Inspired, to blog

It's the 9th night of my stay in Costa Rica. I've been camping out in Ara's generous hospitality outside of San Jose, enjoying what this oh so foreign land has to offer. It's lush. Green. Leafy. Full of the most amazing clouds. There a bus stops everywhere-marked, unmarked... it seems like wherever you want to hop off a public bus, you just have to pull the chord, and off you go, into the wild.

I say into the wild, not because things are so wild here, but because to me, they're wild. Wild in the sense that they're unpredictable, and somewhat random. I think if I had a better grasp of the language, the subtelties, things wouldn't seem quite as random, but for now, I'm using what I have to get along and expecting anything.

Though tonight, expecting anything excluded the possibility that I'd feel tremors from the earthquake that shook the earth 60 miles from Ara's apartment.

"WHY IS THE BED SHAKING??" thinking that a dog must have snuck its way into Ara's apartment somehow...

"Uhmmm... why is the bed shaking? OH, It's an EARTHQUAKE!" Ara sort of yelled back/explained.

"WHAT DO WE DO??"

"I don't KNOWW"

She explained that she never really knows what to do when this happens.

"WHAT DO WE DO IF IT GETS WORSE?!?!"

"I don't KNOWWWW!!"

All I could think of was Psalm 23, the words Rabbi Peretz told me to recite when I went skydiving for the second time.

"Even when I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil...." deep breaths, deep breaths... as one can only imagine when panick has stricken.

And then it was over. The bed stopped shaking, I wiped the tear I mustered away from my face, and all was fine... except for the fact that I was stunned that such a thing could happen.

So, here I am. Blogging. Inspired, by a scary experience, to write some of it down.

Last Saturday when I arrived, Ara picked me up from the airport, like a goddess standing at the airport exit as I began questioning how I'd find her (my cell wasn't working). After stopping at a local place for a quick bite to eat and dropping my life off at her apartment, we headed off for a drive to Vocan Irazu. We had changed into shorts, because it was so nice and hot, and realized by the time we got un-lost on the way to the volcano, that we would freeze once we finally got to the top. Two and a half hours later, after finding the wrong set of beautiful mountains, a delicious cup of cafe con leche, we arrived at the top of the volcano, shot some moon-like photos, clung to each other (mostly me clinging to Ara) for heat, and managed to see a blue lagoonish type body of water in the crater of the volcano (the highlight of this trip, which some people never get to see becuse of the fog). It was pretty cool (no pun intended).

Sunday, I hopped on a public bus after exploring the local pastry assortment at the bus stop, and managed to meet Hannah, my lovely roomate from last semester, in Atenas. The bus ride was an hour and a half of beautiful countryside, similarly to the hills Ara and I had accidentally seen the day before on our way to the volcano. This bus ride was also full of my becoming fairly self-concious because I couldn't understand even a fifth of what the native lady sitting next to me was trying to say. Hannah and I had some great fish at a local outdoor restaurant, enjoyed eachother's company and managed to get served a complementary drink of bailey's and cream. yum.

Monday I roamed around San Jose to "take care of business." Tried to get a cell phone (successfully) and tried to book some day tours leaving from the area (failed... I walked in circles all day trying to figure out an apparently outdated map from my tourguidebook). Was shocked at how many varieties of fast food were in the area: fried chicken at KFC's and apprx. 16 other places, fried other stuff that I couldn't name everywhere else. Oh, and a few Quiznos'. Found a veggie place- ate some ice cream. Came back to Ara's and booked some day trips on my own.

Tuesday- went to La Paz Waterfall and Gardens. This was amazing. It poured in the jungle and I've literally never been so happy in my life. It just felt so great to be in the rainforest, next to a huge waterfall amidst the pouring rain. I also got to hold some cool animals - a toucan, some butterflies, and a frog!

Wednesday, I went white water rafting on the Pacuare River. It's known to be one of the top ten rivers in the world to raft on... and man, was it a cool experience. Class 3-4 rapids treated us pretty well, with excitement, but without injury. In the middle of the 3.5 hours on the water, the guides let us jump out and swim for a few minutes... and again, this was just amazing. Floating on my back staring up at the tree limbs arching together, touching to meet above making a tunnel of trees.. this was really just incredible.

Thursday I hopped on a guided tour to Arenal and Tabacon Hot Springs. The hot springs were, you guessed it, quite hot. I ended up hanging out with a middle aged Columbian man which was sort of, awkward, as you might imagine... but also at the same time, quite entertaining. After the hot hot springs, we tried to see Arenal (allegedly the 2nd most active volcano in the world) but couldn't even see the outline of a volcano because the cloud cover was so thick. This was sort of a bummer but the hot springs were so amazing, we sort of got over it. At the end of the tour, the rest of the 9 tourists who'd paid to go on this tour proceded back to San Jose on a 4 hour journey while I jumped off at a Hostel in Arenal to prepare for my trip to La Fortuna the next day.

Friday I woke up and got on a tour to La Fortuna's canyons. Desafio runs an amazing tour called "canyoneering" where they harness you in and you literally rappell down waterfalls in these canyons. They're pretty small waterfalls, but without rappelling, you wouldn't be able to navigate through the area. The hiking in between waterfalls involved wading through clear waters, muddy waters, rocks, boulders, and crazy terrian. Little did I know, but "desafio," the name of the tour company, rightfully means "challenge" in Spanish.

After this amazing challenge, I was ready to return home to Ara. We celebrated my return with some local drinks, guaro sours, which feature local costa rican casique and a nice, casual night out. It's amazing to be in a place where I'm treated like an adult and able to drink responsibly.

Saturday morning, Ara took me to a local market where farmers came and were selling produce, cheese, and everything in between. We tasted the most yummy sausage I've ever had, Ara bought some pretty Peacock feathers and some strange snow cone drink, and in between buying some tomatoes, cucumbers and a pineapple, I tried the most delicious fruit I've ever imagined. It's called caimito and it made my day. Upon our return, we hit the pool for some rays (Ara was studying for a test by the pool, but I was relaxing) and then we made some fajitas for dinner.

Today- I hit the pool early in the morning, we grabbed some great fish at a local restaurant, and now I'm doing some reading for the start of my program in Chile on Tuesday. I also was trying to finish up applications to reapply to be an OL and midyear mentor... AND THAT'S WHEN THE EARTHQUAKE/ tremor HAPPENED! and inspired me to write. For who knows what tomorrow will bring, and at least today has been explained.

Much love. Y, la pura vida.