TravelStream™ news feed for member angelalivengood on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/angelalivengood en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:59:25 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1243910762/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1243910762/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1243910762/tpod.html Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:59:25 -0400 Las aventuras de Angela en Central America

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Granada, Nicaragua

So, a friend from my program, Laina, and I decided to go to Nicaragua for the weekend. Most of the other people had gone during Semana Santa, but Laina and I hadn't. The capitol of Nicaragua is Managua. However, we'd heard that it was fairly dangerous and that there was a lot to see in Granada and it took less time to get to than Managua.

Founded in 1524 by Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba, Granada is the oldest city in Central America. It is also home to Iglesia San Francisco, the oldest church in Central America.

Before, I talk more about Granada, I'll start from the beginning of my interesting journey...

So, I packed the night before on Thursday and went to bed at 11pm. I got up at 3:30am and called a taxi. I reached the park of Heredia at 4am and met up with Laina. Then we caught a taxi to San Jose. We had decided to travel to Nicaragua using Tica Bus, which is what I'd always used to get to Panama City. We got there around 4:30am. We knew the next bus would leave at 6am. When we got to the counter I asked for a ticket for the 6am bus, the guy told me that there was no more room. Uh-oh. And there would be no room until 12pm. Double uh-oh.

Let me back up slightly and explain that we had not bought our tickets early because we everyone including the directors of our program told us that it wasnt necessary since this isnt traveling season. So there should be room they said. Riiiiiiight.

My gut had been telling me to buy tickets early. I should have listened...Oh well.

We knew of another station called TransNica, so we caught a taxi there.

Now, Tica Bus is very professional, nicely lit with a small cafe with a cook. And it's very clean. Its a nice building and can be seen from 3 blocks away.

TransNica is a different story.

When the taxi driver said "we're here," I looked up and the frist thing I saw was a woman sitting with a shopping cart that had a garbage bag and food on top of it. I asked the driver if he was sure and he pointed to the station. It was sqeezed between a parking lot and a car workshop. Easy to miss if you're not paying attention. Then I realized the woman out front was not a begger as I'd thought, but actually selling snacks and drinks.

Inside, the floor was covered in paper a dirt and the place was dimly lit.

They had buses that left at 5am, 7am, 9am, and 12pm. The guy told us there was no room until 12pm. I asked what time that would put us in Granada. He said hold on and actually went outside to ask the woman who was selling things this question. I guess she was quite knowledgeable about TransNica, I still dont know if she worked for the company or not.

THe guy came back and told us that we wouldnt get to Granada until like 9pm. Snap. Laina wanted to stay and do it, but I didnt want to wait like 7 hours to catch it (it was 5am at this point) and thought about throwing in the towel.

Then, they guy told us that "frequently" it happens where people dont show up even though they bought tickets. Maybe this would happen for the 7am bus, in which case we could get on. So we decided to do that, by this point it was around 5am.

Aaaaaaand, luckily, it worked out. In fact, we got the seats in the first row. Extra leg room!

Being 7am, the sun was out and people were more awake. The bus was very cold but I'd forgotten to change into my sweatpants and sweater. So i was pretty cold on the bus and couldnt sleep.

We stopped at a pit stop around an hour and a half in. It was very cute. It was made of wood and had vaquero decorations everywhere. Also it had a beautiful view.

I managed to cat nap between 9am and 12pm, when we reached the border. There was a VERY long line of people in the "Leave Costa Rica" line. So we got out and stood under the scorching sun. Luckily, like 10 minutes later, a TransNica worker said he would collect our passports and papers and turn them all in to the office, which meant we could wait on the bus with the A/C. People ran back onto the bus.

The workers were very strict about having exact addresses on the immigration papers. Much more strict than when going to Panama. I'm assuming this is because there are a lot of illegal immigrants that go to Costa Rica so both CR and Nicaragua need to keep better track of everyone who travels back and forth. Laina and I didnt know where we'd be staying, so we just put down the name of the first hotel we thought of that we knew was in Granada.

We waited for arund 3 and a half hours before we entered Nicaragua. Where they collected our passports AGAIN for the "Enter Nicaragua" office.

2 of the documents we'd had to fill out had to do with the Swine Flu. One was for Costa Rica, the other was for Nicaragua. THey basically asked the same thing, if we'd had any flu-like symptoms and such. To get off the bus at the border on the Nicaraguan side, people entered who were wearing gloves and had on surgical masks. They collected our health document, checked it over and then let us get off since we hadnt had any symptoms.

The Nicaraguan side of the border was very crowded. There was the line of people waiting to turn in documents to immigration. Then there were people just waiting around to get back on their buses. Then there was people waiting to have their luggage searched. And then people who were selling things and people with wads of money who asked passengers if they needed to exchange money.

Near the end of the border stay, we had to get our luggage checked. I my baggage claim document to the border worker, he pointed to a button that connected to a traffic light right next to him on a table. I pressed the button, the light turned green, meaning I didnt need to have my bag checked. I put it back on the bus.

After another 30 min, I got my passport back and got on the bus.

We drove for about another hour and a half before we reached Granada. Along the way, I saw windmills and a lot of cows; some were gated into a field, others were walking along the side of the road, I even saw some on the highway, eating the grass on the long islands in the middle of the road. I saw small houses every once in a while, dispersed along the way.

Then finally, we reached Granada.





]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1240630320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1240630320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1240630320/tpod.html Fri, 08 May 2009 01:34:00 -0400 Las aventuras de Angela en Central America

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Pacuare Reserve, Province of Cartago, Costa Rica

This weekend my program went on an excursion to a nature reserve called Pacuare. It's located on the Caribbean Sea. Our job there was to help study the Leatherback turtles that lay eggs on the beach of the reserve.


We all stayed in a small cabin. There were 4 bedrooms and one common room. The first day we arrived around 12:30pm and ate lunch. The kitchen is in its own separate cabin. We sat at one long table and served ourselves: rice, beans, and chicken for lunch. After that we got used to the small area where the cabins where located and the beach. Then two girls talked to us about the turtles and what we'd be doing. Both girls were, surprisingly, from Europe. One from Spain and the other from France. But both came off as hippies, ha. I was pretty tired so I didn't quite catch what they were saying.

Here's some back story that i later figured out: Pacuare is famous for the leatherback turtles
that come to lay eggs. The eggs of these turtles are known for being
aphrodisiacs. In many parts of the Caribbean coast it's legal to take
the eggs of the turtles and sell them to restaurants. However, on
Pacuare reserve and the areas surrounding it, it's illegal to take the
turtle eggs. But egg poachers still steal them. There are guards on
the reserve, but poachers still manage to get them sometimes.

This is how turtles lay eggs: they come out of the sea onto the beach. They dig deep in the sand and lay their eggs. Then they cover up the eggs with sand. In an effort to save the eggs from poachers, the workers on the reserve, find turtles as they are laying eggs and then collect the eggs and place them in a human made nest in the sand. A "human made" nest is just a deep whole someone digs with their hands.


Back to my story: Later that afternoon they took us to the beach. They explained that to hide the eggs, we have to dig a deep hole as a nest. So, we all practiced. The holes weren't very wide, but they were deep. The practice went like this: I dug as deep as I could possibly reach. The Spain girl measured it with a stick and then said "that's good, now dig a little more."
After that "practice" was done, we lounged around and then ate dinner. I signed up for the 10pm-2am shift for that night. There were 3 of us from the program and the French girl ( her name was Alice, or something) as our leader and some other CR guy. Let me set the scene...

10pm at night...there is no electricity in the cabins or outside so we have to rely on flashlights. However, to avoid drawing the attention of poachers and to avoid bothering/scaring the turtles, we can only use flashlights with red lights on the beach. But even that light can't be used too much. So we're walking in pitch darkness on the beach. To avoid the mosquitos we where pants and t-shirts and bug spray And we all wear boots to protect our feet since we cant see very well where we are stepping.

So, I couldnt see anything. All of a sudden Alice said she saw a turtlle. I couldnt see anything, so I just took her word for it. Then Alice shined her light on it. It was like out of a horror movie for a split second because at first all I saw was darkness and then the light was turned on and I saw this huge, monstruous turtle shell. Very big turtle. One of the guys measured the shell and Alice took down the measurements. The turtle dug in the sand with her back fins, but she found water a foot in. Turtles won't lay their eggs in water, so she stopped digging and returned to the sea.

Of course, it didn't that quickly. I don't know how turtles have been around for so long, yet not be too intelligent. The turtle kept digging for a good 8 minutes even though there was clearly water in the nest, which she would have been able to feel with her fins. I dont know why she kept digging. Then, in terms of getting onto land and leaving it, it takes the turtles a while to move. They basically use the front fins to push themselves through the sand...a very long process given their size and weight. They might not be able to move for a few minutes even though they're slapping their fins through the sand.
We ran into 2 other turtles, one of which i helped measure. Then, we finally saw one that was about to lay eggs!

I volunteered to collect the eggs...a decision which I later came to partially regret. Collecting eggs basically involved me putting a bag in the nest, under the turtle and catching the eggs as the fell. Alice gave me one plastic glove to put on my right hand, which I would use to touch the eggs if they missed the bag and to hold the back part of the bag where turtle fluid might land on my hand. She said that i should avoid getting fluid on my hand since it could be carrying bacteria...that freaked me out a little bit and kicked up my germa-phobe-ness. I held the bag with both hands under the turtle. The eggs came out very quickly, 8 or so at a time. My arms got tired almost immediately. Almost 2 minutes in, eggs started missing the bag. After the whole "bacteria in fluid" info that Alice had given me, I was freaked out about putting my hand or clothes too close to the turtle. Alice traded spots with me and hurridly put all the eggs into the bag. It had to be done quickly cause we didnt want to miss any eggs.

After the turtle was done, we took the bag of eggs (which was really heavy) to an area a few feet away where one of the guys had made a nest. I had to lay down on the sand and count the eggs as I put them into the nest.

Now, there are 2 types of eggs: fertilized and unfertilized. I dont know the average size of a fertilized egg, but it's fairly big and fit comfortably in the palm of my hand. The unfertilized eggs were smaller and varied in size, some were as small as pebbles. They just dont get developed as much as the fertilized eggs before the turtle lays them. Since they're easily crushed, they are put on the top of the fertlized eggs. I forgot this as I was placing the eggs in the new nest and I'm sure I crushed a few unfertlized eggs.

Then it started raining. But I had to finish. So there i was in the pitch black darkness, lying on the increasingly wet sand counting eggs. And i had to count out loud so they could help me if i lost count. Since the one guy didnt speak English, I had to count in Spanish, which made things a little more difficult since I had to stop and think about what number came next. One of my friends held a jacket over me and the nest to keep the eggs drier.


The bag that held the eggs got full of water from the rain. So I was essentially sticking my hand in a bag full of water and turtle fluid. Yes, this grossed me out. Finally I finished.

Oh man...I was covered in sand and my right arm was covered in liquids. I was freakd, afraid I'd get some bacteria like Alice had said. I later realized it wasnt that big of a deal. But i still felt sticky and wet. :-/

Worse, to keep poacher from finding the eggs, we had to cover up their tracks. Since the sand was wet, this was even more difficult. We used big sticks and dragged them along the sand (which required a lot of strength) to cover up the tracks. Everyone's arms got really tired.

I was going to take a shower when I got back, but there were crabs everywhere. Really. At night they came up on land and up to the cabins to sleep. The bathrooms and showers and are just stalls outside, so the showers were full of crabs. I could have taken a shower because the crabs were more afraid of me than me of them. But still, i couldnt. So i went to sleep and took a cold shower the following morning.

The second day was uneventful. Some of us missed the nature walk to see the birds, so Alice took us on a separate nature walk, where we saw frogs and lizards.

That night I went on the 10pm shift again. There were 2 turtles that laid eggs, this time I chose not to collect the eggs. I just helped to dig the nest. The waves where much high this night. It was quite funny actually. Everytime the water came up really high, we'd all run backward quickly to stay dry. But at one point the water splashed up to my shins, even though I had tried to jump back and out of the way. My one boot was full of water the rest of the time :( Highly uncomfortable.

On the walk back we accidentally passed the cabin site. Our leader, Michael (from England), was new so he didnt realize it and it took a good 10 minutes to figure out where we were as he argued with a guard over the walkie talkie in broken Spanish. We discovered we were out of bounds of the reservation, an area where the guards coulddn't legally stop egg poachers. The poachers are not known for being violent, but still I was slightly worried since again we were in pitch darkness. But, needless to say, we made it back safely.

The next day, we left in the early afternoon and made it back to Heredia around 5pm.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1239913860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1239913860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1239913860/tpod.html Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:08:42 -0400 Las aventuras de Angela en Central America

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Panama City, Panama

I've taken a lot of photos of Panama City, I've been there several times, staying with friends.

Overall, the city is big and has a lot of very tall buildings. And most of these very tall buildings are apartment buildings. While the country of Panama is very small geographically, around 3 million people live in the city. So they need to make a lot of room. Most of the buildings I've seen were constructed in the past 5 years. Americans investors own a lot of the real estate in the city. Overall, there many American move to Panama after the retire becuase its warm and very cheap.

Shopping i awesome! Especially at a store called Conway. I see the cutest shirts/pants/dresses for around $10. Of course, you have to check to make sure they are decent quality. But over all, the shopping is awesome if you find the right stores!

Many Panamanians speak English too. This has to do with the canal the fact that up until recently many American soldiers were stationed in city to help monitor the canal, which the US completely owned until the 70s.

I went to the Canal museum called Miraflores. Very interesting. While American actually constructed the canal, it was first started by the French. But for numerous reasons, including corruption and money problems, they abandoned it. As of now, the big issue is expanding the canal. The museum said that if it's not expanded, by 2012 the canal will lose importance. Now when I say expand, I dont mean to widen it, but rahter add 2 smaller canals from the pacific and atlantic that will connect to the main one, this will allow for more ships to enter.

Overall, I really like Panama, although it can get VERY hot during this time of the year. I've attached pictures. Including ones from when I got up close and personal with some monkies while at the beach!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1235760240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1235760240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1235760240/tpod.html Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:07:17 -0400 Las aventuras de Angela en Central America

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Panama City, Panama

I visited Panama City the weekend of Feb 13. I was visiting a friend there. I took a bus to the city from San Jose. Its a 13-14 hour ride, but this took like 17 hours, blah.

I travelled with the company Tica Bus. It travels through all central America and the south of Mexico. I left at 11pm from San Jose. I was lucky enough to sit next to an American woman, Rachel. She goes to Panama 2 a year to study the stories of the Embera, a native tribe in Panama. She records their stories in their native languages then has a man translate them to Spanish and English. Very interesting woman. She lives in Monteverde on a reserve in the rainforest.

We got to the border at around 5:30am. The Tica Bus people collected everyone's passport. Apparently, Costa Rican office at the border does not have computers. So it was faster for the Tica Bus people to turn in everyone's passport at once. Soooo, we walked to the Panama office. In between the two offices there are a few houses and a lot of small restaurants. After using the bathroom (had to pay for toilet paper), I waited in the line at the Panama window. I filled out customs papers as I waited.

Also, I had no idea that I had atually crossed the border. I thought i was still in CR. There's not big dramatic line just at some point you're in Panama, lol.

Let me tell you, very irritating. We got there at 5:30am, but the office didn't open until like 7:30am. So all we could do was wait....and wait...and wait. Finally I got to the front, even after the opened it took forever. At the front, I realized why. They dont' have computers either, so they take down all the information by hand. After that, I had to buy a tourist visa for $5. This meant I had to go to another line. Out of the 50 people on the bus, only 7 of us needed to buy a visa. 5 of us were American, one guy was from Canada and another girl was from Japan. Here's the catch, something i still dont understand. The office to buy the visa was closed. ???? And the worker didn't show up for around 2 hours. We were all fairly upset. Rachel, would traveled the route many times said no one is ever there at first, they always have to call a worker to come to the visa office. But she admitted it had never taken the worker so long to arrive.

I still dont understand. I'd imagine enough non-costa rican and non-panamanian tourists must come through the border for someone to be in the visa office all the time.

THe lady finally came, we got out cards and we were off. YEh!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1235754660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1235754660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1235754660/tpod.html Fri, 27 Feb 2009 13:43:26 -0500 Las aventuras de Angela en Central America

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Heredia, Province of Heredia, Costa Rica

So, I am in my 3rd week of classes. I'm not sure if I said, so I will say again. I'm taking the following classes:

Culture and Globalization
Advanced Spanish
Social Construction of Masculinity
Social Construction of Daily Life (gender studies class as well)
Social Movements and Development in Costa Rica

All of the teachers are very friendly with us foreign students and so are the students. I think the students are especially friendly because 3 of the classes are freshman classes. And freshman are very friendly because they want to make friends by 2nd and 3rd year, everyone is more set in their friendships. But in general, the students have been very patient with my spanish.

In two of my classes the professors are always pushing gringos to speak in the class. And the word they use for us in spanish translates to "north americans," which is interesting because they have a word in Spanish for people from the US, it is "estadounidense." Professors are certainly more lax here. Students walk out and come back with food, which they then eat. And they also answer their cell phones in class and then walk out of class to talk on their cell phones. Also, classes are very small around 25-30 students in each class.

One interesting thing I have noticed here in Costa Rica. I've certainly seen a lot of babies and small children. But one thing I haven't really seen is baby strollers. I have seen maybe like 3 strollers since I've gotten here. Most of the time I just see people holding their children in their arms with a blanket over them. I have a feeling its because a lot of people use public transportation and bringing a stroller onto the bus would be a pain.

I went to the mall the other day. But its pretty much the same type of mall that you can see in States. And the prices are maybe $10 cheaper at most. Not cheap enough to make me go on a shopping spree though.

The other day I went to a movie rental place near my house. The first thing that surprised me was that I saw the movie "Taken" on DVD. For those who don't know, that movie came out in THEATERS just like a month ago in the US. The second thing that surprised me was the realization that ALL the movies were pirated, hahaha. They'd all clearly been downloaded from the computer. But I've rented 2 movies from there and they're both good quality, lol.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1234844760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1234844760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1234844760/tpod.html Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:49:51 -0500 Las aventuras de Angela en Central America

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Heredia, Province of Heredia, Costa Rica

So, first week of classes are over. Overall, I have a good feeling about the classes. They're certainly going to be tough. But all of my professors have had American exchange students before. Which makes sense since I'm taking a lot of international relations classes. American students are fairly common here. It's not like I see them everywhere, but there are enough that all the students sophomore and up are used to us. Here are my classes that I'm taking (translated into English of course):

-Culture and globalization
-Advanced Spanish
-Social construction of masculinity
-Social construction of daily life (mainly about gender)
-Social movements and Development in Costa Rica

Each class is once a week, lasting around 3 hours. Since textbooks are too expensive for most students, professors turn in lectures to local photo copy places and students buy copies of lectures and readings. There are photocopier places EVERYWHERE. Just small little shops with a few copy machines. There's at least like 10 different ones with one square block of the University.

For the night life, overall it's very cheap. One night I went out, I paid for a 2 taxi rides, 2 drinks, and an entrance fee into a club. It all ended up costing around $16, which is like the cost of on taxi ride in DC.

Btw, lowest denomination of paper bills is 1,000 colones. When I first exchanged money at the airport, i got several paper bills, they were 1,000 bill, 2,000 bill, and 5,000 bill. Then the change is 500 coin, 100 coin, 50 coin, 25 coin, 20 coin, and 5 coin.

Right now, using Oanda.com, I see that $1.00 = 575 colones (approx). Meaning that 1000 colones = $1.86 (approx).

It's just very inexpensive here. I feel that I'm using too big a bill when I pay with a 5000 colon bill (around $9). After getting money out of an ATM, it gave me all 10,000 colon bills (10,000 = $18). I didn't know how I was going to use that. I used it the other day at a Taco Bell and the worker looked at it in a way that I could tell she was making sure that it was real.

Reminder for all of my eastern standard friends and family. Costa Rica is on central time. Meaning we're an hour behind here.

Also, from talking to some of you I realize that you think I'm still in the rainforest, but I'm not. I was in the rainforest when I was in Monteverde. But Heredia is much more metropolitan. No rainforest to be found here. I've posted some pictures this time, not too many.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1233711000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1233711000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1233711000/tpod.html Tue, 03 Feb 2009 20:35:05 -0500 Las aventuras de Angela en Central America

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Heredia, Province of Heredia, Costa Rica

I arrived on Sunday to Heredia, Costa Rica, where I will be for the next 4 and a half months. I will be studying at La Universidad nacional (UNA). It's located around 20 minutes or so outside of San Jose (the capital). There are three big bus companies that travel between the two cities, so I can go to San Jose any time I want.

It was fairly hot the first day I arrived. I met my house mother there Rita Hernandez. She is 71 years old and is retired. Judging from the dates of the pictures I received from the program about the house, she has been housing students for at least two years.

She has four children: 2 sons and 2 daughters. I think the youngest (Johanna) is in her mid to late 30s. Johanna also met me in at the university to help collect my things with Dona Rita.
Johanna works in another city 4 hours away, she's a professor of English. But, of course, I talked to her in Spanish the whole time J She stayed with Dona Rita over the break.

Note: "Dona" is supposed to have a tilde (that squiggly line over top) on the N, but TravelPod doesn't compute special characters. It's pronounced like "donya," and it's a name of respect given to older women.

We drove to Hotel Bougainvillea to get my big suitcase. We had Pizza Hut for lunch (Dona Rita had not prepared anything because she did not know if we would have eaten lunch before we'd arrived). They didn't ask me what I wanted on it. Being a plain cheese pizza lover my whole life (with the occasional toppings) it was definitely the most I'd ever eaten on a pizza. It had pepperoni, mushrooms, sausage and green peppers. It wasn't too bad (I ate 3 slices because I was very hungry), but I probably wouldn't eat it again, lol.

I spent the next few hours unpacking. I have my own room and my own bathroom. Woot! The only disappointment was that I have to throw the toilet paper in the trash can here too, ha ha.

The city of Heredia reminds me a lot of Merida, Mexico when I was there back in high school on a school trip. The buildings are colorful and small in stature. I think I was once told that the tallest building in CR is like 4 stories high. Also, the houses are fairly pretty and have gated garages. In my house, the inside is very beautiful and spacious.

On the second day in Heredia, we went on a tour of the university. It's fairly small, so it will not be hard to navigate around. Classes meet once a week for 3 hours (and I've been told they rarely last the whole time). I'm still working on my class schedule. Classes start on Monday, February 9th.

By the way, overall, in my houses, I've eaten very healthy food. I have fruit for at least two of my three meals. Breakfast varies and usually consists of type of food and fruit; I've had cereal, toast, eggs and fruit. For drinks during breakfast, I have had tea and juice. Lunch and dinner vary as well, but I have had; pasta salad, rice, beans, chips, and meat. Again, only healthy foods really.

As for the weather, it's hot during the day, especially the afternoon (shorts and tee-shirt weather). But it definitely cools down during the evening and nighttime. At night if I go out, I wear jeans and a light jacket.

Also, slightly crazy, I haven't seen a rainbow in years. The last time I remember seeing one is when I was in elementary school. I'm sure I've seen them since then, but I can't remember. In the 10 days I've been in CR, I have seen 2: one in Monteverde and one in Heredia.

Also, there are a lot of small dogs here. Like toy poodles, dachshunds, etc. And especially, I have seen the Chihuahua. Most host family in Monteverde and a cream-colored one and in Heredia we have a brown one, named Ori (he'll be leaving soon though, he's Johanna's dog and she lives 4 hours away from here). And in general I've seen a lot around.

Also, something else I have randomly noticed, the napkins here are small and thin. I haven't seen anything like Bounty and Brawn napkins or paper towels in the houses.

**Pictures to come soon**
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1233439980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1233439980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1233439980/tpod.html Tue, 03 Feb 2009 08:20:14 -0500 Las aventuras de Angela en Central America

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Monteverde, Province of Limon, Costa Rica

First day in San Jose and in Costa Rrrrrica! The hotel staff was very
friendly and spoke English. I woke up to a beautiful sight of colorful
flowers. There was a lot of fruit for breakfast, which I ate with
people from my program. Then we had some orientation with our program
directors.

We left in the afternoon for Monteverde, where
we're staying for the week. Total there are around 12 people in the
program. I was surprised because this is MUCH smaller than my group to
Spain, which was like 40 students.

We arrived in Monteverde
around 6pm. I met my host family: the dad is 50 yrs old, the mom is
27, one daughter is 4, and the other daughter is 1 yr old. I thought
it was strange that the dad was 50 and the mom 27, but I've been told
that this is more common in Latin America than in the US. Either way,
they are both very friendly and attentive to their children.

My first night, I ate soup that had chicken, chick peas, and rice. It was very good.

Note: Costa Ricans call themselves "Ticos," so that's how I will refer to them

Day 2 (Tuesday):
-Breakfast was toast and mango
-I walked to the Monteverde Institute with 2 girls from my program, it was a 20 minute walk
-Monteverde is absolutely beautiful, nature there is so untouched and hermosa
-The morning was just a lot of orientation] to the program. We had a break and at fruit and pastries.
-We had lunch and the rest of the afternoon was orientation -Some interesting things I learned during orientation about Costa Rica was:

----The official religion is Catholicism, but a lot of people are not
religious. And other religions do exist here. Buddhists have their
own organization of Costa Rican Buddhists (a lot of Chinese have
immigrated here). And there is one big Mosque in San Jose. Also, the
city of Monteverde was actually founded by American Quakers in the
1950s.For us as students, having an official religion essentially means
that the professor is not obligated to provide us with information for
classes we missed due to non-Catholic religious absences.
----Homosexuality is not accepted here. But the younger generation is growing up more tolerant
----Costa
Ricans are more open about being what we call politically incorrect.
If you're black, you'll be referred to (at some point) as negro, if you
look Asian, you'll be referred as "Chino." If you look white, you're
"gringo." And Ticos assume that all Gringos are from the U.S., not
England, Germany, etc. (the same as how many American think all Latinos
are from Mexico or Puerto Rico) Also, they assume that all
Asian-looking people are Chinese (which we do in the US too,
hahaha).Costa Rica has a lot of problems with Nicaraguan immigrants.
-----Due to the continuing political problems in Nicaragua, many immigrate to
their neighbor down south, Costa Rica. Most Nicaraguans come over
uneducated and with their children, who often times don't attend
school. When I asked my host parents about the situation, my madre
said that Nicaraguans come over but do not try to change their culture
to match that of the Ticos. My padre said that it was just a very
complicated situation. Essentially, the problems Costa Rica has with
Nicaraguan immigrants are the same exact problems that the US has with
Mexican immigrants. In fact, during orientation when we were talking
about US stereotypes of Mexicans, and I'm talking a general stereotype that not everyone has, (lazy, drink all the time, uneducated,
can't speak the language, etc.), one of the Costa Rican directors said
that those are the same stereotypes that Ticos have regarding
Nicaraguans (nicknamed "Nicas," which is considered a derogatory term)

-I returned home around 6pm. The walk is easy and straight forward, you just follow one main road.

-Dinner, was something baked, my madre used some type of vegetable that
looked like a potato only longer, a little thinner and more twisted.
It was pretty good, we had salad too.
-I went to bed around 10pm



Day 3:
-Today was exciting because we explored the Rainforest! We went
through a company called "Sky Walk." There was a misunderstanding and
we as a group ended up going by ourselves. We thought we were going
with a professor, but we weren't suppose to. By the time we
understood what was going on and had reached the Sky Walk, the guided
tour was gone. We explored on our own buy got lost along the path and
had to turn around half way through. But we made it the bridges.

-They were hanging bridges, and while secure, still wabbled as you'd
think they would, so it was a little bit scary. But we got to see
monkeys. Overall, the trip was fun and we saw a lot of interesting
things. The rainforest is exactly as I'd thought it would be. Lots
of plants, very wet, and beautiful.
-In the afternoon we started
our "intensive" Spanish classes. I didn't think it was very
intensive, we went over some basic things and then got into groups and
wrote a fairy tale play after listening to Beauty and the Beast in
Spanish. For homework I finished reading some children story. It was
about a little black boy in Africa (he was often referred to as "el
negrito" [that mean "the little black one"] in the story) exploring the
jungle. Then a cruise boat comes to his lands and he is mesmerized by
a little white girl. That's basically what happened in the chapter I
read. Apparently, the author is very famous and this is a well-known
story. -I got home around 6pm again. We ate pasta with alfredo sauce, which my padre add ketchup to...
-Very tired, I went to be around 8:30pm (I had gotten up at 6am)


Day 4:
-More Spanish classes. I'm not sure why they are called intensive because I think they're really easy.

-In the afternoon, some people and I went back to the rainforest to do
the Sky Trek, which is zip lining over the rainforest. At first, I was
very nervous because it was very windy. But it was lot of fun. Where
we were is called the Cloud Forest because you're actually zip lining
in the clouds, which is not as amazing as it sounds. That is to say, you don't even realize you're in a cloud until you really think about it. Hahaha, it's like we all thought it'd be magical and that there'd be like fairies and sparkles flying around saying "You are in a cloud!" But really it's just a thick fog. I didn't realize we were in a cloud until the second time I zip-lined (there were 10 zip lines in all)
-After zip lining, I went on the internet to look up classes.
-At home, we had pasta and meat sauce for dinner.
-Bed at around 9:30pm


Day 5 (Friday)
-Final day of Spanish classes during orientation. We listened to some Spanish songs

-After looking at classes again, I went home to help my host mother
cook for a fiesta the program was going to have at the institute. We
made "pudding de maizana" it looked lik flan with raisins. It was
pretty good.
-The fiesta was fun and I met other students' families.


Day 6:
-We
went on a horseback riding tour of the rainforest. It was fun, but I
spent most of the time paying attention to the horse as opposed to
enjoying the scenery because it was a bumpy ride.
-We were at a dairy farm and some of us made cheese :)
-Then we went to another farm where they showed us sugar canes and coffee plants, explaining how sugar and coffee were made.

Left aligned photo tag:


**Pictures will be added soon*
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1232921520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1232921520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/2/1232921520/tpod.html Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:12:55 -0500 Las aventuras de Angela en Central America

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entry & travel map

San Jose, Costa Rica

I arrived in San Jose around 10pm. Went through customs. I got all of
my luggage this time luckily! I had to go to a station at the airport
to buy a ticket (a receipt really) for a taxi. I gave the receipt to a
driver and we were off to Hotel Bougainvillea. I held a conversation
with the driver in Spanish! woot!

The hotel was really nice. I
liked it. It was completely dark when I was there. But I woke up to a
beautiful garden view. Many beautiful and colorful flowers. Gorgeous.


That's it for now. I'll write more soon. It's difficult to get internet access where I am right now.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/1/1232999940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/1/1232999940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/angelalivengood/1/1232999940/tpod.html Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:50:55 -0500 Las Aventuras de Angela

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entry & travel map

Monteverde, Province of Limon, Costa Rica

First day in San Jose and in Costa Rrrrrica! The hotel staff was very friendly and spoke English. I woke up to a beautiful sight of colorful flowers. There was a lot of fruit for breakfast, which I ate with people from my program. Then we had some orientation with our program directors.

We left in the afternoon for Monteverde, where we're staying for the week. Total there are around 12 people in the program. I was surprised because this is MUCH smaller than my group to Spain, which was like 40 students.

We arrived in Monteverde around 6pm. I met my host family: the dad is 50 yrs old, the mom is 27, one daughter is 4, and the other daughter is 1 yr old. I thought it was strange that the dad was 50 and the mom 27, but I've been told that this is more common in Latin America than in the US. Either way, they are both very friendly and attentive to their children.

My first night, I ate soup that had chicken, chick peas, and rice. It was very good.

Note: Costa Ricans call themselves "Ticos," so that's how I will refer to them

Day 2 (Tuesday):
-Breakfast was toast and mango
-I walked to the Monteverde Institute with 2 girls from my program, it was a 20 minute walk
-Monteverde is absolutely beautiful, nature there is so untouched and hermosa
-The morning was just a lot of orientation]to the program. We had a break and at fruit and pastries.
-We had lunch and the rest of the afternoon was orientation
-Some interesting things I learned during orientation about Costa Rica was:
----The official religion is Catholicism, but a lot of people are not religious. And other religions do exist here. Buddhists have their own organization of Costa Rican Buddhists (a lot of Chinese have immigrated here). And there is one big Mosque in San Jose. Also, the city of Monteverde was actually founded by American Quakers in the 1950s.For us as students, having an official religion essentially means that the professor is not obligated to provide us with information for classes we missed due to non-Catholic religious absences.
----Homosexuality is not accepted here. But the younger generation is growing up more tolerant
----Costa Ricans are more open about being what we call politically incorrect. If you're black, you'll be referred to (at some point) as negro, if you look Asian, you'll be referred as "Chino." If you look white, you're "gringo." And Ticos assume that all Gringos are from the U.S., not England, Germany, etc. (the same as how many American think all Latinos are from Mexico or Puerto Rico) Also, they assume that all Asian-looking people are Chinese (which we do in the US too, hahaha).Costa Rica has a lot of problems with Nicaraguan immigrants.
-----Due to the continuing political problems in Nicaragua, many immigrate to their neighbor down south, Costa Rica. Most Nicaraguans come over uneducated and with their children, who often times don't attend school. When I asked my host parents about the situation, my madre said that Nicaraguans come over but do not try to change their culture to match that of the Ticos. My padre said that it was just a very complicated situation.Essentially, the problems Costa Rica has with Nicaraguan immigrants are the same exact problems that the US has with Mexican immigrants. In fact, during orientation when we were talking about US stereotypes of Mexicans (lazy, drink all the time, uneducated, can't speak the language, etc.), one of the Costa Rican directors said that those are the same stereotypes that Ticos have regarding Nicaraguans (nicknamed "Nicas," which is considered a derogatory term)

-I returned home around 6pm. The walk is easy and straight forward, you just follow one main road.
-Dinner, was something baked, my madre used some type of vegetable that looked like a potato only longer, a little thinner and more twisted. It was pretty good, we had salad too.
-I went to bed around 10pm



Day 3:
-Today was exciting because we explored the Rainforest! We went through a company called "Sky Walk." There was a misunderstanding and we as a group ended up going by ourselves. We thought we were going with a professor, but we weren't suppose to. By the time we understood what was going on and had reached the Sky Walk, the guided tour was gone. We explored on our own buy got lost along the path and had to turn around half way through. But we made it the bridges.
-They were hanging bridges, and while secure, still wabbled as you'd think they would, so it was a little bit scary. But we got to see monkeys. Overall, the trip was fun and we saw a lot of interesting things. The rainforest is exactly as I'd thought it would be. Lots of plants, very wet, and beautiful.
-In the afternoon we started our "intensive" Spanish classes. I didn't think it was very intensive, we went over some basic things and then got into groups and wrote a fairy tale play after listening to Beauty and the Beast in Spanish. For homework I finished reading some children story. It was about a little black boy in Africa (he was often referred to as "el negrito" [that mean "the little black one"] in the story) exploring the jungle. Then a cruise boat comes to his lands and he is mesmerized by a little white girl. That's basically what happened in the chapter I read. Apparently, the author is very famous and this is a well-known story.
-I got home around 6pm again. We ate pasta with alfredo sauce, which my padre add ketchup to...
-Very tired, I went to be around 8:30pm (I had gotten up at 6am)


Day 4:
-More Spanish classes. I'm not sure why they are called intensive because I think they're really easy.
-In the afternoon, some people and I went back to the rainforest to do the Sky Trek, which is zip lining over the rainforest. At first, I was very nervous because it was very windy. But it was lot of fun. Where we were is called the Cloud Forest because you're actually zip lining in the clouds.
-After zip lining, I went on the internet to look up classes.
-At home, we had pasta and meat sauce for dinner.
-Bed at around 9:30pm


Day 5 (Friday)
-Final day of Spanish classes during orientation. We listened to some Spanish songs
-After looking at classes again, I went home to help my host mother cook for a fiesta the program was going to have at the institute. We made "pudding de maizana" it looked lik flan with raisins. It was pretty good.
-The fiesta was fun and I met other students' families.


Day 6:
-We went on a horseback riding tour of the rainforest. It was fun, but I spent most of the time paying attention to the horse as opposed to enjoying the scenery because it was a bumpy ride.
-We were at a dairy farm and some of us made cheese :)
-Then we went to another farm where they showed us sugar canes and coffee plants, explaining how sugar and coffee were made.

**Pictures will be added soon*
]]>