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!