Back to the beach

I just can't stay away from the beach. Since I was sick, I was waffling back and forth on whether I was up to a weekend away, but late Friday night I decided to go for it. I went with two friends (Michelle from school and her Rotary friend who's also from the States and studying in Costa Rica, but at a different school). We went to Cahuita, which is on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica -- a first for me (all the other beaches I went to were on the Pacific). The Caribbean is great this time of year because it doesn't rain all day like it does here in the Central Valley or the Pacific side. In fact, it didn't rain at all when we were there.

Cahuita is absolutely beautiful, but the trip started out a little rocky. Since I waited until the last minute to decide whether I was going, I bought my ticket at the last minute and learned about a little thing called "de pie," which was stamped on my ticket. It means standing room only. A four-hour bus ride with no seat. It turns out several people were without seats, and we ended up sprawling all over the aisle of the bus -- at one point I laid down in the aisle and actually fell asleep. And Michelle offered to switch with me for a leg of the trip, so it wasn't so bad.

We roll into town around 2 p.m. and start popping into hotels looking for a room. In the half dozen or so towns I've staying in so far, I've always been able to just go there without a reservation and find a room for $10 to $15 per person a night. Not this time. Monday was a Costa Rican holiday, and apparently everyone went to Cahuita. We went door to door looking for a free room, and everywhere was full. By this time we were exhausted and tripping with sweat (it had to be close to 90 degrees -- way hotter than San Jose). We kept running into a few other backpackers who were in the exact same boat as us. After an hour or so we finally found one place that "sort of" had a room. There was some weird story about how some guy (I think who worked at the hotel) had the key to the room, but when he came back in an hour, we could access the room. And the shower was not totally put together when we got in, but they came in and fixed it. So all of that was a little weird, but we were happy just to have the room. And it turned out to be a beautiful place! It was this little duplex-type cabin that had a kitchenette on the first floor, and then a little second floor with three beds (sleeps up to five people). It was right on the water and had a porch with a beautiful view. Here are some picks of the place:



The next morning we woke up and went snorkeling. Landlubber I may be, but put a life vest on me, and I can pretend to swim with the best of 'em. We took a little boat out into this bay area -- and by little boat I mean something that looked like a big canoe with a clip-on motor. It was a sunny day, and we snorkeled over a large coral reef area with tons of bright blue and yellow fish (and some weird spiky fish and something that looked like a brain). It was really cool.

And then the guide dropped us off at the tip of the shoreline so we could walk an hour back through the state park on a path that followed the beach, and we saw a bunch of monkeys on the walk back!

But I'm back in town now and this week is incredibly busy. We have a moot court thing on Friday, so we're all very busy preparing for that, plus we have a different paper due Friday and our final exam next Wednesday. Plenty to keep me busy!