Costa Rica-Week 3

Another week is gone! My time here in Costa Rica is half way done!! Time has really flown by. This past week was pretty relaxing compared to last week because we had a big presentation for my global health class on Monday and so after that was over we didn’t have too much homework. On Tuesday morning, my spanish class went and visited a local pop culture museum. It was a fun time learning history and culture of Costa Rica and making tortillas!

On Wednesday was a national holiday here in Costa Rica, Annexation of Guanacaste Day so we didn’t have class! A group of us and one of my teachers went to a nearby waterfall, La Paz for the day. We had such a great time hiking the waterfall and exploring the butterfly garden and bird sanctuary near the waterfall. After the waterfall, we traveled to a nearby town where they make ox carts. We were given a short tour of the facility and got to watch the local artists hand-painting the artwork onto the ox car wheels (pics below). Finally, we shopped at an amazing souvenir shop where I finally got a lot of great presents for friends and family. It was a day well spent!

Because of this holiday, there was also a small festival going on in my town this week at the Catholic church. There was different food vendors and a DJ where everyone was dancing. On Tuesday evening, some friends and I went down to the festival and had an awesome time dancing together. We felt like locals aside from the fact that we can’t dance (but that wasn’t stopping me).

On a side note, I also started feeling a little sick in the middle of last week, but it seemed like just a cold so I kept on going. Thursday, we had the morning off so I went with my mama tica to a nearby coffee plant and ww toured it. We had a lot of fun. Then in the afternoon, my class went on a visit to “Casa de Adultos Mayores” which is a local elderly home. We hung out with the people and danced with them. Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling too well so I went home early and took a long, refreshing nap and my sweet host mom made me some tea. The rest made me feel a little better, but I continued to not feel so great the rest of the weekend. But finally, I am reaching the end of this cold and am feeling much better now!

On Friday, we had spanish class in the morning and then set out for La Fortuna. We were supposed to get there around 2/3PM, but unfortunately there was miscommunication with our bus driver and we went the wrong way for the first 1 1/2. But no biggie, eventually we were going the right way and arrived in La Fortuna around 5PM. We checked into our hostel, Selina and hung out by the pool for a bit. Later, some of the girls in our group made pasta for everyone at the hostel kitchen. Later in the night, we all watched Moana in the movie room at the hostel! It was a fun, relaxing night.

The next day, our plans were kind of uncertain because some people in our group were doing an ATV tour while others (including me) were not. I was interested in doing white water rafting so I went to the front desk to ask about the tour. It was 8:15 at the time and the front desk said the tour bus would be picking up people for white water rafting at 8:30. So I had to make a quick decision and decided to go white water rafting alone since none of my friends wanted to. I wasn’t alone, alone, but just not with my friends. There were 3 other girls from my hostel going on the tour and one girl from England ended up being really great and we hung out the whole time. The white water rafting was a lot of fun and I am so very happy that I didn’t fall out of the boat. I am really glad I decided to do it though because it was a great experience!

After returning from white water rafting, I met up with my friends and we went to a hot spring river that was FREE. It was crowded and a little sketch, but there were a lot of people there and it ended up being pretty chill. We had a relaxing time just hanging out there for a while before heading back to the hostel. The next day after breakfast we headed back to San Joaquin. It was a short, but sweet weekend trip.

It’s crazy that I have now been here 3 weeks! Wow. Last night as I was walking into the kitchen before bed to get water, I had this strange, but cool feeling that this is home. My whole life I grew up only living in one city and one house. For college I moved to Austin and suddenly 2 places felt like home. It’s amazing that every place you live or hang around a lot can begin to feel like home after a while. It’s a comforting feeling to know I have a home in so many places. But of course, home isn’t a place. It’s the people around you. Although I’m a texan on the go, I know that no matter where I go I’ll always have my friends and family to make me feel at home.

Pura Vida,

Texan On The Go

Making the tortillasMy cutie little host brotherHanging out at the festival