This weekend was all about the P's! Perfect, pretty, pleasing, picturesque, precious, photographic, etc. etc.
Friday: After our four hours of Spanish class, a group of us decided to hang out at Parque de la Paz (park of peace). Most other people were going to Palmares, which is a giant festival, but 8 of us decided that 10 hours at a festival is just too long. We met and went out to lunch - we got some delicious Mexican food. We didn't eat until like 3, because we had to wait to meet up with everyone until we all found each other (having no cell phones really stinks).
After lunch, we all went to Parque de la Paz. It's this big part in the middle of San Jose with a giant hill where you can overlook the city. We had borrowed a kite from our friend, and pulled it out. There was a rod missing, so Ben rigged it up with a stick. Hope and Ben started flying the kite, but then it flew away because they thought the other had their hands on it. They ran down to rescue the kite and were trying to pull it out of the tree when a little kid came up and told them it would come down better if they cut the string, because the top would be heavier and it would just slip out. So the kid cut the string. The kite didn't fall. Then Ben had to help the little kids get something untangled from a tall tree. I thought he was going to die falling out. While this was going on, the other 6 of us (Kelsey, Bethany, Mel, Brennan, Joey, and I) were just having a great time observing and taking pics.
After we decided the kite was hopeless, we rented these sleds to slide down a giant hill. There were rutted tracks where people had slid down before, and TONS of people of all ages were doing it. It looked like so much fun, so we paid 2 dollars to rent 2 sleds for a half hour. It was so much fun! Bethany and I went down double, so we flew down the hill (check facebook for pictures). Mel and Kelsey were the moms and just took pictures, but the other 6 of us all went down a couple times.
Brennan decided that he really wanted to go ride this sketchy carnival ride. And when I say sketchy, I mean it was supported by wooden blocks, creaked almost constantly, and the man in charge had to tighten some nuts and bolts after every ride. I was in line to buy a ticket when I realized that on top of the fact that it was a little freaky and I don't ride rides that are taken apart consistently, I absolutely hate rides of this kind (like the Der Flinger at Adventureland, which I go on every year cuz its one of Mag's favorites). So then Kelsey and I just watched and took pictures (and hoped that no one died). It was a successful few minutes, as the ride stayed intact and no one died. As a celebration, we all got churros : )
After churros we walked around a gorgeous lake and decided to come back later on this semester to ride horses around the little lake. We played on a playground (teeter-totter, monkey bars, rings, swings) with some little kids. Then we all walked home and ate dinner with our families. I didn't eat because I was still full, and I didn't want to put any more pressure on Ana. She had been cooking since 2 that day to get everything ready for her trip to Venezuela to see her husband. I met her neighbor, who gave me her contact info so that if anything happened I would have someone really close to call. After dinner, the 8 of us met up again and went to see the movie Tron. It was in English with Spanish subtitles and was playing at a mall about a half hour walk from my house. It was a pretty good time, and the movie was really cheap (like all services here in CR). It was a little scary to walk through the city at midnight, but we all accompanied each other to our houses so that the boys ended up walking the few blocks home alone so that the girls wouldn't have to.
Saturday: Ana got up and made us pancakes, and we said goodbye as she left while we were gone for the day. It was pretty sad, especially because she won't see Bridget again before she leaves for Nicaragua. We got on the bus and traveled to a coffee farm, where we learned a little bit about coffee and had the opportunity to buy some bags of good Costa Rican coffee. I was a little groggy at this point, because the tour guide's voice (which was going CONSTANTLY from San Jose to the coffee farm) had lulled me to sleep. I didn't get a coffee because I am not really a fan, but I sipped my friends' and found out that I actually like Irish cream coffee.
After spending some time at Poas, we all got back in the bus and headed to La Paz waterfall garden. We didn't get there until after 1, so we ate right away in this gorgeous cafe. The pineapple was some of the best I had eaten in my life. After lunch, we walked around a mini zoo. There was a butterfly area, a bird aviary where a toucan sat on my shoulder, a frog area, a hummingbird garden where hummingbirds would fly right past my ear, a big cat area, a monkey area where I help a monkey's hand (which was a little creepy, actually), and a reptile area where I learned about the most poisonous snake in Costa Rica. It's the Fer de Lanz, which has a thermal sensor that can sense when someone is coming up to 10 feet away. However, unlike most snakes, it won't retreat - it always attacks. It's venom can kill someone in 3 hours if it's untreated. Hunting is illegal in Costa Rica, but by law people must kill a Fer de Lanz on sight because they have up to 92 babies at a time. Scary!! Hope asked a guy in the frog area a couple of questions, and he took us to this back room and showed about 5 of us a giant boa constrictor. He just reached into the cage and snagged it, and it was NOT happy. It was really cool to touch, though. He also pulled out a giant bullfrog, so that was exciting. 
Then we traveled down to the actual waterfall area. We walked around and took pictures. It was SO beautiful! Waterfalls are probably my favorite part of nature, so it was just gorgeous. If you stared at one waterfall then looked to the right at all the rocks, it would be all wavery, like a mirage. Basically, it was a great afternoon! After the waterfalls, we just got on the bus and headed back to San Jose, where Bridget and I just ate and pretty much fell into bed.
Sunday: We were at the school at 6:15 a.m. to catch the van to the Pacuare River for rafting! We drove 2 hours to get to the river then ate breakfast. We got all ready to go then jumped in the van for another 45 minute drive. During this leg of the drive, we passed a huge herd of bulls. I guess the tiny town we were passing through is known all throughout Costa Rica for having the best bulls. When we reached the river, we divided into groups of 6 and got our guides. Joey, Brennan, Hope, Kelsey, Mel and I had a guide named Monkey. He was really cool, and before we started we reviewed all the commands. There was one command, high side, that they said we never had to use, really, and they told us what to do if we got stuck under the raft, which only happens 2-3 times a year.
Rafting was just SO MUCH FUN! I had a blast the entire time! Joey bought a picture CD with action shots (check facebook) and we all look like we're posing or getting paid to look like we are having fun, because in every picture we look ecstatic. There were 2 times that we got stuck on rocks and had to use the high side command, when everyone jumps to the side of the rock so that the raft doesn't flip. One of those times when we got away from the rock we took a line through the rapids that our guide had never taken before. He didn't like that much, though.
The river was just so beautiful, and rafting was a lot of fun. I would definitely recommend it for anyone who is coming to Costa Rica. Breakfast and a picnic lunch were included, and we arrived back in San Jose at about 4:30. Everyone went to their house to shower. When I was showering, I found this random line of sunburn on my calf (because we couldn't put sunscreen everywhere otherwise we would slide out of the raft). Then Bridget and I went out and got a pizza. We devoured the whole thing, we were so hungry from rafting. After dinner, Kelsey, Hope, Ben, and Joey came over. Kelsey made some of her awesome desert and Joey taught us to play Yuker. I passed out that night, once again.
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