4 weeks to go....

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Sorry it has been so long since I have blogged. March has been a pretty busy month trying to plan our weekends and spring break, my sister came to visit for a week, and we are getting close to finals.

The first weekend in March I went to another beach with some friends for the weekend. One of the beaches we went to, Montezuma, had waterfalls that you could jump off of. It took us awhile to find a path to the waterfalls, but after about 3 hours of going in the wrong direction we finally found it!! It was 45 ft. tall. I jumped off the waterfall at about 40 ft. It was quite the rush but I was definitely sore for a few days!!! It was worth it though after our 3 hour hike.

The next weekend in March a group of international students and I went white water rafting. We rafted the Pacuare River in Costa Rica. At the time that we went there about 4 class 4 rapids and a lot of class 3 rapids. In the rainy season in Costa Rica sometimes the rapids get up to class 5! Our journey on the river lasted about 3 hours and we stopped in the middle to have a lunch on the river. It was really fun, but somehow I managed to come out with some bruises. We hit a class 4 rapid badly and everyone got thrown forward in the boat. I hit my nose pretty hard on something but it only swelled and bruised, thank God!! After our day of rafting, we continued on to a beach on the Caribbean side called Puerto Viejo. It is currently the rainy season on the Caribbean, so we were tested our luck by hoping there was good weather. Of course it rained ALL weekend, so we didn't really get the full experience of the Caribbean side. One day we rented bikes for like $2 and rode them an hour to Manzanillo, a beach right by the border. It was rainy there too but we ventured along the shoreline and eventually found a gorgeous view of the ocean. Sadly I have no pictures from it though because of the rain. We had been so close to the Panama border that they checked our passports when we were traveling back to San José. Of course the day we left Puerto Viejo, the sun came out!!

The next week we had 3 more earthquakes. I am becoming quite accustomed to them now!! My sister Steph came the following weekend. We went to a beach again that weekend and I gave her a tour of San José when she was here.

The next weekend my roommate and I went to Panamá. It was a 16 hour bus ride from San José to Panamá City, but our bus left at night so we were able to sleep through half of it. Panamá City was really pretty and kind of resembled the states. We visited the Canal, Casco Viejo (which has the ruins of the old Panamá City), and Causeway (a popular street with lots of shops and restuarants). We only had a day and a half in the city so we didn't get to do a whole lot of exploring, but we did see a lot of neat things. The people from Panamá were really friendly, and the city appeared a lot cleaner and nicer than San José. We took another night bus from the city to Bocas del Toro, and popular island on the Caribbean Side of Panamá. We must have bad luck with that side because it was cloudy again the entire time we were there. People told us we had just missed the nice weather, and of course the day we left it was super sunny again. It's always a gamble with the Caribbean side!! The bus ride was terrible and we got into Puerto Almirante at about 5 in the morning, not really knowing where we were going! We asked around and eventually figured it out. We had to take a water taxi over to the island, so we had to wait for that to open at 6 am. We finally found a hostel that was open and we took a nap to recover on some sleep! Later that afternoon we took a water taxi over to Red Frog Beach. The next day we took a $4 shuttle to Bocas del Drago, another beach on the island. From there we walked along the shoreline to Starfish Beach. There were starfish everywhere!! The weather kind of spoiled the weekend for us, but I'm sure the Caribbean is gorgeous when the sun is shining. The next day we headed back to San José. Panamá was a nice little vacation, even though this entire semester has felt like one!

This past weekend I stayed home in San José to try to catch up on my homework and final projects before our spring break. Early Saturday morning I went with my tica mom to la fería, which is like a farmer's market. We bought lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, and it was sooo cheap!! After la fería I had a craving for BLTs, so we bought some bacon and that afternoon I made my mom a BLT for her first time. Saturday night I went with my family to my tica aunt's 50th birthday celebration and we watched the Costa Rica v Mexico soccer game. Unfortunately we lost though. 😞 The next day I went with my family to the pool.

Since we don't have class during Holy Week, a group of friends and I are going to Nicaragua and Guatemala for about 10 days. We are going to visit Granada and Isla Ometepe in Nicaragua. Isla Ometepe is a island that we heard is breathtakingly beautiful, and supposed there are inactive volcanoes that we can climb. Then we are going to visit some old Mayan ruins and Antigua in Guatemala. There is supposed to be a really good festival at Antigua on Good Friday and I've heard the city is really pretty. It should be quite the trip! Then when we return to San José, we only have 2 weeks of class left! It's crazy how fast the semester has flown!!
Before we know it I will be back in the states, tan and fluent in Spanish! 😊

Well I better get back to the homework. Miss you all and see you soon!!

Em

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