Amman and Beyond

Monday

I wrote this on Monday, while the power was out and there was no way for me to post it. Enjoy!

After a quick trip to Houston and Panda Express at 8:30 in the morning (terrible idea), we boarded our flight to San Jose. Unfortunately, we couldn’t sit together since I bought my tickets a few weeks before Rayke. I was seated in row 25, him in row 9. A couple asked me if I would switch with one of them so they could sit together and I obliged since I got a window seat out of it. The couple sitting next to me were from Germany or maybe Finland; the husband spoke no english and the wife spoke perfect english. Anyways, none of that matters because I was asleep in two seconds and stayed that way the entire time. I woke up about ten minutes before our descent into San Jose…that’s when the turbulence started. It was bad, probably the worst I’ve felt in years. Couple that with having Panda Express at 8:30 a.m. and being dehydrated and….well…I just couldn’t handle it. I threw up. A lot. I spent the rest of the flight blowing in and out of those bags that they give you and then once the airplane doors were opened and the 80 degree air was blown in…yeah, I felt like shit. SJO is a pretty small airport, but half of it is windows. The second we looked outside, our view looked identical to the LOST island! It was insane. You could see smoke coming out of the active volcano not too far away and everything was so green. We poked around in some tourist shops for a bit and I learned that Costa Rica has lots and lots of handmade wooden stuff for your kitchen, like bowls, salad servers, tongs, cups, cutting boards, bread baskets, etc. I want all of them. We of course found coffee, some of the best in the world, for 5 dollars per pound. Lots of adorable keychains. Usually I’m not in to touristy kitsch but this stuff is adorable. Anyways, we went through immigration and I got in with zero questions asked. Apparently Rayke filled out his form wrong (it’s his first time out of the country, let’s give him a break) and his immigration officer didn’t speak English, so it took him forrrrever. I went through customs with no problems, which was unexpected since I had medication and a banana in my backpack…until I realized that I didn’t put my backpack through the scanner, just my suitcase. Oops? I exchanged 10 american dollars for Costa Rican Colones and we immediately found our group outside the airport. An awesome deaf-mute guy at the airport took our stuff to our van while Drew explained that some disabled people come down to the airport to carry peoples’ luggage and such to earn a few dollars. We met the other couple, Dawn and Josh (two Dawns!) and our driver, Omar. We stopped at a supermarket called mas X menos (more or less) for beer. Just beer, haha. Beer is three things here: 1. insanely cheap (40s are the equivalent of 2 dollars), 2. delicious (i’m picky with my beer), 3. EVERYWHERE. Equipped with our beers we headed out of San Jose to begin our 4 hour journey to Puerto Viejo, wayyyyy out on the Caribbean coast. We drove by a park that was teeming with people everywhere - families flying kites, kids on skateboards, girls gossiping, old couples talking. The way of life here is so insanely laid back. I fell asleep pretty soon and woke up in the middle of the rainforest. Seriously. We had to drive through a mountain within the rainforest on our way to PV and I was awetruck. It was just walls of green. Of course, it was raining. The awesome part was the waterfalls everywhere. People would just pull over on the side of the road and get out their jugs to fill up with water from the waterfalls before they continued on their journey. We stopped at this awesome outdoor restaurant/hut/thing so I could potty and it turned out to be a big buffet of food. I wasn’t hungry and still pretty nauseous, but Dawn, Drew and Josh had fried chicken (who knew?), rice and beans, and this purple…thing. I think they said it was beets and cream? I’m not sure but it was BRIGHT magenta, like borscht. There were enormous, ENORMOUS containers of pickled vegetables on every table which reminded me of my mom, who orders them every time we go to eat mexican food. There were apples and onions hanging from the ceiling and four kinds of hot sauce on every table. Everyone was insanely hospitable and one guy even carried an umbrella over my head when I got out of the van so I wouldn’t get wet! Afterwards we carried on and I basically passed out. I woke up just in time for it to be pitch black dark outside, on the worst roads you’ve ever seen, with our driver speeding and dodging pot holes like a fucking pro. It was sort of terrifying, so I just went back to sleep. We finally made it to PV and I was smitten at first sight. There’s one road that goes through the middle and it’s cluttered with little shops, bars, restaurants and street vendors. There are bars everywhere. After about a mile, everything cleared and to the left is just beach and lots of it. I mean, it was dark so we couldn’t see much but you could hear the waves. We finally got to our road and our home for the week and it is the cutest thing everrrrr! It’s essentially like a tree house. There’s a huge porch, a bottom level with an open room, kitchen and bathroom in the back and a bedroom on the other side. The stairs are basically suicidal and you have to hold on to a bunch of stuff to get up or down them. The upstairs is a big veranda for lack of better words. Two rooms, and a big huge deck. Our room has windows on either side that swing open and shut. It’s literally like being in the trees. In other words, amazing. We set our stuff down and got acquainted, then headed down to the local youth hostel for food and internet. It’s pretty much the coolest place on earth. You can rent a hammock for 10,000 colones (5 dollars) a ni ght. I immediately ordered a margarita, because why not? Passionfruit, nonetheless. I ordered the fish tacos which were out of this world- served with black beans, coconut rice and some kind of delicious aioli. We hung out for a while, I got to call my mom via Skype and we found out that the packers lost. By this time, I’m pretty much exhausted and playing with all the stray dogs (none of which are dangerous or feral or even starving…everybody feeds them and takes them in). When we got back, I brushed my teeth and washed my face (which feels a million times better after a day of flying) and went straight to bed. Under our pink mosquito net. I fell asleep right away. Then the rain started. And the wind. So loud that we had to close the windows (boo!). Around 7:30, it was still raining, so I figured we probably weren’t going to the beach. And here I am, at 12:09….and it’s still raining. The neighbor said that it never rains like this. I mean it is like torrential downpour and it’s been going on for at least 10 hours by now. Dawn and Drew told us that all the little lakes and creeks had dried up around here so it’s good to get this rain. I find it really relaxing, actually. I’m just laying up in our bed, watching the rain and listeneing to the rain and smelling the rain. I’m not sure what time the power went out, but it did. And it’s still out. Luckily, the stove is a gas stove. We had breakfast around 9:30 and it was delicious! Beans and rice (every meal), fresh pineapple (the best I’ve ever had), tortillas and plantains. Fun fact about Costa Rica - they don’t put salt or pepper on anything. I didn’t see any salt or pepper shakers at any of the places we had been. So I just covered everything in hot sauce. And it was delicious. I went upstairs to take a quick nap before we went to the monkey sanctuary (apparently, just throw on a dress and flip flops when it rains like this so you can just hang up the dress and hose off the flip flops). Rayke and a few others went “to town” to get some flip flops and found out that there are two power lines just laying in the middle of the road…so that’s probably where the power is, haha. Unfortunately, we can’t shower (no hot water), I can’t read my book (no light) and…well…not much actually. So we’re just playing beer pong. All day. I think. I’m already tired again, but who knows? Maybe the rain will let up, although from the sounds of it (really, really loud sounds of it), it’s going to stay around all day.

We’ve made plans to go ziplining through the jungle, go on an ATV tour through the rainforest, and snorkel. We’ll see what else we can fit in, since we only have Tuesday-Friday left (Saturday is all travel). I think I’d be content sitting on the beach for the rest of those days but we’ll see what’s in store. It’s insane that I went from sitting on the couch in my apartment to this, and I’ll be going from this to sitting in a classroom! Outrageous! But so far, so good. Costa Ricans are super nice and there’s lots of conveniences for Americans - they use the same power outlets (no adaptors), everyone takes american dollars (no fear of getting ripped off), a lot of places even take our credit cards (don’t need to carry cash) and there’s people from all over the place everywhere. I hear lots of cheering, I think that means somebody scored in beer pong. My turn!