I Don’t Run On Tico Time

April 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, 2014

I was looking forward to the month of April since I got here just because I knew I wouldn’t have anything to do other than class once a week on Mondays.  I am on summer vacation right now.  No obligations, just taking each day by day and enjoying life.  Lizzie and I have said to one another several times, “Wow, we are living the life.”
And at the same time, we aren’t sure what to do with ourselves.  I haven’t had this much free time since I was 14 years old because it all disappeared when I got a job at age 15.  Silly 15 year old me was all excited to be a lifeguard- little did I know I would never have time to even breathe I would become so busy.
So, what have I been doing to fill all this free time do you ask?  Good question.  The days are starting to blend together.

Haha, okay really though:
On the 2nd Lizzie and I walked downtown, sat at some parks, watched some people, went to a mercado, and met Ronnie.  Who is Ronnie, you may be asking? Funny story.
We bought another random stranger lunch.  Click here to see the first time we bought a stranger lunch this week.  There we were, walkin along, trying to find a mercado (a building with a bunch of family owned kiosks that sell different things) when a 35 year old lookin mae (dude) stopped us and started rambling about being glad we were American’s and that we spoke English.  Turns out he is from California and got robbed that morning.  He lost $140 dollars and his card.  He asked if we would buy him lunch because he hadn’t eaten anything all day.  Especially because of my last experience I jumped with the answer “Of course!”  I just ended up giving him the only $10 I had so he could buy lunch and his bus ticket.  He said he would for sure pay it forward.  That was good enough for me.
Now that we look back on it, we are not sure if he was telling the truth.  First off, he told us he was robbed while trying to buy some weed.  But also he said his family was in Puntarenas, which is an hour from San Jose by bus.  So I was confused as to why he didn’t call his family to come help him.  But you know what, it doesn’t matter.  At the time Lizzie and I believed everything and he seemed very sincere.  So if he was lying it doesn’t even matter, Gods his judge, not me.  After saying goodbye to Ronnie I looked at Lizzie and said, “Is God trying to tell us something?”
After meeting Ronnie, we went and got some patacones, parted ways, and I went to my church to hang out with Jesus and go to daily mass.
Oh! One thing I appreciated: A fruit stand guy asked Lizzie and I if we were gringas to which we responded in unison, “Claro que si” (Clearly) to which he responded, “Ohhh, son gringas pero no son!”  That may have been the best compliment.  He said we are gringas, but we arent gringas.  Its like my blog title is becoming true… Gringa to Tica… never thought I’d get there. Haha.

On the 3rd I started the day super tranquila (chill).  Rolled out of bed at 9:30, ate breakfast, got back in bed, listened to music and drew/colored until noon.  Then Lizzie and I met with Erica to plan our trip to Nicaragua.  It ended up being a pretty frustrating day because there is not sufficient information online about anything in central America.  The meeting got so frustrating for the three of us decided to take a break, go our separate ways, and meet up again after dinner.  I headed to the chapel, mass, and finally went home only to find out that Erica decided she didn’t want to go anymore.  So looks like its just gonna be the two of us (so long as we can still buy bus tickets since they are selling out due to Holy Week).
Lizzie and I planned the rest of the trip that night, made an ice cream run (why didn’t we start making late night ice cream runs sooner!?), and then watched How I Met Your Mother in my room.  The funny thing about that last part is that since we are both on different seasons of the series we each watched it on our own laptops…in the same room.  That says roommate love to me.

Annnnddd today, April 4th, we went to the Poaz volcano.  It was a good yet extremely frustrating day.  And I’ll tell you why: Costa Ricans are the slowest moving people, EVER.  I have talked about how frustrating the lack of signs, maps and explanations there are here, but I am losing my patience for traveling by bus really quick.  We had to take three separate buses to get to Poaz today, and each required a good amount of waiting to arrive, get on, get moving, and to get there.  I probably wouldn’t have been as frustrated if I didn’t have to be somewhere at 5:00 pm.  When we left I went thinking we could be back by 3:00 since we left our house at 6:30 am and it only took an hour to get there once at the bus.  Turns out there wasn’t a direct bus and we had to take a bus to take a bus to take another bus.
They are just so slow moving here sometimes.  Restaurants, walking through downtown, public transportation, the mail; everything is on tico time.  Tico time is at least 15 minutes after the scheduled time.  I got used to it for a while, but today it got me.
Once we got there everything was fine.  We got into the park for $2 (price for ticos) when normally we would have been charged $10 (price for tourists).  How can this be do you ask?  Lizzie and I stayed quiet while Scarlet talked to the ticket salesman.  Since Scarlet is Latina it is easy for her to pass for a tica and therefore, since we were with her, it was easy for us to get the resident price.  Score.
We walked up to the volcano to see: n o t h i n g.  Not again!  (We went to the Arenal Volcano in January only to not see anything due to fog)  Thankfully we hung around for a little while because the clouds moved out for a total of 10 minutes.  It was so impressive.  We could see right into the crater of the volcano, where the smoke was coming out.  It was freakin cool!
Costa Rican Checklist:
See a Volcano: Check

El Volcan Poaz

Lizzie, Me, Scarlet

Showcase!