Puerto Jiménez, Costa Rica

Thursday, July 16 was a beautiful day. The students spent the entire day with their host families, and we chaperones were free and clear. Our kids behaved very well on the entire trip, but we were still really happy to have a whole day without them.

We started the morning by helping Eric and Jonathan with some yard work. I took the opportunity to take more pictures of Eric and Yessenia’s house. Remember that they built this house themselves with sand bags.

After that Margaret, Sara and I went downtown to do some shopping. I bought some Christmas presents for my family.

Mackenzie met up with us for lunch by the water. I loved having freshly squeezed juice every day.

I took more pictures while we were walking around town.

I showed some pictures from this bridge in a previous post. You can see how much more water there was on this day.

There were dozens of macaws in this tree. I did not get a good picture, but don’t worry. I got a lot the next morning that I will show you next week.

In the afternoon we went to the public beach downtown.

Sara and I tried stand up paddleboarding for the first time. There were huge marine turtles swimming all around us. I wish that I could have taken a picture of them, but they will be in my memory forever.

Jonathan and a friend went out with us.

When we got back to the house, the bat was there waiting for us.

There is not much more to tell you. It was a very relaxing day. The biggest excitement came that evening, but first I have to tell you something that happened a couple of nights before. You have to remember that because of the bats all three of us were sharing a bedroom. Margaret and I were sleeping in the bed, and Sara was on the floor on a mattress. Well, on July 12 I had just started to drift to sleep when I dreamed that a spider crawling on my hand. I shook my hand and continued sleeping. Then, I felt it on my chest. Suddenly I realized that it might not be a dream. I stifled a scream and sat upright, switching on the light with my right hand. I did not see anything on me or on the bed. Thankfully, I did not wake either Sara or Margaret. It took a while for my heart rate to go back down enough to go back to sleep. I swore I could still feel something crawling on my chest.

Four nights later, Sara and I stayed up for a while reading. She turned her lantern off shortly after I put my iPad away. I had just fallen into a sound sleep when I was awoken by a scream. Sara had jumped up on our bed and was screaming and babbling incoherently. After a moment I realized that she was saying something about a bug crawling into her mouth. I quickly switched on the light, but after checking her bed carefully, we did not see anything there. Then, I moved a bag that was sitting on the floor. It was a huge black bag that had been there since before we arrived. We had joked several times that we suspected it held a body – it was that big. Well, when I moved it, something scurried from behind it up the wall. It was an enormous cockroach. I managed to get two blurry pictures before it disappeared in a crack. Poor Sara, it had crept over her forehead and down into her mouth before she fully woken up and screamed.

Needless to say, it was a while before we got back to sleep that night. So much for our relaxing day. While we were talking I remembered what had happened to me a while back. Looking back on it, I have a feeling that that it was that cockroach that had been crawling on me that night.

That is the danger of traveling in a developing country. You get to swim with sea turtles, but you also have the chance of sleeping with bats and cockroaches. Thankfully, I have traveled enough in rustic settings to not be that phased by the wildlife. I don’t think it will keep me from going back.

If you have missed any of the previous Costa Rica posts, you can catch up here: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8.

Happy Travels!