Okay y’all, I had a super eventful weekend that I’m gonna try and sum up but I’m warning you-this could be a long one! So Thursday morning we left for Limon, the Caribbean side of Costa Rica and I got to see the ocean for the first time in a month! I got a little homesick seeing it at first because I’m so used to seeing it all the time on the island, but once we saw the beaches I was pretty excited ☺ The first beach we went to had black sand which I’ve never seen before, it was so pretty and it even felt a little different. We were all laughing though because Friday we went to another beach and it was pretty cloudy so the beach looked just like the Oregon coast (except the water was way warmer).
So I already gave my parents one heart attack with the earthquake, and I’m pretty sure I gave both of them another one on Friday. Kristin, Sydney, Hillary, and I all went to the beach in the evening in this cute little town called Puerto Viejo. Hillary and I didn’t want to swim in the ocean (duh, fish) but we were being moms under our umbrellas keeping us nice and dry while watching Kristin and Sydney have the time of their lives in the water. All of a sudden this huge lightning bolt comes out of nowhere! I first heard Kristin screaming and running for her life when I realized I was holding an umbrella but before I could let go I get the weirdest shock going up my arm and into my elbow area, so I look over at Hillary and she’s just watching her hand completely mesmerized as her whole hand is lighting up. Thankfully we weren’t struck by lightning but the lightning bolt was so close that we shocked (I don’t really know the proper term) our arms were tingling for quite a while afterwards! And I thought Hillary and I were being the safe ones by staying out of the ocean. We met up with some friends after that and did some shopping in the cutest stores and had the yummiest pizza at an Italian restaurant, it was a nice little break because everyone in Puerto Viejo speaks English- I loved understanding all the menus!
We also got to see a banana plantation and pineapple plantation, which was so fascinating to me. I don’t know why but I love watching the way things are made or processed-like at the Tilamook Cheese Factory! I wanted to take pictures at the banana plantation, but they wouldn’t let us use our cameras in case we were some banana-competition-people working against Dole. It was interesting seeing how different things are from the United States there, I saw men doing insane manual labor and everything was outside, so it was a lot less sanitary than we’re used to seeing. They send the big bananas to the United States and keep the smaller ones for Costa Rica, which I’m so glad about because I really don’t like the small bananas they eat here! So they pick the bananas from the tree and have them processed through the plantation in less than 5 hours and they are sent to the United States in 48 hours. Why can they send bananas all over the United States in 2 days but it takes 2 weeks to send a postcard?
We stayed in some cute hotels but Friday night we stayed in a bungalow. I saw the sign as we were entering and I knew we were in for an interesting night. So of course Kristin, Hillary, Sydney, and I get this bungalow that’s in the way back practically inside of the jungle and as far away as we could possibly be from the rest of the group. Even when the lady showed us to our room she was kinda like “oh…you’re in that one…okay” so then I was really stressing. We get into our room and I pull back my sheets to find 3 little spiders crawling and a bunch of dirt in my bed. Appetizing, right? So I decide I’m sleeping with Kristin until I see a spider on her pillow, too. Thank goodness for good friends because Kristin and I hopped in bed with Hillary and the three of us slept together in a full sized bed. I slept like a baby because I had no fear of the spiders being between the two of them! The next morning I walk in the bathroom and see this huge spider looking thing that was squished on the ground. We think Hillary might have stepped on it because she was the only one wearing shoes. We show our ecology professor (who literally knows everything there is to know in this world, I am surprised every time he opens his mouth because he knows every little thing about any given topic) anyways, he tells us that it’s actually half spider half scorpion and points out all the characteristics of each. Who knew there was such a thing? Wanna see?
I am facing all of my fears here. First it was the bugs at the biological reserve, then it was the birds flying on me in San Jose, and Sunday it was snorkeling with fish. For those of you who don’t know, fish are my biggest fear in the whole world. I hate them. One time we had a fish and then once I became afraid of them I made my mom move the fish into her bathroom so I didn’t ever have to see it again. So we’re on the boat going to the middle of nowhere Atlantic Ocean to snorkel over a coral reef and my heart is pounding out of my chest. I didn’t think I was going to make it. I even asked my professor if I could sit out and he said I could, and I probably would have if Hillary hadn’t been there encouraging me. Hillary and I held hands literally the entire time, I wouldn’t let her let go until I got back to the boat to get back in. I will admit I was the last one out of the boat and the first one back in, but I was in the water for at least 30 minutes. I’m proud of myself for doing it, but I think I’m going to have nightmares for a while. I stayed really calm in the water but I kept talking to myself through my snorkel saying “I can’t believe I’m doing this” over and over ☺ After we went snorkeling we went on a walk through the jungle back to Cahuita, the town we were staying in, and it was one of the most amazing experiences! We saw so many animals! We saw 3 different types of monkeys, one monkey we saw was a mama with her baby on her back, we saw a 2 toed sloth and a 3 toed sloth, and we saw all types of lizards and hermit crabs which was cool too! We saw a spider (I forget the name) that makes the largest webs in the world- and I can see why because the spider was the size of my thumb. I snapped my picture and ran by.
Now I’m just recovering from tiredness and a little bit of a tummy ache before we go on our adventure next weekend. I’m starting to feel stressed out from school since we haven’t had any time to study on the weekends so I’m hoping to catch up this week, wish me luck!
Pura vida ☺
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