Wow so I know it’s been a while. But I was going to write when I got back last weekend but then I had I think exactly seven hours of homework to do. Well actually seven hours for me, probably two for someone who knows philosophical words in Spanish…Anyway, last weekend we went to Puerto Viejo which is a beach town on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica-aka filled with dreads, people casually selling marijuana on the street, lots of handmade jewelry, and a ton of hammocks. We stayed at arguably the most famous hostel in Central America-Rocking J’s where everyone’s common language is English, and the cost of renting a hammock just went up to seven bucks a night. We, of course, stayed in hammocks all three nights. Some of us were given one sheet. And it is extremely questionable weather or not those things are ever cleaned because many people returned covered in bed bugs…but not me!! So the weekend was filled the first night wandering around, meeting a beautiful Kiwi named Adam. With us travelling to Cahuita (a 20 minute bus ride) to go to the national park and see monkeys and a SLOTH and these ants that travelled in extremely organized formations all carrying plants to their colony just exactly like in a Bug’s Life. Molly and I were fascinated. That day it was just Molly and Zach and I because it was Friday and we came on Thursday because we all finished classes early. We also ate SO MUCH. Because the breakfast at the hostel was fabulous and really cheap, there was a woman on the street selling fresh fruit she would cut for you (I ate a whole mango, half a pineapple and half an avocado that day alone…) and then we found this SWEET tiny little café where they made me a gourmet sandwich of avocado, green olives, honey mustard, alfalfa sprouts, tomato on their home made coconut milk bread. So the beach in Cauhita was so beautiful and then we came back just in time for me to get my whole head braided in an hour for 20 bucks and a hair wrap for 6. And everyone else had arrived while we were in Cahuita so when I got back to the hostel I ordered a very late dinner which I thought would take enough time to make for me to take a shower while I waited and then since the showers are outside the man came up to me with my food while I was putting deodorant on standing outside the shower. Talk about service. So then we went out to this really cool place to dance and danced and sweated the night away and briefly met a very tall Israeli man travelling with a very short British man.
The next day we rented VERY crappy bikes for $5 and rode the hour butt-numbing ride to Manzanillo. There were some very serious hills and most of us did not have gears, some not even hand breaks, but I did have a basket! At Manzanillo we went to the most beautiful beach on the planet, played Frisbee, wandered and discovered this cliff overlooking the beach, and got some good food. That night to save money when we returned to Puerto Viejo I decided to buy a mango for dinner but then couldn’t resist buying the home made loaf of carrot bread from a woman standing in front of the supermarket. Ya’all know me and bread. I ate half of that full loaf. That night I met a bunch of Canadians, played night Frisbee, dipped in the ocean, and was slightly disturbed by the 40 something year old owner, in a toga, following people around in constant attempts to top off their jungle juice. The next day a group of us spent at a beach right next to Puerto Viejo that we walked to. It was sooo nice. Molly and I had a 2 hour run/walk down the beach during which we talked about life and found SO MANY perfect sand dollars to make jewelry out of. Most of them broke on the journey, but I still have about five. We came upon a little lake and decided to be creative and float on a log through the lake. Once we got to the middle, realizing we couldn’t see very deep in it and we weren’t sure what lived there, Molly brought up the possibility of crocodiles. I was like, naww this is salt water. Then I tasted it and realized it wasn’t, screamed “freshwater!” and flopped off the log and have never swam so fast to shore…
So then we left that day after getting ice cream (sorbet for me) in home made AMAZING waffle cones from a tiny little stand near the bus stop. On our stop during the bus ride I got mixed dried fruit-basically the first time I’ve seen it here-after almost buying a bag of dried bananas that I soon realized was overflowing with bugs. And that was in a restaurant. YUMMM. So the next day was my birthday and Mother’s Day and wow I’m terrible with paragraphs here and my host mom LOVED the little bracelet I got for her in Manzanillo and kept showing it off to everyone and I wrote her a card and we went to spend the day with my host dad’s side of the family. And Marco cooked the meal which was, of course, spectacular, and he made me my own beautiful sautéed vegetable wrap because everyone was eating chicken and this awesome Aztec soup and then this jello dessert that I had to eat because they didn’t know that I didn’t eat gelatin and I couldn’t be rude and I felt so bad. And then they sang to me with this adorable DELICIOUS heart shaped cake that my mom made and it was really cute. A really nice day. And then this week I’ve just had classes and done homework and hung out with friends and had long conversations with Marco and my host mom and worked out and in 15 minutes I’m leaving to go see a free dance performance at the school! Oh, and I had told my host mom how my mom makes spinach with garlic and oil and she wanted to try it so yesterday we did that and put carrots and onion and peppers in it and put it over rice and it was so yummy and she was so excited to try something new. Oh, and today we had a conversation about love and relationships and physical versus emotional connections and easy girls and creepy guys and premarital sex and it was actually not awkward and got me thinking a lot, especially because her views are so similar to my parents’ and so different from most of my friends. And my family gets here tomorrow and I AM SO EXCITED TO SEE THEM!!! Gahh and they bought my host family an IPOD TOUCH when I had suggested an older style cheap I pod as their gift because no one has I pods here because they’re too expensive…anyway, they’re going to love it! And I’m going on adventures with them and Marco is cooking an amazing vegan meal for everyone on Sunday night and my family is going to fall in love with him because we love food and I helped him brainstorm what to make last night and he just constantly mentions meat and how great meat is and blah blah blah but he can actually cook amazing vegan food. Anyway, I’m going to go because I have to leave for this performance! Pu-eaceee.
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