Puerto Viejo

     I am possibly a little crazy writing two blogs in one day, but I figured that since I was already working on one, I might as well just work on another one about what I just did this weekend as well. This weekend, we went to Puerto Viejo, which is a small town near the beach on the Caribbean side, and although I did not do much there, it was nice to just relax.

     We left to go to Puerto Viejo on Thursday after classes because we had heard it could take an extra two hours if we left on Friday morning because of road work. But even then, we did not get there until around 9. So we checked into the hotel and just called it a night.

     On Friday, we were all up fairly early, which I suppose you can blame having to wake up by 6:30 every morning for school for changing our sleep schedules, and the fact that it is light outside by 6 in the morning any way. Some people went to breakfast, but we had bought some food for breakfast, so we made it to the beach by 8. We walked around until we found a spot we liked, and then we just swam and laid out on the beach for a few hours. It was crazy how much hotter it was in Puerto Viejo than it has been in San José, and I think all I did this weekend was sweat. We went back to the hotel to change and eat some lunch, and then we went out to look around town and do some souvenir shopping. I can't say any of us really bought anything, but it is still fun to look. Everyone in our room took naps after shopping that until about 5, and then we got ready and went to supper at a place called Hot Rocks. The food was pretty good, and they had karaoke after 8. I have always wanted to try karaoke but have never had the chance to really try it, so I went up with another girl in our group and we sang Don't Stop Believing. It was fun, and I will definitely have to go karaoke again. There were 13 of us from San José that went to Puerto Viejo and we were all girls. So when we heard that a bar in town was having a girl's night, we figured we would go check it out. But we ended up being the only ones there, so we did not stay very long. A few people headed back to Hot Rocks, but I went back with a few others to the hotel to go to bed.

Singing karaoke with Delaney

     We were not as motivated on Saturday to wake up, but we eventually woke up and went to a cafe called Bread and Chocolate that was recommended to us by a few people. I had waffles and an iced mocha, and it was delicious. After that, we all kind of split up to do our own thing. A few people went surfing, a few people went to the beach, and a few of us went shopping again. The town was not very big, but most of what the town was comprised of was shopping and restaurants, so we kept busy for about an hour or more just walking around to see other shops we had missed. We went back to the hotel for lunch and to rest a little bit, but we left and went to the beach at around 2 because we wanted to try going in the afternoon versus the morning to see how it was different. Although there were more people on the beach, it seemed better outside in the afternoon than it did in the morning, and I swam/sat in the water for quite a while, and then I just laid out on the beach and took a little nap, which was greatly appreciated. We went back to the hotel to get ready for supper, and then we ate at a restaurant called Lidia's Place. After dinner, we all went back to Hot Rocks for a little while, but I think the sun had gotten to everyone over the past two days, and we were all back in the hotel by 10:30. We had been really lucky that weekend because it had been sunny and not rainy during the day, but it down poured hard that night after we got back, so it was probably for the best that we headed back when we did.

     It was a super fun and relaxing weekend, and I enjoyed just doing nothing on the beach. We had considered going snorkeling or going to another beach that was a little ways away that we had heard was even prettier, but just laying on the beach was all we really wanted to do in the heat, and I am happy with our decision. We had heard before going that Puerto Viejo can be a bit of a party town, so we were a little nervous to go. We always traveled in large groups at night, and we did not wander too far away from what we knew. But overall, I did not ever feel scared to be anywhere in the town, so maybe we just avoided the bad parts of town. I think we might have just been lucky with where we stayed also because the hotel was supposed to be in a safer part of town. Even though we had heard those stories of the town being a little dangerous, I still really wanted to go because we had not been to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica yet and we had heard that it was beautiful, and trust me, it was. It is starting to be a little bitter sweet thinking about that by this time next week I will be back in Kearney. But even though I will be sad to go, I am ready to escape the rain and humidity here and get back to life in Nebraska.

Virgen de los Ángeles, Arenal, y Monteverde

     I know I am a little bit late with trying to write about what we did last weekend, but better late than never! Not only did we go to see the Arenal Volcano and visit Monte Verde, but before the weekend actually started, a few other girls and I went to Cartago on Thursday after class, which is a city about 40 minutes away by train from San José, to see a basilica.

     La Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles, Our Lady of the Angels Basilica, was built in dedication to a statue that represents Mary holding the baby Jesus, Virgen de los Ángeles. The story goes that in 1635, a young indigenous girl was collecting wood in the forest and she found a small statue that looked like a doll on top of a stone. She took the doll home and placed it in a box she had. The next day, she went back out to the forest and found another doll on the same stone. When she took that doll home, she realized the first one she had found was gone. So this time, she locked the doll in a box. Again the following day, she went back out to the forest and found the same doll on the same stone in the same location. When she realized that the doll she had found the day before had disappeared from the locked box, she ran and gave the doll to a local priest who also put it in a box. The next day when the priest went to examine the statue further, he discovered it had disappeared. So he went into the forest to where the girl had originally found the statue and it was there again. He took it back with him and this time put it inside the tabernacle. But once again, the statue was gone by the next day. So the priest invited other priests to the forest that day because they realized that something supernatural was occurring and that the statue wanted to remain in that location in the forest. Many churches were built near that location, but they were often destroyed by earthquakes and other natural disasters. But the basilica that is there today was built in the early 1900's. It was a beautiful church to go visit, and the legend behind the church was very fascinating as well. Because this statue appeared in Cartago, the Holy Virgin is the patroness of Costa Rica. Every year, many Costa Ricans make a 22 km pilgrimage to the Basilica in order to visit the rock where the statue was found and then they will wash themselves and drink the water that comes from the rock. There are other similar stories in many Latin American countries, and one that many people may of heard of is Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Our Lady of Guadalupe, from Mexico.

The statue on the rock.

A closeup of the statue.

     On Friday, we all met at the bus station at 6 in the morning to catch our bus to La Fortuna. La Fortuna is a town about 4 hours away by car from San José and it is very close to the Arenal Volcano. It took us quite a while to get there by bus, and once we got there we checked into our hostel and found lunch. For some reason, it was very clear out that day, and because of that, we could see the volcano very nicely. So instead of going to the Baldi Hot Springs like we had planned, we instead went on a hike through the forest to see some animals and find spectacular views of the volcano. We were able to see quite a few animals and plants, and we even got to swim in a waterfall! After that, we did go to an area with some thermal waters, but it was pretty dark at that point so I do not have any pictures. It was not as relaxing as it would have been going to the hot springs all day, but it was a day of adventures and we probably got more out of the day than we would have otherwise.

     On Saturday morning, we were picked up from our hostel in a van and we went to the lake that is outside of La Fortuna. The volcano had been dormant for many years, but back in 1968, it erupted. Three towns were buried and about 87 people died. And after that, a couple small towns in the area were relocated, and then the old towns were flooded to increase the size of the lake that was already there. The volcano has been dormant again since 2010. We went by boat across the lake, and the view of the volcano was absolutely amazing. When we got to the other side of the lake, we took another bus to our next hostel in Monteverde. There are quite a few nature reserves in the area, and there is forest all around the town, so it is a very popular tourist destination. After we ate lunch, we went to the hanging bridges in the Selvatura Adventure Park. It sprinkled on us a little bit, but the views were wonderful in the forest, and we even saw a howler monkey up close. That evening, a few of us went on a night tour of a different part of the forest. It had been down-pouring rain for most of the day, so I think that is why we did not see very many animals, but the ones we did see were pretty cool. After that, we went to a restaurant called the Tree House Restaurant and Café. It was definitely a tourist place, but the food was really good. And then a couple of girls from our group had had amazing milkshakes at another restaurant, so another girl and I went there after dinner so we could try the milkshakes, and let me tell you, they did not disappoint.

The inside of the Tree House Restaurant and Cafe

The best milkshakes ever. I got a mango one and Allison got a blackberry one. Then the guy gave us a small glass of the other person's milkshake.

A panoramic of the view from our hostel

     Overall, it was a fun weekend filled with a lot of adventure and I had a pretty great time seeing different things in nature that I do not normally get to see. I was kind of annoyed that it rained the whole day in Monteverde, but it is just that season here in Costa Rica, so we just have to enjoy the not rainy days even more.

¡Carros y Autobuses y Trenes, el Transporte!

     Hola once again! I thought I would switch up what I have been doing for my blogs and instead of writing about what I have been doing I would write about some of the things I have experienced. As of right now, I have basically taken every form of transportation I possibly can. From taxis to Uber to public and private buses, I think I have tried it all, and it has definitely been an experience unlike any other...

     The first mode of transportation I took here, besides flying, was the bus in San José. In Costa Rica, the buses are technically not owned by the state and are instead owned by private companies. This makes it a little difficult to use this form of transportation because most of the buses cost different amounts, and there are some areas of the city that have more buses than others. For example, after the fútbol game that we went to last week, we were waiting at the bus stop for our buses to come so we could go home. A bus that a couple of the girls could take showed up basically right away, and for the next 25 minutes that the rest of us waited for one of our buses to show up, probably 15 of the same type of bus showed up at the stop. I do not know if this has anything to do with the buses being owned by private companies or not, but there is also not an exact schedule for the buses, so when you get to a stop, you have no idea how long it will be before another bus will come. There is also not a map for knowing where the buses will go, so we just had to learn from our families which bus we could take and where it would go. The other strange thing about the buses is that although they do have certain stops they can make, they do not make them every time. The buses will only stop if you flag them down because you want to get on them or if you tell them to stop so you can get off. This can be nice if you are in a hurry to get somewhere and your bus does not stop at every stop, but it can also be annoying because if it is dark and difficult to see where you are, it can be hard to know when to signal the bus driver to stop the bus, at least if you are still new to the system.

     Another form of transportation that I have taken is a private bus to various locations. For our first weekend trip to Jacó, we took a bus just for our group from our school to Jacó and then took the bus back from Jacó to our school at the end of the weekend. This is probably one of my favorite forms of transportation because we get the whole bus to ourselves and we do not make stops every 20 minutes (Refer to the third paragraph for more information). We also can ask to stop for bathroom breaks and this is a lot faster than taking a public bus to wherever we need to go. We can also schedule this bus for when we want to leave so we can leave at a time that is convenient for us. This can be a bit pricier, but for the comfort it provides, it is almost always worth it.

     The type of transportation that we took to La Fortuna this past weekend was a public bus. Besides having buses that can take you places in the city, there are also buses that can take you to other towns. Apparently there are some public buses that are direct buses, but there are also buses that are not. The direct buses will take you directly where you need to go without making stops to pick up others on the way. But the bus we took this past weekend was not one of those. Instead, we made multiple stops in just about every town we drove through to pick up other people and drop off people in other stops. I have taken buses to other cities before, but I have never experienced anything quite like this before. The weirdest thing about the whole experience was that the bus did not just fill up the seats, but also had tickets that people could buy to stand on the bus to their destination. I fell asleep very briefly on the bus, and when I woke up, I was super confused to see people standing in the aisles. We were going to take this type of bus back to San José on Sunday, but there were no tickets left when we went to buy them, but if we wanted we probably could have bought standing tickets. However, that would have meant standing on a bus for around 5 or 6 hours, and none of us wanted to do that, so we took a private bus instead. I cannot say I would ever recommend a public bus unless you are on a direct one because that was the longest 5 or 6 hours of my life and I never wanted to do that again.

     Besides buses, I have also taken both Uber and taxis to get around the city. I personally prefer Uber because you know ahead of time how much you will be paying to get somewhere, and taxis frequently do not take the most direct route so they can charge you more. But yesterday when I went to the mall with my roommate, we could not get wifi so we had to take a taxi home instead. It was probably only about 2 dollars more than a taxi, but it was still more than we wanted to pay. Uber is also a bit safer than taking a taxi because you know who your driver will be and the company takes the safety of the passengers pretty seriously. The best thing about taking either of these is that they are a lot faster than taking a bus.

     The last form of transportation that I have taken here is the train. Last week, a few of us went to Cartago, a city about 40 minutes away by train, to visit a basilica. We were able to buy a train ticket for about a dollar for a one-way trip, and although it was not the most comfortable train I have ever been on, I prefer it to a bus. We made about 6 stops before getting to Cartago, but it was still way faster than a bus would have been because the train did not have to stop for traffic. The train also runs on a schedule and sticks to it pretty well, which I appreciated greatly.

     Besides just the forms of transportation that I have taken, I have also witnessed how traffic works here, and let me just say, it terrifies me a little bit. Obviously, I am used to Kearney traffic that is not really that bad and normally people do not drive that crazy, and I do not have enough experience in big cities to really have an opinion about them. Here though, it just amazes both how good the drivers seem to be, but also how many risks I feel like they take. For example, if a bus or car is stopped in the road, drivers will just go around them most of the time, even if that means driving on the opposite side of the street, even if that street is a main street with actual traffic. And do not get me started on the motorcycles. Although it is illegal, most of the motorcycles will just weave in and out of traffic all of the time. I have heard there are a lot of accidents involving motorcycles every year here, but I cannot believe there are not more with how they drive. We do not have a lot of places where traffic merges in Kearney, but there are a lot of places here where that happens. I always just cringe watching our bus merging with the other traffic at various places because the bus driver just decides he is going to merge and he does it. The trains also run through town, so we occasionally have to cross tracks. But so far, I have not seen gates that prevent people from crossing the tracks when a train is coming. All you hear is the train loudly blowing its whistle, and you had better not be on the tracks when it comes. Probably the most important thing I have noticed here is that the bus waits for no one. Sometime cars will stop and let people cross the street if you are not at a crosswalk. But I can almost guarantee you that a bus will not stop, so you better not cross in front of them.

     We took a boat to get from La Fortuna to Monte Verde this past weekend, but that is not a common form of transportation by any means, so there is not really much to talk about with that. Although I have enjoyed Costa Rica, I cannot wait to get back to "small city" traffic and not having to deal with some of the traffic things I have dealt with here. I think I could have appreciated the transportation here better, but I was spoiled in Europe with their public transportation, so I had high expectations coming here. Overall, it has gotten me where I need to go, which is all you can really ask for, but I seriously wish it had a little bit more structure to it. But I only have two more weeks here, so I will keep enjoying everything else while I still can.

Jacó, Tirolesa, y Fútbol

     ¡Pura Vida! This past weekend, we went to Jacó for two and a half days and then we went zip-lining on the San Luis Canopy Tour on Sunday. We left for Jacó on Thursday after classes. We were supposed to leave by 3, but our bus did not show up until 4. So by the time we got there, it was already dark since it is winter here and gets dark by 6 or 6:30 or so. Thankfully though, we could still eat supper when we got there. We stayed at Best Western and it was an all-inclusive resort which means all of the food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner was included. After dinner that night, a few of us tried going to the beach, but all we could see were terrifying waves and the mountains on either side of us. We hung out at the bar at the hotel for a while because they have a discoteca, a dance party, every night but there were not very many people there and no one was actually dancing so we left.

Our group in front of the school before leaving

The buffet at our hotel.

     The next day, we ate breakfast fairly early and then some people went surfing and the rest of us went to the beach. We were not supposed to swim near our hotel because the currents are very strong there, so we mostly just laid out and talked. At about noon, we ate lunch and it also started raining about that time. We eventually went into town at around 3:30 to walk around and check out the shops. There was one shop that was owned by someone from Germany who was married to one of the surf instructors that part of our group had met that morning. She designs her own swimsuits and everything in her store was made in Costa Rica, so it was super interesting to look around there. There was a surfing competition that some people went to that afternoon even though it was still raining, but the rest of us walked around town more and then returned to the hotel. Allison and I walked around the beach a little bit before it got dark, but then it was time for supper. After supper, a bunch of us took naps and then met at the discoteca at 9ish to do some dancing. Most of the music they played we did not know, but a few people tried to salsa and they did play the Cupid Shuffle, the Cha Cha Slide, and a few other American songs that we all knew. We went to bed by around midnight so we could get up a do a few things our last day.

A park in Jacó

A beautiful sunset on the beach

     On Saturday, we got up early again and ate breakfast and then Allison and I went exploring again on the beach. We were looking for seashells and we had not seen the whole beach near our hotel yet. So we walked for a while in one direction, and then we went back the direction we had going the other day. In that direction, there was water that separated the two sides of the beach, and we had been too scared to cross it the other day. But we saw our friends on the other side and they said it was only about knee-deep. However, when we went to cross it, it was about to our mid-thigh. We explored that side of the beach for a while, and then we had to cross again to go back to the hotel. At this point though, the water had risen again, and it was up to our hips. But we made it across and just had to change clothes when we got back to our room because there was no way our clothes would dry in time to go home. We left Jacó at around 1:30 and by the time we got back to San José, most people just went home and ate dinner and went to bed.

The "river" we had to cross to get to the other side of the beach

Can you spot the crab?

Allison and I at the beach

     On Sunday, we had to meet at the school by 7 AM to go on our zip-lining tour. It took about 1 and a half hours to get there, and when we were getting close, it was so foggy I was scared for us to be driving. But overall it was a very nice day and it did not rain so that was good. We did 12 zip-lines and a giant swing called a Tarzan Swing. It was a lot of fun, and the guides were constantly making jokes about how it was their first time being a guide. We ate lunch there also, and then we made it back to San José by 2:30ish. A few of us went to a souvenir market and bought soccer jerseys for Costa Rica because we went to a soccer game tonight. And then we just went home and hung out for the rest of the night. It was a super fun weekend and I cannot wait to go on other weekend trips.

This zip-line was the last one and it was called the Superman

     Since I just got back from the soccer game, I figured I could write about that also. We took a bus from our school, CRLA, to near the stadium at around 5:30, and even though the game did not start until 8, the traffic was still pretty bad. We wandered around for a while and then just stood outside a bar called Goool!, We did not leave to go inside the game until 7:40, and it only took 5 minutes to walk to the stadium, but it took about 15 minutes to get inside, and Costa Rica scored right away and so we missed the first point. But they scored again at the end of the first half, so we at least got to see that goal. I did not really know exactly what was happening during the game, but it was still really fun to watch. I am also not a fan of large crowds of people, but it was not that bad inside the stadium. The stadium was full, but it did not seem nearly as crowded inside as it was on the streets. We left the game about five minutes early to beat traffic, and then we barely made it in time to catch a bus home instead of taking an Uber or a taxi. But the most exciting part about the game was that Costa Rica beat Trinidad 2 to 1!! We got to hear quite a few cheers and just being able to experience something like that was amazing. I cannot say I will ever go to another soccer game, so I am glad I was able to try it once. And that is the end of my adventures over these past few days, but do not worry, I know I will be going on many more.

This was right after Costa Rica scored their second goal