Tarcoles

The fishing boats in front of Tarcoles. Tarcoles sprung up only about 60 years ago from my understanding, and quickly grew into a small fishing community. The entire town is more or less supported by the fishing co-op that was organized within the past few decades. The people are passionate about fishing and I can understand why. The life they life is beautifully simple and surrounded by God's amazing creation. 

This is where many women and children of the town work to help untangle the fishing equipment for the fishermen. A number of teenagers and women are fishermen/women/teens, as well.

This guy was our guide around the co-op tour. He showed us where the fish are cleaned and stored, how they pump gas for the motors, where they store the motors, where the nets are made and repaired, and where the administration takes place.

This is all the fish we caught when we went out on a boat. Chiste! (Joke) I wish. We did go out on a fishing boat though and I didn't bring my camera to document it because I didn't want it to get destroyed. It was amazing though. We went out, cast out the net (which was probably about 60m long), went line fishing for awhile, then hung out at a private little beach for an hour or so. I didn't catch anything line fishing, but Aventura caught a poisonous spikey puffer fish, a professor caught a catfish, and out boat guide caught a blowfish. At the beach there were thousands and thousands of little fiddler crabs that I chased around, it was hilarious! 

Just some goats that were wandering around near the beach. Yup.

This is a stream/river that drains into the ocean. Just a few hours earlier it was ankle deep. Now that it was high-tide, the ocean was feeding into the river! Garrison is crossing it holding his iPhone, glasses, and sandals while getting moral support from the rest of our group. What a guy!

Three words: double freaking rainbow

Cocodrilos

Last weekend we went to the Pacific coast to a small fishing village called Tarcoles. Aside from fishing, the local economy also includes the Tarcoles crocodile tour. The river that the tour is on is (I think) the second most densely populated river for crocodiles in the world. Crikey!

This is our group that came with us. The guy in the blue is Andres Aventura. That's not his real name, but we changed our names to Aventura and Aguacate (that means avacado) to distinguish between each other. Another fun fact, he said his dad looks like Tom Hanks sort of, and so does mine! What are the chances!?

This was our guide. A Tarcoles native, he is extremely knowledgeable in the biology and facts of crocodiles and birds. I wish I could remember his name, but the guy driving the boat is Luis. I remember his name because he is also the one who messed around with the crocodiles later on in the tour.

This was the first big fatty we saw. He was just chilling there soaking up some rays and we were able to get nice and close. The guide informed us that at 5.6 meters this guy weighs about 1900 pounds.

As I mentioned earlier, Luis has no fear. This is the biggest crocodile in the whole lake. They know that because crocodiles are very regional and usually hang out in the same spot, and these guys have been giving several tours a day for years. This guy is 6 meters and weighs over 2100 pounds. Also, crocodiles live to be 80-100 so they estimate this guy to be over 80 years old. For more excitement, I posted a video on youtube of this guy feeding the crocodile. It's insane.

I'm a pretty dangerous guy, I hold crocodile tails and stuff. No big deal.

The guide was a goofy guy and had a bunch of us come up to the microphone and say different things. We voted Kendra as "nicest girl" so he made her a little grasshopper out of a single leaf from a tree. I wish he would have taught me!

El Volcan

El Volcan Poas. The 'a' in 'Poas' is supposed to have an accent but I'm too lazy to find out how to do that. This is the crater that erupted about 50 years ago, and it left behind a little body of water this is still steaming with sulfur-water. My family took me there last Sunday. They tried to pass me off as Costa Rican but they still made me pay the extranjero price. I guess I should get a little more tan....

My mama and her grandson Sebastian! I am not sure any of us were ready for this picture...

Manuel mi hermano, Lucia mi mama, y Sebastian mi nieto. (nephew)

La Chupacabra is real! And it has two heads!

This is the other crater formed by another eruption that happened thousands of years ago or more. Now it is a beautiful laguna. 

Finca Rosa Blanca

Last Saturday we went to the Finca Rosa Blanca (White Rose Farm). This place was amazing. They are an organic coffee farm. The guide told us that the final taste isn't incredibly different from a mass-producing coffee farm that uses chemicals, but there is an incredibly attractive green process that they use. What organic means is that they don't use chemical pesticides and fertilizers; everything is natural. There are other fruit trees around that fix nitrogen and potassium in the soil for plant nutrition, and some plants help keep moisture in. Also, the flowers that some of the trees surrounding the coffee plants grow attract lots of birds that eat vicious coffee plant-eating bugs. 

I just thought this was funny. This is the van we took to get to the farm (we are a small group). It's basically shouting out to the locals: "Hey look! A bunch of gringos are going to go look at our attractions!"

A shot of the coffee beans. This is a mat where they are sun-dried and sorted through to eliminate the mono-beans and triple-beans. They have some fancy name but I forgot, and apparently they taste different than the normal siamese-bean. Oh, and these are for display purposes so they are totally old and nasty.

The end of the tour: coffee tasting. The key is in the slurp. That's all I'm going to say to you; a true tasting professional takes his secrets to the grave. 

Okay, this place is freaking beautiful. You can see my other photos on facebook. It is a hotel, restaurant, and coffee plantation that also grows pineapples and bananas (and various other plants in the compost-fertilized garden they have). I'll probably have my honeymoon here.

Naturaleza

Just a sample of the beauty that surrounds me here in Costa Rica. Despite the clustered city buildings and unorganized infrastructure the community is thriving with beautiful flowers, trees, and birds.

El Fortin

This initially awesome picture loses its staggering edge when you realize the poor architecture and incomplete actualization. El Fortin is one of four turrets that were supposed to be constructed while a fort was starting its construction back in the day of revolutions. If you notice the windows, they are the inverse of a properly constructed window—that is, one that allows you to have a wider range with your rifle versus providing a convenient bullet funnel at which your enemies may aim. This was another part of our scavenger hunt. It's still a pretty sweet pic if I do say so myself though.

La Iglesia

Costa Rica is a largely Catholic country due to the conquistadores who took over way back. Large churches such as this one are significant landmarks in the middle of many towns. On Monday we did a scavenger hunt around town and had to find different shops and landmarks such as the one pictured above, as well as practicing how to use a bus.

Los Amigos

Here are some of my new friends from Westmont and Azusa. Unfortunately I won’t see them much because the Westmont students will be busy doing internships most of the time and the APU girl has a different class time than I. Good thing we have a few weekend trips planned through the school that will get us out to experience the sights!

El Campus

I was lucky to arrive on a day where it didn’t rain on site. It rains pretty much every day, and storms like crazy at night. I really like it though. This is a view of about half of the property the school owns in Costa Rica. El Campus is on top of a mountain that takes about 30-40 minutes by bus to climb. And then, after they drop you off at the last stop, you have to walk 1km uphill to the campus. My legs are going to be solid. The other half of the property is off to the left where they have a garden and two scrappy chickens. Behind me was the woods, where the groundskeepers have made intricate paths, a compost area, and an outdoor worship area with homemade benches, a cross, and a pulpit. It is inspiring how green it is here. Call me a hippy, but I love it. They use scraps from meals as compost and sometimes to feed the chickens, then use the compost to fertilize the gardens which they use the food from to make some of the meals. They also use solar power to warm the bathwater. It’s just a big green circle of awesome!

iMaldito Perrito!

 This picture describes my opinion of the dogs here. For some reason, everyone and their abuela has a dog! No, scratch that, they have from 2-20 dogs. My madre says that a guy nearby has a whole bunch of dogs. I believe her since I heard them barking all night. I’m not sure what was worse, the dogs barking all night or the rooster starting to crow at 4 in the morning right above my head. Don’t get me wrong, I may be salty about the dogs (and rooster) here but my three days in la Pura Vida have been incredible.

View From the Veranda

 This is the view out my window while I stay at the campus for a few nights. The wind beat relentlessly on the roof and walls of the dorm building through the whole last night. It was comforting in a strange way, like the noise of a thunderstorm. View From the Veranda is the name of an article we were to read on the plane. It basically told us to dive into the culture and not hide in our own little bubbles. And that is exactly what I plan to do!

Introduccion

 My first view of Costa Rica is from the plane window at about 9pm. It’s very dark outside, and San Jose glows before me like a radioactive spiderweb. San Jose is a concentrated mass of glowing activity, and further from the heart the streets meander outwards, curling and winding in every direction. The street lights have the appearance of luminaries on Christmas Eve, shedding their soft orange light on the roads that are surprisingly scarcely populated by cars in comparison to the capital of a state in the US. Not far from the city’s edge thick grey clouds are erupting with yellow explosions of lightning bursts. However, the sky above the city remains mostly clear. I would have taken a better picture but I was afraid the flight attendant would bust me with my portable electronic not powered down after explicitly instructing us to do so.