Day 26: Beach Time

Today, despite the late night, we were up early, half six, because today we were off to the beach.
It was just the family today, which was nice, just the four of us.
I had been told to pack for three days, cause it was a possibility that we would be staying 1 or 2 nights at the beach. We set off, stopping of to have a quick look around the towns of San Mateo and Corotina before reaching our destination. One interesting thing about the churches here is that they almost always face towards the west.
Our destination was the house of Guisella's cousin, was just a few kilometres from the beach of Bajamar.
When we first got there, there were only 5 people, Guisella's cousin Sonya, her two daughters, her husband and a grandson. Soon after arriving, we went to the beach. Sonya's husband decided he would take all of us, minus Guisella who didn't come, in his ute. We went to a little beach club which had places where people could barbeque, playgrounds and showers. We put down our stuff, put on some sunblock, and started off walking down the beach. A little later, Jose and I went swimming.
The water was insanely warm, it was warmer than bath water, it was crazy, but so nice, I felt like I could have stayed there all day. Also while at the beach, Jose and I spent some time making some sand sculptures, mine started off as a shark fin before becoming a turtle, and Jose went for Mordor.
It was very different to see lots of people riding horses along the beach. In fact in the whole surrounding area a lot of people roe horses.
We had another swim before it was time to leave.
Back at the beach home, we had lunch before just relaxing for a bit. The heat here was immense and it was very hard to cool down. I spent some time swinging in the hammock in the shade of a leafy tree escaping the heat.
Jorge then decided that we, him, Jose and I, would go have a look at another beach just down the road from the one we went to earlier. This beach was called Guacalillo and was quite stunning. It was a dark sand beach like the other, with cool cliff faces along parts of the beach. We climbed up some of them to see the vista from higher up. There were people racing around on quad bikes and a few people swimming too. Jose and I walked up one of the hills of the cliffs. I found it very hard to get up because I was wearing jandals that were now wet so my feet kept slipping on them, and there was no way I was taking off the jandals because who knows what creepy crawlies are lurking in the the grasses. Up there there were big black vultures flying around, I was waiting for one of them to take flight to get a video of it, but no matter how much noise and movement I made, I think I was just to far away.
We went back down, and by now the sun was starting to set, so we decided to jump into the water. It was just so relaxing to be in such warm water watching the sun set on a cloudless day. Until I felt something touch my leg. I think it was probably just a log or stone, but it was enough to freak me out and make me move a little bit down the beach. We got out probably about 20 minutes before the sun was to disappear, dried off, took some pictures and drove to a nice little hill to watch the sun set the rest of the way.
It was such a beautiful sight, the colours were amazing.
Once the sun had disappeared we headed back to the house. On the way we passed a little marshy lake, where Jorge spotted a whole lot of intensely pink flamingos, we got out and had a look.
And then, the funniest thing happened. Jose gave me a lesson on how to destroy jandals in less than 10 seconds. He was trying to get a closer look, since the birds were right out in the middle of this little lake. So he started to walk out onto the seeming dry muddy surface that stretched out into the lake. After taking about 4 steps, he realized it wasn't so dry after all, and his feet had sunk into the mud. In his desperation to escape the mud, he ripped the strap of the jandal out from the sole and had the jandals flapping around his feet as he came out. I was in stitches laughing.
We got back to the house, and others had arrived, more family. We had dinner separately to the others just because Guisella had brought stuff with us. It felt like we were on rations because she hadn't really brought much food with us, so she was planning out how best to spread it out, because we were going to be staying the night.
At about 8pm we headed to the beach club that we had been to earlier in the day. There were to be fireworks happening. Heaps of people had turned up and while we waited for the fireworks, Guisella and Jose were teaching me some dance moves saying that I would be needing them for New Year's.
The fireworks went off pretty much without a hitch, a few fell over and fired along the beach, I did feel a bit close for comfort, but I made sure there were a few people who were in front of me to protect me.
We then went back to the house, and went to bed a little later.
The sleeping arrangement was quite funny. We were all in this small little room that had a bunk bed with two single beds. So, I slept on the top, Jorge and Guisella slept tops-and-tails on the bottom, and Jose slept on a mattress with half his body underneath the bunks.
We fell asleep to the sound of cicadas and a heat whirring away, even though for me it wasn't cold.

Playa Guacalillo

Day 25: Tranquilo

Today, I did absolutely nothing all day.
I woke up just before 9 and I heard that there were other people in the house, they were little children and some parents too.
Since yesterday I had meet so many new people, it can be a bit overwhelming seeing people all the time. So, I decided to hide out in my room until they were gone. They ended up staying longer than I was expecting so I snuck into the shower, got out, and then went back into my room to hide some more. They left by 10am, at which time I emerged from my room.
All I did today was hang around the house watching YouTube videos, listening to music, and trying to read Jose's book. I find it very difficult to read because the grammar structure is so confusing and because of this it takes me like 5 minutes to read each page. I think I get the right meanings most of the time.
Jose slept most of the afternoon, and when he woke he wanted to watch a movie that he really likes that he was telling me about yesterday when we were walking home from the bus. It is called 'About Time'.
Turns out he couldn't end up finding it on Netflix so we couldn't watch it. I then discovered that Jose's family don't own any movies, and don't actually have a DVD player. This was a huge shock to me, because I always think that every family has a DVD player and DVDs. This meant that we couldn't just go down to the DVD store to hire out a movie. Although, Jose did try to see if we could borrow his uncle's DVD player, but he wasn't home at the time.
I didn't leave the house at all today, except for going for a run in the evening. While on my run, I was running past a big open bush area, and I could see some smoke coming from the place. Sure enough as I got closer there were big flames in lots of different areas so smoke was spilling out from the area into the suburb of San Francisco, and into my face. There were many firefighters and people watching from their houses. When I got home I smelt like smoke. I was told that at this time of year it was quite a common occurrence with the plants being dry and people throwing the smoldering cigarettes into the bushy areas. It was not a normal thing to be able to see a huge cloud of smoke from the front yard of the house, it reminded me of the time in New Zealand when we could see the smoke of the Pack Ice building burning down from Galloway park.
Another thing about today was the planes. Since I am nearing the end of High School, over the past year I have been thinking more and more about what I want to do once I leave. So, of course I have been thinking about it while I have been here too. One thing that has made a big impression on me this trip is the planes. Before doing the flight here, I was quite an anxious flyer, but after flying half way around the world by myself, I think I actually quite enjoy it now. Also, home is very close to the airport, so I am always seeing and hearing planes fly over head, and I always wonder where the planes are going. I think that right now, my career is having a turn towards something to do with planes.
The rest of the night was quiet, we ate dinner with dim light again, as for the past week one of the lights in the kitchen has been playing up, and then just sat around.
Jose and I watched a random movie Speed Racer. I don't think it is that old of a movie, but it seemed as though it was. I think random is the best word I can use to describe it.
I went to bed very late, or should I say early.

Since I didn't take any pictures today, here is a picture of my room

Day 24: Adrenaline Junkies

Rather than hitting the shops like I usually would have been had I been in New Zealand the day after Christmas, we spent the day at the theme park here called 'Parque Diversiones'.
Now, something about the house here, is that at night time, an alarm gets set for certain areas of the house, including the kitchen, but not the small lounge which has a window into the kitchen.
Yesterday, Jose had told me that we were to be leaving at about 8:30 in the morning. So, when I woke up at 7:30 I thought it would be time to get ready, plus Jose's parents are usually up at 5:30 anyway.
However, when I walked out of my room, nobody was there. I kept looking around thinking surely someone must be up, if not Jose then surely his parents. But as I ventured further and further into the little lounge, I could see that no one was in the kitchen and nothing was set out for breakfast.
Suddenly, there was this huge noise, I had set off the alarm. The sensor had picked me up through the little window into the kitchen... I stood there in shock not knowing what to do. I walked back to the doorway of my room, waiting for either Jose or one of his parents to come out, but it was nearly another 5 minutes before Jorge emerged from their bedroom. The alarm had stopped in the meantime.
All he said to me was "Tranquilo" :)
I jumped in and had a shower, and when I got out there were two of Jose's friends at the kitchen table, Rodolfo and Josue, turns out they were coming too.
We left just after 8:30.
The price of the tickets surprised me a bit, they were $15 USD. I think I was expecting it to be a bit most expensive, like it would be in New Zealand.
I wanted to keep my camera with me, but the others said it wouldn't be a good idea to be leaving it in the places that they supply to put personal property before each ride. So it went in the locker that we got  with the stuff the others had brought too.
After not having been on a rollercoaster for probably 5 years, I was quite nervous.
We started off on one called 'Boomerang'. It took you backwards up a slope before releasing you doing loops, then being pulled up another slope, before going back the way you came, but backwards, hence the name boomerang. Jose and I sat right up the front, making me even more nervous.
However, once we were going, I loved it. I got off the ride buzzing.
So we did it a few more times since there were no crowds, during which another one of Jose's friends, Julito, arrived.
We did all the rides at the park, from the tower type, to water park types to fling you all around types.
But on none of them, not a single one, did I make a noise of either fear or excitement, in some cases I would actually talk on the ride. I would just sit there smiling without a sound.
The water rides were interesting since it wasn't exclusively a water theme park. No one was in togs, or anything better suited for water. There were two water rides, one in a little blow up, 2 person boat, that went down a hydroslide, and the other, a big group ring ride.
I came out wet from the waist down on the first, but I was far better of than those who went with Josue. This is because he knew a trick to get really wet, so those who went with him, including Jose, got saturated all over.
We had a quick lunch, well, it would have been quicker if I was by myself. See I went to a place called Spoon, which is a cafe/Costa Rican style food place, which had hardly any queue, so my food was ready in about 5 minutes. While the other 4 decided to go to Taco Bell, which had a mountain of people at it. Being the person who doesn't want to sit down at a table by myself, I waited probably about half an hour while they waited for their food.
After lunch, we went on some more rides. Ones that probably aren't the best after just eating a whole heap of food, but, hey, none of us had an issue.
My favourite ride of the day was actually the one that before going on it freaked me out the most. This was because the ride before we went on it, there seemed to be an issue with it because they did a ride with no one on it, to seemingly check things were ok. It was one of those rides where you all sit down on two tiers and get spun around and flipped back and forth. Turns out later in the day they actually stopped people riding on it. Freaky.
At about 3:30 I found out the the godchild of Guisella and Jorge was being baptised at 5pm, and we were supposed to be going too. So of course, I started to make us move along, and cause I wanted to get my camera out and take pictures of the place. But Jose just decided to say we wouldn't be able to make it in time, and said not for me not to rush.
However, we ended up leaving about 30 minutes later by bus, and left the other 3 there.
Turns out, the second bus we took, while it got us in the general area of home, we had to walk quite a while, ended up taking about 30 minutes. We got home just after 6 when everyone was arriving home from the baptism.
While, we had missed that, there was another event for us to go to. This event was at the aunty of Guisella's house, and was for taking down the little Christmas shrine that every house has.
There were so many people that I didn't know, which sometimes just makes me want to hide.
There was a whole little ritual that happened with the 'shrine' or as they call it here a 'portal', this took about half an hour, before we had lots of food.
Supposedly every house with a portal has to have a little event when they are about to take it down for the year. Jose told me that's how people get fat.
We then got home, and just relaxed for the rest of the night.
Turns out that Jorge and Guisella had left the aunty's house an hour before us, and had gone to another house for dinner. I thought they were already in bed, it had just been lost in translation.

Taking a nap with my new friend

Day 23: Christmas!!!

Christmas day was here!
I got up at about 8:30 to find everyone including Melania who had actually stayed the night, eating breakfast in the kitchen. After breakfast, we all sat down in the lounge and opened presents.
Outside the door of my bedroom there had been a stack from Guisella and Jorge, so the three of us children each had a whole pile to open. At this time I also gave the presents I had brought from New Zealand to the family.
They all really liked the gifts, and I liked mine too. I got some Costa Rican t-shirts, sunglasses, a Costa Rican flag, a copy of Jose's second book, and a photo frame with two photos of my family here.
The amount of presents that Melania and Jose got was astounding, they were mostly clothes.
Immediately after opening all the presents I got the Christmas songs playing, hung the flag up in my room and put the picture frame on the bedside table.
I got ready for the day, and then followed Guisella and Jose to the ranch at the neighbours' house (Jose's godparents). We started to set up the area for the big Christmas lunch of 36 people, which included getting tables and chairs from different houses, cleaning them, and then arranging them so that they weren't in the heat of the day. The weather today was perfect, there was not a cloud in the sky, and therefore it was boiling hot.
Once it was all set up, we returned home and just relaxed for a bit. It was about 1:00 when things kicked off. First off all we had some of the younger ones come to our house to show us some of their presents, before we all headed over to the ranch for lunch.
There were so many new people that I had never met before, and, of course, I hardly remember any of their names just because there were so many new faces.
We sat down and had a lunch of ham, bread, salad, pasta, rice and chickpeas which was accompanied by ice tea and fresca for me. It was quite a different spread of food to what I am used to, but good all the same.
We then just sat around for a while, talking at the tables, having photos taken, and running round with the little children.
Then it was time for dessert.
Now, in New Zealand, for Christmas we usually have so many different types of dessert that we pick from, well in reality we eat them all. Here there was just one little one, that we each had an individual little container that we ate it out of. Rebe had made it and it was a delicious mousse.
The coolest thing was the container that it was served in though. As it came with a bottom and a top, and you took the top of and attached it upside down to the bottom and it became a little stand for the dessert.
After dessert, there was more present giving. People ended up with more piles of presents than what they could hold, since every relative seemed to give everyone a present. I gave out the rest of my presents at this time too.
The celebrations kept going, and while people came and went there was never really less than 24 at any one time.
It was about 5:00 when things started to die down, I was now inside the ranch, with Jose, Melania, Rodolfo, Laura and one of the relatives from England and they were discussing the presidential elections that are to happen next year.
It was very interesting to listen to, and I thought the relative from England had some very sound logic about it all. They came to the conclusion that none of the candidates was any good. How great.
After this, I spent about half an hour telling Rodolfo all the issues in New Zealand, which he was quite interested about. Both these conversations were so captivating that I barely noticed that by the time they were finished, everyone had gone and everything had been cleaned up.
We returned home, and Jorge opened up the rest of his presents in front of us, including Melania, Francisco, Rebe, Naty and Teto (Ernesto). Also, during the day I had received more presents from Melania, Laura and Rebe, it was very kind of them all.
A little while after Rebe, Naty and Teto left, we all headed off to their house for them all to show us the presents they had received in the day. It was a lot too.
I had seen their house multiple times, but this was the first time I had been in it. It was a very nice two storeyed house that had spectacular views towards San Jose.
After we had been shown everyone's presents I had a quick little game of FIFA Teto. He scored very early on, and I was just being told we had to go when I managed to slot one in. I didn't mind leaving at that point with a draw.
We then just got home and chilled out for the rest of the night, listening to more Christmas music.
What an awesome Christmas experience for my first Christmas outside of New Zealand.

Not even everyone

Day 22: Burnt Pavlova and Christmas Songs

Christmas Eve was finally upon us today!
While today was not a day filled with going to heaps of places, it ended up being quite a busy day once it got off the ground.
When I can sleep in, I take the opportunity, today was one of those such days. I woke up at 9am, and as usual hardly said a word until my stomach was full with breakfast.
After breakfast, I realised that I had quite a bit to do today. I had to finish wrapping Christmas presents for tomorrow, which meant heading out to get some present labels, make a pavlova, including buying the ingredients, and most important of all filling myself with christmas spirit by means of Christmas songs. The songs started early. After breakfast, the computer was plugged into the speaker system, and the music started to play, and really it didn't stop until the end of the day. I shocked everyone with my knowledge of Christmas songs and I think I even shocked myself. The morning was spent just bouncing around the house to the jolly tunes of Christmas while Jose cleaned the fronts of the kitchen cabinets. I offered to help, but as usual the response was 'tranquilo' which is used to mean 'relax'.
Just before we set out, I got Jose to come into my room to try to help me sort out who I was giving what presents to. In preparation for coming here, we had bought specific presents for the main family members, and then other things for other family members, who I would be giving them to was the task that was at hand. It was very difficult as hind sight is a wonderful thing and I wished I had known more of who was in Jose's family before I arrived so I could have been slightly better prepared with what sort of presents to bring with me. After a long while I managed to assign most of the gifts to a family member bar a few which I thought I could decide on later.
It was about midday when Jose and I braved the heat and set out walking to grab some present labels and the ingredients for the pavlova. There had been a debate between Jose and Guisella as to what type of cream I was needing, Jose was saying evaporated milk and Guisella was saying sweet cream... I was just standing there thinking, I just want cream, normal cream that comes in a bottle :) Sometimes specific food items are very hard to explain. Also, both sugar and cornflour encountered problems with translation... we seemed to get there in the end.
The shop where we bought the present labels was just around the corner, right beside the oh so tempting bread shop. I bought 10 labels which I thought was going to be enough. We then walked to Wal-Mart which was insanely busy, just like all the supermarkets are in New Zealand on the 24th. It is as though the world cannot cope with having supermarkets closed for one day and everyone has to buy twice as much as what they need for Christmas day and take ages to do so.
It took a while to get through Wal-Mart and they had everything I needed except for kiwifruit. Jose told me that we would be able to get it at a fresh food place just around the corner from their house.
So we walked home dropped off the stuff before grabbing the kiwifruit from the local shops. It is funny, because even though this group of shops is just around the corner, and almost everyday I have been driven past it, I had never visited it until today. There are some quite good shops. I think I will be venturing to Cosechas (The fruit drink place) sometime in the not so distant future.
We got home, and Jose went off with Melania, and I started to do some wrapping.
A little while later, Guisella told me that she had received the cornflour and electric mixer from Rebe and I could start on the pavlova. Now, I have only ever made pavlova once before, and I mean that was in no means a disaster, but neither did I do it all by myself. But, I thought, hey, I'm a kiwi, this should be in my blood.
I was using a recipe from Annabel Langbein and after wasting one egg, getting the mixture all over my hands and not being able to locate a bowl scraper, I spooned the mixture out onto the baking tray and it looked great.
The next hurdle was the oven. The oven in our house has two elements and therefore 3 different settings, just the top, just the bottom, or both. Guisella thought just the bottom, but I thought the one at home in New Zealand has just the top, so I told her to put it just for the top one. Also, the recipe called for the temperature to be at 180 degrees celsius for the first 5 minutes before dropping it down to 130 degrees for another 60 minutes. I set it going, and started on the dishes (scrapping out the left over mixture from the bowls and eating it).
I had set a timer, and I looked in to the oven after 4 minutes, and to my horror, the top was completely brown already. It had 61 more minutes in the oven and the top was already brown.
I quickly opened the oven and grabbed it out just as Guisella walked into the kitchen. I half explained to her what the problem was, and then we rushed off to the grandma's house to use her oven. The recipe said it was important not to open the oven while it was cooking, so yes, by now I did not have high hopes for the pavlova.
We put the pavlova in the grandma's oven, but this oven was in Fahrenheit. So Guisella put it at 300 degrees, but I thought that might be too high; I was becoming over protective of the pavlova and didn't want it to burn. This time only the bottom element was on, and I decided that it should be turned down to 200 degrees because there was confusion as to whether the oven was actually in Fahrenheit or not.
I did not leave that kitchen for the whole time it was cooking. After 40 minutes, I decided to actually check to see whether 200 degrees Fahrenheit was the correct temperature. Turns out it should have been at 270 degrees Fahrenheit for the whole hour. We decided that we would increase it to 270 for the last 20 minutes and leave it on for another 10 minutes after that. Who says you can't play around with pavlova, we even opened the oven lots to check to see how it was going.
Once all the time was up, we left it is the oven to cool, but it was looking swell.
While I was waiting I had a quick Skype with the family in New Zealand, since it was Christmas day there already, and Jose arrived back a little later.
Just as we were finishing up the Skype call, when the family was just about to press hang up, Guisella ran into the room to say 'Feliz Navidad' and made it to the computer just as they hung up :(
Later I grabbed the pavlova out of the oven since it was only very slightly warm, and left it on the bench in our kitchen. My worry now was that the centre wasn't cooked enough and the pavlova was going to cave in.
At 8pm we were set to go to mass at the church just around the corner.
Before we went, we had a quick dinner, and I made the cream for the pavlova, with a whisk, with the extra weight, I was certain that it was going to cave.
Nevertheless, we got dressed up for church and headed there for the Christmas eve service.
It was a different church to last time, and was a nice little ceremony that lasted an hour. I understood nothing really though, and only went by cues from those around me.
After church on the way home, we saw two car accidents, a common sight here, a sad occurrence the day before Christmas though.
Then at home, all of us, us four, plus Melania and her boyfriend Francisco, sat down for tamales, and pavlova while listening to all the Christmas songs I could find. The pavlova turned out to be amazing!
A little later Melania and Francisco left leaving just the four of us and the music.
It was a nice quiet evening ahead of the huge festivities tomorrow with a whopping 36 people set to attend the Christmas day lunch.

The final product

Day 21: Bumpy Rides and Smoking Volcano

Days like these are ones that make you feel extremely lucky and fortunate.
What an awesome day today was, one of the best days yet.
Yesterday I had been told that we were off to an active volcano today called Turialba. This volcano can be seen smoking away during the day from Heredia, and it quite a cool sight, and we were off to see it.
At 7:30 in the morning, 4 of us, Jose, Jorge, Rodolfo and I, headed off. Turialba is on the other side of San Jose, through a city called Cartago and was like a 1hr 30min drive.
Driving here, while interesting outside the vehicle, it is also interesting inside the vehicle for me too. The family have a van that can seat 12, and I always sit in the back row where I can stretch out my legs. However, sitting at the back there, I can't sit up straight because my head hits the roof. Also, in Costa Rica in the town streets there are so many speed bumps. Like if you think we have a lot in New Zealand, you haven't seen Costa Rica. In a stretch of 400 metres, there can be 5. They aren't just small ones either, these are ones that every time we go over them, you get lifted off your seat, it is important to be ready for them, so you are in a comfortable position.
When we first arrived at the base of the volcano, it didn't look that high, and we first went to a little cultural tourist place, called Monumento Nacional Guayabo, which had relics of an old Costa Rican village. Something that was interesting about the place was the prices. For Costa Ricans, it only costs 1000 col, but for foreigners it is a whopping 6000 col. I thought that seemed a bit crazy.
The place was quite a nice little walk, seeing some rock carvings, the old type of grave site, and stone remains of an uncovered village. Also, while at the place, there was another little walk that we did. This took us just through some of the bush in the surrounding area. We saw lots of little ants carrying leaves, dragonflies, awesome little frogs that were amazingly well camouflaged, I had no idea how Jorge could actually spot them, but the best thing of all was that we spotted a wild toucan high up in the canopy. It was an amazing sight, from seeing one in a cage yesterday to now seeing one out in the wild. All the while we were here Jorge seemed to be on his phone. I soon found out why, I think.
We left this place, after Jorge gave the mostly blind person who was in control of helping park the cars 2 oranges, and headed back up the gravel road we had come from.
We stopped in this little village place, and a few seconds later a blue Toyota Hilux pulled up beside us and a man jumped out. Very soon, this man was going to show himself to be quite the person.
Turns out he was one of the best friends of Jorge and he lived in the nearby area. We went to a little restaurant on the side of the road, which, Memo, the friend of Jorge, knew the owners of. He seemed to know everyone in this little village, as he said 'hello' to everyone who walked into the restaurant or simply passed by. We had an amazing lunch of rice and beans, this is not sarcasm, it was really good, accompanied with iced tea. After that we followed Memo up the road and parked the van.
Really I had no idea what we were doing, I never get told anything.
Before I knew it, the four of us were jumping in the back seat of Memo's Hilux, holding the cakes that were on the seats, and heading up the road towards the volcano.
Memo seemed very interested to know more about the land in New Zealand, and I soon found out why. After stopping at nearly every farm on the way up for Memo to give presents to children and a cake to each family, we arrived at his farm, about a third of the way up the volcano.
At this time I should probably let you know that the volcanoes here are not like the ones in New Zealand, they do not get snow, and nor are they all just rock. They have grass and trees and life.
First we pulled up at Memo's house, which I found out he built himself. It was perched on the side of the hill with amazing views out to towns below and on a cloudless day you are supposedly able to see the sea. The view was spectacular.
We then took a walk to some of the farm sheds to have a look at how things were done here. I was so surprise to see that there was equipment with a 'Waikato' label on it. Explains why he was so interested in the land of New Zealand.
We then saw how he had nice little barn stalls for the little calves, they were all quite timid, but one then started licking my hand. I think it must have been because it could smell the cake I had been holding.
The next thing I knew, the three young ones of us, were jumping in the back of the ute, not just the back seat, but the actual back, and heading up the volcano.
We picked up someone from one of the farms along the way, and continued on up. Very shortly after we set off, the road changed from relatively smooth gravely to rocks. While my bottom was fine because I was sitting on a big container that was in the back with us, Jose's and Rodolfo's were taking a beating from all the bumps. Because the volcano is active right now, it is actually close to the public. But because we were lucky enough to be with Memo, he had keys to get us through the big gates that keep out everyone else. The highest point of the volcano is 3440m above sea level, and the climb up to the top we very steep at times. There were two times when we Memo stopped the car to make some adjustments to how it was set up, and before we started going up again, we would roll back down a bit. I have to say that was quite freaky. But it was so much fun riding on the back and I had faith in the Japanese Toyota construction. We made it to the top, and
what a sight it was. On one side there was the fuming volcano and on the other, towns and cities far far below. It was amazing.
Up there it was quite windy and soon it was getting cold as the day was drawing on. We spent about 1hr at the top, exploring all the different parts, seeing all the different views we could and saying all the 'ooohs' and 'aaaahs' that we could. It was honestly incredible.
It was about 4:30 by the time we started to head down, and yes, we did go back down on the back of the ute. This time Jose and Rodolfo joined me on top of the container for a slightly more comfortable ride. The cold of the altitude coupled with the wind from the moving made us chilled to the bone, which didn't help us keep our grip on whatever we could hold on to.
We arrived back at Memo's house after dropping of the farmer guy, and by this time all my hands were absolutely numb, and we tried to get as much of the fading sun as we could. It was at this point that Jose took to mocking me for wearing shorts while they all wore longs. This is because earlier in the day it was so hot, and I had been exclaiming how I couldn't believe how anyone could wear long pants with the heat. I was now getting it all back on me.
The colours of the sky as the sun set were incredible as we sat down and feasted on cheese toast with cake and fizzy drink, it was very appreciated.
The evening was incredibly cold, and we began our descent about 40 minutes after sundown. That was after waiting about 20 minutes in the freezing car for Memo to stop talking to some other people.
We got down from the volcano, said goodbye and many thanks to Memo and headed home.
It was an incredible day.

Up the top of the volcano

Day 20: New Favourite Animal

Again I slept in today.
I was woken up at 9am with a knock on the door of my room. The family were off to church in an hour and were seeing if I would be coming too. I decided that I wouldn't today, that I would get up, have breakfast and try to catch up on some of my blog posts. That sort of happened, the breakfast part definitely did, that's for sure.
While I was doing my blogs, I had Christmas songs playing out loud to try and make me get into the Christmas spirit.
The family arrived home at about 11:30, and as soon as they did, we were off. I sort of got told where we were going, but really I had no idea whatsoever. All I knew was that the grandparents were coming too, and we were leaving right away.
We set off, and within 15 minutes, what do you know, we saw a car accident that was being cleared up, just 5 cars were involved, not too big... yeah, right.
Turns out we were heading to Alajuela first, which I soon found out is a few degrees hotter than Heredia. Soon enough I was sweating enough to stop a drought and not even having the windows down could help, as, of course, we were stuck in traffic in the centre of Alajuela.
Jose and I jumped out of the car to take some tourist pictures and walk to the central square of Alajuela where there was a band playing cool music, old buildings and, yes, you guessed it, a church.
All the while the others were slowly moving along in the traffic. We finished our little quick tour of the centre of Alajuela before jumping back into the heat sink of the car and heading off.
One thing I will never understand, and this happens in all countries, is people who do exercise in the middle of the day when the heat is at it's worst. Like I know I feel the heat a lot more than some others, but I mean really?
We parked the car outside to me what would seem like not a very good restaurant, and went to have lunch. Man, was I wrong. The place was huge, there were about 120 tables, all were numbered, and the food came out incredibly fast, it even beat the drinks to the table. I had a 'Casado con pollo' which is pretty much rice, beans, tomato, potato, cooked banana and little tortillas. Along with this I had a drink which Guisella loves called horchata, it is a peanut drink, it is very very strong.
After lunch we headed down the road to a little zoo called 'Zoo Ave' ('Ave' is bird in Spanish). The place had mostly birds, evidently, but also a lot of other animals too. Just Jose and I went in.
My favourite animal there, and now my new favourite animal overall, was the toucan. I remember when I was little, I think, we had this book that had a toucan on the front of it, and now to finally see one in real life, it was just amazing. They are so active, always bouncing around and singing their hollow sounding tunes. I found the sound they make is sort of comparable to when you stroke a branch along a picket fence.
One thing about the zoo I disliked a lot, was how many spiders there were. They weren't captive spiders in cages or boxes, no, but huge spiders that had spun webs between the trees above the walkways. Most of the time I was staying crouched so as to avoid accidentally walking into a web.
They were disgusting...
We left the zoo, and headed back to Heredia.
Tonight was the final of the football between Heredia and Alajuela. The first match was a bore ending in a 0-0 draw. We were hoping for a better result this time round.
I was told that if Heredia won, we would all be going out post match to celebrate.
Jorge and Guisella went off to a friends house at 6:00pm, an hour before the game, to watch the game. Jose and I stayed at home and made our own dinners. Then a little bit before the game, some of Jose's friends arrived to watch the game. I stayed away, hidden in the little study room, just hearing the commentary of the game and going to look every so often.
At half time the score was 0-0. At full time the score was 0-0. After 15 minutes each way of extra time it was still 0-0. How disappointing that it was going down to penalty shoot outs.
Unfortunately, one of the Heredianos missed, and the Alajuelans got all 5 in. We had lost the championship game :(
And since the game was in Heredia, there was a few fights between opposing supporters post match. From inside the house we could hear the horns of cars blaring outside as Alajuelans rejoiced and Heredians let out their anger and frustration.
Jorge and Guisella arrived shortly afterwards and went pretty much straight to bed, along with Jose too.
Now, I swear that the cockroaches here know just how much I don't like them, because when I am awake alone at night, that's when they pounce.
Tonight I was sitting quietly at one of the desks when out of the corner of my eye I saw one of the huge beasts. If you think cockroaches in New Zealand are big, imagine the biggest one you've seen in New Zealand, and increase its size threefold, these ones here are massive, and they can fly.
I got up from my desk, and wielded the first thing I could find, a highlighter... great.
I ran behind the door where I couldn't see it, so I decided to move into the kitchen, where I could see if it was going to come and attack me, but I would be far enough away to have time to react.
After about 15 minutes, it ran across my line of sight. I got up, this time wielding something a bit better, a big text book, and followed it down the hallway. When I got close though, it ran into the study. I hadn't killed it, but at least it was out of sight out of mind. I just wouldn't be going in that room for a few days, that was all.

Add caption

Day 19: Sweet Treats and Quick Feet

What a quiet morning today was.
After last night being very late for all, breakfast at 9am consisted of nearly no talking, everyone was still half asleep. While there had already been some cleaning up of the party done there was more to do, but Jorge and Guisella took care of that. Jose who had stayed up much later even than I had, had barely anything for breakfast before tucking himself back into bed. Oh, that was after taking a few panadol to ease the pain of his throbbing head... I couldn't help but chuckle to myself as I watched the affects of a hangover.
A bit later Jorge and Guisella left to head into Heredia, leaving just me, the dogs, and a half living Jose. Obviously I watched some YouTube videos, they is no such thing as a data cap here, so I don't feel so bad, the internet could be a little faster though, and I continued reading 'The Last Lecture' by Randy Pausch. Part way through my quiet time alone, I got a phone call from Jose's friend Rodolfo asking me to get Jose up to talk to him. Although, at the time it was very difficult to understand, because as I now know, the reception inside the house is very very poor, making the conversation neigh on impossible. Also, while I was taking the call, Rebe and Naty walked through the gate from the grandparents house with a little plate of sweet treats just for me. I enjoyed the gingerbread biscuits and the other sweet thing which I can't remember the name of (it was like a conish pasty I think with fruit mince inside).
A little later, something I have been dreading my whole time here happened. I was alone (pretty much) when the phone rang... I answered and the conversation went a bit like this:
Me: Hello
Them: Jose?
Me: No, it's Richard
Them: Is Guisella there?
Me: No she isn't right now, sorry                                                       
Them: Alright
*End*
Phew, not too difficult.
At about 3pm Jose got up and went straight to the grandparents to see if his grandma would make some food for him. Meanwhile Jorge and Guisella returned from their travels and all of a sudden we were all heading to the grandparents house for afternoon tea.
We had more biscuits and cake and agua dulce (a sugar drink) with a lot of the family. The ones from Spain were there, and I found it interesting to hear how they pronounced things differently. One of the more noticeable words was 'Zoom' (We were talking about cameras) which was pronounced 'Thoom'.
Jose then told me that we were off told me that his friends dance show was that night at 8pm and we would be leaving within the hour. Just before we left Rodolfo arrived, he was coming with us.
Jose was having a problem with his proper phone, so he had to switch back to the one he used in New Zealand, it brought back a few memories.
We got dropped off in the centre of town and caught the bus into San Jose. On the bus this whole group of males came and sat all around us, and they were busy drinking alcohol and by the looks of it were already drunk. Suffice to say, that put me on the edge a bit.
We arrived in San Jose and walked to the theatre, we were an hour early so we walked into the centre of town to have something to eat. I was still very full from the afternoon tea only two hours prior, so it was only Jose having a meal at Pizza Hut.
We then returned to the theatre which was at the National Centre of Culture, and sat down to watch dance performances of The Nutcracker, Hairspray and Matilda. My favourite one was Hairspray just because it was the most lively, and I knew the songs more. One other interesting thing about the place was that it was the first place I had been to in Costa Rica that had carpet. I am missing carpet.
Once the show was over, we walked through some pretty dodgy parks (I thought they were dodgy anyway) and took the bus from the station back to Heredia before Jose and I walked from the bus stop to the house.
It was a late night but an enjoyable one.

Cool night shot outside the theatre complex

Day 18: Graduating and Fiesta

Today I graduated. Yes, it was my final day of school here :(
I walked to school today, in the heat that comes with the morning.
All we did today for class was watch a movie. We set ourselves up in the room with a sofa and pillows and the three of us, Isabel, Cate (this is actually how it is spelt) and I, sat down to watch Pan's Labyrinth. Cate had seen it before and had told us that it was a scary movie, but it wasn't really, even though her and Isabel were cowering behind their cushions at times, it wasn't scary for them either. The ending of the movie really wasn't how I wanted it to be...
After this movie, we had our graduation. There was a total of 5 of us graduating today, the three of us from my class and two others. We received a certificate and had to say a few little words... in Spanish. I then thanked all my teachers, especially Nuria, and said goodbye to the friends I had made. I don't think I was as sad as I thought I would be. Somehow I feel like one day I will see the people I have meet again, I don't know why, I just feel as though we will. Even Erica told me that one day I should come back.
Then I walked out of the school gates for the final time.
I had earlier received a phone call from Melania, and she said she was able to come pick me up in a few minutes, I also thought she said Jose was with her too. Then as soon as the phone call was over, I received a text from Jose asking me to walk home. So, I just thought there had been a sudden change of plans and no longer could Melania pick me up. So I set off walking home.
I then texted Melania as I was going, making sure I was supposed to be walking, to which she responded, no I can pick you up still, there is just a lot of traffic.
I was so confused. I just told her not to worry and continued home.
I got home, after waiting like 10 minutes outside the front gates waiting for someone to open them for me, to find Jose at home. During my walk I figured that Jose must not have actually been with Melania, but it was all just a bit confusing, and something to laugh about.
I skipped lunch today, since only 30 minutes ago, I was having a heap of fruit that comes with our graduation.
This evening, Jose was hosting a little Christmas party with some of his friends at the indoor/outdoor ranch style bar/portico at the neighbours house (his godmother's). I helped set up the place, making the hard decisions as to what tablecloths should be used etc.
People started arriving at 7pm and there was a Wii set up to play 'Just Dance' and dancing game. Naty and Ernesto were there at the beginning and we played a few games together before they had to leave.
There ended up being about 10 of us, and we had good music, good food and a good night. The best thing I ate was these little biscuits that Jose's friend Pamela made that had little candy Christmas figures on top of them. During the night I had fun trying to explain New Zealand slang and the idiosyncratic phrases we use such as, my favourite, 'Yeah, nah' :)
I headed off to bed at about 1:30am, and left Jose and his friends at it.
Suffice to say, I was very tired.

My class from this week
[Cate, Isabel, Jesus (Teacher), and Me]

Day 17: Dead Snakes and Cold Water

Today we went bush.
Jorge, Jose and I left home at 7:30, yes I did skip school, and headed off to Jorge's sisters farm in the San Ramon region. I never really know what I'm in for before things happen, so preparing for stuff can be a little hard at times. But all I knew was that we were going to be going for a walk.
It took about an hour before we were on gravel/dirt roads with pot holes and rocks everywhere. After about another 30 minutes, the road ended and we were at our destination, at a house in the middle of nowhere. The property of his sister had big electrified iron gates around it, and inside the main gate, there were many other areas fenced off with barbed wire. It still makes me a little nervous seeing all this protection. When we first arrived there was a guy with a horse waiting outside the property too, he seemed from the area, we were to meet him again later.
Walking up to the house, Jorge's sister pointed out a little snake that one of her two big scary Rottweiler's had killed just yesterday. I didn't like the reminder that there are snakes in Costa Rica.
Also present at the house was Lucy, Jorge's niece, and Jorge's mum. Before we set of on our walk, that I was now told was going to take about 2 hours each way, we had some food to eat, the women seemed to be worried that we weren't going to have enough energy.
Out there in the middle of the bush, the air was so fresh and cool, and a drastically different to the dirty, smelly air of the cities.
At about 10:30 we set off across a little bit of farmland before into partial bush. I did not like having the grass brushing past my ankles, and kept reapplying insect repellent, I only wished there was a snake repellent too. There was a lot of mist around since we were in a small valley and it was actually quite eerie.
Before long, we went through a gate, and by gate I mean a moveable post in the barbed wire fence, and stepped out on to a clay/mud road. We then met up with the horse guy again and he gave us a key that we would be needing later on. We set off down the muddy road into the mist, we could hardly see more than 150m.
Along our journey we all froze on the spot at one point and just listened. There was a monkey, and it was somewhere close, but we couldn't see it, only hear it's quite calls. We spent about 5 minutes looking for it, but when it's calls became more distant we moved on.
A little while after, it started to rain, making the surface even more slippery, so slippery that, yes, I did take a slip, getting mud on and in my shoes, it was very pleasant...
We kept trudging on, passing through multiple gates before changing from mud track, to narrow forest/bush/jungle track between the trees. I have to admit, at this point it was not the most enjoyable of experiences, not being able to see any views, mud everywhere, and rain drizzling too.
We kept going and encountered some colourful little centipedes and I encountered some spider webs with my face, being the tallest of the group, even though I was at the back, I still was the one who hit all of them.
Finally we reached our destination, an awesome barely known waterfall called Catarata Ladanta.
Because you only live once, and I can't have any regrets here, I jumped in and had a swim. The water was quite cold initially, but soon it wasn't that bad at all. I wasn't in for long. I hoped out, had a quick bite to eat before we set off. Just as we started our return trip, the clouds parted and the sun broke through. We could now see amazing views of the surrounding area, multiple mountains and volcanoes, it was just spectacular. Also, Jorge showed me a spider that was probably the size of an Oreo biscuit, I was very quickly moving away as quick as possible.
The way back felt a lot shorter, I think just because it was more pleasant, and the ground had dried up significantly making it less slippery and easier to walk on.
We passed the horse guy, who had now ditched his horse for a ride on the back of a quad bike and we also saw a purple butterfly that was the size of a sandwich.
After arriving back at the house of Jorge's sister, we ate and ate and ate, suffice to say I was quite famished after the walk. We then hung around there for a while, taking a walk to a little stream for another swim, I didn't have a swim at this place.
We left there at about 5:30, and headed home. As per usual, we got stuck in traffic, saw one or two car accidents and hear all too many car horns.
We got home just before 8.
It was a very nice day to get away from the noise of the city and have a day of school, even though I had to get up earlier than usual.


It was quite tall

P.S. I have just made a change to my Day 9 post, where it said we saw 'Jose's dad walking his dog' it now reads 'Jorge's dad'.

P.P.S. As of late I have been a bit slack at doing the blog entries, I'm sorry. I am trying to catch up today.

Day 16: Exercise and Wal-mart

Another quiet day today.
I had school first thing in the morning, and it was alright, our breaks from class were the best parts of the day. Today I found out that Kate the American girl in my class has been to over 20 countries, and the German girl has been to over 40. Also, I discovered that for Kate to fly from her town in Ohio to Costa Rica, it only cost her $40 USD... how insane is that, and how jealous does that make you feel. She then added that a flight to London only costs like $23 USD and that each year her family receive cheap fares to give to their friends too. While they aren't as cheap, they are still only a few hundred dollars instead of thousands. She then told me that one year for her birthday, her and a friend flew to Orlando, Florida for the weekend, just casually, to go to Disneyland... All because her Dad is a test pilot...
While being here makes me appreciate New Zealand more, sometimes I wish we were just a bit closer to some other countries. Isabel the German told me that one week her and her family drove from Germany to Romania. I mean how cool is that? To be able to just drive to other countries.
I got picked up after school and came home for lunch. For the past week I have been telling Jose that we needed to go for a run at some point. Today was the day.
At 2:30pm about 1hr and 30min after lunch we strapped on our shoes and set off for a 5km run. I forgot to time it, but it ended up being quite slow. Jose got the stitch badly, and we both agreed that next time we needed to wait a bit longer after having lunch. Running here is quite difficult, with the narrow footpaths that sometimes aren't even there at all and the crazy drivers too.
For the past two weeks my knees have been insanely sore, and I can hardly keep them bent
for more than 15 minutes and I have to support myself to crouch down and stand up... I have no idea why. I have been hoping that it was just from not doing any exercise, but as of yet, they still aren't better from having been for a run.
After having a shower, I decided I needed to go to Wal-Mart to grab some wrapping paper to start wrapping some Christmas presents. While I was offer some companionship from Guisella and Jorge, I thought I might as well go by myself. It was actually nice to just go for a walk by myself, and really it is only just around the corner.
I got back from buying some wrapping paper, plus a few other things, and wrapped some gifts, before having dinner, chilling watching Pirates of the Caribbean in Spanish and then going to bed.

Sunset from my street happening before 5pm

Day 15: A Quiet Day

Today was a very quiet day, and by quiet I don't mean noise, because there is always noise in Costa Rica. Walking down the streets there are car horns, and loud engines, and at home there are planes overhead and people selling stuff from their cars while driving and yelling through megaphones. By quiet I mean, I didn't really do much.
Of course, I had school in the morning, bright and early with my less than favourite teacher. I just feel like we don't get enough practice of what we are learning and are listening to him talking far too much. However, today I got to know the other two in my class a bit better, which is always nice. I found out that the father of Kate (the American) is a pilot and because of that she gets really cheap flights all around the world. I am so jealous.
Once class had finished, I took a quick walk to the central square of Heredia to buy something small for Ernesto because it was his birthday today. I ended up buying him a little wooden keyring, like the one I bought for myself, but with his name on it, and a little ball and cup game.
I got home and we had, rice for lunch, with other things mixed through it, but a lot of rice all the same.
Here's where it got 'quiet'. Not that I mind having an afternoon at home, it is quite nice to really.
I spent the afternoon watching YouTube videos, reading my book, and I nearly even turned on the TV. One thing about these sorts of afternoons is that I don't end up practicing my Spanish much.
In the evening, Ernesto and Naty arrived, back from their little excursion to San Jose for the day.
I gave Ernesto his present, I think he liked it. And after having dinner sat on the couch talking to Naty as she always has something to say, which I enjoy a lot. She has learnt how to speak with me so that I understand and is really helpful.
Tonight was even an early night to bed, not much after 10 and lights were out for me.

Here is my school

Day 14: Serene views and traffic

Waking up at the time that you need to, can be one of the most difficult things.
School was again at 8:30am today... I've always heard about some mysterious afternoon classes that start after my ones, but they have always managed to avoid confronting me.
However, I do thing in some ways it is good to have the early class because it means I get home at lunchtime and have the whole afternoon free and am able to go places if things are planned.
Class at the start of a new week means a new teacher, new classroom and new classmates. My new teacher is called Jesus (Hey-sus) and I have two others in my class, Isabel from Germany and Kate from Ohio USA, they are both nice and are closer to my age than a lot of the other people who go to the school. So far, I'm not enjoying this class as much as last week though, last week I learnt so much and had heaps of practice applying the new stuff, but today we did hardly any proper practice of using specific language structures.
Today I actually discovered that the school has a bell... I have been at the school for two weeks and only just realized today. This is because it hardly sounds like bell at all and more like a cross between a kettle boiling and a cat scratching at a door.
After class I came home for a lunch of you guessed it, rice and beans...yay! In saying this, I do actually like the rice and beans, but there is just so much of it.
After lunch, I hung out around the house with Jose for a bit, before he left for university. Even though he is technically on holiday now, he still has to go in to receive grades for stuff and sit in a room and be bored.
A little while later I was told that Jorge and I were going somewhere. I had no idea where because I didn't understand but went along with it anyway. Turns out, firstly we were going to the mall for me to buy an external hard drive for all the photos and videos I have already taken. Yes, I have already filled up my camera... Buying this hurt the pocket a little.
At the shop where I got it, the guy serving me had the funniest tan line. He obviously wears long sleeve shirts a lot out in the sun, because it looked like he was wearing tan coloured gloves.
After I emptied my wallet, we quickly went to a place for Jorge to pay the cable TV bill, before driving around San Jose to a little village called Salitral. Here we began our ascent, by car, to the top of Cerro Cedral, a hill with heaps of windmills. We were just in the little Toyota and so for most of the way up we were going no more than 20km/hr because the road was steep. Now, I know that Baldwin street in Dunedin may be steeper, but the distance that this road was steep was simply immense. At one point we caught sight of a little squirrel running along a power line.
When we reached the top, the view was incredible, there was a bit of wind, and a bit of cloud cover, but it was impossible not to be blown away by how amazing both the windmills were up close and the view. We crawled through a fence to get to a better spot, marveled at everything we could see, even though I hardly knew what the places that I could see were.
After about 30 minutes up the top, the cloud started to close in and rain started to douse the hillside. I began covering my camera and only taking it out for a few seconds at a time, snapping as many pictures as I could. I think there are a few blurry ones in there :)
We made it back to the car and headed down the hill. Part way down we noticed a smell. It was the car brakes. Because it was now wet, Jorge was driving less than 10km/hr meaning that the brakes were having to work very very hard.
We did make it down though, and did a quick stop of in a little town called Santa Ana, to look at the beautiful stone church. There are a lot of churches here.
Then we hit the traffic. Now I know traffic is bad in places like Auckland, but I'm not used to it. So taking over 1 hour to go about 20km is very painful, and I now feel like I can partly empathize with what some people have to cope with everyday.
We got home at about 6:30pm and had dinner.
The first of the two football games to decide the winner between my province Heredia and Alajuela was on tonight. It ended with a disappointing 0-0 draw. This just means Heredia is going to win in front of a home crowd.
All in all a good day.

High up, away from the busy streets below

Day 13: Souvenirs and Food

Today was a very busy day.
I was able to have a little sleep in, but we were all up and out of the house by 10am.
Firstly, we walked next door to meet and say hi to some relatives who had arrived yesterday from both Spain and England. There were about 6 of them, including a child and a baby.
After this quick visit, 8 of us, Jose, Jorge, Guisella, Ernesto, Rebe, Jose's maternal grandparents Oscar and Soleyda, and I, headed to Sarchi.
Before we got there though, we stopped of in Grecia to have a little stroll in the main square there which has a red church made almost entirely of metal. It is a very pretty church. While there in Grecia, Rebe and Ernesto had run off somewhere, but when we were returning to the car I found out why. They had gone to buy Rebe's favourite lolly from a shop. I got given a packet of the violet flavoured candy, and quite liked it.
We then headed to Sarchi, a little town not far from Grecia famous for the now decorative wooden carts that are made there. I bought a lot of handmade souvenirs, and will be getting stopped by MAF in New Zealand because of the wood products I purchased. All while browsing the souvenirs, rain was bucketing down outside.
After this shopping, we drove down a little steep hill to a nice restaurant that looked out into a gully. Here Ernesto was so funny, as he starting having conversations with people at other tables, one of whom was a friend of his from school.
The food here was very good, I had a mixture of four types of meat on my plate, and surprisingly no rice in sight, there was no escaping the beans though.
Because the road to the restaurant was quite steep, it was decided that it would be best for us to walk to the top and just let Jorge drive it up. I recorded a funny video of Jose pushing his grandma up the hill, while his granddad pulled.
We then returned home promptly. We had meant to visit Fabiola, a Costa Rican girl who came to New Zealand at the same time as Jose, but I think since we had other places to be and she was a bit busy too, it didn't eventuate.
As soon as we got home, we were off again. This time to Jorge's parents house, just around the corner, for a little Christmas celebration that went from afternoon to evening.
My meal at lunch had been huge, but here I still ate too, because of course, I'm in another country and want to experience everything possible. It was really nice to finally meet Jorge's family, all his brothers, his sister, his nieces and nephews, they were all so nice, and some even spoke English.
A little while after present opening, we returned home without Jorge, as he was staying to catch up more with his family.
Bed came shortly after returning.

Help is what family is there for

Jorge's family around the dinning table

Day 12: Festival de la luz!

Today, I got to sleep in... yay!!! It wasn't enough though, as I yawned my way through the day and was ready for bed by 8pm.
For the past two weeks, on the television, on the radio and from person to person there has been a huge build up for the event that was happening today, the festival de la luz! The festival was in it's 18th year and is basically a huge parade down the main street of San Jose in celebration of light and dance and music.
Yesterday, when I had been talking to Nathalie and Louis about it, they said that they had been told that you have to arrive really early in the day, like 8 hours prior to it actually starting to get a good viewing spot. That's how many people attend.
So, Jose decided we would aim to get there about 12 and hope for a good spot. We left home at about 11:30, we were running late, and caught the bus into San Jose. I will now just mention a big problem I have here. I am too tall. This country was not built for people as tall as me. Sitting in the buses my knees are squashed up against the seat in front, in the cars, my head touches the roof in some seats, and even in the houses, my head hits some lights, I have to be very careful.
We arrived in San Jose, and I had something to eat quickly while we waited for Brayan to arrive. Once he had, we walked, when I say walked, it was more like a very brisk march, to find a spot. After nearly being hit by a few cars, as you do here with the roads being as crazy as they are, we were finally getting to where we wanted to be. But then I realized that my Costa Rican coloured bracelet had fallen off. Jose had told me not to worry about it, but, I decided to backtrack along where we had just recently walked, and was lucky enough to find it... phew.
We finally reached where we wanted to be, and by now it was 1:30pm. We had McDonalds on our left, KFC opposite us, and Wendy's just a bit down the road; there was a little café for me too, so we were sorted for food. After quickly purchasing one of the stools that vendors were so eager to sell we quickly spread out over a large area as more people were going to be arriving.
It was insane how many people were already there.
After playing a few rounds of cards, a pre-show parade started at 4, with bands and clowns and other stuff to keep everyone entertained.
At 6 on the dot, fireworks signaled the start of the festival. There were police vehicles flashing their lights, sirens blazing, motorbikes, bands, colourful floats, cheerleading groups, roller skaters, bands, unhappy looking people carrying signs, oh, and did I mention bands? There were a lot of bands, but all were very good.
The show lasted for about 3 and a bit hours during which about 10 more friends of Jose's had arrived.
We then walked back towards the central plaza of San Jose to catch the bus home. However, while walking there, I was introduced to a very strange tradition of throwing handfuls of little white circles, like the ones that are left over after hole punching, at each other and complete strangers. People were selling them by the bag load, and the ground was covered in loads; Costa Rica's answer to snow. I did get a face full from a random at one point, but managed to make it through the area without any making it in my mouth.
Overall it was a great day, I think I did expect a little more from the festival, maybe more lights, or maybe it was just built up too much for me, but I still enjoyed it, and the atmosphere.

One of the many bright floats in the parade

Day 11: Celebrations

Today was a day of celebrations, both at school and at home.
First up today was school. Louis and Nathalie were back from their travels, and we were all in the same class today. Since they had been away the last two days, they were quite confused by what we were doing, as Nuria believed that we didn't have time, and it wasn't fair on me to go back and go over the stuff that I had learnt while they were away. Today was the final day at school for both Nathalie and Louis, and as a result, at 12pm, there was a graduation ceremony for them and a few others who were graduating too. Everyone who was graduating had to stand up and say a few words... in Spanish, and it was quite funny to listen to as even though they could say more by now, Louis and Nathalie, both resorted to week 1 type stuff of "Thank you for everything, I liked the school a lot".
After class, while Nathalie was getting some photos off my camera, I walked to Louis' home which was only 3 minutes around the corner, as he had to grab some thank you cards. When we arrived at his place, the garage was filled with Christmas trees; someone's little business. It was quite interesting to go inside another person's house just to see the differences in lifestyle. This house had two storeys and was one that was right on the street front. Again, no carpet anywhere.
We returned to school and I said my farewells to Nathalie and Louis before heading home.
Shortly after I got home, Melania arrived with Laura, today was Melania's birthday, and I had not finished her card yet. I tried to hide in my room to finish it off, but, the grandparents came round to sing happy birthday and have some cake, so I had to do that too. Jose told me that I could just give my present to her at night cause we were going out to a sushi restaurant for dinner.
A little later, Melania left, and Jose helped me make a card. It turned out looking really cool.
I then went with Guisella to drop Jose off at university. Before we did that, we had to go into town for Jose to organize something to be printed, and I had a quick search for an external hard drive that  was less than 500gb, and hence cheaper. I had no luck. But I will need to find something soon, because I am running out of space quickly on my SD card.When we were parking in town it was quite funny at Guisella managed to hit the curb, and as she did that a few bad words came spilling out of her mouth.
We got home just after 6pm, and I just watched some YouTube videos to chill out. We left for the restaurant at 8pm and picked up Jose on the way. Eight of us were there for the birthday dinner, and we enjoyed a platter of sushi, which took ages to arrive. Guisella, Jose, and Melania's boyfriend had some good fun trying to work the chopsticks before they got given ones that were bound together.
At one point there were fireworks outside in the distance. And Jorge being the joker that he is, said that they were specifically for Melania's birthday. Melania liked her present from me, and especially liked the card.
We arrived home at about 10:30pm. What a nice day of celebrations it was.


Waiting for dinner
From left to right: Francisco (Melania's boyfriend), Melania, Jorge, Guisella, Jose, Me, Laura

Day 10: Déjà vu?

Getting up today was very hard. I was so tired. But nevertheless I was at school by 8:30 for the start of class all by myself again.
At the school usually what happens is that each week you progress to a new level, receive a new workbook and get a new teacher. But since I was by myself yesterday, and I have picked up the stuff quickly, my teacher Nuria decided to start me on a new workbook today. While the rate of learning is really fast, I am enjoying it a lot, as day by day I am able to speak with more and more complexity and express myself in Spanish clearer and clearer. Today in class Nuria had a smoothie with her that looked really good, and it turned out it was from a shop right next door to the school. I caved in to the craving and bought one during one of my breaks from class.
While I know practice makes perfect and all that, I received way too much homework today, about 8 pages of the workbook. I keep thinking to myself how typical of me that even when I am only holiday, I go to a school and have homework :)
After class it started raining, but despite it, I took a quick walk to one of the small markets to buy a few small souvenirs.
I then got picked up and went home for lunch.
Shortly after lunch Jose and I got dropped off in the centre of Heredia, before meeting up with Jose's friend Rodolfo. By now the rain was becoming a little heavy, worsened by the strong winds. We caught the bus part way into San Jose, before hopping off to walk in the rain to the next bus stop.
Jose jokingly said that it was 3km to the bus stop from where we had got off, but I really think it ended up being about that long. We finally caught the next bus, by now our clothes were nicely doused with the rain, and only got off when Multiplaza was in our sight.
However, we did not go straight to Multiplaza, we first walked to one of only two Starbucks in Costa Rica. It was quite nice to be in a Starbucks again, and I ordered a white hot chocolate with a raspberry shot, and thing called a Chilean cake.
The drink was not as it is when I order the same thing in New Zealand, I think the enemy 'lost in translation' struck again, as the raspberry part was all lumpy... Still, after a little stir, it tasted fine. The cake on the other hand was amazing, so rich with heaps of dulce de leche, but amazing.
We then walked to Multiplaza and strolled the mall for hours and I was the only one to buy things, and, yes, Mum, I did buy a t-shirt... :)
It was night time when we left the mall, and we got back home at 10pm. I still had my blog to write and all my homework to do. It was quite a late night... or really I should say early morning.

The sweet taste of Starbucks

Day 9: Multiplaza

Again, I had school at 8:30 in the morning, and unlike yesterday today I was all by myself with the teacher, pretty much a private lesson. I learnt so much and the pace of the class was a lot faster, but I found it really good to be learning by myself for four hours.
After class I came straight home to have lunch with the family, before chilling out for a few hours just watching some YouTube videos and listening to some music. When Guisella returned from being out somewhere she had a little present for me, it was a little flax woven insect that people make in Costa Rica, it is really cool and now sits on my desk. I don't think I would like the meet the real bug in person though.
A little bit later, I went out with Jorge to fill up the car then go to Walmart to buy a few things, before stopping off to service the car. As we were heading out from the house in the car, Jorge's Dad was walking past with his dog, and we had a quick chat with him. It was the first time I had met him.
Once the car had been serviced, we headed into the centre of Heredia to do some evening wandering. We headed to the main park of Heredia and had a quick look at the church there, and really just enjoyed the atmosphere of little kids being entertained by a clown, youth doing breakdancing in a rotunda and a band of musicians playing with a random guy dancing to the music by himself. Soon after this, while Jorge was taking a phone call, Rebe appeared and stayed with us so she could get a lift home. Something I found really funny was that on one side of the park there is the intersection of Avenue 0 and Street 0, who knew you could have a street before 1st. After buying a little keyring at the small market there, all of us, even Rebe returned to our home.
At home there was Guisella and Ernesto, Rebe's son. After a small dinner, all of us headed to Escazu to the largest mall in Costa Rica, Multiplaza! The whole area around the mall and the mall itself is a stark contrast to other areas of Costa Rica as it is all so modern and flash, with a lot of space and cleanliness, it definitely was a bit of a surprise. The mall is massive, and because we had the ladies with us we spent most of our 2 hours at the mall in a single shop. I really really like the mall :)
Overall a quieter day today, but it was nice to see Rebe and Ernesto again and spend some time with them, Rebe thinks my Spanish has improved a lot already, which, of course is nice to hear.

The three levels of Multiplaza 

Day 8: Tranquil Evenings

Today, as usual I had school at 8:30 in the morning. But instead of getting dropped of, I got walked to school by Jorge so that for future reference if I wanted to walk I would know where to go. The walk takes about 30 minutes and is very easy to follow.
When I arrived at school, there were so many people! The Australians had arrived... with a few South Africans too. Class was better today, with just Nathalie and I, and we were able to learn more and have more practice talking with our teacher.
At break time, we met some of the Australians and found out that they knew no Spanish at all before arriving here, and were only at the school for a week before going to do some volunteer work for a fortnight and then adventure activities for the following fortnight after that.
After class the man Nathalie had met at a bar the other week arrived to pick up his jersey... it was very awkward between them because she could hardly remember him... oh, but it was so funny to watch.
Also, I helped Louis plan his next adventure, as next week he is off to New Zealand! So I help him with where to go, what to do and how to do things. I found it very difficult to think of what the best things are. He is there for a whole month, before going to work in Australia for 6 months.
I then got picked up from school by Jorge and went home for lunch.
After lunch I just chilled around the house for awhile, before Jorge, Guisella and I went out to the local mall to buy me SIM card. A lot of technology shops are very different here, they only let a certain amount of people in at any one time, and the rest have to wait outside. Once we got inside it was very quick and easy, I now have a tico phone number.
Before leaving, we stopped at a cafe to have a cold drink and a little bite to eat. Both tried to convince me to have an ice coffee but I couldn't be persuaded and instead had an ice chocolate, which was really really good. Jose met up with us briefly part way through our snack as his uni is just across the road, before he headed back to uni and we headed off to explore some more of Heredia.
Firstly, we went to the house of a friend of Guisella, it was recently built and very big, very flash, and had many many security cameras. While there we watched the sun setting outside the window, it really was a house with a view.
After this we went to Santa Barva, a little, very old, suburb of Heredia which is known for its street posts that have cartoon masks on top of them. There were these types of posts at every corner and most were very cool. We also stopped in the local park for a quick walk, as there was a lot of statues and sculptures there, and also had a look at the adjacent cathedral, one of the oldest in Costa Rica.
Following this, we went to another suburb called San Joaquin because it has a lot of houses adorned with christmas lights and with nativity scenes. Sure enough there was plenty, and they did not disappoint, it was all very pretty. After a little walk around the streets here, meeting a very friendly guy, and seeing another church we headed home.
It was a brilliant evening that ended a good day in paradise.

Afternoon tea with the family

Day 7: A Week

Today was the start of new week, and with that came school at 8:30 in the morning. When I arrived, Nathalie informed me that because it was a new week we had a new teacher, and new classroom. While change good because it means progress, we were both sad to leave Samuel because he had been so funny and made classes really awesome.
Our new teacher, Nuria, told us that there were two others who would be joining our class to make a class of four, something we didn't want, because it is better to learn with as a few people as possible.
Sure enough, a few minutes later two new people arrived in our class, Charles, an older man from Baltimore and Johnny a younger guy from South Dakota. Shortly after they arrived we discovered that they were not as good as us and as a result we were revising things that both Nathalie and I already knew. However, during one of our breaks, Samuel told us that both of them would be in his class tomorrow, leaving just the two of us with Nuria. Class is a bit less fun with Nuria, however, I still like her as she is a good teacher, but Nathalie does not really.
After classes, I got to know some of the other students, some of Nathalie's friends better, Luis, 24, from Belgium, and Lisa, 19, from Germany, and we decided to go for lunch in town. Firstly, we stopped in at the market to buy some playing cards and search for some sunglasses for Louis before heading to a little Costa Rican restaurant. I decided that I couldn't trust the food there and didn't eat anything, instead eating something from a pulperia (like a dairy). After Louis and Nathalie finished eating their lunch and the four of us had played a few rounds of cards, Lisa left us to go back to school to watch a movie.
Louis, wanted to go to the only Hard Rock Café in Costa Rica, which the guy at the restaurant told u was in Mall San Pedro, a shopping centre in a town close to San Jose. So, we caught the bus into San Jose before riding a taxi the rest of the way to the mall, despite the others' best efforts to try to convince me to hitchhike. Upon arriving at the mall, we asked where the café was, and we were told that it was actually near the airport in Alajuela, we had gone to the completely wrong place. As a result we decided to try Pops instead. Pops is a very common ice cream shop in Costa Rica, it is at almost every corner, just like McDonalds here too.
After eating our ice creams ad playing some more card games, we left the mall at about 5:30pm. We decided that it would be easiest to take a taxi back to Heredia and found one who would do the trip for only 8,000 colones ($16USD). While in the taxi, both Louis and Nathalie didn't feel so well, which made me feel good for not having eaten at the restaurant. The taxi ride ended up taking 1hr 30mn because there was so much traffic, and so the driver asked us to pay 12,000 colones which was still very reasonable, and we were very understanding.
When I got to the school I was told that Jorge had been wondering where I was since it was getting late and they were a little worried because they couldn't contact me because I have no phone. He arrived to take me home a little later and we decided that I would need to get a SIM tomorrow.

Nathalie and Louis in the bus to San Jose