We have seen so much already in the short amount of time we have been here. Saturday we went to the La Paz Waterfall Gardens, which was amazing! I fed a toucan! We also saw parrots, butterflies, jaguars, snakes, and monkeys. It was incredible. Then we hiked to the waterfalls, which were breath taking to see. The whole country is breath taking. Every where we go the view is amazing and gorgeous and you can see for miles in every direction.
Sunday we went to Poas Volcano. It was really cold, but we were close to 10,000 feet in elevation, so it was understandable. We got to see the crater, which Johnny (our amazing guide) told us we were very lucky to see. Sometimes it is so foggy up there you can´t see more than a couple of feet in front of you. We hiked over to the lagoon, but didn´t get as lucky with it, but I was ok with that. You can only get lucky so many times, right?
That night we met out host families. They picked us up from CPI at around 5:30 that night. My family is really nice, they don't speak any English though, so it has been a real challenge. I do the best I can to communicate with them, but I guess since I have said a few things in Spanish they assume that I'm fluent, but of course I'm not, so it has been a little difficult, but we´re all doing the best we can. They live in a small apartment above the father´s mother. I can tell they are a very close family and even the father was explaining that to me the first night. He kept telling me that yes their home was small, but that it brought them closer together and that they spent a lot of time together. I can really see that the more time I spend with them, you can really see the love they have one another. The brother and sister are always playing together and they never fight, even though there is a big age gap between the two (the sister is 12 and the brother is 6). There are never any arguments or tension. They are truely happy. And they have the cutest puppy named Oso, who is a chow and new to the family. They just got him 2 months ago and they absolutely adore him.
Tomorrow we have our first school visit, which should be interesting. We have been preparing for it all day today. We plan to read to them, sing songs, and do an art project with them. I think the plan is to also leave some of the materials there with them for them to have, because I think it is a school were the children are form a lower socioeconomic status. It´s right down the road from where I´m staying and I think it might be where my kids go to school because the mom told me one day that there school was very close and that they walk to school every morning. I want to ask tonight, because I might see them tomorrow morning. I think we are only working with 5th and 6th graders, so I might see the girl, Aileen.
Because we are preparing for the school visit tomorrow, we only have 3 hours of Spanish today instead of 4. Yay! 4 hours has been alot, by the time I get home with my host family, I am mentally exhausted and drained from all of the Spanish. At least I can tell that it is working and I really can see improvement in my Spanish.
Pura Vida!
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