BootsnAll Travel Network



ALMA

June 13th, 2008

so like two weeks ago a large storm passed by.  Apparently san jose was like a warzone and the roads were like a four wheel drive obstacle coarse.  Power lines and trees down left and right. We went without electricy and water for a couple of days and the most of the roads were basically washed away.  There was this one place 10 minutes walking distance from the ranch where the whole road washed away and they just dug a new road into the hillside. it was pretty sweet.  the roads have been really bad so the bus couldn´t get through. its only just started coming all the way to mastatal a few days ago-

Alot of people are leaving the ranch. so lowri and i are one of the oldest people at the ranch and the new interns ask us questions and expect us to know the answers.  its a bit nice and a bit intimidating.  As of 4 weeks ago, i have become the bread baking master of the ranch and everyone ask me questions about the ranch and expect me to know the answer.. its okay cause i guess i´m the most qualified for the job… lol..

you guys should mail me stuf because i like getting mail and because i will be mailing youguys stuff because its alot easier than riding on a bus for 2 hours one way to use the internet.. thats like drive to san jose to use the internet and then driving back.. in a ford focus with lets say 10 people… hmm… sounds about right….

rancho mastatal

Apdo 185-6000

Puriscal, San Jose

Costa Rica

dont send anything large or i will never get it…

miss you guys muchos and i would like to hear more about whats going on

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Quickie

May 10th, 2008

so quick update on my status

I´m alive, left for the ranch last saturday… or maybe the saturday for that.. i´m alive.. its amazing at the ranch… i mean amazing… like i poop looking into the rainforest.. lol… for real.. I´m staying in the hankey house which is this house that is over hanging a cliff-hill into the jungle and is basically open to the elements… everything is green and the food is amazing.. all vegetarian but man i think i´n going to be 300lbs by the time i come home… its a good thing that i decided to come to the ranch because i found out the my atm card doesnt work and i barely had enough money for my bus fare to the ranch… haha… all is good… verything happens for a reason.  Happy birthday jon, carrie, and george.. I can´t get the the internet again until junish… i really don´t want to leave the ranch… lol… two of the volunteers here bought land on the east coast of costa rica and both plan to live here… o yeah there are like 16 students from university of washington at the ranch… they are pretty chill but to bad for them becasue they have a whole bunch of work to do all the time while i lounge around reading books in hammocks and listening to the rain.  it rains basically every afternoon but the thunder is amazing.  its loud.. like i can feel it loud.. i´m glad to be at the ranch and hope to be able to come back soon.  i miss you guys tho… i cant wait to see you guys in september.

so the croc didn´t eat me… but i havent played with jack yet… you practicing_;:_Ѩ_(question mark can´t me found)

yeah for activities coordinators.. i want to have a field day… like relay races ect.  we´re having one with the community on sunday…

jess you really must have alot of time on your hands because your planning my schedule 2 months ahead of time… lol… thanks sooo much..

samantha get a sister yet

am I homeless when i return

kris feel better.. i´m keeping you in my thought… it all works out in the end… where the hell is jacque

peace out your guys

dont expect another update until junish…. 4 hours on a bus for 7 hours in town is only worth it if i have a craving

miss you guys muchos

kris… I´m going to be in san jose june 28 and july 4, we can get dinner or lunch.. i´m staying in costa rica backpackers .

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Tortuguero Expanded

April 25th, 2008

I decided that I would chill and let myself sleep in today but do you know what time I woke up? 7;15am! How depressing but it is all good because then I have time to upload the but load of pictures I´ve taken of Tortuguero. Oh. but more on last night. I went to a cafe and watched a band play. It was pretty sweet and I enjoyed watching at the people ¨skank¨which is what I´m going to asuming they would do the reggee music. This kid outside just ate like three cup of noodle. I think he´s on a stricter budget then I am. Maybe I should have the plato de dia again today or the pinto gallo. I can at least tell that rice and beans are going to be eaten. YAY! Is rice suppose to be crunchy in costa rica? Al Dente? because all the rice I´ve had so far was “al dente”

Back to Tortuguero

So the bus picks me up and we go around town to pick up everyone else for the tour. I end up sitting next to this lady that grew up in new york but moved to mexico after college. She´s lived in mexico for 35 years and was a university english teacher. Well she kept talking and talking and the only thing that was interesting about her talks was food. Is it strange that I have a craving for something that is so out there? I haven´t even had it… haha… you want to know what it is? well it´ll gross some of you out for sure. There grasshoppers and ant larvae. They are first blanched to remove the bitterness, then dried of excess water, then they are fried in a out pan of oil, and then are seasoned with limon, salt, garlic powder, and chili powder. They turn out to be these crunchy little bits of goodness. man, i wants some now. She says that they HAVE to be CRUNCHY or else they aren´t that good. Something else I remember her saying is that if you rub so garlic on a ant or spider bite the reacton will significantly be reduced. I´ll try that next time I´m at home.

So were driving in the bus… la da da…. we stop for breakfast… eggs and toast and some nasty yellow fruit drink that is grainy and thick and things get stuck in between my teeth… yum….

drive somemore and we stop at this tropical garden where we see monkeys, flowers, birds, and a frog. But they weren´t in the wild so it wasn´t as inpressing as Tortuguero. The flowers were pretty bad ass though. how come I can´t get away from the train anywhere? its honking its horn as it passes by… i think if you can hear the train you deserved to be hit… I´m just kidding– well back to my story which really isn´t a story but a list of things I did and saw.

After driving some more we pass through a banana plantation (we the tourist think that dole, del monte, and chaquita are the main rulers of the land) The companies pay the workers $300 a month and provide the workers homes and schools for their children.

We stopped off at a processing plant to see how they process the bananas. unlike other countries, this plantation hang there bananas on line and the pull the banana to the plant.

There were these HUGE beetles at the plant. I meant HUGE.

So we get to the dock where they pick us up for part of our boat tour which is really nice. We ride through the canals to get to Torguguero. Eventually I start drifting off because it is so nice and we are going so fast that I have to squint my eyes. Why should I squint when I can just close them? hence the dosing off aspect of the trip.

I get dropped off in the city of Tortuguero which is a poor city but my room is amazing because I get a double bed and my own shower. But I later found out the my bed smells. It smells like when you wash your cloths and leave them in the washer too long and they get that mildewy smell. yea.. i think this smell is because this place is alot more humid than the city and the stuff takes longer to dry… whatever makes me feel better.. right?

we then I meet up with the rest of the group at 3pm and we go to the turtle musem. Looked around and learned. Quite interesting stuff.

Went back to the town and watched the towns soccer game and got dinner. casada con pollo de caribeno. it was very good and was less than $4. YAY

Next day, we sort of go on a 2 hour jungle safari where we try to find creatures of the jungle. We saw croc, caimen, sloths (two toed, three toed), spider monkey, howler monkey, white face monkey, jesus crist lizard, lizards, iguana, birds, and alot more.turtle

The day ended with a trek through the jungle where cows were roaming on the beach. Fun times

The bus ride was a long bumpy ride because half of the way back was a gravel road.

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tired

April 24th, 2008

I´m tired but I just got back from Tortuguero.  It was amazing, more about that later. 

I get free interent at the hostel I´m staying at in San Jose.  My ¨homebase¨ as I´m calling it right now. 

Jess if you don´t approve of m&ms for breakfast then you sure won´t approve of what I had to eat today.  it consist of water, 2 snicker ice cream bars, 1 banana, 1 luna bar (thanks jess, i sort of tasted like alcohol tho) and imperial. 

I´ll tell you guys more about my tortuguero adventure tommorow. 

peace out

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Tortuguero

April 23rd, 2008

So its like 5:45am right now and I´m waiting for my pick up for Tortuguero national park which is ¨rainforest at its best¨

I´m hungry but breakfast will be served at 7am.. i think i´m going to get m&ms to get me to 7am

ziplining was fun but i really sucked at stopping at the beginning of the course which meant I was going really fast and the guides would have to take the blunt of the force so that I didn´t run into the tree.  After a while I just stopped a little a head of time and basically gave up on the one handed stop.  Just pulled myself up with both hands.  don´t worry I have many pictures that won´t be onlince because I bought a Cd thing but the computers here don´t have a cd drive.

Peace out

anything interesting happening so far? How is everyone?

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¿Donde esta aqui?

April 22nd, 2008

So… I was looking at the ticket I reserved at ticabus and found out that is wasn´t what I wanted at all because it left at like 2am and dropped me off in cities that I´m not familiar with at 11pm. NOT IDEAL. So I decided last night that I´m going to spend my time in Costa Rica, so that I won´t be rushed (chris and suggestions) I bought a ticket to managua for june 29 through july 4 because i need to get out of the country because I´m going to be there for more than 90 days. I´m planning on going to Granada.

So what I did today because it was so interesting (Insert Sarcasm)

I woke up at 9am… got in a taxi… nice old man.. told me I was pretty.. I think becasue when I thought he was refering to the city I thought I was talking about.. he said no. man these taxi drivers really to talk in spanish… and really fast too… I found out the if I repeat the most important part of their sentence with conviction they think that I know what I´m talking about… ie.

blah blah blah musica?

Musica. si… then they think that I know what I´m talking about and I have no idea what I agreed to. it could have been ¨Do you like music?¨ or ¨If you play music to the cat over there, it will die?¨ oh well. its better than que? or no say? I don´t even know what no say? means. I´m under the assumption that it mean I don´t know.

Then I got to the ticabus and arrange my bus ticket. The agent that handling me didn´t speak any english at all but there was this nice old american that worked there. So I got my ticket and I asked the old man how to get to mercado centro. So I follow his directions and he said 18 blocks which was fine and all. So I start walking and walking and I´m passing all these colorful painted cows which were pretty sweet. And theres two that vegetarians would like(pictures soon) Stopped to get some food from a bakery and I tried to ask the lady which was her favorites. She didn´t understand at all cause I was standing next to the cookies and then she said something and I repeated the one word I remembered from her sentence and then she points me to the opposite side of the display case. I must have repeated savory bread because I have to choices of queso, pollo, and hot dog. I again ask her what is her favorite but no good. she repeats all my choices. I choose queso because I don´t really feel like meat. Bad decision because it tasted like crap. continue walking. this whole time I´m walking on cobble stone and not asidewalk but its between two shopping streets. Well, I keep walking and I´m beginning to walk in a neighborhood which is strange, I ask someone ¨donde esta aqui?¨ he points to a spot on my map. Apparently I overshot by like 18 blocks. So i turn around and walk back. I went to the museo de oso which was kool and air conditioned (it´s really not that hot here) I learnt alot about costa rican culture and their currancy, gold, and young artist now. I got to the mercado and get plato de dia which is the old thing I can read and say on the menu. It had rice, beans, potatos, carrots, cole slaw , chicken. So I meet up with some people at my hostel and they are really chill. Too bad they won´t be hanging out with me because one is going to new zealand tommorow and the other people are going elsewhere and I´m going ziplining tommorow.

well back to my story, I walked around town some more and thenI decided to go back to the hostel. lets just day that I got lost a few times and the sentence ¨donde esta aqui¨was used a couple of times its all good because I found the place with little to no problem when I remembered my hostel is next to the supreme court which is a huge building compared to the other buildings.

went on a little night adventure with new friend from new york and went to look for smoothies for her. came back at 8ish and listened to great stories that a by the girl that leaves for new zealand. They were amazing stories… lol.. good times..

Well I´m ziplining tommorow and plan on taking a 3day tour to Turtug…. I´ll get back to you guys about the name..

I miss you guys alot!!!

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1st day

April 20th, 2008

So, I haven´t slept in like 48 hours and my head is killing me.  LAX and Houston were amazingly easy for me to navigate and I even made a friend during the lay over of the two flights.

I arrive in Costa Rica and get through customs and immigration with no problem.  Now I have to get to my hostel via taxi.  Waved down a city taxi which are red and have yellow triangles on the side of the door.  Arrange for the taxi to take me to the hostel for $18.  I didn´t bargin but the lady that lives in CR said that is what it would cost so I don´t feel so bad.  I get checked in and I get myself settled.  yada yada ya.. Well eventually I get bored and want to get out of the city as soon as possible so I take another taxi to ticabus agency where I don´t have enough money to buy the ticket but I made reservations and will buy it tommorow.  Lets just say I would have been lost without the kind guy that was chillin at the agency waiting for his girlfriend, because my conversation with the agent went something like this

Hola

hola

blah blah blah…

ticket to Guatemala?

managua?

no… Guatemaaa…. que?

kind guy steps in… let me help you out

saved me alot of time and explaining because I didn´t have the money to pay for the ticket so he talked the guy into giving me a temporay ticket for one day, so I have to go back tommorow.

kind guy get me a cab too… since this kind guy choose this guy and I didn´t get too many wierd vibes, I went with the guy to take me back to the hostel…

the guy is a big guy with a gut and he leads me to a BLUE car.  I´m thinking… I hope I don´t die… but the guy is nice.. so I go (i know my mom is freaking out right about now, but I thought “I hope I don´t die” in every taxi I entered… so don´t worry) This guy is really friendly and is talking in spanish and I try to talk to him the best I can.  I think I told him I was sad when I meant that I was tired.   But he says his name is albeto but I can call him beto.  I know this because he took the piece of paper in my hand and wrote down his number and name… for me to call him for beers later… i manage to tell him I just got in today and I am tired. I get dropped off at the hostel in one piece and look I even made a new friend.. ;D joy… I´m just resting now and planning my day tommorow.

Tommorow planning to go to central san jose and then on tuesday I take ticabus for my 2.5 day ride to Guatemala

not bad for the first day.

I even took a shower.  The signs say they have hot water but THEY LIE cause all I got was cold water and even colder water… my shower was very quick

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Packing List

April 16th, 2008

“He who would travel happily must travel light.”  -Antoine de Saint Exupéry

So with that said, I will be traveling moderately happy because I’m traveling quite light.

My packing list includes
Guide book
Book
Documents
Cash
Credit cards

Cloths kit
2x bra
2x bandanas
2x sarong  
2x shirts
2x pants
1x boardshort
1x sleeping shorts
5x undies
2x socks
2x long shirt
1x light weight w/p fleece jacket
1x hat
1x pair shoe
1x flip flop
1x bikini

Miscellaneous kit
– Plastic bags
– String/ rope/ cloths line
– Journal/ pens
– Ear plugs 
– Glasses
– Safety pins/ sewing kit
– Water bottles
– watch
– Headlamp
– Digital camera and stuff
– ipod/ charger
– duck tape

Toiletry kit

-tooth paste
-tooth brush
-soap box
-shampoo/conditioner/soap
-deodorant
-feminine products
-comb
-hair ties
-lotion/sun screen
-chapstick
-baby wipes
– tweezer
-razor

Medications/ First aid
-band-aids
-Neosporin
-alcohol wipes
-anti-itch medicine
-Advil 
-Pepto-Biamol
– Multi vitamins

 So everything  I have on my packing list fits in one bag.

 I plan on doing my laundry every night and buying things as I need them.  Forgot to mention that I’m bringing jack and a pack of playing cards to keep me company.  I’m going to rock jack when I get back!!! So WERC peeps better start practicing…    

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6 days left

April 14th, 2008

San Francisco and New Mexico were great learning experiences. I learned that I need to pay attention to the little important details on the tickets and in the terminals. On my flight to San Francisco, I entered the wrong terminal because I wasn’t paying attention to my gate number and I just went through the security station next to where I got my ticket. All was good because I just had to take a creepy underground pathway from the wrong terminal to the correct one. This wasn’t dark and damp creepy either, it was mental hospital white creepy which I think was a thousand times worse. Security was also a nuisance to get through mainly because I had two backpacks with me and I had a lot of things to take off. All n’ All I had three cubby things with my stuff in it and two backpacks to collect after I passed through security. Imagine me with a dumbfounded look on my face trying to figure out how to get all my stuff at one time and move to the side of the building. Also imagine all my stuff taking up 7 ft of room on the belt and a line forming behind me. Oh joy… I decided my best option was to just shove all my electronics in my backpack, swing my packs over my shoulder, and scoop up all my cloths (jackets, belts, shoes) I was a mess; my feet were cold, my pants were sagging, I was unstable with all the stuff unevenly distributed in my arms and on my back, the first decent spot I found that was out of everyones way I drop my stuff and got dressed and packed. Final learning experience from SF was riding the BART. Lets just say I need to pay attention to detail. My destination was Walnut Creek, I get down the escalators and look at the signs. One says “Millbrae/SFO” and the other says “East Bay”. And what is waiting on the East Bay side? BART. So? I hopped on and that was that. But it really wasn’t because I ended up in Pleasanton instead of Walnut Creek. It’s all good because I wonderful cousins gave me a ride from the Pleasanton station.

New Mexico wasn’t much of a travel learning experience for me but it was quite fun and entertaining. Oh, actually I learned to keep a form of identification on me at all times.

Things I learned:

1. Pay attention to gate numbers

2. Pay attention to station signs and maps

3. Dress and pack simply because I will make traveling easier

4. Always have a form of identification on you

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New Blog

March 25th, 2008

So, this is my new blog because I forgot the user name to my old one. Roughly one month until I depart for San Jose, Costa Rica and I’m really excited. During that time, a trip to San Francisco and a trip to New Mexico will keep me occupied. I’m weening myself off of driving by flying to San Francisco (also gas and parking are killers) and then catching a ride back to SLO with my friend Rex. This might be the first time that I’m taking pubic transportation in a city I’m not familiar with, GO ME!!! This experience should be interesting…

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