michelle rivers - my adventure blog

This last week went by faster than any other week on this trip. It's been a whirlwind. If there's one word to describe Monteverde, it's GREEN: The drive to Monteverde was long, hot, and windy. Although I took Dramamine and drank lots of water, I still ended up very nauseous and overheated. I figured after a good night's rest at my new host family I would be feeling better, but that wasn't the case. Unfortunately my host family was not great. The host mother was a very sweet lady but worked long hours (very busy) and didn't take very good care of her 4 year old son, who was always misbehaving. She also had a 14 year old daughter who was fun but also very rebellious. It made for a loud household and I felt uncomfortable eating the food she made (they would let it sit out on the stove.) Since I was already having problems, I decided to buy my own water and food. After day 3 of being sick to my stomach and feeling very weak, I went to the clinic in town. I was put o...

Today was packed with activities! At the last minute, I signed up for a "combo tour" offered by the school, and I'm SO GLAD I decided to do it. Nobody else in my main group from the school went, so I was able to meet some people from around the world and some other Americans, including a very nice well-experienced traveler and a Spanish professor. We started by going on a coffee plantation tour about an hour outside of town. I learned a lot about coffee, and I have a new appreciation for it! I understand why really good bags of coffee cost so much- there really is a lot of work involved. To the righ t is a picture of a coffee plant when it's first sprouting. They're called "soldiers" because the y look like they're wearing the helmet (these ar e the only soldiers you'll find in Costa R ic a!) Once the plant grows bigger, it pro duces tons of little red berry looking things that are picked by hand. Then they are washed in a huge tub of water, ...

Friday morning I went rappeling... do wn a waterfall! Once again, I had to face my fear of heights (t he waterfall was 60 meters t all), and I had a lot of fun. (After bungee jumping, it really wasn't that scary) I didn't reall y know what to expect, but it sounded fun so I signed up and volunt eered to go first from my group. As you can see f ro m t he p icture, it was extremely beautiful. Operating the rope to descend was a little unnatural, but I m ade it down with no problem. After desce nding, we had to take a short hike up the mountain to get back to our car. I ran into some interesting butterflies and crazy looking caterpillars on a tree. This weekend I went to Tortuguero , a beautiful National Park located on the Carribb ean side of the country. Getting to Tortuguero took a while because we had to take 2 buses and a boat through the canal, but the ride was relaxing and we caught some animals on the way. We also stopped at a banana plantation to learn a little ...

Today was another great day! Some friends and I went to Inbioparque (kind of by accident, we thought it was a place to hike), which was a place to wal k around and see animals - kind of like a zoo except more natural, because not everything was in cages. We saw TONS of aw esome animals and plants: snakes, lizards, sloths, giant iguanas, crazy looking insects, frogs, bunnies, baby cows and go ats, beautiful birds, etc. I even saw a GLASSWING BUTTERFLY, which just amazed me because they're rare and I've always thought they were extremely beautif ul in pictures I've seen online. Now I have my own! I'm not a botanist, so I'll just call this "spiny tree." Huge iguana just chillin' on a branch. Holding a soft baby bunny. Creepy spider! School is still going well. My Spanish is definitely improving because I've been practicing as much as possible and hassling everyone to correct me when I make mistakes. I actually prefer speaking in Spanish because it...

This weekend I went down south with Pamela to visit her family. To get there, we had to take 3 buses and go over Cerro de la Muerte, which is a cold mountain (3,491 meters) with lots of windy roads. The s cenery was beautiful, but unfortunately I couldn't enjoy it co mp letely because I got a little nauseous from all the turns. (I did on the way back though, because Pamela's sister works at a pharmacy and got me some anti-nausea pills!) Pamela's parents and sister are very nice and treated me like I was part of their family. Pipa! Coconut mil k is delicio us. Empanadas... yum! The extent of my "wildlife" sightings have been insects so far... still pretty exotic looking. Perritos (really friendly but I ended up with an arm full of flea bites after petting them!) Beautiful pericos . Since I spent this weekend outside of the city, I actually felt completely out of my comfort zone. I was obviously the only European-American around and the only one who wasn't fl...

I'v e fallen in love... with this amazing fruit (above)! It's so delicious! I bought 3 today at a farmer's market. They're a lot of work to eat, but super sweet - kind of like pomegranates. (Wish I could remember the name) I've been eating so much fruit! The fruit here is either extremely exotic and interesting or like home, except much bigger and sweeter. The mangoes, for instance, are like the size of my head and super delicious! School is going well, I can't believe I've already had 20 hours of class! It's going by really fast. Today we had our first test and I did very well, which really boo sted my confidence. We also watched a fascinating video about Latin American art and culture. Next week we start a whole new unit and we have a new teacher. Left: practicing my Spa nish while I re-read (for the 4th? time) Harry Potter! Some pic tures of my neighborhood: The drains that line the street, with lots of moss and ferns growing in them! The wate...

Yesterday morning we went to the butterfly farm in town... I'll let the pictures do the talking for this one. It was one of the most amazing things I've EVER seen, seriously. My new friend :) In flight Halloween Butterfly Butterflies have a very short lifespan: 5 days to 2 weeks, at most. From this... To this! At different stages... The ones just hanging there are drying their wings, getting ready for flight. They like banana and mango just as much as we do! These guys can cost up to $5 each if you wanted to buy them as cocoons. Soo... next time you go to a zoo and see some butterflies like these, keep in mind they were probably imported! Anyway, everything else has been going well for the most part. The food is s till super delicious (a sundae I had at a local cafe on the right!) but it does give me quite a stomach ache. Class is really fun. Yesterday we played "Taboo" in Spanish and talked about whatever. Our teacher is very lenient and mostly lets us talk ab...