Costa Rica

Borracho y Loco!

I might have gotten on the plain with mixed feelings of leaving my family & friends behind for the second time. But as soon as I got off the plain, arranged for a place to sleep & went for a walk on yet another continent, I immediately knew why I love the traveling sooooooo much and that the time to go home for good hadn´t arrived just yet

I didn´t have much time to think anyway, because I went straight to my new school in Tamarindo, hoping to pick up some Spanish before going on my way to South America. Right on my first morning I met my friend, Olger, who helped & motived me on my first basic steps in Spanish (he says I´ll learn the language really well – I am slightly more sceptical).

The first few weeks at school were quite relaxing. I treated myself to an ´expensive´ room in a real house! I know for you guys that is the most normal thing there is, but for me it was like buying myself the most expensive gift ever. Having a real place for the first time in a year felt like an enormous treat. The simplest things, like being able to make coffee when I felt like it or inviting friends and having a home made dinner again, certainly was a little slice of heaven for me!

Together with my roommate Sarah and our son Kaz (poor guy having two girls fuzzing over him all the time) we enjoyed the luxury of our big house. Days went and past easily going to school half the day and trying to finally stand up on that %&!? board the other half of the day. The evenings were just as easily filled up doing homework, organising stuff like pizza night, homemade lasagna and of course the occasional partying Those of you that know me a little bit know that our favorite song `Borracho y Loco` – translation `drunken & crazy` – was our favorite for a reason

Of course I can keep babbling on and on about my – in total – five weeks at Wayra, but in the end it basically just comes down to more of the above By the way it was supposed to be 3 weeks, some traveling in Costa Rica and after that of to South America. But as always while traveling, things didn´t go exactly as planned….

How to become a plasticbackpacker (or is it beggar)!

Sarah had to leave the country for a bit and I had finished my initial 3 weeks of school so we decided on a trip Panama. She was flying but in order to save money, I decided to go by bus. But the bus I was supposed to be on didn´t come, so I had to travel over the town of Santa Cruz. While waiting for an hour and a half for my bus (like a zillion times before) I suppose I stood out, being the only gringa there. Cause I put my backpack in the bus, but just me and not my backpack made it to San José. Fortunately for me the people from the buscompany Alfaro were extremely helpful & friendly and sorted me on my way to the police and (after returning from Panama) where to go for the cheapest replacements of my stuff. The interview with the police was quite the challenge for my 3-week old Spanish, but I somehow managed to get a report and had no options but to travel on to meet Sarah in Panama City backpackless. Waiting for the bus I felt lonely and sad (it being my mums birthday & my favorite picture of the two of us – of which I only have one copy- was of course stolen with the rest of my stuff). As I´m trying to explain to the buscompany that I´m not bring any luggage cause I have none left, an English guy overhears me. And to turn around my bad luck he treated me to the biggest peace of cake there was and a hot cup of tea ….. and just like that got the smile back on my face…. hey it´s not all that bad!

Check out Panama to find out how I ended up with a frog pyama and bumble bee thong

Back in Costa Rica a week later I spent a few days San José to sort out my stuff and find replacements for adapters and other missing items. Even though it was only my backpack that got stolen, I still felt a little uncomfortable traveling by myself. Knowing that all my friends were still in Tamarindo, I decided to just go back there for a bit and learn some more spanish and surfing while I was at it. I could try to bore you with more stories on that, but like earlier, it was just more of the same And than of course things changed overnight.

One night I had a chat with Naemi, one of my friends, she told me that she was going to volunteer in Ecuador two weeks later…. 2 minutes later it was a done deal… I was to join her on her trip to Ecuador. The next morning I got a call from my dear auntie, who aparently is completely incapable of reading a map, saying she and her girls were coming to visit me but not exactly in Costa Rica…. Curaçao for some reason seemed real close to her (yeah there are only 4 countries in between) and could I not pop by for a little visit…. so check out how my week with my family went under Curaçao!

After coming back from Curaçao, there was some more studying, surfing and of course some decent partying on New Years´Eve. On the 1st of January we had to go and party again because it was our last night in Tamarindo…… right that might not have been the brightest idea ever since I´ve managed to sleep straight through all the alarms, the calls from the proprietor and Naemi at 5 a.m. Thanks to me we now had to go over Liberia with only a 9 hour wait for the bus to San José….. uhhhh ¨sorry?¨

Well anyway, in the end we made it all the way to the airport on time and it is off to the next country………….. Ecuador here we come!

Feliz Navidad!

Merry Christmas everybody!

And thanks for the sweet Christmas messages.

Big fat Christmas kiss!

Jean

PS. those of you paying attention might notice that my blog is under construction and I will do my very best to finish it of soon, so it will be updated like I promised a zillion times already.. right no the guy from the internetcafe wants to go and have a nice Christmas as well!

¿Donde?

Ola, guapos! After a – way to short – trip home I have arrived safely in Costa Rica about a week and a half ago. Arriving on Sunday evening & starting my spanish classes on Monday straight away. Between trying to learn spanish & how to surf, it has been quite busy. Being back in school has been quite a change, especially having to do homework in the evenings again It is all good, though! Or as they say here, Pura Vida!If there are no waves this weekend, I promise I will finally make an update on all my latest adventures & put some pics up again