Moving Along

Free Week in Paradise

epacker933 — Wed, 2 Mar 2011 17:00:00 GMT

Hello everyone! I have internet. :) I am going a few weeks back to try an catch up, but have decided to split it into couple blogs in case of disconnection (and then loss of massive amounts of typing) so here we go!

I left the farm again.

This time with a group of 5 and we headed for the coast. 2 weeks on the farm had almost been too much for our antsy selves and we decided a trip to the beach would be a good solution. It was to be myself, Kristen (from my previous adventure), and the three lovely people from Colorado (Paul, April, Vera.) We hopped on a bus to San Jose expecting to catch an early ride to Tamarindo on the Pacific coast. After walking to the bus station where our bus was to leave from, we found out the "early" bus did not, in fact, exist. So we had 3 hours to kill in a bus station. We set up camp on some benches and almost Paul and Kristen went off to find a bank for Paul. I took the time to pull out a needle and thread and start to repair the strap on my backpack. After that was finished, we all ended up starting little sewing projects there in the station. April and I had shirts that we were hoping to turn into skirts and once the scraps were cut Vera stole the extra pieces to make herself a new top. When Kris and Paul returned they couldn´t help but giggle at us all sitting in a row folded over our little projects. The 3 hours actually flew by this way and soon we were in line to catch the bus. The ride was pretty much uneventful. Kristen and I shared earphones and listened and sang along to some music while we watched the scenery pass. It looked almost like anywhere at home. The trees werent tropical looking, and it was a lot of flatish farmland. The only difference was the mountain range off in the distance. It was a fuzzy grey reminder that I wasnt quite home. The bus made one stop and I grabbed a bit of rice and chicken and veggies to take on the bus with me since everyone else was packing peanut butter and I couldnt stomach it. As we pulled into Tamarindo we knew that we wouldnt be staying there long. It was a total tourist trap and the vibe was not what we were looking for at all. We found a hostal that wasnt full and got some things at the grocery to make for dinner. The cheapest meal turned out to be (gasp) a ramon noodle soup with a head of cabbage, onion, and carrot. We cooked a beat on the side for a little snack. The kitchen in the hostal was poorly stocked (as they usually are it turns out.) We scraped together a couple pots to cook with, and ended up sharing siverwear. I attempted to eat out of the coconut that I had hollowed in Golfito, but it turned out to have a slight leak. Not good for soup. Vera and I changed into our newly made skirts and we all went for a moonlight walk on the beach. When we finally made it back to the hostal there were quite a few people in the common area so we hung out there for a bit before hitting the sack. Travel days never fail to wear me out! Even though all you do is sit on a bus, and possibly change from bus to bus, it is exhausting for some reason. We planned to leave and head further south where we had 2 more friends staying at a condo near a beach called Junquillal. Paul and I were up first so we went to the store and bought bread and cheese and eggs for breakfast, and then cooked ours up and hardboiled the extra eggs for travel. The other three were up a bit later because they stayed in a room while Paul and I slept in the sunlit dorm with other people. That dorm had the first AC that I had experienced yet and so that was nice. We met a guy from South Carolina while we were having breakfast and he offered to rent a couple paddleboards for us all to play with before we left town so of course we couldnt resist that. We spent the morning and early afternoon playing in the surf and taking turns trying to paddleboard. It was a lot of fun, and I would love to try it more seriously another time! In the afternoon we commissioned a taxi van to take us south to the next beach.

We arrived at the entrance to the condos and were amazed! It was a really nice place and we were a bit self-conscious about our raggedy appearance and giant travel backpacks as we walked in. Our friend met us at the entrance and led us past a gorgeous pool to the 2-bedroom condo. We were in awe. The man who lived in the main bedroom was named Dan and he was a super nice man in his late 60s who seemed to enjoy having us there. We made dinner for him a couple times, and helped with his crosswords in the morning. The first day we immediately went down to the beach and set up Pauls slackline and ran into the ocean. For those of you who are not familiar, a slackline is basically a tightrope that you set up a few feet off the ground and attempt to walk across. He is pretty good, but none of us had ever done it before. We looked up videos on YouTube later and found people doing crazy tricks and even yoga on slacklines! Needless to say I never got that far. A few steps and I would inevitably fall off. But it was a lot of fun and a great way to break up your time playing in the waves. ;) The next day we hiked about an hour and a half up the beach to a place called Playa Negra and watched surfers for the afternoon. We collected a lot of shells, and quite a bit of sun as well. Once the tide came in it was impossible to walk home on the beach so we took the road back. This was a very dusty and long affair, and we were all pretty beat by the time we got back. I took the next day off from the sun and just read my book by the pool and learned how to make a few different knots for bracelets. I now have an ankle bracelet with shells that I collected that I am pretty proud of! Valentines Day was the only time we went out for a meal, and it was at a cute little place right on the water. The rest of the week was basically more of the same. It was a pretty relaxing time. Swimming in the pool or the ocean, walking to the market to get food to cook. By the end of the week we were all ready to get on the road and do something a little more exciting! Our last night we found a local place where there was dancing because April was really wanting to dance salsa. She does it at home in Colorado a lot and is a pretty darn good dancer. Paul, her and I went out and had a beer and danced with locals and had a pretty good time. As I am blond, I get asked to dance pretty often. Unfortunately I am not super good, but they usually dont mind too much. April found a couple guys who were good dancers and showed off a bit. Paul and I responded by going out and dancing like complete awkward Americans (he is a tall, redheaded guy so its pretty easy to stand out) and everyone got a pretty good laugh out of that. As we were getting ready to leave they played a few songs in English and so us and a few middle-aged women who were obviously on vacation danced as many ridiculous dances as we could think of to songs by Michael Jackson and James Brown. All in all it was a pretty goods way to end our stay in Junquillal.

Photos: From San Jose to Nicaragua

epacker933 — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 17:57:00 GMT

Photos: La Finca

epacker933 — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 22:42:00 GMT

last 2 weeks on the farm

¿Has it been that long?

epacker933 — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 14:36:00 GMT

Hello friends! SO sorry it has been so long since I updated, but you can take it as a sign that I am really enjoying my trip! So much has happened that I will apologize in advance for all the gaping holes in the tale. Hopefully I will be able to write enough that you get the gist of how much ground we have covered.

I believe I left off in Panama, which now seems ages ago. It was such a beautiful city, I recommend a trip to anyone just to see casca antigua, the old part of town. It will be changing so rapidly in the next few years that I feel really special to have been able to see its current condition. From Panama we made our way to Bocas del Toro. The first night was spent on Bostimentos which is the smaller, less touristy island. We were tired of the city, and wanted to enjoy some quiet. We took an overnight bus and I was shocked awake by Kristen telling me we had to get off the bus because we had arrived. It was still in the dark of morning and we stumbled off the bus, fought to find our bags among everyone else's from under the bus, then were herded into a pickup truck taxi with 7 other people to get to the coast. when we got to the water we paid and loaded into a water taxi that held about 12 people and their luggage. It was much chillier than it had been in the city, and we were all a bit asleep still, which made it worse. Then the boat started out across the water, and we hugged out bags for warmth on the 10min taxi to the island. About 5min into the trip the sky in front of us started to lighten, and by the time we took our 2nd taxi from Colon to Bostimentos it was sunrise. We arrived on the island and my two travel companions knew where they were going to stay, but I wanted somewhere cheaper so I followed the directions I had gotten from a friend in Panama City and walked til I found the islands Hostel Bostimentos. It was a crazy looking place up on a hill with wild colors and totem poles greeting you in the front. The boy who ran the place that early not only didnt speak english, but he was a terrible mumbler so I just got a room for myself in the dorm and crashed for about 2hours. When I woke up the other 2 beds in the room had already been filled, so I decided to venture out and check out the island. I knew I wouldnt be able to find my friends yet this early, so I just walked through the town taking in the sights. Chickens dogs and kids scattered as I walked down the street. People were on their porches or in their yards listening to music, chatting, shouting out hello. I walked until their was no street and turned and went up the hill where I found an old graveyard. The graves here are actually like individual vaults above ground, so it almost looks like a bunch of refrigerators lying on the ground. On the other side of the graveyard there was a tiny trail and I followed it into the jungle. Immediately I noticed little brightly colored frogs hopping away from me on the ground, and there was this big crazy sounding bird in the trees ahead of me. The bird turned out to be all over the island, and you could constantly hear its robotic sounding call coming from somewhere near. The only other more common bird that you heard was the grackle with its screaming call. I followed the trail in the jungle for a while, but finally decided I wanted something other than the water I had in my pack and so I headed back into town. I followed the signs up a huge hill for about 20min until I arrived at an organic farm that supposedly had iced teas and brownies, both of which I then indulged in. :) The brownie was made from cocao that they grew right there along with coconut oil and soy. It was delicious but unlike any US brownie! The tea was lemongrass tea and had a really light, refreshing flavor. It was completely worth the uphill hike to get to that little piece of shady heaven! After I had rested, I went back to the hostel and changed into my bathing suit and headed down the 25min trail to the beach. It was a beautiful hike, but I was so happy when I could hear the waves hitting the beach! When I arrived I took off my shoes and walked the length of it along the edge before settling in my things and playing in the water for the first time. I spent the rest of the day soaking in the sun and listening to the waves crash, then found my friends on the other end of the beach and we went to dinner. The next day we woke up and it was pouring rain. It continued to do so for the whole morning, so Chris and Kristen decided we should move on to the next destination. Luckily it was just across the water and so we arrived in the main town in Bocas. We met a couple old friends of Chris´s for lunch and then wandered around trying to find a hostel that wasnt already full. We finally found one, and I ended up in a 2 bunk room with 3 guys; two Aussies and a German. I showered and then met the german guy at the bus turned cafe outside the hostel for a snack. We ended up eating on the roof of the bus with a lovely couple we found up there. The guys went to the corner store and bought some cheap beer, and we all split a pizza from the woodfire oven that was right below us. Paul (the german) and I then went back to the hostel for happy hour and joined all our friends in the lounge. I ended up chatting with a couple young Israeli girls, and going out to ladies night at another place with them for a while before returning to the hostel with my 2 Aussie friends. The next day Kristen Chris and I took a tour that went from 10-5 and included seeing dolphins, some awesome snorkling, and visiting a beautiful beach call Red Frog. When we got back the sun was starting to go down, so we changed and Paul joined us for a nice dinner out on the water before heading back to the hostels happy hour. (Our hostel had $.50 beers from 7-8 every night so it was the most popular place in town.) We then played some fooseball and hung out until we were all too tired to stay up. The next morning we were packed to move on to the next destination, but I was a bit reticent. Bocas had been the most fun, and I had met the most people of our entire trip so far and I was sad to leave my new friends. After a water taxi and a bus ride we arrived at the border where were profoundly confused the border guards with our lack of Panamanian stamps in our passports. They finally waved us along after a bit of a discussion in broken spanish, and we were back in Costa Rica.

We arrived in Puerto Viejo and had a pretty long hike with our big bags until we found the hostel we were looking for. Its name was Rocking Js and it was the most massive hostel I had ever seen! The entrance was a bar and restaurant then when you got to the main desk there was just color everywhere. Every single surface was mosaic unless it was a door, then it had a mural on it. There was a line of about 6 huge tables for eating or gathering and they had all kinds of random objects shellacked onto the surface. Everything from photo ids to shells, to lighters and coins. Behind these tables was a large space to set up your own tent if you brought it. To the right there were two huge rooms hung with hammocks to rent separated by a courtyard with a covered common area. The kitchen was in the back with 2 more long tables near it and from there you could look up to the 2nd floor which was like tent world. These were all the tents they had available for rent. The rest of the 2nd floor had private rooms spread around in various places. It was an overwhelming place! We rented hammocks because it was the cheapest, and packed our things into lockers before heading back to town to wander around and find some food. We ended up getting some things at the grocery after taking in the sights and spent the rest of the evening at the hostel eating, drinking and talking among the 3 of us. It was amazingly different vibe at this hostel than the previous one at Bocas. The other was so much smaller, but so much more alive and social. We had a chill evening, and crashed comfortably in our hammocks. The next morning I walked a little bit on the beach out behind the hostel then we met up with our French friends who were Wwoofing near the town. We hung out with them all day, and went out to hear a live band that night and it was really good to see them. The next morning after a slow breakfast, we rented bikes and went out to see a different beach and to tour the Jaguar Rescue Center. We ended up with only an hour to wander the beach, but it was very different than the ones we had been on before so we just enjoyed exploring and playing a bit before heading to our tour. The Jaguar Rescue was actually named in honor of a cat that had died when they were first starting up, so there were no actual jaguars there. There were however a bunch of baby howler monkeys, sloths, snakes, and a few birds. We got to go into the cage with the monkeys and they jumped all over us using us a furniture and toys, and it was so cool to feel their little tails and hands grabbing onto you! We then moved onto the sloths and got about a million pictures because they were such strange, adorable creatures you couldnt stop. I got to pet both a two toed and three toed sloth and it made the whole trip worthwhile for me! After the tour we went back to gather our things because it was time to head back to San Jose and the farm.

After a few bus rides, we walked in the dark up to the farm and surprised everyone with our arrival at around 11pm. We had forgotten to email Robert our return date, oops! After catching up a bit with the few people who were still awake, we settled in and slept. The next morning we met all the new people (pair of sisters and a boy from colorado, and a french guy)and caught up with our old friends from before. We then dove into the domestic side of things and it seemed to continue as the theme for the week. We organized the warehouse to be a more functional, comfortable dorm area and moved the work area to the other side of the pool near the garden. While we were gone the rest of the kitchen had gotten cleaned out (hallelujah!) so that area was much more functional already, and had a nice little area to hang out as well. We spent this week cleaning, painting and building instead of gardening but it felt awesome to make such progress. As you can all see from the pictures we managed to have a bit of fun along the way as well! For example one afternoon Paul (american) and Yoan (french) and I took a hike down to the local waterfall and took a swim. It was beautiful and we arrived just in time because we finished swimming and were sitting on the rocks to dry when all of the green parrots were returning home for the evening. We sat and watched as about fifty of them flew in with their partners and found their individual homes in the dirt walls surrounding us. They floated in on the current then would dive sharply and pull up into some invisible hole and disappear in pairs. We enjoyed that for a while before hopping the rocks in the river all the way back to the farm. Well, you hop on rocks until you get to the hill, then the steep climb back is really the challenge! We got back in time for a shower and dinner though so it worked out perfectly. Saturday was market day as usual, so we gathered supplies for the Superbowl party we were planning on having the next day then went and enjoyed smoothies at Organica. The plan after that was to ride home in Roberts truck, but several of us decided to go stay in town and have pizza then walk back which turned out to be really nice. Sunday we spent the morning collecting as many ripe tangerines as we could (by the wheelbarrow!) and juice them before they went bad. That was several hours of collecting, juicing, cleaning out jars for storage, and then cleanup. We then had lunch and started making snacks for the party later that night. In the afternoon we walked down to the neighbors house and borrowed their field to play a game of american football. The ticos who lived there either joined or watched, and after a while we switched to playing futbol (soccer) instead. It was a ton of fun, and it put us all in a good mood. The food at our Superbowl party was good but we couldnt get the station that broadcast the US version, so it was in spanish and we didnt get the good commercials. Needless to say most of us didnt last past the 1st quarter because of our lack of interest in football. But we all came outside and had a good time anyway. The night ended with us dancing and then laying on the driveway while our resident Rastafarian played guitar and sang some beautiful words to us. I really enjoyed the message in the music along with the way his voice sounded under the moonlight. I actually spent the night on the trampoline because the wind was finally calm that night and it was too beautiful to go inside.

And that has you mostly caught up! These last few days have been full of talk about what to do next, and our current plan is to go see Arenal (volcano national park) then the beach at Tamarindo, then head up to Nicaragua and Guatamala for some other wwoofing opportunities. I will keep you caught up as I can get internet, but until then I love you all! Stay warm in Ohio! :)

Erin

Photos: Vacation!

epacker933 — Wed, 2 Feb 2011 16:53:00 GMT

Golfito, David, Panama City, Bocas, Puerto Viejo

Panama

epacker933 — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:02:00 GMT

So, I am in Panama! Caught a bus from David to the Panama City in the middle of the night and slept in fits for the 8 hour trip. We arrived in the city the next day and stopped to pick up some American cash at an ATM becuase Panamanians use the US dollar. I was very excited about the prospect of understanding how much I was spending on things again! The four of us were loaded down, the other three with lovely, large hiking packs on back and small daypacks on the front. Myself with an awful rigged up day pack on my back (thank you Jenna!) I had a sleeping bag tied to the bottom and a pillow strapped across it, and my day pack on my front as well. I wish I had splurged on a big pack! There are so many things on this side trip that I wish I had. Never again will I travel thinking I will be happy staying in one place! (Anyhow, we were very obviously backpackers walking up to the border the precvious day. We then walked through the border, and up to a bus that for $2 took us to our previous destination of David. No police, no stamps, nothing?) So then we chat with a taxi and for $4 get a ride from the bus station to our desired location of Caso Viejo. After stopping at about 4 hostels and finding them all full, we end up downtown an hour later at our last option. The taxi driver was done with us, and we woul have to find another if we needed to go further. It was understandable, since that hour long taxi adventure was only costing us $8 in the end. This last hostel was full as well, and I cannot say I was diappointed because it left much to be desired. The owner let us leave our packs behind his desk while we went out in search of another place to stay. We finally ended up at a place called La Jungla. It was a very cute place, but we were not satisfied being downtown. It was just like any other city in the world, and we were looking for a but more culture, or at least something where there were not shops on every corner, and a McDonalds across the street! We actually ended up getting a bottle of wine and seeing a movie while we were in the city. We called it our "splurge day" even though the wine was only $4.50 and the movie $4!

I will update more later. I had several more paragraphs completed when the internet failed and I lost them. so sorry this is short, but I must let others use the computer!

Wow

epacker933 — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 09:08:00 GMT

So much has happened since I last wrote!Farm things have been relatively smooth, a few new people joined the mix, and a few olds ones came back so it was getting to be a great group. Seven of us decided we wanted to go to this thing called a Rainbow Gathering for a few days. Some of us had been before, but most of us were more curious ab it in an anthropological sort of way and as a way to meet some other travelers. It was on the peninsula and we caught a bus from San Jose to Golifto which is most of a days trip. From there, the owner of the property picked us up on a boat and took us across. His land was beautiful and there was lots of it. It was situated kind of in a bay off of the gulf, and so high tide was required to get on and off the island. We had expected lots of people, but it turned out to be only us and one other guest so far. We settled in with tents and in the "boathouse" since it was already dark and cooked a quick meal in the owners home since we had arrived so late in the day. The rest of the night was torture! There was no breeze at night, and the mosquitoes were ravenous. Those of us in the boathouse were both cooking and getting eaten alive. Martine and I finally rigged up a bug net over a single mattress on the porch and slept as best we could curled up into little balls trying not to touch the edges where the bugs awaited. Since there was noone there the place was pretty much ours, and the next day after hanging out in the morning, we hiked up to the top of the property to check it out. It was a steep road, but when we got to the top we discovered was was basically a small abandoned resort! There were 3 triangular structures with a bottom screened in room (though the screens were now worthless) and lofts above and a large lodge with a huge empty pool, more rooms, and a big covered deck with an awesome view of the gulf. Apparently the guy had bought the land from a company who couldnt finish it then he ran out of money too. It could have been an awesome, profitable place. The breeze up here was amazing as well as the view so we decided to move camp up top in attempt to get some better sleep. We all set up on the deck, I got a hammock and some sort of netting to hang over it in case the bugs were as bad up there. When we hiked down for lunch and to get our gear (2 trips bc the hike was too wicked for really heavy gear) we saw squirrel monkeys, which are apparently very rare! They were tiny and adorable and didnt seem to care at all about us. The rest of the day was just relaxing, and we made a small fire and hung out a little after dinner because of the full moon. When we got back up to the lodge for the night we were sad to find that the wind had died down almost completely. And then to discover the bugs were there as well. My bug screen was not good enough, anywhere where i was pressed up against the hammock they ate me alive. I fought them for hours then finally squeezed into a tent with Gaby for the few sad hours of sleep that were left. The next morning we decided to head out. The Gathering wasn't really happening, and we were miserable at night, so we made plans to travel elsewhere. I am currently at the Bambu Hostel in David, Panama! Four of us wanted to travel for about a week longer, so we came here and are going to Panama City, then to Bocas del Toro to get in some beautiful beach time before heading back to the farm. No problems at all crossing the border, and the people are super friendly and everything has been very cheap so far as well. Dinner last night was $5 each, and we each had 3 beers in addition to a huge plate of fish and plantains! The hostel has a pool (that's why we chose it)and there were no rooms left so we are just camped in the rear of the yard behind the pool. It is actually much cooler out there than in the dorms, and Gaby and I scored an extra mattress to put in the tent with us so it is an awesome thing. Today we will explore a bit here, then head off to the city! I will update again when I can!

Hope everyone is well. Talk to you soon!

Erin

Lots to Do!

epacker933 — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:02:00 GMT

Hello friends! I know it has been a few days, but so much has happened I didnt have it in me to start typing at the end of it all! For starters, the french couple and 2 others went on their way so we now expect to see 2 back at the end of the week and the couple back at the end of the month for a bit. We have gained 4 guys from Oberlin in Ohio and another couple who are on a repeat visit. Also a girl from Quebec if I have not mentioned her yet. Late last night 2 brothers from Connecticut(i think?) joined up as well. So I believe we are up to 13 right now with growth happening again soon.

The biggest project of the last 2 days has been trying to convert the pool area and kitchen into the WWOOF area to cook in and hang out. The kitchen we had been using and the bedroom I am currently enjoying are part of an apt that Robert hopes to rent out to those looking for a bit more comfort on their trip. The biggest challenge right now is Charlie, the old naturalist that "volunteers" here permanently and is a terrible hoarder. The area that we have converted into our kitchen was by the wall we painted a few days ago (i think i posted pics. I dont think I took a picture of Charlies area bc it is pretty awful. Piles of things, mostly broken and tossed about randomly. The transition was forewarned by Robert months ago, and I know it has been discussed at length as the best thing to do for the farm, but he is very resistant to the change to what he is now calling "his area". We had a few guests over for lunch yesterday so several of us worked really hard all morning to scrub and organize and move kitchen materials (2 shelving units, dishes, food, appliances etc) so that we could all squeeze in and enjoy the new space by lunch. The next morning most things had been moved around and everything was already dirty again. Needless to say this was very disappointing for all of us who had followed instructions and worked so hard yesterday. Hopefully this problem will be discussed and sorted out by Robert so that us WWOOFers are not fighting an uphill battle the whole way. In the bright side, this new (old) area has a ton of potential and really helps alleviate the space issues we were having in the apt along with the fact that the porch we had been eating on was so windy we could hardly serve salad! The Oberlin boys went to town last night and bought sausage and chicken and cooked a feast for us last night. It was awesome! And the first meat I have had here. Robert asked us at lunch yesterday how much of the meal had come from our own garden, and it turned out the only thing we hadnt grown here was the pasta itself. Everything in the pasta and salad and on the table we had picked that afternoon for the meal. To me, that is a really awesome thing! I even learned last night how to harvest Yucca, and we had some fried up as an appetizer which was delicious. For those who are not familiar it is a starchy potato-like tuber that you dig out from under what looks like a young tree. You then just break apart the branches from the tree and stick them in the ground and you will be on your way to new Yucca in no time! Catherine and I had to weed around the pineapple plants a few days ago back near the Yucca, and that is really an awful task. The leaves are super pointy and spiral out in a pattern that makes it nearly impossible to reach the ground beneath them to properly pull out the weeds. Ugh. And bc pineapple take so long to grow, we may not even taste one while we are here. Other than the kitchen, my other big thing over the last few days was that Martine (Quebec) and I built a couple benches out of bamboo! We were short on chairs before the big lunch, so I suggested we try and make benches out of scraps we find around so that we could seat more people. We found some broken wooden chairs in the scrap pile for bonfires and cut off the backs and reinforced the bases and lashed bamboo across the top to make room for 3-4 people! We were so proud and it was so successful that we did another one today. Martine says she wants to make everything out of bamboo now lol and it really is fun and fulfilling to do! We even made a backdrop for the buffet in the kitchen since it isnt up against an actual wall right now. It makes you feel so good to have a finished product like that for everyone to use that you know will last long after you are gone (hopefully!) Another project like that will hopefully be the mural on the big wall in the kitchen. That will require some paint though and we dont seem to have any around yet.

I have walked into town 2x now and am a bit more comfortable with the route. I can find the grocery and market, but I need to figure out where the bus stop is in relation to everything. Luckily people keep getting thirsty so we will continue to require trips in. :) My Spanish is awful, but I am a little more comfortable with the money transactions as long as i can see the money amount on the screen as it is rung up. (Typing with 1 hand bc Canela requires my other one to scratch her ears right now.I should also mention that this keyboard is set up for Spanish so things are in different places, esp punctuation) The market will still be a challenge for me though since it is all verbal. Natalia and I went on a hike yesterday evening as well, so now I know the general direction to go to see our local waterfall (she was here for a few weeks in Oct so had prior experience.)SO hopefully that will be a trek we try later in the week and I can share picture with you! She left this morning though, so now I have a room to myself again. :( I may end up moving out to the common area and sleeping on a crap bunk just bc it will be lonely in there now that noone uses that kitchen. Though it will be hard to give up having a mattress, the sound of the 40mph winds banging things around on the porch outside my window has been keeping me up most nights anyway. So it may not be such a bad trade...we will see.

I have been working on my tan as much as possible while working, so I will try not to be too disappointing upon my return ;) The worst thing right now is all of the bug bites covering my legs and some on my arms. There are little noseeums that eat you alive if you are out at the wrong time of night or your bug spray has worn off. They itch like hell at random times (like when you wake up in the middle of the night) and make me look like I have chicken pox. I am hoping a nice tan on my legs will help make them look less terrible, we will see. Mosquitoes havent been an issue at all since it is dry season but they would almost be a welcome change. Aside from the possibility of disease from them of course. Also we eat a lot at meals, but it is completely vegetarian and mostly fruits and veggies so all I need to do is make sure I shovel enough horse manure into enough beds during the day and I will be fitter than with any gym membership over the years! In reality I have been doing more sawing and moving furniture the last few days, but there is always manure to be shoveled so I am not worried.

Had a good bout of homesickness just after lunch today, so noone worry about being forgotten. I love you all and miss you a ton. But I want you to all come here instead of me coming to the snow! Esp my little Dexter, this would be heaven on Earth for him. (only an improvement on his current location in Dayton bc of my presence. We all know he loves the snow, and dads lap from what I hear!) I am so glad for the dogs here who help keep me content with their little looks and trots and wags. Sam and I like to play pull or tug with a giant stick in his yard, and Gordy (Gordita lol) loves her belly rubs while Lady gets so excited sometimes she had to leap her fat little body into the air and wiggle with all her might until you start to pet her. I gave Canela a lovely green dye job in her blond mohawk which suits her perfectly (unfortunately she hates the camera!) I am very thankful to everyone who helped me get here and supported me in my big leap of independence. Hopefully I can express that to you all in person, and have something good to show from my experience when I return home (other than my tan and muscles of course, hehe.) You are all loved, and I think of you often. Enjoy snowy hikes, and days off cuddled in the home for me and I will bake in the sun and dig in the earth while I can with all of your hearts in mind!

Lots of love

Erin

Ah yes...

epacker933 — Sun, 9 Jan 2011 06:00:00 GMT

For future notice, I have already lost track of what I shared and what I have not so apologies for any repeating! Hopefully I don´t leave much out either. Dinner last night was a very late but yummy squash curry made by Isaac (Seattle.) As it was his first time cooking with squash it took longer than he expected so he was quite frustrated by the time we ate, but we all ate with relish! After dinner Claire and Roman and I cleaned up the entire kitchen. I cleaned off and organized the shelves while roman did dishes and Claire removed everything from the counters and wiped everything down. We threw away old things, found new things, organized things that we use daily. The kitchen is 100% better now! It had become quite a mess through the last transition of people so i was very relieved to have some help getting it to a better starting point. As I said to Isaac today, now the dirt and grime will be our own instead of from strangers! Today I got up and started my day by walking our resident pitbull Sam. He is quite intimidating and has a scary bark but is very much a sweetheart. He lives locked in his own little yard separate from the other 3 dogs. I assume bc of his size and bc he is not fixed :( He is very happy to be out on a chain smelling the property however so I may start most days like this now. The only downfall is he smells rather like a dog...so when you pet him that is transferred. Breakfast was an independent deal this morning so I fried myself and egg and some toast and had some of the smoothie overflow from Romans creation. I went out to the garden to start weeding and edging a row of squash and not long after Robert (owner) came out and reminded us that it was market day if we wanted to go to town. Of course I did and so we got our things together and piled into the car and drove up to the main part of town. there is a big open market under a central roof with lots of stands selling everything from fruits and veggies to cheese, baked goods to pet fish (i thought that one was a bit weird myself.) We picked up some things that we dont grow for ourselves and then walked to the supermarket for the few things that were not available locally. We then met up with the rest of the group at a smoothie place called Organica that is run by a local woman who is a friend of the farm. We occasionally give her fruit that she needs, and I guess WWOOFers frequent her little shop whenever they feel that they have a little money to spend. She is rather young, and very friendly but all of the things she sells (other than the drinks) were too expensive. It is a really nice little shop though as you can see in the pictures. I am so disappointed that I have retained little to NO spanish from my studies over the years. I was basically no help at the market because the few numbers I know are no good when dealing with the colon (550 colones = $1) so I just helped pick out produce and let the 2 who had good spanish do the money handling. I am hoping to study a bit before the next outing but we will see... it is hard bc everyone on the farm speaks english (some french but that is even more hopeless for me.) So that is one bad part to this place, not the spanish exposure I was hoping for. But if I wish to go anywhere on weekend trips it will be an adventure! Post-market we had a delicious lunch that Clarie made while we were gone and then I helped Yung paint some more of his house frame. That project will be interesting to see pan out. Giant metal frame to house Charlie on the back of the property but not sure how we are going to move it or why the metal frame must be painted...Anyhow after that I went back out and finished working on the squash bed until dinnertime. Took a glorious shower before dinner and we ended up building a bonfire and eating out there so that was nice! Hung out chatting and making music until the fire died so all in all a pretty good day :)Also I spoke to my cousin Greg who lives near San Jose and he has weekends off so we will hopefully be meeting somewhere to hike, or drink, or sunbathe or something soon!

Photos: Daily Things

epacker933 — Sat, 8 Jan 2011 18:40:00 GMT

Settling In

epacker933 — Fri, 7 Jan 2011 15:28:00 GMT

Well made it through the first day of work alive. The pictures I posted last night were from yesterdays wanderings so I hope you enjoyed them. I will talk about Wednesday even though today is Thursday since I was too tired to do it last night. I woke up super early to the sounds of dogs barking and many many birdcalls. My phone said it was 630am so I laid there for little bit then got up wondering how late people slept in. I wandered outside and the only person I saw was Charlie, the old naturalist that also lives here on the farm year round. I went out and walked through all of the plots seeing what all I may have missed on my quick tour the night before. Lots of different things going on in different places around here. Went all the way to the back of the prop (totals ab 2.7 acres) and looked out over the cliff that serves as the property line. Watched a woodpecker for a minute before he moved on and was drawn to a little hummingbird flitting between flowers by his little chirpy, almost constant call. It was still grey at this point and I was wondering if it was just going to be an overcast day. Then I looked up at the mountain and saw that the sun was just about to burst from behind it. I looked down at my watch to see what time it was and realized that my phone had been an hour early. I was only just now becoming 6am. Oops. Well, I was already up and about so I grabbed a tangerine from a tree and snacked on it while i kept walking through the gardens. When the sun broke over the mountain it immediately lit up all the trees in the grove and it looked like full daytime. As I approached the house, 2 of the little mutts started following me, so I went around the front of the house and we sat on the porch and just enjoyed the rest of the sunrise. The third little dog soon joined us and I had to take turns petting them or I would get a nudge from the one who was being left out. Eventually people started trickling into the kitchen and I kind of just stood back and watched what happens in the morning. It is pretty much every man for himself so there were about 3 things happening at once everywhere in the kitchen. Roman (the french boy) was experimenting with banana smoothies while his girlfriend Claire made pancakes for them to take on their hike for the day. Yung (from south korea) was making eggs with onions and garlic and attempting to make coffee on the stove. Chris (scottish) started soaking some bread to make (and burn eventually) french bread while others just wandered in and out looking for coffee or some combination of food to eat. I was forced to try about 3 different experimental smoothies before the morning was over (nothing to bold, since Roman thought you only put banana and ice in them origionally.) After breakfast several people left to take a hike to a nearby waterfall while the rest of us went out to get started on our assigned chores. I wandered out in my sweatshirt bc on the front porch there is a good breeze and i was chilly. As soon as I got to the garden I had to strip down from the suns heat and went back in to apply sunblock before I regretted it.

I started my day by rescuing a volunteer tomato plant that had sprung up in the stick pile and was a bit bogged down. I used some nearby bamboo poles to prop up as much of it as I could wrestle out from under the sticks and help it grow out of instead of into the pile. There is a picture of that glorious masterpiece in my first gallery I believe. Next, I found some clippers and trimmed off the blooms from some "weeds" in the "keyhole garden". They are left bc they are pretty in the center, but trying to encourage them not to spread. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon edging a pepper bed toward the back of the farm. Lunch was a group affair with spaghetti (with some of my weeds in it, yum) and salad and potatoes. Then back to the pepper bed to rake up what I had edged before lunch and continue around the back side. As I was doing this I kept hearing crashing noises and what I thought was the call of a bird. When no people arrived on the hill (from the hike i thought) I realized it was probably the monkeys that were supposed to stop by on occasion. You can imagine my delight when it was! 20 or so little capuchin monkeys were jumping from tree to tree and stealing fruit from the neighbors trees. They sat up in the giant guanacasta tree and peeled and ate the fruit before moving on. I probably watched them (and was watched in return) for about 20min while they went back and forth between trees and properties. A couple times they crossed right over my head! There were lots of little ones as well, and it was really cute to see them clinging to their moms backs for the big jumps.

It seemed that dinner was to be on me, since everyone else had had recent turns, so I got online and looked up some ways to prepare banana flower as it had been a topic of discussion the night before. All of the recipes required things that we did not have in our sparse kitchen so I just read how to prepare the flowers then decided to cook them in with some other things and hope for the best. Maddie (from mass.) helped me with the tedious chore of peeling apart all the petals and destemming the little blooms. It turned my hands and fingernails an awful shade of brown. There was much experimentation and in the end it was decided that the little flowers, however popular they may be in India, are way too bitter to be enjoyed with potatoes and squash. The few further experiments Maddie did were a bit more successful but we decided it was only because they were hidden more and more by other flavors. We did get a bit of whitefish from Robert (owner) and Claire helped me fry that up along with some leftovers and Yungs bread and we managed to feed all 10 people. The banana flowers will probably not be attempted again. That was the dish hardly anyone touched lol

Photos: First Day

epacker933 — Fri, 7 Jan 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Shots around the farm

First Day

epacker933 — Thu, 6 Jan 2011 12:09:00 GMT

Well I arrived all in one piece with only minor delays on the plane. Both flights were relatively uneventful however the 2nd one did have an odd start. For some reason they kept announcing that "this flight is going to san jose costa rica, if that is not your intended destination please come to the front of the plane" which I found rather odd since your passport was checked and your boarding pass scanned in order to get on board. How exactly would you not know which country you were going to? Slept on and off throughout most of the flight down here but was awake enough to see the water and some islands and the mainland that we flew over for a while. There is really nothing like seeing things from the air! Even flying out of Dayton just before sunrise was beautiful. All the lights glittering and a faint pink line on the horizon...then you get above the clouds and it is lighter and it is like a boiling red volcano out on the edge of the cloudline. Spectacular. I wish my camera could have captured it.

Anyway, after a brief driving tour of the town and a bit of background from Robert (the man who owns the farm) we arrived on location. We were greeted by three little mutts which I am sure you all know made me feel better already. There are 9 other wwoofers here doing what I am doing for various amounts of time. It seems that they have all only been here since christmas so all are relatively new. We walked around the property and I got a general idea of what all is grown and how things get done. Seems like everyone just picks a job and goes to it. So we will see how tomorrow pans out. I already have a few things that I am "assigned" to work on and am looking forward to just getting my hands dirty and working outside. From what I can tell I am the oldest wwoofer here, though you never know until you ask I suppose. Meals are sort of a group affair, I just helped a little with preparing dinner and am just waiting for it to cook right now. Apparently you just grab what sounds good from the garden and do what you want with it. No real oven, but have a stove and microwave and toaster oven to work with. So that will be a little interesting. Sleeping arrangements are bunkhouse style, though I get the mattress inside tonight since we ran out of time to get my bunk set up.

That is all I have the energy for tonight! Hopefully soon I will be able to post pictures and show you all the awesome views we have from the top of the hill here. Miss you all already. Feel free to write me however and whenever you want!

Lots of Love,

Erin

Counting down...

epacker933 — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 14:33:00 GMT

Well Christmas is over so I am running out of time to procrastinate! Trying to make sure I have all the supplies I need, then let the packing begin! Then unpacking and removing all the superfluous things and starting over. This is my first trip overseas on my own, and I have a tendency to overpack. (what can I say, I am a Packer)Here's hoping I can work it all out. :) Only 10 days to go!