Bocas del Toro, Panama

I must say that this was one of my favorite trips so far, maybe because it was longer than usual (Sat-Wed) and so it felt like an actual vacation; or maybe just because it was absolutely gorgeous and incredibly fun over there. Probably both. Anyhoots, so Friday afternoon we left for Puerto Viejo, where we stayed the night. (otherwise the trip would've been too long!) We went to Johnny's place, stayed at Rockin Jay's... in hammocks! First time doing that one. Surprisingly, those things are quite comfy!

The next morning we took the bumpiest bus ride ever to Sixaola, where we had to fill out immigration papers, buy a temporary visa, etc. AND we had to walk across the scariest/ricketiest bridge ever. Big trucks have to travel on this too. Don't ask me how.

From there, we took another $5 bus ride to Changuinola, on the border of CR, where we waited for the water taxi to take us to Bocas!

That 45 min. ride was pretty awesome; it felt as though we were traveling through the rivers of the Jungle Book... first in murky waters with crocs (well I swear I saw one) and later through the clearest/most turquoise waters of the Caribbean.

So Bocas del Toro consists of about a hundred little islands, only a couple of which you're able to stay in. We decided to stay on the main one, Isla de Bocas, in one of the main hostels called Mondo Taitu. For our own mini dorm, with warm showers, laundry service, dvds and books, not too shabby for only $8/night. And apparently it's the hot spot for all the party-goers, offering hookahs and cheap drinks during happy hour (50 cent beers and dollar well drinks!), cocktail hour ($2 for suuuper strong drinks), and power hour (I'll explain later).
After settling in, we took a lancha (the water taxi) to another island, I think Isla Cabenera, for lunch at the Pickled Parrot, and a quick dip in the smallest stretch of beach I've seen. It was gorgeous, but we were literally eaten alive by sand bugs!

On our way back, we saw another gorgeous sunset.

After some happy hour drinks (here's the crew!)..

we ate dinner at some pirate restaurant, serving delish Mediterranean food! So I finally got my fix of hummus and falafels. :) That night was Reggae night at one of the places my friends were staying at, but no one was really there. So after some free drinks (for the ladies of course), we went to Barco Hundido, which was crackin! Here's Randi gettin her groove on to the electric slide.

The next day, we went on a snorkeling tour, which included dolphin watching and entrance to one of the Red Frog National Park, all day for only $15.
Check it out! The dolphins came soo close to our boat! It was amazing.

Here's a little medusa, or jellyfish. I got my first stings! They're beautiful, but man do those things hurt!

Here is Red Frog Beach. GORGEOUS.

And me and the girls.

So the reason why it's named Red Frog is because the park is abundant with these cute little critters..only about as big as my thumb!

That night we went to Iguana, where we met the super cool owner (half Thai and half Costa Rican..what a cool mix!), who gave us free tequila shots and mixed drinks! So this may sound pretty silly, but we actually decided to take 2 drammamine pills to knock ourselves out. If you can imagine, that's how badly we were itching and how much we were suffering. Haha, maybe mixing alcohol and drammamine isn't such a good idea, cuz we were feeling prettty crazy, but it did knock us out at least.

Okay, so the next day marked the craziest 24 hours of my life. Here's how it all started: the previous night we met a guy named Joey who co-owns his own catamaran boat with his uncle D. They charter between Panama and Columbia, which by the way, I was seriously considering going and skipping the rest of my classes. But we didn't.. So he invited us to take a boat ride to the other side of the island for the day, just the 10 of us. You may think it sounds a bit sketch, considering we had just met him, but something about him told us he was a good reliable guy. So we arrived to Mystic Wind, the name of their sailboat, which had the perfect deck for sunbathing.

And lucky us, the climate gods were with us, as it was hot and sunny alll day. Originally, they had told us it would only be a 1.5 hour cruise, but for some reason, it lasted 4 hours! Maybe it's because both of them were completely drunk the whole time, or maybe it's cuz they decided to let Charlie be Captain Chuck for the day. Here's crazy Uncle D, Charlie and Joey.

Man I love those guys. They are seriously the craziest men I've ever met, especially uncle D. He would tell us things like he had multiple girlfriends in Columbia and in Panama, one in which he put up on the sail (I forgot the term) naked! And then he said he helped smuggle a drug dealer out of Columbia one time...the list of crazy stories goes on. But I later learned that he had been in the Vietnam War, which definitely explains things. Joey was just a hilarious drunkard, with the funniest laugh. They may have been crazy, but they really took care of us.
Okay so after tanning all day and jumping in the warm salty waters here and there, we finally arrived at Starfish Beach, so named because the beach is covered with starfish..and huge ones too!

Siddie, me and Jamie with our newly adopted pets. :)

Since we hadn't eaten all day, we were starving, but apparently, there was only one restaurant in the entire area, about a mile or 2 away. We walked anyway, dressed only in our suits, due to the fact that we had to jump in the water to get to land. The food was delish (fresh fish) and the service was great. But by the time we were ready to go, it was raining and COMPLETELY DARK. We didn't even have the convenience of the moon to help guide us back! So that trek back was pretty darn scary. Imagine, 9 of us sopping wet wearing nothing but bathing suits, with all the guys completely drunk of course, in complete darkness, walking in the middle of nowhere for a couple of miles. Crazy right? Well the story doesn't end just yet.

So we finally made it back, safe and sound to Mystic Wind. By that time it was about 9 in the evening, and since the tide was really low, we were beached and stuck in the sand! Don't worry, Uncle D assured us, we'll just chill out and wait for high tide. So while we cuddled all together in some warm binkies, listening to more of their crazy stories, we ended up falling asleep outside. After about an hour, it started POURING rain, and we had to take refuge inside the cabin, where it smelled DISGUSTING. Something like rotten pee, a wet dog, or no, my friend described it perfectly: like a dirty wet diaper. So I refused to sleep downstairs on the beds, where it smelled even more like so, and so I ended up sleeping on top of a table! (No wonder my body was bruised and sore the next day). More and more hours passed, all of us sprawled either on top of tables, or squished together on tiny cushions, meanwhile of course Charlie and Joey were taking turns chugging from a bottle of rum. Even though the situation was far less than desirable, they were being quite entertaining, making the night easy to digest. Originally we had agreed to try to make it back before dawn, but even though the tide was high enough to "unbeach" ourselves, that night was one of the craziest storms I've ever witnessed, which would've been silly to try to sail back in. So, we stayed until the early morning and didn't arrive back until about 9 am...almost 24 hours since we first embarked the previous day! All in all, although there were certain points during the day in which I would've liked to avoid, it was a crazy experience that I will never forget. Todo fue una odisea! (All of it was just a super crazy adventure) And hey, at least we survived it to tell our grandkids haha.

That day, we decided to take it easy: rest, do a little shopping, visit the internet cafe, etc. Because that night was 80s power hour at our hostel! So starting at 9:30pm, they start playing a bunch of 80s music videos, and once a new video pops on, you're supposed to take a shot of beer. Oh and I forget to mention, everyone dressed in crazy 80s gear, except in our case, it was who can look the ugliest, grungiest and craziest. These are our roomies there.

Haha see, there are no limits here.

After that, we headed back over to Barco Hundido, where we danced the night away...or at least until they shut off the music. Basically, our last night there was crazy debauchery... but soooo fun! Bocas del Toro is seriously the place to meet fun loco people from all over the world, and just have fun and party! Had there not been so many bugs there, I would've seriously considered staying there and ditched the rest of my classes. But, my common sense took over and sent me packing back to San Jo...

Thanksgiving in CR

Lookie! Our dog Camila met a boyfriend! Even though he was a naughty little pupster, it was super cute. I won't show the naughty things they were doing.

I still cannot believe I missed my first Thanksgiving at home, and it's my favorite holiday too! The day where I get to eat delicious food and spend time with my fam bam... At first, I was feeling really nostalgic for home, but then I heard that ISA would be organizing a really nice Thanksgiving dinner for us (and rumor was that cooks from the US Embassy would be coming to prepare good ol American food for us!) So we all got dressed in our nicest dresses, expecting a night in which we wouldn't have to miss home too much.

But this was what it was: a little hole in the wall right in the middle of downtown San Jo. It totally looked like a soup kitchen for homeless people. It was so small, we were literally eating on top of each other. And I felt really silly wearing my dress, as I could've easily just worn sweats.

Okay maybe I'm a little overexaggerating, but it just made me miss home even more. Man, I would kill for some hummus, some of that homemade sticky rice and sweet potatoes...

Playa Grande y Tamarindo

This weekend my Marine Bio class had a field trip to Playa Grande on the Pacific Coast, about 15 minutes away from where I was last weekend in Tamarindo. It was a pretty crazy and eventful weekend, but quite unforgettable. We stayed at a hotel called Kike's which was small, but at least it had a pool and a bar. And apparently, there isn't very much to do in Playa Grande except surf, so that bar is the one hang out spot for locals. When we first arrived, the first thing I thought was, "great, all Gringos." But actually, after talking to some of them I realized that they WERE locals, and they had just moved there a year or 10 years previously after falling in love with the place.

So each of us had to choose one night to do "beach patrol," which really just meant turtle watching. Initially I was not excited at all because first of all, I was completely exhausted and they had told us that our chance of seeing one was really slim, and additionally, they said we had to wait for all of the tourists to go before us. So we didn't actually leave until 11:30pm. BUT, lucky us! The tour guides confirmed that a turtle had just crawled up into the sand! So we trekked along the beach for about 10 minutes in complete darkness, and then we had to wait awhile to make sure that she would for sure be staying there. The tide was really low, making the sand kinda dry and not an ideal condition for nesting, but lo and behold, she stayed! We walked up to her and she was HUGE! You don't even understand how excited I was. It was one of the most amazing occurrences I've ever witnessed, watching her dig out the hole with her hind flippers, and then lay her eggs! They didn't permit us to take pictures, but here is kinda what she looked like. Plus this is something I will never ever forget.

We walked over to the hatchery where they incubate the eggs and it turns out that this mama had about 60 yolked eggs. Amazing... I still can't believe I was able to witness that. Even though my legs were literally eaten alive by the sand fleas, it was totally worth it.

The next morning we had to do some beach cleanup, in the BLAZING sun. I almost thought I would pass out, but I didn't, luckily. And the beach was soo nice. After that we pretty much had the entire day free to sunbathe and body surf in the humongous waves.

Since we had gone the previous night to turtle watch, our teacher said we had the whole night free too! So we decided to go to Tamarindo, since that's where our other friends were staying. Here we are ready for the fiestas! Of course it would all be bio-related haha.

We went back to Babylon, where it was Lady's Night and where they were serving us free drinks! AND I finally met a cute boy who could dance well...

Ask me for details later if you'd like. :)

Pretty much the entire night was inebriated debauchery. I was completely enjoying myself until some of my friends decided to become emotional, stupid and super loco drunks. TOO much unnecessary drama! I won't go into details here. But I will say that the sleeping situation was pretty hilarious. Those of us from Playa Grande had to crash in our friends' hotel that night, so we ended up sleeping like 2 or 3 to a twin bed! Of course none of us got any decent sleep whatsoever.

The next morning we walked over to the estuary to meet the rest of our class and were suddenly bombed with the news that we had to walk through the mangrove forest! You see, this forest is not your ordinary forest. It consists of trees that grow only in mud and tiny roots that poke out of the ground...dangerous for our barefeet!

It was totally unexpected, but it's something I'd never done before so it was quite an adventure. We climbed trees, walked through mud at times up to our chests, and yes, all of this in my clothes from the night before.

I love this picture of my friend Tyler, holding up a dead snake. Totally survivorish.

Well, quite an adventuresome and eventful weekend I had. I had tons of fun, but I think I'm going to take a break from Tamarindo for a little while...

Semana Numero 7

Let's see, so Monday we went to el Cuartel of course...We had to show our band that we still loved them because I'm sure they were sad when they didn't see us there in front of the stage the last time. It was super fun, claro.

So I actually like my new teacher, the official avanzado 1 teacher, muuuuuuch better than the sub. She's pretty strict (for instance, she doesn't like us being late and she even got mad at one of my classmates for yawning slightly loudly!) BUT at least I'm learning waay more and she actually allows us to talk without making funny faces at us when we say something incorrectly. As the sub did...

Tuesday, hmm well let's just say that one of the worst possible things that could've happened to us happened to us. Basically, the bar Roots that I had raved so much about is now on my "no me gusta listo." If you want to hear what happened, just email me and I'll be happy to share another crazy story. :)

Wednesday we went to a documentary on the extermination of sharks at the University of Costa Rica. Man, I miss being on a real campus! With big lecture halls, lots of students, a cute college town, etc. Veritas doesn't even seem like a university; it's smaller than my elementary school! Anyways, so this documentary basically talked about the mass massacre of sharks and other marine animals. I had no idea that this illegal hunting had been going on, AND there's a black market that exists between CR and Taiwan! Apparently, shark fins are considered a sign of wealth in many Asian countries, especially China (freakin Chinese! haha jk), in which the shark fins are most often cooked in soups. (which I'm never eating again!) They are also highly sought after b/c they're believed to prevent cancer and other illnesses, even though no scientific evidence exists to prove this. It's really a shame that these innocent animals are being slaughtered JUST for their fins then carelessly thrown back into the ocean to suffer and be eaten by other animals. The movie really changed my perspective of sharks; I used to think they were such scary monsters (which is exactly what the media intended), but I now realize that they're just another innocent animal swimming in the sea, highly influencing its ecosystem and contributing to our livelihood here on earth.

After that, we went to one of the most delicious restaurants that I've ever been to, Tin Ho. It serves a mixture of almost all different Asian styled foods, which I haven't had here much yet, and in a really cute ambiance too. We immediately ordered a liter of sake b/c we were all so shooken up from that movie! Haha. I had ma po tofu, which was muy rico! Oh how I had been missing tofu so much...

Thursday I had to skip the soccer game, Veritas against ULACIT, because of course I had waited til the last minute to do my power point presentation for marine bio, which I was supposed to do this weekend during our field trip. At least I finished in time to go to Rachel's roomie's b-day party! It was so fun hanging out with new people, some from Mexico, some from Guatemala, and other gringos. Rachel's roomies get pretty crazy, but crazy sure means fun!

The next day my spanish class went to El Museo de Ninos, which was pretty interesting and HUGE. They basically had all sorts of info about everything, from the solar system, the CR culture, how mummies get mummified, to how the banana is cultivated and harvested. Once we got back to school, I had to rush home to pack for my field trip to Playa Grande!

Tamarindo

(yes I saw this)
This weekend we took a trip to the Pacific West Coast, a super touristy town called Tamarindo. It's probably one of the most well-known vacation spots for travelers and surfers, more like Hawaii with all of its luxurious hotels, expensive restaurants, and fiesta-goers. Originally, since none of us preferred to be around so many gringos, we had planned to stay in nearby beaches. But because we didn't arrive until 10 at night, we decided to just stay. And we ended up having tons of fun there! P.S. That bus ride was the longest 6.5 hours! But I took drammamine, which knocked me out the ENTIRE time haha.

That night, we ate a late dinner at a place called La Palapa. It was okay. Not my fave place. Then we went out to the Monkey Bar. It was crackin and super crowded! I hadn't been around so many white people since I've been here, so it was kind of a shock. It was really fun though; they had a live band, dancing to hip hop (yes!), and in general, people looking to have a good time. We met this old creepy guy who bought us all drinks, which I have no idea why, and who followed us to the next party. He ended up not being too creepy though. But he did love Charlie haha...

So the party continued on at Rey Sol, where they played all techno and trance music, a little too much for my liking. Also, the guys there were really grabby and gross, so we left.

The next day, we had an amazing brunch then laid out on the beach ALL day! It was soooo gorgeous and HOT! I later found out that we were really lucky, as the region that I was in was the only place in the country where it didn't rain or wasn't freezing.

Later that day, I saw the most BEAUTIFUL sunset I had ever seen. Here are the girls and me.

And doesn't the sky look fake? Well it wasn't! It's so amazing to me how all the colors form and mix together like that.

After that amazing view, we rested awhile, washed up in FREEZING showers, and went out. After a pretty crappy dinner, we headed out to Babylon, the poppin club for that night. The place was really cool...there was a live reggae band, a large dance and bar area, and a mini skate park! Who woulda thunk that right?

The whole night basically just consisted of a whole lot of dancing, meeting new people, oh and more dancing.

The next day, we decided to skip on the only bus heading towards San Jose, which left at 5:30 in the morn! Instead, we took our own private mini bus. It was kinda expensive, but the comfort was well worth it, in addition to the fact that we were able to spend more time at the beach. At one of our stops, we saw a gorgeous loro! Can you notice that it was looking straight at the cam!?

Okay I'm ending this blog the same way I've ended every other one after a weekend trip...It was amazingly fun and beautiful, and I didn't want to return to ugly San JO!

Quick Update from Semana 6

Let's see what happened last week. Oh so I had a midterm and presentation on the same day! AND the presentation had to last at least 15 minutes, in espanol, and my topic was la adopcion de ninos por homosexuales! Pretty controversial and difficult right? well actually, I think I did pretty well on it! It flowed nicely. Estoy contenta :) Probably because it's a topic I feel passionately about. Anyhoots, so about the midterm, no comment. I think I did ok, not great. But it's b/c I only had about 30 minutes before hand to study. Oh we went to a strip club for my friend's b-day! My first one! It was really quite entertaining watching my friends get lap dances...including Rach! haha hilarious.

Hey I finally visited my first museum here! El Museo Nacional. It was okay...pretty small. But they had a little jardin para mariposas, which was nice

There was a nice view of the city

Haha our dog is on her period! So she has to wear diapers! Pobrecita

Friday I had another midterm, this time for spanish, then that afternoon we embarked on our 6.5 hour bus ride for Tamarindo!

Field Trip to Curu

So this weekend was one of my Marine Bio's field trips to Curu, located on the west coast of the Gulf of Nicoya. The beaches there were freakin GORGEOUS. I don't think I've ever been to a place with such green surroundings...and EVERYWHERE. It reminded me of Jurassic Park.


First, we had to leave school at 5am Saturday morning to catch the ferry that would take us across the gulf. Then we arrived at our hotel, which was located in the cutest town ever. There wasn't really much there though, except a soccer field, some tiendas, a tiny church, and a club in a barn(??). It was one of those pueblos surrounded by ginormous green forest, in which everyone knew everyone and where there was nothing to do but drink a couple of brewskis with your neighbors...

Anyways, so that day we did our walking tours in order to make observations of the mangroves and intertidal zones on the coast. There wasn't much to see on the beach except TONS of quick little cangrejas (crabs) and piles of sandpoop!

It was really weird watching the sand poop slowly emerge from the sand, forming long continuous piles. Later I learned they were from worms!

Here are the mangroves, common in rainy/floody climates, and adapted to such with the evolution of tons of roots.

I like how we were walking right through where we were prohibited. I didn't see any crocs though, unfortunately..

P.S. On the way, I ate a couple of termites! It tasted like carrots. And apparently, you can fulfill your daily necessary intake of protein by eating just a couple of those critters.

I also got to see a couple of parrots! They were beautiful...Here you could tell that the pair had a love-hate kind of relationship.

So that night we didn't go out because first of all, there wasn't really anywhere to go and secondly, we were all exhausted from having to wake up at 4 in the morn that day! Also, we had to wake up at 6 am the following day...
This next day made the trip totally worth it. One benefit of waking up that early was that we were able to see the not so pretty beach from yesterday at its finest. Here's a romantic pic of me and Ross haha.

First, we took a boat out to Isla Tortuga, a cluster of big rocks and islands, named so because it has a shape like a giant tortoise. See the head?

We went snorkeling for a little while, but because of the season, there was a lot of sediment in the water, making it very difficult to see much. I did see a couple of cool fish and some pretty starfish.
After that, the guides took us to the most beautiful beach I had ever been to. I think it was named Playa Quesado, or cheese beach, named so because the sand was as white as cheese. Lookie. It was complete paradise...turquoise warm waters, white soft sand, and surrounded by tall green palm trees...

And now I have quite an interesting/hilarious story to share. So I met a boy...one of our guides...his name was Juan. He was really cute, with GORGEOUS hazel/green eyes (he's the one on the left)

At the beach, he asked me take a walk with him and we talked for awhile...I learned he was only 20 but already has a 6 month old son! Well that doesn't matter...Soooo, he basically professed his love to me. He kept telling me I was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, that he had noticed me the day before but didn't have the chance to talk to me until now, and that the only way to improve my spanish was to find a Tico boyfriend! hint hint. Then he compared me to a pineapple because like the fruit, I was "dulce y riquizima!" (sweet and super rich haha). There were a few other hilarious comparisons too, like a lobster for instance, which I did not understand at all. In my head, I kept thinking to myself, is this guy for real?? He later told me he would love for me to come back so that he could take me to our own private island where he would spend all day everyday with me, smoking mota and dancing and listening to Bob Marley! (which doesn't sound too bad actually haha). Okay, check this. So when he said he wanted to be "mas que amigos," more than friends, I said it would be difficult since he lives there while I live in San Jose. And to this he said, "pero amor no tiene distancia" (but love has no distance!) Yea. I know. Suuuuper cheesy right? I felt really bad because I could not stop laughing at all his corny lines, and I think he thought I was laughing at him. But it was just because no one ever talks like that in the U.S. without receiving a huge laugh of rejection...only in plays and cheesy romances! But I think that's just how Latin boys are...they're really dramatic, and DIRECT, with their feelings...the COMPLETE opposite of American boys. haa oh boy. Well that was something I will definitely never forget. Who knows, maybe I'll decide to go back. The beaches there ARE pretty amazing...

So after that entertaining incident, we left for the ferry and visited a marine aquarium. I was finally able to see a sea turtle! Even though not in the wild, but still...look at the cutie! :)

We also got to see sea horses...

And cute fishies that looked like they were smiling at us!

Once again, another amazingly beautiful (and rainless, for once!) weekend that ended way too soon...