This bus was quite unusual, as there were 3 seats on one side, and 2 on the other. As usual though, my knees were touching the seat in front.
When we reached San Rafael, Rodolfo joined us on the bus. The church in San Rafael is very grand and quite a sight to see.
We then rode the bus for about 15 more minutes before getting off it when we had arrived at the gates of Castillo Country Club on the hills of Volcano Barva. This place felt very elite, and was very very large. The lanes were lined with huge trees, there was a swimming pool, tennis courts, football fields, basketball courts, a small castle, a lake, a train, a restaurant, mini golf, lots of sheltered barbecue areas and much more. It felt like a different world.
While we were walking up to the main building, I finally learned why the bottom of the tree trunks in many places here are painted white. It is because it isn't just white paint, but rather also a substance to stop the ants from crawling up the trees, I had been wondering for so long.
We all decided that we would do mini golf first. While we played, I had a speaker of one of the others sticking out of my bag which was playing music wirelessly from my iPod. You can never be anywhere without music. The 18 holes took just on 2 hours to play, and we battled through spouts of rain and a whole lot of wind. Cheng and I were both very hungry by the time we had finished, so we went into the main building area where the pool was to have lunch. My meal of a pizza took awhile to arrive and once it did we went outside to eat in one of the little hut places.
While we were eating, Pamela pointed out that there was a squirrel running along the fence railing that was just beside us. They are so cool. To me it doesn't seem real to be seeing squirrels because they are something from the movies for me. Also while we were eating there were some strange looking swans that were very interested in the food that we were eating. They had no fear of us, as no matter how hard I tried to shoo them away they just wouldn't go.
Rodolfo added up the scores of the mini golf, and turns out I won, by 19 points.
After lunch we had a little lie in the sun on a little hill. Cheng sat at the top of a slide writing his journal of his trip here. The slide was quite different, having tiles as the sliding surface, it made for a very bumpy ride. Jose and I ended up making some cool slo-motion videos using Pamela's iPhone while we were there.
A little later once Cheng had finished writing, we took a walk to the little castle that was at the top of the hill. We were hoping to be able to look out at the view of the cities in the valley below, but the trees were too high.
We then four of us, Jose, Rodolfo, Cheng and I, went inside to have a swim. However, once we were inside Jose and Rodolfo decided to go off to the sauna while Cheng and I wanted to play some of the games that were there. We were wanting to play some table tennis, but the table was occupied so we saw a foosball table that was unoccupied and decided to play that instead.
However there was no ball. But just then some people asked if we wanted to play with them, they had the ball. Cheng and I had met some new people. There were 5 of them, all from Heredia, and they were quite surprised when I told them that I am 17. There were two guys, Jose Eduardo and Alonso and three girls Carolina, Maite and Lucy. They were really nice.
We played a few games of foosball, before Cheng and I played some table tennis because the table had become free.
After awhile playing that, Cheng, Alonso, Jose Eduardo and I decided to all go off into the steam room and sauna. I had never been into a steam room before so it was a new experience for me.
It was horrible. I felt like I could hardly breathe because the air was so damp and hot. The two Costa Ricans found it the same as me, but Cheng absolutely loved it. He has used them quite a few times.
It was funny because there was the three of us gasping for breath while Cheng was just sitting there peacefully with his eyes shut enjoying it so much.
After about 15 minutes we moved on to the sauna, which again was too hot for me. I find the idea of both the steam room and the sauna quite strange. For me the idea of going into a really hot humid room doesn't seem relaxing for me.
Cheng was wanting to get back for dinner at his B&B by 7pm, so we knew that we would have to be leaving soon because it was already 4:30. Cheng and I thought the bus would be coming at about half five, but after only 5 minutes in the pool, Jose came and told us that it actually came at 5.
Cheng and I got out so quickly that we nearly forgot to say goodbye to our new friends. We got changed, I grabbed the number of one of the guys so we could all find each other on Facebook, and then ran out to the front gate. Jose hadn't been by the pool so we'd just assumed that he was already out waiting for the bus. Turns out all the others were still by the main building and were coming now, we'd been in such a rush that we'd ran straight past them.
The bus turned up at about 5:15 and we took it back to Heredia. I had a little freak out on the bus, when I thought that one of the girls had my iPod still yet they said they didn't. I found it when I checked my bag a second time :)
We got back to Heredia and left the others. While we were walking to a place to catch a taxi Cheng dashed into a optometrist to get the screws in his glasses tightened as they had been loose all day. It amazed me how Cheng, without knowing much Spanish was able to communicate so well still.
Then Cheng, Jose and I caught a taxi back to home, before dropping Cheng off at his B&B and saying our farewells. His flight was at 7am the next day, and he was getting up at 3am, ouch.
Back at home, I managed to find our new friends on Facebook. I think it is the coolest thing meeting new people coincidentally.
It was so awesome to be able to spend a whole day hanging out with Cheng. Today, I didn't feel like I was in a different country.
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| Out the front of the Country Club grounds |
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