Little Lessons From Travel

Traveling lets you find out who your real friends are. Because only the true friends will still talk to you when all you talk about every day are the crazy people you met and the crazy adventures you had. 

Only the true friends will listen and be excited for you when every single conversation is the same. Only true friends will still start conversations with you after weeks or months of you being gone and you seemingly have nothing in common anymore.

Only your real friends make an effort to dive past the "my day was great!" to make sure you aren't lonely and homesick and assure you they still love you.

Traveling makes you realize how strong you really are. When you're climbing the never ending volcano straight up for miles, and your legs and lungs are burning but you keep going because you know that it will be worth it.

The view from the top; the clouds rolling in above every living thing, the fresh crisp bite in the air, the lifelong friends you make on the hike, and the fact that you will be able to have the satisfaction of knowing you survived - It will be more worth it than anything you've ever done in your life. And in the end, you prove to yourself that you are strong enough.

Traveling makes you realize that the first step is always the hardest. The hardest thing is to step on that plane alone, with no real destination or no friends waiting for you. 

The hardest part is opening your mouth to communicate because of fear of failure and humiliation, but after the first word you realize it's not so difficult if you try.

 The hardest part is getting on a bus and saying goodbye to your new friends, but soon the excitement of new adventures covers the pain of goodbye, if even just a tiny bit.

 After the first step, you realize that you're caught in an addicting free fall.

Traveling makes you realize that there is more to life than your little world and your little ideas. 

When you meet hundreds of people with totally different ideas and viewpoints; if you don't have a reason for believing what you believe, you better get one, because it will come up in conversations and people will question you and challenge you in every way.

Traveling teaches and reminds you that your body can do anything; its your mind you need to convince. There is nothing you can't do; unless your mind is lying to you. There is no mountain you can't climb. There is no rock wall beneath waterfalls that is too slippery to master. There is no cliff that is too high to jump off of. As long as people are capable of doing it, you are too. You just have to make up your mind to do it.

Traveling makes you realize what you can live without. You don't really need seven pairs of shoes, and I guarantee while traveling you won't want more than two. You don't really need makeup or hair products, fancy clothes or electronics, or even a working bank card. As long as you are alive and have a few dollars to your name, you're really okay. Really.

Traveling makes you realize that most people in the world are really good people. When you're stranded with no money, no food, and no ride to any sort of civilization, somehow, somehow, there is always an angel waiting to save you. When you're at the point of giving up, someone will step in and lend a hand. Sometimes, though, you need to show your weak side and admit you need help.

Traveling makes you more aware of everything around you. Not everyone is good, and you know that. Traveling introduces you to all types of people. 

The good, the bad, the ugly, the evil, the sweet, the caring. The more you travel, the more you realize who you can trust (and you can definitely trust many) and who only has intentions to steal your money.

Traveling makes you see how blessed you really are, and how good you have it. You have food, you have clean water, you have a soft bed with no bugs, a warm shower, and lots of toys. Quit complaining.

Traveling makes you feel alive. It makes you see the other side of things. It introduces you to beauty and that you can't even begin to imagine from your comfy living room chair watching a national geographic video. 

And it shows you a very real world of poverty and pain that you can't even comprehend. 

Traveling makes you want to try things you didn't know could be done. 

Traveling makes you realize that you have nothing to loose. 

Elections in Costa Rica

Elections in Costa Rica are the craziest ever. I only have the United States to compare to, so it's not saying much, but If you think that the months leading up to a presidential election in the states are bad you should see the Costa Ricans...

This is what they do. For weeks. There are candidate flags everywhere. On houses, on people, on cars, and on random cranes parked beside the road. And the cars honk nonstop. I'm not exactly sure what they are trying to accomplish, but on the days leading up to the February 2nd presidential election, at any given time there would be close to 40% of the cars waving flags out the window and having honking wars. The day before the elections, they had parades of cars waving flags and honking. All of them. As if just getting someone's attention will convince them to change their vote. They also had parades of people and bands playing music and walking around dancing and talking to people and handing out flags. We were handed more than one different candidate flag (There were 13 candidates - they can't believe we basically only have two) that we played with for awhile before leaving them for someone who could actually appreciate them...

When I say that Central America is always a party, I'm not kidding. On Election Day, everyone got together at the schools to vote, and talk, and dance, and play music. It is mind blowing. Now, we have to wait until April to know who wins because there were two candidates who tied too close to call. It's kind of funny, just being here and hanging out with Ticos I got pretty into the elections and learning about the candidates. Elections are a lot more fun when you don't actually have to take the responsibility to choose a leader for your country. =o)

Searching out of my comfort zone...

I know, it's been forever. I promise I am still alive and well, but just a little homesick...it's been a crazy, busy week, but we have still gotten a ton of chill downtime. I have been writing a lot, but getting wifi to post my blogs is almost impossible. Just one of the things you sacrifice while traveling in amazing places that aren't the USA...

I loved my week in San Pedro last week. I loved seeing my friends and familiar places, staying with my family, and taking Spanish classes, but as usual, after a week in comfort I was ready to get out of my comfort zone and travel to new and exciting places. 

On Sunday, that new and exciting place was Palmares. We rode with other friends with Maximo and were really excited!

In Palmares is a huge 10 day festival with a carnival, bands, food, a rodeo, a big horse parade, and tons and tons of people.

It is exactly like a state fair in the states, minus the animals and exhibits, but I'm pretty sure I have never seen that many people in my life! (And almost all of them had dark skin and black hair! Huh.)

It also had countless vendors, true to Central American style. Lots of colors, crafts, and people lying about other vendors so they would get the sale. Never believe vendors or taxi drivers in Central America. Do your research before buying anything!! Hah, honestly, it's ridiculous how much they will lie to make a dollar or two. (That would include charging 300 colones for every bathroom. Every. Single. Bathroom.)

The Palmares Festival was beautiful, incredible weather and nestled at the base of some more beautiful mountains.

Bethy and I spent the day meeting people, hanging out, dancing a little (considering we could hardly move between all the people,) avoiding American-crazed Tico boys, and not really eating or drinking anything decent because water was $4 a bottle...yeah, we were pretty ornery by the end of the day, but it was still cool to see and experience a little crazy Costa Rica.

(I'm not really sure what all these people are doing, there's nothing to see here.)

Sunday night, back at the hostel I met Ben! Ben is a pretty cool German who had just arrived and was planning to go to Arenal, so we decided to travel together. The bus to Arenal/La Fortuna area only cost $5, even though it was a four hour drive. Once again, we drove through the most beautiful country in the world. 

This time though, the bus wound around on narrow, curvey roads, up and down mountains, through the clouds, and past farm fields and lots and lots of cows! 

We also saw this adorable child at a bus stop, spying on people from his bus! Sucha cutie. (:

In La Fortuna, we found a simple hostel for $8 a night above a Burger King. Decent for the price, but with ridiculously rock hard beds. For $8, you can't complain as long as you're safe, and the cleanliness was definitely worth it.

Then, the three of us walked around town and admired the Arenal Volcano...

And, we packed our meals for our volcano hike Tuesday!

Tuesday morning, after an awful night on my rock hard bed, I woke up to a rooster crowing. That was a welcomed sound, and I was sharing with Ben how much I liked chickens, and then he told me it was right outside my window...literally. Later, I decided to make friends with the cute little guy. :)

After admiring the chicken, we grabbed a taxi and drove to to the base of volcano Arenal/La Fortuna. I'm not really sure if that's the name of the town or volcano, but its pretty cool. Arenal Volcano is the 4th most active volcano in the world, and we were literally standing at the bottom of it. It eupted in 2006, and is kind of like a sleeping dragon at the moment. Pretty exciting, but I felt like I had a death wish...

After a quick briefing from a naturalist about avoiding killer Ferdanand snakes, we began our adventure to Cerro Chato, a crater besides the giant volcano. We decided to take a before picture in case we didn't survive the intense uphill climb...

And it was intense.

The picture doesn't show it, but it was straight up. And then straight down. This meant serious climbing, using roots as steps and ropes that some kind soul had left, and slipping and getting filthy in the mud.

But, our hard work out was rewarded with views like this:

And swimming in the crater in the old volcano. It was freeeezing at first, but the water was so incredible! It had the strangest green color, too. It really looked like we were swimming in a sea of grass.

On the way back, after climbing back up and then down the intense, muddy, slippery clay cliffs, we took time to really enjoy being in the jungle...

Climbing in awesome trees...

And sitting and watching ants, then following them and their entire trail to see what they do-- leaf cutter ants literally cut the leaves and take them back to their hills. We were fascinated by the way they used their chompers to cut a section from the leaf and carry it home. Such weird, intense little creatures!

Due to the exhilarating exhaustingness of the hike, we just hung out in town the rest of the day. 

Wednesday, we said goodbye to Ben and Bethy and I headed to San Ramon with no plans.

We had been planning to stay in Arenal longer, but because of the volcano it is ridiculously touristy, and with tourism comes high prices. Beautiful place, but just doesn't work for backpackers trying to save every penny. Thank God for tortillas and creamy cheese-like natilla! :)

(I love my beast backpack!!)

San Ramon didn't have much, but Beth and I loved it. There were several cafes and a nice park where we sat and watched people skateboard and walk their dogs. San Ramon is pretty much just a transit town, but we found a beautiful $10 hostel and a lovely park and a few cafes. It was so refreshing to be in a small town withkut touristists where they actually speak Spanish and treat you with respect. These towns are also nice because everything is real Costa Rica- they haven't changed things to please the foreigners. Everything is so much cheaper, too. 

Love the cute little fruit stands. :)

We are now again in San Pedro, and last night was one of the greatest nights ever. I have no pictures to show for it, but we met up with our Tico friends from Palmares and stayed up until 4 am talking, practicing Spanish, and sharing music videos that were popular here and in America. It blows my mind how similar, yet how incredibly different our cultures are. You can research and study culture and language all you want, but it will never be the same and you can never really understand the mindset and slang unless you move to another country and spend time with the locals. I am soo thankful that I am taking this opportunity!

Sunday Bethy and I will head to Guanacaste to some small towns and beaches. Definitely looking forward to that. 

I love Costa Rica. So incredibly beautiful, but I miss how adventures are free in Guatemala. Costa Rica has a lot of tourists, and you have to pay for everything. Everywhere you go and everything you see. For that reason, I am definitely looking forward to crossing the border to Nicaragua, hopefully within the next week. 

I have heard lots of horror stories, but lots of awesome adventure stories as well, so I will keep you updated. :)