Living the Pura Vida

Arriving in San Jose ranks in my top most frustrated intercultural experiences.

This time it was not a crazy taxi driver that drove my insanity but rather an Automated Teller Machine that told me that I overdrew my account.  Also, a broken camera.  Poor Sarah who had to ride shotgun with Wilber while I sat in the back freaking out.  Lo siento para todos.  Luckily, everything got worked out.  Simply a dead camera battery and an incorrect receipt.  Gracias a Dios.

When we got to the house, we met our family.  Doña Maria and Marlene are incredible.  I literally could not have been put into a better housing situation.  They have their own catering business, so as you can imagine, the food is incredible.  Naturally, there is a lot of rice and beans.  I look forward to breakfast and dinner every single day.  Whenever we wake up, they have breakfast ready.  Juice, coffee, fruit, eggs, and usually ham.  At promptly six pm, we have a dinner of meat, salad, rice and beans, and usually a side dish. All amazing.

Our house is so nice.  There are four-five bedrooms, a sitting area, a dining room, several bathrooms, a kitchen, and a beautiful garden.  About the garden, Marlene has made a full replica of the Nativity from the beginning to the end.  All of the buildings are made of cardboard and painted in incredible detail.  It's really insane but awesome.  At night, there are lights and a waterfall.  So crazy.

Basically, for the last several days, we have just been walking around getting our bearings on the city.  We bought souvenirs, ate at some restaurants, and, as can only be expected, watched people like no one's business.  In a lot of ways, this city is really strange.  It's unlike any other that I have been in, and I love it.  Finally using the Spanish that I've been working on for years is extremely gratifying.  Also difficult.

 Our first adventure occurred two days ago.  We planned our own excursion to Monteverde.  It's an ecological center about 4 hours away from San Jose that has canopy tours and various other things.  While the ride up the tiny unpaved mountain trail was not exactly picturesque, the town was beautiful.  The first person that we talked to was the lady at the visitors' center who told us that there were no activities we could do in the time period.  We ended up heading to this butterfly garden, against my will.  Luckily, they also offered canopy tours, which we so nicely asked about to which they obliged.  The tour included zip lines, repelling, and a Tarzan swing.  Our guides were so nice and helped us out a ton with our Spanish.  So much for the visitors' center.  After this, we ate lunch and shopped before getting back on the bus to head home.  We were absolutely exhausted.  We went to get our tickets for the bus, and the man told us there were no more.  Trying to hold composure, I just stared at him, and he didn't console me at all.  Finally, a guy who spoke English came in and told us that we could buy a ticket and would just not have seat.  It surely would have been nice if the man selling tickets would tell us that.  So, we were back on the bus, and after about 20 minutes, seats opened up and I fell fast asleep.  Amen.

This trip has been absolutely incredible already.  I can't wait to see what the month holds in store.

Next up on the blog: the New Years Eve that I will never forget.