Semana Santa

It's Holy Week here is Costa Rica.  Easter is a really big thing for Catholics, and in a country that is chock-full of Catholics, the entire week surrounding Easter weekend becomes a national holiday.  All the schools close, as well as many of the businesses, and main streets are blocked off to make room for a series of parades.

Yesterday was the first day of the big important celebrations - all of which consisted of parade-like festivities.

The first parade involved life-sized Jesus and Mary mannequins on big floats carried by a half-dozen people each.  The floats moved towards each other and met at a corner near the cathedral.  When Mary "saw" Jesus (who was carrying a cross), she moved towards him and then away and then towards him and then away about eight times until she finally came all the way up to him and "bowed" (the people carrying the front half of the float lowered it to the ground so that the mannequin was at a 45 degree angle to the ground.  Then both floats turned and wandered around for a while before we walked away.

I would feel bad thinking that the whole thing was so ridiculous, but everyone else was of the same opinion.  I had expected people to cross themselves or recite prayers or do other Catholicky things that I know nothing about, but the atmosphere was much more similar to a Fourth of July kid's bike race than a holy event.  People stood around.  It was hot.  Everyone was talking about unrelated things.  No one seemed particularly enthused.

When the floats passed out of sight, the crowd meandered closer to the cathedral and stood around a bit until a live-action recreation of Jesus' crucifixion began.  It was complete with Roman soldiers driving Jesus and the two criminals down the street with whips.  While these men approached, my host mom told me that the man playing Jesus was her ex-husband.  You won't get the full effect of the way she said this unless you imagine her with a Southern accent, but these were her exact words: "He can't make time to see his girls but he's got time to be Jesus".  I had to try really hard not to laugh.

Anyway, the little procession moved up onto a make-shift stage and the Romans nailed the three men to the crosses.  All the characters were miked and there was a lot of screaming and moaning as the crosses were raised into place.  They acted out the entire story and then the bodies were carried away back down the street.

That night, the third and final parade began which was essentially the funeral procession for Jesus.  It was supposed to start at 6:30, but in true Costa Rican style, no one started marching until almost 8.  The procession was led by a battalion of Roman soldiers, followed by altar boys swinging incense, and then the floats.  The Jesus Float was now a big glass coffin/altar thing with the Jesus mannequin inside surrounded by flowers.  Mary's float came behind and then two floats with saint mannequins on them.  I think they were Saint Peter and Saint Jude but it was hard to be sure.  Normally at a parade you stand in one place and let everything pass by you and then you are done, but for this parade we kept moving down the route.  We would stand and let everything pass and then cut around to a place ahead of the floats and wait for everything to pass again, and then repeat the process.  It was easy to do this because the floats moved at about 1 mile per hour.

Even this event, which seems like the kind of thing that would be very solemn - a funeral procession with a plastic Jesus in a coffin - was just spectacle to all the people.  They all just seemed glad to have a week off of work, and the parades were just entertainment.  Whatever the case it was a really cool cultural experience, even if the whole thing seemed kind of ridiculous to me.

Monte Verde

Last weekend I tagged along with a group of students going on a field trip for a class that I'm not in.  I couldn't really resist going because the trip was an overnight opportunity to explore a cloud forest about four hours away from Heredia.  The highlight of the trip was a zip lining canopy tour that we went on the first day.  The tour consisted of 13 lines of various lengths through and over the rainforest, interspersed with hiking between the different platforms.

All ready to go!

Lauren took two pictures of me.  After the first one she said, "wait I need to take another one" so I stood there while she did.  After looking at the photos, I realized that the reason she wanted to take another was so that Cameron could stand behind me and make that face.  Very smooth, you two.

Yeah... I don't know...

Climbing up to the first platform - it was quite high up in the canopy.

Glamor shot!  I still can't get over Jackie's sweatshirt...

Every platform had a sign telling you how high and how long the ride would be.

The track formed essentially a tunnel through the otherwise impenetrable density of the forest.

It reminds me of the Secret Garden

Bombs away!

This was the longest track on the tour.  You can't even see the end in this picture.

It was so long that we had to ride it in tandem two at a time in order to be heavy enough to make it all the way in.  Even so, Abby and I got stuck about a quarter mile from the end and had to be towed in.

That's right, we defeated that canopy!

Fútbol!

I've actually had these photos for a while because we went to this game our second week here, but I forgot about them until now.  Anyway, soccer (as you might imagine) is a pretty big thing here.  Every town has its own soccer team and the fans are very very serious about theirs.  Because we live in Heredia, we went to this game of Heredia vs Saprisa and cheered for the little men in yellow.

Waiting for the bus to get to the game.  Tyler is blurry because he was bouncing up and down.

Sitting in the stands in our yellow Heredia jerseys - we were pretty stoked.

Outside the stadium they gave everyone these blow-up clapper things.  Kölbi is the Costa Rican equivalent of Apple, so the whole thing was a big product placement stunt, but we didn't care because it was so fun to hit people on the head with them...

Me, Nikki, Molly, and Christi

Players warming up...

While the players were getting ready, we opted to move from one corner of the stadium to the other so that we would have a better view of the goals.  Because of this move, we were right on the edge of the Heredia half of the stadium.  There was this big fence separating us from the Saprisa fans, which we all thought was very funny and unnecessary until...

...the Saprisa fans showed up and turned out to be VERY enthusiastic about their chants.

These guys climbed up on the fence until some security guards showed up and made them get down.  They never stopped chanting for the entire game.

Saprisa in white and maroon.

Heredia in yellow and red.

The game ended up tied 2-2 but we were losing for quite a while, so we were just glad not to lose.  The game was a lot of fun and the enthusiasm of both sides was quite a ... cultural experience for us...  I'm just glad we survived.

The Art of Taking A Shower

Little known fact: showers in central america have one, unlabeled nob with which to turn the water on. If you are an American, you will probably automatically assume that this means that there isn't any hot water and that the nob is really just a way to choose how much pressure you want.  I made that assumption for the first week that I was here and I suffered through freezing cold showers that made my teeth chatter for a full half hour afterwards.  I would turn the pressure up as high as it would go so that my hair would rinse faster and I could get the heck out of there.  Showering was the one thing I dreaded all day.

And then.

Being the klutz that I am, I slipped just as I was turing off the water one day and discovered that the trickle coming out of the shower head was actually warm.  Warm water!  I was like a girl trapped on a desert island flagging down a passing ship.  I stood there for a full 30 seconds as I realized that, 1) hot water was obtainable; 2) I had been taking ice showers for the past week for no reason; and 3) I am a complete and total moron.

I have since discovered that taking a shower here really is an art form.  The hot water doesn't come out consistently unless you let the cold water run full-blast for a bit first.  You cannot have both hot water and good pressure, so taking a hot shower is a long process.  Also, there isn't enough hot water for two people to shower in the same three hour window.  Like any art, warm showers take sacrifice but they are so, so worth it.

Costa-isms

I've been in Costa Rica for a month and a half now, and there are some things here that still shock me.  Let's call them "Costa-isms".

Costa-isms #1: Dawning
Every morning when I get up, my host mom greets me with the question "Cómo amaneció?" which translates literally as "how did you dawn?".  The fact that this happens in the morning is just bad luck.  Not only am I half awake, not thinking in Spanish, and annoyed that my pillow is so flat, but I have to somehow process a verb that does not exist in English.  My answer to this question is, invariably "bien" after which I retreat to the bathroom.  My poor host mom has no idea that her morning routine messes with my head so much.

Costa-isms #2: Bulbous-Poodle-Things
There is a certain kind of dog that is very popular here.  I see them everywhere.  They look like white poodles but they are smaller and seem to come in a variety of styles that range from "Vaguely Dog Shaped" to "That Might Be An Insect".  I guess they like these dogs because they don't shed.  My host family has three of them, all different kinds.  One is a "Particularly Stubby Bulbous-Poodle-Thing" that never stops wheezing and can't get on the couch without help.  Another is a "Long-Legged Bulbous-Poodle-Thing" that likes to steal my spot on the couch when I get up to get something.  The last one is a "Dirty And Possibly Blind Bulbous-Poodle-Thing" that isn't allowed inside (hence the dirtiness) for reasons best known to no one.

Costa-isms #3: Scented Toilet Paper
I don't know why, but all the TP is scented here.  Why is this desirable?  What effect are you trying to achieve?  Beats me.  The scentedness means that the bathrooms all have this weird, perfumey smell that for some reason makes me very angry.  It's kind of dumb, actually.  I walk into the bathroom, take a breath, and instantly hate everything that is Costa Rica.  This isn't helped by the fact that Costa Ricans also really like Automatic Toilet Cleaning Devices.  There are three different kinds of these in the toilet at my host family's house (one in the tank, one liquid-filled basket in the bowl, and one stick-on gel thing in the bowl) so the water is always blue.  I hate blue toilet water.  I have no idea why, but the combination of scented TP and blue toilet water is the essence of everything that is wrong with the world.

(While I'm dancing around the subject, the sink in the bathroom at my host family's house has developed a leak.  Rather than fix the dripping faucet, my host mom elected to put a bowl in the sink to catch the water.  Uh... it's a sink.  It's kind of designed to have water in it.  I think she might be focusing on the wrong problem here.  Nothing bad is going to happen if the sink is wet - it's supposed to be wet. That bowl serves no purpose, and is therefore ludicrous.)

Costa-isms #4: The Oxford Comma Does Not Exist
Let's talk about the Oxford Comma for a second.  When compiling a list within the context of a sentence, each individual item on the list is separated from the previous item by a comma.  Unless, that is, you randomly decide to omit the last comma.  That comma is important.  It is the Oxford Comma.  Consider this sentence: "I partied with the strippers, Obama and Biden" that is a sentence which does not have an Oxford Comma.  The implication of this sentence is that Obama and Biden ARE the strippers.  It's like saying "I had lunch with my cousins, Bella and Caden".  Bella and Caden are the cousins.  Because Obama and Biden are not (known to be) strippers, the correct sentence MUST read "I parties with the strippers, Obama, and Biden" meaning that both politicians and some loose women were in attendance.  The Oxford Comma is important.  It does not exist in Latin America.  I have been marked down on every essay that I have written because I refuse to omit this comma.  It's time to liberate the punctuation, people!

Costa-isms #5: What is this Water You Speak of?
Apparently you just don't drink water in Costa.  I have no idea why, but plain water is not an option.  Anything you drink must have some kind of powdered mix in it, or else be blended with fruit.  Asking for a glass of water in a restaurant is like asking for tacos at McDonald's.  Such a thing simply doesn't exist.

Costa-isms #6: There are Nine Ingredients
All authentic Costa Rican dishes are composed of some combination of the following ingredients: rice, beans, chicken, plantains, eggs, yucca, tomatoes, bread/tortillas, and white cheese.  Now you can do a lot with those nine ingredients, but there are pretty much no other options with which to cook.  Some friends of mine tried to bake cookies and their families were shocked that it was possible to make your own cookies (not least because Ticos don't use ovens for anything ever).  Occasionally there will be a wild card thrown in.  Last night we had spaghetti, so the noodles were an additional ingredient.  But even with that dish the cook used noodles, tomatoes, white cheese, chicken, and bread.  There really isn't that much variety.

Costa-isms #7: Pedestrians Are Prey
Sidewalks do exist here, but no one uses them.  People just stroll blithely down the middle of the street and dodge out of the way if a car comes.  And you do have to dodge because the cars will not stop, slow down, or even swerve to miss a pedestrian.  Crossing the street is like a live-action version of "Frogger" (my friends get mad at me when I hum the theme at intersections).  This lack of respect for pedestrian right-of-way is worse if you happen to be both white and female.  Drivers will have the audacity of almost killing you and then wolf-whistling out their window at your white legs as they speed away.  Is this supposed to make me forgive them?  Like if a driver objectifies me after trying to use me as a hood ornament then I will forgive him?  Ya'll are wrong, Ticos.

Nicaragua, Nicaragüita

As part of our on-going journey of cultural wonders, we went to Nicaragua for a week to learn about foreign business.  We took a bus to the border and stayed at a mission in Managua so that we could visit different kinds of businesses every day.  I don't have very helpful pictures because there is a cultural stigma in Nicaragua about tourists with cameras, but managed to scrape some photos together.

Here's the skyline of Managua.  See the yellow trees in the left corner?  Those are 50ft tall sculptures that line the main street of the city.  Apparently the president's wife has a thing for art installations so she sponsored them.  They are really cool at night because they light up entire blocks of the city.

Flagggg

This cathedral is in the main square of Managua and it's really impressive - very tall and always full of people.

It also looks cool at night.  Nicaraguans seem to have a thing for putting lights on things.

Yeah, we are so cool and not at all embarrassingly white.

After a few days in Managua, we went to Leon which is surrounded by volcanoes.  This lagoon is the result of a collapsed volcano after an enormous eruption years  ago.

It's actually a pretty big lagoon.  I wanted to swim in it, but it was kind of a long drop...

Tom, Nikki, Christi, Lindsey, Molly

Speaking of volcanoes, we drove past this one and stopped to check it out up close.  It has a really impressive name but I don't remember what it is...

The land around the volcano is like a mini Yellowstone - there's a lot of bubbling mud and hot steam emanating from the ground.  One of the local kids told us, word for word, that "A scientist was here a while ago, but she got drunk and went studying without a guide.  She fell in the mud and we brought her to the hospital but she died."  Wow, thanks for the warning, Kid!

Naturally, after hearing that, we decided to walk around on the volcano and play soccer among the mud pits.  For college students we aren't that bright.

Gloop, gloop.

Rather randomly there was a kid with pet parrots (or whatever you call these) at the volcano.  They could say "Hola" which was pretty exciting.

In the city of Leon, there is a huge cathedral that is historically significant for some reason that got lost in translation.

Rawr!  Fierce lion-cathedral-statue-thing!

The program assistants paid someone at the church to take us up on top of it, so we all wandered around on the roof of the cathedral for a while.

The courtyard in the church.  We went up some stairs that you can't see in the lower left corner of this picture and then climbed up inside the walls of the church to get to the roof.

It seems like a really good idea to let random tourists walk about on top of your 5-story cathedral, but we did it anyway!

Panorama of Leon

We could see four other churches from the roof of this one, and they were all really cool and ornate.

Tom and I climbed up on this tiny pathway above the main roof.  I may have almost broken my toe getting up there, but the view was worth it.

Fun fun fun

The next day we went to another volcano.  This one is apparently known as the "mouth of hell" because of how freakish the crater is.

Yep.  That's pretty freakish.  It's essentially a precipice into a bottomless pit of lava that emits so much smoke you can't see the walls.

Some monks put this cross on the volcano a long time ago to keep Satan from escaping through the crater and invading the world.

Don't look down...

Naturally we gringos take this opportunity among the beauty of nature to ruin it with a silly-pose picture.

 It was a pretty great week!

The things I don't have pictures of are the educational bits.  We went to a coffee ranch to see how they farm sustainably, and to various organizations that did other business things I don't understand.  We also got to go to a Mejia Godoy concert, a musician who is famous for being the "voice of the people" in the political upheaval with the Sandinistas and the ensuing civil war.  Our tour also included a museum about that war and a Office S-21 type torture prison that was used by both sides.  We learned a lot about history, the country, and international business - not to mention that we got to play soccer on a volcano.