Puerto Viejo de Talamanca

So a two weeks back , was the BEST weekend I have had in Costa Rica so far!! My friend Carly, Christen and I hopped a bus to Puerto Viejo as a last minute decision and it ended up being such a great time. This town, on the southern caribean side of CR, is so relaxed and beautiful!...I could go on about it forever...but as I always say...just go check it out for yourselves.

We stayed at a hostel right along the beach in Hammocks for a steep price of $5 dollars. For some reason I got the only plaid hammock they had in the place....hmm

We also rented bikes (again $5 per day) and rode everywhere! The best beach we went to was in Manzanillo a 40 min bike ride away.

Some of the beaches there had coral reefs nearby and others were white sand. There was a good mix for snorkeling , boogie-boarding (you would love it Dad!!), surfing (have yet to try it though) and swimming.

Arenal/La Fortuna

So I apologize for not giving any updates for a few weeks...but I am a serious student here, so I have been very busy studying and reading and doing all those things that good students do :) haha...Any way...

So a few weeks ago, a couple of friends and I decided to check out the famous Volcan Arenal (Costa Rica´s active volcano) and La Fortuna waterfalls. It was a fun trip but seriously over priced...the whole place has been seriously overrun by tourism and almost everything even remotely interesting to see or do has been blocked off requirring you to pay a hefty admission fee to enter. But....despite this, I did manage to see Lava flowing from the volcano one night for FREE! so it made the trip almost worth it....not to mention our hostel was only $3 dollars a night.





So on a clear day (which according to the locals isn´t very often) you can see all the way to the stop of the volcano and the smoke rising from it is more distinct. Unfortunately, it was a bit cloudy when we went.

This is the view from the National Park side of the Volcano.

We also visited a waterfall in La Fortuna

And went swimming in some of the nearby holes.

We managed to see a few other things along the way as well

Poison-Dart Frog....very very tiny

For some reason this flower reminded me of my grandparents!! I miss you guys so much!!

The World of Weird

So this weekend, my tropical ecology class took a field trip to the Tirimbina Biological Reserve. So basically I spent all weekend hiking around the rainforest, catching tree frogs and bats, and swimming with vegetarian piranhas. I saw a lot of interesting things, some beautiful, some strange, but all definitely unique.

Me in the Rainforest...I apologize for ruining the beautiful scenery, but I wanted to show the family that I am still healthy and alive with a picture of myself.

This picture is actually along one of the roads in the community outlying the reserve. The inner nerd in me made a trip to see their (gravity-fed) drinking water system.

Me after swimming with the Vegetarian peranhas...my kind of fish! (again a picture for the fam...look how healthy I look!! haha)

The flower of a Cocoa Tree....this tiny thing grows into the fruit they make chocolate from.

Random Fruit...I think it looks like dog food stuck to a giant wad of bubble gum

Bullet Ants....these things ae like 3 inches long, and supposedly being bit by them hurts worse than being shot.

Heart-Shaped Palms

There were tons of neat looking vines, flowers, trees, fungi...I just picked a few to show

Walking Tree....apparently they have roots that allow them to actually move or walk (very very slowly)