Oof I'm very late to write. But, in all fairness, there's been a lot going on and I didn't want to miss anything. Last week's classes were uninspiring. As in, I don't remember what happened haha. More environmental stuff of course, but otherwise, nothing much.
Wednesday afternoon though, I went to San José with Grace. It was such a fun mini-adventure. We headed to an art museum. The building used to be the international airport for Costa Rica, which is really funny because it was a very small building. All the artists displayed there were from Costa Rica. I especially liked the exhibition by one dude on military oppression. And another artist depicted love under religious pressure, which I thought was beautiful. Afterwards we went and got Boba tea in San Jose's china town. It amazes me that in almost every big city I've been to has a strong Chinatown. The tea was so sweet and we had Japanese cheesecake to go with it.
Thursday is big. Because El is here!!!! I left class early and got to meet them at the San Jose airport when they landed. We caught a shuttle up to La Fortuna for the weekend in a grand ol' adventure.
We went to Arenal national park the first day. There were SO MANY TALL TREES. I'm talking the old growth type Kapok trees that absolutely towered over the canopy. Seeing those 100s of years old trees was humbling. I felt so small next to their trunks. They've seen so much of Earth's history, without even trying. Seeing the Volcano was awesome. The day was so clear, we could actually see the top, which is super rare. It was hot, but completely worth it. And El is my favorite hiking buddy, so it was kinda perfect. That afternoon, we went over to the swimming hold/ rope swing. It was so crowded, but we got to swing a couple of times. Then we explored down river and found ROCKS. Very cool.
Day 2 was cloudy. and rainy, weirdly enough. But we trudged through the rain to go to La Fortuna waterfall. We actually walked there because, ya know, taxis are overrated. The 5.5 km walk was fun though. It rained. I tried to (mostly jokingly) hitch hike to the falls. One dude just gave us a thumbs up as he sped by in his car. The waterfall was absolutely amazing. The sheer amount of water that was cascading downwards was so loud and you could just see how powerful it was. The water was FRIGID. But I tried (unsuccessfully) to swim under the falls. It was gorgeous. We had some of the park's homemade fro-yo for lunch was that was pretty banging. And of course. We walked back. That evening we relaxed in a hot spring river. The hostel we stayed at had a free shuttle, so it was perfect. I unfortunately almost died at said hot spring. I fell down several rapids. Thats what I get for thinking I can cross a whole river on foot. But, I've only got a few bruises to show for it, so everything is ok.
Staying the hostel was interesting this time around. Because there were less outwardly friendly people like in Jaco. But we got to meet some fun German people. One Italian dude who only could speak Spanish, and one American just having an adventure of their own. But, all the homies hate the French after this weekend. We met some French dudes on our walk to the waterfall, and they initially said they were going there too. So, we were trying to catch a cab and split it four ways (easy stuff). BUT. when the taxi was finally flagged down, the dudes switched it up and said they were going to hot springs. So, we were left to walk the rest of the way.
The last day was easy. We hung around La Fortuna before our bus back to San Ramon. The Airbnb we're staying at is super cute. And I get to cook this week, and I'm SO HAPPY.
Monday night was so fun. It was Grace's birthday, so myself and a few of my friends (and El) cooked a middle eastern inspired dinner at a super cool house that the program director here owns. Its up in the mountains, so its super aesthetic. The food was so fun to cook. And we had a fun crowd to share it with. I think Grace really liked the rice dish and the chicken I cooked. Grace is a big game person. So, after the meal, we played Pictionary. Marissa, Grace, and I were a team and we CRUSHED IT.
Yesterday was also a fun adventure. I learned about photosynthetic marine slugs in class (please look it up its so interesting). And then I took El to Puntarenas for the afternoon/ evening. The ocean was refreshing, and walking along the beach we saw a bunch of pufferfish and one huge dead fish. Idk what that was about. I wanted to pick them up but El was adamantly against it. We got to see the beautiful sunset on the point of the island, and grab some good drinks as a food truck area next to it. Overall, a very picturesque evening.
So yeah, this has been long. But there was a lot to talk about!
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