Amar la Vida
(Quite Rough)
I've been procrastinating a lot this week. I've been planning to send in a poem of mine to a competition and still haven't, I've needed to write this blog update and also I've wanted to send some letters back home. I really need to be keeping up with a post at least every two weeks...
Anyways, the weekend before the last, I went down to Jaco Beach in Puntarenas (a different province from the one I live in, Guanacaste) with my AFS Californian friend, Anna. I took the bus on Friday from Liberia to where she lives in Puntarenas, a town called El Roble. The bus ride was around 3 hours and was really a complete and utter fail. I got off three stops too early because I'm an idiot and I think the bus driver knew I got off early and so he was beeping his horn at me but I was too oblivious to realize that he was trying to help. In the end, I ignored the yelling and beeping and went on to call my friend just to find out I was in the wrong place. My stubborness totally paid off in the end clearly (not) as I could have just made sure by asking someone but my brain was telling me "we don't need help, this will all play out fine, we know where we're going"; while knowing that my sense of direction is horrific. Admitting defeat, I got a taxi (more money spent-definitely travel with me if you want your bank account empty and your trips taking a longer time) to El Roble and met Anna where we went back to her host family's house. I met her host mum who was super sweet and it seemed Anna was really happy with her family which is great!
Eventually, we made our way down to the city of Puntarenas to catch our bus to Jaco Beach. Using our improved Spanish skills (embarrassingly, not noticing signs that clearly gave directions to where we wanted to go), we managed to find the hidden bus station for Jaco and made our way to the well-known surfing beach. Once we arrived, we went to our hotel which was right by the sea. It was probably one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed in. Our room was huge and we had a kitchen and appliances to make food as the hotel didn't serve meals. That first night, we pretty much just hung out at the beach and walked around the main street of Jaco seeing what we could do the next day. We found that EVERYBODY spoke English. A nice break to the constant Spanish.
On Saturday, we got up early and made plans to go quad-biking One of the most exciting things I've done out here... Our guide was great. He was from Texas and had moved out here about a year ago with hardly any money, basically moving on a whim. He'd never been here before. He loves it here though and said that the living is just so easy and stress-free. Although he doesn't get paid much (the minimum wage here is incredibly low-$2 or so), he has no extreme want to return back to the US. I must admit, I will definitely miss the stress-free environment but on the other hand, I sometimes feel it's too much. Back to quad-biking... It was fantastic. The views were amazing and it was such a thrill to drive the machines up hills and over boulders etc etc. I would recommend it to anybody who comes out here, however it was a bit pricey... Something my mum definitely questioned when seeing the bill hahaha. After that, we walked around Jaco for a while again and went to the beach. No sunburn for me this time!! On Sunday, we went shopping and tried surfing which resulted in tons of laughter. We then we returned to Puntarenas where I had to stay at Anna's house for the night as I had missed my bus for Liberia. The next day, I got up early and made the 3 hour trip back to my host city.
I've been procrastinating a lot this week. I've been planning to send in a poem of mine to a competition and still haven't, I've needed to write this blog update and also I've wanted to send some letters back home. I really need to be keeping up with a post at least every two weeks...
Anyways, the weekend before the last, I went down to Jaco Beach in Puntarenas (a different province from the one I live in, Guanacaste) with my AFS Californian friend, Anna. I took the bus on Friday from Liberia to where she lives in Puntarenas, a town called El Roble. The bus ride was around 3 hours and was really a complete and utter fail. I got off three stops too early because I'm an idiot and I think the bus driver knew I got off early and so he was beeping his horn at me but I was too oblivious to realize that he was trying to help. In the end, I ignored the yelling and beeping and went on to call my friend just to find out I was in the wrong place. My stubborness totally paid off in the end clearly (not) as I could have just made sure by asking someone but my brain was telling me "we don't need help, this will all play out fine, we know where we're going"; while knowing that my sense of direction is horrific. Admitting defeat, I got a taxi (more money spent-definitely travel with me if you want your bank account empty and your trips taking a longer time) to El Roble and met Anna where we went back to her host family's house. I met her host mum who was super sweet and it seemed Anna was really happy with her family which is great!
Eventually, we made our way down to the city of Puntarenas to catch our bus to Jaco Beach. Using our improved Spanish skills (embarrassingly, not noticing signs that clearly gave directions to where we wanted to go), we managed to find the hidden bus station for Jaco and made our way to the well-known surfing beach. Once we arrived, we went to our hotel which was right by the sea. It was probably one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed in. Our room was huge and we had a kitchen and appliances to make food as the hotel didn't serve meals. That first night, we pretty much just hung out at the beach and walked around the main street of Jaco seeing what we could do the next day. We found that EVERYBODY spoke English. A nice break to the constant Spanish.
On Saturday, we got up early and made plans to go quad-biking One of the most exciting things I've done out here... Our guide was great. He was from Texas and had moved out here about a year ago with hardly any money, basically moving on a whim. He'd never been here before. He loves it here though and said that the living is just so easy and stress-free. Although he doesn't get paid much (the minimum wage here is incredibly low-$2 or so), he has no extreme want to return back to the US. I must admit, I will definitely miss the stress-free environment but on the other hand, I sometimes feel it's too much. Back to quad-biking... It was fantastic. The views were amazing and it was such a thrill to drive the machines up hills and over boulders etc etc. I would recommend it to anybody who comes out here, however it was a bit pricey... Something my mum definitely questioned when seeing the bill hahaha. After that, we walked around Jaco for a while again and went to the beach. No sunburn for me this time!! On Sunday, we went shopping and tried surfing which resulted in tons of laughter. We then we returned to Puntarenas where I had to stay at Anna's house for the night as I had missed my bus for Liberia. The next day, I got up early and made the 3 hour trip back to my host city.
Yesterday, I went and helped out at a childeren's play school (kind of like kindergarten) in the poor part of Liberia. The houses there are made out of metal boards and cheap materials. They're not so much "huts" but are poor quality homes that get incredibly hot during the day. So I helped out and played games with the little kids who lived in the nearby houses. There was one girl who looked very North American with her blond hair and blue eyes (Here, people girls with blonde hair are often called "machas"). It's surprising because you wouldn't normally see a girl with these looks in that kind of environment (not being racist, it's just the truth around here). When my mum picked me up, I asked her about it and she went on to say that the girl is probably a prostitute's child (harsh truth). It all made sense in my head. A man probably visited from overseas and had come to "party" at the beaches in Costa Rica and ended up hiring a prostitute who, in the end, got pregnant. My mum said that this is a common occurrence here as groups of men come to the Costa Rica looking for a weekend of "fun". With prostitution in Costa Rica, many girls get trafficked into the system at very young ages. It works like any other country, and girls are picked up off the street to be hired by men. Girls are in vulnerable positions anywhere they go. Men look for girls and in some clubs here, they provide "catalogues" of girls for men to look at. It's sick and disgusting. There's also a lot of drug trafficking here from the Columbian and Mexican cartels.
On a lighter note, today I raced one of my host mum's workers, Jerry. He's 20 years old, is originally from Nicaragua, and has worked for my mum and grandmother for around 3 years (I believe). We raced 200 meters and I wasn't able to finish the race because of a searing pain in my foot. The other day, I dropped a glass which resulted in a cut on my foot and my room looking a murder scene... the cut decided to reopen today and so Jerry and I have planned to set a rematch next month. People had betted on me and I let them down! I've gotta win. Apparently, my host uncle bet 200 that I would win ahaha. This is a pretty serious race.. I have a training schedule and everything ready. I start it Monday. I'll keep you guys updated.
;)
I go to Nicaragua tomorrow for the weekend! New country! New people! Supposedly I'm going out dancing with my older cousin and her friends... Time to test out my dance skills again. #Fail.
<3 Thanks for reading!
Really quick update so quite rough :s
