Entry 2 - First day in San Jose

Santo Domingo, 12 August 2007, 9:25 pm.

Already I can tell this trip is going to be full of surprises.

I got to SFO before midnight Friday night and ran into one of my closest friends, Cory, at the airport.  I knew she and her boyfriend were going to Belize this weekend, but it turned out we were on the same outbound flight to Houston, with virtually the same three-hour layover.  Very cool … After breakfast with them and saying goodbye in Houston, I got on the last leg of my flight to San José .

Wow.

Costa Rica is spectacular.

The lush and colorful flowers and plants literally took my breath away. Ticos (the nickname for Costa Ricans) are so warm and hospitable.  My hotel arranged a taxi for me, so when I got through customs (the line was hell, but getting through was easy—even the Tica who stamped my passport smiled!) my taxi driver Manuel was waiting for me with a sign with my name on it.  He drove me to my quaint hotel just outside San José  proper.  I had a room just off the pool, which was a great way to start my trip.  OK, it rained most of the afternoon, but it was nice to look at.  The hotel also had a small aviary, which was really nice.

I went out to experience some of the nightlife in San José  and had a good time.  Everywhere I went people were warm and friendly.  Between my broken Spanish and their broken English (and make no mistake, their English was better than my Spanish), I had no problems at all ordering food and asking for information.  I’m glad I took that Spanish class in the Spring—it definitely came in handy.

The only problem I had was with a taxi experience downtown.  My hotel had given me some different restaurants, cafes, and nightclubs to check out.  They were clear that I should walk at most only one or two blocks, and beyond that I needed to take a cab.  Cabs are plentiful and easy to hail here—more so than anywhere I’ve seen in the States, even New York.  The licensed cabs are easy to recognize because they all have yellow triangles on the side of the car.  So I was going from one spot to another and knew I needed a cab.  My map showed the intersection where I was going, so I told the driver I was going to the intersection of this Calle and that Avenida.  He looked at me with a blank stare.  Apparently, even though all the streets are named, nobody knows the names of the streets.  It seems directions are given like we used to in my hometown in Michigan, by using landmarks.  Apparently you have to tell the cab driver how to get where you’re going, unless it’s somewhere very well known.  He was very nice—in typical Tico fashion—but unfortunately hadn’t a clue how to help me.  When we passed by a place we’d already gone past (and the meter read 4,000 colones!!) I asked him to pull over and figured I’d have to do it on my own.  I walked.  Alone at night.  Bad idea.  But I was lucky, found the place I was going and mingled with the locals a bit before another cab ride back to my hotel (the great front desk staff handed me a printed paper with directions to give to taxis, so no problem getting back).

I stayed the night, one of their staff served me eggs, toast, and local frutas (bananas, pineapple, and papaya) this morning, which I ate poolside with my first cup of Costa Rican coffee in Costa Rica!  That was a great moment.

The hotel arranged for Manuel to take me to my second stop, Hotel Bougainvillea in nearby Santo Domingo, the hotel where I was to meet the rest of the participants and our tour guides.  Much more than a taxi driver, Manuel was a tour guide and a great resource for information.  He let me practice my Spanish and was kind and warm.  He gave me his card and I definitely plan to try to hire him for my ride back to the airport.

Hotel Bougainvillea is a nice hotel with 8 acres of tropical gardens.  They have over 50 species of bromeliads, Costa Rican native trees, and lots of orchids, herb and cactus gardens, and there are frogs, butterflies and hummingbirds.  There couldn’t be a more perfect spot to start this trip.

Tonight we all met in the lobby at 7 and had dinner together.  Our tour guides, Natalia and Sebastian from Earthwatch, arranged for us to have dinner in the hotel restaurant and give us the opportunity to get to know each other and to tell us how we’re going to spend the next couple of days.  Everyone was excited to meet one another after months of preparation.  Sebastian also knew that it was the birthday of one of the participants, so only minutes after meeting Melanie, we were all signing her birthday card.  One of the waiters played Happy Birthday on the restaurant’s piano, and we all sang.  Afterward, Sebastian and Melanie (and Gabriel, one of the other participants who was born in Puerto Rico) gave their rendition of the song in Spanish while she blew out her birthday candle.  It was a really sweet moment.

There is a great diversity amongst the participants.  Three men, the rest women.  From all over the US and Canada.  Younger, older, university students, professionals, a stay-at-home mom, people who have been to Costa Rica before, and many, like me, here for the first time.

We all have a couple things in common, though.  We all love coffee.  And we are all ready to work.  It’s going to be hot and muddy and we know we’re going to love every minute of it.  The sincere passion for creating change from every single person there was evident when everyone had a chance to say why they came on this expedition.  I know we’re going to learn a lot from Sebastian and Natalia, from the farmers, and from each other.

Tomorrow morning, up early for a walk through the gardens in the sun.  Breakfast together, and then a tour of a biodiversity center near the hotel.  Natalia’s family is cooking dinner for us tomorrow night at their house (her papa is a coffee farmer), and then Tuesday morning we go out into the field in San Marcos de Tarrazú.

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