Heading out East!

Here I go on another impromptu adventure!

With my boss on vacation next week, I'm taking my "optional" vacation and have decided to do something off the beaten trail...I'm going Wwoofing in Quebec! Probably most of you haven't heard of the term, Wwoofing stands for "Willing Workers on Organic Farms" or "World Wide Orientation on Organic Farms", basically the idea is that you go, and in exchange for free room and board, you help out with farm stuff for about 6 hours per day.

I'm pretty darn excited, but nervous too - first off I've never done anything of this sort before, and second, it'll all be done in French! I've definitely set myself up for a challenge.

I'm leaving tomorrow, as usual though I'm not quite packed. I'm pretty sure I have a packing deficiency, where no matter what time I have, I always have to pack late at night on the day before I'm supposed to go. Still, I'm amazed at how much I've been able to fit into my backpack - a sleeping bag and a blanket on top of clothes for 10 days, and of course, quite a few books! I'm looking forward to getting away from the computer for a while, but I will be taking lots of pictures and I've got a paper journal with me so I'll be able to make a full report later. In the mean time, you could check out the blog of my hosts and look at all the pretty pictures of the farm in the archives!

I'll be hitching a ride with David and Adam to Ottawa tomorrow, and then tomorrow night I'll meet my host and he'll drive me the rest of the way. Then a week on the farm, and the weekend with Judy in Montreal before heading home.

A plus tot!

Mexico, check! ;)

I'm rather sad that I have no cause to post real travel entries for the coming months, but nonetheless happy to have an excuse to post something here!

The money I loaned to a group of small business owners in the Dominican Republic was repayed on schedule, and since there weren't any posted businesses in need for the Dominican, I moved it into Mexico ;) It's now helping a group of women increase stock in their small grocery stores. $25 can sure get around!

I'm always plugging Kiva in real life, so here's a little more information on what is, in my humble opinion, the best thing on the web!



Kiva.org allows individuals to make $25 loans to low-income entrepreneurs in the developing world (microfinance). By doing so, individuals like you provide affordable working capital for the poor (money to buy a sewing machine, livestock, etc.), empowering them to earn their way out of poverty.

Photos!

Here are some links to photos on the trip (as more people upload their photos, I'll update the list here)!

My Photos (complete)
Adam's Photos (100 of his favourite ones)
Greg's Photos (complete)
Suzanne & Neils (complete)

The video, including the Costa Rican Shower Game are in the works, I'll be sure to keep you posted.

From the top of a Mountain

At on Sunday at 7:25am, Greg walked me down to the hotel reception to wait for the "bus" (van) only to find that it was also 20 minutes early, and that I was the only passenger on it! The driver, Wilbert, was thrilled that I spoke Spanish, I sat up in the front seat with him and we chatted the whole way about anything and everything, and even showed each other our drivers licenses (he had about 5 of them, they're very specific). We stopped about an hour in and I bought him breakfast as a crazy sounding idea popped into his head. He turned to me and asked "quieres conducir?"

Now me driving wouldn't ordinarily be a crazy idea except that (a) this is Costa Rica where there are pretty much no rules of the road, (b) I had never driven stick before in my life. In fact, even after asking repeatedly, my dad still won't teach me because he says I'll wreck his car, and (c) Wilbert would be teaching me in Spanish, so my frequent habit of smiling and nodding when I don't understand could quite possibly spell disaster. Oh dear. He kept insisting, so I convinced him to turn onto a dirt road devoid of anything, to decrease my chances of killing something. You know what? It wasn't that bad, especially after he moved my seat forward after I explained that the clutch was "muy lejos."

Eventually we got to a pitstop that all of the Interbuses use, and I switched into another bus. The second driver was amazing as well, and offered to call my friend Miles so that we'd know exactly where to meet. Lucky we did, because otherwise he would have dropped me off 7 km away from the right place which would have meant a looooong walk.

Spending the last couple of days with Miles and his parents was a really nice way to end the trip. Their farm is absolutely surreal...on top of a mountain with an amazing view of Gulf of Nicoya and the whole world. Gappers, you'll be glad to know that there are people out there who welcome stray dogs, they had three of them, along with two cats, three chickens, and one crazy rooster. It is an amazing way to live, and they grow most of what they eat - cucumbers, tomatoes, sugar cane (the juice is really sweet), mangoes, lemons, tangerines, peppers and many more fruits that I can't even recall the name of.


View from the house...imagine waking up to this every morning.

At night when it got dark, we went onto Google Earth and showed each other the aerial views of our mountain/suburb, turned on his keyboard and, and sang along to each other playing classical and pop music. It really hit home just then, how people living completely opposite lives can share so many similarities...I would never have believed it before.

The next morning before I took the bus back to San Jose and the plane ride home, we hopped onto his motorcycle and rode to to a mirador, a viewpoint, with a small structure housing a battered couch. We sat for a few minutes, kicked our feet, and stared out at the amazing view.


Miles on his motorcycle.

Waves in many senses

I'm sitting comfortable on my bed at the Mono Azul Hotel, my back against a mesh window and a gentle breeze falling across my face from the ceiling fan. Outside, it is dark already and the rain is pouring down, it feels somewhat appropriate.

Today was the last day of the tour, most of the group leaving on either the noon or the 5pm bus back to San Jose. We made sure that we were at the hotel to see them off and it was really hard. Every time I say goodbye, I feel the weight of all of the other goodbyes in my life pressing down. This goodbye felt a lot like the goodbye in Trois-Pistoles where a big group of people get close in such a short time, and share something magical together. I can honestly say that I liked and spent time with every single person in the group. I really will miss them.


Adam films Laura and Anna talking about the trip before they leave for San José
Now we are just six, the "Fantasic Four" as we were dubbed by our tour leader, Ellis, and Neil and Suzanne, our fellow Torontonians and videographers extraordinare who we followed to this new hotel. Tomorrow I leave alone for Guanacaste on a early morning bus to visit my friend Miles; I will rejoin the guys in San Jose on Monday night.

I've definitely felt a shift from active mode to recouperation mode. Our bodies have taken a lot of abuse between very active days, drinking, bites, and bruises, and burns. Today was relaxation at its best - Anna, Laura, Matt, Greg, Adam and I spent the day lazily at the public beach, and us girls got the massages by the ocean that we had been craving all week. The sensation of the ocean still lingers now.


A beautiful but cloudy day at the beach.

Bananas, Beaches & Beer!

For our first full day in Manuel Antonio with no formal activities scheduled, a big group of us decided to explore the national park in the morning, and spend time on the beach in the afternoon. Although it is a pretty small park, we had heard that it was amazing, teaming with wildlife of all sorts. We paid the $7 for entry into the park, and decided against getting a guide because they were a bit pricey.

And teaming with wildlife it was. Most specifically, monkeys! We had already seen the three species, Howler, Spider, and the white faced Cappuchines (photo by Adam) from a distance at some of the other sites, but in Manuel they are everywhere, and definitely not afraid to come up close to tourists. In fact, one enterprising monkey even stole Neil's banana when he put it down on a bench for a second to tie his shoe! We were careful to tie our bags to branches after that when we weren't carrying them, for fear that they would take a fancy to something more valuable. We also saw more sloths, and thousands of bright red and blue crabs as we walked.


A picture of Adam taking a picture of Greg leaning on a palm tree.

We took one trail marked Punto Cathedral which ascended upward and had a view of the ocean, and then came upon a private beach where we decided to stop. Anna, Laura, Matt, Greg, Adam and I spent we have no idea how much time there, bobbing in the waves and talking about our past travels, and where else we wanted to go. We all envied Anna's job as a travel agent at that moment! It was gorgeous with the Pacific Ocean stretching out into the distance, and peace and quiet on our very own (though slightly rocky) beach.



It started to rain around 1 or 2pm as it always does during the rainy season in these parts, and we were getting hungry, so we left the beach for the hike back. We were in good spirits despite the fact that we were soaking wet and both sunscreen and bug spray had both proven completely ineffective.

At 7:00, the entire group met for our final night on the town; the next day was marked for heading back to San Jose. We went to a great restaurant called El Avion, which boats an abandoned Fairchild C-123 that was part of a crazy Iranian-Nicaraguan-American scandal in the 1980's. Again the power went out, which was beautiful since the place was full of candles. They had amazing drinks too, I had a "Pura Vida" - Vodka (I think) triple sec, and a whole bunch of different fruit juices. Quite delicious! And then we headed out for our hardest night of partying by far; first to a restaurant/pub with a live Latin band, and then to a full out disco club. Tiffany, Parveen, Laura and I were promptly grabbed by some guys who definitely knew what they were doing on the dance floor, and I discovered that I actually can dance to Latin music when I'm paired with someone who knows what they are doing (or when I'm drunk enough). 4:30am saw Tiffany and I who were both more or less completely drunk trying to drag Parveen into a taxi; she realllly didn't want to go home. We eventually got ourselves and her back to the hotel and fell into bed.


Greg, Anna, and Benno bring on the beer!

Dolphin Watch, but no Dolphins!

After our arrival Manuel Antonio yesterday via vans, we quickly got our gear together in preparation for a sunset cruise and dolphin watch on the Pacific Ocean! To be honest, I wasn't too excited about it, $70 seemed like a lot to pay for a few hours on a rickety boat scanning the horizon for dolphins in the distance that weren't too likely to appear. When I heard that it including a whole lot of snorkeling though, I perked up instantly and went happily along. It was also the very last sunset cruise of the season, as the rainy season was starting and they don't go out in the afternoons then.

I think it actually turned out to be my very favourite night of the tour! We met up with another Gap group around 2pm, and together we sailed into the sunset, quite literally. The music was great, the drinks were free and flowing, and the pineapple was plentiful. We took turns sitting on the mesh nets in the middle of the boat getting hit by the waves (I guess it's a testament to how much my brain was trying to take in that I was genuinely surprised when I got splashed) chugging Imperials (beer) and some sort of rum and punch concoction and taking silly pictures.


Sarah, Jill, Matt, Laura having drinks on the edge of the boat.

Maybe an hour or two in, we stopped in a shallow bay to do some snorkeling. Again we were lucky, apparently there are usually two or three boats there but today we were the only ones, so we had lots of room to spread out. I can't say how much I love snorkeling. What a world down there. As soon as we put our heads under, we were surrounded by a school of hundreds of bright blue and yellow fish. It's proving to be a bit hard to match up what I remember to different species, but if I ever do I'll post up a separate entry. There were definitely angel fish though, and I also saw a starfish.

Greg and I stuck together most of the time, diving down to check out cool things on the bottom, making sounds and gestures to get each other's attention, and following some of the more unusual seeming fish around and around. We could have stayed there forever, no question about it. Definitely another one of those stepping out of yourself moments where nothing else matters because we're a part of this great planet. Or maybe just part of a school of fish. And then...to top it all off a rainbow appeared when we broke the surface. A full rainbow. I nearly started to cry. Instead I flippered myself off to the boat as fast as I could yelling for someone to take the camera out of my bag. Lee obliged, and thus, we have a rainbow shot!



When we got called back to the boat in about 40 minutes, Greg, Matt and I we were some of the last ones to get back on board. Adam had been back on the boat for a while, maybe through some combination of being slightly drunk, and not used to snorkeling, he couldn't quite get the hang of his snorkel.

The crew served us a great buffet dinner, put more drinks into our hands, and cranked up the music. We watched the sun set, and danced like crazy in a big groups, making the crew join in with us. Really as corny as it sounds, what it came down to was just being together, feeling all the good vibes, and feeling incredibly lucky and privileged to be where we were, sharing a once in a lifetime experience with the most amazing people. I guess words can't do it justice.

Back at the hotel around 6:00 (the sun sets really early, and really quickly in Costa Rica), we all jumped into the swimming pool before we remembered that we had to prepare for the scheduled power outage that was supposed to happen from 7-10. Manuel Antonio's in a bit of a power/water difficulty just now so they shut things down for a while. Before the lights went out though, Neil, Suzanne, Laura, Matt, Greg, Adam and I filmed what is going to be the most awesome bit of footage from the trip: the Costa Rican Shower Game!!!

Neil had had this brilliant idea at breakfast a couple of days earlier, comparing the unpredictable temperatures of our Costa Ricans shower to some sort of gameshow of luck and randomness. So of course we had to film it, and the result is PURE AWESOME! Seriously. I'll definitely be linking to it once it's online.

The power went out on schedule, and most of the group went out to find a restaurant that was actually open. We ended the day by playing Pit in the candlelight and looking up at the gorgeous stars, clear in the darkness.