Tortuga - A step back in time

09/07/09 - 25/07/09

On the 9th July we set off for Tortuga, where we had agreed to teach English voluntarily for a month, not knowing what to expect, but full of curiosity and excited at the prospect of living with a local family and experiencing real life for a change, instead of just being tourists. The father of the family, Hilario, works at a hotel about 5km from Tortuga so we met him there and Vic and I both squeezed into the only passenger seat and held on for dear life as we made our way along the bumpy road. It didn't even occur to us at the time that one of us could have ridden in the back of the truck, although we have done it a few times since.

Hilario is married to Angelica and they have six children: Anika (14), Luzita (13), Idalia (12), Adan (7), Samuel (5) and Ismael (2). Ismael is actually a nephew of Hilario's who they adopted at birth and is not yet able to speak, but he understands almost everything you say to him. He certainly knows when he is going to be punished and often manages to run away just in time :) (Here they still punish children and animals with a belt or whip, which is heartbreaking to watch, although thankfully they do not hit the children very hard). Ismael can be a bit of a pain and he has the tendency to hit or bite people, but he's also completely adorable. The younger ones seem unable to sit still for even one minute and one of their favourite toys for a while was an old computer keyboard that they would throw on the floor and stamp on. I don't think they have ever seen what a computer is actually used for, but for us it was quite funny to watch them doing such things to it. Their latest interest is a bicycle wheel which they run up and down the garden with. I have seen a complete bike as well, but they seem to prefer just the wheel :) They also enjoy playing marbles or games using a pen and paper, and just recently Vic taught us all a new game called bolidos, which involves moving around a race track by flicking a biro from point to point (it's a great game but quite difficult to explain without diagrams so sorry if you don't understand what I'm on about). It is a world away from the mass of computer games and toys that the majority of the children in Europe are used to, but they are very happy children and a pleasure to be around. They had never even heard of Disney until we bought home Ratatouille on DVD after spending last weekend in San Juan and deciding to treat them to a small present. They have watched it once a day ever since :)

The older girls, especially Anika, are often left in charge of the house and the younger children while the parents are working, which involves cleaning, washing and doing all the cooking. Again, it's so different to the lives we are used to back home, but they do not know any different and they actually enjoy doing all these chores. They are some of the few things you can do to keep busy, as they do not appear to go out much or have many hobbies. And they have very few hours schooling a week. The older ones only go three times a week for about 3 hours a day, and the younger ones go every day, but for fewer hours. There are only four teachers and they receive all the material from teachers in San Juan, which they seem to simply dictate to the students. Last week, the primary teacher didn't turn up once as he had got drunk. Apparently it has happened before, and when it does happen, he doesn't return to school until a week later, meaning that the students that he teaches don't come to school either, as there are no replacement teachers. There is no timetable for the lessons either. When we arrived, we asked when the English lessons were, but they told us we could do them whenever we wanted, so we drew up our own timetable, but even that gets changed sometimes. We end up giving about 2-3 hours of lessons a day, which also includes Vic's history lessons, which I enjoy sitting in on. He is very good at it and I think he would make a great teacher, but he doesn't seem that keen, at least I don't think he'd like to be a primary or secondary teacher. Children of that age are just not that interested in history, but he does a good job in making it more fun and interesting and gets a few laughs out of the students :)

The family also own several animals, that are constantly underfoot and making lots of noise. They are especially noisy at about 6 o'clock in the morning :) There are three pigs, one of which is cute and pink and another of which is big and black, and who I'm afraid to say, is soon to be killed. Angelica keeps telling us that we will have to help her, Vic with an axe and me with a knife, but we politely refuse each time she mentions it. They also have several hens and some little chicks, who are surprisingly quick when you try to pick them up, a cat called Simia, and a very sweet-tempered dog called Cubana, who only gets leftovers to eat and who is constantly chased out of the house, even when she is not causing any trouble. We feel sorry for her and often give her food. Sometimes Cubana is a godsend, as she provides an easy way to get rid of unwanted food. The principal diet here consists of rice and beans, which we are given at almost every mealtime. If I'm particularly hungry, I can usually manage to eat it, but it does get a bit boring after a while and sometimes I can't face eating it, especially for breakfast, so we often just eat some bread. We really enjoy our weekends away where we can eat whatever we want :)

The house itself is very simple with most of the rooms having dirt floors - the bedrooms and bathroom have tiles, however. There is no sink in the bathroom, just a shower with cold water and a toilet, so we either have to clean our teeth in the shower or out in the sink where we do the washing, and where they also do the washing up and prepare the food (Vic is slightly worried about the standards of hygiene, but there is nothing we can really do about that). And to get to the bathroom, we have to walk through the two bedrooms, where the entirely family sleeps, sharing four beds between them. They have a gas oven in the kitchen, where they do a lot of the cooking, but they also have a big oven for the bread outside which is heated using wood, and another area where they also cook over a wood fire. They seem to only use this to make tortillas out of corn flour, which are also a regular accompaniment to the rice and beans.

With so few hours of teaching a week, we do get bored at times. Tortuga is home to about 100 families, making a total of approximately 600 inhabitants. It consists of one long dirt road, which a small river crosses at several points along the way. In most places you can find a way across, but sometimes you have to get wet. In what I suppose you would call the centre of town, there is the school, the church and a small shop, where you can buy drinks, bread, some cans of food and some toiletry products. When I say shop, I really just mean a window, because the shop is actually the room of a house. Other people also have similar businesses, but this is considered the main one. There is also a bar in town with some pool tables, but only the men go there. And in the church, the men and women sit separately, with all the men on the right-hand side and all the women on the left. Vic and I failed to notice this when we first went there, so we sat togther in the middle column :) The principal religion here is Evangelist and Angelica is very firm in her beliefs and goes to church often, reads the bible most evenings and whenever she sings, she sings about God. Also, the only other DVDs they own seem to be of religious ceremonies or concerts, and the same goes for all of the CDs we have heard them play.

New experiences we have had so far include milking a cow, riding one of the neighbour's horses and making bread for the school. The family also have land near to where the live where they grow corn and beans, and one day a few hours were spent cutting the weeds away with big machetes. Hard work but a lot of fun. We also spend a bit of time washing our clothes as they do not have a washing machine, so everything has to washed in a big sink outside. It really does feel like we are living several years in the past. The other week, we also went to the inauguration ceremony of the drinking water system that has recently been implemented. Up until now, the families have relied on water from wells in their gardens, which is not purified and can lead to illness. But I think even now, the tubes do not take the drinking water all the way up to the houses, so I'm not sure how it is supposed to work. Maybe time will tell. In the next couple of weeks we hope to visit a nearby corn mill and go fishing for shrimp in the river, so more to come in our next installment.

Tortuga, del 9 al 25 de Julio

El dia 9 de Julio llegamos al pueblo de Tortuga (no pensaba que aun quedaran lugares como este) realmente aislado. En Tortuga nos hospedamos en casa de la familia de Hilario y Angelica. Tienen cinco hijos Anika(14), Lucita(13), Idalia(12), Adan(8) y Samuel(5), y han adoptado a un sobrino, Ismael (2). Tienen cinco gallinas (tres ponedoras) ocho polluelos, tres cerdos o chanchos como los llaman aqui (uno blanco jovencito, uno marron y uno grande y negro.) Pronto veremos la matanza del mayor de los cerdos aunque es algo que no tenemos muchas ganas de ver. Al parecer, Angelica, la madre, le golpea con el hacha mientras el padre le atraviesa con un machete. Tambien tienen una gata llamada Simia y una perra llamada Cubana. Los cerdos y gallinas se meten cada dia al salon y la cocina de la casa. El suelo de estas habitaciones es de tierra. No se les permite pasar a los dormitorios donde hay suelo de baldosa aunque a nosotros se nos han metido un par de gallinas y uno de los cerdos! Tambien hemos matado tres escorpiones en nuestra habitacion. Por las noches aparecen las ranas......
Tortuga tiene unas cien familias (unos seiscientos habitantes) repartidos en casas dispersas a lo largo de un camino de lodo y atravesado por varios rios. En el centro tienen la escuela donde damos clase de ingles y de historia, una iglesia evangelica, un cementerio y una pulperia (la tienda de comida) Tortuga no tiene lineas telefonicas, ni agua potable purificada ( cada casa tiene un pozo en el patio y lo sacan con los cubos diariamente) las duchas son de agua fria y cocinan con lena (ni siquiera ha llegado el carbon) No se venden periodicos y el medio de transporte mas comun (aparte de andando) es a caballo o en carreta tirada por bueyes. Hay un autobus diario para ir a San Juan del Sur (5am) y volver (7pm) Algunas casas, como la de Hilario, tienen horno de pan en el patio. El banio consiste en una ducha y un retrete. No hay lavabo por lo que nos tenemos que lavar las manos y los dientes en una pila en el patio que usan para lavar la ropa o cortar pescado. Tienen un televisor aunque no tienen antena por lo que no pueden ver ningun canal. Lo curioso es que tienen video y asi pueden ver peliculas en la tele. Despues de unos dias nos dimos cuenta que todas las peliculas que ven son de tematica religiosa. Canciones evangelicas, etc. Los ninios nunca habian visto una pelicula de Disney asi que Lauren y yo decidimos comprarles Ratatouille. La primera vez que veian algo de Disney! Dificil imaginar que no habian oido hablar de Mickey Mouse o de el Rey Leon. Parece que les ha gustado mucho porque ahora la ven una vez al dia.... Solo hay dos libros en la casa. La Biblia y Harry Potter. Uno comprado por ellos y otro fue regalo de la ultima profesora de ingles en el pueblo, una austriaca llamada Barbara.
Un dia, Idalia (12 anios) y Adan (8 anios) estaban hablando de Shakira y de Michael Jackson. Les pregunte que si los conocian y me dijeron que si, y que tanto Shakira como Michael Jackson se habian entregado al diablo. Les pregunte que como sabian eso y me dijeron que se lo habia dicho el pastor de la Iglesia. Les segui preguntando, si no os lo dijeran,como sabriais que alguien se ha entregado al diablo? Me dijeron que porque tenian gatos negros y animales feos. Ademas Shakira practica brujeria segun Idalia..... Esta es una de las conversaciones que mas me llamo la atencion para que podais tener una idea de cuantos anios parece que retrocedimos en el tiempo. El padre y la madre se quitan "el cinto" para poner disciplina y cuando no lo usan, usan el latigo del caballo.
Desde que hemos llegado, aparte de dar clases, hemos ordeniado una vaca de la abuela y tomado la leche que nosotros ordeniamos. Hemos montado a caballo por los caminos con el caballo de una vecina, hemos hecho pan, amasando la harina y cociendolo en el horno de lena. Hemos ido a los maizales de la madre a cortar hierbas con machete, damos de comer semolin a los cerdos y maiz a las gallinas. He aprendido que las vacas preniadas no dan leche, hemos jugado con los terneritos y visto cerditos bebes de un mes. Hemos hecho rosquillas con harina de maiz y lavado nuestra ropa a mano. Un senior del pueblo, Alfredo, corta el pelo por las tardes asi que me pase por su casa. Me corto el pelo en el corral, rodeado de gallinas. Solo 1 dolar por el corte de pelo! En la iglesia, los hombres se sientan en los bancos de la derecha y las mujeres en el de la izquierda. A las afueras del pueblo tienen molino (que aun no hemos visitado) y el pueblo mas cercano se llama Collado (este pueblo aun no tiene luz electrica y necesitan velas por la noche) La dieta basica es de arroz y frijoles. Despues de tres dias comiendo arroz y frijoles, Lauren y yo decidimos escaparnos a la ciudad (San Juan) y comprar latas de pate, calamares, atun y maiz! haha. Eso es todo lo mas importante que hemos hecho en las dos primeras semanas en el pueblo. Nos esta gustando dar las clases aunque la organizacion en la escuela es muy pobre. Los ninios solo tienen 9 clases semanales y faltan mucho a clase para irse a trabajar al campo de la familia. La ultima semana el profesor de primaria no vino porque estaba "picado" o borracho. Toda la semana dandole a la botella y los otros profesores y padres parecen reirse en vez de quejarse. Los ninios son felices cuando su profe se "pica" porque no tienen que ir a clase durante esa semana! Por ultimo, hay un proyecto para traer agua potable al pueblo y el viernes pasado fue la inauguracion (aunque aun no hay agua) a la que vino el alcalde de San Juan del Sur. Tuvimos la suerte de hablar con el alcalde sobre el proyecto y al final nos invito a irnos con el a Managua (la capital) para las celebraciones del dia nacional. En principio aceptamos la invitacion aunque finalmente decidimos no ir debido al riesgo de altercados. Al parecer los liberales tiran piedras a los sandinistas en la plaza y pensamos que mejor era mantenernos alejados....

Crossing the border, Rivas and San Juan del Sur

06/07/09-08/07/09

So the time has come for us to say farewell to Costa Rica, where we have spent the past five weeks and a bit, and move onwards and upwards to Nicaragua. We had our final breakfast in Nicoya in Cafe Daniela, where he had many of our meals and where I was finally able to try another Costa Rican speciality called pan de yuca (yuca bread). Yuca is a crop native to Costa Rica and other countries in this region of the world. To make the bread, they use flour made from the roots of the crop, and other ingredients, which I'm not too sure of, but it's delicious and I took the opportunity of eating it whenever I could :)

From Nicoya we had to take a bus back to the capital, Liberia, from where we could get a bus direct to the border at Peñas Blancas. The processing of crossing the border was chaotic and confusing to say the least and took at least 2 1/2 hours (we take for granted in Europe how freely we are able to move between countries). First there was a queue to leave Costa Rica and everyone seemed to be filling in forms of various different colours. We didn't know which forms we needed, but Vic finally managed to get two white ones, which we hoped would be ok. There were some cheeky people charging a fee to go and get the forms for you and help you fill them in, which we found ridiculous. Surprisingly enough though, some people do actually pay for this service. There were also several men offering to change your unwanted colones into cordobas (the Nicaraguan currency), which we decided to do as we still had a fair amount of colones, although afterwards we were worried that the cordobas might be fake. Luckily they weren't :)

With our passports stamped, we were finally able to make our way to the border on foot. When we reached the Nicaraguan side, we were surprised to find it even more disorganised than in Costa Rica. Again there were more forms to be filled in, and this time we had to queue up twice. One queue was to get a stamp confirming you had been checked for swine flu (although no medical examination is actually performed) and the other was to get your passport stamped and pay your $7 entry fee. We had met a mother and daughter from Canada earlier on in Liberia who were also heading to Nicaragua (they have been living in Costa Rica for eight years, and in spite of trying they have not yet been granted residential status so every 90 days they have to leave Costa Rica for a day in order to be able to spend another 90 days there - what a pain!) We had decided to share a cab with them to Rivas, 36km from the border, and they had already arranged a cab with a young boy, who was now helping them with the forms and queues. As we were sharing the cab, he helped us too, and although it still took quite a while to get everything paid, signed and stamped, I think he saved us a lot of time, and so we were finally on our way.

Rivas did not make a good first impression on us, and for the couple of days we were there, I really missed Costa Rica and wanted to go back. The good thing about backpacking, however, is that you don't have to stay anywhere for long, and so we soon left Rivas behind us, and headed to the beach of San Juan del Sur. It's a small, clean town with a nice church, a small port where people go fishing, a lovely beach and beautiful sunsets (apparently). The port is at one end of the beach, and at the other end there is a tall cliff, from where a statue of San Juan overlooks the town (we assume it is San Juan but we don't know for sure). Walking along the beach towards evening, we bumped into Alan, the American we met in Montezuma. It seemed surreal to be seeing him again two weeks later in a different country :) We really like it here and would like to stay for longer, but we have already arranged to go to Tortuga tomorrow, where we will be spending the next month as volunteer English teachers, but more about that in the next post! I am sure we will be back in San Juan most weekends, as there is no internet access in Tortuga, and we can't leave you without updates for a whole month can we now? :)
(P.S. All photos were taken in San Juan del Sur)

Entramos en Nicaragua, Rivas y San Juan del Sur 6 al 8 de Julio

Desde Nicoya, salimos el Lunes dia 6 dirigiendonos a la frontera con Nicaragua en Penias Blancas. Antes de salir de Costa Rica en este blog quiero contaros pequenios detalles de la cultura de Costa Rica. El lema del pais que se oye a la gente decir es "Pura Vida". Segun ellos son Pura Vida y tambien usan esta expresion para decir de acuerdo o sin problemas. Para saludarse a veces chocan el punio diciendo "Pura Vida" Lauren y yo lo hicimos a unas cuantas personas y les gusto ver como dos extranjeros habiamos aprendido ese saludo Costarricense. La comida mas tipica es el Gallopinto (Arroz con frijoles) y tambien son tipicos los Casados o comidas corrientes. Esto es arroz, ensalada, frijol y una eleccion de carne o pescado. A veces tambien vienen con platano frito. "Al puro fondo" quiere decir al final del todo o al final del pasillo y si "no hay campo" en un bus es que no hay mas sitio. Cuando el camarero "te hace campo" en la mesa te hace sitio para mas platos. Cuando golearon a la seleccion de Estados Unidos en futbol "les gringolearon" y vosotros no existe sino ustedes. Sin embargo a veces "tu" eres "vos". Los "ticos" son los costarricenses y las "ticas" las costarricenses. "A las 7 hora tica" puede ser en cualquier momento entre las 5 y las 9.

Pasar la frontera fue dificil. Aqui reina el caos burocratico e informativo. Colas enormes, formularios verdes, azules, blancos y amarillos. No hay ventanilla oficial que los reparta sino oportunistas que los "venden" y te ayuidan a rellenarlos. Nosotros conseguimos uno blanco de un policia y esperamos que al llegar a la ventanilla no nos dijeran que nos faltaban otros. Pasamos sin mas problemas y en la frontera a Nicaragua el caos se repetia. Alli un chico nos ayudo a hacer los tramites, primero en la cola de chequeo de la gripe A (que no hicieron ningun chequeo sino sellarnos un papel) y despues nos consiguio los papeles para la siguiente cola. Tambien nos ayudo a ir a otra nueva ventanilla que seria mas rapida. Mientars esperabamos en la cola cambiamos nuestros colones a Cordobas nicaraguenses a un cambista de la frontera.

Conocimos a una mujer canadiense y su hija y compratimos un taxi hasta la ciudad de Rivas donde pasamos dos noches. Nada interesante en esta ciudad asi que nos dirigimos a San Juan del Sur que tiene una bonita bahia y playa. Paseamos hacia el puerto pesquero para saber si habia lonja aunque el pescado no lo subastan sino que lo venden a precio fijo a los comerciantes. En un lateral de la bahia hay una gran estatua en lo alto de unas penias (estilo a la figura que hay en Rio de Janeiro) aunque mas pequenia. Creo que es San Juan y de aqui el nombre del pueblo. Caminando por el paseo maritimo nos encontramos con Alan, el hombre americano que mencione en el blog en la entrada de Montezuma. Hacia dos semanas que nos habiamos despedido de el y nos volviamos a ver esta vez en otro pais! Al dia siguiente iriamos al pueblo de Tortuga donde actualmente estamos como profesores de ingles para los ninios de primaria y secundaria de la escuela del pueblo. Hemos decidio ayudarles como voluntarios durante un mes y esta siendo toda una experiencia. Ademas del ingles tambien me ofreci para dar clases de Historia a los de secundaria y tambien he empezado con eso. Ademas de dar clase, hemos hecho muchas cosas desde que llegamos a este pueblo (es como si hubieramos retrocedido a los anios 30) y ya os iremos contando todo aunque nos llevara mas tiempo ya que esta a 25 kilometros (esto es hora y media por el camino que lleva al pueblo) de San Jaun del Sur que es el punto mas cercano con Internet.

En la foto un viejo coche en la ciudad de Rivas con una pintada del FSLN o Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional, partido (y guerrilleros) que llevaron a cabo la revolucion en Nicaragua y que expulsaron al dictador Anastasio Somoza Debayle el 19 de Julio de 1.979, hace hoy justamente 30 anios. Hoy hay una gran fiesta nacional celebrando 30 anios de libertad aunque es un pais lleno de contrastes, muy ricos y muy pobres, patronos y campesinos. Como anecdota, en el pueblo de Tortuga oi preguntar.... a que hora te suelta el amo en vez de un a que hora sales de trabajar........ muchas mas curiosidades, creencias y comentarios que os llamaran la atencion la semana que viene cuando podamos seguir actualizando el blog.

Nicoya and a day out in Caballito

01/07/09 - 05/07/09

From Santa Cruz, it was further south again to Nicoya, about half an hour away, but which seemed like an eternity to Vic, as he was suffering badly with his blisters :( Nicoya is home to the second oldest church in Costa Rica, the church of San Blas. The parish was founded in 1522 and the church itself was completed in 1644, but as with most of the impressive buildings in Costa Rica it was damaged by an earthquake in 1822 and restored in 1831. It is a beautiful white(ish) building, and in good condition, and inside there are several interesting objects dating back hundreds of years. Among them was a chair, which had been used to carry the priest around town as far back as the 15th Century and a set of three bells dating from the 18th and 19th Centuries. I was most interested to read about the clock, but I think that was only because it had been made in England :)

While in Nicoya, we happened to see a poster advertising a rodeo in a town called Caballito from the 3rd-5th July. We had originally been planning to leave for Nicaragua before the weekend, but we decided to extend our stay in Costa Rica, to at least see one typical festival, but Nicoya being such a small town, it's not usually a place you would spend 5 days in, but it was good to take it easy and not do much for a few days, and it gave us time to catch up on the blog again (although we are still behind). We also saw another poster advertising a cultural event in Nicoya itself on the evening of the 2nd July. It was being hosted by the Nueva Acropolis organisation and we decided to go along to watch. Nueva Acropolis (New Acropolis) is actually a world-wide organisation, which was set up by an Argentinian philosopher in 1957 and is now active in more than forty countries across the globe. The event that night was the culmination of a few different performances by mainly teenagers and one man playing traditional music on his guitar. One young boy read out two pieces of prose that he had written himself, and another group performed the story of Cinderella. Afterwards everyone was invited inside for a bite to eat and something to drink, so we made a small donation, as the event had been free.

Friday 3rd July was the first day of the three-day-long festival in Caballito, which we had so far gathered could be reached by bus from the terminal in Nicoya. We roughly knew that there was a bus at 11am, but that would get us there way to early, as the first event would not start until about 4pm, so we decided to aim for a later on. We got to the terminal at around 1.30pm and Vic started to ask random people if they knew what time the bus to Caballito would leave, and he got a different answer almost everytime. 2pm, 2.30pm, 3pm, I'm not sure, I don't know!!! He also asked every bus driver that pulled into the terminal if he was going to Caballito, all of them said no, and none of them could tell him when the bus was due. It was extremely frustrating. When it still hadn't showed by 2.30pm and he asked a few more people, we were certain that the bus would leave at 3pm, so we were surprised and disappointed to find out, when we asked again just before 3pm, that the bus had left 15 minutes ago. We could not believe how unlucky we had been.

We tried again the next day, and this time managed to catch it with plenty of time to spare. An hour and a half and 20km of bumpy road later, we were in Caballito, a tiny village of only 50 inhabitants. There are more cows here than people, and it was a joy to behold. The only problem was is there were no buses returning to Nicoya that day, nor were there any places for us to stay. We got chatting to one of the men working there for the festival and he said that he might be able to lend us a mattress if it came to it, a prospect that I wasn't all that keen on. To make matters worse, there weren't even any buses the next day either as it was a Sunday, so although we were happy to have made it there and we were looking forward to the festival, there was a worry in the back of my mind as to how we were going to back to our hotel where all of our things were.

Although the programme for that day was due to begin at 4pm, we didn't see anything happening until about 7pm that evening, but we had lots to keep us occupied in the meantime. We had got chatting to a woman in the bus on the way, and we saw her and a few friends in the only bar in town a couple of hours later. They invited us to join them for a few beers, and even invited us to their house to celebrate their daughter's 13th birthday. Patricia (the mother) had bought a birthday cake in Nicoya earlier that day, but they didn't have any candles or matches, so Vic and I decided to go and get some to make the cake complete. One of the men, Nargo, who used to be the advisor to the Minister of Culture, got out his guitar and sang a few songs for the birthday girl, one of which moved me to tears (Vic even managed to catch this on camera but didn't actually notice I was crying). Although the family did not have much (there were no birthday presents for example) they shared all they had with us, food, drink and birthday cake. It was such a nice afternoon.

When the rodeo was finally underway, the atmosphere in the ring was buzzing, as the 12 'cowboys' got ready to mount their bull and see how long they could stay on for. None of them lasted very long. We were lucky to see the famous 'El Cerriche' who has been undefeated the last 50 times he has been mounted. His 'cowboy' was the equally famous 'Negro Chorotega' but he didn't last any longer than the others. When it was all over, we decided to try and hitch a lift back to Nicoya rather than spend a night on a mattress in the middle of nowhere. Vic was very brave and asked several people passing by if they would take us, and finally someone agreed to give us a ride for a small contribution, which we were more than happy to give. And so we climbed into the back of a pick-up truck and made our way back to Nicoya under a night sky full of stars. It was the perfect end to what had been a brilliant and unforgettable day, full of kind and interesting people and new and exciting experiences.

Nicoya y Caballito del 1 al 5 de Julio

Llegamos a Nicoya, situada al sur de Santa Cruz y con la segunda iglesia mas antigua de Costa Rica. La parroquia fue fundada en 1.522 y la actual iglesia data de 1,644. Tienen diferentes imagenes talladas en los paises vecinos y algunos objetos traidos de Espania como las campanas de la misma fecha que la iglesia o una silla para transportar al sacerdote del siglo XVI. A Lauren lo que mas le gusto (lo siento por la falta de tildes y enies pero este ordenador no cambia al teclado espaniol por mas que lo intento) fue el reloj de la iglesia que fue construido por los ingleses.

En Nicoya nos enteramos de que eran fiestas en un pequenio pueblo llamado Caballito (con unos 50 habitantes) y decidimos quedarnos unos dias mas en Costa Rica para ver unas fiestas Costarricenses. El Viernes dia 3 fuimos a la parada de autobus entorno a la 1 del medio dia y nadie sabia muy bien a que hora salia el bus para Caballito. En la boleteria tampoco sabian aunque creian que como a las tres. Segui preguntando y el duenio de un bar dijo que a las 2pm y otros dos que a las 2.30pm. Cada vez que venia un bus a la parada yo le preguntaba al conductor y me decia que ese no era y cada uno me daba una hora distinta. Pasadas las dos y media todos coincidian en que el bus salia a las 3 y tras preguntar cada diez minutos, a pocos minutos de las 3 me dice uno de los conductores que el de Caballito ya se fue. Hace 15 minutos. No nos lo podiamos creer! y ya no habia mas. Una cosa que hemos aprendido aqui es la diferente percepcion del tiempo. En Inglaterra a las 3 significa a las 3 en punto. En Espania a las 3 significa a eso de las 3 y cuarto o y media pero en Centroamerica las 3 puede ser cualquier momento entre las 2 y las 4 por lo que no solo tienes el inconveniente de que salga tarde sino de que pueda salir mucho antes.

El Sabado dia 4 repetimos la escena y me dedico a correr detras de cada bus que llega para preguntar si es el de Caballito (que bien me hubiera venido un megafono) Al final encontramos el bus correcto y preguntamos que a que hora volvia por la noche. La respuesta fue.... no vuelve, haha. Bueno, ya tendriamos que ver donde dormiamos alli y volver a nuestro hostal en Nicoya lo mas temprano posible para el check out. Despues de pasar el pueblo de Corralito, 20 kilometros de baches, una hora y tres sacos de patatas mas en el bus que unos hombres se encargaron de meter tras seguirnos con una camioneta y tocando el claxon para deterner el bus, llegamos a Caballito! Pregunte al conductor a que hora salia el primer bus de vuelta el dia siguiente. La respesta fue.... maniana no hay bus. Es Domingo. Nos bajamos con la duda de saber como ibamos a hacer para volver antes de check out de Nicoya pero dispuestos a disfrutar de las fiestas. Alli, la fiesta es un rodeo al estilo rustico. Los vaqueros se montan en toros bravos e intentan vencer al toro bajandose de el tras haberlo domado. La mayoria acaban mordiendo el polvo. La estrella de la noche era el invicto Chirriche, un gran toro que llevaba 50 rodeos invicto y que seria montado por el "Negro Chorotega". El negro chorotega duro menos en el Chirriche que Malta en un mundial de futbol. Alli nos invitaron a una casa a tomar algo y a celebrar el cumpleanios de una ninia de 13 anios. Los padres no habian comprado las velas asi que Lauren y yo fuimos a por ellas para que la chica tuviera una tarta completa. Tambien conocimos a Nargo y su hermano (un sociologo y cantautor que habia sido asesor del ministro de cultura en los 70) y que amenizo el cumpleanios con una guitarra y algunas canciones que hicieron llorar a Lauren. Tambien habia otro personajillo que era clavado al frutero de 7 vidas y tenia una obsesion con Luz Casal y una cantante noruega.

Conseguimos volver a Nicoya esa misma noche tras el rodeo. Empece a preguntar a cada coche si iban hacia Nicoya y finalmente una pick up nos recogio (tras una pequenia contribucion) y nos dejo en Nicoya. El viaje lo hicimos sentados en la parte de atras de la camioneta y con el cielo lleno de estrellas. Ser valiente merecio la pena y otra experiencia que no olvidaremos.

Liberia and Santa Cruz

27/06/09 - 30/06/09

From Santa Teresa, it was a long journey to our next port of call in Liberia. We took our first bus at 7.15am, catching the next one at 8.30am to Paquera in order to get the cheap ferry back across to Puntarenas. We jumped straight into a taxi hoping to be on time for a bus to Liberia, but we arrived about ten minutes too late, and there wouldn't be another one for 2 1/2 hours. Luckily for us, however, our taxi driver was in the know, because he told us that he could take us to another bus stop about 20km away, where more buses heading to Liberia would be passing through. We decided to chance it, and although we still had to wait about 40 minutes for a bus, we arrived in Liberia at around 3.30pm (if we had waited at the first bus stop we would have only been half an hour away from Puntarenas).

Liberia is the capital of the province of Guanacaste, which is very different to the majority of Costa Rica. There isn't the tropical feel here that there is in the south, so it is a lot drier and you don't see nearly as many coconut or banana trees :) The land is also very flat and home to several huge cattle ranches and farms. The cattle are the pride of Guanacaste and several rodeos are held throughout the year in various locations. Liberia is known as the White City (ciudad blanca) apparently due to the fact that a lot of the buildings there are white. Also, in the past, the roads were made of white gravel and the people used to dress in white because of the heat. Liberia is also a very cultural city, being the birthplace of several Costa Rican poets and philosophers.

The main attraction in Liberia, apart from the main square and church, is the sabanero museum (sabenero is the local word for cowboy). We were on our way there, when a house with lots of signs outside caught our interest. The owner spotted us and invited us in to look at his vast collection of old items from the area that he has collected from friends and family since he was a child. He showed us a collection of rifles that were used in 1856 against the American filibuster William Walker, who tried to conquer the country. I say tried, because the Costa Ricans managed to defeat him, and the airport in San Jose is named after one of the key figures involved in that battle, Juan Santamaria. Obviously, we didn't mention that my surname is Walker, just in case it upset him :) We told him that we were on our way to the museum, but he told us that it was tiny and that it had even less on display than he did, so we didn't end up going there after all. While in Liberia, we also saw part of a religious festival, which the locals called an evangelist crusade. It was nothing too heavy, just some religious songs, which a young dance troupe performed to. One guy also sang some religious rap, which Vic enjoyed. I didn't understand most if it :)

Other memorable moments of our couple of days in Liberia were 1) watching the Confederations Cup final, Brazil vs the USA. I couldn't believe that Brazil were 2-0 down at half-time and for some reason I couldn't bear to see the US win (probably because they had kicked Spain out of the competition), but Brazil didn't disappoint and they came back in the second half to win by a spectacular 3 goals to 2. Wahoo!!! And 2) finding out that there had been a military coup in Honduras, which after Nicaragua, is the next country we are thinking of going to. We will have to keep an eye on how things progress to know whether or not it will be safe to go there. Hopefully things will have settled down in a month or so.

From Liberia we went an hour south to Santa Cruz for a couple of nights, another of the main towns in Guanacaste and home to the Punto Guancasteco, a typical folklore dance. Unfortunately, you can only see this dance performed during the local festivals. The church is very modern here, as the former one was destroyed in an earthquake, but one of the old towers is still standing and provides a stark contrast to the new church. There are plans to demolish the existing church and rebuild it according to the former design, but who knows when that will happen.

It's a shame that there were no festivals for us to see at this time of year, as Santa Cruz is one of the best places in Costa Rica to witness typical folklore tradition, but we still enjoyed our time there, and found the people very friendly and the food excellent. And to Vic's immense joy he was able to play basketball with a few local guys one evening, which he thoroughly enjoyed, but which unfortunately left him with two huge blisters on the soles of his feet, which didn't make our journey to Nicoya the next day all that pleasant.

Liberia y Santa Cruz del 27 al 30 de Junio

Dejando las playas de Montezuma y Mal Pais fuimos en un cacharro de autobus por un camino sin asfaltar hasta Paquera para coger el ferry (90 céntimos de euro por una travesia de una hora y cuarto hasta Puntarenas aunque carente de todo lujo y con unos baños poco higienicos) hasta Puntarenas. Desde alli cogimos un autobús más decente que nos llevo hasta Liberia, la ciudad blanca.
Liberia es la capital de la provincia de Guanacaste (esta provincia no se dedica al café o las bananas como la mayor parte del país sino a la cria de ganado. Tiene inmensas llanuras y es algo más seca que las provincias del sur lo que parece que es muy bueno para la cría de vacas y toros para las montas.) Es conocida como la ciudad blanca debido a la limpieza de sus calles y la perfecta cuadrícula en que la construyeron. Es una ciudad cultural en la que nacieron o se educaron numerosos poetas y filósofos Costarricenses. Íbamos de camino al mueso del "sabanero" (como el cowboy americano o el Gaucho argentino) cuando un señor nos invitó a su casa para que vieramos su pequeño museo. Este hombre de unos cincuenta años recogía objetos antiguos, desde que era niño, de los vecinos del cantón (familias que al morir le donaban los objetos para particulr museo) y en el que me llamó la atención unos rifles usados en 1857 contra el filibustero norteamericano William Walker que pretendía conquistar el país. Los costarricenses derrotaron a Walker y parecen sentirse orgullosos de aquello. No le dijimos que Lauren se apellida Walker no fuera a echar mano a los viejos rifles!
Aquí nos enteramos del golpe de Estado en Honduras. Ya se rumoreaba un posible golpe los día anteriores pero no podíamos creer que había sucedido cuando el recepcionista del hostal nos lo dijo. "Están muy chingaos los huevones" o algo así nos dijo :o)
Salimos a dar una vuelta por Liberia y vimos muchos jóvenes en una plaza donde había montado un escenario. Preguntamos y una chica nos dijo que iba a haber una "Cruzada Evangelista" pero no os asusteis que aqui no quemaron a nadie. Se trata de unas canciones de rap (parecido a las batallas de rap que hay en Estados Unidos) pero con letra religiosa-cristiana.
Santa Cruz está a una hora al sur de Liberia (por carretera asfaltada!) y es la capital del folclore costarricense. El baile típico se llama punto guanacasteco que no pudimos ver ya que solo lo bailan en fiestas. La antigua iglesia fue destruida por un terremoto y solo se conserva una de las torres. No hay nada especial en Santa Cruz en esta época del año pero es un pueblo de tamaño medio pero con mucha tranquilidad, buena comida y gente amable. Los "gringos" vienen de paso en su camino hacia las playas de Samara y Nosara. Desde aquí seguimos bajando al sur a Nicoya donde nos esperaba una de las iglesias coloniales más bonitas del país (data de 1644 y con objetos traidos por los españoles) y a la aldea de Caballito, de unos cincuenta habitantes, donde fuimos a ver sus fiestas y un tradicional rodeo de toros (monta de toros como en Texas) al "estilo rústico" o "Guanacasteco" Os contaremos más sobre esto en la siguiente entrada.

From Monteverde to Montezuma

21/06/09 - 26/06/09

After the exertion of the canopy tour, we were ready for some more relaxation, and what better place to relax than at the beach? Our first stop was Montezuma, a mere two bus rides, one taxi ride, and one ferry crossing away :) We were amazed that the ferry only cost us 810 colones each, which at the current exchange rate, is less than £1!!! Montezuma is a very small beach town on the Pacific coast, another surfer's paradise, but with a lot more character than some of the other beaches we have been to and lots of animals too. On our first day while having lunch, we were shocked to see three monkeys coming down the tree right next to our table. It was great to see them so close up, but one of them started to get a bit agressive, showing us his teeth, so we thought it best to move tables. There is a photo of him just below. Yes, he looks cute now, but believe me, they can be quite scary!!!

We absolutely loved Montezuma and ended up spending quite a few lazy days there. Our hostel was right on the beach with hammocks just outside and I don't think it would be inaccurate to say that we spent the majority of our time in Montezuma laying in these hammocks, watching the waves, and at times, watching Vic fall over in the waves :) Sometimes they were so powerful that they would come all the way up to the hostel!!!

There are quite a lot of things you can do when you're based in Montezuma, but we took the relaxation very seriously this time and hardly did anything. We had kind of had enough of tours by this point as well so we weren't keen on jumping back on the tourist wagon, preferring instead to take long walks along the beach if we got bored of the hammocks :) At one point along the beach, there is an area with lots of rocks of all different colours and sizes, and people attempt to stack them into high piles. Here is a photo of me beside one of these rock piles. I made one too but it was tiny in comparison :)

There is also a waterfall that you can walk to, which we did attempt to do twice, but we failed both times. The first time, having heard that the trail was very muddy, we thought it was best to wear trousers and hiking boots, yet when we had started climbing over the first set of rocks, we saw that you actually have to cross pools of water. One group ahead of us were up to their waist in water at one point! We decided we would come back again the next day in shorts and flip flops, but didn't count on it raining throughout the night, meaning that the water levels had risen considerably, making it even more difficult to cross. At the start of the trail, there is actually a sign which roughly reads: Danger! Several people have died here (See photo of Vic next to the sign). We decided that seeing a waterfall, no matter how amazing, was not worth risking our lives for, so we again turned back :)

After Montezuma, we headed to the beaches of Malpais and Santa Teresa, where we spent just one night. Malpais used to be the more popular of the two, but when we arrived there, we felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. We were both surprised and amazed to learn that Mel Gibson is currently building a film studio there, and can often be seen wandering around the village and eating in the local soda (a soda is a name for a local dining bar, offering typical Costa Rican dishes at very reasonable prices). Unfortunately, he wasn't around while we were there. Santa Teresa is now where all the tourists, and in particular surfers, go to, and although it was a bit more lively, we didn't really like it, especially compared to Montezuma. We actually felt more like we were in the States than Costa Rica. When ordering dinner that night, we had to order in English because the waitress didn't speak Spanish. I was very glad to get back on the bus the next morning, ready for the long trek back to Puntarenas via ferry, where we could catch a bus to Liberia, our first stop in the province of Guanacaste, which is famous for being the folklore province of Costa Rica. It will make a nice change after the beach :)

Montezuma y Mal Pais del 21 al 26 de Junio

Gracias a todos por vuestros comentarios. Nos hace ilusion ver que nos seguis. Despues de Monteverde fuimos a descansar en las playas de Montezuma y Mal Pais. Montezuma es otro pequeño pueblo con bonitas playas para surfear y descansar en hamacas. Vimos mas monos y ardillas por los arboles de la playa y Lauren se asusto cuando estabamos comiendo en una soda y algunos monos bajaron por los arboles para acercarse a nuestra mesa y mirar la comida. En espeial uno de los monos que se puso un poco agresivo y empezo a enseñarnos los dientes mientras saltaba en una rama.... hahaha tuvimos que cambiar de mesa. En Montezuma tambien hay una cascada que no llegamos a ver porque es bastante dificil llegar y el rio estaba muy crecido por las pasadas lluvias. En la entrada del sendero para la cascada dice "atencion, varias personas han muerto aqui. tenga cuidado" asi que no lo hicimos con muchas ganas y decidimos darnos la vuelta despues de dos intentos por las rocas del rio. Montezuma ha sido una de nuestras playas favoritas por las grandes olas y animales. Ademas abundan unos cangrejos morados de patas rojas autoctonos de la zona (ver foto)

En Montezuma nos encontramos con Sina, una chica alemana que habiamos conocido la semana anterior en Bahia Drake (que coincidencia volver a vernos!) Tambien conocimos a Alan, un ameriano de California de unos 50 años (ex-trabajador social de discapacitados) que habia perdido su trabajo y casa por el credit crunch y se habia venido casi sin nada a Montezuma a vivir y aprender español. Nos cayo muy bien este hombre y le deseamos la suerte en Costa Rica que no tuvo en EE.UU.

En Montezuma vimos una pelicula en pantalla de cine(El caso curioso de Benjamin Button) mientras cenabamos en un restaurante. Lo curioso es que nos costara menos la cena y la pelicula que lo que costaria una entrada de cine en Europa.

El dia 26 fuimos a Mal Pais a buscar mas playas y olas grandes. Esta zona tambien es muy bonita aunque todavia mas dirigida a surferos que Montezuma. Ah, y como anecdota, Mel Gibson se esta construyendo una mansion aqui en Mal Pais donde pretende segun los lugareños hacer unos estudios de cine. Viene por la zona de vez en cuando y come por el pueblo. Me imagino que cuando viene revoluciona el pueblo! Nosotros no tuvimos la suerte de verle por las calles.... otra vez sera. Despues del descanso en las playas (donde de momento no nos atrevimos a hacer surf) fuimos hacia Liberia, en la provincia de Guanacaste, conocida como la ciudad blanca. Ya os contaremos mas sobre ella.

Arenal Volcano and Monteverde

18/06/09 - 20/06/09

After the few days in Drake Bay, it was time for us to move on and to part company with Martine and Baudewyn, who were heading for Panama, while we were going north to La Fortuna. The journey was too long to do all in one day so we ended up back in San Jose for the night. We did not like the capital any more this time around :) We arrived in La Fortuna the following afternoon. The small town is at the foot of the famous Arenal Volcano, which has been continuously active since a huge eruption in 1968, which destroyed three of the surrounding towns, leaving La Fortuna untouched, hence the name. The volcano is the reason why everyone comes to La Fortuna, because at night, weather-permitting of course, you are able to see lava running down the sides of the volcano. Unfortunately for us, it was pouring with rain while we were there. We still managed to see some lava but the view was obscured by the clouds and the rain. I have taken a photo from the internet to show you what it should look like, as I wasn't able to get any myself :) After visiting the volcano, we went to the natural hot springs, which are heated by the lava (a very pleasant 42 degrees). Apparently the waters began to warm up two weeks before the 1968 eruption, but nobody knew why.

Our next stop was Monteverde, which we got to via a jeep-boat-jeep (or so they call it here), which involves getting a minibus to the nearby Lake Arenal, a boat across the lake, followed by another minibus direct to your hostel. It made a nice change from the bus :) The thing to do in Monteverde is a canopy tour, and the one we did was called Canopy Extremo (Extreme Canopy). This involved ziplining around a course of 14 cables of various length very high above the ground (the cables ranged from a height of 225ft (68m) and 450ft (137m)). There were also two surprises on the way: a 90ft (27m) high abseil, the speed of which was controlled by the member of staff letting you down, and a tarzan swing, which like the name suggests, meant stepping off a platform and swinging to and fro on a rope, before being caught by two of the assistants. I didn't enjoy the initial drop, and Vic and I both screamed loudly when we did it, but the swinging back and forth part was great, and the whole experience was unforgettable, although I don't think Vic will ever want to do anything like it again. We were not able to get any good photos of each other on the cables (although I have a couple of videos of Vic which I will try to upload soon), so I have again taken a couple of photos from the internet to give you an idea of what it was like for us.