Surf's Up!

Aside from getting to partake in all the festivities for Independence Day, we all also got a nice long weekend!  (Okay, let's be real.  I basically get a long weekend every weekend, but not everybody else does, so this was nice).  After our day of hiking together, Rebecca invited me to join her on her weekend trip to Playa Grande.  She had gone to Playa Grande the weekend before to do some surfing, and since I love the beach, any excuse to go somewhere, had fun hanging out with Rebecca, and didn't already have plans, I happily accepted the offer to go with her to PG.  It was nice that Rebecca already knew the lay of the land, because she not only knew how to get to Playa Grande, but also knew where to stay, etc.  So easy and amazing!

Off to PG!
We couldn't leave too early on Friday morning because I had finally been given the name of a Spanish teacher and had an appointment to go take an entry exam with the professora in the morning.  Instead, Rebecca and I met at noon and headed over to the bus stop together, where we grabbed some food and waited for our 1:00 bus to arrive.  Although you can take the Tamarindo bus to Huacas and hop on another bus down to PG, we decided that we would take the bus all the way to Tamarindo, and then take a little "water taxi" over to PG.  (PG is the beach just north of Tamarindo, so they are right next to each other).  We happily hopped on the bus, and when it started to pour about an hour into the ride, we hoped it would stop by the time we reached Tamarindo.

Rincon de La Vieja: To the Top and Back Again

I mentioned in my scuba diving story about how I was put in touch with another volunteer in Liberia named Rebecca and how we subsequently met for coffee and had a lot of fun discussing all things volunteer and living abroad related.  Because September 15 is Costa Rica's independence day, the schools are closed which means we both had the day off, and Rebecca invited me to hike around Rincon de La Vieja with her.  At the time, neither of us knew what a big "to do" Independence Day is in Costa Rica, so we set about making plans to head up to the mountain (and subsequently missed the festivals/parades in Liberia, but it's okay because we had a jolly good time hiking!).

We had both previously hiked to the Cangreja waterfall and around the short loop with all the volcano-y things (see previous post), but we were planning on just doing more or less the same hike again.  However, on the day of, we decided that since we had the time (aka, I didn't have to rush back for class) and because the weather was perfect, we would just go ahead and embark on the 16 km round trip hike (that's 5 miles each way/10 miles total for all you non-metric people.  Oh wait, if you're from the US, you don't know metrics.  If you're from anywhere else in the world, you probably know how far 16 km is...Can you guess what's not awesome about not knowing metrics?  When people tell me things are like x meters away, I still have zero idea how far away the thing is.  But I'm learning, so that's good?)  Also, because of the steepness of the hike, it usually takes 4 hours to get to the top and 3 to 3.5 hours to get back down.  Just FYI.  So anyway, Rebecca and I happily set off on our little adventure around 8:30 or 8:45 in the morning, expecting to be back by 4, which more or less was the case.

Independence Day...Costa Rica Style

Independence from Spain is like a big celebration here in Costa Rica.  In fact, I think it's one of the biggest celebrations of the year, festivities-wise.  And since I'm in Costa Rica, I really didn't know about it's existence until like the day before everything started, because that's just how people roll here.  I always learn about things at the last minute, and never get all the details until I'm pretty much at an event.  But that's part of the fun and spontaneity I guess!  Anyway, there are three main days of celebrations for al Dia de la Independencia....

September 13, 2011: The Torch
The "Torch of Freedom" is a torch that gets carried from Guatemala to Cartago (in Costa Rica) to commemorate these Central American countries' independence from Spain.  Basically, Central America gained independence from Spain when the Spanish were defeated in the Mexican War of Independence on September 15, 1821 and that has since been the day that Costa Rica celebrates its Independence as well.  After Spain was vanquished (by Mexico, not CR, and announced by the colonial seat in Guatemala), there were a few movements to form federations which eventually disbanded and yada yada yada for more information, you can click here.

I Was Scuba Doving!

During my last quarter at UC Davis, I had the brilliant idea of taking a class on Scuba Diving.  Best. Idea. Ever.  Of all the classes I ever took at Davis, that one was probably the most fun.  My "grand sis" in my sorority, Stephanie, was in the class with me, which made it even more fun because she's awesome and we got to be buddies and to this day, we still occasionally bust out our Scuba hand signals :)  By taking a 10-week long class, I learned a LOT about diving, logged tons of pool time, and took two unforgettable weekend trips to Monterey for our practice dives.  My scuba classmates were amazing and we had SO much fun.  Whenever I go to Monterey/Carmel for a weekend trip, I can't help but remember all the good times I had diving there, despite the freezing cold water and 7mil full body suits.  Despite my wonderful diving experiences, I somehow managed not to dive again...until now.  

The Perk of Having Adult Students...

...is that you can hang out with them!  When I signed up to teach English out here in Costa Rica, I wasn't anticipating that I would become friends with some of my students.  That has turned out to be sort of an extra fun bonus.  I mean, I knew right away that I liked my students.  They all have great personalities and we all have a lot of fun in class, and chatting during breaks.  But I really wasn't expecting to hang out with them outside of the classroom.