Well, as many of you know, Halloween is one of my favorite
holidays. Just like when I was in
Australia, my Mom went to great lengths to make sure Halloween wasn’t forgotten
in my host country. And also just like
Australia, her package encountered quite a few problems. When I went to the post office to pick up the
packages she sent down here to Costa Rica, I was instead met with quite a few
forms that I eventually realized said I had to go to the customs office in
Puntaranus to pick up my packages. It’s
about 2 ½ hours by car and I had no idea where I was going to take a few buses,
so this was going to be a lost cause.
But that weekend my host family wanted to go to the fish market down
there anyway, so off we went to get this package.
But of course, this is Costa Rica, and things are not as
simple as they are in America. After
waiting at the office and looking at the things in the package, it was off to the
bank about 10 minutes away to pay a fee of roughly $2. Then drive the 10 minutes back to the office,
wait again, fill out some paperwork, wait a bit more, and then receive your
package. Oh and then drive the 2 ½ hours
back home. All in all, the trip was
about 9 hours to receive the package so while I appreciated the brownies, Mom,
no more please! I will be very happy
with pre-packaged food that will not be taken by customs…
Well, since I now had this fantastic Halloween package,
there had to be a Halloween party of course!
So a bunch of us PCVs gathered at a friend’s house in Santa Cruz and the
below pictures are the result…
Shadow was quite the hit!
It was a fantastic night and it was great to not just be
sitting alone in site during one of my favorite holidays J
The fun continued and the next morning it was off to San
Jose, switch buses, and then off to Puerto Viejo. For reference of the amount of traveling I
did in a day, here is a map…
So yes, I traveled
to basically the complete opposite side of the country. I spent a fantastic weekend in Puerto Viejo
with friends before traveling to a PCV friend, Esteli’s site in Katsi to help
with a JumpStart camp for a week. Here
are a few pictures of the travel (bus to Bribri, switch buses, walk a bit to
the river, cross the river in canoe, then make it 7km more to Katsi).
It was a great experience to visit the indigenous region of
Talamanca, get some experience with JumpStart (the camp I was planning on doing
in January), and spending the week with Alicia at Esteli’s site. Esteli whipped up some great meals without
having a refrigerator and we spent plenty of afternoons relaxing at 2 of the
gorgeous rivers near her house. I’m so
glad I made the trek out and before we knew it, it was back to San Jose for 2
days of JumpStart training before heading back to site. After being gone for so long, it really did
feel good to be back and jump back into doing my community class, going to
school during the days, and organizing and facilitating the two remaining
conversation club lessons we had in Santa Cruz.
Here are some pictures of my time in Katsi...
