Manuel Antonio!*

Buenos Noches! 

Where do I begin with this weekend? I have to say that this weekend away solidified that I made the right decision in coming to Costa Rica. It is amazing to me that no matter where we are all from and no matter what age we have so much in common with each other. As most of you are aware, I went to Manuel Antonio this weekend which is a beach 3-4 hours north of San Jose with three other volunteers. I went with Blake, Rachel, and Catherine and I must say that although I feel we are all intelligent on our own when we are together we become the most dysfunctional foursome in the world. As Rachel says "dididiots" for those of you who are unaware of this wonderful catch phrase it stands for "dumb idiots" and is pronounced 'did-idiots' (you're welcome in advance because I know this might of become your new favorite catch phrase). 

Before originally leaving this weekend for Manuel Antonio, Blake booked our hostel online for the wrong date...We should of known that we we were setting ourselves up for some bumps along the way haha. Any way, instead of writing down all the countless ways us four made idiots out of ourselves I decided to keep those things personal. Sorry friends and family, I'm not going to let it be that easy to make fun of me! 

I will say that all of us did a HORRIBLE job of planning our budget for the weekend. For instance, I didn't have my debit card this weekend and I forgot that we had to pay for the hostel in cash once we arrived to it Friday night so half of my money was gone before the weekend even truly started. Luckily, we all looked out for each other. :) 

But back to the beginning of the weekend...Friday, after work I met up with Catherine, Blake, and Rachel at our volunteer center. We had to take a cab to the bus station in San Jose. It was all our first times at the bus station here and we walked in where we were greeted with stares from every direction possible...Should be used to it by now but I think it is going to take more than a week to get over the constant staring from the Tico's. It was funny though because we just stood aimlessly in the center of the bus station. Oh well, once we got on to the bus the ride went by pretty quick and we made it to our hostel. I will say that I was impressed by how chill and how pretty well kept it was. Us four had a private room ($33 for 2 nights--can't beat that!) and it had air conditioning...So amazing. It is so hot up the coast and doesn't ever cool down so it was so nice to have AC. It was also nice just to have us four in a room because the guy that runs the place said that there were 55 people staying there! There were only two bathrooms where we were too so our showers could take no longer then 30 seconds before someone was knocking on the door to get in. Oh well!

Saturday morning we got up fairly early and decided to head down to the beach...We asked a few people in the hostel how bad the walk was down or if we would should just take the bus. Since we were all on a pretty strict budget we decided to walk and because one of the girls there said it "wasn't that bad" HA! Yeah, it was the longest, sweatiest, walk I think any of us have ever been on...Why we decided to not get on a bus or take a cab half way through is beyond me but it was a very "scenic" route so to say and we saw a lot of monkeys on our walk. It was pretty cool. Once we got down to the beach we immediately jumped in to the water to cool down....The ocean felt amazing even though it did kind of feel like bath water. We all put on 60 SPF and were in the shade a lot of the time. The sun is so strong down here! Needless to say, despite re applying SPF all day we came back with some pretty bad burns. OUCH! It was worth it though. We had a few drinks on the beach and mostly just enjoyed relaxing and talking. It was exactly what I've been needing after a long, overwhelming week. If there is anything I wish this program would change it's the fact that they throw us right in the our volunteer work. I feel like they at least need to give us a couple days to get acclimated but that's just me. 

Saturday night we decided that we wanted to go somewhere for dinner that had a view and a happy hour. Seems like a simple task but of course for us four we always made things more difficult then need me. We all decided to kind of put ourselves together for once and get a little dressy...We all regretted it when we started walking to find a restaurant and were sweating through our clothes...Once we found a restaurant that did in fact say it had a happy hour and a great view we were pleased. They did have a great view but instead of ordering off the "Happy Hour" menu that naturally just consisted of mostly local beers, we splurged on Pina Coladas! They were worth it, so none of us minded just funny because the whole weekend we kept saying that, "We need to keep our priorities in check" AKA we needed a happy hour to save us some money which ended up back firing. After dinner we got back to the hostel where we all finished up some wine and beer we had bought and talked more. It is amazing how close you get with people especially in this kind of setting because we all came here alone. Our dynamics together actually worked out really well too. It's fun being with people who are as easily sarcastic as I am and who just are all going through some of the same things despite any age differences. What brings me too bed time at the hostel. Our room had two bunk beds in it. Rachel was on the top, I was on the bottom of one and the other Blake was on top and Catherine was on the bottom. For whatever reason a few lizards had made their way in to our hostel room...One wasn't very big but it ran across my bed right before I was about to sit down on it. Naturally I freaked out. So did Rachel. Then of course we saw another one near her top bunk...We decided to just laugh it off and not panic and try to sleep but that didn't happen. Blake and Catherine both fell asleep no problem but Rachel and I heard some noise and literally we both jumped up and she came flying down from the top bunk and in to my bed...Yes, Rachel and I shared a twin bed. Haha we are so ridiculous, as if we thought that was going to save us from a lizard running across our face. Haha, these of course are the things that make some of this trip so memorable and why our dysfunctional group had such a good weekend!

Sunday we left pretty early to go back to Quepos (where our bus would pick us up). We didn't have to get our bus until 2:30 but we were down there nearly 3 hours early! We got breakfast and lunch down there which was nice and we all just sat and talked about our weekend. It actually made the time fly which was nice. We all spent half the bus ride sleeping too. Once we made it back to San Jose we realized that half the cab drivers are still on strike here and one guy had us in his cab without the meter running going off in Spanish about something that we ended up just making him pull over and we literally ran out of the car to another one. It was insane really. I feel like it took Blake and I so long to get home...Vicky had dinner ready for us when we walked in which was nice and we had another guy here, Theo? I believe is his name...However, he just left this morning to go to the turtle conservation project. So it is again, just Blake and I this week. I hope we get someone in here next weekend though because Blake is leaving on Saturday morning most likely to go finish traveling Costa Rica (alone) then off to a few more places before he heads back to Australia. 

It hit me last night that this weekend was the last time I was going to see Rachel for 2 weeks until she comes back for one night before going home...And that is if Catherine and I are even in town. This is also the last week I have with Blake. It's really sad because we all got so close this past week and now people are picking up and leaving...I now understand what everyone says when it starts getting sad when your friends start leaving. Once again, I am so thankful that I have Catherine here with me for the remaining 5 weeks! :) 

Today I also get new people to my project, I believe...At least I hope I do because I don't know how to manage all those kids on my own. I don't even know how to manage all those kids with some one else with me half the time! Haha. I'm sure it will be fine though. 

I think Catherine and I are going to talk to Maximo today about going to the Turtle Conservation project the last two weeks of my time here. Hopefully we can get in and get in to the same program together! I also am going to take laundry in this morning with Blake before we head out to the volunteer group. All my clothes are getting destroyed here from playing with the kids and traveling to the beach...Might have to make a trip to the store this week. 

Also, Catherine and I decided we are going to try and do some trips during the week, at Trans Leo (our travel place) next door they have stuff going on all week so we might do a night tour or something like that this week...Also, we think we are going to take Friday's completely off from our projects so that we can travel for a full 2 days before heading back to San Pedro. It's our time and we want to use it wisely, especially if we do go to the Turtle Conservation project because you can't travel while you are there! I just want to see as much as I can and Catherine is in the same boat so at least I will always have a travel buddy. At least now we know how to budget better for trips too, after this weekend. I hope! :)

Second week starts now!* Miss you and love you all!

Here are some pictures from this weekend!