April 14-20: Semana Santa in Samara

School was out all week in Costa Rica for Semana Santa, or Holy Week. I'll plan on publishing a sidebar next week with more detail in all that Semana Santa encompasses, but it didn't impact me all that much besides freeing up my schedule quite a bit. Monday-Wednesday my plan was to knock out some Peace Corps administrative work and to run some serious mileage. However, due to some mild bug or food poisoning, I was fairly bed-ridden those initial days. Honestly it had been like 6 months since my last illness, so it was only a matter of time before my body reacted to being on a foreign diet. Fortunately, I was able to get a lot of my Peace Corps work done, but I can't say the same about my running.

The rest of the week was a lot more fun. Since Thursday and Friday are federal holidays in Costa Rica, Semana Santa is a perfect time for Peace Corps volunteers to take the time to travel. My good friend and teammate from Rhodes, Ben, came down to Costa Rica to visit me this week. On Thursday, we headed to Samara, which is a small beach town on the Pacific coast with a surfer and backpacker vibe. This was my first time in Guanacaste. Our stay there marked my seventh and final province visited in Costa Rica which was something that was important to me to do in my 2 years here. There, we linked up with a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer from my cohort who lives nearby for the weekend. Although the sun was out in full force, we had a great weekend relaxing and catching up on the beach and at the hotel pool. Unfortunately, the only direct bus back to San Jose from Samara is at 4am daily, so Ben and I had to madrugar on Sunday morning in order to make it back. However, the silver linings of the early departure were that we both avoided traffic and made it to my Sunday running club where he got to meet some tico runners. It was pretty great to see worlds collide between Rhodes XC and my friends at Peace Corps and Club Secreto. It's been awesome having a friend from home visit this week, so consider this my sales pitch to anyone reading this blog to travel to Costa Rica to hang with me too!




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