M.I.A.

Clearly I'm not excelling at the 'frequent updates' part of this blog-experiment.

That said, I do have a semi-legitimate excuse...my friend Cali was in town for 2 weeks and essentially took me as a hostage on a tour around Costa Rica. 

Since I've got to get home and get ready for the afternoon session (as I sit here typing, half of Nosara has driven past en route to the beach and I am getting extremely anxious), I am going to post a few photos from the last few weeks and provide a brief commentary for your general entertainment:

The mountain of fruits and veggies that I bought from the truck that passes through my neighborhood on Monday and Friday mornings. I bought all of this food for less than $10 (and I got the lechee's thrown in for free!)

The much-anticipated photo of my favorite bike path from the Tucan to my casita. It's slightly muddy right now since it rained a few days ago, and my friend Rolo has borrowed my bike, but I'll be popping jumps over the exposed pipe again soon! :)

A picture from the Motorcross competition that we went to in Monteverde. It's much cooler there and it also happened to be raining the entire afternoon -- I'll have to post a picture of our feet another time -- it was a huge track and we stood right at the top of this turn. One of the guys actually went off the track and wound up having to drive around us!

A picture of the road into downtown Nosara after a day-long rain. There's actually a little bridge over the river in there that you might be able to make out. There's a sign for Century 21 that is usually about a foot from the bottom of the bridge that was half-submerged. As you can imagine, that white truck was not going anywhere any time soon.

Last Friday we took the quads over to Ostinal to see the Tortugas come in to lay their eggs. This happens a few times a year, but this last time there were 1.5 millions turtles arriving! We got some video of one of the turtles laying eggs. It was phenomenal (and very smelly)!!!

Must run - the ocean beckons - but I will post again soon!!

pura vida!!!

Permagrin

The last 2 days have been a whirlwind of exciting new developments, and I've got about 15 minutes before it starts to pour, so I'll try to type quickly in an effort to capture as much as possible.

The Title of today's post refers to the state of my face after I caught the sweetest wave this morning. The conditions were perfect and the line up was filled with energy -- especially after this rogue wave came through and kicked my ass (cover your ears, mom). I ditched my board (a big surfing no-no) and dug sand for this badboy -- it basically broke right on top of me and tossed me up, down, and sideways. Nothing like a little spin cycle to get the adrenaline going! After I recovered, I decided to take one last wave in and get the rest of my day started. That was when my perfect wave came along and I rode it in to the beach. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee! :-D

After my previous post I am delighted to let you know that a) I've figured out that it was user-error that was causing my quad to malfunction and b) I discovered I can take my bike 

through a short cut from my casita to the free Internet that involves no hills, other vehicles and even has two little exposed pipes that I can do a little jump over. It's pretty much the best discovery ever! (Chris, it beats the paths in Alley Pond hands down!)

I also received a cooking lesson from my neighbor Enrique, and in theory, I now know how to cook arroz (rice) and pintos (beans) properly. The secret is that basically every recipe calls for peppers, onions, garlic and salt. Enrique also told me about a weekly organic market up the block and a vegetable truck that drives through our neighborhood where I can buy my fresh fruits and veggies for much cheaper than at the mini-super (who ought to hold a gun up when they tell me my total grocery bill). 

But wait, there's more! I also now know where the carneria (meat shop) is AND even made it to the Post Office to set up a PO Box so that I can officially receive mail! For those of you interested in writing, sending care packages or forwarding your junkmail, my address is: 

Apdo 155 - 5233

50206 - Costa Rica

No, really. That's my entire address. You should also know that mail takes about 12 days to arrive from the states, so perishables are probably not a good idea. The other interesting tidbit I learned is that the mail sometimes goes to Puerto Rico and/or Sri Lanka first. I have no idea why, and have learned not to bother asking -- pura vida! :)

My friend and co-English teacher Tasha and I also decided to take a yoga class yesterday morning at the Nosara Institute. The class is held in an open pavillion in the tree tops at the Nosara Institute.  

I'm off to check the conditions, now that it appears that the rain is going to hold off for a while....Pura vida!

PS - A fresh coconut to the first person to teach me how to format hard returns in the body copy!?? 

Who needs coffee?

Coffee may be one of Costa Rica's main exports, but even with one of the highest caffeine content, one cup can't compete with going out surfing first thing in the morning. I practically sleep walk my way down to the beach, but as I'm walking the board out into the water there's usually one good, solid wave that gives me my 'good morning!' smack in the face and I'm wide awake.

I've decided to switch up my routine and go surfing in the mornings for a number of reasons. First, I got tired of hearing my friend Kimbo tell me how good the waves were in the morning when I saw him later in the day. I've also found that waiting until the afternoon has the potential to drive me insane, as I count down the hours until the tide to comes back in (usually around 4) and pray that the good weather keeps up so I don't have to surf in the rain. I also started the English classes yesterday and have to be in town by 5pm, which even with the quad would be cutting it a little close.

Speaking of my favorite mode of transportation, I've had to invest in a bicycle because the quad has been a little tempermental as of late (read, not turning on).  I probably haven't ridden a bike since I was 8 and played 'keep up with my brother and his friends' as they took every steep hill through Alley Pond Park after school. I had a sweet little Diamondback that I got for my first communion with hand brakes and those little pegs that you could do tricks on (not that I did). 

The one I bought today is a 'Sydney SuperPro' and was almost certainly manufactured before I was born. It's in the bananaseat family, minus the basket - and I actually have to paddle backwards to break. Yep, forgot about that too, eh? With one purchase, bike riding has been transformed from a social activity (if you can call chasing my brother through the park an activity) into a mode of transportation - effectively taking almost all of the fun out of it. This is especially true as I'm walking the bike up the hill, gasping for air. The fun part comes in when I'm dodging the Nosara-style pot-holes that are created when it rains (think the opposite of mini-moguls).

In the meantime, my quad is safely parked at home, where the cats are using it as a playground until it decides to start again. As you can see from the photo, I'm also mastering the art of chasing the sunshine down the clothesline -- taking full advantage of the sun while we have it. I've learned that after it's rained for a few days, things that haven't necessarily been exposed to water (books, clothes, etc) take on this psuedo-damp quality and can benefit from spending some quality time out in the sun.

Stay tuned for more lessons from the rainforest! :-P

La primera semana

So I realize that in order for this to qualify as a blog, I'm going to have to update it on a semi-frequent basis. I'll aim for more than once a week, but I'm going to have to take baby steps here,...but remember, this is my first blog.

The other determining factors have been a) the rain. a lot of it and b) my inexperience in driving a quad. I'll expand upon those for you, since they have been a pretty big part of my life the last 6 days.

The Rain (or la lluvia) - the last 2 days have been pretty wet. Which shouldn't really come as much of a surprise it being the 'wet season' and my living in the rainforest. It got pretty heavy for a while there yesterday and basically the river flooded downtown Nosara. Which is like 6km away from where I live. A lot of the people who live down there had to evacuate to a nearby school over night. One of my friends actually spotted a crocodile 50 meters from his house. The roads have been fine, but riding in the rain is not high on my list of favorite activities, even if it is still in the 70s. 

The Quad (or my wheels) - it's a pretty small town, totally walkable, but way more fun when you're cruising around on a four-wheeler. I had never actually driven one before and am using the quad that belongs to the people whose house I am watching. I was given a 5 minute overview and left to my own devices. It's pretty straightforward, but since I wasn't comfortable going up on the main road (with the cars, motorcycles and pedestrians) just yet, I was just driving around the block in my neighborhood a lot. Which isn't the worst thing ever, we've got a mini-super (think expensive bodega) and an internet cafe/dvd rental place, who are very happy to have me sign over the rights to my firstborn son for 20 minutes of internet time.

The ideal scenario involves getting on the quad when it's not raining, and driving over to the Tucan (the hotel/restaurant my friends own) and stealing erm, I mean, borrowing, web access from here. Hence today's update. :-)

I've been able to take my neuva tabla (new surfboard) out a few times now and am a very happy camper. It's extremely responsive and easy to manuever -- of course that's only been in the whitewater, so we'll see how she does on the greens this afternoon. :-)

The casita I'm living in is one of the oldest in Nosara and I'm sharing it with 2 crazy gatitos (little cats) Ron and Bina. They are totally wild and get in to everything, (they have a special fondness for the fridge) and are constantly on the hunt for cicadas (sp?), geckos, etc. which they then bring in to the house to play with.

Public enemy #1 right now are the nasty biting ants...which isn't bad in the grand scheme of things. Fortunately, I can outsmart them most of the time, and I've got the secret weapon - Off!

Speaking of which, I should be off since I've got to grab a bite before I head out to surf this afternoon. Hasta luego!

Pura vida!

The Press Release

In the interest of full disclosure, I feel that I need to inform everyone that despite the fact that I work (ed) in the Interactive industry, I have never been a huge fan of blogs. In fact, one might even go so far as to say that I was anti-blogging. I'm still not sure who has time to write them much less read them, however, due to popular demand I will do my best to keep a current record of my adventures in Costa Rica.





I pretty much dropped a bomb on my friends and loved ones when I announced my move this week, so I apologize for any casualties. The following is a brief collection of the top 3 FAQs I've received:




Q) WHAT?! seriously??!? (other variations include: really?!? shut up! wait a minute..you're going where?)


A) Yes, it's shocking and completely outrageous, but true. I am moving to Nosara, Costa Rica (see map -->) on Saturday morning. It's on the Nicoya Peninsula and has a population of under 1,000 (I don't have a reference to support this claim, but I'm pretty sure I read this somewhere)




Q) What are you going to do in Costa Rica?


A) Obviously a lot of surfing and eating gallo pinto (rice and beans) con lizano, but I am also going to be teaching English as a second language, and am exploring a number of other things. The possibilities are limitless!


Q) When are you coming back?

A) Hard to say. The way the customs system works I will definitely be back in 3 months (for a minumum of 72 hrs) -- but as far as moving back to the states, it's all going to depend on how things are going down there. Besides, my grandmother has committed to coming down and visiting (she's 84) after the holidays so I'm definitely holding out until then!! :-)

It's been a crazy week and my forecast for the rest of the week is partially crazy with a chance of showers but I'll try to write again and answer the 4th and 5th top FAQs before I leave.

Pura vida!