SaraT

The day before finals week starts…therefore I am writing this instead of studying because I have no work ethic or focus whatsoever. Today we had our final excursion sponsored through International Programs. Some kids had gone to Isla Grande, a beautiful beach island, on Friday, but I was taking a final and handing in a physics project that didn’t work. Boo. So today we went to the vacation home of one of our two RA counselor helper-people who live in the neighborhood with us to help out if we get in trouble. The house is in Cerro Azul, a mountainous area to the east of the city with lots of jungle and views to die for. The house itself was really cute and clean - perfect for lounging. A lot of people had brought homework and ... read more

Alright, I’ve been a little lazy in keeping up with this. I blame physics class. So this is for my Easter activities recount: Sara’s trip to Costa Rica. I was traveling with four friends I know from IP, planning on picking up two more on the way who were at the beach (the overnight bus occasionally makes a few stops), and meeting up with two friends who had already been there for three days. They had left earlier that week because their tourist card expired, meaning that they would be staying in the country illegally unless they left for twenty-four hours and then came back in and bought a new tourist card that would be valid for another 90 days. This method of “renewing” your tourist card is actually easier than trying to do it ... read more

This encompasses several days, so be prepared for me talking a lot. We have arrived safe and sandy and salty back in La Boca today after an “interesting” two weeks after spring break. Like everything in life, there were some good and bad points (how profound): After I got back from spring break adventures, I felt fine for two days, then my eyes turned red and started to burn. Not itch, nor goopy - this was probably not pink eye, but being a good girl, I went to the doctor’s to get a professional opinion and eye drops, because I was getting very annoyed. Without a clear diagnosis, I left with allergy pills and antibiotic drops. Who knows which helped, but 5 days later it was gone. Then two days after that, they started tearing up ... read more

Anyway, today I didn’t go to the children’s hospital in the morning, in exchange for sleep, getting caught up on homework, and writing all this. I hope it is entertaining, as you read about Sara, the backpacking, crowded-bus-taking adventurer. Classes will not seem very exciting after this. Pooh. Even though this combined with many other factors has caused several of my IP friends to decide to stay here this summer, I don’t think I can because of the whole graduating on time thing, not to mention missing everyone. I think I will make an effort to save up and go somewhere else for a little while this summer, though. Traveling, especially in Latin America, really isn’t that expensive or difficult from what I’ve seen. More needs to be done, maybe to Costa Rica or south to ... read more

Three of us, including myself, collapsed into bed by 10 PM the previous night - the others went out, but they slept in the next morning while the three of us early-birds went to Mass. This priest was wonderfully clear in his speech, so I could actually understand everything he said (the Mass was in Spanish). After another stop for coffee and banana pancakes (are you noticing a pattern here?), we bid our long adios to our hostess (she tends to go off on tangents), and split our group. Myself, Paige, and Carmel saved $100 each and took the long, long bus ride back instead of flying in the “plane,” which Katrina told me is more like a hang-glider. After riding from Boquete to David, we waited for our David-Panama bus. Luckily that is one of ... read more

Today we got up at 6 to meet the van at 7 AM outside our hostel. We had signed up the previous day with Panama Rafters to be taken on a white water trip down the Chiriqui Viejo river. After a two-hour drive (the river runs along the Costa Rica-Panama border), we arrived at our starting destination. We slide down the hillside to get to the river, with our guides (two boat leaders, one guide-in-training, and one local girl who had rafted this river before) pushing and maneuvering the rafts down the hill. We set out on our 17 km ride in two boats, one guide, three girls, and one trainee in each. Lee, Katrina, and I named ours “Team Tíburon” (shark, which was also related to an inside joke that’s not worth explaining). I voted ... read more

Having not gotten up early enough for the morning coffee tour (“this is where we pluck ‘em, this is where we roast ‘em,” etc.) we made our own coffee tour. Boquete as a town is basically laid out as a strip - it doesn’t radiate outwards from a central location like most towns, but lies along one main road that climbs slowly up the mountain. The entire region is known for good coffee, so there was a café about every five feet. We stopped in a lot of them, after more banana pancakes. I drank water, because I’m not going to waste good coffee on my unappreciative palate. The others liked it. We walked all the way up through the town until we reached “Mi Jardin es Su Jardin” (“My Garden is your Garden”). This is ... read more

As required of good Catholics, Paige and I tried to fast as much as possible without sapping all of our energy in order to be able to go to the beach today - me for lounging and swimming, her for surfing. Her friends that we ran into told us that a good beach break (the reef breaks are pretty intense for surfing, and there is no where for us non-surfers to sit). So off we went to Isla Bastimentos, to Wizards Beach. The water taxi couldn’t take us straight to the beach because then he would have to drop us off in the water. The waves are too strong for those boats to approach the beach directly. To solve this, we get dropped off at the dock that has a path to Wizards, which we are ... read more