This blog is a work in progress because it seems every time it rains the internet goes out so it’s annoying but I’ll post this (and pictures too) whenever I can! 

Hola todos!  I had a lovely weekend at Manuel Antonio…it is a beautiful place, I’ve never seen anything like it!  We arrived Thursday night and ate dinner at a place right next to our hostel…but we learned pretty quick if you go somewhere that’s a small local restaurant it will take hours to get your food and get out!  So we were all starving by the time we got to eat at like 9.  This hostel was nicer because it had internet, a free 10 minute phone call per day, free breakfast (make your own pancakes!) and a pool down the hill.  Shout out to mom and dad—glad I got to actually call and talk to you guys!  After dinner we went for a night swim in the pool…it was so cool cause there was lightning so we just sat back and watched the sky. 

Friday we got up and hung out at the public beach all day.  To get there we walked down the mountain—kind of a long walk but good to get some physical activity haha.  It was very hot too…the sun’s a bit stronger here!  I didn’t do too bad though, only burned my shoulders a bit on the last day.  (Sidenote--even my host mom called me "negro," aka black, when I returned haha).  They’re really bad about harassing you to buy stuff though, like as soon as you walk on the beach about 10 different people ask you if you want to rent a chair or a shade thingy for the day.  I never wanted one so by the 10,000^th person that asked me I just wanted to be like, “NO. I do not want a chair. Now stop asking. Geez.”  At one of the shops we walked by one of the guys took one look at us and said, “what are you going to buy?”  Ha and I just thought to myself, “well, nothing from you.” Haha it just got so annoying after awhile. 

I can now say that I’ve been to 2 coasts and 2 oceans in one week!  This past weekend we were on the Pacific side, and the ocean is lots different than the Caribbean side for sure.  The ocean on the Pacific side is very strong and the waves knock you over then suck you back in, then knock you over…not that I know from experience or anything…it was a little rough haha.  But I still went swimming of course.  The water was still warm but not as warm as the Caribbean side.  The waves were pretty big so we were getting beat up out there.  Some of the girls took surfing lessons, and while I always thought that was something I wanted to try, I decided I didn’t want to feel like I was drowning all day and opted out.  Plus the bottom of the ocean was rocky, not sandy, so I imagine it would hurt when you scraped your body along the bottom.  It seemed a little more rough than I expected soo I’m not too sad I didn’t do it haha.  Although I must say, there were lots of attractive guys there and some of those surf instructors had some rockin bodies…so anyways, I just enjoyed the view from the beach.

That beach had like big boulders and little rock islands on it so we went exploring again and got some good pictures climbing in and on the rocks, they’re really pretty.  Oh and I drank out of a coconut!  It just had water in it so was like coconut-tasting water, it was actually really good (probably because I was already dehydrated too—we don’t drink the water outside of San Jose, so when you have to buy all your water in bottles, you run out pretty quick and drink less, pretty much).  It felt like a really tropical thing to do haha.

Saturday we went to the national park—it has lots of the exotic animals in it.  We hiked through the trails and some of them were really narrow and overgrown so I felt like we were in Jurassic Park hiking through the jungle.  We didn’t get a tour guide so I kind of felt like we were walking past a lot of things that weren’t obvious.  But we still saw: a baby toucan, a big fat poisonous caterpillar thing, crabs, lizards, an iguana, birds, butterflies, some people saw a sloth but I couldn’t find it in the trees, and monkeys but that’s coming up later!  We followed one of the trails to this little inlet with a small beach…it kind of looked like our own private island.  This place was the most beautiful I have ever seen—I was literally living inside a postcard.  Like, it was so pretty it looked fake almost.  I took pictures but it doesn’t really capture being there.  Here we had a picnic lunch of PB&J sandwiches!  I must say, it was a very nice setting for our little lunch.  After eating I didn’t feel too great but I think it was probably a mixture of not getting much for breakfast, then eating a lot at lunch, and being hot and dehydrated.  After lunch we walked back out of the jungle and went to the park’s beach—it was perfect, it had white soft sand and even soft sand in the water so it didn’t hurt your feet like the public beach.  Here we saw all the monkeys.  They were really cute—there were lots running around—but they are little thieves!  They would run down from the trees and steal people’s food and run away with it, and they would even go up to people’s purses and bags on the beach and search through them!  Haha it was great entertainment but luckily they did not take an interest in our things.  We slept on the beach the rest of the afternoon.

Saturday night we went to Quepos, a town down the mountain that had clubs and bars and stuff.  We went early so the first place didn’t have many people in it when we got there, but we met these 2 families from Colorado on vacation there, and they had a bunch of sons around our age so we made friends and joined their table.  When we were getting ready to leave and go to the dance club, one of the guys came over and told us his dad paid for our tabs!!  It was the best night everrr haha—it’s a big deal too because there were 5 of us, most of us had about 2 drinks, and they were not cheap!  So that was awesome.  Then we all moved on to the other club and danced the night away.  A successful night, I’d say.

Sunday we went back to the public beach—this time we gladly took the bus, I was really sore from all my walking in flip flops.  And guess what we did!  I went parasailing!  Me and two other girls all went at the same time and it was SO MUCH FUN.  I thought it would be scary but it wasn’t at all, it was actually quite peaceful and so cool.  To take off, we stood on the beach while the boat was out in the water, then the boat starts moving and you just kind of jog along until you’re lifted into the air.  Then when it’s over, you plop into the water and the boat drives you close to shore then you swim in.  After that we hung out on the beach and played with these two adorable little puppies until we had to go back up the mountain and catch our bus back to San Jose.  Oh yeah and we saw the guys from the night before on the beach too! 

Today in the English classes at school we went to the library and watched a movie.  It was like an educational type movie where they had to watch the movie clips and then write down what happened.  It was so funny to see though, because it was like really simple, clear conversations where they talked really slow and awkwardly so the kids could understand haha it just reminded me of Spanish movies we used to watch like that in school, they were probably just as unnatural. 

Funny sidenote: as if I didn’t know already how much I stick out, today walking home from volunteering someone selling shampoo (of all things…shampoo?) on the street asked me if I wanted to buy it and called me “Barbie.”  Oh boy.  Despite the lovely advertising, I did not buy any.

Yesterday I had my first Spanish class here at Maximo.  It’s every day this week for 2 hours, and turns out I’m the only one in my class, so lots of speaking practice for me!  Yesterday I learned that there’s a lot I don’t know haha.  I’ve picked up random things just by living here, but the reality is I speak English because the people I’m surrounded by most of the time only speak English—i.e., the other volunteers, English class at school, etc.  And I’m gone all day so I only speak to my host family a little bit at breakfast and dinner.  So, I think this is really going to be the only way I’m going to get better at speaking.  Oh yeah and in case you were wondering, I’m in the “upper intermediate—low advanced” level haha.

I’ve been holding out to buy you all souvenirs because I keep saying I’m not going to buy them until the end of my time here, and I have ideas of what I’m going to buy, but somehow I just keep buying things for myself haha…but of course, only practical things that I can use now!  I bought a coin purse because you get a lot of change with any transaction and I need my change to pay for the bus fare every day.  I also bought a headband and a wrap I wear to the beach because it functions as a towel and a dress/cover up. 

Other sidenote: I have no TV here but Maximo has TVs that always have the news on so as I’m sitting here I’m reading the headlines and I’m like, “what?!  what’s going on??”  haha because I feel like I have no idea of anything that’s happening so everything is news to me.  PS tell me stuff that’s going on at home, I miss everything and everyone!  8 weeks is a long time.  Hasta luego!

 Me, Becca, and our coconuts livin the life - Manuel Antonio public beach

Shenanigans in the rocks!

Becca, Karen, Me on top of a little rock island

Remember that time I lived inside a postcard? Yeah, this is it.

Monkey...planning his next move

Up, up, and away!  I am the dot in the front left.