PUROS DIEZES

Garbanzo Bean soup with vegetables and chicken

On Tuesday morning I went back to Casa Betesda Orphanage with some classmates. We were unsure of what we were going to be assigned to but I just walked into the kitchen and asked the lady in broken Spanish if she needed help cooking. She looked at me and said ¨Cómo cocinar¨and I said ¨si¨. Next thing I know, she was asking me how to make soup, what I wanted to put in it and asked if I could make the whole orphanage "almuerzo" which is lunch. This was this a blessing from God that I got to cook for the first time in over a month and prepare a healthy meal for some kids.  It was hard because they did not have many fruits and vegetables but they did have some cebolla (onion) and Chili dulce" (sweet pepper) for me to use. I used a pressure cooker to hydrate some garbanzo beans and then used some baked chicken they had.

This week was also the first ¨Cute girls for Jesus¨ bible study meeting. The doctor at the university really encouraged Taylar and I to start this bible study and so we prayed about it and we went ahead with the idea. Not only did we have a great turn out but God was working and we were able to talk about his word. 

Our "Tico" teacher Jeannette for cooking class

Spices- the only healthy part of this recipe

Quequitos de banana y coco... Mmm, rico!

I signed up for a cooking class that is called: Curso de cocina tipica para estudiantes extranjeros. The class meets once a week on Wednesday and we cook typical Costa Rican dishes.  This week, the recipe was Quequitos de banana y coco (which is banana and coconut cupcakes). When I typically cook/bake, I try to make healthy dishes but this one was far from healthy. We used 2 cup sugar (2 tazas de azucar) and 2 cups of oil (2 tazos de aceite vegetal). The whole class was in Spanish and it was a great opportunity for me to practice speaking. Since being here, I feel I have learned a lot of food words but at least I know what I am eating.  I am super excited because next week we are learning how to make Gallo Pinto, which is the national dish of Costa Rica. After the class, Taylar and I are going to make a cooking video of how to do it so stay tuned for another session of COOKING WITH BECKY! 

Funny Story: On our breakfast plate we were given this new fruit, CAIMITO with papaya. Now this picture is the second time we had caimito but the first time we were served it, Taylar bit into it and out came a swarm of maggots so lucky I cut mine open to find some friendly creatures and decided not to eat it!

 On Thursday, my Human Rights in LATIN AMERICA class took a field trip to the
Inter-American  Court of Human Rights. The court is for cases that have human rights violations. I learned that cases in the court usually take 10-15 years to go completely through through the system and usually have over 50,000 pages of data/ investigation, WOW!

WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?

This weekend, my friends and I planned a trip to UVITA which is on the Pacific coast. On the way to Uvita, we stopped along to road and to our surprise, found a river full of CROCODILES. They were just enjoying the afternoon in the sun and even got a little raw chicken thrown at them!

Once arriving in Uvita The Tucan Hotel was the hostel we stayed at for the weekend. It was so delightful! There were many hippy travelers that I found very interesting to talk to. Once we got settled in, we asked the owners were to go out to eat/hang out at night and they just laughed.
They explained to us that many people do not come to UVITA for night life or entertainment but more for relaxing. I LOVED THIS. We decided to go to the grocery store to get some food and cook it for dinner and then we just enjoyed a night of games and laughing with each other. 

Beach map

Not wanting to waste a moment of the day, we got up with the rooster (not really, he started crowing at 4:00 am) but we started our hike to the beach which was about 3k away from our Hostel. The beach was apart of Marina Ballena National park and was breathtaking. This beach was the most beautiful and natural beach I have seen while being here in Costa Rica. We hiked out to Punta Uvita which is part of the beach that is only seen when the tides are low so we had to go between 7:00 am and 12:00 pm. Once the tide came in, the “whale tail” part of the beach was completely covered.  

Playa UVITA

In the afternoon, Taylar, E.K and I decided to hike up to the waterfalls but we were too cheap to pay 500 Colones ($1) to get in so we were told you can hike up the river and avoid the fee. Of course we were going to do this and it made for a great adventure. It was a super fun hike because we did not know where the waterfalls was exactly but we decided just to follow the water assuming we would get there soon or later. The best part about the waterfalls was the cold and refreshing water. Another great thing about this weekend was that UVITA is not very popular or touristy so it was not commercialized at all and I love it. Being out in nature, hanging out with “ticos” and actually experiencing PURA VIDA! 

We took a sunset horseback ride through the water, in the woods and to the beach to watch the sunset. Unlike many other horse tours I have experienced in America, this one was unstructured and the horses were not “robots” to a certain trail. I loved it because we actually had to know how to ride horses.

From a weekend of SUN, WATERFALLS and NATURE, I really enjoyed UVITA and would recommend it to anyone looking for a great place to get away

BLESSINGS- PURA VIDA

Exalt the LORD our God and worship at his holy mountain for the LORD our got is holy - Psalm 99:9