Vamos a la Playa

 I'm back from an amazing vacation week with the other 6 weekers in Puriscal and the 6 week language study folks from a couple different cities.  Apparently they all knew about the vacation when they applied for the program, but I had no idea! Remember how I said in my last post that I was going to an AFS camp for the week? That's what I thought it would be because that's how my AFS liaison described it. So I was pretty much expecting a cabin full of skinny bunk beds, one communal bathroom, and camping-style cuisine. Well, imagine my shock when we pull into the beautiful Buena Vista Lodge in the mountains of Guanacaste.

Buena Vista Lodge and Adventure

Emma and I got to room together, which was great because we had so much to catch up on from the last two weeks!

The room that Emma and I shared

We arrived at Buena Vista on Monday afternoon, and pretty much chilled the rest of the night.  We went swimming, ate dinner, and then rested up for all the activities that were planned for Tuesday morning.  First, we went horseback riding through the mountains, which was cool.  

Lots and lots of horses

Then we went to a spa, where we went in a sauna, then had a mud bath, and then went swimming in naturally heated spring water.  That was super fun, but unfortunately I don't have any pictures because I couldn't very easily bring my camera into the mud bath.  Finally, we went on this incredibly long and fast water slide down a mountain.  You couldn't see the end of the slide while you were riding because it twisted and turned through the trees, so towards the end I was actually thinking "Okay, when's this slide over?"

Then the next day (Wednesday) we went ziplining again!  There were about 10 ziplines in the course, and I got to go upside down on the last one!

Ziplining again!

That afternoon, we left Buena Vista and headed to Punta Leona in Puntarenas.  Again, we were in a beautilful resort!  The food was amazing.  The pools were amazing.  And most of all, the beaches were amazing!

BEAUTIFUL beach

There was also a ton of wildlife.  I saw two parrots, pizotes (I didn't know what those were before I came to Costa Rica), lots of lizards, a huge iguana, and racoons.  The pizotes and racoons would come over to us while we were eating and try to find food around the tables.  That is, until a worker would come shoo them away.Overall, I had a great week.  We got back from Punta Leona on Friday, and although I'd had lots of fun, it was great to come back to my lovely Tica family.  I'm looking forward to the second half of my exchange!