Monday - March 23 - Lunes
I taught the morning yoga class, gathered the group together and escorted them to the coaster for the Boat Tour and left the property by myself in Adrian’s car. Ahh...true alone time, all alone in a vehicle. I pulled the soft top back and soaked up the sun while listening to mellow Spanish music as I drove across the country. At 10 a.m. the roads are relatively clear. Everything seems brighter - the colors of the landscape, the roadside stands, everything. I actually found myself thinking ‘I could live here’ and playing that out in my mind. I am very relaxed and comfortable in Costa Rica. The open air and beautiful countryside add to the feeling of peacefulness. During the drive I passed a multitude of red taxi’s all gathered near a gas station. It was a beautiful site and I wished I had a camera. I also knew it meant something was up - perhaps a meeting, after all we just had a meeting of tractor trailer owners at the hotel yesterday - perhaps today was the day for the taxi drivers to meet. I made a note of it and asked Sherri about it when I arrived in Pocora. She explained they were striking. It looked like a rather peaceful protest and I hope it remained that way, since there is only one road that connects Pocora with Horquetas. I needed to return to Horquetas tonight, as JoElla was still at the hotel, scheduled to leave early Tuesday morning. We proceeded to discuss the reasons for the strike as we walked to Jackeline’s for my hair straightening appointment.
I enjoy being with Jackeline. Our communication flows despite the language barrier. She managed to pick up the straightening cream as well as the product for shine. Sherri and Jackeline talk, with Sherri translating for me when necessary. I sit and soak in the culture basking in the feeling of acceptance and belonging. Jackeline applied the straightening cream to my hair, combed it on section by section. Once the entire head of hair was coated with straightening cream, we checked our watches and timed the 20 minutes. She told me to close my eyes while she rinsed out the product - but I didn’t understand. So she showed me, by tightly closing her eyes and she repeated her statement slowly in Spanish. We laughed. I bent over the sink, closed my eyes and she rinsed out the product. When it was time to stand up, I had to keep my eyes closed, because there was water around my eyes. She kept asking me to open them and if it burned, but I found it difficult to communicate in Spanish with my eyes closed. Finally I had to yell in English to Sherri in the next room to help with the translation. Of course everyone got a kick out of the fact that I couldn’t speak with my eyes closed. Jackeline combed in the neutralizer and we all sat and talked. Sherri explaining in English and Spanish - that I am lost without my eyes - I can’t communicate because I need to see to talk. We all laughed some more. It seems Jackeline is growing black beans. I found this totally amazing, since this is not something we tend to grow in our gardens back home. Sherri explained that with the nature of the economy everyone is growing whatever they can on their land, trying to cut costs. Fifteen minutes later, we returned to the sink to rinse the neutralizer out. This time I knew enough to close my eyes. Then Jackeline spent 10 minutes combing my hair. Giving Sherri instructions to translate for me: Don’t do anything to your hair for 24 hours, don’t wear a clip or tie it back for a few days, comb it several times a day, don’t use your fingers as a comb. I loved the attention, concern and kindness. I could have sat there for hours letting Jackeline comb my hair. When she finished, I expected to leave, but Jackeline had other plans. She wanted to give me a manicure. My last manicure didn’t last very long due to rafting and the beach. The pedicure held up but the manicure was destroyed. The last manicure and pedicure were so decorative and very distracting for my students as well as myself. I asked for one color, no design. Jackeline was insulted and wanted to know why I was in such a hurry. I explained I wasn’t in a hurry but the designs and colors were distracting for my students. Sensing that I insulted her, I agreed to designs as long as we used light colors. When we finally left I had a manicure complete with a flower design on every nail that Jackeline thought coordinated well with my pedicure. I walked out a couple of hours later with straight hair and a fresh manicure. The entire process, including two boxes of product (I wanted one to give one to Aura or take it back to the states), a large bottle of shine serum, application and a manicure cost 15000 colones, $ 28 dollars.
Sherri and I left and walked back to her house. During the entire time we were at Jackelines and while walking home, she was receiving traffic updates from Cokie. He brought one of the hotel vehicles into Guapelies for repairs and was going to meet us for lunch if possible. We were still at Jackelines when Cokie was ready for lunch, since the vehicle was fixed he started to drive back to Sueno Hearing this, Sherri changed, grabbed her books and decided I would drive her to school after lunch. We stopped at the grocery store so I could pick up a green mango, something else I can’t spell but enjoy eating - phejepahe’s - the heart of a heart of palm, and jocote (little green fruits with a large seed that are sour or sweet depending upon ripeness). Then we drove to Tilapia a roadside restaurant that specializes in Tilapia. I’ve admired this restaurant for years. There are two fishing ponds on the property and they recently added two in ground swimming pools. Finally I had the opportunity to eat there.
We ordered a whole Tilapia - fried and some dish I never heard of - rice, beans, fried pork and tomatoes served layered in a bowl surrounded by tortilla chips - as well as a couple of natural juice drinks. It was 2:20 p.m. by the time we arrived at the restaurant and I was really hungry. During lunch, Cokie told us that the traffic was so bad from the strike he turned around and went back to Guapelies to get something else done to the vehicle. He and Sherri decided I needed an escort home so they made arrangements for us to meet in Guapelies.
We got back on the road, the roads seemed clear and we were making good time, until all of the sudden - 50 meters from the old entrance to Guapelies - traffic stopped! After inching our way up, I turned onto the old entrance to Guapelies. Calling this a road, is kind. Heck, calling it a trail is kind. It was a clearing comprised of dirt and rocks. Unbelievably bumpy. It emptied into a road full of craters, that make New York City potholes look like cracks in the asphalt. Since the taxi protest was taking up the main road, anyone familiar with the area, was on this road, including buses. Costa Rican’s for the most part, don’t like to drive slowly. As Federico once told me in all seriousness “My car doesn’t like to go slow”. When I questioned him, he said “It’s true, the engine makes a lot of noise when if I go slow”. Since the roads are so bad, locals know where every pothole, crater, hole is and are able to pass them and other vehicles at break neck speeds. In the spirit of fitting in, I have mastered pot hole avoidance, but not the practice of passing while avoiding potholes. I do manage to keep my speed up, and on the particular day was passed only by one crazy driver. As Sherri and I made our way to Cokie, steering around potholes and oncoming traffic, I said “This is the only country I know of where driving a car on paved roads feels like riding on the back of a billy goat in the country”.
We met up with Cokie, he followed me to Sherri’s school and then I followed him through Guaplies to the main road. Traffic was thick - stop and go. It’s frustrating because there is only one road with one lane in each direction. No alternatives. As I followed behind Cokie with my new straight hair and big sunglasses, every on coming truck driver took advantage of the opportunity to talk, wave or smile at me. Even people passing me walking on the side of the road made comments. Since I really have no idea what they were saying and Cokie was in front of me, looking in this rearview and sideview mirrors - I just kept smiling and at times, waving and saying “Hola”! Two hours later, I arrived at Sueno Azul.
I spent the rest of the night visiting with JoElla. I didn’t intend to be out of the hotel from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. on her last day in Costa Rica. It seems everything turned out fine. She spent the afternoon relaxing, sunning by the pool and I managed to get a few things completed that were important to me. We wrapped up the week said our goodbyes and went to sleep, knowing we wouldn’t see each other in the morning as she had to leave the hotel at 2:30 a.m. for a 6:30 a.m. flight
Friday, March 20 - Viernes
La Playa! Today is the trip to the beach. The new abbreviated scheduled provides for a full day excursion. After a lot of planning and investigation I settled on Chiuta National Park - a 2.5 - 3 hour drive from here. The beach is beautiful, the town is small enough that the guests can feel safe to roam on their own without getting lost. Chiuta offers something for everyone, hiking through the jungle, swimming in the Carribean, shopping, wildlife, the opportunity to each local food, coffee places and English is spoken here as well as Spanish and Limon Creole. More on this later........
Thursday, March 19 - Jueves
The arnica and yoga worked their magic - neither JoElla or I are sore. Monique is in much better shape and wasn’t even anticipating being sore. Great for her, sad for us - since she is 15 - 20 years older than us! We ended our workshop on a positive note - everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves and most importantly they relaxed.
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