Hot Springs, Horses, and Canopies

This weekend's adventure was definitely much different than the last! Instead of beautiful beaches with white side and clear waters, we were off to a volcano and a cloud forest! This weekend, Amber and I left bright and early Friday morning to head to the Arenal Volcano (I think the most "famous" volcano here in Costa Rica) We had booked a hostel online and wandered around town for awhile trying to find it. We walked past one place about three times before we went in because it had the name of our hostel on a sign but also a different name. We told the lady we had a reservation and she didn't ask my name, had no idea how many nights we were going to be there, no idea how many people, and we just plain got a terrible impression from the place. After she brought us to our "room" she told us she didn't have a key for us.. YEAH after about 3 minutes of contemplation we left and went to a tourist place, got on the internet, canceled that one, and looked up a different one. We ended up at a cute little hostel called Hotel Dorothy with a very welcoming man named Carlos that greeted and helped us out right away. He told us that if we could be ready in about an hour he would take us to Baldi Hot Springs (a resort made in the hot springs of Volcan Arenal) from 1:00-3:00, pick us up to take us on a hike of the Volcano from 3:15-6:00, then back to Baldi Hot Springs for some swimming and dinner until 9:30. The lunch that was included, was FANTASTIC!!! We each got to chose an appetizer, so I had heart of palm salad, then garlic sea bass with veggies and cheesey mashed potatoes for main course, and a delicious cheese cake for dessert came out as soon as we were finished! It also included a delicious mango smoothie! I attempted to take a picture of the sea bass, but it just didn't up too great. However, the picture of the excellent cheesecake dessert showed up just fine =) So after we had our fantastic lunch, we wandered around the place for awhile and let our stomachs digest before heading off to the volcano hike. We went to a place called Arenal 1968. It is called that because, obviously, the name of the volcano, and then in 1968 there was an eruption so bad that it destroyed three small villages.
This website talks a little bit about the eruption, I'm sure you could google more to find out all about it!

http://www.arenal.net/arenal-volcano-1968-eruption.htm

On our tour, our guide stopped and told us all about the plants and what they are used for, such as making mosquito repellent, helping with fevers, curing diabetes, etc. It seemed as though every plant had some sort of purpose in natural healing, it was pretty cool. And then... our tour guide ate termites.. EWWW.. they were "natural" and apparently are full of protein and taste like carrots. He told us that if we were ever stranded that we could eat them and be fine. Then we hiked up further to the volcano and saw huge boulders of lava rock that destroyed the villages, it was pretty crazy. This is apparently one of the "smaller" boulders that crashed through the villages. It was seriously crazy seeing all of this and realizing that just 40 some years ago it was three villages. We continued hiking up and went to two view points of the volcano, very pretty.

I was kinda bummed that a cloud was covering the top of the volcano, but still pretty cool!

That night we headed back for some dinner, time in the hot springs, and just 1 drink.. they were 8 DOLLARS a piece.. our tour guide told us that during "high season" drinks are like 11.00 or 12.00 dollars.. ridiculous! The hot springs ranged in temperatures from 52 to 152 degrees Fahrenheit. Obviously the one that was 152 degrees was not for going in, more or less just for show and for people to feel, it was INSANELY hot. So we hung out there, met some fun people, and headed back to our hostel for a good night sleep!The next morning we were off to Monteverde (a town not too far away but up a lot higher) to meet the other girls! Now, we didn't just hop on a bus to go over there, oh no. We started by getting picked up from our hostel, drove down to Lake Arenal, took a boat across Lake Arenal (gorgeous views), walked up into the woods, and got on our horses!! My horse's name was "Rocky Balboa" oh dear goodness were my first thoughts! Turns out he was 4 years old, has been doing this trail for awhile, and was a very gentle, fun horse.

Our horses were buddies and were constantly "joking around" on the trail! It was pretty entertaining and made it a lot of fun!

Rocky seemed like he was bored and liked to go "off-roading" with me and tried going down a trail he wasn't supposed to! He was always going back and forth along the trail and fighting over the lead with Amber's horse. Our guide also had a VERY adorable little dog that came the whole way with us! She was sooo cute and added to the adventure. Another thing that added to the adventure was the SNAKE we saw just hanging out in the middle of the path. I thought that horses were spooked by snakes, but thank goodness we just trotted right on over that snake.

Yeah, the guide took this picture. NO WAY was I going back.Amber and I in front of Arenal Volcano

Our horse back ride was about 3 hours, and manoman was my behind SORE! Definitely not used to riding horses, that's for sure! When we got to Monteverde, we took a nap =) The girls and I went to grab some dinner, then went to get some wine/chocolates, and just sat in the hostel talking until we all hit the hay. The next morning we woke up to go zip lining through the canopy of the Cloud Forest in Monteverde. Unreal. I have never been zip lining before, so I was a bit nervous. But, wow, it was such an amazing experience! I brought my camera, but it was impossible to take pictures of my views from the zip line. There were 11 lines, a bridge, a repel, and a tarzan swing. The tarzan swing was so fun! They didn't really tell us what we were getting into until we got to the top. I took a video, and I will try to put it on here, but basically we walked up a bunch of stairs, the strapped us in, told us to hold onto a rope, and PUSHED us right off.. we went FLYING up to the top of the canopy and then back toward the platform we were pushed off of. It was quite the rush and I would definitely do it again! Another cool thing was the very last line we got to "superman". So instead of just sitting like a typical zip line, we were hooked up by our butts and backs and we "laid down" so we looked like superman flying through the sky. The views were so pretty and we actually zip lined through the clouds, pretty cool!

We got a little bit dirty!With two of our guides, they had fun messing with tourists!

It was quite the eventful, fun weekend, and muuuch different than our weekend at the beach! My next big adventure begins a week from Wednesday when JOSH AND HANNAH GET HERE!! I am definitely very excited to see them and spend time with them on the beach and I am definitely taking them zip lining!
Last week at placement number 1, onto placement number 2 next week!
My internet works a lot better now and I will be adding plenty more pictures to the Picasa site.. miss everyone so much!

¡Pura Vida!

"Pura Vida" literally translates to "The Pure Life" and is Costa Rica's motto. To be honest, Puerto Viejo was the first place that I actually felt this to be a true motto. The place was absolutely stunning! One of the host mothers here and her niece/niece's friend invited us to come along for the weekend! Puerto Viejo is located in the Costa Rican providence of Limón and is in the SouthEast corner of the country almost down to Panama. Since it is on the Caribbean side, the sand is so white and the water is so clear, blue, and warm.
We left at 5:00 in the morning and as we got closer to our stay we were driving along the ocean and it was absolutely beautiful! There were hammocks every where and just so relaxing. The first night we were there we stayed in a place called Rancho Tranquillo. It was essentially a cabin with a kitchen, bathrooms, lots of beds, and a hammock inside! There was a pool and a hot tub (all in the middle of the jungle, basically) and a grill. So when we got there we headed to the grocery store to get some stuff for lunch and then it was off to Puerto Viejo! Puerto Viejo is more of the "tourist" beach and was lined with little shops along the side of locals trying to sell bracelets, earrings, sarongs, hair weaves, etc. We ended up stumbling upon a man who was making snow cones (shaving the ice right there on the cart) and decided we wanted one. Little did we know it was going to be the best snow cone EVER! In Costa Rica they put condensed milk and caramel on top of their snow cones (I can never remember the name) but it was honestly SOO delicious.. the girls and I decided we are going to start selling them up in the states as our summer job =)So we just spent the day wandering around, reading in the sun, and playing in the extremely warm water.. it was just about perfect! That night we played in the pool and looked at the STARS! ah it was soo amazing to see stars again and not just rain clouds! (Which it didn't rain once while we were there, so refreshing!!) And we grilled a dinner with carne, chicken, veggies, and a whole bunch of other stuff. This was the first time that the carne actually tasted like steak from the States. Needles to say, I was pretty happy. Then we went back down to the beach area by the bars and sat on the beach, danced, people watched, all that good stuff! There was a reggae band playing and everything was just so relaxed. However, for some reason my cold decided to come back full force after dinner and I was very tired and not feeling well, so that wasn't much fun.The next day we headed out to Punta Uva (a beach about 10 minutes more South). For this night we stayed in a place that was right on the beach =) This beach was a little bit more private and didn't have any stores or anything near by. Again, just absolutely gorgeous! While here, we met a lady that is from Colorado and we got to play with her ADORABLE little boy, Immanuel. She came to Costa Rica about 10 years ago for vacation and when she got back to the States she told us that she was like, "why stay here when I know there is something as beautiful as Punta Uva waiting for me?" So she moved down, met her husband, as has been there ever since!

Of course I would find a baby and have to play with him =)

That night we decided to have a bonfire on the beach. This was also absolutely amazing (I think you understand how much I enjoyed this weekend!!) We got some snacks and introduced the Ticos (Costa Ricans) to smores! We also cooked them hot dogs over the fire, but after Meghan put in so much effort, we were only able to enjoy 3 and a half of the 8 hot dogs =) Anywho, they LOVED the smores! (So did I) Definitely reminded me of home! So we just sat around the fire in the sand and looked at the stars and listened to the waves of the ocean, it was definitely relaxing!
The next day was our last day, but we didn't have to leave until about 3:00, so Kathy (the niece) Kelly, Meghan and I rented some bikes! We rented the bikes so that Kathy could take us to Manzanill0, one of her favorite beaches. This is about another 10 minute drive South of Punta Uva. Again, gorgeous, but I think I liked Punta Uva the best because Manzanillo was pretty rocky. Kathy took us to this little area called the piscinita (which literally means little pool) and it was a big tree that was hanging over the water and it was not rocky at all in the water underneath the tree. We also actually got to see some monkeys hanging in the trees on our bike ride! It was very sad to be leaving this beautiful place, but we all knew it had to end some time and we had to head back to reality and school. Thank God for amazingly beautiful, relaxing weekends, though, otherwise I'm not so sure how well I would survive the school weeks!
This week was a short one, though! Since we were in Puerto Viejo, we were not at school on Monday. Then, Tuesday at my school was a parade and celebration for Día de Independencia de Costa Rica!
Wednesday was the actual day of Costa Rica's Independence, so we none of us had school, and then Thursday and Friday were back to normal. Well, almost normal. My school puts on this big Christmas Program in the end of November and they are already rehearsing for it a lot! So yesterday, I got to listen to Christmas music in Spanish ALLLL day long. It is definitely a bit early to be listening to it, but also got me very excited realizing that I will be back at home in the States when Christmas is here! =)
On Wednesday I went with some of my host sisters to their uncle's house. Their family gatherings are very similar to ours, but with A LOT less food! haha They set up karaoke, they were all singing and dancing, and drinking wine and enjoying each other's company. I also had the opportunity to go an "American School". The girls cousin, Andrea, works at this school. What it is: Preschool all the way until senior year where everything is taught in English (well the younger grades some is still in Spanish). When the students graduate, they will have not only their high school diploma from Costa Rica, but from the United States as well. The school is HUGE and looks like a college campus. It costs a lot of money to go there and Andrea told me that it is mostly the kids whose parents own the KFC's and Pizza Hut's and etc. down here. And let me tell you, they LOVEEE some KFC down here haha. I told her that I would really like to observe her while I am here since she is the preschool teacher and she told me she is going to talk to her supervisor and let me know! I actually only have 2 weeks left at the Montessori and then I move to my second placement, Las Huellitas (the footprints), a preschool pretty close to my house. I am actually pretty excited for a change in pace!I am also very excited because HANNAH AND JOSH COME IN 2 AND A HALF WEEKS!!! Also, my friend Hollie is coming with them, too!! It will be very nice to see some family, and it is half way through my stay here, so it will be a good refresher to get me through the last half =)Another thing I was excited about was that I got to watch Anthony's hockey game last night on the internet! (Yes, my internet actually worked long enough and good enough for me to watch!) Crazy how far technology has come that I can watch a college hockey game from a different country!Anywhooo, tonight I am going to an Argentinian tango show/dinner with my host sisters in San Jose. I am very excited to see this, I think it is going to be very cool!

Puerto Viejo

Meghan and ISunrise
ManzanilloEverything here is very Bob Marley/Rasta inspired.. including the trees!

I love and miss everyone SOO much, but weeks are flying by and I am going to be home before I know it! I officially booked my flight and I will be landing in Oklahoma City on December 1st at 5:30 PM and spending some time with Anthony before catching a ride with Allie back up to the good ol state of WISCONSIN!

Church, sickness, and Kid's Day!

This week started out with a very beautiful, contemporary, ENGLISH church service! Our host sisters are pretty active in a church here that is just a couple blocks from our house. Every first Sunday of the month, their church has a service that is entirely in English, so they invited us to join them. The service started out with almost 45 minutes of just songs. A couple a recognized from home and even more I recognized from Camp Luther! =) It was very refreshing and I am happy that they invited us. The pastor that preached is actually a missionary that has been here for 20-some years and is from Minnesota! (He definitely still had his Midwest accent and was talking about foundations and how “where he is from the need to be sturdy because of frost” .. he was a dead give-away!) Everyone there was so nice and we realized how active our host sisters are in the church. We told them we would definitely like to go again, even in Spanish! I think it would be awesome to hear some of those songs in Spanish. The had drums, guitar, and some fabulous singers.

I started to not feel so hot on Monday night and when I woke up Tuesday I ended up feeling not so great at all, so I stayed home from school. This actually made me homesick because when I’m sick, all I want is my mom… haha I basically slept all day and just sat alone for awhile. Part of me thinks I really just needed a "mental day" for myself to be alone and just sleep for awhile. Anywho, I went to school yesterday and the days are getting better every time. Granted there are some moments that the language barrier is still frustrating, but I feel very comfortable in my school, with my students, and with the other teachers. Which is kind of a bummer because I only have four weeks left at the Montessori before I move onto my next placement, crazy!

THEN today was ¡Día de los Niños! AKA “Kid’s Day”. It is apparently a National Holiday here and was a blast! All of the kids dressed up like it was Halloween and all of the teachers got their faces painted. And when I say painted, I mean intricate, beautiful works of art on our faces. A lot of the teachers got mariposas (butterflies) on their face, so I decided to go with something different.. here is the starting step.

The day started with a “fashion show” by the children all getting on stage and showing off their costumes. There was also a room for dancing, a puppet show, a piñata, and plenty of other fun activities for the students to participate in. It was a lot of fun to see a different culture’s festivities for a certain holiday, especially one totally dedicated to children.

Gaby and I with our faces painted!

Gaby, Me, Isa, Isaí, and Santi

Tomorrow is Friday and we are off to Puerto Viejo! (Well at 3 AM Saturday morning) I am very excited because it is on the Caribbean side and apparently that side is nice and warm and DRY right now! So hopefully we will get a break from the rain!

I will upload more pictures to the picasa site when my internet starts working better and goes a bit quicker =).. Love and Miss you ALL!

¿Que es Venison?

So I think I should start with explaining the title of this blog, What is Venison? On Friday I took my very first field trip =) The Kinder and Pre-Kinder classes at the Montessori, along with the teachers of course, went to a place about 40 minutes away called INBioparque.

http://costa-rica-guide.com/travel/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=179&Itemid=352

That website talks a bit about it. Basically, it is a zoo here in Costa Rica.

Here are some of my students, from left: Adrian, Isabela, María Jose, Isaí, and Santiago

It was very interesting for me to go to this place to see what kinds of animals they have here in their zoos and for me to listen to the tour guide talk in Spanish. I actually understood most of what she was saying, so that was good! Anywho, the first animal that we saw was a deer. All of the children were being sooo quiet and trying to spot a deer I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. After we saw a couple mommy deer and baby deer, we walked on down the path. As we were walking I was telling Gaby, my teacher, and Ericka, the Pre-Kinder teacher, about how many deer we have in Wisconsin. I then told them how much I hate driving at night because I have hit a deer before. Their response was priceless: "WHAT, TEACHER SARAH, NOO! NO CRASH WITH DEER!" I then told them that I actually love venison. Their response, "Que es venison?" When I told them it was deer meat, I thought they were both going to fall over right there from a heart attack.. hahaha.. I explained that it's okay that we eat deer because there are so many around us and that we actually have a season to hunt deer. They were clearly not used to this idea seeing as deer are in a zoo and are protected animals down here, but it was quite the conversation to say the least.
So after all of that, we continued on to see some huge fish, a butterfly garden, turtles, pigs (which were all black), chickens, etc. There was also a "petting zoo" area where the children got to sit and feed the goats as well as pet bunnies, chicks, and the goats.
Isabela and Camila are here petting a rabbit, they absolutely loved it!

It was definitely a fun first field trip because I got to tell all the students what everything was in English and tell them what we had more of and all kinds of fun stuff like that. The children also couldn't believe that I see deer all the time (I didn't tell them the car crashing or eating parts =) I didn't want to traumatize them haha)
Another school week in the books, and I actually only have 4 more weeks at the Montessori before I move to my next placement! It is crazy how fast time goes.. I have been here nearly a month now, crazy! I actually got to teach my first lessons this week as well. I worked with them on the letters V X and Y and their phonic sounds. I also taught them how to count 10 by 10. Overall, I thought the lessons went really well and if I needed help communicating something to the students, Gaby was there to help translate. Gaby is actually out of the room for most of the day now, which is pretty neat because it makes me feel as if she is not only confident in my teaching skills, but my Spanish skills as well!

As for this weekend, we decided to lay low and save some money by hanging around Tres Ríos. Yesterday we hiked La Carpintera, the mountain right outside our house. It was a 3 1/2 mile hike up (and obviously back down). It was a beautiful view and we saw many beautiful, and VERY scary things along the way. For example,

THIS SPIDER!

Dear goodness was it frightening! Frederico, our "tour guide" for the day quickly told us to leave it alone because he thought it was dangerous. It was just hanging out on the walking path not moving.. Meghan let out quite the piercing scream when she walked by it.

Overall the hike was really awesome. It wasn't too hard until the end. At the end we had about 6 rather high "parts" to climb where it leveled out briefly and turned a bit. It was super muddy because of all the rain, so climbing was a bit challenging. About half way up there is a little waterfall that we played in for awhile! It helped to clean off our legs/shoes as well! We got to the clearing, that we can see every day from our house, and took some pictures, sat down for awhile, and ate some grapes and crackers. We could tell there was a storm coming so we headed back down the mountain shortly after we arrived at the top. My legs surprisingly aren't too sore today, so I think that is motivation to do it again another weekend we hang around here! haha It actually reminded me a lot of climbing up Garvin Heights in Winona.. just a bit bigger =)

That teeny little bright green patch is the clearing that we hiked to.Stunning.Meghan and I just hanging out in the big tree in the middle of the clearing!

This next weekend coming up, us girls got invited to go to a beach house in Puerto Viejo. Kelly's host mother, Flor, has a niece that is 25 who lives with her that has a beach house. She is a student in San Jose and has some sort of break? I'm not really sure. All I know is that Puerto Viejo is about 4 hours away on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. Apparently we are going to take turns making dinner for the three nights we are there and I'm guessing just enjoy a relaxing weekend! I am very excited!