Playing tour guide!!

So, it's Day 2 of my brother's visit, and it's very cool to have someone from home come visit me! I picked him up at the airport yesterday, and it's been a whirlwind since then, lol. We showed him around Heredia, the town I live in, yesterday and went to church last night. Today, he went to class with me this morning, which was a trip, lol, and we headed to San Jose to the Artesania Market. It's basically a long strip of market stalls with souvenirs and such, but it's neat nonetheless. Tomorrow, we're going on a canopy tour, which I'm hoping he'll love, and then Wednesday we're going to a place called INBioparque. I've heard it's kind of like a zoo/museum, but my host mom says it's cool, so it should be fun. He leaves on Thursday, unfortunately he won't get a chance to see the beach, but I think he's having fun being in a warm climate and away from school, lol.

Last weekend, before my brother got here, a bunch of us went to see the Arenal Volcano. It was absolutely gorgeous!! We lucked out and had clear skies, so we saw the volcano perfectly. We went on a night tour and saw lava coming down the sides, amazing, and then we spent about 2 hours at the hot springs really close to the volcano. There were swim-up bars where the drinks were $10 a piece!! Of course, we all ordered one...just to say we had ordered a drink from a swim-up bar, lol. All in all, it was an amazing trip! We met a few more people from a different exchange group, one from Nashville, one from Connecticut, and one from Russia, and we had a blast with them, so yay for new friends!

When we got back on Saturday, we went to this club called La Rumba that's really close to Heredia. It was so cool to see people actually DANCING, not the bumping and grinding stuff you see in the States. All of the Ticos and Ticas (Costa Ricans) can dance so well! I wish we had all been brought up learning how to dance in America, lol.

Whew...it's been a busy few days, and it looks like it's going to be jammed packed for the next couple of days as well, lol. Hope all is well for everyone in the States! I miss you guys!

Pura vida,
Amelia