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01/25/2008: "Costa Rica"

I am currently in the San Jose Airport on my way home from Costa Rica. It was sad to say goodbye to our tourguide and bus driver but I am so excited to be going home!!!

As I haven't had steady internet access for the past couple weeks, I kept an account of my travels in Costa Rica on my computer and will now share them with you, chronologically, below.

January 15, 2008

Day two in Costa Rica... first real day of exploring. We arrived yesterday in San Jose after a horrendously long night/day running on little naps in the flights. But the hotel was excellent. Costa Rica is not how I remembered at all, but I was only 10 when I came before, and I'm not even sure we're visiting any of the same places I have seen before. One thing kind of surprising - it is difficult to find vegetarian food here. The entire menu consists of meat and fish usually, along with some sort of beans and rice. Vegetarians have to specially order meals with replacements for the meat. But the food I have managed to get has been delicious! Another thing... Though I am almost fluent with reading/writing Spanish (not so much speaking), I've been too hesitant to use it here. What a shame... I could really communicate, but my fears have inhibited me... I guess I will have to work on this while I am here.

At the grocery store at night, I bought a small bottle of coffee liquer, some ground coffee for my mom, and a little mono (monkey) that reminds me of Darwin, the monkey Josh and I got at King's Dominion.

Today, We took a two hour walk through the Braulio Carrillo National Park, which was really nice. We saw a lot of crazy plants. The most exciting animals were probably the leafcutter ants, a frog, and an anteater (which is pretty rare to see in that area). The other places we are going are likely to have more animals, though.

Today we also stopped at a heart of palm plantation. I had never even heard of heart of palm before I got here, but they are somewhat tasty, especially when prepared in different ways.

When we got to the hotel (Sueno Azul), it was even more wonderful. It is panned out across the landscape with slighter disruptions to the natural forest. It is like an outdoors resort... and they use biodegradable shampoos! (However, they also use Kleenex... the brand that destroys ancient forests in the boreal).

Here is a poem I wrote today... partially based on fiction but also based on real emotions.

Every night I sat on the back porch of a house in a city of dirt and politics
crouching in the shadows of a yard made of old tires and rotting compost
because murder roamed the streets at night
I indulged in my filthy habit
Taking sad pleasure in every drag from every cigarette that infiltrated my lungs
It is her I remembered, longed for, even regretted
Tastes, smells, touch
That bitter smokiness that lingered in my mouth each night that summer
was the sorry state she left me in when she turned her back.
But even with the black tar in my throat, I healed
Today I took another puff and thought of those days
My cancer sticks now tarnished, evoking dreary memories from the senses
Those days I wondered what life was all about anyway, but today I almost know
I threw the smokes away like I threw my memories away
because now there's someone to share my soul
Smoking is death to me.

Afterwards... I took a shower, and when I got out, I saw horses walking freely past my window. I ended up going swimming with some of the others, and we encountered two very friendly orange kittens, which we held and played with for a while. Later we went in the hot tub and I ordered a pina colada, which was a little too strong but still good. I love the abundance of fruits here.

I then proceeded to attempt to get a hold of Joshua, since I haven't really talked to him since Sunday. The payphone was broken, the Internet was down, and the front desk was closed.... so no dice. Hopefully I will get a chance tomorrow, because although it's great here, I'm missing him like crazy... and I feel like I'd be ready to go home after a few more days. Tomorrow should be really busy though, so we'll see... Ten more days to go.

January 16, 2008

Today was okay, but it became a very difficult day. I don't really feel like writing, but I know I should, because I have to keep my memories of this trip.

Today we took a trail through the La Selva Biological Station. We saw a lot more wildlife this time... honestly, it's really indescribable, and sometimes I'm not very good with words. Take a look at the pictures of the trip once I get them up and you may begin to understand if you have not seen these things before. I started to get really frustrated with my camera though because I don't have a good enough zoom or enough megapixels to capture such things as monkeys and birds in the trees. Nonetheless, I got some great closeups of things like millipedes (which I got in trouble for touching) and a boa. We saw some pig-like animals called peccaries, which were adorable but smelled awful, like body odor. Later we stopped for lunch at El Restaurante de Rana Roja (The Red Frog Restaurant), and we got to see some poison dart frogs in the garden. Somehow I managed to pick one up... Actually, I picked up the leaf it was sitting upon, and it jumped onto my hand. I got a picture of that which made me happy. We also stopped at an iguana conservation area and saw LOTS of bright red iguanas in the trees... got some great pictures there. I picked up some souvenirs somewhere along the way for Josh, my mom, my grandma, and my friend Adam... but I still have some more to go. I'm also going to be sending out postcards ASAP.

I really want a new camera.

We then drove 20 million hours (or rather, 3) to the Arenal Volcano and La Fortuna area (after stopping to look at pineapple plants and a crocodile). Our hotel this time is not so nice, but at least I got to use the internet and phone... after an unsuccessful attempt at lava sight-seeing at the volcano observatory. I talked to my mom, Adam, and Andrew, and checked my email.

I tried so hard to talk to Josh. I sent him messages through AIM, which failed to work... I had my mom leave him a message on his phone, because he wasn't answering. Today, by the way, is our 6 month "anniversary," so it was kind of an important day to at least hear his voice.

I then checked my Facebook and saw several messages from Josh... our pet frog Wayne has passed away, and he was so upset about it. Wayne has been sick for a long time so it was kind of expected, but Josh felt responsible for it, and I couldn't do anything but write back to tell him it was not his fault. I started to cry a little at the computer but wanted to hold it back so the hotel people would not think I was crazy. I used the phone and tried to call him several times, even got through to his mom, but apparently he was at work and could not answer his cell. I started off with only 20 minutes on my calling card (which had 25 dollars on it) and now I only have 12 left. The costs are ridiculous... and I didn't even get to talk with anyone.

Later I tried to use the internet again, but the hotel manager told me it was "closed" for the night. If I could just hear his voice I would be okay... This place is amazing, but I want to share it with him. I am ready to go home now. During the day when I am looking at the animals, I am okay, really... but I was not meant to be so far away from my other half. I don't know, I guess it's half my separation anxieties and half the fact that I just want to hear his voice, so I can at least know he really exists. I keep crying tonight, and Wayne being gone... and the fact that I ended up without a roommate for the next 2 nights because we have an odd number of girls... I feel so alone, so isolated, I just want to hear his voice, and I just want to be able to TELL him that I want to hear his voice!!

All I can do is focus on my nature pictures, read The Ultimate Hitchiker's Guide, and think... 9 more days.

I guess I will share another poem, written several years ago. I don't remember what inspired it, I guess it focuses on the concept of time... Which maybe I should be thinking about right now...

Sea of Broken Time (February 3, 2004)

Dancing in a lifeless world,
ambushed by the sins of time
The cracks creep through the dusty floor,
sharpened by our restless cries
A war of detailed memories
once tiptoed through these fields
But those faceless knights drew out their swords,
and stepping down, the queen gave yield
Dropped into a bitter pool of naked, burning eyes
A tasteless sea of yesterday's coffee,
lost, forgotten from our lives,
evaporates into the sunburnt webs of broken time.

January 17, 2008

This will be a shorter entry because I am so exhausted! Today was a much better day, on the emotional level at least. I got to talk to Josh online for the first time really this morning. So that put me in a good mood for the rest of the day... even though I got sunburned a little!

We visited the Arenal Volcano which was a beautiful sight. Also, there were some amazing blue birds there. Then, while driving, we came to a point in the road where there was a troup of 15 or 20 coatis - cute, pig-snouted, raccoon-like creatures. We got out and got very close to them, but unfortunately, people were feeding them from their cars... which disrupts their natural behaviors.

Later we went to an ecological reserve called Ecocentro Danaus, in which farmland had been restored to natural forest habitat. There we saw lots of interesting birds like toucans and... a baby sloth!!! He was trying so hard to get away from us fast, but he just could not move very quickly.

The lunch we had today was delicious... I ate rice with vegetables, and the flavoring was just amazing! I think the best vegetarian meal I have had so far. Speaking of vegetarianism, an interesting and disappointing thing I have noticed with the others in my class - none of them are vegetarians. They all seem very eco-friendly and of course animal enthusiasts, yet they still eat an abundance of meat... and discuss the different parts of the cow that taste the best! This to me is such a puzzling thing...

When I came back to the hotel, I noticed that the cleaning staff had posed my monkey Darwin on my bed into a very cute pose in which he was holding his little banana in his mouth. It definitely put a smile on my face. At night we visited the volcano and actually got to see some lava spurt out, though on my camera it just looks like an orange dot.

Tonight I talked to Josh a lot and I am feeling so much better. I am missing him so terribly. I wish he was here so he could take pictures with me and help me get better. I can't wait to show him my pictures and the presents I got him. I also talked to my mom, and my dad had many questions about the baby sloth. For instance, what color was it? I replied, grey with green moss. Haha. I sent out postcards to most of my family members so hopefully they will get them soon.

Now this entry has been longer than I was planning and I must sleep...! 8 days remaining...

January 18, 2008

Today we drove 3 hours around the huge Arenal Lake to get to Las Pumas, a reserve for large cats and other rescued and rehabiliated animals that cannot be released into the wild. We saw ocelots, margays, and even huge jaguars that wanted to eat us. I got a great picture of a toucan there. Then we traveled a little further to the Pacific side and are staying at a hotel right on the gulf coast. I went down to the water and noticed a tiny shore community all around me... lots of little crabs and snails all over the beach. I took some up close shots of this. I then went back to the pool for a while, but most everyone else was going wild and drinking a lot at 4 in the afternoon... and they came to dinner very intoxicated. I'm starting to get kind of tired of the group... I feel very different from them, and I tried being friendly, but somehow I am always the odd one out. I'm not really sure if it's a personality flaw with me or what, but it's kind of disheartening. I'm not a very sociable person, I guess. But today the tour guide called me "linda" which is the nice one or the pretty one, so that lifted my spirits. While I was at the pool, I also got some cool shots of a black iguana that came up to see what was going on. I love being able to get so close to the animals here.

Only got to talk to Josh for a few minutes in the morning on the internet before we left... no communication here, so I will have to wait another day. I am missing him so much, but just one week left! The trip is almost half over.

I need to write an article for the school newspaper about our trip and e-mail it to the editors within the next 3 days... but right now I am just too tired and not in the mood. Maybe during one of our long drives tomorrow...

January 20, 2008

I did not write last night but basically yesterday we went on a boat tour on the Gulf of Nicoya which was really fun... not as fast as the Greenpeace boats though... I wish I could have driven. I hope I can get a boat someday and live by the water. I'm so glad I got my boating license. I love being on the water... it's amazing. We saw some cool birds and baby crocodiles on the trip, but it was really hot and sunny. Later we spent most of the day driving on terrible dirt roads, which seemed to take forever, with one stop for a hike which was not very eventful at the University of Georgia's Eco Lodge in San Luis. Now we are in Monteverde, which is I think my favorite place so far. The weather is so beautiful and our hotel is amazing. We each have a little cabin with a lookout into a small part of the forest. There are also two friendly dogs here.

This morning we went on a zip line tour of the canopy, which was so much fun. I was a little nervous at first, but it was breathtaking to zoom through the trees and above the forest... what a view! At one point we got to do something similar to bungee jumping, where we were connected to a line and literally pushed off a platform to fall and swing into the forest below. They called this the Tarzan and it was terrifying but amazing. I think the boating and canopy tour have been the best parts of the trip so far.

I got to shop in Monteverde today, and later we have a night hike, so I may write about that if anything interesting occurs. I also got to talk to Josh on my cellphone via wireless internet and Skype... I love my smartphone!! His great grandma just passed away which is very sad. And he was asking my opinion about the career of firefighting... I'm still not sure how I feel...

I finished the article for The Yellow Jacket, so I'll post it below.

A January in Costa Rica

Imagine wandering into the depths of a neotropical rainforest and taking in the sight of hundreds of plants in vibrant greens towering high above your head. Imagine inhaling a strong musk and seeing its owner, the pig-like peccary, trot past into another patch of forest. Imagine if your 5am alarm clock was a roaring howler monkey greeting the daylight.

These are some of the vivid sensory experiences that eight Randolph-Macon students in the Tropical Biology and Conservation course witnessed this January in Costa Rica. The class consisted of Environmental Studies and Biology majors interested in ecology and conservation.

Traveling to Costa Rica has piqued our understanding of the crucial ecosystems within the neotropics. We can surely read in textbooks about the massive deforestation that occurs day after day, year after year. We know that the rainforest is losing several species to extinction each week and may be completely destroyed in the next 170 years. But only when we step into its boundaries can we truly embrace its diversity, its intricate and interdependent web of organisms, rapidly shrinking with our own expansion.

After our arrival in the capital of San Jose on January 14, we walked through the rainforest in both Braulio Carrillo National Park and La Selva Biological Station, accompanied by our German guide, Sabine Thonnes. We observed leafcutter ants at work, carrying their prizes back to the nest to culture their special fungus upon which they feed. A boa constrictor sat coiled at the base of a tree, ready to strike if we approached too closely. With sharp eyes, white-faced monkeys were seen climbing high into the magnificent canopy.

Because of its position relative to the sun, the Costa Rican rainforest maintains a constant climate in which evaporation and rainfall are self-contained within a cycle, providing a perfect recipe for diversity. The trees play a vital role in providing nutrients to the other plants, which grow on branches and trunks as epiphytes. In fact, the biomass holds 95 percent of the nutrients in the forest, above the shallow, empty soil. Consequently, deforestation alters the natural rain cycle and removes the essential life force of the forest, leaving just depleted soil behind.

Ecologist Dan Janzen has focused on Costa Rican ecology for many years and has discovered the ability of the forest to regenerate itself from abandoned agricultural land if given a little push. Our class had the chance to visit Ecocentro Danaus, a plot of forest now teeming with life that just 11 years ago was a cleared agricultural field.

There we encountered a baby 3-toed sloth who climbed at top speed, which was actually quite slow, away from where we stood, gawking and snapping photos. Tropical birds such as aracaris, a toucan relative, and bright blue morpho butterflies, zipped through the air.

Costa Rica is not simply a rainforest, though. We have now journeyed to the tropical dry forest on the Pacific side, near the Gulf of Nicoya. At a glance, it is reminiscent of the southwestern United States, but upon closer examination, one will observe some common characteristics with the neighboring rainforest, such as epiphytes (now in the form of cactuses) on the trees and stilt roots for support, oxygen, and nutrients - an adaptation of tropical life to a similar but much drier environment.

It is in this region that we visited Las Pumas, a rehabilitation center for rescued animals, and met the mighty jaguar, who was actually quite irritated by our company. Unfortunately, the jaguar, a keystone species, is extremely rare in the wild, simply because the forests have become too small with the increased development. Even a simple paved road is enough to fragment a jaguar’s habitat, creating an unnatural and impermeable boundary.

As I write this article, we are riding along a winding and dusty dirt road toward the Monteverde Cloud Forest Region. Around me on all sides I see a vast expanse of green rolling hills, freckled with cattle pastures but still untouched by the invasive urban sprawl.

Though Costa Rica has made progressive strides in recent years in the conservation realm, it will take much more to prevent the enormous and irreplaceable loss of species we are currently experiencing. This class has shown me a little taste of the most diverse environment on Earth, and it is crucial that such learning experiences continue …quot; for the sake of the rainforest and those who live within it.

January 21, 2008

The night walk last night was cool... saw a bunch of coatis and some sleeping birds, but not much new stuff. I feel at this point that we won't see much of anything new.

Last night one of the cats at the hotel in Monteverde followed me back to my room so I let her sleep in my bed with me. It made me really happy because I've been so lonely. She kept crawling under the covers and playing with Darwin the monkey. She curled up next to me and slept with me... I always sleep with Lexi my puppy at home, but I've never slept with a kitty in my bed before. It was so cute!

This morning we left for Montezuma, near the beach. It was about a 3 hour drive, then a ferry, and then a shorter drive. Someone earlier in the day remarked that we were having wonderful luck on this trip, and I think it jinxed us - because on the way to the hotel after the ferry, a piece of the transmission completely fell off the bus. Another van came to pick us up but our poor bus driver had to stay and wait for about 8 hours for his boss to come and help him work on fixing it. And this is probably the hottest part of the country... over 85 degrees.

This hotel is really nice as well. I went in the pool for a little while. But my favorite place was Monteverde... the weather was so cool in the cloud forest and the cat and the internet connection and everything... it was great. Here they do not have internet and this afternoon suddenly I started to miss Josh so much that I started crying. I put 30 dollars on my calling card and called him for like 10 minutes and now I only have like 15 minutes left. It's SO expensive. I miss him so much and I keep crying because I just want to go home to him now. I feel like we have seen everything we need to see at this point.

Tomorrow we will be going to the Curu Reserve to meet the other RMC class here... they are studying behavior of monkeys on the reserve. After that it's a free day and then basically driving and traveling. The flight back is Friday and I cannot wait.

I wanted to mention our tour guide for this trip before I forget. Her name is Sabine and she is originally from Germany. She came here to study biology and so she is triligual in German, Spanish, and English. She is amazing and seems to know EVERYTHING! I am really glad we found her!

Oh, there is also a dog here that looks like my dog Rusty, only much larger... at least 100 pounds, probably more. His name is Yasco and he is very cute.

January 22, 2008

Last night I went to bed around 8:30. I guess there was nothing else to do and I got tired of reading. I'm getting so tired of being around people so unlike me. They talk so much about eating meat and other subjects I'm generally uninterested in. I guess it's a good experience in being social for me, but I haven't really been too successful.

Today we visited Curu and saw a lot of monkeys. We have much better accomodations than the psychology class there - they have no electricity and live 6 people to a dirty cabin. We had some time on the beach... most of them were too scared to go into the water because of supposed crocodiles, but a few of us went swimming which was nice.

I called my mom and talked to her a little, as well as my dad. I tried to call Josh but he didn't answer. I just want to go to sleep and wake up in three days when I am home...haha. I have dinner in a half hour, then I'll try to call Josh again, and then I will sleep.

"When I wake up without you, knowing you're not there,
I'm only feeling half as good
Now I'm gonna find a way to wrap you in my arms
You make me feel alive..."
-The Calling, "Unstoppable"

January 23, 2008

Tomorrow we leave for San Jose again, and the following day we fly home!

Today I woke up sick and still decided to go to Montezuma and Mal Pais all day with the group. I was fine until I went on the beach and swam a little in the ocean. Suddenly I felt very feverish. I ended up with sunburn and my muscles were hurting a lot. Luckily I had ibuprofen, but unfortunately, I did not bring anything for my stuffy nose, so it has been terrible. Sabine, the tour guide, had something called Gex which has taken away my congestion, so I am really grateful. But tomorrow we will have to stop at the pharmacy at some point... I am so angry at myself because I had been debating on bringing the decongestant but decided not to because I thought for sure I wouldn't get sick in Costa Rica. Of course I was wrong.

I had a nice talk with Eugeno, our bus driver, in Spanish today. That was nice because I got a chance to finally practice some... I really wish I wasn't so shy to use my Spanish, but when all the store owners know English, it is just easier...

This morning Josh actually called me in the hotel and I was so happy to hear from him! I am waiting for another call from him in a few minutes. I miss him so much. Today he went to his great grandmother's funeral so I will ask him how that was...