Today was actually pretty eventful. I was expecting it to be just one big long busride, but we did a lot. After leaving Pacuare (I was pretty grouchy) we boated up the river back to the dock where we had ended our Long March. The boat ride was quite nice. I guess I never realized how peaceful they can be, or else I just took them for granted. We reached the dock and waited a little while for the bus. We discussed the World Trade Organization, which was Andrew's article. Actually, everyone else sort of discussed it since I had lost my voice. My vocal cords were having a fit! I sounded like a 13 year old boy. My voice was all froggish, and it kept cracking. Ugh. I'm sure it was more annoying to everyone around me. Anyway, I was glad when the bus arrived so I could get some much needed zzz's. But sadly, that was not to be. Instead, book reviews!! It's not that I don't enjoy them, it's that I don't enjoy doing mine. Luckily, I got out of it because no one could hear me. Marion wiggled his way out by insisting that he needed his book, and since he didn't have it, it was impossible for him to go. So Andrew presented the Traveler's Literary Companion to Costa Rica, the same book as Nisha. Because I had read the book, it was more interesting for me. I didn't agree with all his views on the book. He concentrated on writing style, and made the comment that he thought, "Oh that's sweet. He's trying to be a writer." I felt that the authors deserved a lot more credit than that. While some of the authors had a simple style, I think they did it more for effect than anything else. I think I appreciated them getting to the point about topics. I found that something short and sweet can hit a lot harder than something bogged down by a complex style. Anyway, Chris did his review of the same book next and concentrated more on the content of the stories, which I liked. But I was getting sleepier by the minute (the bus lulls me to sleep, I swear!!) and I just wanted to lie down. Next we stopped in Limon to get some drugs for all the invalids at the pharmacy. It seemed like sort of a dirty city, and Karen said she didn't like it very much, but at least we could get our drugs. Vendors were selling snow cone type thingys, but I forget their Spanish name. Grr. I never can remember stuff like that. I got a lime one, it was pretty good. Oh, there were a lot of pigeons in Limon. It's sort of weird. And the people try to sell you stuff in the street. At any rate, we left pretty soon after we arrived. We were headed to Puerto Viejo. The weird thing about Puerto Viejo is that there are a lot of them in Costa Rica. There's the one on the Caribbean coast, Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí, and I think one on the Pacific Coast. Odd. Anyway, we got ready for another long and sleepy busride. I think I slept until our next stop. If I didn't, then I just have a very poor recollection of the events that occurred on the bus. I was probably half-asleep. Our stop on the way was McDonald's - and not civilization type McDonald's either. It was a small pit stop where you could get a drink and watch a little TV. I got a soda and we watched Fresh Prince in Spanish. It was pretty funny with the dubbing. By that time, it was raining (again) so we had to run back to the bus. Then, more busride and half-consciousness. Finally, we arrived in Puerto Viejo where we would be staying at the Pizote hotel. I hesitate to call it a hotel, because it's not, but after Pacuare, anything looked luxurious. I was soooo tired when we got there. All I wanted to do was sleep forever. Keep in mind that the last time I had a shower was right before we left for Pacuare. So I'm smelly, dirty, sick, and covered in a variety of bruises, scrapes, and bites. Add in the fact that I'm dead tired and you have one woman that you definitely do not want to mess with. Still, Pizote seemed like paradise. Nisha and I nearly fell asleep in the reception area. Somehow we managed to make it to our rooms. I was rooming with Amy again, which was cool with me. I saw the bed first. It was a double bed. For me alone. I was overjoyed. So I run and jump on it and - BAM!! - my body hit about 3 inches of mattress on top of solid wood. Excellent. The sad part was that I didn't care. We got all our luggage what we had left on the bus before the Long Walk. Oh, I forgot to say that Ozzie had joined our group and he was traveling with us by now. He's Karla's husband and also a tour guide. It's nice that they can meet up, since they don't get to see each other very often. After the busride, we had the option of going to the beach or not. As tired as I was, there was no way I was going to miss a beach trip. It was sunny outside for once, so I decided to go for it. We got all our stuff together and headed to the beach. I brought my snorkeling stuff, even though I knew it'd probably be useless since it had rained so much, the water was muddy and you couldn't see anything. I swam, and had a pretty good time just being in the ocean after so long. Karen, Aponi, Amy, and I walked along the beach at Karen's suggestion, and a group of guys playing soccer waved. We waved back, then argued about who they were waving at. All of us accused the others. So we continued down and eventually we had to turn back. We passed the guys again and got another wave. Once again, we waved back, but then we noticed that they were following us. I'm curious as to on what planet it follows that if a girl waves at you, you should stalk her. Oh well. Anyway, we get into the water and so do they. And they get closer as I try to ignore them. Finally one of them (not the cute one) approaches Amy as I break into hysterical laughter. Honestly, guys should work this out better. Always send the cute one as the messenger. Plus, Amy's the shyest of all of us, so the fact that he approached her was hilarious to me. Anyway, he comes up to Amy and says, "My friend - he is ready for you." Amy has no clue what to say back. What does that even mean?!?! That was probably the only English they knew or something. I was trying to quietly swim away, then began uncontrollably laughing at the expression on Amy's face as she sort of walked away. Maybe that was sort of mean, but since we were afraid of what that could've meant, I think she did the right thing. Still, the guys remained close. So we went back to the beach to tell Chris and Andrew about our adventure, figuring they wouldn't follow us if we were around other guys. They were amused by it. It was probably one of the funniest experiences of the trip. I didn't want to leave the beach, 'cause it was so awesome, but we were going to the disco that night and I needed time to get ready. The guys waved as we left. Oh brother. Anyway, I got back weary but seriously craving a shower. I hadn't taken one since the dairy farming family. So I am very gross and very sandy. I finally get in the shower and I don't think I've ever felt so good to be clean. Wow. Sometimes you take stuff for granted. After that I got dressed up to go to the disco. I wore the sarong that I bought at Arenal, and the only nice top that I brought from home. I put my hair up, and it was really great to actually look nice for once. But before we went to the disco, we were going to listen to a storyteller and eat dinner. We all gathered in the lobby and went upstairs to listen to the storyteller, but my eye was burning because my contact had a hole in it. So I'm trying not to attract attention to my red, watery eye. And I don't want to take the contact out because then I'd only be able to see out of one eye and my head will hurt. Closing one eye will make me look like a moron. So I'm desperately trying to listen to the fascinating stories while fighting the searing pain in my eye. Not really an experience I want to relive. Anyway, it was blissful relief to get the thing out of my eye, though I had to miss part of dinner to do it. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the storytelling - I was just distracted. After dinner, we headed out to the disco (oh yeah!). It made me sad, though, because so few people wanted to go. Nisha and Marion and a few others stayed back. Unfortunately, the discos are different on the Caribbean Coast. Remember that bumpin' and grindin' I was talking about at Monteverde? Apparently, if you do that here, you're giving the guy permission to do whatever he wants with you. Very scary. So we had to remember to dance away from people. But when we got into the center of Puerto Viejo, none of the discos were open so we went to a little Caribbean type bar/restaurant. There was a live band and it was pretty cool. When we first got out of the bus, we went up to some vendors. They were cool and they spoke really good English. Keep in mind that te whole place looks like Jamaica - dreadlocks and all. It was awesome. But after we got tired of the restaurant, the disco was still almost empty. Not easily dismayed, we just went in and started dancing. We had a big enough group so it wasn't so bad. And while it never filled up like the one at Monteverde, more people arrived as it got later. It was actually a lot of fun, when it was just us. I enjoyed it. Jim stopped dancing after a little while and was standing around when he got his second offer of "You want good grass, mon?" It's hilarious because Jim's so straight-edged. Of all of us, he's the one I wouldn't expect to get propositioned. I was tired though, and left when I was told unlike Erinn and Veronica who we left behind and came back for later. After we got back, Amy and I hung out in Chris and Andrew's room for a while talking. It was fun, but in retrospect probably not the brightest thing I could've done, considering that we had to get up early to go see the Bribris the next morning. But there was one part that was not fun, which I'm not quite sure if I should put in here . . . I guess I'll tell. As I got up to leave, Chris smacked my ass. So I hit him in the face, I think. I pretty much only remember the blinding white rage behind my eyes. That was sooooo out of line. Maybe I can forgive him, but I won't ever be able to forget that. Unfortunately.

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