San Luis

9/7/09

Today was a good day. A day of good teaching and good communication. I discovered a friend’s blog who has recently moved to Mexico – msalexismexico.blogspot.com So different from mine and so hilarious. Alexis and I studied abroad together in Santiago, both went to college in the Pioneer Valley, started our teaching careers in NYC and have now moved to Latin America to do a different kind of teaching. Why are we both so awesome?

Today after work I went for a run with three other people: the high school English/history teacher, a high school senior and a biologist and his two dogs. What an interesting group of people. The high school teacher grew up Quaker in Pennsylvania and taught at Westtown before moving to Monteverde three years ago with his wife, who is also a teacher at the school. The high school senior is from a small town by Cherry Hill, NJ and came here because his “town got too small”. He’s already taken the math class that our school is offering this year and is currently looking for a local apprenticeship in agriculture and/or carpentry. The biologist is none other than my new friend with the dead monkeys. He reminds me a lot of my Grandpa Barnes. For those of you who never had the joy of knowing my grandfather, this just means that this man is wickedly smart and willing to gently and simply explain everything he knows to you.

We did not go on our regular route, but instead took the road towards San Luis.

Elevation of Monteverde: 1350m

Elevation of San Luis: 900m

We ran halfway there and back. It was steep. We stopped at a look out point over the San Luis valley and could see the Monteverde Reserve, the San Luis waterfalls, the town of San Luis and the Gulf of Nicoya.

I was feeling pretty good about myself until I got home and decided to take a shower. Showering at night = not cool.

Mild freak out #1 - I get out of my clothes and am about to hop in the shower when I look down and notice a black bug … on a spot that is normally covered with clothes.

Mild freak out #2 - I go to step into the shower and see a spider 1½ inches in diameter chilling on the wall of my shower. I step in anyway and try to shoo it away with some gentle water sprays. It moves up the wall, where I am content to leave it. I get under the water, shampoo my hair, glance up to the spider and it has disappeared. The only thing worse that a giant spider in the shower with you is a giant spider that you can’t see in the shower with you. Luckily, it had only scooted further up the wall and spent the rest of my very quick shower on the ceiling.

Mild freak out #3 – It is dark out, the bathroom light is on, and a moth comes in. With a 2 inch wing span, this is not the biggest moth I’ve ever seen, but bugs seem a lot bigger when you’re completely naked, covered in soap and they are dive bombing you. It ended up on its back in the bottom on the shower. Although I try not to kill bugs, I have no problem watching them die. I toed it towards the drain where it slowly drowned. Sorry moth, but not really.