Monteverde is home to a strange meterological event. In the mountains of Costa Rica, the winds from the Pacific and the Carribean meet and form a cloud forest on top of the mountains. In short, there is a beautiful rain forest on top of a mountain, and you actually get to be IN the clouds.
For this week of orientation, we have been living with host families. Mine is VERY sweet. There´s a mom, a dad, and three kids, a 16-year-old girl, a 14-year-old boy, and a 4-year-old boy. They have been nothing but wonderful to me, and so welcoming, the littlest one even put on a dance show for me!
Speaking of dancing, during the day we have two classes as part of orientation, one is a Latin dance class, with our instructor Javier (yes, I have a dance instructor named Javier, and he´s exactly what you are probably picturing right now). So far we´ve learned Salsa and Merengue and tomorrow we are performing a dance for our families at a fiesta! Our other class is an intensive Spanish class, with Gaby, our fabulous Spanish instructor, that manages to keep us interested for 4 hours straight.
Let me take this chance to appologize in advance for any spelling or grammar errors that may occur, switching constantly between two languages is really difficult, and I´m at the point where I don´t really know which language is going to come out when I open my mouth. Luckily everyone in my group is going through the same thing, and we have spent the past few days communicating in a strange Spanglish mix. Also, I´m typing on a Spanish computer, so spell check is absolutely no help!
Yesterday, we had a free afternoon to explore Monteverde, we went to the Cheese Factory, the founding business of this town, where we had delicious ice cream! After that, we went to explore a waterfall! It was so incredibly beautiful, and all of us kept looking at each other and saying "are we really here?!?". Afterwards, we meandered our way down the winding mountain road to a coffee shop/restaurant that had a tree growing in the middle!!! It was awesome, and it was fun to just hang out as a group and get to know each other.
Today, we got to experience the main tourist attraction of Monteverde, zip-lining through the cloud forest! We were strapped into rock-climbing harnesses, and attached to a pully/handle which we rode above vast expanses of green forests. It was exciting and so much fun! There will be pictures to come as soon as I can get them!
Today, I also had the chance to interview someone who works at the Monteverde Institute (the place where we are currently taking classes). I had a long conversation (in Spanish) with a woman who is in charge of all of the Institue´s logistics and got to know a little bit about the person that she is and the work she does. I was struck with a feeling of such respect and connection to her, and she just confirmed that this was the place I want to be right now, meeting people like her. It was a good feeling to have a couple days into the trip, just as it´s hitting us all that we´re going to be here for a while.
I love the people I´m here with too, we all seem to be in similar frames of mind, even though we come from all over the US and have all sorts of different experiences. I´m excited to spend more time with them, and more time in this incredible country!
Tomorrow night, we have a goodbye party with our host families, then this weekend it´s off to Arenal (a volcano!). On Sunday, we return to Heredia, and get to meet our long-term host families! More to come soon!
Con Mucho Amor,
Meche
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