There really is a first time for everything!

Today I learned that there really is a first time for everything. I ordered ice cream, didn’t like it and DIDN’T finish it! Now the background on the situation is that another student at USAC and her father told us that Churchill was like the official ice cream drink of Puntarenas and we needed to try one. So the weekend unfolds…

We leave Friday for Manuel Antonio a National Park in Costa Rica that is known for its beaches and animal spotting. One student Will had visited this area before and tells us that we should probably by our tickets before to ensure we get a seat. So after class Austin and I walk to the bus stop and by tickets we then attempt to ask how many seats are left and it turns into the very common gringo game of “si, si, si” to every sentence. We walk away with 2 tickets so all is well.

Side story- Austin is the only student that lives relatively close to my house so we walk home together often. He is also afraid of pretty much all wildlife. So far an iguana fell off a roof and almost hit him and a pit bull jumped through a fence to try to bite him so now we walk in the middle of the street. Friday a pigeon landed on his head. I laughed so hard and then told him to buy a lottery ticket.

We return to the bus station only to find out that of the 24 USAC students 21 decided to join and only 10 have tickets… bum bum bummmm. The driver says the other can wait and pay for standing room we decide this is good enough and we can take turns sitting so we board. There are however people in Austin and I seats…we are so confused and the Tico’s look annoyed. After much discussion and intervention from the ticket seller it turns out we bought tickets for the 12:30 bus instead of 2:30. Stupid Americans haha. So we fill up the aisle for the three hour tour (I wish that was a joke).

It ended up being a great ride we all practiced our Spanish and as the riders thinned out eventually got a seat. We also met the owner of a nice hostel right next to the national park with a POOL. He helped us all transfer busses and pointed out our stop. He then started to lead us down a dark dirt road… at this point we were all hungry and ready to sit down that any thought of should we really just follow a stranger never crossed our mind. And it indeed did turn out we all got a bed and walked to the nearest restaurant to eat. The only struggles were that we no longer had a teacher to tell us when and where to go, nobody wanted to be that student and when somebody was that student it was under much scrutiny but we were all fed and had a goodnights sleep for the low low price of $11.50.

I set my alarm for 6:30 a.m. so I could be at the park when it opened. About half the group made it up and only one girl wasn’t woken by anybody… she must have been a really hard sleeper. I was attacked at the gate by a nice gentlemen that was suggesting how great a tour was and you know how I am I couldn’t say no… so I turned to my friends to say no and well they said YES! But it was the best thing that happened the whole weekend.

This guy was amazing he had a giant telescope and just kept saying I want to show you something. He would then set it up and bam he would have a sloth, monkey, iguana, a bug, a frog’s nest or something else super amazing in focus. He brought us to the most beautiful beach ever where I swam to the breakers and looked at the huge open sea. By the end we couldn’t believe that we had accomplished all that by 10:30 and were singing Williams praises. We kept asking him how he knew where to look but he would only start on a story that detailed how he has worked in the park for 17 years, I think that is the only English explanation he knew. Haha.

I have a ton more pictures that I will load on Facebook!

We then went right for food a nice little shack on the beach with cheap breakfast all day. (but no Churchills).

We decided to spend the afternoon in Quepos and head to Jaco at night. The beach was nice and Austin and I rented boogie boards, turns out there is actually a right way to boogie board…who knew. Our beach time was cut short by the rain L so we headed to Jaco early, about 1.5 hours by bus. At the bus stop I ate a mango like an orange it was great.

We got to Jaco and part or our group found a hostel while the rest explored the beach it was still raining and no weather for Ice Cream. Myself, Annemarie and Amanda decided to return because there plan was to get up and leave early. Annemarie is the most frugal college student I have ever met and did not want to spend $10 for another night out and I didn’t want to spend the sunny afternoon on a bus so it was perfect. Later when Annemarie to tell me the cheapest pharmacy in Puntarenas to buy Neosporin I asked if she was Dutch, she is not but definitely could be.  

We all ate dinner at a Taco bar with swings! It was delicious and all you could eat. I could tell however that we were no longer in “Costa Rica” they didn’t have corn shells L. Jaco was a giant surf town with people of all nationalities, the building style was the same but you could tell there was more money in town. It is a tourist trap straight up. I was glad to catch the last bus back to Puntarenas.

Back in Puntarenas Sunday was full of adventure. It started with a triathlon! Puntarenas hosted a triathlon on the point and the point only! This meant that for the Olympic race you have to do the same circuit 14 times, that would be tough. I enjoyed watching it while I ran on the bike path but I got a lot of joking encouragement to run faster. They were kicking my butts. They even had an 11, 12 and 13 year old division this triathlon was legit.

I watched watermark! The camera work is getting better, which unfortunately means I don’t get to see your darling little heads any more. L. I studied some Spanish and went to the beach late morning.

You could tell it was the weekend we got approached by everyone and his neighbor to buy something. One man even serenaded us for tips and renamed me Shakira, unfortunately or maybe fortunately none of us had any money on us. After lunch with our families we decided to go shopping.

It was an extremely unsuccessful but fun afternoon. Amanda wanted to get her hair braided. She has about 3 feet of hair and he did braid it but started about two inches down her hair and braided to inches past and tied a clump of shell on the end. It was like he created a whip. We laughed it off. All the stores were closed in town because it was Sunday so no Neosporin, Amanda gave up on finding peanut butter and all the clothes were too expensive for Annemarie. Her clothes don’t dry fast enough to have clean things to wear.

We decided to focus solely on getting a Churchill we would accomplish something. We checked all the prices at every ice cream shop to find the best deal (Thanks Annemarie!)  And the three of us ordered two to split. We under the impression a Churchill is ice cream with fruit but when they arrive it is a scoop of ice cream a ban of red, white and then red again. I am thinking its ice cream it’s still good.

They give you a dish of sweet and condensed milk to pour on top and from what we can tell the ice cream is rum raisin. Weird but still tolerably interesting. The first red band is slushie. We are eating and having fun trying to figure out the whole sweet and condensed milk part when Annemarie says “I found the dry part.” I am very confused, dry?, like you sucked all the flavor out of the slushie? But no sure enough the second white ban is not ice cream but powdered milk… At this point we mostly just got lost it and started laughing. 

We try to figure out what to do next, but just laugh we don’t want to offend the owner so we take it to go with plans to drop it in the nearest trashcan. Annemarie keeps eating her frugal nature must enjoy it, and of course at this point it is pouring rain. And that was it I threw away my ice cream actually I guess technically I did eat all the ice cream but we run to the next closest ice cream shop order fruit with ice cream and study Spanish till dinner.

Something else I learned at Dinner, the Chalupas in Costa Rica don’t look like taco bells. J