Sticky, Sunburned and Snorkeling

Friday began a much needed laid-back weekend. The center hosted a fiesta for our homestay families that had disco lights, salsa music and tasty food that rivaled any party I've ever been too. Even better was the company. Ana and Edwin, my mother and brother here in Atenas, came to the dinner, and they were carrying the largest basket of exotic tropical flowers I'd seen. Apparently my effort at Spanish and politeness, despite the different customs, had come across. Dinner was accompanied with a talent show in which I partook in a Stomp dance led by Meredith who is a proud (white) member of her college stomp team. Our final shouts of "pura vida!" were followed by Kurt, Pedro, Frodo (Peter), Colin (Culo) and Doug singing and dancing away their dignity, with much pleasure for the audience, to "I Want it That Way" by the Backstreet Boys. The night ended with some superb salsa dancing (thanks to our lesson the night before) under the disco lights. After most of the families had left SFS students took over the dance floor until we were told to stop and clean up the remnants of an amazing night.

As for the rest of the weekend, it had yet to begin. The early morning on Saturday greeted us with multiple bus rides, first into San Jose and then to Cahuita. We ended up spending more time than planned in San Jose because the first bus was sold out. No matter, we had a great breakfast and visited the only English bookstore in the city. The only downside was that my goal of eating ZERO beans on the weekend was foiled in t-1 hour.

Finally arriving in Cahuita, we were greeted by a small colorful town and a sticky film of sweat and humidity covering our skin. This was a moot point when we caught sight of the pristine beaches along the national park and the cool blue water. Surprisingly, it was much cooler than the water at Manuel Antonio, though still bath water warm. After checking into our hostel and visiting la playa negra, we set off to do what we had really come to do. Eat Caribbean food, and lots of it. After a delicious dinner of Patacones (which Maisie asked for "sin carne" even though they are fried plantains), pescado and Rice and Beans (yes, more beans) we settled in next door at Coco's. After some coconut drinks we were all feeling extremely tired after a long day's travel so we played some cards and went to bed. The first weekend we have free and don't have a midnight curfew, we go to bed at 10:30 - the irony kills me.

Well rested for a full day in the water, we went snorkeling with King at 9. He took us out in his little boat and gave us gear and showed us where the good fish and corals were. We were in Cahuita National Park waters just a ways off the shore of the point. For me, the snorkeling was amazing. For some Turks and Caicos alums (coughMaisiecough) it was nothing new. I however, was fasincated by the many different types of neon and colorful fish, the equally impressive coral and the sea urchins. One of my favorite things about this snorkeling, besides the freedom and the warm water, was the massive schools of fish that you could dive down and swim between. This must be similar to what Cahuitan kids do for fun in place of running and chasing down flocks of geese at the park like I used to (still) do.

After our snorkeling adventure and some bathing in conch shells, we ate lunch at a crepe place. I must say I have never had sadía (watermelon) in a crepe before and though it was good, it had nothing on Artopolis. We walked through the national park for a while, attempting to burn off the lunch so we could get in our second lunch before we had to load up the bus. After being frightened by the howler monkeys, we enjoyed another dose of Caribbean food and then headed back to the dry side of the country with our full bellies and salty and sunburned skin. Needless to say, once we arrived back at the center and joined our compañeros, we were certainly no longer the gringo sunburned anomaly.