Can I become Tico?

To become a Tico I still have much to learn, but I'm starting to try new things to get there!

I got to borrow a book to start reading (trying to understand).

Today I got to help out making patacones for lunch :) And they tasted really good!

For the very first time I am trying to prepare beans for tomorrow.

¡Espero que funcione!

Mother's day!

Today was mother's day in Costa Rica! This is a big holiday where people have free from work and get together with their families. We were so lucky that we were invited to spend the day with a family on Monte de la Cruz.

From the cross we had a great view of Heredia down to the right, and San Jóse to the left.

We took a walk in the forrest and saw some great nature!

And waterfalls :)

Costa Rica is known for it's biological diversity, so there will most likely be a lot of pictures of the different animals, bugs and insects.

For lunch we had a great barbeque with beef, chicken, chorizo, tortilla, beans and plantain.

There were several families spending their day there, and the kids had fun playing different games ;)

 ¡Gracias por hoy!

Did you say Heredia???

Well, yesterday I had a lunch date! I was supposed to find my way to the University of Costa Rica. So the night before I asked a friend if there were any buses nearby where I live in Moravia. Yes, there would be a white bus going to UCR. So in the morning I asked a bus driver where the bus to UCR goes, he directs me to a bus stop 200 m further down the street. At the bus stop there was a guy waiting, so I asked him if the bus for the university stopped here, and yes it did. The guy let me know when the bus came, and I jumped on. Shortly after I started thinking something was wrong. Even though I'm new to this city, and haven't really been around too much, I could feel I was going in the wrong direction. I started asking some of the others on the bus, and they said it was on it's way to the university, but it was going to Universidad Nacional in Heredia! So I start talking to the bus driver to see if I could get off at some bus station with a bus that would take me back to UCR. He didn't speak any English, but I could barely catch that he would let me off at a bus stop with a bus back, and the only passenger speaking English confirmed that.

Every passenger got off, and I was sitting there alone, suddenly the bus driver stops and says he's not going further and that I have to get off. I have no idea where I am, or where my bus back is going.

I start walking around trying to ask people where I should catch a bus back to San Jóse.

Not so many people around there could speak English, so I got a nice challeng practicing my Spanish :) After a while I could find more and more buses, and I would ask the bus drivers where the bus to San Jóse went.

One bus driver said I should find bus number 400, and gave me the directions. I found the bus and messaged my date that I was on my way with bus number 400. She replies with "What?! There are no bus numbers!", but I had assured with the bus driver that I would get to downtown San Jóse.

I got to San Jóse and met her, finally, but my head was really spinning around! I was so glad to be there, and had totally forgotten to take pictures while I was in Heredia, but Pura Vida :D

¡¡¡Muchas gracias Meche, por tenerme paciencia!!!

Cartago!

A morning before classes at Tempos we had some time to visit Gera's hometown, Cartago.

We ate lunch not so far up the mountain of the tallest volcano in Costa Rica, Irazú. The restaurant is named after the horrible earthquake in 1910.

After lunch we drove down to the city to see the famous church dedicated to the virgin of the angels. The Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles.

This is the church where a lot of latin-americans walk to during a holiday of the virgin. Many people walk for several days to get to this church.

Outside the curch they have a fountain of holy water. A lot of people come here to drink this water, or just rinse their belongings in the water.

Volcán Poás :)

Our eminent tourist-guides, Caro and Gera took us to see a volcano nearby, Volcán Poás. On our way up the mountain we met an old guy with a traditional mean of transportation, a carreta.

We were really lucky getting to see the crater so clearly! Normally it's totally cloudy, and impossible to see the crater at all.

And of course we were lucky seeing the lagoon :D

We also got to meet a little local friend who would pose for us ;)

First week at Tempos!

We had a nice first week at Tempos ;) We are coaching kids from the age of 3 years, up to grown ups in their 60's! There are some challenges, but it is just fun to do gymnastics with the Costa Ricans :)

Some of the youngest girls are a bit shy, and don't really understand us, but we are lucky to have some local coaches to help us. The youngest boys have so much energy running around not knowing what we are telling them to do, but they are also just having fun! The gymnasts that are a little bit older, and understand us are trying out new things with no problems. Hopefully we will have huge progress while we are here ;)

A couple of evenings each week we have 3 ladies who come for exercise and fun. Two of these ladies are in their 60's! And they are really impressing!! We can really push them :)

Unfortunately I haven't been able to take so many pictures during trainings yet, but I will try to take some!

Here are some from the training with the ladies ;)

Cleaning Tempos :)

After a few weeks on the road with the Danish team, Bernsholdet, doing performances and workshops, the equipment at Tempos was pretty dirty. Gymnasts and their families were gathered to do some cleaning on Sunday before we start classes.

Young and older helped out with some good cleaning ;)

Eventhough Tempos isn't that big we found solutions to clean the bigger equipment.

A group photo of everyone helping to clean :D

¡Gracias a todos!

Surfing in Jacó!

The first few days were spent in Jacó. Here we met up with Jorge and Maja, who Mette and I will work for. In Jacó we had some lazy time in the sun and we also went surfing. Unfortunatly we didn't take any pictures while surfing, but we will definitly go surfing again, and then we'll try to take some pictures.

We had to get the Danish gymnastics team Bernsholdet back to the airport, and Jorge and Maja had to get ready for their vacation so we headed back to San José.

On our way we stopped to see some crocodiles ;)

We also ran into some bad rain which reminded us that it is rain season in Costa Rica!