The past 3 weeks

Sorry everyone!! It has been a really long time since I updated this. I wrote a whole post last week and then it all got deleted and I haven't had the energy to re-write it.

I leave for my second spring break tomorrow and I have a lot of stuff to do before I leave so I'm gonna keep it short!

HILLARY AND MAHILA VISITED!
I was so so blessed to have two of my BFFs from home come to visit  me during their Spring Break. It was wonderful! We went to Montezuma and did some awesome cliff jumping into waterfalls and stuff and had awesome friend times. They went to La Fortuna for a couple days while I was in class and when they came back we went to La Festival Internacional de Arte in San Jose and then they left! Their time here came and went waaay too fast but I was so so so happy they came and they rated their trip a 10/10 which is all I wanted!

At the bus stop in San Jose. 

Exploring Montezuma with the best people ever

Montezuma Waterfall

Jungle beach! Playa Grande

At la FIA-saw some really cool bands from the Caribbean and from Peru. Fun timez

TEATRO NACIONAL

We went to the Nacional Theater in San Jose to see an orchestra, and then went out dancing afterwards. Both were very quintessential Latinoamerica experiences. Such a blast!! Dancing is so fun. I did a Merengue with Carlitos, our dance teacher, and was spinning around so much that I lost all recognition of space and time. Too fun.

Some chicas and Blake before the theater & dancing 

LA FORTUNALast weekend was the final planned USAC trip. We went to La Fortuna, where Arenal volcano is-it's one of the most active volcanoes in the world!

The first thing we did was go to the Baldi Hot Springs, which is basically a resort (it was on the Bachelor once) where they pump in water from the natural hot springs that are heated by the thermal activity of the volcano.
The "resort" aspect wasn't my favorite-I would have rather gone to the real deal hot river. Hill and Shmahi went there when they were in La Fortuna and said it was awesome! Can't really complain about spending all day in a 4 star resort though I suppose.

Baldi Hot Springs

The second day that we were in La Fortuna we went on a hanging bridges tour and hike around the forest that surrounds the volcano. It was suuuch a beautiful hike. The forest was so lush and beautiful and the hanging bridges were pretty sweet.

FIA

All week in San Jose was la Festival Internacional de Arte. There were concerts every night, artisans selling really beautiful stuff, and lots of cool vendors, information booths and activities. We went back for the last day of the festival and spent the day there walking around and then saw Alan Parsons at night who I had never heard of before but apparently is some classic rock guy from the 70s. 

La FIA

Me Catherine and Jacki waiting for Alan Parsons
'

OTHER THINGS

-So I'm going to the Caribbean side of CR and to Bocas del Toro, Panama until next Sunday! Very very excited. Won't be able to be reached probably until afterwards.

-My friend Miguel told me today that my Spanish has improved a lot since we first met in January! Score!!!

-I worked out with two of my guy friends here a couple days ago and STILL can barely walk from how hardcore the workout was. Might not be doing that again because walking is important.

-BUT went to yoga last night and Andres helped me stretch my legs. Yoga in Spanish makes me laugh sometimes but I don't know why.

-I have a new roommate, Jacki, because Charlie my old roommate is crazy and ended up going back to the US. Which is wonderful because she was NUTS and Jacki is normal and my friend and we trade massages (what more can you want from a roommate) and go to yoga together.

When I get back from Panama, I'm going to have less than 5 weeks left in Costa Rica. I can't believe how fast this semester went!!! I am going to be really sad to leave but I will also be really excited to see everyone at home. Danielle and I have some awesome weekends planned before then though =) =)

Ok I'll update again in a couple weeks!

Love,

Rachel

PS here is a video of Mahila jumping off of the highest waterfall we jumped off when they were here-45 feet!!! SO COOL! Really really really really cool. And scary. But safe I promise!!!!!!!!!

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UPDATE--
With lots and lots of help from my mom, I have been told that I have a "solid, in place" spot in the Department of Natural Resources in Annapolis this summer!! Only about a mile from my house, I am so excited =) Applying for internships while abroad is not fun!

Spring Break update!!

I am so sorry it has taken me such a long time to update everyone on my spring break. I have not been home very much this week so I haven't had a chance to!

So the trip was with my program, USAC. It was an optional trip that I decided to take so that I could see Nicaragua without having to worry too much about safety and planning and stuff. I'm really glad I decided to go because they planned everything really nicely-we stayed in amazing hotels-however I sometimes get anxious with too many plans so I did have to veer off and do my own thing a couple of times (usually in the form of running or hiking).

Nicaragua
Nicaragua is cool! Surprisingly quite different from Costa Rica. Quite poorer-education is not mandatory there like it is in CR, so it was strange to see kids on the streets begging for money instead of being in school. Also, people roll their R's a lot more. And they play baseball instead of futbol.

Granada
-Granada is a colonial city in Nicaragua, it is really pretty and has a lot of cool history (not all of which I understood since our tour guide spoke in all Spanish)
-Granada is beautiful-so many vibrant colors and beautiful buildings.
-We did a horse-drawn carriage ride around the city. Not my favorite thing I've ever done (the poor horses did not seem well taken care of) but we got to see the whole city.

After traveling to beaches, forests, national parks every weekend, it felt very strange to be going to a city and actually meaning to be there. But it was a fun couple of days!

Lago de Nicaragua & Volcan Masaya

-Our second day in Nicaragua, we went on a boat ride el Lago de Nicaragua, which is the biggest lake in Central America. Most of Nicaragua is comprised of the lake. It has a bunch of little islands and is surrounded by volcanoes. We saw spider monkeys on one of the islands-which means I have now seen all of they monkeys in Central America!! =)

Spider monkey!

El lago con el volcan

-After the boat trip, we went up to the top of Volcan Masaya, an active volcano near Managua. It was soooooooo cool. You can only be up there for like 30 minutes because the fumes are so bad (my mouth tasted like sulfur for the rest of the day), but it was awesome.

Hugo y Yo con el volcan

San Juan Del Sur

-We spent a day at San Juan del Sur-a reallly beautiful beach town in Nicaragua. We had a really nice day there: ate some good food, played volleyball on the beach, went on a sunset boat ride (beautiful!), and saw some awesome live Spanish folk music that night. We also made friends with some Nico orphans who were really sweet.

Buena Vista

-We returned to Costa Rica for the second half of our trip. I had never been to Guanacaste-the North Western part of Costa Rica, but I had heard it was beautiful and IT IS. We stayed in Buena Vista, an eco-lodge resort type place that was completely secluded and had amaaazing views. After a crazy few days in Nicaragua, this was incredibly refreshing.

-We spent our few days there doing so much-we horse-back rode (again, not my favorite thing) to hot springs and mud baths, did an awesome water slide through the forest, went on some great hikes, and zip-lined again.

-Buena Vista was mostly for middle-aged white people, but they opened their "sunset bar" for us at night to go dancing with the workers there. So much fun!

sweet tree! Love trees.

These chicas and I went on an amazingly beautiful hike to this waterfall

I don't have many pictures of Buena Vista-but the sunsets were incredible!

I loved being in Buena Vista. It was so relaxing but we got to do so much at the same time. 

Playa Samara

-After the trip was over, I veered from the group and met Danielle at Playa Samara to get some beach time in. SUCH a good weekend. Playa Samara has a super great vibe-fun and cute little beach town with some seriously beautiful beaches. 

-We rented bikes one day and went on a nice long ride to this totally secluded beach (apparantly Mel Gibson has a house really close) and then biked back to the main beach to catch the sunrise. 

-That night, we met some Canadian friends at our hostel. They were so funny and so much fun to hang out with. We went swimming in the ocean at night and the next day walked a pretty long way to yet another beautiful secluded beach. Hopefully we will catch up with our Canadian friends again while they travel through CR.

Beautiful beach #1

Beautiful beach #2-the one we biked too

aaamazing

Los amigos canadianos

**SIDE NOTE: On my bus ride from Liberia to Nicoya, this American girl sat next to me to ask for help traveling since she had just gotten into CR. Turns out she is from Annapolis-how crazy?!?!?!

This week
-So this week has been nice, I just got back from another super fun dance class. Can't get enough of Cumbia! And I am finally starting to get the hang of Salsa.
-Last night we went out for 2 for 1 margaritas again and then went to get sushi. We had our own private little room where we couldn't wear shoes. It was a really fun night-I am so happy with the group of friends I have made here-it's gonna be sad to leave!
-I debated even putting this on here but I know my family well and you will all ask me when I get home anyway sooo I have started seeing a Tico! I'm obviously not going to be super serious about it but he definitely makes my weekdays in Heredia more interesting than they were. And he's cute. (but please don't worry I won't fall in love and move to Costa Rica forever) =)