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!