Costa Rica: A shark?!

Today we got up early and had breakfast at 8am at a restaurant called Pan Pay. I had scrambled eggs, bread with a tomato spread on it, gallo pinto, and awesome orange juice. I did not like the tomato on the bread, though, it was too weird. After breakfast, we took about a 20 minute bus ride to a beach to go snorkeling! Snorkeling was the coolest thing I have ever done. It was so pretty and it was amazing seeing all of the fish and the coral reef. We took a boat far away from the shore into the Caribbean sea, so I thought it would be really deep. But, it was really shallow because it was a coral reef. It was probably only about 10 feet deep in our area.

At some spots in the sea, the coral was less than a foot away from me. I accidentally rubbed my knee on it a few times. It was sharp and rough, but it wasn't too bad! We had to get a buddy so that we wouldn't go out too far. I was buddies with Kaydee and we saw a stingray, Dory from Finding Nemo, a ton of really colorful fish, schools of fish, and I think we saw an eel. It was either an eel or a huge fat snake. I swam away too fast to know for sure! A girl from our group saw a baby shark, too. I didn't see it. It would have been cool, but I would have freaked out! There were also 2 huge uprooted trees on the bottom of the sea. We asked why they were there, and the guide said because the current can get so strong that it uproots trees on the shore and brings them to sea. They were huge trees, too. I also saw a peacock flounder fish. It's really flat and looked like a rock, but it was actually a fish.

After snorkeling for about an hour, we took a boat ride to a little island. There, we walked around for a while and ate fresh pineapple and watermelon. By far the best fruit I have ever had. On the island, there were monkeys and sloths. And of course a ton of hermit crabs and lizards.

Next, we went back to the beach outside my hotel and had a free day at the beach. We swam and laid on the beach until the sunset. The water was luke-warm, so it felt good! On a part of the beach, there was "black sand" that is sand/ash from the volcano. It was actually black, it was weird!

After the beach, we ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant. It was the most disgusting dinner I have had. Yuck! Then we went to a local bar/club and did some dancing. We did the salsa and merengue, which is what I learned in my dance class! The sun was extremely strong in Puerto Viejo and the bugs were horrible. But it was fun!