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Last week Heidy and I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and try finding La Paz waterfall gardens near Volcan Poas. About year ago an earthquake struck and the road had been closed down for months. We heard that it recently opened and decided to jump on the scooter and go. The day was beautiful and after months of rain. My scooter had no problem going up the country roads and climbing the mountain until… We reached the part of the road that had been closed after the earthquake. While the road has been reopened we found ourselves driving further into the clouds and deeper into a mud pit. After about two kilometers driving in out of the mud we found our selves in a particularly ugly section with no view of paved roads ahead. We decided to turn back.

After coming down to the next town we asked about another route. We were given directions for a short cut that would put us on another road up the mountain. This road took us through beautiful vistas of coffee farms and cloud draped mountains. And, of course, terrible roads. We were going either straight up or straight down and bouncing along the whole way over potholes and poorly patched pavement. The view was of jarring beauty while the ride was just jarring.

After about four hours of driving and about 45 miles passed we reached our destination. Once there we decided that we were rather late and could not quite justify the steep entrance fee for such a short stay. So, we found another place nearby without an entrance fee and went to have lunch. After passing sometime in the park we turned around and headed home, this time that was a little more direct, only an hour and half.

The United States qualifies for the world cup while Costa Rica manages to keep itself alive.

Yesterday was a day of World Cup qualifying matches. Some of the most closely fought spots are in the CONCACAF. Yesterday the United States managed a win against Honduras giving them a guaranteed spot in the 2010 World Cup. Meanwhile, Costa Rica was up againist Trinidad and Tobago on a rain soaked pitch in San José. The Ticos were in a must win situation and did it in a 4-0 fashion. This moves them into third place; a spot that will guarantee them tickets to South Africa if they can manage to stay there. If Honduras losses to El Salvador next Wednesday (unlikely) then it does not matter what the Ticos do. However, to guarantee a spot regardless of Honduras’ performance the Costa Ricans have to beat the United States next Wednesday.

Needless to say my loyalties are a little divided. On the one hand, the United States has already qualified so it does not matter what they do and I should root for the home team hear in Ticolandia. At the same time, Costa Rica really embarrassed the United States earlier in the tournament and if they win again no one will let me forget. Decisions, decisions….

Pastureland outside of Boruca.

This past weekend I went to visit Boruca. I spent most of my time hiking through the mountains and farmland outside of town. I had done this a little bit before but I had never gone as far as I did on this past visit. Despite being the rainy season, I had mostly clear weather and found beautiful vistas to gaze out on the rolling mountains and distant rivers. I also went to the farm of my girlfriend’s family where we had a picnic in the ranchito built near the mountain top.

Students march with flags in the 15 de setiembre celebración of Costa Rican Independence.

The 15th of September is the Costa Rican Day of Independence. While a national holiday, schools are never closed. In fact, Independence Day is one of the most important days in the school year in Costa Rica. Parades are organized all over the country and students of all ages march in bands, perform plays, and carry hand made lanterns the night before. In short, the celebration of patriotism rests on the shoulders of the countries children who are always the main event in towns across the nation.

Sculpture of Christ, Sagrada Familia Passion Façade

Temple Expiatori Sagrada Familia is often used as the quintessential image of Barcelona. The famous soaring towers that look similar to the castles children make by dripping wet sand in gloppy piles can be found on postcards and t-shirts all across town and at duty-free in the airport.  However, pictures do not do justice to the great structure, still under-construction after 125 years with at least 15 more to go, it stands in my humble opinion as the most beautiful man made building I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot. I have been to sixteen countries all over the planet but I have never seen a building that seemed to not have been built but actually grow out of the ground. The whole structure seemed to breath. Equally, the passion architect Antoni Gaudí poured into the plans and construction is evident in the attention to detail and ingenuity. The whole building is testament to his personal religious devotion expressed in stone.

The church began construction in 1866 under the direction of Francisco de Paula del Villar y Lozano but was soon taken over by Antoni Gaudí. In 1889 Gaudí received an enormous anonymous donation to the project which led him to abandon the orignial plans and totally redesign the church as an artistic expression of the gospels in sculpture and architectural symbolism. Gaudí worked tiresly even living in the workshop next to the church until his tragic death in 1926 when he was hit by a train and died three days later.

The work has been ongoing ever since and the design has evolved in the hands of different architects and sculptors. This was a desire of Gaudí’s that succeeding generations would add there own taste and vision to the construction. He viewed the work as an offering to God from the people of Catalonia. Even though the influence of other artists is evident the overall concept and design has remained faithful to Gaudí’s original plans.

To learn more about the history of Sagrada Familia visit the official website at: www.sagradafamilia.cat.

Street Performance with Giant Puppets

I have been so busy since I got back to Costa Rica I have not had time to write about my trip to Europe. While Paris was a beautiful city and defiantly a fun time the highlight of my trip was Barcelona. I arrived in Barcelona ahead of my friends because I had opted to take the cheapest flight I could find which also happened to leave at about 6:30AM. Despite the exhaustion upon arriving I immediately felt at home. After a week of being unable to communicate with anyone in France it was a relief to actually be able to talk to people again with ease and to know what was going on around me. I had been nervous before arriving that this might not be the case. Barcelona is in Catalonya and the official first language is Catalan, not Castilian Spanish. While there are many similarities and I found I could read a lot of signage in Catalan I could not understand it spoken. However, except for a few older people I encountered, everyone spoke fluent Spanish and I had only a few minor problems with the accent.

We spent a day on the beach and took a dip in the Mediterranean Sea. The beach and ocean were beautiful but the pudgy and hairy nudists on the beach were not quite as soft on the eyes. There are no designated nudist beaches in Barcelona. However, the laws read that one may be nude on the beach as long as one does not create a “public disturbance”. So, I suppose the old man scratching himself was well within stated laws but I could not help but feel “personally disturbed” at the display. I choose to focus on the waves.

Barcelona has some of the best architecture in the world and has managed to maintain a uniquely Medieval feel to much of the city. We spent a day wondering the narrow labyrinth like streets of the Gothic Quarter and took in the Picasso Museum as well as the Pre-Colombian Art Museum. While small, it held some amazing pieces including a few from Costa Rica. We also caught a traditional Sardana dance being preformed in front of the Cathedral.

One day was spent awing at the work of architect Antoni Gaudí. I will devote some other posts to my visits to Park Güell and Sagrada Familia. However, I will say in passing that the Sagrada Familia is the most beautiful architectural work I have ever seen. I have already vowed a pilgrimage for its completion in 2026.

I also took some day trips into the country side around Barcelona. One day was spent visiting the Theater Museum of surrealist painter Salvador Dalí and lounging on the beach of the rather frigid Costa Brava. We also went to the mountain top monastery of Monserat and hiked through the clouds and around strange bulging rock formations. As I post pictures I will write about these experiences more.

By the end of the trip I consumed about 17 pounds of seafood saturated paella and enough sangria to fill an automobile fuel tank. I also sampled some absinthe in the spirit of early 20th century modernism. However, the green fairy and I did not seem to suit each other well.

After spending nine days in Barcelona I felt like I added two or three sites to my list of things I wanted to do for everything that I checked off the list. When the opportunity arrises I will have to go back for another visit.

With little to do after the exams and about a month until the 6th grade graduation ceremony attention is turned to preparations for the festivities. The second graders practiced their cumbia dances, first grade practiced their songs, and the kindergarteners practiced their play. Decorations were prepared and countless balloons were inflated. The rather decrepit community center was turned into a very beautiful yet still decrepit community center.

Graduation went off without a hitch and all the student performances were spectacular. I have seen a lot of student performances and these were the best I had ever seen. The second graders did two very lively cumbia numbers which included numerous twirls a few lifts and even a between the legs pass. The first graders were quite adorable in their costumes and luckily no one set fire to themselves with the candles they were holding. The little ones had all their lines memorized for their play about farmers.

It was a rather bitter sweet ceremony for me as I knew it was the last big event I would be participating in at the school. While I was not always appreciative of it in the moment, the kids I worked with in Boruca were the all around best group of kids I have worked with in my teaching career. That’s not to say that the kids I have worked with in the past were awful or that the kids from Boruca were somehow specially gifted academically (because except for a few exceptions they are not) but something about working with those kids was just easier. It is maybe that there, the kids are just allowed to be kids and are free from so much of the pressure that weighs on children in the States.

If I was independently wealthy I might have signed on to work there another year. However, I am not and my bank account has been calling for reinforcements. Luckily, before returning to the States for Christmas break I landed a job in Heredia, a suburb of the Costa Rican capital San Jose. So while my days of “professional” volunteering are coming to a close my day abroad have not. Who knows? Maybe they are just beginning.

Despite my tiredness, I decided I should watch what was truly a historic moment and stick around for Obama’s acceptance speech. Of course, I didn’t really hear Obama as the speech was dubbed in Spanish. I probably could have understood it better had it not been for the somewhat inebriated Borucans who were congratulating me on Obama’s victory. They seem to think I was somehow single handedly responsible for his victory and I received many handshakes, pats on the back, and even a few, “You did it!”

While I was certainly aware of the importance of the moment for the United States everyone in this little hole in the wall bar in a mountain top indigenous reservation in a tiny Central American country repeatedly reiterated to me the importance of this moment for the entire world. Obama has promised to improve America’s image across the world. From my experience the world is waiting for him with open arms.

A few weekends ago was the Day of Indigenous Culture. This is a rather important day in Boruca. The main event is a feast with traditional foods. I witnessed and lent a hand in the food preporation. The main event was the pig slaughter. I had to help string it up because I was the only one tall enough to reach the rafters of the community center. I helped with the shaving as well and plucked some chicken feathers. I thought it was an important experience because I believe that anyone who eats meat should be willing to participate in the slaughter of their favorite foods. If one does not have the stomach to watch then they should be vegetarian. I found that I clearly had the stomach for it and will be enjoying bacon for years to come.

I also had the opportunity to participate in the traditional occupation of Ticos for the past 150 years, coffee picking. In the begining I was rather enjoying it. Sunshine, cool breezes, fragrant plants, bella vistas, what could be so bad. To tell the trught there is really nothing bad about it except that it is really quite boring. One is assigned a row of bushes. One enocuners the bush and examens every branch. Those berries that are red or yellow can be picked and thrown into the basket around one´s waist. The green ones are left to rippen and will be picked another day. And that is pretty much coffee picking. There is more that goes into the cultivation and maintinace of the plants but so far as harvesting, well, one can accomplish a lot of thinking.

I have also been traveling north quite a bit. I had an interview with a private school in Heredia and got the job. So once my volunteer duties in Boruca are finished I am off to Heredia to start my new job. So, I´ll be in Costa Rica until at least June 2009 and longer if I decided to stay at the school through another year. Right now I am in town for the weekend looking for apartments. My main criteria is no live chickens in the kitchen.