Pictures From Costa Rica - 2007, Part 2
The following are pictures taken between July and December of 2007. A few of
them have been on my blog, but many are new and/or different. Hope you
like them.
A vigilant Mary watches over my machete, in our old apartment.
As I live longer in Costa Rica, I become more adept at the local tradition,
which is mixing the holy with the profane.
Our friends Tessa and Peter came to visit us from Germany, and
here Peter is trying out another local custom: selecting your future bride by
gesturing menacingly with a machete.
Tessa with yet another local custom: machete-based revenge.
Here is my father-in-law Honorio cutting sugar cane
with...wait for it...a machete. People think that I'm always joking when I talk
about machetes and bring them home to the US as Christmas gifts, but in reality,
it's a pretty versatile instrument and it's pretty vital to life here. After
all, what other language has a word for "machete attack"? (It's "machetazo")
Here is the crucifix in our temporary house's back room, which
we have dubbed the "Crucifix/Torture Room" due to its damaged crucifix and the
stray electrical wires all over. Both of which were in the room before we moved
in, of course...we'd have to hire an interior decorator to come up with
something that original.
Here is me and Angela's temporary house, where her brother
Ronald is letting us stay while we construct our own house.
An uncommonly exciting pest: a scorpion. Aren't these damn
things only supposed to be in the desert?!
Here's a view of Berlin in the foreground, and the gulf of
Nicoya in the back. This picture was taken from our garage, of all places.
Behind our temporary house, there is a small dwelling that
houses coffee pickers during the harvest. Here is the entry to that house, with
a great Maria plaque. Also, it's a great opportunity to try to rip off the
inimitable Brad Bonner, my
professional photographer/lawyer friend from Iowa.
Another nice cloud picture taken from the coffee pickers'
house.
A Sacred Heart statue in our garage.
Angela walking to San Ramon on Costa Rican Independence Day. I
had to do a lot of persuading to get her to walk down the mountain with me. It's
13 kilometers
from here to there, and for about the first 12 km I had to convince her to keep
going. The last km was OK though, and in the end, we had a good
time.
Angela and I on a boat in Panama. We went there because I had
to renew my Costa Rican tourist visa. And because it's beautiful.
Some hotel bungalows on stilts, outside of Bocas del Toro, the
archipelago we visited in Panama.
A cemetery on the sea in Bocas del Toro, Panama.
This guy is probably the coolest person in the western
hemisphere. He had his little hot dog bike with a grill in front, a cooler in
back, and an umbrella above when needed. One of my few regrets in life is not
buying a hot dog from this guy. But I'd just eaten!!
Angela with the local favorite.
Angela forming a sand turtle on an impeccable beach.
The turtle.
A cow skull on a beautiful beach in the Bocas del Toro
archipelago.
Angela relaxing while I take pictures of stupid stuff like cow
skulls.
A sugar cup at a cafe.
A traditional-looking building housing a cafe in Bocas. Note
the wood style, the verandas, and the stilts.
View through the railing.
Angela with some Alka Seltzer.
I look like this??
Back on this side of the Costa Rica-Panama border, a guy peels
an orange for our amusement and consumption.
Our friend Juan Manuel, trying to send a text message to our
toaster.
Juanma, Edith, and Manfred. They're about the only friends we
have who aren't Angela's family.
Ah yes, I almost forgot: I'm a homeowner. Here's the shack (we
call it "the
crappy casita") on the property that Angela and I bought from her brothers. If
you want to visit us, you can have the run of it. But, at least it has a nice
view.
The back of our crappy casita.
The shitter behind the crappy casita. There's an actual toilet
inside the house, so I'm not sure why this is here. Maybe decoration. But it
does have a nice view, though.
A forgotten can of beer in the kitchen of the crappy casita.
The crappy casita comes equipped with a relaxing front porch,
just so you know.
The crappy casita also used to house coffee pickers, and thus
had about 5 foam mattresses hanging from the ceiling when we bought it. I like
how this one kinda looks like a (nasty) flower.
A little frog about the size of a penny. He snuck into our
house and apparently got caught in a piece of hair. He's damn cute, though.
A re-enactment of me discovering the frog with my flashlight.
This is the view from Angela's closet! Seriously, this
place has really, really nice views sometimes.
Angela on her birthday, with the cake I made her. It was my
first cake, and I must say that it was actually excellent!
Angela got all made up for this picture to include with her
résumé.
My makeshift ice tourniquet, which I had to apply to my skull
after scraping off part of my head on the door to the toilet.
The following few pictures are from the school where I used to
work. Since you probably don't know any of the students, the photos probably
aren't too interesting to you, but I'm still putting them up because 1) Why
not?; and 2) I am trying to prove that I'm not automatically abhorrent to youth.
In any case, this picture shows a few of my students that were in 10th grade
last year.
Here I am with one of my sixth-grade classes. They like their
bunny ears, don't they?
Yes, they're as loud as they look. But still, generally nice.
Some of the kids from my other sixth-grade class.
Here I am with Gaby, the other English teacher, and Juan
Carlos, a music teacher.
Alonso and Andres, from sixth grade.
Andres with Suzy, another English teacher who took pregnancy
leave.
Nancy and Diana, two of my tenth graders.
Fifth graders: Maria Paula, Marisol, Paula, Sofia, and
Nazareth. I taught them a little in fifth grade, and I also was their fourth
grade teacher when I arrived in Costa Rica.
"We miss you"...awww...except that they wrote it for my friend
Christa, who was their teacher about six years ago.
Here are most of the kids from the two sixth grade classes.
They were pretty nice kids, especially outside of class, so they were probably
my favorite classes. But man, could they ever whine and make noise.
Just as a comparison, here are some of Angela's former
students. I tried teaching their English class for about 5 minutes one day when
Angela felt ill, but then my eyes started bleeding, I got a stigmata, an alien
popped out of my chest, and finally my head exploded. True story. Those kids are
very, very hard to teach.
Angela with some of her youngest charges.
Here are some of my ninth graders, taking down (or, let's say
putting up...it sounds more poetic) an artificial Christmas tree. They were
maybe my other favorite class...possibly because most other teachers couldn't
stand them. But they were cool with me.
Here are the fifth graders again, this time on the last day of
school, with Dance Dance Revolution. I love that game.
Here I am loving that game, and kicking some fifth-grader ass
while doing so.
I just like this picture, for some reason.
Here are Angela and I at the graduation dinner for our
school's 11th graders (That's when they graduate here, generally).
Finally, another sunset picture, taken from Angela's closet
again. But wait! There are more 2007 pictures on my
"US Visit" page, so be sure
to check them out!