An Adventure

Last Thursday I departed for a three(turned four) day field trip and I had the most amazing time. This was by far my best Costa Rican experience to date. There is so much to say that I think I am going to write in chapters. Here we go...

Chapter One: Dr. Grant, my dear Dr. Sattler. Welcome to Jurassic Park
The Journey began with a very long trek (4 hours!) to the coast of the country. To get there we had to drive through giant mountains and rain forests. I don't really have many words to describe how spectacular it was besides a visual. Imagine the classic film of Jurassic Park , and the children sitting in a giant tree and a brontosaurus reaching his neck over to eat some leaves. While driving through this lush green place, i really expected some velociraptor to jump on top of our bus. I found out later on that Jurassic park was in fact filmed in Costa Rica... go figure.
We contunued on through the jungle and then all of a sudden BAM! there we were right next to the beach. Litteraly rainforst then beach. I read a sign that said "in the midst of the jungle at the edge of the sea". perfect.

Chapter Two: Come, Mr. Tally Mon, tally me banana
Upon arrival in Limon we were quickly rushed off the bus in order to eat a fast lunch because we were late. Some free time was throw in there and Rachel and I proceeded to get lost somewhere by the park next to the sea as it started to pour and I mean POUR rain. The bus was supposed to meet us down by the park but it wasn't there so we got pretty wet. Eventually after some exploration on my part, the bus was found. Turns out it just hadn't arrived and everyone else was lost with us. We were then dropped off at some sort of community center where a man told us the history of Limon and growing up in the afro-carribean community. Then we had our own personal concert by a calypso band. They played classics such as Day-O and Matilda. They were so amazing! Unfortunately this was a pretty short visit and we had to get back on the bus for another long trek to the indigenous community of BriBri.

Chapter Three: 107
Sleep was my first activity in the BriBri community since we got there pretty late in the evening. Friday Morning there was a 6am wakeup call and I basically wanted to Die. The days activities were to be based on what class we were taking. Holistic health had their own agenda while the people in Indigenous peoples, including myself, would be divided. The first was going on a one hour boat ride and a treacherous hike to visit a women's tourism project. While that group ended up illegaly crossing the panama border by boat in order to play in a really cool waterfall , I still feel like my experience was Incredible. There were only six people in my group so it made for a good adventure. We ventured down the mountain a little ways to the watsi community. There we first went on a walk through the forrest with a watsi girl learning about different plants and what the watsi use them for. She told us that in her parents youth women were the powerful people of the community. They were the leaders and the ones that everyone followed. Then of course some preistly person came in and converted them all to catholicism and women are now looked upon as less than men because "the bible says so". ugh. Following that escapade, we walked over to a mans house where he showed us everything to eat and do with plants in the area. It was so cool. He made a rope bracelet, that is now around my wrist, out of palm leaves and dyed it with different seeds/fruit. He showed us this awesome tree that has really sharp spikes all over it and then showed us the spikey seed of the plant. If you scrape off the spines on the seen then plant it, the tree will grow bare! So interesting.

We continued across the road to the "father" of the watsi community. By the way the watsi are basically one big family of great great grandkids, aunts, cousins, brothers, etc. We entered a building that was one of the typical inside/outside kinds and had no idea what was coming. In the corner there was an old man sitting in a chair whom looked to be about 80ish. The woman we were with introduced him as her grandfather and said he was the only one in the community that knew the traditional dance and song of the watsi. The tradition had never been passed down. She needed participants but lacked males because there were only two in our small group , so she scurried to some other houses and rounded up some guys including our weirdo bus driver (he liked to bark at me and sneak up behing me and try to scare me). I cant really explain what happened next but the men formed a circle holding onto each other backs and started movin in a circular motion while the old guy sang. It was also a call and response and sounded so cool. After about 5 minutes i was pushed in under the old guys arm and my friends seths arm. Considering seth is the tallest person I have ever met (6, 6) and the old man was half the size of me, I was in a little pain. The circle continued with all the girls involved for quite awhile. It was such a fantastic experience. We found out soon after that this guy was 107 years old!! 107! I couldnt beleive it, that just made it so much more incredible. I was standing in a room with 5 generations at least. After the dancing we were served traditional food in GIANT leaves! It was so good and I couldnt even finish. Then we followe the old man down the road to a path. We were invited to his home. Walking down the path we all of a sudden saw a river and some metal stuff. We realised then, that there was a giant bridge we had to cross. Again, think back to jurassic park. Long, very long rope and plank bridge. It was so scaryy! See photo above. I really thought I was going to fall into the river way down below. It was all worth it in the end because we got to hang out in this guys home which was on stilts! The floor was all made of bamboo type stuff and wow, we all wanted to sleep over. Hammocks, chairs, no shoes, so cool. We were sad to leave our new, more than a century old friend, but we did and had another adventure in store for the rest of the day.
We headed over to a womens co-operative that makes chocolate! We got a little sampling of how it was made and then of course got to eat a little bit of it. Chocolate is not good raw in case you were wondering. Back to the hotel for a speaker from the association and another short night of sleep.

Chapter Four: Paradise Found?
Saturday was another distant drive, only not so much. We went down the mountain and again exited the jungle to find the ocean. We were in the small beach town of Puerto Viejo know for the best wave on the carribean side of the country. Its tourist season, but there were not too many tourists. Most of the gringos actually lived there. It a mixture between the hippies that moved to live on a commune down there in the 60s and the west coast surfers that came down for the waves. Their offspring make for a pretty interesting bunch. They are a bunch of dreaded, surfing, art selling hippies. Totally cool! They also all speak spanish so its pretty interesting. I feel like it would make a great independent study. somday. Anyways, before we hit the beach my group went to talk to man named sunnyboy. yes, sunnyboy. He is an elderly man of afro-carribean decent that has lived in puerto viejo his whole life almost. He told us his thoughts of the discusting marina they are going to build next year in the bay. This bay is beautiful by the way and pretty soon it will be filled with yachts and everything that comes along with that. He also showed us around his property and the interesting plants that he had. After, we went to the beach! How many schools take you on a field trip to the beach? We went to manzanillo beach which was right down the street from puerto viejo like 15 minutes. Beautiful! I have always hated beaches but for some reason this one just called out to me and i actually swam in the ocean! Imagine that! Maybe it was that I felt like I was in a little piece of paradise with the beach and the palms trees and basically just the surroundings. A few hours of sitting on the sand, it was time to head back to Heredia. My friends and some other people decided to stay behind for some extra beach time and exploration of puerto viejo. Whitney, Jim and I got a room at hotel puerto viejo, a hostel right in the center of town. It was pretty entertaining. That night we went to the local dance place and rocked out and met some cool tico friends. Sunday morning we all got up early to spend the day on the beach. That is where I met Scrat. Scrat is a 5 year old boy who looks like he came right out of a dumpster. Okay not that extreme but he has blond dreaded hair, freckles, walks around in just his bathing suit, missing a tooth and has staph infections all over his face. He speaks only english because his family is from louisiana or something. His parents are nomadic hippies whom had been living out of rockin Js (the hammock hostel) for the past month or so with Scrat and his baby sister. Oh his name is scrat because he picked that name and so his parents decided that would be it, totally hippie-like. Cutest kid, I wanted to take him home. Its a shame his parents dont really look after him. I really wanted to give him some sort of ointment for those staph infections. I hope he is there for me to hang out with when I got back. Dont ever let me become like his nomadic hippie parents.
So beach was fun and beautiful and the bus ride back to San Jose was horrible, but it was all worth it. Now I cant wait for my wheaton friends to visit me in two weeks so I can show them this awesome place!

This field trip really made me appreciate the education I am getting. I would not be able to do the things I am doing without being at this school. They really let you be independent but also have structure. And I am learning things first hand. How often in a traditional school would I get to go on a field trip like this and actually meet the people and see the things I am learning about? Not very often.
Okay thats enough for now. Ciao!