Viva la Vida

Our plan for when we woke up was to go to the beach, again. So, with our belongings still damp with salt water, we piled onto the bus to Manuel Antonio, a different beach from yesterday. We were hoping to do about an hour of hiking followed by about an hour of swimming, though we were leaning towards staying out of the water since yesterday's beach experience was still soaked through our swimsuits.

Once we got there, after a long walk through the forest, we reached the beach, which was absolutely gorgeous and pristine. There was no way we were going to miss out on the opportunity to swim on this beach. The waves were calm, and the point at which they tended to break was close to shore, allowing us to essentially play in completely calm waters.

Too little time passed before our group was called together to start heading back. We only had an hour or so there, which was a shame. The group that went on a hike told us we should have gone on the hike, though we adamantly told them they should have gone swimming.

Just as we were about to leave, a pack of wild monkeys and a couple raccoons came out of the forest and started to steal beach dwellers' food and belongings. They were really close to us to the point where if we wanted to we could touch them. A guide popped up and started telling us a little bit about some of them. One that we found was sick, probably from cancer. This occurred because he was exposed to too much flashes from cameras, which make the monkey go blind. The experience was very surreal and cool. The monkeys acted very human-like, and it was interesting to see them in their natural habitat – in a way it actually made them more real.

After another shower and lunch, we were off to return to Heredia.

From the dolphin tour yesterday, we were dropped off at the beach. The waves were high because of the recent storm, and the beach was extremely rocky. Regardless, Emily, Greg and I braved the rocks to find a sandbar that was out a little deeper into the ocean. Emily, who had water shoes at some point even gave me a piggy-back ride to avoid the stinging of the rocks. We spent a majority of our time jumping the waves.

After going home and washing off, and washing off all of our stuff as everything was soaking wet, we went to have dinner at El Avión, a restaurant in a plane. The plane they used was a WWII cargo plane that got shot down in Nicaragua, and in the year 2000, the restaurant bought the remnants for $3000 to remodel into the restaurant. It was hard to imagine when I first heard of it, but indeed, it was an army green plane sitting on the side of the mountain. Under the wings is a further extension of the restaurant, which is where we ate our meal for the evening.

The early riser catches a glimpse of a dolphin, or so we hoped as we grouped by the buses waiting to take us to the port to sail off in search of dolphins. As we drove alongside the port, we spotted a boat with a slide coming off of it. Cries arose from our group of, “A slide? Please, please, please let that be our boat!” And as we were directed onto our home for the next few hours, indeed, the boat with the slide was to be ours.

The boat was great. We were served lunch and snacks on it and it had a great front. This front had these mesh nets stretched over the water in front of the boat so that you could lay down. I spent most of my time on the boat in these nets on my stomach with my head towards the oncoming wind, mesmerized by the water.

Soon, we stopped for snorkeling in a little inset on the coast of an island. As we donned the provided goggles and fins, we excitedly jumped into the water with saltines in our hands to feed the fishes. Unfortunately, we weren't on any sort of coral reef or anything and were just in the middle of water. There were no fishes to be seen until we released our precious crackers, at which point blue and yellow striped fishes began to whirl around us. At some point, I swam away from the group a little bit so that I wasn't bumping against my peers and released my saltines. The fishes were right in front of my face and it was quite entertaining. If I stuck my finger out, they would think it was food and bite it.

Once we got back to the boat, we finally got to play with the slide. You lay down on it with your feet first and there's a sharp drop that sends you flying over the ocean some feet behind the boat. Afterwards, people started experimenting with how they went down. Everyone swore by the method that involved laying on your back and going into the water head first, and once I tried it, I swore by it too. Going in this way allowed your face to avoid the water, though more often than not, your swim suit bottoms tried to avoid their rightful place around your waist.

Once we got back on the boat, we rode around for a little bit, but the weather wasn't conducive to sailing, which was necessary to find dolphins since this way the motor doesn't scare them away. As a result, we didn't have the opportunity to view the animals we came for, though usually this company is known for finding dolphins. Overall, the boat itself and its luxuries were perfect, but the activities that we did could be improved.

After our long bus ride into Manuel Antonio yesterday, we finally arrived at the five star hotel Olivia had been endlessly telling us about. It was rainy and foggy, so we couldn't really get a good feel for the general positive atmosphere for the place, but still we were a little bit disappointed. The rooms were less impressive than the ones at Monteverde. Furthermore, though my room looks out onto a general area of the hotel, most of our peer's rooms look at the porch of a room across from them.

We've mostly attributed this to the different atmosphere of the hotel. Monteverde had a much more serene feel to it, while El Parador, the hotel we're staying at, is much more of a tropical atmosphere. You can see the ocean from some parts of the hotel which is nice. There are also lots of statues and fountains around the hotel, and their pools look nice. Of course, I understand how lucky I am to be staying at a hotel of this quality, but we've been told that this hotel was supposed to be so much better than the last one we stayed at, which was amazing. So its simply a result of high expectations.

We also went ahead and ate dinner at the hotel yesterday, which was of acceptable quality. Again, nothing stupendous for a five star hotel, but not bad. Afterwards, Emily, Brandon, and Greg congregated in our room for some card games. We passed the night with Euchre, President, and Durak, and before long it was time for bed, and though Julia and I couldn't figure out how to turn of one of the lights in our room for a while, we finally did get to sleep.

This morning, the majority of our group headed out to see the Harry Potter Premiere. Greg, Emily, Brandon and I, however, headed over to downtown Heredia at 8:00am to see what entertainment we could find. And of course, the first entertainment we found was pigeons, for which we spent half an hour looking to buy bread. Finally succeeding we allowed ourselves to be fascinated by the swarms of pigeons that flew at us at the first drop of a crumb.

To continue our morning we made our way down to the market, this time with the intent of purchasing some sort of food. We began with mamones chinos, this strangely spiky fruit that we'd seen our peers eating for lunch. It's small enough to comfortably fit in your hand and is of a dark red/pink color. We bought a quarter pound (about 6 mamones chinos) and each of us cracked one open. On the inside was something that looked similar to a lychee. There is a seed on the inside around which you have to eat, and it is absolutely delicious. It is such an intensely sweet and soft flavor, if that makes sense.

Our next round was blackberries, or moros. In the market they sell this mixture of small just ripe blackberries and unripe ones. Once we finally got to try them, after doing a good rinse and such, they were extremely tart, but regardless tasted like candy. Emily went on to purchase a mango and avocado. The mango was essentially butchered so that Emily could eat it and the avocado was eaten hummingbird style. Emily poked a hole in it and started digging it out with her fingers. She also bought a guanava, but when she broke it open it wasn't yet ripe. We knew we were safe eating these though, as we'd talked to our host parents before hand to check. We also purchased these sweet, hard circles from a bakery for our snack. They were very similar to the Russian Bubliki I love so much (if that's the right name for them?)

In general, the food here has been amazing and unique. This morning I tried this spaghetti egg pancake food. I think it was essentially spaghetti with an egg omelet around it to make a sort of pancake. On my first night I tried this amazing black soup with egg and last night in particular was delicioso. It was a sort of yuca dish. Yuca is a lot like potato and it was this sort of lasagna like dish, but without the pasta part, leaving just yuca, meat, and cheese. As for the drinks, just like Mexico, most everything is freshly made. Ice cream is equally amazing, I've especially come to love blackberry (moro) ice cream. I've tried strawberry juice, guanavana juice, among many others, and there will be many more to come.

After our new experiences with the children's museum, we finally went to our first traditional museum – El Museo Nacional. The museum began with a walk through a butterfly room. Though it wasn't as impressive as the one in the InBioParque, it was still beautiful. In the InBioParque, there were a lot of butterflies in a very small amount of space. Here, there was a large amount of space which was tastefully covered with vegetation and a relatively small amount of butterflies, which made encountering one that much more special.

As we moved through the museum, there were various artifacts from Costa Rican history and their descriptions, classic museum design. Apparently, throughout Costa Rica, round balls of cement like material have been found in all different sizes, ranging from being the size of me to being small enough for me to pick up without exerting too much effort. They have yet to definitively figure out the purpose of these balls. There are many theories that fly around. One suggests that they were just for decoration. Other theories suggest that they were used as a method of keeping track of time and date, which was important for growing crops and keeping track of the rainy seasons and such. Often they were found arranged in lines to make angles or other formations.

Once we got to the basement of the museum, the style changed. In the basement was various rooms that the army of Costa Rica used (back when they still had an army). Though I don't remember for sure, apparently the building used to be some sort of headquarters for the leader of Costa Rica, and the army stayed in the basement. There was a hallway with small rooms stemming off. There wasn't a door covering them and the graffiti on the walls was the original graffiti from the soldiers who stayed there. These rooms were used for people they held hostage or for soldiers that needed to be punished. They would only have a wooden box for a bed and few other luxuries. Another room contained the bathrooms of the army men, which at some point were built over to display more artifacts in a museum that owned the building before El Museo Nacional. Another room involved the cafeteria and another the showers. Just a walk back through the butterfly room and a step over a couple of the famous balls and we were off to school for the day.

Another life goal has been accomplished. I finally got to be inside a bubble. This morning we visited El Museo de los Ninos, or The Children's Museum. This museum is inside a building that was once a prison that fell into disuse after a war. There was talk about knocking the whole building down until the idea came along of turning it into something society needed – a children's museum. The museum presents information about almost everything. You can find information that ranges from how a body works ranging to how light works. Of course, there are also exhibits that are more purely just for enjoyment.

One exhibit that caught my eye was the bubble exhibit, of course. This is where I finally received my experience of being inside a bubble. There was a circle in which you stood and pulled up a metal circle around you that had been dipped in bubble fluid. There was also large bubble wands that allowed us to create the biggest and longest bubbles I've ever seen, which is something else I've always wanted to do – make huge bubbles.

In another room, there was a wall onto which you'd lean and turn on the light. The wall was glow in the dark and after a minute or so, you would turn off the light and your shadow would be semi-permanently stuck on the wall, until the next light application. We called these magic shadows. Another exhibit featured a house that was on an angle with the ground. It produced odd, dizzy feelings in everyone since our brains told us we were supposed to be standing up straight, but we had to stand on an angle to actually keep our balance. It was very cool.

All the Costa Rican woman here wear these original hair clips that sort of work like a ponytail holder and sort of work like one of those large hair clips. I finally found one for 50 cents at The Children's Museum, so I got it. But I think its smaller and more fragile than normal, so I'm still on the lookout, but I definitely like how it looks. Whatever it takes to make me feel more Tica!