For my week in Costa Rica, this was the view out of one of my hotel windows.
It cheered me greatly, though I had to look up what pongámosle meant.
It means “give me.”
How utterly charming!
Yes, Costa Rica, I shall give you my green heart. And you shall give me yours too.
Photo copyright 2012, Karen Fayeth, and subject to the Creative Commons license in the far right corner of this page. Photo taken with an iPhone 4s and the Hipstamatic app.
And sulpher-y too.
This is the crater of the Poas Volcano in Costa Rica.
I got very, very lucky that the winds were in my favor, revealing the gorgeous turquoise blue water below.
Evidently the volcanic soil nearby makes for delicious coffee. I’ll let you know, a bag managed to find its way into my suitcase.
Perhaps next week I’ll write about the epic backroads voyage I went on to get to the volcano. If I didn’t live it, I’d think I made it up.
Image originally published to Instagram May 17. Photo taken with an iPhone4s and the Camera+ and imported into Instagram.
As I’m running from meeting to meeting here in Cost Rica, I had a chance to take a quick snap of my view from behind the office buildings.
So incredibly green and beautiful, and this is just San Jose.
I can’t begin to imagine the view outside of metropolitan area. I’ll get to see more of it tomorrow.
But for today….just. Wow.
This is what you get when you have a lot of rain.
Photo Copyright 2012, Karen Fayeth, and subject to the Creative Commons license in the right column of this page. Photo taken with an iPhone 4s and the Camera+ application.
Ok, I’ve only spent about a day in Costa Rica, but here are my first impressions:
1) The customs process: all in not bad. Every bag has to be scanned for “agricultural products” but I didn’t mind. I had to do the same in Hawaii. I suppose when you are a small country that prides itself on wildlife conservation, this is important. Other than that, the process was stamp stamp and on your way.
2) I grew up speaking Spanglish. This means my Spanish is sparse and not very good. This gets me in trouble. Someone speaks to me in Spanish, I answer in Spanish. They continue, thinking I understand. I’m like “uh…hold up a second.” Whoops.
3) Almost everyone speaks some bit of English but it’s not always good English. Between my crap knowledge of Spanish and their few words of English…well, it’s a little rough.
4) Platains. So good.
5) Apparently Costa Ricans are opposed to sidewalks. There are really no sidewalks to be had. Everyone walks in the (narrow) street lanes. Everyone, including me. Thankfully the pace of life isn’t too fast here and neither are the cars.
6) Damn, they have a lot of Spanish channels on the television! Oh. Wait…..
7) Rain. Every day. Noonish. It cools it down a bit but also steams it up. To be expected, I think. Costa Rica is actually farther away from the equator than Singapore, but it feels a hell of a lot more tropical than Singapore.
8) But all that rain makes it really, really beautiful. The words “lush” and “green” come to mind.
9) A city at about 3,840 feet elevation. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. Originally founded by Spanish Conquistadors. Does San Jose, Costa Rica sound a little bit like any other city you know? Say…one in New Mexico?
10) The money has sharks on it. And another denomination has a buck (deer). And another has a cheetah. Rawr! That’s some awesome money!
Ok, it started with an article from Cracked.com titled 14 Photographs That Shatter Your Image of Famous People.
I follow a lot of photography blogs and I see a lot of links like this.
So I took a look.
And in the course of those fourteen images, this one came along. (Click for a larger size)
I can’t stop looking at it. I don’t even know what to say. I seriously don’t know what to say.
It’s Al Pacino and Christopher Walken, but what the HELL is going on? Please tell me this is something from a movie?
My fascination with this image led me to the Awesome People Hanging Out Together Tumblr….which I guess is a pretty popular site because it was named to Time’s list of the 30 Must See Tumblrs.
None are quite as fascinating at this one, but there’s some pretty good stuff in there.
Meanwhile…I must construct stories in my head about the Pacino/Walken photo. Neighbors out for a stroll? Just escaped from the home for doddering elderly actors? LSD? LSD flashback?
I mean seriously? What?
Image originally posted on the Awesome People Hanging Out Together Tumblr on April 17, 2012.
This week’s Theme Thursday is: neighbors