A breath of fresh air

Semester break came hard after the heels of the trip to Nicaragua. We were only home for a couple of days, including Halloween, and then we had time off. Halloween was good but weird. I usually go pretty all out on costumes and do crazy things, but Halloween isn’t really celebrated here in Costa Rica. We had a grill out that I helped make food for and dressed up a bit and watched some movies.

In the morning, at 4 am, I headed towards the Caribbean coast. Don’t ask me why so early. We were taking a large taxi to the bus station in San Jose to cut cost, and that’s when they wanted to leave. We got on the right bus and Carrie and I got off in Cahuita several hours later, a small beach town. Carrie and I decided to travel together outside of the larger group going to Puerto Viejo because we needed some space from so many people. Our personalities are very alike, and so we decided that we might be good traveling buddies. The hostel we were staying at picked us up from the bus stop. It was run by a very nice and helpful German family and it was so cool! We had a little cabin with 2 beds and a bathroom with hot water for $10 a night! Near the beach! Nowhere in the US could you do that. It was fun, when we got there we sat with one of the owners and she just told us about what it was like to live in Cahuita and the school system there and all sorts of things. It was a very homey atmosphere. Our cabin had hammocks, so we definitely spent a good amount of time reading. And napping J

The town was a bit of a distance away, but the place we were staying let us use bikes free of charge. They were a bit old and the chain on mine came off a couple times, but they worked fine:

The blue bike was mine, the pink one Carrie's. They were really cute bikes, the basket in the front completed the whole ensemble :)

The roads were HORRIBLE! Gravel, and potholes everywhere full of water. Town was cute though. There were great places to eat, SO much fresh seafood! A national park was right near town as well, and we went there one day and hiked through it. The Caribbean water was so warm and seemed really salty, it was very easy to float. We ran into our friend Brian from the center, he was staying there too. We all went snorkeling the next day in the coral reef, which was an incredible experience! There were so many colorful fish, my favorite were tiny blue ones with electric blue spots. And the coral itself was a sight to see: brain coral, fire coral, etc etc. Some of it was huge!! And so many organisms were living on it and near it. I even saw a shark! I haven’t been able to look up what kind it was, but it was at least 4 feet long, if not bigger.

Really cool trees that we saw in Cahuita National Park

There was a lot of coral pieces on the shore. I hope this is normal and not a sign that the coral reef is in trouble! I don't have any pictures from snorkeling, I wish i did because it was soo amazing. But at least you can see a bit of coral

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you! So, snorkeling was only possible for me because Brian gave me some contacts to use. Important lesson: don’t agree to watch movies until 1 am if you have to leave at 4 am. I was mostly packed before the movies started, but I still had some things to throw in. One important thing I forgot to throw in was of course my contacts. I was wearing my glasses in the morning. The climate on the Caribbean is rather muggy, making it not an ideal glasses-wearing climate. They would slide down my nose unless I wore a headband. AND THEN the first morning in Cahuita, one of the side parts of my glasses completely snapped off. It was like a nightmare, I couldn’t believe it at first. It was a pretty solid stream of bad luck. But then the sun came out a bit. One of the owners of our hostel used to be an optometrist, and while she couldn’t completely fix my glasses, she was able to expertly tape the side back to the rest of the frame. And then when we bumped into Brian and he learned of my predicament, we found out that we have the exact same prescription for contacts and he had some extra. What are the odds of that?? So I was able to go snorkeling after all J

After 3 nights in Cahuita, we decided to go to Puerto Viejo before we had to head back to the center. We stayed at a really cool hostel called Rocking J's, it had mosaics all over the place, and the room we stayed in felt like a ship’s cabin, complete with a metal door. We ran into others from the program in town, and it was good to see them again. We had had enough time away that it was fresh. We hung out at their hostel and had a great meal and just had fun together.

Carrie and I in our hostel room. The cooler mosaics were on the pathways and stuff, but ours still gave it a cool vibe.

The beach behind Rocking J's. I walked out on the flat rocks and looked at the tide pools, crabs, and fish. It was so peaceful, there were benches on the beach where Carrie and I read for quite some time

It was a pretty eventful ride back to school the next day. Our bus got stopped by a protest against the United Fruit Company. It was really interesting though, we were in the very front so got to see all the signs and hear the megaphone speeches. It was about the company cutting worker’s benefits. One lady even apologized to us, saying that she was sorry that we were being held up. This was the only way that they felt they could show their displeasure with the company. The road that we were one was a major artery to the fruit transport of the United Fruit Company, so they were hurting the company. We were only there for an hour or 2, but I didn’t mind it so much. I knew that they felt like they were doing something, and they were getting press for it. Who knows if it will help in the long run, but it was the way that they felt like they could make a difference. And I think it has a chance of doing something, because there were protests like that holding up traffic all over the country. We found that out from our taxi driver that took us home from San Jose.

The view outside our bus window of the signs and speach making.

All around, it was a great week away. I was a lot more comfortable traveling than I thought I would be. I might even consider traveling on my own someday, who knows. I can tell I know the language more, which always helps!!