One of the biggest things that I've done since I last wrote is go to the beach!! This was at the beginning of October. We went to a beach called Punta Uva on the Caribbean. We stayed at a place called Arrecife Lodge. It was cheap, but actually pretty nice. We had a nice balcony overlooking the water and a couple hammocks of our own to hang out in. We drove there on Saturday morning and stayed until Tuesday evening. Mostly we just swam and enjoyed the warm sun, but on Monday we did something a little different. We went to Punta Mona. This is a sustainable community that was started by an American man in the early 90's. It was a 4 hour hike into the area. It totally poured on us on the way there, so we were completely soaked. It was really fun though! We saw so many amazing things. There was a sloth climbing up a tree and we saw it when it was at our eye level! We saw tons of howler monkeys, tons of hug Golden Orb spiders, a tiny bright yellow poisonous viper, and many little red poison-dart frogs. We also got to slide down some crazy muddy slopes and step in mud up to our knees. It was definitely an adventure! Once we got there, we got a tour of the "farm." They have lots of gardens that they use to make their food. They are pretty much completely self-sustaining, except they bring in rice because they can't grow it on sight. They use solar panels, collect rain water, compost, and try to have very little impact on the environment. It sounds like an awesome idea, but it seemed to me like they weren't using it to it's full potential. They bring in interns fro 3 months at a time, but the ones that are there right now don't do hardly anything. They do a tiny bit of work in the morning and spend the afternoons smoking marijuana and drinking. It was really frustrating to see that.
Another big thing that happened, although not so good this time, was that our house got robbed. Jill and I got back from school in the late afternoon and noticed a couple things were off. The kitchen door was open and Antonio's computer wasn't there. We didn't make too much of it, figuring the girl who cleaned the house had accidentally left the door open and Antonio took his computer to work. However, when Silvia got home we realized that we had been robbed. They broke the lock on Jill's window and got into the house. They took her cell phone and the computer, but that was it thankfully. Now the family has taken drastic measures to protect the house. That night they put screws in all the windows, permanently closing them. Then yesterday we just had an alarm system put in the house. It seems crazy how much money they are putting into security now.
We also went on a canopy tour last week! It was about a 45 minute drive from San Rafael and was just run by a little family. They harnessed us all up and we walked to the beginning of the course. There were 8 different lines, but they were all pretty short. They spent a lot of time talking about the forest on the way there, and that was really nice. I learned that the things that Tarzan is always shown swinging on are actually roots. There are trees growing at the tops of other trees that send down these long thick roots all the ways to the ground. Vines grow upward from the ground and just wrap around and move their way up the trees. Tarzan couldn't swing on those! It was a really fun adventure:)
I also got to go to a soccer game at the stadium in Heredia. It was the Heredia team versus La Liga, which is from Alajuela. La Liga is supposed to be one of the top two teams in Costa Rica, but the game was actually tied. It's crazy how insane the fans are and the players. There were 6 red cards during the game. And after one of the red cards, the player ran off the field and attacked one of the fans for some reason. He punched him. All the players and coaches sprinted from the benches to get in on the action. It was like that the whole game. I didn't see what happened, but a guy sitting two rows behind us was taken off by the police. There was a fence surrounding the field and the whole second half there were police stationed every three feet or so. They stood there with the batons out and ready to strike anyone who got out of hand. It was crazy.
Those are the major things that I did. This weekend a few of us are planning to go into San Jose to explore some more and to do a little shopping. We are going to get costumes for Halloween, and they are going to double up as costumes for the Harry Potter premier which we are planning to attend! Then we were invited by Laura's host family to come over that night for homemade Pina Coladas. It should be fun!
