Somewhere between Nowhere and Unknown

So, as there is essentially one internet card for the entire camp here, getting extended internet time is quite difficult - but that's really one of the nice things about being out here. Our phone doesn't work, and as long as I can get the essential e-mail in and out, I'm good to go.

I'll start at the very beginning - our bus ride down here.

We loaded onto a bus in San Jose, which would take us almost all the way here, to El Progresso, a little village just off Drake Beach on the Osa Peninsula. The bus itself was quite comfortable, especially compared to a few specific Indian bus rides I can recall...

We drove out of San Jose, up into the mountains and through the "cloud forest" - you know you are somewhere spectacular when you are driving along and the clouds are below you, or passing by your window.

After about 3 hours, we stopped for a quick break and some more people got on the bus, including a young couple (about 17?). The girl was decked out with hot pink lipstick, a cute little braid, a denim mini skirt, and a bright tank. Put me to shame in my cargos, for sure. The guy proceeded to busy himself with taking care of everyone and everything on the bus - helping load and unload bags, collecting fares, etc. etc. etc. Mom and I are at a disagreement as to whether or not he actually worked for the bus, or if he was just that ADD. Who knows. However, after looking at the poor girl 6 hours later, she was hardly recognizable. Her lipstick and makeup had melted away, her hair was stuck to the back of her neck, and she looked just as miserable as the rest of us to be spending 9 hours on a bus ride without AC.

Soon, our nine hours came to an end, and we got off the bus at some unmarked section of road, where we were to wait for a local bus.  And by local bus, I mean that a local guy from El Progresso (or his son) owns a van and comes and picks people up for a small fare. So we waited...and waited...and of course it started raining. Soon enough, before we were completely drenched, the bus arrived and we got on, as well as a few locals who were also waiting. These locals clambered aboard with their wares - a box of ducklings, a propane tank, and some groceries. We followed them aboard, climbed over the tanki and duckling, and found a seat.

Then, all of a sudden I hear, "No Woman, No Cry.....No Woman No Cry." Now obviously, there was no radio on said bus, but there were three drunk Frenchmen sitting in the back with all their packs, bottles of booze, and a guitar. They were quite horrible singers really, and insisted on singing very American songs, with the wrong lyrics - or maybe it was just their accent. "Every sings gonna be alight."

We forded three rivers (probably the same river three times actually), drove through an hours worth of jungle, before arriving to the camp that will be our base for the next three weeks.

Simple. Rustic. Amazing. Believe you me, you wouldn't want hot water anyway. =)

Then, we moved on to our homestay where we sleep and eat. More on the details of that later, but here are some pics of our humble abode.

 (I didn't have the heart to tell mom her mosquito net only works if she's under it)

Rasta restaurants and packed lunches

We made our way yesterday to Maximo Nivel - the headquarters for the local volunteer organization. It's quite a cool place - it's an intercultural center which houses tons of different programs, in addition to the volunteer projects. Local people can come here to learn English, foreigners can come to take Spanish courses, and they also host a TEFL course (Teaching English as Foreign Language) so you can become certified to teach English worldwide.

A quick note on finding locations here in Costa Rica. There are really no addresses. If you're lucky, places are listed as "on Avenida Central between Calle 4 and 6", but mostly it's not even that explicit. For example, the address for Maximo Nivel is something like "on the street of the Bomb Pharmacy, 75 meters south, in the blue building". Combine this with the language gap between us and the taxi drivers and it's a miracle we get anywhere.

So we made it here and had a basic orientation yesterday, where they told us things like not to walk alone after dark, and not to flash tons of money around. They were nice enough to make copies of our passports so we could keep the originals safe some place. It was a really nice gesture, especially after mom pulled it out of her purse, handed it to the lady and a whole bunch of panty liners fell out of it.

This, of course, was not the first passport issue we've had. When I was at the bank this weekend changing money, they looked at my passport picture and passed it to Mom, saying she had to sign for the money. I was really confused until I realized it was because she thought the picture was of Mom, not me. How embarrasing!

Mom had an idea of a cute little Carribean/Rasta restaurant she wanted to eat at yesterday, so we got directions, walked two miles, to find that it was closed. And, since it was Sunday, everything around it was also closed - so, we walked back in the direction we came and got a pita.

Last night and tonight we are staying at a home stay here in San Pedro, and we'll catch our bus out to the boonies tomorrow morning. Our "mama" cooks amazing meals and packs our lunches for us during the day. There are about 10 volunteers at the house at a given time - mostly staying in a series of bunk beds across three different rooms built on the roof of the house. People are constantly coming and going and it's really cool to meet so many different people. As usual when I travel I feel like an  ass for only speaking one language fluently, as so many others speak multiple languages - and I'm not even referring to just Spanish.

This afternoon we had the orientation specific to our turtle project at Drake Bay, which I'm really excited for. Maximo Nivel has only sent two groups to this site so far, and we're the only two traveling there tomorrow. It's supposed to be one of the most beautiful and remote places in Costa Rica and I'm really hoping that in addition to some great experiences at the site and with the turtles we'll get to see some things around the area. Drake Bay is near Corcovado National Park, which is consistently on lists of best places to see wildlife. In addition to turtles, I really want to see a sloth. Also a jaguar would be pretty cool.

Photos!!

Just a few pics I finally figured out how to upload from my camera...

Downtown San Jose

 Avenida Central - where you can buy lots of bootleg DVDs and 9 out of every 10 stores is a shoe store

 And some pics from our long walk home...

Our breakfast buffet at the hotel - soooo good!

The outdoor eating area - so cute, but would be more useful if it stopped raining.

Good Tico food - chicken, salad, plantains, beans, rice, and chayote (my new favorite food).

There's been a gate change...

Of course, I can never quite figure out how to the photos up on these things. It certainly doesn't help that everything on this computer is in Spanish. On that note, you'll have to excuse any mispelled words, since the spell check is Spanish and is identifying every one of my words as wrong. Also, please excuse any missing/wrong puncuation, as it's all in a different place on this keyboard. =)

So far things have been fine, really. I few hiccups that all seemed to be related to airport gates, but other than that - itś been smooth. Of course Houston was having massive storms, including flash flooding and the like right as we were supposed to fly out, so our flight was delayed two hours - which included changing gates 3 times. But, we obviously made it to San Jose (in Costa Rica, not California, which is apparently a distinction I need to make to people) safely.

I did have a moment of concern as we landed and the pilot came over the loudspeaker and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, it looks as though there has been a gate change and our gate is currently occupied. So, we are parking somewhere remote and you can take the stairs and a bus to the terminal." Um okay. Will do. So, true to his word, we went past all the gates, anything that looked like an airport, under all the landing planes, and parked next to a corrugated iron shack. No worries though, there were stairs and a bus, as promised, and we were taken back to the airport - all in due time.

We went through customs - which was a bit of an issue for Mom, who refused to put her nationality as USA, rather than New Zealand (even though sheś traveling on a US passport), but they let us stay anyway.

We took a taxi through San Jose to our cute little budget hotel. Our room had a shared bathroom, but thatś okay, because we have our own hammock outside our room and thereś a great breakfast buffet.

We spent the day today walking around downtown San Jose - got lunch at a little local spot (equivalent of $6) then got coffee and a dessert at the Grand Hotel restaurante (equivalent of $15).

Highlight and lowlight of the day: a pigeon sat right next to our table for our entire coffee break and I held it together - well, mostly. Thatś my challenge to myself this trip - to get to a point where I can at least put up with the birds without screaming, crying, and running away.

So, I made it through our break without making a scene and we walked back to the hotel. We did see an iguana cross the street, which was cool - and I should note that iguanas don't turn me into a nutter at all.

So here we are at our adorable little hotel, resting up for the evening. Tomorrow we'll hit up San Pedro, a neighboring town, and then head to Maximo Nivel HQ, which is the company in charge of our turtle adventure.

Hopefully I can figure out these photos...

Turtles Here I Come!

So, as you may or may not already know, I am safely back from Bosnia. Yes, I know - I've been a bad blogger. However, wifi connection the last stint in Bosnia was difficult to come by, and after the fact, things seemed slightly less necessary to share.

Anyway, I'm on to new things now. Departure for Costa Rica in less than 48 hours.

My mom (mum) and I are doing turtle conservation for three weeks, with a few extra days to ourselves at each end of our trip. What, exactly, turtle conservation entails - we will all find out together.

We arrive in San Jose on Friday afternoon and have to meet up with the volunteer group on Sunday night. I made a half-assed attempt to find a hotel for Friday and Saturday night, but then sort of gave up. I guess we'll figure our minor details like housing when we get there.

Monday we will have a 9-hour ride to the Osa Peninsula (way south and way rainforesty), where the turtles are desperately awaiting our arrival and help. According to our informational packet (entitled "Extreme Turtle Adventure"), we will "be left at a specific junction in the road where another bus will pass by to pick us up". This sounds promising. No doubt, I am thankful mom has been diligently learning Spanish so that she can get us out of the situation this is likely to become.

I couldn't help but note that when I googled the Osa Peninsula and Drake Bay, the overwhelming comment was that roads are often unpassable during the rainy season. Another website said if you're going between May and November, you'll definitely need a 4x4. Good thing we're going in July, during the rainy season, and are relying on two different buses to get us there. =)

We "should expect to live quietly and simply in a small, coastal farming community" and will be placed in "very rustic, rural conditions, in a gorgeous, isolated part of Costa Rica." There will apparently be running water and electricity (huge plusses), but we should "not expect any luxury; there may well be no mirrors, modern plumbing or tubing." I'm not sure what tubing is, but I'm pretty excited either way. After all, if I wanted luxury - I could just go back to Bosnia ;).

So for the first week of so, I think we are doing a lot of prep work for the turtle nesting that begins later in the month. We'll be helping to build the hatchery, preparing the beach (who knows?), and doing patrols to register nests. After the nesting season begins - then....well, I guess we'll see. We're supposed to be in one of the most eco-diverse places in the world, so hopefully we'll see some awesome (non-birdlike) animals. Other than turtles, that is.

So, after three weeks of turtle-related work, we will move back north, where we have a 4-night reservation (ah, Living Social) at a Thermal Spa and Resort so that we can wash off our grime before fully returning to civilization. From the Osa Peninsula, we have the option of taking the 9-hour bus ride, or a 1-hour plane ride...I should add that said plane ride would be $35 on an 18-seater passenger plane. I mean really, did you have to ask? Imagine the views! Although, as my mom commented, "Yep Kris, those views will be great when we are plummeting to the ground for buying a $35 ticket on an 18-seater prop plane."

So, there's not much to report now until I arrive for my Extreme Turtle Adventure (does that mean extreme adventure for the turtles or for us?).

Nothing left to do now except start packing and try not to wear anything Costa-Rica-worthy for two days - which would be much easier if it wasn't 90 degrees here.