...its been a while, eh?

So i must have gotten a little lazy with my posts. Its now January 4, 2008. Happy New Year! I restarted school, I'm currently rowing in the varsity boat, and Andrew went off to college since Costa Rica.

I did end up going to Manuel Antonio with the next group of students. It was amazing. much more fun the second time. We ate at El Avion up on the hill and partied up at La Barba Roja, the only discoteque in Manuel Antonio. That night we walked a good mile down the hill to our hostel, the jankiest mosquito breeding ground ever, and then out onto the beach, quite tipsy, i.e. not quite there. One of the girls had the bright idea of burying our room key in the sand at 3:00 in the morning for safe keeping before skinny-dipping. Not a bright idea. We dug around in the sand like rum-drunken pirates looking for treasure for 30 minutes, eventually gave up, and chilled a little higher up on the beach with some locals who were camping there. Finally, someone asked the man who owned the hostel for another key (apparently he was awake at 4 in the morning) and we watched a little Harriet the Spy on TV before going to sleep. I woke up, still drunk the next day.

Back in Jaco

I'm back taking twice a day surf lessons with Ricardo at School of the World. I had the shittiest day of surfing I think I've ever had yesterday. I rode Bamboo's 6'2'' which is riciculously skinny and unstable for my first lesson and stood up once in 2 hours. I switched to the boat, 6'8'' for my 2nd lesson and it was like relearning how to surf. Everything had to be readjusted and retimed and everytime I dropped into a right I lost my balance and fell of the back. Grrahhh!! It was soo frustrating! I have another 2 lessons today and 2 tomorrow and then I think I'll go to Quepos agian with the new group (whom i love by the way). I'll be home Monday! Ciao!

Montezuma's Revenge

So after arenal, we took a fun little road trip to Puntarenas and caught the car ferry to Montezuma. We pulled into the town in POURING rain. My mom was angry because she had been driving for 7 hours and we hit a tree pulling out of the driveway. In the morning, we woke up and I had the best plate of French toast (it actually came reccomended from 2 sources) ever. Alas, two hours later, I was sick, moaning in bed. I stayed in all day and night. Then on sunday morning, I had the exact thing happen to me that happened in Nice, France. I was lucky enough to find a shady wall in the park to sit up agianst before I fainted. It's the strangest thing, and it always happens while I'm souvenier shopping. Everything gets really bright, I feel like air is rushing through my head, everything starts to tingle, and my neck gets really sore. I sat down and collapsed in my mom's arms. It sucked because Montezuma is supposed to be one of the chillest places in Costa Rica and I missed it. Well, maybe next time.

Volcán Arenal

Arenal is beeeaaauutiful. It's unlike anything I've ever seen. The town of Arenal is situated at the foot of a highly active volcano. It was presumed to be an extinct volcano untill 1968 when an earthquake caused it to erupt. The explosion killed 85 people and wiped out fields, forests, and towns. It has been active ever since, shooting out red hot lava rocks every 5-10 minutes. At night, these little ruptures are visiblefrom the north. Oh and what a site it is. After a long day of waterfall repelling in the jungle and skipping rocks with a bunch of immature college guys on a river below a family of lazy howler monkeys, my mom and I took the rental car around the mountain, past tempting five star hot springs, to a little puente in the middle of nowhere to watch the molten piedras fall. Later that night, mi madre y yo met up with the same college dudes from Chicago at a little restaurant in town. I dont think I've ever laughed so hard with someone I had known for that little amount of time. We joked about everything from Absynthe, to a piece of crap 83 minivan one of the guys still has sitting in there front yard, to spooning. It was great. I was like in tears from laughter. Now I really miss my friends.

Today my mom and I are driving down to Jaco to take a ferri to Montezuma, the same town I think I remember the Yandells saying that they stayed in. Our tourbook calls it a hippy town so I should feel right at home :) peace.

Occidental Papa Gayo Resort

Buenos Dias. Monday morning my mom and I took a van to the Occidental Papa Gayo Resort to meet our neighbors Chris, Charles and there daughter Dorsi who were staying in a time share there. The resort was beautiful. The resort itself was situated upon a hill, overlooking a magnificent sparkling bay and their enormous pool. The resort was expensive and loaded with gringos. It was all inclusive, so drinks, meals, and activities were free and limitless. My mom and I rented a room Tuesday night and the next night I stayed with Dorsi and Charles while my mom and Chris rented a car and stayed nearby in Playa Coco. There were a billion British families staying there and tons of kids my age which made my stay a lot more enjoyable. Dorsi and I bonded tons and talked a lot about college etc. On Tuesday I must've played pool volleyball for 3 hours before switching it up to a hardcore game of waterpolo (minus the treading) that we played for about one hour. The goalie on the other team was this old fat football player from Colorado. I played foreward and everytime I shot he was so meaty that he just blocked the ball with his face. And I was throwing hard too. Like so hard that people asked me if I played softball. But he didn't seem to mind. He barely flinched. It was really fun. That night we partied it up at the discoteque with the manager's son, Guille pronounced gui·ay (short for Guillermo) and all the other British folks. Tuesday morning my mom and I got kicked out of the resort for extending our stay and not paying. So off to Arenal we drove in our bright green rental car.

...to be continued... im going waterfall repelling now....

The Past Week

Hello. Sorry its been so long. I havent been up to much. Last weekend I had a three day weekend but I didn't get my plans together fast enough so I was stuck in Jaco without anyone to do anything with or anywhere to go. I also had to be around on Sunday because my family took me up to the mountains agian. These two boys came with us. I think they are my parent's grandsons:

This week I switched to art classes instead of surfing. My teacher had me drawing these intricate textures and doing blind drawings that were not very fun... I would have rather been surfing.

Wedensday, the gang went to ladies night at the Backyard, moved on to the Jungle Bar later, and come morning we migrated to Nacho Daddy's. By far the stupidest move I've made this trip. I woke up the next day curled up like a rolley-poley, holding my stomach. Thus began my first hangover. I was vomiting until 7 thursday night. Estaba NO vale la pena. I learned that lesson like a little kid touching the burner. It's hurts... a lot. I've decided that I won't be drinking on this trip from now on. I'm actually sort of glad it happened. I'm way to young to be drinking like that. This is a picture of my closest friend, Chelsea, from Oregon:

My mom gets in tomorrow morning. I'm really excited to see her. It's been longer than a month! I've sort of hit a low, so I need her here. I REALLY miss Andrew because he hasn't been able to email me or his family. I hope he's safe!!!

etc.

I surfed well agian today. Once you know what you're doing, things get a lot easier. I'm kinda bummed though. Tons of my amigos are leaving this weekend. I have friday and saturday libre and sunday I think I'm going up to the mountains with my family. But that is questionable as well beacuse the really old woman who lived next door that my family was so fond of died . Everyone is sort of in mourning around the house and I feel like I should do something to help. I thought getting flowers would be a thoughtful gesture, but I think they might die/ I dont know who to give them to. I also have this miserable uneven sunburn on my back/shoulders from surfing yesterday and today. I'm bound to get melanoma. whoopee! Also, no one is commenting on my blogs which is really disapointing.

Hey... has anyone been watching Argentina kick culo in futbol lately?!


Much love,
omo