puerto viejo madness

so this weekend was columbus weekend here - and therefore we had today (monday) off. so what else could we possibly do on such an occasion? go to the beach, i guess. if we must. ;)

so we left right after classes for the bus station on saturday. which is when the first snag in our plan occured... carol had gone ahead to get the tickets sorted out and jasmine, laura, and i were going a little later. but when we arrived we found out that when carol arrived there were only 2 seats left on the bus we wanted, and she had to get 2 more for the next bus, which was 2 hours later. it seemed strange, because we had never had trouble before just showing up and getting tickets. but it wasn't a travesty, carol and i were going to go on the first bus and try to sort out accommodations for all of us when we got to puerto viejo.

the bus ride seemed to take forever (it's possible that it didn't, but it sure seemed like it). when we got to puerto viejo we headed straight for the place we stayed last time. but they were full. he said maybe check back in an hour or so, in case one of his reservations didn't show. so we headed off to check out some other places. well, each and every place we checked was full. in one place we ran into a guy (who became our best friend this weekend), juan, whose job it is to ride around on his bike and find rooms for people (apparently). so juan knows a place. there's a couple of dorm beds and a tent. so we go and have a look. well, it wasn't exactly outdoors, but it wasn't really indoors either. it was a covered patio with walls on three sides and inside there were some dorm beds and a tent on the floor in the middle with a mattress inside.

we were not really excited by the idea of staying there. so we sat for a while and the two other people we were with (in total there were 10 of us) went off to investigate other places. well, we were sitting and waiting and texting our friends saying maybe you should get off in cahuita and see if there are rooms there. after a while we're kind of starting to realize that there is truly no place to stay in puerto viejo. and two girls come strolling into the place and we jump and make the decision - we'll take it. the others luckily get some place a little bit farther out of town because a reservation didn't turn up. and we all have beds and have a great evening out.

the next morning our man juan tells us he knows a place that we can stay for sunday night that is a little bit nicer. so before breakfast we go there and have a look. we originally thought that maybe we would all be moving to a different place... but that turned out to be full as well. breakfast was a little bit of a fiasco as well. we found the faraway group sat down for breakfast and went in to join them. well, we're told that they are no longer taking orders. alright. so we find some other place and meet up with the rest of the team after.

we rented bikes. not my idea of a good time. but everyone was doing it... so that was a bit rough, since i'm pretty out of shape and the roads are for the most part dirt and filled with potholes making biking a slightly less pleasant experience. but we spent the day at a beautiful beach in punta uva, about 10k south of puerto viejo.

after the day at the beach we go back to our new room and have a really nice shower (i think i forgot to mention that the "shower" in our first place was basically a hose hanging from the ceiling... which did little more than trickle water on you - so this seemed luxurious. in fact the room seemed luxurious as well because it had PILLOWS. such luxury...) and then headed out for another fun night on the town.

breakfast the next day (today) turns out to be another fiasco... we run into part of our group sitting and waiting for breakfast. we're about to join them when the waitress informs them that there is no more gallo pinto - which i MUST have when i'm on vacation. (and didn't get to have the previous morning - after we had found a place to eat i asked if they had gallo pinto and was informed that this was "the carribean, not costa rica". what a snarky wench) so we go back to this other place we've eaten at before... but there are about 40 people in a big group just sitting down... so we decide to try somewhere else. we find a little soda, but sadly they are out of food. yes, out of food. we basically walked all over town and finally found a place with gallo pinto.

after breakfast we had just the morning at the beach before we needed to catch a bus. but sadly all the direct buses from puerto viejo to san jose were sold out (those million extra people really put a damper on our plans). so we end up having to get a ticket to limon and then to san jose. which is not terrible, but certainly a little less convenient. but overall i had a good time. i'm tan. pictures soon.

ps. happy birthday mom!! i love you!!

maui wowie (but not what you're thinking)

today was our second day in maui. it's been absolutely amazing, so beautiful. yesterday we took a trip to molokini, which is a crater island off one of the volcanoes of the island. from above the island has a crescent shape which shelters a great spot for snorkeling. we spent the morning exploring this spot and we have tons of photos.... which unfortunately are on the underwater camera and therefore NOT available for our immediate viewing pleasure (who knew digital cameras would make me so impatient?).


turtles!
after we left molokini basically we did some cruising around. and our pal captain doug opened up the bar.... the open bar.... :) i managed to ruin my careful tanning system by standing on deck in my suit drinking free vodka cranberries for a couple of hours... but what are you gonna do? we did get to see some turtles swimming near the boat - above is my best picture (which is admittedly not that good).


maui downhill bicycle
today meg and i did the downhill biking safari. now many of you might know how i feel about bikes.... for those of you who don't - i don't like them. living in japan and riding my flippin bike to work every day sort of turned me off of them. but this was an opportunity to ride a bike down a VOLCANO. (almost) no pedalling required. and the views were amazing - they said we had one of the clearest days that they've had in a while. but it was still a little bit scary.... careeening around those hairpin turns... trying not turn too far left (into oncoming traffic) or too far right (over the edge). it was exhilarating and beautful and i'll never do it again.

i'm quite excited that tomorrow i will try surfing for the very first time. i imagine in my mind that i will be quite a natural at surfing and possibly join the pro circuit in leiu of a traditional job. but we'll see how that goes. my immediate goals is to not get too badly sunburned the day before my massage. :)

things start looking up

so i had received a message at work that i was going to get a new flatmate called jillian. though no one could seem to tell me when she might arrive.

on the friday after natasha left i had a particularly bad ride to work. the wind was blowing so hard across the rice paddies that i had to get off my bike and walk in order to make any forward progress. by the time i reached work i was in quite a mood, as you might imagine, and it wasn't a good mood for teaching english. i simply got through my classes with as little effort as possible then headed home.

on the ride home i ran into grant, a canadian teacher from a different school i had met out a few times. we stopped and chatted for a while, which lifted my spirits remarkably. there's something about running into someone i know on the streets that makes me so happy. it makes me feel that i have a place, that i know people, that i'm not alone. i made one more stop, at the liquor store for some vodka, before arriving at my apartment.

most homes and apartments in japan have a small area just inside the front door where your shoes are to be removed. my apartment was no different. that night when i opened the door i noticed a new pair of sneakers next to my flip-flops. it seemed that jillian had arrived.

we chatted as i began to make my dinner (a packaged version of an omelet, served with a kind of gravy, that i had bought ready-made from the supermarket the day before). she had taken training with dave from my school, but had been staying in himeji until now. my guess from her accent was irish (i was wrong, she's scottish, but now, over a year later, i can tell the difference between english, irish, scottish, australian, and kiwi accents - not bad, eh?). i tried to give her the rundown on life in marugame, but myself only having been a resident for less than a month, it was general at best.

the next we talked more, about everything, finding that we had much in common and were both quite easily amused. the green mile came on tv - *in english* - which was very exciting. using some christmas colored origami paper left behind by previous tenants we started making paper chains and plans. in my journal that night i wrote:

i think things will be looking up here...

get into the groove

i started to get into the groove of the teacher's life in marugame. after 11 days all traces of jet lag seemed to have worn off. i had enough lesson plans in my file that i wasn't spending every waking hour planning. i was dealing with riding my bike to work. and then it started to rain.

i had seen loads of japanese people riding their bikes with umbrellas, and on my first day of work where it was raining i attempted to do the same. before i even turned off my road i had given up on the umbrella idea, i just wasn't coordinated enough for that yet. and by the time i passed the train station it really started to rain. so i pulled into the local mini-stop and bought a clear plastic poncho.

despite my new purchase, my legs were still soaked by the time i reached work, though i had luckily packed my work outfit in my bag instead of wearing it. these first days of miserable rain turned what could have been a mild dislike of riding a bike everywhere into a hatred which spawned fantasies of lighting the thing on fire and chucking it into a rice paddy.


at natasha's suggestion i took the train to takamatsu on my "weekend" (really just two days off in a row, which for me was tuesday and wednesday). there was one short page about takamatsu in my rough guide to japan guidebook (which i only bought, instead of my favorite let's go brand because it actually mentioned marugame) and it claimed the highlights of a visit to the city were the beautiful ritsurin park and the shopping. after a long (very long it seemed on that first day) walk to the park and a wander through the shopping arcades and department stores, the highlight of takamatsu, in my opinion, was starbucks.

though i'm not normally a starbuck's person (i normally patronize dunkin donuts) it felt so nice. sitting in a big, comfy starbucks chair. sipping a nice hot latte. it was heaven. it gave me a chance to sit back and reflect on my day. i did quite like the city. i was relieved to see some trendy citizens and quite a few gaijin. the shopping was good. but as i sat there, i decided i wanted to go somewhere bigger. i still wanted to transfer to a big city.