An Entire Week in Heredia

Week of March 17th

I don't remember the last time I was in my hometown, Heredia, for an entire week, but this week I did it. I think we are all pretty tired of traveling to the beach every weekend. Rough life, huh?

This week, there was an artisan market going on in Central Park so my friend Emily and I went there on Monday to look around and browse for the obligatory souvenirs for friends and family. After shopping around, we went to the huge market that's near Central Park to get some mangoes because they are sooo good right now.

I also got to chat with Meghan and Olivia this week! Ah I definitely miss Oxford...

On Friday night, a few of us went to a mountain in Heredia. It is incredibly cold (not as cold as Ohio) and windy but the view was so cool. I wish it was possible for a photograph to capture just how pretty it was.

On Sunday, my host family and I went to a family gathering. This was really fun and also overwhelming because it was a lotttt of Spanish. But everyone was so nice and happy to meet me!

I loved staying here for a whole week and getting to know this cool town a little better.

Chillin on the Caribbean

Week of March 10th 

This week was a pretty relaxed week. I'm definitely getting used to my routine. I'm also getting used to only having class three days a week..I'll have a terrible wake up call in the Fall.

This week my group discovered that Pizza Hut serves wine. Wine at Pizza Hut. Also, apparently Pizza Hut is considered to be a really nice restaurant here. So strange..

On Thursday of this week I taught English again. All of the classes got switched around and now I'm teaching the advanced students. I actually like it better than the beginning classes because the students seem a lot more interested and motivated to learn.

This weekend, I finally made it to the Caribbean. Two of my friends had friends visiting them from the United States so a group of us went to Puerto Viejo for the weekend. This place was so cool. All of the people we met were so nice and chill and the whole little town was just awesome.

My hostel wasn't the nicest place I've ever stayed but its surroundings were gorgeous so it made up for it.

In Puerto Viejo, there are a lot of beaches that are all next to each other down the main road. So we rented bikes for the weekend so that we could beach hop. The beaches were beautiful!!

We also found some really cool restaurants. On Saturday morning (and Sunday morning actually) we went to this place called Bread and Chocolate. We had heard good things about it before but, I mean the name itself just sounds like it would be delicious. (The bread and chocolate at this place were amazing..obviously). We got iced coffee here...something that we had been living without during our entire time in Costa Rica. We had missed it a lot. We also had real cheese!!! There is cheese where I live but there is only one kind and it's just called cheese. Definitely not my favorite thing.

On Saturday night we went to a restaurant that was just a couple feet from the beach and enjoyed some calamari and a glass of wine while watching the sunset. It was a pretty darn perfect evening.

I LOVED Puerto Viejo and I will definitely be back. Even just for some more Bread and Chocolate.

Bahia Drake

Week of March 3rd

This weekend was definitely one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. It was filled with so many "pinch me" moments and will be on of those weekends I will remember forever.

Bahia Drake was our first field trip through the program. It is located in the southern part of Costa Rica, near the border of Panama. We took a private van down there with the study abroad students, two program directors, two tour guides, and three of our amigos ticos. The ride was about five or six hours because we had to take a bunch of stops on the way. We arrived at a dock and had to take a boat the rest of the way. The boat ride was an hour and a half and the ride was beautiful. Once we got to the beach where were staying for the weekend, we all had to get out of the boat and swim for a little ways because the boat couldn't make it the rest of the way to the beach because it was shallow and rocky. We had to form an assembly line to pass all of the stuff we brought. This was so chaotic and SO funny. 

The place where we stayed is an ecological reserve and had no electricity. But it was nice to get away from everything for a weekend. It had its own private beach which was absolutely gorgeous. There were so many little hermit crabs running around and the waves were huge. Once we got settled in we went to go swim in the ocean. The beaches that we have been to here don't have that big of waves so it was really really fun. The rest of the night was just for dinner and lessons about the environment in this part of Costa Rica.

On Saturday we had to be up and ready to go at 6:30 and we went nonstop from there. We immediately left to go on a hike through the national park Corcovado which lasted for eight hours. EIGHT. Not to mention it was extremely hot and humid. And there wasn't even a path. But we got to see and do the coolest things. Here is just some of them: 

Monkeys! There are tons of them here, SO CUTE!

Our guide Mario cutting up some starfruit he found. Yummmm

We also had the opportunity to eat a termite from a nest we found. I passed on that offer but some people were brave enough to try them.

We learned about a tree that is nicknamed the "marshmallow tree". You can peel off the bark and a white milky substance drips out. It tastes like a marshmallow! And it's super sticky like one too.  It's supposed to be good for stomach aches. 

Waterfall!

A couple hours in....already exhausted and drenched in sweat.

This flower is called "labios de puta". I'll let those of you who don't speak Spanish look that one up yourself :)

We got to climb in a tree!! It was huge. There was a huge frog and bats in it. 

A bat flew toward me and almost hit my face. I got out right away

More cool plants!

Water apple YUMMM

LUNCH TIME! We ate our lunch so fast so we could swim in the pool underneath the waterfalls.

After lunch we found a gorgeous beach.

Later that night we went on another little hike to see bats. There were hundreds of them flying around us. 

After dinner, we all hung out and played games. I think that was my favorite night here yet. It was so simple yet so fun.

On Sunday morning we went snorkeling!!!

What an incredible weekend. Today, my history professor told us that Bahia Drake is one of the most beautiful places in Costa Rica. And that's saying a lot. This place is amazing.