And the last week in pictures!!!!

First and foremost, Happy Birthday to my Mom.....Sept 8th is her day. Mom, I hope your day is awesome! Love you and Happy Birthday!


An Owl that was outside last night.....sooo cool! Spectacled Owl....in Spanish, Buhl!!

The cookies I made, were supposed to be for the guests but we ate most of them!

Oops, the recipe I used.....the 1/3 cup is for brown sugar and white sugar. I got a little excited making these!


Made cookies....choc chip with coconuts, almonds and raisins....ahhhh!

words for me to practice in spanish....lots of words....LOTS

Marielos, my spanish teacher

Gabirella, Marielos´daughter. She´s 9 and teaches me how to read in Spanish.....I´ve always said that it would be cool to be 7 again...Well I think I´m around 4 in the Spanish world!

Monkeys!!!!

They were so close to me, this was taken at the house of my spanish teacher. Mariallos acted like it was no big deal when she pointed at them. Wondering what she thought as I took off running out the door towards the porch where they were hanging out.

Hello little fella, hungry? Mariallos said they come up to the porch to eat fruit she puts out for them. The locals say they can be pests and yes, they bite.

You want a banana? .....I take that as a yes!

There were about 15 of them....I think. They were coming out of everywhere. These little guys are called ´cera blanca´ aka white faced monkeys

Morning breakfast!

Arcoiris....rainbow!

Mamonchinos....leeche fruit. Its soooooo good!

This is what the corn here looks like...needless to say they don´t call it sweet corn and trust me, being from Iowa, I almost fell over when they said that this was for human, not cows.

Leeches

Oranges here...they´re green

Farmers market.....I had a blast. Trying all new fruits and veggies and learning the names for them. Does it get any better than this?

Luis and I

Jenn, owner of Hidden Canopy on the patio of the main house.

Enjoying sunset, life is GOOD!

Alonzo and his sweet heart! haha, he make fun of me more than anyone, but its all good.

This is what a study session looks like.

Typical site here at Hidden Canopy! Butterfly spp

Cheyenne, one of the guests, having a tasty snack!

Lunch....Alonzo and Cindi are amazing cooks. I´m spoiled! Rice and beans for every meal, fried plaintains as well. This day we added fish and tomatoes!

Meet Hidden Canopy!

Luis.......Mr Construction, he can fix anything. We practice spanish and english together, speaking with noises, facial expressions and movements!





















The patio of Hidden Canopy looking in















I turned around from the last pick and took it facing the Gulf of Nicoya.














Netti cleaning the door. Shes great helps me with my spanish as she knows a little english. Cindi is in the gray (above to the right.) Her and Alonzo run the kitchen...they make some of the most amazing dishes.

If I knew the names I´d tell you, however Alonzo speaks so fast I can never tell what he´s saying!

A beetle...so interesting. This chica, along with many other insects have drawn my attenction many times!

The dining room

Carmen Phillips and her family

Hi, its me!

Meet Will. Don´t tell him, but he´s pretty cool too. Teaches me Spanish and can speak fluent English (helps when my head is about to explode with words.)

The view from Hidden Canopy

Estoy hablando espanol!

Slowy, with much repetition my Spanish is improving.

Living at Hidden Canopy with 6 Spanish speaking people has helped me enormously. However, some words still sound so similar. For example, I asked for scrambled keys the other day (llevos o llaves.) Should have seen the look and heard the laughs. Since then, I´ve been the entertainment for the house. Struggling to form sentences that make absolutely no sense at all. And for that reason, I started Spanish lessons with Mariallos. Today was day two! I speak as choppy as a second grader learning to read.

What else....
Saturday night went to Bar Amigos with Chrisitan, Will y Luis (They all live here at Hidden Canopy.) Talk about walking into the the local bar! Literally sat down and was asked to dance by some guy, can´t remember his name. He tried to teach me how to merengue. Wondering what he thought of me as all I did was laugh and say ´no entiendo.´

In case you were wondering, they can still smoke in bars here. It felt like we were partying in the clouds! When in Rome...keep dancing! Also tried out dancing with Christian, his feet were moving so fast it was just a blur looking down. He kept saying ¨just watch my feet¨ and trust me I tried, it just wasn´t working. At that moment I knew it was a must that I take both Spanish speaking and dancing lessons if I´m going to survive another night out!

Enjoying every second here. The second day living at Hidden Canopy I was sent zip-lining at Extremo. 600 yards strapped in like Superman offers quite the adrenaline rush and incredible views of the Monteverde area. Highly recommend doing this anywhere. Zip-lining, repelling and the infamous tarzan swing where you step off a ledge hoping-praying that the tree branch that holds the rope doesn´t decide to break.

Went horseback riding yesterday with mi amiga Liset. Her friend gives tours and had free time so I didn´t refuse the offer. Awesome awesome awesome views of the mountains, Gulf of Nicoya y local farms. Ate guayaba (a local fruit) along the way. Although I couldn´t respond to anything they were talking about, it was great! Wondering if they think I´m a mute. If they only knew.

Appreciating all that Costa Rica offers. To keep it from boring you, I´ll just make a list of a few things that are new to me:
-Daily visits from Tucans
-Walking stick insects
-Every color humming bird
-Butterflies that look like an owls face
-Waterfall showers
-Being as tall as most men
-Pinto (rice and beans) for every meal....and thats honest
-I drink more water in a day compared to everyone here combined....they like cafe´
-Going to university here is cheap in comparison to the states. $1000-semester in a private school.
-Sleeping in a bunk again!
-Te´time every day at 4 with cookies....a new weakness!
-Sharing a living space with 2 guys! So funny!
-The flowers. (deep breath) they´re so beautiful
-The expression ¨que rico

Pictures coming soon. Posted some on Facebook already if interested.

Pura Vida.

Luck is on my side!

Through a connection, still vague as to how it exists, I was told to go find Jenn King at the Hidden Canopy Treehouse Boutique Hotel in Monteverde. After hiking up the mountains 3-4k in the morning, spending the day checking out the most amazing, astounding, incredible breathtaking views, treehouses, and land, I accepted the offer, gratefully, to move into one of the bunk rooms.

We´ve worked out a deal that accomodated both parties. While working here on marketing projects, they´ll help me learn spanish! Ahhh awesome!

I might be the luckiest person alive! Check out the site and see why!
http://www.hiddencanopy.com/p/user/hotel.php

If you are thinking of taking a trip and want to stay in a place unlike anything before, please let me know, being open officially a month, these are booking well in advance.

Ideas as how to spread word of mouth......honeymooners, anniversary trips, backpackers needing a good night, retreats and much more. What's your take?

Can't stop smiling

Went to Montezuma, on Friday, via 4-wheel drive Land Rover and that itself was a crazy journey. Felt like I was being transported to do a live story on breaking news in a remote part of the world. Then I remembered, this is a remote part of the world. Picture it......the small seats way in the back. No air. Gravel roads (to call them roads is being nice, more like small paths) that have more holes than honeycomb. Jungle overhead, on the side, everywhere. River crossings. And the constant sound of vibrations making you think the vehicle is going to fall apart instantly. Loved every minute of it.

Stopped by an animal refuge. Got to handle monkeys, anteaters, a kinkajou (bear like monkey thing) and more. Pretty sweet considering the monkey was crawling on everyone's head. There was a toucan there, never seen that before, didn't really believe they existed, THEY DO!

Then onto the falls where my ability to be patient proved wrong again. I sped ahead without the pro's and didn't get to jump off the waterfall like planned (limited hours of daylight) but saw it from the bottom instead. It was splendid.
Ate at a world renound (not sure if that's really true, but it should be if its not) resturante on the beach called la playa de artistos. The six of us managed to rack up a bill of 100,000 colones. Totally worth every bite!

Spent the last two days in Santa Teresa hanging out on the beach. Soaking up every single second of sunlight possible. Maybe a second too much the first day, hit the shade the next.

Was up at 4am this morning to pack and catch the bus, then the ferry, then taxi, then wait, then bus, now Monteverde. And I'm not sure I can ever leave this place. Mountains. Everything green. Adventure tours on every corner. Canopy tour? Zip lining? Canyoning? Horseback riding? Night hiking? Butterfly gardens? Mountain biking? ATV tours? What would you like to do? En serio!

Chilling in a hostel right now. Can hear old school country shouting something about whiskey and heaps of motorbikes passing by. Love this life.

For all the travelers out there, here's parts of my journal entry from my day:
'Sitting at a roadside resturante in Puntarenas waiting for my bus. Here because my taxi driver didn't think it was safe to drop me at the bus station and made a personal decision to drop me with his friends (Resturante owner.) Oddly enough he's been to Iowa. I haven't paid him for the taxi ride yet. Ordered something in Spanish, don't know what I'm drinking. Its good. Unfamiliar with everything. The language. The music. The transport system. Monetary units. Crossing the streets. The style of driving (feel like death is close everytime I'm in a vehicle) hahahaha And I can't stop laughing. This is SO much fun. Don't worry the taxi driver offered me a job being a tour guide for all the tourists coming off of cruise ships, he and his wife will pay me, find me room and board and teach me espanol. Is this real?

Still itching.