I wish I spoke Spanish..

Its almost seven thirty in the morning here in Monteverde Costa Rica and I'm awake already because of the beautiful, beautiful sunlight shining through the large windows of our room at the hostel. Ive been up so long, in fact, that I've already taken a brief walking tour of the town just to explore and see what's where.

The terrain is hilly much like San Ramon where we stayed our first night here with Mo's host family. Thankfully, I was in no rush in my walking tour and had no need to run like crazy people as Mark, Mo, and I did Thursday morning. We were running late to catch the bus into town (we couldnt miss it otherwise we'd miss the bus necessary to catch the bus to Puntarenas and then the ferry across to Paqueras) . So Mo, Mark, and I after we had sped walked to the top of the hill, saw that the bus was already at the bottom of the hill waiting and ready to go. So what do we do? We make a run for it. Mind you that we were in a huge rush that morning and half our belongings weren't even in our bags yet, that Mo had in her hand an open container of cereal and milk, and on top of it all... her bag ripped and all her toiletries, shoes, etc. were flying out. Mo led the pack in running towards the bus and for some reason, Mark ended up holding her cereal and running after her. Trailing behind the two was myself as I was picking up all the stuff that came flying out of her bag. The bus driver was kind and he waited for us. After two bus rides, a taxi, a ferry, and another bus ride, we finally made it to Montezuma Thursday night.

Meanwhile, back in real time... in my walk around town, the only things I was able to find open were the supermarket and coffee shop next door.... both things we'll be visiting today for sustinence, but I want to wait for the guys to wake up. Speaking of "the guys".. Mark, Mo, and I randomly walked into three Grinnellians on the beach at Montezuma-- Brian, Jeff, and Andrew. Since then, we've been hanging out with them. We cooked dinner together that first Thursday night at Montezuma and drank some forties (in good Grinnellian form) on the beachlater hat night. The next day, we prepared a "picnic lunch" and went on seach of the waterfalls. Like the guidebook said there were three of them... all absolutely beautiful. The second two, however, requierd quite a bit of climbing, balancing, scaling, etc. to find-- but also well worth it. Though all terribly sunburned, cut up, and bruised, I think its fair to say that we all really enjoyed all the jumps, swings, and "hot tub-sitting" from that adventure.

Yesterday, we all left and took the ferry back across where Mo left to go home (she is, afterall, supposed to be doing an internship here as apart of her study abroad experience). After the dustiest bus ride I've ever experienced (far worse than Senegal), we got into Monteverde last night around time for dinner. The hostel we wanted to stay at was booked but we managed to find a pretty dece alternative for just five dollars a night.

I think its almost time for the guys to wake up now... so Im going to head off and maybe update later.