Snorkeling and Burning

15 – abril

We got up around 8:30am and the whole group made and ate a traditional Costa Rican breakfast – eggs with onion and cilantro (maybe? I’m not sure…), a type of sausage, queso frito (fried cheese), tortillas, orange juice, and coffee, of course. We all headed back to the beach – this time it was a bright sunny day. I tried round 2 of snorkeling and got to see some very beautiful and colorful fish. It couldn’t help but think what an amazing opportunity I have to be experiencing all of this. Just a few weeks ago I would have been working at my desk on a Friday morning (and enjoying it) and now I am snorkeling in the Caribbean Sea!! The only bad part about the snorkeling experience is that I got fried!! I wouldn’t have guessed it and don’t think sunscreen would have lasted very long anyway, but my whole back and backs of my legs are so red! I look like a lobster. People here make comments that I am a blanca (white girl) but now I am a roja (red!). That is the only bad part of my whole time here so far though, and with the help of some aloe vera gel, hopefully I will escape with little pain or peeling. We went back to where we had stayed to shower and change, and then headed for home. We stopped in Limon to drop off the girl that lived there, and she had us all into her house for a pipa fria – which is cold coconut juice. Basically you crack open the shell of the coconut before it is completely ripe and dry (and has formed coconut) and inside is a clear liquid that you drink. It tastes very good, kind of like a sweet water. And you can eat the little bit of coconut “meat” that is on the sides of the shell. I guess it could be compared to scraping and eating the “meat” on the inside of a pumpkin. So that was indeed a tasty treat. Along the way from Limon there was a big accident on the road (we are guessing at least) and the traffic on the single lane road was very backed up so we followed a bus and took an alternate route – which happened to be through the middle of several banana plantations. We passed lots of Dole, Del Monte, and Chiquita semi trucks and I got to see the banana plantations in action. <>
We made it home around 7:00 pm and unpacked, started some laundry, and I applied aloe to the red (ah….why didn’t anyone tell me that it might be a good idea to do a little bit of tanning before I came b/c as much as I hate tanning it could have been a gentler introduction for my poor skin…?!) What adventures I have had already in just a few days here!