Adios Quepos (at least for now)

Hello,

Since it's been so long since we last wrote (sorry-we'll be better about that), this post will be a little faster paced, and a bit more of a summary.

In general, last week was the culmination of spanish schooling and our water sport adventures.  Tuesday we had a surf lesson (thanks to La Escuela Paraiso).  It was much different from the surfing in Montezuma.  First of all, the weather was very poor.  There was a lot of rain and we had to be careful of the riptide.  Secondly, Ty and Ju had much different experiences.  Ju did well on the first couple of waves (she actually got up without many problems!) but then got scared as the bad weather increased the size of the waves.  Ty, on the otherhand, was more or less renting a board, and surfed on his own.

Most of Wednesday and Thursday were devoted to our Scuba Diving lessons, and as of Thursday, we are officially PADI certified open-water divers!!! It feels so good :)  Ty had a little ear trouble on our final dive before certification, but it didn't hold us back from finishing on time.  Friday was bittersweet, because it meant leaving our friends at El Paraiso, but it also means we are moving on to our next adventure; we will be travelling around Costa Rica for 20-30 days looking for a place to settle into.  Friday night, we celebrated with some friends from the Scuba office at a bar. 

This past weekend was a slow and restful weekend.  On Saturday, Ju was invited by her host family to go to a wedding in town.  It was a very interesting but beautiful Catholic ceremony.  The highlight of our weekend, however, was our trip to Manuel Antonio's National Park.  This visit completely changed our perception of Manuel Antonio and has made Quepos a more attractive place to live on our list.  We decided not to go with a guide, which ended up being a great decision.  We managed to see plenty of animals, including sloths, monkeys, racoonish looking things, birds, butterflies, a bunny-rodent thing, and a frightening wild cat.  The cat appeared out of the bushes and seemed to want something from us (chased Ju around a bit) and freaked us out until we caught up with some tour groups, who finally drew the cat's attention away from us.  The beaches there are absolutely spectacular, alone worth the $10 price of admission.  However, rain stopped our trip short, and we headed back in to Quepos for a relaxing evening.  On the way back, we stopped for a luxurious and delicious lunch at El Gato Negro since they were offering a 50% off special.



The scary cat...even though it's small it looks really mean in person

 

We think they are called Mapatchas



The pictures don't really do the beaches justice



We are headed out of Quepos this afternoon, for Dominical, primarily a surfers town.  We expect to be around the size of Montezuma.  However, it's on our way down south towards the Osa Peninsula and we have heard good things about it.  We'll let you know what we think ;)  Our general plan is to a full loop around the coasts of Costa Rica in search of the match for us.

We miss you and would love to hear from you.  It always feels good to get some comments, like we have friends with us on our journey.  Hope all is well in the USofA. 

Pura Vida amigos,
Ty and Ju

Overdue Photos

Dia de Independencia: People lining the streets



Students with the best grades have the honor of carrying the flags



A view of the Manuel Antonio beach

On the beach :) Look at the color of the water! Que Bonito!

At the Competencia de Surf at Jaco

Some of the top surfers in Costa Rica were at the competition



The beautiful sunset we were so fortunate to see upon arriving back in Quepos

 We hope you enjoy these photos and in the future we will be better about including them with the posts they pertain to.  We will also begin to post more of our photos somewhere else online, TBA.

Pura Vida,
Ty and Ju

Lots of Sun and Salt Water

Hola Hola!

Although we only had Wednesday off, it felt like a weekend, probably because we woke up early and did a lot.  Luckily the day off left us feeling a bit refreshed because Thursday was a busy day.  After classes we went to our scuba classes and finished up the classroom theory necessary to get our PADI certification.  It may not seem like it's a lot to do, but it sure feels like it.  Friday was even more exhausting because we had our first pool session for scuba!  In those sessions, we practice what we learned in the theory in a confined dive environment.  We practiced breathing normally underwater, controlling our buoyancy, etc, as well as what to do in emergency situations.

We decided on Friday night, that it was about time that we went out one weekend.  So far, although we are embarrassed to admit it, have only gone out one other time in Montezuma for Reggae night.  There are two reasons for this, the first being is simply that it is expensive to go out and until we find a job, we need to be frugal.  The second reason is that, most of the time, we are tired and ready to go to bed early.  So, Friday night, we went out.  As it turns out, however, most people in Quepos go out on Saturday night, not Friday night.  We ended up having a beer at a bar mainly frequented by expats and Costa Rican women hoping to catch an expat's attention.  Afterwards, we returned to my host house and sat on the porch and chatted for a bit.

Saturday was an exciting day because we did our first two open water dives in Manuel Antonio! Unfortunately, the visibility was VERY poor because of the season and because the water was a bit rough.  It was pretty disorienting.  Our instructor has a certification as an underwater naturalist, so even though we couldn't see much, she was able to point out a couple lobsters, some interesting and beautiful starfish, some puffer fish, and a couple other fish.  We weren't able to see much color, but it was still very exciting to see these animals close up.  Unfortunately, Ty also got stung by a jelly fish numerous times, and the crook of is elbow is a little bit swollen.  We planned to go to the beach afterwards, but were both too tired and hungry to go, so we hung out in town instead.

Saturday night was an early night for us because yesterday, we woke up very early to make the 1.5-2 hour trip to Jaco to watch a surf competition.  We had a ton of fun hanging out on the beach and watching real surfers do their thing.  We also discovered a cheaper area of Jaco.  We were able to find good arroz con pollo, in a generous sized portion, for 2200 colones, the cheapest we have found so far.  Although it was not as good as the arroz con pollo from our favorite Soda Naranja in Montezuma, it was very satisfying.  We didn't arrive back in Quepos until 5:30, but we were fortunate to see a very rare scene here during the rainy season: a BEAUTIFUL sunset!  The weather here has been very strange for this time of year, for two of the days we've been here it did not rain at all, and one day it didn't begin to rain until late in the evening.

An interesting note:  It seems very difficult for people to understand that Ty is from Colorado, Ju is from New York, we met in university in Texas, and that we are currently living in Costa Rica.  Ju has been asked a number of times questions about what it is like to live in Colorado...?

We expect that these next couple days will be very busy since we will be finishing up our scuba certification and planning the next month or so of our time here in Costa Rica.  It is finally starting to settle in that we are truly here until May...pretty crazy!  We love and miss you all, como siempre.  We hope you all continue to enjoy our blog.

Pura Vida,
Ty and Ju

p.s.  In case anybody was wondering about the new title of our blog, here's the explanation: Ty's new nickname is Mae Ty and Ju's is Durazna.  Mae is slang for "dude" in Costa Rica, and people say mae multiple times in a sentence when they are conversing with friends.  It works well when Ju calls Ty "Mae Ty" because it sounds like she is saying, "My Ty".  Durazna is a made up word, however it comes from the word duranzno which means "peach".  Since Ju got so banged up and bruised while surfing, Ty started calling her "peach".  However, in Spanish, peach is a masculine noun, so we simply changed the ending "-o" to the feminine ending "-a".  So, Ty is Mae Ty and Ju is Durazna :)

Happy 189th Birthday Costa Rica!

Buenas tardes,

Today, the 15th of September, is Independence Day for most of Central America.  So, we decided to go to the local parade that most children from the private and public schools participate in.  We are currently in Quepos, a small town near Manuel Antonio national park, where we are attending our second Spanish program.

But let's rewind a bit.  We left Montezuma and returned to Jaco by taxi boat on saturday.  Unlike the trip TO Montezuma, this time we saw an abundance of marine wildlife.  We first saw a pod of dolfins within the first few minutes.  We were excited about the spotting, but didn't expect to see much more.  However, we quickly came across at least two more pods of dolfins who enjoyed our company and stayed close to the boat.  After leaving the dolfins, our boat driver pointed out a family of humpback whales and he stepped on the gas so we could have a better look, which we did.  By the time we finished with the whales, we were running a little behind schedule, so our boat picked up some speed.  But, we had to stop one more time to see an unusual but hysterical pair of turtles getting it on!  Apparently it was unusal because we were far from shore and it is very late in the season for turtles to be mating.

Our time spent in Jaco was short but sweet, much like our previous experience there.  This time, though, we met some nice people, ate some authentic food, and got to witness some of the top surf in all  of Costa Rica.  Sunday was a relaxing morning, we ate breakfast at a French bakery where we met an American ex-pat who has been living in Jaco for the past 17 years.  He offered a lot of good advice and we exchanged contact information- he could turn out to be a useful friend and resource during our time here.  Then we caught the bus to Quepos (1-1.5 hours).  Once we arrived, we took a taxi to the edge of town where our host families live.  We were relieved to find that we live pretty much across the street from each other. 

Ty's family is somewhat similar to that of his experience in Buenos Aires.  However,  he is living with a married couple and their 35 year old son, who will return from vacation next week.  Ty's family enjoys a very standard schedule, consisting of lots of TV, telenovelas, and lottery participation.  Ju's family consists of a younger married couple and two of their four sons, ages 18 and nearly 16.  The boys are very busy with their schedules at private school and seem a bit shy around Ju.  However, both parents are very available and are very patient with Ju as she is piecing together her Spanish.  Both of our families have been very friendly and accomodating, offering their homes to us.  The food has been delicious (breakfast and dinner are included everyday) while other things, such as laundry and "hot" water are available to us.  If you don't believe us when we say the food is delicious, at least take Mirna's word (Ty's host mom) when she said to Ty the first night, that all students she hosts leave gordo, aka fatter than they arrived.

We are not the only ones in our school this session, but due to the current structure, we do have private instruction.  There are one or two breaks each day and we are in class each day from roughly 8-noon.  For our non-Spanish activity, we are becoming certified PADI open water scuba divers! Right now we are in the early stages, working on theory and the academic portion.  We will soon move to confined water dives before finishing off our certification with four open water dives near the beautiful national park of Manuel Antonio.

  We are without internet at home and without many new pictures, but we will try our best to post again soon.  We excited to see each and every new comment and to learn that you are all keeping up :)  We miss and love you all!

Pura vida,
Ty and Ju

Swimming in rivers and surfing big waves

Hola,

After having such a relaxing weekend, it was a little difficult to begin classes and our busy schedule Monday morning.  Our schedule is based around the tides in order to surf in ideal conditions so this week, our classes ended up being bunched together, leaving us little free time both in general and together.  We currently have been the only Spanish students so we both have had private lessons.  Tyler has spent the majority of his Spanish classes at the beach with Edgar, the Spanish teacher, and they have developed a sort of friendship.

For surf this week, we were able to explore a new beach where the waves are bigger and come in more typical sets than the white water conditions we have been surfing on.  Those waves were a bit too big for Ju and provided a new challenge for Ty.  After surfing, we drove to a nearby river, where we actually watched young boys catching langostina (a cross between shrimp and lobster), and also made a pit stop at a delicious local bakery in Cabuya.  On the way back, we saw the biggest tree in Costa Rica which was really neat.  We are going to miss our Uruguayan surf instructor, Guillermo, who is funny, pleasant, energetic, and very nice to Ju when she is scared of big waves :)

Paddling to catch a (small) wave...

...and Ty riding the white water at Playa Grande!

You can probably tell from this photo that Guillermo is a fun-loving guy

Look at the size of that tree!

In this last week we have spent more time in town, exploring new restaurants while remaining loyal to our favorite eateries;  La Soda Naranja, where we enjoy heaping piles of amazingly flavored arroz con camarones, and Mocte Zuma, where the huge sandwiches are prepared with their delicious homemade bread.  These two meals are among the cheapest and most scrumptious in town ($5-6 per dish).  Last night we decided to experience Montezuma life at Thursday reggae night.  Upon arriving, our friend Edgar (the Spanish teacher) spotted us, and invited us to hang out with his friends.  We spent the evening drinking beer, speaking spanish, enjoying the company of new friends, and the music.

Arroz con Camarones...mmmmm

Last dinner in Montezuma...the sandwiches look as big as our heads

We are sad to leave Montezuma, but at the same time we are excited to begin the next phase of our adventure in Quepos/Manuel Antonio.  We leave tomorrow morning and travel to Jaco by boat, where we will have a transition day before traveling onwards to meet our host families Sunday afternoon.  While it feels sad to leave, it feels more as though we are saying "see you later" and not "adios," as we don't doubt we will return to see Montezuma in the dry season, apparently a very different experience.  Hopefully when we visit, we will take our friend Guillermo up on his offer to stay in his place in the hills of Montezuma.

Bueno, hasta la proximo vez, amigos en Montezuma.

Love,
Ty and Ju

One week down, many more to come

So Thursday morning we woke up to find that some of our wet clothing that we had hung out to dry were missing, thanks to our sketchy neighbors who vanished early in the morning.  Not the best way to wake up but what can you do?  That morning we drove in the heavy rain to look for a good surf break nearby.  However, due to the conditions, we ended up driving to the furthest point that Escuela del Sol explores, in Santa Teresa, about a 1.5 hour drive on dirt roads that have been almost totally destroyed by rain.  The conditions at Playa Hermosa started out mild but quickly deteriorated, cutting our lesson short.  Later that day, we had Spanish lab at Soda Naranja, our favorite place to eat in town where the arroz con camarones es muy riquisimo (very delicious).  That night we tried to be adventurous and head into town for the weekly reggae night at the only bar in town.  However, we got there too early and gave up waiting before the real party started.

Friday morning the surf was better and Ju's confidence was up, as was she on the board :) After Spanish class and a game of Spanish monopoly for lab, we went into town to eat at El Sano Banano where Avatar was showing that night.  Sano Banano plays nightly movies with the purchase of dinner.  It was a perfect date night to finish our first week of classes.

Yesterday we took advantage of being able to sleep in before heading to brunch at Moctezuma on the beach in town.  Afterwards, we slowly walked to Playa Grande, our surf spot, taking pictures, collecting seashells, and swimming along the way.  In the afternoon, while hanging out in the hammocks at our hotel, a group of curious monkeys got close to us as they passed us by.  We got to see baby monkeys too!  Last night we cooked dinner and had a peaceful evening to ourselves.

A beautiful view of a beach along the walk to Playa Grande

Ty captured one of the colorful crabs we saw

Ju collecting some BEAUTIFUL shells

Ty swimming at Colorado Beach

This morning was very exciting!  As part of our two week program, we get a free zipline canopy tour.  It was adventurous and and extremely beautiful.  We were blessed with wonderful weather and great guides.  Halfway through our tour we stopped at some waterfalls, which happened to be directly above the waterfalls we visited this past wednesday.  The weather is catching up to us now so we plan to spend the rest of the day eating, reading, and living la pura vida.

Ju on the zipline!

Waterfall basin where we swam

One view from the canopy tour

We really appreciate your comments, it's nice to know we have readers :)  Hasta luego amigos!

Love,
Ty and Ju

Tengo Prisa Porque Me Muero de Hambre

Hola,

Monday was a fun day. It was the first day of our program and the three of us started Spanish class together early in the morning. However, it wasn't long before the teacher (Edgar) noticed that our levels of proficiency are much different. Regardless, we finished the first class as a group and moved on to spanish lab, which we will continue to have together. Spanish lab is simply practice and application of what we are learning. After a super delicious lunch of arroz con camarones y pollo at the Soda Naranja, we prepared for our first day of surf.

Our longboards, with instructor  Guillermo in the background

Surfing is blast, but has proven to be exhausting and rigorous. Here we have been surfing at Playa Grande, a sand-bottom beach that takes about 45 min to walk to (which is also exhausting). The first day was the best so far, in terms of strength and the conditions. Since, the currents have been quite strong, making it difficult to even get out to the surfable waves. Julianna in particular has had trouble maintaining control of her board, as you can see by the hefty bruises on her legs.

Peach is the new nickname

Tuesday was a lot like Monday, but Taylor/Tylor/Tyler moved from Spanish 1-2 to 4, where he is riding solo in class and learning things like slang and bad words, while still improving on his conversation of course. For lab, we played Scrabble in Spanish and a guessing game with flashcards. We surfed 'till late, and walked home in mostly darkness, with a side of lightning to help illuminate our beach path. Dinner was at Chicos Bar y Restaurante with our classmate Jill, and then home to rest up.

Today was a busy busy day. Our schedule changed, with surf early in the morn. After another struggle in the vicious currents, we had a short break of 45 min to shower (MISTAKE), eat, and prepare for our spanish lab, which was a hike to nearby waterfalls. The mistake was not only showering but also our decision to wear hiking boots and sneakers, as we learned quickly that we would be battling more currents when walking through rivers. The falls were beautiful and the hike was cool (a combination of river-walking and rock-scaling), but the walk back was full of mud and rain. Another quick turnaround before our afternoon spanish classes. Tyler practiced his job interview skills, while Julianna learned the essential ser vs. estar. We ate a la cocina de Ty+Ju, and here we are, exhausted again.

Scalin' them rocks

At the falls

Thanks for stopping by, this is Ty and Ju signing out, from the rainy and beautiful and tiresome Montezuma. Hasta Luego,



P.S. The title of this post means "I am in a hurry because I am starving," a phrase we have been using a lot so far.