Advertisement
Published: January 17th 2016
Edit Blog Post
First weekend field trip!! So excited. We are going with our school to Baldi Hot Springs and then hiking at Arenal Volcano area. My host-dad is so cute; he lent his pair of binoculars to watch wildlife in the forests haha. I woke up early today. He made me breakfast and then I headed out to USAC.
The ride was quite long, maybe 2-3 hours? We were driving from Puntarenas (coastal) to Alajuela (more inland). It was cramped too because there were many students. There were aisle seats too. Susanna, one of the USAC staff, sat next to me. We talked about the hot springs, comparison of cultures in the US and Costa Rica, and got to know each other a little more. She's so friendly yet sassy LOL it's awesome.
We made a pit stop at La Fortuna in San Carlos for lunch. Most of the USAC kids went to Nanku Restaurante for lunch. I sat next to some students I didn't really have the chance to talk to. It was great getting to know them a little more. One of the Australian guys was telling me about his plans to pursue a career in Marine Biology. I
learned that in Australia, they have months-long break. He doesn't resume school until March. While chatting, we all enjoyed our food. I ordered a pineapple chicken salad. It was yummy... my host family barely gives me fruit and veggies 😞 So this lunch was nice. Many people ordered drinks. The Aussie guys tried their first Long Island Iced Tea and they did not like it. Hell, I don't think I've tried one before either LOL. I ordered a sangria but they missed it.. so I eventually just stuck with water since we were on a time constraint to go back to the bus.
After lunch, we went back on the bus to finish our ride to our destination: Baldi Hot Springs! We settled at our little hotel huts first. They were soo cute and pretty. It literally looked like tiki huts with gardens, trees, and flowers paved out. I roomed with three other girls: Morgan, Jackie, and Megan. Actually... 7. It was two rooms conjoined in one hut. Gabby, Jessica, Rachel, and Leah were in the other room. We all had to share one bathroom, kinda stinks but can't complain. It'll only be for one night. And the view
outside our room is amazing. The volcano is right freaking there along with green grasslands. How awesome is that? When we dropped off all our stuff and changed, we took in the view while drinking vodka shots with some chasers. Afterwards, we headed back to the front where all the buses were. Soon enough, we were on our way the hot springs :')
Honestly, I was a little anxious participating in this, as I always am with any water-related activities. I'm self-conscious about my skin and body (lol) so I don't feel comfortable wearing swimsuits. But Morgan and Jackie were great. Morgan especially was reassuring me I looked fine and my mint bathing suit was the best-looking one LOL. She was wearing a mint one too. It was pretty darn cute we were watching. We took some pics and started trying all the hot springs. There were various hot springs of different temperatures in this place. The spring water is flowing from Arenal Volcano. Some were super hot, and some were just right. There were a few swim-up bars too which was awesome. They were expensive though but having the ability to enjoy the hot spring water, good company,
and drinks at all once was such a nice luxury. Soon enough, I was starting to forget about my insecurities and just wanted to enjoy and live in these moments.
Kyle was really nice. He bought a few of us drinks. We were all just chilling and relaxing, taking photos at one of the swim-up bar springs. We would meet and hang with different students at each spring, it was cool. As it got dark, we went to the hottest one, which had a sauna. My god, it was suffocating, holy shit. Mot of us couldn't stay there longer for a minute. After the last spring, we went to the water slides. I didn't go on though because I'm not a fan of water slides lol. After most of them finished the first one, we went to another one. Bryan and I didn't go. Instead, we just did a kiddy water-slide and he busted his ass lmao. That was fun. When the group finished the real water-slide, we found out many of them got hurt from it. It's a dangerous water-slide man... After we made sure everyone was okay, we headed back to the lockers to get our stuff
and dry off.
It was dinner time! Buffet-style. Oh my god, so many fruits and different foods. It was nice to have a change in cuisine for a night. I got many veggies, fruits, and chicken. The papaya and pineapple is bomb! And so was the steamed broccoli. We all ate happily and chatted away. It was a long, relaxing day 😊 After dinner, we dropped off at a supermarket to "get water" as Susanna would say LOL. Everyone was obviously purchasing alcohol and stuff. I just bought water, coffee, and candies haha. My stomach wasn't feeling well and I'm not much of a drinker.
When we got back to our rooms, we dropped off some of our stuff. Then half of us went to another room because there was a mini get-together happening. Their room was so much nicer than ours! Everyone was just chatting, drinking, and enjoying each other's company. Some were snorting stuff. Definitely felt like a college-dorming experience I've never had. Morgan was so sweet. She asked me on the side if I was okay with all of this/ if I was feeling uncomfortable. I chuckled at how considerate she was and I reassured
her it was all good, that I didn't mind. A little later, another group of our students came in looking for a Megan because one of them had to pay her back. They've been going into each room to look for her, and I thought that was pretty hilarious LOL.
After a while, I was getting tired so I headed back to my room. I showered. There was warm water here in the shower. And there's airconditioning! We're pretty fortunate to have this. As the other girls in the room bonded with each other, I was in my empty room just getting ready for bed. Around 11PM, the girls in my room came back home. They were all kinda tipsy/drunk. They headed straight to bed LOL. I slept later because I was waiting for my hair to dry and I'm just a late sleeper anyways.
That sums up my first day of the weekend field trip. Pretty awesome. This has been my second hot spring experience, first one being in Japan, where I had to be all naked for it. So I guess in comparison, being in a swimsuit for this hot spring ain't so bad at all,
eh? HAHA. GOOD NIGHT, INDEED 😊
Advertisement
Tot: 0.074s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0406s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb