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.