I don’t even know where to start… Costa Rica continues to be amazing, and I am loving it. This past week was full of sun, hiking, collecting data, delicious food, cows, adventure, stars and so much more.
I don’t know how much I love my project. It isn’t bad, it just isn’t like I wake up every morning super pumped to go work on it. Basically the bad things are that it’s hot and lonely. Whenever I head out onto the trails it’s great at first, but after about an hour hiking alone in the woods I tend to get a little jumpy. I kind of let my mind wander to the point of thinking every rustle of the leaves is probably caused by something that wants to eat me. And then there’s the whole thing where I’m off creeping in the brush when some civilized people walk down the trail and see me crawling through the understory-- I can only imagine how weirded out they must be. But even if I don’t always love it at the time I am glad that my project is straightforward and requires me to be active. Because I could easily sit on the porch all day doing nothing and be perfectly content.
San Luis is incredible. Those of us who live down here refer to ourselves as the “san luis sloths” (I’m not sure if I already mentioned this). The Bradypus variagatus (three toed sloth) was one of the species we had to learn and we seem to have some striking similarities with these creatures. For one, sloths come down from the trees one time a week to poop. We go to monteverde one time a week for class. Sloths eat dirt. I’m more than positive that we’ve consumed some dirt in our time down here. And finally, sloths have something like 900 bugs living in their hair. While I’m not positive I actually have bugs living in my hair I do have bugs living in my clothes, my backpack and just about anywhere else you could imagine.
On Wednesday I went to church with my host family. There is something about church in a place like this that makes me feel a little more into the whole church and spirituality thing. I think it’s because these people have such simple lives—they wake up, do chores on the farm, do things around the house. Some have jobs elsewhere these days. But the main point is that their lives are so far from materially focused, and there is something about this that makes me feel like their faith is more of a central part of their lives. Some of these people hike rather long distances in the tropical sun just to get to church, and there is such a sense of community and family within the town. It’s hard to explain but I just think it’s an interesting contrast to our culture.
Somewhere around the 20th there was a meteor shower here.. I wish that I had remembered this on the actual day and I would have hiked up la troncha to watch the stars. It is so incredibly dark here at night, and when it is clear you can see millions of stars. But I forgot, and my bedtime is like 9 o’clock. However, I was reminded a couple of days later while watching the sun set from T.O. Notch’s porch (aka tio nate). his porch looks out over the mountains and you can see all the way to the pacific coast. it’s breathtaking. Literally. You know, people refer to views as being breathtaking, but I think this is the first time I’ve ever really consciously experienced such a phenomenon. Every time I’m sitting on his porch and I try to talk, I end up looking at the view and then I just kind of forget that I was talking. So anyway, I went back to his house that night to watch the stars. Again, it was incredible. The nights are pretty chilly because of the elevation but my friends and I laid out in the cool breeze, bundled up, watching the lightning bugs and the stars. I probably only saw like 5 or 6 shooting stars, but it was still cool. Walking alone at night is scary though. I thought I was going to be eaten by a puma while I was walking to his house. And of course as soon as this thought popped into my head I looked up to see 4 sets of eye-shine in my light. They were on the side of the road just staring at me. So naturally I panicked for a minute and considered my options—run, scream, go home, keep walking. Trying to convince myself it was fine, I walked a bit closer, and one of the sets of eyes started barking at me. So now I’m thinking, great, this puma can bark, now I’m even more screwed… of course in the end it was a dog and a couple cats, but I do know there are pumas here, and I am scared of them.
Yesterday we had to hike all the way to class. Usually we can ride the bus, but 1) it’s semana santa so the little kiddies didn’t have school, and 2) it was Saturday. So we made the 500+ meter climb to the station, and it was rough. Mostly the first part that goes straight up the mountain, but by the time we got to the station I was drenched in sweat. That night my professors band was playing at Mata é Caña—imagine old biologist hippies dressed like hipsters playing rock music in a bar full of mainly 20/21ish year old biology students. IT WAS GREAT. My professor is the goofiest guy. And my TA moncho is arguably as goofy. He is probably about 30, and he is this Costa Rican guy with a big gut. He was front and center the entire time Alan’s band was playing. Jamming out. He even lost his shirt at one point and when I asked him about it he said “I always loose my shirt at these things.” We decided he’s probably the band’s biggest groupie. Also Isa’s twin was here and her friend and it was really fun to meet them and hang out with them.
So it would appear that we’re getting to a strange point of the program. There’s just over three weeks remaining and it’s incredibly bittersweet. For one, I’m at a point where I am starting to want to go home, just a little. I miss family and friends. My bed. Cooking. Sometimes I miss things like going to the grocery store (though, I’m not sure how I’ll actually feel about a grocery store when I do go to one, food here is just so fresh and good..). I miss the northwest. My time here has made me really want to explore the areas around where I live, and I am kind of eager to do that and see what kinds of things I’ll find. I am looking forward to being done with schoolwork—finishing my data collection and my project, finishing up with reading a million articles about tropical ecology, finishing with studying and exams. But on the other hand that all means that this is over—finishing my project means moving out of my homestay and out of San Luis. I’m not ready to say goodbye to this place, I haven’t even seen most of it yet. And finishing reading articles means no more time hanging out with Alan, Anjali, Moncho, Pablo, and Gisella, all of whom I am going to be extremely sad to say goodbye to. Finishing my paper means the program is over, saying goodbye to the tropical cloudforest that has been my home for a few months now. And ultimately, saying goodbye to the friends I’ve made here without knowing when I’ll ever see them again. Last night I was realizing that in a very short amount of time I’m going to have to say goodbye to Isa and Val and Jacob and Cassie. some people I’m sure I will see again but some will require a lot of effort and traveling. I guess all I can really do is make the most of the time that I have left here, but that’s so hard. It’s hard to go out and explore when I don’t even have to leave my front yard to have an adventure, and when I have papers and exams hanging over my head, and when everyone else is also busy and it’s hard to coordinate. And it’s hard not to think about how quickly the end is going to come and how fast it’s all going to slip through my fingers.. But in the end it’s all pretty representative of what I see as sort of the beauty of life—moments don’t last forever and adventures and experiences must come to an end. If you dwell on the future you’re taking away from the present, but if you don’t fear or at least consider the future and how fast time does pass, you miss out on maximizing the present. And in the end, a new adventure is always ahead—I’m going to leave here and it’s going to be strange and sad, but then I’m going to move to Washington for the summer where I’m going to see old friends and make new friends and have many new adventures. When I look back on my life I can think of a lot of times that I wanted to last forever, but of course they have all ended, and they have been followed by yet more eras that take over as times which I wish didn’t have to end.
And on that note, I should get off of here and go do my homework so that I can get out and ADVENTURE.
No comments:
Post a Comment