My weekend and other details of life in San Jose

This weekend our group went to Dominical. It was so beautiful.

We left on friday afternoon, and on our way, walked over a bridge with an alarmingly low handrail, and a ton of crocodiles underneath.

On Friday night, our group arrived and we went out to dinner. While we were sitting at dinner, a torrential downpour started. Several people in our group (including me) couldn't pass up the opportunity to play in the warm rain. We walked back (about a mile and a half to our hotel) and jumped in the pool with our clothes on. We played an impromptu game of marco polo, and in general just had a lot of bonding time and fun.

As I've told some of you on the phone, we went whale watching and snorkeling on Saturday, and lounged on the beach Saturday/ Sunday. Whale watching was incredible. We saw two humpback whales (a baby and its mother). Also, I'm pretty sure any laws describing the permissible distance between boats and whales were ignored.

The whale we saw, stole this from our group leader, and yes, that is the whale we SAW

After we saw the whales, the boat dropped us off at a completely secluded beach. In retrospect, it was probably the most beautiful beach I'll ever visit in my life. There were absolutely no other people there, the sand was smooth, and the water was warm. This picture does not do it justice, but it's the best one I could find (it was a lot sunnier, and the trees are a better green):

Apparently, in the trees above the beach there were a lot of monkeys, but I didn't get a very close look . After exploring the beach, we went snorkeling, where I saw no fish, but was stung several times by a jelly fish. On Saturday night, our entire group piled onto a bus and went to a club for our group members' 21st birthday. At the beginning of the evening I had a lot of fun hanging out with the people from my group, because we were the only ones there. As the night progressed, however, more and more men started pouring into the club. Due to the fact we were in a small town, the interest in the gringas was especially pronounced. Men greatly outnumbered the females, and the result was unpleasant. So far, that's the only thing that I've found particularly off-putting about Costa Rica. There's also an added dynamic of several girls really enjoying and embracing the attention they receive in these situations.

Another fun detail is that cars absolutely DO NOT stop for pedestrians, no matter where you cross, and DO NOT adhere to speed limits. This makes my morning commute very interesting. It's kind of like walking across I-5 every morning. 

I'll upload more pictures later, but blogspot is malfunctioning right now. 

ta ta!