Youth Voices: Mangoes, the Dixie Chicks, and Gratitude
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| Youth Voices: In the Field - Greetings and Lessons from Anantapur 
When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.
When the ocean gives you mangoes, you eat them.
Though one is sweet and the other is sour, after a beach day at Manuel Antonio, I can confidently say that both fruits have metaphorically and literally taught me a lesson.
On Friday, Luis Carlos and Silvia, whom I consider my adoptive Costa Rican parents at this point, arranged for a few of us pasantes ir a la playa en Manuel Antonio. We left the house at 4:50 am with our beach bags and extra snacks in hand. After a successful transfer from our Uber to the short bus, nosotras dormimos until it was time to stop for a traditional Costa Rican breakfast.
At seis y media en la tarde, nosotros bebimos mucho cafe con leche (y azucar por me), y comimos frutas, una tortilla, gallo pinto, platains, y huevos. At first, the tranquility of the mom-and-pop restaurant was punctuated only by the occasional collision of silverware and china. However, our group came to life with the jungle that surrounded us. As the chirping of toucans and macaws intensified, so did our giggles. After being properly fed and caffeinated we piled back onto the bus to put more distance between us and the city.
Our driver Enrique made several pit stops along the way including a scenic view of Jaco beach, a gift shop, forests teeming with sloths and tropical birds, and the infamous Tarcoles Bridge. The brackish waters of Rio Tarcoles are home to over 2,000 large American Crocodiles. The downpour from the previous day had made the water too high and fast-moving to see anything. As locals yelled from their fast moving cars for us to "ten cuidado", our imaginations may or may not have got the best of us...[CONTINUE READING]