Puerto Viejo de Limon

While I've done a lot of traveling on the Pacific side of Costa Rica, I had yet to visit the Caribbean side, which everyone says is quite different from the life/culture on the Pacific side.  Since my last class was slated to be on December 15th, but my family wasn't coming for Christmas until December 24th, I had a little over a week to travel!  A few months before classes ended, I began planning a trip that would take me from Liberia up to Tortuguero (in the northeast corner of CR) for a few days, and then down through Limon to Puerto Viejo (in the southeast corner of CR, just a few hours from the Panama border).  While I knew I'd miss seeing the sea turtles in Tortuguero (the big attraction for that area) because they've already laid their eggs, I've heard it's still incredibly beautiful.  And of course Puerto Viejo's Caribbean, laid back, total beach/surf town culture totally precedes it.  Needless to say, I was super excited for my trip.

December...the month of Goodbyes

Hasta Luego Nicaragua

The first weekend in December I made my final trip up to Nicaragua with my host mom to say goodbye to my Nicaraguan family.  I brought a few small gifts with me, for Ana and her family for hosting me on my trips to Nicaragua, and one for my little bestie adoptive cousin Nasa.  Since Nasa is seven and a big fan of Disney Princess stuff, I bought her her very own set of Disney Princess playing cards, and a Disney Princess picture frame with a picture of me and her inside so she wouldn't forget me :)  And she LOVED the gifts (yay!).  She walked around showing everyone the frame, and we, no surprise, got a LOT of use out of the playing cards.  I might be Go Fish-ed out for the rest of my life! hahaha  We also taught Nasa's uncle to play, and I jokingly mentioned that he could take my spot as the Go Fish go-to after I left.  I'm not sure he was so much excited about that...muahahaha  But it was a lot of fun to visit the family in December.  They had their Christmas tree up and some lights so it felt festive.  We also ended up taking a little ride in the horse-drawn carriage again to visit all the other members of the family, which was nice.  I felt like I got to see everyone one last time and say my goodbyes.

Thanksgiving...Costa Rica Style

I had my first visitor when Miss Jane Munro came to visit me over "Thanksgiving Break."  She came in on Sunday, November 20th and left me again on Sunday, November 27.  In just one short week, we managed to cram in a WHOLE LOTTA FUN!  We took a crap ton of pictures, many of which you get to see here (but lots more are on facebook), and made a lot of great memories!  It was also interesting having Janie come visit me, because I think I actually went through a little bit of reverse culture shock!  When Jane came, it was like my two worlds (Cali and Costa Rica) collided and it made me hyper aware of how much I've assimilated to Costa Rican culture.  Not that Costa Rica is drastically different from life in the US, but I realized that there were all these subtle little things that were just different.  In the end, it ended up being great that I sort of went through that.  Until Jane came to visit, I'm pretty sure I was in denial about having to go home.  But having her here made me realize that there are things that I'm looking forward to doing when I get back to the States.  I started getting excited about seeing my family and friends and just jumping back into life in California.  But moving home and culture shock are all a topic for a different blog.  This post is all about our week of partying and adventures over Thanksgiving week in Costa Rica.  Let the pictures and the stories begin!