Playa Negra

Kak and Xia

Arbol.

The lines were made from the way the water glides over the rocks.

Path to the beach.

Li Li and Kak enjoying their morning cup o' joe at Mono Congo.

The sand was so fine it almost felt like mud. Also, it was black, hence "playa negra."

Pura Vida.

Kak came to visit me on Tuesday! She arrived in the morning and came with me to my volunteer project, and the next day we went to Carpio to play with the children there. And of course Wednesday night, we went to Ladies Night at NOVA. We woke up on Thursday morning and got on a bus to Guanacaste. I think Kak was a little nervous about the whole thing. The bus stations here are far from inviting and we sat in dead stopped traffic for about an hour on our 5 hour journey to Guanacaste unsure if her sister would be waiting for us at the bus stop. Thankfully Helen was there with her friend Lily and they graciously drove us to where we were staying in Playa Negra which is about 40 minutes from the bus stop. Playa Negra is such a beautiful place. Besides the hotels, most of the land isn't really built up. There's only one bar/restaurant, no grocery stores, only pulperias, and no ATMs or banks. It was really nice to just relax, eat a nice dinner, go to bed early, wake up and lay on the beach all day. I don't even need to write about how beautiful and peaceful the beach was because it is apparent in the pictures. The little girl in most of the pictures is Kak's nieces cousin, Xia (pronounced See-ya), who lives in Playa Negra but hasn't been out of her house much in the past few months and she loved being on the beach with us! From the second she left her house she kept telling us "Que divertido es!" (how fun is this!) with excitement in her voice.

It meant so much to me that Kak came down to visit. I love every second of my time here, but obviously I do get home sick from time to time and it was so nice to be surrounded by friendly faces. It reminded me how fortunate I am to have such amazing friends and family who care about me and I can't help but smile whenever I think of all of you :)