Okay, this blog may be difficult to write since I am on a Spanish keyboard; a little different than ours. Please ignore the lack of punctuation or symbols.
So, the rest of New Years Eve was great. After our two hour shopping trip, we returned to the school to begin prep for our big bbq. It was quite interesting to try to chop and cook with the limited cooking supplies of the student kitchens, but it all worked out. At 5pm the Dutch students celebrated and toasted with champagne to their New Year. It´s quite amazing what can be done these days, some of them were on Skype with their friends or family back at home. A few of the girls sang to Abba´s Happy New Year song and then jumped in the pool (since that would normally be unthinkable at home).
A few hours later we had the bbq going with two of the guys on the grill with the meat, I hate cooking meat because I have a hard time getting it right. We sat and chatted for a long time until eventually it was somewhat split off by country group, for me Dutch on one side, French on the other. Not knowing the language, I was sort of zoning out enjoying the evening and the music. I think having gone to a high school where I was surrounded by Vietnamese and working at a school where I am surrounded by Spanish, I just sort of block out the other languages and give it very little thought. One of the guys went ahead and told both groups how rude they were for not speaking in English, which is the only real common language at the school. Everyone knows at least the basics of English. I felt a little foolish being the ignorant American who only speaks one language, as I´ve said before, most of these people speak at least 2 languages if not more. Well, this began WWIII. For the next hour people were discussing, arguing, crying and divided because of the language issues. I decided to go in a clean the dishes. I wanted to be nuetral (yes, if you remember in both WWI and WWII at the beginning the US was nuetral).
Well, eventually things seemed to be smoothed over and we headed down to the beach around 11pm. It is quite amazing to see how many people were out and about just like the middle of the day in Tamarindo. There bonfires on the beach, people were shooting off fireworks (the ones definitely illegal at home), craziness all around. The beach was amazing, a full moon illuminating the waves, a cool breeze coming off the ocean to cool down the earth to the perfect temperature for being in a skirt and tank top. Most of the beach is lined with hotels lawns and pools, so they also had beautiful lighting and decorations.
I split off with mostly the Dutch group - they seemed to be my main companions. We watched closely around us for any ignorant or drunk people lighting fireworks too close or in our direction (it was a little scary, but I do love the fireworks). Right before midnight, the crowd started a countdown and at midnight just a huge flash of fireworks shot off all around. The Europeans were hugging and kissing (it´s usually two or three times cheek to cheek with kisses)
We watched the fireworks for a little while until we were drawn to the big bonfire that had men dancing around it. It was interesting so we walked over to watch as men, being the macho show offs they are, jumped over the fire, dove over it, danced around it, etc. It was really quite entertaining but I was so glad I didn´t see anyone fall into it. With all the booze that was being consumed that evening by EVERYONE around me, they probably would have just exploded. I had two sips of different kinds of champagne or sparkling wine and that was all I could handle - didn´t really enjoy the taste of it, one wasn´t too bad, but the one I was most often offered I didn´t like.
After that we walked down the beach to Babylon, one of the clubs that I wasn´t real crazy about but I thought I´d join them for awhile. I was actually grateful to see there were some open tables, so I sat and ordered a water and just enjoyed the music and seeing everyone dance. I hadn´t realized that the place extended out into the open, which made it much nicer, but the dance floor was absolutely packed. I had no energy or desire to stand shoulder to shoulder with everyone and try to move to the music. I did like that the place had masks and party hats- that was fun. A few people sat with me on and off and it was quite interesting to see all that was going on. I was getting really tired but not quite ready to take a taxi back to the school, so I waited. I had a second wind around 2:30 and tried to dance some, but really it was soooo crowded that I quickly tired of it. A few girls wanted to go home shortly after this, so we walked out together. Even though the school is a close walk, at night, I didn´t want to be isolated so I wanted to share a taxi, and Julie, the nice new Dutch student also wanted to go back to the school to grab her stuff. We thought we´d share a taxi and one of the other girls wanted to join as well. I think she wasn´t feeling well after all the alcohol (and liquid in general, I don´t believe she had anything with a high liquor contact but had consumed a LOT of liquid in the process). I think if I even tried to drink that much in water, soda, or milk, I´d feel sick. Really, I don´t get how people can drink full bottles on their own or several glasses of stuff. I´ve never been one to consume much liquid though anyway - regardless of what it is.
Well, we had a hard time finding a taxi, because I refused to go with a guy that I´m not even sure really was a taxi driver, but I am pretty sure he had been drinking. We walked to the taxi stand, where there were no taxis. All the taxis that passed by already had people in them. There were so many people in the streets, even though it was now after 3a., I didn´t feel unsafe at all. A couple of drunk men walked up to us and grunted as they posed trying to flex their arm muscles. I don´t really know the purpose and they were incredibly drunk, but I had a good laugh at it. Do people know how stupid they look? Well, I appreciate the amusement. The others were just annoyed - I think in part because she felt so ill. We found some guys from Guatemala City and talked with them for awhile while trying to find a taxi - they called a friend who drove the taxis and he finally showed up, after passing up by at one point, and took us to the school. I feel better taking the taxis that are marked and have the right colors. You can get just about any Tico male in the area to become a taxi if you want.
By the time I arrived at the school, it was shortly before 4am. Silke and Anne had beaten us home and had left more than a half hour after - they walked up the path, didn´t fool with a taxi. Silke had been very concerned and let me know when I got back and had I not shown up when I did they were about to go looking for me. Anyway, still on my second wind, I chatted with them for awhile while they made food in an attempt to stay up for the 5:30a bus they were planning to take to meet me in La Fortuna later that afternoon. I went to bed in Silkes room and had a few hours of sleep. At one point I heard them rushing to leave - I don´t know what happened, but I think they may have lost track of time and needed to get to the bus stop in a hurry.
I was up early and packed for my shuttle which was supposed to arrive at 8:10, but instead it was 20 minutes early. Good thing I was ready and just waiting. I hadn´t eaten since my stomach didn´t feel very good that morning. The shuttle ride was AMAZINGLY beautiful. There were rolling green hills for pasture land and then there was lush jungle lining the roads. As we ascended towards Arenal, the drive around the lake was even more amazing. The only thing was that I was afraid for my life. The shuttle drivers here drive so fast, swerve around cars, and take mountian corners to the point where the tires are squealing. It´s amazing there aren´t more accidents. It was much cooler and there were clouds and rain at points. I saw many impatients lining the roads along the jungle areas. It was such a great drive.
I arrived at my hostel right before 1p. and had hoped the girls were there waiting for me, since they had left almost three hours before me. I wans´t too surprised to find out they weren´t there since the bus was supposed to take 9 hours and they were maybe going to stay on it or get off and hitch-hike. Many many people - including women- have assured me hitch hiking is safe here. I would imagine hitch hiking in general is safe anywhere, but it´s that one or two instances of it not being safe that make me not want to take the risk. Besides, the shuttle made sense to me because I had a huge suitcase with me and wanted to get there in a timely manner. I was glad I did.
As soon as I arrived, the hostel owner, so nice and helpful, asked me about what tours I wanted to do. Quickly, he listed off a few, and the one that was ready to take off was the hanging bridges tour around Arenal. I don´t like heights, and don´t like suspension bridges, but I did want to walk around the jungle and figured that this was a good way to see it. The shuttle was already there to pick up people, so my hostel manager asked if they could wait, quickly gave me a room, I threw my stuff in there. He told me what to take - rain coat, close toed shoes, bug repellant. I didn´t have bug repellent, so he gave me a bottle to take with me and off I went. I was actually only with a grandmother and her granddaughter who were here on vacation.
Our tour guide was great- really knew his nature stuff. It quickly became apparent though that the granddaughter did not want to be here and was not having a good time with her grandmother. It was really too bad because what an amazing opportunity? Especially because how many grandmothers are going to do the canopy zip line with their granddaughters? We walked around the jungle path and it was truly beautiful. Now THIS was the Costa Rica I wanted to see. The beach was nice, but the jungle is unique to anything we have at home. Well, the warm water is also great, but otherwise, our beaches at home are pretty nice too.
We didn´t see too many animals, but I did see some more howler monkeys and some spider monkeys, a nasty banana spider and lots of plants. The suspension bridges were not too bad, I didn´t look down much and on the highest and longest, didn´t really even look out much. The lower bridges weren´t too bad since it didn´t feel quite so exposed - the tree tops were croweded in below. The river running below was beautiful and lush jungle everywhere. The higher bridges I didn´t like and especially didn´t like that it is so wobbly when other people are walking on it. I actually didn´t mind the stable solid bridges at all - just not the suspension ones.
Still, it was an amazing walk, and I realized at one point as we walked up and I was sweaty and tired, that all I had eaten that day was a bad of nacho doritos I had bought on the shuttle ride at a rest stop since I was hungry. No wonder I was so exhausted! It was 3pm and that was it! Anyway, we saw a few coatis at the end near the little restaurant and I bought some vanilla ice cream and a Brit caffe mocha (oh so good). Not healthy either, but it was that or a candy bar, so I thought the dairy would at least fill me more than chocolate.
I came to find out how small the world really is because the granddaughter lived in Fernley Nevada, a tiny town outside Reno. Well, one of my friends, Tasha is from there and it so happens another friend, Elizabeth, had just moved there a few years ago when she married a school teacher there. Well, this girl´s brother had Elizabeth´s husband for his teacher. Yes, the world is small. I talked with them for awhile and found out that even though the girl is only 16, she is planning to move out on her own with some guy friend. Ahh...ignorant youth who want to grow up too fast. I don´t really know the home situation, so I can´t really say whether it was a bad idea, but I really think this girl was running from problems quickly into a more difficult life. We talked for awhile and I tried to give her some tips on where she could look on the internet to help her get a better idea of cost of living and career choices.
I arrived back at the hostel to discover my friends had still not made it and it was already after 5p. I was a little worried but not terribly surprised. I waited around a while, chatted with the manager in Spanish as best I could, pet the chihuahau, who eventually curled up next to me. Still, no friends. I began to get worried but realized I needed to eat some dinner. It was too late for real food, so the taxi took me to a Tican fast food place. I order some arroz con pollo and papas with hot dogs. I thought might be the safest food to eat under the hot lamp.
I returned and still no friends. I was really beginning to get concerned. Eventually, at 9:30 I called the emergency line at the school to explain the situation. I had given the girls the information and had early discussed that if for some reason they couldn´t make it they would give me a call to let me know so I didn´t worry. The manager had explained that the buses were not good on New Years since there weren´t as many and they were packed. I had hoped the only problem was that they had missed a bus and were stuck somewhere along the way and stayed there, but didn´t know why they didn´t call. We decided I would call him as soon as they did show up, no matter what time and the manager promised to keep the phone with him and come get me no matter what time of night if they did call.
With that, I prayed for their safety and went to bed, I was pretty tired. Sleep wasn´t very good because I was up about 3 times in five hours with my stomach which apparently didn´t like the food I had eaten. It was pouring on and off outside as a storm came through and I just hoped the girls were somewher safe, warm and dry.
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