Week 2!

Sorry I wasn’t able to update on Friday – my sister was on the computer all night and Saturday morning I left for the weekend so today is the day for last week’s update.

Sunday was my favorite day in Costa Rica thus far by leaps and bounds.  It was a rather long day so please allow two paragraphs for me to semi-adequately describe it to you.  It was our only free day this whole trip so we planned our own activity.

Jungle Cats!

We left at 6 am by private tour bus for La Paz waterfall.  After about a 1 hour drive we arrive to the place where we ate breakfast. Typical Costa Rica: Gallo Pinto, eggs, fried plantain, cheese and bread with strawberry spread.  Another hour drive followed and after many twisty, curvy roads we arrived at La Paz.  Little did I know there was basically a zoo included in the waterfall, check this out: open air bird house (got to hold a toucan), jungle cat house, orchid garden, hummingbird feeding area (yes I got to hold a hummingbird on a flower in my hand), open air butterfly conservatory (had to be careful not to step/run into them), monkey house (they held our hands through the bars), snake house, frog garden and last but not least – La Paz waterfall.  Here is the website if you are interested: http://www.waterfallgardens.com. We then took a shuttle back to the top and had lunch at a gorgeous open air restaurant where the exotic rainforest butterflies flew around our heads as we ate a delicious buffet. JUST WAIT. That is only the first paragraph.

Rainforest Frog

Day Amazing – part 2. After lunch we all got back on the bus, down some more curvy roads on the edge of the mountains/rainforests and drove about an hour to The Springs.  Here is a link but don’t look yet:http://www.thespringscostarica.com. The Springs is a five star resort with small hot pools everywhere ranging in temperature from lukewarm to 108 degrees.  Each was gorgeous; there was a swim up bar, Jacuzzi, waterslide, multiple waterfalls, and beautiful tropical plants everywhere.  Not to mention the whole place overlooked the Arenal Volcano.  After about 3 hours of swimming, relaxing, and tanning, we returned to the locker rooms to shower for our 3 course dinner.  I got a house salad, coconut battered mahi mahi, and black forest cake.  Way too soon, we found ourselves on the way back home to Curridabat. Over 12 hours on that tour wasn’t enough for some of us.

La Paz

Wanna guess how much that cost: 3 meals, all transportation and 2 incredible locations?  $129. In Spanish we say “vale la pena”.

Monday we had to go back to school – seems to happen to us everyday after there has been a weekend recently. Darn it.  Class we got a new teacher – Giovanni. After class today we had someone come speak with us about migration in Costa Rica.  Here that mostly means Nicaraguans immigrating to Costa Rica, aka: “Nicas”. Rather interesting/useful considering that I have to write my 25 page paper on that exact topic when I return to the U.S.

Buffet Lunch

Tuesday we had class as usual. After class we had a professor from UCR (Universidad de Costa Rica) come and speak to us about Costa Rican history and it’s place now.  I’m not a big history person so this lecture was probably the most boring to me so far, in addition that, the guy spoke SO fast and talked 40 minutes past when he was supposed to.

Wednesday was another day that should prove helpful to my research efforts for my paper.  We visited a local Nicaraguan village called Rio Azul (Blue Rive) and separated into pairs.  Each pair interviewed a mother or young adult who immigrated here from Nicaragua.  It was such an eye opener for so many students.  I interviewed a single mother who left her alcoholic, drug-addicted husband to bring her children to Costa Rica so they could get an education and so she could get a job to buy them food.  Really makes you appreciate what you have.

The Springs

Thursday after class we went back to the other Nicaraguan village to play with the children.  This time we made cards with them and then went outside to jump rope and play some futbol (soccer) for a bit.  There were a lot less kids this time and they weren’t nearly as crazy.

Friday we had our big weekly test.  I studied for about 6 hours on Thursday but I still didn’t feel prepared ( I don’t know that I ever would have).  We were given our oral topic yesterday so I just decided to write my response and memorize it to decrease the chance of making a mistake.  More time consuming, but again I would say “vale la pena”.  It was a relief to have those over and after words we all enjoyed a sweat inducing workout of a Latino dance class which included Salsa, Meringue, Creole Swing, and a short choreographed piece.

Manuel Antonio is next so be sure to check in again soon!

always,

a

(ps. There are more photos but this is all I have at the moment – will update)