Lago Huacachina (Ica) and Colca Canyon (Arequipa)

Its been a week since we´ve been in Peru!! We stayed in Miraflores one night and headed towards Ica for some sandboarding in Lago Huacachina...wow was that an experience! We went to the sand dunes in a dune buggy and eventually headed to a spot to attempt sandboarding, the first sand dune wasnt too bad, I fell half way down but thats ok, the second, third and forth just kept gettin bigger and bigger...rEaLly Big! everyone went laying down after the first one haha. After Lago Huacachina Kelly and I took a motor taxi (which is a motorcycle turned into a taxi big enough for 2 people in the back) to a bus station and took a night 12 hour bus ride into Arequipa.

We got here Monday morning with no idea on what to do next. We had done a little reading on Colca Canyon which looked pretty amazing. We booked a tour that day and Tuesday morning we woke up at 2:55am and got in a bus by 3:15am and headed towards the Canyon! It was amazing! Really tiring, specially on the way up the second day,I was wondering what the heck I had gotten myself into, and it made me realize or just reminded me that I am not in good shape, haha... but either way, totally worth every second...We met amazing people and the Canyon was simply gorgeous, it was huge and being there in the middle of it all made me feel tiny and incredibly blessed.

Last night we had out first night out in Peru, we all came back from the hike showered and met at the plaza...it was a lot of fun!

We´re not too sure on what were doing next, maybe go to Puno and check out Lago Titicaca but a day or so...Not doing Chile because its too expensive and we heard theres not much to do and we really wanted to go to Bolivia but it was $135.00 for a visa but it wouldnt be worth it because of lack of time and we didnt have the right clothes for it (we heard it was really cold)...

So...who knows, We´ll be in Cuzco on the 11th or 12th and check out Machu Picchu!!

Happy New Year!!

So...we left LAX at migdnight on Tuesday night...long story short we ended up staying in El Salvador for a night with all expenses paid for by the airline in a very nice hotel (which was really nice). We landed in Lima today (Thursday) around 3pm. We ended up staying at a hostel in Miraflores, and well be here for two nights. Everyone is amazing and just being here 2 days has made me realize, or better yet remember how amazing traveling is and how much I really want to take a year off and just travel around...That is the same mentality I had when I was in Costa Rica but being back in the States sucks you back in and it makes you forget all the amazing things the world has to offer before getting a real job, etc...But we´ll see...Oh funny story, Kelly and I were in the shower talking about how cold showers were in CR and how nice it was to have hot shower here when all of the sudden the lights when out in the whole place and we were left cold and wet and in the dark, haha...soon enough the lights came back on but if was pretty funny when it happened....Other than that, we might heade to Bolivia instead of Chile as we had origianally planned...

We learned that in Peru people people welcome the New Year by wearing yellow for good luck, so we will be wearing some yellow to have as much good luck for the year to come as we can get!! For everyone else, family and friends I wish you the best for this year to come!! Until next time.
PS..sorry, no pics yet...

PERU...here we come!

Back in Spetember, Kelly, Katie and I planned a trip to Peru...3 months later, today is the day we take off!! Kelly and I will be leaving in less than 15 hours...I feel like much more planning is needed, haha but I'm sooo excited!! I can't wait to start traveling again. We land in Lima around 2:oopm on the 30th, we'll make our way down the coast to Northern Chile, and meet Justin in Cuzco on the 12th...things in between are unknown, which is one of the main things I'm looking forward to...going with the flow and welcoming every opportunity that comes our way! Bye until next time when I find myself (hopefully soon) in an amazing Peruvian internet cafe!

Heading home soon....

Andy and I in Santa Teresa
Some of us before the sunset

The wonderful people I spent Thanksgiving with

San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

So like everything in life…all good things come to an end. Last night and today all the wonderful people that I spent amazing days with and non stop laughter with have left. Now its just me, I take the bus to San Jose tomorrow afternoon, spent the night at a hostel and fly out on Sunday morning…

Its funny how things change, I was so nervous to come here, not knowing what to expect, who to meet, or where to live and I ended up meeting some of the most amazing people I’ve met in a while. I had an incredible roommate, okay almost two roommates cause Andy was always here, and we all had so many good conversations about anything and everything. I spent most of my time with five girls that honestly made the experience as great as it was, we laughed soo much it was ridiculous. I really do think that coming here has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life.

But it does suck…it sucks soo much how you start something and you like it and enjoy it so much and then all of the sudden, sooner than you know its all gone. Now its back to California (which I do miss), but…I guess there is always a but. I have never been faced with the reality that we always want what we can’t have as much as I have here…and I just kept reminding myself so just enjoy the moment because everything comes to an end…and unfortunately nothing lasts forever. I am glad that the people I did get closer to live either in California (few of them go to school in Chico), Reno, and Arizona. So its good that we can all meet up if we really wanted to. And to all the other wonderful people that I met that are far away, it nice to know that if I’m ever in their home town I have a few friends here and there around the world.

Being home I’m sure will be really nice. The only thing that I don’t want to do is stay here until tomorrow because Puntarenas just isn’t the same without the people…it feels lonely. Today I’ll lay out for a while, read and enjoy the last hot day before going to cold weather wearing sweaters and jeans (but its going to be nice waking up and being cold). Other than that I think I’ll finish packing and cleaning the house because tomorrow the landlord is coming to give me the deposit money back and so I can turn in the keys. He is going to be nice enough to drive me to the bus station tomorrow so I don’t have to carry the suitcase around.

I was telling Jaime the other day that it really sucks meeting people and knowing you probably wont ever see them again. Its not that you don’t want to its just that everyone has their own lives and we all just were a tiny part of those peoples lives. I guess its nice at the same time though, like Jaime was saying because you enjoy the time for what it is and then you can always go visit or they can come visit and I guess reminisce the good times and hopefully plan for more to come somewhere down the road.

Being alone is what I wanted when I came here…to get away from everything I knew. Now thinking back, that lasted for about a few hours and slowly I started meeting the people that made this experience what it was and at the end I’m leaving this place with some good friendships, and incredible memories…

So as of now…50 something hours till I come home!

Last couple of weeks in October

Saturday night celebrating Halloween at the house next to school

A thusday at my house, getting ready to go out

Riding the bus back from San Jose to Puntarenas...we had a little party of our own, ha it was soo funny!

The church that we went to visit on our way back from San Jose, this is where the Virgin was believed to be seen and where millions of people come every Aug 2nd.

So time is going by incredibly fast...I now only have about a month and a half before I head back to the states, damn! (at the same time is nice though, cause I do want to see my family and friends)...actually it was a month and a half when I started writing this but its now exactly a month and 2 days...



It feels like we havent done too much in the past few weeks. Towards the middle of October, it rained a lot so the roads were floated which meant we couldnt really go anywhere...



A couple of weeks ago we had a field trip with my Latin American cultures class. About 20 of us went to San Jose friday October 24th, stayed the night and came back on saturday. As soon as we got there we headed towards the National Theater. It was pretty nice, and well kept... the inside was full of art and so were the cealings. From there we went to the National Museum where we did more walking to see some really old things that told the history of Costa Rica.



We all stayed at a little Bed and Breakfast that night. Some people decided to go to a performance at the theater and others decided to stay at the hotel and wait till the rest of them got back (which is what I did). That night we played some cards and king's cup (which has become one of the favortie games here) and eventually headed to a place called "El Pueblo". We werent there too long before we decided to head back and call it a night...I thought it was a little too intense and being one of the only tourists there didnt feel that great.



Saturday morning our teacher picked us up in the little mini bus and took us to his house. By the way, the teacher's name is Arturo, he is also the one that took us to the Isla de Venado for the weekend at the beggining of the semester. He is pretty much one of the best teachers I've had...Anyway, he and his wife made us tons of food for breakfast and we just hung out by his house for a couple of hours. It was actually really nice being there for a while though because some of us were throwing a football around in the street (it was a gated community so it felt like we were back in the states for a little, no bars on windows so it felt totally safe) Anyway we were throwing a football around so it really just seemed like a sunday, it felt like we should have had a BBQ and hung out with family and friends the entire day...BUT that was short lived! We cleaned up and started heading to our next destination which was a Church called "Basilica de los Angeles"

The chuch white, big and a little intimidating...I walked to this one spot where it is believed that the Virgin appeared there and they turned that one spot into a fountain that has Holy water. I thought it was interesting how much faith some of these people had because Arturo was telling us that on August 2nd about I dont remember how many million people come to this church and ask or thank the Virgin for whatever it may be thats going on with their lives. They get there and then fill water botles with the water to take it home and use (I 'm not sure for what).

Anyway, what I thought was really cool was the fact that I walked inside the church cause I felt like it had been forever since the last time I was at any church...As soon as I stepped in I was totally overwhelmed with this feeling inside me, I dont know how to explain it but all I could go was almost start crying...it was the weirdest, strongest feeling so I just sat there for a little while and prayed...something I felt was needed...

Oh, one more thing I found super interesting about this place was the fact that people were walking on their knees from the door to the altar as some type of sacrifice...

Okay, so the weekend after that it was Halloween...people dont celebrate Halloween here so all the students that are here in Costa Rica (from Heredia, and San Ramon, and Puntarenas) went to this one open place in San Ramon. It was SUPER pretty...it was really green and there was a creek flowing by. We didnt have class that friday (nobody did) So everyone went to this one place like around noon and we stayed there till like 10pm. By the time we got back in to the Punt it was passed midnight.

That was friday...on saturday I went to this beach called Caldera with my roomate and some other guys. People like going to this beach pretty often because its pretty good for surfing....Saturday night there was a party at the house thats next door to the school and we just hung out for a while...

The week went by super fast like usual doing a lot of nothing but reading, eating ice cream (we have been doing that kinda often, they sell it everywhere), going to class for 3 hours a day and just hanging out!

Mmm...this past weekend we went to Monteverde and went on the Zip line but I'll talk about that more on the next blog cause its getting late and I'm kinda tired of writing...

Good night!

10/15/2008

I’m sitting here at Jaron—the restaurant that’s two doors away from the school. We have learned to spend a lot of time here….they have internet, and drinking a hot cup of coffee when its been raining outside for the past 4 days doesn’t sound that bad…at least it’s a lot better than walking home in the rain

I’m listening to a little bit of country cause I haven’t done that in a while, (considering I forgot my ipod at home) so youtube and music videos do the trick…

I cant believe I have already been here almost two months….and I now have exactly 2 more months before I go back to reality, where I will no longer have endless hours to do absolutely nothing, or better said where I will no longer have endless hours to just read a good book, write on a journal every once in a while, and enjoy the feeling of not having plans or things I have to do every hour of the day...where I will no longer just be able to come up with plans for the day or the weekend spontaneously, planning will be a major part of activities all over again, because school, work and countless other activities overtake our every day lives

Yesterday I signed up for classes…I’m taking a total of 21 units, one class during intersession in January, and six other classes during the semester…but what else can I do, I need to graduate, right? Or walk for that matter cause I still have a pending semester, and that’s the only way I’ll actually get done in time. But when I say in time, in time for what exactly? I’m only 21…that’s the funny part about being here, I have come to realize over and over again that we are sooo pressured to do things by a certain age, school, work, marriage, kids and so on…But after getting done with school I’m just going to take my time to keep enjoying life for what it is, whatever that is…


Haha, so in other words I guess I really enjoy just being here it’s almost like getting away from the real world.

So a quick recap on the last couple of weeks::

Most of USAC and I went to a place called Tortuguero, where we got to see a huge turtle lay eggs and little baby turtles coming out of the sand…we spent 2 nights there and from there we made our way to Bocas del Toro, in Panama. In Panama we took a few tours where we got to see amazing beaches…it was like being at those places that you see in pictures that you say “ I wanna go there someday” and we were actually there so it was pretty amazing, I definitely felt spoiled…We also got to snorkel at see tons of little fish, and one of them followed this guy Sam for like 30 minutes, it was sooo funny! It stayed like 3 inches away from his swimming shorts the whole time

When we got back on Thursday we decided we wanted to take it slow that weekend so on Saturday morning we took the bus to San Jose to watch a movie at the movie theater….haha, so yeah we drove for 1 ½ hours to watch a movie, but it was soo worth it! We stayed the night, and watched another movie on Sunday (movies here are only $3) and then came back to Puntarenas.

This past Friday I went to San Ramon with one of my classes, we went to a coffee plantation and bought some Costa Rican coffee! Oh and we also went to some factory where they were processing sugar canes into this candy thing, it was pretty interesting. On Saturday Katie, Kim, Emily and I decided to go to La Fortuna, it’s a town where the active volcano Arenal is at. We didn’t see any lava cause we didn’t take the tour at night…it was raining. But we could see it from where we were staying so it was pretty cool. On Sunday morning we did a hike…it was super pretty! It was like 2 hours uphill but at the top of the mountain in the crater there was a lake…totally worth all the pain and sore legs that the four of us are in today! On the way up its was what you would picture Costa Rica to be like…super dense forests and green everywhere…

That’s about it for now…I’m not sure what the plans are for this weekend but I’m thinking that we might just stay here and take a little break from traveling…but at the same time I’ll feel like I’m wasting time if I don’t go anywhere….we’ll see.

Puerto Viejo and Panama

September 20th, 2008

Jaime was here this week, it was fun, we went to a place called Puerto Viejo (which is in the Caribbean). Puerto Viejo was really Rastafarian looking…weed stuff everywhere, one love, and green yellow and red stuff, it had a different vibe but I liked it. From there we went to Panama to a place called Bocas del Toro. We took a tour to these really pretty islands that had white sands with turquoise water…gorgeous! Oh! We also went bungee jumping…it was pretty awesome! Oh…we spend prpbaby about 2 full days in busses traveling from one place to the next, but it was worth it though!It was super cool to see how people live with soo much less and are just as happy...I think thats one of the main things that I was reminded of this week...

Right now (Tuesday 22nd) Im in my Spanish class and Im about to go crazy! We’re going over “ser and estar” WoW! And the teacher talks soo slowww….

So Jaime brought the new camera for me and after a week of working just fine the battery wont charge the camera, its weird cause ill turn on to view the pictures but as soon as you try to change the mode to be able to take pictures, it just turns off…Horrible luck, I had to have him take it back, he brought the headset too so that’s cool though cause now I can talk to people through skype!

You know whats really cool about going to places we went to this week?? That we met tons of travelers or backpackers that are either traveling th world, or through central America so everone talks about the places they’ve been and how much they loved it, so it just makes me want to travel more! In Panama like 6 of us (everyone in our hostel room) bought stuff to make dinner and they’re the ones that went to the Island tour with us!

In another note…I’m thinking about Chico every once in a while, I really miss the feeling of walking through our pretty campus, wearing a sweatshirt, drinking hot chocolate or coffee…and of course the people too…I cant wait to go out with everyone overthere!


Until the next update…take care everyone and hope everyone is enjoying the fall semester!

Check out pics on facebook, I update those pretty often, theres some on myspece too but not as updated..