I thought I wouldn't have much to do this weekend, but oh boy, things can definitely change in the blink of an eye. It's a three-day weekend here in Costa Rica due to Independence Day; it's the 200th anniversary of Costa Rican independence. My original plan was to spend a day exploring Heredia, a day wandering San Jose and maybe hitting up Chinatown, and another day lounging and studying at home. I mentioned these plans to my Mama Tica while our neighbor Don Jose was over, and Jose exclaimed, "Don't go to San Jose! It's ugly and dangerous."
Don Jose lives down the street and he helped pick me up from the airport with Papa Tico. He also comes over almost every afternoon to teach classes remotely, probably because we have better wifi. We had bonded over our love for nature and he had painstakingly showed me every picture from his most recent trip to Tortuguero. Every. Picture. From blurry pictures of nothing, to close-up selfies of his unsmiling visage, sharing these pictures on his tiny, cracked phone screen reminded me that no family is complete without that funky uncle to always keeps you entertained. Don Jose offered to take me and my host sister Mia to see various vistas around Heredia and I asked if we could maybe visit the Catarata de la Paz, a nearby waterfall that is a hot spot for locals and visiting tourists. "Don't tell your school," says Papa Tico, "but going with Don Jose is probably going to be a lot cheaper than going with their tour." Oh hell yeah, traveling with friends and for cheaper, count me in!
So Sunday morning, Don Jose arrives in his old clunker to pick up Mia and me. "I'll give you the complete tour, don't worry!" He was 100% not joking. As we put-putted our way up the steep, windy mountain roads, Don Jose would slow down at every field, flower, or vista and exclaim "Mira, mira!", "Look, look!" As a stressmuffin, I could barely enjoy the view from my spot sunken deep in the back seat as the number of cars held captive behind us began to accumulate. At one point, a truck hauled ass to pass us. "Don't worry, " Don Jose reassured us, "we are tourists today." I didn't need to convert 15 km/hr into mph to understand the road rage that was brewing behind us.
After a few scattered episodes of honking and re-enactments of fast and furious that occurred around us, as well as a brief breaking and entering into a coffee field so we could see coffee beans on the plant, we finally arrived at the waterfall. Usually, entry tickets to the waterfall are $48 per person, however, Don Jose took us to the local viewing site where we could enjoy the sight of the fall as it enters the creek below for free.
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| La Catara de la Paz |
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| Mia, Don Jose, and me enjoying the view from behind the waterfall |
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| Mia and our pork and elote skewers, about $1.50 each |
On our way back home, Don Jose pulled over at what appeared to be a random restaurant by the side of the road. There was a little wooden gazebo built overlooking the valley and we were astounded by this amazing view.
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| Straight out of Jurassic Park |
Of course pictures can never capture the magnitude of the real deal, but I will never forget the feeling of peering down into this verdant landscape while watching the wind whip the wisps of cloud around as easily as it did the errant strands of my hair.
Once we arrived home, we asked Don Jose how much we owed him for this day of adventure. Homeboy whips out his uber app and calculates how much it would have cost to travel to the waterfall. So for a whole day of driving and adventuring, all he wanted was $40 and the price of a beer. (The cost for the school trip is closer to $95) Sign me up for the next trip with Don Jose!
There's no school today, so I'm spending the morning enjoying a Costa Rican latte at a local cafe. I'm living my best exchange student life as I work on my blog and enjoy my latte with a small slice of cake. Tonight, I plan to make picadillo for the family. (They made me Costa Rican picadillo on my first day so I wanted to share the Mexican version with them...also it's hard to find Asian ingredients here to make Chinese food.) Hopefully they like it, but I have no qualms about finishing the whole pot by myself in this rainy weather.
Looking forward to another weak of learnage!
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