Hola amigos!

We have been in Costa Rica just over 2 weeks now and having an absolutely amazing time! & yes we made the 6am bus back from the Monteverde Mountains and have had a busy few days at work.

We didn´t have to go to the Orphanage Tuesday as there was an important football match on...Costa Rica v Brazil, so (as you do) the Costa Ricans decided no one was to go to work and should all be at home watching the football and getting as drunk as possible! So...once again we decided to go with tradition and sat with our homestay family and their friends and drank lots of cerveza and many many shots of the local spirit! By 2pm I was drunk and found myself snoozing on the sofa! Our homestay family who (I might have forgotten to say!) are little crazy! then decided we should take the clapped out old banger of a jeep and drive to the mountain to feed the horses! So off we went, three drunk Ticos (one of whom was driving and works as a police officer!) and two drunk gringos! Luckily we came back in one piece, and laughing!

The last couple of days at the Orphanage have been fun, but very hard work. The Children seem to very tired and both me and Josh and the Tias are finding them hard to manage, it also doesn´t help that our Spanish is limited! We have found that colouring and writing with them seems to calm them down and allows us to get them sat down at a table rather than running around. They love learning the alphabet, which is also good as we are learning the Spanish alphabet at about the same level as them! They also enjoy learning English and the older children are very good as they learn it at school. The two babies at the orphanage are no longer there, we haven´t asked the tias what has happend to them as the childrens backgrounds are very delicate but I think they have been either given back to their parents or have been given to new parents. Already I find myself getting attached to the children, so to see them leave is very sad.

We are off to work now, and tomorrow we are getting the bus to La Fortuna up in the mountains by the Arenal Volcano. Josh and I are going up friday after work and the others are meeting us there saturday morning! I am looking forward to swimming in the Natural Springs and waterfalls and also spending both evenings in the hot springs, cocktail in hand!