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