So I'm officially bad at maintaining a blog....

Yes it has been weeks since my last entry, but that just means this one is going to be super exciting! School has been school, nothing exciting, although my Spanish class has definitely been harder than any I've taken at Maryland. And the real function of this blog is to chronicle all of my adventures anyway, right?! Here comes the 3 week update of Puerto Viejo, Volcán Barva, and Montezuma.


Side note: One funny thing that I've learned about Costa Rica- you don't need a prescription for most medications! You just walk right into the farmacia and tell the pharmacist what's wrong with you and they give you what you need, so convenient! Totally cuts out the whole having to go to the doctor part. I'm a fan. 


1. PUERTO VIEJO
3 weeks ago, about 30 out of 40 kids from my program headed down to Puerto Viejo- an awesome beach town about 5 hours away on the Caribbean side. It definitely had a Caribbean feel to it, very Rasta. It was beautiful, I'll definitely be going back!
First afternoon on the beach:

Normally this beach is not that crowded- but there was a big surf competition that day!

 Late afternoon:

We stayed at a REALLY cool hostel- called Rockin' J's. You could either choose to sleep in a hammock, or a tent. I opted for the tent option. Essentially the whole place was a mosaic- so awesome! There was so much art everywhere- always something to look at. Really cool place.

 Hammocks!

 Tents!

And the hostel was right on the beach! Not the best beach for swimming, but still a great view.

2. VOLCÁN BARVA
Two weekends ago, everyone had a lot of homework to do, and so most people decided to stay in Heredia. But on Saturday, a group of about 15 of us decided we wanted to check out Volcán Barva. We took a bus up to San José de la Montaña- a little town north of Barva (where I live). From there it was a 10km walk (6miles) to Braulio Carrillo National Park (where the volcano is located), literally UP A MOUNTAIN. Extremely strenuous and long. No one was prepared for that kind of hiking. We may have exaggerated in pictures a little.... but the walk really was intense.

 It was definitely beautiful on the way up, very foresty, kinda misty and very green. At times it didn't feel like Costa Rica.

But when we got to the park, the surroundings turned into a cloud forest, everything was covered in moss, and absolutely beautiful. There were come crazy twisted and intertwining trees, definitely unlike anything I've ever seen before.

 There were some crazy plants too! Lots of ones with these huge leaves- and their stems were covered in thorns! So basically in this picture I am terrified:

Only two of us in the whole group actually made it to see the volcanic lagoon- and it was awesome. If only the camera could have captured what was behind the mountain...apparently the view was too impressive. It looked like we were in an airplane, above a level of clouds. Definitely going back here in the future, so I'll be sure to attempt to get a better picture then!
Looking into the volcano! View from the top:

Inside the volcano!

3. MONTEZUMA 
This past weekend, I went to a beach on the Pacific Ocean, called Montezuma. If you know anything about Costa Rican geography- it's very close to the southern tip of the Nicoya Peninsula. It was about a 5 hour trip to get there by bus and ferry. The bus we took to get there was supposed to leave at 6am, meaning that I was leaving my house at 4am to travel into San José- and we wanted to get there by 5am in order to get in line for the bus to be sure that we would get seats. To make matters worse- the bus didn't get there until after 7:00! I was exhausted, but I had to just keep telling myself that in a few short hours- I would be on the beach. Halfway through the trip, we got off the bus and onto a car ferry, then got back on the bus at the other side! Not a bad trip.

Montezuma is a neat little town, with a weird mix of people--not that many Ticos, and lots of hippies and expats as well as plenty of tourists. The town is nestled at the base of a mountain, which makes for pretty cool views whichever way you're looking! 

I did go swimming... but there was a red tide (just dead plankton floating around in the water), which made the water look kind of brown and it was a little saltier and more foamy.

The moon was so bright that weekend, which didn't make for the best stargazing, but it certainly lit up the beach.

 On Saturday morning, I woke up just as the sun was rising... and wow it was beautiful! It's funny how you can see the mountains so clearly, but during the day you can barely make them out.

Later that morning, everyone went on a short hike to an awesome waterfall! It was about 15 minutes from where we were staying

 There was a great pool to swim around in, and rocks to jump off of!

The hike:

One of the coolest parts of Montezuma was that there were iguanas and monkeys all over! When we were walking back from the waterfall, there was a bunch of monkeys in the trees, and they got pretty close to us. Freaking cool! 

Iguana near the beach!

There were also these really cool blue birds: 

There were also monkeys that would hang out around the hostel I stayed at- the owner was telling us how if they leave the door to the kitchen open when there's no one in it, then the monkeys will come in and eat the food and go through everything! The hostel was pretty nice, it had a really nice big kitchen and front porch. 

View of the front porch and beach from my room:

My room.... notice the placement of the sink! Qué raro. How strange.

Also Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I love you!