Its been so long since I've seen your face

sunset at Jaco
pretty waterfall, I forget what the name of the place is

For all those that don't recognize it, this is actually a line from a song by 2gether about a kleptomaniac girlfriend. Nevertheless its relevant. I've been here in Managua for quite a while now and soon I'll be returning to the states. Its been a while since I've written, for that I'm sorry, life has been more demanding.
Laura, Jill and I went to Costa Rica for Spring Break/Semana Santa. We stayed in San Jose, the capital and although Costa Rica is highly known for its tourism, the city seemed at times deserted (especially at night) due to the fact that everyone was at the beach. We took a bus to get to Costa Rica which was definitely the most unpleasant part of the trip, it took us a whole 12 hours to get from capital to capital. The worst part was getting through the border. Of course we arrived around 12-1, the hotest part of the day and were forced to stand outside in a line to get through customs for about 1-2 hours. It was awful! When we did get to Costa Rica though, we were pleased to find that it was much cooler than Managua and donned our jackets, which we wore all week at night, what a pleasant change that was. We stayed at a cute little hotel where we thought we were the only guests until the last day when everyone was checking out with us. We all stayed in a room on the top floor and all three of us passed out once we got there especially because someone was coming to pick us up for a 12 hour tour at 6 the next morning. The tour was called 4 in 1, the day started as I said at 6 when they picked us up and we went to our first destination, a coffee plantation. They served us breakfast and we got a tour of the farm and drying areas. Then we went to up the side of the volcano (San Jose is located in what called the Central Valley surrounded by mountains and volcanos). We saw the crater principal at the top and on the way down we stopped and took pictures of the central valley and stopped at a tourist shop where they sold strawberries among other things (you can imagine how excited I was, not having any berries since I've arrived). Next stop was a nature reserve and a place to view waterfalls where we ate lunch. They also showed us a butterfly observatory, aviary, monkey house, and hummingbird observatory. After we hiked through the waterfalls we went on a boat tour to view some more wildlife. We arrived back in San Jose around 7. What was different than about San Jose from Managua was that we were able to walk around the city at night (of course we were together) and feel safe. We really enjoyed just walking around in the populated areas
The next day we went on another tour, this one of San Jose which had a lot of cultural insight including an interesting statue of 5 women representing the different Central American countries driving out William Walker who tried to conquer all of Central America. What was really funny was that the woman that represented Nicaragua had her head cut off and was dead on the ground because Nicaragua had been completely conquered by Walker. We were aware of a rivalry/mutual dislike between the two countries but we all found this very interesting and funny. We also stopped at the Gold Museum where I found out that the precolonial villages were matrilineal which I thought was really interesting. After the tour, we went to a market and bought souveniers as that was the only day we had time.
Thursday we went river rafting down a river that I can't remember the name of. It was an adventure especially because we elected to be in a boat that was for Spanish-speakers. We were given directions before hand and everything went as smooth as silk, we all got soaked and had a great time. I think I pushed myself a little hard and was definitely sore the next day. That night we went out for dinner and I tried to get a glass of wine with dinner. To my amazement, they weren't serving any because it was Holy Thursday, it was really the first time it really hit me how Christian the country was. OK so heres my thinking, it was the last supper right? Well even the bible says Jesus drank wine at the last supper, why can't I? Well I survived.
Friday was probably my favorite day. We went to the beach and were finally given the chance to relax. Laura had never seen the sunset over the water before so we asked the driver who was only driving us to pick us up after the sun went down. He had no problem with it so we were at the beach the whole day. We laughed at all the men in speedos and even took pictures of the lifeguards who wore one. Unfortunately they caught us taking pictures and started taking pictures of us. Just after the sun went down and we were getting ready to leave, they came up to us and introduced themselves. We could barily keep from laughing, and as it turns out, they brought over their cameras and asked to take a picture with us. We aquiesqued as long as we got one as well. Definitely the highlight of the day. We got back to San Jose and got Chinese food and got ready for our departure the next day. I enjoyed Costa Rica a lot, it was very tiring though but we were able to see a lot and it was all on the school! I was also given the chance to compare San Jose and Costa Rica with Nicaragua. I decided by the end of the trip that I missed Managua.

Not much more has happened since I've been back, trying to get some work done. Five weeks are left before I go home. Oh how time flies. The girls and I have a couple of other places to go before we leave so as it turns out we've booked up the rest of our weekends. This next weekend I'm going with a friend to a Pichata concert which is really exciting. Then after that, we're going to Ometepe, then to Matagalpa, and then as the last hurrah we're going to Corn Island on the Carribean side. I'll do my best to keep you informed of my next travels. I'd love to hear from you as well! Vaya con dios y vemos temprano!