Puerto Viejo

So this weekend was basically awesome haha except for the bus rides. those were just long. 
Friday:  We left mid-day from San Joaqin, to Heredia, to San Jose, to Puerto Viejo, in total the travel time was somewhere around 6 hours.  apparently though later in the date in San Jose there was a huge flood... good thing we left early!  When we arrived at "Rocking J's" our hostel at around 7pm, the whole concept was a little strange.  There was a bar on the outside and through the gate there was the lobby area and 20 ft from there was two rows of hammocks, where we would be sleeping.  there were no walls just a tin roof that covered the bathrooms and the sleeping areas.  We were pretty tired though so we just hung out there for the night.  My friends Casey, Kevin and I wanted to play pool but we needed a fourth person so Casey went and asked a Tico from the bar to join us.  It was fun for a while but then when the game was over there were two Ticos that just would not leave us alone, hahah which if fine, you just have to know how to say no to them.  The three of us ended up staying up until 1:30 am:

Saturday: Woke up crazy early at 4:30 cause I was freezing, they give you a sheet but the man at the front desk was off sleeping so I didn't have one. By 5 there were howler monkeys from far away but they were still very loud, and cicadas which are soooo obnoxious!  half an hour later it was pouring on the tin roof and everyone was up by 6am.  Puerto Viejo is a cute little beach town, not at all like they described it to us, they made it sound like there was a huge drug problem and it was a crowded dirty place, but its very calm and the drug problem they talk about it basically everyone there was always high or smoking pot, it was quite the little rasta town. We had breakfast downtown in a cute little cafe next to the ocean and we all ordered mango pancakes, the pancakes here however, are made with oatmeal so they're not the same ones as in the states. and everything comes with fruit, they were delicious!  Afterwards we went to the beach half a mile down the road, even though our hammocks were right on the beach, it was very small and we heard of a better one close by.  It was beautiful! and the water was so warm that I didn't even end up sitting on the beach at all, a few hours later though we left for fear of sunburn and hunger hah lunch was at a very nice little restaurant, but everything here takes so long to do anything, so we were starving by the time we got our food.  I ordered chicken chalupas and they were sooo good.  So far everything I've eaten here has been great :]  That night we were supposed to go out and have crab races but Casey and I ended up passing out in the hammocks at around 9pm lol

Sunday:  Snorkeling at 8am.  At first it was super sketchy because we were in this little shanty-town and the people running the boat seemed like they were going to scam us but it turned out ok and we were very careful.  They took us to a the national park in Cahuita and the snorkeling was pretty good.  Casey is deathly afraid of sharks and big fish, so when she saw a fish as big as her she grabbed me and swam away fast haha luckily she wasnt there when I almost swam straight into the shark.. THAT was scary.  I understand they dont eat people, it was a nerf shark but it was as big as my arm span, and thats a little shocking.  I had been adjusting my goggles and when I went back under water my face was only a 2 feet away from the sharks!!! but nothing bad happened and it was a lot of fun.  They dropped us off on a beach in the park and it was so gorgeous!! They fed us fresh pineapple and we were visited by a few white-faced monkeys and Rocky my raccoon friend ;]  A few of us stayed in the shade for the most part because the sun was very strong, and we were the only ones that didn't fry, haha and even we got burned a little bit.  I went down a path close by to see what was around and we found a sloth! two toes not three lol  we stayed at that beach for a few hours because it was so nice and then ended up just waiting around for our bus back to San Jose.   We were stopped after about an hour of driving though by the police that were checking peoples passports.  One of our friends Alicia is from the Dominican Republic and she didnt have a copy of her stamp when she entered Costa Rica (because you shouldn't ever have your real passport on you) and so she was taken off the bus and almost arrested until another of our friends went off and negotiated with the police officers. and we finally made it home at 10:30 last night, all of us were exhausted!  Looks like the weekends here are going to be crazy busy!
next weekend is Arenal, after that Tortuguero, and after that we're doing a volunteer river cleanup! who knows after that!