Taxis from hell

After Lisanne got in, the rest started to arrive without too many problems. A few glitches here and there, but nothing disastrous. After Farhan arrived, we went to the Festival de Zapote which is a big party in Zapote that pretty all of San Jose goes to around Christmas time. It´s like a state fair or carnival in the states but packed with people. You could barely walk. We arranged to take a taxi and like many dishonest taxi drivers they took us the absolute longest way possible to get there. We finally made it and wandered around for a bit checking things out, listening to blaring music, and having a couple of beers. It wasn´t really my thing, but you gotta check stuff out at least once. After that we made the mistake of trying to get a cab. Unfortunately the cabs will only take 4 people, and there were six of us. Lovely. Not only that, but EVERYBODY and their mom needed a cab! Also, there were a lot of pirate taxis driving around and charging outrageous prices-especially if you´re a foreigner. Farhan and I had a nasty incident with one guy who agreed to one price, and then decided to change his mind once he heard Farhan speaking English. I told him to stop the car and we promptly got out. It´s really the principle of the thing...Like I said I can´t stand taxi drivers.

Adventure vacation continued

Wow..I never get a chance to write these things. So by the time I finally get around to it, I have a million more things to add since the last time. sigh... Anyway, in addition to the rental car troubles and the hotel isues, I came down with some kind of crazy fever the day before the first of my friends arrived. I´m still not sure if it was something I might have eaten in Nicaragua or just the general "gripe" that was going around during Christmas time. So anyway, the family was kind enough to take me to the airport to pick up Sunny and Lisanne. Apparently, the two had decided to meet in baggage claim and then head out together. Naturally, there was some kind of misunderstanding with flight times and arrivals and so Sunny came outside and Lisanne never "showed up" Also, people from the outside are not allowed go into the airport. So we waited for 2 hours, no one had my contact information and I certainly didn´t have anyone´s contact information on me. What a fiasco! We didn´t know if Lisanne had made it, had gotten kidnapped, or her plane had been taken over by terrorists. Not only that but my Tico dad was waiting because we had to go to a party that evening, and we were already two hours late! Anyway, after waiting for several hours and trying to call information and not having any luck, we finally left the airport and went to the party. From there Sunny and I tried to contact the others that were coming and get some phone numbers circulating so that Lisanne could contact us. Meanwhile, I was batting piñatas, and exchanging gifts, and trying not to keel over from my fever. We left the party and begged the family to take us back to the airport. We drove by the front and till saw no signs of a tearful Lisanne waiting outside. We left the airport and headed back to the house, when we got a call just as we arrived from Lisanne! Somehow Kara had gotten a hold of her and contacted us from the e-mail that we´d sent earlier. Lisanne had decided to wait for Sunny in the airport until the last possible minute (when everyone had cleared out of there) and then finally made her way outside. Not seeing anyone, she went back in and got someone to let her make a phone call. Soooo, we had to go all the way back to the airport and pick her up. What a way to start your vacation....but wait it gets better...

Friends from the States

Well...I´ve been meaning to put up some posts about my second week of Christmas vacation, but classes have started and I´ve been busy getting things organized and ready. Anyway, I had been planning a week of vacation with some of my college friends for the last several months. Let me tell you what a headache that was trying to get it organized. Costa Rica is definitely not as efficient when it comes to organizing these kinds of things. Since my friends were coming during peak season, reservations and plans all had to be done in advance because there are a million tourists here during this time of year. "Makinga resevation" does not mean calling up a hotel and leaving your credit card number. No....that would be too easy. It means, calling up the hotel, making the reservations for the exact days, going to the bank to deposit hard cash into some kind of account, taking the receipt and faxing it to the hotel so they have everything and are sure that you are actually coming to stay. This might not be so bad if I had a car and could get to places quickly, but no...this means taking one of the many buses to go to the bank, then walking to another place to find a fax machine and paying to fax a receipt to the hotel!!! Now imagine this scenario for each hotel that you want to stay at for each leg of the trip. What a pain in the a**!!
Anyway, after coming back from Nicaragua, I only had a few days to get things organized and double check on some small details..which turned out to be not so small..go figure. One, I must have eaten something in Nicaragua because I got insanely sick when I returned. Fever, fatigue, the works...lovely time to get sick. Also, I had called a rental car place here trying to get a good deal on a rental car for my friends. Normally, rentals are around $400-$500 plus insurance (because CR roads are crap) plus a $1500-$2000 deposit. Pretty hefty investment. Anyway, I found a place that rented cars relatively cheaply and with a much smaller deposit. I had reserved the car about 2 weeks before and was calling to verify the reservation. When I called, the company told me that they didn´t have any reservation on file and that they didn´t have any cars available for 6 people. Good....especially since my friends were coming in 2 days and all the hotels, etc. had been reserved. I love a crisis. Apparently, there had been some kind of mixup with what was on the computer and what was on paper. Not too sure how that happened, but they told me they would try and find me something. You get what you pay for.....more to come on the "adventure vacation."

The next day

The next morning Danny and I went to the boat dock to await the arrival of our friend. He was supposed to be on the first boat coming from Los Chiles. After about an hour of watching people come in from the dock we realized that our "friend" wasn't on the boat. Well...we felt pretty helpless at that moment and decided to head back to Costa Rica on the next boat which was leaving at 1 PM. We walked back in and sat down to wait for our boat. While we were sitting there pondering what had happened and what a crappy vacation this was turning out to be we started talking and convinced ourselves that "hey, we're in f***ing Nicaragua! Why don't we take advantage of it?!" We knew that the original plan was to take another riverboat ride down the Rio San Juan to El Castillo, so we asked the local guy working at the dock where the boat was. He pointed us to the next dock over and told us when the boat left. We picked up our stuff and headed over and bought tickets to El Castillo.
El Castillo is a small river town with a Spanish fort, which was used in the past to watch for pirates coming down the river. Danny and I had a small tour of the place with a Spanish couple from Barcelona. The fort itself was still being renovated, but the view was incredible from the top. I'll try to put some pics up soon. We stayed the night in El Castillo and then went back to San Carlos. Originally we were going to the Solentiname Islands which are reknowned for their balsa wood crafts, but because of our delayed schedule we changed our minds and decided to go to Granada. We got back to San Carlos in time to buy our tickets for the 3 PM boat leaving for Granda. Now this boat was enormous compared to the little motorboats we were taking on the river. The line for the boat was just as long. I guess everyone else had the same idea. Anyway, the boat had two levels. Economy class on the bottom with uncomfortable wooden seats for a fourteen hour trip, or first class with hammocks, faux leather seating, A/C, and movies. Naturally we chose first class. I managed to find some spare seating so Danny and I didn't have to sit outside and we passed the night watching The Longest Yard in English with no subtitles and a bunch of non-Englishg speaking passengers. Yup..makes a lot of sense. The ride was pretty long, but interesting - although next time I think I'll take the bus. We arrived in Granada with the sunrise, no place to stay, and pretty worn out from the trip. The sunrise was incredible and it was nice to be on dry land again. Danny and walked for about 20 minutes and found ourselves a nice, cheap hostel and checked in. After a short nap, we headed out into town to explore.
Granada was incredible! It has lovely colonial architecture, clean streets, and friendly people. The houses and churches are painted bright colors and have indoor gardens that you can catch a glimpse of while walking by. Like all Spanish towns, it had a central plaza with hotels, restaurants, artesans, people selling food, and people just enjoying the sun and the weather. They even had a really large Christmas tree put up in the center. It also had a central market selling all kinds of things from vegetables, fruits, meats, clothes, etc. It was very similar to the market I saw in Mexico. San Jose also has one, but the area is not too safe so I don't go there too often.
That night I hung out with Danny in front of the hostel and met some other travellers. One guy Pete had just gotten laid off so was travelling around Central America and hanging out in Nicaragua for a while. I also started talking with one of the artesans that worked in the plaza, Carlos. Later that evening Danny and I went to a campfire with Pete and some of the other people at one of the other hostels. We sat around, drank beer, played music, and just relaxed. It was a very nice evening. After that we headed to another bar, danced and chatted, while Carlos flirted me up. Pics to come soon.
The next day I had to leave, so I took one last tour of Granada with Carlos. We went into one of the churches, and for $.30 you could climb to the top of the bell tower and see the entire city. You could even walk out onto the roof! It was absolutely amazing. After that we headed to the lakeshore and hung out at the park until I had to take the bus home.

Nicaragua for the holidays

Well, I left for Nicaragua two days ago on Sunday. The original plan was to meet at 5 AM in the morning at the bus stop with 3 other teachers - one of whom was the organizer of the trip. I arrived at the expected time and saw only one other teacher there. We waited and waited, got on the bus and the other 2 never showed up. The bus left with me on it, the other teacher, no guidebooks, and no organized plan. We rode 5 hours to Los Chiles which is right on the border of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The other teacher, Danny, and I decided to call and try to find out what happened. Perhaps they had had an emergency, etc. We called and called and finally got a hold of one them, Lola. Apparently her alarm clock didn´t go off. Okay... After waiting around for an hour we managed to get a hold of the other one only to hear the same story. I'm amazed at how many faulty alarm clocks there are in the world. Clearly quality control is not doing its job. However, the other teacher, Mark, told us he would try to catch the afternoon bus to Los Chiles and meet up with us the next morning in Los Chiles.
So, we got into a riverboat which takes you to San Carlos, which is the port town on the Nicaraguan side of the border. The riverboat ride was fantastic! We managed to push our way onto the boat with Danny near the motor and me at the front. I guess people just aren´t used to seeing Asians because everyone was just staring at me the whole time. Or perhaps it was my dazzling good looks... However, it was really peaceful, the sun was shining, and you could see all kinds of wildlife wandering about. I think I saw a few egrets and herons. After about two hours, we landed in the swampy port town of San Carlos. Not too pretty. After stepping out of immigration, we walked right into the market area full of mud, unpaved streets, and men bugging you to change your money into Cordobas, the Nicaraguan currency, or asking to carry your maletas (bags).
Danny and I wandered about trying to figure out what we were going to do there for the night. I was worried about my stuff getting stolen, and also about finding a place to stay the night while we waited for our friend to arrive in the morning. Apparently there were nicer places ¨up the hill¨ , according to our no-show guide, but even now I´m still not sure what hill and what nice places our friend was talking about. Anyway, we finally decided on a place that was at the bottom of the so-called hill and promptly fell asleep. The room was pretty crappy with dim flourescent lighting, a cama matrimonial, and the shower, toilet, and huge garbage bin filled with dirty looking water all in the same bathroom with no division between the toilet and the shower. Pretty sketchy... Anyway, we woke up later in the evening feeling pretty out of sorts and decided to try to find some food. We headed out of the place realizing that we didn´t really know of anywhere to go and the place looked pretty dodgy at night. I started to talking to what looked like a kindly old lady standing near the front to ask her where the nearest place to eat was. She proceeded to walk with us down the market from earlier and show us to a kind of BBQ type setup and then walked away. Fifteen minutes after we ordered, she showed up again and asked us for money for a bus trip. I didn´t really understand the whole exchange rate, so I naively agreed to help her out - until I realized that she was asking for twenty dollars! Apparently, transportation prices are pretty high in Nicaragua comapred to CR. Naturally, I didn´t want to give her the money. She followed us all the way back to the place and somehow I managed to avoid paying her the money without any problems.

Phone numbers, bullriding, and cowboys

Well, a lot has happened since the last time I wrote..and that was only a few days ago. This past Thursday, I went to the famous Qbico again to hang out with some of the teachers. Naturally, I was sitting there like a dufus ogling Douglas, but too shy to say anything. Suddenly, things started happening. Douglas walks over and brings me my customary Pilsen michelada. However, I had already ordered my usual one. Naturally, I´m hoping that maybe he´s seen the light and decided that I´m the one for him, when he leans over and whispers that the beer is from the gentleman sitting behind me. Of course.... Anyway, I accept the beer and the accompanying phone number. sigh...the irony of it all. So, I go over and introduce myself to a big group of people and thank the guy, his name is Jhonny, for the beer. I find out that they are all med students studying here. Some are from Canada, France, Cuba, a really nice mixed group. We make some plans to go out on the weekend, and then I return to my group.
Naturally, I´m excited by this sudden turn of events, so I muster up the courage to have more than a three-word conversation with Douglas.
I lure him over to our table with a casual, "Douglas, tengo una pregunta." By this time, he´s looking slightly skeptical and maybe a little frightened? A moment of silence, and then in my wonderful Spanish, I procede to grill him as to why he hasn´t called, etc. I really was just kidding, but I think he looked a bit scared and started rambling on about my phone number being on a little piece of paper and how he lost it, and whatever other excuse he could think of. So then, I ask him why he didn´t ask me for my number again..mind you all in Spanish now. He then starts muttering something about how I come there so sporadically (lie of the year) etc. The last time I checked sporadically meant "occurring at irregular intervals." I don´t know if going there once week for the last 5 months really fits in that category.
All the while, I´m giving him the look I give my kids when I know they´re lying and doing a piss poor job of it. The whole hands on the hip with one eyebrow raised kind of thing. I thought I did a pretty good job.....scaring him away for good. I really was only kidding, but it´s hard to tell when you´re communicating in another language, in the dark with the music blaring, and people everywhere. The effect just really isn´t the same. sigh... Ah well.... I don't think he'll be calling anytime soon. D'oh!
I also went to a rodeo a few weekends ago at the Escuela de Ganaderia. It's kind of like A and M, but smaller. This focus primarily on agriculture, livestock, etc. I saw some crocodiles, sheep, bulls, Tepezcuintle, and hot Latin cowboys - one in particular, Orlando Castillo. The rodeo was never so interesting. Anyway, Tepezcuintle is a type of rodent that supposedly tastes delicious, but its endangered because so many people kill it for its meat. I'll try to post some pics this weekend.

Christmas is almost here!!!

The weather is starting to finally clear up and it's looking beautiful down here. The air is dry and it's been sunny for most of the day instead of raining all afternoon. Thank God! This bimester will finish up mid-December and then I've got three lovely weeks of vacation. Friends will be coming down, and we're planning on going to Arenal, Monteverde, and then to Guanacaste and the beach. I'll be sure to post some pics for those of you reading this thing.
I'm still struggling with the racism thing down here. So for those who don't know, Costa Ricans HATE Nicaraguans. Yup..the whole country. There was an incident where a Nica broke into someone's home and the guard dog, a Rottweiler, chewed on his hand until it reached the bone. After that, sales of Rottweilers went up drastically. I also still hate being called "China" by disgusting men that work on the street and being stared at like a piece of meat EVERYDAY!!! Apparently that's what they call all Asian people here, but I'm sure they wouldn't like it I started calling them Nicaraguans simply because they're Latino. As for the disgusting men, perhaps I should start flicking them off...I'm sure they wouldn't expect that from a little Japanese girl.
People here are also anti-CAFTA because supposedly American businesses won't pay for bringing electricity to the poor people in the countryside. Hmm...as if a little competition is a bad thing. Perhaps service would improve and foreigners could actually get cellphones, etc.
I'm planning on going to Nicaragua at the end of the bimester on a boat trip down the river. I can't remember the name of the river, but I think it will be a neat trip. I'll be sure to take pics! Until next post...