Back home.

Well after 9 weeks, innumerable bus rides, and a 9 hour flight to Vancouver (not including the 7 hour layover in Phoenix!) I am finally back home. I can hardly believe I have been back for nearly a week! In my last week in Costa Rica Amy and I visited Montezuma where we saw some beautiful waterfalls, La Fortuna where we saw Arenal Volcano and went zip-lining, and then spent a couple of days in San Jose before heading back home last Sunday. 

I have only just started the daunting task of sorting through all of my photos from my trip, and I am in the midst of creating a slide show, that I will post here on this blog once it's finished. Until then here are some pictures from my last week in Costa Rica:

Awesome sign I saw on the ferry going to Puntarenas.

Ancient rock face at our hotel in Montezuma.

Montezuma beach.

White-faced monkeys on the beach in Montezuma.

Playa Grande, Montezuma.

Beautiful bird I saw on Playa Grande, Montezuma.

The balcony of our hotel in Montezuma.

Crazy man jumping headfirst off of the waterfall.

Amy taking in the view at the falls in Montezuma.

The first of three waterfalls in Montezuma.

Check back again over the next week for more pictures, and fingers-crossed I will finish the slide show this week. Plus, I have a couple of videos of Amy and I zip-lining in La Fortuna which I will be sure to post!

Take care,

Amira

Cahuita, Quepos, and Manuel Antonio.

Cahuita Beach.

A little over one week has past since I last wrote, and it has been an eventful week indeed; my good friend Amy arrived in San Jose on Saturday evening, and since then we have travelled to both the Carribean and Pacific Coasts.

This past Monday we headed to Cahuita, a small laid back town on the Carribean coast with a very rasta vibe. Amy and I stayed in a little hotel very close to the entrance to the nation park, Parque Nacional Cahuita (which has a gorgeous beach). We had our own little kitchen there, which was great because we could save money by self catering. We stayed in Cahuita for three nights, and spent most of our days just relaxing on the beach.

Amy cooking up something tasty.

One day we decided to take advantage of the coral reef (which is one of the last living in Costa Rica) and go snorkleing, which I had never done before. We really lucked out because the conditions were perfect: the water was clear, there was virtually no wind, and there were TONS of fish. Our guide said it was one of the best days he had seen in years. I wish I had had an underwater camera to get some pictures of all of the fish I saw! After we finished snorkleing we took a quick walk through the park and saw a few monkeys, and even a lovely yellow snake (yikes!).

Getting all ready to snorkle. I am a dork.

Amy on the boat.

I am such a tree hugger.

On Thursday morning we headed to our next location, Quepos. Quepos is on the central Pacific coast, and most travellers end up staying here because of its proximity to Manuel Antonio National Park. Amy and I are here for three nights for that very reason, and we got a chance to visit the park yesterday. The park is one of the smallest in Costa Rica, however it is one of the most visited because of the high number of animal sightings. We saw more monkeys than I can count and heard a couple of howler monkeys (they are so loud!), and many other animals which I unfortunately don't know the names of ... After walking some of the trails in the park we were exhausted from the heat (32 degrees celcius) and the humidity, so we headed for the beach to cool off in the water.

Capuchin monkey in Cahuita.

Yellow snake. Apparently very poisinous.

Today we are heading back to the park, this time to check out all of the street vendors, and spend some more time at the beach. Our next stop tomorrow is Montezuma, which is located on the Nicoya Peninsula and is known as a sort of hippie surf spot- So I'll keep you posted!

Pura Vida!

-Amira xo

P.S I was finally able to transfer my photos, so scroll down to my last two posts to see some pictures.

Finished Volunteering, and back in San Jose!

The view from my balcony on my last morning in Zapotal.

First off, I apologize for the lack of updates over the past few weeks, I have not been able to make it to a computer until yesterday. If you scroll down I posted another blog which I had intended on posting before I left Zapotal. I didn't end up getting to use the computer in Miramar but I left the post as I had originally planned to write it, so you can check that out below. Since I haven't written in a while this post is going to be a long one, so you might want to get comfortable!

Betty sitting on all of our luggage on the ride down to Miramar.

The whole gang on my last night in Zapotal.

I left Zapotal on the 31st of March, which was bittersweet since I had really grown to love it there, but I also realised that it was important to visit new places as I only have a limited amount of time in Costa Rica. My last weekend in Zapotal was the Motocross race, which was a pretty big event; people came from all of the towns nearby and there were riders from all over Central and South America competing at the race. The race started at around 11:00am and had two parts: the first was the Pro circuit, and the second was the amateur circuit. I had never seen something like this before, but it was pretty fun except for a couple of falls, but thankfully no one was hurt. There was also tons of great food at the event too, which I of course took advantage of. After the race ended at around 3:00pm there was a party at the community hall, which was a pretty fun time with music, dancing, food, the whole works. I think it was a great way to spend my last weekend there.

Sunset view from the Reserve.

On one of my last two days in Zapotal I visited the Reserve again with Chichi, which was great because the weather had really changed since the previous time I went. This time it was really warm in the forest, and there was also a lot more light so I was able to take more pictures (which I will try and post soon!). I was also finally able to go horseback riding; Frankie came by unannounced one day and just asked me if I wanted to go riding right then and there, I of course jumped at the chance. Frankie let me ride solo, and it was a lot of fun; I rode all over the town, and enjoyed my last sunset in Zapotal on horseback- it was really great. For my last night in Zapotal I made a cake for Betty & Chichi, which was a bit of an experiment I will admit. I made it from a vanilla cake mix, and added some orange flavoured Fanta at Margie's urging. Betty said that she likes cakes with fruit, so I bought a can of peaches and added sliced peaches and whipped cream as the topping for the cake. To my surprise the cake actually turned out really well, and everyone loved it (or at least that is what they told me) and ate the entire thing! I think I will try that Fanta trick again sometime!

I ended up going to Matapalo as planned on the 31st of March, I made the trip with my old roommate Ursual, and it was really nice getting to travel with another person. Matapalo was beautiful, and is supposed to have one of the prettiest beaches in Costa Rica. I was there for only one week which was enough time, since there wasn't a ton of work needed to be done there. Most days we visited the local elementary school and did some painting, and then played with the kids during their lunch break. There were about 5 volunteers there in total, one of each from Austria, Germany, England, and two from Canada (Vancouver, whoot!), and all women! We had one close animal encounter during my stay; one evening I was walking out of the house and Wilson (the project coordinator) was standing by the door, and he told me to just keep on walking, so I did not really thinking anything of it. Once I was out of door, two of the girls were staring at Wilson, and I asked them what was going. They told me there was a snake in the house! Lucky for us they caught the snake, and we found out it was a relatively harmless one that eats mostly spiders and small rodents. But still, everyone was rather disturbed by this event, and I am happy to report that there were no other slithery visitors during the rest of my stay.

Ivana (a photographer at our camp) doing pull ups for the kids. They were impressed.

These girls asked me to take their picture. They are so serious!

Just taking a break.

On my last day of work we started working on building a hatchery for the turtle conservation project on the beach. It was really hard work carrying big beach logs in the blistering sun, but thankfully we didn't have to do it for too long as we were all dying in the 34 degree heat, including my project coordinator!

Kids playing jump rope with the volunteers at recess.

Lifeguard taking it easy. I wonder how he got up there?

Sunset in Matapalo.

All the girls on my last night in Matapalo.

I left Matapalo on Tuesday, a few days earlier than I originally planned because this week is Semana Santa which is basically Easter celebrations, and travelling on Thursday or Friday is next to impossible as there is no domestic bus service. So now I have a few days to waste here in San Jose while I am waiting for my friend Amy to arrive on Saturday. Today I went to meet up with my friend Julie who I met in the Matapalo project, and she is also from Vancouver. We had lunch, and afterwards walked around the main drag in San Jose called Avenida Central. Tomorrow is supposed to be a big celebration day with lots of religious processions so I might go and check that out, since the processions in Central America are supposed to be pretty spectacular.

The procession begins.

The procession ending in the Cathedral.

I apologize for the lack of photos, the computers at my hostel have their hard drives locked up so I haven't been able to plug in my flash drive to post pictures. Hopefully over the next few days I will be able to find another internet cafe and post some photos from the last few weeks, so keep checking back for updates. Talk to you all again soon!
Love,
Amira

March 27th, 2009

The crowds at the Motocross Race.

As of today I have four days left in Zapotal and I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by! I leave here on Tuesday (bright & early) and head towards the pacific coast to a town called Matapalo, where I will visit a beach for the first time since arriving in Costa Rica! I will be working at a project located just across from the Matapalo beach, the project is both a community and environmental one so we will be doing a mixture of work there.
This time though, I will not be making my trip alone; my roommate here Ursula is also going to Matapalo, so we will be making the day long bus trip together.

These girls were so excited- They screamed their heads off!

This week involved a lot of work to do with the up-and-coming Motocross race this weekend. I am anticipating the craziness of this event; our little town of 3o will be flooded with nearly 1000 Motocross enthusiasts from all over Costa Rica. The first rider takes off.

Earlier this week I made cheese with Frankie which is always fun, and tasty because I always eat every single piece of cheese that Frankie offers me. I also attended the funeral of a friend of Betty & Chichi's , which I won't lie was kind of an awkward experience for me. However, it was over very quickly, and was really just a burial, there was no church service or anything. Afterwards, we went to eat at a little cantina which makes my favourite Tico dish called Picadillos, which is basically a tortilla with fried potatoes and spices as the filling. Trust me, it's delicious!

This is the sign that we painted for Betty.

The past few days I been doing a lot of painting because Ursula and I are making a sign for Betty's house, so when volunteers arrive to the town they know which house to go to. Today we are almost finished the sign, so by tomorrow it should be complete. Once again, I am pretty pressed for time here in Miramar, because there has been so much work to do before the Motocross race on Sunday.

Cowboys watching the race.

It might be a while before I am able to post again, because I really have no idea what the internet access will be like (if any) in Matapalo. So I promise to write as soon as I possibly can.
-'Til next time,
Amira

1 month down, 1 more to go!

It has felt like non-stop fiestas since I last wrote!
This past weekend was back-to-back parties. The first was at a lodge nearby called "Colinas Verdes" which is situated on a nice hill, with a very pretty view. I am not really sure what the party was for, but it had all of the staples of a Tico fiesta: lots of food, music, and dancing. I met a few english speaking people there, which was nice since the only times I can speak english is when I called home once a week! The next day was a fiesta in Cedral (again I am not sure what it was
for?). It was a fun party with lots of dancing, I danced with Betty & Chichi a lot- although I did meet several bizarre characters... One man was in his 70's, and completely drunk. He would lean up against a support beam and fall asleep for a minute, then a moment later he would wake-up and start dancing again like a maniac. It was a pretty hilarious sight to behold! (The photo above is from the drive down to Miramar today)

The newest development in Zapotal is that this past Tueday a new volunteer arrived. So now I have a roomate, her name is Ursula and she is from Germany. It is nice to finally have some company up in my little attic. We are also expecting two more volunteers on Tuesday, both girls. So the house will be full of chicas! This past week has been pretty much the usual farm routine, except that we did quite a bit of painting in the little school close to the house. This weekend we will be doing lots of preparation for the follwing weekend; next weekend is a big motocross race up here, and supposedly a lot of people come up to watch the event.

Sorry for the short post, but we arrived really late to Miramar today, so I don't have much time on the internet. Will write again soon!
xoxo Amira
P.S Sorry for only one picture, I am having some technical difficulties today! Will try and post more pictures next time.

Earthquakes, tunnels, and bruises.

The river in Unión.

The days are going by so quickly these days, and soo0n enough I will be leaving Zapotal and going on to a new placement. I will really miss Zapotal, the people hbere are great and incredibley hospitible. However, I still have a few weeks left here so I will try and make the most of it!

This week included making cheese, scowering through tunnels, another fiesta, two earthquakes, and a bad bruise. Sufice it to say it's been a busy week!

Betty and Chichi swimming in the river.

This past Sunday I went to Unión once again, this time for a little girls 4th birthday party. The party was in the early afternoon, so after filling up on food and cake Chichi and I went to ¨La Mina¨, which is a gold mine that is currently not in operation. Chichi showed me a few of the tunnels at the mine, and we inside a couple of them- and met a few bats along the way. The tunnels were pretty interesting, although I sort of expecfted to see a lot of exposed gold, which was not the case. Forgot to mention: before we went to the party we stopped at a river nearby, that had a nice little waterfall, and Betty and Chichi went for a swim in the river. I didn't get to swim becayse I didn't get the ¨wear your swim suit¨ note, luckily I was wearing shorts, so I at least got to stand in the water (which actually wasn't that warm).

Stepping inside the entrance of the tunnel.


Chichi pointing out some different formations.

On Monday I worked with Frankie making cheese, which was fun. The best part was actually earting the cheese, which was very tasty! One bad thing about Monday was that I slipped on some slippery stairs, and now I have a pretty ugly bruise, you can take a look at the photos and judge for yourself. I showed Betty my bruise, and she tried to ¨help¨ me by rubbing some strange smelling lotion on my leg, and when I say rub I mean the way you would rub coarse seasing into a piece of meat, roughly. Not that I am complaining or anything, it was very nice of her to try and make it better.

Right after slipping...

A few hours later.

The other day when we were all eating lunch we had a little earthquake, it lasted for about 30 seconds and was not very strong (here in Zapotal anyway). Later on in the afternoon we had another little earthquake, and it was pretty similar to the first one. Apparrently the earthquakes originated in the ocean on the pacific side of the country, but it was not felt very strongly where I am up in the mountains.

The view from the farm.

Yesterday was very nice and sunny, and in the afternoon I went with Chichi and a few another to a farm that Chichi own about 20 mins away. It was very pretty there, with a nice view of Miramar below, and you could even see all the way to the pacific ocean. I spent the few hours we were there enjoying the sun, and taking pictures.

Today as usual we have all come down to Miramar, so once I am finished up here I will head over to Margie's (Betty & Chichi's daughter) and speak english for a little while, which I always look forward to since no one in Zapotal speaks english.

-Til next time!

Amira xo

2 Weeks

Here is the road leading up to Betty's house.

Well it has been two weeks since I have arrived in Costa Rica, and things are going really well. This week was pretty busy: I went to my first Costa Rican fiesta, which was a birthday party for one of Chichi´s sisters. The party was pretty fun, there were TONS of people there (at least 50 of Chichi's family or more), lots of foods, and of course dancing. The first good 30 minutes of my time at the party was spent following Betty around and being introduced to everyone, it was slightly overwhelming at first, but everyone was so nice and really excited to speak with me that I felt fine afterwards. There were even a few people at the party who spoke english, so they were eager to practice with me.

This is my bedroom... forgive the mess.

A few days ago I went with Betty&Chichi to a town nearby called Cedral, where we picked up a truck load of tree seedlings to plant on the farm. Cedral is slightly colder than Zapotal, and also gets a lot more rain. So of course as soon as we got out of the truck to start loading the trees it began pouring, and we were all soaked by the time we finished. However, it was all worth it in the end, because afterwards we went to a little cantina and enjoyed a great cup of coffee and delicious empanadas. Yum!

This is in Unión, the pueblo where Betty's family lives.

Yesterday I spent most of the day with Chichi and Estevie (another guy that works on the farm and lives with at Betty's) painting the Cheese factory. We painted the whole interior and exterior of the factory (luckily it's small), and then retired for the day.

I am really enjoying my time here in Zapotal, and I can't believe it has been 2 weeks already! I am getting know everyone in town a lot more, and everyone here is so friendly and very eager to get to know me. I am getting pretty good at farm work (if I do say so myself) and I particularily enjoy helping Chichi herd the cows to their grazing pasture a few minutes away which is a very nice walk, but does occassionally involve some hiking through knee deep mud. Chichi is apparently very impressed by my hikind abilities (no idea why, I just walk?) and says that I am a "chica muy valiente". Most evenings I spend playing cards with Chichi after dinner, or watching TV with Chichi and Estevie while trying to understand what Estevie is saying when he talks to me (I have never met someone who talks so fast in my life).

This weekend I am going to another fiesta, this time it is for a niece of Chichi's, so hopefully that'll be fun! I am also going to start going to the elementary school nearby to help teach the kids english, and play with them at lunch break, which I am really looking forward to. In the next few days Chichi said he is going to take me to the mine nearby, which is a small gold mine that apparently has a nice river, waterfalls, and tunnels. So hopefully next time I am back here in Miramar for an afternoon I will have lots more to blog about!

'Til next time!

Amira xo

Side note: I added a picture to my last post of what I ate for lunch. Enjoy.

¡Pura Vida!

As of tomorrow I will have been in Zapotal for 1 week, and things are going really well. I am starting to get into the routine of getting up early and having breakfast with the family, then feeding and milking the cows, then returning to the house for a morning snack. After the snack I basically have the afternoon to myself and I spend it differently everyday; a few days ago Chichi and I went ot the nature reserve near by, which is actually a cloud rainforest! It was really cool to see all the different trees and plants, and boy they

weren't kidding when they said "Cloud

Rainforest" it is so thick with clouds that at some points you can hardly see what is in front of you! We hiked around for a while until we reached a lagoon, and then turned back. I was hoping to see some animals but unfortunately I didn't. The time went by so fast I didn't realise how long we had been gone (3 and half hours!).

Yesterday, Betty and Chichi took me to a near by pueblo (town) where Betty's mom lives. I met lots of her family, and then we went to Chichi's brothers house where we spent most of the afternoon, while all the men left to go and slaughter a cow. They brought the cow back and slaughtered it under a tree near the house (no I didn't watch, although they kept asking me to.) I could see enough of the action from where I was sitting far away, and as beef is my favourite meat I chose to stay away. It took 4 or 5 men and several hours to portion out the cow, and then they cooked some for us to eat for lunch. I must say it was very tasty, in fact it was almost kobe-beef-tasty. It was really nice weather in this town so I spent most of the afternoon enjoying the sun near the river.

Today I am in Miramar again, because Betty and Chichi needed to do some arrands. So I am using the computer at Chichi's younger brothers house. It is pretty hot here in Miramar, however in Zapotal the weather is still pretty cold. Hopefully I will be able to blog again next week, so until then adios!

xoxo Amira

Zapotal

Hello! I have finally reached my first placement in Zapotal, which is small agricultural village in the "Montes de Oro" which translates as Mountain of Gold. I have been here for two nights, and I started my first day this past Sunday. The family I am staying with, the Chavez family, are very nice and have been very kind to me. The family is: Betty (the project coordinator), and Chichi (Betty's husband). They have two kids, one who I met for the first time today but I sadly cannot remember his name, and a daughter Margie who lives in Miramar (about 1 hour away, where I am currently writing from).

The trip up to Zapotal was a very interesting one to put it mildly, it took a total of 9 1/2 hours to get here, 5 of which were spent waiting for my second bus here in Miramar. The buses here are pretty old, and they get very hot, very fast. However, that is not the worst part. The worst part is the roads here, which are very narrow and twisty turny because we are in the mountains here. The drive from San Jose to Miramar was nothing compared to the second bus ride, which was like riding on a rusty old roller coaster that never ceases to stop bumping up and down. Luckily, I am not prone to car sickness, or else I would have been in big trouble. Waiting in Miramar was pretty boring, because I had to much stuff to carry to really be able to venture around town much. So the majority of the 5 hours here I spent sitting in the shade (which didn't prevent me from getting a bad sun burn on the back on my arms), reading, and writing in my journal.

Once I made it to my stop at the entrance to Zapotal, Chichi was there waiting for me, and we drove for about 20 minutes until we reached the Chavez house. Zapotal is quite high up in the mountains so it is not very warm here, and for the past few days has been cloudy and very windy. The wind is so strong here I wear ear plugs at night to block out the sound (and the dogs barking at it), and once and a while you get a huge gust and it shakes the entire house. I live in a nice sized room above the garage which is just beside the main house. It is bright and clean, and the bonus is I have my own bathroom.

My first day of work mostly consisted of feeding the animals (cows, pigs, and chickens), helping to spray down the animal pens, and cutting down sugar cane and alfalfa which is ground into feed for the cows and pigs. I also stopped by the community cheese factory (although calling it a factory is a bit of a stretch), where I worked with a man named Frankie who runs it. They use the milk from the cows to make the cheese, and it is a pretty tasty soft cheese that they eat at breakfast and dinner in grilled sandwhiches, or just on its own. Everyone here is very nice, and tries to converse with me as much as possible.

I eat all of my meals with Betty and Chichi, which are pretty tasty. In the morning they usually eat fruit (melon, pinapple, and papaya), and for lunch a salad with tomato and cucumber, and dinner is usually chicken, potatoes, and salad. There is always rice and beans served with every meal, which is a Costa Rican staple.

Overall things are going really well, and I am starting to adjust to it here. I will probably be here for about two weeks, and then head back to San Jose and go on to another project from there. I will try to post some pictures this weekend if I come back to Miramar.

Hopefully I will write again soon!
xoxo Amira.

I´m off once again!

I thought I would write again today, as I probably won´t have internet access until next weekend. Today I had my meeting with Luis (my ASVO advisor) and he gave me the instructions for getting to my posting in Zapotal. I will have to get up early tomorrow to catch the 7am bus to a town called Miramar which should take around 3-4 hours. Once I arrive in Miramar, I will unfortunately have to wait for about 4 hours until my second bus comes taking me to my final stop, and where my host family will meet me....It´s gonna be a long day. After my meeting with Luis I went to the bank which was an interesting experience, however despite my lame-o attempts to speak spanish I got what I came for and left. Then I went to the grocery store, or "supermercado" and bought a calling card which I later found out was only good for about 4 minutes of talk time. However, I was able to call my parents, who thankfully were able to call me back and we spoke for a while which was really great. Well, that about sums up my last day in San Jose. I am off to bed early now, so wish me luck on my great bus journey, and I will hopefully be able to blog again next weekend!
Amira

I finally made it!

Well, after more than 10 hours of travelling I finally made it to Costa Rica!
I don´t have too much to report yet, because I was picked up from the airport at 9:30pm by ASVO (the organization I am volunteering with) and went straight to bed. The hostel I am staying at is very nice, and the family that runs it has been really helpful, although it is hard to communicate other than just the basics. This morning I am supposed to have a meeting with one of my ASVO advisors, and he is going to help me go to the bank, and buy a phone card. He is also going to give me instructions on how to get to Zapotal, which is where my first volunteer posting is. I am hoping that it won´t be too confusing how to get there- will keep you posted.
So far the weather is really nice, I am not sure what the temp is, but there is a nice cool breeze where I am sitting at the computer. Hopefully, it won´t be too hot tomorrow when I have to do some more travelling. Anyway, that is really all I have to tell at the moment. I will try to blog again tomorrow before I leave, with some more details!

23 days and counting.....

Hello everyone, and welcome to my blog!

I have created this blog for the purpose of keeping family and friends up to date on my trip to Costa Rica. I will blog as often as possible (probably around once a week), and summarize what I have seen each week, and what I have been doing at my volunteer placement. Hopefully, I will have some interesting stories to share throughout my 9-week stay!

Check back after February 19th (my departure date) for new posts.

Amira