Saturday 10/4/08

Today we felt pathetic. Here was our chance to lounge around and sleep in, but we all woke up at the butt crack of dawn (6 am) and couldn’t fall back asleep. Our early mornings in San Jose have ruined us for life. So, we headed out much earlier than planned and jumped on a bus to Doña Ana, a natural park and beach. I wanted so badly to bring a surf board but couldn’t find anywhere to rent one and couldn’t convince any of my friends to go surfing with me. Doña Ana was beautiful and there were some guys surfing (which made me jealous, especially since it was so early and the waves were perfect). We spend all morning playing in the water, laying on the beach and exploring the natural wonders of Doña Ana. Around lunchtime we realized that we were really in the middle of nowhere and hadn’t packed a lunch. We asked to park services what we should do and they recommended we take a taxi to the next closest city, Mata Limon. We started walking along the path thinking that a taxi would eventually drive by, but the farther we went the more aware we became that a taxi wouldn’t just drive by. We asked a passerby if taxis came by and he told us that what the park service man meant by catching a taxi was calling a taxi. We turned around thinking we would have to hike all the way back to the park and use the pay phone. Luckily as we were retracing our steps, a taxi came driving out of the middle of nowhere. He was an awesome guy and drove us to Mata Limon. The park service attendant recommended that we eat at La Leda. It was a seafood restaurant right on the beach. My friend Brandon ordered fish and it came whole as can be (head, fins, tail and all). We laughed over lunch feeling like the luckiest people alive (since we knew our 44 classmates were probably sitting at their computers typing up their papers). We wondered around the beach the rest of the afternoon and around 5 found this man driving a little boat that gives rides around the ocean for less than $2. It was perfect timing (as the sun was just beginning to set). We paid our $2 and had the experience of a lifetime as he drove us around the Pacific Ocean, explained the different boats that had anchored for the night, and showed us some wildlife (lots of birds Mom!) It was the best $2 I’ve spent since being here. We hopped off around 6 and made our way to the bus stop. On our way we stopped for granatizados (a very unique Costa Rican version of a snow cone). We made our way back to the hotel, showered off, and realized we all had sunburns here and there (even though we all used sunscreen). We rested for awhile and eventually went out for dinner. Other than a rat on the floor (my least favorite animal of all) we had a nice dinner. We felt pathetic, but we headed back to the hotel, watched some SNL and were all in a deep sleep before 9:30.