It's March!

I can’t believe it is already March!! Let me fill you in on the past two weeks.

After the adventures of Tortuguero, I had a “normal” week. I say normal because its so different only having three days of class. Thursday was a work day, and then on Friday a group of us went to Ojo de Agua. It is a small water park with 3 or 4 different pools, a restaurant, and two platforms of different heights to jump off of. We all jumped off the top, and when the Tico guys saw us jump, they miraculously had the courage to jump off too! It was quite funny.

We all enjoyed the sun, and after coming back, I went to bed! On Saturday, we met around 8 o’clock and took the bus to San Jose. We walked around and explored a bit, then went to the Puntarenas bus terminal. It was very crowded, because everyone, ourselves included, decided to attend the Carnival over the weekend. Luckily, they had plenty of extra buses running. The bus to Puntarenas took about 1 hour and 45 minutes. The town was full of people when we got there, and we had fun exploring the market, listening the music, and just people watching. The market was special because it normally is not on the beach – two cruise ships were docked at Puntarenas, so the market was for them. Surprisingly, the prices were comparable to the markets in san jose. I bought a bracelet and a t-shirt. It was funny buying souvenirs with colones because most people were using US dollars, and therefore, the vendors had trouble making change for me. It just shows how big of a part tourism plays in Costa Rica.

We spent all day exploring, then went to dinner as a group. After dinner, we caught part of the parade before we had to leave. The parade was a good example of Tico Time. The parade was suppose to start at 5, and we did not see any signs of life until 6:45 pm. We enjoyed the few groups we saw, then caught the bus back to San Joaquin. On the way back, the bus stopped at the airport. Our tica moms had told us that it was easy to get off there, so we disembarked and asked around. We caught one of the many buses to Heredia, and it dropped us off right in San Joaquin! We saved about 4 dollars each and over an hour of travelling.

The next week passed by rather normally. I went out to ladies night for the first time, and all the drinks for the ladies were free. It was definitely an experience, and I got carded for the first time ever. We got home at 1am, and for a girl who loves sleep, it was interesting. When I woke up around 9am, my mom teased me saying “good afternoon” and asking me if I brought the bread for breakfast. they have a saying that if you are going to be out super late, you might as well stop at the bakery when it opens. 

Thursday and Friday were homework days. In history, we had to read and summarize the early history of central America by writing two papers, so it was important to get started on those. On Friday I experienced my first ever Costa Rican downpour! It was crazy to see the grey sheets of water, and the sound was incredible. The water was welcome here in the central valley. Right now, we are in the peak of the dry season, so any water is wonderful. I also loved how it helped control my allergies by batting down the dust.

Saturday, March 1^st rolled around!!!! Its crazy! Anyway, 4 of met at 11 o’clock to explore the town of Sarchí. Sarchí is known as the artisan capital of Costa Rica, and also known for their furniture stores. We took a bus to Alajuela, then Alajuela to Sarchí. We got off on the outskirts, then explored and shopped our way into the heart of the town. One of the main artistic products of Sarchí are their painted oxcarts. We saw a shop where we could watch people painting – the amount of work that goes into one ox cart is truly incredible.

In the center of the city we found the world’s largest ox-cart. See the picture:

We enjoyed exploring, and then caught the buses back. We arrived in San Joaquín at 7pm. I ate dinner, sat with my tico family, and monica read over my second history paper. All in all, a relatively calm evening.

On Sunday I woke up, went to church, ran, and went to the gym. I wrote this blog post, and got caught up for homework and ready for the week. Update you all soon!