pura vida

December 4-5, 2011 - Puntarenas, Costa Rica

can i just tell you how over this blob i am? sorry but this takes so much time. good thing in only have a week left!!! weee. but as for costa rica...

so we arrived in costa rica on sunday. it was basically the first time we've been on land for three weeks since we only got 10 hours in hawaii since november 15. not great. so we were all more than excited to finally see some land. the first day i had a ziplining tour booked. so we met in the union and left the ship around 10. there were 18 of us, and our guide met us at the dock. it was about a 45 minute van ride up to the mountain. we hung out there for a while, then we all got on horses. yeah, horses! i'm a little scared of big dogs... let alone a big giant horse. plus, i'm pretty sure that was the first time i'd ever been on a horse. but, i didn't die so that's good. so it was like an hour long ride up into cloud forest. it was really really pretty, but hurt my ass a lot. thought not as much as the camel ride in morocco. we finally got to the first platform, cus the whole point of the trip was to go ziplining. there were 25 ziplines over 11 waterfalls, plus 2 repels across waterfalls. it was SO fun! i've never gone ziplining before either, and it was so fun. except now i'm SO sore. pretty sure i have a 6-pack or something, not sure why... but i'm not complaining. then after the last zipline, we got driven back to the hotel where we had a delicious lunch. i was expecting burritos from costa rica... but turns out, it wasn't mexico. but we still got rice, beans, and chicken... which was delicious. then they took us back that evening.

i didn't end up going out that night because i had so much freaking studying to do. plus if you weren't on the ship by 6:45, you couldn't get on until 2 in the morning because we had to leave the dock. so i stayed in and studied a little. but mostly just went to bed. then the next morning, maddy, brooke, courtney, her roommate, and i went into town. we were supposed to dock in puntarenas, but at the last minute had to switch to puerto caldera or something. there was nothing there, so we went to puntarenas instead. we walked through some markets when we first go there and bought all our last minute gifts for people. then we laid on the beach for a while and went swimming. officially have gone swimming in every ocean we've been in. the water was SO warm! then i laid out and studied some more. why SAS scheduled finals for the day after costa rica, i have no idea. then it kinda started to rain so we left the beach and went to lunch, which again was delicious. then we walked around the markets some more and then ended up catching the tram back to the ship.

costa rica was beautiful. i wish we had more time in latin america though, because i think i'd love it. plus, i could use my super sweet spanglish skills! costa rica was beautiful... and according to some paper we had to read for our global studies class, costa rica ranks as the happiest place on earth (sorry disneyland)! no wonder americans are starting to retire in costa rica these days. plus it was pretty cheap, which is always a fun time.

okay well that's all for costa rica. pura vida (good life?) is their motto. so much fun. love.