Vulcano & normal schoolweek report

Day 225, el Domingo el 24 de Febrero 2013 21:09

A vulcano and a tree

It has been a wonderful weekend, again. Saturday was a relaxing day at a pool, we were supposed to go to the river but at the last moment we couldn’t go. Luckily Hernan’s mom guards a pool nearby so we had a private pool for ourselves all day. We spent all day chilling in the pool and eating mangos. It was a very chilling relaxing day.

Today was another epic day in Costa Rica. I woke up at 5 to take a bus to Atenas at 6. I met Julio there, the crazy school librarian. We had breakfast at his house which is full of cool Indian stuff. Later some friends of him picked us up and we set our way to volcano Poás! After 1 hour driving everywhere along the ride there were small stores saying: ‘strawberries from the vulcano’ ‘some other shit, from the vulcano’  I never knew the honey from a volcano tastes better, but well I didn’t try it either. At the entrance I put up a cap and looked the other way while another dude paid so I only had to pay $2 instead of $10; tourist discrimination. There was a pretty modern visitors center and everything which is pretty rare in Costa Rica, but Poás being one of the most visited places does make it logical. The climate was epic, a light breeze with around 18 degrees Celsius; I missed it. We walked about 1 kilometer to get to the crater and there we saw it, the mighty crater of Poás, the biggest in the world cloaked in clouds. We saw just white clouds, no crater nothing. You could smell the gasses and when some clouds went away you could see the volcanic rocks, which looks like the moon but the crater, the crater I never got to see. We took another trail to the volcanic lake, and this one was clear. Wow, it was so beautiful incredible! A turquoise colored lake surrounded by tiny tiny beaches and a lot of green, outer space like plants; breathtaking.

Even though I didn’t get to see the crater it was a beautiful visit to this volcanic, it see gives you a cool feeling, knowing that you are on a volcano. We drove back through a few nice villages and I had a nice view of the central valley. Back in Atenas we chilled a bit and in the afternoon I took a bus back to Orotina. In the bus there were some Canadian hippies, I had some small talk with them but it looked like they started their Costa Rica trip with getting stoned so it was funny small talk. I got off in Desmonte where my family was having a little barbeque, they told we that my hostmom was taking a little walk to I went to same way and found her after 10 minutes.

It was the beautiful road I took a few weeks again going to the mines. Since I was in a good mood I decided to run this road all the way to Orotina and back to my house. The road goes over 2 hill tops so it was extremely hard but it was so worth it, I had to most beautiful and most peaceful view I’ve had in a long long time. It was just me, walking over this hilltop listening to the howler monkeys for away, seeing the iguanas running away and listening to the birds. I could see Orotina, San Mateo, Rio Tarcoles and all the way over the golf the peninsula of Nicoya, which must be around 70 kilometers away. There was a little trail to a viewing point and there it was; the tree. There is a huge tree on a hilltop which I have seen almost every day and I always wanted to go there, and now, I suddenly found it. Seeing this tree was almost as special as seeing the volcano,  (if I would’ve seen the crater probably not, but yeah). This tree just, made me so happy inside, I don’t know why. The rest of the road was just going down, but it was so steep I had to walk carefully, and running was out if the picture at all.     

Dia 231 Sabado 2 de Marzo 2013

A normal school week

It was a nice and normal school week, it passes very quick and I have not been bored at all, which resulted in me not writing my blog. Not writing my blog is nothing bad since it only means that I am probably busing with cooler things. But I will always keep you guys updated, so here is a week report!

Monday:

I think I didn’t mention this yet, so I’ll do it now: because a new year started I also have a new time table, so now it is Monday and Friday ‘basics’; just normal classes and the other days tourism. Even though the classes take around 2 hours each the time flies, while in the Netherlands the 45 minute classes seemed like hours. I’m not the best student in the class, but I have good relationships with the teachers and I am just having fun with classmates, and sometimes, sometimes I do write something down.

Tuesday:

Every Tuesday morning we have to work at the tourism area, which is the camping and trails in the forest around it, the trails got pretty bad in the holidays so we are making them better, these days we are making stairs; it’s working hard but watching monkeys while doing it makes it better.

Wednesday:

This day I had free from school and decided to go to school on this day, fuck logic. I didn’t go to my own school though, I went to the public school of Orotina. Everybody on that school has been telling me for months that their school is so much better so I decided to give it a visit. I met Sarah who is on that school and we walked around the school a bit. Yes, it is bigger, and with way more people but it doesn’t have the same vibes as San Mateo, so I still stick with my point that my school is better.

I also met up with Francisco a friend from Taekwondo and I went with him and his class to the farm their school has, and yes this is way, way bigger as well; it is huge. We drove with a tractor for a few minutes and in some field the students did some work while Sarah and I walked around, I used to go to place like this on holidays sometimes, just going farmland.

Later we went for ice cream; the heat has arrived. It is really hot now during the day but not like I-am-dying hot. It’s funny that the ticos are always complaining about the heat while they live in it for years, and I feel kinda used to it.

In the evening I went to ride the bike of my hostdad which I fixed. And damnn it’s so good to ride a bike again, I love it. I went to the same road where I usually run and there I met Chino’s brother Abrahama nd a friend of him, we rode about 12 kilometers through the hills, rested at his house and at night I was tired, the taekwondo practices from the days before had also been hard. My taekwondo is going very good by the way, I managed to kick some which was 2 meters from the ground!!

Thursday:

In the morning we had tourism but we used those to sell food, currently there is kind of a food war going on in my school ( no not throwin food, we are civilized ( kind of)). I am in the sixth year now and we have to gather money to pay the graduation party and ceremony. So every week we sell food in the school: little plastic bags of ice tea, mango, ice and we made a lottery. It is inspirational how everybody is so motivitad to work to pay the graduation. In the afternoon I didn’t have classes but I didn’t know until 1. In the meanwhile I went to the classroom of the other half of my class who have agro-industria. We played domino and chilled a bit.

Friday:

Again normal classes, on Friday we also havo English and I become a good friend and assistant of my English teacher. Nine hours of normal classes isn’t that bad at all, time flies and I enjoy every moment while I’m in Costa Rica. Always ‘basilando’ (kidding around) in school and having a goodtime; love it. After school I bought some cookies to celebreta the weekend and went to the house of an aunt to drink some coffee.  Taekwondo was fun at night and I really feel and see progress.

In the night there was a ‘party’ at the MaxiPali which opened in Orotina, a big supermarket. I went with Sarah her host brothers and some friends to see whats’up. It turned out to be that the event was during the day but we had fun walking and being crazy in the supermarket, supermarkets will always be this place to have random fun for me. We ate some stuff we bought outside on the empty stage and chilled in the park a while.

Saturday

Today I went to the river with friends from taekwondo, we also went to the MaxiPali and walked pretty far through some fruit farms to arrive at a spot in the river. There was a big rock in the middle which we used to jump from, furthermore it was a lot of basilando and eating. It was an and memorable day at the river.

The last weeks I really got to know the ticos better, I sink deeper and deeper into the culture. I understand everything they do and think, and I do the same. I have serious conversations with them, give dating advice, get dating adivce and I am having fun all the time, just with people from such an different culture. Sinking deeper into this culture means I am getting further and further away from my old culture, and going back will be more and more difficult. There are 3 months left now, and I know that these 3 months are going to be the best, with every day getting better and better.