Day 1 in Pachamama

I woke up to a beautiful green vista in front of me. I gathered my toothbrush and towel and trekked up over the hill and down to the other side to the bathroom. I took a shower, realizing that the hot water was totally unecessary, and kind of glad no one else was around since the showers seem to be communal. I saw an awesome stick bug perched on the wall of the shower, it was about 5 inches long and looks exactly like a twig! i didnt have a camera but maybe i will see another one. I also accidentally got a moth wet and felt bad about it, maybe it dried off.
I had missed breakfast so I ate a granola bar and headed towards the village. (the village or downtown area is where the welcome center and restaurant are). I checked in at the welcome center, paid for my 10 days, got internet for 2 weeks and some Xocos-the vouchers they use as money here. I saw my Israeli friend Ayal and listened as he and another woman talked about how China is going to own the USA pretty soon. It's kind of nice to be around lots of non-Americans because they have a much more honest and realistic view of the world.
I waited for the store to open to buy some soap, but Ayal gave me his bar as he is leaving soon. I washed some clothes and hung them to dry back at my casita. As I entered the little clearing where my casita is, I heard a lot of leaves being crunched and sensed movement in a tree to my left. A small black monkey leaped from one branch to another and I soon heard the bellowing of a howler. I laughed out loud at the absurdity of such a small creature making such an intimidating noise. A reddish brown coati with a tail that stuck straight up and a pointed muzzle also pranced around the tree branches. A blue morpho butterfly flickered a brilliant blue as it danced through the field.
Pretty much everytime I reach my casita a cold shower is in order because by the time I arrive I am sweaty and gross. Then I lay on my bed for awhile listening to the jungle. Birds chirping constantly, something that lives on my roof continually squeaks, and the howlers bellow their strange roar. I headed down to lunch as I was starving. I heaped my plate with lettuce, beets sprouts and other strange vegetables, covered it all in tahini and dug in. Fortunately they had some carbohydrates, some rice and cooked potatos. I ate everything on my plate and was still hungry but there was no more food. The lunch was very crowded with lots of families. Apparently the residents come to pick up their children at the kindergarten and stay for lunch. The majority of the people here are Israeli. Tyohar, the man who founded Pachamama, is himself Israeli. It's nice because there are lots of young children and babies. I sat with 4 people at a table and learned their spiritual names. A lot of people here have spiritual names, I'm not sure how they come up with them but my table was Sati, Sufi and I forget the others. It was a little hard to feel comfortable because they were all residents and since rainy season just ended they are just returning to Pachamama after having traveled home or away to earn money. I listened to their banter, enviously looking at the food on their plates. The eating area is a large space with a covering and tables of various heights from a foot off the floor to a regular picnic table level. There are signs on the tables that say "keeping it English" to encourage people to use the main language of Pachamama instead of hebrew or german or greek or italian or dutch (ive met people who speak all these languages so far).
One woman did stay later and talked to me, she told me how last month a woman had given birth here at Pachamama. since it was the rainy season they had to bring the midwife over on a boat and theyre emergency plan involved horses...because there are rivers blocking all exits that are too deep for cars. luckily everything worked out. Many of the residents recently have had children here in Costa Rica-the added benefit? parents get residency and eventually citizenship!

After lunch I was cornered by a tall lanky man known as Nispa, who checked my IP address on my computer so he wouldn't block me. I went online for awhile and then it was time for yoga. I left the internet building and found myself walking beside a young man wearing a wrap around purple skirt. He introduced himself as Tom and he is from Canada. He recently decided to do the entire Cycle here over the next month. He studies permaculture and works doing this at Pachamama. We arrived at OSho hall for the yoga session. It was kundalini yoga, which involves chanting and singing.
I liked the teacher, her accent sounded eastern european, and the class was great. We began by chanting "om mani padme hun" and the vibrations of your own chanting combined with everyone elses gives you a sort of buzz. We then did some postures and she always took a moment to remind us to Feel our bodies and take Space to feel how everything was. We were encouraged to stretch and roll around. At one point we held our knees to our chest and rolled forward and backward, to be like a child, and have fun. We also did fire breathing, which is a series of short repeated breaths and then held it in at the end before releasing the air and our muscles. It was a very relaxing time. At the end we sang another mantra starting out slow getting louder and faster and then very quiet again. The group was about 10 people in the beautiful osho hall. I look forward to the next class.
It was getting dark so I hurried to my casita since I hadn't brought my flashlight with me. I got there just in time before the path was completely invisible. I went back to the internet building to go online for awhile, feeling that I had done my meditation for the day and not feeling motivated to go all the way back to osho hall. I was the first one to dinner and enjoyed the rice noodles and pesto sauce immensely. I had two helpings and felt a bit judged and self conscious, I feel like people don't eat here! but I didn't care I was hungry. Dinner was quite nice I was with Tom the canadian, Ayal the Israeli, Rakesh a German, another guy from Denmark I forget his name, and then met Maria from Chile and her boyfriend Nicholas. This girl Amanda was there as well, she was very random and told a funny story about falling out of her casita in her strangely babyish voice. She did inform me about an ashram in India that teaches tantric yoga certification in 6 months, I wrote down the name. Tom it turns out has spent time in India as well as working on a project in Sierra Leone I hope to hear more abotu that. After dinner MAria and a French girl named Maude and I got together to go to the womens gathering, we were 5 minutes late and there was no sign of anyone so we chatted for a bit before heading home. I braved a late night outdoor shower and closed the curtains in my casita for a sense of actual walls. I climbed under my bug net and soon fell asleep.

Pachamama

Christian drove off with his blue pick up, his baby and the last of my colones. I picked up my bags and headed toward the welcome center sign. A middle aged man with flyaway gray hair approached me and introduced himself as Kuntu.he helped me with my bags and grabbed a walkie talkie. He radioed another guy and left me waiting again with my bags. A skinny man with long brown hair and teal eyes greeted me and took my heavy bags one in each hand. He put them in his red landrover and took me on a tour. We walked all around the grounds, sweat soaking through my clothes. I saw the beautiful meditation building called Osho hall. It has a white marble floor and a circular wooden ceiling and big doors that open onto a white patio. other than that most of the tour i was just day dreaming about a cold shower and a nap. We drove in the landrover about 3 minutes up the hill before he pulled over and got out my bags. He didn't look that strong but he tossed around my bags like they were pillows.

we started walking down a dirt path, then up a dirt path into a clearing with a bunch of cabins. they were labeled "tortuga" and i was going to "jaguar" so we continued down the dirt path, and continued, and came to a big clearing with tall grass and shrubs and 3 cabins placed high on the hill. the one on the right was Jaguar 60, thats my new home. i hiked up the hill with the smaller bag and opened the door. kind of ironic, to have a door when there is only one wall. the cabin is open, granted there is a 3 ft wall so people don't fall out but, its pretty much wide open to the outdoors. the other cabins in the Jaguar area are empty so its just me out there. As soon as the guy left I turned on the outdoor faucet and stood in the dirt next to the cabin as the refreshing water rinsed the dirt and grime off me. I unpacked half of my stuff onto a few shelves before collapsing onto the bed. I quickly untied the bug net and tucked it in around the mattress, not wanting any surprise spiders waiting for me later to cuddle.

I rested for a bit, enjoying the sounds of the jungle. I mustered the energy to return back to the village before dark in order to find a refrigerator to store my medicine in. The main areas was deserted and I first hopped a counter and put my medicine in the restaurant fridge before labeling it and putting it in the communal fridge. I then followed the tiki lights toward Osho hall. I arrived a bit early and got my red chair to sit for the meditation. People appeared at the doorways from all directions, as if they were materializing on the patio from various places in this jungle. Most people wore long loose light linen clothing and nearly everyone had long hair. A couple sang played the flute and guitar before turning out the lights. I enjoyed the flickering candles in the middle of the room for the few minutes before i fell asleep. I snoozed, at one point waking myself up by laughing, hopefully it sounded louder in my head than to anyone else. everytime someone coughed or sneezed it was like a shot going off. it was so silent with so many people, it was an interesting combination of energies. the hour felt extremely long despite my sleeping for the majority of it. a gong signaled the end and I put away my chair and walked outside.As I stepped out ont the patio I was stunned. The moon was a perfect crescent and ive never seen the stars so bright. My shadow shone on the white marble as I gazed at the lit up clouds and brilliant twinkling stars in every direction.

I had dinner on my mind so I wandered down to the main area. All the lights were out and I was frustrated that it didn’t look like anyone was planning to eat. I heard and half saw a mother and child and decided to eavesdrop. Apparently its not always pitch black. The lights came on a little while later and I had a delicious dinner of whole wheat or seed crackers, mashed potatoes and salad and onions as well as a black bean soup. I ate everything, aware of the price I was spending, in reality not that much but $7 is about $3500 colones ad I was used to spending no more than 2,000. Anyway a few people were around no one I particularly clicked with at first. Then I ended up getting into a hours long conversation with an Israeli guy named ayal. He was in his 30s id say and very blunt. His comments about traveling and business made me feel a bit naïve. He had been here for 2 weeks and I asked him how it was. He talked about how it is run as a business not at all like a commune. I had gotton a sense of that already from the prices of stuff. He explained that the residents take no part in the guests experience, that the master was never around or available. We talked about how expensive the workshops and body work are, all several hundred dollars, but he explained that people are wiling to pay so that’s what they charge.

He told me of a few other places in costa rica and I realized I did want to see the volcanos and hot springs and I could stand a few more days at the beach. On my walk home my flashlight flickered out suddenly. Stranded in utter darkness, my only companion was a nearby armadillo I had spotted with the last of my beams. I was stuck wondering what creatures were swarming around my legs and considering that if I fell and twisted an ankle, which could easily happen with all the roots and lack of any real path, no one would know. At that moment, I decided that 10 days here is plenty. I sat there huddled in my bug net as a grasshopper jumped around my head, mercifully on the other side of the net. Some little bugs do get in through the holes. 10 days felt like a lot. The toilets are a treacherous 5 minutes away over a hill. any midnight pee will happen off my porch. I just felt a bit jaited about how this place actually runs. And yea im a nature girl but, I really wouldn’t mind 4 walls, at least at night. I assured myself it would be better in the morning and fell asleep as the howler monkeys bellowed in the jungle

Traveling to Pachamama.

after out TEFL party i went home and slept for about an hour and a half. i was picked up with my bags at 5:15 am. after picking up some other girls who looked like had just been woken up by the taxi cab honking, so we sat there for about 20 minutes as they got ready, i was dropped off alone at hte Alvaro bus station. i was glad to see that they put numbered tags on each bag that they put under the bus so you had to present the corresponding tag to pick it up, i had heard stories about people walking off with suitcases. i slept for the 4 hour bus ride, fortunately i had the double seat to myself for the first half. when i woke up i was sweating profusely as once you get out of san jose the climate is quite humid and i had been wearing jeans and a sweater. i managed to stay mostly asleep until we arrived to Santa Cruz at 10am.

i was immediately swarmed by taxi drivers offering to drive me to pachamama for just $60. needless to say i was not interested. i changed my clothes in the bathroom (after paying the man 200 colones, about 50 cents) and repacked my bags. i went and sat at the little soda-local restaurant, and ate some rice and beans. i lay my towel out on the suitcase to dry as well as a dress i had washed friday night because it reeked of cigarette smoke after being out and was still not dry. i wrote and read and drank a powerade. i people watched as several buses came and went. 2 1/2 hours later the bus arrived for ostional. the number of people in line was daunting. i was instructed to enter at the back door since i had luggage. this was a local bus and did not have anywhere to put bags below. i fought my way onto the bus through the mass of people, and basicaly sat in and on the luggage in the back of the bus. it was absurdly hot and everyone was reeking of body odor. fortunately they kept the back door open for some air. i sat on the floor with my smaller bags on top of me, leaning against my yoga mat. it was actually not that uncomfortable, since i fortunately have a high tolerance for heat. i closed my eyes and eventually the crowd thinned. in costa rica local buses will drop you off anywhere you ask. after an hour or so and my tailbone was quite sore from bumping on the bus, i was able to get a seat. i think one of the most crucial abilities one needs to be a successful traveler is the ability to sleep anywhere. i dozed off in the seat with my bag on my lap and my skirt soaked with sweat. when i woke up the bus was practically empty. we drove through a river, that had water at least 4 feet high, and were in Ostional. at the last stop in the smallest town ive seen, i asked the driver how to get to pachamama. he told me we had already passed the road to it. luckily he asked the lone tico on the bus to give me a ride.

the young man assured me he would get me a good price of 7,000 colones, about $14. i thought he had called a taxi. he told me to wait. the last few travelers on the bus set off and i was left alone next to a tiny building labeled Tourist Office. it was closed, as were most businesses on Sunday. Several motorcycles sped by and looked at me curiously. i put down my bags and sat down on the dusty road. About 15 minutes later a truck pulled over and the guy from the bus was in it. He grabbed my bags, tossed them into the flatbed of the light blue pick up, and gestured for me to get in the front. His adorable 2 year old son with incredible green eyes was sitting happily on the seat with a fire truck. we bounced along through the tiny town. the little boys eyes lit up when we passed the beach and he cried "playa playa!" and climbed into his fathers lap for a better view. his father, who i learned was named Christian, laughed and explained that his 2 year old son adored the ocean. How convenient that he live in costa rica! I asked Christian what he did in Ostional. he had grown up here but was not currently working. Ostional is famous for being the place where the sea turtles come to lay their eggs and the thousands of babies struggle through the sand into the ocean. He said he had seen this, the "arribada" many times. i enjoyed the ride and we soon arrived at Pachamama, about 15 minutes away from the shore.

last two weeks in san jose

hi
my last week in san jose was very stressful! it was the Practical Teaching week. we had to prepare 60 min lessons to teach while being observed everyday. i was teaching the pre intermediate level to Jovenes, 3 guys about age 17. they were good but quickly lost interest .i did two days of grammar, a reading methodology where i had to read a specific passage, a listening methodology where i played a hiphop song which they liked but it was difficult to understand the concepts in the song. the last day was game day. i was exhausted and getting sick by the end so i did not have much energy. meanwhile we wrote a grammar paper with lesson plans and a motivation paper. these 4 weeks were tough but very worth it. the last weekend i partied in san jose and went to the beach for a day. i will update this more later!

Manuel Antonio National Park

We decided to spend Saturday seeing the amazingly preserved national park of Manuel Antonio. We opted to splurge the $30 for the tour at the recommendation of our peers. It was well worth it because the guide has a trained eye and spotted things we never would have noticed on our own. The added benefit is that he carried a telescope with him and we could take pictures Through the telescope with small digital cameras. We saw one of the most amazing sites before we even entered the park. We saw two sloths feeding together which is a rare thing since sloths usually are solitary creatures. They sleep about 15-20 hours a day and move extremely slowly. It also appears that they always have a smile on their face. I love the way these photos came out through the telescope.



We next saw a small frog and a lizard which our untrained eyes would never have noticed. We even saw a banana spider eating a fly. These are not poisonous despite their intimidating colors.




We saw my favorite animal here in Costa Rica; The titi or Squirrel monkey. They utter a high pitched chirping sound which we thought was a bird at first. There were several of these light gray monkeys leaping around at the very top of the canopy. One paused long enough for me to snap a picture through the telescope while it ate some berries.


We then saw a troup of white faced capuchin monkeys playing lower down in the trees. They moved too quickly to see them with the telescope. They were fun to watch, swinging through the branches with their tails, grabbing fruit and then nimbly jumping around again I tried to take a video but it was hard to keep track of them. .

We continued on our walk and saw African Bees and another species of sloth, this one with two instead of three toes.







We passed the beautiful beach inside the park but by the time the tour was over a storm was coming.






The ocean looked gorgeous in the afternoon before the storm came in for a nighttime downpour.

Manuel Antonio

I knocked out on the bus until we arrived on the lower Pacific coast in the tiny beach town of Manuel Antonio. We went first through the larger town of Quepos which lies a 15 minute ride inland in the mountains. We got off the bus and were immediately approached by a Tico hawking hotel rooms. We followed him away from the beach and checked out a few places, one of which was still being built but declined. We ended up staying at Hotel Manuel Antonio for a pricey $12 a night, directly across from the beach and at the actual end of the road before the national park. Below is the view From our hotel and our hotel.



We had a delicious breakfast, mine was Huevos Rancheros, at one of the 5 restaurants in time, despite the slightly jacked up tourist prices it was still only about $7. I also enjoyed my favorite Batido de Mora; blackberry milkshake. (just milk and fruit).
Our next stop was across the street to the beach. We took turns laying in the sun and swimming. We made friends with the waiters who walked along the beach bringing drinks right to your towel.





That evening Eric and I got delicious dinner at another restaurant and were told that the ceviche is highly recommended by another patron who had sampled it in several countries. I am still not quite used to eating fish but I found the lime and hot sauce flavoring quite tasty. I then made friends with some more happy dogs on the street.



The next morning we woke up and caught the bus to Quepos to get money since there was no ATM in manuel antonio, and to purchase our bus tickets for the next day. Eric and Chris who managed to arrive late Friday after missing the 5am pickup opted for their budget breakfast favorite of the Banana Sandwich.

We then got off the bus halfway through the mountain road in order to enjoy the view. We wandered into a gorgeous building that had a sign out front saying it was an Open House. We took some pictures of the amazing view before the owner came and asked if he could help us, clearly not pleased at seeing a few backpacking gringos taking advantage of his lovely property. We excused ourselves and had a delicious breakfast at La Barba Roja. This restaurant offered the best view in town looking out over the bay. We were the only customers and I enjoyed hearing them blending my strawberries and milk for a Batido de Leche, and we could then see into the kitchen while they made my pancakes.

Week 2

Last week not much to report, we did two and a half days of Grammar! After being drilled on tenses, prepositions, conjunctions, adjectives adverbsverbsnounspronouns etc. we were well ready for another weekend at the beach!
A few highlights of the week were: Buying Raid, traps, gel And boric acid for my roomate and my standoff against the cockroaches invading our kitchen. 5 days later, there are fewer but they are still around. I nearly scalded myself while pouring boiling water out of the pot of pasta and there was a roach crawling on the potholder. We heard from a classmate about another product which apparently is very effective but we have not yet found it.
I made guacamole with deliciously ripe and cheap avocados. I started cooking every meal instead of going out for any lunches in order to save money and also because next month I won't be able to cook. I have either pasta, eggs or cereal.
I made some friends with other Maximo volunteers so I went out with them to a local bar on Monday night called Anochecer. It was nice because I went with Mario, a tico and his brother so I at least got to speak some Spanish. There was an interesting consistent translation between a few ticos who only spoke Spanish and a few volunteers who only spoke English.

Thursday afternoon Jo and I boarded a bus on a mission to purchase tickets to Manuel Antonio beach for the next day. We drove through downtown San Jose and I enjoyed seeing the city since I hadn't really left my neighborhood in San Pedro. We got off the bus and walked along the Calle Central, the main street of downtown san jose. We passed many stores and restaurants and when it began to rain navigated our way through the crowded foot traffic with umbrellas raised. Eventually the area began to appear lower class and "sketchier" so we knew we were near the station. We followed the buses and asked directions to the "coca cola" station. We saw the buses lined up at their stalls for each destination but there was no central counter to purchase a ticket. We wandered around the nearby blocks asking repeatedly for where to buy tickets to Manuel Antonio. We recieved opposing directions several times and found ourselves wandering in circles. We passed a pet store with adorable little puppies that were definitely too young to be away from their mothers. Jo dragged me away from them and we continued asking security guards and ticos for where to buy tickets. We passed ticket counters for jaco, puntarenas, and other destinations on the pacific side that this station catered to. We finally wandered inside a hectic marketplace and saw a sign for Manuel Antonio. We excitedly rounded the corner only to see the drawn metal grate with the hours 6:30 am- 5pm. It was 5:01pm. We groaned, hopped into a cab and begrudgingly paid the elevated fare after having sat in traffic for an hour. I ran into Leo, the paid driver and he offered to get the tickets for us in the morning.

Thursday night one of our classmates, Steph, and her roomate had a party in her apartment. A huge group of Gringos, about 20 of us, wandered down the street and half of us made it onto a bus before pouring into her not so big apartment. We hung out in the street, some of us went to get food at the Latino Rock Cafe, where they were showing a bootleg version of Michael Jacksons This Is It. I got a falafal which was cooked differently and tasted good but not like a normal falafal does. The police eventually pulled up outside the party forcing us to squish back into the apartment, Mario assured us that they were not allowed to enter. We all left and trekked back down the main street, after awhile splitting up into groups to take cabs although without cell phones we didn't all end up going to the same place. I went home to sleep for about 3 hours before getting up at 5 to get a ride to the bus station.