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!