Having grown up on a farm out in the country in Missouri as a little girl, I have a personal appreciation for rural “heart of the country” settings. This weekend, I was reminded of this when I was lucky enough to visit the secretary of the tourist police station, William, who lives in a very small town (called a pueblo) around 15km away from La Fortuna.
Saturday morning I got on the 9am bus headed to San Ramon to go to this pueblo called Abanico. My great police officers took me to the station and informed the driver where I would be getting off at, as I had no idea what the stop looked like. Also on the bus were two nice ladies from Washington D.C. I had taken a picture for at the park a few days earlier while reading, as well as a nice and slightly crazy 84-year-old woman who is from Hawaii and owns land in seven different places in Costa Rica and other places including Hawaii and Alaska. I had a lot of respect for this woman who is traveling around through the public transportation and seeing the world at her age- I hope that is me in 80 years. She wants to set up a senior citizen community at one of her places in Costa Rica, and after I told her I was a volunteer, she assumed I would now how to set this up. I explained to her that I am simply volunteer teaching English and she would need to research and contact an actual organization; I felt bad when she seemed disappointed I couldn’t help.
Luckily, I spotted William a stop shortly after where I got off. We then got in a car and headed down the long rocky road that leads to Abanico. William told me he walks this road everyday for a total of 4km, also meaning he has to get up at 4:30am to be at work before 7am. When we got to the “downtown” of the pueblo which consists of a small school and church, we went inside a small building next to the church where Dorian, a friend of William who is an American Peace Corps member working in the pueblo. We listened to the end of his computer class and then headed to the house of another family that was Dorian’s original host family who had a beautiful home with a backyard full of fruit trees and birds, I even got to try a cocoa fruit. Which word for the wise, do not eat the seed inside cocoa fruit- as this is the bitter bitter seed that is then used to make chocolate. After this visit, William and I went on a long walk around the pueblo which is largely spread out, stopping by random homes to meet friendly people, pausing at several different fruit trees that I had never heard of and trying this different fruit (it seriously crazy the variety and number of different fruits here), saying hi to others walking around, and eventually ending at William’s incredible wood cabin surrounded by beautiful flowers and plants. It truly looked like something out of a magazine for perfect tropical homes. We then enjoyed a yummy stew, rice, an interesting juice made out of a weird brown fruit called tamarillo, and some fresh pineapple. I was able to visit with Dorian more, who has been in Abanico for over a year and has almost a year remaining. It really put my short experience in a much more developed place in perspective to the rural and challenging project he has especially when everyone I spoke to responded to my project as “oh, only 3 months, that is so short”. We then went to see Dorian’s current small home and visit with the family that owns this place. They were also extremely nice, we enjoyed some nice conversation making delicious coffee and also serving some mango with salt, which was surprisingly pretty tasty. The mother of the home and her 2 daughters were amazed by my height, as most of the people in the pueblo are rather short.
In appraisal, Abanico in many ways reminded me much of tiny towns around Kansas that I am familiar with, except instead of flat brown, fields, this pueblo was bright and alive with tons of huge green plants, fruit trees, beans, and bright flowers . Similarly, Abanico is the type of place that if you did not know it was there, you wouldn’t find it. Also, with only around 500 people in the pueblo, everyone there knew absolutely everyone, where they live, who they are related to, and are in most cases related to everyone in some way. Along with this, everyone is extremely friendly and inviting. I went to visit several families, and all were more than welcome and invited me to visit again. Overall, the entire visit and day was extremely enjoyable, and I was so glad to have experienced a new culture in Costa Rica.
After receiving a free delicious mango and a ride back into Fortuna, I was surprised once again at how strong the feeling of happiness and hominess came over me as we entered the familiar town. I am really getting attached to this nice small town (or quite large town when compared to Abanico).
Sunday was another excellent day that started with a long run in perfect cool, cloudy weather. I was startled when I came across another coral snake; fortunately it had gotten too close to a car at some point and did not bother me. When I finished my run at the track, I was surprised to find a big baseball game on the inner soccer team. Apparently Fortuna has a local baseball team that competes with other area teams.
After helping my host parents out with a clogged pipe in our sink, I met up with my friend Sanne and her friend Francisca from Sweden working at her uncle’s art and jewelry store in Fortuna to spend their free day to visit a pool at an eco lodge called Princessesa de la Luna located right outside of Fortuna that Sanne had been invited to by the English owner. I was very excited as I have only been swimming only once and I have been in tropical Costa Rica for over 6 weeks now. The lodge was around 10 minutes outside of town on a very rough road out in the jungle- we were glad our taxi was a jeep. The owner was very nice and showed us around his beautiful lodge. We then ventured around the several acres of the lodge including several trails to hike. The first trail was supposedly to go to some waterfalls on the property; however, when we arrived we found only a small stream. Nonetheless, the hike through the jungle and the beautiful plants surrounding made it worth the walk. Afterward we headed to another trail that leads to the lodge’s beautiful pool which was also very isolated in the middle of this jungle. It was so nice to have the entire pool to ourselves as there were no guests at the lodge. Although the weather was cloudy and slightly cool, it was refreshing to get in, and even better as we all visited and compared things in Holland, Sweden and the U.S. I had a laugh when Sanne and Francisca were surprised by the tadpoles in the pool, as it was their first time to see tadpoles, as well as their amazement at the fireflies they have seen here in Costa Rica. They were jealous when I told them how I spent all of my childhood summers spending hours catching what I call “lightening bugs.”
After relaxing a bit more at the pool, we hiked back to the entrance of lodge, visited with the owner and his huge Great Dane dog, and then headed back into town. We were all very hungry, so we stopped by one of the local bar restaurants where I had a delicious bowl of Aztec Soup, basically a spicy tomato soup with cheese and avocado.
When I arrived to the police station last night, everyone was in a great mood as they caught 3 thieves who had robbed the bags of some tourists in Fortuna and returned their belongings which included passports and credit cards. It was also very exciting to watch the news this morning and see the story of their capture and an interview of one of the officers- they were all very proud. I must admit, I was just as excited and proud to see my officers get some national attention for their work as well.
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