Tropical Awakening

So after being here for 10 days, I’m happy to report that I’ve really begun to adjust and get used to a lot of things that were tough at first. For example, the daily rain periods. Now, we all try to guess as to the hour that it’s going to rain on any given day. And the darkness by 6pm? Tonight I enjoyed walking back to the bungalow from dinner to an awesome lightning show and a break in the clouds full of so many stars that I couldn’t help but stand and look up at the sky in absolute wonder for a few minutes. The rice and beans every day, 3 meals a day? I politely ask them to exclude that from my plate from time to time, which then gets me extra of the warmed-up leftovers the tourists rejected. Also, tonight we ended up staying at dinner longer than usual and it just so happened that the lights went out, just as we were all sitting at the table, salivating at the tourists going through their special buffet of freshly cut watermelon, pineapple, and other melons, as well as a HUGE bowl of ice cream to make banana splits (!) That was enough excuse for all of us to bum rush—or rather send stealth missions--to the fruit plate under the cover of darkness and swipe a few slices of delicious, juicy, melt-in-your-mouth pineapple and eat them before the lights went back on. Hydroelectric power can be unpredictable. Sometimes a stick or something will get caught in the turbine and the power will cease. Exciting.

But wait. There’s even more. The line of “do I really have to try to get used to this?” was crossed this evening. Thursday, July 9, 2009. 7:30pm. I came back to the room and decided that I should probably try to find my passport as I wasn’t sure where I’d put it (I found it, warped and unhappy in this humid atmosphere, but still intact). In conducting my thorough search, I discovered the greatest disadvantage to living in the tropics without any type of air conditioning, fan, or screened windows. And lots of water. Or rather, the highest percentage of humidity known to mankind. Add insane levels of humidity plus porous material and what do you have? Mold. Delicious, white, circular, smelly mold molecules waving their little tentacles of repulsiveness in retaliation for my intrusion into their microscopic world. Covering my things that I had carefully organized and stored on and around my bed frame and inside a few drawers. My favorite green shoes looked like I’d stepped in marshmallow crème, or at least a ripe dandelion puff. My camera case: pulverized by the white decay. Glasses case, purses, storage bags. Check, check, and uhhh yeah, check! It looks like I’m going to have to add Weekly Mold Inspection to my to-do list. I’m crossing my fingers that it doesn’t start growing all over my camping gear, or my clothes. My white pillow cases already smell like swampland. Maybe they’ve been struck too, and I just have no idea. I can only hope they have been spared from this devastation. Blech. I wanted to throw up. Any ingenious tips for combating the growth of mold while living in the tropics? This is only day 10!! I have 69 more days of battle against this ruthless creature! PLEASE HELP!

In hopes of straying from that terrible subject, I also wanted to tell you all about the adventure I embarked upon the other night. Before I begin, mothers, do not be alarmed, it could have been worse. ;) It was another typical, dark night on the ranch and Andrea and I decided to combat our boredom with a walk to Pizza John’s. (An incredible pizza place oasis that is 40 minutes walking distance from the ranch, for those of you who did not read that blog). Just as we were leaving, our friend Isaac came out of nowhere and asked what our plans were. He said that he was rounding up as many people as possible to go make a fire on the island in the middle of the river. You see, the great thing about Costa Rica is that any land within 15 feet of any type of waterway or body of water is considered public land. And there are no rules on public land. Maybe this is true elsewhere too, but I’ve never heard of it. Regardless, it was island time. The adventure was supposed to start at 7pm, so obviously we didn’t start collecting wood and really getting going until about 8pm. (I love time here!) As it turned out, Andrea was tired and decided to bail, as did a few others so it ended up being me, Isaac, Luís Carlos (one of the bilingual Tico tour guides), and Michael, another Tico. It’s a good thing I’ve been a tomboy since birth, and love the outdoors. We gathered as much dry wood as possible, which is pretty difficult in a rainforest but somehow we found enough, along with a bag of sawdust, and a HUGE white spider that Isaac said was most likely part of the tarantula family. With our burdens in tow, the four of us set off to the path down to the river. It started to rain, and then rain a little harder but we pressed on anyways. As it turns out, there used to be a really nice path down to the river leading to the island. But, for whatever reason, someone had decided that the path looked like a great area to dump compost, and huge leaves and sticks and rotten fruit. That didn’t deter us in the least, but it did make the term “slippery” come to life. And make me cross my fingers and pray that there weren’t any poisonous snakes hanging out underneath the brush. Yeahhhh, we’ll be cleaning off the path next time before we go—don’t worry!! So we slid down the landslide of junk into the river below and waded across, still clutching our fire supplies that did indeed stay miraculously dry the whole way. The island was awesome. It’s really just a small strip of land in the middle of the rocky river, with lots of rocks and sand and a few trees and brush. We cleared away most of the rocks in one area and the guys took the wood and built the fire. I would have helped, but they were really pumped about it so I stayed out of the way and poured the Jungle Juice (quite an appropriate name considering our location) for everyone. Isaac had made it in a mayo container: juice from lunch, an energy drink, some casique which I honestly am not sure what type of alcohol it is but it’s Costa Rican, and the best ingredient of all: fresh pineapple slices!! There wasn’t much to go around, but it was good enough and the “drunken pineapples” were delicious! The fire started going pretty quickly, despite the rain falling and the obviously damp conditions. It was a gorgeous night, and thankfully the rain stopped before we all got too drenched. The rhythm of the river rushing over the smoothed stones, combined with the mesmerizing glow of the fire and the occasional explosion from the volcanic rocks that hadn’t all been completely removed from the fire area. Apparently when they get really hot they pop and explode. Exciting. The journey back to the path wasn’t as adventurous as the way down to the island, probably because I knew what I was getting myself into climbing back up the riverbank, but it was still enjoyable and even though it was kind of chilly out as we headed back, the water from the river still felt good lapping at my calves. It was a great time on the island, away from it all again.

Speaking of adjusting, I read this blog the other day from a few friends of mine that are in Kenya for a couple months through World Next Door. If any of you remember, I had considered applying to join them this summer, but opted for another alternative and ended up here in Costa Rica instead. This recent entry put into perspective my own discomforts as I get used to everything in this place: http://www.worldnextdoor.org/2009/06/after-the-sun-goes-down/ The mission of World Next Door is “to use entertaining, thought-provoking and heart-breaking journalism to change ordinary people into wild-eyed revolutionaries and to unleash them on local and global issues of social injustice.” Check it out if you feel like reading more blog stories!

Until next time, enjoy the weekend! (Pizza John’s Friday for me! WAHOO!)

Katie