trouble in paradise

well, i think paradise is a strong word for the rainy, dismal, capital city of costa rica at the moment... the "green" season (aka the rainy season) has really been doing it's thing the past week or so. kind of miserable. but that's not what i'm talking about....

so a while ago this panamanian guy moved into what i had previously thought to be a closet just off our kitchen. there was basically a single bed and a dresser in there and that's it. recently the guy living in my old room moved out. and i guess the landlord decided that the panamanian would move in there (they're friends or something - they know each other somehow, i can't quite figure it out). whatever.

there was a little incident the other week on one of my non-sleeping nights (normally i'm a champion sleeper, but every 4 months or so i have a night where i just can't - it catches up with me) where his "girlfriend" stayed over (i'm not really sure on the status of the relationship, but they do have a child together) and they were up all night - talking, listening to music, arguing, etc - all of which i can easily hear in my room. i was slightly annoyed, but i couldn't sleep anyway, so i didn't get too upset about it.

well. last night. a little before 5 in the morning he comes back - clearly from being out all night - with two friends. i was definitely sleeping this time. then they're talking and laughing... and i'm kind of thinking you've got to be kidding me. we have a massive living room *and* outdoor area - both of which are on the other side of the house. a few minutes later i hear our other roommate come out of his room and basically tell them to be quiet. so they were quieter, but like i said - i can hear everything. so they're still up and talking and listening to music - albeit much quieter. but still i have to bury my head under my pillows to get back to sleep.

anyway. this morning (okay, mid-morning) i get up and go out to the kitchen to make myself a cup of tea and something to eat. and i notice part of a wrapper of some sort sticking out of my cupboards. i open the door and there's my brand new bag of tortilla chips - nearly gone. i notice a fork on the counter covered with refried beans. and what do you know - they're gone too. in the fridge my new package of salsa is ripped open and half gone. (lots of things come in little plastic packages... it's hard to explain - i'll do a pictorial sometime) at this point i'm starting to get mad.

but being the pacifist that i am i don't go banging on his door to yell at him (plus he hardly speaks any english and i know that my spanish cannot convey anger). instead i get myself ready to go to school. i make a bilingual sign which i tape over the doors of my cupboard -
please don't eat my food!!
¡no coma por favor mi alimento!and i leave a post-it note on the panamanians door:
a las 4 o 5 en la mañana ¡callado por favor! puedo oír TODO
(at 4 or 5 in the morning please shut up! i can hear everything)
apparently it had the desired effect. when i got home from school tonight my landlord was in the living room (this is not weird, he lives upstairs and stops down sometimes) and he asked me if i was upset about last night. and i said, yeah, a little. he assured me that it wouldn't happen again, or the panamanian would be leaving, and that he was sorry. so we'll see how that goes... i kind of feel like i'm living in the real world house or something. anyway, just wanted to vent a little.

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!!

back with a fresh visa

for those of you who were concerned about me going to panama... i assure you it was not a scary place. (in fact it was pretty touristy- at least where i was). and that i'm back. photos and stories to follow.

beach binge

and finally an update! this "beach binge" as i've decided to call does seem pretty far in the past at this point... my tan has faded... there's no sand in the bottoms of my bags anymore... but here's what we did:


so like i said before there was a long weekend - perfect for beach going. then we decided it would be easy to maintain a tan just by spending a short weekend at the beach. and then some friends were going to my *favorite* beach. then it was a long weekend *again* (public holiday season in CR). so yeah. i have only a couple of pictures to share... i didn't end up taking all that many.


this tree was actually right on the beach in cahuita. i wasn't trekking in the woods to get this picture. i was standing directly under this tree. it was pretty cool. there were about 4 little monkeys crawling around, eating fruit, and dropping the pits on the tourists. luckily no one was injured in the taking of this photo.

the last picture i'll share is from montezuma. and yes, i've posted pictures of montezuma before. because i thought when i went there the first time that it was the best beach and the coolest town i had visited. and when we were going to go back i was a little worried that i might change my mind. that i just hadn't seen enough beaches yet. but no. it was just as amazing as i remember. and i still think it's my favorite.


so i might be off to panama next weekend. my visa is up, and though my director seems to think it won't be a big deal if i go a little over, i'd rather not risk it. so i'm trying to finagle some days off... hopefully.

vargas araya

so yeah, it's been a while since i've posted... but i do have some pictures of my new place in vargas araya. it's actually pretty massive - i share with two other american guys (and possibly some panamanian is moving into this little room which i was sure was a closet for a few weeks? but anyway...). in fact last week, on the day of the virgin of the angels - the patron saint of costa rica and a national non-working holiday for nearly everyone, we had a big roast dinner at my house with loads of people from work. which i don't have any photos of... but jasmine does... maybe another time...

so this is the kitchen - with a full size stove *and* a microwave. but no blender.

the living room slash dining room. sadly there is no sofa. so if all three of us want to watch tv (which though it looks to be about 100 years old, still works remarkably well) then one person gets the "comfy" chair (which only looks comfy, but isn't), one gets the uncomfortable chair, and the other gets one of the dining room chairs. not really designed for home theater. but there is free cable and a dvd player>

and finally our garden. it's a little over-run by palm-like plants, but there are some benches and the sounds of a rushing stream (it actually runs under the patio, but whatever).

so yeah. that's my place. no photos of my room because even though i've been here for a while it still is mostly "organized" into bags that i used to transport it all from my old place to this place. yeah. i haven't really unpacked everything.

so we're on a bit of a beach binge at the moment. went to cahuita two weekends ago because there was a long weekend. went jaco last weekend to maintain our tans. going to montezuma this weekend because some other people we know are going. going somewhere the weekend following because there's another long weekend. after that i'm definitely staying put for an entire weekend. i'm exhausted.

:P