Visit to Nicaragua

Hola amigos:

As time past by, we are starting to miss you all more frequently, particularly now that the winter approaches. The comfort felt by sitting on the warm carpet with a glass of wine and a good conversation is something we remember with nostalgic, despite the cold walks on the freezing mornings.

Although not snowing, we have had recently the longest rainfall I recall in years. The "temporal" as we call it, is a constant rainfall that it this case, lasted for almost a week. Every single day, every single minute was raining, sometimes hard and so times not so much, provoking a large amount of floods and mud slides all over the country, and the region for that matter. There were many bridges that fall, many houses destroyed, and a significant damage of agricultural crops. The reason was the series of hurricanes that also damaged Haiti, and Mexico, which you might heard about. Right now we are starting the transition period towards the dry season... (and vacations!).

Beyond the weather report (see, I'm still a good Minnesooootan), Roxana and me are still enjoying the warm welcome that many friends and family still offer us, particularly because we don't leave right now in our home town and our visits there are weekly in the best case scenario. She is working part time now, proving behavioral therapy to several kids. We are exciting about this opportunity, which has the potential to be something full time in the long run. My job is interesting, although continues to be very busy.

Since my last note to you, we had visited several places here in CR, but Nicaragua is the highlight. As we had the chance to talk to you in occasions, Nicaragua and CR have a situation similar to that one that the U.S. faces with Mexico, or maybe Spain with Moroccans, where now 10% of the CR population are in fact, Nicaraguan immigrants. Traveling to Nicaragua was a great experience, where one can see poverty but it is almost override by the beautiful scenery and the warmth of its people. Below are some pictures:

Ometepe Island, home of two volcanoes in the Nicaragua Lake

Massaya Volcano, active volcano, near the city of Massaya. In the back you can see also other volcanoes. Nicaragua has 18, 11 of wich are active.

Petroglifs, which are tought to be about 6,000 year old.

A beautiful sunset in the Nicaragua Lake from the Ometepe Island.

September update from Costa Rica

Well, August and so far September have been very busy and very exciting at the same time. Roxana and I have visited some areas of the country we've never seen before, enjoy so much of our time together with our families, and celebrated the recent festivities of Costa Rica 187th Independence Anniversary (Central America and Mexico as well).

At the Central Pacific region we visited the Marine National Park called Ballena, which means Whale. Yes, we went in a tour for about 5 hours into the ocean looking for whales. It was an unbelievable experience, while at the ocean we suddenly saw a mammal about 3 times larger than our boat just feet away from us. It did not jump in from of us (thankfully) but it did it on the distance... amazing!!! According to our guide, there were probably 5 of them around. We also saw dolphins close to a little Island we visited. Pictures don't do justice to the feeling, it definitively was a lifetime experience. The Park has beautiful beaches, the one in the picture below is a Cabo, where a little sand strip has beach front in both sides.





Along with my parents, Roxana and I also took a trip to 2 volcanoes (Miravalles and Rincon de la Vieja) and two beaches in the North Pacific Region of the country, and about 4 hours from our little town of Atenas. My dad was telling us it was a dream for him to stand up on the top of a volcano crater, and I was just hopping this was not going to erupt any time soon.


There we enjoyed good food and beer while visiting a little resort with hot springs pools. My mom was the leader in our hikes, and Roxana and I just enjoy their company, which by the way was the first time, since I left home, that I shared 4 days in a row with them. Yes, it was a good time and hope to do it again soon. After visiting these volcanic area, we moved for 2 additional nights to the beach. Me and my dad took a dip while all enjoyed the beautiful sunsets of the Pacific.


In another trip, just 2 weeks ago, we went from the Pacific to the Caribbean coast in the Province of Limon. Here we visited Cahuita National Park, a park that has a vibrant tropical rain forest with monkeys, sloths, reefs, and warm crystal clear waters. The town of Cahuita is still cut in the past, with a calypso and regae tunes coming out of ranch style bars and restaurants. This town is receives a considerable high influx of adventurous tourists, one might classify more as hippies.



Finally, just last weekend on Sept 14 and 15 we celebrated the Independence. On the night of the 14th home made lanterns created by school kids and their parents iluminated the night where the torch of liberty arrives from Guatemala, former Capital of the region during the times of the Spanish conquista. At 6pm in every town of the country the national anthom is sang in front of the torch. On the 15th everybody enjoy the parades of Independance, celebrated also at every Municipality in the country. Here are some pictures in the town of Atenas.

First Note from Costa Rica

Tomorrow will be a month since we arrived to Costa Rica and it feels like we been here forever. It helped that 3 days since our arrival we bought a car (very smoothly and fast by the way, just like in the US, but never the case here before...), drove around over to the Central and North Pacific as you can see in the first link of images over the beach and Miravalles Volcano.

After that, we have concentrated in visiting family and moving to our new place which is in Atenas, a town just 35 minutes away from our home town and between San Jose and the Pacific coast. We have enjoyed a lot our new place, a small little house but with all that we need and with all included, even they cook for us. The School for Field Studies is the organization I work for as an Environmental Economics Faculty. Students come every semester and summer from multiple universities in the U.S., and we teach them about sustainable development in Costa Rica, including multiple trips to National Parks and other natural protected areas.

Something that we are getting use to is that we live in campus, which is a new experience; however, the faculty houses (5) are distant from the student dorms. My boss and other faculty are great, also their families...From my office, as you can see in the second link of images, I can see the swimming pool and some beautiful trees (and finally I have a window in my office, yeyyy). Roxana is enjoying some vacation time, and getting use to drive in Costa Rica. She is applying for some positions, but doesn't looks that she is in a hurry yet. Our family and friends here in Costa Rica are happy that we finally arrived; definitively we are very happy to see them as well. Very often I think about all of you in the States and wherever you are right now, and hope that soon we'll be able to see each other again.

Links to pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/smolinacr/PuntarenasAndVolcanMiravalles

http://picasaweb.google.com/smolinacr/NewPlace2008

Please use the new contact information below:
Greetings,
Sergio and Roxana

August Hi from Costa Rica and Pictures

Hello,
Here is my brief monthly report from the field... Costa Rica. I don't promise I will continue doing this montly, but enjoy it while it last. Hopefully more of you send a note back as we miss you and will like to know about you as well.

Yeah, it has been super busy for me. A very intense one month course is approching its end. Actually, today were final exam and report, so I'm writing this email to procrastinate my grading duties... A very fun weekend awaits... In any case, we have been in the field almost on a weekly based for 2 or 3 nights. Several very interesting places include Monteverde, which is one of the most biodiverse places on earth, very beautiful and highly recommended if you come to Costa Rica. However, you have to arm yourself with patience, as the last 20 km of the road to the reserve are not paved and becomes about 1hour ride... San Ramon Biological Reserve is also shown in some pictures, however is not
open to tourist, only researchers. It is vastly populated with poisonous snakes anyway... Carara National Park which is in the Central Pacific region is were the beautiful scarlett macaws are more aboundant, so a place to mark for your trip, specially if you plan to visit Manuel Antonio National Park, which is a excellent beach option.

Ok, enough about tourist information, you might think that I'm not working... In fact, most of my days are completely full, as students conduct research all the time. In my case, I was looking at the potential tourist development close to Poas Volcano and also at Carara National Park. In general, besides the entrance fees, protected areas provide about 5.5% of the gross domestic production (GDP) of the country, therefore, highly related to the socioeconomic development of the surrounding communities.

In a separate note, it is always nice to have family close by, we don't see them as often, but we do feel their support, and we don't miss them much. Is easy to just pick up the phone and just call them... Some of the pictures are with my sibblings and my Grandpa in his 90's birthday. I also had my birthday about 2 weeks ago, and hope not to live so many years. Roxana is now a little more proactive in her job search, as she start to feel boring. Although I think she, as anybody would, is enjoying her well deserved break after countless full days of work in MN.

To our friends Chocherita and Maina, today is their wedding day, so congratulations, we wish you the best. Our friends Beto and Melissa are the proud parents of a new baby boy, also congratulations. To Carlitos and Pablo, who defended their doctoral dissertation recently, a big hugh and also well deserved congratulations. To the rest, best regards in all your endevours, hope you and your dear families are doing great. Let's stay in touch.
Sergio & Roxana

Link to pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/smolinacr/August2008Summary