To be a tico

The research has been going really well. I am learning a lot about the CEN-CINAI programing. I have gathered all my data, and have spent the last few weeks working on anthropological descriptions. The most intriguing facet of my research has been how children are treated in the Costa Rican culture. From what I can tell, children are the center of attention for any occasion. Any mistake made, any wronging or misbehavior, is reprimanded with a "mi amor" (my love), and mere words of wisdom. Frustration with children seems non existent in the areas I have visited. One day I would very much enjoy to do further research on the way children are treated and viewed in the Costa Rica, and if there is a connection with the countries happiness index, as well lasting effects on the close nit family unit.


Picture of a my research space in the CEN 

Anyways, I have also been having amazing adventures every weekend. One weekend was spent at Festival Imperial, which was a giant electronic music festival that amounted to 30,000 people. It was crazy to see some of my favorite types of music surrounded by a completely different culture. Turns out the ticos (Costa Ricans) are very much on board with the futuristic sounds of dubstep and house music. I will say, I saw a few of the ticos get frightened during certain bass sounds that pierced our eardrums. In the end, everyone was dancing up storm which is all I wanted to do.

Festival Imperial with some ACM friends

I have continued volunteering at the family animal reserve. What surprised me most about my time spent with the animals, is that I learned the sounds, the mannerisms, and the smells of many different species of Costa Rica. All of this knowledge came in handy when I took my spring break trip, which is called Semana Santa here.

In order to experience smaller crowds and biodiversity up the wahzoo, I traveled to the souther peninsula by the name Osa Penisula. I spend four days backpacking in Corcovado National Park followed by two days at Playa Zancudo. The backpacking trip in Corcovado was amazing. I saw a multitude of wildlife. Tapir, fours different species of monkeys, ant eaters, crocodiles, wild pigs, macaws, coati, and many different species of birds. I was unlucky when my camera ran out of battery on the hike in, but I still managed to get various photos of wildlife and scenery.

Tapir

Playa Corcovado 

Squirrel Monkey 

The trail

Playa Zancudo means mosquito beach, but there were not many mosquitos. I believe that the name is used as a means of deterring massive crowds. The beach was beautiful. The wave were nothing to fear and the cabins that I stayed at were very inexpensive and right on the beach! If I headed approximately 3km south along the beach the wave got bigger, and the surfing got renowned. If I were to have taken a 30 minute car ride I would have happened upon a surf town by the name of Pavones. The famous 5 minute left breaking wave lives in this area. When I was staying in Zancudo the swell in Pavones was too big for me. 9 ft waves would not have been a good idea in my physical and competence level. I did surf thought and it was an absolute blast. I realize now that at some point in my life I am going to have to live somewhere that accommodates a surf every morning life style.

Walkway from the cabin to the beach

The best part at Zancudo came with the setting of the sun. The sunsets were spectacular. During this time the low tide made the beach stretch out for a good 50 meters. The water was very timid and the small film over the sand created amazing reflections of the clouds. When the night came around, we were blessed with cloud coverage. Weird, I know, but with the lack of a star and moon lit sky, came a ocean full of it's own light. Bioluminescense lit up the ocean. I swam around proclaiming, "look at me, Im a star!" Every movement that I made in ocean caused tiny little organisms to lit up around me. I was swimming in an swarm of ocean fireflies.

 Best Sunsets 

 ME

Pura Vida, until next time.

Research Dude

      I have been researching my butt off! Which is why I have not been able to update the blog. Apologies to all. So, to sum it all up I have experienced the intricacies of the CEN-CINAI programs. My favorite part thus far was a 2 day trip to aid in the distribution of powdered milk to families at or below the poverty line (program name is Leche). We, meaning Dr Lendezma and nurse Ilda, traveled to the boarder of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, to town by the name of Boca Rio de San Carlos. During the 4 hour truck ride through the Costa Rican boonies we stopped at numerous communities to distribute the powdered milk. We would pull up in out white Ministry of Health truck and the mothers and children would gather round. We spent usually an hour giving the milk packages to the families. It was a very good system and no one seemed to be left without enough milk to last their family a month. The Leche program is designed to provide nutritional supplement to children and nursing mothers at and below the poverty line. I was very pleased to see the connection that Doctor Lendezma and nurse Ilda had with the communities. The trip was not just to distribute powdered milk, it was to pay a visit to the people of the communities that are truly cared for.

powdered milk packets

la puente 

Transportation 

       One of such visits was to a house in Boca Rio. A woman by the name of "Abuela" was the care taker for two children and a mentally handicapped daughter. Prior entering the wooden/dirt house Dr. Lendezma told me that these are the kind of people that keep him working for the Ministry of Health.  The children were hilarious. They were going wild climbing trees and hacking down coconuts for me to drink. They danced with a ferrel dog by the name of Walchi, and showed me a green parrot that they had captured, named Ronald. Abuela was still trucking. I am not sure how old she is, but the way she cracked jokes gave her an aura of youth. Abuela's daughter was such a hard worker. She clearly had her handicaps, but that didn't stop her from enjoying family discourse and scolding the children. 

      The next part of the trip was also unforgettable. We drove to a town that was having a fiesta. Apparently this town would be the last town in the San Carlos region to get electricity, and I was going to be there when they turned it on. It was a interesting combination of people. There were the overweight construction guys with huge aviators and big truck, there were ministry officials like Doctor Lendezma and techers all looking scholarly, and there were the community members who were burnt to the core by the sweltering sun. Yet, they all had the same grin on their face. When the light bulb flashed on to close the ceremony, everyone cheered and the feast began. So. much. pig. Following food an epic soccer game ensued, which I only participated in for mere minutes until I realized that I was completely incompetent by their standards.



to the fiesta








       Other than the Leche trip, I have been traveling around Ciudad Quesada visiting the CEN an CINAI facilities. I have been making detailed notes on how each daycare operates, and there are clear differences between such a standardized system. I have also been gathering data on each individual child development case. I am trying to see if daycare facilities have determining factors in increasing a child's overall development over the course of year.

          As for adventures besides that of my research, I managed to sneak a trip to La Fortuna last weekend. Over the course of the trip I took a zip line canopy tour, hiked to Arenal Waterfall, swam in the pool of Arenal Waterfall, and made a new friend that runs his own touring company (Red Lava Tours, check it out!). He is an awesome dude and I couch surfed with him for the weekend. The whole weekend cost me 40 dollars (including food and transit). What a steel! To top it all off, my new friend, Luis, said that he will be making sure to get me good deals whenever I come back, or when he has the time, take me on free tours himself. At any rate, I definitely have to go back to La Fortuna, next on the agenda is kite boarding in the famed meca of Lake Arenal.

zipping the canopy

La Fortuna Waterfall                                                          

Arenal Volcano

until next time, pura vida mae

En el Campo

Sorry for the serious lack of time that has been spent on the blog! I have been very busy starting my research. So, I have moved on from the beloved ACM building. I had an amazing time during that first month. I made new friends, I learned so much Spanish, and visited some awesome places. Before I left ACM I  enjoyed cooking with my conversation group. Our lunch consisted of gallo pinto, picadillo, squash soup, and sweet plantains. It was not as good as our host mothers food, but we tried to mimic their recipes the best we could. Costa Rican food is sooo good!

Here we are in the ACM Kitchen

The ACM building treated me well and it was sad to say good bye. Yet, the excitement of arriving at my research site was overwhelming me.

My ACM Home

A lot of ACM students went out on our last Friday night to a salsa club. We got to practice our newly acquired dance moves from the ACM dance classes, it was quite an impressive site if you ask me. The next morning I was woken up by Gato and he drove me to the bus terminal. From there I headed to Ciudad Quesada in the San Carlos Region. The bus ride was about 2 and a half hours, but I slept the whole way. I was picked up by my host brother from the bus terminal, and he took me straight to the family animal reserve! The reserve has 300-400 animal ranging from lions to emus. Oh and guess what?? I get to volunteer at the animal reserve on my weekends!

When I got to my know house, I was surprised to find another zoo of sorts! My mother, Doña Elida, rehabilitates wild Macaws. I got to feed them and pet them. So many animals; let me tell you!

Macaws!

On monday I arrived at the office of the CEN-CINAI, which are the institutions that I will be researching for the next two months. CEN-CINAI institutions are daycares that are government funded for families that live at or below the poverty line. My research is to describe how the public institution has an effect on early childhood development. I will be visiting the daycares all over the San Carlos region as well as describing the nutritional delivery programs that operate through the CEN-CINAI. Lots of data to gather!

 Part of my Research 

As for my adventures in Costa Rica, my next post will be more oriented towards my cultural experiences in San Carlos and fun outdoor activities! Until next time.

Sloths, Chocolate, and Rainforest

First let me start by saying that I think my Spanish has been improving exponentially. I have been understanding so much more than I ever have in my entire life! The ACM Spanish classes are extremely helpful. Every day we split into two groups of eight and begin with a grammar lesson. Following grammar class we split into four groups of four and correct homework with our conversation professors. After homework questions and discussion we proceed to have conversation class, which usually consists of a topic assigned the day before. Conversations tend to drift off in unforeseen directions. For example, one of the our conversation went from discussing Costa Rican money, to discussing conspiracy theories surrounding the US dollar bill, to alien sighting around the volcanoes of Costa Rica. I guess as long as we are speaking Spanish the professors are satisfied, ha ha ha. Three hours of Spanish in the morning really gets our minds going.

Last weekend the ACM group traveled to the Limón provence to take a tour of a fair trade organic cacao farm. On the bust ride to the cacao farm we stopped at a banana farm/packing plant for Dole Fruit. We saw where our bananas in the US were coming from! By my judgement we are getting our bananas from a very well run farm, the hombre that gave us a tour showed us all the intricacies of the factory, from when the bananas first begin to grow, up until they are packed up in a Dole truck for shipment. I can honestly say I KNOW bananas!

Bananas!

We arrived at the cacao farm shortly after our banana visit, and we were prepared to learn more about something that we as Americans hold so dearly to our hearts, Chocolate. Before we learned about the chocolate though, we had to see where a mentality/way of life that permeates many college students comes from, the way of Slothin had to be viewed in its natural state. I swear they were the cutest, weirdest, prehistoric looking creatures I have ever seen. And I held one! Giovani, or as we know him, Slothman, was found a young sloth and pulled it right off of a cacao tree. It turns out that when they are disturbed they get a bit ferocious. Those little claws move a lot faster than one would expect. Still, the little sloth made everyone grin due to the cuteness factor.

Me holding a Sloth!

Cute

After our Slothin experience we found out how Chocolate is made. I never knew that chocolate came form a fruit! The pulp of the ripe cacao fruit is actually quite tasty mmmm. Also slimy...mmm. The refining process was not nearly as complicated as one would think. Apparently, indigenous peoples of Costa Rica used to make a form of unsweetened chocolate and drink it kind of like coffee. Once Europeans came with sugar and someone brilliantly decided to mix it with the naturally processed cacao seed of the indigenous people, chocolate as we know it was born! Might I add that I have never tasted such delicious chocolate in my life, and don't worry everyone, I bought a kilo and I will be sure to hold some tastings of this delicious organic-free-trade chocolate!

Cacao processing plant

Cacao Fruit

Ground-up Cacao

Our final destination for the day, and where we would be spending the night was the Tirimbina Rainforest Park. We got to talk with a bat expert, and he even had a bat that we could touch! All this animal contact is really making me want to run a my own zoo ha ha ha. Oh, a fun fact about bats, they actually are not common carriers of rabies at all, they actually very rarely have rabies and many other animals are more likely to be carries (sorry, all the cute ones). So have no fear when a bat is stuck in your attack, it is probably doing a good thing and eating tooonns of mosquitoes.


Our morning in Tirimbina consisted of a breathtaking Rainforest tour. The amount of biodiversity was amazing, and we even got to see leaf cutter ants, which are one of my favorite creatures of all time! We saw toucans, huge trees, and walked across a wire canopy bridge. The tour really made me appreciate what Costa Rica has to offer in terms of flora. I feel like every square meter of the rainforest had something like 20 plant types. Epically diverse, and a great way to end the weekend before heading back to San Jose.

Huge tree!

Manuel Antonio

Last weekend was amazing! The whole ACM group (all sixteen of us) took a trip to Manuel Antonio. The area is located on the Pacific coast and we were told by our professors that it would be a great first weekend trip for all us. The bus ride took about 3 and a half hours, but luckily there was a pit stop along the way. We stopped at a little market on the side of the highway, which was stocked with all sorts of goodies. Most of us decided to buy some of the local snacks that we had never tried before. Evidently, there were some winners and losers (I picked a looser, some pig skin chips which I thought were just an unmarked bag of authentic looking chips). On the bus ride we quickly came to realize that there was much more to Costa Rica than the craziness city life in San Jose. The only similarity I found was the driving, which was equally as terrifying. We saw massive changes in biodiversity and landscape, in the small distance covered we got to see crocodiles and monkeys all during a simple highway drive! Entranced by the wild life sightings and the diversity of the lands scape,  we decided to get up early the next morning and head straight to Manuel Antonio National Park and quench our thirst for further exploration.

Manuel Antonio is amazing! Included in the Manuel package is an small town, beautiful sandy beaches and waves, friendly people, and Manuel Antonio National Park; all of which introduced us to Costa Rican coast in just the right way. We woke up bright and early at our hostel and and grubbed on some surprisingly tasty pancakes supplied by our 12 dollar a night hostel (the name is Backpackers and I highly recommend it). We took a bus down to the park and immediately encountered a guide at the drop off. Marvin, our guide, turned out to be the best thing we could have asked for . He was originally going to charge 15 dollars a person but he decided gave us a deal for 8 dollars a person for an hour and half tour of the park (telescope included). He told us if we didn't see wildlife we didn't have to pay him at the end, so we figured it was safe bet to take the tour. We saw soooo much wild life! Marvin, an expert at his craft, was able to find animals that would have been invisible to our very untrained eyes. As the tour continued we we Marvin became more and more fond of us. I think appreciated being able to speak in Spanish during a tour. I am not sure if Marvin lost track of time or if he really did like us a bunch, but the tour lasted 3 hours instead of the promised hour and a half! We saw monkeys, sloths, assorted birds, iguanas, and much more.

Marvin left us at a beach within the park and we stayed there for the rest of the afternoon. Tranquil. Truly tranquil. That is of course until I strapped my Go Pro to my head and attempted to body surf. Sadly the Go Pro was not in proper position, and I did take it off at times. It was such a bummer because when I wasn't wearing it some crazy stuff happened. For example, a small group of us were attempting to hike to a more secluded  beach that Marvin had talked about when all of sudden a family of at least seven Capuchin Monkey sprang out from the trees!  The mother was very unhappy with me to say the least. I was told that my face was mere two feet from one of the monkeys, her face was of absolute disgust, and she kind of took a run at me; not nearly as friendly as the Capuchin in Ace Ventura.

PICTURES!!

 Our playa privada :)

The Monkey that nearly jumped on my head. Thank goodness Lauren told me to look out!

After our day at the beach we came back to the hostel where some showered; not me though, I was digging the salty/sandy feeling. I told everyone I was embracing the playa. From there we went to a restaurant called Avión, which was actually located in a old recovered war plane. We watched a beautiful sunset from the porch of the... airplane, and ate some delicious rice dishes. Following dinner we decided to conquer our discotec fever. After a day and night of fun and shenanigans we all slept quite well.

The next morning we headed to the public beach of Manuel Antonio where we sipped on some fresh coconuts, practiced some yoga, and drew some masterpieces in the sand. The bus came around 12 to  bring us back to San Jose. A great first weekend with the new ACM family!

I will be posting on how home life and classes are going very soon!

Finally, Costa Rica!

I  finally managed to get some internet access after the few days that I have  been here, so let me catch up. I reached my destination on saturday, and i was immediately introduced to my host family. I spent the first twenty four plus hours with my host family, which was quite the experience. I had no expectations going into it, but if I did have some they would have been far exceeded . My host mother's name is Doña Ana, my host father's name is Don Rodrigo (Gato is his nickname), and my host sister's name is Diana. I couldn't be happier with the vivacity of my family. They are truly conducive to my life style. Gato is quite the prankster, Ana chooses to walk most places rather than ride the bus, and when I met Diana she had just come back from the beach. Long walks on the beach, pranks included; definitely a match made in heaven.

Today I had orientation at ACM, and it was definitely one of the best orientation processes that I have encountered. Free organic chocolate from the Limon province of Costa Rica definitely swung my vote. I can't wait to get to know my ACM family, and embark on my Costa Rican adventure with them. My excitement is building by the second!

I will be posting pictures of my host family and home very soon along with go-pro edits (I have to make time for documentation, my schedule is very much up in the air at the moment). I hope to continue updating the blog at least once a week. Until next time, pura vida my friends.