¡Puerto Viejo!

This past weekend was so incredible and exactly what I needed. My friend Sofi (who is from Costa Rica) invited me to go to the beach with her Aunt and cousins. It was a pretty last minute trip, but I'm so glad I decided to go. The cousins spoke some English, but for the most part they spoke Spanish for the entire weekend. It's so easy to tune out and be in your own little world when everyone around you is speaking Spanish. I love having time alone and that's exactly what it felt like the entire weekend. Alone time at the beach...ahh que bueno! I had a lot of time to process what the Lord is teaching me and time just to be silent and still. It's so nice (and very necessary) to get out of San Jose sometimes. A lot of my friends back home (who I miss a ton) were up in the mountains this past weekend, and I kept thinking how weird it was that I was laying on the beach... in November. Puerto Viejo is on the Caribbean side, and it is by far my favorite place I've traveled to so far in Costa Rica. And... you hear English as often as you hear Spanish there since it's in the Caribbean. And...Reggae music overtakes Salsa which was nice for a change!

Here were some of the highlights of the weekend...
-Maracuyá ice cream. Maracuyá is my favorite fruit here and in the ice cream form..oh man, so delicious!

-Laying on the beach listening to music. I love listening to music and it's something I don't get to do a ton here.

-Live reggae music in town on Saturday night!

-Getting to order my food in English! This hasn't happend in 3 months!

Here were some funny parts of the trip...

-When we got to the beach the first day I started to lather up my SPF 50 sunscreen. Yes, SPF 50 ( just like you said Mom!) Seriously, this stuff is sooo sticky. As I was putting my sunscreen on I noticed a street dog running around on the beach. The dog kept trying to take peoples towels and then running off with them. I giggled to myself as I saw people running after the dog. Ok, maybe that's mean of me, but trust me, it was funny! Until....I had just got done putting on my super sticky sunscreen, I lay down on my beach towel, and then the dog comes less then a foot away from me and rolls around in the sand. Sand was flying everywhere and I was a sand magnet. The sand stuck to my sticky sunscreen which left the entire right side of my body covered in sand. Seriously? Seriously? Ok, it was funny!

-When I got into the water there were the two most precious little girls. One of them was decked out in arm floaties and a duck floatie that went around her waist. It.was. Awesome! They were probably 5 or 6 years old. Anyways, I was in the water and they kept coming up to me and handing me sea shells. I had a handfull of shells! And they kept talking to me in a language I have NEVER heard. They talked to me for probably 10 minutes and I just kept nodding my head. And...I don't think the little buddies had any idea that I had no clue what they were talking about. I just kept collecting the shells that they gave me, and then I would give them high 5's with my empty hand. Thank goodness for the universal high 5!

The Lincoln girls have a basketball game this afternoon and then we have YL club tonight! And check it...I will be home in a month from today. Holy cow!

Here are some pics from the weekend!