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.

Daily Life

All right, well lucky for you and unlucky for me, I am home sick today with some kind of weird stomach issues, so I have time to write a little bit more about my life in San Jose. I don't really have any photos from San Jose, because it's not very safe to carry a camera around or walk around taking pictures, because that really gives away your tourist status (not that my blonde hair isn't enough of a giveaway in and of itself).

So, let's see...the first month was just class from 8-12 every morning, and then homework, going to the mall, going to a movie, going other places in San Jose, and going out a few nights a week. I wish I had kept track of all of the small cultural differences that have interested me over this past month and a half, because there were many here and there. I'll try and think of a few right now...

One of the most obvious differences is the way people drive around here. I think that crazy driving (or at least what we in the United States consider to be crazy) is pretty common in a lot of countries around the world; I remember a lack of traffic lanes in France, and have also seen the driving in Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru, and they all seem to go with their own flow. It's funny, because if I were to drive around in my own car here, I would definitely get in an accident within the first ten minutes, but being driven around by locals, especially taxis, doesn't scare me in the slightest. I honestly think the rate of traffic accidents is lower here than in the States, because even though they all drive super fast about an inch away from each other, I have hardly seen any accidents since I got here. There is a lot of honking involved, too, but I have been told that while some of the honking is angry, a lot of it is just people talking to each other; saying thanks if someone lets them merge, saying hi if you know someone, etc.

Also, something I noticed in the past couple of days because the rainy season has finally arrived is that rain jackets are very rare around here, which makes me a huge nerd, because I wear mine everywhere. Instead, the norm is to carry around umbrellas and whip them out whenever it starts to downpour. So it's official, I am a nerd in Costa Rica. I've learned to accept it.

Well, that's all for now, I'll think of more later. Maybe I'll write a list to remind myself. Ha. I always say that. Peace. =]

Monteverde

So, guess what, family and friends? I am now posting about this most recent weekend's trip, and after that I will be officially CAUGHT UP! Maybe after this I can actually write a little bit about my daily life in San Jose like I keep saying I'm going to do.

This weekend was a bit of a change of pace. Instead of heading to the beach (which we all know is where I really wanted to go), we instead headed to the mountains, to visit the cloud forest of Monteverde. During the month of October, ISA (International Studies Abroad, the program I came here with), has big excursions to a bunch of different places that was included in the price of the program for all of the people who are students for the semester. I am doing something a little bit different; now that my intensive month is done, I am doing a volunteer internship. This means that I didn't pay for any of the ISA excursions, which I was a little bummed about at first, since that meant I would have to pay separately, but now I am starting to see the advantages. Now that the fall semester has officially begun, there are 60+ ISA students, which means that each excursion involves giant buses full of American students, which to me is a bit much. Very touristy, all sorts of English being spoken, and not as much of a chance to get the true feel/experience of a place. So instead of paying for the full ISA excursion to Monteverde, I did things my own way.

What I did was pay for two of the activities through ISA (thus getting the discount), but found my own transportation (a public bus for only $8 round trip) and my own lodging (a hostel, $12 for the whole weekend). Altogether, I think I spent about $100 less than all of the ISA students - who stayed at a fairly nice hotel and had all inclusive meals - which I would say is a pretty good deal. I went with my friend Walker (who I mentioned in the last post; he's the guy loving the surfboard), and my friends Bryan and Cole, who I also mentioned in the last post - they had come to San Jose for a couple of days and were trying to figure out their next move, so when Wendy and I hung out with them (at Hooters, of all places; I've never even been to one in the United States), we suggested they go to Monteverde with us. We got a four person room, and set up camp. Here are a few pictures from the beginning of the weekend:

Waiting at the bus stop

Fog, fog, and more fog, up in the mountains

A shot of our room in the hostel, complete with Cole and Bryan's surf boards, of which they had a total of three; obviously not very useful in Monteverde =]

Walker, being his artsy self, drawing away

Cole (left) and Bryan (right), being...themselves.

The only downfall to the weekend was having to find and pay for our own meals, but that wasn't really much of a downfall, because it was fun going to different local restaurants. The hostel was a pretty cool place, too. Here's a picture of the lobby, and a couple shots of Walker and Bryan cooking our delicious and very healthy macaroni-and-cheese-with-hot-dogs dinner on Saturday night:

The hostel lobby

Me lounging in the hammock hanging outside of the hostel, watching the clouds come in

Walker, being a goon as usual, cooking dinner (mmm, hot dogs)

Bryan doing the dishes

The bus ride was a pretty long one, not because Monteverde is far away from San Jose, but because about halfway through the bus has to start climbing the mountain, and the road is a curvy dirt road, and the bus has to move slowly, all the while stopping every five minutes or so to drop people off (remember, this is a public bus, so it makes lots of stops along the way, and it's pretty crowded and cramped - worth the $8 round trip, though). Eventually we got high up, and could smell how fresh the air was, and see the fog everywhere (see the picture above). The view was fantastic, too, with foggy patches and some clear patches showing all sorts of gorgeous valleys spotted with farms. You could even see the ocean at a distance. It was spectacular, and it amazed me once again how many landscapes Costa Rica has. It was a bit scary looking out the window and not being able to see the side of the road, though. I had quite a few visions of the bus driver making one wrong move and flinging us off the side of the cliff, followed by a fiery explosion in the middle of a green field down below. Lucky us, none of that happened =]

We got to the hostel after dark (which comes at about 6:00, remember), and when we got of the bus we were practically assaulted by all sorts of people wanting us to stay at their hostel or eat at their restaurant, and even after we told them we already had plans, they tried to convince us that their establishment was better. Once we elbowed our way out of that crowd, we made our way to the hostel, which was only a block away from the bus stop. The name of the hostel was Hostel Pension Santa Elena (Santa Elena is the main town up on the mountain; there is also a town named Monteverde, but I am pretty sure they are basically the same thing). We settled into our room, got some dinner, and made ourselves a few drinks before going out to one of the only local bars, named Amigos. Not gonna lie...Monteverde doesn't really have much of a party scene. The bar was a very nice, new one, but it was full of a lot of middle-aged people doing the salsa and some American students who were actually spending a semester studying in Monteverde, which is a very pretty place, but I could NEVER live there for four months.

Saturday morning, we all had to get up pretty early because we had our various activities to do. Bryan and Cole were going on their own canopy tour, and Walker and I were catching the bus with the rest of the ISA students to do the same (I was also signed up to do an ATV tour, which I was starting to regret...). We got to the place, got into our equipment, and got a little tutorial of how to zipline (which is basically what the canopy tour consisted of). Here are a couple of photos from the experience (I don't have many, because I brought my large camera, which I shouldn't have done, because we couldn't take pictures while doing actual ziplining, and it was a hassle to take the camera out, take a picture, and then put it away while waiting in line):

Posing with our equipment (left to right: me, Wendy, Becca, Alyssa) - note the giant gloves for handling the cable!

Excited!

The beginning of one of the shorter ziplines, stretching through the trees

Walker took this picture; this is me on the Tarzan swing, which I'll describe below

Ziplining was a pretty unique and amazing experience. It was also kind of scary, because it's pretty easy for a small breeze to come alone and turn you around so you're going backwards on the track, which happened to me a couple of times, and in order to brake, you have to be facing forwards. What you do to go straight forward is cross your legs and pull them up in front of you, lean back as much as possible, and put your left hand back to form a loose loop with your fingers around the wire, which keeps you stable and serves as your brake when you need to slow down. We were given giant gloves (see above) because our hands would obviously be torn to shreds by the wire cables if we had to use them to brake (one of the fingers of my friend Alyssa's gloves got worn out and her finger got a really bad burn on it). There were 11 ziplines in all, starting with some shorter ones straight through the trees, and ending with some absolutely fantastic ones that went across the giant valley, literally hundreds of feet up in the air. It was super surreal soaring through the air like that. It was hard to comprehend how high up I was and that I was actually hanging from a wire cable draped over pure space, with only a metal loop keeping me secure. I was also kind of distracted from trying to keep myself going straight forward; the last zipline was definitely an ab workout. Regardless of all of that, though, it was absolutely amazing.

Two other parts of the canopy tour were repelling and the Tarzan swing. There was only one repelling opportunity, which involved us standing on a really tall platform attached to a tree, and being attached to a rope (like when you go rock climbing), and then being dropped down really fast to the ground, being caught just before you hit the ground. This part happens so fast that they don't really give you time to think about it, even though I think if I hadn't done a lot of rock climbing this past semester, I might have freaked out a little bit more.

The Tarzan swing (see the picture above), again starts on a really tall platform. They attach you to a really long rope, and then basically push you off the platform. It was really funny watching the reactions of all of the people being pushed. There were many variations of different screams, and lots of swearing going on. The workers were really funny too, trying to scare everyone by yelling "DON'T DO IT!" as they pushed people off the platform, while the workers standing on the ground below tried to take of the shoes and socks of the people as they swung by, or tried to make them spin in circles. Once you are pushed off the platform, it's basically what you would imagine it being after hearing the name: a giant swing that goes really high up in the air, past the tops of the trees, and then swings you back towards the platform again. They let you swing back and forth about three times, and then they take out this giant rubber band type thing and catch you in it. They managed to get off both of my shoes and one of my socks.

So after this experience, which took a pretty long time since there were so many of us students, and the lines were kind of long at spots, almost everyone went back to the hotel except for the people who had signed up for horseback riding and ATV. I had signed up for the ATV experience, mostly because I had never done it before and this trip has inspired me to do all sorts of things I probably never would in the States. There were only three students signed up to do it, and a couple from Spain. They brought us to the ATVs, taught us how to start and run them, and then had us to a test run around a track to see which ones of us might need extra help. Guess who needed that extra help? If you guessed me, you are very, very correct. The people who were good at it got to drive around the whole area and go into all of the difficult parts, and the two of us that needed help were at first restricted to the "easy" area, which I was totally fine with, because I was kind of freaked out about being in control of this seemingly uncontrollable vehicle. It was super hard to turn, and I had a lead thumb on the throttle, which made me jerk around a lot instead of smoothly increasing and decreasing the speed. After about a half an hour of practicing, the two instructors (Joe and Jodi, both guys) hopped on the ATVs with us and had us drive around the areas of medium difficulty. We were then free to drive around those areas by ourselves for awhile, and next we were shown the hardest areas, and allowed to drive around those alone too. I think I definitely got better, once I got the whole throttle and shifting gears thing down, and once I got a little bit more confident about going faster and knowing the turning radius.

After this, the instructors had us sit behind them on the ATVs and put our arms around their waists, and they proceeded to drive us around the tracks themselves, super fast, popping wheelies, doing donuts, spinning around everywhere, going over jumps, everything. You have to keep in mind that this track was not just a smooth dirt road; there were hills and trees and branches and dips in the ground everywhere, which made the terrain super rough and bumpy. There were many times I felt like I was going to be bounced off the ATV, or that the ATV was going to tip over backwards, like when they were doing a wheelie. ATVing is really all about the balance, knowing how far you can push it before you tip over. I was convinced I was going to die the whole time, but Joe and Jodi definitely knew what they were doing, so I guess I shouldn't have felt like I was in THAT much danger....

So after that fun, we took off on a jungle tour (I opted to sit behind the very handsome Jodi with my arms around his waist instead of driving myself), driving up and down hills, through paths that looked like they had never been touched, through rivers, down ravines, etc. It was really fun to be so far in the rainforest on ATVs, especially since I could just enjoy the scenery and some of the tricks Jodi did instead of being stressed about having to traverse the terrain myself. It's too bad I don't have any pictures of this ATV experience, but it really wasn't the kind of thing you carry your camera around for.

Moral of the story: like I could have predicted, ATVing will not become one of my hobbies anytime in the near future.

Finally, I got to go back to town, went out to lunch with Bryan and Cole, and then took a looooong nap, followed by dinner and another long nap (all of us were exhausted from the night before). We stayed in bed until about 10:00pm, when we finally decided we had to get up and get ready, because Wendy, Alyssa, and Becca were expecting us to meet them at Amigos. Instead, they ended up showing up at our room, and we hung out there for awhile, listening to music on Bryan and Cole's speakers, and then going out to the bar later.

Sunday consisted of lots of sleeping, as well as a somewhat pointless hike to find a tree to clim. We ended up not being able to climb it, but at least we got a good workout out of the deal, despite how tired we were. Monteverde is quite a hilly place. Here are some photos from the hike:

The tree we weren't able to climb

A beautiful view of the valley from one of the breaks in the trees

After the hike we were extra tired, so we all lounged around for a couple of hours until Bryan and Cole's shuttle came to take them to Arenal Volcano, and soon after the bus came to bring Walker and me back to San Jose. The bus ride back was especially long for some reason, I think partially because of the rain and partially because of the traffic once we got back into the city. We got back pretty late, and I zonked out.

This was a long entry, but now I'm caught up! More about life in San Jose and my internship in the next couple of days, I promise. Much love, miss you all! Peace.

Another Tamarindo Weekend

Okay, so now on to this OTHER weekend before last.

The week before this weekend was the last week of classes, so on Thursday we had a big presentation, and then on Friday we took our final exam for the month. Oh, and I guess I can't forget to mention that it was my birthday on the 23rd, so Tuesday night we all went out and had a great night, and then the rest of the week was spent trying to prepare for the presentation and exam. We also went to the opera on Thursday night, which was probably a mistake as far as being responsible (Wendy and I were up until about 3am that night studying and then packing for the weekend...the test was at 8am), but was a very interesting experience nonetheless. Wendy, Alyssa, Bernie and I got all dressed up and went to the Teatro Nacional, which is their nice, fancy theater here in San Jose. The name of the show was Gala Lírica, and it was basically like a recital; different piece of music being performed by different singers, sometimes solo and sometimes two or more of them together. At the beginning we were all a bit iffy, because the first few performers left much to be desired in the musical abilities department, but then the talented ones came out, and it ended up being a blast. I was also hesitant because in the past I've found opera to be a bit...well...boring, but it ended up being only about an hour and a half long show, including intermission, so it wasn't bad at all. It was nice to see the inside of a historical building in San Jose, and feel a little cultured at the same time.

So this past weekend was a 3 day weekend (we had Monday off), because it was the end of our intensive month and because all of the other 60 or more students from our program were arriving and had orientation on Monday. Thus, we had kind of a free weekend with no official excursions planned. Most people decided to head to Montezuma, which is more in the southwestern area of Costa Rica, in the province of Puntarenas. My friends Wendy, Walker and I decided instead to head back to Tamarindo, because Walker loves to surf and Wendy and I had a really good time the last time we were there.

There aren't really any words for that weekend that describe how incredible it was. It wasn't so much that we did a bunch of fun, new things. It was more about the atmosphere of the weekend. Tamarindo is becoming a very touristy place, but right now it's in the down season, so there are the perfect amount of people there; a really good mix of locals and visitors. You don't have to make reservations, the beaches aren't too crowded, and you still get a sense that you are in a different country instead of feeling like you could be anywhere in the world surrounded by the same kinds of tourists. The hostel we stayed at is named La Botella De Leche, which means The Bottle of Milk. It´s this absolutely fantastic hostel where pretty much everything but the rooms is open air with roofs over it, and it has a courtyard (complete with a shower to rinse off yourself and your surfboard), a communal kitchen, and a common area that is like a living room, with a computer with free internet and a television and lots of comfortable places to lounge. The rooms each have their own mini porch area with a hammock and some kind of seat. It is a very comfortable place, and the community there is great, because everyone is there for the same reason: surfing, hanging out at the beach, sleeping, and going out at night. It´s great. Here are some pictures:

Wendy celebrating our awesome room at the hostel

Walker lovin' his surfboard (tabla de surf)

The courtyard (see the sweet shower?)

Outside of our room

A few of some of the other rooms at the hostel

The communal kitchen

The common area

So anyway, the weekend consisted of pretty much everything I listed above. Though my friend Wendy and I are not surfers, we met a ton of them, and hung out with them during the afternoons and nights, when they weren´t surfing (the time to surf is at high tide early in the morning and then again in the late afternoon or evening, until it gets dark). Wendy and I did try surfing though...we each got up and rode a wave about 2 times out of about 100 attempts, haha. It was still really fun to keep trying and trying, though, and the water in Tamarindo is pretty shallow, so it was not very scary to fall off the board. I did get knocked pretty hard on the left side of my head once, but that was at the beginning of the session and trust me, I did not let it happen again. Ouch. It was also nice because usually people hire surf instructors, but we had our new friends Cole and Bryan there to teach us, so all we had to do was pay $10 for rental of the surfboards for 2 hours, and we were good to go. That was just one afternoon, though. The rest of the weekend we were able to lounge around at the beach, walk around to different fun restaurants for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (although we did cook a few meals in the communal kitchen, which was pretty fun: chicken nuggest, macaroni and cheese, smoothies, and toast...very cuisine), and then go out at night, which usually required multiple nap times the following day, because in Costa Rica the parties last until 4am.

The best part about this weekend was the commmunity and the shared interest for world traveling. We met so many amazing people who had been traveling for months. A few examples include:

:: A group of five rowdy, obnoxious, hilarious Australian surfer dudes who basically loved three things - partying, girls, and surfing - who had been traveling around the United States, Central America, and who were on their way to Canada to live there for the entire snowboarding season, "until the snow stops falling"
:: Two Canadian guys (Bryan and Cole, who I mentioned before), who are actually snowboarders from Vancouver traveling around Costa Rica and Nicaragua for a couple of months
:: Two guys from Denmark, both athletes who wanted to try their hand at surfing
:: A dreadlocked 40-year-old man named Steve who was also from Australia, who grows pot in his backyard for a living
:: Another Canadian named Mike who was traveling alone and ended up decided to travel with Steve, Bryan, and Cole
:: An incredibly good-looking couple from Germany
:: A random smattering of other people who were traveling alone, mostly from Europe, who ended up meeting other people and deciding to travel with them because they were all going the same direction
:: Two British guys named Will and Ollie, who we met on the bus on the way back to San Jose from Tamarindo, and who we ended up hanging out with the next night, singing karaoke

And others, as well. We were all staying at the same hostel, sharing stories and talking about the best places to travel to next, discussing religion and sociology, and watching trashy movies and television and napping on the couches, or else cooking and playing cards, before all heading out in a group to see where the best place was to go for the night. The vibe of the weekend was fantastic, and I felt like I could live like that forever. It inspired me (and Wendy) to go on a world trip of our own someday in the next few years, and it really reaffirmed my belief in experiential learning, and the benefits of living out of a backpack for months, actually taking time to learn about the world by meeting people and being spontaneous and open to other cultures. I now have no doubt in my mind that I am going to do that someday.

So anyway, after a long weekend of all that amazingness, Wendy and I had to get back on a bus for an almost 7 hour bus ride back to San Jose. We were both pretty whiny and complainy about having to leave, but we plan on going back again in a couple of weekends when Cole and Bryan are there again (they have the luxury of being able to decide to spend their last couple of weeks in Central American in Tamarindo), so I guess I'll just have to wait until then.

Here are a couple more pictures from that weekend:

Walker, Wendy and me excited to be in Tamarindo (Equipo dos!)

Me, loving my life

Tamarindo beach

That's all for this weekend!