Monte Verde

This past weekend I went to Monte Verde with 14 other students in the program. It was a great time!  We took a bus at 2:30pm on Friday after class and got to Monte Verde around 7:30 (which was longer than we expected). The bus ride was hell though, unfortunately. There were no more seats left on the bus so we all crowded together and sat on the floor of the bus. We were all cramped and hot by the time we got off, but at least we got there. I have to admit I will remember that experience and laugh about it forever. I recommend to anyone traveling by bus to line up ahead of time to make sure you get your seat. We will not be making that mistake again. We stayed at a hostel called Sleepers Sleep Cheaper and it was AWESOME! For only $7 a night we stayed in private rooms (4 people to a room) and we had our own private bathroom to each room. The hostel was clean and the sitting area for everyone to share was nice as well. The kitchen was stocked with pots and pans so a lot of people went and bought groceries at the local market and made dinner. Of course I was too lazy so I bought myself some Ramon and a few pieces of fruit. On Saturday, we went to Santa Elena Reserve, which was a forest reserve much like Monte Verde. We chose to go to Santa Elena instead of Monte Verde because it was cheaper and it was less "touristy" from what we heard. Also, the cost of entry went directly to the upkeep on the reserve unlike Monte Verde. It was absolutely beautiful. We spent a full 8 hours hiking through the forests. It was a long day and I was dead tired from the night before, but it was all worth it. After we took our taxi back to our hostel, I went out to dinner with a few friends and enjoyed the rest of the night playing some games around the hostel and getting to know the visitors. We were too tired to go out that weekend, but we all had a great time in the hostel getting to know everyone. We met people from New Zealand and Germany and we plan to meet up with one of them another weekend. It is great talking to other international visitors. You can learn a bit about their culture without every traveling there. Truthfully, it just makes me want to travel to other places more and more. On Sunday we took the bus back at 6 am and got back to our host families around 11 am, which was really good timing. The weekend was all in all really great, but in the next upcoming weekends I plan to participate in some adventures. I don't just want to spend all of my time hiking. I want to snorkel and bunjee jump and a whole other bunch of stuff as well.
Here is a picture of the could forest in the reserve: