Caribbean Amphibian

We just got back from a amazing (and amazingly quick) journey to the Caribbean Cost this last weekend.
It was so beautiful!

The Rainforest!

And so beautifully wet! We're talking some serious rain, people. The wonderful, warm, soak-you-to-the-bone kind of Caribbean rain. It may not have actually soaked us to the bone, but it definitely did soak my backpack to whatever is its equivalent of bone.

On Friday, we all met up early in the central park of San Rafael to head over to the east side. We stopped in a banana plantation for a tour in the morning.

The Banana tram

We talked to one of the supervisors, and he took us on a tour of some of the field, explaining the process of growing bananas. This picture shows the rails were the banana bunches ride out of the field to the packing area. On the trees you can see the blue plastic bags that keep out bugs, protect the bananas, and provide a good micro-climate for growing the bananas uniformly.

Two of the workers, showing us the tricks of the trade

So it turns out, bananas take a ton of work! At pretty much every stage of growth, bananas need a lot of TLC to get to the stores in fashion pretty enough to satisfy us American consumers. The plants have to be sprayed to protect them from diseases that will scar the bananas. The workers have to removes all the flowers by hand, and use leaves in between the hands of bananas in the bunch, so that the juice from the flowers above doesn't stain the bananas below. At another stage of growth, the bottom bananas are thrown away to make sure the top bananas grow big enough. Then, when they are ready, the cutter (the man with the stripy shirt in the picture) uses his machete to hack down the plant, then carefully cut the bunch from the plant while another man carts the bunch to the banana tram. Nearly every plant we saw had three "generation," one that had been harvested (just a four foot tall stump) one that had fruit on it, and another baby growing to take its place.

So, it was very interesting to me, obviously.

But enough about bananas.

We finally got to our destination for the night (a hostel right on the ocean) just in time for a good downpour. But we still jumped in the ocean the first chance we got, and swam until dinner. We ate a lovely seafood dinner at the restaurant at the hostel, and then just chilled for the rest of the night.

The Caribbean Sea, 5:15 am

Golden Orb spider, the size of my hand. No joke.

The next morning we breakfasted at 5.30 and took a bus a little further south to Manzanillo, the end of the road on the Caribbean coast. We then took a chill, slow-paced 4 hour guided hike through the rainforest to Punta Mona.

On the hike, we saw howler monkeys, a bright yellow poisonous snake, a few very dinosaur-like lizards, and termites. We even got a few snacks, the termites for one, and a much more tasty fresh-from-the-tree green pipa. To enjoy this delicious rainforest beverage, you just hack the top off with your machete and slurp the juice out of the hole. Quite good, and also an excellent source of electrolytes, I'm told. After we drank them dry, our guide sliced us a nice little "spoon" from the rind/husk and cut the pipa in half so we could eat the yummy jelly textured goop that lines the inside. Delicious!

When we finally got to Punta Mona, we again jumped in the ocean for a time, enjoyed a lovely lunch of tortillas, falafel, and salad, and waited for the next group to arrive. When they did, we all settled into our rooms. Hollie and I had the coolest room in the whole place, in my opinion. It was in the "back house" in the loft (third floor) and had an amazing few of the surrounding jungle.

Our loft room.

 There were definitely a few golden orb friends to keep us company, but Hollie picked the bed the furthest possible from any webs, we tucked in our mosquito nets nice and snug, and the view was well worth the arachnid company, in my opinion.

The view down our ladder. The buildings all have lots of paintings.

The view right behind my bed.

In the afternoon, we got a tour of the farm from Steven, the owner. He is a very enthusiastic ex-Floridian very passionate about permaculture and sustainable farming. He and his wife, Sarah, live on this farm with a few other workers and can pretty much live completely off the land. 

Jackfruit, quite yummy and giant.

You would not believe how many different types of fruit they have, most of which I haven't even heard of. Jackfruit; delicious. Two different tropical cherries; fantastic. Bidiba; like lemon pie in a fruit form. "Miracle fruit"; made everything sour taste super sweet, which is about the best idea ever. Darian: smelled like death and tasted like garlic and green onions in smashed up bananas. Not the best. But five of six isn't too bad.

After a tour of the farm, we had a lesson on herbal medicine from Sarah that was quite interesting. The bad news is, the best medicines are the really bitter leafy kinds. Who wants to eat that? 

Right before dinner, we all got to help make fresh homemade chocolate. AMAZING! Steven toasted the beans (from their trees, they had been drying/fermenting for a little while) and then we cracked the skin off of them. Then we sent them through a hand crank grinder, mixed them with freshly ground coconut and grated raw sugar cake, and sent it through the grinder again. Then the wonderful smelling goop was rolled into balls, covered in coconut, and devoured. Soooooooo good!

Making the chocolate

After dinner, we went on a turtle walk to try and see turtles nesting on the beach. Although we never did get to see the turtles, it was a lovely nighttime stroll on the beach, and I'm fairly certain we walked to Colombia and back. It turns out that a few hours later several turtles came up onto the beach to nest. Apparently they are shy and didn't want a group of thirty gringos watching them give birth. 

The next morning was quite relaxing. I had time to wander around since I got up earlier, we ate breakfast, listened to Steven's life story, and then the boat captains came and told us we had to leave before the rains came, so we all ran around frantically getting everything ready to go and loading up the boats to return to Manzanillo. Then for the very long and more than a little smelly journey home! A fantastic weekend!

Boat ride on the way out.

These are the main leaf in their salad, and they taste sort of like peanuts!

Photo Credits:
2nd: Alexandria Roullier
3rd: Heather Kennison
4th, 5th, 9th, 10th: Lauren Davies

The beach at last...

On Sunday I finally saw the beach! About time, right?

A bunch of us got up before the crack of dawn to catch the early morning buses into San Jose, where the buses leave for Jaco, the closet beach. It is also one of the most touristy, and had been described to me as "the dirty old man beach town," but for a quick day trip it was perfect. The beach itself was pretty standard, you have your sand, rocks, palm trees, beach bums, etc. But the water was the perfect warmth and the sun was hot, and we had a great time. I don't think any of us escaped unscathed, though. There were some pretty vicious sunburns by the end of the day, but I am proud to say I am not owner of one of those. I have a fairly tame version.

These pictures are all from the end of the day. Hence the lovely hair and tired faces.

No, we aren't tired. Why do you ask?

This is the whole group of us.

Chilling waiting for the bus

Tiny baby bananas. Quite yummy!

Also, when I got home Naty taught me how to bake Tres Leches cake! It is soooooooo delicious!

Tres Leches from Costa Rica

My host sister, Naty, told me several weeks ago that her recipe for Tres Leches cake was the best recipe in the whole world. On Sunday I learned the secret of her masterpiece, and I must say it is quite delicious.  Although I have not tasted every tres leches in Costa Rica, I think I would agree with her claim to be the best.

We baked it for Hollie's birthday, which happened to be her 21st. Now here in Costa Rica a 21st birthday does not have the same significance, since the drinking age is 18. But Naty has had enough norteamericana host sisters to know that we consider it a milestone. To celebrate, the cake we made definitely had twice the amount of rum that usually goes into the mix. I'm sure this isn't completely necessary, but it was quite delicious.

Here is the recipe, for any who would like to replicate it at home...
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1.5 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 (or more) tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
2 cans of evaporated milk
2 cans of sweetened condensed milk
rum (if you so choose)
whip cream
Sprinkles!

Directions:
1. Separate the eggs and whip the egg whites until they form peaks.
2. Add in the vanilla and egg yokes one at a time
3. Add sugar gradually, then flour and baking powder gradually
4. Put batter into a greased and floured pan (we used 8x8 pans, but I'm sure you could use one bigger pan)
5. Bake at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
6. Blend together the evaporated and condensed milk with the rum (we used around a half cup, but that was for a special--rummy--occasion).
7. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, with a fork poke a whole bunch of holes in it...seriously a ton...and then pour on all the milk mixture. Do it right as the cake comes out, because apparently the cake is more absorbent when it is wet. You will not be able to pour it on at once because it will flood, just pour in as much as will fit, use a fork to lift the sides of the cake and help the milk soak into the cake.  Keep pouring and poking until all the liquid is in the cake.
8. Put the cake in the fridge and let it sit overnight.
9. Before you serve the cake, whip up your frosting/whip cream topping (pretty darn stiff) and spread it over the cake. Then encrust it with sprinkles, but not too soon because you don't want the sprinkles to bleed rainbow all over your cake.
10. Then all you have left to do is eat your lovely sweet and soggy cake! Delicious!!!

 This is a picture of after we demolished the wonderful Tres Leches. It is a terribly ugly representation, I apologize. But I promise, it is fantastic!

A crawling baby

 This is my sister, Natalia and Luciana, the baby of Natalia's cousin.

One thing that the Whitworth South campus faculty were very insistent on during the designing of this program was that all the students have host families. This way were are actually living in the culture and experiencing Costa Rican life fist hand.

As you can see, my family here has definitely welcomed me into their lives, and I even got to witness the first time Lucy crawled. Isn't she a cutie!

Friday Night!

Last night Lula, Hollie, Lula's friend Andrea, and I all went to a concert in the new stadium! The field was turned into the "the biggest dance floor in Costa Rica" and seven groups played.

As you can see, Lula really does like bunny ears in pictures. And also, this stadium picture is actually from my camera, not stolen from the internet. Good work, Hollie!

The music was fun, the crowd perfect for people-watching, and even the dancing was enjoyable with such enthusiastic company.

Lula teaching Hollie to dance.

Costa Rica's biggest dance floor

A hot dog hat

At this point, we still weren't sure if Lula would make us dance. She did. It was fun.

These are a few videos of the music and the dancing. And yes, you are absolutely correct, one of the videos breaks into the ever classic "YMCA" at the end. You just can't escape those village people!

Tortillas

I told Lula a while ago that I wanted to learn how to make tortillas from Marta, the lady that comes twice a week to help with house work. Finally, this week worked out and I was able to spend Tuesday morning learning the art of tortilla making, Nicaraguan style. It was lots of fun, and not too hard. At first it was pretty awkward, but Marta said that I learned fast, and Lula (who herself has tried and never succeeded at making tortillas) could not believe how well ours turned out.

 Here is this picture, you get the basic idea of the entire tortilla process. First, for these tortillas anyway, we shredded a bunch of cheese (the soft white cheese they have here) and added Masa Rica, water, and salt. Then it's mixed by hand to the consistency of play-dough, more or less.

After that, you take a ball the size of an egg (a big egg) and splat it in the center of a circle that is cut from a grocery bag (as seen on the left). With one hand you press the dough out towards the edges while the other hand curves around, shaping the edges, all the a fluid circular movement spinning the plastic on the countertop. It sounds much more complicated that it is, really.

Once you have it all pressed out, you carefully flip it onto your hand, pull of the plastic, and put it in the pan. Now that part sounds easy, but it is where I ran into the most problems. They are really easy to break.

Your pan should be really hot and have a little oil, and after 30 seconds or so, you flip the tortilla over. The is another step that I messed up the fist few times. Also easy to break it here.

A picture capturing the moment that I broke a tortilla while flipping it.

 I have no pictures of the last step, which is unfortunate. What you do after the tortilla comes out of the frying pan is put it on the fire! Well, sort of. We used what looked like a circular cookie cooling rack to cook the tortillas over another burner on the stove, so they got nice and toasty.

Marta, the tortilla master

Behind the bowl next to the Masa Rica is our stack of finished tortillas. Delicious!

And afterwards, we got to eat them! Yay!

Futbol and Jungle Adventures

Backing up a little bit, since I was swamped with homework this week and didn't get a chance to write. This is what I did last weekend, March 26th and 27th.
After a day completely full of trying to do my homework for my independent study class, Lula, Naty, and I went over to our aunt and uncle's house to watch the inauguration of Costa Rica's new stadium.

Every Tico I've heard talk about it is very proud of the new stadium, now the best one in all of Central American according to some. The stadium was a gift from China to Costa Rica, so the inaugaration ceremonies had lots of Chinese looking dancing (with a lot of Latin hip thrown in, which I thought was amusing) and the first soccer game was China against Costa Rica.

 

The new stadium

This was Lula's favorite dance. She squealed like a little girl about every thirty seconds. "!Que Divina! !Que Artista! Que Linda!" and any other phrase that would express awe and approval.

After the ceremonies, the game started. Now, I don't know much of anything about futbol, but it seemed like Costa Rica played well. They didn't lose, ending the game 2-2. And the very first goal of the new stadium was for Costa Rica.

Also, during the inauguration, fireworks were going of at the stadium, and from the balcony of the house we could watch them and see the stadium's lights. Being that close was quite an experience! I felt like I was experiencing a moment of Costa Rica history.

On Sunday, after running some errands and going to mass, Amy and I met up to go to her house and hang out. We had lunch, which her lovely mother provided for us, and then took our homework out into this awesome jungle she has behind her house.

A tree on the property. Very good for climbing.

  

Which I did.

Anemone Plant

We encountered some really unusual plant life! This first picture shows the coolest one. It is a plant that folds in half as soon as you touch it, just like a sea anemone sucking in its tentacles. The picture is rather blurry, sorry, but it is the sort of fern-ish like plant.

Holey jungle vegetation, Batman!

We trying to read it, but it started to rain after approximately 2 minutes.

Lovely red flowers. I believe Merce uses these sometimes in the Floristeria

The dinosaur plant

To me, this plant looks like a dinosaur. It has wicked thorns, but not on the stems, directly in the center of the leaves. And that cute little yellow fruit is poisonous. Be afraid.

While exploring this jungle, Amy showed me these raspberries.

Don't worry, her family had already told her they were edible. Everyone seemed very concerned that we were eating mysterious berries, but I promise they were safe. Just like our raspberries, but with smaller and more seeds and I think their flavor has a little hint of strawberry. Amy does not conquer.

Amy wanted to pick berries and bake something with them, and this was the result:

YUM!

Our "muffins"

We used a muffin recipe. And by used, I mean we looked at the recipe on line, put in the nearest equivalent ingredient we had without any standard measurement, dumped in a lot of extra cinamon, and then poured our "muffins" in a big glass bowl to back, due to the absence of muffing tins. And it was GREAT!

Sunday evening, Lula and I went over to help at the floristeria and Merce gave me this these lilies for the help. And now my room smells fabulous!

Photo Credits:
1st (stadium): ICODER website
2nd (dance):aforadio.com
3rd (soccer): navegalo.com