ok ok, not really, we´ve been out of costa rica now for like 3 days. after our program ended last thursday, everyone had a relax and take care of last minute biz day on friday, then we all went out for one last night on the town all together that night. soni and i were the only ones in the group that night that were not going to the airport in the big mass of claremont kids in the morning, so we had to say our goodbyes as people haphazardly got into cabs for the last ride to our host families homes. it was sad, and great to see how close we had gotten in just six weeks.
that saturday (damn, i can´t believe it was just a week ago), soni and i took off for a relaxing weekend off before we hit the road for good. we took a taxi to the bustop in san jose to another taxi to the ferry across the Gulf of Nicoya in northern costarica on the pacific. from there it was a two hour busride to Montezuma... but the bus was packed full of people standing... so we arranged to share a cab with two Ticos (costa ricans) who were stuck in the same pickle. the road was so full of pot holes that our cab driver would drive on the unpaved shoulder of the road when it was exposed (on either side) because it was far less bumpy than the actual "road" itself. once finally in monezuma (or Montefuma, as the locals like to call it) we ran into a girl that had just graduated from pomona named Lauren, that Soni knew from the soccer team! certain wonderful places in the universe attract certain types of people i guess. it was a beautiful spot literally sandwiched between the beach and a mtn.
we returned to soni´s host mom´s house because she had left some of her things there for the weekend, and we had been invited for dinner before we left the country for good. there was already another study abroad student living there, and we got to play the sage gurus of all things cool in the area, all the cool places to go out at night, meet, check out, etc. talking to soni´s host mom we realized that all the costa rican schools had just been freed into a two week vacation (they pretty much have year round school, not a huge summer break like in the states), and that we should have booked our bus tickets out to guatemala like two weeks beforehand. seeing the look of near panic she had created on our faces, she promptly gets on the phone with Tica Bus and starts working out with them what can be done. here´s the weird part, on the phone they said that the closest spots available were on like saturday (this was tuesday at this point, and we had been planning to leave the next morning by just showing up, our lonely planet guide had said nothing about needing to book it ahead of time, nor the people at ICADS where our program was). thankfully when we showed up at the station we were able to get tickets for thursday morning that would make the trip in a day and a half on an ejecutivo bus rather than a directo which would take three days. so we spent wednesday bumming around san jose. i took soni to the VIP movie theatre that serves you beer and food in your LayZBoy seat, we saw Over the Hedge, which was very good and had some nice suburban social commentary (i would definitely recommend it for you candice, if you havent seen it already). thursday was 18 hours on a bus with bad pirated movies, and half a documentary on the WWF Champ the Rock (who speaks about himself in the third person). that night we spent in San Salvadore, El Salvadore, and then again on two buses in the morning to Guatemala City, and out to Panajachel on the banks of Lago de Atitlan (the last leg of the journey the chickenbus dropped up off early because they were continuing on to Quetzaltenango, so waiting for the other bus we got picked up by a guy originally from upstate NY, and used to sell coffee near San Francisco, who now owns a coffee shop in Pana; we talked with him a lot about guatemala and this area, and he talked at us a lot about how scary and scared the US is getting, "to the point of paranoia in some areas!")
the shops here are chock full of indigenous woven goods, beautiful indigos and bright colors. its a pretty touristy town so it was easy to find an internet cafe. this morning we walked a little over an hour to the next town over for breakfast (recommended by the coffee guy... Mike i think his name was). we´ve been meeting tons of travelers along the way, all nice and willing to help. knowing some spanish has helped us too help other travellers who speak little to none at all, which always kind of baffles me. last night we went for urugayan food in a restaurant with live music, but not before soni taught me some qi gong down by the lake. we were going to go out for some live music, but i havent been feeling so hot for a bit now so i simply past out during our "nap" after dinner, and could not be woken again. i felt bad for soni. i made it up to her by getting up early this morning to watch the sunrise on our walk to that other town before most people were on the roads going to work.
i think today after lunch we´re going to try to bargain our way onto a boat tour around the lake a little, and maybe go to the other town on the lake our guidebook described as having a "good spiritual vibe" which is why it is home to many holistic therapy and meditation centers. cheesy, hell yeah, but it could be fun. relaxing for sure. everything is mad cheap here compared to Costa Rica. kinda reflective of the lower standard of living.
anyway, time to run to the bank cuz our first round of Quetzals has run out already with all these brightly decorated and jesus´d out chickenbuses (all old american school buses that get driven at least 10-20 miles faster than they should be on these windy mtn roads), and our hotel which is the cutest thing since sliced bread.
i hope you all are doing fabulously and that i hear from each of you soon! thanks to everyone who has responded, i love hearing from you guys too. oh and on that note: jahan, you´re insane :) stay safe, dude
many smiles
Ben
