Bull Fighting in San Jose

Less than 9 hours into my vacation in Costa Rica and already I've got stories. It's 12am, I've just got back from a Bull Fight in the town arena, and I have dirt on the bottom on my shoes from running in the ring with about a other hundred Costa Rican's.

We flew into San Jose Areopeurto today at 3pm, a short 50 minute flight from Tegucigalpa (Honduras). Christmas was great at Ken and Sue's house (they run the camp up here, and I teach their kids at the school) and now the second part of the winter vacation was starting, a week in Costa Rica.

We got to the guest house here in town, got settled, and were on our way to the town mall to get supplies around 6, when our taxi passed a Carnival and free concert going on in the city. We ditched our plans and went wandering around the gleaming lights and party party instead.

Funny enough, the amusment park, filled with rides identical to those you'd see in Canada at the exhibition, also have a good sized stadium in it. I went to check out what people were lining up for. After some broken spanish, a lot of sign language, 5000 colones (local money $10) and chatting in line with a nice local family, we were sitting on wood benches inside the stadium, surrounded by cheering Costa Rican's, waiting for the Bull fights to begin, wondering what the heck just happened.

First it was these guys singing while the crowd came in. Local pop star Donny Q and his friends or something like that. Guys dressed like matadores with microphones. Then a show of horse riding (not bad okay okay where are the bulls), THEN came the bulls. Bull riders getting kicked off there bulls after a couple seconds, trying to stay on for the prize winning 8 second. Then guys on horses competing to lassoo the bulls and bring them into the coral. All the while more and more local guys where gathering behind 5 foot high wooden fence that around the inner ring. I thought, hey, maybe I can go watch from there...

Then all of a suddend a horn blows and the hundred of so guys standing behind the fence hop over and run into the center. A bull gets let out and they sprint back to the fence, diving over it as the bull chaces them down. Some of them get hit by the bull, some get trampled on, others just get chased for their lives.

After about 10 mintues of watching I can't take any more of this, I find one of the guards, get permission, hand Katherin and Amanda my wallet and jump down into the dirt ring too. The next round is a couple minutes off, I chat with a local guy named Manuel wearing a ThunderCats T-shirt get the rules down, and the next time they call us in I hop over the fence with him and his brother.

Oh wow. Okay those bulls are fast. You have to keep track of it through all the other people, and keep a good eye on the nearest part of the fence to get too. Some guys are sprinting past the bulls trying to get him to chase them. One guy does and dives behind a fence. Another sprints past, trips, gets run over but miraculously doesn't get hurt... the round keeps going, the bull runs around the edges of the fence towards us and we all cascade over the seconds before the bull gets to us. Awesome.

Next round we get back into the center. Me, Manuel and his brother David get a little closer to the starting gate where the bull comes out, the countdown, the horn, a hundred guys peel off and sprint for the sides as the bull comes tearing out, Manuel shouts that this one is about 600 pounds, and runs like mad. Same as before, diving over walls and then back over after the bull passes us, once I jump over and turn around to see the bull with his head over the fence staring at me. As he backs away he snorts and kicks the fence and I hear the wood splintering. I jump back over as he runs away. A minute or two later boom, some unlucky guy gets hit. He's get's down on the ground and plays dead like your supposed to, but the bull bends his head down, and tosses him around in the dirt with his horns. We all rush over, the bull rushes off and those closest to the guy pick him up and run him across to the first aid booth. Serious injuries stop the bull rushing event for the moment and riders come out to compete to lasoo the bull.

I look up at the stadium and Katherin and Amanda are getting cold in the stands, so I call it a night and climb up the larger wall back into the stands. I waved to the family we chatted with in line, they smiled and shook their heads at me, and we took off.

And now I'm off to bed. A good first night, tomorrow I leave by myself to go south, Saturday I should be starting 3 days climbing and living at the highest peak in Central America, Cerra Chirripo. It should be exciting, and rewarding I hope. I'm here in Costa Rica to find some things, things you can only find alone, in places with epic views, with nature all around you. But I'm conscious that the adventure has already started. Yes some of you can question why people would get into a bull fight with good reasons, but something in me needed that tonight. I'm praying God shows up on this trip, answers some questions, fills my heart with what it needs. I got a piece of that tonight. As I was leaving the stadium Manuel picked up a splintered piece of wood from the fence and handed it to me.. "Something to remember this day, good to meet you my friend." One piece to carry with me to the mountain. Here we go.

Surfing and Hiking in El Salvadore

About a two weeks ago myself, Deb, Nikita and Jon went to El Salvadore to do some surfing and hiking. It was an amazing time and we all had a blast on the four day long weekend.. The first day we travelled on two coaches, crossed the border and got to San Salvador. We spent the night there and in the morning headed off to the tiny coastal town of La Libertad. Now I know where all of our old school buses go to get sweet hippie paint jobs and new lives. The rickety old buses were hilariously sketchy, with people crammed in even when all the standing room was taken and 3 people to a seat. I love that everyone hops in and out of the back anywhere along the road. Want to get off? Yell. They slow down. You jump. Multiple times I was 'back door guy', stopping older locals from falling out the back door whenever the bus took off to soon. We laughed a lot at how cramped it was and ever farmer from here to San Salvador got to try out the couple words of english they new on me, then they'd say something in spanish and the bus would erupt in laughter. Joke's on the gringo. Gotta learn this language!

So yes, we surfed two days and then took more sketchy buses at fast speeds and hurtled up to the local volcano of Santa Ana for a day of hiking (pictures below). I was told the volcano had been inactive for a good 20 years, but there was steam coming out of the top and later on I heard it was evacuated a year or two ago after a little explosion. Sure, don't tell the gringos until after.. :) Anyways, the hike itself was almost as amazing as the fact that Deb chose to wear flip flops. We had an armed escort (people have been getting robbed in the area), and the guards shook their heads at Deb and whispered in Spanish. I destroyed my sneakers because someone said you can jump and ski your way down the rocks on the way down. They were right.

Speaking of jumping down active volcanoes.. I remember walking along the coast back to the first surfboard rental shop we found (re: a very poor family with two surfboards down a dark ally in a dark dusty garage). On the way back at one point I stopped, looked in-land and saw rows of half-build half abandoned houses with dug out basements, filled with water.. it was getting dark, and I said "Oh look, I wonder why Dengue Fever is common here, no stagnant pools of water, noop". About a second later a mosquito landed on my arm. About .5 seconds later everyone had dropped their surfboards and was putting on bug repellant. Dengue can very easily be fatal, and there's no real treatment as far as I know. So we booked it out of there and went surfing somewhere else the next day..

That would be the end of the story, except that I don't remember Jon putting on bug repellant with the rest of us.. Actually I feel like I remember him not worrying too much about it and openly mocking us for being paranoid. And Jon was fine the rest of the trip.. actually it was me that got the El Salvadore Stomach Fun on the last day passing through Tegus (Try getting lost and drawing a picture of a toilet on a napkin to get much needed directions).. BUT enough about my internal workings, did you know Dengue has a week or so gestation period? So Jon started feeling bad about a week ago, and was hospitalised for 4 days for Dengue fever. They just hooked him up to an IV and hoped for the best. Luckily, yesterday his platelet count bounced back and they released him. I like to think it was the snazzy card I whipped up for him, but the community praying for him probably helped too. Lucky lucky. He'll be contagious for two weeks, so I put on some bug repellent as we sat around the campfire tonight.. and he put it on too. Safety never takes a day off.


Surfing Pictures!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56227&l=d2ade&id=594095642

Volcano Climbing Pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=57592&l=06775&id=594095642

Living on a Volcano

A good day today.. it's late at night and the evening was full of good conversation with friends and long distant family. Good to know that everywhere, people are the same. Some days are good, and others you feel like you're balancing at the top of a Volcano. I'm trying to be at peace with the uncertainty, volatility... at least the view is pretty great.

Hey hey, it's the end of the school day on a Wednesday here in the cozy little mountain town of Siguatepeque, Honduras. I've been here a little more than 2 weeks, and have been teaching almost since I hopped off the plane. The first two weeks were a blur, awash with Independence day that and kids day celebration this, and even a teachers day holiday. Holy.

I think Sam knows what I'm talking about when I say my brain is tired. I remember we'd sit down on the balcony couch back in Toronto, and not have done a lot of physical work, but were just exhausted at all the input. Here it's new language, new people, new home, new everything.. I can't even buy groceries or take a taxi without a fair bit of language learning.. Fun but busy. Lots to learn.. spanish lessons on monday nights, constant reading and planning for classes.. All the new teachers are finding these first months exhausting, so I'm in good company.

I've got a pretty darn good deal teaching Phys Ed and Science at the primary level.. but it's not as easy as you'd think (if you're silly enough to think it's easy), when you don't speak the same language as the kids. But we're working at it. And I want to do this really well.

Then there's the camp. Once things get settled, I'll use some of the open spots in my timetable to work for the camp up the road. I met Ken, the camp director and there apparently a number of mountain trails to map out using GPS. I think there's just as much to learn from him as anyone else. Or maybe I'll just help Dave build cabins, it's all good.

Sun's going down. The clouds here are amazing.. Off in the roads nearby I can hear a rival school band practising for the marching band competition this Saturday.. we're all going to check it out, apparently it's pretty full on.

Aight, time for dinner, and then off to soccer with some kids at the mission and my roomate..

Here's some pictures of my first day here, more to come..
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=56206&l=3ecfc&id=594095642

Did I mention I went Surfing and Hiking in El Salvadore too? Okay maybe that's why I'm tired..
Pictures to follow.. Talk to you all soon.

On The Dirt Road Walking Towards Me

I've never had a blog before, I always wondered why anyone would want to hear someone else's ramblings on a regular basis. But now that I'm out of the country again and out of regular contact with the people I care about, I can see this will be useful to help us stay in touch and share the adventure as it happens. It's a good thing, so here we go.

The quote is from a book I read days after I came back from teaching in Australia, "Blue like Jazz" by Donald Miller. I didn't know it but apparently the book was all the rage at the time, which I'm glad I didn't know, because I might have not have read it. As it happend I flew into B.C. and read late into the night thanks to the benefits of jet lag. Back home in Canada with a good book, what could be better?

So this next trip starts here, with the right perspective; the thought that these events are part of a path I'm walking along, that there is a reason for things happening the way they do, and that though this part of the story is for me, the story is not about me. These truths both drive and comfort me. And in quiet mornings like this, I wonder at the Figure far down the road walking towards me, and smile knowing that the destination is more a person than a place.