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