Playa Santa Teresa

Friday
Met at green church at 6 am, got to bus station around 6:20 am for what we thought would be a 6:30 bus - no such luck; bus came at 7:30 instead
An hour and a half bus ride to Puntarenas (cost just over a dollar)
Bought ferry tickets (Just over a dollar)
Waited patiently for 11 am ferry; got on ferry
1-1/2 hour ferry ride - beautiful scenery
Docked and got off; some of us got a taxi straight to the beach - took about an hour to get to our spot
Checked in to our bungalow and went to the beach immediately while we were waiting for the others to arrive
Others came later but bungalow owner was not going to let us all pile in rooms together so some of us decided to walk down the road to get a hostel
Hostel was $12/night - reminded me of church camp with bunk beds, no air, cold shower, gross floor; did have an open kitchen area and fridge we could keep stuff in; also had an upstairs loft where you could turn on ceiling fans and watch movies!
Walked down the street and ate at the first restaurant we found; people who owned it lived there and would basically just cook for people whenever they walked up
I had a hamburger - delicious! So did a couple of the others - Food was great!
Just before we left our other gringo friends walked by and we encouraged them to eat where we had just eaten
They ate there and stopped by our hostel on their way back
We then went to a market near our hostel to get more food - I got some cereal and juice to munch on throughout the weekend (this would be the first trip of many to this mercado)
We all enjoyed lazy evenings because it had been a long day, beginning at 5 am!
Those of us at the hostel hung out with some other people who were staying there - a few ticas and some people from England and a guy from Spain - really fun to talk to!
We went to bed pretty early, before 11 I believe!

Saturday
Woke up before 5; everyone in the room was up before 6 - we went to the beach to hang out while the guys surfed and Kelsey ran - SO nice and quiet and beautiful!!!!!
Came back to have breakfast and coffee - toast with jelly - delicious of course!
Decided to be lazy and watch a movie in the upstairs loft
Went back to the beach for a bit - cloudy but not terribly hot; very muggy though
Went to get lunch later on at the same place - delicious again! I had a chicken quesadilla that was INCREDIBLE!
Went back to the beach after lunch - sun was out with full force so it was HOT! Saw some monkeys hanging around the trees near the beach
Went back to the hostel - showered and snacked while some went to the ATM
Napped in a hammock while Danielle read in the other hammock
Went to the mercado when everyone got back to get food to cook spaghetti for supper!!!
Came back and cooked - we all helped and it was fun :-)
Ate spaghetti with all kinds of spices and toppings, and bread of course - SO GOOD!
Walked down the street and met up with our other amigos to watch the BIG GAME - Costa Rica vs. Mexico
Mexico totally dominated - 3-0 - Costa Rica went down without a fight :-( Game was fun to watch though!
Headed back to the hostel and met some people from Switzerland - they speak 5 languages and they are the same age as me - maybe we should reevaluate our education system here?!
Went to bed kind of early because I wanted to catch the 6 am bus back home; others stayed up a while longer

Sunday
Woke up at 5 am - couldn't find my camera but it had just gotten stuffed in the bottom of my pocketbook - Michael from the group met me and we walked to the bus stop to get the early bus - we both had a lot of homework and work to do and wanted to get back to town early - the next bus wouldn't leave till 2 pm so we knew we wouldn't get back till much later if we took that one
Left promptly at 6 am and rode about 2 hours to get to the ferry place
Got on the ferry - ride seemed a lot longer this time for some reason, but was about an hour and a half
Got off boat at Puntarenas and got back on the same bus that had also ridden the ferry
Bus left Puntarenas and headed toward San Jose - made several stops along the way, including San Ramon
Bus dropped us off around 11:30 at a stop near the mall; walked to the mall and got a taxi into town to our homes
Came home and unpacked; talked to mom, dad, Hannah and Evan on Skype
Got a shower and got ready - my host mother invited me to go somewhere with them
Ended up going to some huge party thing with all of my host father's family - one of the babies in the family had gotten "baptized" - or christened, as we would say back home - Mom I wish yall would have had something like that for me when I got christened! - they had all kinds of delicious food and CAKE :-)
Met all of his family - they were all VERY nice and interested in why I was here and what I was studying - I was kind of out of it though because I was so exhausted from a night of little sleep and the long travel home
Went then to my host mother's brother's (or my uncle's) house to check on their kids - one of them had to go to the hospital for three days - the mother (or my aunt I guess) is also my teacher for Advanced Spanish - she probably thought I was crazy - I was fighting SO HARD to stay awake there! I was completely exhausted!!!!
We came home and I came in and did some homework
Mother made fried porkchops and french fries for a late supper - yummy!
Went up to another aunt/uncle's house to say goodbye to Shae who is flying out muy early in the morning to go back to Canada! Goodbyes are always sad!
One of their sons was SO cute - he came up to me and said - "eres la nueva in la casa" - saying that I was the new girl in his aunt's house - and so he pulled me to his room and showed me some of his toys - and dad, he had on Cars crocs - made me think of you because you love that movie!!!!
We didn't stay long, and then we came back, and I did some more work and am now finishing my blog about the weekend - I'm so exhausted or I would go through and write more complete sentences but I think this is the best thing for now. Got a busy week ahead and I need some serious REST!

Buenas noches!