Semana Santa

Just got back from Costa Rica on Thursday. We had a full week off for Semana Santa, also known as Holy Week. Myself and 8 other teachers headed down to Costa Rica for a 6 day, 5 night trip to Monte Verde. Monte Verde is a mountain (monte) lush with rain forest, technically a cloud forest which I still need to find out what the difference between the two is. Anyway, we arrived on Saturday evening after an 11 hour ride in the microbus, well actually not all in the microbus, some of it was spent at the border in lines waiting for passport stamps and van certification, but most of it was in the van. The last 2 hours of which was spent on a 35 km trek up the rocky mountain road, it takes that long to get up the mountain (they said it couldn't be done in less than 3, but if you know me that was just a challenge). Awwright! Anyway, so we made it up and spent the night just getting acclimated to actually being in a climate where jackets are needed, which was a welcome respit from blazing Managua. The next day we went on a hike up the mountain, which I thought would be easy; however, that was not the case. By the time I got to the top my calves felt like they were split down the middle, but the view was beautiful. That afternoon we just took some naps, and then we thought maybe another small hike and then we went out for dinner; so we just spent the first day on hikes and eating. The next few days we much more of the same, lots of hikes and lots of eating. We went on some canopy tours and went ATVing one afternoon. Saw some of the tourist stuff, but the best part of the trip was a night tour through the forest, where we saw some sloths, poisonous vipers, terantulas as big as footballs (no joke), scorpions, and lost of various birds and mammals. All in all it was a pretty sweet trip and pretty affordable. I would recomend it to anyone that has a chance to go. Alright, as this is my maiden blog voyage, and I'm tired I'm gonna leave it at that for now, but might edit it later-if you can do that. peace.

j