Hi all!
We left Costa Rica last night, and I’m now on my way home! What a journey it has been. Costa Rica was great! The first day we docked in Puerto Caldera which is pretty much just a port, not even a town there so there wasn’t a whole lot to do on the first day. Me and some friends just took a walk to see what there was to see, turns out there’s not much, haha. We went to a little beach nearby where some locals were hanging out, playing soccer, barbequing, things like that. So that was cool, it was just a nice relaxing day.
Then the second day the ship moved to a pier in Puntarenas, which isn’t a very big town either but it was slightly larger. So my second day I went with a friend to a national park called Carara where we got to just hike around in the rainforest! It was so cool! It was very pretty. We didn’t get to see a whole lot of exciting wildlife, but we saw a few things. We saw a little tucan in a tree, we heard Macaws but didn’t get to see any, and we saw a few huge iguanas and a small wild boar and a bunch of little lizzard things (and a partridge in a pear tree?! Wait no, we didn’t see that haha). Anyways the rainforest was awesome! Then we took a bus to a town nearby called Jaco, which was kind of touristy but kinda funky little place with locals everywhere too. We ate at a really good restaurant that had fish tacos and huge (14”) burritos! Haha. Then we just walked around Jaco for a while, and then had quite an adventure getting back to Puntarenas! We could either catch a bus or take a taxi back but all the taxi drivers wanted $50 or 60 in US dollars to take us back to Puntarenas and we didn’t even have that much with us. So we decided to take a bus instead but the first bus that came drove past us because it was so full they didn’t want to stop for 2 more people. Sigh. So we waited for another bus and while we waited we talked to a guy who was sitting at the bus stop. We didn’t have time to ask his name before our bus came but we talked to him a little, he was excited that we spoke English because he knew a little English and he wanted to practice, and I wanted to practice my Spanish so it was a very “Spanglish” conversation, haha. Anyways finally a bus came and it was only $2, way better than the taxis! So we took a bus, but the bus didn’t take us all the way to the pier where our ship was so then we had to figure out how to get to our ship, so I got to use my Spanish again. It would have been pretty tough otherwise I’d say and Elanor, the girl I was with said she was so glad I knew enough Spanish to communicate with the bus driver and taxi drivers and such. So that made me feel good :-) So after much confusion and trying to remember the word for ship in spanish (barco!) we finally made it back to the ship. It was a great but completely exhausting day, and I went to bed by 9 that night! Haha.
My third day in Costa Rica was full of adventures too! I did two SAS sponsored trips. The first was a canopy adventure tour of the rainforest. We rode through (or kind of above) the rainforest on a zipline! It was really fun. And it was calm enough of a ride for me to also enjoy the view on my way down! Haha. It wasn’t exactly thrilling like a rollar coaster or anything, but it was really fun. And a bunch of my friends were on the same trip so it was fun to do it with them. Then after that I went on a trip to go horseback riding! We went to a ranch that was kind of out in the forest also, and it was so pretty there. So we rode horses around through fields and forest and everything, and it was great! We had a bit of a traumatic start to the horseback riding adventure when one girl’s horse wandered over to a tree and disturbed a beehive. The girl got stung several times and was pretty traumatized, as would I have been! So she didn’t end up getting to ride with us, but we made sure she was ok and then we went ahead while she stayed with the guide. She was doing fine by the time we got back so we were glad that even though she didn’t get to go riding she was ok andit all turned out fine and it was a really fun day besides that! There were a few people on our trip who are very allergic to bees so it was good that this girl was not! So after that we headed back to the ship and were one of the last people to get on the ship before we left Costa Rica (we were the last SAS trip of the semester, aww)
So today I got to sleep in, yay! And so far it’s been an uneventful day. I got a couple grades back from professors, so far it’s looking like I’ve passed all my classes :-) so that’s good. And we had a meeting for everyone on the ship about the disembarkation process when we get to Miami, which will be early morning on December 14. Only 3 more days on the ship after today, wow! I can’t believe it. I’m excited to get there though. My mom is meeting me in Miami which I’m so excited about! We’re spending that night there and then she’ll fly back to Colorado while I fly to Michigan for a few days, and then coming home! I’ll be home in Boulder on the 19th of December. In time to enjoy the Christmas season and festivities! I can’t wait for the cold weather, and hopefully some snow when I get back to Colorado! I’ve been in hot, humid weather for almost the whole trip with the exception of Africa and Japan!
Tonight is the ambassador’s ball, which should be very fun! We get all dressed up, have a fancy dinner, and there’s dancing and lots of fun! Tomorrow we’re going through the Panama Canal, which will be cool too! I’ll be sure to go outside and take pictures. Speaking of pictures I’ll hopefully post some of my Costa Rica pictures on Flickr tonight or tomorrow and take a few more of everything going on these last few days on the ship. The rest of my time on the ship before Miami will probably be packing and repacking to try to fit everything I’ve got into a few suitcases and boxes, and saying goodbye to friends. Like I’ve said many times, it’s been an amazing journey and I can’t believe how lucky I’ve been to get to do this. I’ve been around the world, and I can report back that it’s a great place! :-) Every last place we went had great people, tasty food, fun things to do and see…
My favorite port was South Africa. The friendliest people were probably the Japanese. The weirdest food I ate was stingray in Malaysia (it was delicious!). The biggest culture shock was India. The most beautiful thing I saw was the view from the top of Table Mountain in South Africa. The most unexpected thing was being invited to stay with an Indian family for a night and meeting Desmond Tutu. And I’ve got a lot more favorites and firsts I can share with everyone when I get home if you’d like to know. And you should all send me emails while I’m still on the ship so I have something to read in case I get bored! Haha. After December 14 I won’t have access to my Semester at Sea email address anymore so you all can email me at kinimaleka@hotmail.com again, or Facebook, or call me!!
That’s all for now I think. I’ll probably write at least one more blog before my journey comes to an end. In the meantime I hope everyone’s doing well. I hope finals are going well for those of you taking finals right now, and I can’t wait to see you all soon!!
