Leveling Roads

-Allison Peters

Day three of the Costa Rican adventure. I really like it here, and all the people are super friendly. Since I didn’t blog yesterday, I’m going to start with that. We woke up early and began our day with a tour of the city. I learned a lot about the different architectures as well as the history of Costa Rica, like that San Jose wasn’t always the capital of Costa Rica. We then walked around the market which was one of the most surreal moments I have ever had. It was exactly like the black markets you saw on television except for without the crime. Although it often smelled horrible of fish, and there was raw meat being sold everywhere, it was pretty nice. It’s what I was hoping for in Costa Rica, a completely new experience. We then got some ice cream with the money we exchanged. It was flavored nutmeg I guess but it reminded me of Cinnabun ice cream by Ben and Jerry’s. We then finally walked back to get lunch, which was my first meal with beans. They were gross. But the rice and plantain was good, and the Chicken was delicious. We then rushed to the hotel with our interview with Epsy Campbell which went well. She was really kind and laid back, and had a lot of good points. Finally we rushed out to meet the other high school Ticos. They pretty much creamed us in Soccer and Basketball, but it was a lot of fun. I tried speaking to them with my broken Spanish along with like three other students, but they just kind of laughed at us. We had the most delicious juice, raspberry, with dinner. All of the juice is really good here and fresh. Especially the Kas or something like that from Monday.

Finally today, it was really nice. I woke up super early for no reason, before the sun was even up and took a shower. I then fell back asleep until breakfast which was cereal thank goodness. After applying layers of sun block we took off for La Carpio. I read a lot about this place during my research, but seeing it was something different. Everyone was really friendly, even nicer than the students. And the locals helped out. Boy was it hard work trying to level the roads, it was like moving mountains, but the young kids made it worthwhile. They were all really sweet and knew some English, they could count to twenty. It amazed me of these two little kids who were only two years old, were helping us shovel. Also, these two like teenagers had parrots and they let us hold them. It was pretty gross digging their drain out, it was just like the thickest sludge that looked like oil. Tonight, hopefully the high school Ticos are coming over for a fiesta, so I’m really excited. I miss and love my family, but Costa Rica is pretty spectacular.