Last day

This is the last day in Costa Rica. Some of the group already left for the airport very early this morning, It's warm, and very humid, even this early. There are huge iguanas that live between the ceiling and the clay tiles of the roof, and they are constantly scrabbling around up there. It's rather unnerving, especially if you don't like lizards. The howler monkeys have begun their early morning chanting, too, so it must be time to wake up. I have to shake the scorpions, spiders, beetles and chameleons from my clothing, pack, and take a bumpy ride back to the airport in Liberia. I have more pictures to post when I get back home, catch up on sleep, and have reliable internet service.

What an amazing trip this has been. I love the whole volunteer vacation idea and I am excited about planning another trip sometime. Maybe someplace with fewer lizards.

San Luis

This is the view on the way down the mountain to San Luis. The roads here are very narrow and treacherous but local drivers do not seem at all concerned.  This is my work group. In just a short time, we managed to process enough of the backlog of books to nearly double the size of the tiny library.

Work day

This morning, my group went to the school in San Luis. We did a presentation to the school and made book marks and pictures related to the books. The school has 26 students, ranging from preschool through grade 5. One teacher manages all of the classes, so he has two connected rooms and divides his students into two or three groups for instruction. The only other person I saw there was cooking lunch and she also did the cleaning.
After we finished at the school, we continued to process donated books for the new community center library. Two women cleaned the books, which were rather dirty and often spider-infested. They added colored labels to the spines, glued in cards and pockets, and stamped them. The other two of the group made a simple shelf list on the computer, recording titles, authors, ISBNs, and genres. These books are now ready to be shelved at the library. There are three more big tubs of assorted books that have to be processed. Most of the books we are processing would have been weeded from any public library in the U.S. due to age or condition, or both. It's quite amazing to see how much is done here, with so much less than we have at home. Travel like this really makes me grateful for everything I have.

Work at the San Luis school and community library books

Zip line

Yesterday, our librarian group went to one of the rainforest reserves and tried out the zip line. I've seen zip lines advertised in the U.S., but they can't compare to the height and the length of the lines here. When you are flying along WAY above the trees in the Costa Rican rainforest, you are very high! It was pretty terrifying at first, and I will admit that I did not think that I would be able to step off the platform. But with plenty of encouragement, librarian peer pressure, and a good shove from the guy running the program, I did it. I'll try to upload a photo, but if you want to imagine what I looked like, just picture me with a look of abject terror on my face, screaming at the top of my lungs.

Zombie flowers!

This flower is called Queen of the Night. According to our guide, it can be used to make a zombie. An infusion made from this flower will slow the heart so much that the person appears dead. But it is a poison, so when the person "comes back to life" the brain is damaged, causing that shambling, slow-thinking zombie effect. Yikes!

This morning, a group of us went to several schools to deliver books, aka the book mobile. It isn't an actual vehicle, like in the United States, though. The woman who runs the program is called Wendy, and she was born here, though her extended family now lives in Alabama. Wendy's parents were part of the original Quaker settlement in Monteverde. She moved to the states for a number of years and attended college, but has lived here again since 1990. She takes crates of books to the schools in her car, and children who remembered to bring back the books they borrowed last week may borrow another one. She really wants the children to have books, though, so sometimes will bend the rules and let them take one even if they still have one at home. Today was soccer, however, so the children were rather distracted. Some little soccer fans let me take their pictures.

Having fun!

We are having fun with some ferns. Our guide picked some native ferns and by placing it on our clothing and lightly slapping the fern, it transferred the spores in a perfect image. The local children do this on their skin, but most of us on this trip were too fair of coloring for this to work on our skin!

Two of my favorite foods grow here: coffee and chocolate.

Librarians gone (into the) wild

Primitive cosmetics

This kind of fruit is used in cooking, but the early natives used it to color their lips.

Flowers

Keel billed toucan

Yesterday, we went walking in one of those eco-tourist preserves. It was amazing. The first thing we saw was a tiny snake, about 10 inches long. I am not afraid of snakes, so as I leaned in to get a look and a picture, the guide cautioned me back, stating that it was an eyelash viper, and very poisonous! We also saw spider monkeys, poison dart frogs, keel-billed toucans, a coatimundi, and many beautiful and rare plants. After our hike, we toured an organic farm and ate lunch made from foods that were all grown on the farm. They grew sugar cane, bananas, plantains, coffee, chocolate, herbs, yucca, root vegetable, and had a milk cow, chickens, and pigs. Small, sustainable organic farms like this are a growing industry here.
We watched a bit of soccer last night, taking in the US match. They are huge soccer fans here, and Costa Rica seems to have a good team. They would like all of the European teams eliminated, so that just teams from the Americas play in for the championship. We often forget that this country is considered part of the Americas, but you are reminded of that when you travel the PanAmerican Highway.
Today we are moving to another part of the country, and we will be starting our work assignments, after a long bus ride and some time in a hammock near the beach...

I landed safely in Liberia, Costa Rica. We are waiting for the last member of our group to get here. It is very hot and humid here, but we are going to drive three or four hours on the bus to Monteverdi, where it is a cool 80 degrees and rainy. Tomorrow, we are going to visit an Eco-farm, and then we will be served a completely organic lunch. My "lunch" at the airport was a banana, a beer, and a lot of water.

Minneapolis

I had to spend a few hours overnight in the Minneapolis airport. They hand out mats, pillows and blankets now, so there are little camps of people everywhere, like some sort of urban KOA. But I downloaded an audio book from the library (Lois Lowry's "The Giver""), popped in my ear buds, and took a nice long nap. There are iPads everywhere, for travelers to use. It used to be hard to find a place to charge your phone. Now, everyone is online. The only thing I hate is that I can no longer see what people are reading because so many people use an e-reader! Not that I wouldn't just walk up and ask...

Getting ready...

I will be leaving in two days for Costa Rica. This trip is sponsored by the American Library Association, of which I have been a member for many years. A group of librarians will be traveling from all parts of the United States to Costa Rica. I have been assigned to work in a community center that is creating a new library. I will also spend my first day in Costa Rica on the bookmobile.

Here are some things you did not know about Costa Rica, in case you ever want to visit:

1. Costa Ricans call themselves ticos (males) and ticas (females).

2. It’s not a big deal to see someone walking around with a machete.

Although it’s more common in the countryside, ticos use machetes for everything and often keep one on them. They’re considered the Costa Rican equivalent of duct tape.

3. Costa Rica is only slightly smaller than Lake Michigan.

And has 801 miles of coastline.

4. Ticos often refer to their significant others as their “media naranja”.

Which means “the other half of their orange.”

5. Costa Rica’s president, Luis Guillermo Solís, won the 2014 election with over 77% of the vote.

This was the largest margin ever recorded for a free election in Costa Rica. Previously, Costa Rica’s president was Laura Chinchilla, Costa Rica’s first female president and sixth female elected for president of a Latin American country.

6. Costa Rica has more than 121 volcanic formations, with seven of them being active.

Poás Volcano has the second widest crater in the world, and Arenal is one of the ten most active volcanoes in the world.

7. The country is host to more than 5% of the world’s biodiversity.

Even though its landmass only takes up .03% of the planet’s surface, more than 10% of the world’s butterflies live here — there are about 750,000 species of insects that live in Costa Rica, and 20,000 various kinds of spiders.

8. Costa Rica has no standing army.

They abolished the army in 1948 after their last civil war ended.

9. Costa Rican women don’t take their husband’s last name.

And instead use their full maiden name for life. Children take their father’s name but add their mother’s maiden name to their full name.

10. Instead of saying a woman “had a baby,” ticos say “ella dio a luz.”

Meaning, “she gave light.”

11. Every Costa Rican radio station plays the national anthem every morning at 7am.

12. Until a few years ago, wearing shorts was a sign of disrespect.

And government buildings wouldn’t allow visitors to enter unless they were wearing long pants.

13. Pedestrians are called “targets.”

And speed bumps are called “son muertos” — in English, “(they are) dead people.”

14. Costa Rica is considered one of the most valued environmental destinations in the world.

There are over 100 protected areas to visit, and 25% of the country has protected forests and reserves.

15. Ice cream flavors in Costa Rica are interesting and sometimes slightly weird.

Flavors include coconut, goat cheese, wild blackberry, peanut, sour cream, chipotle blueberry, chocolate almond, and more.

16. You could easily call Costa Rica the unofficial hummingbird capital.

The country is home to over 52 species of hummingbird.

17. Pura Vida is a happy, feel-good expression.

Pura Vida is used regularly by the locals when asked how they are or in passing to say hello or goodbye.

18. Costa Rica has an exceptionally high life expectancy of 79, one of the highest in the world.

And receives international praise for its modern healthcare system, where it’s ranked 36th in the world by the World Health Organization (WHO). The Nicoya Peninsula is one of the world’s seven Blue Zones, a place where people live longer and happier lives, and has a high concentration of people over age 100.

19. There are usually no street names or addresses.

So people simply get accustomed to giving directions via landmarks. When giving someone a home address, ticos usually say something like, “It’s the blue house just south of where the cow is tied up,” or “It’s 500 meters north of the big tree.”

20. Mae is the Costa Rican slang term for “dude.”

And is used regularly in conversation with young people.

21. Costa Rica has a 96% literacy rate.

In rural areas of the country where ticos are very poor and don’t have access to school, classes are taught on air over a national radio station.

So, a lot has happened to me in the last two years. I quit my job, got a new job, sold my house, moved to another state and bought a new house, got a divorce. That is a LOT of change. Not all of the changes are bad, however. I love my new house and  I have the perfect job.  I have also been playing roller derby for the last two years, under the name "Dewey DeciMaul" but a recent shoulder dislocation has probably ended that for me.
As you may surmise from the recent resurrection of my blog, I am about to travel again. This time I am going to Costa Rica, with a group of librarians. I will only be gone for 10 days, but in that time I will be working at a library as well as doing a bit of touring. I will be in Costa Rica in June, which is winter there. It may be a bit rainy, but the cooler temperatures will be easier to bear. The average temps in winter are high 70s to low 80s. Perfect. I'm ready for warmer temperatures, since we have had months of below-zero weather here in Thief River Falls. Many of the days were -25 and colder, without the wind chill.

Here I am in my winter gear: