::Hot Tamales! First 4 and 1/16 days in Costa Rica!::

The Killer Monkeys: Attack!

We went to Monkey park yesterday (a.k.a. Manuel and Antonio... don't know why)—I was getting pretty disappointed. Me and Elly spotted some monkeys—dark specks way up in the trees by the time we reached the end of the tourist trail and stopped at the beach.

We found out there was a little more trail that went off the beach into some rain-foresty areas. Me, Hannah, and Rachel went and we saw about five little brown bodied, white-faced monkeys climbing around and jumping over our heads. A mother with a little baby on her back literally walked right past our feet—she had some kind of insect in our mouth... So cute!

James, Elly, and my mom had quite a different experience when they went back a while later. The monkeys seemed fine with everyone taking their pictures for a while—but then, apparently the father of the mother and baby got defensive and started barking at everyone. James said everyone started running (except him and Elly who were too far up the trail and behind everyone else). James blocked Elly from the crazy monkeys and my mom got some pretty good pictures.

One mother yelled, “Run!” and took off, but her eight-or-so-year-old son went the wrong way—he ran up instead of down. Three monkeys surrounded him and terrified the poor little fellow. When one monkey finally moved, the kid was able to run past and get away. My mom got some pretty good pictures. (Look at 'em and shiver!)

Rainforest

We went to a mini rainforest. It was cool. But really really hot and sweaty and Rachel wore her shirt immodestly.

Sand in Pants

We went to the beach—which was really fun—I forget how much I like the beach until I go and remember that I actually really like it. Maybe I'll learn to swim better if we keep going. I also, surprisingly, am already getting used to not wearing a jacket because... it's not cold. Nope. It's always about eighty degrees (30 degrees Celsius).

It's really fun to sit on the beach and let the tidal waves drag you around on the sand, but... don't recommend it unless you have a really good drain, and quick access to a shower because... we were stuck with sand-lumpy/sticky swimsuits for a few hours...

Spanish

I tried to actually say something in Spanish to Elder Torrez. The Missionaries have dinner with us every week on Tuesday and they came and played Nertz with us today, and... yeah. I said, “Sabe hacer......... ahora?” I was trying to ask Elder Torrez, “Do you know how to do it now?” (I was talking about counting points for the card game). But I said, “Do you know how to make... now?” And him and Elder Flores (yes, I know, Torrez and Flores!) were like, “Make what?” I'm pretty sure I was blushing and I hate it when people say something to you or you to them, and you don't understand what was said so you just stare at each other very stupidly. The stupid stare is becoming increasingly familiar.

Tamales

Ew. Gross. Don't know if the Mexican kind is different, but I don't like these strange banana corn-peel meat and green bean mysteries.

Fireworks

These Costa Rican fireworks are nuts. We shot some illegal-style ones (don't think they're illegal here) above our mini-jungle outside (geez, Dad, real smart) and one of them was like those spinning fireworks that bounce around on the ground—except it SHOT INTO THE AIR! I thought it was going to land on someone's head! It didn't.

Our last firework lasted forever. It sounded like a MACHINE gun and it shot these white exploding balls into the sky—Rachel and I screamed a couple of times and everyone slowly moved farther and farther back away from it because it really seemed like we were under the attack or something.

It's raining like CRAZY. I mean HARD RAIN. And this is the dry season!

Merry Christmas!