Click her El fin de semana pasado Lisandra y yo fuimos a Playa Jaco. Fue demasiado perfecto. Primero, estábamos hablando sobre nuestros planes para ese fin de semana y en ultimo minuto decidimos ir a Jaco. Después de llegar al Centro de San José caminamos por mucho tiempo, preguntemos muchas veces por la ubicación de la estación de buses, pero al final estábamos ahí y compramos nuestros boletos. Tuvimos que tomar el bus que salía a las 6 p.m. por que para el bus de las 5 p.m. era muy tarde, y esto por que estuvimos un poquito perdida. Pero, todo estuvo bien Después, estábamos en el bus camino a Jaco y dormimos mucho en el bus, casi todo el viaje por que estábamos cansadas. Después de casi dos horas de viaje llegamos a Jaco! Pero no sabíamos dónde estaba ubicado nuestro hostel, no teníamos ni una idea. Entonces fuimos al Best Western al otro lado de la calle y realizamos muchas preguntas al hombre que nos atendió. Tomamos un taxi y encontramos nuestro hostel, el nombre es “Jaco Inn”. El hombre que nos atendió era muy amable y el hostel era limpio y cómodo. Después salimos a cenar y comimos pizza, por supuesto. No se imaginan pero a nosotras nos encanta la pizza. Después de la cena regresamos al hostel a preparemos para la noche. Fuimos a mucho lugares para bailar y después regresamos al hotel para descansar. El sábado muy temprano por la mañana fuimos a desayunar. Comimos panqueques y tostadas francesas, estaban muy deliciosas. Después fuimos a la playa por todo el día. Tuvimos un excelente día en la playa. A las 4 salimos para el hostel y nos bañamos, cenamos más pizza y salimos a tomar el bus hacia San José. Esa aventura fue muy divertida y definitivamente valió la pena! Me encantan las aventuras especialmente cuando no tengo planes! fue una de mucha experiencias buenas en Costa Rica.
Like always, we left very early in the morning to head to Nicaragua. After a long bus ride we were at the Costa Rican frontera (border) ready to leave. After showing them our passports and paying our impuestas (taxes) to leave, we were on our way back onto the bus. We were in the bus for about 3 minutes, and had to get off again to enter into Nicaragua! Here there were many vendedores (sellers) with many things for very cheap.. For example, I bought a hammock for $5... can't beat that right? After having our luggage checked, and everything cleared we then waited for our name to get called to get back on the bus. It was very important to pay attention for your name to be called, cause if you missed it, the people wouldn't be very happy with you. We then headed to the ferry and headed to Ometepe, an Island with two volcanoes on it. In Ometepe we had a free day and decided to ride bikes to the waterfall which resulted in me going with Lisandra to get stitches! After that experience it was time to go home and relax because the next day we had a tour! The next day we went to volcan masaya where I rode a horse up the mountain next to the volcano, and wow was it beautiful. After that we went to Granada. Granada is a more touristy place in Nicaragua, but in a good way. I liked it a lot. We ate dinner on a street full of restaurants, live music and fun. I had a spicy pasta, cause I was really craving pasta.. and apparently so was the random man who might have had a little too much to drink, because he tried stealing my pasta right off the table. After a night in Granada we woke up and continued our tour, we got to make our own cigars, go to café sonrisas and have lunch before it was time to go home!! After a long bus ride we were finally home. I had never been more excited to rest, the weekend was a long one!
Nicaragua was definitely an experience to remember. I am very appreciative I got to have this opportunity because beyond what I have written here it was very eye opening. TO BEGIN:
Tamarindo: Our group went to Tamarindo two weekends ago and it was a LONG bus ride. Besides the bus ride Tamarindo was very pretty, the beaches were great and the night life was awesome too. We stayed in "La Botella de Leche", which was a cute little hostel that had a crystal blue pool in the middle of all the rooms. Sounds relaxing right? It was, except... after relaxing in the pool I went to shower the chlorine off and noticed I was turning into the hulk, aka my hair was green, yikes! After a couple minutes of pouting I decided to embrace it, I was from then on just going to tell people I am a sirena (mermaid) when they ask me. Works right? Friday night we went to Crazy Monkey, it was a bar/club. It was very fun! On one side they had this dance floor with latin, merengue, and cumbia music and on the other side they had R&B pop music, so depending on what you were feeling you could float around. On Saturday we spent the whole day on the beach which was definitely fun. It was especially fun because my friends and I took surfing lessons, not only did we learn how to surf, but it was only $35 for 2 hours, which compared to the prices I saw, that was a bargain! At night we went to Aqua, which was this club on top of a Super Mercado, it was ladies night all night.. who could go wrong? The only thing we paid for all night was the entrance fee which was 2 mil, so a little bit less than $4. The only cons would be that it is a very touristy place, which then means expensive, at least compared to other places we have been. The bus ride was about six hours. The time goes by pretty fast but sitting on a bus is not my favorite thing to do, although it is an essential part of traveling, pero, Vale la pena! (it was worth it). Manuel Antonio: This past weekend we went to Manuel Antonio, which was only about 3.5 hours in the bus, which was a relief! Manuel Antonio is also touristy but not as much as Tamarindo. It was a little bit expensive compared to Puerto Viejo, but it wasn't too bad because there were other options. The first day we were there we trekked down this hill all the way to the bottom of this street, which took about 40 minutes, but it was sooo worth it. The beach was amazing! It was very private and the water was incredible. Just when I thought it could get better, we found out there were kayak rentals! WOOHOO! Lisandra and I rented a kayak and explored the ocean for a while! It was definitely something I have always wanted to do. The first night we tried going out to have a good night except for some odd reason all the bars were closed, word on the street was because there wasn't enough people in town. The next day we went to Manuel Antonio parque nacional! It was phenomenal! I saw monkeys, sloths, raccoons, iguana looking things, crabs and much much more! Not to mention the beaches there were incredible! I loved how soft the sand was, how fun the waves were and how beautiful the views were. After the park we went and grubbed out at a restaurant with an ocean view, which means we got to watch the sunset! It was beautiful! Saturday night we went to a disco club, except I am not sure why it was called a disco club, because there was no disco? Im not sure if that is just a name or what, but regardless it was fun! The next morning we woke up for our free pan y café, which one can never go wrong with comida gratis (free food). Then we checked out of our hotel and we were off to San Jose! I love all the traveling we have been doing, it has truly made my Costa Rican experience unforgettable and it has only been 4 weeks.... crazy right? This next weekend we are heading to Nicaragua, stay tuned for more! Yesterday was El dia de Independencia in Costa Rica. It was very very cool to have a day to sleep in a couple extra hours. I woke up to what sounded like a band marching down the street but unfortunately I was too cozy in mi cama to go take a look! Eventually, I got outta bed and met my papa tico en the kitchen! After breakfast I got ready for my day, left the house and met mi amiga at the bus stop. We decided to go downtown to see what was happening on this historical day. While on the bus there was a ton of traffic, lots of streets were closed for the parades, many people were hanging out at parks celebrating with food music and dancing. We finally got downtown and took a look around and we were a little confused.... where was everyone? After about 10 minutes of walking we started to hear some music, we decided to follow the music and there it was, a street full of people. When I say full I mean it, it was a little bit impossible to see the street because there were so many people, but I liked it, it showed some culture and that everyone wanted to celebrate! After watching some of the parade, yo tengo mucho hambre, my stomach was growling... so Katie and I went and bought some hamburguesas, what better way to celebrate right? Estoy jugando jaja. (I'm joking). Anyways after we spent a couple hours exploring downtown we met up with some other friends in our program and we hopped on a bus, which by the way, the buses are sooooo cheap here, and we went to multiplaza. One of the coolest and nicest malls I've seen here. I mean of course we had to do a little shopping since we were there anyways... After a couple hours of lollygagging around the beautiful centro comercial, we got back on the best and headed home. It was definitely a day full of rest and adventure at the same time!
On a side note, after only being here for three weeks, I must say I feel very at home. My family is still super awesome, my group and I have the best of times, I feel like I know many places around where I live and also where I don't. We got to explore Puerto Viejo two weekends in a row, definitely love it there. It's a beautiful little town with a view of the playa almost everywhere you are. We got to attend a soccer game, which was also such a blast. There are definitely too many amazing stories I have to tell and if I were to write them all I would be sitting here all day. In a nutshell, Costa Rica is amazing. Pura Vida everyone. At about 5 am I was woken up by the skylight above my bed, one of the best alarm clocks ever invented. Seriously. After about 5 minutes of laying there and looking at the beautiful lit up garden outside my room I went back to bed. I then woke up, took a shower, and went to the kitchen where I found Carlos. We drank a cup of coffee together and he then began making breakfast! I had eggs and bacon with a delicious side of coffee. Just the right way to start a Sunday if you ask me! A little later in the day Carlos, Rosi, Abuelita and I went on our way to start our Sunday adventure. We drove to many different parts of Costa Rica, where there were many different sites to see. I saw the most important church in CR where there were many many people. I saw lottery tickets being sold on the side of the road, as well as fruit of course. We drove into the "country side" of CR and then ended up eating lunch, (I forget the name of the restaurant) but it was delicious, and the view was AMAZING (probably forgot the name cause I was distracted by everything else). We got the buffet, and let me tell you... what better way to taste a ton of costa rican foods at once?! I was in love with all the choices! I tried many many things and did not find one thing I did not like, which is pretty surprising. We then started our drive back into town and it started raining, which I was excited for. One thing about Costa Rica is there are these bridges that you drive over except only one car is allowed at a time, so that was something interesting! After it stopped raining, we stopped to get ice cream on a stick, which was delicioso! About twenty minutes later we got back home and after all the yummy food we ate, we were all ready for una siesta (a nap)! I am now ready for dinner and I am going to get ready to start school tomorrow! HASTA LUEGO!
I arrived in Costa Rica around 3 o'clock, and found Cesar at the exit, where he was waiting to take me home! To begin, the roads in Costa Rica somewhat make me feel like I'm in a game of Mario Kart, which isn't necessarily a bad thing because I like that game, but I don't know how safe it is... Anyways, after about a 40 minute drive, I pull into the driveway and I see my new home! First off it is extremely close to the university I am attending here, (so close I can see it from my front yard) Second, it is definitely not the type of home you see in Arizona so I was happy, and on top of that it's beautiful so that was a bonus. I was so anxious to meet my family and as soon as I get out of the car I see my abuelita, Doris. She is the cutest thing! Then comes Carlos, he is my host father! He spoke Spanish to me right off the bat, which not gonna lie when you're a beginner like me it's a bit intimidating... Minutes later when I am having difficulties understanding words I have never learned before he lets me in on a little secret... He speaks English also! What a relief! We sat at the table and talked for a while which was great because in so little time I learned so much about him, the neighborhood, and Costa Rica in general. A little while later Rosibel, my host mother comes down to greet me! She gave me the biggest hug! I already knew after minutes of knowing this family I would love them. I then was shown my room, which let me tell you I have been looking forward to this whole time!! We walk out this door that goes outside, and there's another door, and then my room! I have my own little office, bathroom and a giant bedroom which has all these cute little organizers, which if you know me, you know I love organized rooms.. Later on in the afternoon dinner was served and for my first Costa Rican meal I was very very happy! We then went to el supermercado, where I bought some shampoo and conditioner! I paid in cash, and got colones back! What a surprise! If you've never seen colons, it somewhat reminds me of monopoly money! Pretty cool. We then went home, and after a long day of traveling I was ready for bed! Buenas Noches!
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