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hey all. we stayed in paquero last night due to the storm that hit. we didnt' feel comfortable getting back on the ferry with that weather. we stayed at a place called cabinas margaritas, though margarita was not in last night. during the day, jenna and i left puntarenas by ferry to paquera. our goal was to drive to playa santa teresa because we heard it was beautiful. our detour to islas tortugas offered an irreplaceable experience. we met up with three other travellers: first was "kit" but we call him christopher because that's his birth name. he's from california originally but is currently working in boston at Harvard. the other two, gary and pam, are from scotland. the three joined us and our capitan juan on a boat ride to the islands and then to curu beach.. BEAUTIFUL. we snorkeled at one of the rocks in the islands. capitan juan came out and swam around with me, first brining me two blue and yellow starfish then on a search for a puffer fish. he dove down and his flippers would disappear, then his head would bob up about 30 feet away. the first time he did this, he came up with a shell and a knife, waving it in the air. i swam over and he asked if i knew what it was. i guessed "an oyster?" he said it was a scallop and started cleaning it out with his knife. he handed me the shell with some white meat in it and asked me to hold it while he widdled at the guts. he pulled out some more whited stuff and took a bite. i said "you can eat that without cooking it?" he handed me some and asked if i wanted to try it. i was a little apprehensive considering i rarely eat seafood let alone raw. but i ate it to be polite and it actually was pretty good. i was surprised to see it about 20 minutes later having turned a slight brown after we left the water. the taste wasn't as good either. we were not able to find a puffer fish that would "make me happy" as juan would say. he said that you can catch it with your hands and it puffs up while you're holding it. that would have been cool. after snorkeling, we spent some time on curu beach where we were served fresh watermelon and pineapple and lay on the beach. there was a leaning palm that was the main attraction, which i had to try and climb. i didn't quite make it all the way out because the wind started to blow and i got nervous. after heading back to where we began, christopher and i went to find a monkey, who apparently was someone's pet. when the hurricane hit last week, the monkey's cage broke and she's been out since. i'll add pictures to tell the story for you...
today has been an adventure. we were up at 4am and took the ferry back to panaderas then drove to where we are now: la fortuna. we are right underneath the active volcano, arenal staying at the arenal backpackers resort. so far so good. we have four girls and one guy in our dorm tonight which is a nice change from being around dudes this whole time. we've been really lucky and have met some great people on this trip who we hope to keep in touch with. it took us about 10 hours to get to where we are from paquero with the ferry trip and a stop to a town called sarchi. we read that they had some cool handcrafted wood pieces there, including rocking chairs. we quickly realized that most of their goods were large furniture peices but still managed to find some good souvenirs. we're planning to stay here tonight as well and go on a tour of the volcano, jungle, waterfalls, and hot springs tomorrow night. Then, we can head back down to san jose, drop off the car, and go back to Bekuo hostel where we stayed the first night. this time, we won't have a car to worry about.
This is our first night since monday that we've had internet access. my camera battery is out, i left my charger at home. so i bought two disposables taht will have to last until saturday night. so far, the trip has been pretty amazing... can't wait to load the pics..
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Kelli
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missing my seester
Hola! Sure sounds like you are having another great adventure. I can't believe that you ate a raw scallop!!! Now we can go to sushi bars together! :) Can't wait to see pictures of you and the little monkey. Enjoy every moment and stay safe! I love you.