Tortuguero

So here we are, finally, at the weekend before last. Tortuguero. This was a two day trip, from Saturday to Sunday. We got up early on Saturday morning (the whole getting up early thing seems to be quite the trend for the excursions here in Costa Rica) and took a taxi to a hotel in downtown San Jose, which is where the bus picked us up. We rode the bus for about two and a half hours to a small port area with a little restaurant, bathrooms, and a giant roof thing to stand under, where we got on a smallish covered boat that carries about 40 people.

The giant roof thingie =]

The boat

Wendy and me on the boat

The boat then took us to Tortuguero, which is not accessible by any roads, only by canal, which is why we had to take the boat. The boat ride lasted about an hour and a half, and all we saw the whole way were trees, a few little towns/buildings, and a few different lodges and hotels.

A view of the mouth of the river into the Caribbean

Pretty much what the whole boat ride looked like

Needless to say, by the end of the boat ride we were all pretty tired from all the sitting, and our butts hurt a lot. We were also exhausted from a week of late nights, which didn't help matters. So we were all looking forward to a bit of down time once we got to the hotel. We weren't really sure what to expect, since we were out in the middle of the rainforest on a boat, but what we ended up getting for a hotel was wayyyyy nicer than what I ever expected. It was basically bungalows in the middle of the jungle, with walkways and stone patios and a bar area with a turtle shaped pool, and lots and lots of twisting paths. Here are a couple of shots of what the paths looked like:

We ended up only having about an hour and a half to chill before our first activity, so a few of us hit the pool to ward off the heat for a little bit (it was VERY hot and muggy, and no air conditioning...kind of like summers at home in Minnesota...), and then changed to head across the canal to the little town of Tortuguero. I should probably add in here that Tortuguero is a national park on the eastern coast (Caribbean) of Costa Rica, up towards the north. It's world-renowned for its turtle nesting season, which is just past its peak right now. This little town of Tortuguero is situated on a narrow strip of land between the canal and the Caribbean. Our hotel was on the other side of the canal. So we took a very short boat taxi ride across the canal, and then we took a short guided tour of the beach. Our guide showed us an old turtle nest, which basically just looks like a dip in the sand, a couple of turtle egg shells, and the trail that a mama turtle left as she was making her way back to the ocean:

Turtle nest

Turtle egg shells

Turtle trail

After the beach tour, we had some free time to walk around the town. It was a very quiet town with only a few tourists, some people riding around on bikes, and shop owners. It was very pretty, too, with pretty paintings and murals on the sides of buildings, and there was also this really cute restaurant/cafe place that a few of us went to to get (surprisingly very strong) daiquiris. Here are a few photos of the town:

Then we had time to go back to the hotel and rest a little bit more; eat some dinner, go in the pool and relax, and take a nap. Then it was time for the real purpose of the trip.

Turtles lay their eggs at night, so the hotel had tours at 8 and 10pm (it gets dark in Costa Rica between 5 and 6 every night). We got to go on the 8pm one, which was nice because we were so tired. We had to dress in dark clothes, and we weren't allowed to bring any flashlights or use any cameras, because the flashing and the lights would scare the turtles. Thus, I have no pictures of any of this.

We took a boat over to the other side of the canal again. One group was dropped off right across from the hotel, another group a little further north, and then our group was dropped off the furthest up the shore, about five minutes from the hotel. We were in groups of 10, because too many people in large groups would also scare the turtles. When we got to our drop off site, our guide came running up to us, talking really fast, and scolding us for being so late (even though it wasn't our fault). She had us follow her right away, and we ran across a little field and then to a path in the woods. We walked really fast along that path for about five minutes, trying really hard not to trip over roots or rocks, and finally came to a path that led to the beach, which was just on the other side of the trees. Our guide led us a little ways up the beach, where we could see a group huddling near the trees, lit up by a red light. We had to wait a few minutes for our turn, because only one group can go near the turtle at a time. When it was our turn, our guide turned on her red light and we got into a semi-circle around the nest, where there was this GIGANTIC turtle sitting in what basically looked like a hole in the sand. When I say gigantic, imagine something roughly the size and shape of a semi-truck tire, except with fins and a head and tail. She was almost done laying her eggs, so it was super lucky that we got to see it. The eggs came out of what looked like a big tube thing, just plop, plop, plop, all smooth and round and about the size of gold balls. Our guide told us that she was going to lay about 100 that night, in only ten minutes. Then we had to move to let another group look, and we waited for our turn to watch her covering her nest. The nest covering process takes about 40 minutes, while the digging process can take up to two hours. Needless to say, the turtle was probably pretty tired by this point. To cover her nest, she used her fins to fling sand back over the eggs, and when she did the fins made an incredibly loud slapping noise on her shell, and sprayed sand everywhere behind her (it was very forceful; we learned our lesson when we stood directly behind her and got sand flung straight in our faces). After we watched that, we had a little bit of a wait, because we wanted to see the turtle walk back down to the ocean. We all laid on our backs and looked up at the sky, which was dotted with clouds and stars; there was a thunderstorm going on somewhere out in the ocean, so every once in awhile you could see a flash of lightning as well. We asked our guide questions about turtles, and she was really full of knowledge. She had been working with turtles for a long time, and I think she said she had been a guide for about ten years. The whole time we were talking and waiting, we could hear the slap of the turtle's fins against her shell, even from a distance.

Finally, the guide told us to stand up and make a line from the line of trees down to the shore, to kind of make a path for the turtle to walk through. Her walk down to the ocean only took about five minutes; she would slide herself along the sand a few meters, and then stop for a little while, either because she was tired, or she saw/heard us or the red light that the guide was shining. Eventually, she made her way down to the shore, and we all stood behind her and she pushed herself into the waves and disappeared. It was SUCH a cool experience. It was definitely much cooler than I thought it was going to be, and I am really glad I got to see it; we got lucky, because the other groups didn't see anything that night.

There are also turtle babies hatching right now, which is more common in the morning hours. I think our guide said that only 2% of the baby turtles make it, because of predators and other dangers. Such a little number, those poor little baby turtles...but that's nature, I guess.

So after that we went back to the hotel, and absolutely zonked out. We had to get up super early again to go on a canal boat tour, but then it turned out that we had to pay another $10 to go on it (the guided night tour cost $30 on top of what we had already paid for the weekend), and the hotel only accepted cash, which none of us knew ahead of time, so we were all out of cash from paying for the tour the night before. Most people decided to go on the canal tour anyway, but Wendy, Becca, Alyssa and I opted to explore the paths of the hotel instead (okay, so we were actually trying to find a hiking trail, but never found it and then got lost...), and then went back to our rooms and slept for another hour until it was time for breakfast. After everyone came back and ate, we packed up and headed back to the boat, then back on the bus, and then back home. It was a good weekend, even though a lot of us feel like we only paid to eat, ride in transportation, and go watch eggs being laid (totally worth it, but still a rather pricey weekend).

Oh, and one more thing, I saw a scorpion! It was in the other girls' room. Super creepy, super cool.

All right, that's all for now! You're almost all the way caught up, dear friends and family! How exciting is that. I'll write soon to tell you about this past weekend, and probably write an entry about my general life in San Jose, which I have neglected to tell you about. Much love, paz.

Independence Day

All right, now I'm really on a roll! On to Independence Day. Costa Rica's Independence Day is on September 15th, which was a Tuesday. Monday night is usually a pretty big night to go out to the clubs here in San Jose, so you can imagine what that Monday night was like, especially since most people didn't have work or school on Tuesday. It was a really fun night, especially because our Tico friend Bernie knows pretty much everyone in San Jose, and was able to get us past an hour and a half long line into the club, and then get us a table when all of the tables were full. It was the first time I went out in San Jose, and it was great to dance and hang out in a setting other than school with my friends. It was also really nice to sleep in the next day. I really didn't do much on Tuesday, since we didn't have school. In the evening I ended up going to an elementary school that's about 10 minutes away walking, and we watched their Independence Day assembly. It was super cute, because a lot of the kids dress up, and lots of the little girls wear traditional outfits, which consist of white skirts and blouses with red and blue ruffles (those are the colors of Costa Rica). Also, all of the kids make lanterns (globos) to carry in a parade after the assembly, so during the assembly there was an awards ceremony for the best lanterns of that year. Some of the lanterns were incredibly elaborate; I saw one that was practically a full miniature dollhouse!

The assembly consisted of the singing of the national anthem, the flag song, and some other song...their national songs are much longer than ours. A few little boys also got up and gave little speeches. Then came the parade, where all of the families and the kids lit the lanterns and walked along the streets, along with a group of about 20 kids drumming very loudly. We followed along, taking pictures, until our turn came to walk home.

So that was my Independence Day experience!

White Water Rafting

All right, so I'm still super behind, but this week I promise to get all caught up. So, on to white water rafting! This was..two weekends before last weekend, the day after going to Isla Tortuga. We got up really early, once again, and got picked up by a guy named Carlos for a two hour ride out to the region of Limón, to an area named Siquirres. The name of the company we went with is Exploradores Outdoors, and the staff basically consists of a bunch of guys in their twenties who love doing everything outdoors, including river kayaking down waterfalls, white water rafting, rock climbing, you name it.

So we ate breakfast, and then changed into clothes that could get wet, stored our stuff, and headed out in vans to the launch point for the rafts. It was a really windy, narrow dirt road basically going down the side of a cliff, and then the launch point was just this rocky beach along the river. We divided up into teams, got our life jackets, helmets, and paddles, slathered on some sunscreen, and then headed out.

I'm not going to lie, I was a bit nervous at the beginning, because I didn't know what to expect, or how dangerous it actually was, but our guide Roberto did a good job of teaching us the paddling commands and how to get down in the raft if we needed to, and where to place our feet and all of that. After a bit of practice, we started going down the river, and that was where the real fun began.

I don't really know how to describe this entire experience, because it's really something you just have to see and feel for yourself in order to understand it. The whole journey was a series of calm moments, followed by Roberto telling us to brace ourselves as we approached each set of rapids. The rapids are rated by level of difficulty, and the rapids we went down were anywhere from 2-4, so pretty mid-level, very good for beginners. There were a lot of different landscapes to see, but basically we were in this incredibly deep valley, more like a gorge, really, in between two tall mountainous cliffs of pure rainforest. There were a few quiet eco-lodge places every once in awhile, and a few indigenous villages that Roberto pointed out to us, but besides that it was pure wilderness, green green green, with butterflies flitting over the river and waterfalls pouring off the side of the cliffs into the river, and sometimes on to our heads if we were able to steer ourselves under them. It was absolutely phenomenal, and the actual white water rafting part of it was not at all scary, not even the littlest bit. We had so much fun going down the rapids, and all I could do was smile and laugh the entire time, as you'll see from my pictures, haha. Overall it was a fantastic experience that I want to do many more times. Here are some photos:

So that's about it for now! I'll continue to catch you up very soon. Until next time, pura vida.

Isla Tortuga

Hi all! So once again, I am very behind on my blogging...like, almost 3 weeks behind. So I will try to update you as briefly as possible so that this entry isn't incredibly long. Two weeks ago was a pretty basic week; I had a presentation on Thursday (it was on living and working in Hawaii), and then my "midterm" exam on Friday, so both Wednesday and Thursday nights were pretty hectic for me (I procrastinate and do everything last minute, just in case you didn't already know that about me). Once again, we were all looking forward to the weekend because we had some fun excursions planned. That Friday night we ended up going to see The Hangover (or, in Spanish, ¿Qué Pasó Ayer?, which directly translated means "What Happened Yesterday?"), which was a nice relaxing way to spend Friday.

Saturday a bunch of us took a tour to Isla Tortuga (Turtle Island), which has its name because of the shape it looks like from the air, not because it has a bunch of turtles hanging around on it. It was a really nice, relaxing day, even though it was pretty touristy. We had to meet the bus at 5:45am, because we were the first ones to be picked up. It was a pretty long bus ride, because first we had to stop at a bunch of hotels in San Jose to pick up other people, and then we had to drive through the mountains over to Puntarenas, which is one of the regions on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. From Puntarenas we took an hour and a half long boat ride out to the island. The boat ride was nice, if not a bit bumpy...the engine was very vibratey, so it was hard to sit anywhere without your whole body vibrating along with it. But it was a nice, sunny, hot day, and it was relaxing to look at the coast and the little islands all over the place. Eventually we got there, and it was beautiful (of course), and we ate some, relaxed on the beach some, played in the ocean, and then took the boat back to the bus, and the bus back to San Jose. Oh, and we went snorkeling! We took little boats out to a big rock a little ways off shore, and our guides gave us gross squishy white stuff to put in the water so the fish would come to it. Some of the fish even nibbled my fingers! I also got to hold a couple different star fish (way different than I thought they would be), and a sea cucumber (the guide had me hold it on my fingers so that it would start to sink over them and create an impression of my hand on its belly. Super cool. Later on, when we were playing in the ocean, a guy came up to us with a blowfish that was all blown up (see the picture below). All in all, it was a pretty fun day. Photos:









Okay, so that is all for Isla Tortuga, because white water rafting deserves its own post. Soon to come! I'm going to catch you up slowly but surely, and then I PROMISE I won't fall behind any more. Much love!

Weekend at Tamarindo

So, when I last left you, dear family and friends, I had just gotten done bungee jumping and was high off of life. This weekend continued the trend.

On Friday class seemed to drag on even longer than usual, because all of us students had our sights set on the beach and sun and surf(er boys) and the fiesta-ing that was to come. Finally, though, our profesora wished us a "buen fin de semana" (weekend), and we headed back to our houses to finish up packing, followed by some lunch at Veritas (the lunches there in the "healthy" cafeteria are soooo delicious: rice, some kind of meat - I only eat the chicken, not much of a read meat girl - steamed vegetables, beans, salad, sometimes fried plantains, fresh squeezed juice...mmmm). While we were eating it started to rain. And when I say rain, I don't mean a pretty little sprinkling of drops that refresh the ground. I mean torrential downpour of water flooding from the sky. This is a good thing, since right now it is the rainy season in Costa Rica, and all of the Ticos that we have talked to tell us that this is one of the dryest rainy seasons they have ever seen. Even I am noticing how dry it is, because it is supposed to rain a lot off and on every afternoon and evening, and we only had one or two days of light rain last week. So for Costa Rica and the general medio ambiente (environment), this rain was much appreciated; however, it made simply getting from underneath the awning where we at lunch to the bus quite the chore. By the time we made it the half a block to the bus, the front of my pants were completely drenched, from my hips down to my shins. Brrrr...

So we all packed onto the bus (and let me tell you, it was completely full). It was a private tourism bus, which was definitely nice, and it had an all right amount of space, but it was definitely a tight squeeze for all of the people that were on the trip. And then...we set off. 6 hours on a bus with one 15 minute break. Talk about having a numb butt. Luckily, it was an incredibly pretty view, because when we finally breached the outskirts of San Jose, leaving behind all of the traffic and buildings and smog, we basically drove through mile after mile of endless green mountains and valleys the rest of the way. It was raining the entire way, but that didn't stop the view from being spectacular; little red-tiled buildings and farms dotted all of the mountainsides, and everything was green, green, and more green. I had my iPod with me too, so it was very relaxing to stare out the window and listen to my favorite artists sing me through the mountains.

Finally, as we neared Tamarindo and dusk began to settle, the clouds began to break and the sun came shining through. Here are a few pictures, since I really can't find the words to describe how beautiful it was:








So, after we all hung out of the bus windows for about half an hour taking way too many (of the same) photos to count, it got pretty dark. And that, my friends, is when we hit the dirt road. Actually, I wouldn't even call it a dirt road. It was more like a series of giant potholes with patches of road surrounding them. I felt bad that for those on the bus prone to motion sickness, because that part of the ride had to be miserable for them...luckily, I don't suffer from such an ailment, and the fireflies were starting to come out. We were also able to have the windows open because the rain had stopped, so I was able to prop my foot up in the window and feel the balmy breeze blowing in as I looked at patches of buildings we drove past, and interlaced with the fields and forests glittering with fireflies. Eventually, the dirt roaded ended and once again became paved, and we drove into Tamarindo. Since it was so dark, we couldn't see much except for the lights of the restaurants and hotels/hostels lining the road; no ocean in sight for me.

We checked into the hotel and headed out to try to find a good place to eat supper. We were all pretty cranky and impatient with each other, partially because we were so hungry, and partially because we had just had to be smashed up next to each other for the past 6 hours straight. So we pretty quickly decided on an Italian place that was maybe a leeeetle bit too pricey, but at that point we didn't really care. So we ate, and went out to see the ocean, with the breaking waves glowing in the moonlight (!!!), and then headed back to our room to get ready to go out. Honestly, the rest of the night was kind of boring, even the part with the bar and the dancing...the most interesting part for me was sitting on the barstool with my beer, and Raymond and Deven, watching all of the different people walk by. There were lots of locals, of course, but then there were also your token couple in their 60s walking around in tropical shirts and looking all vacationy, and there were surfer men with literally bleached blonde long hair and deadly looking tans, all lean and weathered from surfing all day. There were also lots of male Americans (or at least that's what they looked like), with their American Eagle t-shirts and meticulously messy hair. So many different people in one place. It was also nice because it was a rooftop/open air bar with a couple of different dance floors, and the view of the ocean was so vast and beautiful in the moonlight that I would have paid 2000 colones just to sit and stare at it instead of sit and stare at all of the drunk Ticos hitting on women. Oh well, I was still entertained.

The next morning: woke up for delicious scrambled eggs and toast at the hotel, and then headed to the beach! I bought a disc and a medium sized bottle of 40 SPF sunscreen (for, get this: EIGHTEEN DOLLARS! I swear that's the best deal they had), and after we all slathered some on, we went into the ocean, which was basically salty bath water. AKA: divine. We swam around and thew the disc, laid on our towels and then swam around some more, all the while reapplying sunscreen like no one's business (Mom, you would be proud). Eventually we got hungry, ate pizza for lunch, and then a few of us decided to walk around to look at the shops (just to look, not to purchase anything...the shops in Tamarindo are ridiculously expensive). We found Wendy a place to get some surf lessons, which she decided to do the next morning, and then we headed back to the hotel for a little pool/down time. After swimming around I got a nice nap in (the sun had totally zapped all of my energy), and then we got ready to go to dinner/go out for the night.

Oh man, and I need to interject here and talk about how incredibly humid Tamarindo was. I know that Minnesota/the midwest in the summer get super humid and hot, but this place was like walking around in a permanent layer of wetness. You'd walk out the door and instantly be covered in a layer of moisture. I didn't mind it too much, since I loooooove hot beach weather and tropical humidity, but this was one of the only times in my life I have actually appreciated air conditioning.

The place we ate at was this totally cute place with way overpriced food, Jack Johnson playing in the background, and a waitress who was from Quebec (which means she obviously spoke both fluent French and English) and had come to Tamarindo while on a backpacking trip in Costa Rica, and had just...stayed. For 3 years. And, according to her, she has an incredibly "guapisimo" boyfriend from Tamarindo. She also happened to be adorable, with beachy hair and a freckly tan, and apparently now fluent in Spanish as well. Could that story be any cooler? I want it. Here are a couple of pictures from dinner:

Mikaela and me

The rubias (blondes) of the trip

Wendy and me!

Our table

Oh, and I forgot to mention that while getting ready for dinner, we took time to run to the beach to get some photos of the magnificent sunset:










So anyway, the rest of the night consisted of Wendy and me going to the local sports bar to watch the Costa Rica vs. Mexico soccer game (Costa Rica lost, there were many mad Ticos calling people on their cell phones and swearing in Spanish, and lots of yelling, it was really exciting), and then we hung out at a few more bars and danced and had a great night!

The next morning, needless to say, I was incredibly tired, and Wendy somehow still went to her surf lesson at 7am...got a few fun pictures of that. And then, around noon, the whole tired lot of us headed back to San Jose on that very crowded bus. It was a long ride, but I kind of slept for a lot of it, so it was all right. I got lots of sleep Sunday night, and then Monday and today it was back to class and homework. So yep, a great first weekend here in Costa Rica! I realize this is an incredibly long post, but most of my posts about the weekends probably will be, since I don't have the internet while I'm gone.

Anyway, that's all for now! Paz, my dear family and friends. Much love.