Moving on...

San Ramon has been absolutely amazing. Chris and Luisa have been too good to me. They have provided me with food, shelter, and themselves as friends which has been the best part of all. Days here consisted of either helping Chris build the massive stone retaining wall around his property, or going into Palmares with Melissa.

Let´s talk about the wall. Chris and Luisa and their 2 children Lukas and Fiona are moving about half a kilometer outside the city to a property that they recently bought. They´re buliding a huge retaining wall around their property on which will stand a Bed and Breakfast. They´re hoping to cater to interesting North Americans who are interested in the true history and culture of Costa Rica. No matter how the building turns out, the very people running it will make it worthwile. Plues it has a breathtaking view of the mountains.

Let´s talk about Melissa (far right). Melissa is the daughter of a friend of Chris and Luisa´s. She´s been awesome to me and has showed me all over San Ramon. I have to say I would have been quite bored without her. (Although, I did just meet a very flamboyant guy from Ohio on an exchange, but that´s neither here nor there.) She´s studying to become an English teacher, so it works out well. She also has quite a few friends that speak a little or a lot of English.

Let´s talk about Palmares. Palmares is a city near San Ramon which means Palmtree. For two weeks of the year Palmares is turned into a massive party. It´s sort of like a big fair, but drinking in public is legal here... so it escalates to a party quite quickly. I went with Melissa and some friends to Hectar El Father, a Reggaetonista. Reggaeton is an extremely popular kind of music here that incorporates rap and reggae. The same shallow lyrics you´d expect, but still great for gettin jiggy...

Let´s talk about me leaving. On Wednesday I´ll be leaving for Volcan Poas. That is where my Habitat placement is.

Let´s talk about sex, baby.

Let´s talk about you and me.

Let´s talk about all the good things

And the bad things

That may be...

Where the streets have no name

Before I begin, yes, that is a transport truck upside-down.

There are lots of unstabilities here in Costa Rica. 1) Let´s start with the roads. In Puerto Viejo there were potholes everywhere. Despite the obvious negatives, it was kind of cool. It added to the controlled chaos. Bikes and cars and dogs and people everywhere... Aside from unfriendly holes in the road, the roads often come dangerously close to massive cliffs when driving in the mountains. Often times all you need to do is stick your head out the window and look down and you´re stairing an unending abyss in the face. Ya....kinda scary. I´d say this truck driver had it lucky.

2) Now there´s also the weather. It´s a little more stable right in the mointains, but in Puerto Viejo it would be sunny and beautiful, then within 20 mintues it would cloud over and drizzle rain. Plans would get canceled, books would open, but then no sooner had you decided to blow off the day, the sky would clear up and the sun would pump you full of good spirits again.

3) The home enertainment scene. When you rent a movie from any video store, there´s a damn good chance it´s burned. Yes, people here rent pirated movies that some Joe Blow downloaded and burnt onto a DVD. Now there´s also a chance that it´s a screener (litereally some Joe Blow sneaks a video camera into a movie theatre and films the screen... weak).

4) And finally, my personal favourite, there are no addresses. No street has a name here and no building has a number. Where I am currently staying is 150 m east of the Plaza, San Juan. Advbertising may look something like this, "Pablo Muflas - 200m south of the old KFC ("old" because it went burnt down and in it's place is a shoe store, which are freakin everywhere here) then 50m west, beside the big oak tree.

On the up side, what isn´t unstable is the people. Ticos (Costa Ricans) are very friendly. Chris (mi amigo) and I went to the hardware store for a couple things and it took us 45 minutes because everyone has to stop and shake hands and talk with everyone. ¨¿How´s your family?¨ ¨¿What´s up for today?¨ ¨¿How´s that massive stone wall comming along, Chris?¨ etc...

I´d say it´s a fair trade. A few holes in the road and some random weather patterns for a big bowl of pleasentry.

Volcanos and Pipas Frijoles

We left Puerto Viejo quite ready to leave. It was a lot of fun, we did some ziplines and flew from platform to platform high up in the canopy, but the week had been tiring; we were ready for a change. We went to Pan Pay, a lively bar, for new years eve and hit the sack shortly after 12:00. A 5:30am wakeup call the next morning and we hit up an amazing 30km white-water rafting tour through the rainforest.

Later that day we arrived in La Fortuna. It sported this beautiful active volcano, however it was often too cloudy to see it. We stayed in Hotel Monte Royal and received a ton of help from Fransisco, the owner, and Paola, his incredibly attractive daughter. We hit up Baldi Hot Springs which was complete with waterfalls, 20 different temperature pools, and swim-up bars. Despite the volcano and lava-warmed water, we decided to leave La Fortuna a day early. The food was less than amazing, not to mention nick getting served Keiser, a non-alcoholic beer, so we hopped on a bus and toured through the mountains to San Ramon to visit our friends the Panzers.

So here I am, it´s January 5th and my family will be heading to the airport to fly home in less than an hour. I still haven´t heard from Habitat as to my exact start data but hopefully it´s soon. Until then I´ll be hanging with the Panzers and helping them build a massive stone retaining wall around their new property with a gorgeous mountain view.

Oh ya, I finally saw some wild monkeys! My vacation is complete...

Dreadlock Holiday

50% of my love of my locks was that they made me unique. Well not anymore. In this beach town of Puerto Viejo roughly 1 in 8 males have dreads and a few of the girls too. (No Grandma, that doesn't mean I'm going to cut them off any time soon...)

The culture shock has settled. It reached its pinacle when we rounded the final corner of the airport and saw swarms of people plastering family last names on signs all over the glass. But now I don't think twice when a wierd rabbit-goat-cow-camel is walking down main street or random dogs roam the streets.

The music is a definite plus. The reggae scene is huge here. I hear Thievery Corporation everywhere and it reminds me of home. But as soon as I get a little homesick I just look up to the palms...the trees of eternal happiness.... or something like that.

I just finished talking with a Canadain named Lee. He grew up outside of Toronto and went to Western. He saw my flag and we started chatting. He's been backpacking for 3 months and will be for another 1. He started in Belize and he's gotten here in those 3 months. He's reaffirmed my interest in Nicaragua, specifically Ometepe, which is an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua made up entirely of two volcanoes.

Surfs Up

Nick, Jay, and I went surfing today. The waves were a little big (yes, much bigger than in this picture I swear) and I've never funneled so much salt water in my life, but damn, surfing is amazing. We had a bit of an asshole instructor, and I also got clipped by a fellow surfer and sliced my ankle open, but good times all around. Time for the 3km bike back to the house in Playa Cocles.

Mi Casa

All day on a plane and in a van x-mas day and we finally arrive to our little cottage in the jungle.

There are almost no walls and in the few that do exist there are huge windows that open all the way; makes sense when it never snows here...

No monkeys yet, but tucans, lizzards everywhere, and the craziest flower's
ever.

Lots of time just chilling on the beach and exploring. No big tours yet but we've got volcanoe's and horses and white water rafting and all that good stuff planned.

The food is delicious and cheap (and so is the beer) and I don't think I'll have a problem living off it for 4 months

T-Minus...

It's December 22nd and two questions pop into my head...

What the hell am I about to do with my life? And, Am I crazy?

And I guess my answers are, well, whatever I feel like, and No, I sincerely hope not.

December 25th at 7:00am I fly into my destiny... or something like that.