Bungee!

Hola todos!

This past week one of my friends on the trip turned 21 and to celebrate she wanted us all to go bungee jumping! We went with a company called Tropical Bungee, they were the first company to bungee jump in Costa Rica and the bridge that they bungee jump off of is one of the highest bungees in the world! The bridge we bungeed off of is 265 feet above the Colorado River, a beautiful river surrounded by lots of trees.

We has straps around our ankles and around our waists that were connected to the elastic cord. This made me feel much better that we had to wear both because what are the chances of both backfiring, right? After they strapped you into your harness and ankle straps you sat on the railing of the bridge and swiveled around to a little platform that looked like a very short diving board. From there you walked to the edge until your toes were over. This was the most frightening part because at this point you could look down and see all 265 feet stretching before you...

Then everyone counted down from 5 and I took a big jump, spread my arms and FLEW! It literally felt like I was flying through the air and I really have no words to describe the sensation..you just have to try it!

That is me way down there hanging from that cord! After I stopped swinging around a lot the men lowered a cable down to me that had a carbine on the end. This part was rather difficult because you had to try to reach and grab the cable and then hook the carbine onto your harness while upside down. Once you had this done you spread your arms out like a bird and they knew you were ready to get pulled up. I was being pulled upside down for awhile until I eventually flipped upwards and then it was smooth sailing back up to the bridge!

Next on my list is whitewater rafting! Talk to you all soon!

Pura Vida,

Caitlin

Puerto Viejo: The gringos on the bus go round and round, round and round

Hola!

This past weekend I traveled to Puerto Viejo in Limon. Limon is in the South of Costa Rica on the Caribbean coast and is completely different than central Costa Rica where I am staying. Puerto Viejo is made up of mostly black Costa Ricans many of whom are Rastafarian. It is also a big surfing spot and is known for the Salsa Brava, the biggest wave ever surfed in Costa Rica!

To get to Puerto Viejo we had to take a bus from San Joaquin to San Jose and then take a cab to the bus station. From there it was about a 5 hour bus ride to Puerto Viejo and once we got into Puerto Viejo it was dark out so we took another cab to our hostel. The bus ride there was quite interesting. In Costa Rica they always sell more tickets than seats on the bus and these extra tickets are called tickets "de pie", or standing. Interestingly enough, these standing tickets costs the same as a regular seat! So every seat on our bus was filled, as well as the aisles but there was only about 5 Spanish speakers on the entire bus, everyone else was a gringo. So someone on the bus started singing the wheels on the bus go round and round but substituted gringos for wheels!

The bus ride was really fun because it was all people under the age of about 25 from everywhere in the U.S., Canada, Australia, there was even a guy from Israel.The majority of the bus was staying at the same hostel as my group. We stayed in hammocks for $5 a night at a place called Rocking J's. I put in a picture of my bed for the night:

The hammock was actually surprisingly comfy and I got a great night's sleep on it. When we got there on Friday night the hostel was having live music so we stayed there and watched that which was fun and then we went out on the beach and looked at the millions of stars.

The next morning on Saturday we woke up very early because it was basically like you were camping so you woke up when the sun came out. A few of us rented bikes from the store across the street for $5 and rode about 30 minutes to a place called Punta Uva. The ride was a little interesting because it was full of potholes but it was also beautiful because you were basically riding down the rode with the jungle on one side of you and a view of the ocean on the other. When we got to Punta Uva the beach was breathtakingly beautiful even though it was a bit cloudy and rainy out. The waves were somewhat rough but considered calm for the Caribbean Coast. After a few hours we rode our bikes back to the hostel in the pouring rain and got cleaned up. That night we hung around a bonfire on the beach for awhile and then went to a bar called Johnny's in town. This place was really crowded inside with a strange mix of locals and then people from our hostel but if you went outside they had chairs and tables set up right on the water and it was gorgeous.

Sunday morning we got up early once again and some of our group caught a bus back to San Jose at 11. I didn't need to catch a bus until 4 so I got to spend more time at the beach! On Sunday we walked about twenty minutes on a little jungle path to a beach where there were big waves and lots of surfers. The walk there was beautiful and we stopped at lots of little tide pools along the way. It was fun to watch the people surfing but that must be a workout! I tried swimming a little far out and it was hard work just to get 20 feet offshore because the waves were so strong. The beach had a bunch of red flags on it to warn you about the strong riptides but also so that you didn't swim in the area that the surfers would be riding waves in.

On the way to the bus to go back home that afternoon I got to see a sloth just hanging out in a tree above a roadside stand which was great. The bus ride home was pretty uneventful except that we got stopped by the police and we all had to file off the bus and show either our passports or copies of them. I showed mine to the first police man and was fine and then as I walked to get back on the bus the other one stopped me and looked at my papers again and then asked me what my name was. Apparently, if you have a fake passport you only need to memorize the name on it and you're good to go! We got back to San Jose around 8 and took a cab back to San Joaquin where I fell, exhausted but happy into my bed...

Pura Vida

I've started my blog a bit late so the first one will just be a brief recap of what I've experienced so far in Costa Rica.

The trip to Costa Rica was a breeze and what made it even better was that it was only about 5 degrees in Chicago when I flew out! There were about seven other students on my flight who are in the same program as I am so we got to know one another on the plane. However, as soon as we landed and got our luggage we were split up because we got picked up by our host parents. This is what made the first night a little hard for me because I was in a strange city with a family I didn't know, I had no way of communicating with anyone else (until I luckily discovered wireless in my little apartment!) and I had no idea where my house was in relation to the other students. The first night I got a little homesick and I was scared that I'd be homesick for most of the trip but then the next morning I got up and felt fine and I haven't been homesick since!

My tica family couldn't be better. I live on the main street of our town in a little house next to my host family's house. I have a papa tica, William, a mama tica, Ivette and tons of family! I live in the apartment with the twenty year old daughter Susana and if you go into my backyard you can get to my tico brother's house. Ricardo is 35 and has two kids but he is divorced. If you go further through my backyard my other host sister, Joli, 42 lives in a house with her husband and 5 kids. Also, another student is staying at this house. In my parents house lives my other host sister, Ivette (after the mom). Ivette is 25 and has a job in San Jose. The grandmother also lives in our house. I have one more host sister but she lives in San Jose. So basically I live on a little family compound with my tico parents, grandma, 1 brother, 4 sisters, and 7 nieces and nephews. Phew! I really enjoy having such a big family around all the time. Lunch gets especially rowdy as most of the family comes to eat at my mama tica's house. I've put in some pictures of my house that I took in my backyard. The first one is the patio to my mom's house and the second one is a beautiful painted oxcart in the backyard.

After spending the night getting to know my host family I went to bed exhausted and woke up the next morning to go to school. My host mom walked me there (its about a 15 minute walk) and tried to hold my hand when we crossed the street! For the next week we would have several meetings at the institute about safety and earthquakes and things of that nature. We also went on a overnight trip to see some of the surround area and we stated at a pretty resort in Cartago. We also visited a coffee farm and got to see how coffee was made as well as pick our own.

About a week after I arrived in Costa Rica we started our classes. I'm taking five classes: Intro to Latin American Literature, Litarary Analysis, L.A. Cinema, L.A. Music and conversation. All of my classes are very interesting and my professors our very laid back and like to be called by their first names. Some of my classes only have 6 students in them and my largest class is about 20 students; a far cry from the 700 person lectures at U of I.

The biggest difference between being at home and being in Costa Rica is the lack of cell phones. Our group has gotten into a groove though and if anyone is going anywhere at night they meet at a bar called Bar Alex down the street from me at 8:30 and we go from there. We tend to make plans at school during the day so if you don't have class one day you tend to be totally out of the loop. However, the good thing about not having a cell phone is that life is much more relaxed. It isn't uncommon for people in Costa Rica to be a minimum of 15 minutes late for everything, operating on "tico time". Overall, I love my life in Costa Rica and am enjoying my study abroad very much!

Pura Vida!