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. 

December & Costa Rica (pt. 1)

Oh how life changes when you get back to the United States. My monthly pictures used to be in the hundreds. Now I'm lucky if I get over 50 in a month. In December...I took only 11 pictures. Sad day.

So I have a few highlights for the month of December (pre-Costa Rica).

1. I got a hair cut so my hair finally has proper layers. I'm sick of hairdressers telling me I'm not allowed to have layers because my hair is too short and curly. #liars

2. I took a basic pistol 101 class and learned how to properly hold and shoot a pistol. I shot a Glock 19. Lesson learner: I will not be owning any guns in the foreseeable future.

3. I saw The Hobbit with my old friend Tim. It was soooo much fun. My inner geek was unleashed and had a wonderful reign in my life.

4. I went to the Museum of Natural Science with the sister missionaries on their P-day (I took a half day) and it was awesome. I loved hanging out with the sisters.

5. I got to hang out with Hollister who got some days off during the week, and we had a sleepover in my hotel, went shopping, and had too much fun!

6. Family Christmas dinner on the Saturday before Christmas so we could have a family get together. It was quite pleasant.  I had an interesting consternation with an uncle, who said I could plan a vacation for him and my cousin. IM SO EXCITED! I love planning vacations! WOOHOO!

Then it was off to Costa Rica for me y mi madre :) As Bilbo Baggins says "I think I'm... quite ready for another adventure!"

Sunday night we flew in, and I was lucky enough to sit next to a nice Costa Rican guy. Yay. Mom was recovering from sickness, so she was passed out against the window in her seat. Poor little mommy. lucky me. He was super funny. He works for Amazon and we got our nerd on, talking about movies and superheros. It was a really good flight over, especially because we were able to switch back and forth from English to Spanish during our conversation. He seems like a really great guy. Anyway, we arrived at our hostel and went to bed because we had an early morning ahead of us.

Monday morning (12/24 aka Christmas Eve) we woke up to get ready for the shuttle bus to come pick us up. In all the hustle and bustle of the morning, my mom was in the bathroom and I was changing the bedroom. When I tried to get out of the bedroom...I discovered I was locked in. Not because the door locks from the outside or the door knob was stuck, but the door knob had somehow detached itself from the latch in the door that you have to turn to get the door to open. So I was turning the door knob and nothing was happening, all the while, time was counting down to when our shuttle would be arriving to take us away. Now, I've watched enough tv to know what to do in this situation. I channeled my inner Sydney Bristow (reference: Alias) and started looking for an escape. The windows had bars on them that would not move. and the window part was separated in parts where I would have to individually remove slides of glass to get to the bars. Realizing there was no window escape, I turned towards the door. I tried to push and pull at the door knob, but did not feel it was time to try and break down the door. Instead, I channeled my inner Neal Caffery (reference: White Collar) and started to work on opening the door with my student id card (as I didnt want to hurt my credit card or ruin my driver's licence picture in this amazing feat) I worked on the latch with my card, and praying up a storm, the latch seemed to open and I was freed from my temporary holding cell. Now who says tv is detrimental to our brains?

We got in the shuttle (luckily it was a few minutes late, because so was I) and we drove to Manuel Antonio. We made a little stop and mom and I were able to have some empanadas for brunch. Yum yum yum. We got to our new hostel and there was a porch area overlooking forest and the ocean with hammocks lining the area. It was so relaxing. We got into our little hostel apartment area and enjoyed the hammocks, and walked to the market to get some sunscreen before our first Costa Rican adventure. Kayaking and Snorkeling. When we got to the location, I SAW A SLOTH!!!!!!!!! AND A BABY SLOTH! they were just hanging out in a tree. My first sloth sighting. It was beautiful. I want one. Now, about this adventure, first thing you must remember, I get motion sickness. I often forget this, because I'm so used to taking preventative measures, that it often doesn't become a problem. I haven't gotten super sick since December 2008 (that's a fact/tmi) Anyway, my mom and I were put in a two-person kayak together and started kayaking across a part of the ocean to a where we would kayak. After a little bit, I started feeling terrible. Sadly my mom didn't realize it, and so I was not a happy camper. So I was having to kayak, and focus on not getting sick on our little adventure. Luckily we made it to the other side and I was able to get into the water, and my body normalized because I'm part fish. The visibility wasn't that great, but it was fine. The worst part was kayaking back, as my arms were tired and my nausea was exponentially worse. Miracle 2 of the day: we made it to the other side. Kayaking in the ocean causes motion sickness...who knew? Aka...I'm never doing that again. It seriously made me reconsider if I wanted to go on a yacht cruise later in the week. But we were able to go to dinner and eat a classic Tico dish, casado. It was good, and we met the other people on our little tour. They were really nice and funny. One of the girls loved my swim suit. (I fell like a 60's movie star in it). We went back to the hostel and I spend the rest of the evening reading on the hammock until I joined my mom (who was trying not to fall asleep until 9pm) in watching a little of The Big Bang Theory in our living room. 

I'm channeling my inner 60's girl

Christmas day was wonderful. We ate breakfast and were picked up to go on a surfing lesson. The surfing lesson was fun. We had our lesson in Spanish, which was awesome. We could have done it in English, but once the guy found our we spoke his language, he was happy, and i was happy. We started off on the sand, like they do in the movies, before moving into the water. The waves beat me up a lot, but I'm pretty tenacious when I want to do something. I was able to get up more than I thought I would, but only stayed up the entire time without the wave knocking me over once. I felt super accomplished. One of the surf instructors was american, named Aspen, and he's my new life hero. He had a successful career and decided one day that he wasn't living the life he wanted. He decided to travel the world. He says that surfing saved his life and it taught him to enjoy nature and life more. He's living in Costa Rica now. But he said something that I liked: that people save money to spend it later and never really enjoy life because they're so worried about their money, so he's spending his savings and living/loving life before he's too old. I was inspired. A side note: what they dont tell you about is the surfboard can sometimes rub your skin, so my elbows and tops of my knees were scrapped up after the 2 hours. Another note: one of my favorite things is when everyone asked me how I learned my Spanish, they think it's from school. Yeah right. I never understood Spanish  not even after 3.5 years of studying it. I learned it from with the Latinos of Northern California when I served my mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. #toolegit 

Christmas afternoon was spent reading on the hammock, listening to the Spanish Christmas songs I put on my phone before the trip, and reading the story of Christ's birth from the scriptures. I should have read it all in Spanish, but I wanted my mom to understand everything. (I also discovered on this trip, that my Spanish skills have surpassed hers...oh how the tables have turned...must remember to not become prideful) It was a very special Christmas for me, as it was my first time to Central America. I had a very precious moment as I read the story of our Saviour's birth as the Spirit, once again, testified to my soul that it happened, and that the people in ancient America knew it too. (reference: The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, 3 Nephi 1:4-25) They also had signs of his birth and knew of his divine mission to come to this earth for us.

Later, We were picked up for horseback riding on the beach. It was a little nerve wracking (as i have been thrown/fallen off a horse 4 times already). But we went. I tried to go slow on the horse. Eventually I felt comfortable enough with the horse, I let it trot a little. The guide was super funny. He had a machete, and said it was part of his uniform, along with his jeans, spurs, and cowboy hat. There was a old lady in our group who wanted to canter and was freaking out trying to get her horse to canter. It was interesting. We had a nice dinner before going back to the hostel and me relaxing with a book. (I used my NOOK app on my phone. I love my NOOK) It was a very happy Christmas.

Mom on one of the shorter ziplines

Mom repelling down the waterfall. Can you see her?

Boxing day (12/26) started early as well. We got up and ready for our outdoors adventure. We were going to repel a waterfall and we weren't sure what to expect. We went with Quepos Canyoneering, and it was AMAZING! loved it. It wasn't only repelling. We had to climb up rope ladders, zipline from different platforms, walk on a tight rope between trees, and did a drop into a waterfall  in addition to repelling down a waterfall. It was LEGENDARY! We made some cool friends along the way, Deepa (a Harvard grad student) and another guy whose name I forgot. They were our buddies. On the drive out of the forest, on of the guides was telling me how he built his house with his own two hands out of wood, and it took him 2 years. He's cool. We had a really good lunch before catching our shuttle to Monteverde. Fact: it had been a miracle that I hadn't been car sick yet, but this drive was borderline. I had to drug myself up and it was funny how mom was getting nervous with all the windy mountain roads. I could never drive in central america. One of our drivers told us at one point, that Costa Ricans are bad at two things: driving and giving directions. I would like to say, that they are pretty good at driving, as I could never drive on such narrow roads up a mountain in a big van when other big vans are coming the other way. #truth But we managed to get to Monteverde without incident. One of the hostel guys showed me a sloth in a nearby tree in the darkness (while i fought my crazy side that said "dont follow him in the darkness or you will be taken!). Mom and I went to the market and made spaghetti for dinner. And I made some reservations for tours tomorrow, something I had been waiting to do in order to get a native person's opinion, because there are so many organizations that do the same things there.

Waterfall we were dropped into from a scary height backwards :)