Hola!
Today was the first full day of family stays for the students on our trip. It was also the first day we all got to sleep in. Phew! We profes awoke unusually early out of habit (and because of the sun shining brightly and the birds chirping loudly) but took our time in getting ready for the day.
The first day, we took a bus in to the downtown area of San Jose and *tried* to navigate our way around. This was made difficult by the fact that only a handful of streets actually have signs. Trying to find the Jade Museum was incredibly difficult, especially given the fact that it's on the first floor of an insurance company's office building. Hmmm. The museum itself was great, though, once we finally found it.
Our next stop: Quiznos (don't judge). Because when you need a sandwich, you need a sandwich. I believe that even more than our craving for some American food, it was fate that led us to that Quiznos. Reason #1: they sold French fries with their sandwiches at this location, which we took full advantage of. Reason #2: we ran into a Costa Rican man with a Green Bay Packers t-shirt on. For those of you who are keeping track, that would be the second Packers connection down here in Costa Rica so far. We of course talked to this man, who was extremely nice and said that he's been a long time Packer Backer. He and Profe Olson exchanged info and hope to reunite in Green Bay one day for a game.
After a nice, long siesta (it was HOT out!), we grabbed some dinner at a place called Jazz Cafe. Lesson #1 about a place called "Jazz Cafe" in Costa Rica: don't expect actual jazz music. The band that opened, though admittedly not at all in any way jazzy, was great and kept us entertained. The second act was a solo performer from Spain who played guitar and sang.
Today, Sunday, we woke up bright and early to help our tour guide, Jeff (who was with us for two days most recently, after Ricky) plant trees. I wish I loved anything as much as Jeff loves trees. It's really hard not to get excited when Jeff talks about trees, because he just loves them so darn much. It's contagious. We took a bus out to Tres Rios, a nearby community in which Jeff lives, to meet him and his crew. After introductions (and meeting a 75 year-old man who is as strong as an ox and has a crushing handshake), we loaded up Jeff's SUV and headed up to the mountains to get our plant on.
The mountainside was just that: the side of a mountain. Steep, overgrown with brush, weeds, and ferns, and wet and slippery from that morning's dew and the slight drizzle that continued for most of our time there. Jeff handed us each a shovel and a machete (no joke) and we began hauling young trees from the shed out to the hillside. The next step was to clear the land of overgrowth so that the trees wouldn't have to compete so much for water and space. This was both my and Erik's first time with a machete, and we were surprised by the lack of wrist strap to prevent the machete from flying out of our hand if it were to slip. If Wii controllers, cameras, and racquetball racquets all have wrist straps, one would think that machetes would, but this is actually not the case. Needless to say, we kept a safe distance from anyone wielding a machete and held on to ours for dear life. This was exceptionally fun work for us, being the machete rookies that we were, and we got really into it.
The second step was to dig a hole and plant the trees. While not as exciting as swinging a machete back and forth and watching foliage fly, it was important work. I have to say, though, that the concept of planting all 100 trees with just the 8 of us was overwhelming. Then, we saw them marching like ants up the road below: kids- a lot of them. Maybe 30 of them, all Boy and Girl Scouts in blue uniforms, plus at least 10 parent volunteers and troop leaders. We gratefully handed our machetes over to them...wait...no, that didn't happen. Jeff gave them a big welcome speech, talked about the importance of reforestation, and gave them a lesson in tree planting. Then, they got to work. They were enthusiastic and hard-working and had the place reforested in no time.
After saying our good-byes to the helpful Scouts, Jeff drove us to a potential client's house for a "business lunch" provided by them. The place turned out to be a mansion/museum-like place in probably the most affluent part of San Jose. We had to make it past the guards at the gate of this community, and had a security guard escort us to our final destination. We showed up to this pristine house with original artwork and not a speck of dust or dirt to be found after having spent 4 hours planting trees in the jungle. After apologizing profusely for our dirtiness, we tiptoed our way through the house to the patio out back and were treated to a nice lunch. Jeff and John talked quite a bit about trees, where and what kinds to plant, while Erik and I chatted with Maria. After lunch, Jose from next door came over. It turns out that he owns a coffee plantation that sells to Starbucks. You can imagine how wide my eyes got upon learning this. I did a terrible job of masking my enthusiasm for coffee, and he ran next door and came back with a bag of freshly roasted seeds for me. I felt like I had just won the lottery.
To conclude our San Jose adventure, Erik and I hit up the opera at the Teatro Nacional. It was a great show and a fitting end to our trip: we heard the fat lady sing. Now it's time to pack and get ready for our trip home tomorrow. There have been many firsts for both of us on this trip, as well as for the kids, and we have learned so much and gained a wider perspective of the world. I hope that you have enjoyed reading this as much as we have enjoyed the experiences and recounting them to you. The kids have been a dream to travel with- we could not have asked for a better group. They made our job easy, taught us many new things, and made us laugh uncontrollably. Heck, they even planned Profe Olson's wedding. ;) We look forward to seeing you tomorrow night at about 10:20 PM.
Hasta manana,
Profe Simmons and Olson
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