Costa Rica (pt 2)

Thursday (12/27) was an early morning, and we hopped in our little shuttle to the Cloud Rain Forest Reserve....who would have thought that it's cold and rainy in rain forests? Not I. We had to buy a poncho when we got there. It was cold too. Colder than I expected. The hike was really nice, except that I ruined my new cross-trainers with all the mud. And I slipped and fell, missing the mud by an inch as the tour guide caught me right before I hit it. (which makes my fall from the morning before, where I slipped on a rock and fell into the waterfall pool in front over everyone, a little more silly). So after the hike we went to a hummingbird reserve and there were so many hummingbirds flying all around, you could hear them and see them! They are adorable! And there was a little furry animal that climbed onto one of the wires to steal some sweet stuff from the hummingbirds. It was super cute too. Then we went back to our hostel as it rained all afternoon. I read a book and mom took a nap. Cold weather is a bad influence. Mom did manage to escape for a bit to buy a guanábana ice cream. It was interesting. Then we went to our Canopy Tour in over the Cloud Forest. It was cold and rainy. I made friends with a Tico who was on vacation there and spoke little English. Have I mentioned how grateful I am to know Spanish? We had fun. The best part of the tour was doing a Superman zipline across the tops of the trees. YAY! There was an annoying family vacation on our tour, and they were super intense. Everyone was feeling sorry for the guides. It was bad. And the kids were harassing the guides; the family was very stereotypical for the country they're from. They made us wait for a different bus because they insisted that their family go on the shuttle back first. During this time, I was able to talk to 2 Canadian girls, Helen and Julia, who were pretty cool that I talked to earlier. We went back to the hostel and went to bed.

Don't I look like a garden gnome?

I woke up in the middle of the night smacking that was on my arm. As I becoming more conscious to the night, I just knew what I would find when I turned on the flashlight app my phone. I looked down and there was the spider I saw crawl into our room earlier that night, which I couldnt find as I looked for it. It was dead and in my bed. I felt so violated. Why do bugs think they are allowed on my bed?!?!?!?! I couldnt sleep, even though my mom went back to sleep no problem. I stayed up reading in the common room for all hours of the night until I was so exhausted I couldnt think of spiders crawling over my body and I prayed intensely asking for spider protection as I dosed off to sleep.

I can FLY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday (12/28) saw us off to Arenal. Originally, I wanted to horseback ride from Monteverde to Arenal, but after the horseback riding, I realized I was not emotional stable enough to attempt that as the trail would be cold, rainy, and probably mountainous. No way, Jose. On the shuttle, we saw Helen and Julia. Cowinkydink. We got to the lake and had to wait for the boat to pick everyone up. This time, I wasn't the one who fell. It was mom. And she got muddy. That's what happens when they want you to walk down a muddy hill to get to the boat.  The boat ride was fine and then we crammed into a shuttle to take us to our accommodations in La Fortuna. (Please note: everyone refers to this place as Arenal, but that's not the name of the town. So if you're searching for hostels, you have to type in La Fortuna or it will say that no hostels are available) 

The hostel we were staying at was really nice and had it's own pool, except once again, it was raining. It was rainy, and overcast, so the Arenal Volcano we were suppose to see, was never seen. We got there and went across the street because I was craving ceviche, and there was a sign advertising it. #effectiveadvertisement The food was good. We went back to our room, and did I mention that Helen and Julia are there too. I'm thinking maybe they are stalkers, and it is no longer a coincidence. #joking Then I fell into a stage of siesta due to all the muggy weather. Mom, in her brilliance, decided to go to the computer room and do work. #crazylady
When I woke up, I decided we should continue with the plan we had, even though the weather was terrible. So we went to the hot springs. Not the swanky one that I wanted to go to, but the cheaper one because the weather was terrible, and I didnt want to go to a nice hot springs if the weather was going to ruin the experience. (and we shared a taxi with Helen and Julia #newfriends #cheaptaxi) The hot springs were SOOO NICE! They were all warm and relaxing. The cold drizzle was surprisingly relaxing and added to the experience. Mom and I enjoyed the hot water, went on a slide, and then had to change in order to go eat dinner. This idea was dumb, because it was super rainy and there was no covering to get to the hot springs areas to the dinning hall. Lame. But it was a yummy buffet full of goodies. We were then able to head back to our hostel after the nice relaxing evening.

Saturday (12/29) started abruptly, with my mom waking me up saying "what time is the shuttle coming to pick us up, because I think it's here" SAY WHAT? My phone died in the middle of the night and so the alarm didn't go off. Even though I told my mom a million times the day before (because she asks a lot) she forgot, and assumed I would wake up on my own. False. So I literally grabbed my bag and brusquely went to the waiting shuttle...in my pjs. Now I'm all for travelling in pj pants, but in your actual pajamas, without planning on it, is not as fun. When we got to San Jose, we took a little break and then went out wandering. Fact: San Jose is really confusing at times to walk through due to the lack of street signs in some areas of the city. But seriously. We attempted one outing and had to turn back because i couldnt find us on a map. The second time we got it right. we walked all downtown and saw all the important things before heading back for a much needed rest and early night.

Sunday (12/30) we had to take an early morning taxi to be at our pick up location by 6am. We hopped onto the bus, and I passed out until we arrived at where we were having breakfast. Did I not mention where we were headed? Our yacht cruise to Tortuga Island (on the Pacific side in the Gulf of Nicoya). They gave us some yummy gallo pinto for breakfast before boarding the boat. It was a nice 1.5 hour ride where we had unlimited nonalcoholic drinks and kept feeding us fresh fruit. It was super relaxing. And the view coming up to the island was remarkable. It was gorgeous. It's a private reserve island, so they monitor the activity there, and it has some of the earth's 2% of tropical dry forest. The day was spent relaxing on the beach. Avoiding getting sunburnt. Going on a banana boat ride. Snorkeling. Playing in the water. Eating a huge lunch while speaking spanish with out new Costa Rican friends who were on holiday. I was really surprised how many latinos were on the tour with us, I was expecting a lot of white people. Pleasant surprise. It was a nice long day of fun in the sun, and i cannot complain

Floppy hat and cute sun dress provided by Saryah

Our last day (12/31) in San Jose consisted of being nice and lazy. Enjoying the day. Going to eat some pan dulce and having fun. It's really been a great trip with my mommy. She's the coolest. She was able to keep up on all the activities. And I think she's learning to relax a lot better than she could before hand. I would also like to add that vacationing with Saryah in New Zealand earlier in 2012 helped me to really enjoy this trip better and have more fun. On that trip I think Saryah helped me to chill out and not stress so much, and this trip I was able to show that. Progress.

We got home in time to start some laundry as I got all dolled up to go out to the YSA New Years Eve dance party and I had a BLAST! I danced my little heart out and was inspired to just let go and have fun.

Happy 2012 and looking forward to what 2013 brings.