Good impressions and the week that never seemed to end...

So I know that I have been one of those really annoying bloggers the last few weeks who doesn’t post anything, but I have good reasons. My parents were here for about 11 days, which is mainly why I haven’t written anything in a while. In general, I’ve just been busy. But, all of that busyness means that I have a lot to write to you about! And that I have a lot of pictures.

Good Impressions
It was really great having my parents here. We did a lot of fun things and I think that they are a lot more comfortable now with me being here after meeting Janiva and my host family. Also, I'm pretty sure that Costa Rica left a generally good impression on them, which always helps. I think at first they were a little nervous meeting my host family because only Johan can speak English, and he wasn't around but they were surprised at how well I could keep up with what my family was saying and at my ability to translate it for them. They got here on a Thursday and we all basically just relaxed. I stayed at the villa (Rancho Pura Vida) they were staying in that night because on Friday we had to get up really early to go white-water rafting. We went on a different river than the one that I went on my first weekend here. It is called the Pacuare, and it is one of the best rafting rivers in the world. It didn't take long to learn why. The rapids were big, and exciting, and the views were amazing. You started on the Caribbean slope of the Central Valley Mountains and ended in the province of Limon; I think our guide said that it was about 28 miles or something like that. It took about 3 hours, and although we didn't see much wildlife other than birds, the views alone were enough to make it worth-while. There were an incredible amount of waterfalls and gorgeous trees and river mouths. It was a very fun, but very long, day. We started out at about 5 a.m. and didn't get home until about 8 p.m. due to San Jose's traffic.

Saturday and Sunday we were in Arenal. We stayed at the Montana de Fuego hotel, which I think is sort of new. It was really nice and made up of cabins instead of hotel rooms. They were also located right across the street from the volcano, so you had a perfect view of it (when it wasn't too cloudy to see it). It took a while to get up there, about three hours, but once we were there we were pretty lucky to see everything of the volcano except for the very, very top, which is rare. My dad went zip-lining after something of a struggle. He was originally supposed to go through Eco-Glide, but they lost his reservation. We had the confirmation papers, but they said that they didn't have it, so the hotel ended up having to find him a new place to go through. It ended out well, but case in point, always double- and triple-confirm down here. At least we hadn't already paid for it. While my dad was zip-lining, I went to the hotel spa for a pedicure and my mom wandered the hotel and relaxed. That night we went back to Baldi Hot Springs, but only for an hour or so because we had dinner reservations. Baldi is always a nice way to end your night. Dinner was fabulous, and we could tell that our waiter appreciated the fact that I could speak enough Spanish to get us through the meal. That is something that we came across a lot, and my parents really realized what it is like to be the minority. Sunday we took a horseback tour of the Arenal River Canyon. It was a lot of fun and the horses were fantastic, and so was our guide. We saw a sloth and some very rare wild pigs and got to even ride our horses in the river a little bit. It was something a little different, and that made it interesting and fun.

Side note: There are some birds outside my bedroom window right now that are SO loud. I think they are fighting over something, but I have no idea. It’s sort of annoying because it is 8:30 in the morning.

Monday my parents came to the University after my Public Relations class got out and I gave them a small tour so that they could see where I go to school. We also went out to dinner with Janiva, her husband, Richie, and all of the girls. The restaurant we went to is called L'Antica Roma and is this little Italian pizza place that Janiva loves. I have to say, I can totally understand why because the pizza was amazing, some of the best that I have had since coming down here. It was a really great meal in general because my parents got to know Janiva and the girls a bit more, and we all finally got to meet Richie, which is something that we have wanted for a while! On Tuesday my parents and I did the Café Britt coffee tour, which, although cheesy, was fun. It gives you a lot of great information on the history of coffee in Costa Rica and the process of making coffee in general. My dad and I both won hats for participating in the presentation. That night was their anniversary, so we went to this really nice restaurant in the mountains called Baalbek, which had one of the most amazing views of the Central Valley that I have seen yet; you could see all of the lights when you sat out on the open deck.

We were supposed to go into San Jose on Wednesday, but we ended up not being able to because there was a strike going on in the city by the unofficial taxi drivers because of a new law that is being written up that will make it even harder for a taxi driver who doesn't drive a red and yellow taxi to function legally. I think that for the most part, they just don't want the government to monopolize the taxi system. I don't know how many people really use pirate taxis, but apparently there are enough of them to make a decent strike. So, instead of going to San Jose, my parents and I wandered around downtown Heredia for a bit and then hung out at their place before going to my host family's house for dinner. My host mom made arroz con pollo, which is sort of like Chinese chicken fried rice, but different. I think it is a bit healthier for you, but I'm not sure. The biggest differences are the vegetables used and the preparation. On Thursday, I was pretty busy with volunteering and classes, so I didn't see my parents until that night.

By the way, my yoga professor never showed up for class that night. We waited for like an hour and she never came, so then we just left. It was a bit ridiculous. Also, as I mentioned above, we started volunteering that week on Thursday. We are teaching Costa Rican students in grades 5 and 6 English.

Friday was a lot of traveling, but a lot of fun. We got started pretty early and just went to interesting things more in the area because we were leaving really early on Saturday for Tortuguero. But yeah, so we left Rancho Pura Vida at around 8 a.m. on Friday and went to La Paz Waterfall Gardens. It was only about an hour and a half drive, which isn't bad for here, but a lot of the road closer to La Paz was in really rough condition because of a big earthquake that happened about two years ago. La Paz was really interesting though, because you start the walk to the waterfalls by wandering through a zoo-type area that only has native Costa Rican animals. So we walked through an aviary, snake house, butterfly garden, hummingbird garden, saw some monkeys, and ended the tour with the jungle cats. Then, the last stop before walking to the fall is a little traditional campesino house where they had traditional agua dulce (warm water and sugarcane juice) and a type of bread pudding for you to try. Then, you finally got to the waterfalls, which were picturesque and perfect. There were four big ones, and they all fed into each other, so it was sort of like a waterfall staircase. It was really incredible.

After La Paz, we wandered over to Poas Volcano. We realized when we got there that we should have taken everyone's advice and went there first because the clouds had completely descended over the volcano and you couldn't see anything, except for when the wind would push the clouds away for a bit. Because it was so cloudy, we didn't stay long. Also, we were hungry, and in general that ends up taking precedent over waiting for clouds to clear. So we got lunch at this cute little mirador (lookout) restaurant and just sort of enjoyed watching the mist roll by before we headed to Sarchi. I really wanted my parents to be able to go there to see the oxcart painting. I know it's nothing super special, but I just really admire how intricate the work is, especially since it is all done by hand. So, even though we were only there for about an hour, I think that the little extra time was worth it because the oxcarts are Costa Rica's traditional art form, and that is a very important part of a culture.

Saturday we had to leave incredibly early (6 a.m.) for Tortuguero, but we went by hopper-plane instead of by bus, which made it a lot better. By land, you have to take a bus for four hours, and then you get on a boat for two. There aren't any real roads in Tortuguero, so you have to get there by plane or boat, basically. When we landed, it was raining, but we just sat and had a wonderful breakfast until about 8 (yes, by 8 a.m. we had arrived and eaten breakfast instead of sitting on a bus and then a boat for 6 hours) and then went on our first canal tour. The big draw for Tortuguero is its wildlife and boat canal trips. We were lucky because the rain cleared about ten minutes into our trip, and because of that we ended up seeing a lot of animals who were coming out of hiding after the storm. We saw a little bit of everything, a few sloths, some monkeys and iguanas, lots of birds. Oh, and at our hotel we saw a big, blue land-crab and a vine snake! And we had a GIANT spider living outside our room. But that's all part of it...you're really in the jungle there. After our morning tour, we had another lovely meal and then went on a second boat tour, where we saw some of the same, but for the most part different, types of animals. More monkeys and birds, of course, but we also saw a mother Cayman with her babies and a very rare animal called a Paca, which is a really cute rainforest rodent. It was incredible that we saw one during the afternoon because they are nocturnal. Our guide thought that it was out and about because it was running away from being hunted by a bigger creature, so it makes me happy that it seemed to get to safety. I wouldn't have wanted to watch it get hunted...even if it is the “circle of life” and all. We aren't in the Lion King here. But yeah, that night, the maids left us drinks in our room, two glasses of wine...and a juice box. Apparently, I don't look like I'm at least 18. I'm 21, for those of you who don't know. So, although I had the best mixed drink ever with dinner (green mango smoothie with rum) and didn't want anything else, I still was a bit affronted. I mean, I've only been 21 for about a month and a half, but still. I've been over 18 for a good long time. But it was funny, my parents and I had a good laugh about it, because I know that I look young...but I mean I hope that I don't look 17! Anyway, on Sunday our flight out was delayed by almost 3 hours because of rain so we ended up not getting back until 1 p.m. when we thought we would be back around 10 a.m. We just sat around and enjoyed each other's company for a little longer before my parents left. It was also my mom's birthday that day. We were all just completely exhausted, so I ended up going to bed at around 7 on Sunday night. That's just how cool I am.

The week that just never seemed to end.
So the Monday after my parents left was my last day of Spanish language classes during my semester here. I'm sad about it because I want to keep having that time to learn, but I'm still in my classes with locals and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to sleep in a bit. However, my first week without Spanish was ANYTHING but relaxing and boring. I'm sure you'd all like to hear all about it, and you will whether you want to or not.

So yeah, in my public relations class we have project groups, which I know I have talked about in the past. My group is full of really sweet girls; there are five of us. For our midterm project, we had to do an analysis of a local company's internal and external communications. One of the girls in my group (Kennya) has some connections in a company sort of like Time Warner Cable so we chose to do our project on them. So, like usual, my story begins on Monday. Ana drove Sharon and I up to Kennya's house (she lives in the Arenal area) because our meeting was at 7 a.m. on Tuesday and we had no chance of getting up there by 7 a.m. (it’s about three hours, which I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before). We got to Kennya's without many problems (we only got sort of lost, like, two times) and spent most of the night preparing for the next day and getting to know Kennya's family. The next morning, we left on time, which is a miracle in every country, and were on our way. The company is located in a city about an hour from Kennya's house, so we left around 6 a.m. At about 6:30 a.m., the clutch on Ana's car broke. In the middle of nowhere. In Costa Rica. So we called Kennya's dad to come with a mechanic and we all piled out of the car. Of course, right after the car broke down, it started to rain. So we are on the side of the road, in the rain, and I was in high heels and a dress. We wandered down the road a little way looking for a bus stop and finally found one where we could get a bus to the city we needed to be in. It ended up taking us two buses to get to Ciudad Quesada, but we arrived, and got our interviews and employee surveys done. Then, we took a cab to a bus and then the bus dropped us off about 40 minutes away from Kennya's house. Luckily, Kennya's boyfriend picked us up at the bus stop.

This is the point where I was under the false impression that the rest of the day was going to go normally.

So Kennya's boyfriend drove us, and when we were about 25 minutes away from Kennya's house, he pulled over to the side of the road and they all got out of the car and stood on the side of the road talking and laughing. I stayed in the car because quite frankly my feet hurt and I had no idea what was going on and I wasn't going to get out of the car until someone explained it to me. After a little while, a car drove past and Kennya's boyfriend flagged him down and they chat. Ana walked over to the car and asked me to hand her her bags, so I did. Then she gave me this look and a motion like “well come on, it's time to go,” and I looked at her like “what?” as I got out of the car. Then we all got into the other guy's car and he drove us to Kennya's.

That's right, I, unbeknownst to me, HITCH-HIKED through the countryside of Costa Rica. And all the other girls were acting like it was completely normal to ask a complete stranger to drive you home. Three things instantly came to mind:

1. I'm probably going to die today.
2. At least I'm with Ticas.
3. This is really, REALLY illegal in the U.S.

Then, when we got back to Kennya's all that they wanted to do was go to Baldi Hot Springs, which I was fine with, even though all I really wanted was to absorb what had happened that day. We had a lot of fun though, and it was a nice opportunity to get to know them all a bit better.

Finally it was Wednesday, and after 3 buses and 5 hours, I was back in San Jose just in time to go to El Arca Medicinal and Organic Plant Farm at 2 p.m. with the Sol Abroad girls. It was really interesting, actually, we learned about a lot of really cool plants (one that has 1000 calories in one leaf) and the farm itself was gorgeous. There was one point that during a specific part of the day, you could see the Pacific Ocean, and they had a tree house that was solar-powered. And the owner's house was kind of like something out of Robinson Crusoe. It was, in general, just really cool. We got to try a bunch of the plants out, like one that kills all of the bad bacteria in your intestines, and saw a few that were prehistoric. And an awesome multi-colored tree that was naturally about 10 different colors. Then there was also a few that help with menopause, and one that causes abortions, and a plant that can cure an urinary tract infection with just one cup of tea made from its leaves.

I feel like before coming here, I had forgotten how utterly amazing nature is on its own, but this country really throws it back into perspective for you. The people at this farm never use store-bought, chemical-laden medications. Everything that they use is organic and rich and straight from the Earth, and legal. At least in Costa Rica.

Weekends are supposed to be relaxing...

But, instead of relaxation, on Friday I worked on excel worksheets for that Public Relations project for 7 hours. It was atrocious. So all I did Friday night was sleep. Because at that point, all I wanted with my life was to not think.

Saturday was spent at the beach with Jose, Anna, Fofo, and Lacy. It was amazing. We went to Playa Hermosa (which is on the Pacific side near Jaco), and it was exactly what I needed. Even though the sand was impossible to get off, a day of laughter and fun does wonders for stress.

Then today, Sunday, we started pretty early once again (8 a.m.) to go to Volcan Barva. It was a real hike. Seriously. The road isn't a real road, so cars can't really get up to the entrance to the national park. So we got dropped off at a small restaurant/soda, and had to walk for 2 hours up the mountain in order to get to the park. So we hiked...to the hike. Once we were in the park, it was only about another hour and a half to the volcano crater, and it was beautiful hiking weather, sunny but brisk, fresh mountain air. Some of the purest air in the world.

Volcan Barva is a completely inactive volcano, so its crater is now a lagoon. It was incredibly beautiful, very peaceful in the sunshine. So we enjoyed a nice picnic lunch overlooking the lagoon and then hiked back down. The way down only took two hours because it was downhill instead of up. It's amazing how much a little momentum will do for you.

We were all exhausted by the end of the hike, and it was only 2 p.m. So when I got home, I relaxed. And wrote this blog. So I hope that you now realize why I haven't exactly had time to update in a while. I think that it is apparent that I have been busy.

I promise, it will never take me this long to post again.

And there are lots of pictures, so take a look! They will be up by the end of the day Monday.

Pura Vida! I hope the weather is getting better over there in the States!