Hello all,
One difference that this blog entry has from the previous three is that it is coming from a much wiser, 22 year old mind. Only moments after my arrival, news of my upcoming birthday spread throughout Bagaces and plans for a grand fiesta were rapidly made. I had to tell them, please, no fireworks and parades, some good food and a cake is plenty enough. They grudgingly obliged and I was told that the fireworks and parades are now once again planned to be used as they were originally intended: for the upcoming Independence Day (September 15).
The party my family threw for me last Thursday was in fact a whole a lot of fun. When I got back from class there were about 20 family members hanging out on our little patio. Class went long however and I got back about a half hour late. My host mom was worried I got lost so she went looking for me. Meanwhile an uncle was cooking up some beef on the grill and my host grandpa and I watched the Packers lose (almost). Later nearly all the gringos came by and invaded the patio making it even more packed (one of the family members yelled out “here comes an army of them!”). My host mom, who had returned by this time, forced all of my classmates to eat even though they had already had their own dinners at their host houses. Finally there was cake, which was delicious, and lots of beer. After singing happy birthday, they stuffed my face into the cake which is tradition. Then someone cracked an egg on my head, which is, of course, tradition. We then proceeded to drink plenty of Johnny Walker and Costa Rican beer which may or may not be tradition.
The following weekend was truly a memorable one. I’ll try to let the pictures do most of the talking for the core parts.
Here is a map that shows where we went for you geography concerned types. We took a bus early Saturday morning to Miramar which is a mountain town. We then traveled up to the top of the mountain on a bus, went on about an hour and a half horse ride, and arrived at the start of a 24-station zip-line adventure. The next day we woke up early and took a bus to Puntarenas. From there we went on little boats to an island called Isla Tortuga. The island isn't visible on the map but it was basically about an hour and a half trip south. And we saw whales, which was nice.
The view from the resort at the top of Miramar before we left on the horse ride.
Horses.
Zip-lining trip. There was a pool with a water fall that we stopped at and swam in. Above is some of the guides.
Puntarenas. A port city.
The boat ride. Ashley (left) was very excited about the whales.
Trying out some fresh oysters on Isla Tortuga. Yum.
Isla Tortuga. Imperial is a Costa Rican beer. There are two types; the other one is named Pilsen which I am more a fan of.
When we left the Island it started to pour. Needless to say the boat ride was wild. Some of the waves could have knocked the boat over. Thankfully our skipper had good maneuvering skills. I had also had a few beers so I thoroughly enjoyed it as did the other 5 classmates on our boat. The other boat, which was larger and had the majority of us, ran into a few problems. Long story short, the 6 of us on the first boat arrived back in Puntarenas, had to sprint through the city to get to the bus stop, and found that the last bus out had already left. The rest of the kids showed up about a half hour later. Thankfully we were able to take another bus which went took us on a bit of a detour and eventually somehow we found ourselves on the original bus that we had taken on Saturday morning. This bus sort of belongs to the town of Bagaces so the bus driver saw us on the side of the road, recognized us, and picked us up. About an hour later we were found ourselves in a traffic jam that lasted a good hour and a half. Traffic jams here are a little different . Everybody gets out of their vehicles and hangs out since the cars do not move at all. I took the opportunity to go pee on the side of the road, and in doing so, slipped into about a foot of mud. Meanwhile the 20 cars behind me are honking and laughing at me. We finally get back at around 10, I shuffle into my house as my family is watching Slumdog Millionaire in dubbed Spanish, I say goodnight, and promptly pass out.
Overall, pretty good weekend.
Overall, pretty good weekend.
