Asi es.

I found some crazy, tripped out message from Megan in my Junk mail folder which had some sort of statement like tell me about costa rica now bitch. I didnt think I had much to go on but it turned into a long message worthy of bloggage. Here it is. I pulled the pictures off the internet but i was definitely at both places exactly. I was there at that palm tree. It is at playa cocles and I took the same exact pciture but i havent gotten around to doing the camara download. i think my picture was better.

I guess last weekend was worthy of some discussion. The carribean coast has a whole different culture than the pacific coast. (American and euro travel culture) After leaving the central plateau and down the mountains, the bus coasted through hours of banana plantations punctuated by del monte and chiquita factories. Limon province or the carribean coast is Afrocaribean. History: escaped slaves. 2 minutes after i got off the bus, i got a request to dread my hair. Hmmm I think not. They cook their rice and beans in coconut milk instead of oil. They smoke bud. They have the biggest wave in costa rica, the salsa brava. (reef break) Everyone rides around on bicycles there which is cool. I took mine from Puerto Viejo down almost to Manzanillo and back (20plus km) and stopped at random isolated beaches.

There is some reef to snorkel at as well but there were some thundershowers earlier which i think would have limited the visibilty. Slept under mosquito nets. By the way, they can still bite you of you are touching the net so tuck it in around the bed. All in all, lots of fun, a bit cheaper than west coast, and a lot more chill. Ill be back, want to go to Cahuita and Manzanillo which are a bit less developed than puerto viejo I think. However, there just isnt time to get to all the places I want to go. Semana santa or spring break will be a trip up through nicaragua: Ometepe island, Granada, Masaya, Managua, Leon maybe?, and san juan del sur. I am also planning a scuba trip to Isla de Caño, which will be pretty sweet. Jurassic Park was filmed at Isla de Coco, which is about 500km or a 36 hours from the west coast. It is one of the best dive sites in the world and are guaranteed a dive with whale sharks, its famous schools of hundreds of hammerhead sharks, and everything else down to clown fish. the island is supposed to be pretty nice too. Unfortunately, a ten day dive trip will runn you $3000. So, the other island is like an hour from the coast and you still see sharks, rays, all sorts of fish, reef, and the visibility should be at least 50 feet. I think the visibilty in the pennsylvania quarry where our infamous scuba crew last dived ranged from 0 - 20 feet. And i saw one large mouth bass. Whhoopeee. Great trip thoug.h I degress. So, I am excited about future travel. School is actually hard which seems to be different from everyone elses experience. One IR class would be a joke at AU but is still difficult because its in spanish. The other is pretty much US standards, History of IR, which means I get to memorize the history of the world in spanish. fun considering that every place, organization, treaty, and theory have different names. Like The treaty of versailles might be el tratado de Versallèn or some random crap. NATO is ATON, USSR is URSS, the UN is ONU. Etc. I had to present on ¿What happens with failed states? and debate 2 days ago. I also fucked up on my first spanish exam which should have been cake. Either way, I dont really worry about these things but I am trying to pull out decent grades since they transfer directly. Thats it. there is also a very small, tiny even, probability that I will stay here over the summer. If this happens, i will let you guys know pronto.

I think im late for class.

later,

Rob