Panama, Monteverde... Costa Rican Life

So, sorry it has been so long, I´ve been in an e-mail-help war with cannon trying to get my pictures off my camera, and I still can´t so here is the written description of the past month... A couplke weeks ago we took a trip to Panama, we Started at 5 in the morning with a bus ride that lasted 4 times as long as it was supposed to. There were some mud slides on the 1.5 lane freeway that goes from Puntarenas to San Jose. We were on the bus from sun up to sun down, a very long day. We arrived in Tortuguero and took a boat to our amazing hotel, it felt like the pirates of the Caribean ride at disneyland. The next day we went for a hike up a little mountain to get a view of the river and the carribean ocean, and it was amazing! After the hike down I got some of the best coconut I´ve ever had. After lunch we got a boat tour of the canals, saw a few turtles, caymans, and some sweet monkeys flying over us in the trees. We got a night tour of the giant turtles laying their eggs, which was very cool to see, but seemed a little inhumane because there were like 80 people hovering over this one turtle popping out 150 eggs, I felt bad for her. In the morning we took the boat back to the bus and got to the panamenian boarder by lunchtime. We walked across the sketchiest bridge ever to get into Panama, and took another bus to Bocas Del Toro. It is an amazing little island town in the Carribean, and I guess it used to be like a pirate town. We took a boat to a bunch of different islands and beaches, swam and snorkled through the clear blue carribean waters. The next day we went to Survivor islanbd, where they filmed the first season of Survivor, it was so beautiful, I wouldn´t mind being stranded there for months! We saw some dolfins playing in the wake of our boat, which was cool, but we werent allowed to go swimming with them. My friend Ian and I found a little arty gallery in town where we spent about 2 hours looking at art and talking to the owner about Bocas del Toro, and its history. The bus ride back home was much less problematic, and we got into Puntarenas at about 10 at night (I had to walk the 4 blocks home in the pouring rain with my bag though.) Then, back to school... I got a new roommate because her host family was having problems, so its sortof fun having another student there with me. Although, it is a lot harder to speak in spanish all the time. Last weekend we went to Monteverde Cloud Forest for an overnight trip. On Saterday we went on a little nature walk and at the top we were in the clouds, it was so cool! You could only see what was right around you, and the mist was so thick you could feel it when you breathe. On Sunday we did the Sky Treck, which is 11 zip lines through the forest. It was so cool! We were like 150-300 feel above the canopy zipping our way through the forest. We got back yesterday afternoon and I spent most of it finishing up homework. Halloween this week, I´m not sure whats going on, but hopefully that will be fun. Other than that, its pretty much just life... in paradise! Classes are going well, friends are good, I´m having a great time. I am starting to try and plan out the second half of this adventure once school gets out, so hopefully soon I will know whats going on with that. I probably forgot some stuff in there, but I thought its better than not writing at all, right? So I hope everything is going well for all you, and I send my love, talk to you soon!!

Phoebe

A few weeks in the life...

Hey everybody, sorry about the lack of info for the last week or so... I have been trying to get pictures up but its not wornking very well... But, I wanted to fill youin a little on my life in Puntarenas. Last weekend I went to Manuel Antonio and Quepos, where they have amazing beaches and a national park with monkeys and sloths and tons of lizzards and hermit crabs! We pretty much spent the whole day saturday lounging on the beach, and went out to get some mexican food for dinner because we all missed it (most of us being from teh great state of california where mexican food is overly abundant.) Surprisingly, the food here is very different from mexican food. Still lots of beans and rica, but the cheese is different, and they have plantaines with everything (my new favorite food by the way...) I don´t really know how to explain it, but it is delicious, and different. And this week has pretty much been like the others, nothing too special, but now I am getting kicked off the computer, so I will talk more and get some pictures (hopefully) later. Hope all´s well with all you! miss you,

Phoebe

Address

Hey, a few people have been asking for my address here, so here it is!

Phoebe Ziegler
P.O. Box 360-5400
Puntarenas, Costa Rica

or, if you need a physical address...

Phoebe Ziegler
USAC
Frente al Parque Lobo
Barrio El Carmen
Puntarenas, Costa Rica

First Field Trip

Buenos Todos!!
So Sunday was our first field trip into the rainforest of Carara National Park, and to a river where we were about a foot away from crocodiles. Here are the pictures! I'm still uploading some, it takes forever, sorry! But it was amazing!! We saw so many sweet plants and insects and the crocodiles were waaay closer than I thought! We were in a boat, and one of the tour guides got out at one point to feed the crocodile a raw chicken! I have a video I'm going to try to get on here, but not todday, there is too little sun left before the rain!! So I will keep adding pictures onto the album, and hopefully that works, its a lot easier than doing straight into here. My friend and I also went out on the peir to watch the sunset, and there are a few pictues of that too. So I'm gonna get out of here, the air conditioning is freeezing!! Hope life's good with all of you, and I'll update again soon! xoxo



http://picasaweb.google.com/Phoebe.Ziegler/CararaCocodrilosAndSunsets

Pictures!

This was taken in the bus ride from San Jose to Puntarenas













This is the beach across the street from the school

This is the street that goes down the south side of the peninsula.











And this is school!

Here are some pictures of where I´m staying:

So this is Puntarenas! This weekend is our first field trip and we´re going to see crocadiles!! Classes are going well, and life is pretty great! So talk to you soon, pura vida!

In Costa Rica

Hola! So I made it, I am staying with a woman a few blocks from the university, and so far it has been pretty amazing! Today is the first day of classes, and I am on break for my tropical ecology class. I went up to Monteverde with my host mom and a friend a couple days ago and we had lunch and some vino at her brother´s farm. They have a ton of different animals, like peacocks, pigs, goats, horses, parrots, ostriches... it was pretty amazing. My friend and I went horseback riding down the road, and watched the beautiful costa rican scenery. Everything here is super green and alive, and everywhere in Puntarenas you can see the ocean. Yesterday I got a mini lesson on salsa, and I´m going to sit in on the dance class here so I can get my groove on! The food is definitly different, but good. I had take-out chinese food last night... and it defnitly was not what I am used to from the states. My host mom is great, she doesn´t speak a word of english, but I think I´ve been doing pretty well, we have had a few good conversatioons that went past hola, ¿como estas? I havn´t gotten any pictures yet, I´ll have to take a bike ride around the city tomorrow and get some good ones of la playa and all the coconut trees. So, hasta luego and miss you all!!

First BLOGGER!

Hey everyone, so this is my attempt at keeping everyone informed while I am running around the world without you! I will try to keep up with this as I am studying in Costa Rica, as I am sure my mom will make sure of. So four months in Costa Rica starts in one week!! I'll see you all again in March!
xo