Going out with a bang

So my final weekend in Costa Rica is over and I have to say, it's been one of the most memorable. I had some people invite me to the beach, but my favorite place in the whole country is at the Tobogan, so I opted to stay in San Jose and dance the night away with Dougie, Robert, Mandy, Alex, Jason and Jayme. I have to say, there's something about salsa dancing that's so much more rewarding than any other Friday night activity. I think it's the fact that you're connecting with your dance partner, you're accomplishing something together. You just get this high off physically exerting yourself, learning new moves, having that "perfect" dance with someone. Freesyle dancing is great too, but it doesn't take the effort, practice and dedication that salsa does. Maybe that's it, it's an effort to be good, so it means more.

Saturday morning was spent loafing around until four or so. I tried to bake brownies for the barbeque at Doug's but my oven here sucks so they didn't quite bake. Ok, so it was more like they were cooked around the edges but the center was liquid, but they were still good. Chocolate is chocolate. Doug, ever the chauffer, picked Rachel, Jason, Robert and I up and then we went to his house in the mountains. This man has the most amazing home I've ever been to. The view from his place is incredible and there are all these windows everywhere to take full advantage of it. You can see San Jose, all the way down to the ocean. This house just had the most peaceful vibe I've ever encountered, chimes tinkling and fairy lights everywhere. We caught a gorgeous sunset and just fooled around taking pictures, learning new dance moves, playing the guitar, singing and talking.

Later we built a huge hot air balloon out of tissue paper and let it fly off into the mountains. Well, it actually caught on fire and landed in a tree. Luckily no damage was done. JuanRo and Alex joined us in time for burgers but left pretty soon after. Game junkies that we all are, we played crazy Uno for like three hours. Let it be known that I kick ass at Uno :). We finally left at about 2AM. You'd think that 10 hours with each other would be enough, but oh no. We stopped at Denny's and didn't get home until 4:30 in the morning.

The best thing about this night was that it was the first time I've felt at home here. I mean, that is exactly my favorite kind of night, one where people just chill and enjoy themselves without having to impress each other or get crazy drunk or try to hook up with everything in sight. It was just people relating to each other.