Oaxaca Calendas

Oaxaca is the land of parties and parades. It was raining on one of our first days and we were wandering around town looking for our next hotel when we ran into a group of men holding giant balloon Flores. We walk into the place where it all seems to be happening and we see many people in costume as well as giant puppet figures. We asked what was going on….a 50th anniversary celebration for a market. Here we have a brass band, an army of senoritas and senors, and men hefting up giant balloon globes in the pouring rain, marching down the street.

The senoritas and senors dancing.

One of the giant balloon globes.

We hear that calendas (parades) and fiestas are almost daily occurrences in Oaxaca and indeed you often see brass bands and senoritas on the street. A political parade came by our window at the Spanish school…mid day.

The giant puppets.

Spanish Class in Oaxaca

I’m trying to learn Spanish and this is my second immersion school. We signed up for four hours a day for five days, the same I did last time in Costa Rica. The first day was OK, my fellow student was more advanced than me, but close in age, with all that comes with that. Meaning, we need a lot of repetition for the details of the language to stick in our brains, but she knew more words and had more experience with conjugations.

We had two teachers, one for the first two hours and another for the second two hours. There were no breaks. If you wanted a break, you had to sneak in at the changing of the guard. Also my classmate only signed up for three hour class so there was a teeny changing of the guard after hour three. It was a small miracle that I was able to keep myself from running screaming from the classroom with such a rigorous schedule. It reminds me of when I first started at Merck and discovered that it was common to hold three hour meetings without breaks. I didn’t think I would be able to do it, but I somehow managed, and then later on when I had more control, cut the meetings down to one hour each.

On day two, a third student joined our class, who was even more advanced than the first, and young, child-bearing age in fact! She seem to be able to easily form sentences in the present and past tenses and had a large vocabulary in Spanish. When I spoke to her after class, she assured me that she was still learning even though she knew so much more than me.

However, as the week went on, I felt more and more lost as I was increasingly unable to understand what anyone was saying. I don’t know if this was good or bad. I do believe it’s always better to be with people who are better than you so that you can learn from them, but I was pretty lost. On two consecutive mornings, when I was still fresh, I felt but my head might explode I believe that I understood absolutely nothing about what was going on. I don’t think that was actually true, but my emotional body was freaking out!

Two days later, boom, cold sore. Stress.

The plan is to go back to Spanish school this week for three days after a four-day break. We have cut down the hours to three a day and are considering cutting back to two days, do older brains need more rest?

I am really enjoying trying to learn Spanish and trying to speak to the very lovely people of Oaxaca. Indeed, this is the first time in my life that I have spoken more than a short sentence in another language and I love the power of it and want to continue! There must be many ways to make this work, right? Wish me luck.

Volcan Arenal, Rancho Margot

I wanted to have a real tourist experience along with hot springs. Rancho Margot had a star in the Lonely Planet write up, so seemed to fit the bill. It was slightly complicated to get here… First I had to miss my Spanish class because the only bus left in the morning… And I had to take a cab to the Denny’s at the airport to pick up the minivan. Once I’ve made it within a few kilometers of the ranch, I had to wait for four-wheel-drive transport up to the top of the hill. And say I had to wait in the rain for 20 minutes or so, which made me slightly nervous.

But at last I was picked up in a rugged all terrain vehicle and transported up the hill straight to nirvana in the rain. Firstly, I was upgraded. I booked a bunkbed, meaning I would get a small cell with a bathroom down the hall. This was an option on the booking form. What I got was it bungalow with a back porch and a front porch, a hammock, rocking chairs, A separate little table and coffee set up. And a private bath of course. I was over the moon after tiptoeing around other peoples houses for six days. And we are in the middle of the jungle. There are tropical flowers everywhere, butterflies and hummingbirds

My hammock view. No hummingbirds now, but they flit in and out.

The property includes three organic meals where much of the food is grown on the premises. The food is quite good, reminiscent of Kripalu, Breitenbush, etc. 

Yoga class is on a large covered platform next to the river where there is a 360 view of the jungle and a roaring river below. The gentle, restorative class was heavenly…yoga should always be done like this. 

I met the owner of the property, Juan, and his s.o., Liz, at dinner. He bought the property 15 years ago when it was a pasture and slowly reforested and developed the property. Electricity comes from water. It pours down the mountain and is converted to electricity and sent to electrify all the properties. Excess power is not stored. Similarly, the water ‘coming down the hill’ is filtered for drinking. 

The farm has animals and gardens, too, with 200 chickens, pigs, and cows. Although some of the animals are eaten, they have a very good life. The chickens are truly free range. They use a natural form of disinfectant so the smell The animal lodgings is not as strong as you would expect. Along the same vein, they compost animal poop for the gardens and have a system to create methane from the urine. Apparently even human waste is processed with the fungus that destroys bad bacteria and is sprayed on the hillside to fertilize the jungle.

All those chickens! 

The owner, Juan, but the property 15 years ago. He is Chilean by way of Jewish ancestry, and grew up in the United States. From what I understand, he had a business in Belgium… Chemical… He came to Costa Rica and friend showed him this property On the side of a mountain next to rivers. He created an amazing space from what was pasture, reforesting the hillsides. 

I could not be happier here, although the rain is constant and the humidity 100% without air-conditioning. Fortunately, the temperature is constantly in the 70s, so it’s comfortable in that way, not too hot not too cold.

Marho, my guide on the farm tour, interacting with a newborn piglet.

Also, water is heated by a an array of pipes that are gently heated by the sun. I saw the pipes and assumed that they were used to heat water for the laundry only, but it turns out a relatively small array heats water for the entire property. Most of the showers in Costa Rica are individually solar heated.As a result, before arriving here, I had two minute cold shower a day. Here at the hot water is plentiful and you don’t have to worry about wasting electricity, etc. because it is coming from the system. I wonder how hard it would be to adapt for home use? It is quite a bit larger than a water heater though.

Heredia, Homestay

Alice picked me up at Spanish School, thank goodness! You see, there are no addresses in Costa Rica. So the instructions were to walk 800 East and 75 north, next to computer store. I tried to find it on google maps, but couldn’t be sure. You see, 800 equals 800 meters and each block is theoretically 100 meters, but it is not an exact science because not all blocks are 100 meters.

At any rate, Alice is 69, a widow, and runs a house for students. The two students there, Elvis and Jesuso, attended local universities…computer science. There was a third, slightly disabled, who I was never introduced to. Mystery tenant.

We all conversed in mixed English and Spanish. For me, because I’m used to trying to communicate with people in other languages, the difference was I actually know a little Spanish so I’m struggling and they are struggling too. So much fun, but completely exhausting. 

Alice and I spoke, mixed English and Spanish, about the pills we took, some of which are the same! One night, Jesuso cracked open coconuts and we drank the coconut water. Such luxury!

Alice with her coconut




Jesuso machete-ing coconuts

The homestay was fun, challenging and utterly exhausting! The closest experience I’ve had is being on Camino and staying with a host. I’m not sure I could do it for an extended time period.

Spanish Immersion, Heredia Costa Rica

Mi casa in Heredia. I have a room with private bath and kitchenette in a family home. 

It is cloudy with occasional light rains this time of year, but the weather is quite pleasant…a nice break from our northern summer. When I first arrived, I actually thought it was warm… it is a bit humid… So turned the fan on. That really isn’t necessary, the weather is quite perfect, low 70s all the time with scattered showers, mostly in the afternoon.

Lots of people do not speak English here which allows opportunity for practice. For example, yesterday I distinctly heard a bus driver making fun of me after I tried to negotiate a trip back to Heredia from San Jose in Spanish. And of course there is the handing of the wad of money, asking the other party to be merciful and honest.

Spanish class goes between 8:30 am and 12:30 pm five days a week. I am assigned to a class with Susanna.mShe knows a lot of Spanish but doesn’t study. On the other hand, I study, but have little training or experience. We are a good match. So it’s just the two of us and one teacher. The first two days were conversation en Spanish around points of grammar. Our teacher for the next two days is more about conversation.  He is very outgoing, an actor, which makes him a good teacher. Almost all is carried out in Spanish. I forget my words a lot… Basic words, baby words but then I remember things. I can’t accomplish everything, but I can talk to the teachers who are patient.

When I go out by myself in the town, I am not well understood. My pronunciation and grammar are faulty. But I am learning And I never thought that I would be so relaxed making an utter fool of myself.

After two days in a private room with private bath, I doing a Homestay. Alice is my host and she is 69 years old… A contemporary. She rents rooms to students at the nearby universities along with Spanish students. Right now she is renting two young students, Elvis and his Jesue. We all practiced our Spanish and English together today. As part of the homestay, our hostess provides breakfast and dinner. I think it is $27 a night and I have my own room.

The Spanish school also has extracurricular activities. Yesterday I took a dance class. Oops, turns out I am in really terrible shape, but it was fun. Today we had a cooking class… empanadas!

Our first day included a walking tour of our city, Heredia! This photo was taken in the central market where there are lots of fruits, vegetables, meats, and restaurants.

Here we are in the center of town, 

A meal at La tortilloria. Veggie platter with vegetables dipped in egg and fried, beans, salad, squash, plantains, all on top of a cheese tortilla. So good!

Overall, I was a bit shy eating out and now I don’t think I have any time to try a new place. Lots of the restaurants around town feature fried fried fried food. As much as I like fried food, I can’t really eat it that much. When we went on the Neighborhood walking tour, they took us to a ”Soda” for lunch. That food was served almost cafeteria style and was quite delicious because it was totally homemade. I have tried the Spanish restaurants in Philly, and I’m off and left with a pretty heavy feeling. Even though there are a lot of beans and rice and this cuisine, it seems less greasy.

This is Paula from Portugal frying up the empanadas we made. Yum, empanadas made with masa! Yum yum yum!

I love this sign from the local market …perros calientes, a literal translation of ‘hot dogs’ just sounds wrong. We talk a lot about dogs, perros, in class.