Sunday, we all climbed aboard our bus and headed towards the Pacific. We stopped at the Rio Tarcoles, a river that is filled with crocodiles and is one of the most polluted rivers in Costa Rica. There must have been twenty crocodiles lying in the water near the bridge. These animals are huge, some as long as 15 feet. Scary!
On our way west we passed lots of bicyclists and it was explained to us that Costa Rica has a big bike race in a few weeks and lots of these people were probably training for it...to Chuck it just looked like good fun.
From the river we drove to Playa Blanca and the students and Chuck did the zip line while Ana, her kids and I relaxed and waited for them on the beach. It is a white sand beach with large lava rocks sticking out of the sand. The group caught up with us about an hour later and we all enjoyed the beach for the afternoon. We headed home as the sun set over the Pacific. It seemed like all the Ticans were out in their cars Sunday night...man, were the roads crowded.
Monday, we had our welcome information session at UNA, a week late as the university has been closed for spring break. The session included a funny video called "The Gringo Guide to Costa Rica" which covered, among other things, how to get hot water out of the shower. It was a cute movie. They also explained to us that pedestrians do NOT have the right-of-way and cars do...very dangerous crossing roads here. They explained to us that it was normal for men here to cat-call and whistle at attractive women, displaying their "Machismo Culture." I still don't like it but the men think they are being complementary. Public schools and UNA are going to remain closed for an extra week, in hopes of containing the swine flu outbreak. They asked that everyone keep an open mind and not to compare thier host families with thier real homes, good advice for all.
Good night all, Pat
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