Thoughts on Being Vegan in Costa Rica

Buenas!

Some people have been asking me if I am continuing my vegan lifestyle in Costa Rica. So here is my answer-yes! And it honestly could not be easier. Since rice and beans are the basis of almost all Latin American meals, I can always always be sure that I will be able to find something to eat. They even have rice and beans on the menu at Burger King.

At my school's cafeteria, I can get a big plate of salad, rice, beans, squash, and maduros (fried plantains) for only 570 colones-which is only a little bit more than an American dollar. Suuuch a good deal and easier than walking home and cooking the same lunch for myself.

There are tons of fresh veggies at the central market for really cheap (I got a huge bag of vegetables for 5 dollars today) so I have been cooking lots of yummy food for myself.  For dinner tonight I made brown rice and Nituke, my favorite vegetable dish that I learned to make in Alaska. It had potato, carrot, radish, cauliflower (plus the greens) and spinach. Yum!

AND at the grocery store today I found these awesome cookies that are vegan. And they taste good! And none of the ingredients are strange!

These are oatmeal (aevna) raisin  (pasas) but there are a bunch of flavors

Ok, homework time..

Pura vida!
Rachel

Fin de Semana en Paraiso (and pictures!)

This weekend, a huuge group of USAC students got together to celebrate our friend Emily's birthday in Puerto Viejo, a beach town on the Caribbean.

It took about 4 1/2 hours on the bus to get there. During the first part of the bus ride, we were driving alongside the mountains. It literally took my breath away. It was difficult to photograph because there were only gaps in the trees where you could see the view, but we were looking down into this valley and were surrounded by lush, beautiful mountains. It was another one of those moments where I was just so happy and could not stop smiling.

As we got closer to the Caribbean, we got to see what Costa Rica is like for the people who do not live in or near cities. There were miles and miles and miles of banana plantations (bananas and coffee are Costa Rica's main exports) with super impoverished little towns spread in between. It was interesting because in Heredia, the culture is different from home and people definitely live much more simply, but it does not feel like a 3rd world country. Riding on the bus reminded me of where I am and made me understand the country that I am in a lot more.

Puerto Viejo

Puerto Viejo is awesome. The beach is absolutely beautiful and the town is so cute and colorful and full of happy, nice people and lots of reggae music.  I have never been anywhere in the Caribbean before but I imagine that the vibe there is pretty standard for el Caribeno....super super super chill and relaxed. Almost every restaurant/bar/bike rental shop is run by expats who came down for vacation years ago and never left. I can understand why...it is paradise! (Don't worry I won't do that but there was a girl my age who was our waitress who did!)

Also I'm preeeetty sure that there are no laws in Puerto Viejo...I don't recall seeing any police, but there was more weed/weed paraphernalia/Bob Marley paraphernalia around than when we were in Amsterdam last year. Which is impressive. 

It was weird being in Puerto Viejo because English is pretty much the first language there and it is full of people who are not from Costa Rica (mostly Europe and some US), which is the opposite of the life I have been living for the past 2 weeks. I had gotten used to being the minority and being back in the majority was slightly shocking. Part of what I like so much about being in Heredia is being such an outsider-I feel so in touch with myself when I am here because, being a white girl in a Latin American country, there is no point in trying to mimic or keep up with anyone. I just do me! So being in Puerto Viejo in a place with people who look like me and talk like me was so strange!

Rockin J's

Our hostel was so sweet. It's called Rockin J's, and it is right on the water and has tents and hammocks along with traditional hostel rooms. I stayed in a hammock for only $6. It felt like grown-up summer camp.

My sleeping arrangements for the weekend

We got to our hostel on Friday around dinner time, so some of us went to dinner and then met the rest of the group out at one of the bars in town. It was a super fun night!

Cahuita

Before we left for Puerto Viejo, my friend (who is also a vegan!) Danielle and I decided that we didn't want to spend Saturday sitting on the beach and instead wanted to do some exploring. One of my teachers recommended going to the National Park nearby-Cahuita. Such a good recommendation!

Me, Danielle, Austin, and James, aka the smartest, most winningest USAC students, were the only ones out of the 25 or so students that decided to go to Cahuita in the morning. While everyone else got sunburnt on the beach, we went on a beautiful 10ish mile hike that varied between overlooking the beautiful water and winding through the jungle. It was craaazy awesome! Everything was so so so beautiful and cool-the beach with clear water and white sand with mountains in the distance, the hundreds of different trees and plants, the beautiful butterflies, lizards, and other wildlife. AND WE SAW MONKEYS!!!!!!! Such. A. Success. We had such a fun time-it was definitely one of the best days I've had since I've been here. 

Paradise!

Danielle and I just hanging out! 

Once we got back from Cahuita, we decided to push ourselves and not succumb to our tiredness and met up with some of the people still at the beach. On our walk to the beach, we saw sloths!!!! We were so sad we didn't see any on our hike but karma came through and we got to see TWO slothi (our invented plural of sloth) and got really close to them. 

Me and Breigh-Anna on the beach

The weirdest animal on Earth

At the beach, there was a surfing competition just ending and dusk was descending and it was really peaceful. Afterwards we showered, hung out at the hostel for a while playing drinking games with everyone, and then got yummy dinner (I got curry for the second night in a row tehe) and went out again.

The hiking crew + Jess and Sylvie at our favorite restaurant-Chili rojo

Ready to go out!

In the morning, Danielle and I wanted to wake up early and go shopping at all the little markets and sit on the beach. But it rained like craazy so instead we chilled at our favorite restaurant and had the best smoothie of my life and ate more yummy gallo pinto and then came home!

mmmmmm...

This weekend was suuuch a success. However on the negative side I now am host to a super super super super painful blister on the bottom of my foot which makes walking almost impossible. Stupid flip flops! Worth the pain, though!

PURA VIDA

-Rachel

The Story that will Surprise No One

My day today:

-Went to class: my new Conservation Biology class is awesome. It's only 3 of us taking it which makes it really relaxed and discussion-based. The professor, Fern, is so cool-she is from South Carolina is now married to a Tico and lives down here. She plans on buying land with him and starting an organic farm.

-Went to soccer, it was lots of fun just like last time except this time I was much worse (which I didn't know was possible) tehe

AND THEN

-I went to Taco Bell with some people after soccer. I got a bean burrito. Then I left with my roommate and stopped at Mr. Grill to get some hummus to go to have for the next couple weeks. That's when I realized I didn't have my phone. Brittney called it but it was definitely not in my backpack. I knew I had it in Taco Bell so we went back and she called it again and I heard it........in the trashcan. Now it is embarrassing in the US to have to dig through the trash. Imagine being in a country in which you ALREADY stick out like a sore thumb and having to dig through the trash there!!!!! The Tico's that worked there were laughing at me so hard but then one came to give me gloves and helped me find it and I did and I am NEVER going back there again. So humiliating. 

I have a quiz tomorrow in Spanish so I gotta study for the rest of the night.

Ciao!

Rachel

Un perro y algunas frutas =)

Some updates:

1) Manchita: My landlord/next door neighbor found an injured stray on the street and brought her home to take her to the vet. He was going to take her to the pound afterwards but we all grew to really love her so we decided to keep her! I agreed to be responsible for her (feeding, walking, cleaning) and to find her somewhere to live when we all leave. We are still waiting for Esteban to take her to the vet-she has an infected anal gland (very easy to fix) that bleeds on the ground (and smells rancid) so we can't let her into the house except to sleep. Also she has an injured leg so she limps. BUT SHE IS SO SWEET. Her name is Manchita (Man-chee-ta) which basically translates to "Spot" in Spanish.

Have you ever seen anything so precious?!?!

2) Gimnasia Nueva: A really nice gym near school/my house has a good deal for USAC students so I joined it since I needed an alternative for the mornings that I don't want to wake up at 6am to run. My friend Danielle and I decided to go the aerobics class last night that was so ridiculously complicated-it is so much easier for Ticos to learn a dance combination since they have been dancing since they were fetuses. I have yet to figure out how to move my hips like that! I will be doing yoga classes too.

3) Frutas: My Spanish Conversations class is awesome-it basically consists of us going in front of the class and presenting whatever the homework was for the week. It is really helpful for my Spanish because the professor expects a lot from us-I can tell I will learn a lot. This week, she had us go to the Central Market and pick out fruits or vegetables that we did not recognize, and then learn about them and present them to the class. We got to try all of the fruits-they were all so good!! I had never heard of most of them-guanabanas, caimitos, manzanas de agua, guayaba, granadillas, y mangas. If you ever see a guanabana at a store-BUY IT. It was so juicy and delicious. It was such a cool class!

-I also signed up to tutor a Tico in English, who will help me with my Spanish, in turn. I'm hoping it will be really helpful as I want to be near-fluent when I leave here.

-A huge group of USAC students are going to celebrate one of the student's 21st birthday this weekend at Puerto Viejo, a beach on the Caribbean. Apparantly it's a really beautiful, really fun place. I'm excited! The weekend after that I plan on going to Manuel Antonio and explore the tropical forests and Pacific areas.

La Primera Semana

It is so hard to believe that I have only been here for a week-I am growing accustomed to my life here and I feel like it's been months already. The people who I made awkward small talk with at the airport last Friday are now becoming my good friends, and I feel less and less intimidated by this country every day.

This week was really wonderful. My classes are all great (minus the Tropical Plant class that I switched for a Conservation Biology class) and I am feeling comfortable with the language more quickly than I thought I would, which is so exciting. Everyone in my program is very serious about learning as much Spanish as they can before they leave, which is inspiring. It is nice to be here with people who are on my level in terms of getting an educational and cultural experience here along with a social experience.

Most days consisted of some combination of exercise, class, cooking, doing homework, and hanging out with new friends. There were some standout events though:

Wednesday at 4 we met up to play soccer. I am just getting over my soreness now-it was an hour of basically sprinting up and down the little indoor field (with no real idea of what I was doing). It was so much fun, though! I even scored a goal in the second game =) I want to play more than just once a week.
After soccer some of us went to a bar that has a 2 for 1 margarita special every day from 4-8 and we got yummy frozen margaritas and hung out for a while. Such a sugar overload, though!

On Thursday, we went on a field trip with our Spanish class to San Jose to go to the Central Market (where we were bought delicious Costa Rican empanadas), the National Theater, and the National Museum. There was also a "Hippie Market" of artisans selling jewelry and other crafts. I will post pictures once my battery is charged on my camera.

I wasn't crazy impressed with San Jose  but it was a nice break from class and I got to learn a lot about Costa Rican culture. Thursday night was my first dance class which was fun-I was already able to use what I had learned when we went out this weekend which was cool.

Saturday was the best!! Despite having to wake up really early after being out the night before, we had one of the best days I have had for so long. Jaco is a beach town on the Pacific side, about 2 hours away by bus. The drive was so beautiful-it was nice to get out of the city and into the beautiful scenery that Costa Rican is known for. Once we passed through the Central Valley (the area of Costa Rica in the center of a ton of mountains-where we live in Heredia) it became so hot (the coasts are like 10x hotter and more humid than the central valley) and the bus essentially became a sauna. I was very happy to get off of it when we got to our first destination-ziplining!

Holy crap-ziplining was awesome! Again, I will post pictures soon, but it was amazing. They basically drove us to the top of a lush, forested mountain and we ziplined all the way back down to the bottom-I think it was 15 or so different stations. It was the best combination of things-fun, breathtaking, invigorating. I could not wipe the smile off of my face the entire time. And all of the Ticos who worked there was so nice and so much fun and made the experience even better.

After ziplining, we got lunch and then went to our second destination, a "crocodile tour" on the San Jose river. Our group took up about half of the tour boat, and just as we were about to set off for the tour a group of like 20 Costa Rican bros (a persona I didn't know existed until now) piled on with a huge cooler of beer. They were spending the day traveling around for one of their Bachelor parties. So essentially what was going to be a relaxing tour of the river looking at wildlife became a frat party of sorts between their group and ours. Not relaxing, but pretty entertaining as they were all very nice and funny and actually very intelligent (opposite of their American counterparts-generally speaking of course). And we got to see lots of wildlife! Crocodiles, iguanas, awesome birds, horses, giant herds of cows. At the end, the tour guide jumped out of the boat to feed this GIANT crocodile-it was awesome.

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EDIT: My mom wants me to clarify for anyone who doesn't understand (because she misunderstood and thought I was being racist haha) that a BRO is equivalent to a frat-guy personality)
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We returned to the sauna-bus and made our way home. I came back, made dinner, took a muuuch needed shower, drank some tea for an energy boost and then went to meet everyone at school to go to a club for our friend Danielle's birthday. The club had an open bar for only $6 cover-it was wild! Almost our entire program went which was soo much fun. It was a great night....until the previously posted Cockroach Saga that made it impossible to sleep soundly. So here I am, only 4 hours after I went to sleep, blogging about my week.



I keep having these moments where I remember where I am and can't believe it! It is so surreal to be spending such a  long amount of time here. The first week here was so wonderful and I can't wait to see what Costa Rica has in store for me for the next 4 months!

Ciao!
Rachel

PS This song is too much fun

The Cockroach Saga

Note: This week was awesome and I will write a blogpost about the awesomeness tomorrow or Monday. For now...


I knew I would encounter cockroaches during my stay in Costa Rica. I had been prepared. One of my roommates had already dealt with 2 or 3 in her bathroom. I had a fool-proof plan set up in my head-once I saw a cockroach, I would immediately yell to one of my roommates to come and take care of it since they are much braver than I. But OF COURSE my first Costa Rican cucaracha event occurred when both Brittney and Charlie were away in Punteranes for the night:

It was a normal Saturday night/Sunday morning. At about 3am, I had returned from a fun night out with my friends from USAC and some new Tico friends. Just before I went to go wash my face and go to sleep, I saw it out of the corner of my eye, crawling from under my chair and toward my bathroom. I didn't know what to do...it was 3am, my roommates weren't home, and no one I know lives near me. So I called Miguel.

With my eye never leaving el cucaracha, I explained amidst my sporadic screaming to my good Tico friend Miguel that there was a cockroach in my room and there was absolutely no way that I was going to be able to go to sleep until someone (and absolutely 100% NOT ME) took care of it. I knew Miguel would come even though he was 20 minutes away because he is a very nice guy and also because he tried to kiss me earlier that night before I explained that we were only just bffs.

While waiting for Miguel to arrive, I starting talking to Emily online because she just landed in Copenhagen. This distracted me and I lost sight of la cucaracha. I knew it was in the bathroom so I assumed that since I couldn't see it anywhere else that it had crawled down the drain, and so I drowned it with the shower water. Assuming my work was done, I called Miguel, who was like 5 blocks from my house, to tell him not to come anymore and that I was just going to go to sleep. I felt (and feel) so terrible because he drove out all this way for nothing and I think he secretly thought that there was no cockroach and I just wanted to see him but he was wrong and all I wanted to do was sleep without fear of la cucaracha and he sounded really sad and angry at me =(

Mad at myself for making Miguel, the nicest boy ever, angry at me, I finally went to wash my face. After washing my face, I went to pull my moisturizer out of my makeup bag when OMGHOLYCRAP THE COCKROACH WAS IN MY MAKEUP BAG (side note-how in THE WORLD did the cockroach climb up my toilet and into my makeup bag................I want to throw up just thinking about it).

I then had to devise a plan. With Miguel out of the picture, it was all up to me. So this is what I did-it was brilliant.

1) I grabbed the trashcan bin from my room
2) I reallyreallyquickly threw my makeup bag (containing the cockroach) into the bin
3) I put the lid on the bin
4) I ran with the bin outside onto my street
5) I poured all the contents of the bin onto the sidewalk in front of my house
6) The cockroach ran out from the contents of the makeup bag and I captured it with the bin
7) I took all of my makeup and stuff and put it back in the bag

The bin is still sitting on top of the cockroach. I have friends coming to watch the Ravens game tomorrow so I am going to leave it to them....

I know this will not be my last cockroach experience, but you better believe I am not letting Charlie and Brittney leave me alone ever again!





Again-----I am having an absolutely amazing time and have had the best week/weekend ever, and I will update everyone on this past week ASAP

Pura Vida!
Rachel

Pura Vida!

Buenas!

Now that I am settled, I figure it is time to update everyone on my time here so far! I have a lot to update on so it is going to be really long (and detailed so as to please my mother). If you don't feel like reading the entire update: here is a summary-I am so happy here! Costa Rica is the best.

I am going to start with Saturday, since Friday was mostly travel and by the time I got to Costa Rica it was dark. Saw a great sunset from the airplane, though!

Saturday
Morning
We had orientation with everyone from the program on Saturday. Which was annoying because it was so beautiful out but we were stuck inside for most of the day! It was ok, though because I got to meet everyone from my program. There are only like 30 of us which is perfectly non-overwhelming, and everyone is so nice =)

I signed up for my classes-I am in track 2 spanish and will have Spanish Monday-Friday from 8am to 10:30am. By the time I am done, I will have taken the equivalent of FOUR Spanish classes at UMD. It will be very intense! But I'm excited to improve and be better at understanding everyone here. My Spanish professor is so nice, and there are only 8 or 9 people in my class so I think I will learn a lot.

The other classes I am taking are a Tropical Plant Ecology class which should be sweet! And a Comparative Education class that I am very excited about-it will compare the education practices between different areas of the world (with an emphasis on Central America). Costa Rica abolished its military about 60 years ago and put all of that money toward education, so I am interested to see what they do differently. The professor who teaches that is also teaching a gender studies class that I wish I had time to take, but regardless her interests seem in line with mine! Also I am taking a Latin American dance class!!

Also, I signed up for a "Tico Friend" (Tico is the word used to describe a Costa Rican), which is a student from the university who I can practice Spanish with while they practice English with me.

After orientation we did a tour of the campus, which I got to see even more of on my run this morning. It is so beautiful! Some parts of it feel like you are in the middle of the rainforest. They have a cafeteria where you can get a whole lunch for about $2. I love how cheap everything is here-you can take a taxi for $1 or 2 and even travel to the beaches, rain forests, mountains, volcanoes, etc by bus for less than $20 round trip. I am hoping that I will be able to travel on most weekends.

Afternoon
After orientation, my roommates and I moved into our new house! The house is amazing-it is in a really  nice, quiet, safe part of Heredia. We live two doors down from some important member of the government, so there are always security people walking around. And it is less than 10 minutes from my school. There is a park a block away that I worked out at after my run this morning-it has a great view overlooking the part of town below us, and all of the mountains surrounding.

Anyway, the house is awesome. We each have our own bedroom and bathroom. I have never had my own bathroom before! I am not used to such privacy- I am used to sharing a bathroom with 35 freshman girls. What an upgrade. And my room is bigger than any bedroom I have ever had! All for what it would cost to live like under the kitchen table of an apartment in College Park. Woo hoo!

Also, my roommates are really great. They lived together last semester in Puntarenas, another city in Costa Rica, so they have been endlessly helpful at helping me here, which is nice to have in lieu of a host family. They also come equipped with Tico friends who helped us move in and hung out with us, so I was already making friends with local people without even having to try =)

Night
Once we moved in, we went out for dinner before going grocery shopping. There is a super nice Persian man who owns a restaurant/Hookah bar right near us with Middle Eastern food...so yummy. None of the restaurants or stores here have doors or outside walls or anything-they are all open, which is great because the weather is always so comfortable!!

We went grocery shopping after that and then met some people from the program out at one of the bars. We met so many Ticos and Ticas! Everyone is SO NICE. It is very different from places I traveled in Europe, where people are excited to meet you because you are American. In Costa Rica, everyone is excited to meet us because we are in Costa Rica. They are so proud of their country and want to show it off so that we can love it, too. I have only been here 3 days and I have already made friends who want to show me some of their favorite places in Costa Rica =)

The bar we went to was a lot of fun. They play some really crappy American music, though. They love it!! I love the Latin American pop music they play much more. We had a great time!

Sunday
On Sunday, 6 of us from the program went to a sports bar to watch the Ravens game. Afterwards, one of our new Tico friends took us around Heredia since we hadn't gotten a chance to see the whole city. I will post some pictures later.

It is difficult to describe Heredia. It isn't particularly beautiful-but it is still really nice and pretty. It is surrounded by mountains, which is something that I am not used to but love a lot. The weather is perfect-70s every day, with quite a bit of breeze.  I can't quite put my finger on what I like so much about it, but I really really love it here. Everything here is so simple, which is a really good way to describe the culture in general. Their motto is "Pura Vida" which translates to "pure life". Which means that the mentality here is a very no worries, no rush, no cares type of mentality. Everyone always seems so happy and relaxed, including myself.

I will go more into the culture once I have been here for longer, but it is worlds away from culture in the US, despite the presence of many American fast food restaurants and brands (Aeropostale is really trendy here...should have saved all of my clothes from middle school-I would be so cool here!!).

I was exhausted by the time we were done touring the city, so when I came back I made some yummy dinner (Nituke for any macro friends) and went to sleep at like 9.

Today
This morning (6 am!) I went on a run around my neighborhood and school. There are so many hills-I was dying...but I did a workout and some yoga afterwards in a little park near my house that overlooks the city below us and all of the mountains. Really nice =)

I went to my first Spanish class this morning, and then came back to make myself a salad with delicious fresh veggies and update this blog before I head back to school for my afternoon class. Today is orientation for new students and registration for the Ticos at UNA (the school that we are taking classes at)-so there were thousands of Ticos all around-all staring at our big group of Gringos walking to our classes. As one of the girls in my class said, it felt like we were walking in our underwear.

UPCOMING:
-Every Wednesday we are going to play soccer with Ticos!
-This weekend we are going on a "Crocodile Tour" through the jungle and then going ziplining! I am so excited!!!!


Sorry for writing so much.

Adios =)
-Rachel

One day!

I do not have very high hopes for this blog. I am the worst at writing about my own experiences and have a pathetically small vocabulary when it comes to adjectives. I generally describe everything as "awesome" unless they are truly special, in which case I might break out an "amazing" or "surreal" or something. I am sure my mom will be the only person to even keep up with this and she does not care how pathetic my vocabulary is as long as I am putting up pictures (with me in them). As for everyone else, don't expect much!

Anyway-I leave for Heredia, Costa Rica tomorrow at 10:20 am. I have fit four months of life into one heavy giant suitcase and am ready to go by all material standards but mentally am freakin out a little! That was a lie because I'm freakin out a lot! But that is a good thing because it is important to do things that make me uncomfortable and going into a country that I know next to nothing about feels really uncomfortable which means it must be the right decision (unless it's the wrong decision!) (just kidding of course it's the right decision!) (I hope!)

What I hope you will see in this blog over the next four months are updates and pictures of me seeing many beautiful places and meeting many wonderful people and immersing myself into the language and culture of Costa Rica (unless of course I don't update the blog which is likely).

For now...here is my calendar of events as planned by USAC, my study abroad program. I expect to fill in all of the unplanned weekends with lots and lots of traveling of my own! All traveling will be safe so do not worry about me! (cough cough Mom Dad & Grandma)

Adios for now! 

ps I packed some unnecessary things like curry powder (sike that's totally necessary)