Riding on the struggle bus

I write a lot about buses don't I?  Despite all my previous stories, I think this past weekend takes the cake. But first the non-struggle part of the trip.

Since we had two days off this weekend, Allison, Bre and took a quick trip up to Monte Verde--a could forest about five hours away by bus. We arrived around noon, checked into our hostel (super cute with a kitchen!) and explored the small town of Monte Verde. It's mostly a destination for backpackers, so even though it's a tourist destination, it's mostly hostels, locally owned restaurants and adventure companies. We at lunch at soda (little restaurant that cooks typical food) and the owner's two-year-old daughter brought us our silverware. It was so cute!

Now some pictures to summarize:

The trip was not devoid of work...the 3000 page Tropical Disease book also made the trip

Our hostel had a kitchen, so we got to cook dinner and breakfast for ourselves! 

We spent the evening playing cards, but went to bed at 9:00 like old ladies!

Sunday morning we walked through the canopy of the cloud forest on suspension bridges...it was a long way down!

After our hike/walk, we were soaked because in a rain forest it tends to RAIN! So we made it back to town and went to buy our bus tickets. There was a small problem, however...when we asked for tickets back to San Jose the man selling them told us there were no spots left! He suggested a different route, through another town but couldn't guarantee that we could make it back Sunday night. The only other option we had was to take a five hour bus ride standing room only. So stand we did...out in the rain waiting for the bus, eating our lunch, and then on the bus. Fortunately, there was space to put our backpacks down and sit on them. It was an adventure...a very damp adventure, but we made it back to San Jose!

Now we're back in Las Cruces doing lots of classroom work before spending a week living without electricity in a more rural area...more on that next time!