The ladybug wraps up the program and flies to San Jose

Hey again!

So last I left you I was on the finca all sick. That night was our last night on the finca, and we had a speaker from a non profit on the island who works in the permaculture field. He had been a college student at the University of Vermont studying philosophy, graduated, and then he came down to Costa Rica to surf and have fun. About a month later he decided to get into agriculture and started the non profit in Nicaragua, working with the community to better plan farms and increase hybrid breeding of fruit trees to maximize quantity and production. It was interesting work, but I didn’t like him because he was really cocky and sarcastic. He lacked humility, which is a quality that I respect in people who dedicate their lives to non profit work.

Anyway, after he spoke we had dinner, and I was really sick so I went to bed early. I missed all of the fun partying going on though. It was Christine and Cat’s 21st birthdays and there was a big party that I was too sick to attend. Big bummer.

The next morning we left Ometepe really early to go to San Juan del Sur, a beach on the Pacific side of Nicaragua. We had so much fun here! We stayed at a really nice hotel right by the beach and Lupe, Rose, Scott, and I were having a blast hanging out on the beach, drinking daiquiris, and basking in the sun. Good times.

This was the official last night of the program. After spending the day on the beach we met for dinner at a fancy Mediterranean restaurant. Max gave us these really cute T shirts that say “It’s bean real”. We ate a bunch of nice food, and then went out for drinks at Bar Iguana, which is where apparently a month prior to our visit Matthew Mcconaughey had gotten wasted at the very same bar and was found face down in the sand the next morning after trying all night to get with some Ticas at the bar. We were all looking around for Matthew, but sadly we imagine he left to go to some other beach a while later. At the bar we chatted with these gringos from Pittsburgh who had all gone to the same high school, but different colleges and grad schools. Some of them were nice, but they were kind of boring at times. I had more fun dancing with my classmates than chatting with them.

So that was the end of the program! I have another entry’s worth of stuff to talk about since we stayed a few nights in San Jose, so, stay tuned one last time!

Love,
Ceci

The ladybug goes to the finca

Hello again!

Long time no speak. So I left you in Granada…

The next morning we left to go to the beautiful island of Ometepe. There are two volcanoes on Ometepe, Volcán Concepción and Volcán Madera. We stayed at a farm at the base of Madera. The two volcanoes are in the middle of Lake Nicaragua and we took a ferry to get there. It was sooooo beautiful! The Island is filled with beautiful palm trees, rainforest plants, and huge colorful flowers. The farm had the most stunning view of Concepcion. That night we did not do too much. We had some bonding activities, which were very fun, and then we discussed some of the book we had read for the class.

The next morning we went on a hike through the forest to visit the coffee farm. It was so beautiful! There are howler monkeys everywhere and they make these funny noises that sound like angry bears. The farm is all organic, and there were stinging nettles everywhere that you had to be very careful around. The farmers also planned the trees in the farm that are used for shade very well. They use these trees that open their leaves in the day and close them at night so the humidity and moisture is regulated beneath the canopy.

We then went back to the farm for lunch, and then hiked the kilometer into “town” where some of my group challenged a soccer game with locals. It started downpouring and it was fun to watch my friends slide around and get muddy. I was not feeling so well so I just observed and cheered them on. When we got back to the farm I realized I was really not feeling well. All of the lymph nodes on the side of my neck were the size of golfballs and I started a fever. So I kept it easy that night and tried to get better.

The next morning I was feeling worse, but it was a pretty easy day. We discussed the coffee book, and then Christine and Marina did their presentations. Christine did very well. She had graphs correlating gas prices with coffee sales for Starbucks. After lunch I did not move from a hammock. I had been reading a book at the farm, and I used the opportunity to spend the rest of the day finishing it. Since I had a fever and golf ball lymph nodes, rest was much needed.

Ok I am tired of typing. I am not finished yet, so stay tuned for the last of our trip.

Love,
Ceci

The ladybug stops talking

WARNING: the beginning of this entire entry is four down. Scroll if you want to read it all in sequence!

Hey again!

So now on to the second day in Granada. We had the morning free to do as we wished, so I walked around town with Christine, Maral and Scott. We saw beautiful cathedrals, took a ton of beautiful photos, and waked to the Lake which was about a mile away. Granada is strange in the sense that in the middle of the road you just might run into a stray...cow. We even saw the strangest backyard that was serving as a cow grazing area. We walked to the lake, turned around, came back at 1:30 for a trip to the Masaya volcano. The volcano was spectacular! It was shooting up crazy gasses that were creating gigantic clouds. We then hiked up a steep old crater that was now filled with a mini forest. We walked around the crater, which was really fun and really gorgeous. We then went to the Masaya Market which had lots of cool crafts and things.

On Friday we had a speaker first thing in the morning about a non profit she works for called Proyeto Laguna. This non-profit seeks to serve children in the town of Diria through sponsor programs, increased educational opportunities, and donations of school supplies. After the chat we headed out to Diria, which is a beautiful town about 20 minutes outside of Granada. We painted murals on walls and repainted a building in the tiny school yard. It was a lot of work, but in the end it all looked beautiful. When we finished the school children arrived and that´s when the real fun started. Rose, Max and I first taught them four square and then I taught some girls hop scotch. There were two piñata activities that were hilarious because here you have to dance in order to be allowed to hit the piñata, so the kids would be blindfolded under the piñata getting their boogie on. It was super cute. Then Michelle, Christine and I played some intense games of tag, where no one was ever sure who was it at the moment. At night time we went out, but there were a lot of tourists there so even though the live music was good, I didn´t have as much fun as I wanted. I did however get to speak with a Belgium boy in French, which was really neat because he can´t speak Spanish or English, and I think he liked being able to finally converse with someone after being mostly silent during his travels.

This morning we had two speakers. One was Mateo, who works for the non-profit World Vision, and then the other was Lawrence, cafe owner of Euro Cafe. They were both nice chats about Nicaragua and the relevant topics. The rest of the day was spent walking around, climbing up a church steeple, and getting the last of gifts before we head out.

So I am now completely caught up! Yay! You won´t have news from me in a while- for the next three days we will be on Ometepe Island, which is a sister island to Bainbridge. We´ll be living on a farm, far away from internet.

Until then, adios!

Ceci

The ladybug is still talking

Hey again!

Sorry for the multiple posts: WARNING, scroll down a few to start from the beginning of the entries for today´s contribution.

Alright, so after the day of the sick sick ladybug, things were pretty peachy. While us lepers were recovering we went to Alejandro´s beautiful home which is 50 meters away from his coffee shop, so his back yard is the cloud forest! His home is made of all hardwood and it is just stunning. I bought some things at the gift shop for the forest, wrote some postcards, and played Frisbee. Good times. Afterwards was uneventful. That night we had a lot of fun at the local bar hanging out with some local kids our age. I haven´t been drinking, since I can´t consume alcohol with these antibiotics, but I still had a blast. We sat around and chatted until 4 in the morning we were having so much fun.

So the NEXT day was pretty crazy. We left Monteverde early in the morning, drove all through the mountains on the dirt road out of town, through Costa Rica, to the border at Nicaragua. We had started at 8 and now it was around noon. The line to cross the border was insane because this is the Pan American highway, the biggest border crossing between Costa Rica and Nicaragua (95% of the legal border crossings are here). We waited in this huge line for an hour and a half while our professor took our passports and bribed the immigration officials to do ours faster. We got out of the line (or we would have been there for another 3 hours waiting), and I had fun walking in twilight zone where one is not yet in Costa Rica and not yet in Nicaragua, then we crossed the border and waited for papers to be processed again. Then, Silverio, a boy in our group, had some trouble with the bureaucrats. He has a Mexican passport that expires in 5 months and according to some law he couldn´t enter if his passport expires within 6 months. After a lot of bribing attempts, which failed, and fake calls to university officials, we finally finagled him in, and made it officially across the border before they had time to deport him to San Jose. After that fun day we came to our hotel, Hotel Oasis, in Granada, Nicaragua. Our hotel has a pool, hammocks, and is centrally located. It´s very nice.

Ok, gotta run. More to come later.

Love,

Ceci

The ladybug gets sick

Hi!

Sorry for the intermission. So after the hike we were hanging out at Alejandro´s café when we all realized that everyone was getting sick at the exact same moment. Apparently half of our group (including me) could not keep our food in our stomachs. We were in this beautiful place and yet all we were doing was vomiting on it. It was not pleasant. So, plans were cancelled promptly and the bus came to shuttle us back to the hotel as quickly as possible. Everyone was saying that we had gotten food poisoning from the breakfast but Marel (a friend of mine in the group who had gotten way sicker than me) and I were very skeptical. So instead of going back to the hotel, we went to a Costa Rican clinic. Fun times. Rose came with us because she wasn’t sick, and she is fluent in Spanish, and she is just awesome. We got to the clinic and I was really surprised at how clean the place was. After Rose ran around the clinic figuring out the paperwork situation, Marel and I laid down on benches trying to not be nauseous. Finally everything was squared away with paperwork and I was called in to see the doctor on duty. I was really surprised that they didn’t take any medical stats of mine such as blood pressure, but wasn’t too concerned with it. Alter listening to all of my symptoms, feeling my stomach (which hurt like hell at the slightest touch), he deduced that I probably had gotten a bacterial parasite from the pig. Although the tests were offered at the hospital, he suggested I just take the antibiotics because he had seen many people with my condition before, and even if hadn’t gotten the bacterial parasite yet, it was important to take antibiotics in case it got stronger. So I agreed, went back to waiting while Marel consulted with him, and then we waited around for forever because true to Latin America there were mistakes in our paperwork and they had to redo it all. Finally, I got called back, they gave me two shots, one for the pain and one for the nausea, I got my antibiotics, and we were finally able to leave. In all I am really glad that I went to the hospital because I have felt great and I know that nothing is going to sneak up on me later.

Ok, tired of typing. More catching up very soon.

Love,
Ceci

The ladybug continues the story

Hey again!

Launching into recollection:

The seventh of July was a rather interesting experience. We started the day with a BEAUTIFUL, and I mean the most beautiful hike ever. We went to the famous cloud forest of Monteverde, which is host to a myriad of endangered and almost extinct wildlife (hence, it is a wildlife reserve). We each split up into groups and were led by guides who are incredibly well versed in bird watching and animal life. We started at Alejandro´s café (his café is situated right at the entrance to the wildlife reserve), where outside are many hummingbird feeders that were swarming with hummingbirds. Our guide talked to us about migration, and we saw a bird that travels over the Gulf of Mexico from the US to Costa Rica every year. Talk about a rough commute! We then walked down the path, and immediately the guide pulls us over to a random hole in the side of some clay, points a flashlight in it, and we see a gigantic tarantula! Then, she set up this telescope, we look through it, and there is a huge green viper sitting in the tree! It was crazy.

Our hike in all was beautiful and we saw lots of birds and insect wildlife. The biggest event was when we spotted the beautiful quetzal bird, which is almost extinct. The quetzal bird is the national bird for Guatemala, and has been worshipped by many ancient civilizations such as the Mayans and the Incas. It was certainly lucky of us to spot one in the first place.

Oops, I have to run to breakfast, more to come later today.

Love,

Ceci

The ladybug continues the recollection

Hi again!

Okay, where did I leave you last....the fifth of July was pretty uneventful. We drove all day to a town called Monteverde. Monteverde, Costa Rica is the most beautiful mountain town I have ever seen in my life. From the main road alone it takes an hour and a half to drive up there, through the mountains, on dirt roads the whole way. We arrived around midday and I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the small town, eating typical Costa Rican food, and enjoying the nice weather. In the evening we all went to Alejandro´s coffee shop to enjoy coffee and we participated in the warm fuzzy activity that I suggested because of high tensions in the group. I did this in 6^th grade home ec class, and it is when there is a piece of paper for everyone in the group that gets passed around and everyone writes something nice about each other anonymously. It was very pleasant. We then went back to the hotel and I finished reading the coffee book for our class (which we haven´t talked about at all, I am not even sure if we are going to use it, but it was nice reading anyway).

The next day we went to two farms before going to Alejandro´s. The first one was an all organic farmer who believes passionately in only farming organically. His family has owned the farm for three generations, and they originally farmed the land organically and with shade. However, in the Green Revolution of the 1950s, his family was forced by the Costa Rican government to change to clear cutting the land and using chemicals. After 20 or so years the land became useless because of all of the chemicals, so he started to change the farm back to being organic and shade grown. Now, after 11 years of officially farming organically and shade grown, he believes the farm has an entirely different feel to it. It feels more alive to him because it thrives with bird life, and he says that the farm just breathes differently. Also, he has experimented a lot with organic fertilizers and insecticides. He has even concocted a completely organic insecticide to kill a leaf rot that is common to coffee. He has run into many issues with the co-op he is a member of because they do not believe that organic farming is profitable. Although his yield is better than some of the conventional farms we have visited, organic farming is still viewed with high skepticism. Even when he developed the all natural fungi insecticide, the co-op refuses to believe that he did not use chemicals.

After visiting this farm we went to a conventional farm which has been running for 60 years. It was pretty, and I almost died from a snake. Kidding. What really happened was I was taking a picture of a flower close up to the ground when I realized I was taking a picture of a snake! A farmer who was near me saw it and promptly killed it with a nearby stick. Lucky for me it did not get close to me- on closer inspection of the dead snake we realized it was a lethal coral snake. The red with small yellow and black stripes snake that you occasionally see drop on people in movies about jungle adventures. Fun stuff.

Anyway, now for the craziness.

After the farm trips we then went straight to Alejandro´s family farm. It was so beautiful up there! They had some cows around (most were out grazing), a few horses, and chickens running everywhere. Here is where the craziness starts: in Costa Rican culture, it is a big event to invite friends and guests over to kill a pig and eat it. So that is what we did. We were invited over, we killed a pig, and we ate it. The killing of the pig was an interesting event, but to my surprise, I was not disgusted or shocked. It looked really natural to me. Weird, eh? We then skinned off the hair by using boiling water and knives, I have pictures to prove I partook. Then we watched Alejandro´s brother gut the pig (which smelled pretty bad) and then the meat was sliced. The meat takes a while to cook, so while we waited some of us went to the tillapia pond to catch some fish. The mountains surrounding Monteverde are incredibly steep and incredibly green, so hiking down to the pond was both beautiful and really muddy and difficult. But, fishing was fun, they have this human-made pond filled with fish that they catch using a net. We only were able to catch 3 that were big enough to eat, but I caught 2 of them! By the time we got back up the really steep hill the pig fat was cooked into chicharrones, which is a local Costa Rican food that everyone in this world must eat sometime. Then, the rest of the pig was roasted on a bar-b-que grill and we ate it with rice and beans. We also drank this crazy Costa Rican moonshine called contrabando, because it is now contraband due to its intensity. It was okay. A little sketch considering we drank it out of a gasoline can. I did not drink that much but a lot of people did, and they were pretty crazy. I had a lot of fun hanging out with Alejandro´s niece who was super sweet and the cutest little girl ever.

After all that we finally went home and I fell asleep pretty quickly. Ok, tired of typing, I´m going back to the hammock to read.

Catching up is tedious! I will get all the way caught up very shortly, I promise.

Love,

Ceci

The ladybug lands in Granada, Nicaragua!

Hello friends!

The ladybug is currently typing away at a computer in beautiful Granada, Nicaragua! It was quite a chore to get here, but in the end everything worked out just fine. So, where did I leave you last?

The Fourth of July! This Fourth was the best Fourth in the history of Fourths except for perhaps when the Declaration of Independence was adopted by our government. We first started the day by going to these small waterfalls that created a perfect deep swimming pool surrounded by rocks. The water was so beautiful! It was nice and cool too, which felt so good on a sticky humid day in Costa Rica. Also, above the natural pool was a rope swing that we all (mostly) used to jump into the water. It was sooooo high up in the air! When I swung off I was 20 feet above the water before the dive. We stayed here for a while, just swimming around, hanging out with other visitors, and watching local Tico boys swing about 30 feet in the air, AND they were doing back flips and crazy diving twirls.

After swimming we had a pizza lunch and then geared up to go zip-lining. Zip-lining was so much fun! The cables were incredibly high in the air, and the views were spectacular. From the zip-line we could see waterfalls and ravines through the jungle with the volcano in the background. I have never done anything like it.

After zip-lining back and forth through the canopy we rode on horses down the mountain. It was difficult though because it was raining heavy and my feet kept sliding in the stirrups. Luckily, I held on, and even was able to trot quickly ahead of the group.

After horseback riding we headed out to the natural hot springs near the base of Arenal. Unfortunately, I really did not like the hot springs. It was nothing like I expected. I thought I was going to be sitting in a mud pit in the middle of the jungle, but instead it was this fancy schmancy uber-expensive resort that had made pools for the hot springs to fill. Boring, wasteful, and I couldn´t buy anything because it was all priced far above my budget.

Finally, we left the hot springs, I grabbed some grub which hurt my stomach (I don´t think that fettuccine Alfredo with seafood is supposed to look slightly neon yellow) and then passed out after an incredibly busy day!

So, I´m going to go back to my hammock here in the hotel, but I will fill you in on the excitement that transpired previously when I have some time tomorrow. Hint- it involves me skinning a pig.

Love,

Ceci

The ladybug gets wet

Hola!

Right now I am writing from a computer at the hotel we are staying in La Fortuna! We are really close to the Arenal volcano, but unfortunately there are too many clouds in the way of the view. Yesterday we stopped a little more than halfway here to go water-rafting! It was a blast. The guides were super fun and it was really nice to something fun with the whole group.

Today we are first going to a waterfull with a huge rope swing, then we are going on a zipline canopy tour, then horsebackriding down the mountain, and then to the hot springs at the volcano. I´ll fill you in on all of the fun later.

Love,
Ceci

The ladybug is fluttering to Nicaragua

Hello again!

I only have a little bit of news- today I met with three lawyers here in Heredia who told me and Rose that all of the Human Rights Laws that are supposed to protect workers are never enforced, especially for immigrants. This was interesting, because so far all of the coffee farm owners and some workers have told us that they have lots of benefits and labor rights. The lawyers are printing out copies of the laws surrounding Human Rights issues and labor, and I am going back to pick them up around five.

Other than that, no more news. Oh! I learned how to dance salsa and meringue in a free dance class at the Intercultura. I have been improvising this whole time, but apparently I only had to improve a few things in the basic steps. When fall quarter starts I think I might register for a salsa dance class to perfect my step.

Tomorrow we leave for Nicaragua! We are going water rafting and ziplining on the way up to the border. As soon as I get to an internet café, I will fill you in on all of the fun.

Ciao!
Ceci

The ladybug is resting her wings after fluttering a lot.

Hello Hello Hello!!!

The ladybug took a reprieve, but has returned! Where did I leave you last? Ah, I believe it was last week on Thursday. So, starting Friday….

On Friday we had this amazing opportunity! Two representatives from Fair Trade Labeling Organization International (FLO) came to the Intercultura to speak to us. One was from FLO general: she is a representative who works to promote Fair Trade and to establish relations with companies and famers here in Costa Rica who want to be certified. The other representative is from FLO-Cert, and his organization focuses on the certification and audits of farms and companies who are Fair Trade certified. I really hope that I have the chance to talk with Uriel, the guy from FLO-Cert, tomorrow, because I have many questions about the ramifications of non-compliance.

After we had this talk we then took taxis to San Jose (we were all jam-packed and it was pretty uncomfortable) to hear a presentation of a representative from SCACR. SCACR is the organization that is in charge of deciding who wins the Cup of Excellence in Costa Rica for each year. As I said before, we actually had the opportunity to visit the winner of the Cup of Excellence this year in the mountains of Naranjo. Also, the representative of SCACR is in charge of training and contacting new farmers who wish to be a part of this major coffee alliance, specifically women farmers. Although the organization serves to train all farmers on how to increase the quality of their crops, this particular representative is in charge of training women farmers. In Costa Rica there are many obstacles in the paths of women who want to be coffee farmer owners. They are pressured to be at home with their families, they might have pressure from their husbands to not have such a dominant role, and the industry in general is run almost entirely by males which lead to low self-esteem and confidence in the women to have a sense of empowerment. About 20% of the participants in the industry in Costa Rica are women. So, this representative focuses on outreach to new women farmers and the organization hosts special training for women to empower them to gain confidence, gain new knowledge on the techniques to improve quality of their crops, and provides the necessary tools to be successful in a male-dominated industry. After the presentation we participated in a cupping exercise, where we learned how people in the industry evaluate coffee. This was fun, but swishing coffee in my mouth and smelling coffee over and over again caused a big headache.

After this long day of lectures and presentations a group of us crammed into a taxi on a miserable drive back to Heredia. Although San Jose is only 20 minutes away from Heredia normally, it took us almost an hour because of rush hour traffic. The fumes were unbearable, and it was raining so the roads were really insecure. I felt pretty nauseous at the end of the ride. But! This leads to the fun part! So, Rose and I worked really hard to organize a trip for us and some of the members of our group to a beach called Montezuma. Montezuma is on the Pacific Coast. In order to get there you have to take a bus to Puntareñas, a ferry to (I forgot the name of the town), and then a taxi or bus to Montezuma. Normally, the whole trip takes about 7 hours (including the ferry ride which is one hour long). However, Rose’s host mom is the most resourceful person in the world and she managed to get a hold of a friend of a friend who owns a van that holds ten. He charged us a total of 400 dollars for a round trip bus ride and to take us around the beach town. With ten of us, this only cost 40 dollars round trip per person, which would have been around the same price had we bussed it the whole way. So we got in the van, drove to the ferry, waited around until more cars showed up because the ferry was docked and wouldn’t leave until 30 cars were there and we were number 15, got on the ferry, arrived on the other side, and drove to Montezuma. We go to our hotel and finally were able to relax, get a drink, dance some salsa, and hit the sack around 3. Phew! Talk about a long day. Remember, we had those lectures earlier, so I was really exhausted by the end of it all.

So! Finally to Saturday. Saturday was a lovely, relaxing day, where all we did was hang out on beaches. Our driver, Javiar, took us to this beautiful beach, and we swam in the Pacific, sunbathed, read books, looked for pretty shells, and chased hermit crabs all over the place. At this beach we ate amazing pizzas and drank mojitos that were made with fresh mint. After this beach Javiar took us to another beach that had a freshwater river that was actually fresh! Completely safe to swim in (as long as we didn’t swallow the water, of course). There was this tree that was crookedly hanging over the river and had a rope hanging from it. Of course, y’all know me, I climbed up the tree, grabbed onto the rope, and with a little bit of difficulty eventually swung on the rope off the tree into the water! I made a big splash. It’s all on video, and as soon as I figure out how to, I will post it on this blog for your enjoyment. After a fun day at the beaches, we headed back to our hotel, where we walked around the main street buying trinkets and things to bring back to family and friends. Then we ate at a restaurant, I had my favorite seafood and pasta in white cream sauce and I split it with a friend because it was too much for me to finish, we then went back to the hotel, had some drinks and chatted on the porch which is on the beach front and it was really relaxing to be near the shore, and then went to sleep. Next day: ate breakfast, and then had a pretty awful ride back because a girl in our group threw up and it was disgusting. We got on the ferry, away from the bus, by the time we got off the ferry the bus was okay again and then we went back to San Jose. I think it was an extremely successful weekend.

Monday we got back and we went to the Poas volcano first thing in the morning. It has this crater in the middle that is filled with bright green liquid! Like I said before, as soon as I can figure out how to, I will put a picture up on here. We took some pictures by the crater, and then headed up the volcano further on a beautiful hike for 2 hours. Afterwards, we went to yet another coffee farm that is the largest supplier to Starbucks in Costa Rica.

And finally today, we had a talk by the director of agronomy of Starbucks for Costa Rica! Interesting talk…

Ok, I am done typing. As always, more to come soon!
Love,
Ceci