Reminiscing...

I was pretty bored today, so I decided to play around with Google Earth a little. I looked up all the places I visited during the trip to Costa Rica. Trying to remember all the fun things I did while I was there. Such a beautiful country it is. If you ever get a chance to go there, don't pass it up. If your a nature lover, then it is a must. Hiking, rafting, bird watching... its an incredible experience. Sure I wasn't too optimistic after my first day in San Jose, in fact I still stand by my opinion about the big city. Its no fun. Get out into the mountains. Experience the fresh air, unique wildlife, and environment. I will gladly go again. This time more prepared with a good pair of hiking shoes, binoculars for the beautiful birds, and better rain gear for those long, wet, rainy hikes.

The hotels I stayed at were all pretty nice. Nothing high-class or 5 star, but hey, if your going into a rain forest, you shouldn't expect too much. All the hotels we stayed in were air conditioned, clean, and had great food. One of them even resembled Taiwanese styled construction, which was significant to me because it made me realize just how much influence Taiwanese people had in this country. As we drove through different cities, we would see various establishments with Chinese symbols at their gates. None of these establishments were small by any means. There were Taiwanese churches, restaurants, and even social clubs. It was really interesting to see these things that would usually be pretty alien in a Latin American country.

The people of Costa Rica all seemed pretty nice, and well mannered. Its almost as if American culture has not influenced them much. Comparing the Hispanics of Miami, FL, to the citizens of Costa Rica, is like oil and water. Even their language reflected this. Its still Spanish, but vocabulary-wise there were some differences. The term Pura Vida is still stuck in my head. Literally translated as Pure Life, the Costa Ricans use it the same we may use "Awesome". Whenever we say "Gracias" to someone, they respond with "Muchos Gustos" which seemed a lot more proper than the Cuban "Denada" which means literally as "Nothing". Our tour guides were examples of perfect gentlemen, and you can tell that they loved their job. We all could see it in their eyes. They all had this sparkle in their eyes as they explained to us the various cultural aspects of their country. Their knowledge was also top notch. They had an answer for almost any question we had. What suprised me the most was without a doubt, their English. Compared to the English speaking immigrants of Miami, FL, our tour guides only had English lessons in high school, and a year or two in college. They have better English than probably most of the population in Miami. The accent is still there, but considering that we were in a Spanish speaking country, it was exceptionally good even by American standards. Hear that Miami? Thats called English. Not you fresh off the boat Spanglish.

Overall the trip to Costa Rica was an absolute joy. My weight gain of 10 lbs over the Winter break is proof of that. So are the 1,000 pictures I took. I would even say this trip was better than the Alaskan cruise. Actually, yes, it was. Would I go back? You betcha.

Pura Vida,
S.H.T.

Costa Rica: Day 1

So this has been a pretty interesting trip so far. Arrived here about 9 am Costa Rica time, which is 10 am Miami time. Was pretty tired from the lack of sleep. But I was excited to start off my first day in San Jose.
First thing I noticed about San Jose was its remarkable resemblence to Taiwan. Although its a lot dirtier than Taiwan, but the cars, plants, and weather all seemed really familiar and deja vu like.
Our first day involved a city tour. We went to a couple of museums, a catholic church, and a gift shop that sold gold charms that were created to be like the ones made by the natives.
First thing I noticed was the complete lack of culture this country has. Most of it involves war and dictatorship. Some rebellions and the complete destruction of the native tribes...pretty much what the Spaniards did wherever they went.
Second thing was the crappy tourism of this city which has many tourist traps like restaurants and gift shops.
The tour I took almost seemed like it was meant to lead you into buying little gold figures of frogs. The tour basically ended at that location, which makes sense, but it was just so obvious that it almost seemed like a scheme to cheat you.
Another tourist trap was the restuarants. The hotel restaurant overcharged you on basically everything. The restaurant down the street over charges on Italian food, and opens up a bottle of water instead of just good ole water from the tap. Our dinner bill came out to almost $300 because instead of charging for how many appetizers we got, they charged us by the person, which made the total of 3 appetizers, equal to $100. Anyways, I stole the bottle of water we had and here I am, back at the hotel.
Anyways, more tomorrow.

Getan mit Schule!

Done with school! After a hard week of studying and test taking, today I have finished with Fall 2007. Bring on 2008!
Not much else to say except that I'm glad its done. Its been a good semester, and I'm hoping my grades show it.
On December 22nd I'll be heading to Costa Rica, and exploring some other countries in Central America for 6 days. Look forward to many pictures and adventures about treks into rain forests and volcanoes! Hopefully I don't fall into the volcano or get lost in the rain forest, so there will be an immediate post as soon as I return!