Having been bumped from our flight to Ecuador, we took a little trip to Panama… where the buses are old school buses spray painted with crazy murals, inside and out, and all the mannequins have boob jobs.
The Los Pueblos mall was lovely….
November 18, 2007
If it´s 5:45 am and you are jerked into consciousness by a parrot screeching in Spanish and salsa music, you are probably staying in Costa Rica. If you go out to eat breakfast and you find rice and black beans, then you know for sure you are in Costa Rica…
Our first night in Costa Rica, my “host brother” from an exchange I did there 9 years ago came to San José to meet up with us and show us around (his name is Edgar). We went out that night to a bar with him and one of his friends, who looked just like Harry Potter, where we went to a “Ladies´Night” event which, strangely enough, was a cornered off section of the bar with just ladies. There was free alcohol and everything back there, but that was it. No male dancers or anything… just free alcohol for girls and girls only??? We were confused by this, because it definitely was not a lesie event… eventually I figured that the point was just to get the women liquored up so that everyone could have a good time later.
We were actually having a great time (swear we were not liquored up, though)! We were attempting to dance salsa with Edgar and Harry Potter and were taking some hilarious pictures… until all of a sudden we realized that Jillian´s $600 camera was missing…. totally gone, but we still had everything else – wallets, cash, etc…. It was weird. We have no idea where it went. Maybe we forgot to get it back after we had someone take a picture? We have no idea….
The next day we took the bus to Sarchí, the town where my old host family lives, and, yes, HOME TO THE WORLD´S LARGEST OX CART, which we were taken to see by no less than 3 separate members of the Gutiérrez-Camacho family, who are the nicest, most welcoming people in the world. We were given the master bedroom and Adilia, the mom, took over one of her son´s rooms. We used Sarchí as our base as we took 2 short trips to other parts of Costa Rica. The whole family said that I didn´t look any different than I did 9 years ago… except one said I was taller, which I don´t think is true. Am pretty sure that have not grown since I was 16.
In any case, food in Costa Rica means rice and black beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The last time I went I couldn´t look at a black bean for about 4 straight years afterward…. but this time I wasn´t there as long… and I kind of don´t care what I´m eating. Whatever is local, whatever is cheap and easy. It´s freeing, actually, to just pop your multivitamin and then not worry too much if no vegetable ever finds its way onto your plate. Though most days we at least have some lettuce and tomatoes.
Oh, they do eat things with the rice and beans… a cut of meat, usually pork… an empanada… we even had hamburger taco-like things one day for lunch, with lettuce and tomato on top… sooooo yum. The cheese is strange, though. I had forgotten about it. It almost has a tofu consistency. It´s white and basically flavorless. Then they have this other concoction that they like to put on everything. It´s basically like sour cream, but they eat it at breakfast or any time really.
THERE IS A PHOTO ALBUM TO THE RIGHT THERE…. the little white dog is named “Pupi”, pronunciation, “Poopy”. And she is the strangest dog I have ever met in my life. She´s like a doll. You pick her up and she just stays in whatever position you put her in… even if she´s got one leg over her head or something. I finally figured out that she´s probably just trying to butter you up because, once you get comfortable, she starts humping any part of you she can get her paws on. Serious sexaholic.
The rest of the family is much more normal. My host sister from before, Fany, has since had a little girl, Miriam, who is now 6 years old and is quite the little spitfire. Lots of eye rolls and talking back. Very intelligent and soooooo cute. She was interested in everything Jillian and I were doing and wanted to come with us everywhere. Adorable.
My host brother, Mauricio, was this tiny little thing the last time I was there… he cried when he had to go to the dentist one day… but I am not sure they had Novacane (spelling?) so maybe it wasn´t because of his age. But now he is 20 and he is the sweetest, most conscientious guy. He showed us around the town and brought food home for us to try and showed us a million tiny things, like videos of songs he thought we should see, and explained expressions, like what you say in Costa Rica when someone trips – “Do you want to get their faster?”.
Our first side trip was to a place called La Fortuna. It´s by a volcano named Arenal, and there is rainforest there and hot springs. The hot springs are natural, but they have damed them at this place they are turning into a resort. They were HOT! and there was cold rain sprinkling at the time and them combination felt soooo good!
Our second trip was to a national park that is also a reserve. It´s called Manuel Antonio. There, there are monkeys – we saw two kinds, but after my camera battery died – and these wild raccoons that are soooo brave. These crazy raccoons dig holes in the sand, pull up crabs, and eat them – claws and everything! One little bastard came over, undid my backpack and stole my PB& J (made with Goober… not bad, but the peanut butter is not as good as when you by the PB and the J separately). I had to go hungry all afternoon.
Jillian and I were wandering around all the trails, hanging out on the beach reading, etc., like, “Why did everyone leave? It´s only like 3:00!” … So it turns out that one thing they don´t tell you about the park is that, when the tide comes in, it blocks the exit. We walked out of the park and there was basically a giant, rushing river between us and civilization. We had to strip down to our suits and wade across with our backpacks over our heads. Wish I had a pic of that…
We also took a day trip to my Costa Rican family´s farm, where they have a whole farm full of animals on the side of the mountain. There is a dog named Mr. Rusty and they even grow their own coffee. We stopped and had a cup. Yum! Was good. Sadly, the piggies you see in the pics are shortly going to be eaten… around New Year´s. The fat black-and-white one will shortly be in the tummies of the Costa Ricans in my photo album.
It was really good to see my old host family again. They were all so happy to have us there and told us to come back again soon. This was probably the last time that we will be staying with a family that we know… it´s off to hostels from now on…
November 12, 2007
Am actually in Quepos, COSTA RICA, right now, but I haven´t had the chance to blog until just this second so I need to backtrack…
Merida with Lorena and Cecilia was muy divertido and Jillian and I finally headed back to Mexico City on the morning of the 5th. We spent the day in and around the zocalo, where I got to play tour guide, which was a lot of fun. I have been to Mexico City so many times now that I know the center of the historic area really well and had a little tour all ready to go.
There was a really fun protest going on that day – everyone desnudo! I think it was an attention-getting ploy because they were protesting about the senate – saying that the senate in general and one senator in particular doesn´t represent the people, especially the people from rural areas. I´m not sure what this has to do with taking off your clothes… but it made for some good tourist photography!
Unfortunately, due to circumstances in COSTA RICA, I cannot share with you the actual pictures we took (the zoom on the protest ones was a lot of fun / un poco asqueroso), but I have done my best to find representative pictures on the internet, and you will find them to your right in an album titled, “Mexico 2″.
You will have to wait for the first Costa Rica post to hear about the “circumstances in COSTA RICA”. Sadly, I will have no pictures to post of my loca Sofia, who hosted us in Mexico City.
More soon…
November 4, 2007
To the right here, I have links to the 2 photo albums that I have so far. You can also subscribe for email alerts when I update the blog. See if you can outdo Roger with sarcasm in comments left about my posts. Fun!
November 4, 2007
I have been chastized for my lack of escritura so I write for you now, amigos.
I spent two days in Mexico City (el d.f.) with my friend Sofia. I spent the first morning doing law school applications, actually (ewwww) while Sofia went to class. Sofia has this dog named Iman that always tries to eat me when I visit and this time has been no different. Iman, since the last time I visited, finally ate the other dog they have (coincidentally, a weiner dog) so there is nothing to distract her when I try to go to the computer room (you have to go down an outdoor hallway that is junto the garden). Basically, I say a little praryer (not really just in case anyone thinks I have gone religiosa in Mexico) and Speedy Gonzales it every time I need to write an email.
The second day Sofia skipped class and we went to the zocalo where I have already been many times, but which I always enjoy visiting. The historic center of Mexico City has many beautiful buidings and cool places to shop. People say Mexico City is dangerous, and it is in a lot of parts, but I have never had any problems. Most people don’t even look at me twice since there are always tourists in the center of town. Sofia and I had Nutrisa ice cream (tastes just like Pinkberry, basically) and wandered around a little bit before heading back to the house to eat lunch.
Lunch in Mexico is eaten at like 2:30 or 3:00 in the afternoon, and it is the main meal. Basically they barely eat breakfast, eat a big lunch and then eat a little something for dinner somewhere between 9:00 and 10:00 at night.
We went to a haunted house and it was really interesting because it was in this part of town called Cuatro Casas, and Sofia said the people were scary there. I don’t know about scary necessarily, but I have never seen so many lesbians couples making out in my entire life! That was a sorpresa, because I thought that gay people were not tolerated that well in Mexico, but, actually, it’s fairly well tolerated in Mexico City. There are actually a lot of transvestites in downtown Mexico City, walking around in heels.
Anyway, so we’re at a haunted house with lesbian couples making out on either side of us while we wait in line. The first pat of the haunted house was this thing where they make you wear a bright orange vest with a prisoner number and shove (fake) guns in your face and yell at you. It’s called El Carcel de Muerte or something and they have all these dead bodies in there and when they saw that Sofia and I were holding onto each other, they had her go through a doorway with everyone and kept me behind BY MYSELF, with all these crazy “prisoners” cornering me and stuff.
In the second part of the haunted house Sofia and I found each other and were able to stick together. This part was more Texas Chainsaw Massacre-ish. There were pretend psychos with body parts all over the places and scary little girls saying “Ayudame!!!!!!”. Sofia got scared and refused to keep going forward so, once again, we got separated from everyone and were stuck in a corner with a bathtub full of blood and these 3 peeps with knives. I finally shoved Sofia through the nearest doorway and out of NOWHERE pops up this Mexican midget with a knife. Sofia SCREAMED and refused to advance so I set aside my manners momentarily and yelled “Patalo!” – Kick it! – and we ran out the exit.
That part was fun!
Anyway, then I had, hands down, the BEST margarita I’d ever had in my life, made all the better by a nice-looking Mexican businessman with whom I was “making eyes”. Guapo! You must go to the El Karisma if you are ever in Mexico City, which you should be.
The next day Jillian arrived, so Sofia’s chauffer took me to the airport to get her. Now, when I say chauffer, you are thinking a little hat and a limousine, but that’s not how it goes at all. This dude – Miguel se llama – runs around all day in a t-shirt, fixing things around the house. Then, if he needs to drive you somewhere, he changes into a collared shirt and you hop into the minivan with him and off you go. In Mexico City, if you aren’t one of the millions of desperately poor people, you probably have a chauffer and a maid. Probably most people reading this blog would have one also, if they lived in Mexico City.
Anyway, there was Jillian, and we were both in our backpacking attire. We basically were twins. Somehow we have bought basically all of the same clothes.
We hopped on a flight to Merida, which is on the Yucatan Peninsula and is somewhat close to Cancun. My friend Lorena picked us up and we have been hanging out here since. We went to Chichen Itza (Mayan ruins) which was newly voted one of the seven manmade wonders of the world, we went to unas cenotes. You climb down a steep rock staircase holding onto a rope and enter into a cave with a high ceiling and a giant watering hole with crystal blue water. There are bats in the caves and fish in the water (and floating bat poop – hello hookworm and histoplasmosis!).
THE TECHNICAL TERM FOR BAT POOP IS GUANO.
Anyhooter, we went to a little pueblo and went to a couple of clubs and a couple of parties (I totally wore extensions one night) and to the beach. I can tell you exactly where I did not put sunscreen because that is where I am BRIGHT RED. I missed my belly button and now it looks like Rudolph’s nose…
Today we ate lunch at 3:30 with my friend Lorena’s entire family including two aunts and a cousin and I decided that I am going to have a large family and force them all to eat together on Sundays because it was so nice. Here people love getting together with their families, and Jillian has been invited by all my friends and all my friends’ friends to come back whenever she wants (they love her here… she is very enthusiastic about learning Spanish and trying everything). There is nothing like Mexican hospitality. They genuinely like to have you around. It is definitely the more, the merrier.
Anyway, in case anyone was in doubt I LOVE MEXICO and I LOVE MEXICANS and I do not want to leave!!!!!
I am posting pictures taken thus far on the journey…
NEXT STOP COSTA RICA, where I am going to see the boy who was my novio for like 2 weeks when I went to Costa Rica when I was 16. I’m a little scared because he used to write me letters that said I was his girlfriend forever… Whatever. I’m sure it will be fine.
Hasta pronto!!!!!!! Besos! KISSIES.
October 27, 2007
10/28/2007 – San Francisco to L.A., L.A. to Mexico City
10/31/2007 – Mexico City to Merida – first leg with JILLY POO
11/04/2007 – Merida back to el d.f. (Mexico City)
11/06/2007 – Mex Cty to San Jose, Costa Rica
… travel over land, visit host family from high school
11/16/2007 – San Jose to Quito, Ecuador
…8-day cruise in the Galapagos Islands
12/05/2007 – Quito to Lima, Peru
12/06/2007 – Lima, Peru to Cuzco, Peru
…hike the Incan Trail to Machu Picchu
01/28/2008 – Sao Paolo, Brasil to London, England
01/29/2008 – London, England to Muscat, Oman
01/30/2008 – Muscat, Oman to Thiruvananthapura, India
…study yoga in an ashram, visit Goa, travel over land up India and into Nepal for trekking
03/26/2008 – Delhi, India to Bangkok, Thailand
…visit Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Malaysia
06/22/2008 – Singapore to Jakarta, Indonesia
DATE???? – Jakarta to L.A., Caliiiiiii
