Puerto Viejo and More!

Puerto Viejo at night

Me in Puerto Viejo

Hey everybody! I haven't been able to post for a while because I was gone all weekend to Puerto Viejo, a beach on the Carribean side of Costa Rica and now have a LOT of homework to catch up on unfortunately. Last week I was getting pretty good at Spanish. I even went an entire day without speaking any English because I didn't see my fellow students. My mamatica and I went shopping at the mall. It was really fun, but just like a mall in the US, complete with every single fast food restaurant imaginable. I bought a Bible in Spanish and a Spanish translation of The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks to read, and I've enjoyed both tremendously so far.

Sorry, no pictures of the
clinic yet, so another
beach pic :)

I also visited a medical clinic on Friday. It was very old (they were using typewriters!) but everyone was very friendly. One thing that was interesting is they have a campaign to vaccinate all the children. Since some parents won't take their children to the clinic, even though it's free, we followed nurses around door to door in the community trying to find children that needed vaccinations. It seemed somewhat inefficient, but it was interesting to interact with all the different families.

Rocking J's

Right after that, we left for a 4.5 hour bus ride (pretty miserable) to Puerto Viejo. We stayed at a place called Rocking J's, where we slept in hammocks, which was pretty awesome. The town was interesting and very relaxed. It really felt like Boone, but in Spanish and at the beach instead of the mountains, if that makes any sense. The beach by the place we stayed wasn't that great, so the next day we rented bikes and rode further south to a different beach. This one was gorgeous, and hardly anyone was there. We even found a wild monkey! It was a really fun trip, but I completely forgot Spanish since it was such a touristy place and everyone there spoke English.

The monkey we found!

Other than that, I'm also taking dance classes twice a week, which I love! It's really fun, and I get some much needed physical activity. Other than that, nothing much new is going on except I'm sick of the rain! Yesterday, all my books got soaked. My mamatica ironed my spanish dictionary, but it still looks a mess. I guess I'm gonna have to start putting all my stuff in plastic bags inside my bookbag. But, I've got to get back to my homework! Hasta luego!