Getting sick

This is a Guest Entry posted by Amanda

Hey!

I am currently back in San Jose at the hostel I stayed at when I first got here. I can feel a travel cold coming on, so rather than continue to travel and get sick for a week, I'm going to take a day or two off now to feel better.

Here is a little more background on what's been going on. Went to San Carlos after San Jose and there were no other Americans there. Practiced my Spanish a lot and then went to La Fortuna. Met several American ex-Pats in La Fortuna, talked politics with them. Found out that Costa Rica produces 6 times the amount of electricity it needs and sells the excess to Los Angles, CA, through the power grid which is laid across Central America. Found out about Costa Rican politics, good times were had by all.

Last night there went on a tour through the rainforest, then the Arenal Volcano (I have now seen a volcano erupt, how cool is that?) and then to some hot springs after that. Dereck, one of the American men, spent one full minute in one of the springs for a beer. Big deal, right? The spring was 187 F. Yeah, he's never having kids now.

Through that tour, I met up with two Canadian girls (Natalie and Dominique), two American men (Dereck and Ray), and two Danes (Soren and Marianne) who had all met in Tortuguera. Joined their group and the next day we all went to Monteverde together taking a jeep-boat-jeep route. It was a mess trying to get on the second jeep and when they were trying to figure out our numbers, one of the Americans, Ray, said, "No, she needs to go with us. She's my wife." He paused while the taxi guy smiled. "Well, she's my hermaphroditic husband, actually."

I said, "WHAT?" and the taxi driver went, "Oh!" and threw us in another car. Oh my golly, it was pretty funny.

The spouse thing was later used to get the three of us (Dereck, Ray and me) a discounted room, a deeply discounted tour ("Well we just met this girl in Costa Rica and we just got married and I'd love for her to go on the tour, but I only brought enough cash to budget for me, anything you can do?") and a free round of drinks for 5 of us at dinner. Most travelers quickly picked up that it was a joke, especially if I threw in the hermaphrodite part, and partially because of my eye rolling, but everyone played it straight to get the free stuff.

At one point I said, "Oh I can't wait till Syd [his girlfriend in the States] hears about this."

Dereck said, "Oh I'm going to have fun telling her."

Monteverde. I planned on spending several nights there but the place is rainy and cold and rainy and cold and expensive and rainy and cold. And I think that's why I'm starting to feel sick. It started raining before noon and didn't let up until 8 pm. I had to borrow clothes from Ray and Dereck because all of mine were soaked. Somewhere, someone has a picture of me in some huge pants and a sweatshirt and I barely look like a woman. The clothes weren't even dry two days later, so I was still borrowing clothes when we (the Danes and us) went on an awesome tour in the cloud forest. I almost got to keep a pair of Ray's pants that looked awesome on me, but then tried them on one more time and since he'd lost weight from being in Costa Rica, he took them back. Damn, they were great pants.

A cloud forest is a forest where it's 100% humidity all of the time. This tour was AWESOME. We did a zipline canopy tour which was scary/fun as all get out. We're zooming above and through the canopy at 25 mph or greater and we were several kilometers up in the air. Freaky. One of the stops was a Tarzan style/swing/bungee thing and oh my gosh, I KNOW I am never going to go bungee jumping because I felt like I was going to puke and the harness became so tight on that one that I don't think I'm having kids now as my ovaries were twisted beyond repair. But it was really neat and I didn't want kids anyway.

After the zipline thing we went on a hike through the rainforest, through all levels of the canopy of this primary rainforest. It was wonderful. Soren and Dereck hiked together and Marianne, Ray and I stayed together and there were hanging ariel bridges and it was AMAZING.

The Canadians left on Saturday (when we were doing the tour together) and then the five of us (Danes and Americans) left yesterday. Ray and Dereck left for home this morning and now I'm back in San Jose.

I must say, I felt short with these folks. Dereck is 6'5", Ray 6'2", Soren 6'3" and Marianne 5'11". I'm the short one, which was weird. Also, it was nice to be walking around with men because all of a sudden the hisses and catcalls were gone. Very nice.

Since the last several days have been busy during the day and late nights I'm feeling worn out. A few days resting here and then it's off to Cahuita. Ray and Dereck gave me 10,000 colones to pick up a bottle of Johnny Walker Red whiskey, which I am to deliver to a guy in Cahuita. Yes, indeed, I'm nearly a mule. A hermaphroditic one, I suppose.

That's it.

Last night, after dinner (with an American Spanish teacher and a 19 year old Londonder girl we met at the hostel), Ray and Dereck and I were discussing that it's hard to sum up a trip because so much goes on. So many things you just have to be there for. Too true.

Take care,
Amanda

Flown by Amanda at 06:43 AM on June 28, 2005