Day 16... I think

So its been over two weeks in Costa Rica and I am TIRED. We went to Manuel Antonio this weekend and the drive was only 3 hours to get there, which was a dream after the six hours it took to get to Rincon de La Vieja last weekend. It was a very pretty beach with a super nice hotel (by Costa Rica standards, you cant compare everything here with the luxury you might be used to in the United States) that had AC, wifi, and a flat screen tv in the rooms. It was really pretty, white and orange terracotta with a pool on the second floor. I took pics and will upload them as soon as I can. More importantly, we were just a 2 minute walk away from a gorgeous beach, and we all rented surfboards and boogie boards for 10 bucks for a whole day, and one of my friends managed to get us free surf lessons which was awesome. I never managed to stand up on the board, but it was still amazingly fun. The waves were rough (for me, the beginning surfer, at least) and the day after I felt like I had been beaten. But it was totally worth it, when I get home I am going to look into surf lessons it California. Hey, it might happen!

We went on a jungle hike to go to this other beach that was supposedly nicer, but I liked the first beach better. What is important about this jungle hike though is that we saw two sloths!! They are really rare to see, and after we got back to the hotel there was another sloth on a pole next to one of the guys' rooms. It was booking it down the pole, I had no idea that sloths could move that fast. Pretty awesome to see a sloth within arms reach. They have some pretty wicked looking claws.

On the way home on Sunday morning, we opted to take the scenic route. That made a 3 hour trip by van an 8 hour trip by van, through the mountains. I dont like to take medicine, but I have to take a dramamine or whatever before I get into the van because the roads are so rough and if you take the route through the mountains you are bound to get car sick. On our way to Cartago, we saw yet ANOTHER sloth, and it was moving really fast on a telephone pole horizontally. Talk about luck!! Our teacher, who has been here 5 times now, has only seen 2 before this trip.

We stopped in Cartago to see this chapel which is a huge gorgeous church. Supposedly back in the day, a little indian girl found a doll of the Virgin Mary in a clearing and took it home and put it in a box, but it disappeared the next day and went back to the rock. She did this like three times before the little girl went to find a priest and tell him about him, and he decided to build this church where they found the doll. Now Costa Ricans go every year on the 2nd of August to visit this church, kind of like a pilgrammage, walking from all areas of Costa Rica. When they get to the church, which is SUPER long, they get on their knees and crawl the whole way up to the church. Outside the church, theres a spot that has holey water in it that you can put on a hurting body part to ask for healing. Also, they have a store where you can buy a charm of any body part (and I mean ANY body part) and it will supposedly heal it. Its a pretty cool tradition, but a lot of people didnt do it last year because of the H1N1 scare. Until next time... Hasta luego.