July 4th

Well, I think this was the first fourth of July that I didn’t celebrate as independence day, but I did get to go to a beach! Got up at the ungodly hour of 5am and got to the bus stop by 5:45…but by 6 a bus STILL hadn’t arrived and 2 other people had been waiting for a bus since 5:30…so we all chipped in together and got a taxi to go to La Casita. It only cost the price of 2 bus rides when we split it 4 ways. (so 60 cents) Got on the bus and then departed for Puntaveras…I think that’s how it’s spelled. Half way there we stopped for breakfast at some restaurant. Had gallo pinto, eggs, and fruit.

There they had a mini-butterfly garden, but I only saw one the whole time I was in there. But! They had a toucan! And I got to hold it twice!!! Then another hour-ish and we were at the port, Puntaveras. We got on the catamaran and headed for Tortuga Island (so named because it supposedly looks like a turtle…I couldn’t see it.) it took about an hour to get there, and when we did get there I wasn’t too impressed. It was a tiny beach with a lot of trash, lots of people. So many boats and ships anchored that you couldn’t get a good view either. On the way there though the view was nice, but oddly familiar lol It looked exactly like the blue ridge mountains all along the coast just I was in water and not on land. The mountains are the same shapes, are smoky and everything. I didn’t get man pictures since it was so hazy though.

I didn’t go swimming at the beach. (The undercurrent was pretty strong, when I was walking along the ocean it almost knocked me over once and the water was quite dirty) But I did go seashell searching, and found only 2—not a good beach for seashell searching. then I was told that we can’t keep the shells since it’s an “eco-country” and then another person told me it was because the US wouldn’t allow them into the country….different answers from different people. (I kept one shell and one small piece of coral, the rest of the nifty stuff I found I put back after taking some pictures)

Then we had lunch 4 course meal. Appetizer—raw fish, Salad, Main course—chicken and rice, Dessert—pound cake. I got my fill minus the raw fish…bleh! Afterwards, I went walking with a lady that’s in my conversation class. We saw some wild pig/boar things. They were cute and small. One of them was dozing near the beach and let you pet it. So I did—it had very coarse fur. After that I went and sat on the beach for an hour and then we left. I ended up napping on the way home (supposedly there is a picture of me conked out on the bench; I’ll have to find it lol)

Back at the port I bought a chocolate ice cream and some peanuts to help me last until we got back to San Jose. On the bus ride to and from I sat with a guy who I forget his name. It turns out he’s originally from Greenville! (He lives in Rock Hill) And the even stranger thing is we realized that we had met before. He goes swing dancing at the Handlebar sometimes! I kinda remember seeing him before. Anyways, he was a good conversation person since he could small talk.

One of the girls (well she’s 30) that went on the cruise got totally wasted (aka very drunk). She drank about 6 beers going to the beach, wine with lunch along with another beer, then she had a mixed drink and 7 beers going home…..yeah. It was an amusing trip home since she was sitting across the aisle from us. She burst out in song, danced, said a lot of really strange stuff, por ejemplo: 

“It didn’t work in three languages!”

“What didn’t work?”

“Spanish, English, Russian.”
”What didn’t work?”

“The toilet”

Anyways, it was amusing, but annoyed the people who wanted to sleep. Got back to the house about 8:30m and had some dinner and had Ashley proofread my paper for me. (good thing too since I had some typos and a few agreement mistakes.) And now I’m off to bed, since I have to be up early tomorrow morning as well to go to Irazu.

 

:-) Rek