Adventures

Mama Tungurahua

jenng1234 — Wed, 2 Jun 2010 22:00:00 GMT

This has been a very interesting past week. The volcano Tungurahua, dubbed "Mama Tungurahua" next to Baños decided to wake up last Friday from her slumber and has been spitting lava and shaking houses every day and night since. There is the impending threat of needing to evacuate, but the families here are very reluctant to do so because in 2006 when there was a forced evacuation, the military looted their houses and they were not let back into town for 3 months. This is one of the many examples I have seen, which remind me that I´m in a 3rd world country. Another example is that the army here gets quite drunk in the bars at night. I cross my fingers that the volcano doesn´t force evacuation at night, because the military would be more harmful then than they usually are. I realize how much I´ve taken order and authority for granted in the States. No one here has slept well since last Thursday (one week) and everyone is on edge and jumps at every loud cannon-like sound from the volcano (it´s impossible not to). School has been closed for the kids and tourism (their main lively-hood here) has come to an abrupt halt, as visitors have not been allowed into town since last Friday and most who were here have left. Compared to my first week here, it´s a ghost town and quite scary. I´m reluctant to leave because I´ve committed to volunteering at La Bib (a foundation that serves as a library for kids and afterschool sancutuary). There are a few other volunteers there and we´ve decided to stay until the families evacuate.

The kids are so incredibly adorable and it´s been a lot of fun playing with them Monday through Friday. I´m amazed at how independent they are at such young age. They are certainly not babied and as soon as they can walk, they know to look both ways before crossing the street. It´s very common to see older siblings taking care of the younger ones, like a 5 year old holding a baby...quite different from home. I have yet to see siblings fight and actually have yet to see any children fight. They all play so nicely together and take such good care of their second-hand, ratty toys.

The homestay has been a great experience as well although sometimes exhausting because they don´t speak any English. There are days at a time that go by where I won´t hear or speak a word of English. I´ve been learning conversational Spanish out of necessity and this is perhaps the best way to learn (at least the fastest). At times I feel like my brain is going to explode, although this is usually only after 3 or so days of only Spanish talk. The other night I watched a pirated version of Iron Man 2 dubbed in Spanish with German subtitles. It´s times like these that I really miss the luxuries of home, like understanding what I´m watching on TV. I´ve perfected the art of the 3 minute shower, haven´t worn makeup since April, and wear the same pants/shirt on average 3 times in a row before changing. If that doesn´t make me a hippie, I don´t know what would! While I´m able to do it, I have to say I really miss long warm showers, real towels and my hairdryer. The level of cleanliness here is much lower than I´ve ever experienced. It´s really amazing to see how other people live and quite an experience to live that way for a while too. After being sick for the entire first week here, I´ve decided that while it may be rude, I´m more selective with what I choose to eat. Milk products of all types are not refrigerated, neither are eggs. Apparently if the food is fresh enough it doesn´t need to be refrigerated, but my body seems to think otherwise. Given that I grew up in the most sterile household of anyone I know, it stands to reason that I´m struggling a bit in Ecuador. Along with food storage being laxed, washing hands seems to also be an optional decision, not employed by many here.

So far, my trip has been entirely different than I imagined. It´s good I didn´t know what I was getting into before I came, because I don´t think I would have come, although I´m glad to be here. Traveling in this way has opened my eyes to the real world and to who I am. Speaking in only Spanish with those I live with has given me the opportunity and time for a lot of self-discovery. Since I am only able to voice basic sentances out loud in Spanish, the intricate conversations are now only in my head. It´s very hard to describe, but I assume others who have been in this situation know what I mean.

So far I´ve had about 5 "WTF was I thinking, get me out of here moments", which I think is pretty good since I´ve been traveling for 40-something days so far. All of them have occurred when there was pretty legitimate reason to be frightened. Unsecure hostel rooms in places without police, earthquake, volcano eruption and of course encounters with creepy-crawlers (including crabs, mice, large spiders, flying massive beetles and cockroaches). Despite these moments, I´m really enjoying being here and know I made the right decision in coming. I´m looking forward to the volcano stabalizing or even evacuation because limbo is really unsettling.

Hope all is well with everyone at home and keep those emails coming, I love the updates and miss you all!

Earthquake and Altitude Sickness

jenng1234 — Sat, 22 May 2010 21:00:00 GMT

Despite the title, this entry is not all bad. Following up on my last entry, the bus from Santa Elena to Alajuela was so much better than I expected (and was told). The 6:30am departure time was definitely rough, along with the fact that I found myself locked inside the hostel at 6:15am when I tried to leave. Staff doesn´t come in to open until 7am, so I scrambled around checking every single door until I finally decided to jump behind the welcome desk, snatch a pair of spare keys and unlock the front door myself. I returned the keys, but couldn´t relock the door, so hopefully all is okay there. I barely made the bus with mere minutes to spare. In any case, the bus turned out to be a nice coach with reclining seats and somehow one of the front seats was still vacant, which meant that not only did I have a great view out the huge front window, but I also avoided any motion sickness! We arrived in Alajuela around 10am, only 3 1/2 hours later because the bus was an express. I took a $5 cab from the airport bus station to Alajuela Backpackers (recommended to me by friends) and couldn´t believe it was classified as a hostel. The architecture was beautiful, had hot water AND air conditioning along with free internet, a TV room with a huge flat screen TV and fun hangout spaces including a bar with a pool table. All of this for $15/night - AMAZING! Since it was still morning, I decided to treat myself and watch TV for the first time in over a month. There were plenty of English channels and I was able to watch my beloved Food Network! I felt like an American again! About 20 minutes later, a guy named Danny from Portland, OR joined me in the TV room and we clicked right away. We explored Alajuela together for the rest of the day, eating at a food stand in the local market and heading to a coffee shop after much meandering. It was at the coffee shop at about 4:30pm or so when the earth began to move beneath us. It was the scariest thing I have ever experienced in my entire life. Instantly I knew what was happening and I grabbed for Danny´s hand and held tightly as we sat there starring at each other unsure of what to do. Local Ticos (Costa Rican people) sitting at tables around us made the sign of the cross, and mumbled prayers. It was the first time in my life I actually thought, "this could be it" and I certainly wasn´t ready. The glass counter that held the pastries was moving as were the buildings right outside the open windows. I was squeezing Danny´s hand so tightly and was saying "HOLY SHIT" over and over again. I´m not sure how long the moving lasted, maybe a minute or 2, but the scariest thing was that we didn´t know if it would continue to get worse. No damage was done and we found out later that the epicenter was 40 miles southeast of where we were, just off the coast. It was rated as a 6.3, then was brought down to a 5.9. I was definitely shaken the rest of the day and still feel quite uneasy about being on a fault line. Maybe I won´t go to San Diego to live, after all.

In my dorm room that night was a mother-daughter pair who have been traveling most of their lives. Such nice women with very interesting stories. The mother is originally from Australia and is probably about 50 years old. Her daughter is late 20´s and grew up in Central America. They have traveled seemingly everywhere and were great to hang out with. I left for Quito Friday morning and sat next to a beautiful and very nice woman in her late 30´s from El Salvador. She and her family are relocating from Costa Rica to Ecuador as her husband was transferred. He works for Philip Morris and has worked all over the world for the company. Judging from her clothes and jewelry, they are very well off and her English was perfect without an accent. I don´t think I´ve every met anyone who worked for a cigarrette company and instantly I thought of the movie "Thank You For Smoking". It was interesting how without prying, she happily volunteered that information. In any case, she was very sweet and wrote down a number of "must see" places for me and tips on what to eat.

Samara´s friend Markos was at the airport to pick me up - so nice to meet a friend of a friend after a month of traveling solo. He brought me back to his house where I met and instantly adored his elderly mother, Martha. She is so sweet and warm and treats me like family. I have my own bedroom in her 3 bedroom house, Markos lives in the apartment above. I feel so spoiled having my own bedroom with a full bed and cozy quilts. Their house reminds me of Aunt Hazel and Uncle Sal´s house and it´s so wonderful spending a few days here. Martha speaks only Spanish, but she articulates well and speaks slowly, so I understand almost everything she says. She patiently waits while I slowly form sentences in Spanish and encourages me to practice with her.

Today I explored the city of Quito. This morning I set off to TelefériQo, a multimillion-dollar sky tram that goes up 2.5km to the peak of one of the highest mountains in Ecuador (4100m). The views were breathtaking (literally and figuratively). There were signs all over saying how high it was and to walk slowly. Walking up a few stairs made my heart feel like it was beating out of my chest, but it was entirely worth it for the view. Will post more photos soon. After descending, I wandered around Centro Histórico (Old Town), a beautiful part of Quito complete with a church on every corner. It´s been a great day and I look forward to heading to Baños tomorrow, where I´ll stay for the next 4 weeks. Hope all is good at home and please email me updates if you have time! Miss you all!

High up in the cloud forest

jenng1234 — Wed, 19 May 2010 17:32:00 GMT

Where to begin... first off, yesterday morning I had my first warm shower since I arrived in Costa Rica. For those of you who have lost count, that's over 3 weeks of cold showers! Thankfully (or not) I wouldn't have used hot water the past 3 weeks even if it was available. I think I have sweat more in the past 3 weeks than I have in my entire life in total. Before I could finish drying off from a cold shower, I was already sweating again, literally. So, for that reason alone, I'm loving being in the mountains of Monteverde. It was even cool enough last night here to wear jeans! Although it was probably about 75 degrees, felt cool to me!

It was just under a 6 hour trip from the beaches of Santa Teresa to the mountain top of Santa Elena/Monteverde. As luck would have it, I bumped into my friend Kristina on the ferry from the Nicoya Peninsula to Puntarenas. It was great to hang out with her and Larissa during the 2 hour boat ride. I have met so many amazing new friends on this trip from all over the world - definitely one of the best parts of traveling. Thanks to the wonders of facebook, we can now keep in touch (or at least cyber-stalk each other periodically).

Yesterday I went on the Selventura cloud forest zip line tour. 13 amazing zip lines and one massive "Tarzan Swing" aka plunge to your death. The Tarzan swing was the scariest thing I have done in my life. I walked up a ridiculous number of stairs to a small platform where two tico guys quickly hooked my harness up to a bungee cord. I began to get dizzy looking down and before I could take a second breath, one of the guys said something in Spanish and SHOVED me off the platform. This is where the more aptly named "plunge to your death" comes into play. I couldn't believe the freefall and somewhere in the instant when the guy pushed me, I must have managed to take a big breath because I screamed louder and longer than I ever have before. After the free fall, the bunge cord kicked in and I swung far out the other side and even higher than the original platform. After swinging back and forth a few times, two guys at the bottom wrangled me down. My knees were shaking and my heart was racing for at least an hour after I was back on solid ground. I decided that was about as much adventure as I could take and I'm fairly certain I won't be base jumping or any other crazy things in my lifetime. A slow paced solo tour of the suspension bridges complete with amazing views was the perfect activity to follow my near death experience.

The photos I've posted are from the beaches of Santa Teresa, where I was fortunate enough to witness many amazing sunsets, my bungalow in Santa Teresa and zip lining/suspension bridge hike in Monteverde. So far the trip is better than I ever could have imagined. There was certainly the initial shock of the first week in Costa Rica. Corey and Hillary can attest to my "oh my god, what am I doing here" moment where I was on the verge of tears when I thought about them leaving me here all alone in the big, bad 3rd world for more than 3 months. I didn't fully understand that I was going to small towns and staying in hostels that cost anywhere from $5-$12/night, not resorts like I had been to on vacations. My last hostel and the one I'm in now don't have locks on the doors and there are plenty of scary sounds including insanely loud thunder storms and creeky floors. It's laughable now to think about bringing a cell phone for emergencies because there's no one to call. The police were called from my hostel around 4am my 2nd week here because of a fight that broke out (something about paying the prostitute/dealer) and a few guys "the police" strolled in around 7:30am, more than 3 hours later, looked around and left. I've held off painting the full picture in my previous entries because I didn't want my parents to worry more than they already are. I'm sorry Mom and Dad, but I think it's important to write about the bad along with the good. And the truth is, I've been way more petrified of bugs/lizards/crabs I've seen than people! 90% of the trip has been amazing and 10% has been scary or unfortunate (getting sick is definitely no fun, but part of traveling). In the past 3 weeks I feel like I've learned so much and am much more confident in my abilities to take care of myself. Not so dependant, wide-eyed and naive anymore!

Tomorrow morning I'm catching a 6:30am public bus from Santa Elena to the airport in Alujela. I'm told it's about a 6 hour trip and I'm definitely not looking forward to my imminent car sickness while navigating circuitous and steep roads in a 1970's US reject school bus. Assuming I make it there alive, I'll spend the night in a hostel near the airport and will be exploring Quito, Ecuador by the afternoon on Friday - the beginning of the 2nd leg of my trip. Time is flying here!

Hope you are all well at home and enjoying Spring!

Photos: Pura Vida

jenng1234 — Tue, 18 May 2010 19:40:00 GMT

Tough life...

jenng1234 — Tue, 11 May 2010 16:21:00 GMT

Hello again. I love the comments, it´s so great to hear from all of you! Where to start...well, today I had a very scary encounter with a monster. Seriously. I was packing my backpack because I decided to move on to the Funky Monkey hostel after spending a little over 2 weeks at Casa Zen. I reached into the depths of my pack and something ferocious bit my thumb and hung on tightly! Of course I screamed as if I had been stabbed by a knife and retracted my hand as quickly as humanly possible. As I whipped my hand out of my pack while screaming and jumping around, I managed to hurl whatever had clung onto my thumb onto my roommate´s sandal across the room. Unfortunately, neither of my two roommates were in the room, so I went running out to find someone to help save me from the monster. Luckily, James, my Aussie roommate was just around the corner and came over to check what all the commotion was about. (He wasn´t running, as he should have been, because I may have made similar scenes before and he was getting used to it, along with laughing at me most of the time). In any case, we went over to inspect what the creature was that landed on his sandal. It was about 2 inches long and a weird redish/purple color. At first glance, I thought it was a weird slug type of creature, but upon James´further inspection, it turned out be a claw detached from a CRAB! This means that this was a mere PIECE of the monster that still lurked inside my pack! At this point, I was sweating profusely while making sounds I´ve only ever heard come out of Jeff´s mouth when he sees a spider (most of you know what I mean...for the others, it´s ridiculously high pitch scream/yelling sounds while forming no actual words). At this point, I´ve attracted quite an audience Nate, the hippie Canadian came strolling out of his room next door, along with Daniella, my other roommate from Germany, and Siri Nate´s roommate from Norway. Now, crabs are all over the place here once sunset hits. They are a little bigger than a softball and look like the devil. (Corey and Hillary, please feel free to confirm my description). Thankfully James and Yenni (a girl who works at the hostel) came to my rescue emptying my pack and shaking the monster out. Lesson to be learned from this: stay at home. Never travel. If you must leave your bubble of security, I highly suggest closing all zippers of your pack!

Other than that, things are great! The Funky Monkey Lodge has a swimming pool (the main deciding factor of my move) and I was in it within 5 minutes of arriving there. My two roommates James and Daniella may be joining me at the new hostel tomorrow along with Ty (from Hawaii) another old roommate from Casa Zen. The new hostel is a bit further back from the beach (a 5 minute walk instead of 1 minute) which I´m hoping means that there will be fewer crabs making their way up to my room! The dorm I´m in now has 8 beds, is 2 floors and boasts a beautiful outdoor shower, google it for pictures. I´m still procrastinating on uploading pictures, but they will get up here eventually. Hope you are all doing well and know that I miss you!

Finally, an entry!

jenng1234 — Thu, 6 May 2010 09:01:00 GMT

First off, I´m still alive. I´m sure none of you are surprised to find that I lost track of time, procrastinated, was lazy, (insert additional excuse here) and haven´t gotten around to writing an update until almost 2 weeks into my trip. Lo siento! (translation for you gringos out there: ¨I´m sorry¨).

My time in Costa Rica has been amazing so far. The days all seem to blend together and have been flying by, but I´ve been enjoying every moment. Since my memory is terribly, I´ll describe my day today, as it´s been about the same over the past 2 weeks. Woke up around 8am (without an alarm!) yoga class on the 2nd floor open-air hammock room from 9-10:30am, beach from 11-12:30, reading/napping in the hammocks until 2pm when my one hour one-on-one spanish class begins at the hostel across the road, hanging out with friends at the hostel in the afternoon and now on the computer writing this for all of you! A bunch of us watch the sunset nightly at the beach with wine, cheese and bread, toasting to the end of a great day, then we head out to one of the many amazing restaurants in Santa Teresa and usually end the night hanging out with drinks around the hostel and inevitably, someone graces us with some musical talent. The past few nights I´ve been truly amazed by the music people have played/sung. Remniscent of my struggles writing my strenths/passions for my college entry letters, 7 years later, I find myself still trying to come up with some talent that I have to add to the group. So far, I´ve found that I´m a great audience, so that´s something!

I tried surfing last week and loved it! After being on the brink of death last week (I was sick for 3 days) I´m finally ready to try it again. Some of you may have seen some photos Corey and Hillary posted on facebook and all I have to say is that the waves look MUCH smaller in the pictures. I assure you that what appears to be mere inches of whitewash that I´m standing in on my surfboard is in fact a moster 10 foot wave. At least if felt like that!

Ok, that´s all I have to say for now. Please keep e-mailing me, I love to hear from all of you!