Puerto Viejo - El Pescador

Aimee & I ate at El Pescador our first night en Puerto Viejo. They are a recently reopened restaurant. I think the owner was Americano.

They had very yummy Caribbean food. The rice was con frioles and made with coconut milk. I seriously need to learn how to make that.

Puerto Viejo Beach - In the rain

We woke up this morning to an overcast sky. Around 8 or 9, it started pouring down rain. We waited around awhile & decided we still wanted to see the beach.

While we were waiting on the patio we met a boy who is from Stephenville. We forgot to ask his name. Oops. He is in the cabana next door. ...we apparently share a bathroom wall...enough said...

We were all sitting on our patio when our door shut, locking us out. I ran to the reception in the rain to get an extra key. The walkway was mostly covered but flooded.

After awhile Aimee & I braved the rain to find breakfast & la Playa. Even in the rain, the view from the beach was beautiful. The fog over the trees across the beach, the color of the sky & waves crashing. Que Bonita.

Puerto Viejo deck view

The view from my deck in Puerto Viejo.

Bienvendida Puerto Viejo - Day One

Buenos Dias from Puerto Viejo! - this is our first weekend trip in Costa Rica.

The first day of school, we had an orientation session. A really funny guy gave us tips on how to get around Costa Rica. Tips like, when we need to flag the bus or a taxi don't wave because the driver will more than likely just wave back. There is a unique hand signal you make to signal the bus driver or taxi. He also made suggestions on where to travel on the weekends and how the school can help arrange trips for us. Following the advice of the travel coordinator at the school (I think that's what he was) Spanish Aimee and I headed out for another adventure; this time to Puerto Viejo. 

The trip to Puerto Viejo is a four & 1/2 hour bus ride from San Jose. The tickets, which the school will go purchase from the bus station to save time for the students, was 5300 colones or $10. Not bad. The bus was hot, but bearable with the windows cracked. The view on the bus great too. Here is a picture of Patrick's friend Hippa-Hippa, his Costa Rican name will be Señor Hipopotamo, riding the bus with us. I'm trying to remember to take pictures of Señor Hipopotamo's adventures in Costa Rica, he goes everywhere with us. 

I'm not sure where I thought Puerto Viejo was but when we got off the bus I thought, oooooohhhhh. It's a very small town right on the beach. The town is really just tourist shops, a few sodas (little diners), hostels, a couple of bigger restaurants and the beach. I think in the time Aimee and I walked yesterday, we went over the entire town.  Here is our "cartoon map" that we are using to navigate the town. 

I'll post more later about our room and where we go today. I'm headed to finally try gallo pinto con juevos! I'll take pictures. 

Esta lloviendo!

Yesterday, I don't think I have ever laughed as much. Aimee and I decided to walk to the San Pedro Mall from our school. I don't know how many meters it was but it was about four Costa Rican blocks, which could be 100 mitres o más. When we left the school it was, of course, raining. Aimee & I both looked to see if any Ticos had their sombrillas out before we took ours out. When we got to the mall, we looked around to find the bank and wondered around aimlessly until we stumbled upon it.

At the bank we waited in line forever! before we could exchange our dolares for colones. It was interesting to see that when you walk into the bank a guard checks your bag. The guard also opens and closes the door for you. If the wait is too long, then the guard doesn't open the door and you have to wait outside. The change rate for colones was 493.

After the bank it was so late that we decided to just grab some food then head home. So our second time eating out in Costa Rica we had Carl's Junior. I found this amusing. In the mall the food court had mostly chain food, Taco Bell y Quiznos y McDonalds.

After eating we left the mall and the true adventure began. It was raining hard when we left the mall. A storm that would make Amarillo proud. As we are walking I turned to Aimee and said, we should take a picture of this. As I took a picture of Aimee holding her sombrilla lightening flashed and she made a hilarious face!! I'll see if I can get the picture to upload.

When we finally made it to the bus stop, we waited then watched our bus pass by us. As we tried to decide what to do another bus came. There was another lady at the bus stop and all three of us flagged the bus down to make it stop. We all laughed because we were tired of waiting.  We finally made it home around 8ish I believe?

Yo tuve una adventura.

Costa Rica Day Three

Hola!!

What I have discovered in Costa Rica so far:

There isn't a for sure location to get 100% wifi access and that makes me sad. I'm having to find service in different spots. Either the living room at at my home stay, which didn't work yesterday, or at the school, which is sometimes loud for video chat. I was able to talk to Patrick today which made me happy. :) They recommended that we not travel on the bus every day with any laptops or iPads so it's hard to decide where to access the Internet. I'll figure out a system eventually.

It rains every day!! Todos los dias!! Yesterday after my first day of classes I forgot my umbrella and had to share with Aimee. It was amusing. My flip flops were soaked and I thought they might break! We laughed on the bus about it. I remembered my umbrella today. Umbrellas are sombrillas para las mujeres y paraguas para los hombres.

Aimee y yo estamos meyor los estudiantes. Nosotros tenemos más anos que nuestro profesor. Most of the students are out of class at 2 but Aimee and I chose to have 2 extra hours of class. We told ourselves today, "nuestro meta es aprender espanol" :) There were three other students in our class yesterday but today it was just Aimee and I. We laughed about that for awhile, then were sad thinking we sucked at Spanish, then decided we were happy because it was easier y más comoda to learn. Also    the other students mostly speak English during breaks. Aimee & I are trying to speak only Spanish but...eh. We will get better :)

Last but not least I am so thankful to have Aimee here. We laugh all the time. :)

Costa Rica Day One

I finally made it! This is going to be a boring post. Wifi at my home-stay is hit and miss. I'll upload pictures tomorrow hopefully.

We left Dallas at 11:12am yesterday and made it to Costa Rica at 11:30pm. With time changes I have no idea how long it was but it seriously felt like the longest day of my life. We flew from Dallas into Mexico City at 2:30. There we waited what seemed like forever in the immigration line. Plus side, I received my first stamp in my passport! It was also a rude awakening as to how much Spanish I truly don't know.  In the Mexico City airport Aimee and I made our home for the day. We changed some dollars into pesos and tried to figure out the prices for everything. We also took a nap on the floor for about 15-20 minutes. It was a great airport power nap. Finally at the last minute, they posted a gate number for our flight and we boarded the plane.

 On the plane we discovered that we were sitting next to a Texan!! His name was Adam and he is also doing a month long program but through a different school.  He is a student at UNT, a music major and plays classical guitar. He was very nice. At the Costa Rica airport we left Adam and hopped in the car to head to our home stay houses. I was really worried about how far apart Aimee & I would be, but we are right around the corner from each other. In fact, our home stay families are related!  I love how God works things out.

We arrived at our home stay houses around 12 or 1 am I think. It was really quick enough to say hello and goodnight. This morning I woke up around 5 or 6 and took a shower before finally venturing out to see what everyone was doing. In my home stay there is the main house where the Tico parents live with their son, daughter & grandson. Their grandson is the same age as Patrick. (I'm hoping to make friends) then in the back of the house is a little apartment with the bathroom downstairs and two rooms upstairs. There is a girl from Belgium staying here too but I haven't met her yet because she has been at the coast. Hopefully it will be easy to speak to her in Spanish.

I ate breakfast with the MamaTica and visited with her. It was easier to speak to her because she spoke slowly so I could understand . Then I tried to call Aimee's house but wasn't sure if I had the right number because I thought the person said he was asleep but he really said Aimee was asleep. Sleepyhead Aimee wasn't even out of bed. We made plans to meet up. She came over while I was trying to get a Skype call into Patrick. The wifi here is spotty but I'm glad for what I have. I had another Skype call with Patrick a few minutes ago. The best wifi is in the living room, so it was kinda like the old school landline calls where everyone can hear your conversation.

Well that's all the news I have for today. I hope it wasn't too boring. I have my first day of class tomorrow. It will be an early day.