Update! Part II

OK, continuing from the last post following the Full Moon Party... Not too much happened in the days after the party since we all stayed at the party until 6 a.m., and it took me two days to recover from the lack of sleep.

After that - things basically returned to normal: work at the restaurant, study/practice Spanish, spend time in my hammock, go to the beach, hang out with roommates, check out the weekly Organic Market, go to D&N...

D&N is short for Day and Night Beach Club, a nearby bar/club right on the beach that hosts Electronica Night on Saturdays and Reggae Night on Mondays with live DJs. It is a good time on both days - the whole town seems to come out so there are always lots of familiar faces. Marcus (aka DJ Marcolino) dj-ed Electronica Night at D&N on Saturday the 14th. Sadly, I did not take pictures of the party, but it was a great time and the dance floor was still packed when Marcus stopped spinning at 4 a.m.

Here are some more pics that I have taken of the beach (during low tide):

Here´s a picture of the Organic Market at Sunset:

Here is a picture of D&N at sunset from the water:

The following week, the owners of the restaurant at which I am apprenticing went to Nicaragua for a few days, so they asked me to fill in for some of the sous-chef duties while they were gone. It was so much fun to work on the line! As much as I love prepping calimari and sweet potato chips, it was a total blast to also manage the cooking and plating of the orders. :) One of the highlights for me was having to prepare the staff meal at the end of the evening some nights during this period - normally, one of the owners or YoYo, the normal sous-chef, does this, so having responsibility for feeding the team was such an honor and such a surreal experience for me. The owners are back now and I am back to prepping things and being the recipient of the staff meal (yummy), but I am now able to step in and help on the line if needed.

I know I keep talking about ¨the restaurant¨ - it actually has a name, Camaleon, and the owners are Joann and Kevin. Here is a picture of Camaleon:

More on Camaleon in a future posting...

OK, this update brings us up to date through the end of last week... More soon...

Update! Part I

Apologies that it has been forever since I have updated the blog! A lot has been going on. Here´s the rundown:

So Monday, February 9th was Annie´s last day at the cabinas so we decided to make pizza! Since we don´t have an oven, we made it on the stove using a simple yeast-free pizza dough recipe we found on line. We had Panzanella Pizza (Tomato, Onion, Basil), Hawaiian Pizza (Pineapple and Sweet Peppers), and Gorgonzola Pizza (Gorgonzola Cheese and Caramelized Onions with Balsamic Vinegar). For dessert we had Nutella Pizza and Nutella Pizza Fingers with Ice Cream.

After the dinner, we all headed over to the Full Moon Party held on the beach every month at Rancho Itauna, a hotel in Santa Teresa. There´s a bar, a bonfire, and DJs spinning electronica. One of my cabina mates, Marcus (aka DJ Marcolino), dj-ed part of the party.

Here´s a picture of the rest of the roommates at the party:

(Left to Right - Matt, Marcus, Annie, Me, Martina)

Here´s a picture of the bonfire:

OK, so I only made it through 1 day´s worth of happenings, but I´ve got LOTS more to update you all on, and it is time for me to head off to work at the restaurant. More soon!!!

Veggie Burgers!

The other night, we made veggie burgers at the cabinas! We also had fresh guacamole and pico de gallo on the side. As an appetizer, we had patacones (salted, fried plantains) but needed a little bit of help with the from one of our landlords, Maria.

Tonight is Annie´s last night in Malpais before she heads back to the States to work on her new CD. If you haven´t checked out her music yet, you should totally do that now - www.myspace.com/anniebethancourt. We will be cooking a farewell dinner for her tonight, so I should have pics to post of that soon.

The Dry Season

So it is beautiful, lazy Sunday in Santa Teresa... It has been really hot and dusty lately. Running through Malpais and Santa Teresa is a long, winding road that basically connects one town to the next.

During the dry season (December through April), people water the roads to keep the dust down.

Molasses is also sometimes poured on the roads to keep the dust down:

Otherwise, this happens:

Typically, I am able to find sanctuary in my hammock from the dust and the heat. Recently however, my landlords have been burning leaves so my roommates and I have had to find ways to deal with the smoke that blows onto our patio:

Another hazard of the dry season is that sometimes water supplies can be scarce. There´s usually enough water from the street supply, but at times when there is a shortage, my roommates and I are able to use a reserve supply from a tank:

Worse comes to worst, one can always rinse off in the ocean...

Slacklining

Last Wednesday, my roommate Annie tried to teach myself and another roommate Matt how to slackline. Here is some more info on slacklining courtesy of Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacklining

In addition to slacklining, my multi-talented roommate Annie also sings and songwrites. Check out her music here: http://www.myspace.com/anniebethancourt

La Playa

In addition to apprenticing in a restaurant and brushing up on my Spanish (I took four years of it in high school and am currently working my way through The Complete Idiots Guide to Learning Spanish by Gail Stein), I have been spending quality time in my hammock and on the beach... Which is about the same distance from my cabina as my office was from my apartment in New York... (That is to say about a 4-5 minute walk)

Here are some pictures of the path to the beach (I took these around midday):

Here are some pics of the path to the beach and the beach near sunset:

OH! And in other news... I bought a surf board on Saturday and went surfing for the first time since I have been back! Nothing too crazy - just played in the whitewater a bit. My board is an 8 foot 2 longboard made by Carton, a Costa Rican surfboard company based in Jaco. I have named it Jack. Pictures to come...