Giggles Adventure

Giggle's finally got the courage to leave my shower.  I am not sure but think that he might be slightly slow.  When I woke up one morning he was sitting outside of my bed... which what other lizard has done this.... NONE!!

Than when I got home, he was in my sink... which was a struggle.  I ended up having to do some dishes and he wouldn't leave.  He got stuck under a can and when I went to move the can his tail came off.  It was sooo grosssssss, it just wiggled in the sink for a while.  

So I had to take giggles out.  I put him back in my shower because I am afraid he will die on his own..... But I think I might just have to put him outside and hope for the best.  He is definitely not  the brightest crayon in the box, or is it sharpest?? I guess who am I to talk I can't figure out a commonly used phrase!

"Giggles"

I have a new friend Mr. Giggles.  He is a gecko that has been living in my shower for the past 4 to 5 days and counting.  He wont leave.  I opened the shower curtains to try and help him escape.  However, he seems to be quite happy in his little new home.  

I have named him Giggles, because he makes me happy and makes me laugh.  Every time I go into the bathroom I look into the shower to make sure he is still there.  It always makes me happy knowing he is still safe in my shower and not dead.  

Today came the day when he made the first attempt to leave.  I am not sure he will be in my shower for much longer..... When all is said and done I am happy he was my friend for a short while.  

Animal Attack!

This past evening was immensely horrible.  

It started off the day before with cockroaches everywhere.  This is not a typical problem for me so I thought nothing of it.  

This night was different.  I walked in to find two huge cockroaches on my kitchen floor.  I than proceeded to go and pick something out of the sink, to which two smaller cockroaches scattered.  I than went to pick up a shirt from the ground and a cockroach went onto my arm, needless to say this did cause me to scream.  I than started to get a little anxiety.  I placed my food onto the stove and turned around to stir it up (rice and beans of course!!), I kid you not, this is noooo exaggeration, a cockroach proceeded to JUMP not climb but JUMP out of the pan where my food was cooking!!!! HOW DOES THAT EVEN HAPPEN??

So needless to say I was feeling very anxious and very violated.  

I than decided to wash up and clean up the dishes.  As I am washing a dish, a cockroach falls onto it's back in the stove..... WHERE DID THIS COME FROM?? AND WHY???  It was as though it was raining cockroaches in my little cabina.  Just than Ellen and Glenn arrived (they are both volunteers) to play scrabble.  I explained my anxiety and they got rid of the cockroach that was in the stove.  During the game, I stood up to go by the sink and there was an army of ants!!! Everywhere... the stupid cockroach had left some puss or eggs or something on my stove and now there were huge ants everywhere!!!!!!!!  Soooo Ellen got rid of the cockroach whatever it left behind than the ants went away.

THAN... still we are playing scrabble. I decided that I  should pick up my guitar case that I have left on the ground...... (on no, the animal night was not over)  a huge spider than crawled onto the case!! I was freaking out!! I swear this stuff does not happen to other people!! Most people get one incident not about 80 in one night... SO Glenn swept the spider out and Ellen and I got down from standing on the chairs.  

I didn't sleep well.

Under the Waves

On Saturday, Alex and Matt wanted to finish their trip by going white water rafting.  I decided it would be fun to go with them.  So I arranged to work Sunday night instead of Saturday morning.

I got picked up at 6:50 in the morning and than we headed on up to the rafting center, located around an hour and a half away.  Upon arriving we ate breakfast and gathered what we needed for the trip, which was really just sunscreen.  

I didn't get to go on the same raft as Alex and Matt which really bummed me out, but it was ok in the end I was getting to do it for free and that was good enough for me.  

The river was way different from when we were there in January.  It was a brown color from the rain and was a lot higher, the rapids were stronger.  Which leads me to some stories of a very active day.

We had a girl fall out of the raft on a rapid.  NO ONE NOTICED, except me!! She was sitting directly behind me and I was like... oh my gosh.. I don't see her helmet anymore and I thought we had rafted over her!!  She popped up and I was standing there going do we grab her do we wait!  So than me and this other woman grabbed her and lifted her into the boat, which was just not an easy task seeing as how I have very little arm muscle.  She was ok and we rafted on.  

Next we were in a spot where people could get out and swim, I decided to just dangle my feet in the river.  Another guide had a different idea of what I should be doing.  So as everyone in my boat is being lifted back in, I was facing the inside of the raft holding all the oars, when all of a sudden my body was folding into a V, I was squished between two rafts and was all of a sudden swimming in the cool waters.  The guide had grabbed my life vest with his paddle and pulled me in.  Everyone in my boat thought I just fell in!  I was like are you guys insane who just falls in like that!!!

Which leads me to my next story.

Every time we approached a rapid our guide "Andres" would describe what we would maybe need to do.  On this particular rapid, he decided to tell our group that for those of us who are STILL in the raft to get down when he yells get down.  Well he yelled get down and we lost about half of our boat.  Matt tells us it looked as though we were all just sucked right out of the boat.  SOooo with that said I fell out of the raft.  

It was really scary, I was turning in circles for a few seconds and had no idea which way was up or down and was nervous about hitting rocks.  It all happened so fast, I turned up right and was going down the rapid and I did the whole safety position which is feet forward and what not, but my helmet kept falling off.  So I was thinking oh great this is it, this is how I am going to die, I am going to hit a rock.. So I drank a lot of the river as I was going through the rapid.  Luckily it didn't last as long as it felt like it did and I was pulled safely back into the boat.  

In the end very exhausting... I admit.. I was a little hesitant the rest of the ride seeing as how I did not want to experience falling out AGAIN!  Alex said she was jealous and wished she would of fallen in the river.... I don't think she really wanted to fall into the river.  It was sad at the end saying bye to Matt and Alex.  I am soo happy they came though!  I was very very happy.  

Alex and Matt's Last Night in Puerto Viejo - Dinner for Six

I started off working and than spent some time with Ellen, Glenn and Scott.  I decided it would be fun to play a game, the only options we had were Monopoly and Scrabble.  We all know how much I LOOVVEEE Monopoly (Hate it!), so of course we played Monopoly.  I somehow ended up with only three properties, somehow had the most money but in the end wasn’t paying attention at all.  Glenn and Ellen were making deals wonderfully amongst each other, and Scott kept trying to make the worst deals with me.  We finally decided this was the worst idea ever and quickly gathered ourselves to head into Puerto Viejo for the evening.  (I do not think there will be much more of Monopoly played!!)

To send off Alex and Matt we decided to eat at Chile Rojo, of course the best restaurant in Puerto Viejo.  We went to gather them at their hotel when we arrived only to find they had already gone to the restaurant.  Matt and Alex had left me a little note so we would know where to go, it had a nice little drawing on it as well and is now a decoration in my house. 

We enjoyed drinks and dinner at Chile Rojo and than went and enjoyed a round at the Parquecito in Puerto Viejo (where there is typically live music at night).  Scott and Matt decided that the best way to end a good trip is the way you start one, with tequila shot in hand.  We had to call it an early night due to the fact that Matt, Alex and myself were waking at six the next morning to go rafting.  It was a great way to spend some quality time together.  LOOOVEEEEED IT!!!! 

Visit to Puerto Viejo

With Alex and Matt in Puerto Viejo for the day and I working in the morning, I decided it was best to meet up with them that evening.  Their hotel started to get annoyed with me calling and leaving messages, it was quite entertaining.  I spent the morning working and the afternoon at the beach.  It was a quite a lovely day with lots of sunshine.  

After going home and showering and getting ready, I gathered Scott and we headed off to Puerto Viejo, just barely making the bus.  Scott had to run to stop it, thankfully we made it there safely.  Alex and I each wore the same dress we had worn two nights before and had a laugh about it.  

We started at a restaurant where they had a two for one specials.  We left after the first round, and somehow decided it was best to just return there.  It was a very fun evening filled with cocktails and of course pizza. 

We went to a local bar where there was some live music.  It was great live music, no one was there, until a group of, I think Americans but for sure travelers came in.  Their dancing was absolutely one of the most entertaining experiences of my life.  I was so happy to have witnessed this free show.  After a while I was tired and we left to go back to Cahuita since I had to work the next morning we didn't stay out as late as I would of liked.  

A GOOD EVENING!

Wednesday

Since we had spent literally the entire morning looking for turtles and trying to get back to Cahuita, sleep was needed.  I didn’t sleep as long or as well as they did.  However, I let them sleep and ended up running into town to run a few errands.  When I got back around four, we decided that they would quickly pack and we would go grab some lunch/dinner at Sobre las Olas.  The chicken fajitas were delicious along with the best french fries in Costa Rica.  

Alex and Matt left for Puerto Viejo that night.  I decided to meet them the following day instead of going to visit them that evening.  I was tired and decided to have some ice cream and watch the movie next door with Sam, Glenn, Ellen and Scott.  Glenn and I tried our hand at UNO, I won the first game in about two seconds and lost the second game immensely!  I think I had around two hundred cards.

I called it an early evening due to the lack of sleep from the night before.