EXAMS and 10km

Last week was a week of exams... it was pretty intense esp considering that i have had really no study since I got here so doing 2 or so hrs of study in a row was some what challenging...

Anyway... I survived the week pretty successfully and on weds night we celebrated with a fire on the beach... toasting marshies and making smores!!! Yum!!!

We chilled out on Fri and Sat and the on Sun I did something I never even dreamed of doing...
I ran in a 10km race...

I know!! I had been training for actually only 2 weeks... and seriously only for a week... What was I thinking???

We woke up at 3 to catch a 4 o'clock bus to San Jose (say what!!!) and started running at 9... It was pretty intense...
But I made it.. I ran the whole thing... no stopping, no walking... only running!!! My time was 1hr and 7mins!! I ran with friends which was very helpful... we even made it onto the Costa Rican news!!! I know pretty much famous...

In the avo after my morning of 'fun' we went to a mall got some lunch... well deserved fast food... saw a really cool Costa Rican movie called Gestacion... kinda a bit Junoish (but this girl had the best friends ever!!) and then... I had the best BANANA SPLIT ever... oh my it was just goodness in a bowl... so so so good... ( i think i may be addicted to Ice cream...)

Was more than ready for bed by the time we arrived home... and even had to sleep after my morning class on mon morn i was so exhausted...

I dont have any pics of this event but they are on my facebook page so if ya want proof or more pics from my panama adventure check that out :-)

I'm off on another adventure this weekend... to an active volcano... hopefully ill fill you in quicker this time...

PANAMA!!!

So i realise that I have not blogged in a while... I have just been putting it off...

So this may be a slightly large update...

On Tues the 13th of October We left on our big group trip... we got up bright and early... and travelled to San Jose by Bus...here our hungry wee bodies were feed an amazing breakfast of gallo pinto (rice and beans, I eat it everyday for breaky and i love it!!!!) and eggs... we then trooped onto the bus for the journey over to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica... We arrived at a small restaurant and loaded onto a boat and after 1 & 1/2 hrs we arrived at our hotel in Tortugero!!!

Whoop whoop it was soooooooo nice... Colleen and I shared a room... we went in and first thing we checked for was hot water!!!! Oh it was like heaven to have a hot shower.... i swear I havent felt so clean in soooo Long!!!

The lodge was amazing it had a pretty sweet swimming pool and buffet meals... was sooo cool...

on the first avo we went onto the beach as it was turtle hatching season... sadly we didnt see any baby turtles... but we saw broken egg shells and big birds swooping around waiting for their next feed of new hatchlings...

Birds just waiting for a feed

We had a pretty sweet night.. swimming... eating!!! and then Erik who studies psychology did this test thing on us with drawings... it was sooo funny... slightly scary tho, some stuff that came out of the drawings was actually true...

Day two: There was MUESLI at breakfast... it was amazing... I havent had muesli in sooo long... I was stoked!! what a way to start the morning...

We went in wee boats to explore the canals of Tortugero... saw some pretty hard core lizards such as the one below...

A relic from the dinosaur age

And also some crazy birds... and a snake!!! one of the birds looked scarily like a Kiwi.... so much so that had it not being up a tree I prob would have looked twice...

A kiwi in Costa Rica???

We went back to the lodge and in the avo went for a bush walk through some fantastic mud!! It was pretty fun squelching through the trail...

Ready to go in our gumboots...

Our muddy boots after the walk...

That night there was football game between Costa Rica and the US... Costa Rica started off so well. the were up 2-0 but then the states came back to draw the match in the last minute... I was sooooo gutted for C.R.

Day Three: We left Tortugero bright and early and had a long day of travelling down into Panama... we passed loads of Banana plantations... some men work pulling 25 bunches of Bananas along a rail from the plantation to the packing plant... each bunch has around 100-150 bananas on it.. can you imagine how heavy that would be???...

We crossed the boarder into Panama!! YES another stamp for my passport!!! The bridge we had to walk across however was not sooo exciting... it was rather run down and had holes all along the floor... not a good place to trip while holding your passport...

The rickety bridge we had to cross!!!

After a long day of busing and boating we arrived in Bocas del Toro Panama... How exciting!!!... and for tea I had Lobster!!! yum!!

On the boat on the way to Bocas...

Day four: We woke up to rain :-( very sad but shortly after breaky it started to clear up and it turned out to be a stellar day!! We snorkeled at some amazing Islands... went to the coolest Starfish beach and went to a famous beach called red frog beach... apparently some pretty famous people have visited... These places were just stunning... absolutely beautiful...

I had the best fish ever for lunch as well it was soooo good... and then squid for tea!! What a day!!

Starfish beach... there were sooooo many starfish all big and orange and stunning!!!!

Oh and at lunch I got to hold a real live sloth!!! I was very excited!!... It just clung to ya with its wee little legs...

me and the wee sloth!!!!

Day five: was another exploration and snorkeling day... we saw an amazing coral reef and then we went to one of the most beautiful places I have been... It was where they had a season of survivor... a gorgeous gorgeous Island... The water was perfectly blue and clear... the snorkeling was AMAZING and I saw a Sting ray!!!

The 'final three' on Survivor Island

We had a sweet night... eating our second absolutely amazing peanut butter and chocolate milkshake!! my goodness they were to die for!!!

Day six: Traveling home... who knew it would be such an eventful day????

After lunch we crossed the border and got onto our bus... about 3hrs into our journey we had some engine issues and waited for about 40 mins while the driver tinkered... about 2hrs later between Limon and San Jose we started to smell this burning smell... I began to yell at the driver that something was burning... the bus pulled over... we clambered out to find flames shooting out the back of the bus!!! Very scary!!!! Turns out that a towel had been left in the engine compartment during the fixing stage and this had caught on fire!!!... Now normally you would not get back on a bus that had just had a fire near its engine but as there was no reception we all just got back on and rode the same bus slowly until we got cell phone coverage and called another bus... we finally got the new bus... got dinner in San Ramon and an hr later at about 11pm we got home... straight to bed that night...