The Weekend of the Wave-pocalypse

This is going to be the longest blog entry I've ever written, because a lot happened. But, trust me, it's worth it. If you don't want to read all of it, at least start at the red letters and end at the last picture.

It's been a long weekend. Maybe I should start from the beginning:

Friday - Irazu Volcano and The Basilica de Los Angeles:
We woke up super early Friday morning so we could get to the ISA office by 7:30am. We were leaving for our Manuel Antonio trip at 1pm, but we wanted to be able to go with ISA to Cartago. The countryside was absolutely beautiful. When we got to the volcano, we realized that we didn't wear enough clothes. It was freezing! Also, it was really foggy. You could barely see anything. This is the best picture I could get of the crater:

And this is what we were supposed to see. The crater lake is green. If it had been a clear day, we would have been able to see this, as well as both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

Afterward, we went to the The Basilica de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles. The story goes that a little girl found a doll of the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus on a rock near where the church is now built. The girl took the doll home, where it disappeared and returned to the aforementioned rock. Afterwards, she took the doll to a church and locked it in a safe. However, the tricky little doll found her way back to the rock again. Thus, a church was built and every year on August 2nd, the entire country walks to this basilica to pray and party. 

 We weren't able to stay there for long, but we may be going back on Thursday for the holiday. We might walk too...but I'd really prefer to take a bus...it's 15 miles from San Jose.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday: Manuel Antonio
 
Almost immediately after we returned from Cartago, we left on a very uncomfortable bus ride to Quepos, Puntarenas. Because they ran out of rooms at our original hotel, they upgraded us to a 5-star resort. However, they also downgraded us to a small bus. There were only about 20 of us going, so that was fun. But it was very cramped.

On Saturday morning, we went to the national park. It was beautiful. We saw monkeys and sloths and a beautiful beach with the softest sand and huge waves. Some of us went swimming and then laid out a ways away from shore. We kept our stuff close to us because we were told the monkeys would likely steal money, food, cameras, pants, and other miscellaneous items if left unattended.

Then it got interesting. While we were laying on the beach (a few of us sleeping) WELL AWAY FROM THE SHORELINE...a giant, mutant wave came and reached all the way up past where we were laying. My shoes, towel, bag, etc all went with it and everybody scrambled to catch their stuff. I didn't lose anything, but my bag was soaked, and it had my camera and phone inside. The part of our group that were victimized by the evil Troll-wave gathered our wet, sandy, now-useless crap, took out the batteries in our electronics, and stormed toward the exit of the park 3 hours before we were supposed to leave.

It didn't stop there. When we got to the edge of the park, there was a stream and people with boats to take us across. It said that there were crocodiles, so we assumed we were supposed to take the boats. The men with the boats, instead of getting in, simply waded across pushing the boats....then asked us for 1 mil colones a piece (about $2). Some of us (like me) didn't have any money because they hadn't wanted the monkeys to steal it. One of my friends gave them 5 mil ($10!!) because she didn't have any change. Another man paid for my 3-second, unnecessary boat ride. One of my friends paid them and said "I hope you have a terrible day". We all should have just walked away.

As another friend said, "We got robbed by a bunch of boat-pushers!"  

As if that wasn't bad enough, when we got out of the park we walked onto the public beach and got hounded by beach vendors. These are normal...they were in Tamarindo too. But we were wet, sandy, and peeved...and for some reason the beach vendors in Manuel Antonio were more rude, inappropriate, and persistent than those in Tamarindo. They would hit on us and shout "Mi Amor!" and insist we had money for them even when we said "No tengo dinero" and meant it.

No thanks, buddy. We already got robbed by your friends at the exit of the National Park. 

After we got back to the hotel, I called room service and asked them if they could give me a bowl of rice. Minutes later, they showed up at my door with a kilo of rice so we could try to dry our electronics. It didn't work...my roommate's camera is dead, and both my phone and my camera are pretty much useless. Luckily, they are my dad's and my sister's old devices, respectively, and it doesn't matter. I planned for this. The only survivor was my dad's old 1st-generation iPod. It had no problem with the water. And now I just have that and a kilo of rice... 

We spent the rest of the day at the hotel, for the most part: napping, eating, hanging out. We tried to go into town, but we came back when we realized that all of the stuff was overpriced souvenirs that we could find for much less at the artisan market in San Jose. That night, we went to a really cute restaurant, and we were able to laugh about everything that happened that day. About 7 of us shared a pitcher of the the most delicious sangria that has ever existed. It cost us about $3 each. Quote of the night: "When your drink costs less than your 3-second boat ride..."

Today, we woke up, ate an amazing breakfast at the hotel restaurant, and swam in the pool. We stopped for lunch at Playa Jaco on the way home, and did a little bit of shopping. We liked it and wished we had more time to spend there. It's only about an hour and 45 minutes away from San Jose, so we may be going back for a day trip before we leave.

Overall: this week was the craziest I have ever had. I went to 3 different places in the country, got my MCAT score back and was very satisfied, did 2 quizzes and a presentation, visited 2 hospitals with my Spanish class, saw wild animals, stayed at a beautiful resort, had the biggest disaster of the trip occur, and spent a lot of time with some wonderful people. I wouldn't have traded it for anything.

Next week: we only have 3 days of class again because on Thursday everybody goes to Cartago. My class is going to the Serpentarium in Grecia, Alajuela in the morning. Then, I have a final in Spanish (not worried about it). I also have a healtcare debate, health fair project, and Spanish patient simulation within the next three days. It sounds like a lot...but it's really not. This weekend, besides going to Cartago, I will be staying in San Jose. I don't know what I am going to do here yet or who I will do it with, but I'm sure it will be a lot of fun. 

Hasta luego!

Jill