This weekend four of the other girls and myself went to Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean Coast of Costa Rica for a weekend at the beach. We had to leave San Ramon at 4.30 a.m. for a 1 1/2 hour bus ride to San Jose and then a 4 1/2 hour bus ride to Puerto Viejo. When we left San Ramon is was pretty chilly being 4.30 in the morning, after 6 hours travelling we finally arrived in Puerto Viejo where it was absolutely boiling. I've never felt heat quite like this, it wasn't horribly humid like summer in NZ can be, but it was much hotter than I'm used to!

The good thing about leaving San Ramon so early was that by the time we arrived in Puerto Viejo we still had most of the day to spend at the beach. After we checked into our hostel, which was the coolest hostel I've ever seen, we went to catch the bus to Punta Uva, which we were told was the best beach for five girls who wanted to drink cocktails on the beach all afternoon! We were told that the bus was to arrive at 11.45, after waiting in unbearable heat for 30 minutes the bus finally showed up. We spent the afternoon relaxing on the beach and having a fabulous lunch and cocktails, the ocean was the warmer than anywhere I have ever experienced as well, almost a little too warm after the excessive heat of the day!

Friday night we went into town in Puerto Viejo for dinner for Michelle, the Australian girls birthday. I had an amazing dinner of chicken quesadillas, better than anything I've ever had at Mexicali! After dinner we went for a walk to the beach and gave Michelle a birthday cake two of the girls had baked and bought all the way from San Ramon, unfortunately the cake ended up in the sand but it was still edible!

Saturday morning we rented bikes and went for a ride into town where we did a bit of shopping and then returned to the hostel and spent the afternoon relaxing and reading. We went to town again on Saturday night and had some pretty delicious Italian food before we went home and crashed, all that heat is seriously exhausting! When we got up on Sunday we decided we would spend our last day at the beach so after breakfast at an amazing French bakery we walked to a nearby beach called Cocles and spent the morning there swimming and sunbathing. We headed back to San Ramon at 4.00 p.m. and finally arrived home at 10.30 completely exhausted! Puerto Viejo was absolutely beautiful, I can't wait to go back with Chris in August!!