In the wee hours of July 5th, 2011 I departed Mérida, Mexico (where I am currently living and working for a student travel company called Explorica) and headed for San José, Costa Rica, on my way to participate in our “Sun & Service” tour with 35 high school students and teachers. A few months back, when I was given the chance to travel on one of our tours, Costa Rica was a very easy choice for a few reasons. This is one of the only tours we currently offer that has a focus on international service, something I am always interested in doing more of, especially after having such a positive experience volunteering with the Smithies in 2010 at the Fondes Amandes Community Reforestation Project in Trinidad. And perhaps even a greater factor in my easy decision, the chance to visit (and drink copious amounts of delicious coffee) with one of my favorite Smithies currently living abroad, John Foss himself. John began his Peace Corps service in October 2010 in a rural community called Grano de Oro, located on the edge of an indigenous reservation and “close” to the city of Turrialba. (I learned that this is a very relative term in Costa Rica, a country of very short distances but very long journeys. Spewing volcanoes, mountainous terrain, overflowing rivers, unpaved roads and landslides tend to slow travel down a little bit.)
After my 10 days of sun, service, and visiting most of Costa Rica’s most popular tourist attractions were through, I was anxious to finally reconnect with John. After buying a ticket for the equivalent of $1.80 US dollars, I boarded the bus in Liberia, a small city in northwestern Costa Rica in the Guanacaste region. The 4-hour bus ride was more like 5.5 (sorry John!) due to a bridge reconstruction and a couple of drunk guys getting kicked off the bus for unruly behavior on the way to San José, but none of that mattered once I saw John’s smiling face at the Pulmitán bus terminal. After some huge hugs and his initial shock at “the beast” I carried with me (this is how he referred to my blue suitcase for the duration of the weekend, although in my defense, it’s not THAT big… Note to self: get a big backpack for traveling!), we set off to enjoy San José. First stop on the agenda was an impromptu visit to La Embajada, the Embassy. No, not the U.S. mission in Costa Rica— more like a smoky, predominantly-male drinking “institution” in downtown San José. Nevertheless, it was a great place to get a few Imperiales (the local beer) exchange travel stories, and get a first-hand account of the life of Peace Corps volunteers in Costa Rica. Also, in an interesting encounter with Costa Rican cuisine, I had the pleasure of watching John and his most entertaining fellow Peace Corps volunteer down a few turtle eggs. See picture below! For the record, I am always game to try the local cuisine but this is a treat I politely declined (Andrew Zimmern would be disappointed, but I just couldn’t do it!).
The next day, anxious to see “a day in the life” of John Foss but without enough time to go all the way to Grano de Oro, we decided to check out the village of Tarbaca. Tarbaca is a town about an hour south of San José where John lived with a charming host family during his first 3 months in Costa Rica, known as In-Service Training. When we got off the bus in Tarbaca, one pit stop was in order before hiking it up the muddy hill to visit John’s host family—coffee. We stopped in at a log cabin-esque café located on the side of the main road with an incredible view of the mountains draped in morning fog for some of the most delicious coffee we’d had in a while. John went with the classic cappuccino and I went all out with the miel de abeja (honey bee) latte. Yum. Enveloped by the fragrant aromas of the café, we were transported back to our Dimond Library days, where we once spent countless hours reading, bouncing ideas off each other, and of course, drinking coffee while contemplating Zeke’s paper map-of-the-world coffee cups wondering just where the 2 of us might be in a year or two’s time. Little did we know we’d be meeting up for just another one of many shared cups of coffee in Tarbaca, Costa Rica.
With or caffeine fix met, we were ready to drop in on John’s host family. Everyone, including the dog, was delighted to see John and we sat in the living room to catch up on the last few months since they’d seen each other. After some good conversation, it was time to eat. John’s host-mom, Rita, had prepared a delicious meal of potatoes, rice, a salad with the greenest avocados and reddest tomatoes you’ve ever seen, and chicken right from the patio. John’s host-father also insisted on us joining him with a shot of the local sugar cane rum, some of the most potent stuff I’ve ever tried! And of course, no Costa Rican meal is complete without some more coffee. This time I got to observe the use of the chorreador to make coffee, a typical method used in Costa Rica. The chorreador is a basically a stand with a wooden loop in which you put a sock-like filter and some coffee. Water is heated on the stove and then poured through the coffee filter into a metal pot. Check out the picture below of John preparing some coffee like a true Tico. The coffee was good, but the sharp taste of the goat’s milk which I dumped into it was a little off-putting. I guess it’s a taste I’ve yet to acquire…
Back in San José, after the obligatory siesta and some random youtube videos (one word, John: wink!), we were ready to venture out again. We didn’t let a little rain get in our way, equipped with some umbrellas and a certain “plastic fantastic” poncho I was sporting much to John’s amusement. Hey, it kept me (relatively) dry! We opted for sushi for our last night in San José, 1) because it was close and 2) because we were pretty sick of gallo pinto, the Costa Rican staple that can be served at any time of the day or night. “Gallo pinto” is the name for rice & beans and although it is delicious the first few times you eat it, after 2 weeks of having it at almost every meal, I was ready for something (anything!) different. I can only imagine how John feels about the stuff… apparently there is a Peace Corps gallo pinto curve in which you love it, you hate it, you accept it, and you enjoy it again for the next 2 years. Anyway, we had a nice and non-traditional dinner, but we added a few Imperiales to the mix for that Costa Rican touch. Tired, happy and full, we headed back to the hostel for a good night’s sleep.
The next morning, after fully enjoying the luxury of HOT showers, we met up with a few of John’s PC friends who were just back in town after a trip to Nicaragua. It was great to be introduced to more of John’s peers, hear about their recent trip, and learn more about their experiences in diverse regions of Costa Rica working in areas such as cultural tourism, youth and community development, and teaching English. While I watched them dig in to some gallo pinto, I opted for a strawberry smoothie, my last taste of Costa Rica. Before too long, it was time for me to say goodbye to John and his friends and catch a cab to the airport.
Our few days together in Costa Rica were short but we definitely took advantage of our limited time to catch up on the last year and a half of our lives, reminisce about IFL and Hump Nights, and drink some good coffee. It was refreshing to be reminded of just how strong those Smithie ties are. We can go months and years without seeing each other but when our paths happen to cross, wherever in the world we might be, we just pick up right where we left off. Time goes by and we have new experiences that shape who we are, what we believe, and what we want for our futures. But the shared experience of being a Smithie is a truly unique and special bond that will unite us forever, wherever our lives may take us. Happy travels & pura vida.
-Jordan Caley
