Yet Another Reason to Wear Your Seatbelt!

Well, Niall and I had a little adventure today! First let me give you the background...it has been raining cats and dogs here so all the roads are amazingly bad (as opposed to just their normal awful). Yesterday when I drove home during a deluge there were waterfalls of muddy water plunging off the hillsides onto the road. Additionally drain pipes from all the homes that border the road were spewing water out like someone had turned so many giant water faucets. When it rains this hard the water all runs down the roads and into the stream beds...often eroding away the road and undercutting it where the water plunges down into the frothy rivers below.

So today it wasn't raining so hard, and I was driving home after a lovely lunch with a grandmother and her granddaughter who are taking my Spanish class with me. As I came up to the turnoff for our road, Niall's bus pulled up, so I pulled off the road at the intersection to wait for him.

Niall comes racing up and hops in the back of the our giant SUV which has pull down seats in the back. We're all of 500 yards from home up a steep, dirt road with a max possible speed of about 10 mph, so I'm not asking him to put his seat belt on. After he hops in, I pull out and to the right to turn up our steep road. Since I was already pulled off to the right side of the road, I'm a little off the road and the wheels are in a kind of a swale where the water flows down into the smallish stream that flows directly under the road I'm going up.

As I start to pull out into the road and go up, two tourist vans are coming down the road and a motorcycle is passing them, so I had to move over a bit. As I do this, I feel the slightest bump, and I'm thinking that my back wheel has just slipped back down into the swale.....but the car won't move forward. Because my attention is focused on avoiding the motorcycle, I'm not really aware that I'm actually over the stream now, not the swale. Anyway, I'm a little confused as to why the wheel is spining and since Niall is in the far back, I ask him to open up the back door and tell me what he sees. "Ah, Mom...all I see is stream!"

Only then do I realize that perhaps we're in some trouble and we get out of the car. When I go around the back I realize that the stream embankment has given way and my rear wheel is hanging out over an 8 foot drop down to the stream bed below! The car is perilously close to just tipping in and over!

Of course, my predicament at this fairly busy corner attracts a number of gawkers and, as luck would have it, our cheerful, handsome mechanic Arnoldo. My lucky day! In short order, Arnoldo has commandeered a big chain from one friend driving by and a cell phone from another and within 10 minutes he has summoned the giant road work back hoe to pull us out! I could have kissed him!

Of course I was sweating it as we've already taken a deposit on the car and we're just using it for the next two weeks. I could just imagine what Scott would say if he found the car upside down in the stream bed...or how Niall would have fared as we rolled over and down without his seatbelt on.

I have no doubt that Scott will hear of our little adventure even before he comes home tonight. Of course we were quite the "show" for a few minutes there, with everyone driving slowly by and shaking their heads. It was funny...all the women drove by slowly, but all the men, to a one, stopped, offered help and then proceeded to recount the last time that someone had overturned into that stream bed. Now that I can comprehend a fair bit of Spanish, their stories were getting me a little anxious, as the car looked like it was going to tip at any second!

I'm now sitting home safe and sound, and very thankful. Niall has taken great glee in reminding me that he told me we were in a really bad spot before I asked him to, "Just open the back door and take a look."

Pigs, Sloths, Bulls and Houses!

We've had an interesting few weeks here in Monteverde. Lots of good animal sitings, and a fun day of house razing.

Last week, Niall hiked down to the biological Field Station at San Gerardo (owned by the Conservation League) with his third grade class. They spent the day hiking to a local waterfall and swatting biting flies. That night the class all slept in the station's bunk houses and hiked out the following morning. As is the norm, when we asked Niall how the trip was, and what happened...all we got was..., "It was OK." So, unfortunately, no great details to share!

Scott and I were in charge of meeting the class at the top of the trail head the following morning and helping to drive them back to school. When we arrived at the appointed hour, there was our antelope son, alone, except for a huge grin, in the parking lot. Hmmm....can you guess what his parents' reactions were? One parent was yelling at him, "What part of stay with the group don't you understand?" while the other parent was clapping him on his back saying, "Wow, son...great job! You beat everybody up the hill!" Aren't we great parents?

Niall's penance was to hike back down the trail with us to help the other kids. The trail to San Gerardo is punishing...straight down on the in bound hike...and straight up on the return. About 10 minutes down the trail we came across the first teacher with the rest of the class strung out over about a mile of trail. We helped by carrying backpacks, dishing out "afterbite" and cajoling tired kids up the trail. Just as we reached the end of the trail with the last of the kids, we were treated to a cool wildlife moment. lA large, hairy, collared peccary (wild pig) just wandered out onto the trail, snuffling along in the leaves and walked right past us.


We also had another cool wildlife sighting later in the week. Scott and I were out for our usual hike when our trusty dog, Chispita (the great squirrel tracker) started barking at something in a short tree. It turned out to be a very large sloth. We've seen any number of them, but this one was exceptionally low down in the tree...we could have touched it. On our return trip, we again stopped to check on the sloth, only to find him fully awake and dangling upside down..again within reach. He was big and much browner than the other sloths we've seen..and it soon became evident why...he wasn't the normal three toed sloth, but a rarer two toed one. These sloths usually stick to the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica, so his presence was somewhat abnormal.

Our final "wildlife" interaction came at the end of the week. Niall was invited by a local family to attend the annual fiesta in town and we agreed to come meet him later in the evening. The local fiesta is very modest by any standards. Consisting of a few food stands set up next to the bull ring, two carnival rides, loud, throbbing music and a makeshift dance floor. However, its modesty is offset by the locals, who flock to the fiesta in droves, ready to have a good time.

And a good time we had. The kids had an absolute blast cramming themselves onto a ride similar to the Disneyland teacups and making themselves entirely sick and dizzy. Next everyone got overly bright food stuffs ( U.S. food vendors at carnivals have NOTHING over Latin American stalls). Niall and I shared a batch of churros (fried dough sticks) covered in sticky pudding and thoroughly dressed with "chispas" or multicolored sprinkles. I'm a sucker for sprinkles...but entirely regretted my carvings by the following day!

Finally, we all made our way to the bull ring. I've passed the shabby, two storied, round, corrugated steel building hundreds of times, but have never been inside. On a Friday night, with a good portion of the town inside, throbbing music and kids running around under the stands...it's just the place to be! There are 4 levels of elevated seating around the circumference of the ring. The first eight feet of the ring are fenced off with strong, but beaten up wooden fencing. The fencing is interrupted by open vertical slats about every 15 feet or so. The wood around each opening being painted red.

For quite a long time, no one was in the ring and the action centered around three wooden gates (two small and one large) located directly under the announcers platform. Clearly here, you could see the caballeros (cowboys), mostly sitting on the fences, working to get a bull into a chute. A few minutes before the bull was released, brave young men (full of machismo and beer) climbed down from the stands, down the wooden fencing and into the ring. Then, out came two strong caballeros on their beautiful horses.

After much adjusting and fussing, the bull rider finally got a good seat on the bull in the chute and the gate was opened. As one would expect, the rider must stay on the bull for 8 seconds, with only one hand on the rope. All the riders that evening stayed on long past that cut off and showed great skill. What was unexpected was that the rider, once done with his ride, had to dismount the bull himself (if not already thrown off). In the U.S., the rider is often assisted off by cowboys who ride up next to the bull...but no such luck here! You're on your own...and it's dangerous. Two out of the three riders we saw were stepped on and almost gored when they dismounted.

Luckily for them, bulls that are ridden are de-horned...but still - ouch! Once clear of the bull, the young machismos come into play...taunting the bull and running around the ring to tempt the bull to chase them. The purpose of the open vertical slating became quite clear ....escape routes for those hombres being chased by the enraged bull! No wonder the openings are painted red.

Once the bull has been annoyed beyond the point of much interest in chasing beer guzzling Ticos, the caballeros move in to rope the bull. This is the best part as the beautiful horses and their skillful riders are put through their paces trying to rope the slippery bull. Once each rider has a line on the bull, one horseman rides to the exit chute and loops his rope over a large hook. At this point the bull is simply reeled in toward the exit chute and given an unceremonious shove in at the final moment.

After this exciting display, the music is cranked up and the caballeros show off the dancing prowess of their horses. Kind of a fast high step prance..in time to the music. Very impressive.

The final event of the evening, and clearly left until the end when everyone has had their fill of cerveza, was the release of the Toro de Gorro! This bull is usually the largest and comes complete with a full set of long, vicious looking horns. The bull is not ridden, but released into the ring which is now ringed with a complete compliment of Monteverde's finest. The young men compete with each other to see who can accomplish the most daring dash across the ring without being speared by the overwrought bull. The bull, a magnificent creature, seemed to take quite a delight in chasing the men, who scrambled up the fencing much like crabs before an advancing wave.

Scott and I had a good laugh when it was explained to us that any man daring and quick enough to touch the bull's horns would be granted free admission to the bull riding for the remainder of the week. Not what we'd call a great deal, given that admission was all of $2!

Niall took particular delight in this as one of the braver young men was on our side of the ring. Consequently the bull spent a fair bit of time directly in front of us and almost at eye level with Niall. I'm sure if we stayed here longer, Niall would happily participate in this local ritual of manhood!

Speaking of manhood, this weekend we participated in a house razing for our friends, the Sales. About 100 locals all gathered at their farm to erect a timber frame house. The huge timbers had all been harvested about a year ago off the land of the Institute where Scott works. This type of construction is not at all a local tradition, but was brought here by some guys from Vermont who do this in the States and have realized they can come here during the winters when things are slow at home.

We started the day with three, absolutely huge, two story "bents" or sections, lying on the ground. I can only imagine what they weighed! The crew from Vermont, along with a number of Tico workers (who are learning how to do this type of construction) spent a good couple of hours mortise and tenoning some of the last minute pieces together. The "helpers" were all given pegs to shave down. These were later used to secure the mortise and tenon joints. No nails allowed!

Then they rigged lines up through neighboring trees (climbing around like monkeys). Once the lines were rigged through the nearby trees (which were used as fulcrums), the group was split in half...pretty much the men to lift the bent and the women and children to pull the ropes (along with a mule!). It was amazing, and, kind of scary! I was glad to be the videographer and get to be out of the way. On the count of three, the guys all heaved up the bent, while the rope pullers pulled. When the bent was up above their heads, they grabbed long boards and pushed with those. Once the bent hit the 45 degree point, the pullers took over and heaved the bent up to a full 90 degrees.

It was way amazing!! It took all afternoon, but the three bents went up without a hitch and our friends had the frame of their new house.

The kids all had a blast too. Our friends had already built a big pond on the property with a big zip line strung across it. The kids could climb up an old burnt out tree, grab the zip line and fly across the pond, plunging into the middle of it. At one point, Niall tied his blue towel around his shoulders, the better to achieve the superman vibe!

Of course, afterward we had a huge potluck lunch and the men traded stories of their feats! I was just impressed that it got done without anyone getting hurt! The only near miss of the day was when one of the Tico guys was using his machete near us lost his grip...the machete flew through the air and landed about a foot from Andy, the woman I was standing next too. She took it in good humor, laughing and saying how ironic it would have been to have survived her recent cancer, to be taken out by a freak machete accident!

At the end of the day, we all piled into our trusty Galloper for the drive home. We were all tired and ready for what we jokingly call a "Tico Massage" - that's when the road is so steep and bumpy that your entire body gets a good limb loosening as you drive along.