Weekend of Adventure!

---

This has been a weekend full of adventures! On the downside, it has also been a weekend of burns, bugbites, and bruises.

Friday we had class outside, which was really nice, except for the huge bugs we saw. There was a rhinocerous beetle, and a walking stick, which were both pretty cool. But I also saw HUGE spiders and cocroaches. I also have about 20 chiggers living in my legs right now, which is driving me absolutely nuts. On the bright side, my host mom gave me some zepol, which seems like a mixture of icy-hot and vapor rub. It is supposed to be for colds, chest congestion, bruises and cuts. But it is kind of a home remedy that helps relieve the itch. Also, If you put a ring around your ankle before going to the forest or out on hikes, it is supposed to keep mostly chiggers, but also mosquitos and other bugs away.

After class on friday, I went back to Alimentand Esperanza. This time, some people went on a walk with some kids, others played soccer, and some just hung out. I did not bring my gym shoes, so I stayed back and hung out with some of the girls. Two girls love taking pictures and photography, so we walked around taking pictures of plants and trees. After that, I helped make a piñata out of a plastic bag. I filled it with candy and confetti. We tied it up and attached it to string and a stick. We called the children inside and had them go in a line from shortest to tallest. I was the one at the front of the line giving them the stick to hit them with. I almost got hit a few times, and so did some other kids, but luckily, no one got hit. After getting back to Santa Ana, I went with this girl Kaitlynn to the nail salon, but they were about to close, so we made appointments for Monday.

Saturday, I had to be at the bus stop at 6, to go rafting. I woke up at about 530, got ready and went down to the panaderia ‹bakery› for breakfast. I got what seemed like a breakfast empanada, with a pastry shell and chicken inside. It was very delicious. I did not know that part of the rafting adventure included a stop at a breakfast restaurant, so I just had some fruit and eggs there. The rafting place was about two and a half hours away from Santa Ana. Once we got there, I put my helmet and lifejacket on, and attached my camera to my lifejacket. The instructor was really nice and knew a lot of cool tricks to make our rafting experience more fun. We rode class 3 and 4 rapids on a scale that goes up to 5. There were times that I almost fell out, but no one in my group actually did. We rafted for a little over three straight hours. It was really fun, but terribly exhausting. There were times where we could get out of the raft and swim around, or go on little exscursions on paths. Overall, it was an amazing experience. I have a lot of pictures, but they are on my camera, so I cannot upload them until I get back home. On the way back to Santa Ana, there was an accident, so it took about 4 hours to get home. Once back in Santa Ana, I went to this little place called Chachiburguers. It was the BEST burger that I have ever had. I was really surprised, because who would think that a tiny, hole in the wall, costa rican place would have such amazing burgers.

When I got home, I realized that the tops of my legs and my arms were pretty burnt. I talked to my host mom and she went outside and cut a leaf off of the aloe plant outside. She washed it and cut the spikey edges off. Then she waited about five minutes so the ¨blood¨of the plant came out. She washed it again and sliced it down the middle to create two thin slices. She helped me rub the plant on my burns and told me to sit by a fan until it dried. After that, it didn´t burn anymore, and this morning when I woke up, the redness already started to go down.

Today, I had to be at the bus stop at 730, which wasn´t as bad, but I just want to sleep in a little!! First we went to Paos Volcano, which was about an hour and a half away. It sounded a lot cooler than it actually was. It was about tripled in altitude than Santa Ana and about 30 degrees colder. It was also raining very heavily. We walked the path to see the volcano, and were all pretty much dissapointed when we reached it. It looked more like Niagra Falls than a volcano. I imagined that it would look like how it does in the movies with lava and rocks. But there was just a lot of smoke and clouds. By the time we got back to the bus, everyone was completely soaked. I´m really glad I bought that rain shell before I came here, and if even if that was the only time I use it on this trip, it was completely worth buying. My pants and shoes were soaked through, but my hair, body and shirt wasn´t. I brought extra shorts to change into and dried pretty quickly. After that, we started heading towards the waterfall. We stopped in Grecia to eat lunch. The only place that was relatively cheap and open on a Sunday was burger king, so that is where we ate. It felt kind of weird eating American fast food in Costa Rica. After that, we drove for another hour and arrived at the waterfall. There was a short hike from the bus to the actual waterfall, but it was completely worth it. The waterfall was beyond beautiful. The river past it was kind of rocky, so it difficult to get to where we could swim. But once I got there, I took as many pictures as I possibly could. I could not believe what I was doing, it felt so unreal. The water was really cold, but I stayed in for about an hour and a half, just hanging out and exploring the river.

This has been such an amazing weekend here in Costa Rica. I still cannot believe all the things I have been able to experience. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity that I do to go to another country, completely out of my confort zone and experience the culture, language, nature, and overall beauty of Costa Rica.

---