exploring costa rica!

I just got back from an awesome field visit – my first of 3. My group (RCD) got split into 2 groups of 9 and we each went to visit 2 current Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) and their sites. So 9 of us went to the province of Guanacaste where we went to 2 sites super close to Nicaragua. In fact, from the second site, we were able to see Lake Nicaragua! Anyway, it was a really great time. Aside from going to the beach (finally!), a lake, jumping down a waterfall, and hanging out with the other amazing PCVs, we got to see what a REAL rural site looks like. And boy is it crazy. To get to one of the sites, for example, we took the 5 hour bus from San Jose to La Cruz in Guanacaste. From there, we took a school bus for 45 minutes to another small-ish city. Then, we took this cattle truck thing (a huge open air truck that would literally be used to transport cattle) on a dirt road (that had just been constructed 5 years ago) for 45 minutes to get to the volunteer’s site. I stayed in a house without electricity or warm water, became one with dirt, and learned how to make pasteles de arroz con pollo (look it up). I have lots of stories about frogs in toilets, humongous spiders, the biggest pig I’ve ever seen, and WAY too many roosters to sleep.

While we were visiting the second site, we also got a chance to each talk one-on-one with our boss to talk about what we think we’d like in a site, what kind of jobs we’d be interested in doing, and so on. So it was really nice to be able to give some input into where I’ll be living for the next 2 years. Now we’re all so anxious to find out our site assignments! But, we still have a few weeks til then. The good news is, my ankle made it through all the hikes and traveling. Those PTs really knew what they were talking about!

Next weekend is our next field visit. This time we will be going alone to visit a current volunteer. I will be going to Alajeula. After that, we will have another interview and then, two weeks from yesterday (the friday before Passover), we find out our site placements! Nuts, huh?

Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures from our field visit to Guanacaste. I still dont know exactly how to format the page so ill just tell you all about the pictures here. The first picture is my host parents doing kareoke, haha. Then you can see some of us PCVs doing kareoke at a bar in San Jose. The two pictures of the river are from the first site we got to visit. It was the only way to stay cool! Next youll see some interesting animal pictures all from our first site. they only thing ill add to the pictures is to tell you that the frog was living in the toilet of Jake and my homestay. Next comes pictures from the beach - Playa Soley. Theres one of all 9 of us with the amazing view. The land on the right, by the way, is Nicaragua. Then youll see our mode of transportation to our second site, which happens to be a cattle truck thing. The picture of me with another PCV and 2 young girls is at one of our homestays at our second site that we visited. They were super cute. The guy with the leaf hat is my boss. And isnt that waterfall awesome? It took quite a hike to get there but it was def worth it. We got to climb up it kind of and jump off, it was awesome! You can also seem so gorgeous views from the second site.

OK, I think that about covers it. Hope everyone is doing well! Miss you all.
(And keep up the calls, emails and letters!)