Sometimes you just have to laugh

So, today was our "Epic" trip to the Rain forest. On the schedule was a 3 mile nature hike through the rain forest, a barbecue lunch, and going on the zip-line.

First off: We were told that the weather would be nice, sunny, only a little colder than the amazingly warm weather we have here in Santa Ana. Instead, it was cold and later rainy, and for the first trip this whole time I left my jacket at the hotel, go figure. I was sucking it up though. We opted out of the hike because we were all underdressed and they could take us in cars instead. Come to find out, most of the "nature hike" was up a gravel road up to the forest. The rest of the hike was going through ten feet of mud in the forest to a water hole. By water hole, I thought we would see a small pond or something. Actually, it is an area that is even muddier, with a sewer-type opening. They lifted up the cover, and it was clean water running over rocks underground. I mean, it was pretty cool how it all worked, and the water is supposedly clean to drink, but it was extremely anticlimactic. Also, we didn't really see any wildlife, which was also a little disappointing. During the hike our teacher got really upset and started talking to the guide in spanish, saying something like, "If anything happens to these kids I am screwed." I thought this was entertaining, but needless to say she is picking a more tourist-y place next time. It was fun to hike around though, and we were pretty muddy afterward. People were losing shoes all over the place! Haha. One thing we learned was that there are primary and secondary rainforests. Primary are original, and secondary are ones that have been cut down but are being grown back. The vegetation is more heavy because there is more sun. Oh, and I forgot to mention- the cars we drove in were real jeeps. I have pictures.

Then it was time for lunch. We had to wait over an hour because we were really ahead of schedule. We were at a really cool place- a pool, pool house that was two stories, indoor/outdoor kind of thing. It had a foozeball table, comfy seats, and a high "jump" for the pool. The boys thought it would be a great idea to jump in off of it, multiple times. They never dried off sense it was so cold/wet outside. I was entertained though. The food for lunch was: 1 piece of chicken, 1 piece of sausage, 1 piece of beef, corn tortillas, and tomatoes. It was really strange.

After eating it was time to get in our harnesses for the zip-line. The first zip line was really cool- I went through fog and was in love. I couldn't see anything for a while, which was amazing. Then I was able to see some, and realized I was a million feet of the ground and there was a river. The second zip line would have been great, but right at my turn we got cut by a smaller group. By the time it was my turn again, it was raining and very foggy. So I was a little upset. I just wanted a clearish sky for at least on of them. Then I had to check myself and stop feeling that way. After that we had two more that would go faster. It started raining even more and we were all freezing, and I just had to laugh at the situation. It was a lot of fun, though I still couldn't really see. Two of the girls ran into a tree because they couldn't brake enough. Apparently this place has only been open for 6 months(originally a lawyer's fun place for his family that they decided to turn into a business). This explains that it was really disorganized and probably too fast for a zipline. Oh, and the fact it was raining. Haha.

Right before the ride back down the hill it grew even more rainy. The car I got in was one without a roof, and we just had to laugh at the situation. Well, Ashton and I did- everyone else was a little upset. But it was cold, rainy, and we were scared to fall out of the vehicle. No biggie. We arrived back at the bus, put dry clothes on(we were told to bring some for the mud) and then went across the street for hot chocolate. It was amazing hot chocolate. I could taste the lactose in it- but I didn't care. I love hot choclate, in case you didn't know.

I napped and studied on the bus. For dinner we ordered pizza and studied all night. Bed at 10:30 to wake up for our test in the morning.

Oh- and apparently there is a stomach virus going around Costa Rica, so that is probably what we all had.

Pereza!

Today we had class for a little while, and then left to go to INBioparque. It is a nature reserve type area that specializes in researching and protecting the environment and all the species in it. We ate lunch there, which was actually better than yesterdays. They had the best chicken I have ever had. EVER. It was perfect. I think most of the food here is just made so much better than in America. Surely not everything, but at least chicken and vegetables. Costa Ricans really love chicken though, especially fried. After lunch we got an introduction to INBioparque, and then started our tour. We saw two sloths!! They were adorable and really high in the trees. They were two different species, one was short-haired and one long-haired. Sloth in Spanish is "pereza," which literally means lazy. Apparently sometimes the sloths get out and the neighbors call- much like America and dogs. It made me laugh. Silly sloths. We also saw baby deer, which were incredibly cute. After the tour we listened to a speech about environment and corporate responsibility. We were all having trouble staying awake and were thankful that it was over in 30 minutes. Getting back there was a TON of traffic. Since it was taking so long, we began to entertain ourselves. My roommate, Madelyn, started a game with herself to high five people on the street. She automatically one the game if she high-fived someone in a car. She finally got a car high-five, and it was a victorious moment for the whole bus. She was going for people in a bus, but a guy that was obviously on drugs saw her and looked like he fell in love instantly. We were very grateful to get away from that bus quickly, because they guy was very creepy.

For the rest of the night, we went to dinner and went out dancing. Dinner was half McDonalds/half restaurant because it was farther away than we thought. We took the bus, and were told a couple blocks, but in reality it was much farther. We stopped at McDonalds because some of us were starving. Then we switched destinations to a better place, so we took taxis there. The clubs were right by the restaurant we went to. It was a fun night, aside from the fact my friend Mary's camera got stolen (we are pretty sure by the waiter). On the way home, our taxis raced each other, so we yelled things like "andale" and "bamanos" to them. They weren't speeding, just having fun. Our taxi one, most likely because I was the one with the directions. :)