Saturday:
Spanish Level: The tour was in English and in Spanish and I’m sad to say I still need both.
OK so water in the shower was not cold but not hot, more like tepid, which I was glad to get! I brought a wash cloth (not nomally provided here). Linnens in general are expensive here. Breakfast however, was included. It reminded me of My Cousin Vinny as BREAKFAST is: scrambled eggs, rice and black beans mixed (gallo pinto) and bread with jelly, coffee and juice. I took a cab and all my things to the dock. I got there early while the crew was loading the boat. One of the musicians, an older man named Oscar, talked to me for about 30 minutes in Spanish. He told me a lot of words related to the boat and the water etc. and corrected my bad pronunciations. All throuought the day he would come find me when he noticed something I might want to know.
On the boat was great of course. We went 1.5 hours to the Isla de Tortuga in the Gulf of Nicoya. All the little islands in the gulf and the mountains on the surrounding main land make it a beautiful trip. Oscar told me to sit top-side near the captain for the best view. There were about 30 passengers on the boat and I think I met probably half of them. Two girls I met were in Costa Rica sponsored by/or on scholarship with the Rotary Club. This was some amazing information to me. Both the girls were younger than me and both had been to other countries on trips paid for by the Rotary club, one to Australia and one to South Africa. They are going to a school called Conversa in San Jose and I may go there next.
When we got to the Island I went with a smaller group on a little boat to snorkel. It was GREAT. There were a lot of fish and different kinds. The water is murkey this time of year due to all the rain but I still could see a lot of different fish. I met a guy from Brazil snorkeling as well as a guy from Costa Rica who lived in US for a few years and met his wife (also from Costa Rica) and they had recently moved back. He worked in customer service helping americans work with companies in Costa Rica.
They fed us on the island. Ceviche, yum! (very costa rican) and some other stuff. They eat a lot fruit here (some Ive never even heard of) and the meats of choice are chicken, seafood, pork and specifically a lot of ham, not much red meat. We hung out on the beach for a while where I met a lady from Ireland on vacation, who works in HR for the UN and a girl who is going to college in Chicago but is from Poland. She is studying spanish here as well with about 40 of her college classmates, one of her teachers was on the boat too. We headed back onto the boat about 3pm. On the way back to Puntarenas we saw a school of dolphins, some were jumping completely out of the water and spinning, there had to be at least 15 of them. Then of course, it started to rain. We also passed Isla San Lucas, it is an island here that is like Alkatraz, at one time it was a prison but it appeared to be about 3 times larger than Alkatraz.
The boat docked at 5pm and the last bus for Quepos left at 4:30 (about now I was wishing I had just rented a car). Everyone else on the boat headed back to San Jose. So, I stayed for one more night in my little friendly Hotel Tioga.
I have not been able to post any pictures so if you care to see me on the boat you can click here: http://www.calypsocruises.com/ click the Daily Photos button, and click the calendar day Saturday September 9th. I am in picture 39 of 57. Picture 1 of 57 is of the two girls from Rotary and Picture 26 of 57 is the girl from Poland-Chicago and the lady from Ireland with UN.
Spanish Level: The tour was in English and in Spanish and I’m sad to say I still need both.
OK so water in the shower was not cold but not hot, more like tepid, which I was glad to get! I brought a wash cloth (not nomally provided here). Linnens in general are expensive here. Breakfast however, was included. It reminded me of My Cousin Vinny as BREAKFAST is: scrambled eggs, rice and black beans mixed (gallo pinto) and bread with jelly, coffee and juice. I took a cab and all my things to the dock. I got there early while the crew was loading the boat. One of the musicians, an older man named Oscar, talked to me for about 30 minutes in Spanish. He told me a lot of words related to the boat and the water etc. and corrected my bad pronunciations. All throuought the day he would come find me when he noticed something I might want to know.
On the boat was great of course. We went 1.5 hours to the Isla de Tortuga in the Gulf of Nicoya. All the little islands in the gulf and the mountains on the surrounding main land make it a beautiful trip. Oscar told me to sit top-side near the captain for the best view. There were about 30 passengers on the boat and I think I met probably half of them. Two girls I met were in Costa Rica sponsored by/or on scholarship with the Rotary Club. This was some amazing information to me. Both the girls were younger than me and both had been to other countries on trips paid for by the Rotary club, one to Australia and one to South Africa. They are going to a school called Conversa in San Jose and I may go there next.
When we got to the Island I went with a smaller group on a little boat to snorkel. It was GREAT. There were a lot of fish and different kinds. The water is murkey this time of year due to all the rain but I still could see a lot of different fish. I met a guy from Brazil snorkeling as well as a guy from Costa Rica who lived in US for a few years and met his wife (also from Costa Rica) and they had recently moved back. He worked in customer service helping americans work with companies in Costa Rica.
They fed us on the island. Ceviche, yum! (very costa rican) and some other stuff. They eat a lot fruit here (some Ive never even heard of) and the meats of choice are chicken, seafood, pork and specifically a lot of ham, not much red meat. We hung out on the beach for a while where I met a lady from Ireland on vacation, who works in HR for the UN and a girl who is going to college in Chicago but is from Poland. She is studying spanish here as well with about 40 of her college classmates, one of her teachers was on the boat too. We headed back onto the boat about 3pm. On the way back to Puntarenas we saw a school of dolphins, some were jumping completely out of the water and spinning, there had to be at least 15 of them. Then of course, it started to rain. We also passed Isla San Lucas, it is an island here that is like Alkatraz, at one time it was a prison but it appeared to be about 3 times larger than Alkatraz.
The boat docked at 5pm and the last bus for Quepos left at 4:30 (about now I was wishing I had just rented a car). Everyone else on the boat headed back to San Jose. So, I stayed for one more night in my little friendly Hotel Tioga.
I have not been able to post any pictures so if you care to see me on the boat you can click here: http://www.calypsocruises.com/ click the Daily Photos button, and click the calendar day Saturday September 9th. I am in picture 39 of 57. Picture 1 of 57 is of the two girls from Rotary and Picture 26 of 57 is the girl from Poland-Chicago and the lady from Ireland with UN.
posted by GA_Peach | 7:10 PM
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