Montezuma

Hola!
This weekend we went on our last included CEA Excursion to Montezuma!
To get there we rode in the bus for almost 2 hours, had to wait on the ferry for almost 2 more, rode the ferry for about and hour and a half and then drove for about that much more! All in all, we were traveling for 8 hours! We left after class at 1 so we didn't get there until 8! We got to our hotel, checked in, and I got to be in a bungalow room with Emily! Our bungalow was pretty sweet, except for the animal droppings on the bed and in the shower....and the fact that there was no air conditioner and it was the hottest place I've ever been in my life! Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep between the heat, the howler monkeys the first night and the horrible storm the second night!
We went to dinner at a cool little pizza place and then since no one but me wanted to go back to the hotel, I went to the bar with the others. I ended up sitting outside on the beach with one of the other girls and it was a good time! The next morning we got up ate breakfast and walked to the Montezuma waterfall! It was quite a hike to get there but it was awesome! At this waterfall you could swim right under it and the pool it made was perfect for swimming and was so deep you could jump off the rocks from just about anywhere! We spent a lot of time there and I loved it! After the waterfall we headed into town, got lunch at the grocery store and then caught a bus and headed to RainSong, an animal sanctuary! There they had three baby howler monkeys we got to play with that had been orphaned...they were sooo cute! They also had a baby parrot that was adorable! Deanna, Kathleen, Claire, and I were the only ones that went but we were really glad we did! The bus ride there was pretty cool too because it was all locals and they all knew each other and were treating everyone like family! Since we weren't exactly sure where to get off several people helped us and one girl even told the driver to stop there for us! Once we were done and waiting on the bus stop we got to see several guys chop down a tree that was right beside a house by climbing up it (this is a straight palm like tree) and wrapping a rope around and then whacking it with a machete. It was an interesting experience as well! After that we went back and got in the hotel's pool, which was amazing!
The CEA advisor who went with us (Lisa) and our driver (Randall) and his friend (Leo) were there so we got to practice our Spanish and learn sayings!
We learned the equivalent for dude "mae" which guys use like every four words so it's really hard to understand, and that they call guys microwaves when they flirt with a girl all night and then ditch her (we learned this because Leo is a microwave.) Emily also learned how to say "check it" in spanish (asi es la vara.) It was a lot of fun! The next day we went to breakfast and then hung out in the pool again until lunch. It's hard to swim at the beach near our hotel because there are a lot of rocks, some of the people walked 20 minutes to a better beach but the waves were insane and there was a lot of seaweed and yucky stuff because of the crazy storm the night before. Then we got back on the ferry, and I thought the first ferry was big but this one was huge! We sat on the top deck and it started raining and the floor was flooded and we were getting soaked, so close to the end we finally decided to go inside and low and behold there were a ton of seats and there had been the whole time! These seats were cushioned and really nice and it was air conditioned in there. The whole time everyone on the top deck just assumed it was full down there and we were all wrong! We all got soaked anyway getting off the ferry and getting onto the bus so we all had to change on the bus so we wouldn't get all the seats wet! Pretty much everything we had with us was wet. I hung so much stuff up in my room to dry when we got back that I didn't have anywhere to put anything else! The rainy season has definitely begun...right now it's raining and it has been for hours!

Today, Deanna, Yolanda and I went to Mall San Pedro in order to use an ATM that would give us dollars. For some reason, we have to pay for our Nicaragua trip with dollars. I guess the colon-Nicaraguan money exchange rate is so messed up that they don't except colones to exchange there or something. So we got to the mall and found the ATM and had a crap ton of US money on us, I had $500 in my money belt because I was holding Deanna's for her too! We haven't seen US money for so long that it felt like play money, which was really weird! We also found a Taco Bell next to the mall and decided to go there for lunch! It was amazing and tasted just like back at home! Apparently Taco Bell has fries now so I ordered a "fiesta fry" for Yolanda cause we thought that was the fries with the meat and cheese and stuff on them but turns out that's just plain old fries! It was an interesting experience because at that Taco Bell instead of calling your number they call your name and when they asked for mine I told him and he was so confused. Chelsey is a really rare name here! I was expecting them to call my number because they have such problems with my name when I heard the guy say Chelsey? is a voice that was like what the heck is this name? It was pretty funny!
Anyway, all in all we had a good weekend and a good Monday!
Thursday I have my final for Intermediate1 Spanish and then Friday morning at 3:45 AM we're leaving for Nicaragua! We won't be back until late Monday afternoon so you probably won't hear from me until then or Tuesday!
Ciao chicos! (I know ciao is Italian but don't tell the ticos that, they think it's Spanish!)
~Chelsey