Sun, sea and surfers

Hola!
Have been in Dominical for a week now but it feels like a lifetime! Time takes on such a weird quality out here, it really is one of the most amazing places I have ever been with some of the most interesting people. The beach is about 150m from the house where we are staying so we spend most of our time there. The sea isn't like in England, the currents are strong and we all have the bruises to show for being pummelled with the rocks that scatter the beach!
The turtle project isn't exactly what any of us where expecting, it isn't an organisation but a few people doing what they can to clear the beach. Most days we spend the morning clearing the beach of the bigger bits of driftwood. It's important to do this because the turtles won't lay if they think there are too many obstacles on the beach. In the evenings we go for turtle patrols but have yet to see any turtles! Still I'm enjoying being here just for the holiday to be honest! A lot of the time we spend at the beach is passed watching the surfers who provide endless entertainment. The surf is quite big here and there have been some epic wipeouts! Everyone, Ticos and foreigners say hi in the streets and often I just get distracted chatting before realising it's fine because I don't have to be anywhere.
The day after I got here there was a ladies night at Maracatu, one of the bars in the town which was genuinely one of the funniest nights of my life. The men here are so funny, the other girls and I spent the whole night dancing to reggae mixed with the standard chart music and I can safely say that Latinos are much better dancers than white boys!
Last weekend we got out of Dominical to Parc National Manuel Antonio on Saturday which was incredible. I was a bit dubious about the bus reaching the top of the hill but eventually we made it and within about 2 minutes of being in the park I had seen my first 3 toed sloth! Along the walk to the beach we saw Howler monkeys, White Faced Cappuchins, another 3 toed Sloth and a 2 toed Sloth. Pretty impressive and made sweeter since the guide only charged us half price. There are definite advantages to being a blonde in Costa Rica! The beach was perfect, white sand and calm water. After a long swim (it's pretty difficult to swim here in Dominical!) we sat out on the beach to dry off only to be accosted by racoons! They came straight out of the trees and pinched cookies from Kirsty's bag before sitting there bold as day as if daring us to come after them...cheeky buggers!

Santa Barbara de Heredia

Landing in San Jose, I did not get off to the best start for the trip. I discovered after waiting at the airport for 2 and a half hours that the person picking me up had thought I was arriving on Friday rather than Saturday. After some calling round which nearly included a call to the British Embassy I was picked up and taken to my host family. I'm not going to lie, it was a shock to learn that I would be spending the weekend with a host family and then to find out none of them spoke English was almost a disaster! I stumbled my way through my first conversation in broken Spanish and discovered that it rains ALL AFTERNOON EVERY AFTERNOON during the wet season!
My family were so kind to me and I learnt so much aout Costa Rican culture and some very useful Spanish phrases but it was soon off to the Amistad Institute who explained where I would be going for my turtle conservation project.

The coffee capital of the world

Thursday 16th June 2011 did not start well for me. I set my alarm early to get the horror of receiving my exam results over with; I fully expected to fail. Instead of getting my results however I met with confusion about why results were not available and a positive test result for Glandular Fever. Later that day the medical school got their act together and I discovered luckily all was not lost. I had infact by some miracle passed my exams with 'the glange' as it was now fondly known.
The plan for my summer had been to cycle John O'Groats to Lands End with a team of Leeds medics. It became clear over the next few weeks that this was not going to be possible in my state of health. So in between a lot of time watching megavideo and knitting a blanket I started formulating plans for when I was well enough to travel.
Having done the 'finding myself' bit last year in South East Asia, I was eager to 'give back to the community' and happened upon a conservation project for sea turtles in Costa Rica.
Now having a severe dislike for any coffee product and a grasp of Spanish which amounts to, 'Why is it not acceptable for you like that?', this seemed like the perfect destination!

Ciao