5 days of the rich coast

Alright. The lack of wi-fi has dampened my efforts to blog effectively thus far in my trip. But I am currently in a good spot for such an activity. So here go!

Background info
I am in Costa Rica with My mother, my brother, my mom's fellow teachers; Kate, Steven, Santa, and Santa's son, Kevin.

I am with a program called EF tours, and there are about four or five other groups in our main group. I've been meeting some cool people from the other groups.
Monday
Generally boring day. Airport, plane, jersey, plane, San Jose. Bus, hotel

Tuesday
Wonderful breakfast of fried plantains and pineapple, and the best coffee I've ever had until later that day. Our tour guide, Valentine, is a really nice guy, and quite learn-ed in the ways of his home country. We learned that the main income for Costa Rica is Coffee, Bananas, tourism and technology. So of course Coffee and Bananas are frequent things at our dinner tables.

We went to a coffee plantation for a bit. Coffee beans are nothing like I thought they would be. We got coffee from the shop there. Best coffee I have ever tasted, and will probably ever taste. Even the people who didn't drink coffee, and didn't even like it, agreed that it was good. I will hold it in my memory forever.

After that, we went to a place called INBio. It's a small place with an itsy bitsy little rainforest in the middle of the city. They use it to educate people on the rainforest, and for research. We were able to see deer, birds, sloths, butterflies, snakes and many exotic plants.

Wednesday - (Wet Day)
Breakfast at seven. On the bus. We go to some massive man made lake and kayak, which is wonderful, because I love to kayak. What wasn't wonderful about it, was the fact that they only had double kayaks. I went with Steven, and double kayaking wasn't as bad at thought it would be. We went swimming, and then got back on the bus. This would begin a very wet day. (Don't say it, Isaac).

Afterward, we went to this nice waterfall, took pictures and went swimming next to it. I spent my time trying to catch one of the many fish with my hands. I failed miserably, despite being a tough woodsman.

After that, we went to a nice area for hot springs, which had many choices of hot pools. It was wonderful.

After, we went to a great site for watching the volcano that was supposedly going to erupt. It did not. All we got to see were many Asian and American tourists taking pictures of the volcanoes. With the flash. Like the light would actually reach the volcano that was miles away.

Bus. sleep. New Day.
Thursday

Today!

Today, we visited a primary school in the middle of nowhere. As I learned after the visit, these kids that actually go to school, are about two thirds of the kids in their area, so obviously many do not go. This school has literally one classroom, and one teacher. This one teacher runs the whole shibang, and teaches kids six, to twelve. Often times, the kids will feel like school is pointless, and (unlike most of us) will actually stop going. What this lady in my group (who had lived in Costa Rica before) said, was that, when all these kids from high school show up, it shows them what their lives could be like one day, and encourages them to go to school! These kids danced awesome, flashy, colorful, Costa Rican dances for us. It was impressive. So then, Valentine says that we should dance for them. About half of the group that had the nerve to dance (myself included) got up, and waited for instruction. Of course. they play The macarana, and the cha cha slide. We had a fun time, an departed.

I'm sure we did something else, but it's too late to think of it... edit later.


Misc.
Almost all of the other groups are kids with friends. It's sort of making me a little bummed. It's harder to enjoy it all without someone you can connect to. I'm not too fond of my brother, and Kevin and I aren't exactly compatible. However, I am still making the best of this amazing trip.

I met a cute girl, but of course, she lives in Utah, or some place over there.

ZIP LINING TOMORROW. SO EFFIN' PSYCHED. CAPS ARE DEFINITELY NECESSARY. Good night, people!