Ants, Ants, Ants! (Plus a great weekend =D )

I was lucky to have Chris here for almost two weeks! The past weekend we did a day trip to Volcan Poas and La Paz Waterfall Garden. Unfortunately we were not able to see the volcano because it was way to cloudy, however we did have a nice walk through the forest.

La Paz Waterfall Gardens was absolutely beautiful and we were lucky enough to experience it together! There were so many different animals and we even got to hold a toucan! We saw many different types of waterfalls and then had a yummy buffet. It really was a great day trip.

The past Saturday we also went to San Jose Center. We walked for about 6 hours all over the city! We shopped at the artisan market and then found outside activities that the community was doing. The event which is held every weekend is called, "Enamorate de tu ciudad". People were doing all kinds of things from playing chess, to hula hooping, beating drums, etc..etc... It was really great to see and I was fascinated by all the activities.

Sunday we spent the time having a nice lunch with my host family and just sitting around talking.

Now it's back to normal with school and being home.

But I must tell my ant story....
At the hotel in San Pedro in which we stayed the whole time, there were many ants everywhere. They were all over the bathroom, the floors...everywhere... I tried to keep calm (after all it is Costa Rica). It seemed like they would get worse everyday and they really were getting into everything. I made the mistake of bringing Chris a candy from my school and we put it on the table where the ants got into the plastic! The day we were leaving there were ants in my bookbag so again I tried to stay calm and just crushed all of them with my fingers. I hoped they were all dead and that none were coming home with me. Once I dropped of Chris to the airport and I got home, I started to clean out my bags. I saw a few more ants in my bag which confused me because I really triple checked it before I left. I started cleaning out everything and hoped for no more ants. I kept seeing some on my bedroom floor and just continued to kill them. I went about my day and went to school. I took my umbrella in case it rained. When I got home I put my bag down on my bed, had dinner as usual, and my tico family and I watched a movie. When I got back to the room I noticed ants on my bed. I was really paranoid at this point. I noticed the bag was on my bed and figured I should shake it out outside. I went outside and figured I should shake out the umbrella that was in the bag too. I opened the umbrella up and quickly dropped it and screamed!! There were TONS of ants all on the inside of my umbrella! My host dad sprayed the umbrella and we left it outside for the night! For the next three days I felt like ants were crawling on me and I would see ants that weren't there! I think I'm ok now! HAHA oh Costa Rica!

Until Next Time!

Meet Mr. Albino Squirrel

Beautiful Blue Hummingbird

Waterfall

Butterfly Garden

Jaguar pacing around

Toucan Time

My lovely week

This week I spent at the hotel with Chris. I had the opportunity to try different restaurants and learn about new places in Costa Rica. (I'm usually alone at my Tica house and I don't like to go out alone due to many robberies). Tuesday we went to the mall to eat and to go to the theatre. We ate at "La Casona del cerdo", and it was absolutely yummy!!! The meat dish was delicious! We saw the movie "Cuestión de tiempo" (About Time), and we really enjoyed it! I like the movie theaters in Costa Rica a lot and they only cost around $4!! (In the states it's like $10 where I live).

Today we walked to the artisan market which surprised me to how close downtown is from where I live here. From the hotel the walk was about ten minutes! I absolutely love souvenirs and the artisan market here. 

After that we went to lunch at Musa Confusa with my friend Jess. It was yummy as always!:) Then Jess had to go to class so Chris and I went to the mall before I had class. 

Today Chris met my host parents and we took them out for dinner. We went to a restaurant called, Ram Luna. It was Costa Rican night so they had a buffet and a live show. They also had vendors inside the restaurant at tables selling their goods. The whole experience really was great and there was so much history in the restaurant itself; it was absolutely beautiful!! 

Manuel Antonio

This past weekend I went to Manuel Antonio with my boyfriend Chris who came to visit me for 12 days!! Our bus ride went by fairly quickly. The hotel was very beautiful and had a pool and jacuzzi! We were both hungry so we walked a little bit up the street and found a restaurant that was inside an old airplane!! It was very cool but we sat outside of the airplane in a different seating area where we had a beautiful view of the water and trees! We were lucky enough to see a cute little colorful monkey. The food was ok but the place itself was absolutely beautiful. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and ate dinner at the hotels restaurant. 

The next day we had a tour booked for the national park. We were in a group of 5 (very nice people) and our tour guide (who talked way too much). We saw so many things and it really is a place to go if you want to see a lot of Costa Rica's wildlife. There were so many monkeys around the beach area trying to steal peoples bags, it was kind of funny and cute! We saw frogs, tadpoles, spiders, the biggest and smallest grasshopper, birds, butterflies, a sloth, etc! We didn't stay at any of the beaches though. 

After the park we walked around the town shops and then went for lunch and dessert across another beach area. We never brought our bathing suits outside of the hotel so we never got to swim at the beach. We went back to our hotel to relax and dip into the pool after a hot day of walking. At night we borrowed a DVD from the hotel and watched "Pineapple Express", I was laughing so hard that the lady in the next room banged on the wall.

For Sunday we booked a mangrove tour! We woke up the next day had a delicious typical Costa Rican breakfast and went on the tour. It was definitely a highlight of the trip. The tour included a Costa Rican typical casado dish and then the tour itself on a boat. Our tour guide Alex was great and super funny. We were lucky enough that it was just me and Chris. We saw more animals on the tour and just the view was amazing. My favorite part was when we stopped near the monkeys on the trees and they jumped on Chris's head! We were definitely surprised and then they jumped on mine! We were able to take pictures with them and later we even got to take pictures with a wild snake! It was a very cool tour and I definitely recommend it. 

The weekend was beautiful overall and I was so happy to share it with Chris!

Soap Bubbles

My first time getting a pedicure in Costa Rica consisted of an at home foot bath that you plug in to the wall. I was hesitant to even get the pedicure and when I decided to do it, she didn't bother cutting my nails but it went fine. 

Today was my second time getting a pedicure and I wanted one to look nice for my love whose coming tomorrow!! This time I went to a different place (a friend from school had suggested this place because she lives there and gets discounts when she brings people in so I decided to go). Well I think this probably was one of the worst mani/pedi experiences if my life and I seriouslydidn't  know whether to laugh or cry!

I went into the salon, which was very nice! The girl sat me down for a pedicure and it was a similar setup to my first one but more of a sink type basin that didn't plug in and was connected to a faucet on the ground. I thought great this should be nice. She asked me if I wanted to use exfoliant or lotion for my feet, I said exfoliant (which had a huge $6.97 price tag on it...tjmaxx maybe?). She put the exfoliant on my feet and rubbed it in, she told me to put my feet back in the basin but never really washed it off. Then she asked if I wanted my toe nails clipped I said sure, she then was about to clip them and decided the clippers were too big and decided to file them instead. Then without toe separators she proceeded to painting my nails without a base coat. After she was done with one foot she told me to put it off to the side, when she painted the second foot there was no where to put my foot so I asked where I could put it and she said "I don't know". After painting all my toe nails red she actually asked if I wanted a top coat! Finally that part was done...now on to the hands I went!

She used the same exfoliant to rub into my cuticles and then massage my hands a little bit. She filed my nails and then started to paint them!! She didn't even cut my cuticles and they are in terrible need of a cut! Again she didn't use a base coat. She painted them once and said do you want me to paint another layer or put on the top coat (there were streaks in my nails, clearly two coats were needed). I told her to put another coat and they still were awful! I really just wanted to leave. I didn't say anything because I honestly didn't know what today to her. The she tried to overcharge me and I was like no way that is not what your card said! So I paid her what was on the price list that was in the salon!

Now I wasn't going to blog about this but then it was raining outside. I had no were to dry my nails and she says oh it raining and then sees me struggling to get my umbrella out of my bag with my wet nails. Finally I got my umbrella and was dying to get out of there. It started pouring so hard my entire clothes were soaked!!! On top of that I'm walking and my flip flops wouldn't stay on I look down and there's soap suds all over my shoes and feet and on my hands! I seriously didn't know whether to laugh or cry! I finally got home soaked!

Arenal

This weekend I was in Arenal with my program! The ride there was about 4 hours long and seemed pretty short, especially since I've been going on these really long rides every weekend. The hotel we stayed in was called Arenal paraiso hotel resort and spa. It was very nice and hugeee!! I didn't do much the first day except have lunch in their restaurant which was nice, then I went to the gift shop, and lastly I went out for dinner with everyone in the program. The center is a bit far from the hotel so we had to take our bus to the restaurant for dinner. 

The next morning we woke up to a delicious breakfast; a buffet style and seriously was just sooo good! We late went to see the volcano! We took a hike through a forest. All the group members were going so fast and Jalissa and I were so behind because we were taking pictures. Our program director was waiting for us up ahead so the three of us walked together and the rest of the group was long gone! We ended up seeing so many cool things like different colored lizards, beautiful butterflies, monkeys, some animal from the rat family, etc...(I wish I knew the names)! We also saw the oldest tree in Latin America (400 years old) and the biggest! It was so amazing and it felt like so many things were happening at once! We finally hiked up as close as we could get to the volcano without danger and took cool pictures! (There were stories of people going in the wrong areas and dying of poisonous gases). The views and everything really was amazing! We went back to our hotel where I had dinner at the hotel restaurant with 3 order group members and then we went to the hotels hot springs and pool. It was my first time in a hot spring and wow was it amazing!! It felt like bath water! 

That night we were suppose to goto the famous Baldi Hot Springs but it poured so hard that the program director switched it for the following morning so we just ended up going to dinner where I had my delicious banana milkshake. 

The next morning we woke up to go to the beautiful Baldi Hot Springs!!! Some were up to 119 degrees! (Maybe there were higher ones but I didn't go in all of them). I dipped my whole body into the one that was 119 degrees and it was so hot but after a few minutes felt like a blanket. I couldn't move too much because it was so hot but sitting there was amazing and there was even an entrance for a natural sauna! It was beautiful!! There were also water slides in one of the hot springs that was a little cooler. I had to atleast go once and I did. People said I screamed bloody murder!! Haha! It was an experience for sure! The best part of it was that there were also mini cold pools to cool off that were 68 degrees and you could definitely feel the difference! It was great getting into the ice cold pool after.

Soon after we left to go back home. It was definitely one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to in Costa Rica!!

 

Sloth! (We saw it on the side of the road in a tree)

Hot Spring at the hotel

                                                                 Volcan Arenal

Nicaragua part II & III

Today was our official day one in Nicaragua. We woke up and had a free breakfast from our hostel, which was gallo pinto, queso frito, and maduras. It was not bad. We decided to go to the center after. Walking down the streets was a little scary, definitely a big difference from Costa Rica. The center itself was very nice. We walked around te city, went into a museum, did some shopping, had lunch, etc!

We booked the island tours for 3pm and since it was still early we decided to hang out in the hostel pool. We had a free traditional beer (Toña) courtesy of the hostel that ripped us off too (oh Nicaragua!). The beer was actually pretty good, or I was just really hot and thirsty lol!!!! :) 

The island tours were pretty neat, we were picked up from our hostel and taken to the place. The islands looked beautiful and many were owned by wealthy Nicaraguans or North Americans. One island has four monkeys on it. A scientist or vet brought them there, I don't really know the exact history but they are stuck there since they can't swim and people feed them crap everyday like cookies, etc. They were very cool to see though and I could have stayed there all day! We went to this other island with a cool pool and restaurant (basically the owners of the tours), we didn't have our bathing suits so we didn't swim. We just had a non alcoholic beverage and hung around for a bit.

After the tours we went back to the center and were looking for this place to eat called "nica buffet", we never found it so we settled on this place in an artisan market, it was ok. Then we took a taxi back to the hostel!

Official Day 2

Today was our last full day in Granada, but before that I wanted to mention how we had booked a double bedded room with a private bathroom and the manager told us the reservation never made it to the hostel. He said the room was taken and that we could transfer to it tomorrow (this was Friday). So we went to a room with just literally two beds in it and one fan. He brought us another fan and a table. He also wouldn't lower the price of the room if we decided to stay in the room he gave us with no private bathroom. So the next day he showed us the other room and it literally has a bed, a toilet, and a sink all next to each other. I told him this was not the room I booked and he insisted it was and also insisted that the room we were in now was better. Going back to the reservation it said double bed therefore that definitely wasn't the room but whatever, the guy definitely was weird.

Today we went to this place called laguna de apoyo, it's a volcanic crater that you could swim in. It really wasn't as amazing as everyone made it sound but it was cool and the water was nice and warm. We spent some time there then went back to the city and walked around the center some more. We also spent some time in the pool at the hostel and that was pretty much our day! Some drunk guy asked Maisie to marry him and a little boy touched Maisie and told her he loved her. The men's catcalls here are wayyy worse than Costa Rica and very degrading.

Also, the house here are different. A lot of people left their doors open (with the front gates locked) and you could see right in there homes. Their cars were parked inside the house but kind of gated in (hard to explain). They also had like gardens (outside area) in the middle of their homes. It looked like a backyard in the middle of their house and then just the kitchen and everything else around it.

** I forgot to add our first night while looking for food we think some guy on a motorcycle pointed a gun at us and said pow pow then drove off. The bar we went to eat (because there were only bars to eat at) everyone was staring at us. They were doing karaoke there too. My food experience was not good in Nicaragua (I wish I could have had some good authentic food).

While I was shopping a French guy was trying to ask a question as he kept speaking to me in French and I obviously didn't understand a word but he kept on insisting. I think he finally got frustrated and moved on. Sorry but I don't think there's any people who speak French in Nicaragua (for the most part).

Also the taxis would stop and allow more people in until they were full. In Costa Rica if someone is in a cab them the cab will not stop for anyone else. The taxis in Nicaragua don't have meters like in Costa Rica.

Our bus ride back was filled with people trying to sell food and some random guy who stood up to preach the bible. The bible preacher got yelled at by the bus driver and the other people who work on the bus. I have no idea what they were saying because they were too far up. Then this guy got yelled at for having his feet up on someones chair. The bus guy told him he had no respect! Too funny! Then when we got off at the boarder to get out passports stamped he was outside preaching the bible to all the street vendors and he even had them in a circle and was blessing them. Quite a show!

The trip in itself was a different experience. We had a good time overall.

Nicaragua Part I

This week has been so weird without having to go to Spanish class anymore! I can wake up a little later but I miss my breakfast interaction! 

The only exciting thing was that when Mac and I were walking home from the bank we hear this cop car and all we see from around the corner is a tow car looking thing coming and went right in front of a car almost hitting it, then another car screeching behind those two. It was undercover cops, they trapped the car in the middle and got out of their cars quickly and pulled out guns! I have no idea what happened after that, it seemed to linger and no one was getting arrested. This Tican guy turned to me and said, "see it doesn't only happen in the states". It was interesting to see and it happened so quickly while we were in mid convo. 

The rest of the week went by quickly. For Halloween I went to class and we finished watching Dirty Dancing Havana nights. After that I just went home while everyone went out to celebrate/party.

As of right now I am heading to Nicaragua with Maisie. We are on the bus and its a nice bus; it even has a bathroom!! The seats are comfortable, it is air conditioned, and there's even a TV (playing a crappy movie, but hey no complaints!!) When we went to buy the tickets on Wednesday we forgot our passports so had to call people to get out passport numbers for us!! I am very excited we are going! The hostel I chose seems like it will be decent (fingers crossed!) It has a pool so I am definitely excited about that!!:) the ride will be around 8 hours! So here I go crossing another boarder once again!!!:):):):)

I'm still on the bus and I just crossed the boarder of Costa Rica and now we are getting to the place where we get stamped for Nicaragua, except this bus took everyone's passports to get stamped, which I find sketchy. I got ripped off $75. We were getting our first stamps and I asked the lady where we can change Costa Rican colones to Nicaraguan Cordobas, she said you can change it outside. There were men everywhere in your face asking you to change your money, it looked very sketchy and I told them to back away so that they wouldn't take anything out of my bag. Well there's a lady on the bus that is leading a group of Americans on the bus, and she walked by and said its safe to change the money and that it's better off changing it there because in Nicaragua the exchange people will rip you off. So 60,000 colones is the equivalent of $120. The cordobas the guy gave me were equivalent to around $44. He kept showing me on the calculator but obviously he knew what he was doing to rip me off. I didn't even have the time to count and he kind of ran off. I asked someone how much the cordobas were worth and that's how I found out I was ripped off. Oh well, nothing I can do. It really sucks and I wouldn't have done it if the lady told me it was ok; another reason you shouldn't trust strangers even if they are group leaders; but I can't and shouldn't blame anyone. Thankfully I didn't change all of my money and I hope the robber is happy; his life will never be as blessed as mine anyway.

I'm back on the bus, my passport is stamped and safe, approximately 2 more hours until we get to Granada. Maisie and I are starving!! Hopefully tomorrow will be a great day! We are planning to go to the Isletas which are islands broken off from a volcanic eruption!

Finally we arrived to our hostel only to find out the hostel never got our reservation. The guy gave us a room with two beds and put in two fans and we have to share a bathroom. I still haven't paid him because his is not what I paid for. It is also very very hot and sticky here :-/ night 1 did not turn out well but we are staying positive for tomorrow!!! We also went to find a place to eat dinner since we hadn't eaten for so many hours. All that was around were bars with gross food, so we ate whatever just to have something in our system. 

Well time for bed!! Goodnight!'