More Trips, Food, and Such

Volcan Arenal

I spent one weekend recently at Volcan Arenal. This is the biggest volcano in Costa Rica, and a typical destination for tourists. I chose my visit to Arenal to be my “splurge” weekend, a break from the $10 hostel backpacker trips I have taken otherwise. So I stayed at the Tabacon Thermal Hot Springs Resort. The hot springs were phenomenal, luxurious, and relaxing, tucked into beautiful forest. The entire time I stayed at this resort, I felt like a queen. The staff were the most hospitable I have ever experienced in my life. Perhaps they found it curious to see a girl in her 20’s staying there alone, as most people were couples or families with their kids. One of the highlights was that one evening I was in my hotel watching a DVD from the Resorts’ library collection, and there was a knock at my door. I was defensive at first and asked who it was, and it was “housekeeping”. So I opened my door and peeked out and two staff members were there, one male in uniform and one cleaning lady. The male was carrying a plate of salad with various hors d’ouvres, and in front of them stood a canister with a bottle of champagne! I thought there was some mistake, but it was compliments of the hotel manager! My weekend was divine.

I also took a hiking tour of Volcan Arenal. We were lucky that morning to actually see the peak of the volcano, as most of the time it is covered by clouds. We had the opportunity to walk through secondary rainforest and we saw a howler monkey, and a toucan!!! We also climbed up hard lava rocks from where there had been an eruption in 1992. The view from the top was an experience I hope I will remember all my life.

Playa Carrillo, Province of Guanacaste

A couple weekends ago I went to a beach, which tends to be less touristy, Playa Carrillo. It is located on the Pacific side in a province called Guanacaste, which is generally the driest area of Costa Rica. I went with one of my students, Natalia, 25 years old, and lived in Denver, Colorado for one year in 2008. She invited me to join her, her mother and one of her friends, her brother and his girlfriend. We stayed in a “cabina” about a 5 minute drive from the beach. We spent the weekend eating in the cabina, laying by the beach drinking Imperial Beer (one of the local brands), and playing in the water.

While I walked along the beach, I thought of how to describe this place. Below are my thoughts.

Waves are like an orchestra. The bigger waves deeper back into the ocean are like cymbals about to be hit together, and you can see them getting ready, growing, growing, as the music crescendos. And then POW they hit. As waves come in closer to the sand, they decrescendo and fly in together in harmony. Each wave as it subsides, takes its bow and makes space for the next waves to come in for their turn to perform.

Each time a wave falls back, a piece of stress drifts back with it. So you can feel any of your potential or existing worries dissipate at every minute. It’s a wonderful feeling.

I literally lose my ability to feel any remote sense of worry or stress – about work, about my future, everything. If I try to think of something that I could worry about, it is physically a struggle for me to wrap my mind around a single substantial thought. And so instead of continuing to try (why do I even bother?), I just let it all go. If there is such a thing as true serenity, it exists here.

I walk along, heels to toes sinking into the wet sand, waves flowing over my feet like silk. As the water embraces my legs, I luxuriously hang my arms at my sides and my fingers fiddle the top of the water.

In the distance across sides of the beach, the mist from the sea rose up to form a haze, so that I have the vague sense of walking in a dream.

The palm trees here are very firm in their place and only the leaves chatter in the wind together. They clap, chatter, sound almost exactly like rain. So that when I am lying out in the sun with my eyes closed, in front of me patters rain and behind me performs waves in their crescendo and decrescendo.

Overall, if Playa Montezuma was dazzling and sparkling; Puerto Viejo was chilled out and forgiving; Punta Leona was white clean creamy perfection; then Playa Carrillo was sleepy and hazy.

Nearby Playa Samara, about a 10-minute drive from Carrillo and more frequented by tourists, is flat and vast so that late afternoon, the waves are gentle and create a thin layer over the sand, so you can see the reflection of the sky and perfect formation of clouds painted across, and trees. And with the sun setting, staring at the sky, sea, and sand, it’s all just a pale baby blue and light violet shade.

The beaches for me have been in some ways the best parts of my experience in Costa Rica because I experience no other serenity than when I am walking or just sitting in the wet sand where the waves thin out to cover my legs, as I stare out at the water, at the sky, and all I hear are waves, palm trees, and birds. And I sit in peace.

Costa Rican Food

I realized that I haven’t said much about the food here in Costa Rica. Below is a brief description of the main components of the Costa Rican diet.

Rice and beans -
This is the main staple of the diet in Costa Rica. The core dish is called Gallo Pinto , which is essentially rice, beans, some spices, perhaps cilantro and sometimes also the local sauce Salsa Lizano (yes, it has MSG), all mixed together.

Fried plantains -
Plantains (like bananas) are sliced thinly, fried in vegetable oil until golden, and sprinkled with salt, sometimes sugar also.

Proteins –
Ground meat tortes (basically kind of like hamburgers), deep fried fish, egg and spinach tortes, pork, chicken. These are all fried in vegetable oil.

Fruits -
Mango, pineapple, papaya. I love, love, love the fruit here in Costa Rica. It is cheap, fresh, sweet, and plentiful. This is probably the only food I will really truly miss once I return to the States.

Salad -
Cabbage, tomatoes, what they call ‘green mango’ which is really just mango that is not yet ripe, cucumbers, bell peppers, carrots, and fresh lime juice as dressing. I love, love, love the salad that my mother serves and it is extremely healthy!

Bread, bread, and more bread –
This is usually just for breakfast and the afternoon coffee time. There are innumerable types of bread broken down into mainly three types: plain, sweet, and salty. Ingredients may include honey, sugar, cheese, jelly, cinnamon, etc. Some are soft, some are firm, some are a light pastry texture.

Empanadas –
I have made a batch of empanadas twice. (Maureen this is a salute to you). In order to make the casing, you mix corn flour, powdered cheese, a bit of salt, and water together. You roll up the dough into balls and then press them into a flat circle. There is a device to make this easier. It resembles a waffle maker except it is just two flat wooden boards. Once you have the flat circle of dough, you can put in either cheese, ground or pulled meat, smashed black beans with sauce or other spices. Then you fold half of the dough over to form a semi-circle that encases the filling and you pinch or press the dough to seal it. Finally, you fry the empanada in vegetable oil until both sides are crisp and lightly brown. It is likely the most unhealthy food item I eat here in Costa Rica, but it is delectably sinful!

Picadillo –
To the extent that I know it (but I haven’t done the Google search yet), this refers to different foods that are diced up and mixed and cooked together. An example would be a mix of diced carrots, local vegetable chayote (a taste which is hard to describe but it is kind of like a mix of squash and cucumber), ground meat, some sauce, salt, and maybe pepper. This is cooked down until it is soft, and is served usually with rice, beans, and maybe a couple slices of tomatoes or fried plantains.

Olla de Carne –
Translated, this is “pot of meat” but it is more like a soup/stew. It usually contains beef and a mix of starchy vegetables: chayote, potatoes, carrots, yams/sweet potato, yucca, and another vegetable that I don’t know the name of but seems to be very much like taro. This is cooked down in soup, and served with rice and/or tortillas.

Beverages –
Coffee, coffee, and more coffee! The local coffee is not the best of Costa Rican coffee, unfortunately, because the best coffee is exported. Nevertheless, it is still better than most cheap coffee you buy at the grocery store in the US. The most popular brand is Café Britt but a lot of locals think that is just a brand catered to tourists. The brand that I like which I plan to bring back with me is called “1820”. Other beverages are usually batidos or frescos, which are basically fresh fruit drinks, sometimes mixed with milk. Batidos are made in a blender, inclusive of chopped fruit, and either water or milk. They resemble milkshakes but because the fruit here is so fresh and rich, they are better than any milkshake I could get in the US. Frescos are mostly just the juice of fruits.

Other Thoughts

Rainy Season
The rainy season in Costa Rica starts in May and usually ends in October, though sometimes I believe there is still rain in November sometimes. In May, the mornings have generally been sunny and gorgeous and around noon or 1pm the sky starts to get cloudy. Around 3 or 4pm comes the rain, sometimes light, but sometimes a torrential downpour. A few times the electricity has gone out for a few hours and when it gets dark we light candles and still manage o have our coffee time because they have a gas stove. The first time I made a batch of empanadas was by candlelight!

During May every year, the cicaedas come out and they are by far the most annoying bugs of my life. They fly into the walls, the ceiling, the lamp fixtures, the floor, they "zzzzppp" their way arond all confused for hours. But alas, they are only around in May and then die out and so now that we´re approaching June, I can be in my house in relative peace.

Piropos
There is a term in Costa Rica, “piropos”. They refer to men’s catcalls in the street (or other places), and are embedded in the local culture and accepted as their outward appreciation for beautiful women they see. I have only just found out, contrary to my interpretation before, that “Chiniiita” is a piropo as well and that I should in fact take that as a compliment. My students made me aware of this during one of our afternoon English sessions, when I asked them what they thought of people from the US. One girl Sandra said she felt that people from the US were racist, based on her experience when she was there visiting her brothers that currently live in New Jersey. She said that Costa Ricans were not racist (I don’t know if that is completely true). And I asked then, how I should react to “Chiniiita”, at which point she explained to me that this is a piropo. I mentioned that another US volunteer who is black used to hear “Negriiita” (and I actually get this as well sometimes), and said that in the US this would be a very offensive comment. Sandra said, “Maybe that is because Americans are racist, so a comment like that would be offensive there. But here, it is not meant to be a bad thing.” I thought she actually might have a point there, and I never thought of it that way.

Already Missing Pieces of Costa Rica …
I am starting to notice the things I like about Costa Rica that I will miss when I leave. The biggest part is that I will miss my family here in San Ramon. The other day, my “nephew” asked me how much more time I have here and I said one month. His shoulders fell and he seemed disappointed. And he said to me, “I’m going to miss you”. My host mother cried when the topic came up. She asked me why I don’t just stay and live in Costa Rica. I explained to her that there are things about the US that I am too used to and not willing to give up permanently. I am glad that I can be honest with her and tell her some of the things that frustrate me sometimes about Costa Rica, and she is not offended at all.

I will also miss the sense of life being a little slower paced and “tranquila”. Like any country, some Ticos do very well and live more than comfortably, they advance in education and sometimes go abroad to other countries; others live more simply and don’t experience the rest of the world. Their entire lives are devoted to family, to making enough money to have a home, food, and sufficient necessities. When the opportunity arises, they travel locally within the country by car or bus. They dream to go to another country like the US, but for some people that dream doesn’t become a reality. But for most Ticos regardless, the mentality, the aura, the environment is just much more relaxed and unpretentious, even in the capital of San Jose. I hope that when I return to the States, I can carry a piece of this mentality with me regardless of what surrounds me.


© Copyright Stephanie Lin Wu