Pura vida mi familia y mis amigos!
We have much to catch up on!
Tortuguero
Two weekends ago (Sept. 24-26) I went on a trip with my gringa friends Corrylee and Abby to a place called Tortuguero. Tortuguero is a tiny little tourist town on the north Caribbean side of Costa Rica that is only accessible by boat or plane because it is cut off by canals (or lagoons - I'm not sure which is the right term). We left for San José at 4:30 a.m. in a taxi, took about a 2-hour bus ride from San José to a town called Cariari, where we waited for a couple hours and then took a hot, sweaty, bumpy, jungley and crowded bus ride to Pavona. Pavona is a rural area where we got on a boat to take us to Tortugero. I was so sleepy that the boat was rocking me to sleep.
When we got there, a local who had been on the bus since Cariari and also on the boat, showed us to our hostel which was called Princess Cabinas Resort, which was our hostel right by the beach. The local, Ricardo, stopped by a house where they had just baked fresh bread. He gave us a sample and it was AMAZING! It had some kind of subtle cheesy, sugary filling, but we were so hungry that it was like manna from heaven!
We got settled in our hostel, got some food, cooled off in the pool, and then it turned out that Ricardo and his brother Ronaldo gave tours, so we paid him for some tours, which I will describe momentarily!
I need to mention that right when we got to the hostel, there were people out surfing at the beach right in front! We were more interested in eating at that moment though, so we didn't get to watch (or join) them. The beach wasn't very nice either - black sand with lots of flies and kind of littered. Supposedly the water has currents too, so we didn't go in.
That night we met with a group of six other tourists, Ronaldo and his little daughter, all of us dressed in dark clothes. Ronaldo gave us some brief instructions and then led us out to the beach to search for momma green sea turtles that come up to lay eggs at night. We found one right away and watched her lay her over 100 eggs by the light of Ronaldo's red lamp. Ronaldo explained that they go into a trance when they lay eggs, so he was able to hold one of her back fins out of the way so we could have a good view. When she finished laying eggs, she started covering up the nest with her fins. We went down the beach in another direction and watched another turtle creep up and start digging her nest, and then went back the other direction and watched another go out to sea. It was so amazing. It was supposed to have been a rainy weekend because of nearby hurricane effects, but it was really clear and almost a full moon, so we could see pretty well!
We learned some sad facts about the turtles. Apparently only 2 out of 1000 turtle eggs will hatch and make it to adulthood. Even before they hatch, they risk being dug up and snatched by raccoons, dogs and even local poachers who eat them. When they do hatch, birds will come and hunt them as they crawl to the ocean, and then those that make it that far have to swim a long ways to safety. Crazy! No wonder they are endangered.
Fun little tidbit was that one tourist in our group was the voice of one of the cartoon ninja turtles from the tv show!
The next day Ricardo took us on a canoe down the canals and pointed out a bunch of wildlife that I probably wouldn't have been able to see by myself. It was incredible how he could spot them! We saw a bunch of different plants, iguanas, a couple different types of herons, a caymen (small crocodile), a couple of howler monkeys, macaws from a distance, a Jesus Christ lizard (so called because it runs on top of the water, and a bunch of other birds. Sometimes there are manatees in the canals, but it is really rare to see them, so needless to say, we didn't see one.
Afterwards, we went on a short hike with our new British friends that we made, named Hannah and Lucia. We didn't see much except for howler monkeys from a distance and a little land turtle.
That afternoon we got coffee and banana bread at a little café owned by a lady named Dorling. Dorling was really nice and ended up talking to us for about an hour about some writing she was working on. She, like 85% of the Tortuguero population, was Nicaragua and knew a lot about the history and politics of Nicaragua's past. She writes about that and about experiences of interesting individuals who have stories to tell related to culture and history. It was a really cool conversation. Well, it was pretty much just her talking and us nodding our heads and saying "Mmm, sí," but it was really cool to hear what one of the locals had to say.
Another tidbit about the locals is that, since it IS the Caribbean, there is a small Afro-Caribbean population in Tortuguero who speak a really different version of broken English, whose name I can't remember at the moment. A few of them ran the hostel we stayed at, so we got a sample of how they talk, but didn't really understand anything they said!
That night we went out to dinner with Hannah and Lucia, and then walked around town a little bit before going to bed. Dinner was chicken with a coconut sauce, two different kinds of rice, typical cabbage salad and veggies and was delicious! I met a girl in town who was from Spokane and new people who go to Whitworth. Weird!
The next day we made the trip home, accompanied by Hannah and Lucia all the way to San José. I forgot to mention that they just graduated from "uni" in England and had spent two months traveling from Mexico through Central America and had just gotten to Costa Rica on Friday. Poor Hannah had her backpack stolen on one of the bus rides. She'd put it up above her and dozed for a few minutes, so that when we got to our stop, it had disappeared. Thank the Lord, she had her passport in a fanny pack under her shirt though! Other than that, we had fun getting to know them!
Well, since I am sooo detailed, I can't fill in the rest of the haps here at the moment, but I'll talk about today and then fill in the holes later.
Coffee Tour Fieldtrip
Today is Saturday, on which I went with my Spanish and culture class on a fieldtrip to Santa María de Dota, which is a coffee plantation. We got a little tour informing us about the toasting and cultivating process of their coffee and then were treated to a little presentation by some barristas, one of which was a girl who had one the nation barrista championships two years in a row! They made us some samples and then we piled into the van.
We then drove about a half hour up in the hills to a small organic coffee farmer's house. The women of the household made us these delicious sandwiches! Then the farmer took us on a walk, giving us very impassioned talks about sustainable living, agro-chemicals, contaminated water, economics, etc., all of which was kind of scattered and hard to follow, but very thought-provoking nonetheless. He also showed us the house of a couple indigenous women, which was pretty basic and bare. He told us that he and some other farmer friends are working to give the women new types of stoves to use that are more environment friendly, because they don't emit dangerous chemicals like a woodstove does. We were all a little confused about what exactly he was trying to tell us, but felt that his main point was that he was trying to do his part, no matter how small, to save the planet and care for the indigenous women in his area. If anyone's interested in his stove project, go to www.SeaChar.org.
We went back to the house for cafecito and then packed ourselves into the van and drove through the foggy mountains to get back to Heredia at 5:30. We all have group projects about some aspect of coffee, so my group met to talk when we got back and then I took the bus home with my friend Holly. Now I must work on my part of the project, but will definitely be writing another post soon. Hopefully I will learn to be more succinct so you won't have to read novels! Love you all and please remember me in your prayers.
Pura vida,
Caitlin
P.S. My internet is being troublesome, so I will post pictures later as well.
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