Off to the Real Jungle

September 15th was independence day in Costa Rica.  We went into the small town of San Vito to see both a night and day parade.  The few people that live in the town were all there to celebrate.  Pictures to come.  Yesterday, I took my first multi-hour hike through the rainforest and saw a waterfall before getting poured on for over an hour.  You wouldn't believe how wet the rainforest gets when it rains! River. Everywhere. Pictures to come for the hike also.

In all, I just finished a week full of double lectures that ultimately made time for a week excursion to another jungle!  Today, I'm going to live with the Brunka indigenous community for two nights and then I go to Las Alturas biological reserve to work in a clinic.  I'll be back to hot water, electricity, and blogging in a week!

Vamos Morados

Last week was an awful week of homework! After turning in a paper, taking a test, and giving a presentation, I finally finished week two of my 60 hour cram-session of spanish class in San Jose (although we still have 8 more hours of class in Las Cruces).  On Saturday, I had to give a presentation and lead a 2 hour discussion on pharmaceuticals and their relation to diseases in developing countries before I could finally relax a bit.  Gotta love having classes 6 days a week.

After my presentation most of our class rushed to our first fútbol game in Costa Rica.  We all decked ourselves out in Saprissa gear (the soccer team that won the league last year).  Our professor Jorge, who is literally friends with everyone in this country, came with us to the game and brought his friend José Luis, who just happens to be a famous Costa Rican soccer player that has played many games with the national team and is a mid-fielder for Saprissa.  He is only 29 but played in the 2006 world cup! He was playing in China for the last few months and just returned, so he couldn't play in the game we were watching.  His nickname, we found out after from our host family, is puppy (pronounced poopy).  After Saprissa won 4-1, we went out to dinner with Jorge and José.  I rode in Jorge's honda civic while four other girls got to ride with José in his black audi (no fair!)...but at least we didn't have to take a cab like the rest of our class.  Here's a picture of a lot of my classmates at the stadium plus Jorge and José being weird in the background:

Although it was raining at the game, there were some very dedicated fans drumming and singing the whole time.  I believe one of the cheers went like this: Vamos, vamos morados, que esta noche, tenemos que ganar! (aka Let's go, Let's go purple, because tonight, we have to win!)

We just got to Las Cruces again and are staying here until Sunday, then we go to Las Alturas to work in a clinic and then to live with the Brunka for a few days.  Hasta Luego!

A Trip Through the Canopy

Today we took our second trip offered by our language school to the San Luis canopies.  We explored the jungle in a series of 12 cables with platforms in between.  The forest was absolutely beautiful and it didn't rain at all!  The guides had a good time heckling our group of 9 girls, especially when we all screamed absurdly on the Tarzan swing.  The last cable was superman style, so we got to look down at the river and forest like a bird.  Here's a picture of my friend Shilpa doing the first cable: