Cahuita, Quepos, and Manuel Antonio.

Cahuita Beach.

A little over one week has past since I last wrote, and it has been an eventful week indeed; my good friend Amy arrived in San Jose on Saturday evening, and since then we have travelled to both the Carribean and Pacific Coasts.

This past Monday we headed to Cahuita, a small laid back town on the Carribean coast with a very rasta vibe. Amy and I stayed in a little hotel very close to the entrance to the nation park, Parque Nacional Cahuita (which has a gorgeous beach). We had our own little kitchen there, which was great because we could save money by self catering. We stayed in Cahuita for three nights, and spent most of our days just relaxing on the beach.

Amy cooking up something tasty.

One day we decided to take advantage of the coral reef (which is one of the last living in Costa Rica) and go snorkleing, which I had never done before. We really lucked out because the conditions were perfect: the water was clear, there was virtually no wind, and there were TONS of fish. Our guide said it was one of the best days he had seen in years. I wish I had had an underwater camera to get some pictures of all of the fish I saw! After we finished snorkleing we took a quick walk through the park and saw a few monkeys, and even a lovely yellow snake (yikes!).

Getting all ready to snorkle. I am a dork.

Amy on the boat.

I am such a tree hugger.

On Thursday morning we headed to our next location, Quepos. Quepos is on the central Pacific coast, and most travellers end up staying here because of its proximity to Manuel Antonio National Park. Amy and I are here for three nights for that very reason, and we got a chance to visit the park yesterday. The park is one of the smallest in Costa Rica, however it is one of the most visited because of the high number of animal sightings. We saw more monkeys than I can count and heard a couple of howler monkeys (they are so loud!), and many other animals which I unfortunately don't know the names of ... After walking some of the trails in the park we were exhausted from the heat (32 degrees celcius) and the humidity, so we headed for the beach to cool off in the water.

Capuchin monkey in Cahuita.

Yellow snake. Apparently very poisinous.

Today we are heading back to the park, this time to check out all of the street vendors, and spend some more time at the beach. Our next stop tomorrow is Montezuma, which is located on the Nicoya Peninsula and is known as a sort of hippie surf spot- So I'll keep you posted!

Pura Vida!

-Amira xo

P.S I was finally able to transfer my photos, so scroll down to my last two posts to see some pictures.

Finished Volunteering, and back in San Jose!

The view from my balcony on my last morning in Zapotal.

First off, I apologize for the lack of updates over the past few weeks, I have not been able to make it to a computer until yesterday. If you scroll down I posted another blog which I had intended on posting before I left Zapotal. I didn't end up getting to use the computer in Miramar but I left the post as I had originally planned to write it, so you can check that out below. Since I haven't written in a while this post is going to be a long one, so you might want to get comfortable!

Betty sitting on all of our luggage on the ride down to Miramar.

The whole gang on my last night in Zapotal.

I left Zapotal on the 31st of March, which was bittersweet since I had really grown to love it there, but I also realised that it was important to visit new places as I only have a limited amount of time in Costa Rica. My last weekend in Zapotal was the Motocross race, which was a pretty big event; people came from all of the towns nearby and there were riders from all over Central and South America competing at the race. The race started at around 11:00am and had two parts: the first was the Pro circuit, and the second was the amateur circuit. I had never seen something like this before, but it was pretty fun except for a couple of falls, but thankfully no one was hurt. There was also tons of great food at the event too, which I of course took advantage of. After the race ended at around 3:00pm there was a party at the community hall, which was a pretty fun time with music, dancing, food, the whole works. I think it was a great way to spend my last weekend there.

Sunset view from the Reserve.

On one of my last two days in Zapotal I visited the Reserve again with Chichi, which was great because the weather had really changed since the previous time I went. This time it was really warm in the forest, and there was also a lot more light so I was able to take more pictures (which I will try and post soon!). I was also finally able to go horseback riding; Frankie came by unannounced one day and just asked me if I wanted to go riding right then and there, I of course jumped at the chance. Frankie let me ride solo, and it was a lot of fun; I rode all over the town, and enjoyed my last sunset in Zapotal on horseback- it was really great. For my last night in Zapotal I made a cake for Betty & Chichi, which was a bit of an experiment I will admit. I made it from a vanilla cake mix, and added some orange flavoured Fanta at Margie's urging. Betty said that she likes cakes with fruit, so I bought a can of peaches and added sliced peaches and whipped cream as the topping for the cake. To my surprise the cake actually turned out really well, and everyone loved it (or at least that is what they told me) and ate the entire thing! I think I will try that Fanta trick again sometime!

I ended up going to Matapalo as planned on the 31st of March, I made the trip with my old roommate Ursual, and it was really nice getting to travel with another person. Matapalo was beautiful, and is supposed to have one of the prettiest beaches in Costa Rica. I was there for only one week which was enough time, since there wasn't a ton of work needed to be done there. Most days we visited the local elementary school and did some painting, and then played with the kids during their lunch break. There were about 5 volunteers there in total, one of each from Austria, Germany, England, and two from Canada (Vancouver, whoot!), and all women! We had one close animal encounter during my stay; one evening I was walking out of the house and Wilson (the project coordinator) was standing by the door, and he told me to just keep on walking, so I did not really thinking anything of it. Once I was out of door, two of the girls were staring at Wilson, and I asked them what was going. They told me there was a snake in the house! Lucky for us they caught the snake, and we found out it was a relatively harmless one that eats mostly spiders and small rodents. But still, everyone was rather disturbed by this event, and I am happy to report that there were no other slithery visitors during the rest of my stay.

Ivana (a photographer at our camp) doing pull ups for the kids. They were impressed.

These girls asked me to take their picture. They are so serious!

Just taking a break.

On my last day of work we started working on building a hatchery for the turtle conservation project on the beach. It was really hard work carrying big beach logs in the blistering sun, but thankfully we didn't have to do it for too long as we were all dying in the 34 degree heat, including my project coordinator!

Kids playing jump rope with the volunteers at recess.

Lifeguard taking it easy. I wonder how he got up there?

Sunset in Matapalo.

All the girls on my last night in Matapalo.

I left Matapalo on Tuesday, a few days earlier than I originally planned because this week is Semana Santa which is basically Easter celebrations, and travelling on Thursday or Friday is next to impossible as there is no domestic bus service. So now I have a few days to waste here in San Jose while I am waiting for my friend Amy to arrive on Saturday. Today I went to meet up with my friend Julie who I met in the Matapalo project, and she is also from Vancouver. We had lunch, and afterwards walked around the main drag in San Jose called Avenida Central. Tomorrow is supposed to be a big celebration day with lots of religious processions so I might go and check that out, since the processions in Central America are supposed to be pretty spectacular.

The procession begins.

The procession ending in the Cathedral.

I apologize for the lack of photos, the computers at my hostel have their hard drives locked up so I haven't been able to plug in my flash drive to post pictures. Hopefully over the next few days I will be able to find another internet cafe and post some photos from the last few weeks, so keep checking back for updates. Talk to you all again soon!
Love,
Amira

March 27th, 2009

The crowds at the Motocross Race.

As of today I have four days left in Zapotal and I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by! I leave here on Tuesday (bright & early) and head towards the pacific coast to a town called Matapalo, where I will visit a beach for the first time since arriving in Costa Rica! I will be working at a project located just across from the Matapalo beach, the project is both a community and environmental one so we will be doing a mixture of work there.
This time though, I will not be making my trip alone; my roommate here Ursula is also going to Matapalo, so we will be making the day long bus trip together.

These girls were so excited- They screamed their heads off!

This week involved a lot of work to do with the up-and-coming Motocross race this weekend. I am anticipating the craziness of this event; our little town of 3o will be flooded with nearly 1000 Motocross enthusiasts from all over Costa Rica. The first rider takes off.

Earlier this week I made cheese with Frankie which is always fun, and tasty because I always eat every single piece of cheese that Frankie offers me. I also attended the funeral of a friend of Betty & Chichi's , which I won't lie was kind of an awkward experience for me. However, it was over very quickly, and was really just a burial, there was no church service or anything. Afterwards, we went to eat at a little cantina which makes my favourite Tico dish called Picadillos, which is basically a tortilla with fried potatoes and spices as the filling. Trust me, it's delicious!

This is the sign that we painted for Betty.

The past few days I been doing a lot of painting because Ursula and I are making a sign for Betty's house, so when volunteers arrive to the town they know which house to go to. Today we are almost finished the sign, so by tomorrow it should be complete. Once again, I am pretty pressed for time here in Miramar, because there has been so much work to do before the Motocross race on Sunday.

Cowboys watching the race.

It might be a while before I am able to post again, because I really have no idea what the internet access will be like (if any) in Matapalo. So I promise to write as soon as I possibly can.
-'Til next time,
Amira