 From top to bottom on this page. 1) Some street vendors sell from booths and others carry their products—all of them!
All the silver jewelry I’ve seen here is imported from Italy. 2) The street was flooded in front of my house on Monday. That’s my host fathers Hyundai in front. It’s kind of hard to see, but the water line is well up onto the sidewalk, since the ditch was unable to drain the water well enough. Moments after I snapped the photo, a brilliant flash of lightning lit up the sky, and the following thunder was so loud and earthshaking it set off my host brother’s car alarm (which was parked right behind me inside the garage), scaring the living *!&% out of me. 3)
The Puntarenas’ soccer team is wearing orange. 4)
This is my neighbor’s band at the concert I went to a couple weeks ago. Andrés is all the way to the left on bass, and his little brother Danielle is all the way to the right. They are very talented, and play punk rock and a little reggae. (Click on photos for larger images.)
Exploring Puntarenas
¡Buenos días!
¡Pura vida! Although I haven’t really gone anywhere outside of Puntarenas this week, I did manage to get around town and see the sights. Last Saturday the 24th was my 19th birthday, which officially makes me the youngest student in the Costa Rica program. My family did their best to celebrate the big day, and to make me feel like part of the family. My host mother made my favorite meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Dinner was my favorite part, with mashed potatoes and gravy, chicken and a kind of macaroni salad. I must say though that despite their efforts, I was kind of depressed. I guess it really hit me when I talked to my girlfriend and family on the phone, and I couldn’t be there with them. I feel better now though, and they’ve promised to have a late birthday for me when I come back in December. I just need to keep myself occupied and travel more to keep myself from dwelling on my loved ones so much.
 Hopefully the rain will let up here so that I can get out more and travel. Although we’re supposed to be nearing the end of the rainy season, Puntarenas is getting hit pretty hard. Some people are blaming hurricane Rita. It rains almost every night this time of the year, but the last week or so has been exceptionally wet. I guess it all started last Monday. That morning, I was puzzled by the sandbags lined up in front of some of my neighbor’s houses. At around 3:00, I realized why; a torrential downpour began, and didn’t stop until early the next morning. When I say downpour, I mean the streets had small rivers running through them. I wore a raincoat when I biked to class at four, but it was no use...the water from my bike tires and passing cars left me soaked within a couple minutes. When I arrived at the school, I saw that it was beginning to flood! The drainage trough that is supposed to prevent a flood was simply overwhelmed by the sheer volume of water. Luckily, it lightened up enough after a couple hours to allow the water to drain. It has been about the same each day since, and my birthday was no exception. I was supposed to go to another local band concert that was being hosted by my neighbor Andrés (a Tico), and a party at a friend’s house afterwards, but the rain was so bad I didn’t want to leave the house.
 I did manage to go do some early Christmas shopping for my family downtown, and also some window-shopping to compare prices. Silver here is much cheaper than in the U.S., and there are some great deals on clothes as well. I picked myself up an orange and white Puntarenas shirt to help blend in for the soccer game on Sunday. This time Puntarenas won 2 to 1 against Santa Cruz, and everyone was ecstatic. My host father was so excited, jumping up and down and screaming along with everyone else, that it’s difficult for me to believe he will be 80 in a couple months! Puntarenas is one of the best teams in Costa Rica, and it’s amazing to watch their ball handling skills on the field. I have already bought my ticket to go see the national Costa Rica team against the United States in San José on October 8th. I’m going with my host brothers, Roy and Allen, as well as Roy’s girlfriend Wendy. Costa Rica hasn’t played the U.S. in several years, and they are both excellent teams. Roy told me he wouldn’t mind if I went sporting U.S. colors, but I insisted on representing my new home country.
 It’s supposed to clear up in the next couple of days, which should be just in time for my nine-day vacation. While some of the students are going on an optional trip to Panama, the rest of us students who opted out have plenty of time to make our own trips. I am going to Santa Rosa National Park next weekend with a couple Bio major friends of mine in the program, and I plan on (finally) going to the famous white sand beaches of the Nicoya peninsula afterwards to practice surfing. As my parents have feared, I’m going to buy a board in the next couple of days. I’ve decided it’s the best present I can get for myself, and will help me explore the numerous beaches and port cities on the Pacific coast. The dangers of surfing are way overrated, and shark attacks here are very rare. The biggest danger is the riptide, but I will be very careful and wear a leash around my ankle to keep my board close by. We’re reading about Santa Rosa in my Conservation Bio class, and it has a very unique history. I’ll save the specifics for next week’s article, but I will tell you that the park contains the largest piece of tropical dry forest left in all of Central America. These unique forests, once found all along the Pacific coast from Mexico to Costa Rica, now cover less than one percent of their former range. I can hardly wait for the time off, and I am more than ready to get out and experience what this beautiful country has to offer.
Until next week, ¡Te cuidas!
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