I’m sorry that I’m so far behind on writing! I’m going to try
and use this week to catch myself up, but we’ll see. I seem to be
unable to stop experiencing long enough here to write it all down.
When I got home from Montezuma, I was thoroughly exhausted and
accidentally fell asleep within an hour of making it home without
setting my alarm. The early hours of the morning rolled around all too
soon as I was awoken by my host mom knocking on my door. My thought
process went, “we didn’t wake up early enough to hike to the waterfall
yesterday so my friends are trying to get me up this morning by
knocking,” as I rolled over to ignore them and fall back into my dream.
Then, “Tortuga! Tortuga!” was being yelled and the door was no longer
being knocked upon as much as it was being pounded. I realized that I
was, in fact, entirely disoriented, no longer in Montezuma, and quickly
became aware of my surroundings. I shot out of bed and walked over to
look at my clock-I was supposed to be at USAC in 10 minutes to make our
way to our private boat to Tortuga.
I threw on some shorts and opened the door for my host mom with a look
of pure panic in my eyes as she shoved a plate of fruit and my
toothbrush into my hands. My host dad proceeded to fling me into the
passenger seat of his car to get me to school on time. He couldn’t stop
laughing the whole way as I hastily shoveled banana into my mouth and
then proceeded to brush my teeth in the parking lot of USAC. I had made
it, quite flustered, and with a minute or two to spare. Thank goodness for my host parents.
Right before we got on the boat, someone pointed out that a similarly
sized boat had capsized in Nicaragua a few days prior-lovely. The ocean
had a life of its own during both our morning and afternoon rides to and
from the island. Everyone on the edges of the boat looked like they had
taken a shower by the time we got to land, and Martha let out more than
one blood curdling scream that had the whole boat looking back to our
corner. She had a death grip on my arm as our boat tossed from side to
side, and we alternated between abject fear and laughter to everyone’s
reactions.
When we reached Tortuga we were divided into two groups for snorkeling,
and my group had some much needed relaxation time on a beach that can
only be described as paradise. Because the island does not have any
hotels and, thus, can only be a day trip, the island was almost entirely
ours for the first half our day as we took full advantage of its white
sand and completely clear water-we definitely were not in Puntarenas
anymore. My group was made up of many of the individuals who had been in
Montezuma the night before and we all promptly passed out in the
sunshine before the boat came to pick us up for snorkeling.
I’ll admit that I was a little nervous for snorkeling as the last
experience I had (when I was 8) ended with me crying and having to be
escorted back to our ship because I was so scared to be in open water. I
am glad to report that I am no longer an 8 year old, and had a
wonderfully rewarding experience. One of our tour guides kept diving
down to bring us living starfish and sea urchins from the oceans
floor-we must have held 7 or 8 different kinds. The first starfish was
black with spikey projections coming of all of its legs as it crawled
down our arms and hands. When I went to hand the starfish back to
Martha, all of its legs fell off
one by one as every female within 10 feet shrieked and Martha through
its body into the air. The man who handed it to us in the first place
was laughing as we all stared into the ocean where the starfish had
landed with wide eyes and open mouths.
Apparently that is a very common
defense mechanism and all of its legs will grow back in time.
When all of our bodies became too tired to tread water any
longer we swam back to the boat and headed back onto land for lunch
where we learned about our other classmate’s near death experience.
Earlier in the day, a few guys had swum out to a cove in the distance
and had reported that though it was definitely a workout, it had been a
doable and rewarding experience. While we were gone, some other students
decided to do that same without realizing that high tide was coming in.
They soon realized that they were extremely far out and that when they
swam they seemed to not be covering any remarkable distance. As their
legs tired they realized that they couldn’t swim themselves in and that
they needed to start looking for help. They were eventually able to flag
down a boat to bring them to shore. They looked beat, but were thankful
they were able to get down help.
Later we saw a pina colada stand and couldn’t help but
indulge in one each as we laid on the beach basking in the sun. Promptly
after we finshed our pina coladas, which I would describe as, “muy fuerte,”
or very strong, a banana boat pulled up to take us on a ride. We all
hopped on and, needless to say, did not stay upright very long-it was a
blast, and I think we thoroughly entertained the boat drivers with our
antics.
All in all Isla Tortuga was another side of Costa Rica, pure
beauty and relaxation, that I was more than glad to soak in along with
some rays. Next post: that one time $30,000 worth of our merchandise was stolen AKA Grand Theft Backpack.
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Read more from Caroline at: http://carolinegeorge95.wix.com/puntarenas
For more information on the USAC Costa Rica: Spanish
Language, Ecological, and Latin American Studies in Puntarenas program, visit: http://usac.unr.edu/study-abroad-programs/costa-rica/puntarenas
