This is it.

Welp friends, this is it probably the last blog I will ever write about my trip to Costa Rica. As I'm sitting here tears continue to fall down my face because I just said goodbye to all my friends. I know I will definitely see most of them again since they are from the Midwest. But, its just the whole idea of leaving and I not sure what else to do except cry.

The past 3 months have been a huge adventure. I remember coming here and being completely unsure on what I was doing here in the first place. But as the time went on, I learned that I was here to grow up and mature. While here my life changed drastically. Everything I knew or thought I knew changed and I was forced out of my comfort zone and forced to have faith in God. The past month, I've definitely gotten closer to God and gotten stronger in my faith. And I definitely can't help but think that was the point of this trip.

 

I've had the time of my life here. I've met so many new friends. I became part of a new family. I became more confident in speaking Spanish. I became independent. I went snorkeling. I attempted to learn how to swim. I went to Nicaragua and Panama. I can go on and on with the list but it comes down to one thing: I made the most out of my time here and now it's time to go back home to reality and apply my new life lessons and everything I've learned and experienced back at home.

 

Things I'm going to miss the most

1. Speaking Spanish everywhere.
2. Fruit Smoothies
3. Warm Weather & Beaches
4. My host family
5. Tico Viajero!
6. My friends
7. Triple Threat Thursdays
8. The AIFS Spring 2013 group
9. The cost of everything
10. Fruit!

I hear all the time about Reverse Culture Shock and I can't help but think I will have to deal with the same thing when I get home. I've experienced the above list almost daily that I'm almost positive I'm going to be so confused on what to do with my life when I get back home. I don't know how I've going to act or how I will handle the culture shock but I do know that no matter what, this experience will always be something I will remember and hold in my heart. This isn't a goodbye Costa Rica, This is a see you later.

Pura Vida

Spring Break Part 2: Panama

Thursday

We left Puerto Viejo bright and early on Thursday morning. We had to walk back to your hotel from the night before to meet the bus with the rest of the students from school going to Panama. We started walking and just our luck that it started to rain! That definitely wasn't too fun walking with all of our stuff in the rain. Panama was about an hour or two drive from Puerto Viejo. Once we arrived at the border we had to fill out forms on the Costa Rica side, get our passport stamped and then walk across a bridge of death to get to Panama. Luckily by then it stopped raining. I had heard so many stories about this bridge but I never actually thought it would be as bad as every described. The bridge seemed so unstable and there were some of the slats missing. As a non-swimmer, I was not to thrilled and I was super nervous the entire way. We finally arrived to the Panama side where we waited for about 15 minutes in a line to get our passports stamped. Then we got into a car and drove for about an hour until we got to a water taxi where we took to get to the island we were staying at. At the point, it started raining a little bit more and the waves were killer going across. I literally felt like I was on a roller coaster. Needless to say, we arrived at our hostel safe and in one piece. It rained the remainder of the day so we just stayed in and explored around the island.

Friday

We woke up bright and early on Friday morning. All of our group was going to the Starfish Beach for the day. Me and my friends decided to walk around to find a tour to go on to explore more islands instead of just hanging out at the beach. We found one that took us to 4 different islands for $20. We figured that was a good deal. We got a boat and were on our way. This was definitely interesting because while we were on our way, the boat driver asks what places we were supposed to go to and if he could switch up the order. Obviously, this didn't make me too comfortable but we were already in the middle of the ocean with no turning back. We first went to Isla los Pajaros (Bird Island) but we didn't actually get off the boat. In fact, we barely saw it because we were facing the wrong direction. The only thing our "guide/boat driver" said was something about some people needed to change seats to balance out the boat. There were killer waves attacking our boat so after people moved around, we left and went to Boca del Drago. There we had about an hour to eat lunch before going to Plays de las Estrellas (Starfish Beach). At the beach we got to hang out for two hours. We saw some Starfish and ran into a few of our other friends who were there all day. After we left the beach we went back to our hotel and hung out for the rest of the night. We were all really happy that we did the separate tour. For $20 is was definitely an adventure but it was well worth it.

 

Saturday

Saturday we woke up bright and early again for another boat tour. This one was just with the people from my school that came on the trip with me. Our first stop on the tour was to go dolphin watching. I was super excited but literally this was probably the most depressing 30 minutes of my life. There were about 30 boats in the area and every time a dolphin came up for air, all the boats swarmed the area. I got a chance to see a few but the pictures weren't very good because they moved so fast and weren't all in the same area. After dolphin watching, we went to Cayo Coral to go snorkeling. I got in the water in Puerto Viejo so I figured I would get in the water again. This time, I wasn't the only one who didn't know how to swim! So 5 of us had our life vests on. We got a chance to put the snorkel on too and take a few looks in the water. I stayed in for about 30 minutes before I started feeling nauseous and got out. Afterwards we ate lunch and then went to Red Frog Beach. We had to pay $3 for the beach but it was still really pretty. Some of my friends and I ate a second lunch and then enjoyed the beach. The waves were pretty strong so we basically just sat and talked on the beach. We got back to our hotel and figured it was our last night in Panama so a bunch of us went to a bar so we can dance. It was so much fun and we danced for about an hour straight before going back to the hotel and getting some sleep. I also got a chance to Skype my grandparents for a little bit when I got back to the hotel. My mom went to visit for Easter and I really miss them. I haven't seen them in about 2 years now, so it was definitely good to see them for a few minutes!

 

Sunday

We had to wake up extremely early to get back to San Jose. Because it was Easter and the last day of Semana Santa, We had to make sure we were able to cross the boarder. We waited for the water taxi for a while before we were all finally able to get on. Then we had to drive an hour to the border. At the border we got through both sides very quickly by 9:30. But, we had to wait until 11 for the driver to come pick us up. At first we didn't really care but then it started pouring raining at which point, everything got soaked and we weren't very pleased anymore. We found shelter though and finally the driver came back. The drive back was fairly quick and there was hardly any traffic. We arrived around 3 and my friend Shayna and I went to McDonalds for lunch. Talk about yummy!

 

It was an amazing trip and I had so much fun. I was really happy that I got a chance to go on my adventure for 10 days. It was much needed and I had a lot of fun! Now I have a little less than a week here and I am determined to have an awesome time because once Saturday comes, its back home to reality and I'll have to finally deal with work, school, track, and other things that I have been able to put on hold for a few month! Nevertheless I am excited to be going home and I can't believe these past 12 weeks few by!