G is for...Breadcrumbs?

Guanajuato, Guatemala, Guanacaste
When I looked back and thought of the places I studied, people I met and sights I saw, I tried to think of a theme for this trip. I learned Spanish, although still have a lot to accomplish, it was an empowering experience to come down here by myself, and great to meet interesting people of all ages, from around the world. I thought having gone to all places beginning with G must mean something as I definitely didn’t plan it that way so here are some of my favorite G words en espanol that have a significance with this trip.

Galleta - cookie - I love cookies! And while they have not quite mastered the concept of pastries in Latin America I did find American style chocolate chip cookies in Guatemala (at a local bakery) that I ate way too many of but they definitely were very comforting …and of course when I came across margarita cookies, I was pretty thrilled.

Gallo - rooster - I finally get the reason why they are a symbol of waking and early mornings, roosters were in all 3 places and are insanely loud! Its impossible to ignore them! However the crow all the time and their idea of morning is NOT my idea of morning.

Gauchos - cowboys - My Costa Rican family has a horse farm and I am thankful for being introduced to farm life.

Geckos - geckos - for eating the mosquitoes in my Costa Rican house

Gente - the people - everywhere I went, I met incredibly nice people and I really appreciated how many people opened their homes and families to me. Especially the volunteering projects in Guatemala made me realize how the majority of the people live in this world.

Girasol - sunflower - so many pretty flowers in Central America and such bright colors too. Sunflowers represent happiness and overall I was very happy here (until I got good enough Spanish to read the news)

Goce - pleasure - lots of fun times and pleasures which I indulged in, everything from ice cream and pina coladas, to beach vacations, waterfalls and volcanoes

Goerne family - my family in Mexico that was absolutely incredible

Gracias - thanks - I am incredibly thankful for such an amazing experience, having the opportunity to start learning another language and culture, and seeing so many amazingly different things.

Grande - good - from food to experiences it was all good!

Gratificacion - rewarding - So many aspects from building a stove, to getting around, to being complimented on my Spanish were rewarding experiences

Gringa - white girl - the further south I went, the more I stuck out.

La Gripa - the flu - and used to describe pig flu, while I was lucky to not get it, I did get another La Gripa in Mexico which is strange for me as I am never sick. But the striking headlines of pig flu added an element of drama to everyday life.

Guadalupe - the virgin of Guadalupe that is more popular in Mexico than Jesus - nothing wrong with people worshiping a woman!

Guantes - gloves - My host mother in Guatemala screamed that I needed Guantes for the cold. I didn’t believe her but somehow she found a pair of men’s ski gloves from the 80s, in a region where there is no snow. She made me take them for my hike to the tallest mountain in Central America and I have to admit they came in pretty handy.

Guzman family - my family in Guatemala for introducing me fried baloney and bowls of warm milk.

The breadcrumbs are still in my backpack despite all the places, packings and unpackings, somehow they are still in the crevices, but they will help lead me home…

Its been an amazing 3 months and I’m sad to leave, but I know I will come back to visit these places, yet I am also excited to go back to SF and see Brian and my friends, my family, and start the next chapter.

Thanks to everyone for reading!

The Chicken Saga continues....

Our Mama chicken and chick were eaten because they didn’t like their house and instead slept in trees, like they did during the time of our grandparents, according to me host mother. Well they said they would be vigilante, I came home the night after the coyote ate the chickens and my host father was relaxing in the hammock with a shotgun. At 12:15 the exact same time the coyote visited the night before (apparently coyotes are very punctual creatures), I heard the dogs barking and a loud sound. (the shot) My host father thinks he got the coyote because he heard 3 loud gripes far away which means a coyote is dying. I tell you living on a farm is never boring….

Ostriches, Crocodiles, Warthogs, Oh My!

I was feeling a little tired from the last few weeks (the farm gets going at 5:30, so I’m up by 6am, which is helpful as I have a 50 minute walk to school but I am not much of a morning person…

Anyway I decided to rent a car and tool around CR, I was so excited when the guy pulled up with a Jimny, the tiniest little 4wd, stick shift and a spare tire bigger than it. Off I went to Tempiste river valley, on the other side of the peninsula. Over dirt roads, up mountains, and through gullies. I had a blast and arrived at a nature reserve for native animals of Costa Rica.

I must make a disclaimer. My camera does not have zoom, so all of these pics are the actual distance I was from these ferocious animal, hence this would never be allowed in the U.S.
This ostrich followed me around and even nipped at my back luckily I had my backpack on (ostriches cn be extremely dangerous) and held an ostrich egg.

Tapirs and the baby tapir has a very distinct coloring with a series of stipes and dots that hanges after 6 months














I think this is an ocelot and endangered cat that is a cousin of the leopard














Maybe their version of a deer and some other odd piggy animal

Also saw some emus, large ostriches and peacocks and of course a Toucan!














Capuchin monkey and Spider monkey





More Monkeys!



The Spider Monkeys going crazy!

Peccary - a prehistoric hog that is native to this rain forest and makes an awful sound!














Faced all my squeamish fears however I declined to go inside the monkey cage but held a baby iguana and a baby crocodile (there was tape on its mouth)

Never been fascinated by birds, but the colors were pretty incredible of the parrots and toucans. There were these beautiful black birds, that had white shiny dots and red heads, a big black bird with a yellow puffy mouth, and then the Rosette spoonbills, pink ones that had bills that were shaped like serving spoons, skinny and then a big wide piece at the bottom.Big tall bird Jaiburu (almost extinct) made the weirdest sound and it puffed up a big red thing around its neck - like a woodpecker sound and the beak looked like wood.





There are also lots of crocodiles in the rivers, I declined a boat ride (it was very pricey) but also seeing how big these animals were and how quickly they ate a whole chicken, made me not want to get in the water with them.


Feeding Time!!! Remember no zoom!!! And never would be allowed in the U.S.

After my private tour, I headed over to the Chorotega (an indigenous community) village of Guaitil, which is famous for its pottery. It looks like most little Costa Rican towns, a soccer field in the middle, houses around the field and a white open air catholic church.

The art of pottery has been in the family for hundreds of years and the families still work together, in fact the women are the matriarchs of the businesses! Every family has different designs and techniques, but they make a clay mixture from the earth that includes using the sand that an iguana has used to bury their eggs in, mixing it with their feet, and eventually carving it. There are only 3 colors they use white, reddish/orange, and black, zinc, iron and magnesium, all found in the earth. They paint their colors and etch in their designs, then use quartz rock to smooth over and give it a natural high-gloss shine, and when its all over it goes into the middle of clay over. Around the sides is a wood fire that creates a fire over 1000 centigrade! After 45 minute it comes out and voila!

After treating myself to a piece of pottery as I now felt like I could buy a souvenir since I only have to lug my backpack t the airport, I headed to very touristy Tamarindo for some pizza, salad and ice cream as I was in need of something a little different than rice and beans.

A perfect end to my last weekend...

Spanish Lessons

So as I am nearing my last week, some of you may be wondering how the actual purpose of my trip - to learn Spanish - has gone so far. After 11 weeks of rather intense Spanish, 4 to 5 hours a day of classes, a few hours of homework, and conversation with family and neighbors, I think its coming along pretty well. Some of my most exciting accomplishments:

-Straightening out a huge messy confusion with rental car agency over the phone en espanol
-Going out with my host sister and her girlfriend, salsa dancing and being able to gossip with the girls about boys, other girls’ outfits and the bar's music choices - some things are the same across cultures:)
-Reading the newspaper
-Going to a doctor who only spoke Spanish (I had gotten a very stupid-and embarassing!- infected ingrown hair in my armpit)
-Talking with my family about American politics, the environment and how the coastline is developing
-Telling the story of my encounter with the pastry thief on the 22 bus in SF en espanol

That being said there are some days I can barely order a medium. And if I talk to people without teeth I can't understand a single thing. And I definitely am still completely confused by telenovelas and am struggling through a book written for pre-teen girls called Pantolones Largos (long pants). This subject of weaknesses brings me to my pronunciation…

The other day I asked my teacher if my pronunciation was muy mal (very bad), she cringed and said, not muy mal, but mal (bad). Ouch! So this past week we spent perfecting my pronunciation and the subjunctive tense. One of these exercises included giving a very short presentation to the rest of the school. While I have never had public speaking fear, all of a sudden having to speak in front of people in Spanish was INCREDIBLY nerve-wracking and suddenly I had public speaking anxiety even though I just had to read something. Especially having to pronounce the word geomorfologico (hey-o-more-foe-laa-hee-co).

Sadly, my English grammar and vocabulary have also seemed to go to shit, so now I speak 2 languages muy mal!

The saga of the chickens

Life on a farm seems to provide me with endless entertainment...

Last week after I had 2 wild turkeys in my kitchen (not the alcoholic kind), I then had a crab get in, and the following day a toad. My host mother must think I’m nuts coming up every day “Discuple, pero yo tengo uno (fill in animal here) in my cocina, por favor ayudeme” (Excuse me but I have a BLANK in my kitchen, please help me).

However last night I heard the guard dogs barking and barking alot. Concerned about serial killers and intruders, I made sure the door was locked, put my ear plugs in and went back to bed. This morning, however I noticed that a mama hen and baby chick were missing. Apparently last night as the chickens slept in the lime tree (I didn't know chickens slept in the top of trees), a coyote came shook the tree until they fell out, and then ate them!!! My host mother was upset as you can imagine and told me tonight that we will be 'vigalante', i.e. they will shoot the coyote if they see him...hmmm not sure what to think about all this, but it makes me thing of the book Prodigal Summer which highlights the differences in opinions between shooting coyote to protect your investment and saving the coyotes.

The late mama hen and chick These baby chicks were spared by the coyote

More Videos & Photos from Arenal!

For some reason these wouldn’t upload last week, so here they are. I also must point out that the pictures of the volcano with smoke were taken from the most dangerous place to be, all the green in front was a town in the 1960s. Our guide told us in advance of our escape path in case of an eruption since we would only have 20 to 30 seconds to evacuate….another thing that would never be allowed in the U.S.





Here are pics from the La Fortuna Cataracts...and incredibly powerful waterfall that you hike down to the bottom of a valley. I got to swim in the lagoon, yet another thing that would not be allowed in the U.S. and it was like one of those pools that make a current so its hard to swim.






































Under a 'fake' waterfall at the thermal baths


This video is from these really cool leaf ants. They are almost blind and walk up to 1 km, the cut up leaves to carry back home. One big ant puts it on its back and a little ant then gets on top helps steer as well as lick off all impurities off of the leaf. Then these ants take it into their ant hill where they break it down and use it to feed the larvae. Alot of work...

Life on the Farm - Part 3

Life on the farm for a city girl never ceases to amaze me. I came home the other day, opened the main door to my house and closed the gate to allow some air in but keep out intruders - or so I thought. As I was get ready for my after-hike-up-steep-hill-cold-shower I heard a weird noise. I turned around to see a giant black, wild turkey squeezing itself through my gate into my kitchen. I froze! And then a big, white turkey joined its friend in my kitchen!

At a loss for words and completely clueless how
to handle this situation, I made a beeline out of my apartment and found my host mother, where
I had to explain in Spanish there were 2 turkeys in my kitchen and I didn't know what to do. She laughed hard and then told me I must run at them to make them leave. I asked if she was serious....so together we ran at the turkeys and they eventually left out the front door. Yet another new cultural experience...running head-on at wild turkeys. A mug shot of the intruders is pictured above.

Volcan Arenal!

This past weekend, I headed off to Volcan Arenal - one of the world's most active volcanoes that after 400 years of being 'dormant' erupted suddenly in 1968 and wiped out an entire village.

Many people don't get a chance to see the whole volcano because of smoke and fog, however I got lucky (I didn't when I went back at night hoping to get a glimpse of lava, however I was pretty excited with this view)
































I went hiking at the base of the volcano(its not a wise idea to climb the volcano as CO2 and other gases are still coming out of it) with a guide who was an ecologist - he knew everything! I saw monkeys, toucans not on a fruit loops box, oropendulas (birds that make this incredible sound and have BRIGHT yellow tails), sloths, a fuzzy bug that looks like a big cotton ball and gives you a rash, lots of frogs and more!! (sorry I don't have pictures of this but this is when my camera decided it was low on batteries...) The plants of the humid forest (its in between a rainforest and a cloud forest) are pretty incredible - lots of flowers that look like birds of paradise and super green and lush!














Tarzan-Jane style
With all the geo-activity there is lots of sulfur and hot water, thus tons of great hot springs...and I definitely indluged. (for some reason the blog doesnt want to upload anymore pics...I'll try again tomorrow)

And the next day I hiked out to some gorgeous waterfalls where you could see the fish in the water and could swim, although it was like one of those pools that push you forward because of the current - this would never be allowed in the U.S.

Comida Tipica - more rice, more beans, but more YUM!

Luckily Costa Rican food is good, or my host mother here is a much better cook. The fresh fruit here is incredible, every morning I start off with watermelon, pineapple and papaya before my 4 km walk on the beach to school. (I decided not to take the bus and instead walk). They have the main meal here at 12:30 however since I am not home from school then I eat around 7pm. So far I’ve had some yummy traditional dishes, rice with calamari that uses the ink for sauce - this was a favorite of mine, fried plaintains, simple green salads, a special rice drink (that's according to my host mother is good for digestion but who knows?) homemade French fries and of course rice and beans. Another specialty is a certain sopa de pollo - so yummy but why soup in a place where the temperature is 90? it’s a chicken base that the fill with veggies, potatoes, boiled eggs, some peppers and then you add your rice in - muy rico!

Not necessarily comida tipica but unfortunately for my waistline someone introduced me to snickers bars with almonds! I never liked snickers but with almonds they are tasty and addictive!!! While the cravings for them here are strong, I will be happy to not have them in the U.S.

As for my Spanish, I feel its progressing well! I am speaking somewhat quicker and know how to use the subjunctive! I can read the newspaper, get around and talk about random things. So hopefully I sound ok :)

Sunset Crusie for 1?

Besides facing my fears of farm animals, I am taking on others as well. A local guy here has a sailboat and called the school, seeing if anyone was interested in going out last night. Even though I'm scared of boats and water, I went.

Myself, the boat captain and his wife, and a very fun couple from Jersey set sail. Playas Flamingo and Potrero are situated in beautiful bay, that is not too developed (since I wasn't planning on going I didn't have my camera with me, but the my new friends from Jersey said they'd email me pics).

Anyway we went to his gorgeous beach only accessible by boat and then swimming. Called Honeymoon beach or Luna de Miel, its a perfect strip of white sand and flowering trees and tons of crabs and seashells in between rocky caves. I went snorkeling by myself (no one else wanted to go) than I swam to Honey Moon beach (just taking on all my phobias!) and walked along solo and later watched the sunset...awww Anyway I figure its self-empowering and even if I'm alone I deserve romance, right?

A short windstorm whipped in and we could see the rain in other parts of the bay but it left dramatic clouds perfect for gorgeous sunset. There's lots of craggy islands and rocky formations sticking out of the water, which was great to see up close.

And maybe I am not so scared of boats after all....;)

Life on the Farm - Part 2

So as you all know I'm pretty city, and while I enjoy hiking and camping in the great outdoors, living rural is definitely a funny experience.

The other night I see my host mother searching the grounds with a flashlight - I called out to her and asked her what she was looking for. Expecting her to say Intruder or Axe Murder (because we are in the woods after all) she replies that she lost a chicken and is looking for it....OH

Then this morning, it was very very exciting. My 2 year old host sister was walking around saying 'vaca' I was excited because I know that means cow. When all of a sudden my host mother runs out of the house and my host father n0t far behind with a lasso! Turns out of the cow had escaped and likes hanging out with the chickens (and eating their food), the cow was running around the outside of the bottom part of the house (my apt). Can you imagine if I had gone upstairs for breakfast a little bit later and saw a cow on my porch? I'm not sure what I would have done. I guess I still need more time for cultural immersion.

Bathing in a Bucket

So the power company decided to repair the power lines. We were without power until 3pm yesterday - that meant no cold water, no fans, nada, and somehow with the power went the water. After being completely drenched all day from sweat (which is an understatement) I was excited to go home for a cold shower. But since I live up a mountain on a farm, we never got water back and I found myself eventually breaking down and bathing in a bucket. I have to say I don’t think I have done that one before. I also have never co-habitated with geckos before so first time for everything…

Life on the Farm

A few weeks ago I had learned the grammatical structure for a mistaken identity, I did not pay attention because I thought how arcane, why would I need to know that. Well I firmly believe I was a victim of a mistaken identity.

On Saturday I said goodbye to Sarah in Belize and began the trek to Costa Rica. Of all journeys through Central America this was the best! Not wanting to deal with any more Central American border crossings by foot, (that has gotten a tad more complicated with the swine flu) I bought the cheapest plane ticket from Belize to Costa Rica. I boarded my flight and thought I had the wrong seat assignment. I was ushered onto the plane with hostess offering me toasted nuts (still warm), mints, chicken salad, warm face cloths, and cocktails to the first seat on the plane (I have never flown first class before!) and then I noticed a huge plaque - it was the same plane Pope John Paul II used to fly around Mexico, Guatemala and Central America - obviously someone must have mistaken my identity or I’m on the way to sainthood. Even though the majority of people were wearing masks to protect themselves form swine flue, I figured I didn’t need it as I obviously had the late Pope’s benediction.

I made the 5 hour journey from San Jose to Playa Flamingo. After Guatemala, Costa Rica is true luxury! Paved roads, air conditioning, vans built for 12 having only 9 people in them, no trash on the sides of the road, and you can drink the water!

However, my first impression of my new host family was panic - I was up a dirt road, I couldn’t see any neighbors, there were chickens, turkeys, cows, horses and 2 guard dogs roaming the land - and I asked them a zillion question where was I, was I safe, how do I get anywhere, when it finally dawned on me - I’m living on a farm! Once I realized that I have never truly lived rural and this was a farm, I was able to relax.

The view - the rope is for the hammock:)
My host family are farmers and during the rainy season they grow maiz and frijoles (corn and beans - the staple of any good diet here). I have a 23 year old host sister who is studying tourism at university, a 17 year old host brother who is in high school and very cute little 2 year old host sister who is very excited to wave at me.

I live in the bottom of the house, in my own apartment, 2 bedrooms, a kitchen with a bar and living area, plus my own bathroom - which is unheard of in Central America (and do you have any idea what this would go for in SF?!). It’s a bit strange as I am not ‘living’ with the host family, but after 9 weeks of sharing bathrooms with ‘brothers’ I found that I am happy to have my own space. Please note though Its very, very simple, no air conditioning which has already provided me with 2 sleepless nights and a kitchen full of geckos who make weird noises - which bothered me until I found out they eat the mosquitoes and other bugs. Given that the rainy season is coming (I hope malaria is not a problem here)- this is important.

Playa Potrero
I have a 10 minute walk down a dirt road into a beach town called Playa Potrero - that is a cute Costa Rican town with a beach restaurant, a soccer field, plaza, a supermarket and of course a catholic church. In town I pick up a bus that takes me to school - about 15 minutes ride to Playa Flamingo, very small town with a beautiful white beach. It feels good to see the Pacific again, and its so calm its almost like a lake here.

My new school is gorgeous and has a swimming pool, is super well-organized, and has lots of fresh fruit. So I think these can only be good omens.

More Videos & Photos from Tikal

I had more videos and pics from Tikal - this one is just a clip from the Grand Plaza (courtesy of Karin & Matt's gift of the flip video)- but you can hear all the birds and sounds of the jungle in the early morning.
















The Lost World
Sounds of the Jungle
View from the top A cross between a squirrel and a pig?

You Better Belize it!

I honestly had the best snorkeling ever! I took an all day trip off the coast to 3 different areas and it was PHENOMENAL!! There were only 6 of us and a guide who was incredibly knowledgeable.

I don’t even know how to explain it but it was like swimming in a tropical aquarium. The visibility underwater was about 60 feet and I saw:

• nurse sharks, 4 of them swimming together that was intense,
• huge fish almost as big as me,
• hundreds of tropical fish including electric blue ones with fluorescent shines, rainbow colored fish, iridescent fish with long needle like noses, fish that looked like they had 3 eyes, bright yellow fish, and 2 different type of bright blue polka-dotted fish, as well as orange and yellow, and purple, zebra striped fish and
• Turtles and more turtles
• Huge sting rays
• Iridescent Squids
• Spiny lobsters
• Crazy looking sea spiders that were orange with bright blue tips
• Crabs
• Flamingo lips - a type of animal that lives in a brightly colored shell
• Conchs
• Flounders that swim on he bottom
• Marks from manatees on the sand because they are so heavy
• Tons of different types of coral, ones that looked like mushrooms, tress, purple leafy ones, orange spidery ones.

We swam through coral channels, saw underwater caves (I couldn’t dive to them because my ears kept acting weird) coral gardens, sea grass forests. My only regret is that I do not have an underwater camera! And even though the guide told me all the names, I soon forgot!

And even though I’ve said this a bunch - it was incredible!!!

Mini-Vacation

After our hiking and trekking Sarah and I decided to make our way to Belize for a mini-vacation inside of our adventure. Crossing the border by foot in Latin America is always an interesting experience. This time when we went to leave Guatemala the border officials asked us to pay an exit fee. While it was the equivalent of about $3, I read in my guidebook that it was illegal. So I nicely read in Spanish from my book that the fee was illegal (they didn’t collect any fee on the Mexican-Guatemala border). Next thing I know, Sarah and I were ushered into a back office, where the guy agreed to stamp our passports and not charge us, if we agreed not to tell anyone and leave through the back door. So that is how we made it across the border to Belize.

As soon as we crossed into Belize, immediately it was a different feel, despite Belize being nestled between Guatemala and Mexico, it does not feel Latin American at all! Its down right Caribbean, everyone speaks English or Creole, says things like “unda da wata”’ and talks like those guys from 'Cool Runnings'. Parts of it looked like New Orleans, sadly the parts that have still not been restored after Hurricane Katrina.

Its an interesting mix as the Spanish took it from Guatemala, but didn’t colonize it to much, so the British took it over and Belize only got their independent in 1981, although are still a British commonwealth. And even thought their money has pictures of the Queen of England, their currency is pegged to the US dollar.

We took an hour boat ride from Belize City to Cay Caulker (pronounced Key Hawker) a small island an hour off-sour and it really was tropical paradise. White sand beaches, clear blue water and you could see the bottom, coconuts and palm trees, hammocks and reggae music. And as you all know I’m not the best at relaxing but I suddenly became very good at it.

Master of the Guidebook!

In need of a good night sleep we headed to El Remate another town on Lake Peten Itza. And while it may seem silly, the front picture of my guidebook was from a dock in this town and somehow seeing the dock myself made me feel like I had really accomplished something, as I could take the artistic photo of the same thing as the guide book cover.

Swimming in the clear waters of this lake, truly felt rejuvenating after a hot day in the jungle. And the hammocks in our hostel got a lot of use that night.