Well Again

Most of you know I felt pretty deathly ill yesterday, but I miraculously slept through the night and woke up feeling almost completely fine again! The only thing was I still didn´t have a huge appetite today (but better) and was a little out of breath traipsing around campus. So I´m glad I didn´t have to end up going to the doctor. Thanks for you prayers, I am feeling good now.

Ok, now for the weekend you have all been waiting to hear/see about....

View on our way to Manuel Antonio

Hard to see, but a huge flock of mackaws (kind of like parrots) flying by our vehicle

Beach at Manuel Antonio! Manuel Antonio is a national park here, and the beach was very pretty, although it was reallllly touristy.

A toon of these little monkies! Swinging right above you, to and fro, everywhere you look! They were cute and fast.

Me, Jill, Teresa, Nicole, Amber & Joanna

Tere y yo

``Nother shot of the beach

If you don´t know Spanish...this is not a happy sign :) Do not swim in this zone because it is contaminated with feces! :( It was so halarious because we had to take a short, sketchy boat ride across the marsh...I won´t tell you what we called it....and if we were a little off-kelter, the boat would almost tip over. It was pretty comical though.

Afterwards we went to our hotel about an hour away, ate lunch, then hit the beach right away. Unfortunately it wasn´t all that sunny (it was about 4) but still warm enough to body surf! Teresa and I body surfed for a long while, until the waves were so big that it knocked us under. So fun. And salty.

Then our little group went beachcombing....and we found a gazillion pretty pink and purple shells, little sand dollars, etc. Some of you might be lucky enough to receive one :)

Sunset at the beach

Saw some horses on our rural walk back to the hotel

House. One of my fave parts on our walk home was three little triplet girls-all with black pigtails- playing and giggling out in the front yard, playing hide and seek. When we walked by, their mom called them in and they all looked at us suspiciously. Probably didn´t help that I told Jill to take a pic of them :) This is the pura vida life!

 A few shots from dinner time photo shoot--a bunch of girls together, that`s what you get!

Good times!

Unfortunately, I regret not going to the karaoke night later--since it was in el campo (the country) it would have been a small amount of people--thus safer and funner--and there were a lot of good stories, but..oh well. At least I got plenty of rest for SNORKELING the next day!

Amber, Jill and I rode on a separate smaller boat with the busdrivers, which was awesome. It took 2 hours to ride to the island, and it was so heavenly. Eventually, we got on the snorkeling boat and started snorkeling. At first I was really nervous, but it ended up being really low key, and AMAZINGGGG!!! It is one of my favorite things ever! There actually wasn´t a ton to see in the areas we went, but I did see different varieties of pretty fish, swimming all around me, and it was cool to see the the big rocks and bottom of the ocean. Oh, and also I got stung by a jellyfish on my arm. I didn´t see it but it stung like NONE OTHER and I was so confused because I couldn´t really see anything at the time. Now you can´t see anything, but there were a bunch of bumps and my whole elbow was swollen. But I guess I´m still alive.

We only spent about 45 minutes snorkeling, and then we headed back to shore to eat lunch.

Delicious lunch!

Awful picture, but there were literally MILLIONS of these crabs scuttling around everywhere! Blue, purple, pink, green. One of the guides made me pick one up so he could take a pic of me with it, but of course it started to pinch me which resulted in high decibal screaming. And therefore, no picture of me+crab.

 Friends

 A crazy girl :)

The boat ride back...HIGHLIGHT OF THE TRIP SO FAR!!!

First of all...

hello, humpback whales!!! We had seen a little of them on the way up, and the drivers were nice enough to steer towards them and wait to see one surface up, but on the way back we saw one closer up, including the whole tail coming out of the water! It was soo amazing. Then my absolute favorite part...

we saw a couple of dolphins jumping out of the water about 100 meters way from us...

and then a whole HERD of them started surrounding the boat! I was so bummed I didn´t get my camera out in time, but from this pic you can see how close they were! We could´ve touched them! 

They did some synchronized jumping, and you could tell they were playing with us. My fave part was that it wasn´t a dolphin watching excursion, but we just encountered them "randomly"! Jill, Amber and I couldn´t stop shrieking and saying "OH MY GOSH!!! You just had to have been there.

THEN...

the biggest torrential downpour I had ever seen! It was hailing and raining so much the driver could hardly see! And mind you...no cover of any kind! We were more wet than just coming out of a shower. Seriously. Eventually, after we got to shore, we got out, and the ocean water was warm...like JACUZZI warm! That was fun. Then, still downpouring, we dropped our carry on backpacks (soaked in and out..and miraculously, those of you who know me well, my camera STILL LIVES) on the bus at the rental place and then trekked back to the hotel. It was absolutely one of the funnest days ever! 

A little example of the precipitation

Another funny story from the trip was one of our stops on the way back to San Jose (we always stop at stores so we can get stuff) One of the girls got this GROSS candy fruit thing, which looked kind of like an apple, was red and really sugary on the outside. Some of us were on the bus waiting. She tried it and had to leave the bus to spit it out. Well, we all had to try it- every person that entered the bus had to try it, and it was so funny because we all ended up leaving the bus and spitting it out, even they didn´t see the other people doing it. Even our guide, Hector, said "Que cosa mas fea!" (that is the sickest thing!) and when we asked him what it was, he said "Ni idea!" (I have no clue!). On the bus rides, there are always 70-80s American music playing. On the ride back, the busdrivers were halarious and would always turn around when they heard a song from karaoke, and say like "remember? this is the one blah blah blah." 

Also, you know you´re in Costa Rica when the drivers make a stop specifically so we can buy alcohol, and put it in the freezer up front. And when they invite you to a karaoke night. LOL. Oh boy.

Good times.

Well, that´s about it for now....it was a great excursion and I heard today that in Monteverde (our last excursion) we will be zip lining! I´ve been zip lining...but not INTENSE zip lining and through a friggin´ rain forest! I´m scared but excited and know it will be good times.

P.S> My life verses, in Ps. 73 came in handy yesterday as I was on my death bed especially as I was mediating on this part....¨My health may fail and my spirit may grow weak, but the Lord remains the strength of my heart; He is mine forever."

And Milly, my wonderful cousin and friend, sent with me a little note for each week with a verse and little message, and I confess I opened this week´s early.....sorry Mills...but it was just what I needed!

Anyways.....got to get going now, but oh a few more things:

ºon friday our class is going to San Jose to the market and National Museum. My teacher rocks!

ºMy ukulele is bought! One of Maricruz´s brothers got it and I just have to pay him...only like $24! I am so stoked

Ok, well...Pura Vida and thanks again for your prayers!

Love,

Susan