Big Orange Backpack

Here are some photos... okay, more than a few..

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2319720&l=ebbe1&id=8818340
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2319816&l=878ee&id=8818340
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2319843&l=80d06&id=8818340
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2319879&l=f1e46&id=8818340
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2319885&l=2f3a4&id=8818340
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2319895&l=9cbf2&id=8818340
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2319973&l=f0a63&id=8818340

They're in chronological order. Enjoy.

So Michelle and I are currently waiting in the San Jose airport and have been doing so for a number of hours. We took an early bus from Manuel Antonio to be to be safe and now we're tired and bored. We had a hasty goodbye with Roie and Vanessa on the bus. I feel happy that she's travelling with him for the next two weeks in Costa Rica and he's coming to the States after doing South America so we'll all have a reunion in September. Strange how this trip is over. It feels like we've been here forever and for no time at all. I'll always have my poncho.

Last night I had my first meal since Wednesday morning before the fall. I´ve been feeling really ill since that night, I´m not sure if it was due to the fall, a parasite, or my intolerance of the antibiotics.. But whatever it was, I feel better now, and that´s all that I care about.

We arrived in Costa Rica last night, and we´re staying in Manuel Antonio. It´s a very touristy town, and unlike anywhere we´ve stayed so far. We have a great hostel with four beds, a hot water shower for only $10 a person. We´ve been traveling with Roie, a really cool Israeli guy that´s been teaching me Hebrew. Much better than Edna.. :P He´s travelling with Vanessa for another two weeks in Costa Rica before she returns to the states. It makes me feel better that we´re leaving her in capable hands when we depart on Wednesday. Today we´re going to the beach, and I´m going to attempt to put my hand into the ocean (perhaps with tragic results) and tomorrow we´re going to hike around the national park here. I´m going to ace bandage my knee up, and hopefully it´ll be okay. I leave on Wednesday at 2:30 and arrive back in New Jersey at midnight on Wednesday. I can´t believe real life is starting so soon..

This morning I awoke to the discovery that I still have a right knee cap. I haven't seen it in days. My knee is still purple and I still can't bend my toes on my right foot, but they're baby steps.

Shabbat dinner last night was great. Tomorrow I think we'll head to the Costa Rica border, now that I can walk across it. Today will be spent relaxing and reading. I'm feeling much better about this trip today. I'm starting to get very excited about the move down to DC and future plans. I feel like I'm really figuring some stuff out while I'm here.

On the bright side my knee is now only the size of a grapefruit but it seems to be getting more purple. We met a really nice Israeli guy and we're having a shabbat dinner of sorts tonight. On the downside I think I either can't stomach the
anti biotics, I have food poisoning or, the most likely senario, I have a parasite. I feel really ill and I'm kind of looking forward to that trip on US airways on Wednesday more and more.

I´ll begin from the unfortuate incident, and then go backwards, and then a bit forwards.

I got in a major bicycle accident yesterday. We rented bikes from our hostel in Isla de Ometepe to go up to see the petroglifs. I didn´t exactly know how much of a bitch of a ride it was, or that the petroglifs were actually just barely visable markings into stones. So we went uphill to these carvings in little stones, and felt pretty pissed about all the effort we put into getting there. We felt thankful, however, because the way back was mostly downhill. This, as it turned out, was not a good thing. I was going down a really big hill, and I was riding my breaks the whole time, but I was still going a lot faster than Michelle or Vanessa. I hit a stone or something, and next thing I knew, I was doing flips down the rest of the hill. I landed with the bike on top of me, and I was laying on the ground, not quite out of shock yet. Vanessa saw it and ran over and asked if I was okay, and I said apparently pretty calmly (I don´t remember) ¨You know, Vanesssa, I think I really hurt myself. Did I break anything?¨ I crashed next to a little store, and before I knew it a man was carrying me over to it, and I just kept muttering ¨muchos gracias senor!¨ I was sobbing by the time they sat me down, but through the tears I was still able to demand a photo be taken. My knee was already the size of a cantalope by the time I was put down in the chair at the store, a matter of a minute or two after the crash. As it turns out, I´m pretty sure I didn´t break anything. An hour later I was at the clinic, and a woman was getting all the dirt out of the big cuts on my right toes, right knee, and left hand. When she was cleaning out the one on my hand I was screaming and sobbing more than I think even my 5 month old niece Abigail can pull off on her best days. That pretty much sums up the incident.

The day before, our first full day in Ometepe we took a walk down the Ojo de Agua (the eye of the water) where there is a natural kind of pool that was quite fun to splash around in for a few hours. Today we took the ferry back to the mainland, and while it almost capsized in the rough waters, we are here and alive. We took a taxi to the beach very close to the border of Costa Rica, in San Juan del Sur - our current location. I can walk, or hobble, a bit now, but I need another day or two before my knee stops looking like a melon. I think we´ll head to Costa Rica on Saturday or Sunday and spend a few days in Miguel Antonio before catching our flight a week from yesterday..

It´s been quite the few days. It could have been a lot worse, I could´ve really injured myself, or broken bones or something. But right now, I would really rather be on the beach than finding new cuts everytime I change clothes.

Yesterday was great fun. We started out by climbing a steaming volcano, and then climbing its inactive brother. We were told when we signed up for the tour that we would be going to a bat cave. But with all the Batman jokes, none of us seemed to realise that there would be actual bats there. I was freaking out a wee bit, thankfully I had my poncho to protect me. We climbed through another cave, which was deep and quite scary. We then went down to look at the lava of the first volcano, but from afar. The trip was from 5-8pm and by the time we ate dinner and got back to the hostel, we passed out at 9:30, because we´re little old ladies. Today we´re going swimming in the lowest point in Central America in a crater before taking a boat, which I will most certainly vomit on, to Isla de Ometepe, which is an island in the middle of the Lake of Nicaragua which was formed by two volcanos, which are still active. There´s loads of swimming, hiking, and general amusement there, and it should be a blast. I can´t believe we leave in little over a week! Bah!