It´s been a while

Hey my friends and family. It has been a while since i posted something. I guess everything changed with my blogging when I lost the capibility to use the internet at home. I also had a bag stolen and am therefore paranoid to take my computer out of my house. Basically, I have no way to get the pictures out into cyberspace without some very hard work. Basically, I am a bit lazy out here in paradise...what can I say, it should be expected!
Things are going amazing...I cant wait to take this experience and apply it to my life once I leave Costa Rica. The people continue to keep me busy with figuring out all of the ways that we are so different in the United States. Here are some of the fun things I have been doing since I posted last....
I went to the caribbean side of Costa Rica...
There I saw giant sea turtles, and baby sea turtles
I went on a very hard hike
I saw an amazingly full sky of stars like I had never in my life seen
I bought two cool pieces of art from a local artesan
Next we went to panama...wow, is all I have to say
I visited several amazing tropical islands
I basked on the island where Survivor was filmed
I pierced my nose
I drank a drink called Flying Amnesia which consisted of 4 shots that are lit on fire and sucked through a straw
I played a game of Kings Cup with USACers
I got a great tan
Next We went to Vocan Arenal
I rode horses to the waterfalls
I took a hike at night through the jungle to go see the lava flow of the active volcano
I went to the hot springs at night in the rain... amazing!
I fell in love with chickey cookies and peanutbutter (you would have to be here to understand!)
I came home from this vacation of all three places totally exhausted and took a day off of school!!!!!
Last weekend we took a trip to San Jose to learn about culture with the class
I visited an amazing basilica and touched some holy water
I visited two museums
I visited the Jewel of Costa Rica- The National Theater
I saw an Opera
I saw a latin american dance presentation

I definitely have some more good plans coming up...will catch you up soon...and with pics once i get home!

Montezuma

Here are some of the pics from my Saturday. I went to Montezuma, a cute little town on the Nicoya Peninsula. We hiked upstream, but not like the last time, this time there was nothing but wet and slippery rocks to slip on. We found three waterfalls and Jumped off and swam for a while, it was fun...until I fell two times and ended up with a bruised up right leg and tendinitis in my right foot! I am hobbiling around. I am feeling better though but my back and arms were hurting from bracing myself in two falls. Anyway, as you can tell I am not in the mood for story telling. Perhaps another day! Here are the pics.

This is the Beach at Montezuma, we only walked through it to get to the bus...not enough time to lay on it :(


It really was a beautiful beach!


here's my Jump! It was only about four meters, how many feet is that? I think somewhere around 10-12.


This is at the top of the hike, that lovley glow is sweat, we were literally climbing up on all 4's it was so steep, but that part wasn't rock, just mud and roots...


Here is the third waterfall. The others couldn't be photographed without a waterproof camera because you had to be in them to see them (which also means you had to jump them) and I only jumped one.


And this was last wednesday when my family brought home a huge avocado!!! I was so excited!

Quepos and Manuel Antonio

Well, it has been a great weekend and sadley today is MONDAY!! Back to school :(
A small group of us planned a little get away to Manuel Antonio, there were 9 people total. We got on a 12:30pm bus that took us to Quepos. It was a 4 hour busride, luckily the bus was kinda nice with big windows (the only time we get AC on the bus is when it is a charter with USAC). This is Quepos

We arrived around 4:30pm and it was raining pretty hard. We were lucky to arrive just in time to snag the last two rooms available at the "WIDE MOUTH FROG INTERNATIONAL BACKPACKERS HOSTLE" which was so cool. It was $10 per person per night. We had our own room with a bathroom and hot water. Sweet deal. The owner was really cool, she is pretty young, she speaks English Spanish and is from France. Everything in the hostle was very backpacker friendly, clothes lines, free internet, books etc. While we weren't back packers I would definitely return if I ever did take a backpacking trip.
They had three dogs and made it clear that they chew!


They also had a pool and and a few common areas, one was where the kitchen was, the ceiling was all flags from other countries, they also had a place with lots of chairs and couches to watch movies. We rented (for free) Blow and Garden State. We watched one both nights.



Friday night we all went to eat dinner and then went dancing (Duh- I didn't dance) with some ticos we met in an art gallery. We all had fun, the little night club was literally a huge straw hut. They had the island cabana thing goin on, so cute.

Now to the beautiful part. Saturday we visited Manuel Antonio (only a 20 minute bus ride for about 20 cents) which had a national park which did cost $7 to get in but was worth it. I FINALLY FOUND A BEAUTIFUL CLEAN BEACH!!!!!

Me and Manuel-

Nice clean beach eh? I thought I would have to be in the caribbean side to see this!

We were here for a while, we went swimming and laid on the beach for a few hours. I was in Heaven!! The sand was amazing, the water was perfect temperature and it wasn't that hot outside. It was perfect! After that we found a cool little place for a snack and ate some pizza before going back down to Quepos to wash up for dinner. We ended up going out to a really nice place to eat but I didn't take my camera. We had a nice time but were all too exhausted to go out dancing AGAIN so we watched the second movie that night. The next day we got up early and checked out by 7am and went back to manuel antonio where we had seen a good breakfast deal on a sign the day before. It was really cute and for 1500 colones ($3) we first got a plate with pinapple, papaya, watermelon, banana and a pancake. Next we got a plate of scrambled eggs and gallo pinto (beans and rice) and bread. It was so good and filling and cheap!!! Half of the group left at this time to go home to Puntarenas. 2 of us wanted to take the 1230 bus home and 2 others wanted the 3pm bus but the rest got the 9am. we wanted to try to find these waterfalls that we had heard were amazing. Well what happened was that Kiah and I ended up having to turn around because there wasn't enough time. What we did see was great. We were basically walking down a river (thank goodness I had the chaco sandals!!) with the forest all around us.

Ali and Ashley eventually found the waterfall, I can't wait to see pics. We headed to the bus and got back home to Puntarenas around 430. I was crashed out by 8pm and didn't wake up once! I was pooped!

ODDS AND ENDS

OKAY I JUST WANTED TO TALK ABOUT A FEW THINGS THAT ARE VERY CONTRARY TO THE US...FOR BETTER FOR WORSE!

1.) WHEN YOU ORDER A BEER, YOU ARE OFFERED A GLASS OF ICE AND STRAW BECAUSE OF THE HEAT
2.) YOU DON'T FLUSH TOILET PAPER
3.) THERE ARE HARDLY ANY DOOR NOBS, JUST HANDLES AND LOCKS
4.) NO FRONT YARDS, JUST ENCLOSED PATIOS WITH LARGE GATES
5.) NOBODY SAYS THANKS
6.) CONSTRUCTION BEGINS AROUND 6:00AM ON THE HOUSE RIGHT BEHIND ME!
7.) DRIVERS (NOT PEDESTRIANS) HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY
8.) HOMES DONT HAVE HALLWAYS
9.) NO HOT WATER HEATERS (IF YOU HAVE HOT WATER, IT IS AN ELECTRIC DEVICE ATTACHED TO YOUR SHOWER HEAD)
9.) NO DRYERS- ALL CLOTHES ARE HANG DRIED
10.) HARDLY ANY WINDOWS THAT CLOSE
11.) BARS ON EVERY SINGLE WINDOW
12.) WAY CHEAP TAXIS
13.) A BUS LEAVES ALMOST EVERY HOUR TO ALMOST EVERYWHERE
14.) NO ARMY, THEREFORE NO WAR VETS
15.) LIMES ARE ORANGE IN THE MIDDLE
16.) ALL FLOORS ARE TILE
17.) THEY DONT COVER FOOD IN THE FRIDGE- PLASTIC WRAP AND TUPPERWARE HAVE NO PLACE IN THIS COUNTRY
18.) LUNCH STAYS OUT ON THE STOVE TILL DINNER
19.) "SALSA" MEANS AAAALLLLL SAUCES, KETCHUP, MAYO, MUSTARD, MARINARA, SWEET AND SOUR....YOU NAME IT!

OKAY THAT IS IT FOR NOW, I AM SURE THE LIST WILL GROW!

Viva America

Central America Celebrates it's independence on September 15th, not Just Costa Rica, all countries from Costa Rica to Mexico (except for Beliz). I was watching the news and Wow, can mexico celebrate!! I forgot that I watched those parties on TV last year with Domingo. Here in Puntarenas I participated in the march of torches on Friday night. All of the kids march from the school and down several blocks, then turn down towards the beach and go back up along the water. All kids and kids at heart have a "farole" which you can see in the pic, there are infinanite possibilities of what they can be...homemade or store bought

Here I am with Alexander's Spiderman farole

Here is a blurry pic of the street, it was really cool

All of the people at 6pm sing the independence song and begin the march with a small band (like Bert in Mary Poppins, but it took 5 people to play all the instruments that bert had!)
here is Alvaro (DAD) and Alex (BROTHER)

After the march, we went back to Ingrid's grandmas house to eat the cake we got for Luisito. He had been in the hospital since I got here (he went in the day I arrived). Every single day Eduardo and Merida went and stayed with him so that his mom could go home and rest because the kids have to have a parent or family member there 24/7. I went to visit him once, he was so sweet. He had an infection in the femer but things seem to be better now, the point is he got out on Friday, the night of the march! We got him a welcome home cake. He is in the middle with the huge grin. I really like this picture for some reason!!

After being at the grandmas house, we left alex with Ingrid's aunt and we went out to the Americanized bar on the beach called Happy Days. Tons of USAC students go there, I felt like I was in Bullys. One major difference- at the bars here, they offer you a glass of ice and straw with a beer because it is soo hot! This is Me and Ingrid in the green and her two cousins anna and maria, way cute and way nice!

Here is me and Ingrid (MOM)

We had fun...I drank three "Pilsen" beers, they are OK. Not that strong but nice and cheap!
I wanted to include some pics of town, the homes are very different. They are all attached (at least by a fence/wall) and have gates, no front yard, sometimes no patio, all metal roofs and power lines are a total mess. The neighborhoods look very different, no yard to show off, no cool roof lines to distinguish onself, the only way people really stand out is by their gates. Some people just have chain link (yuck). All homes are all tile flooring, never carpet, never hardwood. Maybe in other places, I am not sure. It is easy to think that all of these homes are shit boxes because of how they look, but many of them are very nice and have very nice things. I was extremely suprized with how my house looked inside compared to how the neighborhood looked. Curb appeal does not exist here!

This is our house




these are the doors into my room, my room is right behind the kitchen basically

On the 15th we went to the parade (me, Alvaro, Alex and my friend Hannah) We had a good time, the kids play the drums so well and they are so young! The dancers were way cute too. I have lots and lots of pics but only uploaded a few.

Me and Hannah

Eduardo has been working on a Hammoc and finally finished it, I took pics of the entire process, here are a few
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First Bad One

I guess it was bound to happen, my streak of everything going great was just waiting to jump in front of a bus…and it did! My culture class has this field study credit available for the students in the class, if we pay for the credit $150 (which I did) I can attend a few field trips for the culture class. Sounded great, and I truly believe that the others will be fantastic, this one just wasn’t what I was expecting. We visited “La Isla Venado” which is an island in the Gulf of Nicoya which is rather close to Puntarenas. So on Friday morning at 9:30am we were pulled out of class and got to leave for the 10am Ferry to Playa Naranjo. After the hour Ferry ride, we (about 27 of us) boarded 3 little boats. The island was about a 45 minute little boat ride. We were all revved up!!!

The teacher is Arturo (for when I refer to him in the future) and he is a brilliant tico! He is so smart about so many things, I can’t remember if I have mentioned him yet or not. Anyway, I like listening to him speak about anything. Anyway, he organized a radio program to come and follow us around and they were also taking video of what we were doing. I got to do a little interview, my Spanish was most likely awful!! So these guys were following us around with a camera and microphone and talking with Arturo a lot. Our first stop was at a really small beach on the island, literally it was about 5 feet from the water to the foliage (I guess it was some sort of tropical forest). We took a brief hike through on a trail about 5 inches wide. We are all wearing flip flops and shorts…. No bueno for walking through where the bushes move because angry animals live beneath them. We saw beetles and spiders (wah hoo) and could definitely hear a very loud hum of some sort of bee hive really high up. I didn’t like walking there as you could imagine. We got back and ate lunch on the beach. Then we loaded up onto the boats again and arrived at our final destination. The place looked like anything I would expect to find in Costa Rica. Dirty stone building, a bar full of cervezas, a concrete dance in the disco etc. Nothing shocking, even the cabins didn’t seem to be as bad as he had mentioned. I was wrong. The cabins were terrible, Besides the lavish comforts they provided (none at all) they also provided the protection from other bugs with two HUGE wasps nests just outside of our door. There was one bathroom with a hose of cold water. Truthfully, it was like camping. I do enjoy camping from time to time….But I would have been prepared for camping. Besides, my initial reaction was “this is going to be an adventure, I am going to see a totally different culture. One that is very poor! Potentially the poorest part of Costa Rica, and all of this will be worth it”. I was very interested in walking through the marketplace, seeing the neighborhoods, seeing the schools etc. Arturo had made such a big deal about it all, that I thought we would be plucked right in the middle of it all. No. Friday afternoon consisted of a boat ride, we fished (by we, I mean the other boats, we didn’t have fishing equipment on our boat), we swam, we took gifts to poor children (for about 25 minutes), we came back and changed our clothes and were ready to eat dinner by 6pm. Arturo did prepare some great food. He made two kinds of fish, Sea bass and something else good but I don’t know what it was, and small shrimp and huge shrimp. They were amazing! I hadn’t tasted shrimp that fresh in my life! Yummm. Then the dinner tables were removed and the space that remained became the dance floor. The rest of the group proceeded to get wasted with island ticos. I did partake in two Imperial Cervezas….livin large! When it was time for bed, I was feeling pretty tired and expected to fall right to sleep….definitely didn’t fall right to sleep. I think I saw the sun come up before I actually slept. I cant say for sure, but I think my limits were tested on this trip. I was already disappointed with the lack of diversity on this trip…had there been some sort of amazing experience, I think I would have been more “okay” with the rooms. All I kept thinking was “what am I doing here?!” I woke up around 6:45am and figured I had gotten about 1.5 hours of sleep. I love waking up with sandpaper eyes! I went ahead and stayed up, and was surprisingly chipper! How could I not be with Alison, she is such a sweetie! She is an early riser like me! The other two were definitely zonked out for a while longer-lucky bitches slept all night!!!!!!! We ate breakfast around 8:30am and got on the boats at 11am to catch the 12:30 Ferry back to Puntarenas. By this time I was very antsy and fidgety just wanting to go home. I should have known something was wrong…I am usually more go with the flow type. What was happening was that I was getting a really bad fever. I was sick in bed all night with terrible body aches and a temperature that seemed to be pretty bad. I was hot and cold every five minutes. It sucked. For the first time, I missed HOME. I was given a prescription acetimetifin that would reduce the fever and help me to rest. I took it with some egg drop soup Ingrid had delivered. I felt ok and was looking forward to sleeping off the fever. For 3 hours I laid in bed tossing and turning. I was listening to my big fat greek wedding which was playing on my computer. Ingrid came to check on me and was alarmed that my fever was not only still present, but worse. I had to wait another hour but at that time I was able to take 2 more of the pills. Ingrid had towels of alcohol and was putting them on my head and neck and stomach. Eventually the pills began to work and I was able to relax. She left and I slept off and on through the night. The next day, Sunday, I slept almost all day, till around 5pm. No fever but NO energy. It was the strangest thing. Some type of tropical GRIPE (the flu). I am so glad I fought it off! Okay, next time I get sick I promise not to go into so much detail….here are some pics of the weekend…some of it was fun but the trip overall and my sickly end SUCKED!!!!!!!!!!
Okay these are the little boats we had to ride in forever!

This is a sea snail

This is Arturo thinking he is Jesus...we found a rock in the water, it was pretty cool, other people got better shots.

Me and the chickas on the boats

The classy Bar ;)

Getting directions from some cute little doggies

Street on the Island...just dirt. The homes were pretty cool, we did see a TV in one. They aren't totally primitive!

The kiddies we gave presents to. They were cute. One thing I dislike about this culture is that NOBODY says THANK YOU! It is so weird to me, not just on the island, everywhere in Costa Rica and it makes me crazy!

This is the shore in front of the cabins and the bar place.