HOLA AMIGOS!!!

Well I've made it back to Cahuita after a pretty crazy week away... and it's weird to say that it feels like home!! Guess I've gotten used to the little laid-back town. Anyway, my trip away was great, and I have so much to say so I might have to break it down into a few different blog entries, but we'll see! I guess I'll start with Thursday? I think that's where I left off....

Thursday night started off nicely with a scolding by Franciso, my favourite person ever, becuase I was going out for dinner after staying in from school earlier that day. It was difficult trying to explain to him to it's possible for people to have a stomach ache then feel okay 18 hours later. He was mad that I was going out to eat dinner. I tried to explain to him that either I was going out to eat dinner, or that I was staying in and eating dinner so it wouldn't matter, but he wouldn't have any of it. So I just smiled and nodded and pretended that I didn't understand him until he gave me my credit card and passport. He was holding onto it for safe keeping, but I needed it back for my trip. Anyway, it was Sarah and Imogen's last night, and also it was going to be the last night out with Ben and Joe as well, so obviously I was going to go out. I spent enough nights in earlier in my trip. We went out for dinner at Cha-Cha-Cha!, and it was very delicious. Then we headed down to CoCos and had a few drinks before calling it a night around 10:30/11:00ish. It was a really good time, laughing and taking lots of pictures with everyone. It was sad to say goodbye because I felt like I had just got to know everyone and now they are leaving! But everyone was impressed that I ordered alcoholic drinks for the first time in 4 weeks. I don't think they believed me when I said that I actually had drank before. They apparently don't know that I grew up around YaYa meetings every Saturday and learned how to make a Ceaser before I knew how to walk.

School on Friday was pretty slack. The kids had exams so we ended up playing poker and colouring pictures. Well, the boys played poker and I coloured. Then we took some group pictures of all of the kids we teach with, as it was Ben and Joe's last day teaching. The kids are super cute, and I'll post the pictures when I get home. They love digital cameras, and love taking the photos, looking at them, and posing. So it was a pretty easy going morning. Then we headed back to Cahuita, and I went out for lunch with Ben and Alex. Afterwards, I was suppose to go to the Sloth farm with Holly and Ben. The sloth farm is a place where they save baby sloths who have no parents, raise them, then set them free in their facilities. The tour includes holding and feeding baby sloths, then a 30 minute canoe ride through a river covered in lilly pads and surrounded by trees full of sloths!! Needless to say, I was super excited driving over there, but thoroughly dissapointed to find out that they were closed! It was a big bummer, but I'm determined to see these damn sloths before I head home if it's the last thing I do! On our way back to Cahuita, some guy had fallen asleep at the wheel and driven into the ditch. We drove by slowly and Eloisa exclaimed "Hey, dat's my cousin!" I think everyone here is everyone's cousin. Cahuita doesn't get too much excitement, so within 30 mintues we had the entire town driven out to the country to help this guy get his car out of the ditch. It was pretty entertaining.

For the rest of the day/night I packed and got ready for the trip. It was quite a few people's last night, but everyone was exhausted so we ended up just hanging out at Jose's and watching movies, playing poker, etc. I called it a night around 9:30. Surprised?

Saturday: The trip begins! I woke up very excited for our little adventure, and met Holly at the bus stop at 6:45. The terminal wasn't open, due to Tico Time, and I was a little stressed becuase our tickets weren't purchased yet for San Jose. A nice shirtless old Rasta man with a half-full bottle of vodka helpfully yelled some profanties at the door. I eventually got someone's attention and our tickets were purchased. The bus wasn't very crowded, and we each got two seats to ourselves, with was nice. The trip was actually shorter than expected- only 3 1/2 hours, and it was scenic and very nice. We were dropped off at the Caribe Terminal in San Jose, and had to catch a taxi to the Coca-Cola terminal. We managed to get seats on the direct bus, which was really nice. So 12:15 we left San Jose and headed for Manuel Antonio. The drive was gorgeous, with beautiful country-side, and I got very excited as soon as we saw the Pacific Ocean! However, we had to cross some seriously questionable bridges, and when you looked out the window on either side of the bus you saw directly down to the water underneath. You could literally hear what sounded like bits of wood and metal falling away underneath the bus. It was a little un-settling to say the least. When we finally arrived in Manuel Antonio about 6 hours later I was so happy to be there. It was a gorgeous long white beach, filled with people and shopping! We got dropped off downtown, and started walking uphill towards our hotel. We stopped off at Casa Linda, where Imogen, Sarah, Lise, Jess and two other girls were staying. It happened to be right next to our hotel. They were sitting outside feeding baby monkeys bananas. It was really cute. Then we walked over to Vera Bar hotel and were absolutely floored. We had our own little apartment villa, with a large bed, private washroom, seating area, our own patio..we were very excited! We threw our stuff down and then walked down to the beach. It was Happy Hour, so I bought a daquiri (or two...) and Holly bought a beer and we went to watch the sunset. We bargained with a guy to let us use a few chairs just to watch the sunset. It was absolutely gorgeous. We took quite a few photos in front of it, feet in the sand, water crashing up against our legs... I was absolutely in paradise.

After the sun set we went back up to our hotel. We met the girls at their hostel and had dinner there. I had a good chance to talk with the other Canadian girls, who just finished their teacher's college down here. Afterwards a few of them were going out, but Holly and I were pretty exhausted from the long trip. So we walked back down to the beach and checked out some of the stores. I managed to find a Cosmo magazine, however it was in Spanish, but I bought it anyways. Then we just went back up to our Villa and hung out before crashing pretty early. It was so nice to sleep in a big large bed, with fluffly pillows, a ceiling fan, and real sheets....ahhhh! Paradise!

So that was the first day of the trip/adventure (the adventure part starts later!) My internet time is running out here, so I'll come back as soon as I can to finish updating about the rest of my week! I can't believe that I'm heading home in only 9 days..this whole experience has gone by so quickly. I'm thrilled that I've healthy for the last week or so, and am hoping to continue to stay that way for the rest of my trip. Tonight looks like it's just going to be dinner with my host family and then hanging out watchin TV...since it's Easter everything is closed down for the rest of the week and weekend. Crazy! Anyway, talk to you all soon!!

Con muchisimo amor,

Natalie xoxoxo