Hola Amigos.
I am finally on a computer and I can start documenting some of the stupid things I have done up until now. San Francisco was an absolute blast, but not what I was thinking. It has been so odd to be in America. I don’t know if it was the jetlag or just being overwhelmed that I was in another country but the whole thing felt like one of my lucid and ordered dreams that I often get. Sandra has pretty much explained the whole San Fran thing so I will get to the Costa Rican bit.
We arrived after a day of long traveling and waiting at airports that would make even the most sane person want to jump up and scream at the stewardesses and then get shot by a itchy trigger finger, Taser wielding air guard who looks like they eat their babies. We arrived in Costa Rica, looking at all the other passengers wondering whether they are on our course or whether they are just some American Jocks who are here to party. I think Costa Rica is like Bali for Americans – cheap beer and great country.
We were met by Courtney who is the student administrator and Danny who is our fearless leader and told to sit for a while until another CRROBer came flying in. Initially I though Danny was too quiet and knew un porcito ingles. This is not the case but my initial reaction was oh shit. We Waited with Shauna (who was on our plane) and Sandra quizzed both Courtney and Danny with more questions than I think is possible to answer, but it is the best Icebreaker. When Evan arrived we drove through the city streets of San Jose and climbed the mountains of Tres Rios and found our base camp.
Little bit of geographical info, San Jose is surrounded by muchos mountains and is in the central valley. It is super green and the streets do not smell too bad. There is rubbish all around but it is still not super untidy. I thought that San Fran smelt worse than San Jose.
When we arrived at base camp, we took a “Driveway” to our camp that was pretty much a 90 degree downward slope. I thought we were driving off a cliff. I have walked up the driveway a few times now and still lose my breath. Steep Steep hill. When we got out of the bus, we met most of our fellow campers. I am saying this with the benefit of hindsight but most of the group are really cool people. Some are not and I will spend a blog on what they are like soon enough. After we met all of the people, we jumped into bunk beds and waited for the next day.
I basically have another 20 minutes before cooking class but I hope to Hades that I will jump on the computer tomorrow so I can journal or trekking over the last 10 days.
At the moment we are in the academic section of the course and that is turning out to be ok. I will be trying to fit as much Espanol as possible into my blogs. This is for two reasons:
Una – I get to practice
Dos – I get to sound like a total wanker and get away with it.
Love you all and I am starting to miss you.
Glen
