We went to the bakery and I ordered another loaf of cream cheese bread (this time, I got pan salada, or salty, since we tried the dulce, or sweet kind, the day before). We picked up some fruit and eggs at the fruitstand, and some boxed milk (which is super weird, I think. Neither the boxed milk, nor eggs, are refrigerated in the store. You can find both of them on the shelves. That wouldn't fly in the U.S., but no one has gotten sick here, so I guess it's okay to do that.) at the corner store. During breakfast, we got another guest here at the hostel: Ryan from Nova Scotia. The three of us walked to Playa Preciosa after breakfast, except this time we decided not to take the road; we decided to walk along the beach. Except, the tide was coming in...so the beach quickly turned into water. We ended up crossing the river to get to the other side by simply walking through the water. We tied our shirts (and in my case, my dress) to our heads, and we walked through the water. Most of the way, it was about waist deep. Some of it was too deep to touch, so we swam with all our things in our hands.
Ryan is the one in the middle picture. When we got the other side of the water, we walked along the beach until we got to the same beach outside of Iguana Lodge that we went to with Dominic. It was pretty drizzly the whole time, but Grant convinced me to get in the water and practice diving into the waves. It was a lot of fun, and we must have been in the water for about an hour. When I finally dragged myself out, I was surprised how tired I was from treading water against the current the whole time. One our walk back, we got an awesome surprise! Right by a body of standing water (which means mosquitos...) I saw some Squirrel Monkeys in the trees! There were a whole bunch of them! The video is a bit jumpy because I was getting bitten all over by bugs. Hopefully the pictures do their cute faces more justice:
They were super cute! Worth the mosquito bites. When we got back to the hostel, Federico was cooking up a storm, and he had decorated the back porch with a beautiful table, balloons and flowers. It blew me away. He and Grant cooked a bunch of incredible food: Thai seafood soup, Palm Heart Green Bean Guacomole salad, rice and lots of drinks. I worked on my spanish a bit while they were cooking.
I'm in between Ryan and Grant, with Federico joining in for the picture. Oscar, the guide, is next to Grant. I'm not sure who the guy across from Oscar is, but we danced a bit later. 
Two ladys who came to the party we so sweet: they both gave me earring and bracelet sets that were handmade. I couldn't believe how nice these people all were, especially since I can barely talk (at least in a way that they would understand) and they have only known me for a week. The Tico people are truly incredible. Here, I'm wearing one of each set of earrings. 
Once the food was done, everyone got dressed (Federico was quite stylish) and the party started! There were about 9 people for dinner, then when we had eaten all that we could take (and believe me, Federico kept asking everyone if they wanted more, and it's hard to refuse when he put so much time and effort into the delicious meal), we cleared the dance floor and turned up the (already loud) music! It turned into a dance party!! We listened to all kinds of music (we loved it so much that we went across the street and borrowed the flashdrive that has all the music on it so that we could take it with us). Everything was amazing. Half way through dancing, Federico and Grant got out a HUGE cake! It was made by someone in town that Federico knows, and it was the smallest size they made (it serves up to 25 people...) It was handmade, from scratch, and so rich. I've never had such a good cake!
Me and Federico
Me and Grant
Me, Grant, Federico and the lady who works here at the hostel (I'm terrible with names!!)
Everyone got GIANT pieces, and the cake was so good! After cake, we cleared the flood and turned up the music! Grant and I loved the music so much that we copied it from the lady across the street in the morning. We danced for so long, and whenever any of us (Grant, Ryan or myself) tried to sit down, one of the others would grab us and make us get up! Federico was quite the dancer! We must have danced for about 3 hours. It was 11:30 when the party started to die down, but I think it only stopped because it was obvious that the three of us gringos were exhausted. The Ticos could have partied all night. In the morning, Federico told us that Latinos love to party - we found that out first hand. It was so much fun! I've never had such an interesting birthday, and although I miss my family, it was a lot of fun. Everyone made the day extremely special.
No comments:
Post a Comment