Sunday, November 2, 2008

Weekend Fun

While living in San Pedro, we took full advantage of our weekends to enjoy ourselves and explore what Costa Rica has to offer. Here's a quick synopsis.

Whitewater Rafting
On the Saturday of our first weekend, 12 of the OTS students went on an all-day rafting trip on the Pacuare River. We left the language school a little after 6 AM and returned right before dinner, exhausted and somewhat sunburned. We were in six-person rafts with a guide in the back yelling instructions, of which my favorite was "GET DOWN!", which was when you dove to the center of the raft to avoid flipping over in a huge wave. My only previous whitewater rafting experiences had been in two-person rafts, so this was different and really fun. I was lucky enough to be in the front of the raft, too, which also meant that I got the most wet. The rapids were classes I - IV.

^Our raft - I'm in the front, on the right.

^Our raft, mostly underwater. ahhhh!

Cahuita
The second weekend, as I wrote before, began as soon as our midterm exams were over. I went with six friends straight to the bus station when we finished our exams, and about five hours later we were in the small, beautiful Caribbean beach town of Cahuita. We stayed in a cheap and sufficiently sketchy hostel and spent the weekend enjoying black sand beaches, Cahuita National Park, the small bars in town, and snorkeling on the coral reef. It was the perfect way to forget about our exams, and I was really glad that we took advantage of our only opporunity to visit the Caribbean coast.

^We decided to climb a fallen tree on the Playa Negra. (Picture by Becca)

^We met up with some friends who were also in Cahuita for the weekend - qué divertido! (Picture by Becca)


^Sunset on the beach in the National Park. (Picture by Becca)

Poas Volcano
During our last weekend in San Pedro, after our Spanish classes were finished and our midterm break was beginning, a few of us spent Saturday visiting Poas Volcano. First, we went to a viewpoint above the crater. There was steam pouring off of the hot water inside the crater, and the air smelled of sulfur. After that we hiked around to see a lagoon, and then headed to a nearby resort that had enclosures of birds, monkeys, and butterflies as well as a walkway along a series of waterfalls. We ate a delicious buffet lunch, and all in all it was a really cool day.



^The crater at Poas Volcano.

^Toucan! This was taken right after I attempted to take a picture with the bird and it attacked my head. Good times.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

awesome, but how did you take the picture of the people on the beach from way up in the air???