(This is from Sunday morning, May 16th)
¡Hola de Costa Rica! We have now been in Costa Rica for 3 days and the experience has been amazing. 

Our group is lucky to have Sonya along to help. She is from our language school, CPI and recently attended classes there so she understands our position. Sonya is going to be with us for the next 3 weeks assisting in any way necessary. She speaks both Spanish and English, I hope soon to be able to converse with her in Spanish and rely on her less when we are in situations where others only speak spanish.

Yesterday we went to LaPaz Waterfall Garden. We had a guide with us, Javiar, who is bilingual and very knowledgable about Costa Rica. He will be with us on some of our other visits around the country as well. At LaPaz we visited the Bird House and Butterfly House.

Next we entered the Hummingbird Garden, which was beautiful. The birds whizzed around our heads from feeder to feeder, almost as if in a majestic dance. The picture close up of the hummingbird was a bird which was very protective of his feeder. He sat on this perch for 5 minutes while I watched, leaving only to chase the other hummingbirds away from "his" feeder nearby.

Our group then got to look at a historic Costa Rican home, outside we met a pair of oxen and their beautifully painted cart. La Paz also had many animals, such as monkeys and big cats. It was also exciting to see the Frog House, where we enjoyed searching and discovering the hiding frogs. Each different area was interesting because Javiar was very knowledgable about each topic and taught us something new about each plant or animal we came across.

Then we headed to the Waterfalls. They were amazing. I was able to take a few pictures near the falls. The entire day was amazing and I learned so much from the whole experience, I cannot wait to learn more and see more.