We need to buy some brown pants.

As some of you may have heard, there was a hurricane in Central America. It mainly affected Nicaragua. San Jose was hit pretty hard and a few people were killed in landslides and car accidents. Although we didn´t experience anything of that weight, we dealt with some pretty interesting storm experiences.

Our trip back to the farm from town last week was interesting. As we headed out on our bus to the farm it was raining like crazy. Traffic jams were everywhere and there were tons of people running around looking really frantic and confused. Lydia and I really weren´t too sure what was going on. Our bus stopped for awhile and we discovered that there were several rivers and streams that were flooding and making it extremely difficult to pass through certain areas. Once we got to be a couple of miles away from the farm the bus driver told us that he couldn´t take us any further because the bridge was flooded over. Lydia and I grabbed all of our stuff and started trudging down the road not really too sure what to expect. Within a matter of minutes, this truck pulls up next to us and this guy starts talking to us. He told us that we should come stay at his house. At first, we weren´t about to get in his truck with him. Tican men really like Gringas and we had exeperienced similar conversations with other men before. We talked with him for a bit longer and realized that it was Guillemo´s brother. We had met him a few nights before but hadn´t recognized him because he was wearing a big hat. Luz and Guillemo had called him and told him to find us and give us a place to stay for the night. We got in his truck and went back to his house.

Staying at his house was ridiculous. When we got there they took us into their living room and sat us down on the couch to watch cartoons with their youngest daughter. Guillemo´s brother´s wife brought us cookies and hot chocolate. Not only that, but she brought us sweatsuits to wear since our clothes were all wet. We felt like we were five years old or something. How strange.

In the morning Guillemo´s brother brought us back to the farm. Lydia and I discovered that our work boots had been washed away in the river. Usually when we go into town we wear our work boots down the road so that we don´t get really dirty. When we get to the bus stop we change into sandals and put our boots in this bush on the side of the road. Apparently, the river had risen so high that it had covered the road and washed our boots away. No mas botas for us. Luckily, Guillemo and Luz´s house wasn´t damaged by the storm.

On Saturday we went with Luz to her mom´s house again. We walked most of the way. It was 2 km uphill. The stay at her mom´s house was sort of awkward this time. We just sat around and watched the rest of the family interact. Neither of us really wanted to go, but it was really obvious that Luz wanted us to come with her. She really likes having Lydia and I around. It´s not as though we don´t enjoy being around her, it´s just that going to her mom´s house is sort of like going to a family reunion with one of your friends, except that you don´t speak the same language. The walk back from Luz´s mom´s house was probably the most interesting part of the weekend. As we started to walk back it began to rain. As I said earlier, the walk there was 2 km uphill. This time, it was 2 km downhill on a slick muddy hill. Since our boots were washed away by the river, we had to wear other shoes. My shoes had pretty much no traction whatsoever. About two minutes into our walk down the hill I had wiped out about 4 times and was covered in mud. Lydia had wiped 2 times. Luz hadn´t wiped out at all. My shoes became so slick that when I fell I wasn´t even capable of getting up again because I would just slip even more. Luz had to help me up and literally hold my hand the rest of the way down the hill to prevent me from falling every 2 seconds. I´m not quite sure how she did it. She was carrying an umbrella, 2 bags, and was holding my hand and she didn´t fall once. Ridiculous. As cheesy as a metaphor as it is, that walk down the hill was pretty much a perfect reflection of my entire time in Costa Rica. I have to be guided slowly by the hand and treated like to a child to be able to get through anything. When we returned to the farm Lydia and I were covered in mud and completely drenched. Luz looked like she had walked through a small puddle. Guillemo had a good laugh and took several pictures of us. The next day we had to spend a considerable amount of time scrubbing the brown stains off the back of our pantalones. Lydia and I decided that brown outfits would be a good investment.

There was more traumatizing chancho experiences this week. One of experiences I don´t really want to describe in much detail. Lets just say it dealt with chancho breeding and the big chancho that wants to eat me. Although Lydia and I have fond feelings towards the chanchitos, we were disappointed with one of the choices that they recently made. The other morning we went to go clean out their cages and discovered a chicken foot in their cage. Typically, there are two chickens in their area with them. This particular morning, there was only one. We saw a few of the chanchitos huddled in the corner eating something. It was the other chicken. We suspect that they killed the chicken and ate it for breakfast. Little Guillemo came out later and scooped up the chicken corpse. This experience just added more confirmation to the fact that the large chancho is not vegetarian and does indeed want to eat us for dinner.

We have been hearing about numerous other farms, but haven´t really been able to make many contacts. It´s also sort of awkward because Luz and Guillemo really want us to stay at their farm for the rest of our stay in Costa Rica, but we really want to see more and experience something different.

Yesterday was a fairly good day. Lydia and I were left home alone for a little while and decided to take advantage of that situation. We went down to the river and were talking for awhile and then decided that we should go test out the water. We crawled out onto some rocks and found a few little nooks in the river to sit in and let the water hit our backs. It was a refreshing experience that we both greatly needed. Lydia swung on a vine and we reenacted some scenes from Disney movies. We also got into several typical romantic water fights that were borderline similar to tickle fights. Looking back on that moment, it was a sort of embarrassing and shady moment, but it was really funny.

Luz has been having us help her in the garden more. We haven´t really been learning that much about gardening, but it´s still nice to plant some life into the ground and not be pouncing on chickens or carrying chanchitos in bags.

On Saturday we are supposed to go a party with the family. Supposedly, there is supposed to be a lot of dancing there. Lydia and I are not sure how to feel about this. Neither of us really want to dance with a lot of creepers who have large amount of alcohol in their bodies.

Being in Costa Rica is really great, but Lydia and I are both tired of being stared at all the time. Sometimes I feel like my life here is a little zoo exhibit. No matter where we go there are always a group of people watching us. It´s really frustrating and can be very draining sometimes. Lydia and I´s room doesn´t really have an actual window put in yet. Anyone can pop in through the window at any moment. Daniela and little Guillemo especially like to take advantage of that. There really is little to no privacy. That has actually been one of the most difficult aspects of being in Costa Rica for me to accept. Someone always has to know where I am at all times. I don´t really know how to deal with that.

Friday-Saturdayish marks our half way mark in Costa Rica. It´s weird to think that we have been here for a month.

I didn´t bring my camera to town with me today because I didn´t want to deal with worrying about it getting wet if it were to rain again today.

That´s all the news for now.

We´ll see you in a month.