La Ultima Aventura de Costa Rica

Instead of making a normal goal for a study abroad trip, like a certain amount of vocabulary words or a proficiancy of a certain theme of the language or acquire a certain amount of knowledge about the country, my goal of my trip to Costa Rica was to hold a monkey. I didn't get the chance while with the NAU group so Jenna and I made the decision that for our extra weekend in Costa Rica we were going to seek out the hold-able monkeys. We returned to Puerto Viejo, where we went our first weekend. We had to leave our houses at 5am to make the 6am bus, there was a terrible accident and we were held up for a couple hours, we missed the monkey tour, we begged and pleaded and I told my story about how it was my dream to hold a monkey and about our circumstances, and the owner of the animal reserve allowed us to come in after close to hold Chipito :) Dreams do come true!! We got to see a lot of other animals and we got to enjoy the Caribbean beach one last time. I came home to my host family and one of my host parents' previous daughters from Gana and her father, who apparently is a cheif of a tribe in Gana, were there and we all had a huge dinner together with meats and cheeses and chicken and rice and olives and vegetables and bread and lots of Chilean wine. The evening was very special. My Tico parents had been an incredible support system for me while in Costa Rica, and probably didn't even know it a lot of the time. I learned so much from them and their consejos. I definitely hope to return to their beautiful house in San Jose and meet with them again.

Saying goodbye is the worst part. I'm so glad Jenna and I gave ourselves the extra days to have some closure with the country. I feel like I've learned more about myself and what I am passionate about and what I'm willing to work for at this point in my life from all the thngs that have passed on this trip. I've studied other cultures, including styles of life and philosophies, in comparison to American beliefs and ideals. There are pieces I have seen and learned, besides just the Spanish, that I hope I have brought back with me and that I won't forget. I don't know how my English is right now, I'm still thinking half in Spanish and I'm going off of two hours of sleep. I am home safe and I am home a little different than when I left. I am very much at peace and very sure that I was supposed to go on this trip, even through the points of difficulty. I could not be more thankful to have had this opportunity, to my parents and my uncle Rog who helped immensly in financing parts of the trip and giving me the opportunity to see and do as much as I could in the time that I had. Very thankful to my parents, specifically my dad, who bought me my camera which has produced photos that make me happy. I am thankful to Javier, who has now not only provided two amazing summers of growth and experiece for me, but also taken care of my final class I needed to achieve my Spanish minor. I am thankful to my friends at home who are my backbone of support through thick and thin, as well as the friends I made in Costa Rica that added to the incredible experience. I am thankful for every person I came across and for the convesations I was able to have in Spanish, my ability to speak and understand and express myslf has grown immensly through this trip and it was one of my favorite parts of the trip. I am thankful to God who has blessed me with opportunities not only to see the beauty of the world through people and landscapes, but also to grow as a person and enjoy each moment as part of the whole. Thank you for whoever took the time to read my blog.. I know I'm not the best at updating but it means a lot that people take the time to read the words on my mind and look at the pictures I treasure :) I definitely recommend going to Costa Rica, and traveling in general. I don't know much, but I do believe that our lives are to be discovered and enjoyed, and it's worth the adventure along the way.

PURA VIDA,
Nicole

Jenna and I are catching the 6am bus to go back to the Caribbean for the weekend. Ciao!

Nicole

Cambio del vuelo

I changed my flight :) need the time to breathe.

I'll be back Monday afternoon.
Nicole

La Playa de Montezuma



I totes updated this thing the other night and it didn't save it and it was a wonderful post so I was angry and didn't try again until now while I'm procrastinating my incredible amount of homework. for tomorrow. I literally have a mountain of it, I'm getting sick, I have weird bug bites on my arms, and I have a giant purple/black/blue bruise on my butt from a wave that showed me who's boss. However, I have a smile on my face and gratefulness in my heart and am incredibly thankful to have a few more days here before heading back to the states.

This last weekend we went to Montezuma, a beach on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. We went off the coast to la Isla Tortuga. Due to certain circumstances, my friend Jenna and I were stuck on the island while our group went snorkeling but it ended up working to our advantage because we got to go horseback riding through the mountain :) This is just one example of why my motto has become, "No hay mal que por bien no venga" which is a saying that translates to something along the lines of there isn't bad that good doesn't end up coming from. At least 4 or 5 different people have said it to me in various situations and various locations, thus I have adopted it as my creed. Our hotel was literally on the beach and we could lay in hammocks and fall asleep to the sound of the waves. It was the right amount of adventure, distraction, peace, and beauty that I needed after last week and I came home with a smile on my face.

Here are some photos, I have a slight obsession with photographing water and light, sunsets are my favorite :) I am planning on updating at least once more before leaving here. My flight is scheduled for Saturday but.... vamos a ver if I get on it ;)
Con afecto,
Nicole

Vólcan Arenal y Monte Verde

The weekend I write about here was two weeks ago, and was without a doubt my favorite weekend of the trip so far.  Unfortunately I can not write about it as much as I would like to because we are heading out again today in an hour and I need to finish packing. We did the rope swing into the cold river, slid down the hot river, and spent time in the hot springs in Arenal. We went ziplining through the cloud forest in the mountains of Monte Verde, sometimes at 600ft in the air, at 40-60mph, and the longest cable was a kilometer long. We also rappelled (sp?) down 98ft and did a free fall "Tarzan Swing" which was probably 60-70ft in the air that swung 197ft out over the forest. It was a completely surreal, incredible, and beautiful experience. I had to face a lot of fears, but I couldn't be more happy and proud of myself for taking the risks. Fue la evidencia que de vez en cuando una persona puede tomar un esfuerzo de fe y todo puede pasar bien. 

Cuidado mis queridos,

Nicole 



Hot Springs

 

Cold River

 

Hot River

 Ziplining :)

 Tarzan Swing

 Howler Monkey

 Vólcan Arenal



Tortuguero

I am still waiting on some pictures from the weekend before this last one, so I will update about this weekend first :) We went to Tortuguero, a wetland you can only reach by airplane or boat (we did boat) home to an immense amount of plant and wildlife. Tortuguero is a nesting ground for endangered sea turtles and for this reason, conservationalists and biologists take a huge interest in the area. We did three tours: one by boat at 6am, one by foot in the afternoon, and one at night on the beach to look for turtles nesting, which turned out to be unfruitful :( However, we did get to see two different kinds of vipers, several monkeys, crocodiles, iguanas, a tucan, several species of birds, several types of butterflies, a sloth, giant grasshoppers, and several types of lizards. I really wanted to see a jaguar but didn't get to but I guess it's for the better. I didn't get to see a manatee either but I did get to see the grass they ate. Oh, and a spider monkey peed on me. I got a million bug bites, not exaggerating, but I got to take a lot of some of my favorite pictures so far, therefore here is a big photo post-- tried to pick just a few, have so many more!

Vale la pena de las picaduras,
Nicole

Mama & baby

Oops

To the 7 appreciated people who take the time to read my blog,

Thank you and I'm sorry for not updating lately. I've had two amazing weekends of traveling with a busy week of schoolwork inbetween. Will update more this week in order to catch up, and will hopefully be getting my photos on facebook soon! I've taken on average about 300/week... so I have a lot of sifting to do.. whoops.

I have a test tomorrow so I will be studying tonight and hopefully updating tomorrow :)
All is well and I hope all is well at home!
Cuidado
Nicole