Three weekends ago we went on a trip with my study abroad program to Palmichal, a rural farming village that is starting to break into the rural/eco-tourism business. We hiked through coffee fields to a small dairy where we got to milk a cow and learned how to make cheese (which we then ate, of course). We also got to grind coffee and learn how to make tortillas (not just any tortillas, these were filled with sour cream and cheese, ¡que rico!), all out of a little farm house settled into the rainforest. After that stop, we toured a coffee processing plant, and let me tell you, I will always appreciate my coffee from now on. I had no idea how many steps and different roastings, dryings and separatings take place just to make coffee beans! We finished off the day with a stop at a little fair of women who own their own micro-businesses making crafts. Living in Heredia, which is pretty urban, it's easy to forget what the rest of this country is like, and getting a taste of small town life was good for all of us.
The next weekend, we took a trip with our History of Costa Rica class. First stop, Cartago, one of the colonial powerhouses, and home to one of the most beautiful cathedrals I have ever seen. During colonialism, as a ploy to help convert non-believers, the church made sure that their cathedrals were so awe-inspiring, that you couldn't walk in without believing in God. And let me tell you, they did a good job on this one. The entire interior is beautifully carved wood. Different colors, textures, patterns, mosaics, pictures, it's overwhelming. This cathedral is also home to "La Virgin de Los Angeles" the patron saint of Costa Rica. According to the story, this virgin figure appeared to an indigenous woman on a rock that now sits under the cathedral. Today, people bring trinkets and charms and leave them for the virgin asking for blessings or giving thanks for healing. Every year people walk...on their knees...from all over the country to pay homage to her and pray for their loved ones.
After Cartago, it was on to Guayabo, the largest, best preserved archaeological indigenous site in Costa Rica. This town was abandoned about 100 years before the Spanish arrived, and because of this, not much is known about the people that lived there. What is known is that they had a highly developed system of living, including two different water purification systems, complicated petroglyphs and monoliths, and a complex roadway system that connected them to nearby villages. This part of the trip reignited my childhood desire to become an archaeologist, and it was so much fun learning about different theories on the Guayabo people.
But that was all just Friday...
Saturday morning we hopped on a bus to Playa Hermosa, the great part about living in a country the size of West Virginia with two full coastlines is that a beach never more than 2 hours away. After a long day of sun and fun, I was sitting with a few of my friends in a restaurant drinking smoothies. All at the same time, we realized just how happy we were...that there wasn't anything that could make that particular moment any better. And the "we're living in a movie" feeling didn't end there...the night ended up with a bonfire, a guitar, and a drum on the beach under the stars...as you can imagine, I was in heaven.
I'm also to the point where I've spent enough time here and my Spanish is good enough that I actually have friends who are Tico (Costa Rican), which means that when we go to the beach, it's not just the kids from our group anymore, but a rag-tag bunch of college age kids of all different nationalities. For instance, this past weekend, in Santa Teresa (yes, another beach), I ended up eating dinner with people from Germany, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Mexico, and the US...and one of them is a juggler by trade, as in used to work in a circus, and juggled fire after dinner. You really just never know around here who you're going to meet or where you're going to end up. And I LOVE it. I feel like every moment here is a chance to meet new people and do new things and I am eating it all up! It's so much fun figuring out what I'm passionate about, what I like to do, and where I want to be. Not to mention that this country is so laid-back and accepting that it creates the perfect environment for finding yourself.
The only problem is that I know I have to leave...I'm already coming up on 2 months here, and I know that these next 4 are going to FLY by. I know I'll be back though, once you've got Costa Rica in your blood you don't get it out, maybe that's why I've met so many American ex-pats who ran away from life in the US to live here. I don't plan on doing that, but I'll find a "legitimate" excuse to get back here...in fact, there's a master's program at my university here called "Human Rights and Education for Peace"...that sounds pretty cool...who knows :)
