Yay for Costa Rica!!!
We left on Christmas morning and arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica in the early afternoon. We just stayed around the hotel and went swimming in the pool. The next morning we left early for Manuel Antonio, a 3 hour drive from San Jose. There's nothing like driving on horribly paved or unpaved roads, or driving across bridges that look like they're about to crumble beneath you!
Our "hotel" was not exactly very nice and we didn't have air conditioning or anything, but the location of it was absolutely gorgeous... There were monkeys, sloths, birds, and iguanas hanging out in the trees all around us.
On the 28th we woke up early so we could go to the National Park, and we went out for breakfast at a restaurant called "Anaconda".... It was really exciting because we experienced an earthquake!!! I thought that was so awesome... How often do you travel to a foreign country like Costa Rica and happen to have an earthquake while you're there?
We spent most of the day at the National Park and I took a gazillion photos.... then we went to the beach within the park and it was so amazing... It reminded me of Jurassic Park, minus the t-rex We were attacked by giant waves and my sister and I had all these huge fish jumping around us, which led a pelican our way to dive into the water about 2 feet away!
Of course on the beach outside of the National Park there were people selling things to tourists.... WELLLL I came across the most BEAUTIFUL handmade dragon box I've ever seen in my life! I saw the man who made it making other things, but I bought it from the most hilarious guy named Johan who couldn't speak English except to quote the price... He was a little odd because I was speaking Spanish to him, but when he answered he did it in gestures and noises rather than words.... But he was HILARIOUS... and box is SO GORGEOUS! It has a huge dragon head on the top, a cobra on the front, bulbs and ferns around it, 2 large amethyst crystals as "handles", moonstones for eyes, and a large green stone in the very front.... I'll probably post of a picture of it someday...
ANYWAY.... I went to San Jose again on Friday and we swam and had a really fun night for New Year's Eve... we partied hardy and visited a coffee plantation. That was awesome because the driver that took us there could only say a few sentences in English and so we told stories to each other in Spanish and talked about the area and about the Columbian drug cartel... haha. It was great... and I really improved my Spanish over the course of that week. I had completely fluent coversations with the locals and I loooooved it!
Anyway, I took 950+ photos so I have to sort through them which will take a LONG time... But I loved Costa Rica so much that I've already begun researching the steps I need to take in order to move there after graduation.
Definitely the best vacation of my life...
Our "hotel" was not exactly very nice and we didn't have air conditioning or anything, but the location of it was absolutely gorgeous... There were monkeys, sloths, birds, and iguanas hanging out in the trees all around us.
On the 28th we woke up early so we could go to the National Park, and we went out for breakfast at a restaurant called "Anaconda".... It was really exciting because we experienced an earthquake!!! I thought that was so awesome... How often do you travel to a foreign country like Costa Rica and happen to have an earthquake while you're there?
We spent most of the day at the National Park and I took a gazillion photos.... then we went to the beach within the park and it was so amazing... It reminded me of Jurassic Park, minus the t-rex We were attacked by giant waves and my sister and I had all these huge fish jumping around us, which led a pelican our way to dive into the water about 2 feet away!
Of course on the beach outside of the National Park there were people selling things to tourists.... WELLLL I came across the most BEAUTIFUL handmade dragon box I've ever seen in my life! I saw the man who made it making other things, but I bought it from the most hilarious guy named Johan who couldn't speak English except to quote the price... He was a little odd because I was speaking Spanish to him, but when he answered he did it in gestures and noises rather than words.... But he was HILARIOUS... and box is SO GORGEOUS! It has a huge dragon head on the top, a cobra on the front, bulbs and ferns around it, 2 large amethyst crystals as "handles", moonstones for eyes, and a large green stone in the very front.... I'll probably post of a picture of it someday...
ANYWAY.... I went to San Jose again on Friday and we swam and had a really fun night for New Year's Eve... we partied hardy and visited a coffee plantation. That was awesome because the driver that took us there could only say a few sentences in English and so we told stories to each other in Spanish and talked about the area and about the Columbian drug cartel... haha. It was great... and I really improved my Spanish over the course of that week. I had completely fluent coversations with the locals and I loooooved it!
Anyway, I took 950+ photos so I have to sort through them which will take a LONG time... But I loved Costa Rica so much that I've already begun researching the steps I need to take in order to move there after graduation.
Definitely the best vacation of my life...