Alright, finally I have time to write a blog. Although I should be researching a little more for my shark paper, I think. I so thought that I was done writing papers when I finished that last essay last semester but I have two due in the next couple weeks. Bleh. Although I must say that writing papers about sharks and sea snakes is about, oh, 8 million times better than writing about the nature of the Russian Revolution. And it’s not like I have anything better to do.
So this weekend was, uh, interesting. Megs and I decided to go to Mal Pais (The Badlands). Miles, Megs and I were going to go to Puerto Viejo but it’s been raining and I didn’t want to deal with rain. Peace Corps Chris told Megan that we should go check out Mal Pais with him ‘cause a bunch of other people were headed out there for the long weekend. Cool. Not so cool with Miles. Megs and Miles had a thing, there was a fight, Chris and Megs now have this thing. Miles was being retarded so Megan and I went to Mal Pais with Chris. For some reason Miles had to follow. Ugh. Needless to say after some serious rudeness on the part of Miles and some serious rudeness in return on my part we are no longer friends. I was staying in a cabin with Megan and Chris, which I didn’t think would be a problem because they had been on like one date. NOT SO. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! The second night I gave up and slept on the hammock outside the cabin. That was not a good idea. Hammocks should probably be classified under “instruments of torture” than “sleeping option”. I didn’t fall out but it probably would have been more comfortable if I had. And the bugs LOVED my delicious gringo ass. I even had a bug bite on my forehead.
But other than those things the weekend went well. We headed to Mal Pais on Friday because we got Friday and Monday off because it was the end of our second Spanish class. Getting to Mal Pais is rather interesting. Our trip was taxi, bus, taxi, ferry, bus, bus. It took about 8 hours. Mal Pais is an cute little town though. It’s a huge surfer hangout. Probably because surfing is about all there is to do there. We checked into Frank’s Place, grabbed some dinner, and went to bed.
The next morning we were contemplating how to get around in our secluded little town full of nothingness. We decided to rent ATVs for the day, which is actually really cheap. We rented 2 between the three of us for $30 each. So we took our rides to Montezuma, which is a tourist town a few kilometers away. It was sooooooooooooooo fun. I was lovin’ me some ATV action. We decided to go to the waterfalls in Montezuma because, well, that’s just what people do there. OH MY GOD. So we climb to the first waterfall. It was quite a hike but it was pretty and worth it. Then we decided to go to the top waterfall. Erg. It started out with us climbing up a rock cliff. Turns out that was the easy part. We climbed until I was literally dizzy from exertion and then Chris decides to inform us that we went too far and we had climbed like 39 miles straight up a mountain for nothing. Great, thanks. The “trail” that we missed was straight down a rock wall that would usually require rappelling rope. One wrong step and you would die. I know that I exaggerate a lot but I’m being completely honest about this. Oh yeah, did I mention that I was wearing flip flops and a bikini? Megan and I were not impressed. Oh well, I lived. Although Chris almost didn’t survive the wrath of Megan and I.
After riding around for awhile longer with our fantastic four-wheelers and rescuing a drunk driver who had decided that cliffs were better viewed when pointed down them in the cab of a pick up truck we decided to hit up the bar scene. This included one bar within walking distance. After some boringness we decided that walking a few kilometers was better than going to be so we headed down to the Yellow Parrot where there was live music. When we got there 8 hours later it was HOPPIN’. Wall to wall with high and happy Ticos. ***FYI, Ticos is not a derogatory terms, it just refers to someone that is from Costa Rica.*** The band played for about 10 more minutes and then was done for the night. Time to go home. Dammit. We headed home on our sore feet and after walking for about 50 feet I decided that I had had enough so I stuck out my thumb. Lo and behold 30 seconds later a couple Tico gentlemen let us climb into the back of their pick-up. My first hitchhiking experience, I’m so proud. I ended my Extreme Saturday with my friend Mr. Hammock.
To make up for all the action on Saturday we did NOTHING on Sunday. It was boring but nice boring. Monday we headed back to the Hose so I could go to my Ecology class. Yippee Skippee. We started our new Spanish classes this week. I’m in Intermediate Conversation. I’m forcing myself into a position where I actually have to speak the language. So yeah, that’s what I’ve been doing for the past week or so. Damn this is long. Time to go.
- posted by Jaime @ 6:20 AM