Of Ticos & Tortugas: First Post from Costa Rica

Hola amigos! Estoy en Heredia, un ciudad con un grande universidad y muchos cosas interesante.

Enough Spanish... for now... this is my first update froem the field and time itçs literally money at internet cafes, so I´ll get to it.

Delta sucks. To make it down here, I dealth wil sleeping in an airport, missing three flights, having to swtich airports and running literally as hard and fast as I could to make my connection in ATL to San Jose. Whew.

I got to my apartment to find it empty except for the land lady, a lovely woman named Sonia Solano. Along with her dog, Pandacita, she was the first to welcome me after my driver, Tomas, and I spoke about Messi, the World Cup and the fact that the U.S.A. needs to play with more heart and less head- being a cerebral soccer player is good to an extent, sure, but is almost always trumped by creativity and flow. Case in point: Maradonna.

Sonia offered me orange juice and I asked for beer (I slept for 5 hours from Friday till Saturday night). She gave me two cans of beer, those being a Heineken and a Bavaria. Following that, I took the best shower of my life.

Anyway, our accomodations are quite interesting. There are three aparatments within the grounds of the property. Almost all houses have strong fences to keep out the riff raff. Gates, bars, LOTS of razor wire and barbed wire. It makes for an interesting contrast because most homes have excellent gardens filled with flowers, vines and lovely trees. The top floor is the apartment for the supervisors and his/ her companion/s, if any. It looks onto a coffee plantation. People are friendly in our neighborhood, especially as they probably don´t see many Americans in their neck of the woods (that being Santa Lucia, a suburb of San Jose).

We have been getting the lay of the land and spending some time drifting through markets, taking photos and being points of interest for vagabonds and teenage girls (the latter is especially true in my case, guess my stock is higher here than in Mpls!).

Clinic starts tomorrow and should be quite an experience. We are color coded because, believe it or not, our names are crazy to the locals. I´m Green Man, which rocks since that is a favoirte costume of mine that Charlie rocks on "Always Sunny," so think of that image when you wonder how I am doing down here... keep in kind that I´m not actually wearing a green suit, but just have a green plkacard and name tag in my table area.

We may get an internet connection in our apartment soon. Two cockroaches so far, they were small and greasy looking. I say werte because Nick killed them. Leaf cutter ants work so damn hard that I have tried avoiding them while walking. The American Work Ethic could use some schooling from these little power houses. The guardian ants have giant mandibles and will go for blood if any trouble comes their way.

Until next time-- enjoy the season, go Rovers!

-M@

Ticos & Tortugas: Destination Costa Rica

As some of you may know (and most of you may not know), I am headed down to Costa Rica for 33 days beginning May 21. While the first three weeks will be spent working at a traveling free health care clinic dubbed La Clinica de la Mariposa (lit. "The Clinic of the Butterfly"), I chose to extend my itinerary to afford me some time for independent travel. I am thrilled and also a bit nervous about the endeavor-- speaking clinical espanol is not in my wheelhouse (yet), though in the end attitude and a willingness to look and sound a bit goofy in any attempts to treat patients is something I can roll with.

I am hoping to spend approximately one week volunteering at one of two sea turtle nesting sanctuaries and hatcheries. Tasks such as patrolling at night for poachers, collecting eggs, measuring and tagging adults, releasing hatchlings and combating invasive species will demand most of my time. However, I am hoping for some time to surf and sit in a hammock to write.

While I plan to write extensively in a journal during the epic adventure, I will do my best to update friends, family and happenstance readers alike with regaling tales and profound anecdotes... or just to brag about how nice the weather is!

Stay tuned! Salud!

~M@