Monkeys, Hostels, and the Beach!

The Friday of last week was my final day of Spanish class.  It turns out that I wasn’t allowed to take another Spanish course without paying $750 extra.  After thinking about it for a day, I decided not to pay for the extra class and to just not have another Spanish course.  It kind of stinks because I relay liked my profesora and the class was great.  Still, I can learn just as well without it.  I just need to speak speak speak.  My friend Laura (who is basically fluent) and I are going to meet regularly and practice together in the morning.  Now my mornings are free to run, converse with my host family, sleep in a bit if I can, etc.

Some weather humor at the hostel.

As I think I mentioned in my last post, our group of friends (10 of us) went to Manuel Antonio this weekend.  If you know nothing of Manuel Antonio, it’s basically a large national park with hiking trails, beaches you can swim in and lay on within the park, lots of wildlife, etc.  We took the bus to Quepos from San Jose Friday afternoon.  The trip only took about 3 hours or so which wasn’t too bad.  I sat with Laura and we had a great conversation about morals, ethics, and the role God played in forming our little group of friends.  Another group of students that also studies at Veritas was on the same bus as we were.  It was nice to have more people to talk to.

A view of one of the "hallways" at the hostel.

            Quepos is the town that we ended up staying at while we were on the Pacific Coast.  It was only about a 15 minute bus ride to Manuel Antonio from Quepos.   We decided on Quepos over Manuel Antonio because there are more stores to buy food at, more restaurants to eat at, more hostels to stay at, and everything’s cheaper in Quepos.  The hostel we decided to stay at was called the Wide Mouth Frog.  Let’s just say that the hostel was amazing.  The people were great, the hostel was safe and cheap ($12 a night), they had a pool, free breakfast, a lounge area with a TV, hammocks everywhere, and lots of pet dogs.  I would recommend it to anyone staying near Manuel Antonio.  Here’s a link to it if you want to find out more about it or just look at the pictures. http://www.widemouthfrog.org/

The kitchen/dining area at the hostel.  It was a great place to hang out and talk with other travelers.

This is what the $12 a night room looks like.  It has 11 beds and it's communal.  Everyone in one room.  However, our group had two rooms since they didn't have enough space in these big ones.  We got one private room for 4 but at the same low price.

            My friend Michelle was also staying at the Wide Mouth Frog (WMF).  She thought she heard my voice and came over to see if it was me and it was.  Kind of funny that with so many hostels in Quepos, as well as on the road to Manuel Antonio and in Manuel Antonio, she would pick the one we were staying at.  Michelle, by the way, is from Sweden and was in my Basic I Spanish class and my Basic II class (which, sadly, I am not in anymore).  Her friend from Sweden was visiting her in Costa Rica.

This was the private room we got at a discount on.  It was small and only had 4 beds.  But since you don't spend all day in the rooms it wasn't a big deal.  All you need is a place to sleep when you've exhausted yourself exploring all day.

            That Friday night we decided to eat out for dinner and found a nice little restaurant on the second floor of some shops.  We ate, laughed, practiced our Spanish a little, and conversed.  It was a good night.  Afterwards we went back to the hostel and just relaxed the rest of the night.  Some people went swimming, some watched a movie, and others socialized with some guests at the WMF.  The other travelers at the hostel were so easy to talk to.  So many of them have very interesting stories of why they are there and what they do in life. 

The next morning we had gallo pinto, watermelon, pineapple, toast, and oatmeal for breakfast.  It was free so it was delicious.  We at around 7am and then went to find the bus to take us to Manuel Antonio for the day.  The buses run every 30 minutes between the two places and it only costs 240 colones which is roughly $0.50.  The park cost $10 to get into it for the day.  It was at this moment that I realized I had not budgeted for the park when I packed my cash.  Since I was around friends, they were more than willing to help out with my lack of planning and cover for me.  Thanks Quincy!

Senor Iguana

After we were about 20 feet into the park we saw our first bit of wildlife, an iguana just hanging out on a tree.  About 20 feet further we saw our next creature, a sleeping monkey in a tree.  When we were close to the beach (which was about a 15 minute hike from the entrance) we saw a sloth with a baby that was all up close and personal.  I heard a ranger say that it was one of the most active sloths that he had seen.  It was funny because the sloth was still moving so terribly slow.  By the way, the Spanish word for “lazy” is the same word for “sloth.”  After all the fun and picture taking with the sloth, we made it to the beach.

The sloth.  You can't really see that baby attached to her chest in this photo.  Check out my Facebook page for more pictures of this lazy creature.

A view of the first beach we swam at in the park.  This was taken while on our little hike.  Ignore the old man in the lower right hand corner. Jejeje

The water was clear, the waves were small, there weren’t too many people there, the sand was white; it was very nice and relaxing.  Most of us just laid out on the beach.  Of course we got into the water and I went exploring across some rocks along the coast, but overall it was just a great time to relax and enjoy the beautiful surroundings.  Don’t worry, I put on sunscreen this time unlike last weekend at the beach.  While we were just sitting on the beach, I saw some people point and start to get excited.  It was monkeys!!  A little group of Howler monkeys had made its way to the beach.  They were in the trees right at the start of the beach.  They were quite friendly and, of course, people were feeding them even though they were not supposed to.  I witnessed one monkey rob a lady’s backpack when she left it unattended.  Crafty little creatures but still amazing.

You could get up close to the Howlers.

Just relaxing a bit... you know.

            After spending about 4 hours at the first beach we started the hike to the next beach within the park.  A group of four of us decided to go on a hike around the trails.  I’m glad I went because we saw more monkeys, some sort of large rat thingy (I forget the name), and I held hands with a monkey!  Caroline took a picture of it.  He was eating some flowers from a tree so I plucked a flower and offered it to him.  He took it right from my hand.  It was awesome!

Whatever this large rat thingy was called.

It was almost like he was challenging me to take the picture.  Challenge accept, monkey.

            Once we got back to the beach from our little excursion it was about time to leave the park since it closes at 4pm.  We started to pack up when someone from the group said she couldn’t find her wallet with her money, debit card, home keys, and hostel keys all in it.  We frantically looked for it around where we were sitting and retraced our steps back to the other beach but didn’t have any luck.  Someone suggested that we try searching her backpack again and we ended up finding it in one of the backpack pockets.  Disaster averted. 

The monkey touched me.  This picture is courtesy of Caroline.

            We finished out the day on the beach in Manuel Antonio watching the sun set on the public beach outside of the park.  Caroline, Josh, Sarah, Laura, and I threw the Frisbee around while it set.  It was a good conclusion to a great day at the beach.  We all jammed onto the bus to ride it back to Quepos.  When I say jammed, I mean that there were probably more people standing up in the aisle than there were sitting in the seats.  We, of course, were in the aisle.

Another Pacific sunset.

            Once back in Quepos we showered, or in my case, took a dip in the pool for a shower, found a cheap soda to eat at, and then came back to the hostel to sleep.  I was tired from a long day at the beach and probably a little dehydrated.  But it was all worth it.  I slept great Saturday night.  Sunday morning we all ate the free breakfast again and then Caroline and I went out searching for a place to surf.  Granted, she was more committed to finding a place to surf than I was but I did want to surf again.  Thanks for tolerating my lack of contribution in finding a place to surf, Caroline.  Turns out, after asking a soda owner, that the only place to surf nearby was at Manuel Antonio.  We had to check out of the hostel by 11am and it was already 9am so we decided to just go back to the hostel and swim/hang out.

Some parrots hanging out on the beach.

            The bus ride back to San Jose was uneventful and only 3 hours.  We got back around 3:30pm and then decided to all meet up at 5ish to go find a bar to watch the Super Bowl.  We ended up going to an Irish Pub, Stan’s Irish Pub.  It was fun to hang out with friends and talk.  It was even more fun to watch Laura get into the game because she’s from Green Bay.  Luckily Green Bay won.  Overall, one of the best weekends I’ve had since coming to CR.  The animals, the beach, hiking, the hostel, and good friends all made it memorable.  I don’t think we’re planning on going anywhere next weekend.  I think we’re just going to take it off and relax a bit in San Jose because we’ve traveled somewhere every weekend since being in CR.  If you’ve enjoyed the pictures here, check out the rest of them on my Facebook page.

Me relaxing in one of the hammocks at the hostel.

         Also, this morning, I met Laura for coffee and we talked Spanish and life together for about an hour.  We both don't have class in the mornings now.  I finally had my first cup of coffee.  I got it straight up black.  I only added a little sugar.  It wasn't that bad.  I don't know if I would get it every day but, heck, I'm in Costa Rica.  I should be open to new things, right?  Plus the company was well worth it.  Hasta luego! 

Pictures Downtown

            Yesterday Caroline and I went on a picture-taking extravaganza through San Jose.  While we didn’t get too many pictures, we did manage to find an awesome playground and a really cool park.  I did the monkey bars for the first time in years and we teeter-tottered a bit.  Last night I also went to the movies to see Tron with Quincy and Aubrey.  It had some pretty cool special effects movie and for only $2 a ticket it was definitely worth it.  Back to the pictures, here are some I took while rambling around San Jose.

The street on which I live.  If you look closely you can see my house.  It's the orange looking one on the left right past the green bars/fence.

Mi casa!

The ever-present barbed wire and metal bars that surround most houses and yards here in San Jose.  You get use to them after awhile. 

A tica girl helping her little tica sister walk down the street in San Jose

Along with the barbed-wire, there always seems to be trash everywhere.  San Jose isn't really the cleanest city.

A church steeple

A cool pillar with interesting phrases on it.  It was located next to a school.

Some Costa Rican graffiti

An American bar!

Caroline swinging

Some strange man at the park wanted mt to take a picture of him an his "woman." Hmm... He and I bumped fists afterward and exchanged "pura vidas"

I think it's some kind of crow but I'll let Norene be the judge of that.

A train for Jimbo

A cool structure at one of the parks we walked through

A view of downtown San Jose.

Poopy Sandcastles and Scorpians

Alright, rewind a bit, Friday afternoon a group of us went downtown San Jose to look around and do some shopping at the Artisan’s Market.  I didn’t really buy anything because I’m stingy but I ate some strawberries and bought a mango then sat in the park and watched the pigeons.  The lady and her son sitting next to us offered us some corn to feed the pigeons.  We asked her what the word for pigeon was in Spanish and it turns out that it’s “paloma.”  It was fun talking and interacting with her and her son.

A view of the downtown square with lots of palomas

The block-long tunnel of vendors in San Jose selling their homemade ware, meeting all your souvenir needs...AKA the Artisans Market

By the way, today I have been in Costa Rica for one whole month.  Weird.  But enough about today, let’s talk about our trip this past weekend.  We all met at the university and took cabs to the bus station early Saturday morning.  Since we had bought our tickets Friday, things went very smoothly.  We got on the bus and took it the 2 hours to Jaco.  Now Jaco is a big party town and beach area about 6 miles north of Playa Hermosa, the place we were going to stay at.  We were hungry when we got off the bus so we went to the nearest restaurant in Jaco.  It was called Jaco Taco.  We sat down, a few of the group went to the bathroom, then the waiter handed us the menus.  Errr…the prices were kind of high so we just got up and left.  I told the waiter that we were going to leave because we didn’t have a lot of money.  We kind of felt bad but I was nice not having to spend that much money on lunch.

After eating lunch at a not-so-expensive place, we headed to Playa Hermosa via taxis.  We had the taxis drop us off at Cabinas Brisa Del Mar, a local hostel, because we had called ahead and asked if they had space for 11 people and they said they did.  It turns out that arriving on Saturday in the afternoon was a bad idea because most all of the hostels were full or almost full.  Brisa Del Mar had two rooms left for us but one only fit 4 people and the other only 2.  However, the guy told us that most of the other places on the beach were full (not sure if he was being truthful or not) and that he had people waiting to rent the two rooms he was offering us (this fact was true).  We took the rooms and just asked if people could sleep on the floor, etc.

A view of the small upstairs loft with the double bed.  Caroline hung her hammock from the railing there too.

A view of the first floor of the 7 person cabin.  Notice the two single person beds.  There was a small bathroom too under the second story.  The girl with the red bathing suit is standing on where I slept that night.

An outside view of our cabin which housed 7 of the 11 in our group.

Okay, we had 7 people in the room that could only fit 4 and 4 people in the room that could only fit 2.  In the 7 person room, 3 people slept on the double bed, 2 people took the single beds for themselves, Caroline slept in her hammock somehow, and I slept on the floor with a towel as my mattress and my backpack as a pillow.  I felt like a pioneer and probably slept like one too.  Roughin’ it.

The sunset at Playa Hermosa featuring the silhouette of Caroline.

            The beach at Hermosa was amazing.  It was a volcanic beach so the sand was black and since it wasn’t Jaco beach, it was less populated with drunken fools and less dirty.  Jaco beach was extremely trashy, literally, with tons of people and lots of rocks on the beach.  Hermosa was just the opposite and very relaxing.  Most of us spent all day Saturday on the beach until the sunset hit.  No surfing for me or Caroline but I did make a lot of “poopy” sandcastles, we saw a handful of Scarlet Macaws (actual real life wild parrots!), and some of us saw an Iguana too.  The parrots were eating from a beach walnut tree, just cracking the shells and popping out the nuts.  It was truly amazing to watch the parrots eat walnuts only about 20 feet above our heads.  I think I saw more wildlife at the beach Saturday than I had seen at all the national and state parks I had been to on other excursions.

A Scarlet Macaw courtesy of Caroline

A view of Playa Hermosa

For dinner that night after the sun went down, we went to the local Super and bought some bread and peanut butter and some corn flakes and milk for breakfast the next day.  We closed out the night on the beach.  A lot of people went inside to sleep but a few of us stayed outside later.  Caroline and I sat in her hammock and talked about life in Hawaii and how we’re going to open up a surf shop/restaurant one day.  Later I joined Emily, Laura, and Josh on the beach and had a glass of wine out of a box.  It was enjoyable…the beach, not the wine.  The wine was nasty.  And somehow I talked Emily into giving me a massage too.  Ahhh… a life on the beach.  

Some of the group having fun in the Pacific ocean

The next day we spent on the beach too.  We had to leave the hostel by noon so we just caught the bus back to Jaco (barely, by the way) because our bus back to San Jose was going to leave from Jaco.  Once in Jaco again, we all found a park to sit down in and eat lunch (peanut butter sandwiches again).  We then set a meeting time and everyone broke out into smaller groups to go and do what they wanted in town.  Out of the group, only Caroline and I wanted to go to the beach again.  We just laid out some, played in the ocean a bit, talked about God and how the ocean is a lot like Him, and built an awesome sand castle complete with drawbridge and swimming pool.  We named it the Jaco Taco Fortress or JTF for any acronym lovers.

Our sandcastle

              The bus for San Jose left Jaco at 5:15 and was supposed to be a 2 hour ride.  Needless to say we didn’t get home until 9:15pm.  Basically, we hit a TON of traffic and construction on the way back.  Our bus driver took us down dirt roads and secret shortcuts to try to bypass a lot of it.  The bus, by the way, was a big bus.  It had at least 50 people on it.  Yet, there were not 50 seats on the bus so those who didn’t get a ticket with a seat had to stand…the entire trip.  You could tell their legs were hurting so about 2-3 hours in I offered my seat to an older lady.  While I paid for the seat I would have wanted someone to do the same for me.  She took it readily and thanked me.  I asked her in Spanish too which was a triumph all its own.  I had wanted to give up my seat on the way to Playa Hermosa too but I didn’t because I didn’t want to embarrass myself butchering the language.  On the bus back to San Jose I felt the same way but realized that if the language barrier was the only thing keeping me from offering my seat, why not try anyways?  Maybe my action would help change the perception of the “Ugly American” a little in the mind of one Costa Rican. 

Anyways, about 45 minutes out from San Jose, a rather large scorpion somehow made its way onto the bus near the front and everyone started screaming and running towards the back of the bus.  We were close to the back of the bus and I had a little boy run to me and hug my legs because he was scared.  It was quite comical and someone eventually killed it with a shoe.  I felt like it brought our bus closer together.  Overall, the trip was a blast.  Even though the sleeping arrangements weren’t the best, even though I got incredibly red the second day on the beach because I didn’t wear sunscreen, and even though the bus ride was long and uncomfortable, the weekend was worth every second.  Thank you everyone for making it a memorable and enjoyable time.

No Spanish today.  Basic II starts tomorrow.  Wish me luck as I branch out and leave the shelter of the “present tense” and enter into the realm of the “preterit tense.”

Playa Hermosa

            Tomorrow a group of about 11 of us students are taking a trip to Playa Hermosa.  Hermosa is a really pretty beach on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica and is only about a 2 hour bus ride from San Jose.  We’re leaving Saturday morning, relaxing all day Saturday on the beach, spending the night in a hostel (rooms of 6 are only $12.50 a person per night), and then coming back sometime Sunday in the afternoon.  It should be a fun trip and experience.  We’re going to hit up a supermarket when we get down there so we can buy food materials.  That way we won’t spend a lot on eating out for every meal.  Caroline and I, and maybe a few others, will probably get our surf on.  I’m sure a lot of people will want to improve their tans too.

            Last day of Spanish Basico I is today.  It’s also our final exam today but it’s only written.  We had the oral part of the exam yesterday which went pretty well.  I’m not too worried about the written portion of the exam since my grammar is pretty solid for a Basico I student.  I did, however, buy note cards and made a bunch of Spanish vocab flashcards to help improve my vocab retention.  In other news, here are some more pictures for your enjoyment.  Hasta luego!    

My host parents - Juan Carlos & Gleys

Me watching the sunset in Monteverde

Part of the old military fort in San Jose.  Now part of the National Museum

A view of the beach in Tamarindo

An interesting plant/flower in Arenal

Where I am sitting right now as I type this

A few of some mountains and the largest man-made lake in Costa Rica.  Shot in Monteverde

The Princess of Japan!

            I almost forgot.  Last Friday all the Basic I Spanish classes went to the biggest and oldest Catholic Basilica in Costa Rica.  It was about a 30 minute drive from San Jose.  It was very interesting to see people walking on their knees down the main aisle of the church to the altar.  Our professor told us that some people walk on their knees all the way from San Jose to the church.  When they get to the church their knees are all bloody and worn down to the bone.  I love Jesus but I also love my knees.  There was a natural spring too on the church grounds that people have said to seen visions at.  The water that comes out of the spring is supposed to produce miracles and heal those who drink it.  Of course, I drank some “miracle” water.  Maybe know I’ll learn Spanish over night.  The water hasn’t made me sick yet but if it does I’m blaming it on the Catholic Church. 

The Basilica in Cartago

After the church we continued our field trip and went to the market in Cartago.  There was sooo much fresh fruit and veggies as well as anything else you could think of: shoes, fish, chicken feet, candy, dog food, rice, beans… You name it and it was there.

            Yesterday ISA put on a free trip to the National Museum of Costa Rica.  Obviously, since it was free, I went.  We took the bus there and then walked around the museum some.  It was kind of small but interesting to learn more about Costa Rica and its culture and history.  The museum is actually in one of the forts that was used during the civil war/unrest period in Costa Rica.

One of the many relics at the National Museum

After the museum Kristina, Heather, and I decided not to take the bus home right away and instead opted to walk around downtown San Jose for a while.  We were passing by a park to get a picture of a statue in the park when we saw a lot of police officers and press people.  I asked a lady what was going on in Spanish and she said that the president of China was visiting.  Turns out, after asking a few other people, it wasn’t the president of China but instead it was the prince and princess of Japan visiting.  Yeah, that’s right, I saw the prince and princess of Japan!  No biggie.  Read about it here: http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/prince-akishino-wife-leave-japan-for-costa-rica

The princess of Japan

We went to the local artisans market after and I bought a Saprissa jersey which is the jersey for the local Costa Rican soccer team.  It’s purple with white strips.  It was only a cool $10 or 5 mil colones.  Later last night a few of us were planning on going to a church across town.  It’s a Christian church run by surfers.  Well… Needless to say, the directions we were given were wrong so we ended up in a residential neighborhood, a very nice one, with no church to be found.  Luckily, our taxi driver was very nice and hung around for a bit until we decided to just go back to school.  It was embarrassing but Kristina, Caroline, and I had a very good time.  It was basically a $20 car ride across San Jose last night.  Honestly though, I’d probably do it again.