You might not be believe me when I tell you, but...

Okay where do I even begin. Yesterday morning I woke up at 5:30 to meet Mark, Jake, Brigette, and 6 members of their families for our trip to "the river." Geraldo, the crazy grandfather, told us he had rented some kind of bus to take us there. We all met at the church at 6 am, and Geraldo had packed a giant sack with a machete sticking out as well as his birdcage, live bird in toe. The "bus" finally showed up around 6:45, which ended up being an SUV that his friend from the feria was driving. SO, 5 of us sat in the way back, 4 in the middle, and two in the front. Being the smallest of the gringos, I got the way back with the kiddies...big mistake. Two hours and MANY winding, unpaved roads later, I was not feeling so hot. We finally made it to a house in the middle of the woods near the river, and I didn't make it much past there. Por Dios, the family had a functioning restroom they let me use, and then there was this bed outside next to their lunch table with this giant stuffed tiger that I basically slept on all day. It was super hot out but there was a nice breeze and the bed was covered by a roof woven from palm leaves. The whole thing was pretty surreal. I was totally out of it and I could just hear people speaking Spanish in the background and coming over and looking at me for a while and offering me pills and drinks and food, none of which I was able to ingest. I finally walked down to the river to meet everyone (having to make a couple pit stops on the way) and laid in the water for a while, which was pretty refreshing. Then bag to bed with the tiger until we headed home around 4. This time I got the front seat, and things were going okay until Geraldo started yelling and all of a sudden we pulled over and he and our driver decided to go for a spontaneous hike in the woods. We gringos were confused and a little bit annoyed, but everyone else seemed to think it was funny. They came back about 15 minutes later with some lemons they'd found and then we kept on driving. About 5 minutes before we returned to paved roads, we heard a giant pop and suddenly our car was lower than it had been. Thinking a tire had been punctured, we got out to check it out, and turns out the whole wheel had fallen off. Simultaneously, the car started steaming. Simultaneously, I started to feel pretty sick again. It was getting dark and things were getting desperate, but somehow our driver was able to replace the tire with his spare and we were on the road again within a half hour. This time we made it all the way back to Tarbaca, a place I never thought I'd be happier to see. When I got back to my house, I told my host mom that I was sick but mistakenly used the masculine form of the word, and she immediately responded, "Estoy enfermo! No! Estoy enfermA!" Then I went straight to bed and slept for 12 hours...

Today was a better day and now I am able to laugh about my experience and look at it in perspective. Apparently Jake captured some of my finer moments on camera yesterday, I am yet to determine whether they will be posted. After class we stopped by the most popular restaurant in Tarbaca, Donde Alcides, to talk to them about a project we have to do for class. They asked if we wanted a "refresco," which is generally thought to be a light snack or drink, so we accepted and they came out five minutes later with beverages, three giant baked potatoes drenched in butter, and a GIANT plate of beef. Costa Rican hospitality has manifested itself in SO many different ways...