Agarra mi mano

Sunday we took the bus to Puerto Viejo and got there around 2. The house Crystal rented was up a mountain that we couldn't find a taxi to take us up so we walked up it with our luggage. On our way up we saw red poison dart frogs. They almost commited suicide because they were jumping right in from of us. The house was absolutely gorgeous. You could see the ocean from the huge porch with the kitchen opened up into. 15 of us slept there comfortably. I slept in a hammock but it was s nice because I got woken up but some crazy birds. The town is really small and there weren't too many tourists.

Monday we went down to the beach and bought homemade ice cream from this hippie guy names Walter. He had crazy flavors like ginger-starfruit. We spent most of the day on the beach then we took a walk through the jungle and found some beautiful flowers. On our way back to the house we got lucky and Walter found us! He had his adorable son with him name Kayroni (i think) who wore my sunglasses and flower in his giant baby afro. Walter was nice enough to drive us home. At night all of the geckos swarm the roof because they eat the bugs that go to the lights. There were at least 15 geckos on the ceiling the whole times. The bugs were on steriods, there were moths with pointy wings and giant dragonfly looking flies. We hung out with our landlord person named aqui. He gave us some of his cocao beans to try and he got rid of the spider as big as my head for us. (he also said they're known to jump eek!) Madeline taught us a swedish card game, which was impossible because you had to remember the swedish words for king, queen, jack and two.

Tuesday all 15 of us rented beach cruiser and rode our bikes to Manzanillo, which is a 45 minute ride through a half way paved rode. On our way we stopped to watch some howler monkies and grab some coconute from a tree. When we got to Manzanillo it was this tiny little beach town with tons of mango tree that were painted rasta colors. The boys opened ours coconuts for us and we drank their milk and I tried to eat the meat but it was a lot slimier than I thought it would be.

After swimming for a while we went back to Playa Uva which had a real pretty cave area but a lot more people.

We went back into town and got ice cream from this place that makes their own chocolate. The very attractive guy that worked there gave us a tour of how they make it. First they get the cacao beans off the tree and dry them out. then they put them and sugar into a mixing bowl thing for a whole day. then they let it dry into shapes. It tasted like gourmet chocolate except all natural.

We made tacos for dinner and Andrew and I had to stay at Rockin J's because more people came to the house and it as too full. We had to walk down into town in the dark and it was freaky. There were light up bugs that didn't look like fireflies and creepy noises everywhere. We got to stay in a tent in Rockin J's which is cool because the whole place is covered in tile art pictures. They even had a section that said Reno! They also had weird things glued to the tables like necklaces and lighters.

We met up with the San Ramone kids and went to watch this band play reggae songs. I met a ton of people from Reno who were at other Usac programs or traveling for Semana Santa.

Oh God my

Last day in the punt before I leave for Puerto Viejo. My friend rented a house in the carribean that we're going to stay in for a few days. There's 16 of staying there so we should be in for a fun week.

When I come back I'm planning on moving out of my host family's house. I like them for the most part but I think I'll have a better experience if I lived closer to school and got to learn to cook for myself, and I don't like my host mom. She never talks to me and she always sounds angry and irritated with me.

The punt has been sooooo hot this last week. Summer is definitely here and it's only getting worse. Even the ocean water is uncomfortably warm.

Mangroves

For my marine biology class we went on a field trip to the estuary, which is where fresh water meets the ocean. This is the water the my house sits on, it's contaminated and brownish and it's where the local fisherman live so they can park their boats in their backyard. For our class we went to go see mangroves which are tree things that line 75 percent of all coastlines. They prevent the eart from eroding away from the tide and are nurseries for fish and stuff like that. The estuary is basically all mangroves so we took a little boat ride through it. We saw 6 crocodiles! No one told me there were crocodiles behing my house. They were huge too!

We got to get out and look at the mangroves up close in the thick quicksand mud that they grow in. You could barely walk because your shoe would get stuck in the gunk.

Two for one special

This weekend we went to Monteverde which is a highly elevated rainforest. It's in the clouds basically so it's always rainy and kinda foggy looking.

Wikipedia: Monteverde is humid, misty and cloudy, with temperatures ranging from 59 to 77° Fahrenheit. Annual rainfall averages around 118 in. It was recently voted one of the "7 Wonders of Costa Rica". It is known as the site with the largest number of orchids in the world, with 34 of its 500 species newly discovered.

We took a hike thorugh the reserve but we didn't anything but giant spiders and cool flowers. I think our group was too loud. Afterward we went to the hummingbird site where dozens of them were feeding and fighting. We couldn't really get pictures of them though because they're so dang fast. They were so vibrant unlike any I've seen in the states. That night we got to go into town and eat giant hot dogs. When we got back we listened to a few people play the guitar for hours. It felt like we were in a horror movie because we were the only people at the lodge we were staying at and it was dark, foresty and foggy. It was so dark that when Julia and I were walking back to her room she went to take a short cut through the trees and ended up jumping into a creek.

The next day we went back up into the clouds to do the zip-line. I'm not sure how high we were but we zipped through the clouds on 18 different check points. It took a few hours but it was incredible. I got it on video before they got mad at me.Then we got to go into a butterfly garden where they had tons of cool flowers and plates of fruit where the butterflies were resting. We got to see their cacoons and some of they would land on us.

Cascadas

Tuesday: We planned on taking the 5am ferry to montezuma but we slept in and made it to the 9am ferry but we found out that they only have a 1 o'clock ferry now because they had a huge drug bust. We went on a nature walk and I had a group picture before we finally got to leave.

We got to Montezuma and went swimming until it got dark. We napped in hammocks collected shells and played in the sand for the longest time.

Wednesday: We got up early and hiked up to the waterfall. Jack and Marco are crazy and jumped from way high up. The last ferry left at 3 so we had to leave mmontezuma at 12. Stupid coke dealers.

When we got back Marco got a tattoo.

Then we went to a St.Patricks day party for a little while but we were tired and Their flights left early this morning.

Brail Snail

Jack came to class with me in the morning. Then we took a bus to playa Hermosa but we kept getting wrong directions so it took a long time. Playa Hermosa is a black sand beach and it's abolutely beautiful. We spent like an hour there and it started raining so we took a taxi to Jaco to go shopping and eat.After we got back we went to Cody and Drakes to hang out with all the friends that people have in town.

From pinecones to pineapples

Friday:

Amanda and Jack are flying in tomorrow so Megan and I decided to spend the weekend in San Jose. We left after class and checked into Pangea. There weren't any bed available so we got matresses and set up a bed on the loft. The walls in Pangea were painted all crazy and they had a nice pool and a mechanical bull. We met some Germans and hung out with them all night.

Saturday: We woke up early and found a bus to Cartago, which is a colonial city close to San Jose. They have a basilica that I think is one of the biggest ones in the world. They also have a church that they tried to build in the 1800s but earthquakes kept destroying it. Now they have the ruins that you cna walk through.

In San Jose there was a music festival that had a live band and lots of cool booths. They had a boxing match in the middle of the park and an Alice in Wonderland tent. Then we went to the hippie market but it wasn't that cool so we took naps until manda and jack came.

My whole school was in San Jose for a weekend field trip so we met up with them at El Pueblo. On the way there they tell me that Marco is flying in tonight too! So we went back to Pangea to meet up with him.

Lleno Vida

I haven't had internet at my house all week so I'm just now able to blog.

Here are some highlights of the last week:

Miel and I saw 6 cops get of a cop car and get ice cream, then they asked if they could take pictures of us. Even the cops here are creeps!

One of my favorite things about the Punt is that they paint random things like rocks, trees, fences. You'll be walking down the street and see a random yellow rock. They also put plants in pot holes. Right now theres a garbage can filled with dirt and a little tree in it in a giant pot hole in the middle of the street.

I went to San Jose to pick up Miel's friend from the airport and we got ice coffee! It was incredible. There's no coffee shops in puntarenas.

Russell and I made america breakfast on saturday because we missed scrambled eggs and potatoes.

I went to one of the colleges here to help tico students with their English.

My marine bio class took a walk down the beach to look at olive snails and barnacles. I feel in the rocks and messed up my leg but I found some cute hermit snail things.

We had a pyromania bonfire and we all burned things on the beach. I chased Miel with a giant flaming palm.