Blackhawk and Central City, CO are located just a short drive into the mountains from Denver it's an old town where Colorado's casinos are located. We had signed up with the players club the last time we visited and they sent us a free room voucher for a night so we took advantage of it right before we headed back to the UAE. And like the couple other times we've been there the 'house' didn't beat us. We came home winners, not big winners, but still winners!

I think the key is not gamble all day and all night long...take your time, have a few drinks and slowly play your money until you win more :)

We arrived with my parents, dropped them off and then during the day we went over to Vail and did the Vail Pass to Brekendridge ride on road bikes. Our first time on road bikes and wow they are fast. It's mostly downhill, although at one point we did turn around and go back up to get a bit of a workout. This path down to Brekenridge is beautiful, I love the greenery and as I type this here back in Abu Dhabi, I think back to it and it makes me sad :(.

A storm came through and thankfully we were faster! We sought shelter at a bar for some food and drinks, let it pass by and then we scooted on our way back to Brek. Although we didn't realize that a few happy hour margaritas and a bike ride back to Brekenridge, which was a steady incline, would be so difficult :)

In the evening we beat the pokies and came out on top about a $100!

The next morning Nick, my mom and myself headed Idaho Springs for some whitewater rafting. My mom said it was something she wanted to do all summer and has done before...but it was a long time ago. We headed out for a couple hour tour of Clear Creek and had a great time. It definitely would've been more exciting earlier in the season as the water levels were quite low, but we all enjoyed it. The funny part was that while in Costa Rica we wanted to go, but then I got my lip split open and couldn't, so to make up for it we got the Costa Rican rafting guide in Colorado instead...go figure!

After a week of roughing it...not really..at least we were busy each day with studying and the surfing, it was time to indulge a little. For the last 2 nights we stayed at the Marriott in Herradura beach and was blown away by this property. By far the best hotel we've stayed at yet. Maybe not the best food, it was okay, but the hotel itself including an amazing pool was really awesome.

We just relaxed by the pool, snuck in to eat the food when the cooking demonstrations were over in the afternoon, did some water aerobics (even Nick joined me), played some putt putt, took a final Spanish lesson and of course ate. It was too bad, that we didn't find the restaurants down at the Marina the first night as they had much better food then the Marriott itself.


What a way to end a vacation!

One last tour we did was a croc tour and this was pretty crazy. In the river there we a ton of these scary creatures. Making sure we didn't let any limbs linger we visted many of the residents where our guide would get out of the boat with a big thing of meat and tease them until they got it. One of them even kissed one of the crocs. Some day one of the crocs is going go mental and on a tour just like ours, they're gonna get to see one of the guides get swallowed whole by a massive croc!

Surfing was the reason we headed down to CR and we did rip up a few waves out in the sea, but unfortunately we don't have much to show from our mad skillz...sadly our camera broke.


We saved taking photos till the end as we didn't know how the first few days would go. To my surprise and Nicks as well, I was up with no problems on the first day out..yes a 9ft. board helps, but still...I was riding the waves with ease. It took Nick a few goes, but he had it down. I downsized to a shorter board the rest of the week and while not as easy, we definitely got better.

We took our waterproof camera out for a spin on the boards to record each other and we must have put our camera to the test too many times before, water got it in and it died..so here is all to show for our surfing.


The scenery was beautiful looking up to the mountains while waiting out on the water on the boards. One of the days a big storm came in over the mountains and eventually hit us...we didn't stay in too much longer after the rain and thunder started, but it was cool to take a few waves in it.

The last day we were there, the waves were too big for us to surf and we headed out to a different beach to watch the waves and a few 'real' surfers do there thing...as if we couldn't have hung with them :)



As for injuries: we did have a few, Nick gotten eaten by some 100 jellyfish who really...i mean really liked him. He suffered for a couple days, not reacting well to the bites and these pics don't do justice.




As for myself, I had a board hit me in the face after a 'gnarly' wipeout, which then force my upper tooth to pierce my bottom lip and go through to the other side...yuck. While in the end I didn't need any stitches I was recommeneded to get it checked out by a doctor. What trip for Nick and Jen wouldn't be complete without a trip to a hospital or clinic :)

We had a roaring game of 'Wiss Toy' more commonly named Jenga, but when it's a cheap imitation Chinese made Jenga, it's called Wiss Toy............don't forget to say 'Wiss Toy' when the blocks come falling down. Although for us it took a long long time for these little blocks to come tumbling down. Obviously one of the highlights of the trip :)

One of the highlights of the trip was an ATV tour we took. It was a 4 hour adventure from the sea in Jaco all the way up to top of the tallest mountain in the area. The views were amazing and when we stopped and looked out it was beautiful, but we would keep going up and up and the views got bigger and and even better. Unfortunately as usual, the photos just don't do justice. The tour was just for Nick and I and our guide, it was our first time on ATV's and it took me a little while to get comfortable driving...Nick definitely wanted to go a lot faster than I was letting him as he stayed behind me. The tour is definitely recommended to anyone looking for a bit of adventure and great scenery.

On our tour up to the top we stopped and visited with a local monkey who was definitely a 'Curious George'



We then went a little further and stopped for lunch at a Soda restuarant located at the very top where we had rice and beans and enjoyed the awesome scenery.




On the way down we stopped at a waterfall and although the water was limited, I still managed to climb up and jump in it!

During our week we had Spanish lessons in the morning from 10-12 and then a lab from 3-4, a good amount of time to get some much needed practice. Unfortunately, Spanish was not the highlight of the trip, at least for me. I am pretty sure Nick would agree, although it was good for him to learn a few of the basics.

This was my first day in Spanish class (I was placed in level 4), Monday morning 10am. Remember I haven't spoken a peep of Spanish in 8 years!

Instructor: (all in Spanish obviously) Good morning, ah, you're new. How are you? Where are you from....lalalalal

(followed by)

Okay today I want you to read the newspaper, pick out an article and then do a 5 minute presentation on the article.

Jen: What the F***! (I didn't really say that, don't know how to swear in Spanish!) Excuse me, a 5 minute presentation?

Instructor: Yes, just pick any article relevant

Jen: I'm sorry, but I might be in the wrong level

Instructor: You'll be fine, just try!

This is pretty much how Spanish class was for me during the week, always a couple steps (or levels) behind. Yes I started to unlock some of my Spanish that I learned oh so long ago, but wasn't as productive as I had hoped.

The problems was that Nick's level 1 and my level 4 had the same schedule. If I was in level 2 or 3 ( I probably should've been in level 3) then we would've had class and surfed at different times which would've sucked. So I stuck it out, did my presentation, it was a lot of um and ums as the teacher helped me get through it (no notes as well).

The classes were way to academic based, doing grammar worksheets (these were easy, in school I was good at the writing, but never the speaking!), writing, etc. This wasn't very helpful for me who just wanted to practice having some conversations, this would've been much more helpful.

After Wednesday, Nick and I retired from our Spanish classes, that's right we didn't drop out, just played hooky. And in the end managed to speak a lot more Spanish then in class. We did an awesome ATV tour into the mountains (will have it's own blog entry) as well as a Canopy Zipline tour along with a great day at a pretty whitesand beach (Jaco is a blacksand...kind of nasty beach) which was nice. These last two days out of the classroom were much better spent.