Finally!
I feel like I need to write a reflection about my last three months, especially for my personal benefit, but right now I am just so happy to be back in Bellingham. It was extremely hard to say goodbye to my family and friends in Costa Rica. It's nice to return to a place that I love, though. I will probably post more pictures and stories from my last week in Costa Rica...just need some time to relax and unpack my room first.
xoxo
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Rafting el Pacuare
Sorry for the delayed posting! These last few weeks have been filled with so much to see and do, so I've been pretty lazy with this blog. I still have to share all the pictures from my visit to the coffee plantation and my weekend in Puerto Viejo. First, though, I wanted to tell y'all about my rafting adventure!
So a few weeks ago, when Jessica's sister was here, we tried to go rafting. We woke up at 6 AM and waited for over an hour, but the tour company never picked us up. Since we booked the trip through our study abroad program, we talked to them about it, and they were extremely apologetic. They refunded us and even gave us a free trip! So last friday, Jessica and I both got to go on a $75 rafting trip...for free!
It would be totally worth the money even if we did have to pay, because this river is gorgeous! It's called the Pacuare, located about 2 hours to the northeast of San José. National Geographic named it "one of the 5 most beautiful river trips in the world." While it was my first real rafting trip, I have to agree with them. It was a four hour trip through some amazing rocky canyons and rainforest. The Pacuare is also the perfect amount of excitement for me; a few class IV rapids, but mostly smoother stuff, which allowed me to absorb the wonderful scenery. They also made us breakfast before the trip and we stopped for lunch in a beautiful place next to the river.
Some of my pictures are kinda blurry because I had water on the lens. I'm so glad I have a waterproof camera!
PS Nobody (in our raft) fell out in the rapids!
In my rafting gear
Rainforest :)
Waterfall!
Taking a swim (with Jessica)
So a few weeks ago, when Jessica's sister was here, we tried to go rafting. We woke up at 6 AM and waited for over an hour, but the tour company never picked us up. Since we booked the trip through our study abroad program, we talked to them about it, and they were extremely apologetic. They refunded us and even gave us a free trip! So last friday, Jessica and I both got to go on a $75 rafting trip...for free!
It would be totally worth the money even if we did have to pay, because this river is gorgeous! It's called the Pacuare, located about 2 hours to the northeast of San José. National Geographic named it "one of the 5 most beautiful river trips in the world." While it was my first real rafting trip, I have to agree with them. It was a four hour trip through some amazing rocky canyons and rainforest. The Pacuare is also the perfect amount of excitement for me; a few class IV rapids, but mostly smoother stuff, which allowed me to absorb the wonderful scenery. They also made us breakfast before the trip and we stopped for lunch in a beautiful place next to the river.
Some of my pictures are kinda blurry because I had water on the lens. I'm so glad I have a waterproof camera!
PS Nobody (in our raft) fell out in the rapids!
In my rafting gear
Rainforest :)
Waterfall!
Taking a swim (with Jessica)
Friday, March 11, 2011
Safety Update
Hey y'all, just wanted to reassure everyone about my safety this weekend. As you know, that earthquake in Japan was enormous, and I have received tsunami warning information from my program and the embassy here. Fortunately, San Jose is inland and not at risk for any kind of tsunami activity. I'm not planning to go to the beach this weekend, either, so I should be okay (a lot of people are cancelling or changing their plans, which is unfortunate). Okay, I just wanted to make sure no one was worrying about me! A more interesting post will be up later this weekend. Take care, everyone! Xoxo
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Family time!
Our family finally took us on their beach trip, last weekend. All but 2 of the daughters came....and about 13 gringos as well! They were mostly Steve's friends, two of which were celebrating their birthdays, so it was just a big party weekend. The gringos taught the ticos how to play college drinking games like beer pong and flip cup. Super fun!
I stayed in a little compound with all the other gringos, about 5 minutes down the road from the rest of our family. The place was still technically "under construction", but we stayed there because our family's cabin didn't have enough room. We occupied 2 of the 6 colorful cabins that were JUST built. The landscaping wasn't even finished around the pool,but it was still a great set-up with the individual houses and common pool/hangout area.
The beach wasn't that spectacular, in fact it was kind of dirty, because a lot of garbage gets washed up in that area :( There was this really fascinating rock plateau, though. My friend Kristi and I had an adventure, walking between the ocean and the sheer rock cliff, trying to reach the other end (where we could safely climb up) before the tide came in....it was a close call!
So overall, this weekend was pretty relaxed, we mostly just hung out, switching between the beach, our pool, and the pool at our family's cabin. I should mention, though, that Ticos are the most disorganized people in the world. Our family left for the beach the day before us and forgot literally everything...ALL the meat, ALL the toothbrushes, their dvd play, karaoke equipment, etc, so they were frantically calling Steve and I before we came to meet them. While we remembered to bring almost all of their ridiculous requests, we forgot the meat and one daughter's toothbrush. SO of course, that was OUR fault, and we were kind of chastised for the first day. Seriously, though, how can you go to the beach for 4 days and not have ANYONE in the family remember to bring the meat or toothbrushes? They are kind of stressful to travel with because of that....and they also caused QUITE the fiasco when we were trying to get back to San José (think lots of crying, praying, name calling, flying down dirt roads in a rickety van, and watching the bus that we should have been on pull out three cars ahead of us, forcing us to chase it down...) Okay maybe I just had a mini-venting session about them, haha. It all worked out, though, and we are a happy family again.
Our cute little cabins!
The pool...as you can see, my life is awful here.
The beach. Not the prettiest, but the rocks/tide pools are fun.
Sunset, as seen from the plateau above the beach.
Bonus picture: Monday was my sister Ely's birthday, so we had a delicious kahlua cake from Spoon :)
Soon to be posted: my trip to the cafetal (coffee plantation)!
I stayed in a little compound with all the other gringos, about 5 minutes down the road from the rest of our family. The place was still technically "under construction", but we stayed there because our family's cabin didn't have enough room. We occupied 2 of the 6 colorful cabins that were JUST built. The landscaping wasn't even finished around the pool,but it was still a great set-up with the individual houses and common pool/hangout area.
The beach wasn't that spectacular, in fact it was kind of dirty, because a lot of garbage gets washed up in that area :( There was this really fascinating rock plateau, though. My friend Kristi and I had an adventure, walking between the ocean and the sheer rock cliff, trying to reach the other end (where we could safely climb up) before the tide came in....it was a close call!
So overall, this weekend was pretty relaxed, we mostly just hung out, switching between the beach, our pool, and the pool at our family's cabin. I should mention, though, that Ticos are the most disorganized people in the world. Our family left for the beach the day before us and forgot literally everything...ALL the meat, ALL the toothbrushes, their dvd play, karaoke equipment, etc, so they were frantically calling Steve and I before we came to meet them. While we remembered to bring almost all of their ridiculous requests, we forgot the meat and one daughter's toothbrush. SO of course, that was OUR fault, and we were kind of chastised for the first day. Seriously, though, how can you go to the beach for 4 days and not have ANYONE in the family remember to bring the meat or toothbrushes? They are kind of stressful to travel with because of that....and they also caused QUITE the fiasco when we were trying to get back to San José (think lots of crying, praying, name calling, flying down dirt roads in a rickety van, and watching the bus that we should have been on pull out three cars ahead of us, forcing us to chase it down...) Okay maybe I just had a mini-venting session about them, haha. It all worked out, though, and we are a happy family again.
Our cute little cabins!
The pool...as you can see, my life is awful here.
The beach. Not the prettiest, but the rocks/tide pools are fun.
Sunset, as seen from the plateau above the beach.
Bonus picture: Monday was my sister Ely's birthday, so we had a delicious kahlua cake from Spoon :)
Soon to be posted: my trip to the cafetal (coffee plantation)!
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