Dos Gringas en Costa Rica

I've been in Costa Rica almost one week now, and I'll admit that while I am still a tad overwhelmed, I am starting to get used to life and travel in this beautiful country.

After a mix-up with my flights last week, I arrived in San Jose a full day later than I was supposed to. Two things went wrong: first, my flight to Fort Lauderdale was delayed, which would have made me miss my flight from Fort Lauderdale to San Jose. Additionally, I was not on the flight manifest for the flight to San Jose AT ALL. So even if I had made it to Fort Lauderdale on time, they would not have let me on the flight, despite the fact I had a paper ticket with a confirmed seat on that flight. Because apparently airline personel are idiots. Apologies to anyone whose family and friends work for an airline, I obviously do not mean your loved ones.

Anyway, after staying the night at a hotel in Fort Lauderdale (which was actually pretty fun - there was a pool with a waterfall and a jacuzzi, so I didn't complain), I flew to San Jose on Tuesday, arriving around 2:00. Molly picked me up from the airport and took me straight to the adorable house we are living in in Santa Ana (roughly 20 minutes outside San Jose). It's small but comfortable. Molly and I share a little room without air-conditioning. At first I thought it was hot and stuffy, however, after the past few days, I now realize it is actually cool and comfortable. I will explain later.

I have a host mom, Paula, and two brothers, Adrian (8 years old) and Josue (12 years old). None of them speak English and they all act like they don't understand me when I do, but I know better... they definitely understand better than they let on. The first night when I was homesick and crying in my room, Paula heard me talking on the phone to Danny and understood what I said enough to tell Molly to make me feel better. That was a little embarrassing.

Adrian and Josue (for the non-Spanish-speakers, pronouce Ah-dree-ahn and Ho-sway) are a lot of fun, and Molly and I have spent some time playing cards with them and such. They help me with my Spanish (which is rapidly improving) and correct me when I am wrong without making too much fun of me. They are patient and very cute. Little Adrian reminds me a LOT of my cousin John, only you can tell he is going to be a little Latino ladies' man when he gets older; his expressions usually involve a wiggle of the eyebrow or a wink. Both the boys like video games. They are really into guitar hero, though I have tried to convince them rock band is better. They don't have quite enough brothers for a full band, though.

Paula (Pah-ooh-lah) is also very, very sweet. She speaks slowly for me and also helps with my Spanish, and is very appreciative when I try hard to speak Spanish to her. She always cooks for Molly and me. My favorite is her gallo pinto with natilla - a rice and black beans mixture with a sour-cream type sauce that we eat for breakfast. Yes, breakfast. It is delicious. She also does our laundry and generally helps us out. Molly has obviously gotten to know her a lot better than I have, since they can have full-blown coversations in Spanish.

I would like to add that Molly and I also have a "Jamie." We are not precisely sure how he fits into the family unit I've described, but he's Adrian and Josue's dad, and he's around a lot. He speaks almost perfect English, and unlike Paula and the boys, is not as patient with my Spanish and therefore only speaks English to me. Admittedly, Molly and I are not big fans of Jamie. I won't go into why exactly, but I think it has a lot to do with the way he treats Paula and from what I gather, women in general. Oh... he is very careful around us American women and treats us with the utmost respect. But I get the idea that when he does that he isn't really in character.

Last Wednesday, we went up to Conversa (the language school) to have lunch with Dave and Anita, who run the school and are friends with Molly's dad from Peace Corps. They were so nice, and I got to go to one of Dave's classes and learn Spanish verbs in the present tense, which I really needed. My Spanish improved tremendously over the course of one lesson. Molly and I also go to swim in the beautiful pool up there, and take our own private Salsa y Merengue lessons. I think we were terrible, but the instructor was really nice about it. We are lucky to have David, Anita and Gata (another woman who works at Conversa) to help us with our Spanish and with our travel plans.

Which brings me to the trip we took this weekend, to Manuel Antonio, a beach about 4 hours away (by bus) on the southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Gata helped us plan the trip. The rainforest in Manuel Antonio comes right up to the beach, and there were literally monkeys and tree frogs in and around the hostel we stayed in, which was roughly 100 meters from the water. Actually, the monkeys and tree frogs were some of the highlights... I'm not used to walking through the gate to the hotel to be greeted by monkeys literally just a few feet over my head. I took this photo of one of the monkeys that was climbing in the trees just feet away from me... yes, I am serious, I took that! It should be in National Geographic. It was awesome to be so close to the "jungle animals." Additional wildlife included snakes, scorpions, and crabs, which we fortunately avoided, despite the sign in our hostel room warning us to check our beds for them at night before we crawled in (see photo of our wildlife warning). Manuel Antonio was truly beautiful, but also incredibly hot and humid. And I thought Santa Ana was hot... no way. By 8:00am it was too hot to sleep, but when we got up to try to put on our sunscreen, we were sweating so much it was impossible to apply. We had to take cold showers before slathering on our SPF 70 and zinc oxide so it wouldn't melt off as soon as we had applied it. Believe it or not, the SPF 70 and zinc was absolutely necessary... we wore it and still got a little sunburned even in the shade. Actually, only I got a little sunburned. Molly is a lot worse for the wear than I am. Given the sweltering heat and humidity and the scorching sun, I am fairly certain that the weather in Manuel Antonio is not too different from the weather in Hell, and given that Hell probably doesn't have as beautiful a beach as Manuel Antonio, I am now even more determined to stay out of hell.

In Manuel Antonio, as I said, the rainforest comes right up to the water's edge, resulting in lush green cliffs that drop off directly into the big blue Pacific. We spent a lot of time on the beach and... drumroll please... I WENT IN THE OCEAN (and that's a pic of me jumping in the ocean). For those of you who do not know, this is an enormous accomplishment, as I am deathly afraid of the water and have been known to keep safe distance unless Danny's around. But, I went in up to my chest and even dove and jumped and played in the waves. I was incredibly proud of myself, but it would have been a shame if I hadn't gone in. The water was so beautiful, and honestly it was far too hot to stay out of the water. I've shared just a few pictures of beautiful Manuel Antonio directly in this blog (and a few from Santa Ana, of course), but if you want to see more click on the slideshow on this blog to be linked to all of my pictures. The beach was so breathtaking that I took too many to share on the blog.

That's me shortly before I faced my fears and took a dip in the Pacific in Manuel Antonio.

A Manuel Antonio sunset... perfect. Complete with surfer.

We're back in Santa Ana now, and will be for the next few days. Wednesday we are headed to Monte Verde, a rainforest/cloudforest to explore the canopy and the floor of the rainforest, then to Arrenal (I hope I am spelling that correctly), an active volcano that spews lava and such. STOP WORRYING DAD I REALLY DON'T THINK THE VOLCANO IS GOING TO ERUPT ON ME!!! Actually, everyone can stop worrying because the kind people of Conversa are making sure we are safe, and of course we are being smart girls and not taking any uneccesary risks.

Love to all, and enjoy the pictures.