VEGETABLES!

5/5/09 Cinco de Mayo. FREEBIRD!

Eladio is playing his music for us. He’s got good taste in music. FREEBIRD AGAIN! As I sit at the idnner table writing this by candlelight, there are dozens and dozens of dead tabanids are dying all around. Many of them are/were stunned by flying through the candles. Others seem to have given up. Serves the right.
Today was really, really fun. Woke up to coffee and gallo pinto. I know I sounded like I was getting tired of it on the last trip, but goddamn have I missed it. Our walk was less of a lecture today and more of an adventure. We crossed the cool bridge and crossed the river underneath it. Fue un bueno dia para botas! The river was amazing with lush greenery on either side.
There was a small river leading to the larger one we were traveling down and we followed it. About 100 or 200m upstream was a huge waterfall. Beautiful. There was a fallen log leaning up against the waterfall which split the fall of the water and kinda made it splash everywhere. We swam and climbed the Cliffside for a bit and had a lot of fun. Javier and Eladio tried to capture a rare dragonfly that was flying pretty high up the cliff.
We came back and had lunch and I played my harmonica a bit. It’s amazing how I’ve progressed in 2 days. I’ll try it out with the guitar sometime. Oh I miss the guitar… but it was good I didn’t bring it. It would have been disasterous.
We had a little discussion on the hill nearby and then caught a small bird in the mist net. OH! We caught two birds this morning. A Yiguirro (nat’l bird) and an oscillated antbird. Birds are really fun to hold, but difficult to take out of a net.
Right now we’re listening to Eladio talk. He’s telling us about how his land used to be and about how he got bitten by a terciopelo. Sheeeeeit! It’s fu too cos it’s all in Spanish. Bottomline: Eladio Cruz is the baddest ass in Costa Rica.

5/7/09 Thursday?

Tonight is the last night of our trip. Que triste. Era un Buena semana en Peñas Blancas. Me gustó muchísimo. Voy a extrañar haciendo cualquier cosa que me gustaba y no teniendo que hacer nada. Entonces, todas buenas costas tienen que terminar.
Yesterday morning we went on a hike to another river. Or the same one somewhere else, iono. It was slow going with all the biologizing. We saw a lot of cool things though. We caught a couple frogs, all multicolored and different species than the others, a trail of heavy duty army ants, another terciopelo, and lots of cool bugs.
When we reached our destination, I jumped in after Robert, who had just cannonballed and landed ona shallow rock, only to hurt my own assbone on a similarly shallow rock. Still hurts. We let the current take us a bit downstream and then ran back to do it again. Then, Athena Liana and I followed one of the inlets up the way a bit.
Got back in record time and studied for the practical test. I wasn’t too concerned about it for whatever reason. Maybe I should have been, but felt like I was prepared enough. Oh well. I spent the evening playing 22 with Javier and Jerry. And reading “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson. It’s about the author’s journey along the Appalachian Rail with his fat friend. The cover boasted that it was “Choke on your coffee funny!” and I wasn’t buying it, but surely enough, page 5, I choked on my coffee. It’s a good read. We spent the rest of the night telling jokes in English and Spanish. Who would have thought that badass Eladio knew so many jokes. Apparently all jokes in Spanish involve a certain Pepito. He’s just the guy in jokes I guess.
EXAMPLE: Pepito: Dad, does grandma know a lot about cars?
Dad: No, son. Why?
Pepito: Cos she’s under a bus.
Jerry told a funny one about a priest telling Pepito (so he’s caught on already) not to swear when his little red wagon wheel breaks. “Sonofabitch” he said. Instead, the priest suggests Pepito should say “God bless it”. So Pepito is pulling his little red wagon when the wheel pops off again. Pepito says “God bless it” and the wheel pops back on. Then the priest, who’s watching from across the street, says “Sonofabitch!” Hooboy. Jerry said it in such a funny way, too. The rest of the night was us watching an amazing lightning and thunderstorm.
Today was the practical. Not too bad, but that doesn’t mean I got an A. Oh well again. The cool thing about our tests here is that they’re actually kinda fun.
It was raining and lighting all morning, but it cleared up in the afternoon. Javier spotted a three wattled bellbird (Procnias tricarunculata) from like a mile away. I couldn’t even see it without the scope. I’m glad I got to see it finally. It did this weird thing with its mouth where it looked like it was yawning and sometimes it would then bonk. Javier, Emily, Berto, Jerry and I went back to the waterfall. With the recent rain the river was deeper, the crossing was harder, and the fall was huger. Javier was looking for that Odonata again, but it was absent from the waterfall. So we threw rocks. At a hole in the wall. And also at another rock.
Later on in the day I talked with Federico and Sofia about my project. I guess I’ll drop the behavioral aspect of it and just concentrate on the capuchins travel paths. I have to introduce myself to the community I guess in order to run around on their property and alert them to inform me if they see any monkeys.
Sofia confessed to me that she knows my homestay mom. They were good friends until Doña Xinia’s older son was accused of stealing motorcycles, or rather, being a contact for the theft. Nobody can prove it, but apparently he doesn’t really get paid a lot and sometimes he just suddenly has a lot of money to spend. The board of directors for San Luis tried to get him arrested, and Sofia was a member, so she was at the police station that day. She says that she really didn’t know what was going on until she got there. So now Doña Xinia resents Sofia for thinking poorly of her son. It’s sad. Sofia is really heartbroken about it.
Finally, right before bed I drew on our “thanks and goodbye poster for Eladio and Javier”. I drew a cross made from a guitar and machete, cos that’s how Eladio knows me best. I guess I’m a little proud of that.

5/8/09

Sheeeeeit I’m tired. And Tigre is a nuisance. A very cute nuisance! Who just drooled on my bed. Gross. Well now. Today was a day to remember.
We woke up early and packed to start our very long journey home(stay!). Bdamn! It was a moutherfucking long walk. I did the first portion pretty much solo. I was pretty quick even though I took the time to sacar fotos de yo at picturesque locations. I stopped for a minute at El Alemán and started a signup sheet so that Fede and Sofia would know if anybody didn’t make it (hehe).
Jerry, Christina, and I walked the second half of the trail together. FUCK. I forgot how far down we walked to get here. That shit was ALL. UP. HILL. In my botas, too. Botas, once again, invaluable, although a bit painful. So yea. We left at 730AM, reached Alemán at 930AM and reached recepción at 12PM. Jesus. 15km uphill with a backpack. I’ll never stop bitchin about it, either.
Got back and waited for the others. While we waited we grabbed a Coke and then chilled in Blanco with Erick. We beat the next group by about 45 mins. Yea. Got back to el Instituto and showered and interneted. Heard about the fire in SB. Shit. Heard that we can’t drink on IV beach anymore either. Double shit. Talked to Erica, awesome! I miss that chica.
Finally got to… homestay! I’m living with Doña Xinia, if you remember. She’s really nice! Man, I’m relieved. Her boyfriend Vichi is a bit distant, but whatever. We had dinner and watched TV, cos that’s what they do. I tried to bring Sofia’s name up in a good way. I said that she said that Xinia’s nieta es muy lindisima. It didn’t go over badly. But later, when Raul’s wife came over (who is really small and young looking) Xinia mentioned that I knew Sofia and I guess nothing happened, but I felt a little nervous or awkward, hehe.
They have a super friendly cat named Tigre, and 3 dogs named Yogi, Osito (little bear) and Pirraña. Guess what he’s like. I really like their house. It’s really humble. Lots of bichos. Corrugated tin roof. Not so complete walls. Sweet! I’m a temporary Tico.

5/10/09

I’ve really enjoyed spending the past two days here in San Luis. I go to bed early and wake up early. The area itself is very pretty, the company is good, and the internet is only a mile away if I need it.
Yesterday I went exploring. After picking up some essentials in Cerro Plano (long walk there. Cool rides back) I went to the University of Georgia. Chris had told me that morning that he’d be on the Buho trail, so I went to find him. He was studying Euglossine bees, so I had fun catching them while talking to Chris. We planned to go to the waterfall after lunch and set tentative plans for going to Chanchos to see the band play (which, coincidentally se llama Chanchos de Monte). I ate lunch at my homestay and met Chris, Aly, and Christina so we could go waterfalling. Along the way we fed a worm to some army ants. Game over work. They swarmed him, took off his head, and brought him back to their live nest. Brutal.
Waterfalling was fun. A weinerdog followed us the whole way there. He smelled like dead animal, but that’s because he had just rolled in a dead animal. Waterfall = magnificent. We went swimming in the icy water and Chris brought the god in too. He didn’t really apprecieate being that cold and puted and shivered when he got out.
Dinner, Chanchos, Erick’s an asshole b/c he said that he couldn’t get me weed, but that I could ask one of the bartenders downstairs. Thanks for telling me that 5 weeks ago. Fuck it, I’m over it.
I woke up the next day (today) a bit hungover but went out looking for monkeys anyway. It was a kinda half hearted, halfhungover, half really fucking tired effort, but I did walk all over today. I’m thinking about changing my study from mamíferos a zompopas. Leafcutter ants. Cos they’re everywhere and easy to manipulate. I’m going to talk to Fede about it tomorrow at 1PM. Gotta remember.
When I got home for dinner I talked with Zinai about Eduardito. Oh boy. It was a bit heavy. Xinia almost cried. She told me about how she always tried to give Eduardito what he wants because he’s all she has left. Her other two children and their families are never too far away, and of course, there’s Vichi, but Eduardito is special to her. Around the same time her husband died, Eduardito was about 6 and was having problems in school. He was a bully and didn’t do his work. Xinia didn’t know what to do. Luckily her friend helped her put Eduardito in a private school in Santa Elena called Escuela Creativo. And he’s blossomed, but it’s always very expensive. Next year is highschool, colegio, and it’ll be even more expensive, and she doesn’t know what to do.
She always wants Eduardito to be happy. He asked his Mom for a computer, so she got a loan and bought one off an Israeli family that was moving. She always tried to get him the clothes and shoes that he wants.
Don’t be fooled though, this isn’t just a givegivegive relationship. Eduardito knows how hard his mother works and never demands things. He’s a good boy, a good student, and a good son. He always wants to help his mother out and his mother always wants him to be happy.
While I was listening to Xinia, I couldn’t help but think of my laptop in the other room, or my new boots on the porch, or my car back in SB. Man, do I need to put things in a better perspective.
I played with Loandri for the rest of the night and taught Eduardito some guitar chords. He like the band shirt that I got for him. I think.

5/11/09

I had trouble waking up today. I was so warm in bed and I didn’t want to walk to la Estación en la lluvia so I vowed several times to get up a few minutes later.After I got up and dressed, I left expecting to walk all the way to la Estación in the rain. Lucky for me, I saw Kelsey waiting at Finca La Bella and caught a ride in her cab. Sweet.
I basically fucked around all day with the internet and did some ant research. I think I’m going to study how leaf cutters like to use pipes and sand as highways. So I talked with Fede about it and worked out the kinds. He’ll buy me some manguera finquera on Thursday and drop it off so tomorrow I have to go scout some colonies.
After I got back (Kelsie cab again) I played futbol with Eduardito and his uncle and his cousin. We screwed around and played Liga until it was dark. It’s beautiful out here, esp at sunset. Did I mention that we were playing on a pasture field? A homemade soccerfield on the parsture. So wooden posts and lots of cowshit.
After dinner I went to Jerry’s house to play cards with him and Chris. Very fun. We played outside. Good times in San Luis. Claro.

5/12/09

Bugs have invaded my room! Wasps, giant flying beetles, moths! Send reinforcements!!

5/13/09

Shit. Last night was intense. Those bugs were EVERYWHERE. Or at least more everywhere than usual. Yesterday involved finding hormigueras and playing soccer Eduardito, his cousins, drunk cheating cousin Colqui, and Aly.
SHIT. BUGS ARE BACK. TURN OFF THE LIGHTS!
FUCK. I think they come in the room b.c I’m always the last to go to bed. There was like on giant beetle in here when I started writing and two more or even flew through the cracks in the wall. I smacked the shit out of a couple of them with my hat, but they just do die. I put a stunned one under the carpet to smoosh it, but when I lifted the carpet again, I saw it still moving. He’s gonna die,, but it’ll take a while. I’m actually under the covers with my headlamp on right now.
Yea. Last night. Spansih television news is like this: carcrashcarcrashcarcrashmurderswinefluecarcrash. People are interviewed but have no relation to the event. Somebody just died because of plane crash, so here’s his loser brother. Some people ask to remain anonymous so they aim the camera at their chests. But guess what, the person being interviewed still has crazy fingernails and an ugly dress that all her family and friends and neighbors will recognize. Great job. Who wants to be a millionaire (Quien quiere ser un millionario) is way easy, but they only go up to 25,000,000 colones. That’s like $50,000 or something. Spanish telenovelas are still cheesey, but now I watch them with people who thing they arent’. “I saw you two in the garden last night” GASP “KISSING EACHOTHER” GASP AY!
Today I tried to do my exp, but had no materials. Still don’t have them. Went to Fede’s house. Beautiful. He has a fat dog whom they’re not sure is pregnant or just really really fat. Also cards at Jerry’s again. We went to the tent he has in the back of the farm. It would have been cool to hotbox, haha.