Tortuga Island, Curú, Santa Cruz, y Jacó

Here´s my beach cruiser. My bike and I go everywhere together!

Here is the sunset from a few nights ago. The mountains in the background are the Nicoya Peninsula. The sunsets in Puntarenas are different every night.

I´m up on my tetanus, though, so everything´s great!

Sitting in the sand as the tide came in a few nights ago, I was lucky enough to be inches away from a board with 10 rusty nails stuck in it, which washed up right next to me. One of many questionable things that has washed up on the beach here in Puntarenas.

In the past few days I´ve visited Tortuga Island and Curú, where we hiked through a wildlife reserve and snorkeled, and relaxed on the beach. More slacklining, soccer ball juggling, frisbee throwing, and chilling out.

Santa Cruz gave me the chance to see my first rodeo. Thousands of people packed into a shantily-made stadium. Hundreds of drunk Ticos in the center. 18 angry bulls, with five minutes each to charge at the drunk Ticos, try to buck the Tico from his back, and otherwise wreck havoc. I bought an ice cream cone from one of the vendors, and took many pictures. Tico men, when they´re excited, make a scream that resembles a dolphin´s cry. The rodeo sort of sounded like Sea World at dolphin feeding time! Nonetheless, it was a great experience and I loved it.

My bag FINALLY arrived Sunday night, however it is missing about half its orininal contents. I´m grateful to have the bag, but disappointed at the state in which it arrived.

Today I went to Jacó and bought a surfboard. Having this 6´6´´ yellow fiberglass darling opens up many opportunities for me, and I´m looking forward to breaking it in on Thursday, when I´ll go to Calderas, the nearest beach with surfable waves.

Loving it more and more here each day!

PUNTARENAS

This is it! The pool´s a swamp now, though.

Spanish-Speaking Parrots and Beach Cruisers

Tere, Cecilia´s Parrot, speaks Spanish. ``¿Quieres cafe¿ ¡hola!´´

Cecilia, my host mom, has one of the most unusual collection of pets i´ve encountered. There´s Tere (te-de), a little fluff toy poodle named Princess, and today I found her iguana. She´s a petite woman who always wants her friends and family to have a `panza llena, corazon contente.´ (full stomach, content heart).

Today was the best so far for several reasons:

I got a beach cruiser. Not just a beach cruiser, but a purple and white one that Proxedes (Cecilia´s sister) picked out for me. ¡Que bueno! Lesson learned already, though: don´t ride through glass. Tires WILL go flat.

I got to watch the sunset with my amazing friends. Not only did we watch the sunset, though, but we set up a slackline, were juggling a soccer ball (like you would with a hacky sack), did handstands in the sand, and met more Ticos, or locals. It got dark too quickly, but we´re BBQing tonight, so the night´s not over yet.

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My house with Cecilia is, literally, one street in from the beach. The school´s about four blocks down, which is perfect for walking and even better for cruising. Almost everyone has bikes at this point, which makes getting anywhere easier. Puntarenas is a little peninsula, five blocks wide and a ten-minute walk from the run-down marine animal park to the punta, or point.

I absolutely love it here. Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and support... Next time I´ll figure out how to post some pictures!

In Puntarenas

The blog instructions are all in Spanish, so i hope this works!

I got to Puntarenas last night on the bus with my group. The kids all seem really cool, so I´m excited for everything to get started. My family consists of Cecilia, mi mama de Puntarenas, her sister, her niece Melissa, and her two kids. Melissa lives in San Jose with her kids, and her sister lives in Poway, not more than 15 minutes from my home in San Diego. Small world!!

Last night we all went walking on the beach boardwalk. There are soda stands and craft stands selling coconut earrings and floaties for kids. It´s cute and laid-back, and I like it. We sat and got a `Churchill Colassal,´ a mix of a strawberry icee, ice cream, and sweetened condensed milk. Different from anything I´ve had!

It´s VERY HOT here... which is nice. I´m on my way to buy a swimsuit (since mine are all still in the depths of Spirit Airlines´ lost luggage) so I can go swimming.

muchos besos!!