Mi fin de semana a La Playa Negra

(Jess and I on the bikes of DOOM)

Let me just say that La Playa Negra is the most amazing place in the world. It is a magically mix of Costa Rican and Carribean culture. La Playa Negra has black sand and a beautiful blue sea! The place that Jess, Jessica, Emily, Lorri, Ceceilia, and I stayed was amazing. It is called La Piscina Natural and it has an amazing owner named Walter. He is just a champion in life. Get on his level.

(A view from La Piscina Natural)

Friday night when we got there, we all went to a little restaurant called Reggae Bar that was near our hotel. It was nice and the food was really good. Then we headed to CoCo´s Bar to just hang out, and I conversed with 3 locals in ESPAÑOL for about 2 hours. Friday night was very chill and calm.

(Me at you guessed it... Reggae´s Bar)

Saturday was the day of activities. My day started out by breaking the showerhead right before I got in the shower, so Walter had to come and fix. Then since Jess and I could not get the taxi to answer us, we decided to bike to the Sloth Sanctuary. We asked a local and he told us, ¨Oh, it is a 30 minute bike to the bridge and then a 3 minute ride to the place.¨So Jess and I embarked on what we thought would be a pleasant bike ride... Then we got to the ¨highway¨and it was HOT. I am not talking ¨Ew, I am sweatyyyy¨hot, I am talking ¨I hope I do not drop off this bike and die from dehydration¨ hot. 45 minutes later we get to the bridge! We are the happiest that we have ever been. Then 10 minutes later, we start doubting that we found the bridge,and 5 minutes later we find a bride and a banana plantation (kind of cool). Then 15 minutes later we find the Sloth Sanctuary , Jess and I are ridiculously happy and pray that everything is worthwhile. After we angrily locked our bikes to whatever post we could find, we stumble up the stairs to the reception/gift shop area.

We are greeted by Jeff, our handsome sloth guide. His grandparents founded the reservation and it was cool. In case you are wondering, it was AMAZING. I got to touch slothS and see little baby sloths... One was named Oprah, it was an Oprah version of a sloth. After we were done, we agreed to take a taxi to the hotel. The lady at the Sloth Place, called a taxi for us and it was a pickup truck because we had to bring our bikes. It was an interesting ride and we made it home without any harm.

(Oprah, the sloth)

All of my friends and I ate dinner ate CoCo´s Bar. We ate these things called patacones. They are4 green plantain that are fried, smashed, and then fried again. It was the best.thing.ever. I am going to convince my mom to cook them when I get home. We made some interesting friends that night. We met a local named Joseph (pronounced Yo-seph), and 3 men that are studying to get their Masters´in EcoTourism or something like that. We nicknamed them Costa Rica, Mexico, and Texas. I danced with Mexico and Jospeh. It was so fun!! They showed me how to dance Latino style. Mexico went a little crazy with it and started slinging and twirling me around, so I sat back down. After dancing, I made up a secret handshake with a worker there and we agreed WHEN I come back and if he is still working there, we shall do it once more.

Let me just say relaxing and socializing at La Playa Negra was the greatest time I have ever had in my life.

My weekend at Pozo Azul.

I had a great time being a wilderness girl at Pozo Azul. My group and I stayed in a tienda de acamapar (aka a tent). It was a nice tent because it was a stationary tent and had a bathroom with a shower... PLUS I COULD FLUSH THE TISSUE. However, a tent is a tent no matter how you split it. It was an experience.

Saturday morning, we got up early to eat breakfast because our first activity was at 9:30 am. My first activity was canopy (ziplining). It was so fun. We ziplined through 12 treetop in the high trees of the rainforest. My second and favorite activity was the propelling which is when you go down the mountain using a rope. I made sure I was nice a strapped into my harness, the guide told me that he did not want to cut off the circulation to my thigh. I decided I was safe enough after he told me that. When I told my I was nervous he said that I will be okay because ¨The mountain was just about 100 feet.¨ I let him know that 100 feet is still very tall!

I also went rafting and that was super fun. We went with a guide named Aldimir! He was so silly. He was pretty much laughing at us the whole time. We did classes 2 to 5. I liked 5 the most. I could do that again. It was just the most amazing time ever!

Hola todos!

This is night numero dos en mi casa! Coming to Costa Rica seems surreal. I have never felt so lost, excited, nervous, and daring in my life. The first day was definitely overwhelming. I wanted to cry and fly back to my mommy! Everyone was talking at me in Spanish. It is so hard because I can be very shy when someone is talking to me in English. It is not easy trying to find the right words to express yourself when: a) you hardly know them, and b) you are being awkward anyway. I must say I feel a bit more comfortable than I was yesterday. I am trying so very hard to understand and speak in Spanish! At my school, the professors pretty much only speak in Spanish. This is more difficult for me to understand. I do not know why. Maybe because it is mainly educational. My brain rebels against it: ¨No mas!!¨

Costa Rica is so pretty. It is gorgeous. The town I am in is really a rough mix of urban and rural life. There are plenty of bakeries, shops, and restaurants; however, the sidewalks and streets are unpaved and rugged. There are so many different plants! Dogs are outside every house! Today a hummingbird flew into class! It is amazing!!

Mi familia es muy simpatico (My family is very nice). They are really trying to help me understand and speak in Spanish. I am also helping my madre de tica learn a bit of English. I live in a beautiful home and the food is MUY DELICIOSA! Mi familia makes sure that I am well fed, The food here is so much fresher than the food back home. I do not feel that bad for eating it, but I am thankful that I am walking a lot. They have so many different animals too! They have hens, dogs, a cat, rabbits, a iguana, and birds! The hens and bird intimidate me, but that is alright.

This is a very short post because not much has happened yet and I have not taken that many pictures, but I will update and post more pictures.

¡Adios!