A Picture is Worth $4

Today we had the wonderful opportunity to visit El Museo Nacional (if you really can't figure out the translation of that by yourself it's The National Museum). But we're not really the number one fans of museums so we just paid $4 to walk around a tiny little building and take pictures of ourselves. We didn't mind though because it gave us some great material for our blog. Enjoy!

Lez is the spitting image of that native behind her.

Helz practicing her Vanna White pose.

Lez n' Helz

Our Casa

Join us for a tour of our 'casa' here in Costa Rica. Be sure to play close attention to Lez's perfect grace while filming. We couldn't have hired a better videographer! And Helz was a great hostess- Vanna White better watch out!

We hope you enjoy the grand tour and that we at least get a little laugh out of you because we sure think we are funny!

 Oh and we made a great discovery today! A few blocks away from our school there is an amazing crepe place called 95* C. We went there for lunch- It is so good and super cute too!

We shared a chicken crepe and a strawberry, banana, and Nutella one for dessert with a pina colada smoothie to wash it down.

In even better news- We found a place just like Farr's Fresh that is right next to the crepe place! Now we know we can handle another two and half weeks in Costa Rica! We aren't hard to please, we just need a little ice cream.

And finally, the tour you have been so anxiously awaiting...

Well we hope you enjoyed it! Until next time- Adios!

Lez 'n Helz

Road Trip!

Today we took a mini road trip to Cartago, Costa Rica-home of the Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles and La Negrita. Apparently La Negrita is a stone that some girl found in a river one day and it just happened to look EXACTLY like the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus. So now every year on August 2nd (Helz's birthday-fyi) every devout Catholic in Costa Rica walks from their home to this Basilica to worship La Negrita and be healed. Don't worry though, the sacrifice is just to walk there. They get a ride home. It was very beautiful though and we thoroughly enojoyed our stop there.

La Basilica

All of us in front of the basilica including some random drunk guy that wanted to be in our picture..

Inside the basilica

La Negrita

After walking around the basilica for a while, we took a taxi up to El Sanatorio-at least that's what we think it's called. El Sanatorio used to be an insane asylum here in Costa Rica and is very secluded up in the mountains to keep the crazies away from the rest of the people. It hasn't been used for years though and is now supposedly haunted. Whether or not it's haunted we can't say, but it sure is creepy! We were able to walk around in there for a while and take some pictures so you can see for yourselves!

El Sanatorio

No Quiero Morir-I Don't Want to Die

Creepy, we know.

After our little road trip and school, we got some time to volunteer at the language school is San Jose. We went there to help Costa Ricans who are trying to learn English. It was really fun to speak English with the natives for a change and see that we're not the only ones who are struggling through this whole language learning thing. Thanks for joining us on our adventures. Stay tuned-there are more to come!

Lez n' Helz

A Vacation from a Trip

Vacation: A period of time devoted to pleasure, rest, or relaxation.

                                 Vs.

Trip: A going from one place to another; a journey

Vacation= Punta Leona

Trip= Costa Rica

Yes, we went on a mini vacation this weekend to Punta Leona (Lioness Point). Saturday morning our Mama dropped us off at a park, we loaded up on a charter bus (a very nice one), and drove to this beautiful resort. The drive was beautiful full of green lushisness. On the way we made a quick stop to look at some “man-eating crocodiles” according to Professor Spanos. We can’t attest to the man-eating part but we definitely saw some crocodiles. The river they lived in was quite disgusting but the surroundings were very pleasing to the eye.

After a two hour long drive that gave Helz sometime to read Catching Fire. For those who don’t know Catching Fire is the second book in the Hunger Game trilogy. They are amazing books and we recommend them to you all! But be careful they are extremely addicting and you can hardly set them down. Lez has been put on ignore for some of this trip because of Helz’s consuming addiction. She started the first one on the plane and is already well through the second. But nonetheless the books are great! Anyways, we made it to Punta Leona!

Now this is an all inclusive resort so from the get go we were given: orange wrist bands so we could do everything, a key to our rooms, and we were free to do what ever we wanted.

While we were there we:

• Went to the beach and swam in the ocean and laid out in hopes to get some sun. We were warned before we went to wear lots of sunscreen and even if you don’t usually burn you will because the sun is so intense. So we lathered up in sun screen and even reapplied to prevent any sort of sun burn. And guess what? We got nothing! No burn, no tan, NOTHING! We couldn’t believe it. Oh well, hopefully the sun will still be shining when we get back to Utah.

                                  Us in three weeks if we continue eating the way we do.

• Experienced some very cold showers and a toilet that didn’t flush. We have great luck and got the only room with no hot water and a broken toilet. I’m sure we could have gotten it fixed but we never tried- everyone needs to experience a cold shower at least once, right?

                                           Just a neat door in our bedroom we both liked a lot!

• Ate LOTS of food. Every meal was a buffet- so we HAD to try everything once, if we liked it we HAD to get some more, and then we HAD to get dessert so it made for three very large meals.

• Went dancing, watched some people karaoke, were offered our very first drink of alcohol (both of us said no), and stayed up until 11:30! The latest we’ve stayed up since we’ve been here.

• Visited a butterfly emporium. It was really called a Mariposario or something like that, but either way it was a greenhouse filled with butterflies and plants, just in case the name didn’t make that obvious.

And that basically sums up our “Vacation from Our Trip”. It was fun and a nice break- But back to school we go! Adios!

Lez n’ Helz

Que Novatas (What Rookies)

Yes, we are rookies- in all senses of the word especially when it comes to being in Costa Rica. We usually manage because we are here with a group of 50 people so there is always someone to follow so neither of us pay attention to directions. Well last night was the true test- since we weren’t quite as fortunate as a majority of the students we don’t have internet access at our house so the school is our only opportunity to read emails that we so desperately want. We stayed after school for a bit to attend to that need. We knew if we stayed we’d have to walk to the bus stop ALONE, get on the RIGHT bus ALONE, and get off the bus at the RIGHT stop ALONE. But we wanted to prove that we were independent and could fend for ourselves so we decided to go for it. We did really well with it all besides the RIGHT part. We sped walked from the school to the bus stop and waited in line for the bus to the city we live in, Morovia. After about 20 minutes of waiting in a line full of creepers the bus came. We got on and as the drive went on things started to look familiar- we were really excited thinking we had done it! But no, just as we were getting kind of close to where we knew we had to get off, the bus turned off the RIGHT road. We both panicked a little but we decided it would be best to just get off at the next stop and figure it out from there. So we got off and began walking in the direction of our house- the road started to look a bit sketchy so we decided to back track and head back to the RIGHT road. Just so you know, this was no stroll through the park kind of walk, we definitely got some good exercise and even broke a sweat. Even though it was only 6:30 pm it was dark! It gets dark in Costa Rica by 6 so we knew we had to be careful because we all know nothing good happens in the dark. But we decided if we didn’t look lost, looked all ways when crossing the street, ignored the whistles, honks, and cat calls we would be fine. And guess what? We made it! So I guess we kind of proved something- that we can get home whether we take the RIGHT bus or not. And we also got a good work out and a good story out of it. We try to keep our followers entertained so, your welcome!

                 At the bus stop on the way home the night before we got lost.

Well the last few days have been pretty good. Every day we go to school from 1:00-5:00. Our teacher’s name is Olger (pronounced: Ol- hair) and he is great! We didn’t love him at first but he’s definitely growing on us. We hope to get a picture of him eventually but so you can have an idea of what we get to spend four hours a day with we’ll tell you a little about what he looks like. He’s about 5’ 6’’, green eyes, tan skin with freckles, a mop for hair (including color), and dresses really well! We were placing bets on his sexual preference and hoped to figure it out by the end of the month but yesterday in class he talked about his child and esposa not esposo so our assumptions were wrong, he has a wife not a husband. But he’s funny and comes up with some very creative games for us to play. On Mondays and Wednesdays we have Conversation Class from 10:00-12:00 with Jorge (pronounced: Whore- Hay). We decided he’s pretty good looking for a Costa Rican and we were both surprised on the first day of class he ate a whole apple, core and all! This class is just what it sounds like- we converse in Spanish. So most mornings and evenings we have some free time. We haven’t explored much yet because we figure we have a whole month, but we’ll get around to it. Plus we usually like to just go home after school so we can avoid situations like the one we had last night. Except for on Wednesday night a group of us went and saw Kung Fu Panda 2. On Wednesday nights movies are 2 for 1- two people get in for the price of one. Pretty sure it’s Costa Rica’s main attraction- EVERYONE told us about it. It was in Spanish but the plot is pretty basic so we got the idea of what was going on. Lez even got her usual ‘movie nap’.

We are very fortunate because our Mama is a very good cook! Every morning we have breakfast- usually a couple different types of fruit, some type of pastry, and we told her we love cereal so we get Corn Flakes every morning a half hour before we leave. For dinner we usually have some sort of meat, a vegetable, bread, and of course rice and beans. She is also very motherly so we feel very at home.

Yesterday before school Professor Spanos took a group of us into the city, San Jose. It was quite the experience. We started out at the flea market (we don’t really know what it is called) and walked up and down there. There was a lot of junk that would attract tourists but nothing was too appealing to us besides the hair wraps- the ones you would get at Disneyland when you were seven. We both got one! The lady who did it was so fast and did a great job! She also had the cutest little daughter that we both fell in love with named Larissa. We took so many pictures of her you would think we were her grandparents. She was the highlight of our day!

                                                                     Larissa

                                         All of us after our hair wraps were finished.

 After the flea market we walked by the Teatro Nacional, an open plaza full of pigeons, and many stores resembling some in America (Sunset= Pac Sun and Excess= Express).

                                                                     Teatro Nacional

                        A mom and her daughter feeding the pigeons in the plaza. 

 Then we visited the Mercado Central. Professor Spanos told us it’s where all the locals go to get their produce and meat so we Americans didn’t stick out at all. We only lasted about fifteen minutes in there before we were grossed out by the smell and look of so much raw meet and we feared getting lost because it is just one giant maze. So we made the smart choice and went across the street to the panaderia (bakery). And boy, it sure was a good decision. We both got a chicken empanada (basically a chicken pastry but it’s not sweet), some pineapple juice to wash it down, and an actual pastry for dessert - they were all delicious! After lunch we went on a bus back to the school to spend the afternoon with Olger.

                                                   The entrance to the Mercado Central

                                                     Inside the market just as you walk in

 Helz at one of the fruit stands- not quite as gross as the raw meat

                                                      Our favorite place- the panaderia

Well all is good here in Costa Rica- As they like to say “Pura Vida!” We are slowly figuring things out and we even made it to the school all by ourselves this morning!

Lez ‘n Helz