Costa Rica Tica: I'm at it AGAIN!: Adventura en la Selva

I can't believe that I am already starting my third week of teaching! Last week went well, and I am hoping the weeks continue to get better and better.

In Materno, we made the cutest crafts for B and C, including BumbleB's and Caterpillar Chains. The girls (I had 5 last week) loved the projects! The were sassy in their homemade necklaces....

Counting the Chocolate Chip in Cookies for C

Having fun

Also, Thursday was Mother's Day here in Costa Rica, so we got Thursday off. You can see the beautiful bouquets of flowers we made for the moms above. :) We also had a celebration at the school Wednesday night, and that must have been one of the most bizarre celebrations I've ever attended other than last year's Carnival in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Let's just say there was this game that entailed musical balloons, sitting on the balloon to pop it, and answering the (somewhat inappropriate) questions inside...Karaoke, whole-pineapples-with-marshmallows-on-toothpicks centerpieces, (great) food, and a mom/teacher dressed in a short skirt and (unflattering) corset top. AT SCHOOL. In front of children. Nuff said.

The older kids continue to work on their animal projects, and they are eating up every second of science. Like I've mentioned, they went from 40 minutes of science a week to having about 40 minutes almost every day. and they are so excited. It's their favorite time of the day! They will be doing their presentations on Friday, so I look forward to seeing their finished products. :)

BUT the real fun starts with my weekend adventure into the jungle!!!!I know that words will not be able to describe how a felt about all of it, but I will do my best.

Alyssa (my Materno volunteer) and I decided that we wanted to head to Matapalo, a small surf town at the tip of the peninsula, for the weekend. We were planning to just head down there, find a hostel, eat out, and enjoy the beach. Maybe we'd even go to the bars one night.

WELL. THANK GOODNESS we talked to Nela, our school's secretary and my new friend. Her boyfriend lives in Matapalo, so she gave us the local ins and outs that we were missing. Turns out, there's no such thing as a STORE or even a single restaurant in Matapalo, so we needed to bring all of our own food (and beer, since obviously there was no bar) and supplies. She told us it was camping. SWEET I thought, I love camping.

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA YEAH.....RIGHT. Don't get me wrong, I DID LOVE it! But let's start with the beginning. We talked to Nela Friday, and she said that she was leaving after school to go to Matapalo too, so we could just ride with her and split gas. Long story short, Alyssa was iffy about going since she needed to save money, but we worked out a deal and made it happen. We rushed home after school to pack our supplies, food, and clothes, and Nela picked us up at our humble abode. Of course, no roads are paved here, so we headed out of town on one of the less bumpy roads, or "highways" as the locals refer to it. At best, it's a packed gravel road with less potholes than the rest.

After a thirty minute drive through pouring rain and endless cow fields, we reached the jungle just in time for the fall of darkness. This is where I began to doubt my sanity in planning such a spur of the moment "camping" trip. Slowly but surely, the roads were becoming so rocky and slick that an all-terrain vehicle would have suited us better than any decent vehicle. The rain was causing the roads to trickle like small, lengthy waterfalls, and the rivers that we had to cross seemed to be rushing with new rain. Nela took us to our hostel, a place owned by some of her American friends, at the literal end of the road. The upside is that we were beach front, so beggars can't be choosers. Not a soul seemed to occupy this jungle "retreat," and it was so dark that I couldn't see more than a foot in front of me. Snakes I had heard were our biggest danger, but not in my mind. What about poachers, drug smugglers, men-in-the-night, woolly beasts, wild untamed animals?!?! Anything was a possibility in my poor mind. I don't mind the dark, and I like being outside, but sometimes the two together, especially in an unfamiliar, remote jungle, may just give me the creeps. Nela showed us the kitchen and hang out space for the hostel, and she attempted to show us our "platform" despite the deep darkness. Can I remind you that the entire town runs off of solar power, and therefore uses NO lights after dark, only candles?! Thankfully we had headlamps, but STILL. Darkness like this is serious.

Finally we made our way to our "platform" which I had been also doubting the whole time. She said camping - I knew we had beds, but would we have walls? A door? Anything over than a roof and a platform? Luckily, from what I could see, we had a porch and a canvas tent with two real beds!!

Macho (that's literally the guy's name), a shirtless Tico with some teeth and a huge mustache, came and gave us sheets and a candle, and in my mind, he knew that it was only us two girls staying there, alone, in the middle of the jungle. (Thanks Mom, for making me paranoid about people in hotels who know which room in yours. I blame you for that part of my fear.)

Sidenote: Nela had invited us to dinner at her boyfriend's house, but there was no way were were going to walk anywhere in this darkness and rain. We knew that if we left here, we were bound to be lost in the jungles forever.

Once settled, we knew that tomorrow, we'd wake up, wondering why we were so scared of the untouched forest around us. We KNEW it'd be beautiful and overflowing with life. I did lie in bed, wondering why I could see through my "wall" for part of the evening, but overall, the beds were more comfortable than ours at the house, so we slept well, despite our initial terror.

WE WERE RIGHT THANK GOODNESS. We woke up to howler monkies and macaws in the trees, and we were even able to barely see another house or two on the property. What a relief. We walked down to the kitchen, made some breakfast, and continued down to one of the most beautiful beaches I have seen in all my travels. Seriously. Turquoise waters lined with dark rocks on points to my left and right. Sand that was soft even though it was an unusual mix of the tiniest, crushed and polished pebbles. Coconut palms and other vibrant greens lined the beach, and surfers attempted to surf on the "flat" (AKA 6-8ft) waves! Ahhhhhh.....Not too shabby. :)

After a nice day, we went to say bye to Nela at her boyfriend's house. There was no ATM in town, and we had only brought enough cash to scrape by for one night. HOWEVER, they knew the owners, and he said he would just get the money from us in town so that we could stay another night. SWEET. We hung out with Nela and Drew (the bf) all afternoon, and we even threw together a nice little fish taco dinner made with a fresh Pargo Drew's friend had caught a few days ago. This time, we weren't so afraid to walk back to our cozy platform, and we enjoyed listening to the frogs as we fell asleep.

Sunday brought another beautiful day for weather, and we just relaxed and tanned our little hearts out. Nela came by to hang out, and we chilled with some of the surfers on their breaks at high tide. I could get used to this REAL fast. I have never been so off the grid (even my electronics ran out of battery), and I must say, I enjoyed good old-fashioned conversations with real people from all different walks of life. Do I HAVE to go back to school?! Or can I just run away here forever?

The afternoon brought torrential rain (as usual) but luckily, Alyssa and I had made it to the collectivo stop at the top of town just in time. A collectivo is like a shared taxi, and when I rode one in Panama last time, it was simple a 15-passenger van, crammed full of strangers who also needed a cheap ride. Turns out, this collectivo was a liiiitttttllleee different. I do not exaggerate when I say this was a utility truck, like a flat bed, with fashioned seats and a tarp over the sides and top. The front and back was open though, and of course there was standing room only for Alyssa and I. I know this is bad, but I felt like I was being smuggled illegally over some sketchy border riding in this thing. Thank goodness it had stopped raining too, or we all would have been soaked, and Alyssa and I would have been pelted in the face for our 30 minute stand up ride.

We made it back safe though, with NO money in our pockets, so we had to talk the driver into letting us run to the ATM in town. Then, we headed to the best pizza place in town (it's run by Italians!) and then off to bed after a busy weekend.

Wow, what a weekend, is all I can say. I think the tally for wildlife included 4 types of monkeys (howler, squirrel, capuchin, and spider), countless macaws, agouti (big rodent), skunk, iguanas, sea turtles, and a black hawk. I'm hoping to go back to Matapalo in two weeks for a surf lesson with one of the surfers we met. Maybe this time though, I'll be a little more prepared. :)