Las Minas

Day 203, el Viernes 1 de Febrero 2013 17:43

This will never change about me.

Something what didn’t change about me yet, and something I think will never change about me is me being clumsy and me losing everything. 3 weeks ago I bought a new very cheap crappy phone. Last Saturday I already lost, which is not so bad because it was so crappy and already broken. But the thing is my SIM-chip was still in the phone so I lost all my numbers and nobody could reach me. So this gave me a few boring days, which I really hate.

That’s why going to school isn’t that bad all next week since I will be around people and doing more stuff. And there will be a lot of trips with school I hope. I did meet up with Lea in the park yesterday which was nice, just to old school complain and get some things of your chest. Even though I live in Costa Rica for 7 months now (!!) some things will always be annoying, annoying but bearable and it is always nice to just share it.

Another thing I didn’t write about yet is the ‘baja-mundo’ (Underworld); the black market of San José. I went there with my host family 2 weeks ago. It is in some creepy neighborhood in San José. The streets are full with people on blankets selling phones, chargers and cameras; it kind of looks like a creepy flee market we know on Queens’ day (soon Kings’ day) in The Netherlands.  The headquarters of this ‘baja mundo’ was in some kind of mini-mall in a basement full of electronic shops with games, PlayStations, laptops, smartphones, iPad’s and more. Everything was stolen, and everything was very cheap. My family didn’t seem to have a problem with that but didn’t buy anything for today.

Another thing: in The Netherlands you can be as honest as you want about most things. Here in Costa Rica, not. I say, for example: ‘well this is expensive’ people are like: ‘nooooh’ you can’t say that. Or when I think I product is fake and I say it, (not to the salesman but to my host brother) they are like: ‘noooh you can’t say that’. Like these people in the store care, they are people as well just doing their jobs. Sometimes I feel like people don’t release that other people are just people as well. 

Day 205, el Domingo 3 de Febrero 2013 22:03

Las Minas

You could almost say that it is unfair how many beauty one country has, and another not. But of course as unfair as the fact how much money some countries have and other not; just to stay real. But really Costa Rica has so much beauty!

This weekend I got to know ‘Las Minas’ or in English: The Mines. Time for a little history lesson: Costa Rica’s economy existed for a part of gold mining, because gold is pretty valuable Costa Rica got money money cash cash baby. There still is gold in some place but mostly underneath very old rainforest, so it’s protect, but illegally it still happens. Anyways, close to my village there was one of these mines, and on Saturday I went there with my friends: Chino, Hernan, Abram and a cousin of Chino, and his dad. We took a cool road over a mountain where you had an AMAZING view. I could so all the way to the Gulf of Nicoya and all the way to the mountain behind, which is around 70 kilometers away. There was also a nice view of Orotina and San Mateo lying next to each other.

So after this nice ride we arrived at a point where we could enter a river. We actually didn’t go to the mines itself, just to a river close to it. And this river, just: WOW! After climbing a bit by jumping rock to rock we arrived at a part where there were 5 waterfalls with each its own little pool with it. These pools where pretty deep and because it is summer the river isn’t that full so we could jump from the sides into the pools, which was epic epic epic! The highest jump was at the last pool and a small 7 meter drop into the river, delischous. Another cool thing was that there was a small waterfall going over a flat big rock which created an actual real-life-nature-made waterslide! Costa Rican nature strikes again.

After a few hours of jumping, swimming and climbing we got tired and chilled a bit at the main pool diving from a 4 meter rock into the main pool. There were some other people whom I overheard speaking Dutch! They turned out to be from Belgium and they live close to Orotina. I went for a little small talk and now I am invited to their house for dinner some time, that’ll be cool.

Today I went to the normal pools again with some friends just to chill out and relax. I really got to start working on that epic suntan I need when I go back to the Netherlands.

After dinner we ate the first mangos of the mango season and they were so damn good! Very sweet and just so much taste! There are always mangos in the stores but they are not from Orotina and sprayed with chemicals. These were the first mangos from Orotina and came from a farm from an uncle. I got the whole mango story which I love to share with you here on my blog. Orotina and San Mateo are famous for their fruits and especially the mangos. I can see mango trees as you can see bikes in The Netherlands are Starbucks in Manhattan. Really they are everywhere! Now there are mangos hanging from every tree ready to be eaten by me! There are about 50 different mangos in Costa Rica, with the biggest difference being male or female mangos. You can also eat the mangos ripe or not ‘green’; not ripe, I personally prefer the ripe ones; they are way sweeter. Some other mango species are: Mango Banana, Mango Piña, Mango Fillipano or Mango Papa. Gotta love mangos!

Nature made waterslide!