Tortuguero

After a weekend at home we were looking for a different type of adventure, other than the white sand beaches that we had been spending most of our weekends at (not that I'm complaining). We decided on the little village of Tortuguero which is located in the far northeast corner of the country along the Caribbean Sea. It is a tiny village located on a narrow strip of land in between the famous Tortuguero water canals, and on the other side, running parallel to the canals, is the Caribbean Sea. It is a very small, cute and narrow little village (no more then a few hundred yards between the ocean and the canal), and I am not lying when I say that it is one of the most remote places in Costa Rica. For us to get there we had to take two separate buses for 4 hours, and then on to a small motorized boat for another 2 hours ( the boat was tiny, and in many parts of the river the water was very shallow since it is the dry season, and our boat would get stuck on sand banks and a couple of the men working on the boat would have to jump out and push us, even though the rivers were full of caymans, crocodiles and other shady animals). It was an awesome little boat ride, but after 2 hours, I just wanted to hurry up and get there. When we did, it was one of the cutest little villages I have ever seen, there are no cars, and the only transportation is by bus or by walking. There is one main dirt path down the center of the village, with a bunch of little hostels, sodas (small restaurants), and souvenir shops, there is no bank, no atm machine, no anything really, but it was definitely part of the experience. On our first night we explored the village, took pictures, and checked out the beach (which was beautiful, but unfortunately you can't swim there because the waves are too big and it is known as a shark hang out). We were exhausted and ended up going to bed around 8 o'clock that night.

At around 5 in the morning we were woken up but loud winds and rain, and after watching it downpour for a minute, I went back to bed. However don't let the rain fool you cause later in the morning when we got up, it was bright, sunny, and ridiculously humid and muggy. We went on a canoe tour that day with an awesome guide named Rafa (who is actually pretty famous for the area, and you can find his name in many Costa Rica travel books) and he is bilingual which was very helpful. For the tour we went in to the national park and spent over 4 hours floating down the mazes of canals, it was one of the most unique experiences of my life, I felt like I was in the Amazon Rainforest. We saw two different species of monkeys, a bunch of different kinds of exotic birds, poison dart frogs, and a couple caymans (one of them had no tail, it had been bit off by another animal). It was completely silent floating down some of the canals, and all you could hear were the sounds of monkeys and birds, it was the coolest feeling in the world, totally one of a kind. That night we played at the beach for a while and then ate dinner at an outdoor diner type thing (the food wasn't that good, and there were lizards crawling on the walls, let's just say I wasn't a huge fan of the place lol). We went to bed early again that night and were up bright and early to take the 6 am boat ride back, except that morning we ended up having to take 3 buses after our boat ride, and all in all giving us a 7 hour, hot and uncomfortable trek back to San Jose, however worth every minute of it. I would love to to return to Tortuguero in the future, the best months to visit are August to November because this spot is famous for the laying and hatching of the Giant Green Sea and Leatherback turtles. It is one of only two places in the world they come to lay their eggs, and during those months you can take special night tours to the beach to watch the turtles come out of the water and lay the eggs in the sand. It is the main attraction that makes Tortuguero (actually meaning turtle) so popular, and because of these turtles the beach and National Park are highly protected.

Relaxing weekend at home & Family Fiesta

After weeks of non stop traveling, we finally decided to spend a weekend at home in San Pedro and go with Nuri to a family party. The party was all day Saturday in a town about a 30 minute drive out of San Jose. It was at a beautiful property up in the hills, with a huge under cover eating area, large lawn, and a nice refreshing swimming pool, perfect for the 90 degree weather. We spent all day lounging by the pool and playing with Nuri's two grandchildren, Camilla and Eduardo, they are two of the cutest and smartest little kids I have ever met, they are currently learning English, Portuguese, and French on top of learning their home language Spanish. As much as I normally hate children, they are so fun to play with and too adorable to resist, I think I'm getting good practice since I'm going to be an aunt in a couple of months! Anyways, we got to meet a bunch of Jorge's family (Nuri's husband) and eat a delicious dinner of soups, salads, and lots of meat. It was definitely a relaxing weekend after 5 straight weekends of traveling and nice to meet more family members who we could practice our Spanish with. On Sunday we explored downtown a little more, checked out Parque Sabana and the surrounding area, and came home to a yummy dinner of Chop Suey from Nuri(which was great because I have craving Asian food like no other since I have been down here). A nice relaxing weekend at home was just what we needed, but we were ready to take another adventure, we can't let these weekends go to waste, they are going so fast!

Manuel Antonio National Park/Quepos

Last weekend 5 of us decided to head to the small town of Quepos which is where Manuel Antonio National Park is. Everyone I had talked to had told us that Manuel Antonio had some of the most beautiful, white sand beaches in the entire country and they were right! There was a curvy road that connected the town of Quepos and the little strip of a town where the National Park was at, and along that curvy road is where all of the hostels, hotels, restaurants and bars were at. Our house mom Nury had told us that she had a friend named Sonia who owned a hostel and that we should give her a call. She ended up giving us a great deal on one of her rooms because we were Nury's students. About a mile down the road from the actual hostel, Sonia owns a two story house where she rents out the bottom floor to travelers, and she and her boyfriend live upstairs, and we were lucky enough to get the house for a great deal. It was so nice!







We had two bedrooms a good sized bathroom, a living room, huge kitchen where we could cook all of our own meals, and a huge patio area with 4 or 5 hammocks. It was definitely a nice surprise after our weekend in the Jaco Hostel. The little area of Manuel Antonio was so cute, very laid back and super hot. When we first got there on Friday we went to the supermarket to buy our groceries for the weekend, and then headed down to explore one of the beaches. We walked for about 20 minutes down a HUGE curvy hill that was very secluded besides a couple of ritzy villa type resorts that looked empty for the most part. We finally got the bottom of the hill and cut off onto a trail that led us on a 5 minute hike down to the beach. The beach was so awesome, it wasn't a public beach so it was extremely secluded in a quiet little cove, and there were only like 6 or 7 other people down there. It kinda sucked because it was hide tide so the water was up really high and there was almost no beach left, and the tide had brought in a bunch of leaves and sand, but nevertheless it was BEAUTIFUL. After the long treck down the hill we were sweating and I didnt hesitate to drop everything and jump right into the water. After we swam and took pictures for a while, we were lucky enough to see a taxi drive by who stopped and drove us back up to our hotel. We walked a little ways down the road to a perfect little grassy area where we stopped and watched the sun set over the pacific.








We spent that night hanging out and relaxing in our hammocks at the house because we were getting up early to head to the national park. Someone in town had told us that it was only a “short, 20 minute walk to the national park” but the next morning if definitely took a good 45 minutes in the hot sun, I honestly don't think I have ever been so sweaty in my entire life, I even stopped at bought a bottled water from some lady on the side of the road lol. And wearing sandals was not the brightest idea I had of the day because after walking all the way to the park, and then hiking to the different beaches, my feet were in a lot of pain. The park itself was absolutely beautiful, and thus far it is my favorite place in Costa Rica, there is no doubt that I want to go back before I leave the country. Inside the park there are four different beaches, but we only ended up making it to two of them that day. There were a ton of hiking trails but a lot of them were closed for maintenance. The beaches were white sand and had the some of the clearest water I had ever seen (besides the Virgin Islands I went to two years ago with my sisters, I don't know if I'll ever go to beaches that clear again). The park had lots of people but wasn't too crowded. The sun was definitely the most intense sun we have been in because even though I was putting on a ton of sunscreen all day long, I somehow managed to get extremely sunburned (even with the great base tan I already have). Throughout the park there was a TON of wildlife, I saw a bright green snake slithering through the bushes (I wanted to cry..it was so gross, but cool looking nonetheless), we saw a bunch of cool birds, a million little crabs, some rodent anteater type thing, a bunch of iguanas and lizards and MONKEYS!!



There was a little stretch of trees in between the two beaches we went to and there were little white faced monkeys everywhere, they were so cute but don't let them fool you, they are sneaky little guys, we saw two different monkeys come down to the beach, unzip a ladies backpack, rummage through the bag, found a little something that he liked, and ran back up into the trees. I got a ton of great pictures, and even though I wasn't supposed to, I took out a bag of chips and made friends with all the monkeys. We have a couple videos of them opening up the trash can and searching for something to eat, it was hilarious but these little guys were a little bit scary hahah they were on a mission! They loved the food and I got to get soooo close to them, I wish I could have grabbed one and brought it home, but Nury wouldn't have liked that!! lol The National Park was the highlight of the trip is by far the best place I've been in Costa Rica, the beaches and jungles are unbeatable and you are able to get up close and personal with so many animals! While we were there, there was a guy sitting under a tree eating his lunch and a huge iguana jumped out of the tree and on to his lap, and then bit the guy while trying to steal his food, he had blood all over him and to say the least, after that I'm staying away from the trees and lizards. After the day at the park we went back to our house and relaxed until bed time, we attempted to enjoy some TV in English, but when we turned it on, we saw the news coverage of Whitney Houston on every channel, very sad!
Anyways that was our weekend at Manuel Antonio, if anyone ever gets the chance to go there, GO! And look into staying at Serena Vista Hostel, absolutely amazing!

Jaco Tacos

So for our first solo trip we decided to just go to the closest beach town for a relaxing weekend since we were all worn out from all the excursions and wanted to save a little bit of money. We decided on the town of Jaco which was about an hour and half drive from San Jose. The bus tickets were really cheap, 2,000 colones each way (so about 8 bucks round trip) and it dropped us off about 2 blocks away from our hostel. This was also my first experience in a hostel. The easiest way to explain our room was one bunk bed and two double beds (enough space for 6 people but we fit 7 girls in there all weekend), it had a tiny cubicle of a bathroom with a shower and toilet, it was EXTREMELY hot and even with the 3 fans you were sweating all weekend (Jaco was really hot that weekend, in the mid to high 90's) so a tiny room with 7 girls and 3 fans wasn't exactly the most comfortable but we made it work and enjoyed ourselves. The place didnt have hot showers, but I wouldn't have wanted one even if they did because of the weather and outside there was a patio area with chairs, a table, bar, grill, 2 hammocks and a ping pong table, it was such a neat little place and the hammock area was perfect for hanging out at night. You couldn't beat the $10 bucks a night price no matter how hot and dirty the place was. On Friday night a group of guys from Georgia and New York showed up and were staying a couple doors down from us, we ended up having friends to hang out with all weekend which was a nice surprise. The beaches in Jaco are definitely not the nicest in Costa Rica, really rocky and crowded and the water wasn't the cleanest, but obviously still beautiful, and the sunset Friday evening was one of the prettiest I've seen in Costa Rica so far. Friday night for dinner we ate at the restaurant Jaco Tacos which was surprisingly one of the best restaurant meals I have eaten since I've been here, plus the plates were huge so me and my roommate were able to split a meal between the two of us.

Since we weren't too found of the beach in town, the guys we were hanging out with had a rental car and we all decided to make the short drive to Playa Hermosa (Beautiful Beach) which was about a 10 or 15 minute car ride out of town. It was definitely worth it, the beach had beautiful black sand and there were a ton of big waves to play in. It was really hot that day but fortunatlely it was really really overcast and actually sprinkled rain a few times throughout the day, it was a nice break from the blistering hot sun the day before. Even with all the clouds I managed to get pretty sunburned after falling asleep in the sand for a couple hours, but I can't complain about getting this much sun in the middle of winter when everyone at home was stuck in a snow storm. After spending the day relaxing we walked down the beach to this cute little smoothie shop for some hydration and then headed back to Jaco (fyi Costa Rica has the best smoothie places in the entire world! I have never had such fresh, juicy fruit in my life. Definitely one of the things I am going to miss most!). That night we hung out in the hammocks after eating dinner and me and Chelsea my roommate hit the sack pretty early because we were so tired, while a couple of the others went out on the town for a while. Sunday morning before taking the bus back to San Jose we browsed the souvenior shops and I bought a really awesome Costa Rican tank top for only 6 bucks. We enjoyed the beach and sun for a little bit longer and then headed to the bus stop around 12. All in all it was a fun weekend, I loved the little shops and of course I always love the beach and sun, but the town of Jaco is definitely a little more on the sketchy side, a lot of prostitutes and sketchy guys walking around, plus there was a Harley Davidson motorcycle convention going on the entire weekend so the town was PACKED full of people, some that didn't look so friendly lol. I would probably return just because it is close and cheap, but there are lots of new places I need to explore first!!

Monteverde Cloud Forest

The weekend after Arenal Volcano we went to the Monteverde Cloud Forest. It was about a 5 hour bus ride, the last hour of which was on a gravel/dirt road on the edge of the mountains, it was a little nerve racking to say the least. On the way to our hotel we stopped at the actual Monteverde National Park where we hiked and explored for an hour. Since we didnt have that much time I didnt get to see the hanging bridges or anything that cool but the hike was very pretty and we got to see a small waterfall. We arrived at the hotel and it was beyond beautiful, the rooms reminded me of cottages up in the mountains and everything was so nice. From our balcony you could see all the way to the coast and we were able to watch the sun setting over the pacific ocean both nights. On Saturday we had a day full of activities, early in the morning I went horseback riding through the mountains and later we went zip lining. The horseback riding was a lot of fun but it definitely gets uncomfortable and a little painful being on the back of a horse after a couple hours of going up and down the mountains. The zip lining was SO MUCH FUN. It is actually a lot scarier than I thought it would be and a little bit more challenging, each time you zip across the line you have to stop yourself at each plank by grabbing the line and pulling down fairly hard. After thirteen different lines my arms were killing me, and the next day I was so sore from the zip lining plus the horseback riding. The last line was really really long and I can't deny I got a little nervous when I started to slow down thinking I was going to get stuck out on the line hundreds of feet above the canopies, but everything was great. The view is absolutely amazing, pictures or stories don't do it any justice, you have to zip line yourself to understand what it's like. At the end of the zip lining we all the option to do the “tarzan swing” which I can only explain as a bungee jumping, swinging rope type thing (the video of me doing it is on facebook, check it out, and excuse my language, it was a little scary). You have to walk to the edge of a hanging bridge that is at least 300 hundred feet in the air, they clip you to the rope swing and tell you to jump, it was hands down the scariest thing I have ever done in my life (I had been planning on going bungee jumping while I was down here at a really popular spot, but after the tarzan swing I changed my mind lol no more bungee for me). The first 3 or 4 seconds is a straight free fall where you feel like you're not connected to anything at all, then after that you feel the rope grab you and swing you back and forth. It was a once in a lifetime experience, but I don't know if I would ever do it again. After our day of adventures, we ate a big lunch at the hotel and spent the rest of the day relaxing in the sun and exploring our huge resort. I would love to return to Monteverde to be able to explore the National Park more and of course stay at the same hotel (although I doubt I would ever be able to afford a place like that anytime soon lol). It was a very fun weekend away from the city and it was our last excursion with the ISA program staff or in other words, it was the last weekend we got to stay in a nice hotel with fun day trips, from here on out it was time for cheap hostels and public transportation.

Arenal Volcano & La Fortuna

This last weekend we visited the town of La Fortuna and stayed in the Los Lagos Resort and Spa at the base of Arenal Volcano. The resort has absolutely HUGE, the hotel rooms were sort of little bungalow type things and they were spread out in separate buildings all throughout the jungle. They had a free shuttle service so whenever we wanted to go anywhere (the pool or front desk) we could just ride that instead of having to walk super far. The hotel was situated literally on the bottom of the Volcano and we had a perfect view of it right from our front balcony (check my facebook pictures). We also got to visit a beautiful waterfall where we could walk to the bottom and swim, you could even see people ziplining over the waterfall, is was so awesome. For the majority of the weekend we just hung out at the resort, went swimming in the pools (all of which were natural fresh water from the mountain, no chlorine or anything) and they also had hot pools which were from natural hotsprings, they were so warm it was almost like a hottub. Both days we went into the town of La Fortuna to eat lunch, it was a cute little tourist town that had amazing views of volcano right behind a beautiful church (check my pics). It was full of little souvenior shops and excursion companies, the area is known for its white river rafting, ziplining, and other fun stuff to do in the jungle. We became friends with one of the shuttle bus drivers named Dennis and he even played the guitar and serenading us with a Spanish song one night in the hotel. Besides these things, the weekend was really fun, a few of us went into town both nights to check out the nightlife but it was a pretty small town with not much going on, besides a really cool discoteca we found on Saturday night. However the highlight of the trip was Friday when a few of us brought home a cute little dog trixie ahahahhaah. Costa Rica is notorious for having stray/homeless dogs everywhere, and I MEAN EVERYWHERE, it breaks my heart every single day having to see a bunch of starving scraggaly looking dogs running around. So Friday night without really thinking things through, we saw a cute hungry little dog running downtown and thought it would be a good idea to bring him back to the resort with us (dont ask me why we actually did it). The taxi driver nor Dennis had a problem with it and we managed to get her back to our room and feed her some platainos (similar to potato chips, fried vegetable banana thing that's really popular here). Not everyone liked the dog as much as we did, so long story short we were forced to put trixie back outside and let her find somehwhere comfy to sleep for the night. Trixie ended up staying on the resort and all weekend we saw her running around getting pet my random people and she looked like she was having a blast, until saturday evening when we saw one of the security guards shoo her off of the property, it was all really sad and we hope that trixie found her way back to town and some where to sleep. At least for one night she got some attention, food, water, and some air conditioning! LOL that was our adventure for the weekend, tomorrow we're headed to Monteverde Cloud Forest and I'm spending the weekend ziplining and horseback riding in the tropical rainforest, super excited! I'll update when i return, Ciao!

My weekend at La Playa Tamarindo

After an almost 7 hours bus ride (that was only supposed to take 4 or 5) we arrived at Tamarindo Beach in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. It is near the top left corner of Costa Rica on the Pacific Ocean. We made a couple stops on the way to get gas, and grab lunch. The drive took so long because there was a lot of traffic and construction on the highway. It was a very scenic drive, I got to see the outskirts of San Jose, lots of rivers and canyons, and miles of really pretty rainforest. The town of Tamarindo is a beautiful little beach town that is full of mainly tourists and expensive resorts. It is the first place I've been to in Costa Rica where a lot of people spoke English and almost everywhere accepted American money. It is full of little souvenir shops and beach bars with palm trees everywhere, it was hands down the most beautiful place I have ever been to in my entire life (even better than the Caribbean islands and Maui where I have been before). Everything was so laid back and relaxed, I could have laid on the beach for the rest of my life. The hotel we got to stay at was AMAZING, I don't think I will ever stay somewhere so ritzy again in my life (unless I can go back for my honeymoon, which would be great, lol). Our room was right on the beach, not even 50 feet from the sand, I could lay on my bed and watch the waves go in and out. There were ladies who gave massages right on the beach, or you could rent a surfboard and surf all day. There were a ton of dragonflies and we even saw two iguanas chillin in the grass. The resort has like 3 pools complete with a swim up bar (which was really cool, I've always wanted to see one of those hahaha), and we got breakfast provided for us each morning (fresh fruit, gallo pinto, tortillas, omelets and a bunch more). On Saturday we went out on a Catamaran Sail boat all day which was so much fun. They took us on an hour ride out to a secluded beach area where we got to swim or snorkel or just stay on the boat and tan. They had great music, open bar, and a really yummy lunch of barbequed chicken with chips and guacamole and pico de gallo (my favorite). They brought us back right as the sun was setting so we could all get a bunch of amazing pictures of the sunset (which was one of the most gorgeous sunsets I have even seen). At night we would walk around the town and visit little restaurants and clubs, club Aqua was a lot of fun, there was a ton of people and we danced all night. All in all it was a wonderful weekend, it made coming back to San Jose very very hard, none of us wanted to leave, or go back to school the next day (it was rough). We all got the chance to get to know each other really well and are becoming really good friends. The weekend wouldnt have been the same without our fun group and of course Terrance almost capsizing our mini boat because he is convinced that every single insect is going to give him Dengue Fever (a disease that the Dengue mosquitoes have, we were warned not to go down to a certain part of the country because they were having an issue with the sickness, but it's nothing we have to worry about, especially in Tamarindo, but the joke gave us good laughs all weekend ahahahah)
This week we are headed to Arenal Volcano and La Fortuna Waterfalls. I am so excited to explore the rainforest and go hiking to see the pretty views of the volcano. We also get to go swimming at the bottom of the waterfalls. Our resort has natural hotsprings and a bunch of wildlife we can view, a butterfly garden, an alligator swamp, and a frog farm. I hope I see a monkey! Here is a link to the amazing hotel, I CANT WAIT!

http://www.hotelloslagos.com/

I'll update this when I return and will post a million pictures on facebook! Until then Ciao!!

Pura Vida!

Hola! Estoy en Costa Rica! My sisters thought starting a blog would be a good way to show and tell everyone back at home what I'm up to during my four month adventure to Costa Rica so here is what I have been doing so far. I left Seatac airport last Friday and after a heated conversation about visa requirements and a mild panic attack, I was allowed on the plane and on my way to Denver for a 6 hour layover. Luckily my Donelle lives in Denver and was able to come pick me for dinner. We visited for a few hours and ate at TGIF's (which is really cool because I've seen a million commercials for that restaurant and have always wanted to go, but Washington unfortunately doesn't have them). Anyways after taking the red eye flight from Denver (and getting absolutely no sleep at all), I was finally in San Jose, Costa Rica at 6:15 am Friday. The view from the plane was absolutely gorgeous, I could see the pacific ocean beaches, the mountains that were covered in rain forests, and many rivers. Since I had been in Seattle and Denver I was dressed in a North Face, jeans and boots, and before I could even get to baggage claim I was so hot and sweaty I thought I was going to die, the humidity in Costa Rica is no joke! Our program drove us to our new university to introduce us to the family that we would be living with for the next four months and when we arrived I was greeted by 66 year old Nuria and her husband Jorge! To my surprise, I was informed that Nuria did not speak a word of english and her husband could only say a few words...How the hell am I supposed to live and talk with these people if they don't speak any english? Not gonna lie I was freaking out for while, but within hours I realized that it was much easier to communicate with them than I thought it would be, and I realized I know a lot more spanish that I thought I did, having simple conversations haven't been a problem at all! The rest of the day was spent unpacking and meeting my new housemate Chelsea. She's from University of Minnesota Deluth studying economics and spanish, and thank god I have someone in the house with me that speaks some english!!

Over the next few days we had orientations, and tours to help us learn more about the city and program. The city tour was amazing. Although San Jose is not the prettiest city in the world (in fact it is very run down looking and is extremely sketchy) there is an odd beauty to it. In any direction you look you can see the rain forests and mountains in the distance. They are much more Americanized than I thought they would be, they have taco bell mcdonalds and kfc on almost every street, and many of them same stores and brands as in the United States, except everything is in Spanish! My neighborhood is in the San Pedro area and it is about a 20 minute walk to my school everyday. The house I am living in is adorable, I have my own room with a giant chair and desk and tv, and Chelsea and I share a bathroom. My house mom Nuria is absolutely amazing, she is the sweetest, kindest lady I have ever met. She cooks all day and our meals are DELICIOUS and huge, I'm really nervous I'll be coming back to the U.S about 20 pounds heavier (god please help me NO). We get fresh fruit every morning, papaya, pinneapple, mangos, and bananas, and it is the best fruit I have ever had!! Our meals consist of rice, beans, tortillas, pico de gallo, salsa, chicken, fajitas, eggs, we even had french toast for breakfast this morning! My new favorite thing in fried plaintains which are giant banana looking vegetables that you fry and put guacamole on top of..YUMMMMMMM. There are a million dogs running around all over the place all the time, it's actually really sad and they all look homeless and starving and I want to bring them all home with me, but Nuria does not like animals! Lol There are lots of bugs, mini mini little ant type things, and they are everywhere, showers, kitchen, tables, but it truthfully hasn't bothered me, I just pretend they aren't there. There are just some things that are going to take some getting used to... like not being able to flush toilet paper in the toilet, or not being able to walk alone or carry nice things, not being able to speak english..ever, or eating dinner at 7 or 730 every night! The men here yell and hiss at you all day.. you would think they had never seen a white girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, its quite uncomfortable, the entire bus stares at you, but you just get used to it. I love this place and I love these people! My ISA group of people are great, I love all the girls and we are starting to become good friends! We all went out to the clubs and bars last night near the Universidad de Costa Rica and it was a lot of fun!! The drinks are really cheap and the latin music is great! Who knew going out on a Tuesday would be so much fun!

My class schedule ended up being great, no school on Friday! On Mondays and Wednesdays I have 3 classes at 9, 10:30 and 3, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I only have one class at 3 oclock, sounds good to me!! Everyone is super laid back, and laid back here, its a wonderful environment. It is clear blue skies and in the 80's everyday, which makes everything that much better! All in all the first 5 days have been perfect! Were headed to the beach for the weekend, Playa Tamarindo in Guanacaste. Time for some tanning on the beach and snorkeling with the fishies! I'll upload pictures when I return!