Heather at the lake

Crater Lake

Here's a picture of the lake at the top of the mountain we climbed. It was beautiful and we were the only people there. The water was chilly, but refreshing after the long hike. I put my feet in and little fish swam around my toes.

Another picture of the hike

Here's a picture that shows one of the sheer mud ledges. Jonathon, who is standing above the edge there, is much taller than six feet, to give you a sense of scale. That wall of mud there at the foreground is what compromised much of the trail. Imagine me holding on to that big root, pulling with all my might, little short legs scrambling against the dirt below. And imagine I am also grunting or going "roar" or something like that as I attempt to leverage myself up. That should kind of give you a basic impression of our hike.

The Hike to End All Hikes

On Saturday, we did the incredible hike to the top of Cerro Chato. I say 'incredible' because it really boggled the mind on many levels. First of all, the crater lake at the top of the hike was amazingly beautiful and pristine. Second of all, it is amazing that this particular journey is classified as a "hike." It is more like a very long obsticle course with hills and mud. It is a hiking experience more than just a hike. It took us five hours to complete the journey, which in and of itself wouldn't be so long...but four of those hours involved climbing and clawing one's way up and down extremely steep pathways. This was not hiking- it was mud climbing. For several kilometers, the climb was so steep up there were many places where one could not simply step, one had to hoist oneself up using only arm strength. At least that was the case for me. I discovered that climbing up incredibly steep paths is challenging for a person of short stature. Whereas my hiking mates could simply take a large step to reach certain spots, I had to cling on with my arms, perform a pull up manauver, and then throw my leg high in the air to reach the next level. Sometimes I had to cling on to a root and actually crawl my way up through the mud, pulling my body along. Apparently I was quite amusing to watch as I attempt to throw myself up to reach certain steep spots, my arms straining to lift my weight high enough to lift up a leg, and then my little legs scrambling up the muddy cliff trying to find a foothold.
Once we reached the top, there was a glorious crater lake that we sat by to eat lunch.
Then, the way back down was another experience. Those sheer mud cliff spots that we so difficult to climb up were downright terrifying to get back down. I tried sitting and dropping off the ledges. I tried climbing backwards. I usually ended up choosing to sit down directly in the mud and slide straight down. On ledges that were too steep even for sliding, I decided to just hang on with my arms for a moment, and then jump down. Which turned out to be fun after a while.
Actually, the whole experience was very fun. Challenging, but exhilerating too. Made us all feel very accomplished when we survived it. And amazingly, no one got hurt. Although my arms are terribly sore today, after having lifted myself up that many times. It hurts a little just typing this.
Here is a picture of the path...doesn't give you a sense of how steep it is, but you can see how wooded and muddy it is.

Lake Arenal with Volcano in Background

So, here it is: one of the most active volcanos in the world. At the moment this picture was being taken, it wasn't doing anything spectacular, just standing there, being a volcano. But it does erupt with some frequency and if you're lucky, you can see a small eruption while you are there. We heard some eruptions when we were hiking, but did not see any.

Family of Pizotes (Coatis) on the road to Arenal

This weekend Erica, Heather, Jonathon and I took a short trip to the volcano Arenal area. It was very touristy around there, but we did see some lovely things once we got off the beaten tourist path. Also, we ate Chinese food. And that was quite exciting. I can't explain exactly why it was so exciting, but it was.
Anyway...here's a picture of some Pizotes or Coatis, (depending on your language of choice) along the Pan-American Highway on the way to Arenal.

Rebekah's Roasted Chicken

Here's a picture of the two chickens that I roasted! From this angle, you can see that I stuffed them with lemons and garlic and rosemary. They were delicious! It was easy, too. Just stuffed 'em and roasted them for about two hours.
Can you believe that Rebekah Who Does Not Cook actually roasted chickens??? I was pretty shocked myself.

Thanksgiving dinner!

So it was a successful Thanksgiving dinner at our house! Here's a picture of all the guests...Heather, Jonathon, Emma, Ann, Erica, Katy, Vivian and Carol.... (Tricia was also there, but she was taking a picture at the same time)

Brrrrr...

It is extremely cold here all of a sudden. We are apparently in the midst of a massive cold front, encompasing all of Central America. And let me tell you..it is cold. Not just breezy. Not just a little chilly. COLD. I am sitting in the teacher´s room at school wearing three layers and a scarf AND gloves and I´m still cold. To add to the whole experience, none of the houses or buildings are insulated, so the cold wind just blows in through the walls. Even my CLOTHING gets cold, sitting in the drawers at the house. There is nothing less cozy then putting on freezing cold clothing.
The wind is particularly impressive. I have never heard wind blow like this. It sounds as if we are in the middle of a hurricane, except that there is no rain and the sun is shining. The trees are flopping around and the wind is howling at all hours. At night I worry about my bedroom (which is located in a little tower) blowing right off of the house. I fear I will wake up one night in a tree.
So far, however, I still have electricity! It´s surprising that, given the amount of wind, the power lines haven´t all blown away. I also am lucky to have the large wood stove in our house so I can heat it, if only a little bit. When the fire is going strong it helps some. Unfornunatly, fires always burn out eventually and then it´s cold again.
Well, the upside is that today the sun is shining brightly, even if one cannot feel the heat radiating from it. Yesterday it was cold, windy, AND rainy.
It´s amusing trying to walk around in this wind. Yesterday I walked to Santa Elena to buy groceries for Thanksgiving and thought I might blow right off the mountain. I´m exaggerating, perhaps. But my walking was altered considerably by the wind. Instead of walking in a straight line, I was weaving all over the place as the wind tossed me about. Plus I was walking with my head bent down and my body arched forward, as if I was pushing a large rock up a hill. It was all very amusing.
Ha-ha! We are all freezing our behinds off in lovely tropical Costa Rica! Ha-ha! Funny stuff.

Pavo

So everyone that has ever known me will certainly laugh after I share my big news: I am hosting Thanksgiving dinner at my house. Yes. Rebekah Who Does Not Cook. Rebekah Who Can't Turn the Oven On. Rebekah Who Rarely Hosts Anything Because When One Hosts, One Has to Clean the House First.
But! My time in Costa Rica is all about trying new things, and my house is pretty and my oven is large, so it makes sense to have Thanksgiving here. I think it will primarily be a potluck, so I don't have to cook everything, but I do plan on making a turkey and the mashed potatos. And maybe some snacky things to start.
Unfortunatly, there is no turkey to be had. I went to the grocery store yesterday and asked for "pavo" (turkey) and the meat man told me no. The expression his face implied that I was one of many gringos who had come in asking for a turkey. Ticos must find this time of year very funny...when all the gringo folks start running around looking for turkeys and buying up all the potatos. And look for pumpkins. There aren't any pumpkins, but they do sell a kind of squash that might taste sort of like pumpkin. Heather and Jonathan are going to attempt to make pumpkin pie.
There are also no cranberries, of course, so I'm thinking we're going to need some sort of cranberry stand-in. Perhaps guava jelly? Or some sort of fruit salad with pineapple and mango? Not your typical Thanksgiving, but hey, we live in the tropics. We've got lots of mango and pineapple and bananna and other tropical fruits, not a lot of cranberry.
But there are potatos and green beans and some sort of yam type thing...so we'll make do! Perhaps we'll throw in some Gallo Pinto (rice and beans) to make it a Costa Rican Thanksgiving. And make some picadillo with chayote and picibayos.
No se la palabra para "Thanksgiving" in Espanol...pero, creo que "La Fiesta de el Gracias" esta bien.

Some details of life

I might have already explained this...but perhaps not, so I will risk repeating myself. I want to talk a little about coffee. The coffee here, first of all, is fabulous. There are no words to describe how fabulous. It is beyond coffee. The coffee here takes one to whole new levels of coffee joy; it is Coffee Heaven. The funny thing here, though, is HOW the coffee is made. I'm not talking about the processing of the beans themselves...I'm talking about how the coffee is made in the home. It is made in a sock. Really. It's this stocking-looking thing that hangs down from the wall. It appears to actually be made of some very thin weave sock. And it is called a "coffee sock." You put the coffee grounds inside the sock and then pour hot water into it. Yummy coffee strains out underneath.
So, yes, it works just like a coffee filter, but it's much more amusing to have your morning coffee dripping out of a sock then a boring old filter.
Some people do use coffee makers, but I am quite fond of our sock.
At the moment I am drinking a cup of coffee-from-the-sock and enjoying a clear view of the Gulf of Nicoya from our dining room window.
Ahh...heaven.

In unrelated news...the community continues its preparation for Christmas and I continue to feel like a Jew on an Island. They really go very Christmas crazy here. At our last staff meeting we were told that we would all be singing a Christmas Carol together as a staff for the end of semester Christmas program. It's such a different experience for me because at my former place of employment, I would never be asked to do Christmas anything.
I also would like to say that if one more person tells me "Oh, Christmas isn't REALLY a Christian holiday," I might kick them. Even if they ARE Quakers. Is it wrong to kick a Quaker?

Edible Flower

Here's a picture of a San Miguel flower, growing in the open field behind my house. The field back there is called the "Bull Pen," despite there being no bulls there to speak of. I believe it was the home of the original bulls in the community, many years ago. Anyway...Melody, my neighbor and daughter of Lucky and Wolf, showed me this flower when we were out hiking yesterday. It tastes kind of sour. She also showed me some wild rasberries that were quite yummy. Melody was also the person who taught me how to find wild guavas to eat right off of the tree. Clearly Melody is the person to know if you are hungry and out in the woods.

Orange Sunset

Yummy Breakfast

I would like to report that I ate a BAGEL for breakfast today. It was really, really exciting. You have no idea how much you miss bagels until you can't have them. But this morning I had a sesame bagel! My very nice boss brought them back from the States yesterday.
It was slightly stale and I had no cream cheese (I used butter...which, as everyone knows, creates a far inferior bagel breakfast) but it was yummy none the less.
Also, a footnote to the last entry. Dad- a scorpion is not a bug! It's a scorpion. Which is probably more closely related to a lobster, but is in it's own animal family, I believe. A scorpion is just a scorpion. And yes... I know I write a lot about creepy crawly things here. But that's part of the fun of the jungle! And for those of you who are thinking of coming to visit (or who are already planning on coming) know that the insects and scorpions are around but will probably not bother you much when you are here. It's not as if you have to walk around through walls of insects flying, crawling on the floor, or up the walls. You most frequently encounter individual insects or spiders, or perhaps a few flying knats. Or flies. The good news about Monteverde, bug-wise, is that there are no mosquitos and no biting insects generally. The fire ants might sting, but you can easily just step over them when you see them. Since I have been here I got bit by one thing (I think it was a spider)...and I've been here four months! So really, you don't have to worry. The place I've visited where insects were more of a problem was Bocos del Toro in Panama, where the mosquitos will dine on you at all all hours, even if you cover yourself in DEET. You don't have to wear bug repellent at all here in Monteverde. The insects may be plentiful, but they are for the most part harmless and typically quite lovely to look at. We get a lot of colorful beetles and moths and some fascinating army ants that march in little straight lines.
And the scorpion sightings are very, very rare. In some houses, they don't have them at all.

Scorpion Hunting!

I just caught my first scorpion! We have had three scorpions here in the house, but this is the first one I caught on my own. Michael is usually on scorpion patrol, but he's in Paris for a few weeks, so I am to fight the critters myself. And I did it! Well...okay...I did not technically catch it fully yet. It is underneath an overturned glass jar in the leaving room. I have not yet figured out how to pick up the jar and take it outside without letting the thing sting me. I could probably use a piece of paper to slid under it, but i'm not quite ready for that yet. At the moment I am just letting him sit under the jar. Perhaps he will run out of air at some point.
When I came home work he was on the wall in the living room. A little teeny guy. I used a long fly swatter and a came over to him, planning to brush him into the jar. I took a deep breath and poked at him with the swatter. At which point he feel from the wall, past the waiting jar, and onto the floor. Luckily the spot he fell in had a corner of a spider web in it, so he got stuck. At which point I could easily put he jar over him. And he has been sitting like that for the last two hours.
So. Okay. I can't take full credit. The spider that made the web should have some of the kodus as well. And perhaps I should wait to celebrate until I actually remove him from the house. But I think I'm pretty safe with him under glass. Scorpions can't move glass, can they?
Still-- even with all the spider help and the Lack of Removal...I feel pretty brave. I rock.

Grilled cheese

So I´d like to report that I made a grilled cheese for the first time in my life last night. I made it in an iron skillet. It was delicious. It had tomato and Monteverde Chedder Cheese in it. I felt very accomplished.
In other, unrelated news, I saw an agouti while running on Saturday. Agoutis are these strange looking critters that look like an extremely oversized guinea pig. Except with less fluffy fur- they have short hair.
I am in the process of planning for the Christmas Program, which I am in charge of creating for my school. This is particularly ironic because i am in the only Jew at the school and perhaps the only Jew on the whole mountain. And yet I am running the Christmas show. Perhaps I can throw a Hanukkah song in there? Though folks might wonder ¨what´s Hanukkah?¨ I´m exaggerating, of course, but one of my co-workers did explain to her students that Rosh Hashanah is the Day of Atonement. Which it is not.
I also had a funny conversation in Spanish with one of my Tico co-workers. She asked me what my religion was and I tried to explain, as I did not know the word in Spanish for ´jewish.¨I think it might be ¨hebraica¨or something to that effect. Anyway, she had no idea what I was trying to explain. So I drew a Jewish star. She looked REALLY confused now. I think she thought I was drawing some sort of witch symbol. Or she thinks I am a member of some obscure cult she´s never heard of.
This weekend was also the community potluck. I made quesadillas. And then ate a lot of food. Eating is definatly a big pastime here. Whenever there is a social event or a meeting at school, it is a potluck. Whenever people invite you over to their house, it is to eat some food. Lots of food. Folks here even talk about gaining the ¨Monteverde 15¨ when you move here. It´s easy enough to stuff youself silly when there is just so much food everywhere. There are even great snacks at staff meetings! For every meeting someone brings a homemade cake or cookies or something.
When it was my turn to bring snack, I went to the store and bought lots of bags of chips. Because if I made a cake it would taste probably something like playdoh. Though of course before I can bake anything I need to learn how to turn the oven on. Which is harder than you would think! You have to light the little flame thingy each time.
Erica and I are planning on Thanksgiving trip to the nearby volcano, Arenal. Should be a good time. There are lovely hot springs there to swim in. Plus, if you´re lucky, the volcano erupts and you can see the sparkly red hot lava.
Last night it rained a lot and it was wonderful to be all cozy inside my beautiful house, as the rain pounded down. It´s a very satifying, homey, feeling when you come in from the rain, build a fire in the wood stove, and then listen to the rain fall around you. You might think the rain would be frustrating, but actually, I am coming to really enjoy the rain. I even went for a three mile run in the pouring rain the other day. I was drenched. But very refreshed!

The 15 Commandments of Life in Monteverde

1)Thou shalt bring a flashlight whenever leaving the house, even if leaving at 8:00 a.m. If you forget the flashlight, you will inevitably end up somewhere in the dark.
2)Thou shalt always bring a rain coat whenever leaving the house.
3)Thou shalt learn to love everything that crawls, stings, flies, or buzzes. Thou shalt also develop a respectful relationship with the mouse that lives under your stove.
4)Thou shalt always stop what one is doing whenever there are monkeys. Thou shalt watch the monkeys, in awe, until they are gone.
5)Thou shalt say ¨ooooh¨ whenever something cool is said to be up in a tree, even if thou can´t personally see it.This is particularly true of sloth sightings. Just nod thoughtfully, make some appreciative noises, and pretend like thou sees it.
6)Thou shalt say hello to everyone you pass. After a while, thou shalt actually recognize every single person that lives here.
7)Thou shalt learn to love the rain.
8)Thou shalt stop every once and awhile when out walking to take in the scenary and be amazed that thou actually lives in such a paradise.
9)Thou shalt learn to laugh at everything, even when your water heater explodes.
10)Thou shalt learn to get by in Spanish, even if using a lot of mime and facial expression.
11)Thou shalt feel okay about everyone hugging you. They do a lot of hugging here.
12)Thou shalt also feel okay about singing in public. There is also a lot of singing.
13)Thou shalt learn to listen for howlers, bell birds, and jays. Thou shalt wake up and smile when you hear all three in the morning.
14)Thou shalt eat a lot of fruit. And rice. And Monteverde cheese.
15)Thou shalt love it here and be unable to imagine a life more perfect.

On a sadder note...

I forgot to mention, a very unusual event happened here in Monteverde. Last night a small two-person plane crashed into the Cloud Forest Reserve. I've heard it took them quite some time to locate all the parts of the plane, strewn all over the forest.
Sad. Many folks were pretty shaken up about it today.

Dinner at the Leiton/Vargas house (one of them, anyway...)

I just returned from a lovely evening- a dinner with a Tico family from my school. I teach their son in my 5/6 class. They invited me to join them for dinner a few nights ago...and I must admit, I was a bit apprehensive. My fear had nothing to do with the family themselves (they are incredibly nice people), my anxiety was centered instead around the language barrier. I knew that I was going to have a social evening in which I would have to speak and hear only Spanish. My student does speak some English, but his parents do not. And I know that they have conversed with me in Spanish several times before and therefore assume my Spanish level to be a bit higher than it is... It's a common misconception. I can typically piece together what is being asked of me and am able to respond appropriatly, at which point the Spanish speaking person to whom I am talking suddenly kicks up the pace and begins speaking rapidly. At which point I get lost and just nod until the other person begins to look confused.
But! This evening was quite a success. I conversed for a full two hours in Spanish, and understood almost all of the dinner conversation. I even made jokes. I think. Everyone laughed, so I assume the jokes were understood. It's helps to talk with your hands a lot and make some exageratting faces, then people laugh because they know you are at least TRYING to say something funny. But I think my Spanish was understood. One highlight of the evening was when the mom asked me where I learned my Spanish. That made me feel nice because she must have assumed that I have studied Spanish somewhere. I assume that means that I must have made some sense. Or perhaps she was asking where I studied because my Spanish was so POOR, as in "Gee, what crappy school did you go to that taught you such horrible Spanish?" Let's hope that isn't what she meant.
It was a really interesting conversation about the differences between the U.S. and Costa Rica, mostly in terms of size. They were amazed to hear the population of Philadelphia, which I think is the same as the total of Costa Rica. They wanted to know about how long it would take to get to places by car in the U.S...including Los Angeles. They laughed so much when I told them it would take DAYS to drive to L.A from Philly. But were also amazed that it would only take a few hours to travel between the cities in the North East.
We talked a little bit about traveling by train in the U.S, and how much faster it is than a car. They do not have trains in Costa Rica.
Their son, coincidently, lives in Lancaster! I practically leapt out of my seat. "That's right near Philadelphia!" I said. "And right near where I grew up!" (Well, I said that, but in Spanish. Sort of.) He is in Lancaster working at a restaurant, apparently. We talked a little about the Amish and had a funny conversation in which I tried to explain that Philadelphia and Lancaster are both in Pennsylvania. They do not really have states here in the same sense. Monteverde is actually in the state of Punteranas, but no one would ever say "I live in Punteranas" if they lived in Monteverde. The state lines here are mearly lines on a map.
The conversation about the Amish was interesting. The mom talked about how hard the Amish must work in order to farm... quoting a story her son told her about a young Amish boy farming using some sort of horse-driven implement. I found this an interesting statement, since she herself had just finished explaining to me that her parents are milk farmers in San Luis who take their milk to the Monteverde Cheese Factory every day on horseback. Not too long ago, life here was not so unlike the Amish.
Not so long ago, they did not have any roads at all.
This family I was visited, incidently, are from the Leiton family, one of the oldest in the area. They are one of the few families that pre-date the Quaker settlement (it is a Costa Rican family). People joke around here that there are just three or four families in all of Monteverde...and everyone is related. It is true. Every class in the school has at least two or three Leitons, one Guindon, one Vargas, one Rockwell, and perhaps two or three Salazars. And everyone is someone else's cousin.