(no subject)
Hola, mis companeros y companeras! Como Estan? Right now, I am sitting outside, under a fig tree, surrounded by giant prehistoric looking leaves and fronds, thinking of you my dear friends. All of this is right in the center courtyard of the hostel where I'm staying, in the San Pedro district of San Jose, Costa Rica--the supposedly rough part of town frequented by students, gays, immigrants, and of course seedy folk like myself.
My time in Costa Rica has thus far been relaxed, as I am not much of a city person and thus am hanging around in San Jose mostly waiting to meet up with my friend Nick, who is flying in tomorrow for a month in which I will have a travel partner (Bow-chicka-bow-wow(. After over 24 grueling hours of airports, airplanes, layovers, and stayovers, I arrived here on Saturday to the beautiful sight of grey skies and pouring rain, a sight just a tad too familiar for comfort if you ask me, however, by the time I got outside and traces of deja vu had evaportaed. Costa Rician rain is balmy and warm, and the mist and the clouds are like hot steam rather than dreary eugene skies. The city of San Jose, bustling as it is, is surrounded by esmerald hills whose high peaks extend well beyond the tops of the fog in some sort of beautiful act of defiance agaisnt the domestication and comercialization that that has given way to the city swelling within their bowels. It seriously reminds me of the movie Jurassic Park except without the dinosaurs and with more smog.
I took the bus from the airport to the casa of my friend Joe, whom I met on Couchsurfing.com. He's an ex-pat from england who, after having lived in France, Italy, Zambia, Thailand, and Nicuaruga, has decided on Costa Rica as a home base. He let me stay at his casa for free, fed me, and provided tons of useful advice on what to see and what to avoid. Basically, he was the best host that I could have asked for on my first night in a forigen country. I would have stayed with him longer, but he jetted off to Brazil for 6 weeks so I am on my own.
Already I have had many opportunities to practice my spanish, People here are very friendly, even to the point of being obnoxios, although most of the people who have struck up converstations have been middle aged men who immediatly asked me how old I am and if I'm travelling with my parents. They are willing to converse slowly, and correct me when I make mistakes, and so so far it's been great.
Im having a hard time deciding who to trust, or even to trust anybody. Normally, I am the type of person to give everyone the benifit of the doubt, always, and I tend to reject the idea of living my life being afraid of people. Nevertheless, I have been know to get myself into shitty situations because of that characteristc, and the fact reamains that I am a woman travelling alone and don\t speak very good spanish, facts that make me a walking target for one in million people who just happens to be an asshole.
I am already struggling with money. There are a shitton of unanticipated little expeses that are really draining me, such as a high exchange rate and airport tax, so Im kinda pulling a forced fast, although today I was weak and bought a starfruit and an avocado. Soon I will be able to pick my own fruit snf camp, which will help alot.
Latin America is really something special--I cant put my finger on exactly what makes me so drawn here except to say that I really feel like change--major change--is on the horizion here. The consciousness of la gente is humming, on the brink, and that excitment is positivly hummin gin the soul of most of the people that I have met. Just tonight, on my way back to my hostel tonight, I came across a massive demontaration in the street, like nothing I have ever seen in the US. The energy was incredible--I felt like something inside me had been woken up from a long slumber, the beast of apathy temporaly banished as I was swept up in the fervor of people working for change. I couldn\t understand the speakers very well, but I understood enough to gather that the protest was in response to something called the T.L.C, a free-trade agreement similar to NAFTA only for central america, that is unsuprisingly going to screw over the workers but was suprisingly signed into reality by the supposedly leftist president. You might want to look this up, however, as my spanish is not yet very reliable.
From here I head west, to spend a month backpacking and camping in and through the virgin jungles of this beautiful place. wish me luck and I will be in touch when I can.
Hailee
My time in Costa Rica has thus far been relaxed, as I am not much of a city person and thus am hanging around in San Jose mostly waiting to meet up with my friend Nick, who is flying in tomorrow for a month in which I will have a travel partner (Bow-chicka-bow-wow(. After over 24 grueling hours of airports, airplanes, layovers, and stayovers, I arrived here on Saturday to the beautiful sight of grey skies and pouring rain, a sight just a tad too familiar for comfort if you ask me, however, by the time I got outside and traces of deja vu had evaportaed. Costa Rician rain is balmy and warm, and the mist and the clouds are like hot steam rather than dreary eugene skies. The city of San Jose, bustling as it is, is surrounded by esmerald hills whose high peaks extend well beyond the tops of the fog in some sort of beautiful act of defiance agaisnt the domestication and comercialization that that has given way to the city swelling within their bowels. It seriously reminds me of the movie Jurassic Park except without the dinosaurs and with more smog.
I took the bus from the airport to the casa of my friend Joe, whom I met on Couchsurfing.com. He's an ex-pat from england who, after having lived in France, Italy, Zambia, Thailand, and Nicuaruga, has decided on Costa Rica as a home base. He let me stay at his casa for free, fed me, and provided tons of useful advice on what to see and what to avoid. Basically, he was the best host that I could have asked for on my first night in a forigen country. I would have stayed with him longer, but he jetted off to Brazil for 6 weeks so I am on my own.
Already I have had many opportunities to practice my spanish, People here are very friendly, even to the point of being obnoxios, although most of the people who have struck up converstations have been middle aged men who immediatly asked me how old I am and if I'm travelling with my parents. They are willing to converse slowly, and correct me when I make mistakes, and so so far it's been great.
Im having a hard time deciding who to trust, or even to trust anybody. Normally, I am the type of person to give everyone the benifit of the doubt, always, and I tend to reject the idea of living my life being afraid of people. Nevertheless, I have been know to get myself into shitty situations because of that characteristc, and the fact reamains that I am a woman travelling alone and don\t speak very good spanish, facts that make me a walking target for one in million people who just happens to be an asshole.
I am already struggling with money. There are a shitton of unanticipated little expeses that are really draining me, such as a high exchange rate and airport tax, so Im kinda pulling a forced fast, although today I was weak and bought a starfruit and an avocado. Soon I will be able to pick my own fruit snf camp, which will help alot.
Latin America is really something special--I cant put my finger on exactly what makes me so drawn here except to say that I really feel like change--major change--is on the horizion here. The consciousness of la gente is humming, on the brink, and that excitment is positivly hummin gin the soul of most of the people that I have met. Just tonight, on my way back to my hostel tonight, I came across a massive demontaration in the street, like nothing I have ever seen in the US. The energy was incredible--I felt like something inside me had been woken up from a long slumber, the beast of apathy temporaly banished as I was swept up in the fervor of people working for change. I couldn\t understand the speakers very well, but I understood enough to gather that the protest was in response to something called the T.L.C, a free-trade agreement similar to NAFTA only for central america, that is unsuprisingly going to screw over the workers but was suprisingly signed into reality by the supposedly leftist president. You might want to look this up, however, as my spanish is not yet very reliable.
From here I head west, to spend a month backpacking and camping in and through the virgin jungles of this beautiful place. wish me luck and I will be in touch when I can.
Hailee