Earthquake!

The last night in Puerto Jimenez we went to go have pizza at our favorite pizza place and then went back to our hostel to hang out for a while. Apparently as we were hanging out we had a small earthquake on the peninsula. I didn´t notice it because the pizza put me in a nice food coma so I was napping, but Brian and Mike say they definitely felt it. Some girls that were staying next to us say they were on a dock when the earthquake struck and they noticed the animals starting to go crazy. They said some of the locals were also acting equally as crazy. We didn´t think to much of it since it wasn´t to big and just ended up calling it an early night since we had a 5:00 am bus to catch.

The next morning we caught the bus to San Jose and tried to prepare ourselves for a long hot and bumpy 10 hour bus ride. About 45 minutes in to the ride, after crossing about 3 very shaky bridges, we came to a bridge and the bus driver just stopped the bus. We started to look forward and noticed that a very large section of the road had been cracked and washed into the river. Eventually the bus driver told us we had to go back to Puerto Jimenez. We got back in town and the driver said they should have the bridge fixed in a few hours so we decided to grab some breakfast to kill some time. Eventually we got back on the bus and sure enough the bridge was fixed. Don´t get me wrong, we were all extremely nervous crossing the bridge, but we were happy to be on our way. The rest of the day pretty much consisted of the bus ride which didn´t arrive in San Jose until that night around 7pm.

The next day we were up very early again so we could get to Montezuma early to meet my parents so they could join us for a week of travels. We ended up getting to Punt arenas to catch the fairy to the Nicoya Peninsula when we noticed my parents getting on the very same boat. Everyone was very excited to see each other and we happy we were all able to make the final trek to Montezuma together.

We have been in Montezuma now for 3 days and are having a great time. We have been staying in a nice wooden building right off some volcanic rocks that the waves constantly crash up against. The first night we all went to a very nice restaurant with some of the best squid and seafood we have found so far. The next day, after my parents treated us to a gourmet breakfast, we went hiking through the trails around the waterfalls. The trails were extremely steep and slippery but took us to a series of 3 waterfalls that were beautiful. Mike and Brian got the courage to jump off one of the 50 foot waterfalls, but the rest of us were content swimming in the lagoons beneath the falls. As we were hiking out we noticed a lot of howler monkeys which at times would howl directly over our heads. That night we fired up the grill in front of our hostel and made kabobs as we drank some local Costa Rican wine.

Today my parents surprised us by telling us they got us all a trip to go snorkeling at Isla Tortuga which included a fish barbecue. At 9:30 Kori, Mike, Ashlee, Brian, my parents and I got on a boat to take us the the isla. About 10 minutes in to the boat ride the driver noticed something which we all thought were more dolphins. As we got closer we were surprised to see a group of 3 humpback whales. One was very large and the other two must have been the young. We were all very excited as we got to watch them swim about 20 feet from our little boat. After that we continued our journey to Isla Tortuga to get some snorkeling in. As we were snorkeling we swam through huge schools of colorful fish, got to play with a blow fish and even swim with three different sharks. The barbecue ended up being incredible, which was followed by about 2 and a half hours of white sand beach time. Were back in town now and are thinking about firing up the barbecue in front of our hostel again. We know were leaving town first thing in the morning but we haven't decided were. As of now it sounds like it is going to be between Jaco and Tamarindo.

I hope everyone at home is enjoying the summer and I can´t wait to be back to catch up.