Just Another Fun-Filled Week!

Last week was a pretty fun-filled week if I do say so myself! Tuesday night we were able to go to the national stadium for the soccer game between Costa Rica and Panama. Talk about a zoo! We all dressed up in Costa Rica jerseys and headed down there in a bus. Once we got there we waded through all the people to get up to the gate only to be told we were on the wrong side of the stadium! At this point, it began to pour!!! And we weren’t allowed to bring umbrellas into the stadium so I just embraced the rain and wet-dog look for the night. We turned around and started to walk around the stadium. We cut through this field and then came to a narrow opening that led us to the gates of the stadium. In order to get through the opening we had to climb along the fence because the sidewalk was completely filled with people walking in the opposite direction! Finally, though, we all made it to our seats. The game started and the rain still didn’t let up! So, as one can imagine, the stairs and aisles were really wet and a man was walking down the aisle right by our section with a huge tray of drinks he was trying to sell. All of a sudden he slipped and took one heck of a fall onto the cement stairs. I looked over expecting to see him get up and he didn’t. He was just lying there and those really close to him said he was even crying. I felt soooo awful for the poor guy because someone had said they thought he broke his back. Us, along with many others in our section, motioned to the security guys to come and it literally took a good 5-7 minutes for anyone to even come down and help him out. They then took him out on a really old looking back board with just one teeny tiny little strap. I felt so bad for him and really hope he is doing well!  But, besides that poor man, the game was really fun! Costa Rica won 2-0 and both goals were scored right in front of our section!

We met at Plaza Cristal to get on the bus 

The very next day, Wednesday, we were able to get out of class and head to see a volcano and some Hot Springs. The bus ride was 4 hours each way which was actually super nice because I was pretty tired since I had stayed up late at the game the previous night. When we got to the little town of Fortuna we stopped to eat at a restaurant which had some pretty awesome food! At first, I took one look at my chicken and thought “Greaaattt this looks pretty darn sketch”. But to my surprise, when I cut into it, it actually was super juicy and tasted great! Even better than the chicken, though, was the vanilla ice cream! It tasted homemade and was super fantastic! We then got back on the bus and drove up through the mountains and stopped at a point where we were able to get out and see the volcano. We couldn’t see too much though because it was a little foggy out. After this, we were taken to a resort called “Baldi Hot Springs and Spa”. This place was beyond awesome! It has somewhere close to 20 pools of natural hot water due to the volcano that is nearby. The higher you climb, the hotter the springs get. It was also so gorgeous because there were so many trees and rocks and other types of plants! They also had 3 water slides. Two of them were for adults and one was for children. I definitely found out why it was not advised for children to ride the two designated for adults! Holy cow! You flew so fast through those things and would just come flying out at the end! One girl in our group ended up with a fat lip! But, at the end of the day, everyone survived and we made it back to San Jose by about 10:30 pm. Which as sad as it is to say was past my usual bedtime here!

The look-out point for the volcano

Swim up bar at Baldi Hot Springs

Baldi Hot Springs