Arrival in Monteverde

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Duncan: Here we are in Costa Rica! Getting here has been half the fun. The four-hour bus ride turned into a more than five-hour venture after we slid off the road into a ditch. Getting out took two jeeps and then a tow truck. We left behind tire tracks and lots of rubber. Our host is wonderful and makes lots of good food, but like most Costa Ricans, or Ticos as they call themselves, she likes to get up early in the morning. On Tuesday we were awoken before 5:30 by very loud talking that lasted until we sat down to breakfast at around 7:00.\r

\r There are a couple of other unique Tico living styles. First of all, rice and beans is THE staple for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You can get away with avoiding it, but you'll be eating a lot of plain white rice. Showers are cold. Most have an electric water heater attached to the head, but to get even tepid water out you need to turn the pressure practically off. Even so, I either haven't been able to work the heater or it's broken, because every shower I've taken has been frigid.\r

\r We walk up to the school every day, about 20 minutes uphill. The school is beautiful. Much of the building is glass-walled, giving spectacular views. We have class from 8:00 to 10:00, then have a 20 minute break when snack, usually fresh fruit and some sort of baked good, is served. Then class resumes until 12:00, when we are out for the day. We can order lunch in the morning to be delivered to the school, or we can walk into town and eat a small café, called a soda. The afternoon is free for homework and activities.\r

\r Monday afternoon we walked around the larger town, Santa Elena, and had lunch in one of the sodas. On the table was an old peanut jar filled with very spicy pepper you could help yourselves to. I like very hot food, but only put 3 half-inch peppers on my food- that was plenty! After that we visited the serpentarium, a museum devoted to snakes with some lizards and frogs as well. We learned that there were 133 kinds of snakes in Costa Rica, of which about 18 were poisonous. After classes on Tuesday we went on a Sky Trek tour, ziplining through the cloud forest. The highlight of the trip was a third of a mile non-stop zipline that was more than 400 feet above the floor of the forest! Today we took it a little easier, taking a Spanish cooking class at the school after classes, and then working on our homework and walking around town for the rest of the day. We signed up for dancing lessons tomorrow night to learn the Salsa and the Tango and whatever other Latin dances the teacher knows. This weekend an overnight trip to the active volcano a few hours north of town is planned- info about both will be forthcoming in future entries. The only thing I miss right now is hot showers and the dog.\r

Peace.\r \r \r The picture below is the CPI language school were we attend classes every day.