Kali, please make fun of me for my love of documentaries

• After my weekend in Monteverde came a fairly tranquil week; Monday we had a debate about the pros and cons of a welfare state in my Poverty & Human Development in Latin America class, then Spanish class in the afternoon where the 3 separate levels of Spanish watched a movie together. It was called "Voces Inocentes", Innocent Voices, a heartbreaking film of the civil war in El Salvador, based on one boy's true experience. As sad as it was, it was a beautiful movie and should be watched (just like any other documentary or true-life-experience film about hardship), to both give the audience a glimpse of life in developing countries and a greater appreciation of what we have. It sounds cliché, but it really makes my problems seem small; that same day I got my Spanish exam back and I was disappointed with the 85 I made. But at least I'm not living in a war zone, dreading my 12th birthday because I know I'll be drafted to fight for a cause I don't believe in. That being said, some activist/documentary films I like, recommend, or want people to view are: Invisible Children (child soldiers in Uganda), Voces Inocentes (Salvadoran civil war), Bordertown (killing women in Juares, Mexico), Maria Full of Grace (drug trade), Recycled Life (living at the Guatemala City dump), Painting Without Permission (Chiapas, Mexico Periclean Scholars' involvement), A Place Called Chiapas (intro to the  The Future of Food, Who Killed the Electric Car?, 
  
• I don't remember anything happening on Tuesday. I sat beside Miguelito in class. And went to a bar in Barrio California which has quickly become everyone's favorite: a girl apologized to me in the bathroom for snorting coke, and a guy who asked me for a cigarette told me he thought I was Costa Rican until I started talking. 
• Wednesday brought with it Zarina's class, which continues to get more and more unbearable. Her 3 hour lectures are basically things we all learned in some Biology class taken over the years (and because we're all in the environmental program and obviously interested in environmental issues, we have all taken at least one Biology class in our short lives).
• Matito and I gave our presentation on the Salvadoran civil war in Spanish class (the US was involved, and not in a good way. You should educate yourself about it.) Basically the US funded the El Salvadoran government and military that were killing the guerilla fighters and innocent bystanders, and the US then-president Jimmy Carter did not respond to the Salvadoran president's plea for the fighting to end. 
• After that class, Kate, Matito, Marcus and I headed northwest of San José to Alajuela's stadium: JUANES CONCERT!!! The 1 hour bus ride and short walk downtown were un-painful, the lines were long, but we made it inside the stadium fairly quickly. We had tickets for the cheapest seats, which ended up being in the middle of the fútbol field covered in cardboard. A local band, Escat played first, a Costa Rican band fronted by a singer with immense lung-capacity. If you are unfamiliar with Juanes, you must definitely check him out, especially if you like Spanish-speaking sex gods.  You can hear some of his songs on his official website (link above), or his myspace as well as drool-worthy pictures. The concert was wonderful: it started raining on us about 1/4 of the way through, just a slight mist but by the end of the night we were absolutely soaked. Juanes played a few songs, then left, causing the audience to chant "Otra, Otra!" (another, another! similar to encore), and he finally reappeared to appease us, which was GREAT because he hadn't played my favorite song yet and I was disappointed. It ended up being the very last song he played, Nada Valgo Sin Tu Amor, and I must admit that I squealed like a small child when I heard the first few notes. Made our ways home from Alajuela, then bed para tener sueños dulces de mi amor y cantante favorito :) 
• Friday 10/3 I woke up bright and early to catch the bus to Tortugero, but there was yet another miscommunication among our group and I ended up waiting where the others were not. So I went back home to sleep some more (only running on 2 hours at this point) but ended up making alternative weekend plans instead. The silver lining of getting left behind was that today was Chicitico's 5th birthday, so M.N. invited me to the fiesta :) It was at her mom's house, which is very nearby, and Spiderman-themed (not el hombre de las arañas like I would expect!) I met M.N.'s sisters, their kids and their grandkids, all adorable I might add: there were mostly women there, but neither of Chicitico's parents showed. Perhaps they were working and would celebrate later. We ate pizza, a yummy bread-pudding-esque dish that M.N. made, croissants, cake and ice cream cones. We sang "Cumpleaños Feliz", Chicitico blew out the candles; then we let them again, and he smashed his face into the corner of the cake, coming up to breathe with a huge blue-icing grin. I guess it's a funny cultural tradition! 
• Saturday morning I was up early again to catch the bus to Volcán Irazú, about an hour south/SE of San José. The bus left at 9:00 from downtown, where our taxista dropped us off: I wanted to tell him where I'm from because I eavesdropped on his phone conversation with his cousin, who was apparently in Tennessee, but he stayed on the phone until after we left. We drove through Cartago, a city that has some cool ruins, and eventually started climbing the volcano's steep sides. The views were beautiful, green pastures of pillow-grass (looks soft and fluffy like a pillow, that's the name I gave it), and fields of crops. It must have been the perfect day for harvesting onions because they were all lying on top of the soil, roused from their cool little beds to dry in the sun, still in perfect little rows--a scene my camera just couldn't capture. All the green and the fields and pastures, with crops and cows really reminded me of home :) We arrived at Irazú and first thing  saw a coati playing on the ranger station roof. Coatis are part of the raccoon family, and I just learned that they are also called hog-nosed coons, Brazilian Aardvarks, and--my favorite--snookum bears. Haha!!
• We began hiking around the Crater Principal, which had a tiny lake in it that was labeled "Regeneration Area." I like that. The other crater had a bigger, sulfuric lake in it (let's swim!!) that was bright green; we could see the layers of sediment in the crater walls and so many different colors of rock. And some people think rocks are boring! It was surprisingly chillier than we expected (and we expected chilly due to the altitude), so we continued hiking to stay warm. The surrounding area was covered with these plants called "sombrillas de pobre" or poor man's umbrellas, because of their potential diameter. I finally got the photo I wanted. Kate and Nicole opted to stay at the ranger station to rest,  but I wanted to get my money's worth of hiking so I traipsed to the highest point. The road was in terrible condition, much like most Costa Rican roads, but this one actually had a sign advertising the fact. The vegetation grew on both sides, but dropped off on the left so--if it had been sunny and clear, which it was not--you could have seen for miles, I mean kilometers. I was very out of breath, but I like to attribute that to my being at 11,260 feet above sea level rather than to my being out-of-shape. The hike was "strenuous" enough that I could remove my jacket after a while, but put it back on at the top, where the clouds blew away and I could see both craters, the regeneration pond and the lagoon inside the crater, perfectly clearly: my camera promptly picked a perfect time to lose all battery power. If you'd like to see a photo, maybe I can draw you the one from my memory :) 
• After catching my breath, enjoying the view, watching the clouds come back over the volcanoes, and practicing all the French I know, I headed back down from the summit. Wearing my red rain jacket, I met a little hummingbird friend who hovered around a tree, then zoomed towards me and my jugular, soared past me, returned and hovered by my right elbow, not frightened by my shriek or attempt to cover my face. I think he thought I was a big juicy red flower and wanted to pollinate me or sip my nectar (as dirty as both of those sound). I continued walking down the road only to be the target of another bird "attack", this time by a sooty robin that flew really close to my head, then plopped down on  a branch. 
• When we got back to San José, Kate and I debated the possibility of returning to Pavas for the fiesta celebration we were invited to, but ultimately decided against it because we didn't know any of the details. And the slum areas of San José are probably not the best places for two American teenage girls after dark, if you catch my drift. So we continued walking through the streets of downtown, heading nowhere in particular, which is the way I like to walk. Then we saw two police trucks and a big crowd (definitely a throng) thronging around an empty precaución taped spot: we found a viewing area and realized it was a body, a man had just died of a heart attack in the middle of the street. I'd seen dead bodies before, of animals and people whose open-casket visitations I...visited?, but never someone who had just finished dying. It reminded me of my past fear of dead bodies: even though I'm not afraid of them anymore, my heart still jumped (which is ironic because mine was doing what his couldn't). 
• Just like God, Sunday was a day of rest (not that I'm comparing myself to the Big Guy, don't get that idea) from my relatively-tame-but-still-tiring weekend.

3 Trips in one week---how I like to live! :)

• On Monday 9/22, our Poverty & Human Development class took a field trip to Pavas, a relatively upscale area of San José that--ironically, but not surprisingly--has one of the worst slums. We arrived around 9:45ish at the Pavas Community House, then toured 3 different barrios (neighborhoods/ communities), El Relleno (the trash dump), [forgotten name] and Nueva Esperanza (new hope).  

1) The houses were in pretty bad shape, made out of extra wood lying around and corrugated tin, but the houses (we  got invited to awkwardly tour someone's house---very uncomfortable) had improvised or tapped phone services, electricity, running water, plumbing: the house we toured had a computer, stereo, television, fish tank and lava lamp! 

2) The worst parts of this squatter settlement were: the houses so close together, instability with which they were built (literally clinging on river banks), the drugs, the trash, the prevalence of diseases and sickness-causing  bacteria, and the fact that the people are living on the land illegally and thus cannot get any government assistance. 

3) The 2nd barrio was doing a lot of construction on its roads (through an area where houses used to be, whose families now have to PAY to rent a house when they don't have enough money to MOVE out of the slums), but this area was receiving some help from an assistance group. 

4) Then the 3rd barrio was the worst off in my eyes--it had no roads and a lot of the families had to move from their old illegal "homesteads" to new illegal "homesteads" because their houses constantly flooded with sewage. So they tore apart their corrugated tin shacks, moved the materials to the new location and hoped that their new neighbor was a strong man who could help them reassemble their house. Instead of being in the sewage valley, the new location was on its banks, with the earth just barely holding the houses on the ground. 

5) Our guide said that about 1/2 the families there are single female headed households with 6 or 7 kids--so there is obviously no opportunity to work for income & take care of household duties & raise your children right at the same time. 

6) There was a school where 500 kids attended per period, each morning, midday and late afternoon (making for a total of 1500 kids passing through the school every day. Overcrowded?) For this reason and the lack of parental supervision (due to trying to bring in money), a lot of the kids get into drugs or ne'er-do-well activities at an early age. To deal with the stress of wanting to provide for the family but being unable to, the parents, too, turn to drugs (paying with money that has been stolen from somewhere), so the kids grow up in a drug-infused situation, never learning the harmful effects, just that it takes away the pain temporarily. 

• Afterwards we had Spanish class where I eventually convinced Matito to trek downtown with me to fetch my package from the post office. I should have brought a map, is all I will say about that adventure.
• Prof. Q. wasn't feeling well on Tuesday, so our 9-12 class ended at 10:30 and our 1-4 class was replaced by attending a guest lecture at U of CR on the American elections. It's humbling to know that other countries follow our elections so closely and with such interest--while we don't even know the current administration or how often the leader gets elected in other countries! The speaker was a professor from GATech who spoke about the electoral college, presidential and vice-presidential debates, Republican and Democratic parties and their nominations--new information for Costa Ricans, but middle school information for us (and I am not at all trying to sound like we know more than Costa Ricans--obviously on this subject we should since it is OUR government, and OUR lives the elected president will impact!) The most interesting part of the lecture, however, was that it was all in Spanish--and I understood most of it! I think, with some problems and a lot of thinking, I could rise to the challenge of having all my classes taught in Spanish. 
• Wednesday morning included a City Tour with the CIDH group, which turned out splendidly because we visited a lot of the places that I didn't but wanted to visit on my personal city tour last weekend. 

1) We started with the National Park, where we got the story of William Walker's attempt to control all of Central America. Walker was an American (from TN no less!) filibuster who made his way through the Central American countries, causing trouble (what we Tennesseans are best at, haha!) and eventually became the 6th President of the Republic of Nicaragua, Costa Rica's northern neighbor. He tried to conquer Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica, too; eventually Costa Rican troops led the Central American fighters in an attack against Walker. It began in Nicaragua where a young man named Juan Santamaría gained fame by burning down the fort in which Walker and his troops were stationed. Santamaría died in the process, but is still known as the country's national hero, with the main airport named after him and several statues of him around the country. Walker was eventually killed by the Honduran government (by order of the British Royal Navy.) You can read more about this crazy Tennessean's adventures. The National Park has a statue of 6 men (one representing each of the 5 Central American countries affected by Walker, with Nicaragua lying wounded in the arms of the others because it was where Walker did the most damage).

2) Parque España was next, where we saw cork trees ("Did you know there's a cork shortage?")

3) Parque Morazón, where Jacobo and I checked the supposedly-perfect acoustics in the rotunda. On my city tour I passed a building that said "School for Women" that I was curious about--was it a school for nurses during a war? Did it come into being just in time for women's rights and equality? But it turned out that it was the girls' entrance to a school that is housed in one of the two all-metal buildings in San José.

4) Parque Central and then we entered the beautiful yet intimidating  Catedral Metropolitana, a huge Catholic Cathedral with some major stained-glass portrayals of the life of Christ.

5) Then the Teatro Nacional,  a very fancy, ornate and almost gaudy building, that was built by European architects in a French-inspired style and was funded by rich coffee barons who wanted a place where they could watch operas, just like the Europeans. The coolest parts were a) there is supposedly a phantom named Diego, b) the floor raises up to the level of the stage to create a single-level dance floor, and c) the sitting rooms still smelled like cigar smoke and cedar wood.

6) We walked through the Plaza de la Cultura (aka pigeon-infested cement area. I always heard them called "rats with wings", but every time I try to say that, "rats on wheels" comes out,) to the Museo de Oro, or Gold Museum, underneath the Plaza . We didn't stay there very long,  but I wish I could have taken my time reading the descriptions in Spanish, because I certainly can't do it in a rush!

• Chicitico was sick yesterday so he spent the night here, and it made me so happy to wake up in the morning listening to the giggles and squeals of a happy child playing downstairs! On Monday an adorable new puppy was roaming about my house on her squatty little legs--Chicitico told me to guess whose it was, and I guessed that it was mine, but she was actually his, a birthday present named Nini. How precious, no?
• 9/26 Friday I woke up at 5:00 to catch the 6:30 bus to Monteverde Biological Reserve. The bus stopped for about 30 minutes in the middle of the bumpy, mountainside dirt road because a landslide (or something of the sort) was blocking the road. We arrived in Monteverde a little before noon and found the hotel at which we had made reservations, Sleepers Sleep Cheap Hostel in Santa Elena, which I strongly recommend. We explored the town a bit, and decided to go for a guided night hike (through Ecological Sanctuary) before dinner. We hiked for 2 hours through a pitch-black jungle scene, armed with nothing but flashlights and my Buzz-Off infused shirt,but--alas--saw nothing more than 3 wild female tarantulas. As it turns out, tarantulas' poison comes from their mixture of foods, and since one of those foods doesn't grow in Costa Rica, none of its tarantulas are poisonous. If you try this night hike, I would recommend NOT taking teenage boys as they are noisy and scare away all the wildlife. The guide was wonderful, and tried really hard to find things for us, but the singing and American sitcom-quoting was just too much for the ocelots to take. 
• Saturday morning we were up bright and early to do a 6:30 zipline (Extremos Canopy Tour) above the jungle. An amazingly fun and terrifying experience with handsome guides, a group rate and gorgeous views of the Monteverde floppy-eared cheese-producing cows below us that looked so tiny. After the first thrilling 16 zipline cables, there was a rappel line, then a frighteningly thrilling, almost-peed-my-pants free fall/ Tarzan swing. The last zipline was a tandem line (to provide more weight, go faster, and ensure that everyone reaches the end of the longest, 750m cable); Marcus was right behind me in line, so we went together and proved to be extremely aerodynamic. We had a homemade burrito lunch, toodled around Santa Elena, then made an afternoon decision to visit the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. If you visit Santa Elena, you will see a woodwork artisan's shop from the road (Artesania de Madera). Walk towards "downtown", turn left at El Romantico Restaurante and follow the dirt road until you reach the front of this store/ house where a very nice old man named Graciendo makes beautiful jewelry and sculptures out of wood, seeds, and leather. 
• Our hike through the Cloud Forest Reserve was nice and relaxing with beautiful views--and it got very cloudy very quickly! If you go here, be sure to hit it early so you can see animals and the views of the valley, not impeded by clouds. (Also the park only lets in 150 people at a time, so make sure you are one of those 150!) A cloud forest is very similar to a rain forest, except it gets its moisture from the clouds rather than from actual falling precipitation. Once again, we didn't see much wildlife (some iridescent Blue Morpho butterflies that surprise you when you see their brightness out of the corner of your eye), a few birds and an interesting looking centipede.
• FYI, I peed in the jungle :)
• While we waited for a taxi, I walked down the road and stumbled upon a free-admission Hummingbird Gallery, which ended up being quite a highlight of an already-highlighted day; there were 5-6 hummingbird feeders dripping with sugar water, and teeming with nearly 50 hummingbirds of so many different sizes, colors, patterns. They zoomed around, squeaking, careening close to my face and neck. (Think: toothpick flying at you at 60 mph). Such a breathtaking experience, such a simple pleasure: Mom, this is the main reason I wanted you to come to Monteverde, I think you would love the Hummingbird  Gallery :) Then a late-night chat session on the stoop of El Mundo de los Insectos (World of Insects museum), where Philippe thought the insects were throwing those rocks at him, Matito freaked out about a scary cat, and all the boys at some point peed on Insect World. 
• Most of our group left on the 6:00 bus back to San José, but the rest stayed until 2:00. Walked around the little towns, visiting artisans and little art shows and practicing our Spanish with the shopkeepers (visit La Luna Azul and House of Art for locally-made and beautiful art/jewelry/clothing). Brief freak-out when Matito's and my bus tickets somehow fell out of my pocket and I had to retrace my steps in the rain (and miss out on the cheese factory, where I was headed when I realized my pockets were empty), but we managed to reach San José safely after a 6.5 hour bus ride--ugh--where I sat beside a man with the hairiest arms I'd ever seen, and temporarily lost my shoes when I gave my seat to a man who'd been standing up the whole time. Back at home at 8:30, totally exhausted, for good reason.