November 18th

He made it through the night! Although, in the morning he was missing a few more feathers on his shoulders and on the back of his head and neck. Kendra put some aloe vera lotion on the spots, though I'm not sure if that was a good idea. We fed him some more sugar water throughout the morning as we made breakfast (cereal and cake. we're kids) and we got ready to go to the hot springs (day off!!) Glenn came by to pick us up at about 10am, and he dropped us off at Tico Tabacon while he went to La Fortuna to do some errands. We went down to the river, which passes under the road and over these deep black rocks. it was so amazing to step into warm bath tub water! We have one of those ridiculous water "heaters" on our shower, but we haven't really felt warm water in a while. it was like heaven stepping into the river. it's fairly fast, but its only about knee deep at the most. the rocks are pretty smooth but they aren't slick. We crossed the river next to the road bridge and took the path through the forest to the right along the water. Then we put our clothes in a plastic bag and hopped in! Steam rose, especially when the rain started to pour. We both had our water proof sandals on, which made picking our way through the river much easier since the force of the water was enough to knock you off balance when you're climbing up river. there were a few small falls (~2 ft tall) that we sat under and next to. We didn't get out of the water for two hours, and since it was a week day there was NO ONE there. it was so magical in the hot water with the cool rain falling! Way better than if it had been a nice day. We explored up river a bit too, to where the cold stream meets and cools the hot river. The cold stream was a shock after getting so warmed up. The rain mixed the water a bit so it turned kind of brown, but we stayed in anyways. By the time Glenn picked us up we were both so wrinkly it was funny. Glenn's car was so full of stuff that I had to sit on Grant's lap in the front seat on the way home. Glenn took us up to the dam because we can't see it from El Castillo. I wish I had my camera for this day. We also saw the turn off for the hanging bridges, though it's a little ways away. We drove back to El Castillo, and as we got out of the car Glenn asked us to his house for dinner. We went inside and had lunch, then went up to get Goldi for a walk. It started to rain almost as soon as we started so we didn't get very far though. Grant didnt get wet though, since the giant Tabacon resort umbrella he found kept him more than covered, but I was soaked since I had the dog and my tiny umbrella. We showered after the walk to warm up, then we headed up to Glenn's. He gave us each a nice glass of wine, then set Grant to work at the grill right away while Glenn gave me a bag of raw meat so I could "train Goldi". Odd timing. Luckily, I'm not squeamish about raw meat. I worked with Goldi fast so I could get rid of the meat. There was another guest also, a friend of Glenn's named Frank Wisconsin. He has lived in Alajuela for about 5 years, but he's originally from New Mexico. He farms tomatoes and bananas, and Grant thought he was the most boring man he had ever met. He was a slow talker, that's for sure. I didn't mind him other than that though. We spoke English mostly, which I felt bad about since Ana only understands but has a hard time speaking. Same with me in Spanish. it's tough, though she and I did have a short conversation in spanish about the hot springs before dinner. Dinner was good (ate only a little tortilla and veggies since the rest of it was meat). We had a great dessert though - we each had a bit of the chocolate cake that we made, and a scoop of ice cream with caramel and a banana from a new kind that Frank is growing. the bananas are apple flavored! After dessert and conversation about movies, we headed home to read for the rest of the evening.

November 17th

Got up and made breakfast while Grant made more bread. At work Grant cleaned the outsides of the gardens while I raked the rest of the trails, finished planting my favorite plant in the whole entire world, sornia, and finished planting vines also. At 11:30am, I went up to the reception to let Kendra go to lunch. I got a couple from North Carolina who had a more difficult accent to understand than some Spanish accents are for me. and they were speaking English! As I let them down to the gardens, a hummingbird fell. I felt so bad for it I picked it up (I know you're not supposed to do that). It's green with a rust colored tail. I set it by the door to the reception so I could watch it and make sure it flew away when it recovered, but it stayed there. Then the rain came down hard, and was soaking the poor bird who didn't move for cover. SO I help him, then took him home when Kendra relieved me. I put it in a bowl with my wool sicks to keep it warm. Kendra said it was probably the same bird who hit the window at the reception this morning. We left it close to the ground in the planter box under the overhang, then went back to work. We did a bunch of tours right at the end, then talked to Glenn about taking care of Goldi. When we got home, Delvin was feeding the bird sugar water. It still couldn't fly. I fed it a little too (have you ever seen a hummingbird drink up close?? it's the most amazing thing I have ever seen.) We all kept an eye on it the rest of the evening. we also made two loaves of bread and two cakes (we're freezing one of each so we don't have to make them as often). the bird was still there when it was time for bed, so we took him in his bowl to our room and let him sleep on the floor under our shelves. we didn't want him to get eaten by anything at night, and we wanted him to stay warm.

November 16th

Pay day!!
We slept in a bit today - woke up at 7am, made standard oatmeal for breakfast, and headed to work. I started the morning raking the trails with Kendra. The irony was that she told me not to rake the other day because that was Jose's job. But, when I got to the bodega after searching for the frogs she handed me a rake and told me we were going to clean the trails. I did the entire access trail plus the path from the end of the ramp all the way up to the reception. It started to rain though, as it does daily now, so we stopped and went to work in #6, where I got to plant sornia. After lunch the rain had cleared up so gave a tour to a couple that was both disinterested in everything AND in a rush, and then I went back to raking. I actually like raking. I'm outside, it's easy, and I'm usually fairly out of sight of other people, so I'm not afraid to take my time. I finished the day with a dual tour to a couple from Germany and a couple from the Netherlands, which went okay.
After work, I did laundry and showered then read until Grant got back from working on the internet at Glenn's. The wireless is back up, but the signal isn't reaching our house anymore, so eventually we just went up there to use the internet, which I HATE doing. Then I went home and made a salad for dinner and we read.

November 15th

Woke up at 6am to go on a walk in the morning, but got distracted for a half an hour by how HUGE our bread got overnight! Bread needs warmth to rise, and the best place is right on top of the refrigerator. The bread dough was literally flowing over the sides of the pan. SO we divided it into two pans, then went on a 30 minute walk, stopping to buy bananas on the way home (always a good thing to buy, since they're super cheap and they are only decent looking in the local pulperias every so many days). One egg breakfast with part of an old onion that wasn't disgusting yet, and Grant made the most incredible juice: grapefruit and orange with lemon grass tea. Boxed juices aren't bad, but they're super strong and free fruit is a better way to go no matter what.
I spent most of the morning at work picking sornia, my favorite job. NOT. It was kinda ironic that I was picking it, since normally my fall-back job here is to PLANT the stupid stuff. it's growing like crazy right outside of garden number 6, so I picked it and put it in a bucket and then planted it in bags. (oh look, there's the planting!). For the most part, the mosquito weren't too bad, but I can probably attribute that to the massive amounts of DEET containing liquid I pour on myself twice daily. I also found a caterpillar that I handed off to Delvin. After 2 1/2 tours and lunch I went back to the sornia and the mosquitos were really bad. it was worse because I forgot to reapply DEET after lunch, and my emergency lemongrass tea/DEET mixture isn't good for a swarm of the monsters. I worry about my exposure to so much DEET on a daily basis, but I can't bring myself to get eaten by the bugs. Fortunately for Grant, he's immune to them. I ended up with a bunch of new bites on my hands and elbows, and even a few on my hips that could only have happened through my pants. Luckily, I got called on a tour at 2:45pm. That's basically the best time to get called, since if it's a relatively interested group, it can last until it's time to leave. Perfect. The couple was great. He had a degree in Biochem, which we connected on when we talked about the butterflies alcoholic tendencies and the activity of their alcohol dehydrogenase. I love it when there are intelligent, happy people to talk to on tours. Some people are okay to talk to - I could take or leave those tours as far as conversation goes (though really, I would always take them since it's by far more desirable to be in the habitats than anywhere else). But some groups are just wonderful. They connect with me, they're interested in what I have to say. They don't even need to speak English as their first language as long as they're interested in the world around them. This is across the board, inclusive of all people from all countries I've worked with so far.
After work we baked the bread (which had morphed into 2 1/2 loaves by lunch), drank tea, wrote emails (though we didn't send any, since the internet STILL isn't back) and read. it's pouring rain outside still, but the LOUD thunder has disappeared for now.

November 14th

Today was a little slow, and rainy. We got up at 6:30am, and I did a chapter in my Spanish book for review while Grant did laundry. It seems like laundry is a part time job here. Grant treats it like a work out. I made our standard oatmeal for breakfast. At work, the compost/dirt mixture was still no ready, so we kinda killed time fussing over the vines that we planted and the area where we cut the vines back before we went to predator killing duty in the butterfly habitats. I love predator killing. Not the murder part, which makes me feel horrible since even the butterfly-eating leaf-cutter ants deserve a chance at happiness, but because I love any time I get to spend with the butterflies. Grant did a tour with three French people in Spanish, and I did one with an Israeli couple who were really nice. Their tour cut into my lunch a bit so I had to rush through eating (which isn't easy for me, as any one who has ever shared a meal with me can attest). I had to run up to the reception to relieve Erika, since she only worked half the day and Kendra has the day off. While in the reception I put pupas in the case and welcomed people right away.
We had a late tour (two, actually) so Grant and I stayed after to lock the gates after they left. Then we did laundry (SEE??? part time job). Made a great pasta dinner and Grant helped me make bread. We substituted 1 cup flour for corn flour just to try it. Towards the end of bread making my hands proved too small to knead, so Grant took over.

Brief Synopsis

Ive taken a brief hiatus from blogging due to the impending fellowship applications that are due soon for grad school. However, we have been fine. it seems like the days are going by faster and faster. we started out our time at the conservatory with long periods of working broken up with only a day off at a time. weve gotten it down to only about 5 days on at a time, followed by a day off which is much easier to handle. grant is over his cold finally, and weve gotten used to the grocery situation. since our visas ran out on january 2nd, we decided to renew them in december since were already taking a lot of time off in january when my family is here.

so, we left for nicaragua at 8am this morning. glenn dropped us off at the bus stop in front of the police station right at the turn off to el castillo. we took a bus to tilaran, then one to canas, then to liberia, then to penas blancas where we crossed the border (i cant imagine a more disorganized or unmarked border crossing. its bad enough that i dont speak spanish so everything is a slight mystery to me, but add a COMPLETE lack of signs and its a nightmare. basically, its a mysterious 1km walk where you have to find your way into both the costa rican and nicaraguan customs offices to get your stamps and fill out your customs forms. the plus side is there is a duty free store after moving into the nicaraguan side, where we bought a great deal of chocolate). after leaving the border area we decided on a bus that was bound for the capitol city managua. we were on it for a total of 2.5 hours, and got off somewhere (the name is a mystery of me, but we knew where to go becaus two ladies helped us) then we ran across the street and literally just made it into a tiny van bound for granada. it cost us $.50 each. there were at least 16 people stuffed into this van. i clung to the side of the front seat, and luckily grabbed my backpack right before the guy opened the side door to let off a passenger. his door opening was not timed with the van stopping...we were always going easily 20 mph when he actually opened the door, which was a bit startling when it first happened since i was teetering precariously on the ledge behind the front seats, clinging to the front seats and my backpack and relying on the rather large man seated right there.

anyways, the van dropped us off and we jumped in a taxi across the street. the man made a very illegal (in the USA) turn and took us to the oasis hostel, where we had a room reserved. granada is obviously a very beautiful old city. the buildings, from what were seeing so far, are absolutely rich with architecture and history. were going to explore tomorrow, possibly meet up with a friend of grants family, and maybe make it out to ometepe, the volcano in the middle of lake nicaragua. then on wednesday midday, were going to head to san juan del sur to spend the day on the beach. friday we reverse our trip, ideally with fewer buses. we have to get to tilaran by 12:30pm if we want to get a bus back to la fortuna. otherwise, were basically SOL for friday. its a whirlwind trip, but a welcome break from work.

november 13

Almost pay day again! This mornign we got up at 6am and read for an hour before starting the day. We had a great egg breakfast with a little leftover rice and beans, and our favorite staple: Grant’s fresh baked bread. In the morning we worked together to plant the 6 vines that were scattered throughout the greenhouses, then we did 1.5 tours each (we split the one in the middle). My group was a couple from England, and Grant’s was a strange lady who spoke no English or Spanish from Switzerland. We shared a german couple. At 11am Grant went back to Glenn’s to work on the router and I took some vines down then went to lunch at 11:30 by myself, and then up to the reception at 12:30 to relieve Erika. Grant worked with Glenn a bit more after lunch, but they still haven’t figured out the router so no internet for us still. Apparently Glenn is frustrated with the problem (I don’t blame him) and he keeps cursing. He’s not mad at Grant, but Grant says he has to keep convincing him to do steps even though Grant is confidant in what he’s saying. And, Glenn wont let Grant touch his computer, so Grant has to keep dictating the next keystroke and mouse click. It’s obvious (particularly based on the two nail files kept on Glenn’s desk) that Glenn is meticulous about his things. Grant went back to the gardens for a few minutes, and then the day was over before we knew it. At home I fixed a hole in our drawstring work back, Grant did laundry, and we had dinner. He’s going to play soccer with the guy at 7pm also, and I’m going to read.