The first thing we did when we woke up was eat breakfast, more rice and beans with rice milk (not my favorite). The community was taking us hiking at 5:30 so we got up really early in order to eat and be prepared. They did not exaggerate how difficult this hike would be, we hiked for five hours up and down this mountain. It was hot, and we were wearing jeans because of the excessive amounts of bugs in the forest. I was not complaining about the hike because it was great exercise and had an awesome view. We could see all three volcanoes we drove by and the village beneath us. It did make us appreciate being in Boone since we get to have these beautiful views near us everyday. I bet these views from other visitors who do not live in an area as beautiful as Boone would absolutely love this hike.
We heard some monkeys on the hike, but did not see much wildlife. This hike was mostly about the beautiful views. On the way down we stopped at a small cave that went into the mountains and had many stagnates. Several people went in and explored the little cave, but after hiking I did not want to make myself even more uncomfortable. I do not like being in small trapped places, but it did sound cool. Back at the houses, we showered and ate lunch before meeting the bus outside for another trip with the community. This time we were headed to the river that goes next to their village.
I was surprised as to how many of the community members joined us on our river tour. I would have assumed they had to work and do things at home, but many of them came with. A few students from UCR met us there because they knew Mauricio (our trip coordinator). During our trip down the river we got to see a ton of iguanas, birds, and even a couple crocodiles. They would not hold still long enough for us to take a picture because of the boat, but they were still really cool to see in person. We also stopped at a place with a huge mound of clam shells that showed how often the community fished in this area. Unfortunately, we did not get to go as far down the river as we wanted to go because of the impending rain. In fact, we ended up being drenched before we got back to the bus.
After scattering back to our houses we changed and ate dinner. Zulay surprised us when we found out she had a washing machine and something to spin the clothes dry. So we did a load of laundry and hoped that the clothes would dry even though it was so humid outside. At least washing them would help get rid of the smell. Our talk this evening was much better than last night. She was willing to work with our broken Spanish since she knew no English. We found out that as crazy as it sounds, Heraldo had to wake up at 4 in order to get to school on time. He has to bike and then take a bus into Nicoya, and he does not get home until around 5:30 in the afternoon. I cannot imagine having to do this everyday. We did notice that he did not do any homework though, so maybe students in this area spend a slightly longer amount of time in school in place of doing work at home.
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