Happy New Year 2008!

What better way to end a year than spending the last day with a close friend?

Back-country skiing the whole day in Les 7 Laux, enjoying the beautiful weather and fresh snow together & sharing Swedish reindeer sandwiches :)

I wish you all a wonderful year 2008! May it be filled with days like this one, enjoying your favourite things in life together with people that are important to you!

Monteverde in images - finally

Here comes the photo summary from my 2 first weeks in Costa Rica as promised!

AT SCHOOL

Studying hard...
... verbes

... body parts




... and finally coming to a point where I just can't get anything more into my head ;)

My favourite teacher - Mayra












Cooking class with Sandra...
... it's so good that you just have to eat it!












Breaks
Relaxing :)

Hanging out on the terrasse with my yellow house in the background







FAMILY


My little "hermana tica" (sister) and her "prima" (cousin)






ROADS


No comments needed ;)








CANOPY TOUR AND "SKYWALKING"















NATURE

Hiking in the Monteverde Reserve with Nancy




Yes, it is called the Monteverde Cloud Forest ;))

One of the numerous amazing frogs to be found in the cloud forest

Costa Rica - I'm in love...

Yes, I know... it's been many weeks since I last gave a sign of life... I've already been back in France for a couple of weeks & away again (Bucharest - but that's another story), and my blog still hasn't been updated with any news about my life in Costa Rica. Bad me!! But, as I told some of my dear friends who've been "complaining", it's a good sign... I was having too much fun & did not have time (or did not want to find the time ;) ) to sit down and get online ;-)))
However, I've promised to give a little summary of my trip and post some photos, so here we go:

Volcán Arenal
Following my first 2 weeks in Monteverde, I spent the weekend at the 3rd most active volcano in the world - Volcán Arenal - together with John & John.

Arenal is a gorgeous volcano situated in north-western Costa Rica. The trip there from Monteverde was done by "jeep-boat-jeep", crossing the beautiful Arenal lake at the foot of the volcano after driving through a nice landscape (on bumpy roads!) for a few hours.

The view from our hotel

We spent the first hours in Arenal hiking to Cataratas Río Fortuna and cooling off in the nice swimming hole below the waterfall.

After the hike it was time for some pure pleasure: an afternoon/evening in the hot springs of the volcano! I was expecting some holes out in the nature, but the hot springs have actually been built to quite luxury sites, with more than 20 pools ranging from 35 to 65° C, and floating bars in several of the pools! Sipping on a drink while sitting/lying in a hot bath... you get the picture ;)
The following day we were recovering by the pool of the hotel, with a view on the volcano, before it was time to move on to the next destination.

The only thing that we unfortunately missed out on was to see the lava at night - the pattern of the lava flows have changed after some major eruptions, and hence the flows are no longer visible from the side where we were. Well, I guess that's just another good reason to go back to Costa Rica ;)

Playa Flamingo
From the Arenal volcano, I continued down to Playa Flamingo on the Pacific coast for a 3rd week of Spanish classes.
My new Tica family was wonderful, they live in a cute little house in the Potrero village with their 4-year old son. It was a very nice feeling to come home from school and see my Tico parents sitting out on the porch and waiting for me for dinner!

Otherwise it was a new school, new teachers, new schoolmates, new ambiance... I got up early every morning to eat my huge breakfast (big plate of fresh fruit + gallo pinto & eggs...) before catching the school bus at 7am to go to the school in Playa Flamingo (a few kilometers South from Potrero). I had another week of private instruction - my teacher was a 23-year old guy, who introduced himself as being soltero (=single)... help! I want my nice middle aged female teacher Mayra back!!!

If the program after school was all about studying hard in Monteverde (well OK, not all about...), it was the complete opposite in Playa Flamingo... With the pool at the school and the beach right next to it, the program after classes was quite different! But well, I have to admit that it was kind of nice to hang out at the beach for a change ;)
In Flamingo I did not have any cara blancas outside my classroom, but 2 iguanas that would come and sunbathe in the patio, a monkey hanging out in front of the supermarket and funny looking crabs on the beach.

My biggest surprise was when I went for lunch (yes lunch) to one bar that is famous for its "ladies' nights" - Wednesday nights with free drinks for all women... I saw a license plate from the Åland Islands on the wall!!!

All in all, Playa Flamingo was a nice experience, and I have to admit that it was a little sad to leave. I was about to head down South by myself, without anyone from my little "tribe"...

Playa Hermosa
So, after 3 weeks of hard studying it was finally time for my "real" holidays: a week of surfing in Playa Hermosa on the Pacific coast (close to Jaco - I learned that there are 2 Playa Hermosas in CR). This was supposed to be the highlight of my trip, but after all the great things I had experienced since the first day I was wondering how it could get any better...

Well... with an all girls surf camp, nice chicas taking care of me and adapting the program to anything I wanted to do - an intense schedule including a lot of surfing, yoga, hikes, good food, parties, some horseback riding, massage and pedicure - I soon found the answer ;-))) I had certainly had a whole month full of highlights, but I definitely enjoyed my last week of "feel-good" experience too!
The following is a summary of the highlights - or most exiting moments - of the week:

Yoga: when I first arrived in the most amazingly beautiful place where my yoga classes were, I couldn't help but think "wow, the class hasn't even started yet and I already feel good & completely relaxed". The daily yoga classes under a bamboo roof in the middle of the rain forest, with the sounds of the nature and the green leaves all around me, did me a lot of good. I wish I could find a place like this back home!

Surf: the most adrenaline filled moment was definitely surfing "Boca Barranca" -a famous longboard spot. This very long left is situated at the mouth of one of the most dirty rivers of whole Costa Rica - which you have to paddle accross before passing the break. When I was just about to get into the yellow-brownish water (after much hesitation), one of the surfers kindly informed me that the big thing I could see on the opposite riverside - where I was to paddle - was a crocodile! My reaction was: "Yeah, right, and I'm Miss Universe"... The answer: "No, seriously, it is a 15ft crocodile." "WHAT ??!? And you want me to get into the water with THAT??" After even more hesitation (much more - I can tell you that I was not very brave), I finally got into the water and started paddling. At the middle of the river I was already exhausted from the strong current, and freaking out every time I put my hand into the water (wonder what's in there - maybe something will take a bite of me???). I think that the only reason why I finally made it to the other side of the river and then behind the break was that I was scared to death of staying too close to the croco!!

Hikes: in the rain forest on the surrounding hills - with a nice view down on the main spots where I was surfing when the tide was right. Once again the wildlife was incredible: on one of our hikes I saw not less than 7 (!) tucans - 5 smaller "rainbow" tucans and 2 magnificent big ones.

Horseback riding: a nice ride through the rain forest on "Velvet", the most sensitive horse, took me to a beautiful waterfall with a natural mud bath. Believe me, my skin has never been as soft as after having covered my body in the mud rich on minerals and then rinced it off in the waterfall. If I add that this little break included some fresh fruits and drinks, you can imagine why this was one of my many favourites ;-))

So yes, this last week was definitely a highlight and the best birthday gift I could ever have given myself (it was my little treat to myself, after all you don't turn 30 every day!) - along with the whole trip of course! Can't wait until the next one - have to find a good "excuse" to spoil myself like this again ;)))

And yes, I'm totally in love with this country :) If you get a chance, go there yourself to experience the amayzing nature, lovely people, good food and everything else that Costa Rica has to offer!

Hasta luego Monteverde...

Don´t have much time to write, but I wanted to give you a quick update of life here in Costa Rica... Will try to post some photos later on - sorry for not getting them on here now.

If I thought that Monteverde was gorgeous in the rain, there are no words to describe it when the weather is nice. What can I say... I´m totally in love with this place ;)

We´ve had much better weather this week, and I´ve experienced so many amazing things! I´ve walked in the rain forest at night, seen tarantulas, run into a group of 7-8 huge howler monkeys on one of the hikes, taken a break during my Spanish lesson to feed bananas to the "cara blancas" (white faced monkeys) that showed up outside the classroom, been out dancing salsa & cumbia with the locals etc etc... Not to mention how much Sapnish I´ve learned :))

Today is unfortunately my last day here - tomorrow I´m heading up to the Arenal volcano for a nice weekend with a couple of friends, before going down to the Pacific coast for my last week of lessons. But I know one thing for sure - I need to come back here one day!

Hasta luego!

¡ Hola amigos !

Lluvia, lluvia, lluvia... that´s probably the first word I learned here in Costa Rica...

Why? Well simply because it means rain and that´s what we´ve been having a LOT of since I got here!

I guess it was to be expected since it is the rainy (or green) season. However, when all the Ticas (Costa Ricans) say that they never have this much rain, it´s kind of worrying...

Anyway, let´s start from the beginning... I arrived in CR about a week ago, not without some trouble... let´s just say that I got here several days before my luggage - where I had obviously packed my raincoat!

After a first night in San José, where I met my little "tribe" - Nancy, John & John - it was time to head up to the Monteverde cloud forest in the mountains. Due to the heavy rains, the Pan-American highway was cut off (it had sank 30 cm in some places!) and the dirt roads in the mountains were almost completely washed away. There has been no public transportation to/from Monteverde since I got here - and it´s apparently the first time that happens!

(I have a vague impression that the bad weather is following me - remember being caught in floods on my last trip as well ;) )

Luckily we had our great driver Tony, who got us up here safely after using his shovel to fill some of the worst mudholes where we got stuck :)

So, what have I been doing since 10 days in the rain? Most of the time I´ve actually spent... studying!!!

For those of you who don´t know my travel plans, I´ll be taking Spanish classes for the first 3 weeks of the trip, before going surfing :)
The positive side of all this rain is that it´s actually very motivating to hang out at school and study ;)
It´s hard work, but also good fun! The school is great, we´ve got hammocks outside the classrooms, the teachers are nice & we get fresh fruits and cakes at our 10am break :)) Not to forget the cooking & dance classes once a week... What more could one ask for - except some sun of course ;)

Besides studying, I´ve been out on some nice hikes to enjoy the amazing scenery here in Monteverde - the nature is just incredibly beautiful! The best time to go on hikes is early in the morning (=before the 8am class!) - that´s when you might actually have some sunshine & a nice view!

The rest of the time, I´m mostly at home either sleeping or spending time with my Tica family. I have to admit that it´s still a bit of a challenge to try to play games - in Spanish - with the 5-year old daughter, or to have some kind of deaper conversation - in Spanish of course ;) - with my "Mama Tica". It´s a very nice family who lives in a beautiful house - far from the type of house I was expecting to (and most of my classmates do) live in. And the food is delicious, although I think I won´t eat "arroz y frijoles" (rice and beans) for a while when I get back to France ;)

I also try to make the most out of my weekends despite the rain: canpoy tours, hikes in gorgeous cloud forest reserves, excursions, a couple of "cervezas con amigos"... So, on the whole I´m having a great time & wouldn´t mind staying here ;)
However, I still have "mucho mejoramiento" to do in Spanish... for some reason one of the guides at our canpoy tour this weekend was very delighted when I tried to explain that I just LOOOOVE it (meaning the zip-lines & the tarzan swing) ;))) Guess I still need to work on the use of "me gusta mucho"...

Need to go - have a ton of homework to do before tonight´s night walk in the rain forest to see some animals :))
Hasta luego!