Costa Rica 2007

PICTURES AS PROMISED!!!

2007-03-18T17:05:00.000-06:00

Monteverde

Wednesday

Did some last minute shopping in Jacó before we had to check out of the Blue Palms and head to the bus station to catch a ride to Puntarenas (where Mom and Dad stopped by on their cruise). From there we had to catch a second bus to Monteverde. On the way to Jacó's bus station, the cabbie said he'd take us to Puntarenas for $10 each. He had A/C, was listening to the Rocky soundtrack, and had an SUV. We went for it, and had a pleasant 50 minute ride to Puntarenas.

Then it got ugly.

The buses, which were supposed to leave at 115 and 215 (according to the guide book) actually left at 200 and 215. Yeah I know. It didn't make sense to me either. Anyways the time we had made up in the taxi was lost, so all we could do was wait. I grabbed lunch and tried to find a spot in the shade to protect my bags next to the little bus stop. Lots of venders selling juice, water, peanuts, etc. They often sell water in a plastic bag with a piece of coconut in it for flavor. They tie off the ends like a knap sack. Buying one of those was a costly decision...

The bus was actually a converted school bus. Not like the big Greyhounds that are more common. Apparently its because the people do not want tourism and development, and want to keep their traditional lifestyle. This entails a really shitty bus and an unpaved roadway filled with more rocks, craters, dips, and debris than I have ever experienced. I'm getting ahead of myself. Right before the bus left I decided to buy a coconut water for 300 colones. I borrowed 100 from Emily, who had to get her wallet out of her purse and reach out the window to pay the guy. I can't be sure, but I think that's when she lost her wallet. I was watching her as she took it out, and as she reached out the window. Then I think she dropped it or just forgot to put it away. Don't really know. You have to understand that the bus was complete chaos. It was 90 degrees, the bus was almost completely full, plus it was dusty and windy, plus there several vendors walking in the front of the bus and exiting out the back selling whatever. Three painful, hot, cramped, and bumpy hours later we had to pull over because we got...YEAH! A flat tire! Emily went with Morgan and Jake to buy water or something. When she came back she told me that her wallet wasn't in her purse. We checked to bus to no avail, and then though back to the coconut water. The only other possibility was that somebody took it out of her purse while she slept, in front of other people, and unzipped and rezipped her purse in the process. That seems really, really, really unlikely. But we never found out. The worst part is she had just taken about $200 out of the bank earlier that morning. She really didn't get that upset about it. She didn't cry or anything. I was, again, impressed. I can tell you it would have been a little different if that happened to me.

Another couple more painful hours winding up a hill with beautiful mountains covered with vegetation, with the occasional shanty house with a little yard, and with cows and horses roaming grasslands, we arrived. Like I said, there are no paved roads around here. The town itself if a dump, with a bunch of tourist shops and a couple sodas (little Tico restaurants) that surround a grocery store and the bus shop. It was very dirty and congested. Lots of motorcycles, which are easier and faster to drive on the 4x4 roads they have around here. Also, lots of big trucks, buses, and tourist vans. Lots of Americans and other foreigners were in rental SUVs, usually pulled over on the side of the road looking lost.

Our hostel was a couple minutes down a hill and around the corner. Casa Tranquilo it was called. The guy who checked us in was an American who actually went to the University of Oregon, and graduated in Ben's class last year. Crazy huh? It gets way crazier. He also knew Nicole, a girl in our group. He had studied with her in Granada, Spain over two years ago. Not crazy enough? He was also in Granada, Nicaragua the same time we were a couple of weeks ago, and stayed at our same hotel. What are the odds?! Apparently they have to leave Costa Rica every two months for at least 72 hours or else their visas will expire. He was passing some time there before going back to Monteverde. The next day we were also on a tour who knew another guy in our group, Todd, and actually almost met up with him two days before. It really is a small world.

So we got a room with two double beds and a private bathroom for the first of two nights for like $7 each. The next day we had to switch rooms because ours was taken. Anyways the place was pretty cool. It had a little TV, two computers with (slow) internet, and a dart board. Two cats as well. It was around dinner time when we got settled, and Gonzaga was about to play, so we went into town to get pizza to go. I couldn't wait the whole time so I ran back to the hostel to watch the game. I missed the first 8 minutes, which sucked, but it was the worst Gonzaga game I have watched since they lost to...I think it was Wyoming in 2002. It was when Blake Stepp only made one shot, they shot 27% from the field, and missed 52 shots (exactly twice as many as Wyoming did). They played horribly this year too. By the way, I'm glad Indiana didn't manage to pull the upset over UCLA yesterday.

Friday morning we went to the Monteverde National Park. The ticket guy was an asshole, because he only gave me the student discount ($8 versus $14 just to enter) since I was the only one with a student ID card. I explained to him that Emily had just gotten her wallen stolen yesterday and obviously wouldn't have her student ID. He said everybody says their students. I said look at us. I'm a student, she's my girlfriend, and we are on the same studyabroad program in Costa Rica. He said she could use the internet to get a copy of her registration, print it off, and bring it. I asked if he had internet we could use. He said no. It's a 15 minute ride back to the hostel, so we had no choice but to pay.

The park was amazing. We spent about 3 hours taking the 5k walk. We saw a quetzal, which is the most distinct bird in all of Central America. The male, which is what we saw, has remarkable tail feathers that are two feet long.

From Jacó to Monteverde

2007-03-15T09:43:00.000-06:00

It's Thursday morning and I'm sitting jittery in an internet cafe, awaiting the start of the NCAA tournament (no, I don't count the play-in game with the 64th and 65th best teams). I think in about 25 minutes when Maryland takes on Davidson in Buffalo. My Zags play tonight in Sacramento against Indiana (rematch from last year's tournament), and I hope to God that I can find somewhere with CBS so I can watch the game. If not I'll be on the internet for a solid two hours screaming at the computer.

Before I go off on how wonderfully amazing NCAA basketball is, and how heartbroken I am to be missing the first round, and how jealous I am of the 50-100 million Americans who will be watching it, I should catch up to date. I left of on Monday after we lost all of the snorkeling gear...

Monday night

We headed back up the hill to the Banana Tree to shower and get ready for the night. We decided to take it a lot easier. Emily and I headed next door around 5 to the Gato Negro (Black Cat). You can check out what it looks like from the road in the link below. The highest part of the building, the little canopy on the roof, was the bar.

http://www.casitaseclipse.org/restaurant.htm

With 2 x 1 drink specials, it wasn't that bad of a deal. We got a table right up front and enjoyed the last few minutes of the sunset along the Pacific. There was also a distant lightning storm on the opposite side that was faded by clouds. Very, very beautiful area. After Happy Hour Emily and I went to dinner across the street at El Avion, or "The Airplane." It features an actual C-123 airplane that ran its missions out of Spokane's own Fairchild Air Force Base! I think that is pretty sweet. Anyway, this particular plane has history dating back to the Contra War. It's worth checking out the link below to El Avion's website, because it explains how they got a military aircraft to this remote beach town in Costa Rica. Check it out:

http://www.costaverde.com/avion01.htm

We sat up on the higher of two floors and had a great dinner, including desert. They brought us the wrong bill, which literally didn't have a single thing we ordered on it, including two Diet Cokes, a pack of Marlboros, and a tunafish salad. Since I figured the bill was less than what ours would have been, we immediately walked up to pay it. The waiter noticed that our chocolate cake wasn't on the bill, so we thought we were toast. He just charged us another 1000 colones (instead of the 2300 is cost) and we made it. Probably saved about $8 or so. Good work on our end. We played cards after that and called it an early night. Too much partying the day before.

Tuesday

Headed out on a bus to Jacó today after a morning of shopping. I can't remember if I mentioned that Monday's in Manuel Antonio are very low-key since the park is always closed. So we couldn't do any shopping yesterday. I got a couple Imperial T-shirts that I hadn't seen anywhere else. I like to go to the same stands a couple different times, because they have different people working. They will usually tell you different prices if you ask different people. I saved $4 on two shirts by leaving and coming back 20 minutes later, which felt like a victory. Anyways around noon we caught a but to Jacó for only 750 colones each (remember $1 is 518 colones). About a 90 minute ride. We cabbed it the the Blue Palms, the same hotel that Morgan stayed at a couple of months ago when he was here. A little far but great rooms and really inexpensive. The guys hit the beach after checking out surf rentals, and Emily went window shopping. We had a miscommunication and I though Emily was supposed to meet us, so I looked for her for almost an hour up and down the beach. She was, of course, shopping, just like the surf instructor I talked to assured me.

On a hilaroius note, I got stung by a jelly fish right in the middle of my foot while looking for Emily. It hurt a little at first, then gradually worse and worse. The next several minutes involved these events:

Me screaming that I got stung (conveniently 300 yards from our meeting spot, while walking the opposite direction).
Me waddling back to the restaurant and meeting spot.
Me running into Emily on the way back.
Her looking confused at my cadence.
Me asking her to pee on my foot.
Her asking why.
Us both going into a men's public restroom with lots of people watching us.
Her peeing on my foot.
My foot immediately feeling better (within two seconds).
Us having to leave the public bathroom with two managers staring at us.

It was pretty funny. More later, since we're leaving Jacó now to catch a bus to Monteverde Cloud Forests. Going from the beach to the mountains.

Recap! Done with school, on to traveling

2007-03-14T12:56:00.000-06:00

A lot has happened in the last few days. I'm going for a quick recap, since Emily wants to head to the beach.

Thursday night

Every prefunked at Nicholas' house, who is our age and works at Intercultura. They hired a DJ, had a fire, and had a dog named Brownie which I of course loved. We all had a good time, and headed over to Le Bistro for Peter's birthday party. A great night for me. I dropped a glass on the dance floor though. One guy in our group drank over a fifth, passed out at Nicholas' house, woke up, and accused his friends of stealing his camera and Ipod. They kicked him out of the house after an argument apparently, the police came, and he found his camera in the gutter. He cried all night till 6 am. His host family kicked him out the next morning. Worst part is he doesnt really remember any of it. Pics later from the club.

Friday

Big Max our director took us out to a cool Lebanese restaurant as our final shabang. It was a surprise. We had some drinks before hand at Bolevar. Food was great, we sat on the floor and I had some white russians. Took a cab home early around 11 to rest up. Later found out that Jimmy, Eric, and Chiam (guy mentioned above) got robbed at gun point right by my house later that night. Chiam had a rough couple of days... Anyway they didnt get hurt and only lost a total of about $70. Lucky I guess.

Saturday

Rest day. Cleaned my room, packed up my stuff, and watched a couple movies. Manuel Antonio tomorrow. Convinced Megan, Peter, Morgan Carl, and Morgan Carl's buddy to go with us.

Sunday

Left my house at 445 am to go to the Coca Cola bus station. Caught the express bus at 600 to Manuel Antonio, slept the whole way, and got there around 930 am. Stayed at a hotel called the Banana Tree, which is apparently catered to gay people (who knew?). Taxis are expensive here, they don't use the meters ever, and there's nothing to do about it. Lots of Americans here. Very touristy. We saw a bunch of spider monkeys, another sloth, some white-faced monkeys, a weird badger thing with a long tail that I still don't know what it is, and lots of birds and butterflies at the National Park. They only let 600 people in a day which is sweet. We entered though the exit via some local's advice, and avoided the $7 entrance fee (Sweet!). There were a couple absolutely pristine beaches inside the park, and we took a swim. It was beautiful. Again, pics later. Drank on the beach with four others from our group we met up there, and got harassed by locals quite a bit. We were just on the beach because there is no night life there. At all. Lots of drugs though. Crack, coke, and tons of weed. This crackhead was asking me for 700 colones to pay his landlord for rent for over an hour. I got some great practice on my Spanish while refusing to pay him. Finally he told me he worked in the surf shop by us and he would give me free lessons all day if I gave him 700 colones (which obviously is ridiculous). I told him he didn't work there. Then he ran and got a surfboard and tried to get us to go surfing...drunk...at 100 am...with a broken surfboard...that didnt have any fins on it. We laughed at him and finally he said ¨This is bullsheet¨and left. Apologized later. Interesting night.

Monday

Went kayaking with snorkeling equipment out to a couple rocks about a kilometer away. Some some cool fish, but the waves were huge and the coral was shallow, and you got sucked into the rocks at certain points. Pretty dangerous, so we cut it short. I was getting sea sick from the waves. Headed over to a different part of the beach on our two kayaks that was deserted, and the huge waves knocked us out. We lost all four pairs of masks because of the strong undercurrent. Expensive mistake. We had to pay $16 for each. Did I mention we rented this stuff from a coke head? Didnt mean to directly support his drug habit, but he gave us a really good deal on the rental ($10 each). Gotta go to the beach! More later!

End of Nicaragua, my Paper, and my Presentation

2007-03-10T11:25:00.000-06:00

The last day in Nicaragua, a Saturday, was a free day for everybody. I didn't really end up sleeping in at all, because it gets too hot in the room. Ten guys in one hostel room, five sets of bunk beds, and a pair of fans. The fans didn't help. I think I've gone four nights in a row without using any sheets. Emily and I walked to Parque Central to do some shopping. She got a few pair of earrings, I got a couple bootlegged DVDs (Children of Men and Babel) for 50 córdobas ($2.75), and some other goodies to remain a secret. One of my dvds works, but I have to crank to volume to get decent audio. Haven't tried the other one.

That night we went to a restaurant with a great 6-9 happy hour. Two mojitos for 20 córdobas (just over a dollar). Burritos were on special for 40 córdobas as well. Most of the group headed home by 9, but I hung out with Eric and Megan talking with a couple local Nicaraguans until after 11. It was nice practicing my Spanish for a couple hours straight, just sitting on the sidewalk across the street from the restaurant. One of the most chill nights of the program.

I went to bed immediately when I got back to Hotel Oasis, since we had to be on our buses at 600 am. Sunday ended up being a rididulous travel day. The only thing worth mentioning is that Morgan, Max, Jeff, and myself all lost our white slip receipts while in Nicaragua. Appararently we were supposed to hold on to them to get back. We ended up forging new ones and paying off the customs guy. Oh yeah--I bought 2 liters of Flor de Caña 7 year rum at the Duty Free store for $8 each. It's great stuff. I still haven't broken out my Cubans yet though...

MONDAY AND TUESDAY

School work. Jeff and I are working on our paper and presentation together, which is due Wednesday morning. Monday ended up being an 8 hour day. We split a pitcher and Emily got a whiskey sour at La Choza to wind down around 11 pm. I changed one of the TVs to ESPN to catch the WCC Championship, but they had soccer highlights on instead. I was pretty pissed, but at least Gonzaga won.

Tuesday was another long work day. We put in 13 hours. Not much else to say. The paper is posted below. A few things didn't quite translate in the formatting, but the words are still there.

Jeff Buhrman
Colin Fulton
07.03.2007
Case Study Final Essay

Research Question: In which ways and to what extent has the migration of Nicaraguans into Costa Rica affected the economies of both countries?

OVERVIEW
In the past thirty years, large numbers of Nicaraguans have migrated south to Costa Rica for various reasons. These reasons range from political, economic, and environmental, among others. Though the specific forces encouraging migration have changed over time, Nicaragua has constantly maintained an active role as an exporter of human labor. According to Raphaëlle Bail:
[h]istorically, Nicaraguans have always used their southern neighbor as a refuge during periods of violence, such as the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza or the war of the 1980s. But since the 1990s migration has been driven by the struggle for economic survival.

In this paper, we will argue that the development and expansion of the Costa Rican economy over recent years has both been aided by, and is a direct result of, the growing need for a larger labor force and the continuing presence of Nicaraguans in Costa Rica. Throughout the paper we will use various sources including books, interviews, scholastic articles, websites, and research studies to support our thesis. The nature of this topic must always be remembered while absorbing the information presented in this paper, because the statistics on immigration are not necessarily accurate. Some sources have potentially overestimated immigration while some have been significantly more conservative. Through our research, we have tried our best to present the most realistic and thorough studies, but incongruencies still appear.

A TUMULTUOUS HISTORY: 30 YEARS OF MIGRATORY FLOWS
Historically, Nicaragua has been torn by repressive dictatorships and civil war, battered by several forms of natural disasters, and the subject of economic sanctions and restructurings. These events have left hundreds of thousands of people displaced—without homes, jobs, or basic necessities like potable water. Naturally, this has caused a great exodus of Nicaraguans to pursue opportunities outside of their country; their nation’s government and economy have been unable to respond to or control their unfortunate situation with efficiency or expediency.

Thousands moved to Costa Rica after the December 23, 1972 earthquake in Managua which killed over 6,000 people, destroyed 90% of the structures in the nation’s capitol, and resulted as the worst seismic catastrophe in the history of the North and Central America. This event threw the country into turmoil, and caused an initial flow of 10,000 Nicaraguans to migrate south to Costa Rica. More followed during the civil war in the 1970s in the battle to overthrow the 45-year-long Somoza family dictatorship. Perhaps the biggest migration was a result of the Contra war under Sandinista rule in the 1980s as the country continued to be plagued with military struggles and a crippled economy. In 1984, an armed conflict between the Contras and Sandinista government broke out, and Costa Rica received over 50,000 Nicaraguan immigrants as a result of citizens fleeing a military draft. The majority of these refugees were between the ages of 16 and 25.

Major structural adjustment policies (SAPs) sanctioned by non-governmental organizations on Nicaragua during the 1990s caused large numbers of citizens to also migrate to Costa Rica. These programs aimed to transform Nicaragua from socialism to capitalism by cutting government jobs and undergoing privatization. This left a huge percentage of the population unemployed and caused catastrophically high inflation rates of over 30% a year. This poor economic performance over the past two decades can be “directly attributed to a large surplus labour force [that] was created by the profound restructuring of wealth and political power that resulted from the 1990 change in government” (Mahler). Finally in 1998, thousands of families fled Nicaragua after the devastating damage of hurricane Mitch, seeking safety, solidarity, and better living conditions.

Regardless of the reasons, the exodus of thousands of educated, skilled, and capable Nicaraguans has starved the country of the intellectual ferment needed for an economic rebound. The families that have stayed in Nicaragua and survived the more difficult times face a dilemma. They can either keep the family unit in tact, usually living in extreme poverty, or send a family member abroad to earn more money. Typically, the family member capable of making the most money is the one who migrates. While this may provide additional income for each individual family, it causes greater problems at a national level.

BRAIN DRAIN AND NICARAGUA’S ECONOMY
The exportation of Nicaragua’s most skilled workers to provide for families back home has caused a “brain drain” on the workforce, hindering the development of Nicaragua’s economy. The brain drain is causing a decrease in the average level of human capital within Nicaragua as the more-educated—and therefore more capable—leave to find better jobs abroad. In the short and long run, brain drain results in negative impacts on Nicaragua’s capacity to achieve an open and innovative economy, thus inhibiting economic progress in a nation struggling in the transition from socialism to free-market capitalism. When examining immigration it is important to understand the history of Nicaragua and the situations today that Nicaraguans face in their country. The circumstances they have faced cause them to seek out a source of income in other countries (typically Costa Rica) that is essentially unattainable in Nicaragua.

REMITTANCES
After stabilizing themselves in another country with economic opportunities for them, the immigrants will then send remittance checks to their families in Nicaragua to help pay for the family’s everyday needs. As seen below in Table 1, remittances became more important for Nicaragua’s economy each year during the 1990s, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of GDP.
Total Remittances Sent to Nicaragua
Year
Millions of US$
% of GDP
% of Total Exports
1990
15,0
1,0%
4,5%
1991
15,0
0,9%
5,5%
1992
10,0
0,6%
4,5%
1993
25,0
1,4%
9,3%
1994
50,0
2,8%
14,9%
1995
75,0
4,1%
16,1%
1996
95,0
4,9%
20,4%
1997
150,0
7,6%
26,0%
1998
200,0
9,7%
34,9%
1999
300,0
13,6%
55,0%
2000
320,0
13,7%
50,4%
Source: International Organization for Migration

Table 1

Remittances to families are now the leading source of income in Nicaragua, making up more than 20% of national GDP in 2003, according to the Inter-American Development Bank. By 2005, the number had jumped to over 30%, and has seen a growing trend each time new figures are compiled. Total remittances to Nicaragua amounted to over $1 billion in 2005, with over one third of them coming from Costa Rica (Agunias). Shockingly, these figures fail to take into account remittance money sent via mail or sent back home with family and friends. Other seasonal agriculture workers save up all of their remittance money and bring home one lump sum after their three or four month stays (Cortés). After taking into account remittance transfers that fail to leave a paper trail, it is easy to understand that the figures released are at least conservative, if not severely underestimated, in revealing the impact of remittances on Nicaragua’s economy. The increasing reliance on remittances is a strong signal that Nicaragua is a country lacking the resources and opportunities to keep its citizens at home.

ENCOUNTERING RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA
When examining this controversial subject, it is important to be cognizant of the general ways in which Costa Ricans perceive Nicaraguans and the recent escalation of racism since the 1980s. Sarah J. Mahler and Dusan Ugrina of Florida International University explain that:
[r]elations between Costa Rica and Nicaragua continue to be strained owing to long-standing border disputes, and these have translated into popular anti-Nicaraguan sentiment. This has consequences for Nicaraguan migration; for example, the Costa Rican government recently passed a punitive immigration law to become effective in August 2006 that raises penalties for smugglers, facilitates deportations of undocumented immigrants, and transforms various aspects of legal residency, making them more restrictive.

It is worth mentioning that the majority of Costa Rican’s view Nicaraguans as a second-class citizen who is uneducated, dangerous, and dirty. This viewpoint is perpetuated by the media’s portrayal of Nicaraguans as being responsible for Costa Rica’s problems, including crime and a deteriorating social security system. As a result, Costa Rica faces a paradox between the fear of the “threatening other” invading their country, and a reliance on their cheap, abundant labor to fuel their booming economy.

THE STATUS QUO IN NICARAGUA
Today, Nicaraguans are still crossing the San Juan River, which separates Costa Rica, the self-proclaimed “Switzerland of Central America,” with Nicaragua, the second-poorest country in the Western hemisphere. However, the forces causing them to move are different than they have been historically. Nicaraguans are migrating both legally and illegally in search of better working alternatives and a higher standard of living, providing an escape from Nicaragua’s ongoing economic recession. The recession has furthered the extent of poverty in Nicaragua to unprecedented heights in the past two decades. The migration that it has sparked is so prevalent that Nicaragua is commonly referred to as a major exporter of human labour (Docquier). Costa Rica has benefited greatly from the increased work force that has willingly filled up jobs in agriculture, construction, and domestic services that are seen as undesirable for Costa Ricans in the status quo.

Poverty is extreme in Nicaragua: the Census of 2000 indicated that 48.9% of the population is classified as poor. According to UPOLI sociologist Areli Mendez, that figure is growing: 64% of the population was considered poor in 2006. The slumping Nicaraguan economy had a combined unemployment and disemployment rate of 50.5% in 2005 (Bail). That translates into over one half of the workforce lacking sufficient employment opportunities. Nicaraguans are finding such opportunities in Costa Rica, their southern neighbor with a thriving economy and a perpetual labor shortage. By looking more closely, it is evident that economic reasons are the primary motive. According to the Costa Rican Census of 2000, 73% of naturalized Nicaraguan immigrants who responded to the survey cited “economic reasons” as the primary reason for migrating.

COSTA RICA AND ITS LABOR SHORTAGE
The recent history of Costa Rica’s economic expansion coincides with the uneasy times that Nicaragua has faced. Costa Rica has historically put all its eggs in one basket, relying heavily on agricultural exports to fuels its economy. Cash crops included bananas, pineapple, coffee, cotton, tobacco, beans, rice, and sugar cane. However, beginning in the 1980s, a shift in the market began to take place due to an economic transformation. Many structural adjustment programs were put in place which accelerated growth and caused an expansion of exports. Towards the end of the 1980s, sweatshops were highly prevalent, further resulting in an expansion of demand for a growing labor force.

As of recently, Intel Corporation has moved a $300 million custom microprocessor plant to Costa Rica and has further advanced the economic landscape of the country. Even more importantly, alongside the increase in manufacturing came the emergence of the mass tourism and eco-tourism industries. Lastly, countless real estate developments catered to affluent Americans and Europeans have ballooned prices of beachfront property and certain areas in San José.

NICARAGUANS WORKING IN COSTA RICA
An astounding 34 percent of Nicaraguan homes report having at least one family member living outside the country (Catholic Relief Services). The overabundant supply of cheap, unskilled workers to fill their labor shortage has stimulated the Costa Rican economy in various sectors, just as the same phenomenon is occurring with Mexican immigration into the United States.

Costa Rica has always had a relative lack of labor force, based on its population versus its development (Cortés). Despite this fact, the rapid economic expansion that Costa Rica has faced has been able to occur because of the presence of Nicaraguans and other migrants to fill the positions and jobs that are no longer wanted by Costa Ricans. As Costa Ricans have moved “up the ladder” to fill higher-paying, skilled jobs, Nicaraguan laborers have gladly filled the unskilled, lower-paying job openings. For the majority of Nicaraguans, these new employment opportunities abroad pay significantly better than jobs in their home country, though worse than most jobs in Costa Rica. For example, nurses in Nicaragua are paid $150 to $200 US per month. If they do the same work in Costa Rica, they can make $500 to $1000 US per month (Mendez). Costa Rican workers are also paid higher wages than an equally skilled Nicaraguan working next to him.

If you see a domestic worker, security guard, coffee picker or construction worker in Costa Rica, there is a strong likelihood he or she is Nicaraguan. These jobs are typical of ones that are no longer pursued by Ticos and thus are filled by migrating workers. Although the xenophobia towards the “threatening other” has resulted in estimates as high as two million Nicaraguans living in Costa Rica, academic scholars estimate that about 350,000 Nicaraguans are actually permanent residents (Cortès et al). Nearly all of the researchers interviewed and academic studies covering the subject agree that the number is somewhere in that range, with up to 450,000 from January to April during harvest season. It is important to understand the level of difficulty that is associated with obtaining an accurate count of immigrants, both legal and illegal. The number of Nicaraguans also fluctuates, mainly because many of the migrant workers come to Costa Rica for harvesting season, then return to Nicaragua.

Alberto Cortés, PhD Professor of Migration Dynamics at UCR, estimates today that between 80% and 90% of all agriculture in Costa Rica is done by Nicaraguans. This number may sound shocking, exaggerated, or even racist. However, it is a reality that Costa Rica is extremely reliant on Nicaraguans for successful harvesting of their crops.

The types of jobs that Nicaraguans are migrating for are the ones that Costa Rica has a relative lack of labor force to fill. Cortés often refers to these jobs as “the ‘3 Ds’: dirty, dangerous, and difficult.” He mentions that now a hierarchy is forming in Costa Rica where jobs are segmented based on country of origin. Clearly, at the top of this hierarchy are Costa Ricans, who boast a 96% national literacy rate and arguable the most advanced economy in Central America. They are able to obtain the jobs requiring more skill and a higher level of education. The bottom rungs are saturated with Nicaraguans who have lower qualifications, standards, and expectations in the labor market. As seen in Table 2, over 80% of Costa Ricans are at least semi-skilled. On the other hand, almost half of Nicaraguans living in Costa Rica are unskilled workers. Furthermore, this only counts legal Nicaraguans who have been residents for more than six months. Undoubtedly, this figure is higher when taking undocumented and illegal Nicaraguans into account. As more skilled jobs are created for Costa Ricans to fill, openings are created in the unskilled labor sectors such as agriculture, construction, and domestic services for Nicaraguans and other immigrants to obtain.

Costa Rica: Skills of Employed Workers by Nationality, 2000

Nicaraguan
Costa Rican
Degree of skills/formal education
100%
100%
Unskilled (0-5 years of schooling)
41.2
18.5
Semi-skilled (6-10 years)
45.8
52.2
Skilled (11+ years)
13.0
29.3
Source: International Organization for Migration
Table 2
Again, the situation of migrants taking low-end jobs has drawn much attention from researchers, in part because of its similarity to the United States and Mexico border dispute. In the United States (Costa Rica), the poor and lesser educated Mexicans (Nicaraguans) willingly fill jobs that have become undesirable to Americans (Costa Ricans). In fact, certain industries are becoming dominated by and reliant upon migrant laborers. One industry of particular interest to researchers in Costa Rica is the production and harvesting of coffee.

COSTA RICA’S COFFEE INDUSTRY
For decades Costa Rica has received an influx of migrant workers to fulfill seasonal labor needs. During harvest season, an abundance of manual labor is needed to pick beans and fruit before they are lost in nature’s natural process. However, in the past two decades there has been a demographic shift among agricultural workers: they are becoming increasingly foreign.

Since the beginning of 1990, when the economic crisis in Nicaragua began, a contingent of Nicaraguans began moving to Costa Rica. They were willing to take whatever type of productive job available, and were more willing to accept poorer labor conditions than native Costa Ricans. Costa Rica’s National Employment Office noted that, “in recent years, we are finding an ample participation of refugees in manual labor, and a decreasing disposition for Costa Ricans to work in the harvesting of crops” (Alvarenga). Of course, this trend signaled the beginning of a huge economic advantage for the coffee plantation owners. They could offer lower wages, force longer hours, and provide fewer benefits to illegal migrants than a fellow Costa Rican would demand.
The ultimate result for these owners has been more competitive prices, greater profit margins, and a growing exploitation of and reliance on Nicaraguan coffee pickers. Guillermo Canet, Executive Secretary of PROMECAFÉ, a regional cooperative program for the development of coffee in Central America, notes that, “Nicaraguan manual labor has prevented the loss of a large part of coffee crops in Costa Rica in recent years” (qtd. in Schmidt 28).

Essentially, the Costa Rican coffee industry has become dependent on Nicaraguans. As of February 1998, 75% of Costa Rica’s agricultural work was done by workers originating from Nicaragua (LimitsToGrowth.org.). “Without foreigners, the coffee doesn't get picked,” said Miguel Badilla, one of more than 750 producers who make up the local cooperative Coopedota in Santa María de Dota (qtd. in Schmidt 46). His region, located south of San José, has struggled to find enough hands during harvest season. Undeniably, without immigrants Costa Rica’s coffee industry would be devastated. Without immigrants, the number of agricultural workers would be reduced by 75% unless Costa Ricans were willing to substitute. As seen in Table 3, this shift in the supply curve to the left would not only reduce the number of agricultural laborers, but would cause farm owners to pay higher wages.
Table 3

FUTURE OUTLOOK
In the future, Costa Rica may not have the luxury of countless unskilled migrant workers to help meet demand during labor shortages. Fewer and fewer Nicaraguans are migrating to Costa Rica each year (Cortés). Instead, they are increasingly opting to move to El Salvador for employment opportunities as its economic climate improves and their labor needs increase. This will ultimately result in some Costa Rican sectors downsizing, particularly agriculture. The future projected lack of labor force, partly a result of Costa Rica’s new immigration laws, has caused estimates of a 15% to 25% reduction in agricultural exports alone in the next year (Bail). The combination of more restrictive immigration laws coupled with El Salvador’s competition for cheap Nicaraguan labor will potentially weaken Costa Rica’s economy down the road.

CONCLUSION
The overall effects of migration on the economies of both countries vary. For Nicaragua, migration is both positive and negative. This is because the remittances received from migrants generate income for families and account for 30% of the country’s gross domestic product. However, since Nicaragua is exporting its most skilled workers to generate these remittances, they are experiencing a decapitalization of their population from the brain drain that is taking place (Howe). Nicaragua is figuratively “treading water” with the remittance money as its final lifeline. Unfortunately, until Nicaragua can develop a plan to prevent brain drain and get heavier returns from human capital, this trend will only worsen. This is evidenced by the increasing impact on remittances every year.

Costa Rica’s economy is benefiting greatly from the migration of Nicaraguans. In fact, what many Costa Ricans fail to recognize is that migrants are essential to the success of their country. Without an abundance of migrant workers, Costa Rica’s economy would not be as strong as it is today. The migrants have filled in the jobs when there was a labor shortage, allowing for economic expansion to be possible.

As a whole, Nicaraguan migrants have contributed significantly to the health of Costa Rica’s economy. By taking care of their children, building Costa Rica’s offices and infrastructure, and harvesting their crops, migrant Nicaraguans are allowing Costa Ricans to pursue more skilled, higher paying jobs. To conclude, we have found that the rapid economic expansion that Costa Rica has faced has only been able to occur because of the presence of Nicaraguans and other migrants to fill the jobs requiring fewer skills that today are no longer pursued by Costa Ricans.

WORKS CITED

Agunias, Dovelyn. “Remittance Trends in Central America.” Migration Policy Institute. http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?ID=393 (accessed February 28, 2007).

Alvarenga, Patricia. Cuaderno de Ciencias Sociales: Trabajadores Inmigrantes En La Caficultura. San José: Sede Académica Costa Rica, 2000.

Bail, Raphaëlle. “Nicaragua exports its poor.” Le Monde diplomatique (January 2007). http://mondediplo.com/2007/01/12nicaragua (accessed March 3, 2007).

Catholic Relief Services. “Nicaraguan Migration to Costa Rica —A Call to Solidarity.” Our Work: Nicaragua. http://www.crs.org/our_work/where_we_work/overseas/latin_america_and_the_caribbean/nicaragua/migration.cfm (accessed March 3, 2007).

Cortés, Alberto. Interview by the authors. February 19 and 21, 2007.

Cortés, Alberto. “Nicaragua’s Indispensable Migrants and Costa Rica’s Unconscionable New Law.” Envio 297 (April 2006). http://www.envio.org.ni/articulo/3253 (accessed March 3, 2007).

Docquier, Frederic. “The Brain Drain and Inequality Across Nations. FNRS and IRES, Universite Catholique de Belgium. http://www.afd.fr/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/users/administrateur/public/eudn2006/Docquier_ppt.pdf (accessed March 4, 2007).

Howe, Genevieve. “Nicaragua: Nearly Gone & Almost Forgotten.” Z Magazine. http://zena.secureforum.com/znet/ZMag/articles/may97howe.html (accessed March 5, 2007).

International Organization for Migration. “A Binational Study: the State of Migration Flows between Costa Rica and Nicaragua.” In Migration Course Reader, University of Washington, edited by The State of the Nation Project, 2001.

LimitsToGrowth.org. “Remittances Becoming More Entrenched.” http://www.limitstogrowth.org/WEB-text/remittances.html (accessed March 5, 2007).

Mahler, Sarah J. “Central America: Crossroads of the Americas.” Migration Policy Institute. http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?id=386 (accessed February 25, 2007).

Schmidt, Blake. “Coffee Industry Struggles in Today’s Economy.” Tico Times (Feb. 1, 2007). http://humanity.humanbeams.com/index.php/humanity/comments/lbr1007schmidt_coffee_industry_struggles_costa_rica (accessed March 6, 2007).

United States Geological Survey. “Historic Earthquakes.” Earthquakes Hazard Program. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/world/events/1972_12_23.php (accessed February 25, 2007).

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. “Economy of Nicaragua.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Nicaragua (accessed March 4, 2007).

Granada Continued

2007-03-06T19:02:00.000-06:00

So the name of the place from Thursday night was Café Nuit. Glad I got that cleared up. So Friday ended up being a hell of a day. Four people missed the bus, which left at 730 am, including the birthday girl. She ended up (apparently) passed out in one of the numerous hammocks in the hotel lobby with her dress on backwards (400 am swimming) and puke on herself. I wasn't feeling that great myself, but at least I made it home at a decent hour. I was kinda pissed we left a couple of the guys (two of them were actually attempting to get their lives together before the bus left) because we ended up waiting for like 30 minutes at a gas station to meet up with some Nicaraguan students. We could've spared a two more minutes, but the bus ended up leaving really late anyways, and I gave them a few last warnings.

Another couple hours on the bus on dirt and gravel roads, one forged river, and a sweaty, humid, hot, thirty, slightly-hungover-but-mostly-just-hungry me, we arrived at a little Nicaraguan...village. Or a school yard area. It's kind of hard to describe. There were lots of oxen on the road, pigs, baby pigs, ducks and chickens, wild dogs, and lots of little chicks everywhere. There were a few pastures with barbed wire with manure pastures. The rest of the land was just dry, dusty, and dashed with the occasional cactus, rock, or weed. It was very desolate. This area was the school that eight different tiny Nicaraguan communities met to learn. They only had one actualy school building, which was a square. No walls inside. Instead, each corner had a blackboard, and each corner represented one of the four classrooms in the school. They did have real desks. I liked it when a chicken or pig or dog would wander in to see the people (e.g. beg for food). I gave the pig some bread but he got scared when everybody clapped and he quickly waddled out the door to safety.

We all made introductions, which took along time, and the head school teacher talked to us in Spanish mostly, even though he spoke English. But that's not what annoys me. What annoys me is that a few of my group members pretend to understand everything by nodding, even though they don't have a clue what is going on. Of course, when the professor would pause (this isn't just referring to this instance, but anytime we have a Spanish speaker) and ask if there are any questions, nobody says anything. Whatever.

We all headed out to fix up a run-down playground a couple hundred yards down the road. We picked up tons of rocks, sanded and repainted different playground toys, uprooted slides that were in four-foot concrete foundations, and hacked cacti with machetes, among other things. I was really impressed with how hard Emily worked during the whole time.

A lot of the girls are complaining, whining, bitching, moping, etc. at this point in the trip. I would like to send a couple of them home personally. But Emily worked her butt off, as did maybe half of the group. A couple of the girls hid by the van the whole time and drank water.

Lunch break in the school house followed by the most awkward experience on the trip. They were playing music on the sound system and a girl, who is about to turn 15, started dancing in the middle. And I mean dancing. In a skirt, with her shirt hiked up. She kept grabbing different guys (and a girl or two) from the group to "dance" with. Then older men were going out to dance with her, including the priest. It was really uncomfortable for all of us, and later I found out that she wasn't supposed to be dancing that sexually, to put it lightly, and the Nicaraguans were embarassed. Anyways, she tried to pull me out of my chair but I wouldn't get up, so I ended up getting a fricking lap dance, with my girlfriend next to me. Awkward.

After lunch we listened to a few speeches from locals, and ended up playing another soccer game with locals like at Bribri. We played on a dirt field with all the little kids watching, laughing, and interacting with the girls. We had the side with wind in our faces, and I had brown spit after the game. I also cut my leg on a tree stump. All sorts of obstacles on the field, and our goal was between two rocks. Theirs was a tool shed. We lost 3-2.

Back on the bus. I have never been so damn hot, tired, and sweaty on the entire trip. It took a few paper towels to get the sweat off my body. I really can't stress enough how fricking hot Nicaragua is compared to Costa Rica. Stuffy and humid, yet no precipitation for weeks or months at a time. It reminded me of how my clothes would stick to me in Rome after ten minutes on the street.

Nicaragua and its Treachery

2007-03-03T10:43:00.000-06:00

This is where Granada is in relation to Costa Rica.

So just after my last post I ran into four of the girls from my group on the street corner. They were all out of breath and one of them was crying, and they looked scared as hell. It turns out that they had just been mugged, with one of the girls getting her purse literally ripped out of her hands. They were a block or so away from the Bearded Monkey, a cool little hostel/restaurant/bar when they got directions from a security guard. They turned down a street that had no lights (this is around 830 pm) and noticed a group of kids around 18 or so closed up the street behind them. They walked faster and took another turn and the group was gaining on them. I guess one guy ran after them and grabbed Kristen and tore the purse out of her hands. Everybody else ran away with the rest of the mob screaming, "¡Corre, corre!" (Run!). Kristen was such a mess from the whole thing that she ended up going home the next day (as in back to Seattle). This is the same girl that had her backpack literally taken out from under her feet at McDonald's in Heredia, losing her camera and laptop about a month ago. There was a bunch of fallout from some of the girls in our group that night with our director Max, mainly stemming from the incident and the fact that he found out about it soon after and instead of coming back to the hostel where the girls were waiting for him (not sure what they thought he was going to do though) he stayed out drinking with others. They said it was irresponsible and that he didn't care, which is understandable to a certain extent. However, all of us are adults, at least twenty years old, and it's not his job to babysit us. There was a lot of crying and complaining, etc. I think it's safe to say that he sobered up very quickly when he realized he was up against a mob of sober, terrified, disgruntled women. Glad I wasn't a part of that one.

On to Thursday. We went to a university in Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua, to meet with various professors to get material for our papers. It was an hour and a half on the bus there, which was not a fun ride for the people who were out drinking the night before. We were introduced to the four different professors in their little catholic church building. They sang a song for us (national anthem of Nicaragua maybe?), which was unusual because the students weren't scared or embarassed to sing. They were actually all into it. They wanted us to sing a song after but we didn't, which I was completely fine with. No musical talent over on this end.

The next couple hours was a discussion in a tiny teacher's office with a female professor who talked with us about our topic--immigration. It was very, very interesting and helpful (at least for me), but she didn't speak English. I had to do a lot of the translating, which was good practice for me. Anyway I have a lot of good material that I'll be sure to talk about later, but I'm a little out of it still. One thing I will note that is interesting is the stereotypes between Nicas and Ticos.

Ticos view Nicas as lazy, cochino (pig-like), stupid, uneducated, unrefined, having darker (uglier) skin, and as being violent, causing Costa Rica's social problems, and taking any job they can get their dirty little hands on.
Nicas view Ticos as being materialistic, desiring lots of money but not having it, being vain, spending money on their image, haugty, stuck-up, less friendly and helpful, and thinking they are better and more sophisticaed than anybody else in Central America.

I had encountered that stereotype of Nicaraguans in Costa Rica, and I asked her how that reputation started. She said around 1980 after the end of Nicaragua's civil war. At that point in time lots of Nicas would leave their farms and head south to Costa Rica to work in the coffee fields. It paid better and there was a perpetual labor shortage in the booming coffee industry. Most of the fields were centered around San José, so these campesinos would generally eat, live, etc. in San José while there were in Costa Rica to pick coffee. Thus, you get the Costa Rican impression of a Nicaraguan: a darker skinned, poor, dirty, uneducated campesino living in the big city. That's how it all started, more or less.

Anyways after that we had lunch and went to a laguna to go swimming for a little bit. We convinced a resort to let us use their dock and bathrooms to change. In exchange we had to do a kayaking competition to entertain the resort guests (who were primarily older and American, and largely Morman). There were about ten of us. Two at a time raced down to a water buoy, turned, and came back, with the loser being eliminated. I won my first two races and ended up in the finals against a guy from Belgium who had a cigarette between heats, and almost missed his second race because he had to take a bathroom break after "seven beers." I knew he'd be winded, so I tried to give him as little rest as possible. I beat him in the finals and won a free pint of Flor del Caño 7 year rum, which is great.

We headed back to the hostel briefly, then went to a market that has live music on Thursdays. I got some goodies, which will remain secrets so people don't spy on what I may or may not have gotten them...and several people bought hammocks. There are a ton of them here. Once I can upload pics or get them from other people I will. One thing worth noting--I had a real steak for the first time in several weeks, and it was glorious. Thought I should mention that. We hung out and watched the traditional dancers and had a couple beers, leaving there at 900 or so, then back to the hostel for Megan's birthday!

It was Megan's 21st birthday, and we went to this crazy bar called...well I don't know what it was called. It had a crazy Jesus crucifixion statue on the wall and other funky decorations. I went home around midnight because Friday's supposed to be the busiest day (and it ended up being pretty busy). More on that later. Nap time.

Granada and Hotel Oasis

2007-02-28T20:04:00.000-06:00

My bus ride was great. Not only was my seat magical, but they played three movies during the trip that were all good. Apocalypto, An Inconvenient Truth, and a Dane Cook/Jessica Simpson comedy called Employee of the Month. We even got served a steak casado on the bus. I took a nap during the hour of disco music they played on the bus, which was from a PBS special.

I had to run to the bank early this morning by AutoMercado, the grocery store by my house, to grab $100 out of the ATM in dollars. I then had to pay 5000 colones to catch a cab to the TransNica bus station. I checked in at 1130 and the bus left at 1200. We hit the Costa Rica side of the border around 500, where I changed 80 of my dollars for cordobas, the currency of Nicaragua (17.5 cordobas = $1). 1400 of 'em. Tons of guys heckled you as soon as you got off the bus to exchange your money but only a few of them were official with the badge. I did the math in my head several times to make sure I didn't get ripped off.

Back on the bus and another half hour to the Nicaraguan side of the border, where I had to wait in line briefly with my bag and get my passport his fancy stamp that shows I went somewhere. I even left my backpack on the bus because I had a couple of knives in it and didn't want to risk the random bag search, even if they were ok to have. Anyways I didn't get selected for a random search and they didn't go through my backpack when they swept the bus. We all had to stand outside of the bus for another twenty minutes or so before we were cleared to go. I bought a Powerade and was accompanied the rest of the way by a smelly Nicaraguan police officer who inconveniently chose to plop down next to me (even though my other seat was covered by my stuff and backpack and there were a dozen other spots to sit). One more hour and I was one of the only passengers to get off in Granada (most were heading on to Managua). I hopped in a rundown cab (twenty years old or so) and a block down the street we picked up the same cop who'd been sitting next to me.

The five minute ride to the hotel was interesting. Very, very poor area. Lots of open BBQs in yards, tons of people in the street, all of the cars were old, dirty, rundown, lots of street vendors, kids playing soccer in the dark on a concrete field, hookers, motorcycles flying past, etc.

Hotel Oasis is pretty cool. Internet here is free, there's a small pool inside, and international calls are free each day for the first ten minutes (one call only though). I'm in a bunk bed in the guys hostel room--there are hotels and hostels here. I think there are all ten of us in the room. Glad to see everybody again!

Lastly I should note I haven't shaven for a week, so I'm looking scruffy. If you're (un)lucky you'll get to see some pics soon.

Goin to Granada

2007-02-27T16:25:00.000-06:00

So I had Sincuello (No Neck) book me a ticket on the bus up to Granada, Nicaragua for tomorrow. It leaves at noon and I should get there after dinner time. I need to load up on snacks and drinks probably. I decided to take the EXECUTIVE bus instead of the crappy, hot, no AC basic bus, because it is only $12.00 more and a heckuva lot nicer. It has AC, reclining seats, movies, music, and a little more room, which is worth it to me if I'm going to be sitting on it for seven hours. I'm going with the company called TransNica, which is owned by friends of my family.

http://www.transnica.com/

Check out their website. It's pretty funny.

Other than that I'm still itchy on my hands and feet constantly, which is annoying. No more swelling, fever, ulcers, joint pain, or sore throat though. I'm out of Allegra (Ahhhh...Allegra.....) but still have to take Nexium for the stupid chest pain/ulcer thing that is a side effect of my other drug--Prednisone. I talked to Emily this morning, and everybody went up to some waterhole of some sort to go swimming this morning. Sounds like everybody drank last night, which would explain me getting a drunk dial from Emily at 11:15 pm anoche. She ended up not going to the waterhole thing and stuck behind with Nicole, because Nicole just found out that one of her friends back home died from cancer yesterday. Tough news, but sweet of Emily to stay behind and console her.

So I'm in the midst of writing my essay entitled: "In which ways and to what extent has the migration of Nicaraguans into Costa Rica affected the economies of both countries?"

Basically Nicaragua has been nailed with natural disasters, dictatorships, trade embargos from the USA, and civil war the past 30 years. A 1972 earthquake in the capital city of Managua killed over 6,000 people and razed 90% of the buildings, making it the biggest seismic distaster in the western hemisphere north of South America. In 1975 they were finally able to overthrow a 45-year-long dictatorship under the Somoza family (three different guys). They family has assets worth over 400 million by the end of the regime. Not to mention the Sandinista rule that lasted until 1990 where the USA was actively hiring and training terrorists in the School of the Americas to terrorize Nicaraguans and their leaders in attempts to stop their socialist movement.

Today they still migrate to Costa Rica because Costa Rica has had a labor shortage. Their economy is growing so fast that they don't have enough workers to fill the new jobs opening up. So, like Mexicans in the US, Nicaraguans are taking over the "undesirable" jobs that Costa Ricans no longer want or need. These include domestic jobs, construction, agriculture, security, etc. Costa Ricans are moving up the scale and filling new jobs generated by tourism and manufactured goods, services, etc.

Since Nicaragua is so poor, the worst, cheapest, dirtiest jobs in Costa Rica are STILL more desirable than the conditions back home in Nicaragua. One recent development is the sudden rebound of El Salvador's economy, which is also beginning to see a labor shortage and a bigger demand for Nicaraguan labor. Thus many Nicas are choosing to go to El Salvador for employment instead of Costa Rica. This will inevitably result in a further labor shortage down the road for Costa Rica, and a slowing of their economy (or a greater influx of Colombians filling up the jobs vacated by Nicaraguans???).

Anyway, it's an interesting dicotomy between the press constantly blaming Nicaraguans for draining the social security system (though it is inherently flawed and only affected by Nicas about 2% a year), for increasing crime and violence, etc. However, businesses rely heavily on them for cheap, willing labor that they don't have to pay the government social security taxes on (16% to 23% of each laborers salary is matched by the employer to go towards the social security fund).

So really its the businesses screwing over the ss system!

Missing Out

2007-02-26T00:28:00.000-06:00

So the rest of my group (with the exception of one, who went to Panama City) left early this morning for Nicaragua. It's a week long trip that brings us back home the following Sunday. Except I didn't go. I'm still not fit for travel.

I talked to Emily tonight, and she said it was officially a 12-hour trip. They left from Intercultura at 530 am and arrived around dinner time. It included a 2-hour delay at immigration, and an hour on a ferry to get to the island at the tail end of it. Doesn't sound like I've missed anything yet. They'll be staying on Ometepe Island until Wednesday, then heading south back towards Costa Rica to stay in Granada. Granada is a colonial town like Heredia, but is apparently much more beautiful with several old houses serving as classic colonial representations of the era.

Most likely, I'm going to try and make the journey and meet the group in Granada Wednesday. I'd hate to spend an entire week just lounging in Heredia, but it all depends on how well I feel. Today was close to normal, meaning I only had random red blotches on my shoulder, face, and leg, and had a swollen right foot until this afternoon. Whatever got me I don't know, but this is my theory, in order of liklihood.

Imodium reaction with antibiotics
Spider bite (or other type of bug bite)
Straight reaction to Penicillin
Catching something dirty from San Ramon
Reaction from something contacting my skin

As you can tell, nobody has a clue what it was. I just know that I have to say that I'm allergic to Penicillin for the rest of my life, which will prove useful on countless medical forms, insurance forms, waivers, etc. for years down the road. Yeah.

On another note, the only exciting thing to happen on Saturday was that Emily moved in. She wasn't able to deal with her ever-hungry, bossy, annoying, greasy roommate that she was recently forced to share a bed with. I don't blame her. In fact, I told her from the beginning that it was going to be a problem. She spends a lot of time over at my place anyways. So she was here for a day and took of to Nicaragua. I did get babied a little bit on Saturday when I was stuck to the couch like a blob, watching tv and playing Gin Rummy. She made me soup and what not.

Off to bed. I'm going to try and work on my paper tomorrow so I can be set for Wednesday.

Week from Hell

2007-02-23T11:25:00.000-06:00

MON 2/19

Went with the group to San José to meet with two different people to get more information for my immigration paper. I had like 3 cups of coffee during the morning, which led to an early afternoon crash. We also went to a University of Costa Rica library to look for research material (yes, in Spanish), and I ended up getting a couple books for about $6. Not bad.

The Ricky Martin concert was tonight, and it was so so. Nothing worth noting.

TUES 2/20

Met at the school early this morning to get quotes on immigration. We're going to hand out flyers early Thursday morning to bring awareness about racism and xenofobia. I got the only damn computer that didn't work, and literally sat in the lab for two hours straight without doing a damn thing. It was a waste of my time. I could've been doing ANYTHING else. Anyway I went out to lunch at this hole-in-the-wall Mexican place right across the street from Taco Bell and McDonald's with Emily and Megan. I had good enchiladas for the first time in a loooooooong time.

Worked on researching my paper with Jeff at my place for most of the afternoon, then went to Intercultura at 730 to watch a video in Spanish on Nicaraguan immigration consisting of personal stories of people. It focused more on how the little things affected them, such as having to move in with aunts and uncles where there was a lower comfort level, where they had to ask to eat food out of the fridge, watch the tv, etc. More detail-oriented things that you wouldn't really think to note.

I noticed I had a ton of bites on my arms. I also noticed that my knees were sore right before I went to bed. More about that later.

WED 2/21

I woke up at 3 am with a severely swollen right hand. I took pictures because I didn't know that the hell was going on. I then realized that my knees were swollen, which is why they hurt when I walked to my room right before I went to bed. I took some pictures, which I will post after my camera charges, and researched my symptoms on the internet until like 600 am. Back to bed, then woke up with both hands swollen.

NORMAL LEFT HAND.

SWOLLEN RIGHT HAND.

After Rocio got back from church she took me the the clinic, and after a couple solid hours of waiting, the doctor saw me, and gave me an antihistimine (Allegra) so help with the swelling. I was hoping for more, either in the form of more medicine than Allegra, which I had bought for the trip but (obviously and inconviently) lost sometime in the last couple weeks. Or at least an explanation as to what had caused my issue. There were so many possibilities: Penicillin, reaction to food, reaction to something on my skin like laundry detergent, reaction to a bug bite, or contact with something in the ghetto neighborhood I had been in last Thursday. No way to know conclusively yet, or maybe ever.

I came back that afternoon feeling worse and had a blood and urine test. I get the results in the morning. By the evening I was super swollen, could barely walk or move, my hands were giant, and I couldn't close them for the life of me. Rolando enjoyed putting a two-liter bottle in my hand, because I could carry it around without even trying to hold on to it. I spend the evening on the couch in sweats, a sweatshirt, wool socks, and two blankets watching LOST, which was great. I LOVE THAT SHOW MORE THAN ALMOST ANYTHING!!!

THURS 2/22

Felt horrible today. My hands were still very swollen, as were my knees, feet, left eye, wrists, and shoulders. I had sores all over my body in places you would expect bed sores, which made it tough to sleep. I still had a fever, but not as bad. Mainly my feet and wrists and hands were bothering me. Very hard to walk. I couldn't make it the two blocks to the school to meet Rocio to go to my appointment, so I got a taxi. I went to the doctor to get my blood results in the morning, once again with Rocio, which were normal (por dicha= Thank God). All my vitals were normal too. We had a 1000 appt, but didn't get into the office until 1130 (Tico time forgives tardiness). He wanted me to see a rheumatologist.

"Rheumatology, a subspecialty of internal medicine, is devoted to the diagnosis and therapy of rheumatic diseases. The term originates from the Greek rheuma, meaning "that which flows as a river or stream" and the suffix -ology, meaning "the study of". Rheumatologists mainly deal with problems involving the joints and the allied conditions of connective tissue."

He said my joint swelling was not typical for an allergic reaction. Right before I left I got a shot of Prednisone in my butt, which surprisingly hurt like Hell. Honestly the most painful shot I've ever had. I fell asleep in the taxi before I got home, fell asleep on the couch immediately after I walked inside, and woke up long enough to eat some papaya. Thankfully Emily got back from her day-long excursion and came over to take care of me. She made me soup and brought me Gatorade! I took a nap again around 1 pm, and headed out to CIMA, a private hospital in San José, for my final visit of the day.

Traffic was aweful, and it took an hour and a half to get there. Another hour and a half to see the doctor. A lot of stupid "polo" gringos there in their fifties. Polo means tacky, cheesy, etc. Not really a direct translation apparently, but that's the best I can do. This doctor spoke both English and Spanish, because he'd studied in Philadelphia. Anyway he narrowed my reaction down to two possibilities. First, a reaction to Penicillin, even though I have taken it before, and I'd been taking it for a week straight. However, since the swelling began as localized swelling in my right hand, and I had evidence of bites on Tuesday night, he also thought it could be a spider bite. I like the second story more.

The doctor gave me Prednisone in pill form, which I have to take for the next week. My swelling had gone down by the evening except for my hands, and I could walk again. Emily came over and we watched The Benchwarmers. It's a funny, stupid movie produced by Adam Sandler with David Spade, Rob Schneider, and the guy from Napoleon Dynamite (Jon Heder).

MY RING FINGER WAS THE FATTEST OF THEM ALL.

ME TRYING TO MAKE A FIST. DIDN'T WORK.

EYE AND NOSE ALL SWOLLEN.

FRI 2/23

Today I had another doctor's appointment this morning here in Heredia. Actually it was another blood test. It's 330 here right now, and I have to go back in an hour to get the results. I shot a video of their dog (cat) eating peanut butter. That's about it. I lost my frickin' Allegra medicine. Spend over an hour looking for it, so I'm pissed. I'm worse than I was this morning, which is annoying. I need my medicine!

Low-key Weekend

2007-02-18T13:04:00.000-06:00

THURS, 2/15

Not much to report since Valentine's Day, but I do have a lot of great pictures from Thursday night. About ten of us met up at Bolevar to celebrate not having any school on Friday. It was a fun night, and I made sure to take our Rolando (Turd), the 18 year old from my family. These pictures pretty well represent the night.

Turd aka Rolanda with Emily

Me and Max before his night went bad

Morgan C. with Max after his night went bad

A few of the guys before a bunch of Jaeger bombs

FRI 2/16

I had a decent hangover most of today, and as a result, I didn't do much besides workout and do some reading for school. I was supposed to go to Playa Hermosa for the weekend with José Miguel to one of his friend's beach houses, but last minute the guy's mom decided to use it. Would have been a fun weekend, but I could use the time to catch up on my blog, research, and sleep.

SAT 2/17 *UNOFFICIAL 1-YEAR ANNIVERSARY!*

Watched a couple movies today, worked out, and basically copied my Friday minus the hangover. Emily and I went to dinner to celebrate our unofficial anniversary at Pane e Vino, another Italian restaurant with good wood oven pizzas. We got a liter of white, I had a huge calzone, and she got raviolini. Unfortunately, she got ragu sauce on it, which has meat. Being Americans familiar with the Ragu brand as a tomato sauce, we didn't know any better. Thankfully they took it back no problem. They probably would have spit in our food but Emily looks sort of Tica, so they cut her a break.

I say unofficial anniversary for a couple of reasons. Firstly, she picked the day--not me. I thought we were dating before the 17th--I dropped $100 on a Valentine's Day dinner. Emily explained to me that she just thought "why is this guy I'm not dating spending so much money on me?" But whatever. Call it one year officially with another five months unofficial give or take. Time flies when you're in love I guess, right?

SUN 2/18

Here I am on Sunday trying to get my research, reading, and blog updated. That summarizes my entire day. I know I have another early field trip tomorrow morning to meet another individual to discuss immigration. In the afternoon and evening we have the Ricky Martin Concert to go to as a group. I put it in pink because I'm slightly embarassed to be going, but we are leaving four hours early to beat traffic, get decent seats, and prefunk. Should be a hell of an experience.

MAKE SURE TO CHECK FURTHER DOWN FOR EDITS AND UPDATES. I AM ADDING POSTS AND PICTURES TO FILL IN THE GAPS OVER THE LAST COUPLE WEEKS.

Bajo Tejares (updated) and Valentine's Day

2007-02-15T12:14:00.000-06:00

Yesterday my immgration group went on a field trip to a poor neighborhood just outside of San Ramón called Bajo Tejares, or something like that. It is made up almost exclusively of Nicaraguan immigrants, the vast majority of which are illegals. Our bus ride took almost three hours becuase of a fatal truck accident on the main road there. Actually, it was first a walk to Intercultura, a taxi ride to downtown San José, a bus to San Ramón, and then another taxi to the ghetto. As you would expect, my camera died on the third picture I took, so I'll have to get the pics from my buddy Jeff. It can't really be described appropriately without photographs. The roads were not paved, the houses had numerous shared powerlines, and most of the wild dogs there were so small and malnourished that they were closer to cats than dogs.

We cleaned rocks (no, no misprint) for a few hours which were then mixed with this boiled hay. The mixture was placed in camas (beds) that were the size of a foosball table with a rubber house draining two inches from the bottom. The result was a hydroponic bed for any of the five crops the community is going to grow and share. Most of the people we worked with were women, because the men were out trying to get jobs which is usually construction. Women have a much harder time finding employment, at least in the San Ramón area. We asked lots of questions about how long they'd been living there in the slum, and all had been there at least six years or more. A few were born Nicaraguans who were Costa Ricans via marriage, but the courts in Costa Rica were refusing to recognize their citizenship, said they didn't have the right paperwork, etc.

The most ridiculous story I heard was the 14 yearold daughter of a Costa Rican father and Nica mother who was born HERE in Costa Rica, AND had all of the proper documentation was not allowed to attend classes because the school did not want to recognize her because she "looked" Nicaraguan. She had been sitting in an empty classroom by herself at the school for over a week while the school "reevaluated" her documents. Amazing really.

Valentine's Day this year was awesome. I told Emily to come over after her field trip (which got over just after mine), and we settled on her coming over at 8:30. Our dinner reservation was at 9:30 at Antica Roma, an Italian restaurant. I figured it would be appropriate since we pretty much met and started dating in Rome during our first abroad trip.

So she showed up at 8:30 and I had my mom and José Miguel stall in her in the kitchen. I had Turd help me put some Mariachi songs on my Ipod as well as "Total Eclipse of the Heart"--but the version from Old School (much, much funnier if you know what I mean). Finally they let Emily in to the terrace where I was waiting with candles lit, music playing, a bottle of champagne, chocolates, and a game of Gin Rummy set up ( which has occupied no less than 2o hours of our trip so far). The plan was to finish up a game and then head to dinner, but we didn't quite finish.

Dinner was absolutely packed, even with a 930 reservation, and we didnt get seated until 1000. Dinner was great: I had chicken, she had three mushroom pasta, and we split a pitcher of Imperial. Got overbilled for something we didn't order, so when it was all said and done we left about 1115. Went back home, finished our card game, and I fell asleep. My 11 hour field trip left me with an empty tank I guess.

Super-recap

2007-02-06T14:20:00.000-06:00

Ok. I´m going to try and get through the past several days in one session. I can´t stand being behind any longer.

MONDAY 1.29

First day of new classes. We are all crammed into the tiny dance room with fold out chairs in a oval. Pretty bad set up for a class, but you have to make due with what you have. Anyway, our new primary instructor is named Helen. She's British, slender, very polite, and a little boring. Our classes now start at 800 am instead of 830, but we get out at 1100 am now. It definitely cuts down on the options for going out at night, but gives you a huge chunk of your day to do whatever you want.

Our group of 25 is divided up into four separate groups: environmentalism, women's rights, indigenous groups, and immigration. I'm the last one, along with Jeff, Nicole, Laura, Megan, and Chelsy. Our group doesn't have any of the annoying strong personality types that like to get into arguments with the professors and anybody else, which is great. I know that there are some headaches already from other groups dealing with some "special" personalities of certain group members. I went to the gym to get a long workout in.

I ended up seeing Children of Men with Morgan C. at the Paseo de Flores, the brand-new mall build by current president Óscar Arias (out of his own pockets) located at the south end of town. Not only does it have a movie theatre, but also several nice restaurants, a bar, Taco Bell, Quiznos (I am going to go big there very soon), Subway, McD's, Pizza Hut, etc... Lots of nice stores too, but several are slightly more expensive than American prices. You should check out that movie. Second best non-comedy I've seen (besides Apocalipto) in over a year. Arian--I know you're in Taiwan right now, but you have to see it if you already haven't. Joe--I'm pretty sure you've already seen it since you go to more movies than anybody I know. Good movie on all accounts.

I also bought some protein today at a workout store. It tastes like shit and was way overpriced, but I need it, so it'll have to do.

TUESDAY 1.30

First time I've really been sick the whole trip. Stomach bug of some sorts. I might have gotten it from drinking the water in Sámara the last day (avoided it the rest of the week), but you never know. About half of us have gone down at some point so far. Anyways, tomorrow night is Todd's birthday, so I need to save up until then. Can't miss it. School sucked today, I didn't really pay attention because I felt to bad, and went home to nap. Worked out when I woke up, but had a pretty chill night. Stomach is killing me.

WEDNESDAY 1.31

We met our individual teachers for the first time (Helen is the overall instructor and the indiv. for the environmentalism group). They're all Ticos (expect Helen of course). Mine is named Joaquin. He's got long hair, bats for the other team, and is very smart. He recently taught at a university in Denver (not sure which one yet), and speaks excellent English. We had our meeting in Spanglish for the most part and got our hefty course packs (lots of photocopied articles binded together into a book) regarding immigration. Feel a little bit better. Hit up the gym again with Emily and Turd (my new name for Rolando, the youngest) and followed it up with two hours of UNO. I love that game. Anyways, Emily came up with Turd, because he is like that annoying little brother that I never had that is a smartass and always bugging me. I think we're cut from the same cloth.

THURSDAY 2.1

Can't recall what we did in school today, but I know we met in small groups again with Joaquin. I think we decided which articles each of us was going to read and do a brief summary for the rest of the group. Boring stuff all around.

FRIDAY 2.2

Got up very early to visit Poáz Volcano, which was very beautiful. I got a bunch of pictures of the sulfer lagoon and the actually crater itself, which is the second largest in the world. More than half mile across. The lagoon was another twenty minutes or so, but it was well worth it. It was probably one of the few hottest days we've had in Costa Rica.

Poáz from up above

Poáz with a view in the distance

Lagoon pic

Didn't end up going out tonight because I want to save up for tomorrow night (Club Utopía) and the Superbowl Sunday Party at my place.

SATURDAY 2.3

Hung. Over. Don't think I ended up doing anything today expect for play UNO and workout. Getting ready for the Superbowl Party at my house this Sunday. My money's on the Colts. Payton Manning destroys Rex Grossman in every single noteworthy category as a QB, they finally fixed the holes in their run defense, and they are gonna have the two best receivers on the field come Sunday. Double digit win guaranteed. GO COLTS!

Went out tonight to a club called Utopia with José Miguel as our host. We got a private bus for $5 a person and stayed out till around 3:00 am. I had to be the one to collect money from everybody while everyone else is prefunking, which was really stressful and annoying. Nobody seemed to have correct change, but miraculously everyone paid.

I didn't really get any good pictures showing the layout of the club, but I found three that were either funny or worth noting.

Todd with Katie struttin their stuff.

I somehow convinced Max to go in the girl's baño. Haha.

Nicole and Morgan C. Not the best picture in hindsight.

SUNDAY 2.4 AKA SUPERBOWL SUNDAY

Colts won 29-17, just like I expected and hoped. Play of the Game goes to Devon Hester, who returned the opening kickoff 100 yards for a TD only 16 seconds into the game. He should get Rookie of the Year in my opinion. He set the NFL record for most kickoffs returned for a TD in a season as well.

I didn't really take any pics, but the basic setup was a potluck. We had the BBQ going, and very few people opted to drink heavily due to the long night at Utopía. We also did one of those point grids (randomly drawn numbers 0-9 on each side) complete with the full 100 squares at 500 colones each. Payout was 10,000 first quarter, second quarter, and third quarter, and final score correct paid 20,000. Most of you should know what I'm referring to. If not:

Betting SquaresOf course, betting squares are essential for keeping your female guests a part of the day. Here's a quick breakdown on how to make betting squares:
Make a 10-by-10 grid. One team on the top, the other is on the side. Sell each of the squares on the grid. Numbers from 0 - 9 are assigned to each square (draw them out of a hat for the order of each row). Now each team has its own number. At the end of the quarter, if the score matches the numbers you have you win.

Sámara Recap

2007-02-04T12:42:00.000-06:00

So I know that I´m waaaaaaaay behind, but the last two internet cafes I went to didn´t allow me to access my blog website for editing (which has happened a few times now). A brief recap of Samara first:

WED-SAT

I went surfing twice more. The waves on Saturday were awesome--absolutely huge. I actually took my biggest spills working my way back out from the shore, instead of while I was riding them in. Class ended with a barbeque and a graduation ceremony on Thursday night. Each of us had to take the mic and say a little bit in Spanish thanking our teachers or whatever. The best ones were, "Gracias" and "Pura vida." I guess some people didn´t want to talk very much.

Those of us with hotels had to leave on Friday, so myself and another guy we lucky enough to crash at a cabina/house where 8 of our girls were staying at through the weekend. Yeah 8. And one bathroom. It worked out because the only time I was there I was sleeping. I spent as much time on the beach as possible. I also got a couple leather bracelets for three bucks each from one of the street vendors, and made sure I went to the fruit store/ice cream shop where José worked. I had to see his bird Frederico perform his antics. Still waiting to get Emily´s video of him spinning in circles from a piece of string while customers are dodging him. It looked like one of those electric airplanes that´s attached to a string that´s stuck to the ceiling with a thumb tack going around and around and around...only it was a bird entertaining himself.

SUN

Bought a bus ticket last evening for $6, and caught it at 8:00 am, and it left at 8:20 (ten minutes early). The ten year-old son of the bus driver was the guy loading and sorting the luggage, and I sort of felt bad for him. He had to spend all his time on a hot, bumpy, uncomfortable bus. Anyways I quickly noticed that some people got to ride the bus for free. The catch is they had to stand in the aisle, in some cases for more than three hours in a row. There were probably close to ten people in the aisle for the majority of the trip, and I´m not kidding when I say it was HOT. By the end of the trip my shirt was stuck to my back. I spent the rest of my afternoon playing Gin Rummy with Emily, and I watched both Click and Jackass 2. Jackass 2 was amazing, and I recommend it to pretty much everybody.

I´m way behind

2007-01-26T14:09:00.000-06:00

I´ve been in the midst of a very, very busy week, coupled with expensive and archaicly slow internet access. Nevertheless, I left off last Saturday...

SATURDAY

We crammed about 8 of us in a tiny boat, and enjoyed a 45 minute bumpy ride the the legendary Isla Tortuga. On the way we saw several empty sand beaches, and even a waterfall releasing into the ocean. Very pristine, very beautiful. We went snorkling for close to 3 hours in all. I held a purple starfish, saw a school of about 60 stingrays, an eel, a needlefish (whose jaws open sideways), and a pufferfish, among others. We had a break on the beach, and a domesticated wild boar (functions like a dog comboed with Babe the Pig) blobbed along the beach looking for beer, coconuts, and cool sand to toss on herself. Very funny. I didn´t have my camera, but I need to show you a picture of her. We went back around 4 pm after another round of snorkeling. We had swordfish, rice, potatoes, and a couple Imperials for lunch. A night of drinking casually on the beach enjoying the gorgeous stars. You can actually see the ghost of the Milky Way here, and hundreds upon hundreds of stars. Absolutely no light pollution. It was amazing.

SUNDAY

We headed to Playa Samara on an even worse series of roads than before. We had to go a longer¨"calmer" route because of our clunky bus, but it turned a 3 hour ride into close to 6 hours. I´ve mastered sleeping on the bus, so I was only aware of a little bit of it. Mainly the huge bumps would either wake me up, toss me out of my seat, or both. Again, no worries. We arrived around 6 pm and went our separate ways. We had to option of staying with another host family for the week, a cabina (house turned hotel, like a cheap motel), or a hotel. I went the hotel route and ended up at the Samara Beach Hotel in a room with Morgan Carl, Todd, and my best friend this week, Air Conditioning. The only exciting thing Sunday was a bat that flew into the room at midnight as I worked on my paper. The other guys were out cold. I woke up Todd, shaking him at the bat grabbed hold of the wall above my head. It was the size of a baked potato. He didn´t really seem to care and thought I was waking him up to brush his teeth (which he proceeded to do like a zombie). Morgan looked up at the bat after I shook him, gave a nod of approval, and immediately fell back to sleep. What was wrong with them?!!! Couldn´t they see a rabid, evil, parasite-filled creature of the damned was trying to have a slumber party?! I hid in the bathroom with Todd as he brushed his teeth. When we opened the door the bat was gone, and we managed to get through the night without any blood loss.

MONDAY

I got moved to the Avanzada Alta class with five other students (Chiam, Tiara, Kristen L., Katie, and Danielle), which is the highest Spanish class at Intercultura. I´m only probably the fifth best out of six, but it´s cool. Our teacher´s name is Jesús, and he´s flaming gay. I like him, because he speaks normally. You can easily tell by his dress and his mannerisms. Another obvious sign is all of the girls think he´s "so hot" which is common sign. I think it´s because they don´t fear he´s going to sleep with them. Anyways, since three of the girls are going to be teachers, our topic for the week is the Education System of Costa Rica. I absolute despise it, but what the Hell. At least it´s only conversation and no more grammar.

SURFING!!! I took lessons this afternoon around 300 pm with Morgan C and Emily, and did pretty well. I logged close to three hours in the water, and got up several times (as did Emily, who is easily the best chica surfer from our group) as did Morgan. I loved it, and am going again later this week.

We went out to Las Olas, one of the popular bars here, and one of our guys got about 30 free drinks. He has a way of doing that. I was the unfortunate victim of a couple of the free tequila shots, and ended up paying for it Tuesday.

TUESDAY

I had afternoon classes today, ended up being hungover, and got stuck in a classroom without AC. I went surfing for an hour with Morgan, even though the conditions weren´t that great. I switched to a shorter board, which proved pretty tough. I called it a very early night because I felt exhausted. Definitely not drinking very much this trip, and I feel much better as a result, haha.

More to come!!! I´ll recap after I head back to Heredia Sunday afternoon!

Sorry Mom! I'm a busy man!

2007-01-22T14:18:00.000-06:00

I don't really even know where to start, except that I haven't posted since last Tuesday. So I guess I'll start at Wednesday.

WEDNESDAY

After class we hopped on a bus to go to Palmares, the huge festival an hour away. I bought a fifth of guaro, the national drink made from sugar cane. It's 70 proof, and can best be described as a mix of rum and vodka. I mixed it with ginger ale. Not bad, but I had a lot more ginger ale than Cacique (the brand of choice). Anyway Wednesday wasn't a busy day, but they did have a rodeo and a running of the bulls thing going on. Yes, I participated, along with most of the other guys, and it was scary as hell a few times. We all got yellow t-shirts, which the bulls don't like (as opposed to red) and after a matador got trampled and another one succeeded, we and about 75 Ticos ran like hell. They'd bring one bull out at a time, each one successively larger, and would let us harass it for about 10 minutes. Then the caballeros would round it up and bring out the next one. Don't worry--in Costa Rica they don't torture or kill any of them. The other cool thing was "horse dancing." It was horses "dancing" to salsa and charanga music, which I personally thought was hilarious. More heavy drinking and some carnival rides, then we headed home around midnight. Also talked with a couple locals about their performance sports cars they had on display for an hour. My Spanish is coming around.

THURSDAY

I was hungover. I remember that. I also remember taking a nap from about 430 to 630, and missed my workout with Eric. I ended up not getting my 2250 word essay done and spent some time studying for my unreasonably large exam that's tomorrow morning (Friday). Bed around 11. I also went to the ATM to get a bunch of cash before a weekend in Montezuma and the week in Playa Sa'mara, where ATMs are scarce.

FRIDAY

I was right. My test was absolutely ridiculous. 16 pages in all, and it took me just under three hours to finish. Good news is I got another 91%, the same grade as my first one. I think it was luck and some good guessing for the most part. I had to walk (and I mean power-walk, like 5 minute mile pace) back to my house which takes 15 minutes if I haul balls. I packed very quickly, cleaned my room, and ended up having to take a taxi back to school ($1 only) to hop on the bus after lunch at the market with Morgan C. The bus was the same small one as last time, but only 15 of us went on the trip so we had some space this time around. It was a few hours to the ferrie at Puntarenas, an hour on the ferrie, and another hour or so south to Montezuma from a puny town called Paquera. The roads were horrible. There were also random speed bumps that were (obviously) unmarked. Once we hit one going 45 and I swear to God I thought we were going to flip. No worries though. We made it.

Thanks to you Mom, Emily and I had called to make hotel reservations the day before via telephone, while everybody else in the group did it over the internet. When we went to check in, they didn't have any of the internet "reservations" which consisted of them mailing their credit card information via email to a place claiming to be El Tajalin, the hotel we we're all planning to stay at. I almost started laughing, because not a single one of them got a confirmation. They all assumed if you send an email with you CC info you get a room. Even more surprising is the fact that none of them called their CC companies to see if they emailed to a fake email address. Oh well. Not my problem. I had dinner on a private balcony with Emily that overlooked the beach. It was perfect. I had Mahi-mahi, can't remember what she had. We called it an early night at 10 after making reservations to Turtle Island for the next morning.

More to come later, but I'm here in Samara and I have surfing lessons in 20 minutes. It's about 85 and sunny here, and life is good. Mom and Dad, I'll call you soon.

I HATE HOMEWORK!

2007-01-16T13:26:00.000-06:00

I have a 2250 word essay due on Friday in my Spanish class. We all have to write one, but the length depends on your level. The lucky ones (beginners) only have to write 600 words while the most expert students--there are four of them--have 2500 words. I think Emily has 2000. So after another day of Spanish class with Candi and Katy, and my profesora Erika, I´m here at Contactos internet cafe trying to write my paper. I´ve never been able to get a paper done more than a couple hours before it´s due, but hey--that´s my style.

Before this I had to go to Scotiabank and exchange my final $90 for colones. They gave me 516:1, which is better than the 500 that the Ticos are willing to exchange dollars for. Thank God there was no line. I was hungry. Next I went to the market with Morgan Carl (remember we have two Morgans), Todd, Peter, and Eric for a casado de pollo and a batida con leche (like a fruit milkshake). 1850 colones later (about $3.70) I´m here, trying (not) to write my paper.

I forgot to mention that Rolando turned 18 today. He´s probably getting his driver´s license today. Now he can vote, drink, drive, and gamble. And do them all at once most likely. At midnight we had a couple of drinks at the house, and I accidentally stayed up until 2:30. I´m not that tired because I got about18 hours of sleep over the previous two nights. I´ll be sure to get some pictures of my family soon so you can put some faces to the names.

Eric and I got gym memberships yesterday for 20 bucks for one month. It´s kind of a small weightroom, but it has enough free weights to keep me busy (and sore). I forgot how good it feels to lift weights...Anyway we are next door neighbors, it´s only two blocks away, and I can go at 5:00 pm before dinner, so it should workout on Mondays through Thursdays.

Tomorrow after class we´re heading to Palmares! The infamous drunken, crazy, dancing party that over one third of the country attends. Then on Sunday we head to Sámara (a beach town) for an entire week! I´m thinking about leaving Friday to go to Montezuma and do some snorkeling or Turtle Island seeing. Mom and Dad, if you´re reading this then you should know I have no money in my bank account. Please help a kid out. I´ll be okay until Friday or Saturday.

One of my zipline videos

2007-01-15T15:37:00.000-06:00

I didn´t know it takes about 30 minutes to upload a video here. I don´t even know if I picked the right one ( my camera died right when I selected a video). Anyways, check it out on UTube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQmrTcit4iw

Arenal

2007-01-15T13:54:00.000-06:00

This is my bedroom from the doorway

This is my closet!

Here is my living room with a little TV.

This is my kitchen.

Kind of tough to see, but this is the terrace. Largest room in the house and open-air.

Finally some pictures! I have a lot more but don´t have the time to post them. I took a bunch of pics from Arenal, and got some videos of me doing the zipline over the forest canopy. I trapped the camera to my backpack to capture the effect. There were a total of eleven ziplines in all, with one that was over 500 above the ground. It was absolutely awesome. I also handled a tarantula on the way up there (we stopped at some touristy place) so nobody can ever say anything about me being scared of spiders anymore. I´ll get those pics later. No internet at my house yet, but hopefully by Wednesday.

And my poor, poor Seahawks. What a heartbreaker. I literally watched the entire first half of the Chargers-Patriots game to see the Seattle highlights, but, of course, that would be too much to ask. It was a painful hour and a half wait to see Gould kick that field goal in OT.

Anyway, I´m getting a little ahead of myself. Our bus driver Francisco drove us to Arenal from Heredia. We left Saturday morning at 7 am, which was rough. Our bus was tiny as you can see.

Four people across (the fourth seat folds down and blocks the aisle) and about a foot of leg room. It was pretty brutal, hot and congested. After a couple hours in the bus we arrived at our rafting spot. My boat had five other people in it, one of which has a ton of rafting experience (Eric). Unfortunately, the waters were calm, and we saw nothing more than Class 2 rapids. I think only one person (Todd Burhman from my fraternity) fell out.

We saw toucans, white herons, huge butterflies (5 inches across), leaf-cutter ants, and poison dart frogs. Two kinds: (La roja and La verde). Our guides walked around the forest and found them in only a couple of minutes. They aren´t poisonous to touch, but if they get in your bloodstream or lick one you´re in trouble. The river wasn´t warm, but it was pleasant.

I think it was another three hours until we reached Arenal and checked into our hotel rooms. We quickly changed and went to Tabacon Hot Springs, which was awesome. They take water heated from the volcano and made a little spa/resort out of it. Different pools were different temperatures, and only one was too hot for me (150 degrees F). I brought my trusty camelbak and enjoyed whisky-cokes between pools, while others paid $5 for drinks. We left around 8 pm. I forgot to mention it was raining (like RAINING!!!!) the way only a tropical storm can rain. It´s funny, because it happens in short bursts of a couple minutes, stops for maybe an hour, then rains for a few minutes again. Nothing like the slow, steady drips of the Pacific Northwest.

Sunday morning we got to sleep in until 9 then loaded back on to the bus for our Canopy Tour. First was the ziplines through the forest, then we rode horses down the mountain. I couldn´t believe that every single person in our group participated in everything. Awesome group, and an even better time. Below is a pic of the enormous tractor we rode up the mountain.

Next we got geared up with a harnass, our helmet, a hand break for the zipline, and a glove for the other hand. See below!

I took a few videos with the camera strapped to my shoulder, and I gave my camera to Emily for one where she went with one of the guides (and hence had a free hand to guide the camera around). I can´t compare it to anything I´ve ever done. I´ll but the video on UTube for everybody to see.

Horses afterward was fun. I made my gallop but I almost bounced off so I stopped. Our program director Max took a spill at full gallop right in front of me when his horse slipped. I´m pretty sure he had a concussion (very loopy) but was lucky he didn´t kill himself. He has a raw shoulder and foot though. Went home after some pizza, and got home around 10.

School today was better, because I have two other students in my class. Katy from my group and a 50 year old businesswoman from Minnesota. More later. Miss you all.

Going to Arenal

2007-01-12T15:55:00.000-06:00

It´s my first Friday in Costa Rica, and I finally found a keyboard that has a functional apostrope key. In stead of going out Wednesday I just hung around the house with Rolando and talked for a couple hours. Jose Miguel didn´t feel up to a few hours of free drinks. Too bad. Yesterday I got to watch Diarias de Motocicleta in my class (by myself), and I would recommend it to anybody who hasn´t seen it. It´s about Che Guevara, and is surprisingly funny. Last night we went to a salsa club called Castro´s, which was all right. Hard to get up this morning for my first exam, which was really hard. It took my more than two and a half hours, but the good news is one of the girls in my group is moving up to my class, so there will be another person to talk to!

After my test I went to this little cafe and got a chicken sandwich (for the second day in a row) and rice, beans, and ensalada verde with mora to drink (yes Zeigler, like Jim Mora, the legendary Husky). It´s fresh blackberry juice. Ding. Then I went to the pool again and played cards with Emily, relaxed, and got some sun.

Tomorrow we leave at 7 am to take a 5 or 6 hour bus ride to Arenal and the Monteverde cloud forests. Rafting, a forest zip line, waterfall jumping, and an active volcano all await! It´s gonna be a busy weekend.

Last thing--two of my bros play Hold ´Em! I get to show these Ticos how to play some cards. All in.

¿Que día es?

2007-01-10T13:39:00.000-06:00

I am pretty sure its Wednesday, but I have already lost all sense of time as far as days go. Each individual day is pretty structured, so I know what time it is (and I have a watch). Its actually pretty easy to tell time just by looking at the sun, which rises around 550 and sets around 530 every day. At the beginning of March the sun will rise at 558 am for 17 consecutive days, which is the latest the sun ever comes up here.

I havent done a whole lot since yesterday, but I did find out some interesting, exciting news! The biggest party in Costa Rica starts tomorrow in a town called Palmares, and goes on for two weeks IN A ROW. The other huge party week that is supposed to happen in December in San Jose was cancelled by the major, so all of the Ticos are going to use the money they have saved to go to Palmares.

200,000 people are expected to be there tomorrow morning for the opening festivities, which include a carnival, 2300 caballeros (guys on horses), and apparently dozens of free beer trucks full of Imperial. The brother of one of my neighbors told me that what happens in Palmares stays in Palmares. Sounds like Vegas plus Carnival...

I learned that if you get a DUI here they seize your car, put you in jail for two weeks, suspend you license for 10 years, and fine you 1500 dollars, which to a Tico is like two months of salary or more. You cant drive and talk on a cell phone, and they have a seatbelt law, apparently, that nobody follows. I know you can pay off cops with about 5000 colones if youre getting hastled, which is about 10 bucks or so.

Apparently between 60 to 80 percent of Ticos are allergic to the volcanic ash and dust that frequents the air here in the Central Valley, and are also sensitive to "drastic" temperature changes, which isnt even noticable to a kid who grew up in Spokane.

Tonight I might go out to a club electronica with my hermano Jose called LIVING, because he is a VIP member and if he brings me we get free drinks from 900 to midnight. Sounds tempting. Other than that, I have to go to the grocery store because my family doesnt have any snacky foods at the house!

But I saved the best story for last. Last night I noticed there were a ton of these really, really tiny ants on my nightstand. Think smaller than a tiny fruit fly. They were following a line from the wall to my retainer (which was in its case) on the nightstand. Yeah. I opened it and about 15 ants were feasting on the various crevices of my retainer. Filled with little ants. Just earlier that day my mamá was saying the house has to be kept really clean or the bugs will find anything that is food or has a smell. Gross, huh? Now Im going to keep it in a zip-lock bag.

Busy, busy, busy

2007-01-09T15:52:00.000-06:00

I have so much to write I hardly know where to start. Emily and I checked out of our hotel early Sunday and took a 3 dollar cab ride to Intercultura, the English-Spanish college where we will be studying Spanish at the next 3 weeks. It wasnt open yet. We ran into two other girls from our program, Laura and Nicole, a few minutes later, and we decided to go to the parque central and pass some time. Emily and I played some more cards and we got misted by the central fountain. Its really windy here in January and February.

We checked in and filled out some paperwork at Intercultura, and I got dragged into a room and given an evaluation. At first I didnt know what was going on, but when she was only speaking in Spanish and telling to use the subjunctive to describe things for her to do in a potential future visit to Seattle, I figured it out. I happened to be the first one to go. Everybody had shown up by the time I was done with the eval, and I got picked up by my host family in a few minutes.

Two of the three brothers came. Jose Miguel, 21, and Rolando, 17. Rolando has a mowhawk and braces. Jose is a little pudgy but a really cool guy. Both (and later the third brother) speak flawless English. Mi mama is named Rosio, and she is not only a kindergarten principle, but the mayor of Heredia too. Pretty cool. They have an old rott in the yard named Zeus. Apparently he was two points away from being the Central American champion.

The house is kind of tough to describe. It is gated, and all of the windows have black bars over them, but I live in the nice area of Heredia. The rooms are small and cramped, but well decorated and clean, and the yard is pretty large. The terrace was the only huge room. Upstairs were two of the guys bedrooms and a bathroom. I apologize the apostrophe doesnt work on this keyboard. Anyways, my room is small with a single bed and half a closet, a nightstand, and a table. Ashtray included. They all smoke, but not very much, and not in the house when I am home.

My first dinner that night was traditional Tico food: fried potatoes (papas), pan fried steak (bistec), plantains (platanos), which are pretty much giant fried bananas, red beans, and white rice. I liked all of it. I also forgot to mention we watched the Eagles beat the Giants (unfortunately) on TV before dinner. After dinner I hung out with the guys for awhile, learned about Heredia and Costa Rica, and listened to music with Rolando. He listens to the same music I do and his favorite band is Iron Maiden. Pretty funny. I went to bed at 11.

The next morning I had to be at class at 815. Breakfast was cornflakes and coffee. I was driven my Rosio´s driver. We got picked up in an SUV and I learned my route. I was placed in Advanced IV, the second highest level, and one level higher than I think I should be personally, and I am the only person in my class. From 830 to 1230 I have one-on-one with my profesora. I cant remember her name right now, but she is great. I have already learned a lot in a couple days. After class we got a tour of Heredia, which kind of sucked. Hard to hear anything. We walked to lunch which was only 1000 colones (2 bucks) for a big plate of chicken, rice, beans, plantains, and a salad, and guava juice. Then I went with a couple of the guys to Bolevar, a popular bar, and we grabbed a few pitchers (picheles). They drink Pilsen and Imperial, two local Costa Rican beers that are surprisingly really, really good. Beer is about 800 colones or so for a bottle with tip included (1.50 USD or so). At 4 we had another oriention to discuss some things. For example, you usually put your used TP in the garbage, not the toitet. Yeah.

I forgot to mention that the drivers here are insane. You will get hit by a car if you walk in front of a car. Crossing the streets can be a pain, and taxi rides are a bit of an adventure. Nobody wears seatbelts. There are huge (four feet deep sometimes) potholes on the sidewalks and in the streets. The roads are bad.

After the meeting I walked home and watched Talledaga Nights with Will Ferrell with Jose. Dinner was spaghetti with a cream sauce that had ham and corn in it, along with--you guessed it--plantains. I think Ben would die if he had to eat one. Yummmmm....mushy bananas. I took a seven minute nap and headed to La Choza or something, another bar that was across the street from Bolevar. I think all 25 of our group showed up, and we had a good night. I took a cab home around 1230 and got up at 700.

Today there was a strange woman in the kitchen. I said hi to her and she told me her name is Gabriella. She must be a maid, but maybe only comes once in awhile? No sé. I had gallepinto for breakfast, which is another typical Tico breakfast food. Its just rice and beans mixed together. Class was fine today, though I admit I was a little bit hungover. My subject this week is human rights and the dictators of Central and South America. I get to watch a movie on Thursday (by myself) for class, which will probably end up being Diarias Motocicletas (Motorcycle Diaries) which is about Che Guevera.

After class we went to the mercado (market). It was huge, and different from the market in Rome. I got a casado, which is the term for a typical Costa Rican lunch, for about 3 dollars. It is what I described above as my first meal. I bought a beach towel at the Super (short for supermercado) and went to the pool for a couple hours. It closed at 330, and now here I am, writing an entirely too long blog post at Intercultura. Im going to head home in a few, and not go out tonight. Maybe the movies. Not sure. I have to go to dance lessons tomorrow and Thursday because on Thursday night we are going to San Jose to a club. Wish me luck.

Arrival

2007-01-06T23:08:00.000-06:00

I made it. I should say we made it. After an early morning (got up at 545 am) and Arian and Anna taking us to the airport, we met up with 4 other people from our group at SeaTac. The lady that checked us in said "have fun in Cabo" as we walked away. I was worried for a minute that our plane was going to the other San Jose, but we were fine. Unfortunately, one of the girls from our group was so sick she had to leave the airport. She´s going to try and come in a couple days. Too bad. Emily and I grabbed a drink at the Fox Sports Bar in Phoenix and watched tons of OSU and Florida fans pile off of flights. They´re getting set for the BCS title game on Monday in Phoenix.

The flight to San Jose was fine. I only slept for about 20, but am in the process of beating Emily in our fourth game of Gin Rummy in a row. I love it. Once we landed at 908 local time, 708 for you Seattlites, it was dark and there was almost a full moon. Lots of stars were already visible. Customs and baggage took literally less than 20 minutes after we got off. Emily and I found a our hotel driver holding a sign with COLIN FULTON on it, which was pretty cool--a real first for me and a life goal. Just kidding. He is one of four siblings that owns this hotel we´re staying at--two brothers, two sisters, and he was great. He gave us a ten minute driving tour of Heredia and all of the sights, including our school we´ll be studying at. Our room is awesome but small, and I´m on one of the free computers now. We´re off to grab some food. Hopefully I can figure this keyboard out later. Hasta Luego, and CONGRATS TO THE SEAHAWKS ON THEIR 21-20 WIN OVER THE COWBOYS!

Countdown

2007-01-05T23:07:00.000-06:00

Today was filled with all of the standard final preparations before the trip. Of course, I waited to pack until early this afternoon, and probably forgot something essential. Actually, I already did--I left my Ipod charger in Spokane. Oh well. At least I remembered my passport and some swim shorts.

It's been raining/blowing/hurricaning all day in Seattle. There couldn't be a better time to get out some sunny weather! This afternoon I got my watch resized and did some other random errands with Emily at U Village. I think she ordered a new Ipod for free courtesy of Steve Jobs. She always gets everything for free...

Tonight my sis Anna picked me up at my Seattle house, we swooped down to the Ram to get Emily, then we headed to her house in Redmond. Dinner at an awesome Indian restaurant called Mayuri. It was a new experience for me, but the "butter chicken" was rico (obviously). Now I'm sitting in Arian and Anna's basement getting ready for a few hours of X-Box 360. I'm starting to get pumped for tomorrow morning!

The Aftermath

2007-01-04T16:31:00.000-06:00

Yesterday started slow but ended up being a busy day. Emily and I got to the airport around 3:30, checked in, and boarded our flight around 4:30. I had to say goodbye to the parentals at the airport--it's weird knowing I won't see them for so long. Mom almost cried like she sometimes does, and we were off.

My seat got changed last second because apparently some passenger needed to sit in the front so they "wouldn't get sick." I had to sit in the very back, while Emily was up in row 9. She sat by a businesswoman who had apparently been drinking, and I sat by a 34-year-old guy who got dragged to Seattle last minute to help his mother-in-law move. Ouch. I had a glass of chardonnay on the plane and got picked up by Colt and his girlfriend Lindsay.

When I got home, Colt and I had to run to the liquor store and pick up the pair of kegs. The party was fun; a bunch of my friends from Rome came over (Ciaron, Kiley, Kaylor, The Wolf, and Tod) to say goodbye, which was great. I hadn't seen a couple of them in a long time. I think I called it a night around 1...or 2...or sometime after that.

A standard hangover today. I have some last-minute errands to run before Costa Rica. I'm writing on Colt's computer, and being the inconsiderate person I am, I woke him up at 2:32 pm. Tough life. I've heard him say, "Oh God," "Colin help," "My body hurts," and "What are you writing so much for?"

Flying to Costa Rica isn't the only big thing happening on Saturday. Don't forget the Seahawks play the Dallas Cowboys in the first round of the playoffs too.

Last Night at Home

2007-01-02T22:43:00.000-06:00

This is my first of many posts that I will try and routinely make during my 79-day adventure in Heredia, Costa Rica. I'm going to try and label each post with the date and day for purposes of clarification, and I'll do my best to use the Canon Elph I got as a Christmas present from my padres.

Tonight is my LAST night in Spokane. Emily came back with me after I spent New Year's in Sunnyside (her hometown in central Washington by Yakima), and we're flying out to Seattle tomorrow at 4:30. Then we leave the morning of the 6th for San Jose International Airport via Phoenix, and should be in Heredia by 9:30 pm CST. That's another thing--time is two hours ahead of Seattle.

In a few minutes my good friend Joe Migliuri (USAFA) is coming over with his new Nintendo Wii, and we're going to introduce the system to my dad and Emily. I would have already bought one, but no point in paying the inflated prices that still exist if I'm going to Central America for three months. Life is tough...