It's been awhile....

I've been home for almost a month now....wow! can't believe I've been home that long! So much was going on it just FLEW by! I came home on the 4th to find that Greg was sick :o( I missed him so much I didn't care and hugged him and kissed him so much! Bad call.....lol.....a week later I was sick! Needless to say that our week and a half together was spent with one of us sick for the majority of it! lol.....oh well, I'm just glad we got to spend some time together before he headed out to the playa!

Yep, the playa! On the 14th Greg headed out to the playa and I rested and tried to get well before I went back to work on the 19th.....it worked! By the 17th I was able to go shopping and buy some back to school clothes and by the 18th I was well enough to drive out to tracy to get my hair cut/colored, hang out with Nicole and Memphis and have dinner with my dad.

Work has been keeping me busy but I'm glad we had about 4 days to ease back into regular school days! Last Wed was the first day of classes and it went well. Last week we reviewed classroom procedures. This week the students are having fun making collages and writing essays about themselves! :o)

These next 2 weeks feel like they are going to FLY by! On Wed when I come home from work Jen (my roommate) is driving me down to Teri's house to spend the night because on Thursday after work Teri is driving me to the airport so I can go to Burning Man! Super excited! I wasn't going to go this year at all but I decided that there was really no reason I shouldn't go! It's not like I have to pay for a ticket and Greg was willing to drive to reno to pick me up....so I'm going! I should land in Reno around 8:45 and we should be on the playa by 11 pm....I'm super excited!!!! This week is gonna fly by! Wed is so close!!!!

THEN, next week we have a short week because of labor day! On friday right after work I hop on a plane AGAIN to head to Las Vegas for Tracy's 30th birthday! We'll be there until Monday....we are going to have soooooooo much fun!!!!

Basically the next 3 weeks are all gonna be 4 day work weeks! yeah! :o) Looking forward to all of them! :o)

My last day in paradise!

Well, I don't know if I would call it paradise....but it IS pretty awesome here!!! :o) Yesterday I arrived in Alajuela and found that pretty much all the restaurants were CLOSED.....go figure! I guess they take sundays seriously! LOL.....this was the first time in 3 weeks that I've run into this problem! I walked around and around looking for somewhere to eat yesterday and only found 2 places..... a chinese place (in Costa Rica? No thanks!) and a super expensive place.....so I was left with only one option.....McDonald's!!!! I know! I know! I know! I hate McDonald's in the states and here I was eating it in Costa Rica!!!! BUT, I have to say that after a month of not being able to have a good burger it tasted pretty damn good! LOL.....and they even had REAL ketchup....not this salsa de tomato (tastes like tomato paste!) that they have everywhere! The weird this was that out of all the people in the McDonald's I think I was the only one putting ketchup on my fries! Everyone else was putting mayo....yes, MAYO! Gross! :op

After my fancy dinner I headed back to my hostel because it was dark.....so, my hostel is very....hmmmm.....how can I put this, basic! There is a twin bed in my room, a closet, night stand and table.....but then again it's only $15 a night for a private room and bath. I ended up watching TV and meeting 2 girls from Canada. Turns out we'd pretty much been to all of the same places and are heading home on Tuesday. While we were chatting we realized that all of us were going to check out Volcan Poas on Monday! Perfect! We'decided to go together! :o)

This morning I slept in the latest I've slept in Costa Rica.... all the way till 8!!!! I hopped in the shower and then met up with the Canadians to head to the bus stop! The ride to Poas was pretty....we drove up hill through coffee plantations and saw some small little towns. Poas is about an hour from Alajuela and is about 5km from the nearest town. There is only one bus to and from Poas daily. When we arrived at 10:30am the bus driver told us that we would leave at 2:00pm....perfect!

I decided to wander around on my own checking out the gift shop and relaxed with a hazelnut capaccino (sp?). Afterwards I decided to head to the volcano! I made the short walk to the top but was disappointed to see that it was covered with fog.....hey, I'm from the bay! I know about fog....you just gotta wait it out! ;o) So that's what I did and it paid off! I was able to see into the crater and see the pool of water inside of it! I wasn't able to see the so called stunning aqua/teal blue of the water but at least I was able to see it!

Next I took the trail to see the Boto Lake near the volcano. The walk was eerie and beautiful at the same time because the trees covered the sky and a mist covered the path....I'll have to post pictures when I get back tomorrow! When I got to the lake it was covered with fog and no matter how long I waited it wasn't moving.....so I decided to continue along the trail to the visitor center with the 2 Belgiums I met on the bus. :o) We made our way back slowly checking out the trees and plans for any frogs....no luck! :op

When we got to the visitor center we had a few minutes before 2 so we headed to the bathroom. When we got to the parking lot at 2 we thought we were early because the bus wasn't there.....but neither was anyone else! We decided to walk down to the main entrance....maybe we'd misunderstood where to meet. When we got to the entrance the lady working it said that the bus had left already!

We were really starting to worry because that was the ONLY bus! We asked the lady what we could do and she said we had to walk to 5km to the nearest town and try to get a taxi (fat chance! I haden't seen ANY taxies as we drove up! As we were talking to her a small jeep was exiting the park and we flagged the driver down. We told him what had happened and asked him if he could drop us in a town.....he told us he would drive us all the way to Alajuela! Turns out he is a teacher in Costa Rica and teaches English! The Belgiums were both teachers too!

So, I've officially hitchhiked now....lol.....I guess a trip to Costa Rica isn't complete unless you've had to hitchhike! ;o) Now I can come home and say I've done it all! :o) See you all very soon! :o)

Thanks for following my adventure! When I get home I'll try and update my blog with pictures! :o)

*hugz*

oh my gosh! I can't believe I almost forgot! So, on my last night in Manuel Antonio I decided to meet the girls from Denver & Dallas at the Mariposa Hotel to go swimming wand watch the sunset. The sunset from that hotel is suppose to be one of the top 1000 things you need to do/see before you die....who knew! ;o) The sunset was pretty but the main highlight was seeing the sloth!!!! A sloth came down out of a tree and was hanging onto the glass fence! It was sooooo cool! We were able to get really close and I got some GREAT pictures! :o)

Only 3 nights left....what?!?!?!

I can´t believe that my trip has gone by so fast! There were times when I felt like I had forever here! There is no doubt about it though; I have had an amazing time....I´ve seen SO much and I think I got pretty tan! ;o) So on Thursday (my last post) I went to the grocery store and got food and came back to my hotel (and YES, it rained on me the whole way home! lol). At my hotel I met 2 women from Denver (Allison and Lindsey) and 1 from Dallas (Sarah Kate) and we ended up cooking dinner together and hanging out. Turns out they hadn´t been to the Manuel Antonio park either so we decided to go together on Friday.

Friday was AMAZING! We all had breakfast together at our B&B and then headed out to the park.The bus to the park cost 200 colones (about 17 cents!). The park itself was a little more expensive- $10.....but as soon as we got into the park we saw a SLOTH!!!!! I was sooooo excited!!!! That has been the only animal that I haven´t seen that I really, REALLY wanted to see! I took some pictures but he looks really small in the pic.....but I swear he was pretty darn close! We continued on along the trail and saw some lizards and butterflies. We ended up at Manuel Antonio beach....so beautiful! Just like a tropical paradise! White sand, blue/teal water, palm trees, jungle right up along the water and beautiful rocky cliffs jutting out. *sigh* we changed into our suits and hung out there for a couple hours.....we went swimming and just lounged around reading and napping. Went we woke up from our nap we noticed TONS of hermit crabs crawling around! IT was funny because we had noticed them before but once we did we saw them everywhere! After a couple hours some dark clouds started to roll in so we decided to head back to town.....when we went to go change out of our suits we saw MORE monkeys! I´m not sure what kind but they are the small ones you see with Aladdin! They were everywhere and they were NOT shy! I got some great pics! Anyway, good thing we headed out of the park when we did.... As soon as we got on the main street the rain came pouring down! To get out of the rain the girls went to check their e-mail and I had a yummy refreshing scoop of mango gellato! :o)

We hadn´t eaten since breakfast so we all headed to El Avion.....a restaurant built around a huge plane! Inside the plane was the bar! We found a good spot on the second floor to watch the sunset and have dinner. Almost all of us ordered the special: dinner salad, mahi-mahi with a spicy tomoato sauce with shrimp, veggies and mashed potatoes and a glass of wine....yummy! Unfortunately one of the girls wasn´t feeling well (she´d been sick for a couple days) so we decided to head back home right after dinner.

So, you´re probably wondering what am I doing my last few days in Costa Rica....so let me tell you! :o) Today I got up and came to Quepos to mail my postcards and check out Quepos. I´m gonna hang out here for a bit and then I´m heading back to downtown Manuel Antonio....I´m gonna check out the shops and maybe lounge around on the beach :o) Tomorrow I´m gonna head to Alajuela....it´ll take about 4-5 hours. THEN on my last full day in Costa Rica, Monday, I´m gonna get up super early and head to Volcan Poas.....and that´s pretty much it for my plans! Tuesday morning I´ll be on a plane at 6:30am heading home!

It´s def been fun and an adventure! See you soon if I don´t get a chance to get online again....I think I will but you never know! ;o)

A whole new meaning to DARK!

So yesterday I spent some time shopping in Jaco before boarding a bus to Quepos. I had decided after hanging out with the kids from the house the night before that I needed to move on (I might as well have been on a set from the real world! SERIOUSLY!)! Don´t get me wrong, they were all REALLY nice.....but some we barely 18! The night I was there we had all gone out to the bar across the street from our hostel and had fun since it was free drinks for ladies.....but BOY were there a lot of prostitutes! Some of them were letting it ALL hang out! Booty showing from the bottom of the way too short dresses (I have SHIRTS longer than that!) and way to low and loose tops (boobies about to pop out everywhere!)!

Let me back track a little further though....after my last blog I headed to get some sushi at Tsunami Sushi where my book said that they had a buy one get one free special on Tuesday nights....not the case but the sushi was yummy and a nice change of pace! As I was leaving I met these 3 women from Kansas who invited me to go and have some drinks with them and their friends....they were such a hoot! One of the woman was named Jennifer so I thought that was cool that I´d found yet another Jennifer! While we were hanging out one of the women said, "Just so you know we´re all a bunch of lesbos!" I let them know that I was TOTALLY cool with that which led to a really long silly drunken discussion between the women a the table about whether or not they liked the term "lesbo"! After hanging out for awhile I headed back to my hostel since all of the women were heading to bed soon because they had to be up at 5am for a rafting trip.

So, back to my trip to Quepos. I got down to Quepos in about an hour and then hopped on a smaller local bus that drove me to Manuel Antonio when my hotel is located. My new hotel is actually a B&B and is VERY cute and has an AMAZING view of Manuel Antonio park and ocean! My hotel is pretty far from anything so yesterday I hung out and relaxed and enjoyed the view....until about 5:30 when a big storm came in and the power went out! Now this may not seem like a big deal to many of you reading this but the sun starts to set here around 4:30 and my room doesn´t actually have any "real" windows! 2 out of the 4 walls in my room are covered with screened windows and wind was howling through them and everything was blowing around my room! The roof that was covered in plastic siding was blowing up and down and bending backwards and forward and the furniture on the patio near the communal kitchen was being knocked over....that´s when all the lights went out!

Luckily I had brought my headlamp because the only light came from the occasional lightening that lit up the sky! I spent the next three hours making dinner, writing in my journal, and reading.....and JUST as I was about to go to bed the lights came back on! I was pretty happy because even trying to go to sleep was hard since it was pitch black...it helps to have some lights on somewhere.....I guess that´s because I´m SO use to having lights on somewhere!

This mornning I woke up to more rain but luckily is stopped by 8 am and I´ve been able to wander around Manuel Antonio.....I think after this I´m gonna head to the grocery story so I can cook some meals and save some money. :o)

So.....Only 5 more days in Costa Rica! Sometimes it seemed like I had sooooo much time to spend here, now I´m surprised that it´s all gone by so fast and I only have a few days left....BUT, I think I´ll be ready to come home on Tuesday....I miss Greg, my kitties, and my bed! Speaking of kitties....the lady that owns the B&B has 4 cats that we get to play with when we come for breakfast....it makes me happy to have cats around! :o)

In Jaco.....feeling confused! :op

So I made it to Jaco today via a speed boat from Montezuma. It was a cool one hour ride and we even got to see sting rays jumping outta the water and flapping their "wings" (I think I heard once that that has something to do with mating....not sure!). When we got to Jaco I said goodbye to Jenny and headed to Hostel de las Camas.....at first sight it's a pretty cool hippy/surfer/backpacker place....seems a little young for me though! LOL.....what did I expect- I'm in my 30's!!!! The place is cool but I have heard one person say something about bed bugs.....eeeck!!! I think I may only stay here one night....maybe 2 max! I may move on to Quepos/ Manuel Antonio.....who knows! Either way I've heard that I need to at least visit Manuel Antonio.....

Which leads to why I'm so confused! I only have 7 nights left in Costa Rica and there are things I want to see but they are in opposite directions! I would like to see the Manuel Antonio park and Cuidad Quesada (they have mineral hot springs!). I think I'll just head to Manuel Antonio tomorrow and stay there for 2 nights then head the 6 hours (so far!) to Cuidad Quesada and stay there for 2 nights and then head to Alajuela for 2 nights so I can see Volcan Poas....OR I can cut Poasoff the list and stay in Cuidad Quesada for 3 nights.....decisions, decisons! :op

Anyway....I'll keep you posted and let you know where my travels lead me! :o)

Oh yeah, yesterday Jenny and I went to this restaurant named El Sano Banano and we had a really yummy, although expensive dinner. The cool thing was that we got to see a movie with dinner! We saw Taken.....lol......not a great movie to see when you're about to head out on your own for a week in another country!

At night when we went to bed we were woken up at 3am by the sound of stuff rolling onto and off of the roof....almost like rocks or coconuts....THEN things running all over the roof! We still have no idea what it was but it went on for at least a half an hour! At one point I saw something run over the fogged plastic "skylight" in our room....kinda freaky! glad to be out of that hotel anyway! Although cheap there were big ants all over, geckos (cute but not above my bed!), and spiders IN my bed....lol.....hopefully this place doesn't have all those things tonight! :op

¿Mala suerte?

Hello everyone! So yesterday Jenny and I tried to leave Nosara at 7am to come to Montezuma....boy were we in for an adventure! We were outside of our hotel and were waiting at 7 but no bus came! By 8-30 am we found out that the bus had broken down and no one knew when it was coming! We checked local car rental places but none of them had cars because it had been a holiday that weekend and the president of Costa Rica had been in Nicoya so everyone rented all the cars to see him and celebrate! Just our luck! So Jenny and I stood there not knowing what to do....if we wanted to catch the bus we had to wait on the corner for who knows how log for the bus! Luckily there was a private shuttle waiting a few feet away and the couple who had ordered it said they didn´t mind if we hopped in and were dropped off in Nicoya! They were super nice ad wouldn´t even accept any money from us! We got to the bus station JUST as the bus to Paqueras was pulling away (we needed to take that bus to connect to Montezuma). The next bus wasn´t for 2 hours!

We found a taxi driver that was willing to drive us the hour and a half to Paqueras for a resonable price so off we went! Along the way we experienced Costa Rican traffic....about 30-40 cows being herded down the road! Lol! When we got to Paqueras there was a cool parade going on! The parade was made up of the colorfully decorated ox carts Costa Rica is known for! There were SO many of them! Jenny and I hopped out of the taxi and headed for the bus station....but we got lost! We stopped at the police station and they said the bus would pass by their station in a half hour and that we could wait at the station....PERFECT!

Jenny decided to run to the store and bathroom since we had a half an hour to wait.... as soon as she went in the store the bus came- EARLY!!!! I tried to stall the bus but no Jenny..... so the bus left! A min or 2 after it drove away Jenny walked out! LOL....just our luck! ;o) A taxi pulled up and offered to help us catch the bus....no luck, it was long gone!

The taxi driver was a young guy and offered to drive us the hour to Montezuma for $30....we took it! We ended up passing our bus towards the end of the drive so it was nice to know we got there in good time! Our driver, Coco (nickname), helped us find a place to stay.....it´s ok....not nearly as nice as the place we stayed at in Nosara!

After tossing our stuff in the room we headed to the beach and checked out the small town of Montezuma. We ended up having a delicious dinner (I had fish cooked in coconut milk- YUM!) overlooking the water and some DELICIOUS sangria! After all our traveling we ended up turning in pretty early....I swear, it´s the damn sunlight! you can NOT sleep in here!

Today I didn´t set my alarm and woke up at 6 am and SWORE it was hella late so I tried to go back to sleep. After a couple hours I SWORE it was noon.....it was only 8AM!!!! LOL.....Jenny and I decided to go hike up to the waterfall since we were up....what a trek! It wasn´t that it was very far but we had to walk along a river climbing up on slippery rocks and stuff..... we had to go SO slow so we wouldn´t fall.....when we got to the fall it was really pretty and came crashing down from 80 feet up (that´s what my guide book said at least!).

After the waterfall we decided to head to the beach....such an absolutley PERFECT idea! We spent the next 5 hours lounging around, going into the water, reading, and just enjoying the warm breeze and weather of Costa Rica.... I think this was the first time since my trip that I really felt that I was on a chill vacation! Just doing nothing and enjoying the most beautiful view and warm weather in my bathing suit! SO nice! (lol....I would SO insert a happy face here but I can´t find the colon!)

So, now I feel nice and warm and my skin has that sunkissed feel and I get to enjoy a beautiful night with my new friend Jenny! Tonight is her last night here so we´re gonna go get dinner and get some cards and just hang out....should be a cool chill night!

*biggg hugz to all*

See you in about a week!!!! Damn! have I already bee here 2 weeks???

I *LOVE* turtles!!!!!

Yes, it's true....I have a thing for turtles....they are so cute! Maybe it's because you don't see them all that often, but I think they're adorable! Yesterday after a really chill day in Guiones (I'll get to that in a bit) I came back to my room and my roommate said she had met our neighbors from Belgium who have a car and were going to check out the turtles on Ostional beach...and guess what? They had asked us to come along!

So, to back step, earlier that I'd met up with Michon for breakfast and then decided to go to Java Jungle and make some calls and relax with my book and have some refreshing iced tea....which is exactly what I did! I got to talk to my grandparents, greg, my mom, and Robert and Edith (yeah, I made A LOT of calls....but, hey! it's free and there was no one behind me waiting for the phone!) and really get into my book. After hanging out there awhile I figured I should get out of the AC and enjoy the sights, sounds, smell, and weather of Costa Rica so I moved on down the road to the Beach Cafe and had the most DELICIOUS muffin EVER! IT was a oatmeal banana muffin with tons of chocolate chips...YUM! I hung out there people watching and reading and then decided to one up it and move on to the beach to read....lol....no matter where i sat the water seemed to reach me and I was pretty soaked by the time I was ready to leave but the water was refreshing and I'd saved my book and backpack form the waves....can't say the same for my coat I was sitting on! ;o)

On my way home the sky started to turn black and thunder rang through the air threatening to open up a massive downpour on me! Every few minutes the sky would light up with lightening behind the clouds. Just as I got to my hotel the drops began to fall, but nothing like the downpour I'd expected. After meeting the Belgiums (Carolyn and Martin) we ended up having dinner together at the restaurant at our hotel and then we were off driving through the night on the dirt roads to Ostional Beach! We had to cross 3 rivers to get to the beach and stop for one ant eater crossing to get there.

Once we were on the beach the massive amount of small crabs running around and hearig the clacking of their shells was a little eerie and freaked me out since I was wearing flip flops and I didn't want one to run over my feet.....but I had to get over it so I just kept moving! As we walked down the beach we couldn't find any turtles but we saw massive amounts of eggs that had been unearthed by other turtles laying eggs or other animals. We decided to retrace our steps and we saw some turtle tracks....but no turtle sp we continued on. The second set of tracks we found had a turtle at the other end! The turtle had just got there since she was digging her hole for the eggs! Luckily I had my cell phone that has a flashlight option with a a red setting so we were able to watch the turtle through her whole process without disturbing her! It was SO cool to see how much work it took for her to dig her hole and then the massive amount of eggs that came out of her (at least 50!). Once she was done laying her eggs her work wasn't done....she spent a lot of time covering her next and then began the long trek back to the sea. It was so cool to be able to follow along side her and see how she would move forward when the water would roll in and stop when it would roll out....I'll post the pics of this when I get home! It was such an amazing time! I think it's been my favorite thing so far! :o)

Today I got to sleep in for the first time since we got her (I slept till 7:50 am!)....tonight we may go to see a live band in celebration of Guanacaste day (a holiday to celebrate this region). Tomorrow Jenny and I are planning on heading to Montezuma!