Friday, September 28, 2012

This Week

Not a lot has really happened this week, but here are some things I could think of that I think are interesting.

During class this week I saw a tumbleweed of Tica hair go rolling across the classroom. I'm not joking. It looked like a legitimate tumbleweed... It kept rolling around our Profe's feet and it was driving me crazy. Finally someone got rid of it.

Today my friends and I got together and we made Avocado-Pesto whole wheat Pasta. It was good! It needed more kick so I added some crush red pepper which reminded me of my dad (he can add it to anything, it's always the go to spice for him). My friend Alannah made some homemade granola too!
  
Alannah and Alexandra hard at work!
  
So it looks a little odd..but it was good!!
 

  
More Avocado on my salad? Always.
 
Granola! 
P.S I think Avocados have addictive qualities.  

Also this week we painted our shoes. They aren't done yet but here's some photos: 
 
Alexandra's

 
Mine

 
Alannah's
Alannah and I made one shoe look like the Costa Rica flag and the other like the American flag! I need to put some words on mine still and go over the colors again but they're coming along nicely! They're too clean looking right now...I can't wait to get some dirt on them, they're just so stark right now! 

Today I also went on a run. Like a lot of my runs I rely heavily on the people getting me back to where I need to be. However today I decided to use my own judgement to figure out where I needed to go in order to get back home. Not the greatest decision unfortunately. I finally gave in and asked a women where Santa Lucia was and she was just like, "aay...it's really far from here." But it worked out okay because I ran longer. Sometimes I just get bored of running the same routes and my runs are cut short just out of boredom. Today was different! Pura Vida! 

Oh also, I went to the small produce store by my house tonight. I purchased one large cucumber, three large carrots, and 5 large stalks of celery for less than $2!! I thought it was pretty cheap, but I don't remember how the states produce prices compare... I'm going on another trip to Monteverde tomorrow so I cut up the vegetables for car snacks, woo!  

Last, but definitely not least, I got to see puppies last night!!!! Not your average puppy...but big poofy chow puppies. SO cute. My friend will be deciding on the one he wants Sunday evening so more pictures will be coming later of the one that he chooses!  



So cute!! 
That's it for today, 
Buenas Noches amigos! 
Sara 








































Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Rain

My professor told us in class today about the upcoming rain. She couldn't have made it anymore depressing. The rain begins in October. Not just the usual rain...but all day raining. In Spanish there is a specific word for this occurrence, Temporal. We had to learn it today during class, everyone groaned while writing it. Our professor said that usually on October 4 or October 5 the raining starts...and literally won't end for 15-25 days. A constant rain. I feel like those weeks will seem a tad depressing =/ I can't say I'm looking forward to it.  Not only will it rain she said, but none of our clothes will dry, our papers will always feel wet, and the humidity from the rain will take over our lives. She really poured it on today. Get it? That's a pun. =)

Last year she said they were lucky because the constant raining only lasted for 15 days. 15 DAYS. Whew, my rain jacket and umbrella will never leave my side.

Just thought I'd give everyone a weather update,
Buenas Tardes,
Sara

Monday, September 24, 2012

Canned Beans

I'm missing three inches of myself right now. I made the mistake of getting my haircut today. Alannah and I walked into this beauty salon, excited to finally get our ends trimmed. I think the hard water makes my hair a little dry, and both Alannah and I are growing out our hair and wanted to get the dry ends snipped off. Well some snips was what I was expecting...instead 3inches of hardwork got sliced of my hair today. I guess it really wasn't hard work, and it will grow back, and I do have healthy hair now...So, Pura Vida =) (however the beauty salons in Costa Rica definitely don't have any regulations when it comes to sanitation...The guy used the exact same comb that he had used on Alannah....full of her hair, on my hair. I don't really care, but that's not normal. They also don't have any cleaning solutions for the combs and scissors.)   

The fun didn't stop there, however. After the hair massacre we went to a tattoo parlor and I got my first tattoo. Tattoos and piercings are really cheap here. Oh, but I didn't actually get a tattoo. Alannah wanted to get her conch pierced, that's the inside part of your ear for those who don't know. I didn't know that it was a popular place for piercings but so many people have their ears pierced in that spot! It was only 14$ which includes the sterling silver earring. I would be way to scared to get that part of my ear pierced but Alannah just walked into that parlor and 15minutes later had a new hole in her head. Impressive. I couldn't have done it. 

The final part of my day that's worth mentioning is the conversation that I had with my mama tica just now. I was asking her to give me her pinto gallo recipe because we're supposed to bring in a tico recipe in order to practice our commands. She told me the recipe and while I was writing it down I remembered what one of my friends told me about her meals here. Her host mom doesn't cook dried beans. She warms up canned beans. I told my mama tica this and she was absolutely APPALLED. She couldn't believe it, canned beans?? That's so not Tico. Then I told her that my same friend is sick and last night for dinner her host mom made her soup from this packet thing. Again, she was appalled...and disgusted. She told me that one of the requirements for the host moms is to cook fresh Tico food. Not only is it not Tico to cook canned and packaged food, but it's also against the rules. That's kind of cool, although it sucks for my friend who has the slacker mom.  

That being said, my group has come to a general consensus that I have the best meals out of everyone. I'll admit that they're very correct. I try not to gloat about it, but when we all sit down together and I whip out this amazing, fresh, big lunch the food itself does all the gloating. Eyes quickly turn to my food, then down to their own food, then back at mine. The foods top notch. I look forward to opening my packed lunch every day to the surprise inside. I couldn't ask for more. Muchas Gracias Mama Tica. 

I hope everyone has had a great start to their week! 
Buenas Noches, 
Sara 

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Food+Coffee

Food and Coffee. Two beautiful things. This weekend literally was dedicated entirely to those two things.

Friday I went over to my friend Alannah's house to cook. Alannah hosted a potluck at her house for the people in my group and any friends that they wanted to invite. So, I went over to her house early and we hung out and cooked all day. We also painted some keds. There will be pictures of those later though. While I painted my keds, Alannah made a chocolate cake. When that was finished I began to work on the hummus (which took 5 minutes haha) and Alannah started her second dish. Tater-tot-Hotdish? Alexandra arrived early too and we both watched her assemble this Minnesotan recipe. Unfortunately Costa Rica doesn't have tater-tots...or hashbrowns...or frozen potatoes diced potatoes for that matter. Costa Rican's like to do things fresh, and I can't blame em'.  

So...this meant that Alannah had to make tater-tots by hand. I helped her shred some potatoes with a cheese grater, she mixed the shreds with an egg and some spices, then through them in this big ole pot of oil. I tried one before it made it into the rest of the dish, I have to admit it was pretty amazing. I've never had a homemade tater-tot ball before, but it was real good. Once the tater-balls were done frying she began to layer the dish. It went cream of mushroom soup, cream of celery soup, green beans, a layer of ground beef, a ton of white cheese, and then topped with the tater-balls to bake for about 45minutes. I'm not the biggest fan of dishes like that, but it was good. Everyone loved it too! 
 
haha Alexandra and I throwing oreos 
on Alannah's cake. 

 
The Tater-Ball Hot Dish  

There was SO much food at this potluck. There were cookies, brownies, cake, guacamole and hummus made by me, the taterball dish, burritos, two buckets of KFC, chips, kraft macaroni, vegetables, soup, wine, pop, and more. It was so fun though having everyone together. About an hour after the party started a whole bunch of Ticos came and started playing guitars and singing, and then people started dancing, and basically it was great. I love events like that. The ticos were super cool and mingled really well with everyone. All in all, a great night. Oh! I tried this really cute wine below: 
 
This is the cute wine! Beso de Vino means Wine kiss in Spanish.  
There's a cute little story about this bull that falls in love on the bottle. 
The wine has coffee in it which was kind of cool!

 
This is the wine that my teacher recommended to us. 
It's from Chile!
When the party was over we all gathered up our leftovers and headed home. By the time I got home it was around 11pm so my tico parents had already gone to bed. So, I just popped the leftover hummus in the fridge and went to bed. The next morning I woke up, got dressed, and then went to sit down to eat my usual delicious breakfast. Mama Tica was NOT a fan of the hummus in her fridge. Haha she tried to be polite when she asked me what it was. She was trying to hide this awful face from me, which means she must have smelled it while I was getting dressed. She hates garlic. Hummus definitely has a lot of garlic in it, or atleast mine did, and she was not a fan. haha. I also had to explain what it was, I don't think she's ever had/heard of it before. It was a little confusing and I'm almost positive she still thought it was disgusting....buut she would agree that the next part of my day was absolutely full of wonderful smells and delicious flavors. The coffee plantation. 

We all met at the university at 7am with some of our teachers, and borded a bus for the plantation! In Costa Rica the coffee plantations are called cafetals. The cafetal that we went to was called Santa Maria de Dota. It's a coffee cooperative with many, many coffee farmers contributing to the coop. It was beautiful there. We watched a short coffee intro, with a free cup of coffee, and then explored the cafetal. We got to hike up this mountain where they grow the coffee and the view was spectacular. The little town that is in the center of all of these cafetals looked picture perfect against the bright green mountains and blue skies. I met this guy from Texas who was on a business trip/personal vacation for Whole Foods. His job is to help pick out different foods to sell in the store. So cool!! I talked to him for awhile about his job and food in general and it was all really cool.   
 
The cafetales in the area all do their own composting with  
red worms from California!

 
They mix the coffee casings in with the worms!

 
Not only is there coffee growing, 
but gardens of regular vegetables like carrots and radishes!    
the hiking begins!
     

hiking up the mountain! Look at all of those  
Coffee plants!

 
Green coffee beans

 
The amazing view from the top of the mountain

 
This flower is a trumpet flower! Either from Mississipi or Missouri 
I asked a women but she wasn't sure






We hiked back to our bus, and went to lunch. The lunch was so perfect. It was buffet style with just a couple options, but I loved them all. I had a simply cooked chicken breast which tasted heavenly, this interesting chopped up root dish that look kind of like rice, but was just tiny chopped root with some seasoning. It also was really good. There was a simple salad of cucumber, tomato, carrot, and lettuce (the very typical salad that people eat every day here) which of course was also great, and for the grand finally an endless supply of fresh cut avocados. They grow them in the mountains along with the coffee so I didn't feel to bad taking a lot...I think I ate the equivalent of one avocado so I didn't completely take advantage of the endless supply, but it was very much appreciated.  

We also toured the coffee factory, which I have to admit was kind of lame. All of the equipment was dusty, and I didn't see a single bean the entire time. They don't start using the machinery till much later when they're actually harvesting. It makes sense of course, but I wanted to see some coffee action. However, we made our way to the coffee toaster where I at least got to see the different kinds of beans.  
For the grand finale of our trip we went to the Bartista school, which is just where people learn how to make the perfect cup of coffee and at the same time make them look like a piece of art. It was cool, I had a lot of free coffee. At the end of the demo/tutorial we walked over to the cafe and had a complimentary drink and dessert. This is the grand total of my coffee intake for that day: a cup with my breakfast, a cup before that shot coffee film, two shots of expresso, a cappuccino, two samples of mocha lattes, and then my own giant latte at the cafe. Along with the coffee I had lunch of course, a cinnamon roll, and the rest of someones chocolate cake. I was a machine. Some might say a monster. This might be a little much, but I had to pee 4 times while we were at the cafetal.  

 
The beans 
 
Loving the beans  


 
Everyone still makes fun of me for 
going birdwatching. They have Quetzal coffee at this place so  
of course Alannah took a photo of me. 
(By the way, there are many photos of me since my camera died at the beginning =/) 


My second helping of Mocha Latte 

After we the cafe we all borded the bus again to head home. At this point I was REALLY feeling the affects of my coffee/food intake. I felt so sick. After an hour we stopped at a gas station, thank God, because I had to pee again of course. I felt so sick, but I was so hyped up from the coffee my hands were shaking so I ran around the gas station a lot and gave Katie and Joe piggy back rides to and from the bus. I had so much energy!! But at the same time I really wanted to throw up. 

I made it back to my house at 7:30pm. Naturally my mama tica wanted to feed me, since my normal feeding time is around 6pm. However, I told her I felt sick from the awful bus ride (it was super bumpy/winding roads) and the mass amount of coffee I ate. I said after an hour, then I would eat. She was kind enough to just give me a brothy vegetable soup with some rice. 

Monday, September 17, 2012

El Dia de la Independencia

 
Decoration in the Library 

This weekend all of Costa Rica celebrated Independence Day! As did several other central American countries. They all won Independence on the same day, however Costa Rica didn't have to fight for it. They found out a month later after the fighting in the other countries that they were independent. So Costa Rican, Pura Vida.

My university had a lot of decorations put up in all of the buildings. It was really cool. There were also a lot of programs going on during the week, and on the weekend, in honor of the holiday. Friday my friend Alannah and I went to the central park in Heredia to see the torch. There is a torch that is literally run through all of the central american countries that won their independence on the same day. We were able to see a whole bunch of little kids preform a short little skit, and do some dancing. We also got to see them run the torch to the next city in Heredia. It was raining that evening, which apparently it has every year according to several Ticos. After the park Alannah and I met up with two of our other friends had a quick dinner, and then went to a play/dance performance at our university.

The play was so good! It was a little intense though, because of the subject matter. The play began with the students moving around in the audience acting like different rainforest animals and eventually making their way to the stage. The play was all about problems in Costa Rica, mainly about the environment, but also about its citizens as well (for example, the police). You could see how passionate the students were, and even thought I honestly didn't understand the whole play (because of the Spanish), it was still really cool to see. After the play was over there was a dance act that performed next. It was a Costa Rican folkloric dance, with typical Costa Rican costumes. It was really cute, and really funny.

 
The Torch


Saturday was the actual holiday, so I met up with some friends and went to the parade that they had in the central park. Every city in Costa Rica has their own parade for the holiday, all of the schools in Costa Rica are involved. It was cool to see the parade, but even more fun people-watching. With so many people crowding the street to see the parade you see some interesting things. We stayed at the parade for a couple hours and then headed out.

   
At the Parade  

After the parade my friends and I went to the Auto Mercado to pick up some ingredients for chili! This was one of the highlights of my weekend because I was so jazzed up for some cooking. They unfortunately had to deal with my indecisiveness in grocery stores. There are just so many options for things it's so hard to choose. We actually watched a Tedtalk about options too haha. We eventually made our way out though and headed up the mountain where Jonathan lives. We stopped at his grandmother's ranch first to feed the horses some carrots. At his grandmother's house they have this chili pepper plant that had a ton of ripe chili peppers on it. I decided to eat one. One of the worst ideas that I've had in Costa Rica...It was SO SPICY. We were all running around this ranch trying to find some water as I had tears streaming down my face, and not to mention my mouth and face were basically on fire! The water spout that we found wasn't good enough, it didn't help at all. Jonathan ran to a citrus tree, grabbed a ripe sweet lemon and gave it to me. It worked. My mouth still burned, but the citrus helped immensely. Whoo, was it spicy.   

When we finally got to Jonathan's Uncle's house we had some time to kill before we needed to start the chili (it takes two hours). So we watched some Tedtalks, listened to music, watched some Ron Paul/Gary Johnson speeches. I had no idea these people existed. I wish I was more educated in politics, but I've been looking into the libertarian candidates lately (thanks to my friends) and I had no idea libertarian was even a party.  They have some really good ideas, that are at least different. Some of the things they want to change are actually the things that I've been complaining about, but didn't realize there was a party that wanted to fix them. Pretty cool.  

Finally it was time. Alannah and I made the chili while Jonathan set up a bonfire. While the chili cooked we had some great fireside chats. The chili was done around 6pm, and in Costa Rica it's pitch black by then. So then we enjoyed some hot chili, in front of a hot fire, in the pitch black, cool air of the Costa Rican mountains. Perfect. I ate two bowls. 

 
Chili+ Sandwich (this is Sunday's meal)
Sunday was awesome too. My day began with a run, in which I actually got lost. However I can always count on the people to help me get home, so I wasn't worried. Then Bruce, Jonathan's Uncle, came back from the states with two of his friends. Alannah and I came over before they arrived and we prepped some left over chili for them and made ourselves some little sandwiches and ate some chili ourselves. They ended up arriving for an early dinner, around 5pm, and we sat around chatting for a really long time. They all LOVED the chili. They were really impressed, and said they'd never had such good, interesting chili. They all had seconds. We made Jonathan's grandma a sandwich, since spicy food doesn't sit well with her, and she loved that too. It was the same sandwich that I had made for myself earlier. Some after dinner photos: 

 
Bruce's home is all mexican styled decor 
Mixed with a little Costa Rican 
mixed with a lot of Bruce 
Needless to say it's cool, and I like it

 
Oh Bruce

 
Bruce is in the hat, haha 
He has kind of a cowboy vibe to him if you couldn't tell  
It's great. 

A little about the food: 

Chili
The chili we made was a vegetarian chili. According to the guys, this is what set it apart. It was chunky chili, apparently their used to not-so-chunky chili? However, I think that's only way to go. These were the chunks: 
-Sweet potato (which they also were surprised by, but it's my favorite chili addition) 
-Carrots, 
-Peppers (red+green)
-Black beans  
-Red beans 
-Red Onion 
-Head of garlic 
-Chunky tomatoes 

Spices 
-Cumin (a good amount too, because I love it!) 
-Cayenne Pepper (also used quite a bit....) 
-Chili Powder 
-Cinnamon 
-Cocoa Powder 
-Black Pepper 
-Salt 

Garnishes (also surprised them) 
-Fresh avocado  
-Radishes  
-Freshly grated Monteverde cheese 
-Cilantro 

Sandwich 
-Whole grain, flax seed bread 
-Hummus 
-Avocado 
-Sliced tomato 
-Diced red onion 
-Sliced Monteverde cheddar cheese  

I had a wonderful weekend! I hope everyone's weekend was wonderful too! 
Thinking about everyone, 
Sara 


Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Buenas Noticias!!!

My papa tico is finally home!!!

I finished my dance class tonight and walked in the door around 6:15pm, and the door was locked. I could hear someone coming so I didn't bother getting my key out. My mama tica opened the door, which I thought was weird because she usually gets home everyday from the hospital at around 7:00pm (I know this because when it comes to my feeding times I pay attention a lot more). So she opens the door and says something about my papa tico being at our house. I didn't think I heard her right so I said,  "Papa esta aqui?? en la casa?" she said yes, but I still didn't quite believe her so I said, "en serio??". AND THEN my papa tico came around the corner to meet me!! I was so shocked and happy at the same time!! However the first thing that spilled out of my mouth was, "Donde esta su barba??" (where is your beard). Haha of all the things to say... He told me they had to shave off his beard in order to put the oxygen tubes through his nose for his operation. Speaking of the operation:

He has a really long scar on his chest. It's pretty scary looking. It cuts from the bottom of his neck all the way to his belly button. I saw it, it's true. He said they had to break his ribs open, separate them, and then operate on his heart. Incredible. I can't even believe something like that is possible. But there is living proof in my house right now. Incredible. He said he is supposed to walk short distances everyday  in order to keep building strength. He told me he hardly slept in the hospital, sleeping maybe three hours a night. He was there for 28 days. That's basically a month. Poor guy.

I was pleased, he told me my Spanish has improved a lot! I was like no...maybe a little. He was like well I've been gone for a month...so I can tell that it has. Haha. Cool! I forgot how much I used to talk to him when he was here. We have a lot more to talk about, and him being gone made my mama tica pretty quiet. You can see her happiness right now, it's beautiful.

I also just realized that I forgot to tell everyone about my first race that I had on Sunday! It wasn't quite what I expect, to say the least. Here's what happened:

The morning began with the best breakfast ever. It put Wheaties to shame. I had pinto gallo, plantains, eggs, a huge fruit plate, and coffee. Delicious. However then I had to actually go to the race...

I didn't realize that the race was so far away. I had to take a bus from my bus stop, to another bus stop, and then to San Jose, and then I had to take another bus from San Jose to Escazu (where the race was). I did this all on my own. Most people wouldn't think twice about something like that, but this is a big deal for me. I get lost so easily. This was my first time going to San Jose alone, and then going all the way to Escazu makes it even more impressive for me! I really relied on the people walking in the streets to figure out where I was going. That's actually what my mama tica told me to do. They kind of know that I'm a little dyslexic with directions so she didn't even bother writing me any and told me to just ask the people haha. It worked out perfectly.

Once I made it to Escazu and to the starting area of the race, I realized I really needed to find a bathroom. My morning coffee was coming on strong. So I'm walking around in this mall looking for a bathroom and I see another runner doing the same. This is how I met Greten. She helped me find the bathrooms and then we headed outside. Greten is a 55 year old woman who was kind enough to take me under her wing. I was literally the only American/Native English speaker in the race, so I was pretty thankful. She invited me to warm up with her and her other two friends who were in their 60s. My first thought was, "Warm up?" Then I realized how serious this race was going to be. Ticos take their races pretty seriously I found out. I personally run for some nice scenery, or exploring a new part of a city...basically a more leisurely outlook. One of the first things Greten says to me is, "I'm here to win." Yikes. So Greten's here to win, and so are the rest of the people there, and I'm....well at this point I'm just hoping I don't get whooped by a bunch of ticos and finish ten minutes later.

So I've realized the seriousness of this race for these people. Greten and her friends have me running sprints with them, jogging, and stretching. But that's not all. Greten keeps telling me that she's so, so nervous, because she wants to win. So were jogging down this street and all of a sudden we stop. These three 50-mid 60 aged women crouch down, grab the cuff of one short leg, wiggle a bit, and begin to pee in the street. WHOA. That doesn't happen every day. Not only did this happen once, but two more times as well! Every time they go down to release some more liquid nerves, they tell me it's so much easier and I should do it too. Thank God I wasn't nervous.

After the warm up it's time for the race to start and the three women that have befriended me, and myself, head to the starting line. Naturally the women fight there way to the front. Yet again, right before the gun is fired, Greten hops to the side of the street and pees by a sign. People are taking photos at this point of all of the runners, and not to mention all of the runners are watching her pee in plain view...But, Greten did win in her age category. She ran a 42min 10K (6.2miles). I don't even know my time but I can tell you it was nowhere near her.

Here's a quick description of the race itself:

The race was all in the mountains. It was really pretty, but of course hilly. However, the end of the race was all down hill and felt great! The reason I brought up the hills is because of why the race was even formed to begin with. The race benefitted physically handicapped people, and a lot of the people in the race were handicapped. All of the people that were handicapped were missing legs, so they were using those bike things that you sit on and power with your arms. So these people were powering themselves up pretty steep hills with only their arms.

It was incredible, and humbling, to see these people straining to get themselves over hills. They fought with every muscle they could, and never gave up. The runners running by would all cheer them on and give words of encouragement. It was really something.  

That's all!
Thank you to everyone who kept my papa tico in their thoughts and prayers. I'm so glad that he is back home and doing so much better, and I'm so glad that he had people caring about him all the way in the US as well. Thank you so much!


Monday, September 10, 2012

Moments in Monteverde


Nothing went wrong this weekend. Nothing. Everything was absolutely perfect!!

This weekend four of us left Thursday at 2:30pm for Monteverde. Monteverde is a section of Costa Rica that holds the cloud forest and many species of animals that are only found in this section of the world. I was so stoked to travel there. We arrived at the hostel, Sleepers, around 7:30 pm. The hostel was absolutely wonderful. We paid $11 dollars a night, had hot showers, towels, nice beds, wifi, a FREE BREAKFAST, and transportation to different activities. It was the best. It was also the best free breakfast I've ever had. Some cornflakes+milk, watermelon, pineapple, banana, toast, eggs, and coffee or tea. Perfect. Free. Fantastic.
 
The view from our window! 
I woke up to the sounds of a rooster crowing, and cows mooing. 
It doesn't get better than that!


The first real activity we did in Monteverde was the canopy tour. The canopy tour had a whole bunch of different zip lines. Most of them were the normal variety, but there's one called the superman where you literally just look like superman with your arms out. Another one was called the tarzan swing. I hated it. It was a 50M free-fall drop with some swinging at the end. Uhg, not worth it. Some people like the "adrenaline rush", but it is so not natural to just willingly fall that far....so I can say that I really do hate it. Anyways, the whole thing overall was neat. Not my favorite activity but cool. I met some really cool people from all over the world. These guys from Vancouver called me Indiana the whole time, which was kind of funny. Oh, I would say it was worth it for the money. We only paid $40 to do it all.


 
Feelin' pretty confident

 
Not confident. Terrified.


  

The next awesome thing we did was visiting the ficus tree. This was such an amazing experience...I am at a loss for words for how absolutely amazing it was. There's this tree in Monteverde, you have to ask the locals how to get there because it's not a tourist attraction. Anyways, you talk to the locals and they'll give you some vague directions and once you hike up this steep hill and spy a little somewhat of a path into the cloud forest, you've arrived at the entrance. You just walk a little ways into the forest and , wow, there is a huge ficus tree waiting for you to climb it. The tree has formed this natural tunnel ladder around itself so you can actually climb this really easy, and relatively safe, natural ladder all the way to the top of this (very tall) tree and just sit and enjoy the view. Absolutely breath taking. I'd visit this tree time and time again before going to any beach. Here are some photos:

 
going up the tunnel ladder

 
at the top, it really is a lot higher than this picture lets on.  
But look how small Alannah is!

 
This is where Caleb would have sat if he was here. =/ 
He would've probably been wearing his FiveFingers too. 
Sigh. 

 
Going back down the tree tunnel! 
After the tree we headed back to the hostel to get ready for our night tour that began at 5:30pm! Aaah! I loved it!!! It started out perfect. They gave me a hot mug of free coffee. They won my heart from the beginning. After we all finished our coffee, and received our flashlight, we headed into the forest with our guide. It was incredible. This man was an amazing tour guide. He was so passionate and we saw so many cool things like: a viper, it was bright yellow, and super dangerous. It was hanging beautifully on a little tree. The guy said we are incredibly lucky to see it. Vipers are usually not able to be seen so close to the floor but because of the earthquake things have been a little off. We also saw a sloth, which was cool, but kind of over rated. AND THEN. We saw a kinkajou!! A kinka-what? A kinkajou! It's like this jungle cat/monkey. It looks like a cat but has a tail that grabs things like a monkey, and therefore it can swing from trees like a monkey. The guy also said that they're rare to see. The guy found a huge dung beetle that I got to pet, some tucans, and some other night creatures. 

I talked to him a lot, and asked a ton of questions. Pretty typical, but I was talking to him at the end of our tour about how I really wanted to see a Quetzal, this amazing bird, we talked about it for a little bit and then he told me that he could tell that I was genuinely passionate about the wildlife and such and said if I made it to the birdwatching area at 7:15am he promised me he would find me a Quetzal. I was so jazzed! This man had just offered me a free tour and promised me a Quetzal! So the four of us headed back to the hostel and joined up with the rest of the group that had just arrived (they came later because they had classes on friday).  

So I'm telling them all about my night tour experience and about how I'm going to go birdwatching tomorrow to find a Quetzal and they all just laugh....They were like, "Ooh Sara's celebrating her  80th birthday tomorrow by going birdwatching at 7:15 in the morning! Woooo...." Yeah, so maybe they weren't as impressed as I wanted them to be, but it didn't crush my dreams. The next day, woke up, ate my free breakfast, and headed back to the cloud forest with Alannah (She was nice enough to go) to see myself a Queztal. The guy was there! He said it was actually his day off but that he didn't mind, since he usually spends his days off in the forest anyways. We only had to pay the entrance fee (10$, which is good for the entire day). He told us to hike the trails on our own for awhile and then he would meet up with us later to hunt for the Quetzal.  Here are some photos of the forest: 


 
This hummingbird is only found in Costa Rica!! 
It's huge compared to others.

 
Walking through the trails was magical. 
Alannah and I didn't speak the entire time. 
We were speechless.


 
Aaand then, for the grand finale! We headed back to find my newly made tour guide friend. He took us out to this place to spot a Quetzal, and previously a different tour guide before us said that he couldn't find any today, and that it would be unlikely. My new tour guide friend didn't buy it. He literally knows everything about Costa Rica's nature. He knows all of the movements, patterns, calls, and life-styles of all of the flora and fauna. It's incredible. So we go out looking for a Quetzal, he checks this tree, doesn't see one, but tells us to keep looking because he knows one will show up here. He heads off to set up his telescope for birdwatching. AND THEN I SPOT IT!!! There was a Quetzal in the tree the whole time! Even the birdman missed it! He quickly set up his stuff and then we had a great view of it. I was able to take photos through the lens of his telescope! Here they are! 


 
This was another bird he spotted. 
I forget its name...


 
Off in the distance is this weird mammal thing which clearly I can't remember its name either... 
There were two and they were playing!

 
A super cool, GIANT moth

That was the trip! We headed back to Heredia, made it back an hour earlier than expected, and end the weekend well!