Nicaragua

Finally made a plan to go to Nicaragua, its been a goal since I first got here to go to Nicaragua and Panama and im soo glad I was able to do both. However we got off to a rocky start, got up at 4:30 and headed to San Jose we hadn’t bought our tickets in advance due to time so we got to the first bus station and they were sold out quickly got a cab to another station and they were sold out till 12pm! Waiting for 10 hours in a bus station didn’t sound like fun so we were really worried we might not be able to go but we were told we could wait for the 7am bus and if there were people who didn’t arrive we could get tickets so after 2 hours waiting in suspense we were lucky enough to get tickets! The bus ride is a bout 10 hours because you have to wait at the border for at least 3 hours…at the border we also were lucky we didn’t have to wait out in the extreme heat for 2 hours instead we sat in the bus and watched a really old film about an African safari but than we had to go to the next check point and wait about an hour out in the trash and heat and tons of people selling everything from food to movies to shoes…but we made it into Nicaragua and immediately could see differences between the countries. Passed a few towns on our way to Granada and all were poverty stricken at least 2 times more than CR which is bad enough. Even in Granda which is touristy the extreme poverty is still completely visible we got in at dusk and had to find a place to stay before it got really dark, was a little scary cuz it was just two of us and just felt more dangerouse of a place than ive ever been…but we found a cool hostel that was 7.50 each a night and as were we checking in ran into a tica friend from heredia, central America apparently is small enough you can run into friends in different countries! Anyway we decided to all go to laguna apoyo the next morning, we stayeda round the hostel for dinner and I tried to go to sleep early but the extreme heat doesn’t really permite good sleeping I just go tas close to the fan as possible but still just sweated the whole night. The next morning took a little adventour to try and find food to bring to the laguna and I bought a donut for 5 cordobas which is like 10 cents. Got back to the hotel and met Gustavo our guide and owner of the hostel. Stopped at a like strip mall thing to find I don’t even remember but we went into the grocery store and it was like being back in the usa we were both soo confusted by the flourseent lighting and just everything was clean and shiny and big it was soo strange and we found peanut butter! Anway got to the laguna which is gorgouse and jumped straight in to escape the heat I of course stayed put basically the rest of the day my friends are starting to learn if there is water somewhere I will be in it until some one drags me out. But the water was fresh and a grea temperature and had just little ripples so you could float on your back and look at all the mountains surrounding you. Later we rented kayakes and you could hear the monkeys howling through the trees ahh I was in heaven. Couldn’t stay out o fthe water long cuz of the heat but stayed all afternoon and than the guide convinced us to go on to the volcan masaya for the night tour. Definatly the best volcan ive seen so far got to see it from a few diff view points and got in the back of a pick up truck which always had looked so fun to me and was until the driver slammed on the breaks and we all went slamming forward luckily no one got really hurt...went to see two caves one full of bats that would fly right out at you there were hundreds! Than the next cave we actually go to walk into a good amount with a few random bats a s well…lastly went to another part of the volcan to see lava!!! Unfortuantly the gaseos which are “un pocito toxico but don’t worry” says our guide, were covering most of it the gases would sometimes blow right into it and smelled awful…after long day Gustavo took us to dinner at a papa johns/chicken place were I had a drink called cocoa which was like rice milk, cinnamon and something else , very yummy. Back to the hostel were I again attempted to sleep a few inches from the fan. Next day took an adventour to Masaya to see a artisan market I head was really cool, we took a public bus which are very different from CR buses a guy yells out and the driver honks the whole time yelling wehre we are going and people basically have to jump on the moving bus...the market was cool bought a hammock for about 10 dollars and some other things…got a taxi back to a diff bus station where I was faced with the most extreme level of poverty I have ever seen which isn’t even comparable to other parts of the world but still shocking. There was trash, dogs, bugs and really old broken down buses everywhere, there was some kind of market with fruits, drinks comida, got on the bus and kids and handicapped people would walk up and down the aisles selling/begging…anway back to our hostel where I spent the night talking to the girls that worked there from England and we tried to turn the usually loud bar that is right next to our room into a movie theater and also talked a couple who had been traveling for I don’t even know how long they had been to India and all of cental America…every European I met seems to have traveled so much im sure that’s b/c im going to backpacker hostels but its so fun to hear about peoples travels and stories Is really going to miss meeting such cool interesting people like every weekend, not that people in the usa aren’t interesting its just so awesome to get a little taste of different cultures and lets face it the accents are just so cool!...After another hot night bus back had no air conditioning which the one other American on the bus made quite a fuss about, the driver asked me if I spoke Spanish and I was like si..and he said go talk to the annoying American guy in the back haha…anyway got another stamp in the passport and I will defiantly not forget the things I saw.

Miss Sponteanity

Have to just give highlights of this trip cuz im super behind on blogging…but the girl from germany who is in my dance class invited me to go to a beach with her when my Nicaragua plans fell through so I after class she asked if I wanted to go and said yeah maybe thinking she meant like the next day Friday but she was like no im going ya (now)..so for prob first time in my life I spontanoise enough to go along with it and quickly go to my house pack a bag and go! She actually baught a car here so we had a nice roadtrip completely talking in Spanish bc she doesn’t like speaking English here (con razon)…so I learned a lot about germany and we made it to nicoya which is a little town an hour away from the beach we were going to the next day, we got a little lost and got some locals to jump in the car and direct us to a cheap hostel…next morning went to another branch of my university bc she wanted to switch schoold the next semester…it was preety and a lot smaller than on the road again to the beach…went to playa grunion after a little confusion and really bad dirt roads, first goal find cheap hostel first one we went to had just sprayed for bugs and but next place had a pool and we were lucky and got a private little room with a kitchen for 12 dollars each a nite…both jumped in the pool right away and went to the beach later that day however she is a really good surfer and the beach had huge waves so I wasn’t able to enjoy it as much…met a very nice girl at the hostel who was a yoga instructer and found out the town we were in was actuall fll of yogis, hippies, surfers and lots and lots of gringos…defiantly met some interesting people and tried to keep up with all the surfer language…unfortuantly missed my chance to try a yoga class in the treetops cuz I decided to go this 2 american girls I met to another beach hoping maybe the waves wouldn’t be so big…it was so strange cuz one was from dc other from Baltimore and there were really fun but very turisty ive always travled with gringas but I found out there is a huge difference between gringa student and gringa tourist…there Spanish was not good at all and they just were there to be on vacation not really learn anything about the place or people but that is not necesarliy bad just diff than why I am here..anyway drove through beautiful country side and cute little cr towns saw lots of kids riding horses and bikes on the sides of the road and found the only gas station that was completely un marked and they used like a soda can with a hose to fill with gas and when the marker on the car wasn’t moving the just shook the car with all of us in it…very amusing drive oh plus fording at least 4 overflooded rivers, thank god for four whell drive..so the beach was small and cute but big waves again…but one of the girls was a philosophy major so we got into some good discussions ahh I love philospofizing she was acutlly reading one of my fav books from a class I had last semester the denial of death…anywagot back early so they could surf of course I hanged in the pool where a little 5 yr old girl befriended me who was so cute than went to the beach and got some time in the ocean and stayed for the sunset that night went out to dinner for one of the girls bdays to a really nice place and listened to reggae night at the hostel well didn’t have a choice on that one but oh well. So that was my spontanuse attempt and I think it went well was nice being with less people cuz gave me more of an opputunity to be independent and met new people..also was proud of myself for traveling outside of the program people and speaking Spanish almost the whole time.

Volcan Barva

Well I have been hanging out in Heredia for the past two weekends due to ridiculose amounts of homework but had some cool day trips that I can share! I went to parque de diversions (amusement park) with a friend and we got very lucky that it did not start to pour until the bus ride back although it looked very iffy the whole time we were there. We are both complete wimps with rides and this park doesn’t even have big rollercoasters but we found ourselves with the like 3-5 year olds on the kiddie rides..the first ride we had to separate cuz adults aren’t allowed to sit together but we had a blast! We went on mini rollercoaster, drove like there pretend antique cars that neither of us could control very well, mini drop machine and a water ride that was our favorite also went into a part called ciudad Antigua and saw chickens parrots, buetiful horse, goats, rosters and I think an iguana? Anyway very different from parks in the us defiantly not as many safety precautions but much simpler…it was a really fun day trip and we made it saftley from san jose to heredia and ate aat pizaa hut!
Next weekend we went to volcan Barva with yanori and teresita and her friend…it was def the longest most uphill…hill that ive ever done it took like 2 hours of hiking straight uphill to get there…I started out first going up the hill and ended last but it was really fun playing games on the way down like telling stories and alphabet game than we got a ride from some random guys and fitted the ten of us in his minivan, thankg god though cuz none of us realized how long we had to go to the bus stop

Fines de Semana en Heredia

Well I have been hanging out in Heredia for the past two weekends due to ridiculose amounts of homework but had some cool day trips that I can share! I went to parque de diversions (amusement park) with a friend and we got very lucky that it did not start to pour until the bus ride back although it looked very iffy the whole time we were there. We are both complete wimps with rides and this park doesn’t even have big rollercoasters but we found ourselves with the like 3-5 year olds on the kiddie rides..the first ride we had to separate cuz adults aren’t allowed to sit together but we had a blast! We went on mini rollercoaster, drove like there pretend antique cars that neither of us could control very well, mini drop machine and a water ride that was our favorite also went into a part called ciudad Antigua and saw chickens parrots, buetiful horse, goats, rosters and I think an iguana? Anyway very different from parks in the us defiantly not as many safety precautions but much simpler…it was a really fun day trip and we made it saftley from san jose to heredia and ate aat pizaa hut!

Next adventure Volcan Barva:
This was a trip arranged through the program which i always try and do cuz i love spending time with the program staff and its more spanish practice and i dont have to worry about planning!
So we took a bus to the last stop up a mountain and began our very long trek that was basically straight up an extremely steep hill for about 12 kilometers...I stated out in front with lots of energy and ended up in the back with a walking stick haha but the views were incredible of farm land, finca, and you could see the whole central valley we were also extremeley lucky that is was a beautiful day since it is now rainy season...made it to the laguna of the volcan and than continued up to the highest view point we all collapsed and really enjoyed our packed lunches...on the way down i suggested we play a game so we made up stories and played alphabet games...all very fun trying to do in spanish...about 45 minutes down it started to rain and a random car stopped and all 10 of us sqeezed into the guys van so we wouldnt have to walk the rest of the way....definatly one of the hardest hikes ive ever done but it was lots of fun! That night went out to an Argentinian restraunt in San Jose with my friend and next day went to the pool right by my house! Now that i only have 4 more weekends i hope to be traveling for the rest of the time here so more updates to come!

Saving Leatherback Turtles!

Last weekend I was lucky enough to participate in an amazing experience going to a reserve to learn about and help the endangered species of leatherback turtles. The leatherbacks are one of the most ancient species in existence dating back to the time of the dinasours, they are in danger of exstinction from egg and meat poachers as well as fishing nets and all the other destructive human forces. While egg poaching is illegal mayn restruants still serve turtle eggs some of which are legal some are not, so if you ever see turtle eggs on a menu don’t order them! Anyway this trip was organized by my program and my group went with a group from UCR. Went on a little boat to get to the reserve and met the people who work and live there. There were girls from Spain and France and the coordinator was from England. I was so impressed by the passion they all have for the work they do. They live without all the modern conviences (electiricy) they are used to in an extremely harsh climate to help this species. Every night they patrol the beach for 4-6 or more hours to proctect the turtles from poachers, tag and measure the turtles they come across and move eggs and make new nests in safer grounds. First we learned more about the turtles and learned how to make nests than divided into patrol groups. I went at 8 at night with 4 or more other students and our leader was a girl from Spain. It was very cool to get to talk and listen to the different accent and words that are very different from Costa Rica Spanish, I tried to adjust to using the tu form and saying vale basically every other word. We walked for at least an hour without seeing anything except turtle tracks of false exits (when the turtle comes to shore but does not lay eggs) these we had to erase with our feet and sticks so poachers would not know the turtles were there. We finally thought we foudna turtle and all got excited and tried to get behind where it would see us after waiting a few minutes we realized it was just a big rock! The beach is completely dark and we only use the red light to see when there is a turtle so the whole night it is easy to trip over rocks, branches, fall in sand pits plus dodge the big waves…buut we finally found a turtle who was making a nest. It was definalty one of the coolest things ive ever seen..to get to experience watching this ancient animal lay her eggs in her nautral habitat was just incredible they truly look like they could be in Jurassic park, just watching her make the nest and listen to the noises she made was soo awesome. We measured her, took her eggs and me and my friend went to make a new nest..you have to dig through the sand as far down as you can which gets very tiring and then redeposit the eggs. It was so cool to feel the eggs there soo different from like chicken eggs and to know that there were baby turtles inside! We could look up at the sky while we were sitting in the sand and see a few shooting stars! After the exhileration of seeing andhelping our first turtle we continued on and saw at least three more and did a lot a lot more erasing of tracks…I got to help measure another turtle and really appreciate how big they are if they hit you with one of their fins you could really get hurt. we finally were on our way back after 6 hours of walking the beach when it started to down poar annd we found another turtle even though our shift was supposed to be over 2 hours earlier once you find a turtle you cant leave it. We finally did make it back and passed out in our sandy, wet beds. Next day went walking around the property with a girl from France where we heard howler monkeys, saw poison dart frogs, snakes and butterflies. Went in the ocean in the afternoon and All very exausghsted from night before we waited for our shifts that night to start. Tonight my shift was at ten and with a new guide named Scott who was from England. It was nice to have a little break from Spanish and of course enjoyed the English accent very much, was albe to learn a lot more about the reserve and turtles from him since I could actually understand everything he said. He was super interesting and outgoing I was the only one that kept up with his walking pace which could really have been a jog so we were able to talk a lot about the work and condiciones here. However we found a turtle right away and I volunteered to take the eggs. I got right down next to the flippers and tail of the turtle and almost fell in the nest many times grabbing all the eggs, there were over a hundred and had to get them all before she started to cover them. Was carrying the bag of eggs away when we found another turtle! So we had to split up so we could make new nests and get the new eggs as well..i went to work making a new nest for the first eggs we got and buryed and counted them. We came across a lot of turtles and por dicha did less erasing..were walking back just talking when we saw a white light across the beach which means leave bc there are poachers however than we realized we might have accidently walked past the reserve! At the same time we found another turtle, scott went to look for mark posts to figure out where we were but couldn’t find any..we radioed back to the security guard and finally after some miscommunication and scott using some interesting spanlish with ltos of English curse words mixed in go him to shine the flash light from the reserve…we were actually past the reserve about ten minutes and in poacher territory..we had to leave the turtle b/c techinaclly it was not our land. Got back completely covered in wet sand and passed out again. Next day all just waited around to be able to be in the nice cool bus and sleep. Made it back to san jose and I went out on my first solo adventure in the city to find a friend from highschool who was staying in san jose for one night on he way to el Salvador…asked police men for directions but luckily found the hostel without a problem, had a nice dinner and catch up and finally got back to my bed in Heredia! I still have some fly and misiquito bites to remind me of the weekend but all the work was soo soo vale la pena (worth every second!). Definatly a once in a life time experience I will never forget.

Life on the back of a scooter in Brasilito

Last weekend me and three friends decided to go to Guanacaste for the weekend which is a region of Costa Rica that is supposed to have some of the best beaches...We picked the beach Brasilito to get to but that was the extent of the planning...however things worked out great! Got to Brasilito and found basically the only hostel/hotel and got one room for about 15 dollars a night per person. Headed down to the beach that was right off the hotel property. My one friend decided to splurg on a scooter/moped for the weekend so we could check out the other beaches in the area and have fun driving around...I called dibs on the first ride and didnt really get off the rest of the weekend, we drove around and it was so cool to see the countryside up close, he also taught me how to drive and after a few tries I got the hang out if it and went on a few little adventours on my own...It was an awsome feeling driving it and really would love to get my motorcycle liscnece one day. Back at the beach saw a guy driving some horses down the beach so we ran up to him and talked down the price of horse riding a bit for that evening. We told him we all could ride and would like to run on the horses he said we could "un pocito"....un pocito actually meant basically galloping full speed down the beaches and streets almost the whole time! I have never been that fast on a horse, and definatly the first time I have had to hold a horse back they all loved to run and race each other! It was incredible to run across the beach with no poeple and just me and my two friends and our guide. Got to see the sunset, some cool birds and monkeys to. Had one collision with my friends horse that got spooked but por dicha stayed on haha but it was the crazyest funnest ride ive ever had. Got back quite exaughsted but had relaxing night just hanging out on the beach playing with the local dogs and talking. Next day went to playa conchal which is a beach of crushed seashells for sand, it was so preety every handful of shells was filled with colors and different shapes and sizes of shells and it felt great on your feet and made the ocean water very clear. I had brought my snorkling gear and there was a great little cove to see fish really up close I saw a cute little eel and an octupus! Hanged out in the calm water and played lazy log with my friend where you jsut let the wave bring you back and forth to the shore...later we hopped on the scooter in our suits to go to another beach Playa Grande...about a half hour ride through the mountain and coozing Petunia (the scooter) up the hills we made it to the beach...one of the longest beaches ive seen without a lot of development and the waves were huuuge! Tried to catch some waves but was preety rough so we headed back. Got a very yummy dinner and had to get my last scooter ride in that night...it was really cool to see all the stars and we turned the lights off on and stopped in the road since there was no cars to see the stars....ahh it was a great weekend proboly my favorite weekend trip thus far. After a fast week at school I am leaving again this weekend to a reserve where we are goign to volunteer helping with sea turtles! More soon!

Semana Santa

I am back from a very fun week with my dad..Got the bus to the airport very early Saturday morning and managed paying the tax/immigration stuff successfully and found dad in the panama airport…went to the first hotel in panama city where I rediscovered the comforts of airconditioning, hot showers, TV and the best bed I have ever slept in…next day went on very small plane to bocas del toro…it was actually really cool to be able to see the cockpit and watch the pilot eat lunch and put up a cover over the window to block out the sun apparently seeing the sky isn’t that important haha but got great views from the plane of the panama canal and all the islands…Bocas del toro: stayed here for three days the hotel was run by an American couple and was an interesting atmosphere you ate with all the other guests every day which was often seafood and other dishes im not very used to but it was a cool experience…went snorkeling and scuba diving everyday and saw awesome coral fish, starfish, sea cucumbers, stingrays, and a barracuda that kept staring at us so I tried to hid behind my dad for that one…got to see dolphins as well which I looooved ill never get enough of seeing them…also went to a basically private island one day felt like I was on survivor it was just thi tiny island and you could just go snorkeling right from there…tried to get some Spanish practive in with a couple from spain and one of the scuba guides in bocas very interesting noting the different words, accents, expressions and stuff that is different in every country for example in CR I only use usted to refer to everyone and I don’t think I have ever heard anyone use Tu form but right away in panama the first cab driver used tu! Anyway played lots of pool, monopoly and enjoyed the tv at the hotel…back to Panama city where we saw the canal and old city…I really liked seeing the old city very different from anywhere I have been in cr or anywhere…than back to Costa Rica!! I was in love with both of the hotels we stayed at in CR got to hang by the pool and go in hottub and ohh I miss the beds so much already! Anyway went white water rafting at pacauri river defiantly one of my favorite parts of the trip it was absolutely gorgoese and the rapids were really fun our guide was really fun he liked to push me off the raft when it was safe to swim and used a spanglish mix since in our raft was a couple from san jose…but def saw some of the coolest views of CR jungle so far…Friday went back to heredia and went to dinner with my dad and my costa Rican family to pizza hut! It was nice to be able to do something for them and see them in a different atmosphere…enjoyed my last morning with room service and sitting in the hot tub. All in all it was a great vacation…demasiado divertida….THANKS DAD