Bocas del Toro!

Hello all! Sorry I basically stopped writing for the past month...I've been pretty busy traveling around and all of that. Since I last wrote to you, I've been to Bocas del Toro, Panama:

The dorm that I stayed in at Aqua Lounge - my bed was in the back on the right, top bunk

The view from my bed - that is the water

The eating area outside of the dorm

The pool - aka: a hole cut out in the deck so you can swim in the ocean! Note the diving board at the top of those stairs. Awesome.

The dance floor/bar of the hostel

This was followed by a weeklong visit from Elena, Erik, Paul, and Alison (somewhere along the line I lost my small camera, so there won't be any pictures...), during which we went to Montezuma (a small beach town on the Pacific side), Monteverde again (this time I actually got to hike around in the park reserve), and La Fortuna, which is the town at the base of Arenal Volcano. About a month and a half ago, there was an earthquake that shook some rubble into the mouth of the volcano, which pretty much plugged up the lava (I didn't even know that was possible!), so we didn't get to see any thing very volcano-like, but we did get to go to a hot springs resort and go on a hike, so that was pretty cool too. Then, only two days after those guys left, my family came for Thanksgiving! We went to the beach town of Manuel Antonio, which is also on the Pacific side, and is probably the most beautiful beach I have been to in Costa Rica. Manuel Antonio is a national park, and the water is that beautiful blue-green (similar to Bocas del Toro, but much deeper and richer looking). It is also coooovered in monkeys; we saw monkeys on our hike through the forest, including a little baby monkey riding on its mom's back, and one morning while eating breakfast at the hotel, monkeys started climbing around in the trees all around the balcony of the restaurant. One was even on the railing a few feet behind me; the waiter told me to guard my banana, and he wasn't kidding. A couple of times we also heard howler monkeys...trust me, there is nothing monkey-like about that noise. We heard it during our hike, and it sounded like a giant monster in the trees that was going to swoop down and eat us. Creepy. We spent most of the week at the beach, which was very relaxing, especially since I didn't have to pay for anything, and I actually got to sit in a chair with an umbrella over me! That's a luxury for a traveler on a budget.

After my family left, I realized that I only had three weeks left...and then two...and now I have five days. In less than a week I will be back in Minnesota with the snow and the cold and family and friends...crazy world. I spent the last two weekends at the beach, first Tamarindo (it was hard to say good bye to that one), and then this past weekend Puerto Viejo. Both times it was just Wendy and me, which made traveling easy and fun. I had to say good-bye to the Caribbean yesterday...this trip definitely reinforced how much I love the ocean.

Anyway, sorry there aren't many photos in this one. I didn't take very many pictures in Bocas del Toro, and then I lost my small camera, so I pretty much stopped taking pictures altogether. It's been nice, though...no thinking about what shot is the best, or having to stop taking in the scenery in order to look through a lens. Freeing. All right, that's it for now! Maybe I'll post once more...we'll see. Peace.

It's Been Awhile...

Hello, family and friends! I know it's been a couple of weeks...if I'm being completely honest, the reason for that is that I haven't been taking as many pictures as usual, and it's hard for me to get motivated to only write words and not have any visual stuff for you guys (from past experience, it's a lot harder to read a blog without photos). But now I have some from Halloween! So I'll briefly describe the past couple of weeks and then move on to the interesting stuff =]

First of all, can you believe it's November? I definitely can't. The days are always around the same length here, and the weather pretty much never changes, so my body and mind don't believe that it's getting closer and closer to winter at home. It's going to be SUCH a shock to step off that airplane and get that first blast of winter air...but as I've been telling my mom, instead of holing up inside the house and cursing winter for three months, this year I've decided I'm going to embrace it! I'm even going to buy a legitimate winter coat for the first time in five years, that's how serious I am about this whole thing. But anyway, it doesn't feel like winter here at all, obviously, so my mind is still pretty much in summer mode, which is fine by me.

I guess that first I should write a little bit about my weekend trip to Puerto Viejo (looking back, I wish I would have taken photos, because it was a pretty cool place). I went with my Canadian friends Bryan and Cole, who I've mentioned before. The bus ride there wasn't too long for once (only 4 hours, which might sound like a long time to you, but you try taking a 7 1/2 hour bus ride back from Tamarindo and then tell me what you think of 4 hours). They had scheduled a shuttle bus (a much smaller bus, more like a van, really, with only us and three other people on it) and I was lucky enough to be able to hop on it with them. It was interesting to be driving to the Caribbean side of the country, since I'm so used to driving over the mountains and over to the Pacific side. There are mountains towards the Caribbean as well, but you cross over them much more quickly, and there is a lot more flat land to drive over; thus the large amounts of banana plantations on that side.

Puerto Viejo was pretty much exactly as I had imagined it. Super chill, lots of Rasta/Bob Marley everywhere, and lots of warm, beautiful ocean. The hostel we stayed at is named Rocking J's, and this is where I wish I had taken pictures, because it's hard to describe the place without actually being able to show you what I mean. First of all, this hostel is gigantic, and the entire thing is open air, with a big yard in the middle, lots of random places with hammocks and chairs and beanbags to hang out, and a public eating area as well. The entire thing is covered in mosaic...and I mean the ENTIRE thing. All of the walls, all of the poles, all of the buildings...it's ridiculous. I don't even know how long it took to do all of it. There is a giant tent city where people could stay, and there are also two huge hammock rooms where people can choose to sleep, which was the cheapest option. The bathrooms are all shared and are right in the middle of the yard, and the hostel has its own restaurant/bar with delicious food. It's also right next to the ocean, but there is so much coral that it's really not the best swimming beach, so you have to take about a 10-15 minute walk, either along the road or the beach, down to the public area, with lots of sand and green-blue water to swim in. Gorgeous. We did that a few times during the weekend, and the rest of the time was spent walking around the town finding places to eat or browsing the shops, and also napping and going out at night, or lounging around in the hammocks talking...we chose a private room, but nothing there has air conditioning, so it was incredibly damp and hot all weekend long, which meant a huge lack of energy and lots of dehydration, no matter how much water we drank, so we were pretty sluggish the whole time. It was a very relaxing weekend, though, and I'd like to go back again, but I'm not sure if I'll get the chance.

So last time I wrote was on October 20th, only a couple of days after I got back from Puerto Viejo, and a couple of days after that I left, once again, for my favorite place in Costa Rica: Tamarindo. Once again, I went with Bryan and Cole. We stayed there Thursday through Monday, and it was pretty much just like every other time I've gone there (this was the third time): surfing, watching television in the common area of our amazing hostel, meeting new people, going out and having fun at night, lounging on the beach, drinking smoothies, taking naps if the occasion called for it (which was quite often =]). All in all, a very challenging life experience for me (ha).

We got back on Monday, and then Bryan and Cole left on Tuesday afternoon, which was very sad for me, since over those past three weeks they had become my traveling buddies and we ended up spending a lot of time with each other. They headed off to LA for a week before going back home to Vancouver, and I headed back to my house for the first time in almost a week, and got ready to settle back down into what I hoped was going to be a productive few days at work. And guess what?! It WAS productive! I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but one of our biggest projects for the rest of my time here is going to be remodeling/redesigning this bathroom/the area around it in the hostel that is attached to CAP. This hostel is one of the main sources of income for the organization, because all of the money it gets goes towards funding any projects/trips/etc. that the organization needs to do. The bathroom is one of many throughout the hostel, but it's the one that is in plain view of the kitchen/eating area, and it really is disgusting. It is all orange and peeling, and there is mold growing in the shower, and lots of stains everywhere, with dirty cement floors, and it's super enclosed and claustrophobic. In other words, it's not the best selling point of the hostel. They've been wanting to fix it up forever, but they've never had anyone really focus in on the project, since the organization has such a small staff and many things to do. Neil (the other volunteer) and I decided that this would be a good hands-on project to work on that would help the hostel and give us something to do other than research and sit in on meetings. This past week we finally got a ton of planning done (taking measurements, figuring out costs, figuring out exactly what needs to be done and what kinds of materials we are going to use, etc.), and wrote up a plan to send out to the people who are going to be working on it. On Friday we got together at Isabel's house (my boss) and I helped her organize/format the report she wrote about her trip to the UN while Neil wrote out a couple of letters asking for donations/support from local businesses to try and get some of the materials that we need for the bathroom, like tile, paint, skylights, etc. We also went to the supermarket, made lunch (delicious), and had a big talk about spirituality and religion, which was very enlightening (Isabel has had a really cool life). It was a very nice, relaxing, productive day, and I left the week feeling accomplished and like I had been at least somewhat useful.

That brings us to this past weekend. Halloween! People celebrate Halloween here, but it's definitely not as big of a deal as it is in the United States. Some stores/companies decorated, but it wasn't very prominent (that and the lack of cold weather are probably why I kept forgetting it was almost Halloween). My mom also sent me a Halloween package with a giant bag of candy (don't even ask me how much of that candy I have eaten on my own...don't worry, Mom, I've been sharing it too), so that helped set the mood a little bit. For Halloween I was going to be the Spice Girls with three of my friends (we didn't have a Ginger Spice), but they decided to go to the beach instead, so I ended up being Little Red Riding Hood, because my friend Bernie found a red cape in a closet at his house, and I didn't want to spend any money on a costume since my funds are running veeeeeeery low. I could have gone to the beach, but I wanted to see what a legitimate Costa Rica Halloween party was like, and I figured that none of the small beach towns would have any big parties, especially since it's low season right now and there aren't a lot of people around.

It turns out I made a great decision, because the party we went to was awesome! It was at this club/bar about twenty minutes away from my house, and we had to buy tickets to get in because so many people wanted to go to it. The decorations were amazing; there was a giant screen outside to make it look like a haunted house:

There were lots of decorations inside, as well. And EVERYONE was dressed up, there were so many different costumes, most of them pretty elaborate. It was a great night full of dancing and laughing at other peoples' costumes...our friends Bernie and Alberto went as Bert and Ernie, and they were the celebrities of the night; more than 45 people asked to take their pictures with them. Here are some photos from the night:

I forgot to mention that on Friday night we went out to see Bernie's friend's comedy show at a small restaurant in San Jose. It was a very small audience, and a really funny show. On Sunday Mikaela and I went with Bernie to Hooters (again, second time I have been there in my life, and both of them have been in Costa Rica...) to watch the Vikings dominate the Packers for the second time this season (woohoo!). It was very quiet in there, since most Costa Ricans obviously do not watch NFL football...but we made up for it by cheering loudly.

So there you go, all caught up! I've said this before, but I'll say it again: I'm going to try to update this more regularly. I can write in more detail and make everything sound more interesting if I do that...it's just a matter of motivation. Miss you all! 7 weeks left. Wow. Time flies. Much love.

Internship

So here I sit at the computer in the office of Centro de Amigos para la Paz (Center of Friends for Peace), the place where I am doing my internship. I just got here (I try to get into work at about 10 in the morning), and my boss Isabel and the treasurer of the organization, Maria Elena, were just heading out for a meeting. They asked if I would mind waiting around here for about an hour until they came back. What else do I have to do? I said yes. I decided that this would probably be a good time to tell you a bit about my job.

As they were walking out the door, Isabel called to me over her shoulder and asked if I would be all right answering the phone and taking messages. Once again, I said yes, acting like it was no big deal, when in all truth my stomach clenched a little at the thought of it. So far, the phone has rung once, and I ran around for the first two rings trying to find a pen to take a message with, and someone else answered in this meantime. Whew. I´ve always had this thing about talking to people I don´t know over the phone...it´s gotten better over the years - I´m now totally fine with talking to people in English - but this task is daunting because not only will I have to converse over the phone in Spanish, where I can´t read lips or facial expressions, the people that usually call here are elderly Quaker folks who speak the kind of rapid, slurred Spanish that is impossible to comprehend, even for some native Spanish speakers. Eventually I know I´ll have to answer the phone, and I´ll let you know how that goes when it happens. It promises to be very entertaining (at least afterwards).

I started this internship about three weeks ago now. I had no idea what I was getting into, and Cata, the person at International Studies Abroad who is in charge of all the volunteers in the program, told me to be prepared to be patient and flexible, because not only is this a non-profit organization, where the term ¨organization¨is used rather loosely, but it is a Costa Rican non-profit organization, which means that some days there might be quite a few things to do, and other days there might be nothing. The latter has proven to be the most common occurrence thus far. It´s also a very small organization, with only 3 or 4 actual employees, and then a board of Quaker members who decide actions and meet about various issues that the Centro is dealing with, but who aren´t employees and who are only here a couple of times a week. Right now the only people here are one of the employees, in her office in the other room, the host of the hostel (the Centro has a hostel that is connected to the offices, and that hostel is essentially how this organization gets its money), me, and Jorge the cat. Usually there is a little French girl named Anouk here with her mom, absolute cutest thing ever (other than Mariana, of course). She is 4 years old, has adorable brown ringlets and a little upturned nose, and speaks French to me in her tiny little girl voice, every once in awhile inserting something in Spanish to try to help me understand what she´s saying better (she knows only a few words of both English and Spanish). She´s not here today though, which makes me kind of sad, because I could use the company.

Both the office building (once again, term used loosely) and the hostel take up about an entire block, situated near the three giant legal buildings, about a 10 minute walk away from the center of downtown San Jose. It´s only about a 15 minute walk from my house to here, and I usually opt to take that walk, unless it´s raining, in which case I take a taxi. I still haven´t really utilized the bus system. It´s not unreliable, persay, but you never know if it´s actually going to come on time, so I never want to rely on it to get to work. Besides, the walk is a fairly nice one. I´m usually sweating a bit by the time I get to the office, because the temperature is very warm here and there are a couple of hills involved, but it´s nice to be outside and see people walking around. It´s a pretty safe walk, too (this is for you, Mom), because like I said, the office is near all of the legal, courthouse buildings, which take up about half my walk, and the rest of the walk is either through a nice residential neighborhood or by other office buildings, and I never carry a purse, so I´m not really a target for mugging. The most I get are a few honks from cars and some overly friendly hellos from various men, but that´s normal here in San Jose, and I don´t really notice it any more.

Centro de Amigos para la Paz is in an older building, and since they don´t have very many funds, it looks pretty worn down and lived in. It has a distinct personality, though, and I don´t think I´d want it any other way. All of the furniture is donated, so one of the couches has a few holes in it and the other sinks down almost all the way to the floor when you sit in it, and there are various non-matching chairs scattered throughout the building. They have an old television and a slightly newer DVD player that I used to watch a documentary about getting rid of all arms used in wars that use depleted uranium (Isabel´s current passion) on my first day here. There is a random piece of ornate wood with a giant mirror in it that looks like it used to be the door to a wardrobe, and there are a couple of tables where the board meets set up in a couple different rooms. In order to get in you have to buzz at the gate and have someone buzz you in, so every once in awhile the ¨bzzzt¨ will sound. I´m not technically supposed to open the gate for anyone, since I don´t know who is allowed in and who isn´t, but I have a few times anyway because sometimes there is no one else around but me.

It´s always very quiet around here; occasionally there are guests from the hostel sitting on the couches checking their internet or reading, but right now it´s completely silent except for a couple of women talking in the other room and the sound of the keys on the keyboard clicking as I write this. It´s nice and peaceful, and it´s especially pleasant when it starts to rain outside and you can hear the pitter patter on the roof.

I am, however, still tense and waiting for the phone to ring.

My first week of work here began on a Tuesday, and since I only work through Thursday, it was a pretty short week. I basically came in and learned about the organization and Isabel told me about the various issues and projects I could work on (many, many things). The next day I came in and watched the documentary I mentioned above, and I don´t even remember what I did that Thursday. The next week consisted mainly of me helping Isabel by using Microsoft Word to create booklets of proposed laws in the Costa Rican legislature about banning arms that use depleted uranium, as well as a booklet containing the Costa Rican government´s official stance on the issue (not having a military, Costa Rica is, obviously, against the use of any kind of arms, much less ones that have depleted uranium). I made these booklets for Isabel to take with her to the United Nations in New York, which is where she was for all of last week, at various meetings and getting to know various people in an attempt to make this issue a top priority. Because she was gone, and didn´t really have email, last week I essentially did...well...nothing. Which sounds really fun and relaxing, but quickly got boring, because all of my other friends are in school and have homework, so they didn´t have much time to hang out, and I did not take the initiative to go out on my own and explore San Jose (something I have vowed to make up for the rest of my time here). So last week was a lot of sitting and doing nothing, which was kind of nice because it reminded me that I actually do like to be productive, but I also felt like I was at home in Stillwater on some kind of break from school, with absolutely nothing to do because all of the rest of my friends that went to other colleges were at school and there wasn´t anyone around to hang out with. Needless to say, it was kind of nice to be able to come in to the office with hopes of having something to do today (though that´s still not a guarantee...).

One nice thing about this job is how flexible the hours and workdays are. I am not getting credit for this, nor am I getting paid, so I am able to take off as much time as I want or need. That will come in handy in the next month or so, because my family is coming to visit for Thanksgiving, and the week before that four of my friends are coming and I want to travel around the country with them, and I also have to take a few days off next week so that I can go to Panama for 72 hours in order to extend my Visa (I can´t be here longer than 90 days without leaving the country for 72 hours). The one thing that is lacking from the job is that I often feel slightly useless, because I am still getting adjusted to what the organization is all about, and how it operates, so I´m not yet at the point where I can take my own initiative and find things to do on my own. Hopefully that will change...I´d like to feel productive and useful. Part of me feels like I should have just done a month of class and then taken the next three months to travel around the country on my own...ah well, you live and you learn. Next time.

All right, well...soon I´ll write about last weekend when I went to Puerto Viejo, but for now, that´s about all I´ve got. Hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about what I actually ¨do¨ during the week! Have a fabulous day. Much love.

Host Family/Home Life

I think it's about time for me to write a little about my family and my life at the house I live at, since that's where I actually spend most of my time (though you wouldn't guess it, since all of my posts are about being on fun trips =]).

I think that Mikaela and I definitely hit the jackpot when it comes to the host family and the house we got. Our family consists of:

Dad: Romeo (waiter)

Mom: Beatriz (homemaker)

2 Daughters: Tiare (14) and Mariana (2 going on 3)

Dog: Camila (and now her 5 new puppies, born last week)

I only have pictures of Mariana and the dogs, but I'll try to get a picture of each family member soon.

Romeo is not around that much, because he works almost every day and gets home every night between 11 and 12. He has one or two days off a week, so he is around on those days, usually playing with Mariana or relaxing upstairs, where the family has their own private area. He occasionally eats meals with us, too. He (or at least his parents) are from Portugal, so his first language is Portuguese, but he speaks Spanish too, and some very choppy English.

Beatriz is around all the time, and she is amazing. She doesn't have a job, per say, but she works endlessly around the house. The family doesn't have a maid, which isn't very common here, so she does all of the housework, as well as taking care of her two kids, Mikaela and I, the dog and now the fives puppies, and four other students from Costa Rica and Guatemala who go to the same university as us. She works out on a regular basis, going to the nearby gym, and she cleans every day, sweeping, dusting, and making everyone's beds (even when I try to make my own, she just comes in and redoes it). She also does all of our laundry, and cooks everyone breakfast and dinner; keep in mind that everyone is on different schedules, so she usually has to reheat or cook a new meal if we all eat too far apart. She is with Mariana all day long, and has to keep an eye on her while she's doing everything else. She's 34, and has lots of advice to give, from clothes to where to go in Costa Rica, and she is very funny and flexible to anything we need to want to do. She is incredible. All of my friends comment on how cool she is after they meet her; I think most of the host parents are older, with older children (females, and sometimes males, live at home until they get married, so many of the "children" of the host families here are in their 20s or even their 30s).

Romeo and Beatriz used to work in kitchens/restaurants on different cruise ships, throughout an 8 year period. That's why they are both very good at cooking and serving and doing all sorts of things with food. The food is absolutely delicious. Breakfasts I have had are rice, beans, eggs, and some kind of meat with tomatoes (or any variation of that), which is a traditional Costa Rican breakfast known as "gallo pinto", fruit salad, toast with eggs and tomatoes, crepes, cereal, hot chocolate, pancakes, plates of fresh fruit, etc. We have to find our own lunch, mostly because everyone is scattered throughout the day and sometimes don't come home around lunchtime, so it'd be impossible for Beatriz to make us all lunch. For dinner there's almost always rice, combined with some kind of meats, vegetables, sometimes soups, salads, and bread. Yum yum yum.

All right, so now on to the house. Once again, when my friends come over they comment on how nice the house is, so I am thinking that we got lucky with the house we were given as well. I think I'll just give a picture tour of the whole thing, to try to give you an idea of what it looks like to live where I live (I apologize for the quality of the pictures; I took all of them with my smaller, much crappier camera):

This is the park/basketball court right across the street from our house. We walk through it to get to school, which is a few blocks up the hill behind it

A few down the street from our house. In the background you can see the mountains; they're kind of hidden by haze/clouds in this photo, but in the mornings they're clear

And this is our house! The family has their own private place upstairs, except for one student from Guatemala who lives up there. You probably wouldn't be able to tell from looking at it, but this house has 9 bedrooms. There is one empty room right now, and then us 6 students and the family. Looots of people, but oddly enough, it's usually pretty quiet around the house.

Front door

Entryway

Steps upstairs to the family's rooms - Mikaela's bedroom is directly to the right of these stairs

Main hallway, my bedroom door is on the far end on the left, you can kind of see it

Kitchen, which is right across from my room

My room! Nice and messy, in my usual style

If you take a left out of my room, you come to sliding glass doors, which you can kind of see at the back of the hallway picture. The doors lead out to a covered kind of hallway that connects with the eating area/living room, all wrapping around this courtyard. Sometimes I lay in a hammock, which is to the right of this picture, and read or take a nap.

This is where we eat our meals, and beyond that you can see the couches and the television. This is all open air (you can see the courtyard to the left), which is really nice, even when it's raining, because it's all protected by a roof, so only the things right next to the edge get damp. It's especially beautiful in the morning when the sun is shining. The television is almost always on, and is usually on some kind of kid's channel for Mariana to watch. I am now an expert on the Discovering Kids channel's programs, but in Spanish

At the back of that last picture you can see a doorway, and this is the room it leads into. This is where Beatriz does the laundry; it's handy because it's right by living room where Mariana plays and watches television, so she can keep an eye on her.

So that's a little glimpse into my house! My schedule used to be a lot more routine when I was in that monthlong class, but now with the internship it's all over the place. Sometimes I need to go in earlier in the morning, and sometimes I can go in later, and I generally stay until sometime in the afternoon...it's all very vague. So I eat breakfast whenever I get up - sometimes I warm it up in the microwave and other times I just have cereal - and then eat dinner usually around the same time, 6 or 7, unless I have plans and need to eat earlier or later. I'll write more about my internship some other time.

All right, that's all for now! Much love.

Dominical

Warning: This is going to be a very long post, because it was a gorgeous weekend, and I'm feeling very wordy right now.

This weekend was another ISA pre-planned excursion weekend (this time to Arenal Volcano), which I decided to forego in favor of hitting up another beach town (don't worry, I'll make it to one or more volcanoes eventually...I just felt like some more fun in the sun instead of another weekend in the chilly mountains).

This weekend there were four of us traveling together: Wendy, Walker, our friend Kelly, and me. We took a bus out of San Jose at 11:30 on Friday morning. It was nice getting on the road earlier than usual, especially since we didn't know exactly how long the whole trip was going to take, but man oh man...that bus. The seats were cushy, and the bus itself was nice, but the seats were so close to the seats in front of them that even I could hardly squeeze my legs in, and then to make matters worse, the woman in front of Wendy decided to recline her seat practically all the way down onto Wendy's lap, and then she shut the window, cutting off any source of fresh air. I consider myself to be a fairly flexible traveler, but three or so hours in that bus resulted in me having mega claustrophobia, which is not usually something that afflicts me. Needless to say, it was a relief to finally get off that bus in San Isidro, which is where we were supposed to wait an hour and a half for another bus, which would bring us all the way to Dominical.

Instead, we were approached by a friendly driver named Frank, who convinced us (not that it took much, after that bus ride) to let him drive us to Dominical for $30 for all of us, which was about $7.50 each. Pricier than the bus, but it ended up being totally worth it, because he had a van, which meant that each of us got our own seat, and we didn't have to make any stops to drop people off/pick people up like the public bus does. We got to Dominical in less than an hour, which is record time.

During the drive, I was once again wowed by how quick and easy it is to go from climate zone to climate zone in this country. First we were in mildly hot San Jose, and in less than an hour we were climbing into the mountains, where the air cooled off considerably, and in less than an hour after that, we were driving through the misty clouds and it felt like autumn in the Midwest. The air is also so much fresher up in the mountains; such a nice escape from the smog of the capital. Then, after a couple of hours of driving through the chilliness, there is a quick descent down to sea level and the coast, where it is incredibly humid and muggy (perfection). All in 4 to 5 hours! I guess the different climate zones are comparable to daily life in the Midwest during spring, summer, and autumn, where the temperature and weather can vary insanely from day to day.

So anyway, we arrived in Dominical, and instantly fell in love with it. It was a partly cloudy day, but the sun still periodically broke through the clouds, where its light was filtered down through the many trees and onto the dirt roads below. Dominical is truly different than any other place I've been to yet. It is a lot more rural, first of all. It's not at all as touristy as Tamarindo. It has no paved roads, and there are huge potholes everywhere that are always muddy and full of water because of how much it rains. It's also right in the middle of the rainforest; the mountains behind it are green mounds of foliage and nothing else, and all of the streets are sheltered by massive trees, which is a welcome relief from the heat of the sun after sitting on the beach. The setup of the town is really nice, too, because most of the hostels are literally yards away from the beach itself. All that separates them is a dirt road and a short stretch of trees, which is where all of the surfers park their cars:

The white behind the trees is where the beach begins

We found the hostel we wanted to stay at fairly quickly, checked in, and then Walker and Kelly practically sprinted down to the beach to go surfing. Wendy and I checked out the beach, which was beautiful, but the waves were a bit intimidating...definitely much larger than any I've seen so far (someone said they were about 10 feet, which isn't actually that large, especially since the norm for that area is 15-16 feet). Consequently, we opted not to go surfing that weekend, and instead decided to go for a nice swim/hang out on the sand for awhile. Here's an idea of how big the waves were, though they got bigger than this at times:

Sufer riding the waves (Walker took this one)

A shot of the beach the day we got there

Eventually, it started to sprinkle, and then rain pretty hard. It was fun for us to be in the ocean and have it be raining at the same time, because you're already so wet that it doesn't matter, and it makes the water feel extra warm because the rain is nice and cool. Very relaxing.

We got out of the water, rinsed off, got dressed, and asked the guy behind the desk which place would be the best for eating. He told us that the bar and grill associated with the hostel was the best place to go (of course), and that he could have someone from their drive to pick us up, since it was absolutely downpouring at this point. We agreed, and ended up sitting around for more than an half an hour waiting, even though the restaurant was only five minutes away, if that (yet another example of Tico time). While we were waiting, we discovered that the hostel had a very interesting mascota (pet): a little baby raccoon named Molly. Super cute, but also super weird and crazy; the next day, it jumped on Walker's head and kept trying to attack Wendy and Kelly's legs.

We finally got picked up, went to the restaurant, ate, and decided to play ping pong, because we all wanted to go to bed, but it was only 8:00 at night, and we knew that would be pathetic, so we tried our best to stay awake a little longer.

The ceiling of the restaurant was covered with boards that had been broken in Dominical...yet another reason Wendy and I decided it was a much better idea for us to spend the weekend in the shallows and not on a board

We decided to walk back to the hotel, where we promptly crashed on our beds, laid around in the dark for an hour or so talking, and then fell asleep at the wee hour of 10:30pm. Quite the party animals.

Here's a picture of our room from that first night. Wendy was a bit iffy because the air conditioner spit dirt onto our bed, and the walls were very worn out, and the floor was kinda grimy...but we decided to stick it out anyway to see if we liked it:

The next morning we woke up, wish we had a communal kitchen to cook in, and decided to switch hostels. First, Walker and Kelly wanted to catch the morning surf, so they did so while Wendy and I slept in.

I don't really remember the order of this day, because we did so many things, but it included all of the following activities:

1. Switching to another hostel that had a communal hang out area, kitchen, and tents for us to sleep in under this gigantic roof up on a deck on the second floor above some other rooms.

This was the name of our new hostel, taken from their little half basketball court

The common area

The deck our tent was on (notice the wonderful hammock chair)

Our tent for the weekend

The communal kitchen

2. Swimming around in the ocean like little kids for hours on end.

3. Going to the supermarket for food to cook dinner, and being stopped by am American surfer man who resembled Jude Law, and had the following conversation:

-Jude Law Man: Are you going to the waterfall?

-Us: No, we're going to the supermarket.

-JLM: Did you know there is a waterfall behind the supermarket?

-Us: No way!!!

So then we went behind the supermarket, and lo and behold, there was this giant natural waterfall fairy tale land just hanging out in the middle of the rainforest:

In order to get down to the actual water we had to go down this incredibly steep path down the side of the mountain, but it was totally worth it. We played around in that waterfall for a very long time. The water was fresh and cold, and it was a welcome change from the salt water of the ocean and the heat of the day. We couldn't get over how places like this are just existing all over the place in Costa Rica, free and natural, if you only know where to look (or have the right locals telling you where to go =]).









We eventually noticed the sun was starting to sink a little lower through the trees, and we decided we wanted to see the sunset, so we quickly packed up our stuff, tried to find a shortcut that didn't involve going back up the steep path (the road was right there, on the other side of a barbed wire fence), but to no avail, so we eventually backtracked and went back up the path, ran down the path back to the supermarket, and then full out sprinted for about half a mile, through the pot-holed roads of Dominical and back to the beach, with locals yelling things at us and whistling the whole way. I can't even imagine how we looked, three gringas (white girls) running full out through the town, with our swim suits and flip flops on, soaking wet. And I also forgot to mention that Wendy and I had started out the morning by doing some jogging followed by this workout thing (not sure what it's called) that involves doing rounds consisting of 10 jumping jacks, 10 squats, 10 push ups, 10 mountain climbers, and 5 "burpees". We tried to do 5 rounds of that, but only got to 4...and had to stop because we were so lightheaded. I was super tired out from that already (because, as we all know, I am definitely not going to be winning any awards any time soon for how in shape I am), and that sprint pretty much did it for me.

We arrived, panting, at the beach, victorious. The sun was in the perfect spot, so we quickly took out our cameras and started snapping pictures, of course...man, I love photographing sunsets. Here are some sunset shots.

Then we were able to just relax and watch the rest of the sunset, as well as the remaining surfers who are stubborn enough to surf until it is almost pitch black. There were more people on the beach than I expected. I didn't even think that were that many people in the town, but the rain had kept most of them inside our first night there, so it was nice to see the population and tourists out and about and enjoying the natural beauty around them.

We cleaned up, and while I went to the internet cafe to email my boss, Wendy, Walker, and Kelly went to the supermarket to buy some food. Then it was delicious food time. Guess what we ate? If you guessed mac and cheese, you are correct! We had mac and cheese and stir fry with veggies and this delicious peanut sauce that was waaaaaaay too spicy for me. There's something great about cooking your own food (no matter how simple) in your hostel after a gorgeous day of sun and waterfalls, joking around with your friends, talking to other people who are staying in the hostel, and just being able to relax. The beach also makes me incredibly hungry, so no matter what the food tastes delectable.

We tried to find a place to go out that night, and we found a place with good music...it was actually kind of like a rave, with tons of that fake smoke stuff and bright lights, but with salsa music instead...but the fake smoke proved to be too much for my lungs, and Wendy and I weren't really feeling it, so we took a cab back and went to sleep. I think it's safe to say that night was probably the most uncomfortable night of sleep I have had in Costa Rica, because while we had mats to sleep on, we had no sheets or pillows, and since it was so humid out, the plastic on the mats stuck to our skin, and there was sand absolutely everywhere, no matter how much we tried to brush it off. Then, in the middle of the night, we woke up freezing cold, and my clothes were locked in the safe downstairs, so I had to wear Walker's giant t-shirt and pants (just in case you can't tell from the pictures, Walker is about 6'5" and incredibly skinny), and Wendy wore her rain jacket and put her dress around her legs. And then again when we woke up in the morning sweating buckets. It was quite the experience.

Sunday (which is the day we are now on) was basically another day of beach and lounging. Horrible life, right? I was still pretty tired from that lack of sleep the night before, so I decided to read/watch television in the hammock for a couple of hours before heading out to the beach. Wendy and I were also incredibly achy from all of the exercise the night before; I was achy to the extent that it was an effort to do anything with my legs, from standing to walking to climbing stairs to getting in and out of the tent...anything. Eventually we peeled ourselves off of our seats, and moaned our way to the beach, which was actually the perfect cure for the pain. When we got there the tide was super low, which means that the beach basically tripled in size (the differences between high and low tides here, at least on the Pacific side of the country, is insane), and there was a lot of sand that was covered in a thin layer of water, hot from the sun, so we decided to just lay down on that section and let our muscles relax. It was the perfect temperature, with just a little breeze flowing to keep us cool, and the hot water was just what our legs needed. We also swam around in the ocean, which was nice and cool on our muscles.

A note about the high and low tides in Dominical: besides the ridiculous differences in how high or low the water actually gets, during low tide there are incredibly strong currents flowing all over the place. Even during high tide the currents are pretty strong, but when low tide hits, it's like trying to walk against a river current about 3 times the strength of the St. Croix/Mississippi. Some places the current is pushing one direction, and then ten feet later you'll be in a patch where it starts pulling you the other way. Any adult can handle it, because the water is really shallow, but I would never bring any kids any more than a few feet into it, because they could easily get swept away. There was also the current pulling out towards the ocean and the current pulling in as the waves come and go. For us, it was super fun to crawl around on our hands and knees like little kids, and let the current pull us (most of the time we were going parallel to the shore). We spent a long time both days doing this.

We also decided to cover ourselves in the black sand to "exfoliate our skin", and run into the ocean to wash it off. Like I said, little kids and a day at the beach.

We went out to dinner with our two new friends from Canada, Selenya and Sari, drank some delicious smoothies (fresh fruit, everywhere...it's amazing), and then hung out at the hostel playing cards and learning magic tricks before heading off to bed.

Monday we slept in a little bit, and Wendy and I went out to the beach with Selenya and Sari and did some yoga sun salutations, followed by a few other poses and learning how to try to do headstands. Wendy was pretty good at it...I definitely need some more practice. Then we had to pack up and check out of the hostel, because we decided to catch a 1pm bus back to San Jose since everyone but me had homework to do. We said good bye to our new friends and took off on the bus...the ride wasn't too bad. The public bus from Dominical to San Isidro was nice and spacious, and on the bus from San Isidro to San Jose we snagged the seats in the very back, which meant we had tons of leg room and large windows with lots of air flow. It ended up being a pretty funny ride, because the bus driver was a typical crazy Costa Rican driver, and since we were at the very rear it was kind of like being in the last car of a roller coaster, getting whipped around from left to right. Once again, it was a gorgeous drive through the mountains, and we were freezing cold by the time we descended down into the valley because of how fresh and chilly the wind was coming through the windows. Here are some shots of the end of the weekend, and of the view on the way home, which simply do NOT do it justice...absolute breathtaking beauty.

That's about it! At some point in this trip I am going to try to start posting shorter, more daily posts, but these weekend ones are going to continue to be long, because I have no time to do any posting while I'm at the beach (big surprise, right?). Until next time! Peace.