I've been meaning to write something about day-to-day life in Ciudad Colon/ UPEACE but the weekends just keep rolling round and bring with them more crazy travels.
Last Friday we finished our classes at 12.30 and Marion (a French version of Katharina F.) and I jumped on the bus and headed to San Jose aiming to head on for more adventures beyond. We caught a 4 hour bus to a town called Quepos which is South-West of San Jose, on the Pacific coast. We stopped there that night and escaped the torrential rain in a Caribbean/Mexican restaurant where I had enchiladas and we drank delicious cocktails (my first Costa Rican White Russian- I raised it in Shona's honour).
Early next morning we took another bus for 30 mins to Manuel Antonio which is a little village on the coast and on the edge of a beautiful national park. We got off the bus too soon but the corrective taxi-ride was broken by an impromptu stop at the side of the road because there above us were a group of red-howler monkeys. I had a staring contest with one who had her tiny baby wrapped underneath her, she was about 2m away and bold as anything. I blinked first.
Once we'd dumped our bags we found a great guide and headed into the park. Gustavo our guide had a telescope thing so we got to see loads of tiny bugs, frogs and lizards really close up, including a lizard which he didn't have an English name for, but in Spanish it was Dinosaurio! I managed to take lots of photos using the telescope and my SLR, you can see my budding wildlife photography attempts here: http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=2491814&id=199709787&ref=mf
Suddenly we spotted a group in front of us who had stopped in their tracks and were pointing into the canopy- there in the trees were about 5 white-faced monkeys swinging and running in the trees. It was amazing to see them so close... little did I know we'd soon get a lot closer.
The thing that made me happiest though was that we saw four sloths (two of which were 'reproduciendo' as Gustavo delicately put it- everything you'd imagine about sloth-sex seemed to be about right!) Our attention was diverted from the lethargic lotharios by a group of white-faced monkey that were suddenly walking down a wire, down to the beach right next to everyone. We followed them down to the most beautiful beach in this little cove. There the monkeys tried their best to steal everyone's food and generally made mischief. I'm no good at judging the size of crowds,but I'd say there were around seventeen million of them. They were soon joined by some fearless raccoons who wouldn't leave people's bags even when they were being whipped with towels.
It was a strange experience sunbathing with one eye open looking out for animal thieves. Swimming in the sea was even worse, it was gloriously warm and calm but we kept having to run out to chase off the monkeys with sticks. Brilliant.
That evening we climbed a hill and found what has to be one of my favourite bars in the world. There on the top of the hill was this 1954 Fairchild C-123 (a massive fighter plane to the lay-person). It had been sold by the US to the Nicaraguan Contras in the 80s but had some how ended up in San Jose airport where it was bought for $3000 shipped piece by piece to Manuel Antonio and then made into a bar! So there we sat: on the top of a huge hill, amazing views out over the bay, next to an abandoned fighter-jet/bar, eating nachos, sipping yet more cocktails and watching the sunset. It was all we could do to not just keep saying 'How AMAZING is this!?' over and over again.
Sunday involved a bus journey back, an attempt to write some essays (researching the English Defence League is one way to bring your mood down). Then in the evening our Vice Rector Amr (from Eygpt. He is a total legend- soooo many brilliant stories) had invited us all to come and break fast with him as it is Ramadan. About 80 people turned up with pots of food and treats and we met at Amr's friend's house. Luckily Amr's friend happens to be a millionaire with a huge ranch and lovely pool-house/bar which is perfect for housing a load of greedy students. I obviously faux-pas'd by sitting down and immediately scoffing the bread on the table right before Amr announced we'd all now symbolically break the fast by eating dates.Anyway soon we were all tucking in and chatting. In my Mrs Doyle way I spent most of the night forcing cake on the poor guys who'd just arrived from Africa and really didn't want any cake, but got to hear some interesting debate on the idea of an Africa Union along the way.
So another action-packed, wildlife-club-pioneering weekend. Hopefully next weekend I'll be in Nigeria (either that or crying at the Nigerian embassy). Pura Vida!
Lessons learnt:
Have had some great lunchtime chats- everyone here has soooo many interesting stories. One lunchtime involved hearing about the South Korean and Bolivian military services (neither sounds that fun) another went from one girl explaining Solomn's Ring, a physics phenomenon, to discussing the welcoming traditions of Inuits.
If you put food in front of me, even if part of me knows I'm meant to be respecting religious practices, I will still eat it. This is probably why I was never an altar girl.
Sloths are the weirdest looking things in the world, but they still get lucky now and then.
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