Oct. 18, 2004
San Jose, Costa Rica – Georgia Tech women’s basketball completed its third day of a five-day journey through Costa Rica Sunday. Junior Ashley Guerrant, a native of East Lansing, Mich., provides a journal entry describing the day’s events, as well as what the team looks forward to tomorrow.
Que tal de la Costa Rica! After our win against Bodega Radio (80-53) its three games down and one more to go. Tomorrow night we play the Costa Rican National Team; they’re rumored to be our toughest competition but we’re ready to beat them! We are playing better and better everyday as a team and it’s really great that we’ve already had the chance to play three games when all the rest of the ACC teams are just now starting practice.
Today was a “rest and relaxation” day up until pre-game. We had a couple hours of study hall this morning, and then we took a taxi into downtown San Jose to go shopping at some open markets and stores Aside from the difficulties that the language barrier presents, the people have been extremely nice and welcoming to all of us. Our tour guide Edison told us on the first day that it rains 365 days out of the year in Costa Rica; he wasn’t lying. Even with the rain, the landscape here is absolutely beautiful and we also have a great view from our hotel. I have never seen anything like the La Paz Waterfall Park that we visited, it is absolutely amazing. It was the first time I had ever seen a waterfall, and the park was great because you couldn’t even tell you were at a tourist attraction, the way it was set up left the waterfalls and the nature surrounding it practically untouched.
The culture here is very rich. Despite the conditions that by American standards are “impoverished”, even in my short time here you can tell that they are a people determined to survive and take great pride in themselves and their country. I’ve also noticed that on average they are very affectionate with one another, most of the women you see on the street are walking with their arms linked. I will say however that the people are very short and petite here J. Most of us taller girls had a very hard time finding clothes that fit in the market. I really wanted to buy a pair of jeans, but finding them long enough was absolutely hopeless, they didn’t even have “long” sizes in the stores. Also, the largest shoe size in most of the stores was a 40, which is barely an American size 10, needless to say, none of us girls were able to buy any shoes (aside from Coach Jo) but we still had a great time shopping and looking around downtown.
Well I guess that’s about it, tomorrow we are getting up early to go to the Turu-Ba-Ri Canopy Excursion to go zip lining through the various levels of the rainforest. I can’t tell you how excited I am to go! This is truly a once in a lifetime experience and I plan on soaking up all of it.
After the Yellow Jackets’ final game of the trip Monday night, junior Kasha Terry will recap the entire day’s events, including highlights from the game and anything else that comes to mind!
