Making Memories in Monteverde

Well I have officially passed my halfway mark! I've done so much in my six weeks here and I'm looking forward to my last six just as much! Though there won't be quite as much traveling and exploring, it will certainly still be full of memorable experiences. 

This week I had a very good week of classes before yet another weekend away. In my PT class this week I learned how to give massages! We were on a massage therapy unit so we had actual massage tables out in class to practice! It was awesome! Also I am loving my Spanish class. But I'm already halfway done with my second class! How crazy! 

Tuesday after classes I went to a birthday party with my host family! It was my host dad's mom's birthday. So my host dad's entire side of the family was there! It was such a cool experience! My host dad's dad is from Canada so it was really funny to hear someone saying "eh" periodically in their Spanish. He also talked to me a lot in English, because he spoke perfect English. Also one of my host dad's cousins speaks perfect English and even has a second home in Prescott, AZ! What are the odds! He does some work with NAU too I guess so that was cool to talk to someone who knew exactly where I'm from! At the party we all sat around and talked (I mostly listened) and they brought rounds and rounds of food. I'm not kidding, the food just kept coming. Some sort of chili type thing, tacos, arroz con pollo, beans, and cake. It was all great, but they kept bringing around rounds of food! The only downside to the party was that I dropped my phone and it cracked my screen... I was so upset with myself, but luckily it isn't super noticeable. Only at certain angles.

Wednesday my ISA program had an optional cooking class! So I went to that with one of my friends and there were a lot of people their so the learning part didn't go that well. But I observed some of the steps and had a delicious meal in the end! Arroz con pollo, beans, and this coconut fudge thing. All very good and a fun experience! So it was a good week of some sort of fun activity pretty much every day!

Arroz con Pollo, one of my favorite dishes here!

Friday at about 1:00 I met my friends at school and we caught taxis to the bus station for another trip! This time was to Monteverde, Costa Rica! And this may have been my favorite trip so far! That's hard to say though... Monteverde is about four hours north of San Jose, it's very close to Arenal which we went to my second week here. I must seem kind of crazy going somewhere every weekend, but it's very easy to get around here! The bus ticket to Monteverde was literally $5. For a four hour ride! So I'm taking advantage of the opportunities. Though I have now hit all of the places I wanted to go so my traveling is going to slow down. Anyway, when we got to Monteverde it was dark so we went right to our hostel which was actually a B&B I guess. There were seven of us and we were out in this cute little house with a whole kitchen to ourselves! So that was a very nice place to stay. Once we dropped our things off we found a small soda for dinner (soda is what they call restaurants a lot of times). The restaurant had delicious smoothies that we all thoroughly enjoyed.

Saturday we were up early and off on a ziplining tour! It was so much fun!! There were about ten lines. One of the lines was the longest in Latin America at 1 mile long! It was over this big canyon and it was beautiful. Also, the last three lines were superman style! It's exactly how it sounds. I was strapped at the chest and at the hips and was facing the ground as I went down the line! I think I liked superman even more than normal because I got to really enjoy the views and not focus on keeping myself facing forward. There was also one small rappel and a hanging bridge in between some of the zip lines which were fun. But the last one was by far the best (and scariest) part. A Tarzan Swing!! So cool!! I was the first to go, so I walked out on this bridge, two guides hooked me up, instructed me to hang on with both hands and they would open the gate. Once the gate opened I had to bend my knees and step off the bridge! It was a crazy feeling! It was a 3 second free fall and then the rope caught you and swung like Tarzan! I already want to do it again, I loved it! I also need to do it again because I annoyingly left my gopro on and drained the battery so it died before I could film the swing. But besides that unfortunate part, it was an awesome day of adventure!

The rest of the day we spent in the town of Monteverde, souvenir shopping and then just relaxing. One of my friends, Hannah, went bungee jumping in the afternoon! Her video is pretty crazy! It was $60 and I couldn't justify spending that much for 5 seconds. Plus I'm sure it would've been pretty freaky! It was the largest bungee in Latin America. Saturday night we ordered a pizza for dinner and got ice cream from the grocery store so it felt like a fun girls night in our little house in Monteverde! Also, today is my friend Stephanie's birthday! So we were celebrating that with the ice cream too!

Sunday, we got up early again for a guided hike through the cloud forest reserve of Monteverde! The cloud forest is how it sounds, very cloudy all the time. But within the forest there are so many animals. We took the guided hike so that we could actually see the animals better because the guides have these telescopes that they bring along. We saw a bunch of birds mostly, including an apparently very rare Quetzal, the national bird of Guatemala! It was a beautiful hike, and a couple of people in our group were from Phoenix too! Our guide was very knowledgeable and told us a lot about the plants, animals, and insects that we saw. 

The Quetzal that we got to see!

After our hike there we gathered our stuff, and stopped at a crepe place for lunch before heading back to San Jose! It was a really awesome weekend. The girls that I've been traveling with have been really great and made every weekend especially memorable for me! 

Thank you to those of you who have read my blogs throughout the first six weeks! I am definitely long-winded in these, but there is so much to tell! I hope you'll enjoy reading about my last six weeks as well!

Pura Vida