Picture time!

After over 6 weeks of traveling I finally have some time to post some pictures up here to give you a better idea to go along with my posts.

First is a picture of the Grand Canyon that I flew over on the flight from Salt Lake to Pheonix.

Next is our first picture taken in Costa Rica, our first night in San Jose after an exciting trip to the hostel.

Here are some of the locals in Mastatal.

This is me with my AMAZING host family. Although they look like it, they loved me and i absoluetly adored all of them and it was soo sad to say good bye.

Here is me and Tutti the family dog, who came into my room everyday looking for geckos.

Can you tell she loved me too. haha

Here is Arabella milking Pancha, who i actually helped milk once. Milking a cow is wayyyy harder than it looks. After milking her everyday Arabella would make fresh cheese which i had every morning. I miss her cooking.

Everyday we had two hours of spanish classes in the middle of the jungle. It was super fun and i learned a ton that i got to use when i went back to my family.

Well we're off to the post office so ill upload more later.

Tarzan and Superman!

Me and ari met up with Jacqui and Becky, two canadians we ment in Mastatal in Monteverde! We stayed at an awesome hostel that was ran by the cutest family and they had free breakfast always a plus! So we got there wedsnday night at a perfect time the canadians had just cooked up an awesome dinner of ukah and chick peas and picadillo and tortillas and it was soo good after a day of 8 hours on a bus and three taxi rides. The next day we went zipling which is the funnest thing i have ever done in my life. It also had a rappel and a tarzan swing which was my favorite and the last line was the superman where you were hooked up on your back and flew over 700 meters and were over 1000 meters in the air over the jungle. it was incredible. Later that day was the christmas parade which started out with some awesome dancing and cheerleaders. haha and than some floats. it was by far the slowest parade i had ever seen because there were like bands that would play but they wouldnt march and play. They would stand there and perform and than walk like 100 feet and stop and do it again. this was the whole parade, but it was awesome to see all the little kids dressed up and all the different looking costa rican santas. On friday me and ari went on a tour of the Monteverde cheese factory which was pretty interesting and it explained how the area was actually founded by 11 quaker families that left alabama after refusing to enter the draft. Who would of known. Than we wandered back looking at all the various art gfalleries and shops. If only I had space in my bag and extra money. We spend the last night with our canadians talking about who knows what and they took us out to diunner, which was the sweetest thing. Im gunna miss them, its so awesome the different people you meet. Saturday morning we were on the 630 bus to san jose where once we arrived we went straight to buy our nicaragua tickets which ended up being for monday. So here we are in San Jose.
Being the cheapskates that we are we are trying our hardest not to spend a whole lot of money on food so we had some top ramen we bought in monteverde that we were gunna eat until the canadians offered us dinner. But this place doesnt have a kitchen so thank goodness Ari had bought a cup of noodles so she filled it up in the shower and ate it and than i broke up my regular packaged one and put it in the cup and filled it back up with hot water from the shower. We probably looked a little crazy but it was one of the best top ramens i have ever eaten. We just keep on thinking this will get us a taxi or bus ticket. haha don´t worry we are having tortillas and tuna for lunch. Cant wait!

Goodbye Mastatal

Well we made it to San Jose once again. It was soo hard saying goodbye. The last two days were super sad knowing they were our last too. I talked to Arabella alot and told her i would miss everything greatly and she told me to think of her whenever i cook, and i told her than and whenever i eat rice and beans. Yesterday we went to the soda wtih sarah and marcos and dave and whitney and had one last choco banano and a choco max and also a plate of the most delicious fries ever and than walked around taking some pictures. Isidro got up and combed his hair before our family picture. it was so sweet. than we had a bon fire with smore with everyone and jorge and just talked about the good times. Its so crazy to think that i wont be waking up to frsh pineapple and empandas with homemade cheese anymore. no more helping sarah with the mosiacs in the kitcen or mixing cement, no more laughing my butt off with whitney, no more telenovelas at night and helping arabella cook. no more trips to the river or soda or bar with the gang, no more naps in hamock or falling asleep to therain. no more spanish classes with marcos where we always ended up just talking about costa rica and the people and life in english.
It was heartbreaking today the bus is supposed to come at 540 but at 530 i hear arabella yelling my name and el bus! so i grabbed my stuff and ran to the bottom of the drive just in time, with no chance to say goodbye to her or isidro or even marcos and sarah. I cant believe it. Even though its only been a month i feel like im truly leaving my family. It crazy how that happens. Arabella really inspired me to learn how to cook and the importance of taking care of a family and enjoying the everyday simple life. They all did. So than came the two bus rides to san jose where we just dropped off our big bags and are heading up to Monteverde later to meet up with the two canadian girls we met, Jaqui and Becky and to go Zipling. We have an awesome adventure ahead of us and Masatatal will always be our secret special place in the middle of nowhere costa rica.