Puerto Viejo...

So this might be a pretty long blog, so get ready! Many of you on Facebook have already seen most of the pictures on here, but there are a few new ones! We went to Puerto Viejo this last weekend for 3 days. It is a town on the south west side of Costa Rica, just north of Panama on the Caribbean. The group included me, Linsey, Sarah, Meghan, Kelly, Kelly´s host mom Flor (who is one of the most fun-loving people I have ever met), Flor´s niece Cati, Kati`s friend Marci, and Flor´s son, Gustavo, who was also our driver in a little minibus that seats nine people. Fun crowd and it was great to be able to hang out with some native Costa Rican`s!

We left super early on Saturday morning, and it was an incredibly scenic drive through the mountains and a bumpy one along the coast before arriving at our first night's accommodations. Rancho Tranquilo was a beautiful little resort with a nice pool, a jacuzzi, and a kitchen where we were able to cook a fantastic dinner and breakfast. After we arrived at Racho, we dropped off our stuff, changed, and headed to the beach!  It was quite literally an entire day of relaxation. We ate lunch on the beach and hung out until  the sun started going down. It was wonderful to be able to just read my book, sit in the sun, and listen to the waves. Sarah, Meghan, and I also wandered down the main street to do some shopping and came across a man selling snow cones. He shaved the ice for it right there off an ice block, and added not only the flavoring, but caramel and some sort of condensed vanilla flavored milk. I don´t even really know exactly what all when into it, but it was by far the best snow cone I have ever had. When it started getting dark, we left to go back to the resort for dinner and get ready for the night!

Dinner consisted of an of grilled corn on the cob, chicken, steak, vegetables, and tortillas prepared by Gustavo. It was all so good! We hung out for awhile and had some drinks after dinner before heading into town. Puerto Viejo is what you would call a hippy, Bob Marley type town. Every which way you look, there are dreads, reggae music, and just an overall laid back and chill atmosphere. We went out on Saturday night and started at a bar with a live reggae band. A lot of fun listening to music, dancing, and people watching. After leaving there, we wandered down to a place with more of a "dance club" atmosphere. The dance floor/bar was open to the beach, and there were tables with candles and a bonfire on the sand for people to take a break from dancing and hang out. It was a really fun night, but wasn´t a super late one since we had all been up since 4:00 that morning.

Casa Cati at Rancho Tranquilo

Breakfast at Rancho

The girls at Puerto Viejo beach

Chillin'

Snow cone cart

Reading

More reading (so nice to be able to read non-school books for once!)

This caterpillar was the size of my finger with an inch long spike thing on its back...I was designated to remove it from the premises

Such unique flowers

The next morning, I was up earlier than everyone else, so I went out to a hammock and dozed/read for an hour and a half. It was so quiet, I could hear coconuts dropping from the trees around the resort. Very peaceful. I have never spent as much time in hammocks as I did this weekend, and came to the conclusion that they are simply wonderful. After breakfast, we went to the pool, and later that afternoon, we headed to the place we were going to be staying that night. It was a cabin of rooms directly on Punta Uva beach. It was quite amazing to be able to walk two seconds out to a huge stretch of white sands and clear blue water. And, of course, there were hammocks :) We played in the ocean, went for walks, and took naps. When it got dark, we got ready and headed to the market to get food and drink for our beach bonfire.

I have only had a bonfire on the beach one other time in Tasmania. This one was just as fun and beautiful, but much warmer than it had been that night in Tazzie. I drank wine and ate snacks that included s´mores and hot dogs--very American style bonfire. The Costa Ricans with us had never had a s`more before, so they were pretty excited about them! It was Meghan`s idea to get the hot dogs, and she even made her own roasting stick (can´t remember the word for those right now) out of a palm tree leaf! However, of the eight hot dogs, only four of them survived to be eaten. The other half were lost to the fire or the sand. She felt defeated by those hot dogs, but the one´s that made it through were delicious!

I fell asleep listening to the waves in a hammock that night. It was fabulous. I was going to maybe just sleep out there, but decided that wouldn't be the safest thing in the world. We were up at 4:45 the next morning to catch the sunrise. It was cloudy though, so we didn't get to see the brilliant reds, pinks, oranges, and yellows. However, there was a blue light that seemed to be all around me us as we waited for a possible break in the clouds. It was like nothing I have ever seen before. There was a man fly fishing along the shore, and although I didn't get to see him actually catch anything, it was a very tranquil and calming thing to watch. After everyone else gave up and went inside to go back to bed, I stayed for a little while longer. I sat there and did a lot of thinking about a lot of things. Quite the powerful backdrop to think about life's mysteries and just be.  

Our cabin on the beach

Another super cool flower--this one was my favorite

Wandering on the shore...and apparently looking at something very intently

In Hawaii, single ladies put flowers in their hair...Meghan and I decided to bring that tradition to Costa Rica

Warming my feet by the fire

Amazingly blue sunrise and the fly fisherman

I thought I saw something cool out in the water...it was just waves :(

Sarah and I relaxing by the bonfire

I know, last flower picture, I promise! For this trip anyways.

I spent Monday morning on the beach after having a plate of native, fresh fruit for breakfast--so super yummy.  Then Linsey and I headed of to the Jaguar Rescue Center. It was a place I found on the internet that takes in and rehabilitates wildlife of all kinds. A few of the animals will live their lives at the center, but the goal is to release them back into the wild. They give tours and their sole source of financial income is from visitors and donations. There are many pictures below from our time there. I will just title them accordingly. The monkey pictures are in the sequence of my "attack". It was by no means vicious, but there were two baby Howler monkeys that were just absolutely loving my hair and the smell of my lotion. I couldn't get the one off until I literally pulled it by its tail off my shoulders. In all the mayhem, I managed to get peed on as well. Then there's a guy next to me that has a monkey just laying peacefully in his arms! I had the two crazy little monkeys after me, but I loved every minute of it and would do it again in a heartbeat, monkey pee and all.

The start of my time in the cage....peaceful and cute, right?

The other monkey climbs on my back

There goes my hair

I think around this time is when the pee occurred, but I can't be sure

I finally got the last one off! And right when she was starting to cuddle up in my arms and relax, one of the workers came to get all of them for "jungle time" to play out in the forests. My time in the monkey cage was amazingly fabulous, but brief and chaotic to say the least.

2 week old baby sloth

Oncilla--wild cat of Costa Rica. This guy was two years old and would be staying at the center indefinitely. They tried to release him 3 or 4 times and he kept on coming back...easier lifestyle I suppose!

Can't remember the name of this tree, but it was gigantic, and covered in these thorns

Spectacled Owls native to Costa Rica. They are very cute and comical looking..check out those eyes!

Me with India the sloth...she fell asleep in my arms

So there you go! The wildlife center was amazing, and a perfect end to the trip. As Brianna said, I was in "Rambo heaven" :) . After we got back to the cabin, I immediately got into my swimsuit and ran into the ocean to rinse off after the monkey incident. I then swam/walked a mile or so down the beach and back before packing up and jumping into the van to go home!

Props to those of you who made it through all of this. I apologize for the length, but there was just so much to show and tell with pictures!

XOXO

Rollercoaster of a week...

First of all, let me say that I need to toughen up when it comes to the homeless animals here. The homeless dogs are one thing, most of them actually seem to be pretty content with their free lives roaming the streets. However, the things I saw last week were incredibely hard for me to take. Many of you will read this and think that I am crazy, and yet others (you know who you are) have just as big of a heart for helpless creatures.

My morning walk to the bus last Tuesday started with seeing a woman stop in her car on the side of the road and dump something (I was too far away at the time to see) out of a plastic bag into the grass, get in her car and drive away. When I got closer, I discovered that it was, in fact, a 4-5 week old little black and white kitten meowing and shaking in the grass. As I stood there trying to figure out what I could possibly do to help this poor creature, it saw me and proceeded to follow and meow at me half way to my bus stop. There were many reasons why I wasn't able to do something to help it, but to make a long story short, there was nothing I could do for the little guy. I was helpless, incredibely frustrated, and heartbroken. After school, he was gone and I haven't seen him around since, so I can only hope something good happened.

As I waited for my bus last Wednesday morning, there was a dog that came running down the road with a chain still attached to his collar. He was wide-eyed and shaking and clearly had no idea how to deal with staying out of the way of cars. He disappeared down the road and I thought I had seen the last of him. Two days later, chain still attached, I see him still wandering and looking terrified. But this time he was in a physical state like nothing I have ever seen before. I refuse to put the image of what I saw into your heads, so I will not go into detail, but that picture will be with me for a very long time. And, as with the kitten, I was helpless and unable to do anything. Both of these occurences involved a lot of tears. I'm not sure why someone with such a bleeding heart for animals is the one who has to see these things, but I am wary now when I am out walking of what I am going to see next.

As for school, things are good, but not great. My teacher is very nice as I have said before, but she is struggling with giving up responsibility of her classroom. Therefore, I have done a lot of observing, some helping the students in class during various bookwork activities, and taught a few lessons. I would like to have it be the other way around: a lot of teaching lessons and less observation. It has been a difficult getting to know the students due to this, and I am still working on learning names, which seems like a never-ending and daunting process,  but I am determined to know each of their names before I leave! As for the classroom experiences, I am taking it a day at a time and hope to be teaching at least 3 or 4 lessons a day soon and taking over more responsibilities.

I taught a few lessons to my eighth graders last week which overall went smoothly. It was actually pretty great to be able to take over the class, if only for a few hours! We did a genetics activity about dominant and recessive alleles based on various physical traits, such as curly hair and dimples. The students had fun and they were excited to have me up there teaching.

Today is Dia de la Independenica for Costa Rica. Meghan and I went to our school last night so she could watch her little kids sing songs and do a torch light parade. Today, we went into San Pedro so I could see my older kids do their thing in the parade. There were colorful dances, drum lines and xylophones, flag processions, and ton of adorable little CR children in traditional clothing watching on the side of the street. The junior high/high schoolers have been practicing their dances and music all around campus since I got here in August, so it was awesome to be able to see the final show! My camera died almost right when we got there, but Meghan got some good pictures, so I will post them here when I get them! Here they are...I tried to upload of video of them dancing, but our internet is just too slow.

In our red white and blue for Tuesday night's festivities!

Colorful and fun dances

Awesome drumline

So darn cute!

More fun dancing

Pretty skirts

It was freakin' hot out there

Here comes my students...yay St. Clare!

So aside from my weekend in Puerto Viejo (which I will write about and put up pictures soon), that has been my week! It was nice to not have school today and be able to enjoy the sunny weather before it started to rain! I'm off to take a nap--there truly is nothing better than taking a nap when it's raining out--and then off to spin.

Love and hugs to you all!

Some quotes...

I found these somewhere under the title "10 Rules of Being Human". Enjoy...

**You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called "life".

**There are no mistakes. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation.

**Learning does not end. There's no part of life that doesn't contain its difficulties.

**"There" is no better a place than "here". When your "there" has become "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here".

**Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.

**What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. The choice is yours.

** The answers to life's questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

**Keep looking ahead. There are still so many good books to read, things to learn, beautiful places to visit, people to meet, and new opportunities for growth and discovery.

(I am working on my blog for last week's and weekend's events. Should be up soon!)

Things I have learned so far....

1.) Make damn sure there are no cars coming from any direction when you step out into the street. Ped´s DO NOT have the right away and will be promptly run-down if they take a chance that a car will stop for them.

2.) I need warmer clothes! It gets a little chilly here in the Central Valley when the sun goes away. (Mom while helping me pack: "Amber, you will only need one pair of jeans and one zip up sweatshirt--no more than that. You will be in Costa Rica!") :) J/K Mom...if you hadn´t helped me pack, I would have my entire closet and dresser here with me right now! And seriously too, I might need you to send me some clothes. I am too tall to shop for pants here.

3.) I most certainly CAN live without diet coke! They have it here, of course, but I´ve only had three in two weeks, and they just don´t taste the same.

4.) One must pick and choose their battles with the spiders and various moth-like creatures that find their way into your room. The windows are always open here. The spiders at least help with the issue. So as long as they are small and remain up in their respective corners, they may live. The most recent addition is a beetle looking thing that curls up into a tight little ball and rolls away when you touch it--not even remotely kidding.

5.) It's sad that a few previous American tourists have, in a lot of different ways, tarnished the Costa Rican outlook on the rest of us in general. It is very unfortunate, and frustrating for that matter, but I am trying to keep my head up and a smile on my face.

6.) NEVER leave the house without an umbrella.

7.) Capuchin monkeys like to steal things--wallets, keys, jewelry...anything shiny and fun-looking apparently. I haven't yet encountered the Capuchins, and probably won't until we venture out for our weekend excursions. However, I have been warned about their pick-pocketing stealth.

8.) It feels like my Spanish is getting worse, not better. Hoping that will change!

9.) There is a reason food, such as various snacks, is all prepackaged into smaller portions. The mini-ants are crazy and can smell out and swarm available food in a matter of an hour. I lost my Ritz crackers to these little guys.

10.) I am, overall, very happy here, and am taking in everything that I can before it's November and I am on a plane home!

I hope everyone has/is having/had a fabulous and relaxing holiday weekend! We are going for a 5 hour hike tomorrow morning/afternoon in the mountains surrounding Tres Rios. Should be beautiful and I will take pictures! Take care all.