Don't cry for me Costa Rica

Well, this is it. It's my last day in Costa Rica. Six months has flown by, like I expected it would. I have thoroughly enjoyed myself and can see myself coming back at some point in the future. I made myself at home and had an amazing time exploring a new city and country, on my own at many times. It is still surreal to think that I am here, and think about how I got here. Some of it was luck, and some of it was just me going out on a limb day dreaming about living in another country on my own. The cool thing was that I was able to use my direct technical expertise (Nanoscience) and also learn a whole lot of about another field (Archaeometry); and this was enough to fund me living in a beautiful country with so much to see and cool people to meet.

The reality of leaving and feelings of sadness are slowly creeping up . .

I don't think I'll ever cure this travel bug. . hopefully I can just keep finding excuses to travel.

Nicaragua

My sister, Neha, is in Dolores, Carazo, Nicaragua as a TEFL Peace Corp Volunteer. Although she's been in Nicaragua, practically my neighbor, since September 2010, she's not allowed to leave her site and is not allowed to see family/friends for the first 6 months of her time. So I went to visit her this weekend before I leave Central America. We went to Niquinohomo (her training site) and I met her host families and friends. It was cool to see where she works and how she fulfills her role as a volunteer. She's had to learn to be very social, to really be a part of a community, to be a leader/organizer. It's awesome! The challenges/realities of living in a small town are pretty similar to what we have already experienced in India: heat, sometimes no running water, no AC, hand wash laundry, entertaining yourself, language difficulties . . but there are some stark differences in the culture as well (which I'm sure Neha can expand on better than me). I also met current Peace Corps trainees who had just arrived a week ago and were just beginning their journeys.

Things are cheaper in Nicaragua than CR, even imported things (face wash etc) are a full $2 or $3 cheaper. The handicrafts are also cheaper; tons of hammocks. The Masaya market was a maze of vendors that you could easily get lost in and lose track of time in (ie can't tell if its light or dark outside). I will never get bored of looking at that stuff. I bought a hat.

After spending 3 days with her, we parted ways in Managua after a movie and lunch, who knows when I'll see her again!? The next day I took a 1 day tour to Isla de Ometepe, which is an island in Lake Nicaragua made up of 2 volcanos. There's 2 actual small cities on the island, plantation farms, hostels, hikes, and pre-Columbian petroglyphs (rock statues and carvings). It turned out to be an expensive private tour, and the experience would have been more fun if I wasn't alone and had stayed there at least 1 or 2 nights to get in some hiking to see the craters/lakes. But it was something I had wanted to see and am glad that I went.

Back to work?

After NYE, I was pumped for a few more weeks of research at work to keep me busy until I left for the states again. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of not checking with my collaborators about their vacation schedule. I had asked another colleague and understood that most people take 2 weeks off (campus is closed, ie locked up for the last 2 weeks in Dec), but the people I was working with took more time off. NBD, right? If I would have known that I would have planned some other things to keep me busy for this last month. Oh well, like I said, my fault, I did not confirm this with them. This gave me more time to just relax and enjoy my beautiful apartment (which I moved out of today, unfortunately).

Also, I really wanted to visit the archaeological site Guayabo, where the samples I studied are from, but the tour I had planned to go on was cancelled b/c of a flood warning. hmph.

NYE @ Playa Uvita, Puntarenas, Costa Rica

After my parents flew back to the states on Dec 30, I took a bus to Playa Uvita for NYE. We stayed a very cool hostel (Tucan Hostel), the service was very good, it was very clean and had its own bar/restaurant. You could get a private room, rent a campsite or hammock, or rent dorm beds. We went to the main beach in the Ballena Marine National Park, and unfortunately got rained on. The sun was very intense around noon, and the waves were OK, a bit too small for my taste. The cool thing was seeing the whale's tail formation sand/rock bar that you can walk to during low tide (and it looks like an island during high tide). For NYE, we had a huge "family" dinner at the hostel, and just decided to chill there for actual NYE. There were parties going on in a few cities around us, but the hassle of finding a taxi (a sober driver perhaps) + the cost of getting there and back was too much work. So it was a pretty uneventful NYE, but I did take advantage of the Wifi and had my laptop/skype. And after my whirlwind Xmas vacation, I was happy to just stay in once place without the stress of logistics (yes, logistics stress me out apparently).

Parents' visit, Dec 20 - 30, 2010

It's time to catch up on this blog! Lots of things have happened since my last post, but nothing crazy or exciting, just things I would like to remember.

My parents and aunt came to visit Dec 20 - 30. The plan was to do some day trips in CR then take a 14 hr bus ride to Panama City to see the Panama Canal! This was something my dad has been wanting to see; he's never really been picky about vacations in general but when he said, "Yeah, let's go see the Canal," I knew I should make it happen. The day trips consisted of "taste" of CR (beach: Manual Antonio, volcano: Irazu, small village & churches: Orosi & Cartago, rainforest: La Paz Waterfall Garden). We had hired a car & driver, which ended up being cheaper than renting a car for 4 days + the headaches of driving/getting lost.

At one point, my brain almost exploded from thinking in English, Marathi and Spanish. But its quite a fun exercise when not stressful.

To get to Panama City, Panama, we took TicaBus, which is a bus line that goes straight from San Jose to Panama City. We took the executive class, which included (non vegetarian) meals, pillow and blanket + the standard movies, comfy seats and bathroom on board. The border crossing was relatively painless (although they did ask for the $500 cash insurance, but I was able to talk my way out of it saying I had a credit card ). In Panama City, we did a Partial Transit of the Canal, which was very cool. Basically, we were in a small boat (full of upscale tourists who could afford the transit in the first place), that went through 2 sets of locks on the Pacific Side of the Canal. You definitely do not need to do a transit to get an appreciation for the awesomeness of the Canal and the role it has played/plays in commerce and trade. The Miraflores tourist center provides a museum and great vantage point to see ships transiting through. We saw a cruise ship go through as well as a PanaMax ship (a ship that has the maximum dimensions for going through the Canal.) There is construction going on to develop a parallel set of locks to provide space for ships larger than the current PanaMax standard.

The rest of the time we visited some historical sites and ruins. Panama Viejo was the first site the Spanish settled at (there was already an indigenous population at the site), and then moved to Casco Viejo, which was later abandoned for the current site of Panama City. Casco Viejo is full of abandoned, dilapidated buildings with forests growing inside of them, the buildings are mostly hollow shells. Currently, some of the buildings are being restored/renovated, and that will definitely bring in more tourism into the area but hopefully not at the cost of the people who currently live there.

Finding good vegetarian food was challenging, as well understanding the Spanish. It seems that Costa Rica is the only country in the vicinity that pronounces "s" in words (IME, the "s" sound is very subtle or non existent in Panama City and Nicaragua), so add this to my mental confusion of English/Marathi/Spanish = total brain frustration and breakdown at some points (especially when you are also responsible for the comfort/hunger/overall happiness of 3 other people besides yourself).

Montezuma, Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Nina was here a few weeks ago and for the weekend she was here we went to Montezuma, a beach town on the southern end of the Nicoya Peninsula. The most convenient way to get there from San Jose is to take a bus to Punterenas, ferry across the gulf of Nicoya, then bus from the ferry stop to the city of Montezuma (about 5.5 - 6 hrs total). We stayed at a hostel that had howler monkeys right outside, and the sound is terrifying! I did not sleep well there at all. We had an amazing buffet lunch at a vegan, gluten free restaurant called Organico . . sooooo delicious!!! I also had mint choc chip vegan ice cream from there, also delicious. Unfortunately they were only open for bfast and lunch, not dinner. We tried to walk to waterfalls but didn't realize you have to actually walk in the river to get to the falls, and were not prepared for that. Then for dinner we went to a fancy restaurant on the beach! The ambience was great, but since it was dark you couldn't see the water, but could hear the waves. The next day we did an organized tour to Isla Tortuga! Which is very reminiscent of Bocas Del Toro, but the island was a bit crowded but had a lot of activities to do besides just sun bathe and swim. The organized tour took us to two snorkeling points (I had to hold Nina's hand while doing this, I don't know why snorkeling freaks me out, some form of agoraphobia maybe?), then a good lunch on Isla Tortuga. I had the most amazing pina colada there, made with crema de coco and fresh pineapple . . . mmmmm.

I also taught another dance class, this time to my own choreography for Desi Girl! It was a blast of course and am debating doing one more workshop in Jan before I leave.

xmas in CR

Well, its officially start of my "summer" vacation! The physics building closed at 11:30am, so no choice but to start vacation today! Although earlier this week there was a wave of cold weather, the sun is finally out burning my skin as it should be. Monday was probably the coldest, and since my apartment is not insulated - the windows don't actually close all the way and there's a 1/2 inch space under my front door - I resorted to drinking soup and hot tea at intervals. I should have done some stretching/dancing to warm up but was too cold to even start that. Eventually the combination of the hot liquids plus turning my stove on every 20 minutes warmed up my apartment a bit.

There's Xmas lights up in our apartment complex which feels very cozy at night. My two favorite vegetarian restaurants are closed for the next 2 weeks, but I did stock up on vegetarian tamales. Oh yeah, tamales are a big deal. Instead of smelling cinnamon and baked goods and gingerbread lattes, the smell of steamed masa represents xmas time here. They wrap their tamales in banana leaves (instead of corn husks like the mexican tradition), apparently this gives the tamale a different flavor but I'm not much of a tamale connoisseur, I just know I like 'em, a lot. Some families get together for tamale making parties, and tamale eating parties. There was even a tamale party in the Physics department on Wednesday afternoon. Campus is shut down for 2 weeks and when I return in Jan, the students will still be on their summer vacation until March or so.

The Tico tradition is to go to the Pacific Coast for Christmas, yes Xmas at the beach! This is their "summer" after all, and this really means its their dry season, and the Central Valley isn't actually hot, but the beaches are. Although summer time is xmas time, there's plenty of decorations that have to do with the usual themes of a north hemisphere xmas: snowmen, reindeer, snow painted in store front windows, xmas trees.

So, my plans for the next few days are to relax, prep for my parents' visit, maybe watch HP7 again. We'll do some sightseeing around here and head to Panama for xmas. For NYE, I'll be heading to Uvita Beach on the southern Pacific coast! A few weeks after that, I'll head to the neighbor to the north and see Nehcaragua . . then it will be time for me to head back to Cali . . crazy. . .