Close your eyes.

"Close your eyes this time
Cause trust is all we have tonight
But trust will be forever
Safe your dreams will be
Cause trust will be the light tonight

So close your eyes this time"

-Future of Forestry

I sat on a ferry by myself heading for Montezuma, Costa Rica. Through the faint music provided by my iPod I could hear those around me. Behind me was a German family, in front a group of friends from Sweden. To my right, newlyweds from Brazil. In front of them, a family from Mexico. All of them were speaking different languages.

During my time in Costa Rica I have also been applying to medical schools. I have been writing essays about anything and everything, trying to articulate the characteristics about myself that would make a medical school want me. It is quite exhausting doing such introspection, not to mention slightly intimidating. In writing these essays to great medical schools all around the country, I easily start to think "well what if I actually got into this or that place?" Then I starting thinking through the pro and cons of those. As the gears of hypothetical thought get going, they halt to a stop as I remember there is so many unknowns before that. I have found great comfort in the song by Future of Forestry listed above. Sitting on ferry with these people going to a new place for the weekend, and metaphorically new stages in life the next couple years, I put back in my headphones and closed my eyes to listen to the song once more.

After getting off the ferry (and taking another bus), I finally arrived in Montezuma, Costa Rica. Montezuma is a little beach town near Mal Pais. It is super small, but well known for good surfing, waterfalls, and earth loving people (who occasionally have drum circles till 2am). After a little bit of confusion, I was finally able to meet up with the friends I was going to be spending the weekend with; Caleb and Carli.

Caleb and Carli before we went hiking.

We found a super cool hostel, which wasn't really a hostel. It was a family that owned a coffee farm who had some extra rooms and put a sign out in front of their house that said they had rooms available. But it turned out to be great. We had a sweet kitchen table and a upstairs loft with a hammock that overlooked the ocean.

Below are some of the photos from around Montezuma. A small city, but still has much to offer.

yes please.

Although I only spent two days in Montezuma, it was a gem. We then started heading back to San Jose (using the ferry we got there on).

I wonder if that was the "old ferry?"

Before getting back into San Jose, we stopped off at a fruit stand at the side of the road. Mangos for days.

Until next time.

"Close your eyes this time
Cause trust is all we have tonight
But trust will be forever
Safe your dreams will be
Cause trust will be the light tonight
So close your eyes this time"

-Future of Forestry

Shades of Green.

I don't know if I have ever seen so many shades of green. The past two weekends I have visited two must see places in Costa Rica; Volcan Arenal and Monteverde Cloud Forest.

Volcan Arenal is just outside of a town called La Fortuna. It is an active volcano that supposedly erupted about this time last year when a different group of study abroad students were visiting (comforting right?). Thankfully, we had a not so dramatic experience with the volcano. The trip involved an unbelievable amount of rain, staying at an amazing hotel, and canyoning, or rappelling down waterfalls in the rainforest. Another highlight was buying some fresh coffee beans from a coffee roaster called "Down to Earth." Supposedly, this coffee is the rolls-royce of Costa Rican coffee, at least thats what the guy said (and I believed him). I'm not really sure how coffee can be compared to a car with a six digit price tag, but I'm assuming that means the coffee is good. Time will tell I guess.

Before leaving for Arenal, I learned how to make Arroz con Leche; muy rico.

Welcome to Volcan Arenal.

Crocodile. No big deal.

Does the color mean they are poisonous?

The following weekend we went to Monteverde Cloud Forest. This time we didn't have that much rain, and we didn't rappel down waterfalls. However, we did do the coolest zipline course I have ever seen.

(I forget the exact measurements, but this zipline was roughly 600 meters long and 100 meters tall.)

At the very end of the zipline course there was Tarzan swing; which essentially consisted of free falling until a bungee caught you, followed by swinging back and forth. I walked out on the sketchy bridge really slowly, and finally was greeted by the two guides at the end. They clipped me in asked me to hold onto a certain part of the rope and then asked "Are you nervous?" Before I had time to reply, one said "Bye-bye" in a tico accent and forcefully pushed me off. I dropped like Tarzan would if he were real. I didn't get any pictures of me doing it, but below are some of lance.

For the rest of the weekend, I got a little bit of hiking in, an awesome sunset, and sat on the balcony of my hotel room taking in all of the sounds. The sounds of likely thousands of insects and frogs, all of which seemed to make the clouds and stars come alive.

Until Next time.