Tamarindo.. Una vez mas!

I decided to head back to Tamarindo one more time! It was a great time, as last time was. Bunked with three of my guy friends so very drama free! A few of our friends from the program went to Tamarindo as well but they got a plane and stayed in a BEAUTIFUL hotel ocean front. They had massage tables set up on the beach and everything, with a gorgeous back yard and pool leading down to the beach. So we would hang out there during the day when we wanted a break from the sand.. We also saw monkeys! Some of my friends were woken up Saturday morning to a bunch of monkeys in the tree by their window in our hotel! And we also saw a monkey when we were visiting my friends at the beachfront hotel, so cool!


the monkey!


me and shaun pretending like we stayed at their hotel!

We had a scare when we found out they were out of tickets to return to San Jose, but luckily a bus driver helped us out and we rode to another city and got a bus from there back to San Jose.. Standing. Haha we got them to let us on but they were out of seats, so I set up camp in the aisle until 2 people finally got off and I took their seats as quick as possible!

Today, my tico dad's mom and sister came to visit so we had coffee and sandwiches and talked with them for a while and am now working on my last presentations.. I have one on Wednesday, one Thursday and then am hopefully going to Nicaragua and then my final presentation Monday! My flight leaves Wednesday morning at 9 and I'm already planning what my first meals will be in the states! I don't know what it is but everything is so bland here.. In Tamarindo I finally crumbled and HAD to get a subway sandwich (I've been dying for one the whole time I've been here!)so I got my italian foot long (10 bucks!! is that crazy or what??) and was soo disappointed! No matter what you order in Costa Rica, the meat has no flavor and it's so strange!

Volcano Poas y Parque Nacional de Paz

AHH! Today was so awesome!

First we left at 6:30 in the morning to go to Volcano Poas, about an hour and a half away. You need to get there early before the usual afternoon rains so that you can see the views really well. We went on hikes to see the active geyser, the lagoon which is an inactive geyser filled with acid water from the volcano!

The sky was so clear today we could actually see the carribean behind the geyser!


The trails and wildlife was just amazing, we kept joking that we were in Jurassic Park or in Avatar! All the colors and bright greens, orange, and hot pink. It's so funny!





Then we went to a national park where they had EVERYTHING! It was so incredibly beautiful. They had trails to see 4 waterfalls (we only had time for 2), could see all types of animals like monkeys and jungle cats, snakes, frogs, butterflies, hummingbirds, all different types of birds, insect exhibit, ahh everything.

Got to hold a Toucan!

With a sloth..

Food!

After encountering numerous foods I love today, I decided to start a recipe blog that I will add to so I can remember how to make them when I go home! Unfortunately I do not believe there will be many items on this list because I have encountered them all at Jenny's, not in my tico home.

1. Grilled plantain - Maduros
Eassyyy I just want to remember how to do it! Just start up the grill and leave the plantain inside for about 30 minutes. The outside should be completely charred, but feel mushy in the middle. Cut it open and it'll be mushy and sweet and is best served with queso seco! Queso seco is the crumbly holey cheese from Nicaragua we usually ate with our black beans and rice. But is also delicious with queso fresco, the softer cheese from Nicaragua like provalone but better!

2. Avocado salad
Like a potatoe salad just with avocado instead. Hard boil eggs and slice them up, slice the meet of avocados into pieces as well and mix with salt, pepper, and lime juice. Would be a great sandwich or with salad!


3. Guava dessert.
They are small, about the size of a lime, and whitish colored. But you take the meat out of about 10 of them, cut it and place them in water with 3 cut up limes so they soak up the flavor. Leave them like that for about 2 hours. Then remove the limes and bring the water to a boil, mix in like a soup serving spoon of sugar, so i'm estimating like 1/3-1/2 cup? And cinnamin and cumin with the water as well. After it comes to a boil let it simmer for about an hour. Serve as a topic to ice cream or with cream cheese! Delicious!

4. Costa Rica Gallopinto
I am very sad to announce that Lucia's amazing recipe for gallopinto may forever be a mystery, even Jenny isn't told how she makes it! But maybe the next time I go I will try to ask again..
5. Chicken Croissants
I did not ask how these were made but I'm assuming I can find a recipe similar. It was chicken among other vegetables like mushrooms, onions, and tomatoes wrapped in a breading which I would assume were croissants or biscuits.
6. Tres Leche - the Jenny way!
For a quick tres leche which she says people always love and ask her for her recipe is to buy a pound cake from the store and cut the top layer and bottom layer off, so that milk will be absorbed. For one pound cake (the rectangle like 6"x 4") 1 can condensed milk, 1 1/2-2 cans evaporated milk, 8 oz (one of those tiny containers) of sour cream and blend them in the blender. If it tastes too sour creamy, do 3/4 the container with 1/3 whip cream instead. Pour it on top of the pound cake and ice it with cool whip and leave refrigerate for a long time! yumm I'll definitely have to try it.

Been a while!

So last weekend a large group of us took a bus to Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica and stayed at Kayas place, where we had our own personal cabana that slept 9 of us!

The beach across the street from Kayas place was Playa Negra, a black sand beach from volcanos..

So our first full day there we rented bikes and rode for a good 30 minutes up the road and pulled over at a spot called Punta Uva, a beautiful beautifuulll blue crystal clear white sand beach.. It was amazing!



So we stayed there all morning until it began to rain, and then biked back in the rain! It was actually pretty funny and felt really good to just ride in bathing suits in the rain, however some people that were biking back at the same time of us got robbed! We had seen this sign in the forest and had laughed at it...



Little did we know they were serious! Two guys apparently jumped out of the forest with a machete and broke and stole the ladies bags! Kinda scary..

But besides that, nothing else dangerous. However, there are a lot of drugs! In Costa Rica in general, but that part of Costa Rica especially, near Limon and Puerto Viejo. So the town was a small and with a lot of character and lot of laid back druggies, pretty different!

So then we had finals and our graduation ceremony and everything and we went out a few nights this week to celebrate. I found my favorite place to go in San Jose! It's called Bar Nena, and the first night we went they had a live band and just lots of young people and dancing, really fun! We also found out about a place near our Cedros that does free dance lessons every Monday night, so I'm going to start attending those.

So today everyone from the first session caught their planes home.. pretty depressing! The new group comes in on Monday. Right now I'm staying at Jenny Rivas house, my Aunt Marcie's good friend who is the ambassador of Nicaragua in Costa Rica. Just getting to see the other side of San Jose which is REALLY nice, we went to two of the malls around here and to the movies to see Sex and the City 2 in a VIP section which was fun. Her house is so nice, it's how my families homes in Nicaragua are, big open rooms and a rooms outside with a nice backyard, with a driver and a cook! So getting a little spoiled while I stay here before I go back to my home in Cedros where we ate white rice with cut up hotdogs and scrambled eggs the other day (!!?!?) Her cook made me the best dinner last night, the way I remember the food being like in Nicaragua.

Tamarindo!

I just got back last night to San Jose from Tamarindo beach in Guanacaste, the Pacific side! It was AWESEOME! We caught a 5 hour bus ride there and back which cost 8 dollars both ways, and stayed in a hostel I found online that was really nice, we had a room with 2 double beds and 2 more you could pull out if you needed, a mini kitchen and a back porch with a hammock and they had a pool! It was only about 11 or 12 bucks a person a night, super cheap! The town Tamarindo is pretty small kind of touristy surf town with lots of night life. Everything is within walking distance and the beach was beautiful! I could see all the way down to my feet and the mountains as a back drop it was just beautiful.
Tamarindo was what I was looking forward to in Costa Rica! It was a great time and every night we went out it was ladies night somewhere so that was fun! They had a reggae night on Thursday night where they played really interesting fun mixes of music to a reggae beat and then Friday and Saturday we went to other really fun places with lots of dancing. We met soo many people! People from Canada, Spain, Mexico.. Had a really good time. I also ate my first american food since I've been here! I ordered a huge burger with french fries and it was AWESOME! It's been so long! I don't buy any american food here because it's so expensive, can you imagine?? Expensive fast food, actually just anything that isn't the "typical tico" meal is a lot more. I'm also almost done with my first Harry Potter book :]
I wish I was keeping up more with what's been going on over here but there's so much going on! I can't believe this session is almost over, I have an intense test tomorrow, my last presentation on Thursday (so now I've done one on Peppermint, one on Volcano Arenal, and this last one is on Shakira haha) and then we have our final exam on Tuesday next week. Ahhh!

Rain, rain go awayy!!

Today is a raiinnyy stormy Sunday. This week has been a busy week though, Tuesday after class we went to the National Museum, I'm gonna throw in a few pictures here..

original golden jewelry the elite wore..



some super cute whistles made into the shape of birds ha
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original pottery

We also went walking around in downtown central San Jose which is pretty neat and went to a few of the local parks, etc..





Then I had my presentation on a plant (peppermint) Friday, I think I did well!! I'll find out Monday. I also have a test Monday i'm studying for and another presentation due Thursday on 2 tourist locations in Costa Rica, BUSYYY!!
On Friday after class Wesley and I met up with my cousin Adolfo and we went to the beach Jaco for the night. It's a little surfer town right on the beach which was pretty neat with lots of night life. The beach isn't really that spectacular, it's just famous for its waves! However the views were BEAUTIFUL of the mountains from the water. We went surfing Saturday morning and tried it out and that's where the views were awesome, the mountains and palm trees and everything. However I started getting homesick! Being at the beach in a strange place in water above my head I was freaking out!! If I had fallen off of my surfboard out there I would have cried thinking an octopus would get me! But I was proud of myself for making it out there past all the waves and then we just got to relax on our surfboards riding the waves.. It was relaxing :] Although Wesley and I both agree we just aren't cut out for surfing (he couldn't stay balanced on his board for more than 2 min!) Haha so it was definitely an interesting little trip. We caught a bus back to San Jose at 11am because we wanted to be able to study today, Sunday, for our test. So last night I was exhausted from our travels and attempts at surfing and just read some Harry Potter, i'm on chapter 3! I've been making a list of words from the book that I didn't know so maybe I'll get some vocab!
So today I'm just going to study study and start researching my topic for my next presentation. Keeping busy is good for not getting homesick!

Day 9

On Saturday we went to Tortuga Island which was AMAZING! It's absolutely beautiful and snorkling and banana boat rides were included in the cost which was awesome! I snorkled for a bit but started getting really freaked out when all the fish were all around me so I had to get out! ha but it was great. There was a band, a delicious buffet, we played volleyball frisbee and just relaxed on the beach! We road an hour and a half cruise their and back which was really nice too.
Today we went to the National Museum for Costa Rica in central San Jose with artifacts and a whole bunch of stuff from precolumbian times to recent which was neat. We walked around central San Jose a bit and went into some bookstores where I bought the first Harry Potter book in spanish to read when I have time! I'm kind of excited about it! I've been wanting to do that for a while now and I can just buy the next ones when I finish!
But more importantly.. Last night I felt my first earthquake! It was about 10pm and I was about to fall asleep when it happened so I couldn't figure out if it was part of my dream or really happening but it was scary! It was apparently a 6 on the scale.

I have a oral presentation due on Friday and a written test on Monday so I've got a lot to do and not much free time so far!

Day 5

Views from my house..



mi casa!

mi cuarto


The week is already over! So crazy. The past two days have been beautifulll so sunny. Classes have been going well I really like them, right now we're just reviewing all the past tenses. We have 3 tests and 3 presentations for our grades, so not bad! Yesterday afternoon I went with my mama tico Maria Jose and Wesley to the local supermarket a few blocks up the road and she took me to the local gym which is soo NICE! It's really nice but also small and expensive. A friend from class and I paid for a week there today and ran and worked out and it felt so good! Exercising makes me feel more awake and just puts me in a better mood so I definitely think i'll be paying to join. Ha plus they have tv's by the treadmills with subtitles in spanish so I can practice. A bunch of us also walked through campus to see what was nearby and we got UCR t-shirts!! woop woop! We walked all over campus who knows how many miles we walked but it is such a beautiful and unique campus! Another thing we noticed is how open people are, PDA is definitely acceptable here.
So after I returned from the gym we went to my mama tico's parents house, which is connected to ours via backyards and met some of her family for the first time. They are really friendly and have a med student living there from southern Costa Rica going to a University in San Jose.
And tonight is the Jazz Cafe! Apparently a Salsa band led by Walter Flores is playing and he's a Grammy winner, so should be fun! :] And tomorrow at 6am we leave for Tortuga Island, can't wait!