Day 24: A little more about Manuel Antonio!

Hola! So I tried real hard to get the video to post...tried several different ways. It just didn't want to post I guess. Sorry about that. So here's some more pictures instead from my weekend! These are from the public beach that was just across from our hotel. We went to it on Sunday. It was a little cloudy...but it's still beautiful! 

There was this dog ^ who wanted to be with his owners so badly it was so adorable! You can see him trying to follow his owners in the second picture above. They were going surfing. So he would try to swim out there but the waves were too big and strong so he would come back to the beach. Then he'd try again...

And again...

and again...until one of his owners (the little girl below) came back. He was the happiest dog ever when she came back ashore. It was just too cute to not try to capture. :) I had to take pictures. I'm such a dog lover. However, if you were there you would think it's adorable also. We found a log to sit on and sat and watched him. It was fun.

We also watched all the surfers! They were amazing to watch! The waves were perfect too. Especially for beginners. A storm was brewing and you could tell the tide was a little higher then normal. This weekend it just down-poured in quite a few parts of Costa Rica I guess.

Cause when we got home my Mama tica immediately asked us if we had heard from Erica or seen her. A flood was in Turrialba this Sunday and no transportation was going out or in there. (Erica went to Puerto Viejo again with a friend from home who was studying in Turrialba) So Erica called Kathleen asking her if she could pick them up because they took a bus to the wrong city, and also asking if her friend could come home with her since her friend (Brittany) couldn't go back to her host family in Turrialba. Well, I guess Kathleen couldn't understand her or something and they got disconnected. So she was worried about them ( I was too for the half an hour we were home before Erica showed up) but they showed up all safe and sound and soaked. :) In conclusion, it rained a lot in Costa Rica this weekend. Locals were happy since their "rainy season" has been pretty dry. They needed the rain. It just caused some issues. :) But it was all good, and we got to meet Erica's friend because of it. 

This was our hotel room this time around! Not as bad as in Puerto Viejo. Much cleaner. 

And this is the little friend who scared Sam while she was walking to our room :) Just popped out at her! It was pretty funny. Well, I suppose I should talk about today, too! Today was good... just a regular school day. Except I had my final test today. Which i hope went well... we'll see! Then we watched some Olympics and did homework! I have a presentation on Wednesday on a medicinal plant that they use here in Costa Rica! I'm pretty excited for this one. However, we still haven't decided on which plant we're going to use. It's in between a Guanabana and Chan. We'll decide in the morning. :) Tomorrow is going to be a busy day though! We're having a pizza party through our program CEA to discuss with each other our experiences and whatnot. Then I have class even though we took the test already... but we're hopefully going to go to the health fair that students are putting together for tomorrow for a little bit. Then CEA also organized a movie night for us! We're going to the new Batman movie at the theater in San Jose! So I'm pretty excited for that! I've only heard good things about it. 

Well, that's about it for now! 

Buenos Noches! 

Day 23: Manuel Antonio!

For my last weekend here we went to Manuel Antonio! It was a lot of fun! even though it rained quite a bit yesterday... it was still amazing. They have a lot of wildlife down there so we saw almost everything in the wild! :) 

crocodiles!

Parrots!

sloths!

and Monkeys!

We also saw a "Jesus Lizard" running across the water! That was pretty cool! and we saw a spider monkey but it was too quick to get a picture of... and that wasn't even in the park! It was while I was eating breakfast! A whole group of monkeys just decided to visit us. They were climbing all over the roof and got really close--about  3 or 4 feet away from me on the branch :) It was amazing! I was in heaven watching the monkeys and eating a giant pancake and gallo de pinto (rice and beans).

So I suppose I should talk about the national park, too! Well, I liked it a lot. They had a lot of trails to go on to see several different beaches. Within each trail you were almost guaranteed to see some sort of wildlife. Then the beaches were gorgeous! Too bad it wasn't sunny... ended up pouring for a good part of the day. It was still fun though! Got to climb some rocks and jump some waves (the waves got really big!) So it was a really laid back weekend surrounded by Costa Rica's wildlife. Good ending to my excursions. Below you'll find the pictures from this weekend so enjoy! I am also trying to upload a video of the stairs up to my room...because they were pretty steep and a lot of them! We brought some friends up to our room that stayed at a different hotel and they thought they were insane! It was pretty funny! :) However, the view was worth it :) So hopefully I can get that posted at some point. 

Bueno, I have my final test tomorrow! So Buenos Noches! 

this is where all the crocodiles were!

view from our room! 

The tide was so high that we had to put everything up in the tree. So here's our tree :)

the waves got really big! We had fun trying to get a picture of each of us with waves splashing behind us :)

Sand Castle that Emily built!

we climbed to the top of this one big rock! It was fun especially since you had to dodge crabs going up it. 

Emily, Sam, and me at the beach. 

eating leaves... :) 

BIG roots that climbed all over the place. 

spikey tree!

beatiful view of the Pacific Ocean "Punta Catedral"

Cool spiral tree