Tortuguero

Tortuguero isn't the easiest place to get to from San José, but that didn't stop me, Jessica, and Julia. Very early Friday morning we embarked on what turned out to be one of my favorite trips. It took two buses and a water taxi to get to the unique little strip of land. Noteworthy for it's geography, Caribbean vibe, and the hundreds of turtles that visit every year, Tortuguero is different than every other place I have visited. 

Geography: As the map below shows, Tortuguero is a small strip of land with water on either side. Interestingly, the water is two separate bodies; one is the Atlantic Ocean. The other is a system of naturally made canals. The canals divide Toruguero from the rest of Costa Rica. Thats why we had to take a water taxi.

Map of Tortuguero

House in Tortuguero

We started Saturday off with another very early morning. At 5:00 am we went to the beach to watch the sunrise. It was beautiful... this picture doesn't really do it justice. 

The beach at sunrise

"It is illegal to touch baby turtles or to excavate the nests" 

Just like the other beaches in Costa Rica, Tortuguero has had an ongoing challenge of protecting the turtle eggs and hatchlings from people who want to eat or sell them. People will dig up newly made nests to harvest the eggs for profit. I've also been told that people will occasionally eat the baby turtles.

Turtle nests with broken egg shells

 It was shocking to see the countless turtle nests on the beach. I wasn't expecting to see so many! In the majority of the nests we saw, the baby turtles had already hatched and all that remained were fragments of their left behind shells. Shell pieces littered the beach. It was sort of comforting knowing that so many hatchlings had had the chance to make it to the ocean and survive, however small that chance was. The journey from the nest to the ocean is a long one for the tiny turtles. Predators, humans, and the distance itself are among the obstacles the baby turtles face after they hatch.

Egg shells

We visited Tortuguero at the tail-end of turtle season.  Turtles were still coming to the beach  to lay their eggs, but the vast majority have already visited. Night tours to see the turtles come on shore can be purchased and are legal. Tours to see the babies can also be arranged, but after speaking with a national park ranger, we learned that any tour to see the babies is illegal. The three of us opted to not take a turtle tour. Instead we went on an amazing canoe tour through the canals. 

Welcome to Tortuguero National Park

The national park consist of beach, canal, and forest. 

With a guide, Jessica, Julia, and I explored the canals in a canoe. We even had oars to row. The canals are nothing short of a wonder. They are all naturally made and are about 25 meters deep. The canal and the surrounding forest are home to innumerable species of plants, fish, and animals. Lining the canal are huge  (I'm guessing over 100 feet tall) trees that are covered in leafy vines. The forest in Tortuguero is a transitional forest, meaning it's rain fall is between the levels in a rainforest and a dry forest. The water is brown, but not from pollution. Many, many years ago manatees swam freely through the canals, but unfortunately that is no longer the case. Propellers from speed boats were harming and killing the manatees. They now live in a special area of the park where they are safe from humans.

Canal

From the canoe we saw some really neat animals; we saw fish, many different types of birds, caiman, and three species of monkey.

Bird

I think this bird looks really cool. He is actually walking on top of a field of water lilies. The birds are light enough and have special wide feet that allow them to do so.

Leaf

This red plant appears to be a flower but it is actually a modified leaf. 

Caiman

I spotted this little guy. He is a caiman (kind of like a small crocodile). He hung out there for a while while we watched him.

Spider Monkey

This is probably my favorite monkey I've seen in Costa Rica. Its a spider monkey. Tortuguero National Park has three kinds of monkeys: spider, white face capuchin, and howler. 

After our canoe tour, we headed back to our hostel to make some breakfast and take a long nap. Once we were all up and ready to go, we went hiking through the beach and forest of the national park. I really enjoyed our hike. Again we saw different birds, a sloth, and howler monkeys. I also saw way too many huge Golden- Orb spiders. 

Newly made turtle nest

While we were walking on the beach, we looked at all of the nests. Most of them, like I said, were old. This turtle nest, however, was new and most likely had eggs buried in it beneath the sand.
The track leading away from the nest to the ocean indicates that it was newly made. Also, there weren't any broken eggs laying in the nest.

Baby turtle tracks

Baby turtle tracks covered the sand. They were everywhere! Trails leading from the nests to the ocean patterned the sand with tiny flipper marks.

Mommy and baby howler monkeys

To hike through the forest, the park requires that rubber boots are worn. We rented ours for one U.S. dollar. The reason for the boots is protection: protection from a yellow, venomous snake that likes to bite people's feet. I think the boots were just supposed to make us look cooler than we already did. 

Boots!
(Julia, Jess, Me)

Artisan Market: Molas

Two ducks and a fish 

I went to the artisan market in downtown San José today. Walking past the endless block of venders, I came across these beautiful pieces of fabric. After asking the vender more about the fabric squares, I found out that they are "molas". Molas are fabric squares that are hand-made by an indigenous people, Kuna, that live close to the Panama and Costa Rica border.  The process to make the molas is pretty interesting; every color is a different layer of fabric and every stitch is done by hand. They are used to decorate the shirts and clothing of the indigenous people. I plan on framing them and making them a work of art. 

Geometric Animal 

Butterflies!

Gabrielle, Mariah, and I started out our day with a not-so-easy pilates class at the university gym. Finished with our class, sweaty, and excited for the day, we set out on an adventure to a butterfly garden. 

The butterfly garden is a small oasis of nature tucked into the city of San José. Covered by a series of large nets, the butterfly garden is a safe haven for some of Costa Rica's beautiful butterflies. 

Identifying the butterflies online is proving to be pretty tricky.... The names for the butterflies in the captions are what I think they should be called. 

Black and White Cookie Butterfly 

Owl Butterfly
(That's the real name) 

Owl butterflies are the butterflies that have bright iridescent blue between their wings. They're really pretty, but had to capture in a picture.

America the Butterfly

Butterfly Guide
(It only had boring scientific names) 

Butterfly guide 2

Snacking Caterpillar 

Red Lipstick Butterfly 

Happy Halloween Butterfly

Me and my new friend

This butterfly loved me. He landed on my arm and stayed there licking what I assume was dried sweat for the longest time. Even after I managed to get him off of me, he came back. I guess I'm just super tasty or that butterfly was a little crazy.

Inside of his wings
Name: Electric Slide Butterfly 

Look at that tongue! 

Due to the humidity at the butterfly garden, the lens on my camera fogged up a little bit toward the top. 

I had an awesome time today! 

Ceviche Chef

Because I am an up and coming Costa Rican chef, I made ceviche the other day. Ceviche is a dish of fish or seafood (sometimes a combination of the two) that is "cooked" in lime juices.

Early in the morning Sara and I went to a local pescadería (fish market) to pick out some fresh pescado (fish) for my ceviche. We also stopped by the grocery store to pick up some other ingredients. 

To start, I took the two and a half pounds of white marlin I bought and chopped it up in to half-inch cubes. Next I chopped up half of a purple onion. Then I cut up half of a sweet chile pepper. I squeezed 8 mandarin limes (its a lime, but the inside is orange). After every thing was all together, I added the secret ingredient: club soda. 

I stuck it in the fridge for about seven hours. I could tell it was ready because the fish changed from looking raw to looking cooked and white. I added chopped cilantro shortly before I served  the ceviche. 

People usually eat ceviche with tortilla chips or club crackers. Sara likes to eat hers with a ketchup and mayonnaise mix. I couldn't bring my self to adding ketchup and mayonnaise to my perfect creation. 

The ceviche was really delicious. I thoroughly enjoyed every bite. The labor was totally worth it.

Making the ceviche!

THE Ceviche! (Yum!)

Class #3: HA 1427

Up to this point I have only written about two of my four classes. I think its fair to write about my remain two classes, too.

The first and most important thing I can say about my History of the United States class is that it, like my other classes, is three hours long and starts at 7:00 AM every Wednesday. If that doesn't seem brutal enough, maybe the fact that 95 percent of the time my professor spends 95 percent of the class giving a slow and painful lecture. Usually around half of the class doesn't even show up and the half that actually makes it to class is left to fight off droopy eyelids and the risk of snoring in class.
My professor is a nice lady who is probably in her mid-sixties. The way she giggles at her own dull lectures is kind of endearing; it might even be my favorite part of class. She teaches us about the colonies, battles, conflicts, important people... you know, normal history stuff. Its like I'm relearning everything I forgot from sixth grade history.
With the presidential debate coming up, she talks about more recent politics as well. Not surprisingly she tends to bash the Bush administration tastefully at any chance she can get. Its interesting to hear the history of my country from an outside perspective. Ideas of imperialism, greed, and dominance frequently are discussed as defining characteristics of the U.S.. Honestly if everyone was taught from this perspective in history classes in America, I feel like the opinion of ourselves as a nation would be drastically different.
I was a little surprised when I realized that my classmates were not using the class to openly bash America. Instead they are very respectful in what they say and ask perfectly legitimate questions.

Besides the incredibly boring lecture and the 20 page group paper I have to write soon, I like the class; the material is interesting enough to catch my attention.

Would you like a Mandarin mandarin?

After surviving my midterms I'm back and ready to blog! In general my midterms went well. I even got an A on my sociology test.

Sara and Soli had two women over for dinner the other night. This is the conversation (translated to English of course):


One of the women talking while I was eating my dinner, watching the news, and trying to follow the conversation:

"Blah blah blah mandarina blah blah."

Upon hearing "mandarina", I thought: 

"Awesome! I know what they're talking about."

So I chimed in with something in my life that is related to "mandarina":

"My sister, Erica, is learning 'mandarina' in school right now. Its a useful language to know."

At first I didn't register why Sara chuckled and was looking at me like that. She kindly corrected me:

"We're talking about the fruit, not the language."

Apparently the difference between the word "mandarina" (the little orange fruit) and the word "mandarín" (the Chinese language) is more subtle than I thought. 

Orphanage

I recently started volunteering at a local orphanage in San José. Here's a little bit about my experience so far...

Just minutes after walking in to the fairly large house that serves as a home for kids who have been removed or abandoned by their families, a shy little girl took my hand and walked me over to the swing sets. She must have been about four years old. Its a strange feeling to be excited about a child befriending you, but her trust made my day. She was so cute. 

Once the other kids had been woken up from nap time they emerged from their room to play outside too. The house has a large backyard (yards are very uncommon in Costa Rica) with a jungle gym, a play set, miniature plastic houses, balls, and tons of toys. There were around ten kids ages 15 months to 7 years old. I haven't learned all of their names yet; mostly because its impossible to understand what they tell me when they are so focused on the game they are playing and only sort of interested in making sure I heard them correctly. The baby, who was probably around 15 months old, loved to be held. I carried him on my hip for the majority of the time I was there. The two little girls were so sweet. As for the boys, well, they were rowdy and rambunctious. I had a great time playing with all of them! They were all so awesome! 

We played hide-and-seek, swings, and monkey bars for a while until the kids taught Gabrielle and I a new game, Lobo (Wolf):

Everyone expect the "wolf" holds hands and walks quickly in a circle singing while the wolf hides.

"We are playing in the forest while the wolf is not here... Wolf are you here?"

The "wolf" makes up some sort of excuse for why he isn't there until he decides to emerge from his hiding spot to try to catch everyone else and eat them (tag them). Here are some of the responses the little wolves gave us: 

"I'm looking for my keys..."

"I'm in the shower..."

"I'm cooking onions..."

It was a really fun game for both me and the kids. 

I also made "leaf soup" in the play kitchen with a little girl, pushed everyone on the swings, and tried to teach the baby the numbers and animals painted on the wall. 

This next story is about an exchange I probably should have stopped, but couldn't resist watching...

For snack time the kids were given dulce de leche (its like carmel) filled pastries. Even after most of the kids had finished their treat, one little boy was still slowly eating his snack. I watch another little boy approach the boy eating and offer him a plastic toy lion in exchange for some dulce de leche. Shortly after the lion was accepted, the little boy eating swiped his finger through the center of the dulce de leche and proceed to stick it in the other kid's mouth. All I could do was smile and laugh.

I had no idea what to expect going into this situation, but it ended up being an incredibly positive experience. I cannot wait to go back and continue playing games and spending time with them.