Snorkeling and Nicaragua

Sorry for the intermittent posts once again! the last hotel we stayed at did not have free access to the internet, and so to conserve funds an executive decision was made to wait until the new hotel and hope that there was free internet there. Lull and behold, there is! so once again this will be a multiple part post. I will be staying at this hotel for 4 nights, including this one, and so the readers can be expecting 4 consecutive blogs, including this one.

Traveling day
We traveled from the Arenal Volcano to a hotel along the Pacific Coast. We were literally right on the beach, and so of course we had to jump right on in. We didn't do much swimming, to be honest, but it was fun just standing there and jumping over the waves as the rolled and rumbled in. We witnessed our first sunset on the pacific ocean also, and it was pretty amazing.

Snorkeling

today was a free day, or a day in which there was no structured guide and so we could choose to do what we wish. 5 of the 14 students, including myself, decided to splurge and pay 55 dollars to go on a 3 hour snorkeling trip. This trip took us to two different locations along the pacific coast and provided free transportation, refreshments, and equipment. My friend Matthew Schnoeblen recently purchased and under water camera and managed to take some video clips of the sea life while we were out. I will try to convince him to let me borrow a few of them so that we can show anyone reading this blog what it was like. These videos will not be procured before the posting of this blog, however. Some of the more memorable moments for me was when we saw a whole school of what the snorkeling guide called Lady Fish. Another memorable moment was when the guide caught a puffer fish with his hands and brought it over to us for a very close look. Finally, the most memorable part was probably right before we swam back to the boat to go to shore. One of the individuals on the tour spotted something kicking up some sand on the bottom and floated around for the sand to clear to investigate. It turned out to be a sting ray!

after snorkeling we returned to the hotel for a little game of giant chess. The chess pieces reached about knee height, or 2-3feet tall. I won, by the way ;)

Leaving the country

after our free day, it was time to leave Costa Rica in search of new territory. We headed north for Nicaragua. The driving and traveling was easy, the most grueling part was a 3 hour grind of waiting for our passports to be checked and verified through customs. I was apparently a very busy day at the customs office and so we were obliged to wait.. and wait... and wait... Finally, however, we arrived at our destination. It is a quaint hotel in San Juan Del Sur, not nearly as extravagant as the abodes in Costa Rica, but it will suffice quite nicely. After a brief walk along the beach, during which we spotted a beached Jellyfish, we went to a local restaurant and had supper. I had lobster, and at a very nice price. It only cost me about 14 U.S.D. for a meal that I am positive would have costed around twice that much in the United States. Tomorrow, we are searching out more volcanoes and more springs. should be interesting!

Posted below are two facebook photo album links. One has the rest of the Costa Rica pictures and the other has the first couple photos from Nicaragua.

Nicaragua

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150509344552550.388065.584287549&type=1&l=a8c783f26f

Costa Rica

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150499136747550.386664.584287549&type=3&l=9169d04fe8