21/11/09

Last night I felt my first earthquake! It is actually the second one since I’ve been here but I managed to sleep through the first one. I woke up last night and was convinced that Devon was shaking my bed. Then I realized he wasn’t as childish as me, in fact, even I wouldn’t do that to somebody, so came to the rushed conclusion that he was sleep walking and doing it in his sleep. But as you’ve probably guessed, it wasn’t Devon and he had been woken up by the earthquake as well.

Some other interesting things have happened over the last few days. During the rainy season, most of the animals start preparing their bodies for the dry season. So for some of us it wasn’t much of a surprise, but for me, it was a big shock to be told that the warrier ants had raided Eugenio’s house. They are totally carnivorous so will not scavenge. You can leave a plate full of food and they won’t touch it, but they will kill any insects, lizards or scorpions in the house. There were thousands of them all over the walls and floor and then moved onto the restaurant afterwards. I’m told they will go round each cabin by the end of the rainy season so I have their visit to our cabin to look forward to. Hopefully I won’t be asleep at that time because the visitors will tuck in without our invitation and that would be an unwelcome surprise.

And some other animals that have been threatening to pay us a visit. The other day, the whole schedule was changed round because the puma was too close for comfort. Last month, Dana was out sheepherding the goats along the ridge and she suddenly found herself face to face with the puma. It walked right up to her so that she could have touched it. Supposedly, in sheer desperation she began to speak to the cat telling it she meant no harm and that she didn’t want it to hurt her or the goats, and by some miracle it eventually turned and ran off into the bushes. So since then they have been very careful. So we were only allowed to do the jobs close to the village. Unfortunately, the ‘herbal garden’ boundary was 20 metres from our cabin so it didn’t fill us full of confidence. But hey we didn’t get mauled by it so I suppose it was fine.


You would be so proud of me. I have been digging so many holes, shovelling so much crap, and lifting so many stones that… I have developed rock, hard, crusty calluses!!! Yeah I knew you would be proud. Like mother like son. Haha.

Anyway, life is good here in the land of the Costa and I’m doing great. I am constantly hungry and eating all their food stocks (with the assistance of Devon of course), so for the communities sake rather than mine, of course, would it be possible to send me a food parcel of snacks and nibbles for between meals. Thanks.

Oh yeah and dad, I finished the book and it was great, I love Dan Abbenett’s books, but that does mean I’ll have to find something else to do with my free time.

And some more

Some more Pictures

16/10/09

Ok, there is something I have to tell you. The 15th September is Costa Rica’s Independence Day, and with the Costa Rican’s being so patriotic, it’s a really big deal!

So when we were told that there was going to be a ‘bring-and-share’ buffet, I immediately thought, “brilliant! That means more food!” Devon on the other hand, being much more mature, quick thinking, and less driven by the idea of consuming food, said, “why don’t we make something as well?”
It sounded like a great idea, and as we could both cook at a reasonable standard, it wasn’t as if we were doing the impossible. So yesterday, after lunch, we went to Eugenio and asked for a cook book to find our ‘piece de la resistance’!
It may well have been in there, but we shall never know because it was in Spanish.

After struggling to decipher the ingredients from the babble, we wisely chose to ask Patri if she had any English cook books, and to our surprise and delight, she did!

Overwhelmed by excitement (and relief at no longer having to attempt to read Spanish) we began to search through the pages for anything that sounded interesting.
It was at that fateful moment when one of us exclaimed, “Ah, look, they even have zucchini bread!” at which Patri wrinkled her nose in an very good imitation of Dad when doing the washing up in dirty water, and said, “bread with zucchini in it?”

And so the challenge had been laid down, and zucchini bread it was.

Now, just a little advice for those of you who are planning to cook for others; at all possible costs, avoid using someone else’s kitchen! Because you can guarantee something will go wrong.

The recipe was simple and we only had to sacrifice the nuts. Patri (laughing at us in exasperation whilst she was doing it) provided us with the ingredients and utensils, and so it began.
And to my great surprise, very little went wrong. I mean all we had done was pour the zucchini juices down a sink that turned out to be not connected and ended up pouring zucchini juices all over the pots and pans in the cupboard bellow. But that wasn’t that bad! All we had to do was rub butter onto the walls of the tin with some flour and it could go in the oven.
Patri picked up the bag of white flour we had used, opened it, frowned and then put it back. My heart sank at this moment and I said, “Patri, why did you put the four back?” to which she answered, “That’s not flour its milk powder”!!!

When I had opened the bag earlier I thought that the flour didn’t look anything like flour. It was almost yellow and grainy. So I had asked Patri if it was flour and she had told me in a very sarcastic tone, “No of course its not!” So deciding it was just weird Costa Rican flour I continued.

So this was going to be interesting, we were going to be providing the community with cake. Now considering that Everybody had wrinkled their noses at the sound of zucchini in their cake, you can imagine what would happen with milk as well!

But fear not my friends, for we had a plan. A plan so cunning, so zealous and brilliant that it had no faults… we would bake another one and I would eat the first. I the end we make three, the good one, the milky one and the combination-of-the-two one.

It turns out; You Can Make Zucchini Bread With Milk!!! It was alright, in fact, it was pretty good actually, so much so that I was only able to steal 2 slices for today’s snacking, as the rest had been eaten! Haha

The whole experience was a great laugh, and it was a new experience for me to have an independence day and realise how important it is to them. That’s the disadvantage of being the conquering nation, you don’t have another excuse to celebrate and eat more food!

15/10/09

This morning I woke up, and after our morning exercises, went to work in the garden with Eduardo. It was just before we started that I looked out across the sky to the clouds above Buenos Aires.

It felt very surreal. The clouds had formed a billowing layer that partly obscured the ground that I knew to be Buenos Aires, and it was perfectly in line with us.
To me it felt as though we were on another world to everybody else. It’s probably because clouds seem to be such a mystical place that is untouchable, but seeing that we were at the same level made it seem as though we were above everybody else and looking down on their hurried lives. It was a pleasantly free moment.

But it’s not the first time I have felt as though I as in a magical place.
Yesterday morning, at 4.30, we woke to go up to the volley ball court for morning exercises and martial arts.
This was the first morning I had been up this early so had never had the chance to see the sky in its full splendour. It was one of the most beautiful sights I had seen in my life! The sky was so clear and full of millions of fairy lights flashing down at us. The only pollutant that was preventing us from seeing all the stars was light pollution from the small sliver of moon itself! Well, it was absolutely stunning and I distinctly remember thinking, things like these can only occur in magical places.

So yes, I think I’m starting to get the spiritual side of things here in Durika

11/09/09

Ok, I was wrong when I said that it had rained yesterday.

I had just finished taking pictures of wildlife around the village when I felt the first few drops, from then it got worse! And then even worse! Until eventually it reached the intensity it is at now!

I currently have a stream of brown murky water rushing by my door. This isn’t just a ‘trickler’, no, this is a stream big enough for Mr OS to mark them on his maps with little blue lines.

And then there is the thunder. At first it was just a distant purr to lull you into the idea that it was too far away to pounce.
But then, it pounced. I am not exaggerating when I say it got a little noisy.
It hammered so hard on my ear drums, and the ambush was sprung so unexpectedly that I jumped almost a foot in the air. Unfortunately I had been minding my own business on the toilet at that current moment in time so jumping a foot in the air hadn’t been practical… well, let's not go there shall we?

Anyway, the thunder has been pounding auditory receptors ever since. It is right above us so we have no warning whatsoever! The vibrations are so great that you can physically feel them shaking you core!

If a cannon had been firing next door, I can safely say that it would have been drowned out by the thunders ‘little purrs’.

In other words it was a little noisy!
In other words… IT WAS SO TOTALLY AWSOME!!!

Well the rain is starting to ease off a little to that of ‘torrential’ rain as opposed to ‘Real Tropical Rain’ and I’m now given at least a two second warning flare before the cannon fires (but it still shakes the walls!). So I think I’m going to go.
Ciao

10/09/2009

Day 4 in the Big Brother house. Tom is in the bedroom. He doesn’t know how to start today’s entry so has decided to go for a crummy opening paragraph that relates to a totally pointless and terribly annoying TV show.

And what do you know? I’ve managed to start it. Haha

Anyway, as you hopefully would have guessed… I’m still alive!!! The only things I’ve been bitten by haven’t poisonous, I haven’t developed any terminal diseases yet nor have I participated in activities that are likely to jeopardise my health or sanity. So things are going well.

Over the last few days I have been waking up at 5.00 to start work at 5.30. Breakfast is at 7.30 and then the second stint of work is from 8.30 to 12.30. After that you are free to do as you please.

I spent the first morning with Eugenio, taking the goats out to places where they can eat their fill, goat herding in other words. You soon come to realize that they all have there own characters. You have the leader, a middle aged brown goat with a very un-lady-like moustache. If ever she changes direction, chooses a new spot or simply stands there looking confused, all the other goats seem to feel that that is the right thing to do and copy. You then have the ‘8 Terrors’. They were still youngsters but entering the mischievous age of the teenage years. They spend most of there time attempting to hide from you or re-enact scenes from the great escape and double back so that you spend ours looking for them. Luckily we had the better of them this time and caught them on all four occasions. And you also have the ‘ickle babies’. There are three of them. The twins were a month old but still felt it necessary to seek the comfort of their surrogate mothers (us). The other was just a week old and is so unbelievably cute. He thinks that the other two are his mentors and follows them everywhere. But because he’s so small he keeps tripping over things and falling into bushes or even just long grass. This then prevents him from seeing his buddies so he has a paddy as he doesn’t know what to do. I must say it is so funny to watch.

Yesterday, I went milking in the morning and that involved milking 15 goats. Although the actual process and technique isn’t particularly difficult, and I seemed to do ok, but by the time you are doing your 5th goat your hands start to ache a little. Actually that’s a lie, by the time I was on my 4th I could barely hold the teat let alone squeeze the thing. But not wanting to lose face I persisted. But I heard that over time you get used to it. I hope so because my hands ached and had no strength for ages. Despite this I really enjoyed milking and that afternoon it was my turn to clean out the goat shed and clean and fill up the water buckets and food troughs.

I’ve also been helping in the gardens with Eduardo. This morning I was busy watering the terraces when, almost to say that I wasn’t doing it correctly, I was introduced to the reason why it is called the rainy season. Although it didn’t seem any heavier than that in England, it seemed to soak you through and through in an instant. I later found out that wasn’t ‘real’ rain and that I should see it when it ‘really’ rains. But even so I thought it was pretty wet.

Oh yes, I turns out, it’s hot in Costa Rica! Who’d have thought? The first full day was particularly warm and I made some fatal mistakes. Wearing black whilst goat herding wasn’t bright (literally!!! hahahah, ok, ignore that little pun, I couldn’t help myself), neither was forgetting to bring water. Then spending the rest of the day outside in the sun wasn’t the most intelligent thing I have ever done either. I did put sun cream on so I didn’t get burned, but playing volleyball all afternoon with the community as well, was just asking for trouble.

That night I started feeling the head aches. It took the whole of the next day and night for me to get over it properly, so that my head stopped swimming, but I learned from my experience. Just for the record, sun stroke isn’t fun. But it’s all good now and I don’t think I’ve ever drunk more water in the space of two days in my life.
Anyway, as they say here…
Ciao

05/09/09

It is starting to get dark. We have spent the whole day travelling by bus, and are now at our destination, surrounded by clouds and listening to the sounds of distant thunder. I'm home. Home for the next three months.

Eugenio and I stood in the back of a pick up truck for the last hour, up the track to the village where we were met by a small band of familiar faces (but putting names to those faces was much harder).

I then had and hour to get unpacked and wander around, after a cold shower (give me a couple of days and I might get used to it).

Oh yeah, just something interesting that you might want to know about if you are going to travel in Costa Rica by bus. They may be late. This isn't due to poor organisation, or lots of traffic or even that they may not have watches. No, its because half way through the journey, the bus driver will pull over to the side of the road and do his shopping!!!

We were sat in the bus for a quarter of an hour watching him buy his fruit and veg on the opposite side of the road. I've been told this is the norm so be warned. But don't worry, he will then drive at break neck speed to make up for lost time. Twice we over took a lorry (bearing in mind we were in a bus) on a corner, when we couldn't see 10 meters ahead of us because we were in cloud! Everybody else didn't even blink, I suppose they trusted in the fact that we were probably a lot bigger than anything else coming the other way and would therefore to come off better. I've learned to close my eyes at those moments.

Well I'm totally spent and with me needing to get up for 'start of work' at 5:30am tomorrow, I think I better test my new bed.

04/09/09

Its now 5:45pm English time and I'm stuck on a plane with communal TV screens (which are currently turned off to allow some people to sleep) for entertainment.

I have just spent the last 20 minutes trying to figure out how long till we land because of the stupid time difference which is messing with my head. So I still have 4 hours to go (I think). Whoopee!!!

The food is still at its hight of airline standard, so I'm feeling a little queezy. If it hadn't been for the box of toblarone from the Ehlers, I wouldn't have survived. Unfortunately though, Nicola, I'm already 3 weeks through my supply, and I think I can safely say "and counting" because its just too tempting.

Oh yeah, an interesting situation occurred earlier, I arrived in Madrid and when I eventually found the board with my gate on, I found we were boarding at 11:55. So according to my watch that meant I had a good hour and a half of chillaxing, but I thought it a good idea to find out where the gate was first. It turns out that the world doesn't revolve around the UK and that they have their own separate time there. So I stood in a long queue outside the gate with 15 minutes to spare. Whoops. Ah well it made me chuckle at the thought of what would have happenened.

Well, back to the flight. I have been given three different forms to fill in. You know the ones. They have questions like 'Are you currently hiding from the law?' and 'Do you prefer red or blue curtains?' But one of the questions is 'What will your address be when you staying in Costa Rica?' And I have no idea. I was going to put;

1st Hut of the left
Near a tree
Durika
LO5T 1NCR

... But I think it may give the wrong impression if I'm being interrogated by some Costan Rican guy bigger than Big T.

Oh I forgot to add we can't open the blinds as people are trying to sleep and the lights don't work so I've had to open them just a fraction.

So in other words, I am having the best start to my Gap year ever!!! It's just how its supposed to be cramped, bored, hungry and possibly the most excited I've ever been!!! Well I better go, it seems they've found a new movie for me to watch....

I think this journey has driven me mad! I can't believe its actually possible! We have just been given breakfast (at 9pm I must add) and not only do I not feel sick, but I actually liked it!!! I know!
When they said this trip was going to change me, I wasn't expecting something this soon and such and extreme change! haha

Tomorrow the journey starts

So I'm packed and ready, so I'll only have to spend a little bit of time frantically running round the house looking for one or two more items, last minute.
The excitement is now at such an intensity that I keep getting shivers down my spine, and they just make me even more excited.

So as you can probably tell, I'm quite looking forward to it.
Just one thing I would like to know about though. Tomorrow I'm going to first fly to Madrid and then take a flight from there to San Jose. I know the first flight is relatively short, but I still can't work out how long the second flight will be? I was just wondering if anybody could enlighten me.
Ah well I suppose the idea of the unknown adds to the suspense.