Tortuguero!

<-- view of tortuguero from river

<--- me and erik on a hammock

<-- budda cafe!

<--- budda cafe again!

<-- me and ana on the beach!

<-- view on the river

Soo this weekend I went on an awesome adventure! Some boys in my group organized for the group to go an island en el caribe; Tortuguero! We left the house at 6 am and traveled on two different buses, then needed to take 1 hr+ bus ride to reach the island where we stayed. Coming up by river the place looked awesome! And i really felt like I was no longer in costa rica and now in the Caribbean. We walked through this island to get to our hostel ($8/ a night!) for a nice comfy bed, a towel, and a shower! Also there were AWESOME hammocks everywhere haha. We were a minutes walk away from the beautiful beach that had black sand (from the volcano!) andd  the water was exactly like that in north carolina oak island; warm water with the best waves. The first day me and some friends went out to lunch and ordered veggie pizza and it was delicious! Then we returned and swam in the wonderful ocean. That night.. the biggest rip off ever! We went to tortuguero... island of turtles right? So we agreed to pay $10 to see turtles on the beach. We got all ready and prepared. Then we proceeded to wait for 2 HOURS to see them but.. the guides couldnt find any. Which was fine and therefore we returned to our huts. The next day the guy came around and charged us anyway! (very rude).

The next day we went kayaking in a national park and saww.... soo many monkeys! ; howlers, spider, capuchin. Also, we saw a caimon and my kayak was literally like 3 feet away from him! I finally saw dad's lizard; the jesus christ lizard. This guy walks on water! ( I saw him do it, i was so shocked, he ran across like 2 meters of water).  It was a lovely afternoon. When we returned, we went to the beach more.. then dinner! We went to the budda cafe where I had pasta pomonero?  sooo delicious! My table ordered 2  pitchers of sangria; the best wine i have ever tasted! there were soo many fruits in the pitcher and the cinnamon overtones made it perfect. And after telling all 5 others at my table nooo pina colado and the waitress no pina colado for me she brought one anyway! Best idea ever! sooo good. I drank it very quickly.. hahah. Also i played soccer with the island boys and they were impressed by my minimal skills and kept screaming "chemy chemy! pass the ball  to chemy!". Very fun soccer match. Overall the weekend was so relaxing and peaceful ( we have not had much free time this semester :( but this was awesome! )