Chillin on the beach

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This entry was written weeks ago but I haven't had time to update and the site was down.
Anyway, here you go. I'm posting Nicaragua and Guatemala at the same time.

We left Costa Rica last night and will be in Nicaragua tomorrow. Unlike every other country, we only had 4 days in Costa Rica, which was a bummer because of how sweet it is there. After 5 countries of running around like chickens with our heads cut off, we decided to take it a little bit easier and finally relax. Seth’s girlfriend on the ship, Kristen, had some friends who were staying in the beach town of Jaco for a couple of weeks, so we went and stayed with them in their five room villa. We relaxed on the beach, by their pool, grilled out every meal, had a bonfire on the beach and just generally had a good time. We also went ziplining through a canopy, horseback riding along the beach and up a mountain to a gorgeous view over the town. Our last day there we went to the Manuel Antonio National Park and saw monkeys, raccoons (they look pretty different here), sea turtles, iguanas, smaller lizards that I couldn’t identify, and mosquitos. Oh, the first day I was in Puntarenas walking around by myself and I saw Dean David, the head dean on the ship and a professor at UVA who I have become good friends with, and he took me out to lunch with his family. He’s a really good guy and pretty funny too. There was an auction on the ship to raise money for charity and the only thing that I bid on was a paella dinner at his house in Charlottesville for 6, but once it hit 200 bucks I had to drop out very disappointedly. When the bidding was over, he ran over to me and told me that I should just call him up sometime and he’d do the same thing for free, just because I bid. I’m really excited to have an SAS reunion dinner at Dean David’s and for some other people to meet him. Sorry this entry is so short, I did a lot of relaxing in Costa Rica and I don’t really know what else to write about. I’ll be in Nicaragua tomorrow morning.
Love you all,
Stewart Ryan
Oh and can someone email Jenny and give her the URL for this site?
Thanks Baba and Granddad and Jenny for the cards, I really appreciate them and it’s cool to get something from America after being away for so long. It’s always nice to feel loved.

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