Beach Bits

Here are a bunch of random thoughts from my week at the beach (which was supposed to only be three days, but, well, you know...):

People at my hostel were getting sick left and right. Two Dutch girls were throwing up and had fevers, and one of the French Canadian couples got ill. The two girls had drunk the water from the kitchen. (I'd asked about the water, and the hostess told me that the water from the bathrooms was okay, but not the kitchen.) Not sure about the Canadians. I am happy to say that not once in my travels (knock on wood) have I been sick. Either I have a really strong stomach, or else I ate enough stuff off the floor growing up to be able to withstand anything.

I went to the grocery store with a Danish girl from the hostel one evening. She bought a melon that had the price (360 colones) written on it in marker. She smeared the 6 to make it look like 310 colones. She saved herself 50 colones, which is 10 cents. Woo.

On the bus to the beach I heard a bunch of American girls chatting with an Israeli guy (no, the nationalities of these people is in no way important, but I think it's fun knowing where everyone is from). I heard one of the girls say, "We finished college a long time ago." The Israeli asked how old they are. "25" Yeah, that's a long time ago....

Walking into the town of Montezuma one evening (with a Canadian and a German), we were approached by some guy asking if "You want something for your brain?" Somehow, I don't think he meant a book.

I love that getting dressed in the morning meant putting on a bikini, and changing in the afternoon meant putting on dry one. I didn't wear underwear for a week.

One evening the road to town was covered, and I mean covered, with crabs heading for the hills. I've no idea what's up with that, but the crab roadkill carnage the next day was pretty impressive. And stinky.

The grocery store in town sold candy bars (like all good stores do), but it was about a constant 95 degrees in there, so I can't imagine what the chocolate bars were like!

I watched some guy try to body surf in really rough waters. I saw his feet go over his head, then he disappeared for a moment. When he reappeared, he was pulling up his bathing suit.

On the bus out of town, when the journey started, the local guy sitting next to me made the sign of the cross. Did he know something I didn't??

We drove by a hotel/resort that claimed to be the "Home of Temptation Island." Bummer I missed that.

There are lots of signs around the country that declare "Jesu Cristu es el Senor de [wherever]". In my Spanglish, I first translated that as "Jesus Christ is da Man".

Costa Rica is hilly. One hill into Monteverde was so steep that the bus couldn't make it up the first time. We had to roll back, then take another attempt at it. (Second time worked.)


I'm off to hike around in a cloud forest today. Woo hoo!