How I Learned Spanish

I figure there is no better way to start off the new year of blogging then to write, in detail about my end of the year/holiday trip to Rancho Mastatal in Costa Rica. It goes a little something like this;

We arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica on Christmas Eve morning around 11:00am (I will say we a lot, because Kathy was with me on this trip - duh). After breezing through customs and exchanging some money for a shitload of colones we found Fernando, a Puriscal local who was giving us a ride to Mastatal. After sitting in some traffic because of some accident, and many bumpy roads later, we arrived in Mastatal around 3:30pm. We were greeted by the half drunk/half hungover residents of Rancho Mastatal and of course, the always on the verge of passing out, Sparky. Sparky gave us a quick tour after we ditched our stuff in our room and we got the low down of all the current building projects and even got to see Timo and Robin's house that Sparky spent most of his time there helping to build.

That night was the annual Drink n'Sync, where everyone gets drunk and lip sync's songs. There were some hilarious moments and some frightening moments, including Sparky dressed up as a woman, and Sparky dressed up as Boy George.

The next day was Christmas and we all awoke to a delicious breakfast - which is apparently done everyday there. This day was just everyone relaxing and recovering from a long night of drinking and catching up. I'm pretty sure most of the day was spent playing Dominoes, in which I Dominated...pun definitely intended.

The following day was Boxing Day, which is apparently a great holiday (thank you English people). We immediately broke off into two teams of about 7 people and began playing games throughout the day. We played Ultimate Frisbee, Tug Of War, Kickball, Egg Toss, Wiffle Ball, Ping Pong and even Horseshoes. It was a great day that was supposed to end in a massive game of Cranium, but our team kicked ass so we decided to spend the rest of the night drinking and sleeping.

We then headed to the beach town called Manuel Antonio and spent a couple days there. A lot of bus riding and walking was involved to get there but it was well worth it. By the time we actually got to the beach the first day it was pouring rain, but the rain was so warm it didnt matter. We still managed to play frisbee in the ocean for a couple hours before working on getting some dinner. The next day was more of the same but without the rain and with a lot more sun. We even got to see some cool wildlife (which Kathy got some great pictures of). That night we watched the sunset from a hotel pool bar in one of the local hotels that we weren't even staying at, and even met a nice couple from the Fairfield, CA area.

Then the fun really began as we headed out that night after drinking rum and cokes out of beer cans due to lack of cups. We hung out with a bunch of locals at a billiards bar and made some new friends. My nickname (Dickey) didnt translate well in Spanish so Sparky explained to everyone that my name was 'Penegador' (I don't know how to spell it) which literally translates to "Master of Dick'. So the locals got a kick out of that one and everyone laughed at my expense.

We then wandered aimlessly about town looking for food and even ended up in a Gay Bar called The Red Beard where an American kid leaving the bar hastily pleaded with us to believe that he wasn't gay. We obviously didn't.

The next day we hopped back on a bus back to Mastatal where I spent the last hour holding onto the seat in front of me and trying not to shit my pants. It was the longest bus ride in history. But it goes to show that I would rather risk shitting myself on a bus then get out and walk.

The next day in Mastatal we actually worked since it was somewhat between holidays and everyone wanted to get some work done. So Sparky, Timo, Kathy and I, all put up a second basketball hoop in the Mastatal Community center so we could get in a full court game sometime. Despite the three-legged scaffolding, it was a huge success.

The last day we were there was New Years Eve and we had a huge bonfire after hitting up the waterfall for a swim. We then headed to the 'Pulperia' and drank some beers and rum with the locals. It was a great night and I learned all sorts of vulgar terms in Spanish.

The trip was well worth it despite the hours on a plane and other hours on buses and driving up windy dirt roads. We made a lot of great new friends and met a lot of cool people. Not too mention we got to see Sparky and get to know Timo and Robin a lot better. It was one of the best weeks in my life even if I didnt get to eat meat for 6 out of the 10 days.

Nate is Great.