Rich Coast and Love Bread

It all sarted Wed. the 4th (Having been delayed a few days because of a ¨full¨bus). Sarah Ann Jablonski Guagliardo, Ana Maria Garcia Hallman, and I set off on our 18hr treck from Tegucigalpa to San Jose, Costa Rica. During our ride in the King Quality Bus, which doesn´t mean high quality, we met a Peace Corps Volunteer serving in Costa Rica (ptch) on her way back from El Salvador. She told us what she had learned about El Sal´s civil war and how the states gave money for weapons, and helped train El Sal´s military to kill people by cutting them from the stomach up with one swift lash of a mashetee.

After what seemed like days, and having started to go a little crazy, we arrived in Costa Rica. It took 18hrs, which is time equivolant to driving from Ohio to New Orleans, but distance equivilant to driving from Ohio to Illinois.

This is what happens after a long bus ride.

Its amazing that Costa Rica is considered part of Central America. Its lucious, has paved roads, beautiful people, and green. Have you seen Jurassic Park?-filmed there! The change from Honduras could even be noticed in simple street dogs. Instead of bones and flapity nipples, these dogs were FAT and groomed!

In San Jose, Ana´s family friend picked us up and took us to their house, in the middle of colorfully decorated houses in a quaint subburb of San Jose. There was no garbage on the ground and people were actually jogging for exorcize. It reminde me of Chile or Spain, but with more of a ¨jungle¨feel. Oh yeah, even found veggie burgers at the grocery store!

After spending a few days looking around the city and taking a trip up to the canyon of a big volcano we went to a Talapia farm which the family friends owned. I ate fish....it still had a head and eyes.

I ate this....and liked it!

After that we went to Puerto Viejo, a beachy touristy town followed by islands off the coast of Panama! I love Panama! We met so many people from all over the world. From 3 Israelies trying to drink 100 beers each in 4 days to get their picture on the wall of the Hostel, to a squabily french dude that only spoke Spanish. We had a Halloween party and I was R2D2. The water on these beaches was so amazingly beautifully clear, like nothing I thought really existed. It reminded me of a pair of aqua-lime contacts I had in High School.

Now I´m back in my site, the rainy season has begun again, and the electricitys out. Maybe it´ll be back tomorrow?

That was yesterday. Today is a holiday in more way than one. Today is the exact day that I have completed one year as a volunteer. I have exactly one year left...its an interesting feeling.

The word for ¨¨handcuffs¨¨ in spanish is the same word for ¨¨wife¨¨

A volunteer was just murdered in the Philipinees. Thats number 3 volunteer death since I´ve been a volunteer. Avg. 3 a year?