I really have to make this one quick - the music in the internet cafe just went from Portishead to Michael Bolton. Someone obviously deserves a good talking to. Beta averted itself further north so we won't be much affected here. And, my mom is coming on Monday. My first visitor! Yippie skippie. I think I'm getting sick. All signs point to yes. It's now time for me to get back to the grind (i.e., hammocking, film watching, and bartending)...and I need a tissue.

So, the electric just went out after I typed a good amount of this post... if it goes out again, this is all that will be posted. (It takes 10 minutes just to get here, add frustration and impatience on top of that and I need not explain myself any more.)...

The electric goes out often here (on average about once a day). Villages just south of here recently were electrified, and it has only been in Uvita a few years, so this is what we get (and it's not at all of a hassle unless I'm online).

It looks like Beta will be hitting Nicaragua soon, and we're expected to get 10 to 15 inches of rain here. With all of the flooding that's been going on in this region, we can only hope that everyone stays safe. Many of the bridges across the country have been displaced by rivers, some taking weeks to repair (and I'm referring to major highways). People have lost their homes. One village in Nicaragua was covered in 15 feet of mud, many dead. I am lucky to have a roof over my head, but I can't help but be fearful when it's held up by a few 2x4s. Luckily we are at the foot of the mountain and a good distance from the river (I'd guess about 200 meters).

A lot of the pictures that are in this post are much darker than the originals, but it's such a pain in the ass to redo them so I am posting them as is. My lack of patience is generally limited to the computer these days.

The first picture (above) is from last night, when I was high on caffeine attempting to fall asleep.

Carly comes with her mom a few times a week and is always at my side. She's the cutest little person. She always asks now to go in my room and put on the sombrero and glasses and to take photos, or to draw (I brought a bunch of oil pastels and colored pencils). I asked her mom the other day how to spell Carly, and she doesn't know. I was pretty surprised. I knew she was illiterate, but I still assumed that she could spell her daughter's name. Just me being ignorant. Her family is from Nicaragua and they are working here as illegal immigrants. She makes 800 colones an hour for cleaning here. The literacy rate in the country is high, but this is a smaller village so there are quite a few folks who are illiterate.

Steve owns the lot next to the hotel. The good clothesline is back there, it gets good circulation and sun when it comes out. There is usually one or two toucans on that property.

This bug was my friend for an hour. He hung out on the bar and posed for a bunch of photos. From the side, he looks exactly like a leaf. Is it a grasshopper? A locust? I think these bugs are also in Florida.

Carly again
Walking down the street in the rain after lunch one day. This is where the paved road ends just past the hotel. Most of the roads across the country that are unpaved are similar to this.

This is the "pumpkin" I carved this year. Steve went to San Isidro today and brought it back for me. It's not a pumpkin, but it's close enough. I tried to carve a toucan, but it looks more like a penguin. Then I broke the beak off when I was trying to make it look better. Last year's pumpkins were so much better.

The original photo has streaks of rain and I'm telling you it's better.

Me and my umbrella, walking around in the rain taking photos.

I'm so sick of being in front of the computer. One more bit before I go. We have many interesting people that pass through or stop by. This is one of the most popular hostels/ hotels in the southern region of Costa Rica. I have made acquaintenances with a famous French film director/photographer that lives just north of here in Dominical named Christoff (I don't know his last name), he comes by about once a week to hang out. I plan on picking his brain in the coming months (though he's taking off to New York and France in November). He's having a benefit party in the mountains on December 23rd to exhibit indigenous artwork and the tribe he spent time with (he didn't mention the name). I doubt I'll get to make it, but damn I want to go.

Also, Jamel Mohamed was here last night, he has set out to walk across the world (obviously bypassing the oceans someway or another). He has been on his journey for four months now and walked here from Mexico. He expects the journey to take 12 years. All of this is to benefit children affected by war, he has a website set up, jamelmem.org. All on foot. Damn, this makes me realize how lazy I can be (and how absolutely dedicated and insane this guy is).

Ciao.

hello all, i'm keeping busy so i only have time to post some pics (if you only knew the process i have to go through to put these up...)

rio uvita

carly (Darlene the cleaning lady's daughter)

playa uvita (debris from flooding)

one of jamie's tattoos

I'm somewhat pressed for time today because these guests from Tempe, AZ are keeping me busy all morning and all night. Screwdrivers and a few beers for breakfast, some shots of rum for brunch, some more beers for pre-lunch, and now they finally left for lunch. They are the sweetest two couples in their 40s and 50s, albeit the types that never aged past 22. Granted they are only four people, the one woman will talk your head off so I only get a break when they leave to eat. And they are here until Sunday! Ay dios mio. They are friends of one of the local gringos, a crazy, hilarious, giant beast of German ancestry named Mark. Well, I think it's sometime around 3? And I still need to eat lunch, take a short bike ride, and be back by 5. Ciao.

buenas noches,

I forgot to mention earlier today... if anyone is feeling particularly generous and kindhearted or bored out of their mind, Jack and I would kiss your feet to have some burned CDs sent in the mail. Granted they will take a few weeks to get here, the music selection is somewhat limited, and it's always nice to have something new to listen to. I did fail to mention earlier that I reaaally miss my music collection. I asked before I left the states, and the lady at the post office said the cost to mail a 1 oz. letter is 80 cents, so I imagine it's the same(?) Here is a wish list that was compiled when I first got here, but any others would also arrive at a loving home.

Yo La Tengo - Summer Sun
Jimmy Cliff
G. Love & the Special Sauce
Buena Vista Social Club
Concrete Blondes
The Concretes
Modest Mouse
Led Zeppelin
Otis Redding
Al Green
Miles Davis
Charles Mingus
Ween - Chocolate and Cheese
Calexico - Feast of Wire

and some new requests:
Sylvia Rodriguez (specifically a song called "Women")
Pablo Milanes

Here is the mailing address for those who don't have it:
Tucan Hotel
Attn: Jen D'Angelo c/o Steve Fisk
Frente Al Ebais
Uvita de Osa, Costa Rica
CR 8153

I am no longer missing internet! I'm up the road at the new internet cafe, and it's perfect. This week is free as a promo while they are still putting on the finishing touches. It is pretty posh, all local wood, couches and seats indoors and out, AC, locally made goodies including cakes, pies, brownies, quiches, muffins, and bagels! These are things that excite me these days. I had asked Jack just a few days ago where I can get a bagel and he scoffed at the idea in such a small town. Mainly I was concerned about bagels because there is delicious cream cheese in this country. The cafe also has fresh smoothies, coffee, espresso, cappuccino, etc. I got a coffee (free refills) and a strawberry banana muffin for 800 colones (less than $2.00). This place puts starbucks to shame! Okay, so that's just the cafe. For internet, there are no desktop computers, only laptops. You check out a laptop and plop on a comfy couch or chair. It is HIGH SPEED internet. Not 128k. I was talking to my friend Darren who helped open this place and he said it's the fastest internet connection south of San Jose. I think it may be satellite? Regardless, I am a privileged woman. I can also get an unlimited monthly subscription here. So, given that it's not raining too hard, I'll be checking in with more frequency. That, and I now have the ability to update my photos, which I will do next time I am here. I'm out for now, time for an adventurous bike tour around town.

Hasta luego.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve written to the journal so here is a short explanation as to why. Here at the Tucan Hotel is one computer that is shared by guests and us. It is open from 10am -12pm and 5pm – 10pm. If there are guests, I am usually working during these hours. And, as previously mentioned, it is 56k dialup, in other words, painfully slow. Today we are supposed to get high speed (i.e., a 128k modem) installed, so yippie, it will be faster. Also, we pay per minute for being connected, so technically we aren’t supposed to be online for more than 30 minutes per day. Up the road a new internet café opened yesterday, though it rains nearly every day (it is pouring buckets right now). (They are still working off of 56k dialup as well, and are waiting for a high-speed, 128k, installation.) The gist of it all is that it’s logistically difficult for me to be online. Today we have no guests, so I can sit on the computer for as long as I want (as I type this offline). I really don’t know where to begin…

Besides missing my computer, unlimited internet use, my film camera, friends and family, and a few other comforts of home, I absolutely love it here. We are still in the winter season (i.e., the rainy season) so it’s not so busy and the temperature is cool in the low to mid-80s because of the clouds and rain. The job is so much fun, it’s hardly work at all. In the mornings, I wake up around 8:30, reconcile the previous day’s sales, restock the bar, eat breakfast, and hang out with the morning guests and visitors. I usually have a break around 1pm – 4pm, and if it isn’t raining, I run some errands and explore the town on the bicycle. We have two 1-speed beach cruisers that I have access to. Sometimes I’ll go up the mountain and rent a movie at Video Scorpion (they have about 60 DVDs), grab a bite to eat, or take a ride to the beach. The beach here is soo beautiful, set against coconut palms and mountains, and it is usually desolate. Riding the bike around proves to be very difficult at times, it is very mountainous here so sometimes I end up walking it up or down steep inclines. And besides the paved highway and the first 200 meters of the road I am on, everything else is rock and dirt roads. It’s damn good exercise.

Uvita is a relatively small town. We are a few kilometers from the beach at the base of the mountains, 18km south of Dominical. There are three supermercados, an internet café, some small hotels/cabins, realty services, a few sodas and restaurants (including a Thai restaurant up the mountain and a local pizza/ chicken place that offers delivery), a hardware store, a laundry service, a general supply store (which sells shoes, notebooks, umbrellas, and some other things), an Episcopal church across the street, a bank, a gas station, and a video store. There is no post office, and I heard mail is delivered once a week (but I have yet to verify that). There are usually two police officers on duty. This is not a touristy town, it’s somewhat of a haven, though there is a good number of gringos that live here. Off the coast is the only marine national park in the country, Marino Ballena. There are whalewatching tours, snorkeling and diving tours, surf rentals and lessons, kayaking, waterfalls within walking distance, and horseback tours.

Here at the Tucan Hotel, there are 10 rooms, a central courtyard, 15 hammocks, 5 tables, a pool table, a bar, a kitchen, one cat (steve jr.) and one kitten (carlito). Also, there is Steve’s house and my wooden cabina. The cabina is “rustic” in every sense of the word. The walls are made of unfinished vertical slices of trees, with a few 2x4s holding up a corrugated metal roof. The roof is not flush with the walls (it’s about a 5-inch gap) and there are numerous holes in the walls. It has a “rustic” unfinished bathroom with a cold-water shower, a sink, two gas burners, and two large windows with swinging doors (only one with a screen). It reeks of mildew and mold in the walls, and everything in the room absorbs moisture and gets moldy. My sheets and pillows are not wet, but not quite dry, the hand soap in the bathroom has globules of water on it; photos are tacky to the touch and bow in one day… I think you get the point. Obviously, there is no AC. I keep my clothes in plastic bags (if I don’t, they smell nauseating), and try to light some nag champa as often as possible to cover up the odor. (A stick of nag champa is completely saturated in a day if not kept in plastic. In addition to the moisture, there is the wildlife that I cohabitate with including flying insects, geckos, and awesome spiders (including scorpion spiders). Thank Jack the chef for lending me a mosquito net, or else I would never sleep. There is usually a spider that hangs out on the wall next to my bed, about 6 inches from the mattress. I am still getting used to the noises when I sleep, the non-rhythmic drips onto the metal roof from the tree that hangs over, the barking dogs, the roosters, among others. All-in-all, it’s a jalopy of a home, but I don’t mind at all.

At 4pm every day, we put on a movie (there are 10 hammocks in front of a television), make some air-popped popcorn with freshly melted butter and salt, and then at 5pm I re-open the bar. When the movie is over, I put on music, light some candles, and thus begins the evening’s festivities of dinner, serving drinks, playing pool, and chatting with the guests. Doesn’t it sound exhausting? I get to meet the most amazing people from all over the world, including England, Australia, Poland, France, Canada, Argentina, and the United States. In the two weeks that I’ve been here, I’ve met a UF graduate (graduated in 1961), a documentary filmmaker, some business owners (of surf schools, restaurants, marketing firms), contractors, photographers, environmental engineers, and others. Most of the guests are not from the United States. There are many local gringos that come by to eat Jack’s food and drink, some from California, New York, New Zealand, North Carolina, Florida. Jack is an amazing chef, he’s Canadian and has been here for 3 years. He went to culinary school, among my favorites of his are fresh fruit smoothies with any fruit I want for 75 cents, delicious pancakes served with fresh fruit (about two dollars), eggs rancheros to die for, chicken fajitas, freshly cut French fries, oh my. The next few days I have to eat elsewhere because he closed the kitchen for four days to renew his visa in Panama. Boohoo. At the bar I serve five types of bottled beer (all Costa Rican – Bavaria Gold, Bavaria Dark, Imperial, Pilsen, and Rock Ice), some bottled sodas and waters, coconuts with a straw, cocos locos (coconut with a shot of guaro poured in it), shots of vodka, rum, and guaro, and mixed drinks with those liquors (and of course with fresh lemon or lime slices).

So, bartending is the best job ever about 90% of the time, over the weekend I stayed up pretty late every night. Jamie and I went out to Coco Tico on Friday for her birthday (she’s 27), Saturday I hung out with Callum (from Australia), two self-described Pollocks, and an Argentinean woman, and Sunday I met some people from Omaha that were staying up the road, and I went with Callum up there and we jammed for a few hours. (I do not go out at night by myself, partly because I’m not sure how safe it is, and it is also pitch black if the electric happens to go out as it often does, and it’s scary!) The other 10% of bartending that is annoying involves the local ticos that call my attention as if I’m a domesticated pet (Tsssst! Tssst! or a whistle). And then they stare me down and ask if I have a boyfriend. When I tell them I’m married they say it doesn’t matter because my hubby isn’t here. Scummy chauvinistic pigs they are.

Well, I think that’s about long enough for today, I have to go cut some ginger flowers for the tables and bike to the bank in the rain to deposit some money for Steve. There is plenty more for me to write about, but I’ll have to do that some other time. I advise anyone with the means to come down here to come and visit me in this beautiful country (the rooms at the hotel are waaay different than my cabina), I wish I had the means to keep in touch more often, but it’s just the way it is. Hasta luego.