The week leading up to our fourth weekend in Costa Rica was the most bittersweet. Our fourth week was our last week of classes, last week with our friends and last week Barrio and San Jose would ever be the same. In those first four weeks, I met some of the most amazing people. It still blows my mind how close five girls from all over the United States can become when studying abroad in a foreign country over 2,000 miles away from our comfort zones. It was definitely a fun week, leading up to Thursday night when we all went out with a bang. We went to Los Profes for ladies night and danced the night away. Nights out have not been the same without Madelene, Josie and Amanda to help make crazy stories to laugh about in the morning. Our accumulation of stories was quite impressive after only four weeks together! After we all finished our final presentations, we said our goodbyes in the courtyard at school. Shea and I had to miss the going away dinner with everyone in our program because we left for Monteverde Friday afternoon :(
Shea and I headed to the bus station Friday afternoon for our first weekend traveling alone without any other friends. We arrived in Monteverde around 6:30/7pm. Right when we got off the bus, we had a representative from Sleepers Sleep hostel meet us at the bus station. We were told someone would be at the station to take us to the hostel once we arrived. The email sounded like we would be picked up in a little shuttle and taken to the hostel from there. We nicknamed our guide little green man. This guy was maybe 4 feet 11 inches, tiny tiny body and wearing a green shirt that seemed way to large for him. He greeted us with a huge smile and said we are waiting for one more person before we walk to the hostel. We were quite confused as the bus station is on top of a huge hill right outside of the city. Putting together a huge hill walking downwards, pitch black vision and my tripping record while in Costa Rica together and I was just anticipating an epic fall. Thankfully we made it down the hill, all in one piece! We checked into our hostel, which we paid about $10 a night in a mixed dorm room. The first night we did not have any other people in our dorm so it was fantastic, not to mention the hostel had amazing hot showers. Such a rarity here in Costa Rica, unless you take a shower with barely any water pressure. Definitely one of the little things I have taken for granted my entire life living in the States. After checking in and settling in, we headed into town for some dinner. The town of Monteverde is so tiny, you can pretty much walk the entire city in less than 5minutes. We decided to go to a restaurant called bar amigos. We were told we HAD to try the treehouse restaurant in town. We figured that would be a cooler place to eat while there was daylight, so we decided on Bar Amigos only for the food aspect, not the live music and dancing while some random people we became friends with in the hostel went to the treehouse. The restaurant had amazing food! Shea and I sat at a table away from all the other people in the bar, split the guacamole platter and seafood/garlic spaghetti. It was absolutely to die for! We ended up sitting in the restaurant people watching for a good majority of the evening. As soon as we walked out the door, we ran into our neighbor friends from the hostel. They did not recommend the tree house restaurant, but I think a lot of it depends on what you are ordering and what time of the day you go. Because there was no way in hell, Shea and I could've spent almost $200 on one dinner. After dinner, we headed back to the hostel where we saw a random guy sitting outside our door. We engaged in some friendly conversation until he started bashing the United States and has in his mind that the army of every country is out to get him during his backpacking adventure through Central America. Shea and this dude were going back and forth constantly debating about the topic of learning and success. Bad idea because anything anyone said to this guy would not make him open his mind up at least a little more. Probably one of the most negative and pessimistic people I have ever met. Finally we decided to call it quits for our conversation with this man. The one cool thing about traveling with only one other person, is meeting so many different people at the hostels. People are more willing to come up and begin a conversation with two girls opposed to a group of about ten or twelve people. We hit the hay early that Friday night to be sure we were ready for a day full of adrenaline.
Let me tell you, it was definitely the most adrenaline I have ever experienced in one day. First part of the day, we woke up packed our bags and headed down to the lobby where they made us a homemade traditional Costa Rica breakfast. They cooked it right in front of us, gallo pinto, eggs, cereal, fresh fruit and coffee. Could not be more perfect! 7:30am finally rolled around and our tour bus showed up to take us to the adventure park. The first adventure of the day was ziplining through the canopy of the rainforest! We got to do 12 cables, 1 rappel, 1 monkey bridge and 1 super tarzan swing. The last two ziplines were the superman ones and man were they definitely work five extra dollars. One of these cables actually is the longest zipline in Latin America at over 1,000 km. The last part of this advanture tour was the tarzan swing. For this you pretty much walk out onto this long bridge up above part of the rainforest. The guides then strapped you in, while you hold a huge rope. On the count of three the guides push you off the edge and you free fall for about 4-5 seconds before the rope catches and you begin swinging up and over the trees in the rainforest. It was so much fun but at the same time so so scary because the drop in your stomach after the free falling part really freaked me out. Shea and I were both planning on going bungee jumping later in the day, but after the tarzan swing, Shea decided she couldn't do the bungee jump. After returning back to the hostel around 10:10am, I made the quick decision of joining the 10:30am bungee jump tour so I could grab lunch afterwards. I texted my mom to tell her I was going bungee jumping by myself. At that moment when she responded saying "omg my heart just dropped, text me when you are on the ground again, love you" made my excitement instantly turn to nervousness. Bungee jumping has been one of the top things on my bucket list since I was younger and I could not believe I was about to do the highest bungee in Latin America. My stomach was in horrible knots as the bus picked me up to go to the park. The entire ride I hounded the guide with questions to try and ease my nerves. He told me that the tarzan swing is so much worse than bungee jumping because in bungee jumping you go head first and don't get the free falling feel in your stomach. That right there eased all of my nerves and I was ready to go! All the guys went out on the cart first. Before I knew it I was in the cable car moving out to the middle overlooking a gorgeous valley in the middle of mountains. I was up second in our group. I had my harness strapped up, my ankle harnesses double checked and then the bungee connected to my feet as I was standing on the edge of the cart. Before I knew it the guides yelled one, two, three and I superman jumped off the cart and experienced the most amazing ten seconds of my life. I fell for more than 400 ft before the bungee bounced up and down a few times. The rest of the day I seemed to be on a natural high from all the adrenaline I had experienced all before noon that day. Once I returned to the hostel, I met Shea and we then decided to go to the cloud forest for a hike. It was amazing feeling on top of the world in the happiest country in the world. After the cloud forest we walked around town and had some delicious burritos for dinner. The rest of the night we chilled and hung out with our friends in the hostel. Bright and early Sunday morning we woke up for a 6am bus back to San Jose so that we could catch the Costa Rica/Greece World Cup Game.
More on the game in the next post!
Off to Nicaragua for the weekend, so I will post more updates when I get the chance :)
Pura Vida friends
Shea and I headed to the bus station Friday afternoon for our first weekend traveling alone without any other friends. We arrived in Monteverde around 6:30/7pm. Right when we got off the bus, we had a representative from Sleepers Sleep hostel meet us at the bus station. We were told someone would be at the station to take us to the hostel once we arrived. The email sounded like we would be picked up in a little shuttle and taken to the hostel from there. We nicknamed our guide little green man. This guy was maybe 4 feet 11 inches, tiny tiny body and wearing a green shirt that seemed way to large for him. He greeted us with a huge smile and said we are waiting for one more person before we walk to the hostel. We were quite confused as the bus station is on top of a huge hill right outside of the city. Putting together a huge hill walking downwards, pitch black vision and my tripping record while in Costa Rica together and I was just anticipating an epic fall. Thankfully we made it down the hill, all in one piece! We checked into our hostel, which we paid about $10 a night in a mixed dorm room. The first night we did not have any other people in our dorm so it was fantastic, not to mention the hostel had amazing hot showers. Such a rarity here in Costa Rica, unless you take a shower with barely any water pressure. Definitely one of the little things I have taken for granted my entire life living in the States. After checking in and settling in, we headed into town for some dinner. The town of Monteverde is so tiny, you can pretty much walk the entire city in less than 5minutes. We decided to go to a restaurant called bar amigos. We were told we HAD to try the treehouse restaurant in town. We figured that would be a cooler place to eat while there was daylight, so we decided on Bar Amigos only for the food aspect, not the live music and dancing while some random people we became friends with in the hostel went to the treehouse. The restaurant had amazing food! Shea and I sat at a table away from all the other people in the bar, split the guacamole platter and seafood/garlic spaghetti. It was absolutely to die for! We ended up sitting in the restaurant people watching for a good majority of the evening. As soon as we walked out the door, we ran into our neighbor friends from the hostel. They did not recommend the tree house restaurant, but I think a lot of it depends on what you are ordering and what time of the day you go. Because there was no way in hell, Shea and I could've spent almost $200 on one dinner. After dinner, we headed back to the hostel where we saw a random guy sitting outside our door. We engaged in some friendly conversation until he started bashing the United States and has in his mind that the army of every country is out to get him during his backpacking adventure through Central America. Shea and this dude were going back and forth constantly debating about the topic of learning and success. Bad idea because anything anyone said to this guy would not make him open his mind up at least a little more. Probably one of the most negative and pessimistic people I have ever met. Finally we decided to call it quits for our conversation with this man. The one cool thing about traveling with only one other person, is meeting so many different people at the hostels. People are more willing to come up and begin a conversation with two girls opposed to a group of about ten or twelve people. We hit the hay early that Friday night to be sure we were ready for a day full of adrenaline.
Let me tell you, it was definitely the most adrenaline I have ever experienced in one day. First part of the day, we woke up packed our bags and headed down to the lobby where they made us a homemade traditional Costa Rica breakfast. They cooked it right in front of us, gallo pinto, eggs, cereal, fresh fruit and coffee. Could not be more perfect! 7:30am finally rolled around and our tour bus showed up to take us to the adventure park. The first adventure of the day was ziplining through the canopy of the rainforest! We got to do 12 cables, 1 rappel, 1 monkey bridge and 1 super tarzan swing. The last two ziplines were the superman ones and man were they definitely work five extra dollars. One of these cables actually is the longest zipline in Latin America at over 1,000 km. The last part of this advanture tour was the tarzan swing. For this you pretty much walk out onto this long bridge up above part of the rainforest. The guides then strapped you in, while you hold a huge rope. On the count of three the guides push you off the edge and you free fall for about 4-5 seconds before the rope catches and you begin swinging up and over the trees in the rainforest. It was so much fun but at the same time so so scary because the drop in your stomach after the free falling part really freaked me out. Shea and I were both planning on going bungee jumping later in the day, but after the tarzan swing, Shea decided she couldn't do the bungee jump. After returning back to the hostel around 10:10am, I made the quick decision of joining the 10:30am bungee jump tour so I could grab lunch afterwards. I texted my mom to tell her I was going bungee jumping by myself. At that moment when she responded saying "omg my heart just dropped, text me when you are on the ground again, love you" made my excitement instantly turn to nervousness. Bungee jumping has been one of the top things on my bucket list since I was younger and I could not believe I was about to do the highest bungee in Latin America. My stomach was in horrible knots as the bus picked me up to go to the park. The entire ride I hounded the guide with questions to try and ease my nerves. He told me that the tarzan swing is so much worse than bungee jumping because in bungee jumping you go head first and don't get the free falling feel in your stomach. That right there eased all of my nerves and I was ready to go! All the guys went out on the cart first. Before I knew it I was in the cable car moving out to the middle overlooking a gorgeous valley in the middle of mountains. I was up second in our group. I had my harness strapped up, my ankle harnesses double checked and then the bungee connected to my feet as I was standing on the edge of the cart. Before I knew it the guides yelled one, two, three and I superman jumped off the cart and experienced the most amazing ten seconds of my life. I fell for more than 400 ft before the bungee bounced up and down a few times. The rest of the day I seemed to be on a natural high from all the adrenaline I had experienced all before noon that day. Once I returned to the hostel, I met Shea and we then decided to go to the cloud forest for a hike. It was amazing feeling on top of the world in the happiest country in the world. After the cloud forest we walked around town and had some delicious burritos for dinner. The rest of the night we chilled and hung out with our friends in the hostel. Bright and early Sunday morning we woke up for a 6am bus back to San Jose so that we could catch the Costa Rica/Greece World Cup Game.
More on the game in the next post!
Off to Nicaragua for the weekend, so I will post more updates when I get the chance :)
Pura Vida friends