Ole, ole, ole!

Ole!  We are listening to some great Costa Rican or Spanish music right now on the bus, and it makes me feel great.  Today has been great too, and it’s not even over yet!  This morning we got to wake up an hour later than we usually do, at 5.  Today we woke up at 6 and had breakfast.  Then we boarded the buses at 8 and took a ten minute drive to the Almonds and Coral hotel, where we would do our activities for the day, not stay at tonight.  Our whole big group split in half, and my group went to do kayaking first.  In the beginning, we had to wait a little bit for the instructor to get there, but then we stretched, practiced, and paired up.  I was paired up with Lisa Colino, and we were a pretty good team.  Originally I was going to be paired with Kristin… no way.  Lisa and I were one of the first ones out, and we were ahead of everyone, the closest people Emily and Dawn, until they made up stop to wait up for the others.  We could already see the coral from the kayaks.  As soon as we got to shore, we met the other group, who had been bicycling, and put on our snorkeling gear, masks and flippers.   We plunged into the water, and went around the one reef.  It was all very beautiful, but the masks were very uncomfortable.  There were lots of fish, and my favorite was blue with yellow and black stripes.  After we were done, we hung out in the water a little more.  We found one of the drivers, Jorge (not our guide) cutting coconuts to drink the juice from.  He gave one to me.  It tasted SO good, especially fresh from the coconut.   We put on our helmets and tried to find the right bike for ourselves.  It was hard to find a bike not too big for me (all right, get that laughter out now girls in Chevy chase).  We biked, getting to the showers earlier than the kayaking group.  After changing, we went to the restaurant and waited for lunch.  I had a chicken sandwich, which was delicious!  The dessert was good, banana cake.  The other dessert I tried, but didn’t like very much.  We got onto the buses again and are told it is a 4 hour bus ride to our next hotel.  Tonight we have our night walk in the rainforest!!  See you later! 

Cate