Week 2

I forgot to mention that the previous week, on Wednesday we had also gone to the Museo de Oro (Museum of Gold).  This museum showed some of the works of gold from the indigenous people of Costa Rica.  It’s a sad note that when the Spanish conquered the country, they wiped out the majority of the indigenous population.  The museum was very interesting.

The first few days of the second week were uneventful.  On Wednesday, we were supposed to go to some waterfalls, but an earthquake had ruined the facility.  Instead, we went to the Museum of Jade in San José.  It was similar to the Museum of Gold, but it was also pretty cool.  We visited the central market, which is an experience in itself, and then came back to Heredia.  That night we went to go see Star Trek in a theater.  Unfortunately, it was in English with Spanish subtitles.  I had already seen it in the States, so I paid a lot of attention to the subtitles.  It’s interesting to see the translation.  That night, we also met some other Americans.  Throughout the trip, I would never go up to an American to start a conversation, but if they came up to me, I would talk.  I guess I wouldn’t start it because I came to Costa Rica to talk to Costa Ricans, not Americans.  It was interesting because I met some people who knew one of my friends.  As Spanish speakers would say, El mundo es un pañuelo (It’s a small world... literally the world is a scarf).

The Friday of the second week, our two Spanish professors, who we called Gabi and Marisa, took us to San José to see the National Museum.  This museum was really cool, and it showed basically the history of Costa Rica.  The museum itself used to be a fortress, and you could still see bullet holes in the facade.

That evening, my mamá organized a get together for all of the host families and students along with Dr. McDaniel and his family at her daughter’s house that was a little outside of the town.  It was definitely different, even though the drive was only about 10 minutes.  Inside the town, there are large gates with barbed wire around everything.  Also, all the houses are pretty small and there are no yards.  My mamá’s daughter’s house, on the other hand, was sort of in the suburbs.  The yard was huge, and they even grew some of their own fruits, including mangos, pineapples, and a variety of herbs.  They even had some alo vera growing, which I thought was cool.  And yea, pineapples are grown on short stubby trees... I didn’t know that.  The get together was fun.  We ate some authentic food, we danced a little bit, and my mamá even gave me a gift.  It’s a t-shirt that says, in English, “Costa Rica: No Army Since 1948”.  One of the unique aspects of Costa Rica is that it doesn’t have an army.  The president in 1948, José Figueres Ferrer, abolished it.

That weekend, we went to a hotel in the town of Arenal.  Arenal is special because it has a large and very active volcano.  Swimming in the hotel pool, you could easily see the volcano it was so huge.  In fact, driving in, I couldn’t believe it.  We drove on a comfortable, private bus through the mountain towns to get to Arenal.  The towns were really cool and we stopped at one that had a unique central park.  As we were driving into Arenal, I saw in the far distance a vague shape of a triangle.  Now, Dr. McDaniel had told us that the volcano looks exactly like a science project, but I didn’t know what to expect.  Driving closer, I realized this huge triangle in the distance was the volcano.  I was shocked.  The thing was huge, and you couldn’t miss it.  Also, it did look like a perfect science project volcano.

That night, we went to some hot springs that are warmed by the volcano.  This was a very very very relaxing experience, and there were even water slides that you could go down.  Unfortunately, going down the steepest one, I lost one of my contacts, which was a bummer.  After the springs, we drove down a long windy road that our driver knew about.  It took us as close to the volcano as we could get, about 2 miles away.  At night, you can actually see some red near the top where the molten rocks are.  It was incredible.

In the morning, we made one more stop at the same place to see the volcano during the day.  Smoke is constantly being produced near the top, and you can even see some rocks about the size of school buses being thrown out the top.  After, we went on a canopy tour, where you go on these very high bridges through jungle canopy.  We saw some great views and saw some monkeys to boot.

Eventually, on Sunday, we got back to Heredia and I just about crashed because it had been a long day.

The next post will talk about what I did on the third week.