Green.. The New Black??

During our four amazing months in Costa Rica, I met a lovely Dutch girl who had just returned from Cuba. She told me this story:

I brought a Canadian magazine with me to Cuba, and all the locals I met were very anxious to read through it. As they were reading the magazine they got very excited and began showing it around to all their friends. “It must be a picture of a beautiful woman,” I thought. Then they came up to me and showed me the picture they were so enamored by. It was a picture of a CEO from a supermarket chain in Canada. He was standing in front of the meat department with a huge display of everything from sausages to filet mignons behind him. The Cuban people asked me if I had ever seen anything like this in real life. I meekly said yes, not wanting to tell them that they have one of these stores on every corner.

Costa Rica can hardly be compared to Cuba, however the disparity of consumption between the U.S. and most of Central America is still quite large. During my stay in Costa Rica, I went to one store, similar to Safeway, and I was amazed by the selections! It was such a treat to shop there once in a great while. Now that I’m back in California, I find it quite overwhelming to be in a town of 10,922 people that has several stores even bigger than the one in Costa Rica, all in our small community! We have:

 Raley’s
 SPD Market
 Save Mart
 2 Safeways
 Grocery Outlet

This list doesn’t even include the dozens of mini marts, health food stores, and miscellaneous stores that sell food in the area!

It’s been difficult to adjust to the California way of life. Not only is it the dead of winter, but our already consumption-hungry U.S. society is in high-gear, as Christmas is just around the corner. For me there is a green light at the end of this mass-purchasing tunnel. American’s are becoming more and more aware of their consumption and it’s harmful effects on the earth. It’s wonderful to see that the “Go Green” movement is in full swing! Not only are Hybrid cars becoming more common, but environmentally friendly products such as recycled materials and bamboo are also gaining in popularity. I was especially shocked to see a solar-powered Cell Phone for sale. I’ll have to tell my coworkers at Cellphone Battery Warehouse all about it!

Learning about how other cultures live is a great way to truly appreciate all we have in American society. Through the green movement I hope we will all fight to protect what we have. Go Green!!

!Danger!

I had just arrived in the small Caribbean beach town of Puerto Viejo. The air was hot and sticky and I was tired from a long trip, so I decided to wake up by taking a refreshing shower. To my surprise and delight, there was hot water (a luxury in Central America). I was taking long, very-needed shower when I looked up at the showerhead and noticed strange wires attached to an odd box. There it was… I had heard legends of these things for months from frightened tourists who would rather shower in cold water or not at all as to avoid the dangerous, the tempting, the suicide shower!!!!

The suicide shower is a delightful name given to a showerhead with a box full of electrical currents. The water runs through this box, usually located at or near the showerhead, and heats it instantly. The water is heated efficiently, and it is a great way to ensure hot water for plumbing without standard hot water heaters, but it can be deadly. This is a prime example of why it is never a good idea to bring electricity and water together. If the wires get wet, or if the unsuspecting person in the shower touches the showerhead, they could be electrocuted, ouch! I think I’ll stick to cold showers!


This is only one of many “dangerous” situations we’ve come across on our adventures in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. For instance, my boyfriend and I were shocked to find huge holes in the sidewalks and roads in Nicaragua. The electricity was frequently out at night, which led to some scary walks home… You never knew if you would step into a dark hole!!




In another instance, my boyfriend and I rode on a bus where the driver’s 6-year-old son sat in a small plastic chair placed between the wheel and the open door. That particular bus route went up and down curvy roads with a cliff on one side dropping straight down to the ocean. The boy could have easily fallen out of the bus!

Another dangerous situation happened to some friends of mine. They were on a public bus at a particularly busy time of day. The bus was packed to the brim, with people near the doors having to hold on to the handrail to avoid falling out of the bus. They drove halfway over a rickety-looking bridge and had to stop, due to traffic up ahead. They were stuck between a cement mixer and a logging truck. The bridge began to sway and everyone began to look at each other, terrified of a bridge collapse. Many people, including the driver, made the sign of the cross as they waited to move. Finally the traffic ceased, and the bus drove on to the road. Everyone on board breathed a huge sigh of relief.



Wildlife can also pose a HUGE threat!! The ocean has sharks, jellyfish (Tim, my boyfriend has already been stung three times), sting rays (remember Steve Irwin?), and even crocodiles to watch out for, as well as strong waves, currents, and riptides. Back on land, Costa Rica boasts the greatest biodiversity in the world, for its size. In fact, I just read that Costa Rica has 5,000 different species of grasshoppers! However they also have poisonous snakes, spiders, Dengue-carrying mosquitoes, sand flies, and even vampire bats.


Whew, that’s a lot to be scared of!! And I never even mentioned the threat of…
• Hurricanes
• Tsunamis
• Earthquakes
• Volcanoes

or, for that matter…

• Crime

When all is said and done, however, I feel very safe and at home in this place. I guess everywhere has its own set of dangers. As my mom always said,

“Always be aware of your surroundings, use common sense, and look confident.”

So far this advice has served me well in this crazy land. Although I have to say, even with all this potential for danger, I still feel safer here than in the U.S., weird!

Go Surf!

The first time I went surfing was at Waikiki Beach. I was 19 years old and had met two guys from, Tennessee who said they’d teach me to surf. I went out in the water and was massacred by several waves. The two so called “experienced surfers” from Tennessee chose this time to tell me they had only surfed a few times before and were almost as clueless about the water as I was, grrr!!!!! I came back to shore within ten minutes humiliated, especially because there were five-year-olds in the water all around me and there I was, shaking with fear from the waves. I was disoriented and horrified. I could barely even carry my nine-foot long board across the sand to return it to the startled beach boys.

Needless to say I was a bit freaked out about the water after this. One year later, I mustered up the courage to try it again. This time I was with two roommates, and still at Waikiki Beach. I started to swim out to the waves, and was tossed and toppled all over the place. I felt pinned under the water and panicked. I didn’t know which way was up and ended up swimming down, towards the sand. I finally swam up to the surface, got out of the water, and didn’t go back in for six years.



I developed an irrational fear of waves of any shape or size. I even had nightmares about waves! Yesterday I tried surfing again, and this time I loved it! I went with my boyfriend (who’s been surfing since he was five years old), and we surfed at Playa Tamarindo, Costa Rica. I was very nervous at first so I practiced diving under waves for at least an hour. I found that even the largest waves out there could be avoided by simply going under them. We went out on Tim’s short board, since that’s all we had, and I caught several waves but never stood up. I loved it so much that I went again today, this time with a long board. I caught my own waves, stood up multiple times, and had a ton of fun!!



The major differences between my failed attempts at surfing and my final success were the environment, and Tim. The waves at Tamarindo Beach are very small, and close to shore. The bottom is sand, and it’s shallow enough to stand in the line-up. In Waikiki there’s reef and rocks to worry about. The line-up is far out from the beach, and the waves can be much stronger. The major difference, however, was my boyfriend. He was very patient and helpful. He understood my fear and did all he could to make me feel comfortable in the water. I have finally conquered my fear of waves, thank you Tim!!!