¡Pura Vida!

I have recently gotten back from vacation and had a great, relaxing time. It was nice to get away and just have some time to do nothing. I went with Leigh (my roommate) and another volunteer Lindsey. I didn't just go on vacation for the sake of going on vacation though, I had to go and renew my visa. So I took advantage of that excuse and we went to Costa Rica to the beaches of Manuel Antonio.

We left on January 5th and had to be out of the country the 8th. Unfortunately when we went to buy our bus tickets they were booked full until the 8th. So we ended having to pay a few in order to leave Nicaragua. It all worked out fine though. We stayed in Teguc for a few nights in the hotel and went to the mall everyday.

So we left out on the 8th got the Nicaragua that night and stayed at the bus hotel. We left out the next morning to head to Costa Rica, the Nicaraguan/Costa Rican border took forever but we finally made it through and reached San Jose about 9 that night. Lindsey had been in Costa Rica to language school before and so we stayed with her host family that she had lived with. They were an amazing and very hospitable crew. The next day we looked around San Jose and went to the markets, we also bought our bus ticket to go theManuel Antonio the next day.

Walking around in San Jose

So on the 11th we got on a bus to head to Manuel Antonio and it took about

3 1/2 hours to get there. Well worth the trip, it was one of the most beautiful beaches I have been too. For the next 6 days we ate, went to the beach, ate some more and then usually went to our room to watch TV and go to sleep. One of those days we went to Manuel Antonio's National Park. They had a wonderful beach there also. In the National Park we saw sloths and had quite a few monkeys hanging out where we were sitting. I brought out a bag of chips and immediately had to put it away because the monkeys started running towards me. Also Leigh had to chase one of the monkeys away from some people stuff that they had left sitting on the beach.

Sloth Monkeys Iguana

We headed back to San Jose to stay another night and then Leigh and I got on the bus on the 17th to be back in Honduras on the 18th. We stayed at a hotel that night and then caught the Emmanuel bus at the airport that was picking up a group to come in. It was a very successful trip of renewing visas and mind. Also just having a few weeks away. Pura Vida.