Patacones!

I made breakfast this morning then made patacones (double-fried plantain chips) this afternoon all by myself. I am determined to be able to come back and cook Costa Rican food for my roommates. Lucas and I also learned how to make cheese empanadas with Lilian the other day and about a week ago Marina, one of the ladies who works in the kitchen, taught me how to make tortillas. Speaking of things Lucas and I have done, I have been doing a horrible job of keeping up with my blog the past week or so. So here is a big jumble of what I can remember off the top of my head: One day Eduardito took Lucas and I on this crazy hike though the mountains to a waterfall. You could hardly call it a trail. Eduardito was in front, clearing the way with a machete as we hiked up the river. It was really beautiful. We were walking along huge, fallen trees, climbing on all fours up rocks I the river and scrambling up and sliding down steep inclines. The waterfall itself was not very big but very peaceful and elegant looking.
Lucas and I also went to one of Geovanny’s dance lessons at the eco-lodge. We even convinced Lilian and Eduardito to come (not something they would normally agree to) I had a lot of fun and Lucas was a great sport. The truth is, it is pretty frustrating because there is a lot to learn all at one time. The first time I did it I wanted to quit because my head hurt from trying to remember it all. I was surprised at how much I did actually remember on my own though from the six or so dance lessons I have “helped” Geovanny teach. I danced half with Eduardito and half with Lucas. Eduardito had a blast which was so funny because about a month ago I couldn’t physically force him into one of the lessons. Since then, the four of us have practiced our moves several times in the living room. That was even more fun.
Lilian, Eduardito and I have also played a mini game of soccer in the front yard and have spent a lot of time just joking around the house with everyone. Aaand I almost forgot. Lucas and I spent one morning in Santa Elena “town”. There isn’t a ton of stuff to do there but we walked around for a while just so he could get to know it. On our way back home we stopped at the cheese factory and got some delicious ice cream.
That is about all the major stuff I can think of. It has been great having Lucas here. There are a million things that he won’t get to do and plans that won’t work out the way I wanted, but it is so neat that he is here and that he knows at least some of the people and places that I love so much and that I tend to talk about a lot. I am really happy that my family here treats him so naturally. I was a little afraid they would act less open around him but they act more or less the same. It is a lot of fun to get to share that.

Tamales

Lucas got in Friday evening. At first he was going to take a shuttle bus but they were full when we tried to make the reservations then he was going to take the public bus but Lucas’s mom called me Friday morning to tell me that his flight was delayed so he may not be able make the last bus from Alajuela so we called Freddy, a taxi driver that we always use, and I rode with him to the airport to pick up Lucas. We got “home” at around 6:30pm we ate dinner at my house, we stayed there for a little while talking, then walked to Eduardito’s house, where Lucas is staying. The first day he was here, I pretty much followed my usual morning schedule and at about 10:00 Eduardito and Lucas met me at the farm. We ate lunch together at Eduardito’s house while we watched one of the world cup games. After the game, we came down to the eco-lodge so that Lucas could check it out then we walked to Virginia’s house. We ended up spending quite a while there talking with her and one of my ex-professors who is friends with Virginia. We were there long enough for it to start raining hard, for the rain to let up and for it to become clear again. We sipped coffee, talked and looked out the window at the view until the sun started to set.
Yesterday was el Día de San Luis, the patron saint day of the town. Eduardito, Lucas and I all headed down a little before 11:00. It is about a 45 minute walk down but isn’t bad because it is entirely down hill. We ended up staying until almost 9:00 at night….. There was a lot of just enjoying the atmosphere of the community. There were “Carreras de Cinta” where people on horses had to get a pencil through a little ring that was hanging on a rope at a full run. There was a lot of homemade traditional food, a cattle auction, a little kid pageant, bingo… and of course mass at the Church. Attending mass was pretty neat. I was surprised at how much I understood and I didn’t really feel out of place because I knew so many people there and all of them smiled and waved when we saw each other. The whole day was a neat experience but it was a long day.

Project update

I have actually gotten my project completely in the works. I haven't said much about it because I was pretty much just waiting for the lettuce to get big enough to transplant. I'll post a little picture journal of me doing my project. A brief explanation: I am testing four different methods of organic weed control. Weeds are a major issue on all farms but here especially because they grow sooo fast plus Otoniel already hardly has enough time to do everything else he has to do without having the extra constant battle with weeds. I am testing materials that would be cheap and easily obtainable here. They are: Saw dust, landscape cloth, kraft paper(destroyed after the first hard rain, one down...) and banana leaves. There are twenty separate quadrants each with 12 lettuce plants( I am using lettuce because it is relatively fast growing plus they can always use as much lettuce as we can provide so the crops will not be wasted.). There are four methods being tested plus a control and each method, plus control, are repeated four times in different locations so that any variability in soil fertility of weed population or whatever else, is taken into account.

Homemade snacks and a movie!

I have discovered in my time here that the key to not getting bored is to wear yourself out. Sunday morning at 5:15, after getting home at about 12:30 or 1:00, I wake up to my lights being flashed on and off (my light switch is outside of my room). I had promised Eduardito that we would go with Otoniel to do all of his morning chores the next time that he came over. At first I just laid there then eventually I yelled at him to cut it out with the lights already. I rolled out of bed, asked what time it was and told him I needed a second to change clothes and wake up a little. So we we nt to milk the cows and feed the pigs with Otoniel. It was just as enjoyable as always but I was absolutely beat. We got back around…7:30? The first world cup game was on. I ate breakfast, watched part of the game but by about 9:00 I had to surrender to my bed. The rain that had been threatening all morning began to fall as I laid down. I could here the rain and the chatting of everyone in the living room all morning as I drifted in and out of sleepy consciousness. As I lifted myself out of bed, I heard the rain tapering off. I stepped out of my room and blinked at the clock to get my bearings of where exactly in the day I was. At first I was a little confused because there was only one arrow then I realized it was 12:00 on the nose. Alicia immediately put my lunch on the table for me. By the time I had finished lunch, the next World Cup game was starting. I made it through this entire one, thanks to our afternoon cake and coffee. One of the people who works at the lodge, an uncle and a cousin of Otoniel’s and Geovanny were also over eating and watching the game, which made it even more enjoyable. I Usually get anxious when I stay at the house all day without something active to do, but it was a perfect way to spend a lazy, sleepy Sunday morning/afternoon. At one point during the game, Charlie, who works in the office at the eco-lodge, called the house to tell me that the same group of people that had all just gone out together were going to prepare some snacks and have a movie night. After the game ended, I showered, picked some limes from the yard and headed down to the station. We all spent the next couple of hours goofing around the kitchen, making salsa, bean dip, guacamole, and twice-fried plantain chips all from scratch. I didn’t want to go all the way back up to the house just for the hour or so between when we finished and when we were gonna start the movie so I hung around the kitchen and helped cook and clean a little. The movie night went great. We took over one of the new research casitas that no one is currently living in, had a whole spread of our foods, borrowed a projector and hung up a sheet to watch the movie on and filled the three beds with extra pillows and blankets from the laundry room. It was such a relaxing fun way to end an already nearly perfectly relaxing Sunday.

Coconut number one

Saturday I worked ‘til lunch as usual then went to the eco-lodge to use the internet and play soccer. There was no soccer game but a few of my friends went down to Lelo’s to watch the England vs US World Cup game. Two people were Alex and Claudia had already walked down there so I caught a ride with Brian and Charlie(girl). It was just the few of us and Lelo and his wife. I hadn’t eaten lunch yet because I didn’t know I was going to be going so I had fresh caught and fried tilapia mmmmm. After the game we all walked around the property to watch Lelo feeding the tilapia. It is not very big but is very pretty and has just about every different kind of tropical fruit tree you can think of. Before we left, Lelo cut down five coconuts and them around with straws in them. Later that night, that same group of people went into town because it was Charlie’s last Saturday here after ten months of being here. It was a lot of fun. It is a great group of people that all get along really well. We went to dinner first then to a little bar/lounge place then to more of a dance bar. It wasn’t a super late or crazy night because we were all a little tired, but everyone had a great time and we all definitely got to know each other better.

Bowl number 86

Lilian and I have decided to start waking up early in the morning to walk. We just started yesterday but it is great. I looooove waking up early and as if it wasn’t pretty enough here already, it is so gorgeous and tranquil at 5:00 in the morning. The sun is rising over the mountains, everything feels fresh and cool, all of the birds are singing, there aren’t many other people around. It is also nice because I get to spend time just chatting with Lilian. Yesterday was nice because when we got back to the house, I still had plenty of time before breakfast to work some. That was cool because if I hadn’t gotten a head start I wouldn’t have finished before the afternoon pick-up game. Today…we walked down to the eco-lodge as usual and went to say hello to Otoniel at the stable. When we got there, Lilian half-jokingly told Otoniel that we were going to feed the pigs for him today. She looked at me laughing and I said let’s go. So we did. We went to the back of the kitchen to get the food scraps. We had to split it into two bags it was so heavy and each bag probably still weighed between 30 and 40 pounds. Then we walked….I don’t know, a quarter mile to where the dirt path to the pig stables are. The path itself was also probably about a quarter mile and it was a quarter mile of purely mud and stones straight uphill. When we got there we fed the pigs then while they were eating we used buckets of water and a broom to clean out the pens. It was quite a process. I was definitely a little nervous when Lilian was said ok you do this one and I’ll do the other. I was said what? Go inside with them. She said yeah grab a bucket and a broom and wash out all of the poop and stuff. So that is what we did. After we finished cleaning, we gave them their allotted amount of regular pig feed and headed back down the mountain then walked through campus and back up the trail to go back home. When we got home it was about 7:45.

Lengua

Last night we ate the tongue from the cow that Otoniel helped butcher last week. I know that sentence sounds really gross but tongue is just another muscle and all meat comes from a butchered cow this one just happens to have been a friend’s cow. Eduardito and Lilian and I have had a couple of days of video fever. We have so many random, stupid but funny home videos from the past few days: us working, Lilian cooking, walking to the pulpería, sitting around the house, playing with the cat… It should be a pretty interesting mish mash of every day activities to have later to look back on. Today I got started setting up my project finally. I have been waiting for the lettuce seedlings to be big enough to transplant. I think I’m gonna plant them Thursday so I have today and tomorrow to get everything ready. I have hoed up all of the land, added fertilizer and marked out all of the quadrants with home-made stakes and string. Tomorrow I will prepare all of the quadrants with their various materials and hopefully have it all ready and planted on Thursday:)

Morning shot of guaro number…3?

It is 9:31am I just took a rather large shot of guaro with Otoniel. I woke up this morning at 9:00, which is by far the latest I have slept in here all summer. Last night Lilian and I went to a big dance that they had in bajo San Luis next to the plaza where we play soccer on Wednesdays. It was a lot of fun. There were a ton of people there. There was a large group from the eco-lodge, a lot of people from bajo and quite a few people from alto. I rode down with Lilian’s godparents, Rafael and Lilian, who come over the house frequently, and Lilian and Virginia. Lilian wasn’t going to go but she gave in. I was being pursued the whole time by a thirteen year old that I met last Sunday, at the pool party thing. I got Lilian and one of my other friends to save me a couple of times with a dance. Then Eduardito came. He never dances and I have tried to get him to dance with me before but I wouldn’t. He came this time knowing he was going to have to dance so it wasn’t too hard to get him to go dance with me. Almost every song after he wanted to dance. He doesn’t really know how to dance but we both had a good time so I ended up being saved by my thirteen-year old pursuer my fourteen-year neighbor haha.

Bowl number 68

Ok so that last picture of the cleared field has all those little trunks sticking up... today Eduardito, Otoniel and I spent the morning ripping them all up. It rained a little too which made it even more fun because we got all muddy.

Bowl number 66

Nothing dramatically different has been going on the last couple of days. I had to take a healing day on Monday because I got a blister so bad that I couldn't really walk. Yesterday and today however, I finished up clearing all of the brush off of the field that we have been clearing. It was hard work. Both days Otoniel and I got back to the house sweaty and dirty and tired, ate a big lunch and then had to take a nap. Julio was going to send some people to help clear it, but had to wait 'til next week because there is so much to do at the eco-lodge. We were laughing about waiting to see his reaction when we tell him that the two of us cleared the whole thing on our own in just a few days. Not much else to tell for now. Here are a few pictures of life over the past few days.