Crazy party weekend...check

Hey Everyone!

I just walked in the door and am back, alive and unscathed, from our weekend of debauchery in Puerto Viejo. Although the town wasn't exactly what I was expecting, it was a really fun spot to spend a few days. I have to say that it's completely unlike any place I've ever been to before, which makes for a unique experience. I guess I didn't really know what to expect there based on the various reviews I've been going over for the last few months. I guess what struck me the most was how small it is. Really, PV consists of one main street that's maybe 200 meters long. In addition, there's another road equally long that runs adjacent to the coastline that's a little less touristy. On the main road, there are lots of little souvenir shops, bars, restaurants, etc. On the whole, yes, this place is geared for tourists and unfortunately, has lots of unsavory characters just waiting for an opportunity to strike (which I'm happy to say did not...well, at least not me anyway, but I'll get back to that).

So we left on Thursday immediately after school and got to the bus station. When we pulled in, I realized I had left my Dramamine back at the school. Without Dramamine, the bus ride was sure to be hellish, so I made the decision to go back to the school with the taxi driver and ended up cutting it really close. Anyway, we got on the bus and headed down to the coast. As we drove out of the city, the REAL Costa Rica began to emerge, with vast forests of green, only interrupted by rivers and streams. It was beautiful. As we got closer to the coast, it started to get humid, but it wasn't obnoxious; it was actually kind of a nice change.

We got into PV around 8:30 that night and found ourselves a place to stay, but split the group. Most of the people we were with immediately followed this woman to a hostel, and two other girls and myself said, "No thanks" to hostel living. We found our own place and unloaded our gear there. We all met up later, had dinner, and drank beer out on the beach until about 3:00 AM. Nothing terribly exciting happened that night to speak of...it was just really an awesome thing to be able to hang out on a Caribbean beach and wade into the water periodically to cool off. The funny thing about Caribbean weather is that it sometimes feels like there is NO weather...it's just perfect. Water included.

The next day, we got up and I walked down to the hostel to check in on everyone. I found that the place they were staying at was actually pretty cool. It consisted of about 75 "cabinas," little one-room places with a bed and fan. It was really basic living, but cheap! $10 a night to be exact. I went back to my place to grab my stuff and moved in. Later that day, we all headed down to the beach and just hung out in the water and on the sand. We found that if you went up a little further, you'd hit "Playa Negra" with really cool black sand. We hung out there for a few hours and then went back to the hotel and out to dinner. Later that night, we ventured down the road to a place called, "Rockin J's":

http://www.rockingjs.com/

This place was AWESOME. We were told that there'd be a rock and roll cover band playing, but we had no idea how great they'd be. They were from all over the world, England and the US mostly, but they had this dude who busted out, of all instruments, a trombone and just COMPLETELY rocked it. Now, for those of you who weren't already aware of my prodigious skills as a child, let me now make it known. Yes, I played the trombone. So well in fact that I was actually too good for the LHS band. So good, that after we came back from marching in the Rose Bowl my Freshman year, our director told me I needed to leave...apparently, I was embarrassing all the other trombone players. But, I digress...

So this guy is totally awesome and he's just basically freestyling it the whole time. Maybe it was him, maybe it was the beer, but whatever it was, it had the crowd on its feet. We drank and danced there for probably three hours and then moved back into town. At this point, I found a fried chicken place, grabbed myself a little snack, and pulled my famous "Houdini" trick by sneaking back to my room and going to sleep. Now, before any of you give me crap for leaving early, A) It was like 2:30 AM and B) This is my survival tactic that keeps me from getting too drunk or having a brutal hangover. And for the record, this weekend I had no trouble with "authority" nor was I ever hung-over. Take that!

Yesterday was kind of lousy weather, so we just hung out on the beach and farted around town. I caught myself being bored, and thought about what a ridiculous thing that was. Here I was in the middle of the freakin' Caribbean coast, and I'm complaining. Wow. Later that evening, after some pre-partying back at our hostel, we went out to the beach because Jacob had made himself a "message in a bottle" that he wanted to launch into the sea. This turned out to be a really bad idea for a couple of reasons. He picked the absolute WORST area to launch...on a coral reef. So he takes off his shoes, shirt, and shorts and begins trying to navigate the coral in the dark. The whole way out there, he's practically crawling because it's hurting his feet so much. It probably takes him about 15 minutes to go out fifty meters. In the meantime, we begin to realize that Scott, one of our group members, is missing So Jacob begins to realize that he needs to come back in as he's getting nowhere near the breakers, and thus, will not be able to successfully launch his bottle. As he comes in, he takes a header into the coral and lands on his hands and chest, which causes bleeding from a number of areas on his body. Right as he's coming in, Scott rolls up. When we ask him what happened, he tells us this story about him getting surrounded by a group of police officers on quads and dirt bikes who search him, and then produce a bag of pot they say was his (it really wasn't). They tell him something like, "Oh no. What should we do with you now? You know that you have to go to jail because you broke the law." They end up taking all of his money, which really sucked for him. And because he's a peace-loving Canadian and also has never had experience with this sort of situation, he's pretty upset about it. We tell him to just shake it off and move on. Lesson learned. However, this whole situation kind of puts a damper on the rest of us, and about this time, I decide that I'm going to call it quits. We had been spending a TON of money (the place isn't cheap), and honestly, I had had enough beer for one weekend. So about five of us called it early and headed back.

We got up this morning, ate breakfast, and headed to the bus stop where we got to deal with one final bit of drama. We were supposed to leave at 11:00 AM and were assured we had seats. We got there and saw one bus that was nearly full. We jumped on and grabbed what seats we could, leaving some people without seats. People begin to get agitated, but then relax after being told that another bus was coming. So, here I am up towards the front of the bus, feeling all proud and a bit smug about MY seat, and how the other people should have come earlier, when all of a sudden this mechanic dude boards the bus and opens a hatch. What does he then do? Did you guess work on the engine with a screwdriver?! Good for you! Yes, he begins trying to get the bus to start by banging a screwdriver on various parts of the engine! Now I'm starting to get a little worried. A second (nicer) bus pulls up and all the people without seats go running. "Alright, I think to myself. Stay positive. Your bus is going to start. These guys know what they're doing. It IS possible to start a car by banging somewhere with metal (my old monster truck once broke down in a Taco Bell drive through, and some dude standing in front of a nearby Quickstop banged on some part and started it right up)." As time goes by, and several shoulder shrugs later, someone on our bus gets up. People start looking all around, and before you know it, we're exiting like the bus is on fire. I grab my stuff, and start pushing my way through the crowd towards the other line by the second bus. Knowing that I wasn't going to get anywhere by being polite, I cut directly to the front of the other line and got myself a spot. Ugly American? Yes. American who didn't get stuck waiting in Puerto Viejo for another five hours? You know it...

And that's about it. Good weekend. Expensive weekend, but a good one. Next weekend, we're off to Arenal Volcano for some zip lines and thermal pools. Now, it's time to gear up for another week of Spanish and Salsa, which really should be my main focus while here...just too many distractions!

Thanks again to all of you for keeping in contact. I love the comments! Oh, and a special shout-out to my friends Kevin and Myra Meis, who welcomed little Brandon Antonio Meis (AKA Bam-Bam) into the world on 7/8/09. Congrats guys! And can't wait to meet him:)

Ben