This weekend, my host mom took Adam, DeAnna, and me up to her mom's finca (farm) which is near Upala, Costa Rica. The area the finca is in is really pretty. The yard was pretty jungley (is that a word?) and there were chickens, a rooster, a parrot, a dog, a cat, cows, and horses. Behind the house (down a small hill) was a really pretty river. It smelled like...well, it smelled bad, but it was pretty. We never swam in it - mainly because of the smell and also because it was moving pretty quickly. We had a great weekend of relaxing (I read an entire book) and going to Rio Celeste (on a major hike through the jungle...see below). If I had to describe this weekend in three words they would be hot, buggy, and beautiful.
The finca
The family playing a thrilling game of BS
That's right...this is a wood burning stove
The river behind the finca
HOT
Boy was it hot up there! I don't know the exact temperature, but it sure felt like it was in the mid to high 90's (plus humidity). And of course they had no air conditioning which made so we couldn't ever really escape the heat. But one of the days we spent in the jungle which actually made it cooler since we were protected from the hot sun by the dense trees (more on that under beautiful). And luckily we had a fan in our room that we blasted on us while we slept. The first night, however, the power went out around midnight so we lost our fan (and light...see under buggy) so until the power came back on we were pretty miserable. Also, Doris's niece and nephew came over each day and wanted to play with us out in the blistering sun. And by play I mean jump on the trampoline.
*Quick side track: I grew up on the trampoline. I've pretty much had 26 years of learning to do flips and other tricks on it. Well...I was foolish enough to do one of these flips while on the trampoline with the kids. OMG it was as if they had never seen anyone do a flip before (which maybe they haven't). I was all of a sudden transported to a circuis where I was the main act! Doris made me do about a million flips, then had her mom come out to see, then when her brother came over I had to show him. The following day, more family came over and Doris's mom kept bugging me to show them flips. It was pretty funny, but a little annoying as well since the mom woke me up from a nap to ask me to do a flip. I should have just kept my feet on that trampoline.
DeAnna, Doris's niece and me
The parot - yes it did talk! A LOT!
HUGE rooster!
I don't like bugs. I can handle them most of the time, but when they are large bugs that I've never seen before and don't know if they will bite me or crawl into my ears and lay eggs or not, I tend to freak out a bit. So does DeAnna. The two of us together was not a good combination this trip since there are obviously lots of bugs at a finca. The first night we got there DeAnna and I couldn't sleep. Part of it was because we had slept (or tried to sleep) on the bus ride to the finca and the other part was that we were paranoid about all the bugs flying around our heads and crawling on the walls. In our paranoid state, we thought it would be best to keep on the light so that we could keep track of all the bugs and wouldn't be surprised by large flying things landing on us. In hind sight, that wasn't really smart of us since the light attracted ALL the bugs in the house.
Well...as I mentioned before, the power went out around midnight leaving DeAnna and I in complete darkness surrounded by insects. So we pulled out my iPhone to use as a flashlight. That's when we saw this huge black bug on the celing/wall that had long antenae and legs. Finally, I got up the courage to smash the bug with my shoe, but as we got closer (me with the shoe, DeAnna with the "flashlight") the dang bug attacked us! It seriously flew right at us which made us fall back on the bed. Later, we cornered it again and this time DeAnna went after it. She completely missed the first time, but the second time she hit it - so we think. But the bug just disappeared. It wasn't on the wall, the ground, or my shoe. We looked for it for a while, but gave up. Finally, DeAnna and I decided to try to fall asleep by putting in our headphones and listening to music to drown out all the bug noises around us. It kind of worked - at least I got some sleep that night.
The next night we were so exhausted (see under beautiful) so we didn't care as much about the bugs. But I still listened to music all night.
Luckily on this trip we only saw a couple of spider and none were actually in the house! One was down by the river and the other was...well...actually at a river too, but at Rio Celest.
Little chicks
The finca's patio
As you can see from the pictures of the finca, it was beautiful. But the real beauty came when we went to see Rio Celeste. On Friday, Doris pawned us off on her friend to take us to the river. He actually took us to a tour place and they gave us a long tour through the jungle wich included many views of the river, swimming in the river and hot springs, and lots and lots and lots of hiking. It was fun! We all had a great time. Our guide was great and I was very relieved that he spoke really good English. We were hoping to see monkey and sloths, but we weren't that lucky. We did, however, see two of the most poisonous snakes that live in that forest and also the tracks of a tapir (a cross between a hippo and a pig). Luckily we didn't come across a jumping pit viper which we were assured were in the forest and that we needed to be careful of. We also didn't really see many insects, other than different ants. There were these leaf cutter ants that are responsible for decomposing plants and restoring much needed nutrients to the earth and air. They had a HUGE ant hill/nest that was about a 5 feet square and 3 feet high (like I said...HUGE).
It seemed like we hiked forever! And none of it was really an easy hike. We had to hike down VERY steep steps to a waterfall and then to our great enjoyment got to walk back up them! Our legs were shaking by the time we got to the top. I felt like I had just climbed the steps of Notre Dame again. But there were many other steep hills we had to hike up and down, so by the end of the 3.5 + hours, we were in need of a nap!
The reason why the river is called Rio Celeste (or Blue River) is because...well...it's BLUE! Go figure! Hahaha! It's not your normal blue though. It's REALLY blue! The reason why is because two river converge (which are clear I might add) and their different chemical components combine which turn the water blue. It's cool to see the actual line of convergence and see the distinct line between clear and blue. There is one part - the Blue Lagoon which is featured in Romancing the Stone. It's really pretty.
Me in the jungle/rain forest
One of the poisonous snakes we saw
The waterfall we hiked down to
The waterfall again
That's a volcano behind me!
The blue lagoon
Where the waters meet
Our hike up from the waterfall
This is a video of air escaping from the ground into the water. It's not boiling water - just bubbly.
This is a video of air escaping from the ground into the water. It's not boiling water - just bubbly.
Just a couple of other fun stories to tell you about that don't fit under the above categories:
Adam when horse back riding on one of the horses at the fince. He had never been on a horse before, so didn't know what to do. And he wasn't given any guidance other than make a little noise and kick it. The horse didn't move though. It was quite funny to watch, but frustrating for him. Doris just let him go on his own and somehow he made it back to the horse pasture. DeAnna and I passed him and he was just sitting on the horse in the midst of the other horse s. There was one horse jumping up on his horse too while he was just sitting there. From our perspective, it was REALLY funny!
Adam on the horse
One day DeAnna had to use the internet, so Doris's friend took us into the town of Upala and dropped us off in the middle of nowhere at a small internet cafe. We were a little sketched out walking back to the bus station since we were the ONLY white people around. Everyone just stared at us as we walked by. It was as if they had never seen gringas before. We thought we might get jumped. But luckily we made it to the bus station safely, just to find out the next bus wasn't for 1.5 hours. We didn't want to wait, so we decided to take a cab back. Problem was...we had no idea how to say where the finca was. DeAnna described the street we needed to be on and the direction we needed to go. Then we just kept our eyes out for the finca. I'm pretty sure we told the driver: it's a finca, with cows, near a hotel, on your way to Bijagua. Somehow he allowed us to get in the car and we got back to the finca just fine.
Me and DeAnna on the bus
Overall, we had a great weekend! I don't think I would go again, but I'm glad I went nonetheless. Hahaha!PS - sorry for all the random pictures where most had nothing to do with what was being said above.
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