Pura Vida Mae!

Writing from a phone isn't ideal so I haven't done it much since I got here...obviously. I am now in Esterillos Oeste...3 plus weeks later since my last update. I love it here. We got our second surf lesson today and Pat got some good pics. I won't be able to upload any pics I have taken till I get home. Uvita was interesting. We stayed at Cascada Verde Eco Lodge where we were to volunteer. I'll try to sum up the experience as best I can. In the beginning there was a guest from New York. He was somewhat of an a-hole, little self-righteous, ignorant. One of the boys (either Sanfort, Emilio, Pipper or Victor) not-so-fondly named him cabra which means goat. Another guest who we loved and sadly didn't get to see very much of was Alejandro. He is a performer from Cirque Du Soleil. Alejandro was so sweet, witty and had what I called "a must see chest, 5 stars". Among the people who actually worked there we met 1)a man who is our own "big fish" he made us laugh a lot. We are coming home with some great quotes from this guy. Although he may have been blowing smoke up our arses quite a bit he still helped with our travels and experience thus far. 2)A beautiful tico boy, Emilio, who liked me with my make-up off and all. He also questioned my motives "you are just looking for some latin candy?". I appreciated this because sometimes being called out is a good thing. He would like me to return again to spend time with just him and even offered to buy my ticket. What is comical about this is that he and I can speak the least to each other. I know about as much spanish as he knows english. We used our translators and hand gestures a lot. SO we will see how this pans out. Ha. Emilio also has done a lot in is 27 years from working on his parents farm, motocross, going to school for Gastronomy (which he still has to finish), studying abroad, being one of the greatest baristas which included making crazy cool pictures in the foam and much more. 3) An old rasta dude named Victor who was originally from some island off the coast of Spain. He has worked at Cascada forever it seems, first for Patrick, the german dude, who apparently went a little nutty after one too many motorcycle wrecks. Victor rarely spoke english which was fine, he showed us a lot of different plants and had us eat many of them. He is what sparked my now curiosity in horticulture. He also loved to watch old looney toons in spanish at night. I think his favorite was Claudio the big rooster. 4) a guy from the Basque country. His accent was a little different in both English and Spanish. Well...he was a little different but I think he always meant well. 5) Patrick, who didn't work there but owned the place. This is the german dude who was a little eccentric to say the least. He was cool though, interesting and we got some good insight, inspirational messages from him. Michelle and I were both a bit disappointed with the actual volunteer program, seeing how it was hmmmm "under construction" or something of that nature. We did get to garden a bit and made some friends so it was still a good experience. Michelle got an up close look at a naked german man (my view was more distant) not that she really wanted to, but you know, it's fine. Ha ha. We also had some good food, great coffee, homemade chocolate and a better tolerance to bugs especially spiders. I mean after the huge ones we have seen, I doubt the ones back home will make us squirm like before. One of the days in Uvita we hiked up to the waterfall and swam. That was rad. There were these plants called dormilonas and when you touched them they would close up. I honestly have felt like we fell down the rabbit hole into Wonderland on many occasions since we got to Costa Rica. I had my birthday in Uvita as well...but it didn't really feel much like a birthday because I was sick. Oh well such is life. Towards the end of our stay a girl from Spain came, Nulia (I think). She seemed kind of cold to us at first but warmed up before we had left. She had volunteered there before and had a good relationship to the place and the people. There is much more to Uvita but that is all I feel like writing about today. Next to come is Dominical, Quepos and Esterillos Oeste which is where we are now. I will write more about the trip later but let me just say this: Today we had our 2nd surf lesson. This one seemed way more legit...it is so AWESOME!!! This is something I've always wanted to know how to do. We go out again tomorrow. Also Pat (my aunt's friend who we are staying with while in EO is freaking amazing...LOVE HER). More to come MAE!