Adventures in the Rich Coast: July 2010

Sorry about never posting on this blog. I should do it more frequently, but the adventure has not allowed me to get on the computer for much more than schoolwork. I'm trying to remember about my last post. I believe I left off right about before the homestay experience. So I'll just start there and try to include what I can remember about that experience.

This blog might get a little out of hand as I'll just be uploading pictures and trying to fill in what all I remember. Hang with me.

If you have wondered what sort of accomodations UGA provides us, then here is your answer. Double this by 2, stick 4 guys in it and a bathroom and you have the standard room here. It's usually not this messy. It looks pretty good in this picture. you can actually see the floor and some of the furniture.

I just want to take a minute to tell you that this might be my favorite food in all Costa Rica. It's like an ice-cream sandwich on the outside, but so much better tasting than any sort of Mickey-Mouse bar or sundae cone that I have ever had. The sandwich buns are like chocolate-chip cookies as in incredible home-made ones and the meat of this sandwich is rich vanilla but with chocolate syrup inside McGriddle style.

The night before the homestay some of us ventured from campus and went to a tilapia farm to eat dinner. I've never had better. The tilapia came out head and all fins of the fish. No U.S. restaurant would be so bold to even have your dinner slightly resemble what you were actually eating; yet, here, the fish was practically staring at me and trying to start a conversation. Lelo's truly did lay low; it was just this hole in the wall shack on the outside, and then we went into it and it looked as if it were some incredible Martha Stewart decorated restaurant. We were given a tour of the farm, and the scenery was beautiful. He even had his own soccer field and invited us to come play on it sometime, fish for some tilapia and eat again, so hopefully that will work out soon.

We then went to our homestay the next day. I was paired up with Davis Webb, and we were then sent to Dona Alicia Mendez to homestay with her. You'd probably laugh your socks off if you were a fly on the wall in her house. Communicating sometimes gets tough since both of us are limited in our Spanish as of now. Yet, somehow, we survive. Her cooking is AMAZING. She makes her own chile sauce that would make Lizano cry. I never thought tuna in a taco could possibly good, yet somehow, Dona Alicia makes it work. She has two dogs: Frijoles (in Spanish means 'bean') and Canela ('cinnamon'). It's obvious she likes Frijoles much better too. She ahs pictures of him and then none of Canela. Frijoles usually always gets the attention from her while Canela seems invisible sometimes. I think this is so because Frijoles reminds her of her deceased husband. God bless her. She has been incredible to us. One time for dinner she didn't make rice and beans, so I thought I would make a joke of it and next thing I know there is a plate of rice an beans sitting in front of me with Dona Alicia laughing at me. She has 11 kids and probably over a hundred grandkids I hear. she might have given birth to this entire town as far as I know. Anyway she's been a great homestay and hopefully I'll remember more stories later to share about it.

There was also a festival for the patron saint of San Luis around the day we went to our homestay. To get to the festival Davis and I had to walk around one hour and thirty minutes to get to the festival. Once there though it was all good food and fun. It seemed that the entire town was there. Our homestay mom did not go though. The picture above resembles one of the games played. you get on the horse and with a pen like thing you try to stick that pen through a hole suspended on a string in the air. If done so, whoever made a bet and their name was on that ring, then he won a prize: a rope usually. Davis D. ended up winning a rope.