Hey, long time no write, my bad. I've been keeping pretty busy lately. Last week was Santa Semana, basically their form of Easter. So everyone had most of the week off of work. We got a good sized group of friends together and went to a beach called Mal Pais. It takes about 6-7 hours to get there because you have to switch buses and take a ferry across a small bay. It's pretty cool though, really good views. Extremely hot though. We stayed in Tranquilo Backpackers hostel. It pretty similar to all the other ones we're be staying in. Most of the people there are college aged or 20 somethings. Everyone from some somewhere else around the world and usually has an interesting story about themselves or their travels. The place itself was great for relaxin. Hammocks everywhere. We tried to all cook together for dinner to save some money. Worked out pretty good usually. The beach was literally 5 minutes away. Sooooo great. We spent pretty much every day just chillin on the beach. The waves were really good for surfing there. So me and nick tried again. He's pretty good and was able to have a good time, but I couldn't even paddle out past the breakers cause they were too strong and I had a longboard. I was able to practice on some smaller ones though so that was pretty cool. Hopefully after a few more trips I'll get decent. Mal Pais is a really nice town, its all surfers. I'd say its an even amount of tourist and locals but I doesn't feel like the touristy places that we've been to before. There were a few clubs and the typicaly beach bars. I kinda wish we explored the area a lil bit more. There are some really nice waterfalls nearbye but its hard to leave a hammock on a gorgeous beach. Speaking of which, someone stole my hammock after the second day. I left it hanging up overnight, my fault. That brings the count of stolen items to 3 so far. Hammock, sunglasses, and VT shorts. Okay, it's very likely that I lost the shades and shorts, but still very sad.

Work is still good. I love going there and playing with the kids. Wednesdays are soup kitchen days so I always leave feeling good after those. As far as construction goes though, I not really feeling like we're getting too much done lately. It's usually just little random fixes on Phillipe's house/church. Which is fine, its needs it, but I was hoping to help with a new project from the start.

A lot of the friends I've made have been leaving lately. Headed back to jobs or school. So thats kind of sad, but there are new people coming in so its all good. We usually all go out on Monday nights to welcome the new people and start the week off right, haha. I'm really glad that I'm staying for so long. Everyone I've talked to says that 3 months is about the perfect amount of time. Just long enough to meet a lot of people, learn the language and get some work done. I've been wondering what it would be like to actually live here. Don't worry I plan on coming back to the states, haha, just thinking. The city is alright there are some nice parts and there are a lot of not so nice parts. Last week was the first time it actually got to me. Walking to the bus I passed about 3 people passed out on the side walk. I don't mean sitting down and taking a little nap. These people were sprawled out, comotuse halfway in the gutter. It's kind of a downer seeing that everyday. They're so messed up everyday that I don't even know what anyone could do for them. Pretty depressing. But on a brighter note, the weather is almost perfect everyday, we're surrounded by rain forests and mountains, and the local people have all been super nice to me. I would say San Jose is a great base point for seeing the county, not really somewhere I would want to live long term though. K I'm out. Hope everyone is doing well back home. Laters.

Well things are still going good. Had my birthday celebrations last week. Real good times. Went out in the city with a bunch of the Maximo kids. They forced excessive amounts of alcohol on me, of course. They next day I called in "sick".

Work has been going good too. Phillipe, the pastor of the church, gives us new things to work on each day. Last week we finished putting in a sink, selves and a fridge in the kitchen. One of the other volunteers finished painting a mural on the side of the building. We've done a lot of painting to spruce the place up. It's coming along, but there is still a long ways to go. This coming week I think we're putting in a wall to create some more rooms inside. This means ripping up some supports that look pretty important for holding up the roof. Not sure if Phillipe knows this or not. I tried telling him this but the language barrier is a little tough, haha. Everything around here is just scrapped together from random peices of wood so hopefully the whole thing doesn't come crashing down. That would be pretty disappointing.

This past weekend we went to Puerta Viego. Its a beach town on the Caribbean coast. Naturally beautiful of course. The town is a pretty cool. Obvious rasta influence everywhere. Which means, any assortment of drugs are available and offered at every corner. Pretty shady. Its a great surfing spot though. Me and Nick rented a board and tried for an hour. Surf was too large and too rough though :(

This week is Santa Semana, or Holy Week. Basically our easter. Which means that no one works on Thursday or Friday. We're heading off to Mal Pais, another beach on the west coast. It's pretty awesome getting to see all these different places around the country. Costa Rica is about the size of West Virginia, which makes it easy to get from one side to the other in about a day. Plus there is a huge bus system. Real cheap too. 4 hours from San Jose to Manuel Antonio National Park is $4. We usually stay in cheap hostels, $10 - $15 a night at most. They are actually pretty nice. The one in Manuel Antonio had nice rooms, showers, wifi, common tv area, kitchen for making your own meals, a pool, and its own bar. It's a great way to meet other travelers and find people to hang out with.

I'm trying to post some pics, but my comp is being screwy. Check fb, there are a ton there.

Welp we're really doing it Harry! Me and Will got into San Jose last Sunday night. I had a 4 hour delay in Orlando, which felt like forever because I was so excited to get here. Navagating through the airport was a little tricky but luckily most signs were in spanish and english. To get to my home stay I was told to just meet this person outside of the baggage claim who would have my name on a sign. No problem right? Well turns out alot of people have the same idea, a few hundred actually. After a few minutes of looking with out success I got a little nervous, but thankfully the random guy came up to me and asked where i was trying to go. He knew the place and helped me find my driver, for a small tip of course.
I rolled in around 8 and met Willam our house. We live with a lady and her husband. Neither of which speak english. It makes for some awkward times, but in the long run I think it will be great because it forces us to attempt some spanish. Our house is pretty small, "quaint" I'd say. A couple bed rooms, kitchen dinning room, and a small backyard. Nothing amazing but nice none the least. Surprisingly though, we do have so wifi, wooo.
The city of San Jose is pretty big, 2-3 million maybe. Not the cleanest place by any means, but still really cool just because the culture is really laid back, and everything is new to me.
Tuesday we went to Caprio, the town we're workin in. There's no real way to describe this place. It's pretty much the worst area to live I've ever seen. Houses scapped together with tree branches, walls made of corrugated tin, sewage running through the streets. We're building an extension on to this church/school so that the pastor can open up a soup kitchen for the people in the area. He already does it once a week, but this will let him feed more people, more times a week.
There is a ton of more things to tell stay tuned for more. I'll put up some facebook pictures soon.