Fin

Through a recent change in plans, my friend will no longer be able to come to Costa Rica, and I will be headed home tomorrow. So... I guess this will be my last blog post!

Four months ago today, I stepped off the plane and into a country I had never been to before and knew almost nothing about. And now, getting ready to leave for good, I feel that I know it so well it's become a second home. No matter how much planning I've done, nothing ever seems to turn out the way I thought it would, but I've started to actually look forward to being surprised. I've made friends from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Cuba, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Portugal, Italy, France, England, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Taiwan, and I won't forget a single one of those people.

I have a pretty big couple of weeks coming up as I move out to Chicago and start college. It's going to be pretty weird not being here anymore! But I feel that I've grown as a person, and these past four months have definitely had a huge impact on my life. I know that I will take these experiences with me and that they will change how I experience things in my future.

On a final note, I'd like to thank everyone who's been reading this; as cheesy as it sounds, this blog has been my only grip on reality at times. I was watching Yes Man last night on TV, which I hadn't seen in forever and had completely forgotten about. For those of you who haven't seen it, you should, because it's a great movie about learning how to live, something I've definitely experienced this year. The best quote from the movie: "You say no to life, and therefore you're not living." I challenge all of you to try living for the next year, to say yes, and to experience things you never would have in the past. You never know what will happen.

Pura vida!

Lisa

Santo Tomás

Back in Costa Rica... despite the difficulty with which I forced myself to get on the boat leaving Bocas del Toro, I was once again surprised at how happy I was to be back in San Jose. For all the crap it gets about its trash, traffic, and architecture (or lack thereof), it's really a fun city if you know where you're going.

Sleeping in a room by myself for the first time since I got back has been great, especially since I still seem to be fighting something. I've tried to lay pretty low for the last couple of days, since my oldest friend Dylan and his mom will be flying in tomorrow to spend my last eight days here with me. However, I did manage to get out for about an hour on Monday night and went to San Pedro with the usual gang: Silvia, Lisa, Eeva, and Mikkel. Then, I met up with Eeva yesterday afternoon, and we went to the mall and then saw The Town.

I got a pretty good shock about half an hour ago... I was walking down the street when who did I see coming towards me but Jeannette. For all the time I spent looking for her in Bocas, running into her in a city I didn't even know she was in was just too good. We only talked for a couple minutes but it was good to see her, since who knows if I ever will again!

Drago

Last night in Panama! I've had so much fun here and I'll be really sad to leave... hopefully I'll be able to come back soon.

I spent most of Friday afternoon walking around and looking for Jeannette, but still haven't found her. I finally gave up around 8 and went around to all of the various parties that were going on, but since there were so many, nobody ever ended up in the same place and it was hard to find anyone. It was a pretty uneventful night.

Yesterday was very relaxing, I got a couple books at the used book store I found nearby and spent most of the day reading. Around dinner time I headed over to the Natural Mystic Cafe, which is probably my favorite place to eat here, and ran into Jason, one of the guys I see around town a lot. We met three guys in the Coast Guard whose ship had stopped here for a couple days (if y'all are reading this.... Ready? Okay!!) and hung out there for a while, then took a boat to Aqua Lounge, a hostel / bar / dance club on a nearby island. They had a techno party going on, and it was all fun and games until one of the Coast Guard guys decided to get funny and throw me into the ocean. I didn't last too much longer in my wet clothes and headed back to the Gran Kahuna, only to find that the battery on the fire alarm was low and it was beeping so loudly that no one could sleep. The fire alarm box was locked and we couldn't turn it off. By the time I finally fell asleep it was very late and I managed to sleep until after noon today.

After I woke up, I headed over to one of the local beaches with Jason for the afternoon. Then, we went to a restaurant for dinner that gave away a free kayak rental with every $10 spent, so we kayaked around the island until it got dark. We came back to the Natural Mystic again, but it was too hot and they were out of almost everything so I came back to the hostel.

I have to get up early tomorrow to catch the bus to San Jose, so I'd better be getting to bed...

Salio el Sol

The sun is finally out!!!!!!!

It's an absolutely gorgeous day on the island, which would be really great if I wasn't really sick, and even better if I had a clean bathing suit - I brought all my clothes to the lavandería this morning to be washed since, I'm embarrassed to admit, they hadn't been washed since my parents left to go back home two weeks ago.

Last night was ladies' night at La Iguana, a bar across the street, so I went with a group of girls from the hostel. It was really fun, and we all wore our bathing suits so that we could jump off the edge of the dance floor and go swimming. We saw a ton of starfish, too!

I found out this morning that Jeannette, who I worked with at FUDEBIOL, is in Bocas del Toro! I haven't seen her yet, but I'm sure we'll run into each other at some point.

"So I see you've met my sister..."

Another day on Isla de Bocas... Martin left earlier this morning to go back to Uvita, and I decided to stay here for another 4 or 5 nights. I switched hostels because there was another one close by called Gran Kahuna that was in a better location, was $2.50 less per night, and seemed to be better for people traveling alone.

Last night, there was live music at Casa Verde, and a pretty good reggae band played. After it was over, a few people from the hostel said that they were going to a nearby island to a "clown party" and asked me if I wanted to go. We took a water taxi to an island about 5 minutes away where, sure enough, there was a party where everyone was dressed as clowns.

This morning after Martin left, I walked around for a while, had some really good coffee, and talked to a few locals. I had been wondering recently how so many people seemed to know ahead of time that I had been in Costa Rica. Finally, I was talking to the owner of a craft shop, and he asked me if I was living in Costa Rica. I asked him how he knew, and he said, "Your accent is very Costa Rican." I'm taking this as good news, because I hadn't realized I spoke Spanish well enough to have any accent other than an American one.

Finally... I have pictures!!!! Here it goes.



Sunset in David

Dominos delivery bikes in David!

The street the hostel was on, also in David

On the boat from Almirantes out to the island

Boys we saw canoeing on the way to the island

The reggae band that played at Casa Verde... and a guy trying to get out of the picture

The park in Isla de Bocas

Isla de Bocas

The hostel I'm staying at

La Mama Loca

Hello again!

Still on Isla de Bocas. The weather wasn't much better today, but the sun sort of poked its head through the clouds for a couple hours so we were able to sit outside for a couple hours. We didn't get up early enough for the snorkel tour that left at 9:30 this morning. Tomorrow, Martin's 72 hours out of Costa Rica will be over, so he'll be heading back in the morning. But I'm enjoying the island so much that I think I'm going to stay for a while longer! I'm thinking about renting a bike for a few days and biking around the island, I've heard there are a lot of beautiful beaches - or maybe even getting SCUBA certified!

Also, I know I say this a lot, but I'm going to TRY to put up some pictures!!!!!!!! Tomorrow?

Waka Waka

It's another crazy adventure! But at this point, I've learned to expect nothing less.

We finished out our time in David. My predictions were right, and we ran out of things to do after the first day. We went to go see Harry Potter 7 Part 1 and another movie called Devil in one night, and pretty much spent the rest of the time hanging out at the hostel.

Yesterday morning we tried to go back to Costa Rica, only to find out at the border that when we went through customs the first time, we didn't get a stamp into Panama, just a stamp out of Costa Rica. Anyone else find it funny that the official who checked our passports didn't say anything about this? So we couldn't go back to Panama, because we were there illegally, but we couldn't go to Costa Rica either because they wouldn't let us back in. We had to go hire a lawyer to write letters to the customs officials telling them to cancel our exit stamp, which basically means that we never went to Panama. Which is great, except that Martin still had to renew his visa for Costa Rica by leaving the country for 72 hours.

Back to Panama.

We got back on the bus to David, but couldn't really stand the thought of another 3 days there, so we walked around the bus terminal and eventually decided to go to Bocas del Toro. This, as we found out a little bit too late, involved a 5 hour ride to Almirantes. It was 11 PM and pouring rain by the time we got there, and there were no water taxis leaving, so we had to stay there overnight. Then we got up first thing this morning and got on a boat to Isla Bocas! The weather isn't great still, but so far it's been awesome, and really beautiful. The hostel we're staying at, Casa Verde, is on stilts just above the water, and if you sit on the edge of the porch you can look right down and see fish. We're thinking about taking a snorkel tour tomorrow if it's nice. But for now, we're happy to just sit back and relax.

David

I made it to Panama!

Yesterday was a pretty long day. Martin and I got up and left the Flutterby House in time to catch the 8 AM bus out of Uvita, but accidentally went to the wrong stop and weren't able to get on another until 11. The bus took us down to Ciudad Neily, where we then had to get on another bus to Paso Canoas, the Panama border. By the time we got there, it was around 4. Customs took almost an hour after we went through the line once, only to find out that there were forms we needed to fill out before we got into line. Take two. After we got our stamps, we walked across the border where we took the first bus we could find, which happened to be going to a city named David. The bus crossed a border checkpoint and had to stop. An officer got on the bus and looked at each row. Then he walked to the back of the bus and checked my passport. He checked Martin's too. Without checking any of the other 30 people on the bus, he got off and we continued on. Racial profiling!

We had no idea where we were going, so we stayed on the bus until the last stop and ended up in a large bus terminal in what we could only assume was David. It was around 6 and we were very hungry, so we walked across the street to a restaurant where we were served huge plates of some of the best food I've ever had, all at $3 each. Martin managed to completely demolish his in under 4 minutes before eating half of mine, all between sips of beer that I could hardly choke down but he insisted "tastes like vater".

Germans.

After this, we found an internet cafe where we looked up hostels in David and found out that there were only two, both on the same block. We spent about 10 minutes comparing the two websites and decided to go to the one with the pool which, at $8.80 a night, was 95 cents more expensive than the other. We wrote down the address and got in a taxi. 20 minutes and only $1.50 later we were at the Bambu Hostel. The owner, a guy from New York City, was pretty cool. He showed us around the hostel, introducing us to his two dogs who he rescued off the street but are some of the friendliest and sweetest dogs I've ever known. We told him we had just come from Costa Rica. "Oh, cool," he said, "There was a guy here a couple weeks ago who had just come from there, too. Said he volunteered at some place called... the Flutterby House, I think?" So Ryan's been here! We also ran into a German family who had stayed there as well, with two little boys who Martin had given surf lessons too. At least now he has someone to talk to, he's been forgetting that I don't understand any of it and keeps starting conversations with me in German.

Once we were settled in, we went across the street to a bar where I watched in amazement as Martin ate ANOTHER huge plate of food, this one for only $2, after which he said that he was maybe only a little bit hungry now. I have come to a conclusion: either Martin is a tank, or he's pregnant.

We went out to the pool but were disappointed to see that the surface was covered in dead bugs and hair, so ended up just sticking our feet in and then going to bed early. I hadn't even realized how exhausted I was until my head hit the pillow and I passed out for a solid 10 hours.

This morning, we got up and walked to a nearby grocery store. Huge, shiny, and filled with more amazing food than I've seen in my entire life. We spent half an hour running around the store happily like children and got a ton of food for less than $10. Since then, we've been hanging out at the hostel, enjoying the nice weather. Now we're going to lunch, and then we'll go see a movie because they're in English and only $3. After that, I think we'll have done pretty much everything there is to do here, so we might have to get creative!

I'm back!

It's been over a month since my last post. I didn't think I would be back on here, but then I remembered all the people I've met during my travels whose only contact with me is through this blog and realized that I left off in a pretty bad place. Plus, the adventure has begun again, so I guess I have something more to write about!

I managed to get on a bus to San Jose the next day, Sunday, with the help of a group of students who were staying at the hostel. It was a 10-hour trip in total, from leaving the Flutterby to getting to the San Jose hostel, partially because on a walking speed scale of bag lady to 10, I was slower than the bag lady. By the time I got there, I was completely exhausted and in a lot of pain. To make a very long story short, 24 hours later I was landing at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. I'd had a meeting at the ACI office that morning and because of certain reasons decided to leave the program.

Being home was really, really, really weird. Everyone was speaking English. The streets were way too organized. And I kept dropping coins between my fingers because they're so much smaller. I got to see a couple friends and visit my old cheerleading team, but still, after a couple days, I was bored. One night, my mom had the idea that I should try to start college in January instead of waiting until May. I didn't think they would let me, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to, but out of curiosity I called the admissions office the next morning and asked if it would be possible. The man there asked me to wait while he checked and came back a minute later. "That's fine. We'll see you in January, Ms Bernardi." And he hung up.

The next morning I got up early and flew to Chicago to look for apartments. I only ended up seeing three, because I completely fell in love with the second one, but felt bad about canceling my last appointment for the day only half an hour ahead of time so I went. After I got back to Virginia, it was a weeklong rush of Ikea trips and a lot of packing before I left with my family to come back to Costa Rica. I only slept 3 nights that week. Which, in retrospect, was a really good idea because I was out cold for the entire plane trip and it made it seem really, really short.

I spent all of last week here with my family. We stayed the first 2 nights in Uvita at a nice hotel on a mountain with an ocean view. My dad and I drove out to San Isidro one day to get my backpack from my 2nd host family, who was very nice and said that next time I wanted to volunteer in Costa Rica I should skip the program, save $5,500 and come straight to them. I asked my host sister to come visit me in the United States. I hope she will. After that, we went up to a huge resort just north of Jaco for 4 nights, where I found a pretty solid group of people to hang out with and spent almost the entire time playing volleyball and soccer.

My parents left, and I went back down to the Flutterby House, where I'm staying now. I've been here for 3 nights and am on my 5th book. The weather has been pretty bad the last couple days so all I've done is read, but I'm hoping it gets nicer today so that I can at least go to the beach. But with all the craziness that's happened in the last few weeks it certainly feels like life has reached some sort of normal: Keith is singing reggae in the shower, Ryan rearranged the kitchen (again), and Max the dog keeps getting stuck in my treehouse. I'm going to Panama with Martin sometime in the next couple of days, who knows when and who knows for how long - we're great at planning. I go home on Christmas Eve... 23 days may seem like a lot of time to have left, but after 3 months here, I know it's going to be too short!