Jaco

The night before we left for Jaco for the weekend, a few of us decided to try out this Italian resteraunt that we had heard good things about. Right before we went to dinner, we decided to head to the beach to check out the beutiful sunset!

This was earlier in the day

Am I a sorority girl yet? haha

Me and da homie Kaitlyn being awkward as usual

While looking through the menu, my friend Kaitlyn and I decided to share a pizza topped with pepperoni, onions, and bacon. In all honesty, it was some of the best pizza i've ever had! After only spending about $4 on my meal I decided that I will definitely be going back there!

Sooooo good

The next morning we had to meet at USAC for our weekend in Jaco! I was definitely looking forward to sitting in an airconditioned bus for a couple hours ;) On our way there, our bus driver said that we were going to stop at the crocodile bridge... I was super excited because I have never seen one in person. It was creepy but super cool at the same time.

Once we got to our hostel I was a little surprised about where we were staying. Going off topic for a bit but....one of the main things I have already taken away from my expirence here is that I was definitely way too high maintenance before I got here haha! Before coming here I knew that it was going to be a lot different then my current living conditions in the states i.e. having air conditioning 24/7, actually being able to flush toilet paper (yup that's right, you can't flush it here!), being able to eat what I want when I want but I was still hit with culture shock! Costa Rica is so much different then Washington in many different ways. For one, it's so hot and humid here that it's nearly impossible to look even relatively attractive because 5 minutes after you get out of the shower you're already sweating haha. Also, on the topic of showers, I don't think there's a single place here to find a shower that has hot water! The cold shower is definitely welcomed at night, but in the mornings right after rolling out of my warm bed, it's definitely a little too chilly for comfort!

Anyways...Back to the hostel. Before getting to the hostel I had already had a mental image of what I thought it was going to be like; a nice room possibly having air conditioning, a bed to myself, etc. (once again the inner high maintenance coming out) so when I got there and discovered we would basically be sleeping in covered tents, and that I would be sharing a bed with someone else, i'm sure you can imagine my shock ;) But after spending a few hours there, I realized that I was happy that it didn't have any of those things I imagined. I decided to think about it this way; If my room had air conditioning, I wouldn't have wanted to leave my room and explore the town like I ended up doing. If I hadn't had to share a bed with someone, I wouldn't have become great friends with Kaitlyn like we ended up being. And if we weren't all within a 20 ft radius of each other, I wouldn't have gotten to know these people as well as I did! I feel like a part of me is different now, only in the 2 weeks that I have been here, and I'm happy to say that I think it's for the better!

Our hostel!

This trip wouldn't be the same without these girls!

Safe to say that i'm obsessed with hammocking....

We had our first surfing lesson of the weekend around 11am. I couldn't tell you how nervous I was because I have never actually swam in the ocean before due to my irrational fear of sharks... haha. Upon arrival, the main surf guy Alain told us that were were at one of the safest beaches in Costa Rica and that definitely made me feel more at ease. We split into pairs so it was two students to one surf instructor which was great! We started off really slow and learned on the really small waves. I was so proud of myself when I got up on the first wave I tried! I was in for a bit of a rude awakening the next day though...

Since my partner and I did good the first day (my partner was way better then me) we got to move onto the "big waves". This was definitely a shock to me. The day before we had only been in water that was no deeper then my shoulders aka I could still touch and see everything below me for the most part. But the second day he said we would be going way further out. I didn't want anyone to think that I was being a drama queen or a baby so I just went with with. I don't think I have ever been so scared in my life! Some people may think it's dumb to be scared of water/sharks, but everyone has their own fears. For my friends that are scared of spiders, imagine yourself locked in a room filled with spiders crawling everywhere. Or my friends afraid of heights, imagine yourself standing on the ledge of a cliff. I can gaurentee you that you would be just as scared as I was! Not to mention the waves were HUGE compared to the day before, not only because we were out further, but because the waves were just better the day before. Our instructor didn't just send us out there on our own to fend for ourselves though, he was right there with us which made me feel a littleee better. Also, before we went out our instructor told us that if we saw a big wave coming to just jumo off the board or we would regret it. So as we started paddling out to deeper water, I could feel my anxiety building more and more as I realized we were no longer in water that I could still touch. I was ahead of my partner and the instructor and my instructor was telling us to keep paddling (I felt like my arms were going to fall off). I was about 10 feet ahead of them when I saw a GIANT wave coming my way. I remembered what my instructor had told me, that if I saw a wave coming to jump off, but I kept remembering how deep I was in the water and I literally had about 5 seconds to make a decision. So of course my fear of the water and what could be below me beat out the smart thing to do. I decided to try to stay on the board and hope that everything would be okay... Well as soon as the wave hit my I got tossed off the board and the board flew into my head so hard that I was a bit dazed for a few seconds. After what seemed like forever I finally resurfaced and tried getting on my board as fast as possible, but it was really hard seeing as waves were still crashing around me. My head was seriously throbbing, from where I got hit and I had a serious headache. There was only about 30 minutes left in the lesson anyways, so my instructor decided I had enough for the day. I am disappointed that I let my fear get the best of me, but I hope to improve from here. Our next weekend in Jaco is in two weeks! Side note: If you ever visit Costa Rica Jaco is a must see. Favorite place i've been so far!!