Monday 26 July 2010

Cheese and Jelly in Costa Rica




Wow, ok, it's been a while, I've just read my last blog and realised I haven't written since my walk with my host family, which, frankly is a life time ago, a lot has happened!

Well my walk with my host family was fun, we went to the local park which wasn't your average park surrounded by the ocean and jungle, it really was beautiful. The Americans have been fun to be with, we have been on quite a few adventures together for the short time i have known them. Including a trip to the doctors... now that tested my vocabulary! Last wednesday was my last day at home before I headed off to pick up mum from San Jose, I felt a little twinge of sadness having to leave my new life so soon but it was ok as I will be living with them all again in a couple of weeks. I went on an adventure on my last day, we hiked up some serious hills, in some even more serious heat. I think it is safe to say I have never in my life been so hot and I have one word for this blog, it´s cheese. I feel like cheese most of the time and this day was definitely a very cheesey day, not the smell, or the need to eat cheese I might add. I just feel like cheese must feel when it melts. We walked to a deserted beach, it was beautiful, hidden amongst private land, we crept down the hillside, sheer drop to our right we were very careful to make sure we didn't slip. When we arrived the sea was sooo inviting. We swam and relaxed, two pelicans came along to fish for lunch, they were so close. They would hover about 15 metres up before diving down, grabbing a fish and the throwing their heads back and eating the lot. The fish were probably having a very enjoyable day until the pelicans showed up. It was impressive to watch though and i felt very privilaged to be so close to them. We stayed for a couple of hours but the sun was so strong and with no where to hide from it we headed back for Quepos. I organised my bag, sat with my host family for a while, Teo seemingly knocking up a dinner suit, without a pattern on his sewing machine, it was very impressive. Edith gave me snacks for the journey and a really big hug, I suddenly felt really sad to be leaving them behind, and it suddenly dawned on me that when i come to leave for good in September I am going to be useless at saying good bye to them. The Americans were still at school so I wrote them a note and headed for my bus, true to backpacking style I hadn't even got on the bus before my travel party of one had become four. The four of us (one girl who was also studying International relations and SPanish but in New York (I was extremely excited by this)) chatted away on the bus, lucky that it was practically empty we were able to sit together. I arrived to hostal Pangea in San Jose and noticed that Costa Rica is most deifnitely not hot everywhere, stood in my shorts and bikini top, strappy top covering it I rolled off the bus into a dimly lit Coca Cola bus station immediately swamped by taxi drivers, two of the girls disappeared, I never saw them again. The other girl and I tackled the drivers together, failing specatularly to bargain with them, we realised we weren't exactly in the most ideal of situations, late at night in the very bus station people say to avoid in the day let alone at night, two girls on their own. We took the nearest taxi and headed for the hostel.

The next morning mum rolled in from New York, I managed more successfully to get a cheap taxi and we headed back to the hostel for a day of doing nothing. After relaxing we were up early and bumping through San Jose and the mountains on a bus bound for the waterways of Tortuguero national Park. It took a long time to get there but we finally arrived to our boat, which i have to say was extremely posh. None of this handing us a half cut water bottle to bail water so we wouldn't sink like in Bolivia, nope. This boat even had a roof to hide from the sun, it even had life jackets!! Not entirely sure how useful they would have been from the crocs but hey ho. (Sorry this blog it utter crap, I am writing so badly but I have no time and need to get this down before I need to catch my bus, stay with me, i promise i won't feed you this rubbish all the time! I'll go back over it when i get home to Quepos and sort it out).

Tortuguero was sooooo hot, it took the heat of Quepos to a whole new level, cheese was the word, Emma an English girl and her boyfriend were utterly confused when i told them I felt like cheese all the time but they soon understood! We spent the afternoon melting under the fan and exploring Tortuguero, the beach and hearing about its history, me feeling very pirates of the caribbean on the caribbean beach. After dinner we headed off to find turtles. Stood under a sky of shooting stars, a full moon and distant lightening it was utterly breath taking. So that we didn't scare the turtles we had to hide back in the jungle, the guide casually dropping into the conversation that jaguars loved to come down at night and eat them, especially on a clear and quiet night. All feeling a little nervous we were glad when the first turtle showed its face and we were allowed out of the jungle onto the beach. We watched her mammoth effort as she heaved herself up the beach, dug an impressively huge hole, laid her eggs and set about burying them. Every now and again stopping to let out a huge breath of air and rest her head, I am sure she was telling me to stop watching and stop being so lazy and help dig. It was an awesome experience and once we'd said goodbye and wished her baby eggs good luck we headed for bed. The next morning we were up and heading off down stream again searching for creatures, we saw an awful lot (photos on facebook) and ended up in Parismina for lunch. Interested to see where I had so nearly ended up living for my summer we ate yummy food and started the long journey back to San Jose. It really was an awesome couple of days and far more interesting than I have made it sound on here.

Yesterday I did a bungee jump. I am insane. End of. The guy in the hostel has told me I now know what it looks like to commit suicide, its scary. Who the hell jumps of a fricking great bridge, I am just reliving the moment and its making me shiver. It was a unique experience and i really do believe everyone needs to do it at some point in their lives, but once is enough. Once I had jumped and was half way down I realised I was going to die, I knew it. There and then, in the beautiful jungle valley setting I was going to die. All I could do was wait to hit the ground and in the meantime I could squeek a little. No, wait, a lot. I met three really nice girls, two of who were jumping as well, I made sure I was careful not to tell them I thought I was going to die when i got back to the bridge, this is probably not what you want to hear just before you're about to jump off a bridge, is it. Anyway the rope thankfully saved my life. I only had a waist harness, for those of you who know anything about climbing the top harness didn't seem to feature... this scared me. When he put my waist harness on I asked him to tighten it, he laughed and said I needed to breath, I chuckled away before wondering off to secretly tighten it a lot more, I really did believe, given the curcirmstances that I would be able to breath with less space. Once I had stopped bouncing I had to attach myself to the rope so I could be pulled back up, I couldn't do this fast enough, even though the rope had my weight, I still felt like the slightest movement would cause the whole lot to give way (bearing in mind I really do love high ropes, high adrenaline stuff, this bungee didn't feel safe. I guess because it was elastic, so instead of feeling solid and as if it had my weight it gave way everytime I moved. Maybe at this point I should add jelly to the cheese. I reached the bridge and the dude pulled me back into the platform, the sheer amount of adrenline serging through my body, mixed with a hell of a lot of upside down bouncing had made my body uncontrollably wobbly. And I found it really funny, probably because I was so grateful to be alive. They handed me my certificate and DVD and I was able to go and enjoy watching all the other insane people throw themselves off the bridge on a nice sunny Sunday morning. I do believe I am insane though, this last 24hrs has just confirmed it.

I have just relaised I need to go catch my bus, I'm going home today and I am really excited about seeing my family, friends and the beach. So I must love you and leave you and I need to go to Quepos but I promise I will actually write something half decent on here sooon. IT'S MY BIRTHDAY ON FRIDAYYYY, EEEEEEE, EXCITMENT! I have the most awesome adventure planned so I will write to you about that.

Muchos love from Costa Rica, Hasta Luego amigos xxxxx

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