JDPFu.com 2025

I think I’ve figured out the slow internet here. All their office computers are on the same WiFi access point that the students share. Each user cuts the bandwidth in half again … 5 users means a 5Mbps connection is worth 50Kbps on a good day. Then you have the remote Costa Rica DSL problem. Heck, cell phones with line of sight to the tower don’t always work here.

Yesterday I was caught by tourista mathematica and paid $17 for 2 beers and a personal pizza. She was really cute tho. The beer was cold and good and the pizza was the best I’ve had in … 3 weeks. A much needed break from gallo pinto – beans and rice and chicken.

Thankfully, this morning, my host mother cooked French toast for breakfast. As I typed that last sentence, the Spanish words were flowing in my head.

Off to class. We’re doing past tense IR / ER verbs today! I know you’re all jealous!

After school and a chat with another student, I headed to the grocery store and a recommended bakery for an inexpensive sandwich. In the grocery, I didn’t find anything except apples and bananas appealing. There were cans of other things, but only the sardines stand out in my mind. Normally, I’d grab a can/bag of walnuts or some other nut, but they were extremely expensive. The price of the apples and bananas weren’t listed, but it ended up being 1350 colones – about $1.50. I needed to get something for lunch on Wednesday since my zip-line tour starts at 12:05pm – just after class ends.

Ok, so back to the bakery sandwich. There’s a little bakery in the town that posts the costs and seems honest about them. The chicken sandwich on fresh bread was perfect. A little tomato, lettuce, and grilled bread made it fantastic. To drink I felt that I had to try a Costa Rican drink – Frutes y Leche. That’s your choice of fruit blended with milk. Blackberry was my choice. Yummy.

I did my homework while at the bakery AND a little more than was assigned then headed to the house.

The house is on the side of a mountain with trails that lead to the top. Today, I was going to climb to the top. I prepared for a 3 hour hike and headed out around 3pm. 2 dogs came with me. Before I got to the trail, the pretty one turned back home. The little white scruffy looking dog stayed with me the entire trail coming when I whistled and being still and quiet when I was trying to locate a bird or other animal.

The dogs are outdoor dogs left to fend for their own water. I suppose they get fed, but I don’t know for certain. With the climate here, there’s no concern for the dogs health. They seem very happy running free accompanying humans on walks or just playing in the yard together.

Ok, so back to the hike. At points, the trail became less than clear, "whitey" took me the correct way (most of the time). Basically, I’m on a trail in the Costa Rican mountains with a dog and a walking stick headed some of the steepest trails I’ve tried so far. Heaven.

Sadly, when I finally get to the top, there’s no view of the surroundings, just trees and bushes and other native foliage. Going back down was 3x faster than going up. I’m back home by 5pm and need a shower badly. For once, the cold water felt nice.

I can’t say this enough, DEET is a wonderful thing. I sprayed on a 30% Deet repellent (as recommended by the Cobb County board of health) and didn’t get bit a single time. There were some HUGE flies buzzing around me. They’d land for less than a second, then jump off quickly. All the other insects – mosquitoes and tiny wasps (sweat bees) didn’t even land. Deet is my friend. Whitey is too. That little dog came along and followed directions without question. Ah, and had no water the entire time.

As usual, I took a bunch of photos and a few movies to try and capture the feel of the place. They never do justice to the scale of a place – well, except for the leaf cutter ants. These ants were doing what leaf cutters do, but they weren’t huge, just large by my Georgia ant experience. Sadly, almost all of my close up photos were fuzzy and you can’t see the ants. Lo siento.

Dinner was steamed cauliflower, egg and spinach something, rice and a leafy salad. Nutritious and tasty.

I played with Veronica (6 yr old) as we waited for my Tica mother to return home and for dinner to be ready. I guess she doesn’t mind that my Spanish is terrible. It is odd to be corrected by a 6 yr old, she reminds me of my niece Rachel. My fatherly instincts kick in when I’m around her. I guess part of it is that she has some health problems that require pills and injection treatments.