This is Cana writing! This weekend Rachel and I journeyed to one of the more popular volcanos in Costa Rica, Irazú! It was absolutely stunning to be above the clouds, looking down into the crater of the volcano with its brilliant blue lake. After spending a few hours at the top, we stopped in the city of Cartago at the base of the volcano, which we discovered has some attractions of its own! We visited one of the oldest cathedrals in Costa Rica along with the ruins of another cathedral that was never finished due to being destroyed multiple times by earthquakes. Both sites were worth the extra few hours out and about.
This weekend also marked a few other milestones in our time here. First off, we finished our first 2 classes, Perspectives and Spanish. Each class was beneficial and insightful, especially Perspectives, which challenged us to think in new ways about the realities and challenges that people daily face in this region. Secondly, this weekend marked the halfway point of our time in Costa Rica. I still cannot make up my mind if the time is flying or if I feel as though I have been here forever. Regardless, I am sure these next 7 weeks will pass rapidly as we have a trip to Guatemala this week, followed by our next class called the Latin American Studies concentration (which will only last 3 weeks!), and then a 3 week internship at the very end of the semester.
Rachel and I still love our neighborhood and spend a lot of time at each others houses cooking, talking, having cafecito, or playing with the new gatitos at my house. Little by little, this place is starting to feel like a unique, more relaxed, and more colorful version of home, but a home nonetheless.
