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 :)