A Sloth, A Strike, and A Seashell

Julia Johnson

Today was a lot of fun. We started off by going to Manuel Antonio National Park, which is right around the corner from our hotel. The visitors walk along a dirt road in the rain forest and get to observe all of the wildlife up close. We saw a sloth right by the side of the road in a tree, posing for us like it was nothing. They move faster than I had imagined from the stories I had heard, but it still seems as if they are living in invisible water. The butterflies are huge down here and the lizards look like those small, but dangerous dinosaurs from Jurassic Park. The beach was amazing and fun. Because we are on the Pacific ocean, there weren´t a lot of seashells, but that didn´t stop me from scavenging for some. It was crazy riding the waves to the shores because they would throw you so far then throw you back in. After that we headed back to San Jose right in the middle of a teachers strike. Jose, our guide, told me that the teacher feel more money needs to be spent on the public education system, especially because of the huge difference between private and public schools. In Costa Rica, people are not only allowed to assemble freely, they also don´t need a permit to do so. They seem to take advantage of that a lot here and it shows in the government’s policies. After we saw that we did a bit of shopping. Everything here is so neat and most of it is handmade which makes it even more special (They have some HUGE hackey sacks!). We are all pretty tired and are all anxious to go home to see our families, but I can tell already we will all miss this place. Shout out to my Mom, Grandma, family, Darrow, and friends (but not Sam who I did NOT get any Tucan stuff!)
Peace,
Julia (2)