Life in the Caribbean

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Much has happened and still nothing has moved forward. Time is a mysterious thing and the Caribbean seems to have its very own version.

I started my day with Forrest Yoga and continued with pipa (coconut water) and banana pancakes for brunch, before getting comfortable on the porch. Today I was trying to get some work done while watching the pouring rain. Indeed, it was a productive day. Most days aren’t like that. They seem to rain away somewhere between brunch and the afternoon darkness.

brunch

Working in the Caribbean sounds romantic and beautiful, but life treats you the same way no matter where you are. We still have to find a way to make friends with time and work schedule and we still have to remember to nourish our relationships with the self and with others. It’s the same but different. Time here is slow and blurry. It is easy to forget that days have names and that things have to be done if we want change and development.

 

You struggle with snow that never wants to leave. We struggle with rain during dry season. Climate change.

 

Yes, we have fruits growing in the garden and some of the most beautiful beaches around. We also have various bugs eating our food if we leave it out too long, boa constrictors that eat puppies, scorpions that like to come inside when it’s raining and a humidity that makes everything you own mouldy.

 

Boa constrictor 

The touristy high season makes us poor and occupies the houses. We have struggled to find a place to stay. February gave most people in the village a bad bacterium that made us sick for weeks. I went camping in the mountains and got sick again.

 

Punta Uva

March is here and so is the fire. We are no longer sick and we have moved into a house we like. Mariella is teaching Afropowerdance and Core at some of the various yoga places around. I have started my communication project for my internship with Hidden Garden. We argue about the same things as we did a year (or 20) ago but we are happy to have each other.

 

puppies!

Today I had cottage cheese and pesto, a luxury so rare that it was my first time since I moved here. While writing this, Spiderman in Spanish is on tv and I have a humongous craving for snus. I don’t miss Sweden, but some things are beautiful. Enjoy them.

 

Lingonberries jam

Pura Vida! 

 

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Night at the jungle

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I hear screaming and squeaking. I hear clippedy-clip as their claws scratch against the tin roof. They’re running and chasing each other, looking for food and playing along the wooden balks above us. At times we can glimpse a long, fat tail or a curious nose pop out between the planks.

The complete darkness surrounds us already at 6 in the evening, and that’s when it all starts: the motions, movements and the sounds. That is when they all try to move in.

Jungle house without walls

At night we sit under the stinky mosquito net, listening and watching. We are watching the lamp move although there is no wind, we keep an eye out for insects and scorpions and we listen to the clippedy-clips.

The house is big with two floors, two toilets and two bedrooms. We only use the master bedroom on the top floor since we have a feeling that something is already living in the one downstairs. Everything is built in a dark, robust and beautiful wooden material. The house itself is art. The walls are not built together with the roof but all over the house is a space of a few decimetres between them. It’s a beautiful handicraft but it invites both the animals of the jungle and the cold to come inside.

We lie close together in the bed and trying to keep warm, despite the socks, cardigans, scarfs and leggings we are wearing. Finally we manage to doze of. But a few hours later, we awaken suddenly from screaming and a bunch of noises we don’t recognize. I’m too tired to investigate but decide that birds and racoons are having a party outside.

The next time we wake up it’s almost noon and the jungle is quiet and peaceful again. All we can hear now is the wind in the trees knocking on our windows. The nightly activities are gone. Everything that was playing, screaming, running, climbing and keeping us awake has now gone to bed. The sun is here to warm us but we are too tired to notice.

Who knows, maybe soon we too are becoming animals of the night who sleep during the days.

Breaky with Sister <3

Pura Vida

Nicaragua

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I arrived with a tiny propeller plane in San Jose yesterday, after having spent some two weeks in Nicaragua. Already after 24 hours here, more has happened than during my whole time in the neighbouring country.

After a somewhat confusing and messy border crossing, me, Mariella and Sarah got to San Juan del sur. This is said to be a laid-back surfer town, i.e. the place to be for a nice groove, good swell and relaxing atmosphere. Honestly, yet a surfer town wasn’t what I was up for but if there is surf, there is yoga. However, this touristy little town didn’t impress much. The hostel was invaded by Swedes (besides that the town was more or less empty) and the surf was only on the nearby beaches, a shuttle ride away. The yoga and shala were beautiful though. Days past by and we didn’t achieve much: yoga, gym, two different beaches and food. Yes, this is a touristy place, but after adding the tax (which is obligatory but still not included in the price) nothing seemed as cheap as word on the street tells you.

San Juan del Sur

surfers

surfing arvo

We happened to find two Norwegians (or they found us, that argument can go on for ever) who spiced up the entertainment of our stay. We kept them and spent the following days in Granada together.

What first strikes you when entering Granada is the beauty of all its colonial buildings. In addition, the city has a fair amount of fancy cafés and restaurants, enough to keep you busy (eating) for a week. Taking a closer look, however, the city and its atmosphere are hard to grasp. Various tours are offered without any greater enthusiasm nor actual containment, spas are in every corner and the mandatory souvenirs can be purchased every here and there. Despite this, Granada is a complete ghost town: there is hardly anyone out and I never understood why. Maybe because of that weird feeling that kept crawling up my spine but was never really determined. Walking around alone was sketchy even at daytime. A man grabbed my hair one day, another whispered puta when I walked by and yet another followed my sister so that she had to go straight back to the hostel instead of buying food. We weren’t supposed to be there. Tourists are supposed to be hiding in the spas that are set up for them. There they can feed the dictatorship with their money and use blinders to ignore the kids working on the streets.

photo credit: Magie

empty streets

Maybe I don’t know enough or understand the city’s and country’s history, but to me Granada put up an effortless show for the tourists. It’s a charade going on and they are sick of it. Needless to say, we spent too many days hanging around doing nothing. Finally, Monday morning, I got a cab to the airport, jumped on the tiny airplane and almost cried of relief when I sat my feet on Costa Rican land. Sarah had left for León and Mariella and the Norwegians went to climb a volcano while I was looking forward to meet up with my friends.

On my way to the hostel I started talking with the driver, who apparently has two sons living in Sweden. One of them is here now and I’m going to meet him later today. I met Cydney in San Pedro where we met up with Alan who took us drinking at a bar with beer on tap. I had a shower without getting sandy after. I wore jeans. I had good beer and I was at a bar where no one tried to hit on me. It was good. I felt normal. Today, I’ve been offered a job in a rum commercial and had drinks with a former wall streeter. As I said, crazy things happen in Costa Rica. Tomorrow I’ll leave for Puerto Viejo.

Pura Vida

Bocas del Toro

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De senaste veckorna har helt klart varit hektiska med många resor fram och tillbaka. Efter mycket om och men mötte jag och Ellen upp Mariella i Bocas del Toro, Panama. Dessa öar sägs vara Central Amerikas Galapagos så vi såg fram emot turkost vatten och ö-hoppning innan vi skulle lämna av Ellen vid flyget.

På vägen ner till gränsen stannade vi till i Puerto Viejo för att se mitt blivande hem, yoga på stranden och äta god mat.

The little cabin

Mariella anlände med båten halv åtta på morgonen, efter mycket strul med flyg och väskor. Sprudlade av energi gjorde hon ändå och det tackade vi för! Ibland kan det vara bra med en vädur som kommer och rör runt bland luftelementen; Ellen och jag får inte alltid saker gjorda. Hostel byttes och snorkeltur bokades direkt. Vi åkte ut med en katamaran som styrdes av en solbränd tysk som fastnat där nere i 10 år. Han gav mig tejp att sätta runt öronhängena så att barracudorna inte skulle bita mig i örsnibben, gjorde veggo-mackor och skrattade gott åt vår svenska humor. Det var en fin dag med klarblå himmel, mangrove-skog och färgglada koraller.

Energiknippet

Mangrove

Delfiner som leker runt båten

Nästa dag hittade vi Moi som var villig att köra runt oss till olika öar. Givetvis ville vi till de svåråtkomliga stränderna och detta resulterade i en ofrivillig off the beaten track utflykt. Vi åkte med den lilla motorbåten över meterhöga vågor, för att slå oss fram genom snårig regnskog. Vi hade såriga fötter och trötta, värkande kroppar när vi väl kom tillbaka men stranden hade vi i alla fall haft för oss själva.

Snårig regnskog

Red Frog, som inte längre vill bo på red frog beach pga hotellbyggen

Robinson-stränder

Gammal sjukhus-ö

Vår sista dag blev betydligt lugnare och turistig på stränder som Red Frog Beach och Zapatillos. Jag låter fotona tala.

Zapatillos

Red frog beach

Efter ytterligare några motgångar och snabba beslut var vi så i San Jose, Costa Rica, igen. En hel dag ägnades åt presentshoppande och strosande i den inbjudande huvudstaden.

På besök hos Cosito

Mariella ville såklart upp på brädan så snart som möjligt (den sprudlande energin håller i sig, förutom när hon är hungrig), således ledde jag henne tillbaka till Stillahavskusten och Jaco.

Julen tillbringade vi i denna välkomnande surf-och partyby. Det var som att komma hem men ändå var allt sig olikt. Efter sex nätter kändes det dock som att man vuxit fast och det var skönt att lämna. För ovanlighetens skull hade vi sprungit på en hel drös med svenskar (som sig bör flyr vinterslasket i juletider). En av dessa bestämde vi oss för att behålla. Sarah är på långresa genom syd-och central amerika, delar vår dryga småländska humor och har körkort. Perfekt tänkte vi och hyrde en bil!

Bettan

Tre små Suecas tryckte således in sig i en Suzuki mini, stoppade in Freedom cd’n (den enda) i spelaren och taggade för road trip. I Costa Rica är det mer vanligt att man hyr bil än åker buss och ticosarna delar den svenska campingkulturen, vilket gör det hela välkänt och exotiskt på samma gång.

Vår första anhalt var Monteverde, the cloud forest. Men det äventyret kräver ett helt eget inlägg, så stay tuned.

Jag vill passa på att önska er alla ett vackert 2013. Efter förändringens år träder vi nu in i en lugnare era. Må era frön och val slå rot och stabiliseras i det nya året.

One love och Pura Vida

Categories

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Avslut och Avstamp

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Tiden har en tendens att flyga förbi. I förrgår var det exakt fyra månader sedan jag och Ellen kom till Costa Rica. Landet tog emot oss med öppna armar och vi kastade oss in i äventyret.

I torsdags skrev vi de sista tentorna och med blandade känslor gick vi från skolan med A i alla klasser. Kvällen var märklig och ledsam. Den grupp som under fyra månader skrattat, roat, rest, pluggat och många gånger irriterat skulle splittras under natten. Månen hängde som en stor,tjock, gul och halväten pannkaka över oss där vi satt vid havet vid vår sista bonfire med Las Brisas-öl. Det var ledsamt.

De allra flesta åkte tillbaka till staterna, några kommer tillbaka efter jul och andra reste vidare. Men, vad händer nu? Vi är fortfarande förvirrade och kan kanske inte helt förstå att vi har lämnat Puntarenas, vår lägenhet och de söta amerikanerna för att ta oss mot Panama och möta upp Mariella.

De kommande veckorna kommer att vara hektiska. Ellen åker till Sverige den 20e december och jag vågar inte ens tänka på hur jag ska klara mig utan henne. Mariella och jag ska, trots julehetsen, försöka resa runt några veckor innan även hon lämnar för Svedala i mitten på januari.

Som de flesta säkert vet så består min sista termin av praktik och nu har allt blivit färdigställt att jag kommer tillbringa även kommande månader här i Costa Rica. Jag flyttar till den karibiska kusten i januari där jag ska starta upp ett kommunikationsprojekt för ett wellness företag. Det låter som en dröm och jag ser verkligen fram emot det. Detta innebär alltså att min hemresebiljett nu är ombokad till juni istället, så om inget annat händer kanske vi ses i Moder Svea till sommaren.

Skriv gärna en rad efter att ni skummat igenom bilder av terminen som gått.

Cydney, Magie, Ellen

“You have to go on and be crazy. Craziness is like heaven.
-Jimi Hendrix
”

Volcano Arenal/hot springs tour

Tamarindo beach

Playa Conchal

Well, ya... seen that one a few times before..

Sunset in Tamarindo

 Americans playing incomprehensible games <3

Cydney & Magie practicing the snap

dots, beer and love <3

Pura Vida a todos