Papagayo

Last week I spent the entire week in Guanacaste with Cody. We stayed in the Gulf of Papagayo, at an all inclusive resort, Allegro Papagayo. Anyone who is planning on visiting Costa Rica one day, I HIGHLY recommend this place!! It has a beautiful view, the staff is absolutely amazing, and it was both kid and adult friendly! It is located on a black sand beach, which makes it even cooler. The first few days we were there we just relaxed by the beach and at the pool, it was nice to get to spend quality time together. On Thursday we took a trip to Arenal, a volcano that is about 3 hours away. We got to ride a boat on Lake Arenal, and then we did a rainforest hike near the volcano. Arenal is one of the more active volcanoes here in Costa Rica, so we weren't able to get too close, plus it was cloudy so we never got to see the top. The hike was really nice though, we got to see a lot of wildlife, and the best part were these little ants that were EVERYWHERE carrying pieces of leaves back to their hill. On Friday we did some more relaxing at the hotel. It was a national holiday (The Annexation of Guanacaste) so the hotel was sooo crowded, but they had so many Costa Rican activities, and of course delicious traditional Costa Rican food! Saturday we took a boat to Coco Beach to do some souvenir shopping. Our guide was awesome, he was from Coco beach and he was so proud of his town he wanted to show us everything! Sunday was our last day, and by far the best day! We did an Aqua Combo with the hotel which included snorkeling, fishing, and a bbq on the beach. While snorkeling we got to see quite a few starfish, and a bunch of puffer fish. Our guide picked up a puffer fish and let us hold it, it was the neatest thing ever! Fishing was a lot of fun as well because it was "Costa Rican style" with just a spool of line, no fishing rod or anything! Cody and I didn't catch anything, but the other couple that was with us caught a little fish, and the guide caught a larger one (not sure of the name, but I'll post a picture below). The bbq on the beach was nice, minus the Coatimundis that were everywhere (remember the animals from the Volcano Irazu?…these were the same ones) After we ate we got to go into a little cave, it was so cool to stand there and wait for the water to rush in and out from the other side! Having to say bye on Monday was a sad day…Coming home to depressing, rainy San Jose was not something I wanted to do, at all!

First day, first picture

The view from our room.

1023, our room number. My cousin's and goddaughter's birthday day, and the day that I took, and passed my first teacher cert. test! 

Our first night there. 

A cool looking bridge we found one day while exploring

Butterflies were everywhere! We saw a glass winged butterfly on our hike, but didn't get a picture.

Iguanas were everywhere too! Cody wants one  now. 

Every night the hotel put on a show, they were nice :)

another iguana, near our hotel room. 

Such a beautiful view!

I held a monkeys hand! They also crawled all over us one day, but we didn't have our cameras with us so we didn't get pictures.  

A monkey holding Cody's hand

Feeding the monkeys that were outside out hotel

A sloth!! We saw him on our way home from Arenal, probably the best part of the day! 

Going to dinner and the show one night. 

During the traditional Costa Rican show

A bright green iguana in Coco Beach, all the other ones were brown. 

A Costa Rican squirrel 

A view from the top of the cave. 

On top of the cave! 

Terrible picture, but this was the Costa Rican fishing! 

Coco Beach behind us

Monkey Face Island

The fish that the guide caught. 

inside the cave, the water was so strong! 

On lake Arenal

 Arenal Volcano (it was way too cloudy)

About to hike at Arenal

In the hot springs after hiking

Puerto Viejo Weekend

The following weekend after visiting the volcano, I went to Puerto Viejo with Courtney (remember her?) and two of her friends from here home stay. We left San Jose at 6am Saturday morning, and arrived around 11. The drive was absolutely beautiful, but long! When we got there we couldn't check into our hostel yet, so we had lunch at a little sandwich shop downtown. When we finally got to our hostel, it was nothing but interesting, to say the least! We stayed at Rockin J's that only offers hammocks, and tents! So of course, for $7 dollars, we slept in hammocks that night! After checking in, we changed into our swimsuits, locked up our bags, and headed to the beach! We went to a close beach, but it was filled with coral, so we decided to rent bikes and head to Punta Uva, which was suggested by the bike guy. It was soooo far, about 7 km, but when we made it, it was worth it! The beach was not crowded at all because it was the day Costa Rica played in the quarter finals, so everyone was watching the game. On the way back, we ended up stopping at a bar to watch the end of the game. It was a bittersweet moment when Costa Rica lost. The entire bar was sooo happy at first, then once they lost the entire bar got quiet and nobody really said anything, then all of a sudden a lady stood up and started cheering and thanking the team for making it as far as they did and the whole place joined her. After eating lunch we finally made it back to the hotel and just hung out there and played games and talked. Later that night they had a fire show which was really cool! The next day Courtney and her friends went back home on the 11am bus, and I wasn't ready to leave so I stayed until 4pm. I ended up renting another bike to venture out to the Jaguar Sanctuary, only to find out that it was closed on Sunday :(  I ended up going to the beach that was near the hostel and just sat and watched crabs run around in and out of their little homes.

Volcano Irazu

A few weekends ago (6/28) I went to Cartago with my friend Charlie. Many of you know Pilar (or remember me talking about her on here) well Charlie is her nephew who lives here in San Jose. He took me to the movies here one night, and we decided that the next day we would travel to Cartago to see the Volcano Irazu, and also to a famous church to see "la negrita" which you can read about here. It was a pretty quick trip, and it was a lot of fun. Instead of writing about it here, I will attach pictures and describe them as I go :)

 This is the crater of the volcano. It used to be filled in this weird green lagoon type stuff, but not anymore. 

 The crater stats: Depth: 300meters Diameter 1,050meters

Another picture of the crater. It was really cool. 

Random green plant life everywhere around the crater, it was the strangest thing! 

Coatimundis that we came across. Charlie was feeding them crackers. 

They were so cute! 

The volcano from a higher viewing point.

It was so large!

Took this for my Nana. She loves L.L. Bean

This was the viewing tower we went up in to see the view!

 Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles. On August 2nd, people from all over the country walk to this church to give thanks to the virgin. I can't wait to see it!

 It was really pretty, my grandma would love it. We were able to go inside, but they were having mass so I didn't take any pictures. 

Under the church where "la negrita" is, they have all these glass cases with different things in them. This case was arms and baby charms. People put them here for healing from the virgin when something is wrong with a certain part of their body, etc. 

The Story

The famous statue.

It was pretty small, but neat! 

Here is another case that people bring things to put in. 

These two held trophies and things, giving thanks to the virgin for watching/helping them through events in their lives. 

This one was filled with animals, I'm assuming sick, or animals that have passed away. In total, there were probably 15 of these cases with so many things in them, it was neat to see how a certain religion and population respond to things.