Out of "the bubble"... from 6/17

Ok this is going to get a little confusing... but I wrote this on Friday, June 17th. At the hotel in La Fortuna, I haven't had too many opportunities until now to have internet. But this is the post that was from that Friday:

Today we finally left the Soltis Center, and hit the town of La Fortuna! It feels so good to be out of the “bubble” that we were stuck in at the Center. We got to La Fortuna this morning and will be here until Sunday afternoon ish. It’s cool because we have been to La Fortuna a couple of other times on our trip already so we had a little idea of what the city was like. All day was pretty much spent wandering around and figuring out the city. Eric, Brandon, and I were together most of the day and just walked around the entire city and went into just about any and every place that we thought was interesting.

We also talked a lot to the locals! Everyone is very friendly and they are always willing to have a conversation. We found out a bunch of random things just from talking to the locals… at Down to Earth Coffee, we talked to the owner who roasts every single bean in his store by himself on his farm. He has apparently been doing it for about 11 years, but the farm has been with his family since about 1893!!! We also talked to artists on the side of the road who sculpted all of the knives/pipes/pens out of clay themselves. And finally we talked to a man, who is actually from Houston, who is part owner of a new restaurant in town. It is where we ate dinner tonight because they had Tex-Mex food as well as pizza… enough said.

While the 3 of us were aimlessly wandering around, we were taking notes of all of the different cultural aspects of the town as well as drawing in our little sketchbooks that we have. We got a few weird looks, but it’s going to be really neat to look back on our notes/sketches when the trip is over. We ate at an amazing soda (a soda is basically a small restaurant that serves the typical meal of rice, beans, a meat, plantains, and juice) for lunch and it only cost $3! There were a few school kids eating in this small restaurant when we were, and they were definitely laughing at us the entire time. We have just resulted to making fun of ourselves since we look like such tourists.

Today was also Brandon’s birthday! The old man turned 26, so just about all of us went to dinner together and got drinks afterwards at Don Ruffinos, one of the more popular tourist places here. This entire city is full of tourists… especially at night. It seems like once it hits 6 o’clock and starts to get dark, all of the locals go home and it is only tourists out and about. It’s really weird because it feels just like America.

I have my own room to myself! I have a full size bed, air conditioning, AND a fan :) Everyone else has a roommate and twin size beds in a room that is about the same size as mine. I was the last person to get a room, so I was lucky enough to get my own! It pays to be patient. These next few weeks experiencing all that Costa Rica has to offer are going to be so cool.