Half Way

As of this weekend our time here is half way over. It feels like it’s gone so quickly but at the same time when I think back to my first week it feels like forever ago! That also means that my mama and brother come in a month and I can’t wait! I do have a lot of anxiety about it though because we have to drive and the drivers here are crazy!!! Speaking of driving though, last week I came home from school to find my mom and sister sitting at the kitchen table and before I can even say hello they ask me if I have my license. I said yes but I couldn’t remember if I brought it, and my sister tells me “Great! You don’t need to have your license to drive, just your passport!” I’m pretty sure that’s not actually true, and I kept asking if they were sure, but my sister insisted I take my mom and youngest niece to pick up my other niece from school since she was late for work. Thankfully her school isn’t downtown because I can hardly handle driving in downtown Portland, and I don’t think we’re actually supposed to drive here (so shh!) but I drove! I called Kristin freaking out, and asked her to come with us in case I needed her to yell at me in English so I could respond faster J I didn’t realize how much I missed driving!

This weekend we had a short fieldtrip to Volcano Miravalles, which is on the Pacific coast of Guanacaste. Friday was pretty boring in the morning and afternoon because we went to two energy plantations to learn about windmills and geothermic energy… We stayed at a nice hotel though that had hot springs from the volcano so we got to swim and relax. On Saturday morning we went to the actual hot springs which were beautiful! We went to the hot springs and put the mud on ourselves, I wasn’t so into that so I only put some on my arms, and then we went to a waterfall to wash off.

Today we have a free day so I’m spending the day with my family and studying around the house. It’s nice to have time to spend with my family-I always feel bad because I’m gone on the weekends when my family is free, but last weekend I got to spend all of Sunday and Monday with them because we didn’t have classes. I went to the movies with them and played games all of Sunday. Then in the evening we went to a family going away party for my brother-in-law since he was leaving for Miami. On Monday we dropped my brother-in-law off at the airport and my sister and two nieces and I went shopping in San Jose for the day. 

Guanacaste!

Yesterday Hillary’s brother Juan Manuel, and his friend drove Hillary, Ashli and myself to Guanacaste, about 3 hours from San Ramon, to go to a beach called Pirate Beach. It was soo beautiful! We’ve seen a lot of beaches here that look and feel like the Oregon Coast (only a little warmer usually) but this beach was exactly the kind of beach you would expect to see in Costa Rica. The water was light blue and there were little islands in the water that you could swim or walk to depending on the tide. I sat out for a little while but eventually went in the water (go me!) and floated around with Hillary and Ashli, the tide kept sucking us in and then pushing us back to shore. We were about to leave the beach when it started down pouring so we decided to put everything in the car and we all got in the ocean until the rain passed. Hillary, Juan Manuel and I decided to swim to the closest island since the waves were calm. It was really cool because there was a bat cave that you could look at and all sorts of little animals swimming around. There were rocks surrounding the island that made it kind of hard to climb on and off of and once I was on I really didn’t want to jump back off! Juan Manuel showed us when the perfect time was to jump so a small wave would pull you out without having to kick very hard so you wouldn’t hit the rocks. I swam back pretty fast because I was starting to have paranoia about the fish!

We went to the town near the beach called Tamarindo and did a little bit of shopping. Hillary’s brother took us to a yummy smoothie place and afterwards Hillary, Ashli and I shared a Nutella and Banana crepe from the store next door. It was so yummy!!!! I really appreciate it when people are friendly with us, because sometimes people notice we’re tourists and can be kind of rude. The old man working at the crepe place was super nice and it helped make our experience that much better! It also helped that we were with Juan and his friend because people don’t mess with us as much if we’re with other Tico’s.

After such a great day and only a minor sunburn I didn’t think the day could get any better but we ended up meeting up with Juan Manuel’s uncle/cousin person thingy who took us to the beach when it got dark to see turtles! We only ended up seeing one but it was so amazing! It was a mama turtle who wanted to lay her eggs, but there was another group of rude tourists who kept shining their light on the turtle and touching it so she left her hole that she dug and started waddling (or whatever the verb is) towards the water. I took lots of pictures of her from behind so I wouldn’t hurt her eyes. The tracks she left behind were so deep- I couldn’t believe how strong she was. We waited on the beach for a while, while the uncle/cousin dude looked for more turtles and we watched the lightning from far away, which looked beautiful, and I got to see two shooting stars! Oh. Also, the waves kept crashing and lighting up like they were glow in the dark, and we asked the guide who said the plankton in the ocean light up the waves and he showed us that when we walk the sand lights up behind us. It felt like magic! Hillary and I kept joking that we were lighting up the sand since we still had some electricity in us from getting shocked by lightning J

Manuel Antonio

This weekend we finally had a free weekend so 11 of us decided to go to Manuel Antonio for the weekend. It was definitely one of my favorite weekends and I wish we could have spent more time there! Friday night we celebrated Mariah’s birthday and went out to a yummy dinner (I had a hamburger, I was nervous it was going to be unrecognizable but it was actually pretty good!) and I tried a Mai Tai to drink, which I think is my new favorite! I’m gonna come back nice and chubby with all the yummy food I’ve been fed here! My mom is always trying to get me to try new food or eat “just one small serving” as she always says. Anyways, then Mariah wanted to go dancing so we went to a club for “ladies night” which was super fun too, we all danced together and enjoyed our free time! There weren’t many people there so they let us go in the reserved room behind ropes (so fancy!) and we kind of just closed the curtains and had fun without creeper guys approaching us all the time.  I am so glad we got to celebrate Mariah’s birthday together because her actual birthday was this past Thursday and we had a Spanish exam which is no way to celebrate!

Saturday we got up early and headed for the Manuel Antonio Park and we hung out on the beach for a few hours. I even went up to my knees in the ocean J A few of us headed out ahead of the group so we could go to the store, and we saw a sloth up close! It was about 3 feet from us and he was the cutest thing ever! I have been wanting to see a sloth up close since I got here and I can’t believe I finally got to see one. They only come down from the trees about once a week to use the bathroom so we were super lucky. I took so many pictures my camera died on me. We haven’t had much down time since we’ve been here so we decided to order pizza, and hang out all evening at the hostel. My “thing” here has become doing highs and lows whenever we’re together (when you go around the circle and say the best part of your day and the lowest part of your day) and I was happy that we got to do them as one big group. It has become my favorite part of our trips because we all get to spend time together talking about what we did that day. It’s become so popular that sometimes people have to remind me that we haven’t done our highs and lows yet!

Sunday we got up and everyone split up into little groups, one group went horseback riding, one went parasailing (which I really want to do!) and a few of us just walked around Manuel Antonio and did some souvenir shopping which I really enjoyed. Two of my friends and I spent almost 2 hours in a store walking around and bargaining for gifts…I was glad I had my friend Ashli with me because I’m too shy to bargain with the store owners! It was so nice to walk around the town and not have to stop every 10 feet to hear our professors history and ecology lectures, I have the hardest time concentrating with all the things going around me.

I keep thinking how hard it’s going to be when we return to the United States and I won’t be able to see everyone everyday. We spend so much time together and I’m going to miss it! Our trip will be half way over in just a few weeks, but it feels like I’ve only been here for a few weeks. We’ve done so much but there’s still so much left I want to do, but at this rate the semester will be over before I even make a dent in my list!