Ultimate Frisbee for July 4th

For the fourth of July, Chris and I took a break and played some ultimate frisbee. The team that Ben and I picked up with in San Jose sponsor the “Volcanic Tournament” every year in La Fortuna and invite players from all over the world. The regular tournament fee is pretty pricey ($350) because it includes accommodations in a swanky resort, all meals, and a guided hike through the rainforest. Well, Chris and I have had plenty of hikes through the rainforest and we don’t mind camping conditions, so we opted to pay $20 to play and stay in a cheap, clean little hostel in town.

The players mostly came from Latin America (lots of Panamanians) and the States, but there was also one German player. And plenty of ex-pats living in Costa Rica. The tourney directors mixed up all the players onto different teams. This is called a hat tourney. It is great because you have a chance to meet people from different teams (and in this case different countries), but it can be challenging to learn to play smoothly with a new group of people in just two days.

My team’s captain was Jenny, a very fast, very aggressive (on the field!) Tica from the San Jose pick up team. She is lots of fun, but I am grateful that I didn’t have to guard her. We had plenty of Ticos, a few Panamanians, and some Texans, including one whose parents had immigrated from Mexico. He served as our Spanish-English translator. Communicating with one another could be a challenge. Although most players were bilingual, a few could speak only English or only Spanish. And the English translations seemed to be slightly different abbreviated versions. It was neat for me to understand both sides. Surprisingly, I kept up really well with all the Spanish conversation. A big improvement from when Ben and I played ultimate in San Jose. Hooray! The months in Costa Rica have been worthwhile!

All in all, our two days of ultimate were a wonderful and welcome break from fieldwork. It felt good to get my sprinting muscles moving again. And I enjoyed comparing notes with players from other countries.

Getting back to fieldwork was a bit of a shock. After running for two days, we had to sit on a bus for seven hours and then go right into the field to hike and check on the seeds. A very, very painful day of fieldwork—but well worth it.