The weekend before last the other volunteers and I decided to stay in Atenas. For two main reasons…one, that Jason and Brendon (the two guys from Samara that we met) decided to come back through Atenas for the weekend to hangout before flying home. The other reason is that there was a fiesta in Savanalarga (neighboring town) that we thought would be fun. In Costa Rica they love their fiestas (I actually think every town tries to have one once a year, and coordinate them on separate weekends…I love this place). We ended up visiting the fiesta Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (all 4 of the days it was running). Friday and Saturday we checked out the Disco, with Friday night being “Latin Fever”. It was basically a rerun of the night in Sarmara at Tootie-Frootie (i.e. the group of us showcasing to the locals how not to dance), which was again a great time. On Sunday we checked out the local Bull-riding, which isn´t as good as in the states. Here they all ride Braman Bulls (a huge bull with a hump on its upperback, which they use for everything in Costa Rica), which isn´t as quick or agile as the bulls back in the States. Most of the time the riders would eventually just jump off the bull. But it was nonetheless interesting to see this small town´s version of a rodeo. And Monday, we went back to the rodeo to this time see the spectacle that I witnessed in Palmerez a couple weekends back…local spectators jumping in the rink to see how close they could get to being ran over by a bull with horns. I sort of kinda thought about joining them, until I saw a couple of them get down on one knee and pray.
On Saturday night, Brandon made the mistake of mixing alcohol with a trampoline that was at the fair. Around 1 in the morning, started jumping on it and snapped his ankle. Conveniently I´ve been “working” at the Linea Vital, the Ambulance Service in town. So the next morning I, and a couple of the other volunteers, took him to Linea Vital where Jorge checked him out. Actually gave him a shot in the ass as well, which we all got a good laugh out of. (It was a big needle too!!!!!) I´ve heard from him since, finding out he sprained and strained the ligaments & cartilage in the ankle. Shitty deal for sure, but he was okay with it, being that it happened on his last day in Costa Rica.
Later that day we went to a place Jorge (the guy at Linea Vital Ambulance Services) recommended. It was a river about 20-30 minutes away that had swimming holes, carved my massive rocks everywhere, which of course served as good jumping-diving platforms. There was a natural water slide as well, which was much fun. Beautiful place…I was hoping to see some monkeys around there, but no luck. We met a Venezuelan and his family who spoke English. He told us where the good spots along the river to jump in were! And with another example of now nice people are around here…he offered and gave us a huge piece of flank-steak (which was awesome!!!), potatoes, and a tomato-avocado salad. Probably more than anything else about Costa Rica, I´ll remember how generous and friendly people are around here. It´s nothing like I´ve ever seen!
I found out that my buddy Justin Adams from Lewiston is gonna come down and visit for 6 days. March 5-11th. I spoke with the coordinator, and then my host Mom down here about him staying at my house. Tina said just make sure he pays $8.50 a day (for room and board) and my Mom said sure thing!! So I´ll have a roommate for a couple days here in Atenas. AND, he´s a guy, which is awesome because EVERY volunteer since I´ve been down here is and has been a girl. Yeeees I like woman, very much actually, but I think there is such thing as too many of them. Right? Maybe…eh maybe not. 2 nights ago, there were 4 girls in the back of the taxi, and myself up front. That was enough girls for the taxi driver (who spoke good English) to assume they were my sisters…and when he said so, I of course corrected him with saying they were my girlfriends, ´back off´. He knew I was kidding, but basically I need some Amigos.

This last weekend we left Saturday for Curu National Refugee Park, on the Nicoya Pennisula, where it is said to have awesome wildlife. We took a bus to the coast and then a ferry to the Pennisula. The ferry was interesting...pretty much a booze-cruz! People were drinking, singing, dancing, and karaoking to name a few. I was most impressed with the guy we were sitting next to, with dreadlocks down to his knees. I got haircut yesterday because I thought my hair was getting too long…perspective. That Saturday afternoon after checking in, we got a ride to the good beach spot around the small town (when I say a small town, I mean like an intersection with a store, two bars, a hotel, and…). Pretty fun…the girls and I played bochie-ball (sp?) with coconuts. Susan proceeded by asking some nearby shamble-shack looking house if they were a restaurant. He said no, but to come back in 30 minutes and he would have food for us. That was when we realized there is such thing as TOO nice. I don’t think they were as bad-off as originally thought (they may have been co-running the campground nearby), but we happily left money for them regardless. That next day we made it to Curu, where we spent 4-5 hours before heading home via ferry then bus. Things we saw: White-Faced monkeys, a Howler monkey, Mawkaw (sp? Larger red-blue-yellow-green looking) parrots, deer, lizards, squirrel (thing was huge), and butterflies. Leslie also saw an Ant-Eater, which I was jealous about since I´ve wanted to see one since my 1st grade project on them!!
We got home around 830-9 that Sunday, just in time to eat dinner and pass-out!

Last night I got a haircut. The person who cut my hair, Fanny, is actually Kelly´s host Mom. So we´ve spoken on many occasions, in Spanish …so very little was actually spoken spoken. But yea, for two dollars she did a very decent job on my hair. Two things I noticed. One was that it explaining how you want your hair in another language is something everyone should experience. The second thing was that she shaved, dry-shaved with a bic razor, my sideburns and neck. (miscommunication on her cutting my sideburns by the way.) I can´t even remember if it hurt because I started thinking if I was gonna start bleeding profusely from this experience. It all worked out though, and after thinking about it, I´m sure I´m not the first man she´s shaved before. “When in Rome...”
Right after that, Kelly and I joined Fanny´s son in his dance class. Rolando, who teaches dancing class at the nearby church, at age 15. And man…the dude can dance. I´m pretty sure he belongs on, “So You Think You Can Dance…dance.” We warmed up with some sort of Latin/hip-hop thingy, which I almost fell on my ass trying to attempt. He of course made it look easy though, so I kept at it. We eventually moved into Salsa, where I had already had a small grasp on the BASIC steps of that dance. But in this class, we started learning complicated spins and turns. It was so fun, but I´m a far cry from being decent at it. My goal is by the end of this trip, to use my hopefully developed dance moves to get a local onto the dance floor…without it being a joke anyway. So, here´s hopin!!!