Sounds from the morning

The sun rises and sets early here in Costa Rica. That means if one wants to take advantage of daylight, and the coolness of the morning before it gets hot and humid, one needs to wake up quite early, at least for US standards. Activity - and not always human activity - usually starts around 5:30 AM. Like it or not, I am almost always waken up around this time by either the seemingly thousands of roosters that surround my house or the chirping of the “cocalecas.” The scientific name for this bird species is Aramides cajanea. Cocaleca is the word Costa Rican’s use, perhaps because they make a sound that is somewhat similar to the name.

By about 6:00 AM, the sounds of bicycles passing my house begin to be heard. There are several bread-sellers that ride through the neighborhoods with large carts filled with baguettes attached to the front of a bicycle and a horn attached to the handlebar to signal the arrival of the day’s freshly baked bread. “LLEGOOOO LLEGOOOO…… (HORN SOUNDS).” By this point it’s about 6:30 AM and the borrowed U.S. yellow school bus, which is used to transport locals from Cortés to Ojo de Agua instead of students, rumbles by, shaking the foundation of my house.

By 7:00 AM, the streets have quite a bit of activity as high school and elementary students are on their way to school, gently poking along on their bikes while talking in groups of friends. Also, many adults are reporting to work at this time. This routine is quite different to that in the US, where many people on a work day aren’t getting to work until 8:00 or 8:30 AM.

With all these sounds and movements, it definitely puts pressure on me to start my days bright and early with lots of activity. This can lead to exhaustion by the end of the day, as many of my activities don’t actually start until the evening. This means I start my day at 6:00 AM, but it often doesn’t finish until 9:00 PM. It’s safe to say, by the end of the days I am sometimes dizzy due to fatigue. I am still working on finding an equilibrium between resting sufficiently and taking advantage of the sunlight before it gets dark at 5:30 PM.