MonteVerde...y Manuel Antonio

Soo I havent had much time to update this blog.. but I ahve some now so here goes: July 3rd till the 5th we were in the Monte Verde Cloud Forest. It is a natural preserve as are all the other parks. It was gorgeous...our hotel though...was pretty complicated to get to haha. All teh way on the side of a mountain so it sucked walking down to breakfast in the mornings...usually they had a transport bus but there were a few times when we missed it. In the Monteverde Cloudforest we were supposed to see teh Quetzal...or hada chance of seeing it. A quetzal is a beauitful multi colored bird that is endemic to Costa Rica...and is endangered...almost extinct. My group did not have the opportunity to see it but some others did. We had a great tour guide named Eduardo and he actually led us through a 3 hour hike...which was originially only supposed to be 1.5...It was ammazzzinggggg. He took us to the Continental divide..which divides North South East West and depending on were u stand the wind blows differently and at different intensities. We ahd a lot of free time during this trip so I had the opportunity to go to this really pretty Orchid garden...a Frog exhibit..called a ¨ranaria¨en espanol...and a cheese factory since Monteverde is famous for their cheese and icecream. The icecream is pretty bomb. Now this past weekend we went to Manuel Antonio...which relly is the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life. It is a beach and it was gorgeous..white sndy beaches and CLEAR blue water...that was WARM when you swam in it...all i did last weekend was lounge in the sun and get a really great tan...One of the nights we went to a discoteca but only four about 2 hours..since everyone was pretty tired....The drive to and from Manuel Antonio was a bummer though...5 hour bus ride...in a small cramped ¨turismo¨bus with 23 students is NOT fun. That pretty much wraps up what I did the past two weeks...Had a bio test still maintaing my B average..I am getting a lot better at communicating with my homestay family. I spoke to them last night for three hours straight. Thye kept teasing me..but they are very supportive of me trying to learn and comprehend the language and understand what they are trying to tell me. if I don´t understand something they allow me the time to look it up in my dictonary or they do an impromptu charades for me lol. This weekend we are going to Tortugero..and from what I read in order to get there you must first drive a good 4 hours and then take a boat canal trip...this is the Malaria infested area..so don´t worry mom Ive already started taking my Malaria pills. During this trip we are supposed to go 1. Boating through the canal..and 2. On a hike....I am hoping that we get to do the nightime tour of the sea turtles...were we watch them hatch and make their way into the ocean. BTW Tortuga means ´turtle´ so Tortugero means place of the turtles. My homestay dad said that they have really good food. But its different than what I am used to. He said it has African influences..and everyone there is black or ¨negra¨as he said. And the dialect that they speak is also a bit different but he said I should be able to understand. Other than that nothing new has really happened...I ahve to study for my quiz so that wraps everything up. =)