First Impressions

View from "the office"


No adventure is perfect. The more remote, the more adjustments there will inevitably be. The farther from home, the greater the number of differences between the, what I like to term, “once familiar” and the “increasingly familiar”. I consider myself to be an optimistic, positive person that works hard to always find the good in every situation that I find myself in. With that disclaimer, let me describe to you what my first 24 hours in Costa Rica have been like.

Honestly, this place is incredibly gorgeous. I’m living in a bungalow on the outskirts of a rainforest/cloud forest with two queen-sized beds, a private shower/bath, a hammock, terrace, and an incredible view of Lake Arenal every morning that I wake up. There are mountains on both sides of the ranch, covered thickly with all sorts of rainforest-y, lush, green trees. Every day when it rains the clouds roll in slowly over these mountains and then quickly turn all semblance of a backdrop into a thick, white sheet of torrential rain. Today the lightning was the worst anyone around here has seen in 6 years and the thunder that precluded it was some of the loudest, most spectacular thunder I have ever experienced. There’s a white and orange cat that waits outside of our door, sunning itself on the terrace and meowing when we are inside for too long. A smelly golden retriever follows us around as well while down in the dining commons and in our makeshift office. However, for those of you who remember the dogs in Chile, this dog does not smell nearly as bad as they did—though it is a close second. 

Upon arriving to Costa Rica after a few issues with the weight of my luggage (always a good problem to have when embarking on a trip as opposed to leaving. Ha. Ha. Packing light has never been, and never will be, my forte.) we waited in an enormously long line to get our passports stamped, and then literally push our bags through an unattended X-ray machine and drop our customs declaration in a box along with the thousands of others who had come through that same day, and then find our driver. Manuel is a native Tico who works for the ranch at the office in San Jose and upon learning that I could speak Spanish, happily told me about the ranch, the climate, the various towns we passed through, and that the road we were traveling on was about to get very windy for the remainder of our 3 hour journey from the airport to La Fortuna, the nearest town to the ranch. Despite Manuel’s warning about the road, nothing could have prepared me for what was quite possibly the closest I have ever come to to completely vomiting all over myself, the vehicle, and that maddeningly winding road. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, I do not have another story to add to the draft of my first novel “All About Ralph” but it was awful. It was all I could do to will my body to fall asleep for as long as possible while everything inside me screamed, wanting the road to straight out and us to arrive as quickly as possible. We eventually did arrive, and waited about an hour in the plaza of La Fortuna for our new boss and his son to arrive. Luckily, the road to the ranch from Fortuna was not so bad and after coming to the end of a bumpy, gravel, pot-holed road, the ranch and all upcoming adventures awaited us.

Our first day was also fairly typical Latin-American in that patience is indeed a virtue, nothing happens when or how it’s supposed to, and that is completely okay. In some ways, this culture is perfect for me. Being on time, along with the concept of time in general, is not valued or expected—aside from meal time. Breakfast was awesome—homemade granola and moist banana bread, fresh granola with coconut, nuts, and dried fruit, eggs with basil and tomatoes, and of course, coffee and gallo pinto. Gallo pinto is the national dish in Costa Rica and literally means “spotted rooster”. However, it is traditionally rice and black beans mixed together and served at every single meal. It’s probably a bad sign that I am already feeling sick of the stuff. It is protein though, so I try to consume as much as I can and clean my plate. After breakfast we went on a ranch tour and learned innumerable facts about the many plants of the rainforest, as well as the incredible ways that the ranch is making itself into a self-sufficient, organic place set on conserving and utilizing the environment in which it finds itself. I’ll detail that in a later post as I’m sure you are wondering when this first one will end. After the ranch tour we still hadn’t seen anyone who could give us some direction on what to do or how to connect to the internet, so we went back to our bungalow and I do what I do best and took a nap, despite the fact that the night before we’d passed out by 8:30pm and gotten up at 6:30am. I blame the jungle humidity. When I woke up, it was time for lunch which I was hungry for until I started eating it and then I promptly found myself trying to complete the task of eating—something an avid consumer does not really enjoy having to do. Unfortunately, dinner was similar except that I was more hungry before I began eating and then even less so once I took a few bites. The juice is great, though most of the time I have no idea what kind it is, it is definitely tasty! Unfortunately, the fresh, ranch-produced fruit and fresh baked bread, along with the ice cream and chocolate chip cookies, are all reserved for the guests who eat after the employees. Bummer. On Saturday I plan to buy some fresh fruit at the market, along with at the very least, one ice cream cone to eat along the way. I do sleep in a bungalow, but the food leaves something to be desired—except for breakfast, which as I write this, my stomach cannot wait for in the morning. If only it is as good as it was today.

It gets dark around 6pm here, which is a definite adjustment from the barely waning light at 10pm back home again in Indiana summertime. Nightfall in the rainforest in the middle of nowhere is dark.

Internet does not reach to the bungalow, so any communication we will be having will be taking place down near the kitchen where the router is located. It is also incredibly slow, so hopefully Skype will keep a constant, non-choppy connection.


This is what I wake up to every day. Bungalow view.

As I am here for work, you must be wondering what I do all day. Day #1 consisted of eating, touring, sleeping, then more eating, reading the newspaper, waiting for the internet to load some web reviews about the ranch, getting caught in a massive rain storm, and then eating again. It’s a jungle out here and things don’t move quickly. Except for carpenter ants when you are trying to kill them and hummingbird wings.



"The office"

Have no fear, much much work is quite quite near but it appears that currently, it is necessary to ease into all of it like a slightly chilled swimming pool. The projects ahead will undoubtedly keep us entertained and hopefully, the marketing initiatives we develop will increase the return on a company that is part of an industry being hit quite hard by the “current economic crisis”. We have our work cut out for us for sure. More on that to come as I don’t want to keep you all day and night reading my blog! Be pumped!

Chao,

Katie