Manuel Antonio de nuevo

ahhhh our last weekend altogether before everyone leaves!!! Originally, we were planning to go to Montezuma, but at the very last minute we decided to go to Manuel Antonio. We were all easy to agree to the idea b/c the bus ride would be much shorter and waaaay too many people were planning to go to Montezuma (and it's teeny, so we'd have to see everyone allll the time haha). Plus, the last time we went to MA, we were with ISA and so didn't have much free time to ourselves.
So we arrived at about 9ish in the evening and decided to stay at Coco Beach Hotel, which is owned by a Chinese lady! (or so I was told, although she spoke in a language I didn't recognize). Anyways, so as usual, we were starving by that time, but of course none of the restaurants near us were open. So we had to take a cab to the main town over in Quepos, where we ate a yummy restaurant that was open til 2. It was pretty much ALL locals, and so they stared at us gringos like we were invading their territory. And then at the bar we went to later, The Lounge, it was the complete opposite: totalmente all GRINGOS/turisticos. This bar was really chill, though, and they played so many good ol songs from home (US).
Cutie Jamie rubbing the Buddha belly on the wall.

The next day we went to the national park and it was beautiful! My friend Pete said this opening looked like we were about to enter paradise...

Here is the gorgeous beach

This is the place where we saw tons of animals last time, and this time, we only got to see those white faced monkeys, but TONS of them. And they just walk right up to you like nothing. Their faces look like those of little old men though..kinda creepy haha.

On our walk back to the hotel, we saw a beeeautiful wedding being set up. Sin duda, I am mos DEF having my wedding somewhere on a beach...

When it started to rain, we decided to get some drinks and some bocadillas. I love bloody marys! i duno what was so funny here.

We went back to the beach to try to watch the sunset, but this freakin island was in the way! Pero esta bien, because it was still bellisimo to see.

I love how you can see the reflection of the sky on the water...

As you know, I am obsessed with the skies here! At some point during the day, you can see probably every single shade of the rainbow. increible..

That night, we went to eat at a delish little Italian cafe, which was suuuper cheap too! Here are the chicas ready to go out

After that, we went to Barba Roja, the pirate bar/club that I went to last time. And once again, it was sooooo fun! They played tons of awesome music, AND, coincidentally, I ran into the same guy that I had met the previous time I was there. So that was fun :)
The next morning, we had to check out early, but it was a good thing b/c we had to go to Quepos to buy our bus tickets back. Then we returned to the cafe from last night for brunch, did TONS of shopping, and chilled out until it was time to leave. Look, I learned how to make this flower out of palm leaves!

Oh my goodness that bus ride back was the worst EVER. First of all, it was tiny, the seats were sticky and uncomfortable, and it SMELLED. To top it off, since it was raining so hard, the bridge was backed up and so we had to wait for an HOUR! oy, torture... this may have been the first time ever saying this, but I was ready to get back home to San Jo...

semanas 10 y 11

So I’m just throwing in some random stuff that I forgot to write about before. Here is a picture of my mama and me x-mas shopping in downtown San Jo. I may be biased, but even after talking to my friends about their host moms, mine's is seriously the best host mom ever. Le amo...it's going to be soooo sad to leave her!

So one day my class went on a field trip to the coffee plantation in Heredia, which was about an hour drive away.

When we got there, we got to try all the different flavors of coffee, and the cool thing is that all their coffees are all originally made right there, and completely pure (no added sugars) too.

We went on a little tour to see all the processes of how the grain becomes the coffee that we drink (“grano de oro” they call it, or grain of gold, to signify how the industry had turned CR into a profitable and booming country).


Coffee is a huge part of CR’s history and what sustains their economy, as it is one of the largest and main exporters in the world. One interesting thing I learned is that the stronger the taste, the less caffeine it contains. So even though espresso tastes the strongest, it has less caffeine than a breakfast blend, for instance. cool yea? i know.
This cart is what you'll see all over CR. It's what they used to transport coffee and other goods back in the day.

On another day, our class visited la feria de arte at University of Costa Rica, in which all the students were able to exhibit and sell some of their beautiful works of art.

From paintings, sculptures, jewelry, to candles and calendars, there was a huge array of things to choose from. Perfect for buying presents, although it definitely was not cheap.
We got to go on a mini tour of the campus, and it made me miss being in one so much! More like, made me miss BERK so much. it's b/c Veritas is pretty much smaller than my preschool, so it doesn’t even feel like I’m attending a college.
On our walk to the fair, I saw a street in which almost all of the walls were covered in graffiti. I’m sure it didn’t represent “ghettoness” b/c to me, it looked like just another work of art.


Monday was our last Cuartel night in which we were able to see our favorite band play!

I STILL didn't figure out their band name! Oh wells…Anyways, it was awesome of course. I still love them and I will miss them direly. And guess what? My favorite guy pulled me up on stage to dance with him AGAIN! Ahhh, what a lucky girl I am..

Thursday we went to a club called Tavarua in San Pedro, where it was Ladies’ Night!!! Meaning, all of our drinks were free until 11pm, and we were presented with the best dance show ever! 3 hot men with the best bodies and who can shake their chanchitos soooo well!

Oh my goodness I was obsessed with this one guy here on the right. Probably the hottest guy I've seen here in CR

Here is me and Jamie with our wannabe bf Alex (Alejandro). It's so weird to think that I probably won't ever see him again... And I don't think I've never met someone like him before..

Salud! Man, I will seriously miss free drinks, or dollar beers...Never going to find that in the states.

Malpais

Okay, I've got lots to update on. First of all, 2 weekends ago, the weekend of the 7th, we went to Malpais for Kate's last weekend. :( It's also located on the Nicoya Peninsula, a little bit further from Montezuma. Since we arrived pretty late in the evening, we just decided to stay at a place near where the bus dropped us off. This seems to happen a lot I've realized, the extreme difficulty of finding food! We were super hungry by then, but of course everything was closed, EXCEPT, luckily, this one shish kebab making place. pretty delish.

We walked back and just decided to chill b/c we were soooo tired. Well, just Jamie, Rach and I stayed, and of course we were the ones who all took drammamine! Next time, none of that. But it was a good thing we didn't go out b/c the girls said they walked for miles in complete darkness without finding anything.. Okay, so next door this Hawaiian surfer guy just moved there to teach surf lessons and he had the CUTEST and teeniest gatito in the world! I say this all the time, but we were sooo close to just taking it with us in one of our pockets. I'm sure it would've fit.

The next morning, feeling nice and refreshed, we had a delish Mediterranean brunch then walked to Playa Carmen, which was just a mini caminata through the pretty trees. By the way, although it was pretty during the day, it would've been soo scary walking through this at night.

And here's the beach. Not as beautiful as other beaches here in CR, but that's only because it's known here for its surfing.

And here are the boys taking lessons from Polly, the neighbor with the cat, and from whom they said they learned absolutely nothing.

While the chicas, of course, laid on the beach all day and played in the waves.

The cutest little pup came crawling up to us and he attacked my cam with his tongue! But I forgave him :) I swear, all the beaches in CR are teeming with cute little animals. It makes me happy to be surrounded by such innocent little creatures.

After awhile, b/c we couldn't take the blazing sun any longer (it was soooo hot!), we went back to the room and danced away to our song "Better together" by Jack Johnson.

The song totally represents our group b/c it portrays how close we became and how much like siblings we are... it was definitely sad thinking that Kate would be leaving so soon that Monday!
Later we went back to the beach to watch yet another amazing sunset. It really fascinates me how you can actually watch the sun move down little by little in just a matter of minutes. Lookie.

After 3 minutes...

After 2 minutes...

After 1 minute...

And it's gone just like that!

I love this picture here b/c first of all, the tree is completely covered in spines, which is rare, and secondly, the sky in the background!

So the boys were actually considering renting a jeep for the night...if you saw this sign, you'd want to do it too.

But if you saw how janky those jeeps were, you'd change your mind. Look, this one doesn't even have a door on the driver's seat! super ghetto.

That night, we went to Santa Teresa, which is the beach/town right down the road, to go to the only club poppin that night. It was fun, but I've never felt so sweaty and gross in my life! AND it smelled like sweat and smoke...gross!

So some random guy who told me he's had a crush on me ever since he saw me on the beach (which, by the way, I had no idea who he was) put his sweaty hat on my head. I already felt gross so I figured I might as well pose haha.

The next day, we ate brunch at a yummy little cafe, where I had a really delish salad (sauteed spinach, mushrooms, broccoli, peppers, etc) And I was definitely in need of that that morn.

We went to the beach one final time then left for home... Since it was Kate's last night, we decided to get food together and hang out at Zack's apt. But I don't think we've ever had so much trouble getting food in our lives. And by that time, we were starving! But pretty much everything was closed, and so, as an extremely desperate and last resort, we had to get taco bell! But even that was a huge effort. We had to wait like 40 minutes just to catch a cab, then order tons of food, bring it back... And here we are, chowing down like animals.

And look at that monton of nastiness. I can't believe I had to eat that, even though I, personally, only ate fries. But still, our tum tums were sure feelin it the next morning. Nunca jamas. I'd rather starve next time...
THEN the time finally came for us to say our goodbyes to Kate... we were feeling so delirious and crazy by that time, that there wasn't even much to say. Just tears...It was weird, but her departure hadn't really even hit me until a few nights later when we went out to dinner and she wasn't there. :( It's starting...the saying of goodbyes to everyone. I duno how I'll feel being one of the only ones staying around doing the same things as before.. but now WITHOUT my friends with me. Ahhhh

Montezuma

It's now Monday, the start of a new week, and boy is it going to be long. From Bocas to Montezuma (with just a couple days of class in between), it seems like I've just had a really long vacation, which is why it was suuuuper tough getting up this morning.

Anyhoots, so this weekend we went to a beach town on the Gulf of Nicoya, a place I could definitely call home. It sure was a doozy trying to get there, pero totalmente valio la pena. So, we missed the direct bus from SJ, so we had to first take a bus to Puntarenas, where we would take the ferry across the gulf. BUT they had just changed the schedule, and so we had to wait there for about 2 hours. It wasn't too bad though b/c we chilled with our beers oh and met some guy with the funniest laugh pretending to be a waiter (but in fact was just some normal drunk dude). Look what I saw as I was walking over...sooo adorable!

During the ride over we met some guy who hooked us up with a taxi to Montezuma (which was a blessing b/c there would have been no buses or taxis by the time we arrived). But this guy was a weirdo, kept telling me how beautiful I was and even asked for a besito when he left! Even though he offered us free jet skis, no way.. Okay so we finally arrived at our hotel, and thank goodness someone was awake and there were rooms available! Perfect too. A room of 5 for the 5 chicas, and a room of 3 for the 3 chicos.

The next day, breakfast included some bomb diggity gallo pinto con aguacate and a little encounter with un mono! Haha he caught me watching him eat his banana.

Ademas, we immediately made friends with the coolest bartender, Roger. Then we tried to go to the beach he recommended us, but instead we fell upon our own private little beach that we called Booby Beach. (booby b/c we got to tan topless! even though there were quite a few passer-byers haha.)

It was complete paradise. The sun was shining and hot, the water cool and crystal clear, while we, of course, felt free as birds.

After we baked in the sun for a couple of hours, we walked into town, which is super tiny and super cute, and went to one of the yummiest restaurants ever, Organico, which is completely organic and vegetarian. So I was in heaven of course. I never had so many choices of delicious food in my life! AND how cool is this, the owner is from San Fran and she even worked at a restaurant in Berkeley! This is one of the reasons why this place can my new home. So I ended up chosing a yummy salad. Check out that color.

While we were there I saw the TINIEST dog I've ever seen...which looked like a little old man!

After some R&R, we went back to Booby Beach to watch yet another gorgeous sunset.

That night we went out to the only club around, se llama Chico's. (now you can imagine how teeny the town was). It was sooo much fun. I met 3 cute Ticos who all happened to be brothers! or half, I'm not sure. But what are the chances! especially they didn't tell me til much later. AND the one who I spent most of the night with, who was a little too pushy although still flattering, was named Christopher! And some of you may know that I have a really weird affinity for Chris's. Then of course we ran into our bartender there.. and here we are with him.

The night went on as usual...
The next morning, a very tough morning (and Roger totally new that all of us had gomas!), we took a walk to the waterfalls, which is one of the aspects Montezuma is best known for. That caminata sure was a tough one! (And my legs are REALLY sore today) But again, valio la pena. It was gorgeous and the water was fresh and cool.

Some guy actually had the guts to climb all the way up those slippery rocks and jump off! I could barely watch him climb it and when he jumped, I even felt that adrenaline rush haha.

On the ferry back, I saw a really gorgeous view of the ocean/sky, of course making me think how sucky it was to be returning back to SJ...