the visit of my sister!!

Dia 179, El Miercoles 9 de Enero de 2013 15:59

Reunited with my sister                                                              

Loads of things happened over the last days and I practically just did not find the time to write my blog. Over the last days I changed a lot and a lot happened which made me think very different.

First of all, I was the most homesick so far after I said goodbye to Ellie and Lena. I kept thinking about being home, not about going home but just home, home and more home in my mind. I wasn’t doing a lot these days except for helping renewing the garden. Saturday this cycle got broken because the moment was finally there, my lovely sister from The Netherlands (living in Toronto) arrived in Costa Rica!

I picked my sister and a friend of her up at the airport. I was there 2 hours early so I kind of walked around the tiny airport all the time. I had a pretty high heartbeat while waiting for my sister on the airport. It was great to see her, and we had a good hug but we didn’t have so much time to talk since they went to a hostel with a shuttle, but I was going to see them the next day anyways. I took the bus back to Orotina from San José and slept on the ride. I now sleep most of my busrides since I am petty tired of everything all the time.

There was a festival in the night in Orotina, it was pretty mucht the same as the festivals in San Mateo and San José, bands, gymnasts, and parade cars. I missed most of the festival because I arrived late but I saw the car from my friend Chino’s mom’s ballet school. The king of the play, Chino’s dad spoke to all the people with a megaphone,; he was saying: ‘como estan my gente de Coyolar, y mi gente de San Mateo’ (how are the people from Coyolar and San Mateo). Then he saw me and said: ‘y como estan mi gente de Holandaaaaa’ (how are the people from Holland). So everybody was like ‘what da fuck’ and I was jumping and waving =D.  The festival itself was not the great but I met a lot of friends and had I good time by myself with my friends.

On Sunday morning I went with the bus back to San José to the hostel where my sister and Verena, her friend were staying. It was a really cool hostel and the best in Costa Rica chosen by the ‘Lonely Planet’. It was a huge old house with dorm rooms, pool, bar, restaurant and a ncie view over San José. I got a huge snickers bar ( like 30 centimeters pure SNICKERS like o my god!!!) from Casey Simone a exchange student I had in my house 3 years ago living in San Francisco, my sister went to visit her before coming to Costa Rica. I also got an ‘University of Toronto’ shirt from my sister, and I love love love it! I should start a ‘university of….’ Shirt / sweater collection.

I took my sister and Verena on a tour through San José, I came to some spots I haven’t been either but I love showing other people the city. It isn’t such a cool city but it has nice spots and it was so good to be with my sister, it doesn’t feel like 6 months ago that I saw her for the last time. In the evening we went back to the hostel, I got a dorm room with 5 random people, backpacker life. We wanted to eat out but apparantly everything closes after 6 on Sundays, didn’t know that before. So we ate in the hostel; I got ‘San José’s best burger’ and yes it tasted goooood. We watched the Hunger Games in the evening, damn that is a good movie. I miss all the movies while being here but I’ll catch up when I’m back, I got better things do to here.

On Monday morning we took a early bus to Orotina and there they got to know my host family. My host family doesn’t speak English and they don’t speak Spanish so I must be honest that that was a bit weird, but my host family was really sweet as always, and I am always happy to introduce them to people.

We went to Carara national park in the morning. I saw my friends from the park again, they are really cool and I am proud to have real  Costa Rican park ranger friends. The park was cool again, it will always be cool. We didn’t see any snakes or frogs because it is dry season. Most tourists come during the dry season eventhough the rain season is way more beautiful since there is just so much more life. We did see a mountain lion which was cool and scary, we stood still like statues to not get killed. It is funny how they notice a lot of stuff which became very normal to me.

In the afternoon we went to Jaco the get a quick dip and for them to start their tan. In the evening we ate a big traditional Costa Rican dinner and I think they loved it! My hostmom cooks delicious. We were tired of the day and we slept early, the next morning we had t get up at 6, for me normal, for them a horror.

After a nice and big Gallo Pinto breakfast we got dropped at the bus stop by my hostdad. We took a bus to Quepos, a harbor city about 2 hours busride from Orotina. On the way there was a car on fire next to the road, the busdriver tried to extinquish the fire, very brave but he did not succeed. The protect the bus and the people we drove on while the firemen arrived. In Quepos we quickly changed bus for a short ride to Manual Antonio. Manual Antonio is an epic  national park in the Southern part of the Pacific side and famous for it’s beaches.

And yes this fame is very logical, Manual Antonio is amazing. There is a lot of dense forest with a lot of nice trials where you can spot snakes, spiders, frogs and sloths. We only saw one frog though, again because of the dry season. On the main trail we did see a SLOTH! I love sloths! I did a presentation about sloths once in school so I told a lot about the sloth while watching it, and that also got the attention of some other tourist, who needs a $20 tour guide? On the same spot we saw a monkey, a tourguide said it was a sloth but I noticed the tail and told the people that it was not a sloth but that it was a monkey, winning!

We went to the beach, a beautiful beach, white sand, turquise water, green trees with monkeys and about 3000 tourists, half of them 60+ and from Florida if you know what I mean. There was a cool island which got connected to the mainland over the years and that also was a beautiful walk with very nice views, we also spotted another mountain lion. When we walked back over another beach and there were a lot of monkeys, jumping, posing and fighting with each other. I decided to take a last dip since the last dip always is the best, never miss out on the last dip.

On the busride home I finally had time to have a good talk with my sister about home, our family and about me and her. In the night we did a little walk through Orotina and we exchanged our photos. In the morning they got a bus back to Manual Antonio to finish their journey through the beautiful Costa Rica.

This visit of my sister is really hard to describe, it was very nice to see her again, eventhough it didn’t feel that long ago that I saw her. I loved showing my country, my family and my life and it made me appreciate my life her a lot. But it also made me realize how nice the Tico’s are, I don’t even see it anymore, but they noticed. And I must say that the ‘western’ people are different, and since I didn’t speak with ‘western’ people for 6 months I noticed that we differ  (I don’t see the other exchange students as ‘western’). And that just gave me the thought of I never want to go back to the Netherlands. I cannot leave this country and this life behind.