A Canadian thanksgiving in Costa Rica and 10/10/10

Well today was awsome I started the day with a whole bunch of people from the hostel We went out for some amazing coffee then we packed up the truck people litterly piled on the truck and off we went to the beach! I broke i'n my new hammock while the guts broke i'n there new coconut bochie set ($3 for the set and you can drink them after the game) it ws great the waves were a lot of fun! Then I went to start making some more jewelry to sell tomorrow when a family pic niking next to me started checking out my stuff they bought 18$ worth of my things! I was stoked I didn't even Ihave to try make sales they randomly came to me! They are from San jose and tomorrow I'm meeting up with them to give them two brackets for their grand children!
Then we celebrated Canadian thanks giving at j and births with veggies sangria plantain chips clam chowder and chilli oh and the trailer park boys ( my request) then we finished off the night with a fried banana!!! and the day before that i went to a ciropractor for the first time ever! he told me i have scolios im not that surprized he told me it was due to the accident two years ago and he made me check out myself in the mirrior and my right sholder hip and leg is higher than the left... i really dident notice until then... now i know why i usually walk a little funny... i got re ajusted and i feel amazing! im going back to see him tomorrow for another session i wish i went a long time ago! other than that iv been chillin in my hammock making jewlery!

Well I have spent a lot of time here but really I am going to miss it here! I'm really stoked to be on my way as well I'm on the buss to San Jose. tomorrow I am hopefully meeting up with Christian depending If he gets his stand by flight today. Since the last time I wrote I guess I should update I'n no particular order we did a sushi rolling party it was great britt was Rollin like a mad woman 20 sushi rolls or so! Another night we were just chillin and all of a sudden we hear a high pItch scream I had no idea what it was brItt and j told me it was a baby sloth crying for It's mom! So we went with Melly a cool German girl to search for them and have them reunted we looked for a long time around for the both of them with our flash lights high and low but the baby stopped crying and the mom stopped whistling so after an hour and a bit of hearing nothing we decided that nature ran it's course and they found eachother on their own... While on the hunt we ran into a possum climbing a palm tree it was crazy! I went out to cahuita national park twice once with milly and we had guides that showed us so many animals that we wouldent have seen on our own there were so many sloths monkIes (howler and whIte faced) we saw a viper I think it was an eyelash vIper. some really stupid woman kept sticking her camera i'n the snakes face and all of us were freaking out because they are once of Costa ricas deadlest snake if it bites you... You have one hour to get to hospital until you die and it's a horrible death one organ at a time... But she kept going taking photos of it sticking her cane in to move the leaves she was nuts! Then we saw some tree frogs and an iguana the size of half of me and that was just his body his tail was probably bigger than his body! It was half dinosaur theres no doubt i'n my mind. And there were raccoons that are about half the size of the ones back home they are very skinny then another day i went down to the park with harry he's a chill kid from austrialla we found the biggest coconut ever! Then he cut it open with his pocket knife it was really hard I really was wishing I had my machete. Then we finally got it open and it was hands down the best coconut ever we both agreed and we have both had many coconuts the flesh was perfect! Then we saw an old oil rig from 1901 it was pretty ghetto and random that it was i'n a national park. Another day britt j and I went into lemon it was crazy me and britt went off on our own to go check out the city and we were like celeberitys... The only white chicks i'n town we had a guy that was holding another girls hand say hey babes we were so grossed out any guy 10-70 was hitting on us it got really old really fast. However there's this cave i'n the middle of town and it's a market but when your i'n there it's like your i'n an underground world. Really cool kinda creepy. Other than that it was a pretty dirty city not somewhere to be at night. I went out snorkeling a few more times. And checked out a wonderful waterfall with Tom who is a guy from virgina he drove his car down! It was so beautiful we both agreed it was the real costa rica! It was about two stories high and the power of the water when your standing under it is amazing... the best massage ever! We also checked out punta Uva again yesterday with Harry and Tom it was a wonderful day! Now I am i'n San Jose I'm at a cool hostel with great people but the city itself is not nice it's very busy and dirty. However today I went to butterfly land and it was great so many different kinds! I will post photos when I get to a computer I can load them on. 

O.K. Computer

Well my PC has a virus... It's on for about 4 mins then the computer shuts down... That's why I haven't really been up dating this in the past while... However I will have the updates tomorrow!

its been a while... as in too long

since i last posted now im trying to jog my memory...in the last few days there has been a sushi rolling party...it was great i had cucumber and carrot rolls... i went to a house warming party for my friends new place he just got... it a very nice house i made salsa and guachamole britt made some wicked hummas it was a fun night... iv started to make a cup out of a coconut that i was drinking out of a couple days ago.. iv sanded it down and used a dremmel to carve out the top so it can pour... i will post pictures when its all done... also yesterday we went to carribeans and i was going to pick up some of the most amazing coffee in the world untill i found out that they are out of coffee for about a month(harvest time) and that they had to pull all the stock for sale so they could make coffee at their shop! then i found one in the gift basket and the woman sold it to me... to me this coffee is worth more than gold! i am very happy... then we went for a bike ride down to the end of the road of the beach there where some random things there such as a goal net with a random fan attached to the side that spun with the wind of the ocean and a really cool marsh

also i saw a beatle that was the size of the palm of my hand... i named him ringo and i fell running to go pee i will have some photos of the gnarley scratch later its only gnarley because cuts dont dry the same here.. its really hummed

eatin alive

i just counted 172 bug bites... why do they love me so much? i really dont know... my legs are just covered in them theres at least 120 on my legs alone... i really need to make insect repellent... the raw garlic chewing isent working well enought...

Punta Uva almost dident leave...

well yesterday was beautiful so i took a group of people staying at the hostel for a bike ride to the beach! it was great fun we just chilled for a bit two of the guys and me went on a mission to get some coconuts...


and thats pretty much how its done(in reverse)... then hung out at the resturant when oscar realized that he had lost his wallet with 10,000 colones ($20 US) in it!! we checked all around and couldent find it! we hopped back into the water when he relized that the keys to the bike and his locker was in the wallet too! i said dont worrie about it we can break the lock so we went back retracing our steps no luck... then we got to the bikes... the two girls were chained to eachother than to oscars bike that was chained to mine attached to a tree... we told the girls to go we would figure it out... i got a rock and tried to break the lock.. only the plastic broke... we got a hammer from the restraunt..it dident work... i tried my machete... no luck on the metal wire...just then the sun was starting to set and we where about to detach my bike from the tree and prepair for the 3+ hour walk back with two chained bikes when two trucks pull up with latters on the top i said to oscar... they have to have somthing to break this damn lock! he went up and talked to them... the guys were fighting over who gets to use their lockcutters... the boss won because he had a bran new pair!!! i could not belive it! they were workers for the telephone company and were offshift going fishing!! we couldent have had better luck if we tried... we thanked them a million times and told them that they saved our day...and night...we also got a photo in...

Manzanillo at last!!

this is the ride from town to manzanillo (click to make larger)






well today was a good day to bike out to Manzanillo for sure! i left at noon and biked the 13 km to the beach/nature reserve i ended up running into the girls that i had voulenteered with and hiked the mountian with it was really randomly cool we went swimming at the beach and just chilled for a while. then we hit up Maxi's it was a really cool restraunte the server said he was actually a perfesional foot ball player and was serving us because we where pretty girls we dident believe him then one of the other people at one of the other tables asked for a picture with him.. so maby he was telling the truth anyways he kept doing salsa dances then screwed up the bill... he probably was a football player... anyways it ended up raining just as we go into maxi's and it wasent going to hold off.. the girls were catching the bus back so i jumped on my bike befor it started to get dark and rode back... it kinda sucks we dident get to see the jungle due to all the rain but it dosent have to be my last time there...







palm fire

wow!

yesterday i went to go volunteer with the Bri Bri however when i showed up two girls where leaving to go up the mountain with a 16 year old who lives in the reserve so i tagged along. it was very beautiful there was a few waterfalls and so many different plants. he took us up to where his family lives. i have to say it was pretty sad six of them sleep in one room with roll out mattresses, and cook over a open flame. i have to say that i really did feel guilty for complaining about where i lived. this family dident even have electricity or running water. however the sounds of the animals with the river below was the most tranquil sound i have heard in my life. however i was disgusted to see melted batteries in an old ash fire... i hope they dident cook any meals over that flame....then the young man took us to his property. yah thats right his dad built him a house up there on his own land. it was actually much nicer than the first house. on his porch there was a chicken just chillin in the corner with alot of random toys and stuff. his house was very simple however perfect however, he only lives there on weekends. the other days of the week he lives just outside of the town im in. it was a crazy walk up the mountain we had to take off our sandals a few times because it was safer that way. however coming down the mountain we were going to see a waterfall below and we had to go down this side and hold a vine as we go down but only one by one. the girl that goes last gets just a few feet away from the bottom and the vine gave out! she caught up to herself...thank god it was a waterfall with alot of rocks under us... then just as we where all catching our breath seeing that she said ohh my god good thing i dident fall. as i slipped on my butt in a little pool of water hahaha we checked out the waterfall it was really cool. we also saw some poisions dart frogs. the green ones with the black patches and the bright red little ones. we also saw some baby toucans playing in the tree! the guide also grabbed me a fresh cacoa pod... it was so good! however the one disapointing thing of the day was... i forgot my camera... i wasent expecting to go up the mountian... however the girls i went with took some photos that i will get from them and update!

TD Canada Trust--Banking can be this uncomfortable

ok iv always had something against banks(sorry if you or a loved one works for a bank) but this takes the cake!

in mid-august i lost my card here... i know really bad on my part...but i called same day to cancel the card and get them to send one to my home(then have my parents express mail me it) so about 14 days went by then i called them back to make sure its sent out and check up... the woman says yup i see a note that it was sent middle of the month it takes 10 business days to get out so its probably in the mail now... ok sounds reasonable... now i just tried to call them to see if i could send money into my friends account and take it out here(i cant) but i also wanted to check and see when the card was sent... it wasn't... i had a card reissued in Canada in mid july!!! i really couldn't believe what i was hearing.. then the computer disconnected i called back talked to a really nice guy who was probably as frantic as me...so now it will take another 5 days to get it(rush) and then another few to get here from my place but i really cant believe it i cant believe that i called two times to get it sent and it wasn't sent either time...i never want to live depending on banks or money ever again i am so mad right now... i really shouldn't be mad about money but when I'm here and all i need is my bank card and i have to bend over backwards this many times to get it I'm going to go crazy... I'm over it now i promise i will never blog in spite again...and never use TD when i get back...

Im on a boat...i got my flippy floppys

well today i woke up thinking i was going to bike out to the national park however i got side tracked and ended up going on a boat with britt jay and some of his friends. his friend who owned the boat happened to be from quebec city of all places, he was just on the pacific side of costa rica giving tours and had sailed over threw the panama cannel to this side! i totally forgot my memory stick for my camera however i will get the pictures from britt soon and post them...it was a wonderful day for sailing sunny but cloud covered so we dident get a burn... i got a nice tan on my legs finnally too! it was great we went out from puerto viego to cahuita to do some snorkeling however my tube wasent that great and i took in some very salty water...however i did see some reef it was really amazing luckly i dident see the nerve shark... they dont usually go for people but still i dont really want to see a shark none the less... one of the guys speared a huge tropical red snapper... i have to say it was the prettiest fish iv ever seen... the kind that are like $300 at specal pet stores back home. then we sailed to punta uva because it was a bit windy to port going that direction so it was a nice easy sail back. i actually fell asleep on the deck and it was the best sleep ever i felt like i slept for 24 hour althought it was probably not even one hour, the waves just rocked me to sleep. it was a wonderful day better than perfect! we also went out for falafel(there my new favortie food... i cant believe i dident have them at home) and the veggie/fruit truck stopped by. the owner went out to it and picked his produce, weighed it in the back and paid for it.
it was the coolest truck ever!
(Sorry not a great picture)

then when we came back there was a baby boa at the door... j's son caught him and kept him in a bucket. now j's mother is visiting and she hates snakes...alot. so i hunted down the snake to set him free ( so it dosent end up in her bed room tonight) i found the bucket and pulled out the towel and the snake came flying out a whole bunch of people chillin had no idea they were sitting beside a little boa i grabbed it and put it back in that bucket then we set it free... thank god now that woman can sleep tonight...untill he brings home another snake! also there was this really cool moth in the room it looks so much like a leaf i kinda thought it was one...
wow boats and a boa what a day!

marine corps are crazy....

well there is 1,500 U.S. marines in town... its wayy to busy and strange they all have the same hair, build and wear striped polos... anyways lastnight there where a whole bunch partyin it up at the hostel these guys are drunk as a skunk by noon it seems anyways then they are pulled back onto their ship at midnight its kinda like cinderella... anyways they were banned from our hostel by the leader... however a few of them came today, two of them asked me where they can get a massage...i dident realize what kind they were talking about and refered them to the yoga studio hahahha yah lots of woman made lots of money this week... anyways i was talking to a few guys and a woman who was the boss two of the guy were very very drunk one started to hump the boss they are all so sex crazed its insane..i guess being on a boat for that long will do it. the boss told me its 1/10 woman to men!! these ones are doing aid work so its pretty good however lots of people in town dont like it, somthing about a free trade agreement or somthing. anyways it was to early to handel all the drunkness so me and this really cool girl from london went to check out luana's mural shes doing at a hotel its amazing

also i personalized my machete sheath i used britts dremel it was kinda hard but i got the hang of it after a while


oh yes and i got my posters printed yesterday... it only took 3 hours and 4 people to figure out the printer however i like the results...


and now its time to sleep in a hammock its been a long day

a few days of updates

well a few nights ago was the last of the yearly festival that was in town with a make shift carnival (sketchy rides that made horrible sounds and a farris wheel that was leveled on four pieces of wood...) so we went into town a few people went on that sketchy farris wheel and i told them no one could even pay me to go on... i watched in horror as britt and j flipped there cage on it. then it was off to the bull fight, now me and britt had gone a week or so earlier and it was crazy a guy got jumped on by a bull for a while i thought the bull wasn't going to stop then everyone picked him up and put him threw a little window with a + on it where there is an ambulance on the other end. now let me explain how bull fights work in costa rica... theres no weapons, the bulls dont get hurt pretty much there is this ring that you can only get out of if you climb the walls. they get someone to ride in on the bull, they get bucked off in like a few seconds and theres a whole bunch of (dumb, drunk) people in the ring just taunting the bull to get pissed off and run at them... when we went at one point there was a guy in a dress that was playing jump rope with the lasue around the bulls neck...great idea anyways all in all its pretty crazy. here are some photos and videos from the bulls
these are the guys getting ready for the bull to come out


this is a guy who was bugging me and britt all night long i think its kinda funny how the bull is picking on him...karma

this is the out side of the ring



anyways i dident want to go to another bull fight... one was plenty for me so i chilled outside. thank god i dident go in because j and his brother got into the ring i would have had a heart attack!

on another note the other day i was walking around and i saw the leaf cutter ants but they werent carring leafs... there was like 10 of them carring a dorito! it was hands down the funniest thing ever i wish i had my camera i would have filmed it and sold it to dorito for a commerical! it was so funny i burst out laughting. this is why i need my camera 24/7!

damn it!

well i woke up this morning thinking about how much iv screwed myself over by losing my bank card.. i even dreamed about it last night... anyways i was trying to make some coffee in a complicated matter (emerging coil that heats up water in a cup pour boiling water into coffee filter over another cup) with one problem there is only one cup in the kitchen(the one i bought yesterday) so i was like ok ill hold the filer over a plate pour the water into it and quickly attach it back onto the cup(now this is really complicated) the second i started to pour the boiling water about 20% got into the filter the other 80% poured onto my hand... coffee grinds all over the kitchen i then just ran my hand under water and held a frozen bottle for half an hour. its not to bad of a burn my skin just peeled but two hours later and its still freaking hot... oh the dumb things i do for coffee, at least all this has got my mind off my bank card, mabey next time i should spend the dollar at the cafe for coffee.

short and sweet

well today i was going to work with the Bri Bri tribe helping with the soup kitchen however my alarm dident go off so i woke up 10 mins befor i was to be there... across town so i told them i coudent make it. instead i made a mosaic in the garden area of the hostel... its not the best but it started to rain so i wanted to get the cement down befor it was jungle raining... i will add more in the next few days. britt and j have gone to bocus del toro in panama for a few days she needs to get out of costa rica for at least 3 days or else she cant get back in for 5 years!! i have to remeber once my 3 months here comes around to get out or else i cant come back (for 5 years)!

...

today was a really sucked i went to the center to help out and it was all good chillin with the sloths then after the tours they got me to clean out the eagle cage at first i was like well it couldent be that bad they moved the bird into another cage but then i had to take out all the saw dust that had dead mice/rats/old meat and maggots!!! it was hands down the dirtiest thing in the world and then i had to scrub off all the bird shit from the wire cage it was horrible like why dosent the people that are getting paid for this work have to do the gross stuff? anyways i told them I'm going on a road trip next week i just cant stand doing this stuff.

long day today

well i woke up at 6:30 this morning to get ready for volunteering and let me tell you thats much to early for me on a vacation... anyways the animals are as cute as ever...minus a sloth scratch but i think i will have to cut back my days there 5 days a week 8 hours a day is wayyyy to much because im also working with another group volunteering one day a week... plus i have to start doing reflexology to make some extra cash... i kinda feel bad cutting back the hours but i cant do it i get home i shower and pass out in a hammock. anyways yesterday britt me and a guy who grew up in delta all went to punta uva again it was so beautiful not a cloud in the sky and it dident even rain all day! i got to try out snorkeling and it was amazing there was brain coral that looks just like a brain and the coolest brightest fish iv ever seen i felt like i was swimming in the movie finding nemo! i have to get a mask for sure and go out snorkeling everyday its so much fun! we also went to a great restaurant that had the best plantains ever! i could eat them all day everyday and it was a wicked environment too all open air and the tables were full of sea shells and sand! also the bartender had the coolest earring ever...

full moon toga party

so last night was a full moon so we had a wicked toga party at the hostel.. everyone took their sheets and made them into togas.
we made a big cooler full of jungle juice(lots of vodka, some fruit juice, and some pineapples and watermellon) it actually tasted really good and for 4$ it was all you can drink... to be honest it went pretty fast and everyone was pretty drunk then j gave me a 2 6 of rum to give shots of it out i told everyone they could have a shot but only if its a body shot... everyone agreed except for one guy who wanted a shot in the mouth.. i was aready bad enough at pouring in peoples bellybottons that i really shouldent have but i ended up giving him a face shot as in rum in they eyes, nose, ears and i think a bit got in his mouth... thats why i dont pour rum when im drunk.. i dident do anymore face shots and i promised him a drink tonight to make up for it. after the shots we went and had an awsome bon fire. there was a random drunk fist fight over a girl but i got it broken up in no time... all in all it was an awsome night but somehow the ping pong table had it the worst this morning...

monkie business is hard business...but fun

today i started my work with the Jaguar center first i cleaned up the sloth cages and took them out for crawling around the trees... then it was time to baby bottle feed the monkies wow they sure wanted it fighting eachother for the bottles.. after feeding them i got to chill with them for a few hours so they would get to know me. thats when 6 of them piled on my head, legs, arms and lap...monkies everywhere i couldent move if i tried. the monkies are very sweet many of them are young and have lost their parents so they love to cuddle up too sweet.


i still feel like i have monkies hanging off of me. i asked one of the owners who loves snakes and he has a bunch of killer snakes and he breeds them because they are nessisary for the eco system. lots of people around here kill all snakes thinking that hey are this one kind of killer snake but most of them are not its pretty sad. i asked him if he has ever been bit by a killer snake and he said yes once when i first started researching them a rattel snake bit my finger and he showed me the stubby finger pretty bad ass, and then he got bit in the same hand by a viper... i told him i would have stopped at the rattel snake.. let alone the viper and he still breeds these snakes pretty crazy... he dosent breed vipers tho. yah the center is great I had never realized how much that monkies really are just like humans... untill i spent a day with monkies all over my back and everywhere else. they even have finger prints just like humans. and damn they are smart...and fast.

one of them does bite tho its just so happens that she is the biggest of them all and she likes to pick on the smallest monkie so its hard to break it up.. heres a video for you of some monkies play fighting ... i will post this later the power keeps going on and off...

SLOTHS SNAKES MONKIES AND MORE!

Today i went to the jaguar rescue center! what an awsome place, they take animals that have been hurt/left by their parents and they rehab them back into the will, i had monkies climbing all over me and there are the cutest baby sloths ever!


ever wanted to see the cutest baby sloth climb... now you can!





baby tucan

monkies!!


all in all a wonderful day!

after that i went into town and got myself a machete with a cool cover that im going to decorate, im going to use it to open up the green coconuts and get out the fresh milk its really good for you!