Matapalos and Home Stays, Costa Rica

First of all, Happy Birthday to Eric today! I hope that it is the best day ever. I do not have a lot of pictures of Eric from the trip because he was mostly running around making sure that everything was going according to plan. Thank you for everything you did to make this trip happen and enjoy your day, Eric!

Sunday, July 12 was the second most relaxing day of our trip. We woke up in Hospedaje El Ceibo, ate breakfast and had to pack to leave. The plan was to spend the day at Matapalos Beach before dropping off all of the students with their host families. After breakfast Yorens showed me how to use a conch shell as a horn. It actually took him about six tries to finally do it, but he did!

Right before getting into the cabs to leave for the beach, it came to our attention that one of the students had an infection in his foot. It was quite swollen, and we feared that there was something caught inside of it from our trip to the mangrove the day before. Luckily, Jonathan and Gustavo are quite skilled at first aid. They were able to extract a minuscule piece of shell out of his foot with a needle. Crisis averted!

Finally, we were able to leave for the beach. Here are some things that caught my eye along the way. The first picture is a teak tree farm, the second picture is one of the seven thousand that I took of cows, and the last two are of the taxi in front of us. They give you a good idea of what we were driving through.

 

Sara took several similar pictures, but she also took this one that I really liked for some reason.

Playa Matapalos or Matapalos Beach is gorgeous, and there were very few people to disturb us that day. In fact, in the six or so hours that we were there we only saw three other small groups. There were a couple from the United States that we had met the day before while ziplining, another foreign family and a group of Guaymí, the indigenous people of Costa Rica. Most of the time we had the beach to ourselves.

I loved the thick vegetation along the sand. It made the beach feel even more private and beautiful.

There were lots of rocks with holes in them. I am not sure what makes the holes, but I was fascinated with them. I brought one home for Douglas. I thought that I also brought home this piece of driftwood, but I cannot find it anywhere. The last place I remember seeing it was at our hotel in Alajuela on the way home, so it must have been left behind. I hope that whoever found it was able to appreciate it the way that I did, but I have a feeling that is not the case. Does anyone else bring home sticks and stones when they travel or am I the only one?

The students had a blast on the beach. There were several soccer games and lots of swimming and jumping in the waves. Yorens and Jack did front flips into the surf.

The three chaperones did some swimming, but we also spent a good amount of time just relaxing in the sand. It was great to see the students having such a good time. Sara also got buried.

We foraged for coconuts while at the beach. They were everywhere. I have never eaten so much coconut in my life. We all did. In fact, Giovanni told us later that he was afraid that some of the kids were going to have digestive issues that night from eating so much coconut. Since we gringos were forbidden to use a machete, Jonathan sharpened a log poking out of the sand, that we then used to split the coconuts.

The three brothers, Gustavo, Jonathan and Giovanni prepared lunch for us while we were relaxing. It was simple fare, sandwiches, fruit and cookies served on leaves, but after several hours in the sun, we ate it as though it was a gourmet meal.

I would be remiss not to add some pictures of wildlife. I saw a lot of birds while on the beach, but I only got a picture of one. He was the only one that sat long enough for me to get my camera out. I wish that I could have captured more of the flocks of macaws that kept passing overhead. That day I only got a picture of two parrots, but I did get a more pictures another day.

Before we left we had the students spread out on the beach for a moment of meditation and relaxation. We had meant to have them write in their journals, but we forgot to tell them that the diaries were needed. Still it was good to have a moment to take in the scenery and contemplate what we had been doing without distraction. One student obeyed particularly well. I do not think that you can get more relaxed than Seth was!

 

Here are a few last pictures brought to you by Sara before we leave the beach.

After leaving the beach we went on a hike through the rain forest to see more animals. While on that walk we saw all four species of monkeys that reside in Costa Rica. Those are by order from largest to smallest: spider monkeys, howler monkeys, Capuchin or white faced monkeys, and squirrel monkeys. I did not get very good pictures. I really wished that I had my good SLR camera. In fact, I did not take any pictures of the squirrel monkeys, but you can look at my last post to see some good pictures from the day before.

We also ate termites. This was my second time eating termites. The first time was in Canaima in Venezuela. The indigenous people eat termites when they need protein. As the termites eat wood, that is what they taste like to me. It was not a bad taste, but it is a strange feeling as they crawl around on your tongue before you swallow them. The little white flecks in the picture are the termites.

Here are more pictures from our hike.

And even more…On the way home, Tío Marcos was my taxi driver. I was thrilled because he is extremely knowledgeable about Costa Rica fauna, and he was happy to answer any questions that I had. He pointed out dozens of birds to me, but I only got pictures of a few. Of course, I also took a lot of photos of cows. Can you pick out the pig in the last shot? He is almost as big as the cows. I was amazed.

My favorite part of that car ride was when Tío Marcos pointed out a pair of tiny owls in a tree over the road. I asked him to stop fully expecting that he would pull over if he were to do so. Instead, he stopped right in the middle of the road. The taxi that Eric was in was behind us, and they stopped to see why we had halted in such a bad spot. I am sure they feared that our car had broken down. Soon they were stopped in the road ahead of us, and we were all out milling about the road and taking pictures. We spent a good ten to fifteen minutes there while the people in Gustavo and Jonathan’s taxis wondered what had happened to us. Gustavo was not surprised at all when he found out that Marcos and I were to blame.

Finally, we met at a restaurant back in Puerto Jiménez. There we divided the students up into taxis according to where their host families lived, and then took them to their houses. The rest of us waited for Eric and Yessenia in front of the restaurant.  While waiting I snapped a couple of pictures. I love the homemade baby seat on the bike.

It was great that we had such a relaxing day at the beach because I know that they were nervous about the home stays. It is natural to be anxious before going to live with people that you do not know that do not speak your native language. In the end, it turned out well.The last picture is one of the houses and the host brother of one of the students. Felix is the cutest little kid I have met in a while. As soon as we pulled up at the house, he came running out shouting, “¡Yo soy el hijo de la señora!” which means, “I am that woman’s son!” He was so excited to meet his host brother. How adorable!

Margaret, Sara and I were to stay in a house down the street from Eric and Yessenia’s house. It was a beautiful home, but we were not alone. There were at least four bats that we counted. Margaret and Sara ended up sleeping in Eric and Yessenia’s bed, and Eric and Yessenia came to sleep with me in the bat house. Here are the bats!

Here are the posts from the first four days in Costa Rica in case you missed any: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and Day 4.

Happy Travels!