Costa Rica

I have been meaning to write this post for a long time now, but just haven't gotten around to doing it.  Since this trip was a while ago now, I am going to keep this post brief - mostly because I don't remember everything that happened.  But, I want to have the pictures documented and have something to look back on to remember the gist of the trip.

^^At the Newark Airport on my way to Atlanta.  That's NYC in the horizon.^^

Right after being in New Jersey, I met up with my family for a trip to Costa Rica - Costa Rica has been a place my grandma has always wanted to go and John wanted to go somewhere since he graduated high school in the spring.  John got to do a lot of the planning for the trip, which was something he enjoyed.

I had an early morning flight from New Jersey to Atlanta.  In Atlanta, I connected with my grandma, Mom, brother John, sister Sarah, Aunt Julie, Uncle Peter, and my two cousins, Jakob and Oskar.  From Atlanta we flew into San Jose, Costa Rica and got there late morning/early afternoon.

By now I have been able to travel to a handful of countries, and Costa Rica has probably been the most challenging one I've had with getting through customs.  So, that was a little scary for me, but it ended up being fine.  Kind of funny.

^^The rental car place gave us these cute water cartons.  We were so thirsty after flying!^^

We picked up our rental cars and then headed to a restaurant that someone recommended to Peter.  The restaurant was in a town somewhere outside of San Jose.  I'm not really sure where, but it was a really good place to eat!  It was definitely one of my favorite meals we ate on the trip!  One of my favorite parts of traveling is exploring the food in the area.  On this trip, I wanted to make sure we actually ate at some good restaurants.

^^Milkshakes are just different in other countries.^^

^^The quesadilla was SO SO good!^^

^^Grandma outside the restaurant we ate at.^^

After eating, we didn't have much time to do much else.  We still needed to get to our first destination  - La Fortuna - before it got dark out.  It gets dark pretty early in Costa Rica, around 6pm.  I found it pretty hard on myself with it got dark so early.  Each night we pretty much had to force ourselves to stay up until at least 9pm.  And then we would wake up super early, and could have done quite a bit done by mid-morning.

I think John was a little disappointed that we had to just drive to La Fortuna after eating.  He wanted to go to a waterfall.  But, it is probably good that we didn't go because the roads in Costa Rica are pretty narrow and twisty-turny, so driving after dark wouldn't have been much fun.  But, the drives were BEAUTIFUL!  The scenery was so pretty.  So often I wished we could have just stopped in the middle of the road and taken pictures.  Everything was so colorful!

These pictures don't even capture the beauty of the country.

For the first three nights, we stayed in a house in La Fortuna, which is up in the mountains in the rain forest, at the bottom of Arenal Volcano.  When we first arrived in La Fortuna, we couldn't find our house.  John was the one who found it online, and we were getting a little worried about what we got ourselves into.  But then we found it, and it was a very nice place!  It was tucked back behind some businesses.  The pharmacist, married to a doctor, owned it.  The pharmacy was real close, which worked out well, because right before we left La Fortuna, Jakob got sick.  So my aunt and uncle and cousins went to the doctor, and it was nice having the connection with them.

^^The entrance into our house.^^

At 8am on the first morning we were in La Fortuna, we went on a chocolate farm tour at Rainforest Chocolate Tour - something I wanted to do.  It was neat, but not really what I expected.  The place we went to didn't actually produce chocolate - it was just a small scale place for tourists to learn a bit about the process of making chocolate.  They showed the process of making chocolate as how they did it in the older days.  The process of making chocolate has always been a bit confusing to me, but it was still interesting!

^^At one point the tour guide told us to touch the leaf of a vanilla plant.  It made me think of my friend Tori because she loves feeling plants!^^

^^We got to suck on the seeds of cacao tree - slimy but sweet.^^

^^The seeds drying and fermenting.^^

^^We got to try a hot chocolate drink.^^

^^We got to eat spoonfuls of chocolate and adding various topping to them!^^

^^We stood in line and had a couple rounds of going through the "chocolate bar".^^

Right outside La Fortuna, there was a rope that you could use to job into a river.  This little place is called El Salto.  I only jumped in twice.  I was a bit scared to.  Really I just don't like getting wet and cold.  But, with Sarah's help, I did it!

The first time I was going to jump, Sarah jumped with me.  Only after counting down, Sarah jumped and I didn't.  It was kind of funny - I don't think I had caught my breath or something.  I did jump.  It wasn't that bad!  I just jumped off the cliff, but there was a rope to also swing into the water with.

My aunt, uncle, cousins, and siblings found this place to go hiking - it was the mountain next to Arenal Volcano.  One morning we went hiking (we left Grandma at the house during this).  My mom, aunt, and I didn't make it up as far as the rest.  John and Jakob actually made it to the top!  There was a lagoon up there (John thinks its called Green Lagoon), which is an old dormant volcano, that they got to swim in!  It was a hot, steep, sweaty hike, but pretty!  There was a little place at the bottom the hike to get refreshments, which was nice! 

We got lunch after the hike at Restaurant Tiquicia.  Somehow I ordered soup.  It was a ham and bean soup - good, but not necessarily what I wanted on a hot day after a super hot and sweaty hike.  All the other food looked great!

One night while we were in La Fortuna, we went to a hot water spring.  I had never been to one, so it was a fun experience.  It was basically a bunch of giant hot tubs.  I don't know which hot springs place we went to, but they had some really good French fries.

One thing I missed while in Costa Rica were sidewalks.  I came home really appreciating nice sidewalks.  I love going for walks and it was just hard to walk around in Costa Rica because the roads are narrow and the sidewalks aren't super well kept.

There were dogs all over Costa Rica.  They would just wander the streets (they each must have belonged to someone) and even come into stores/restaurants sometimes!  Most of them were pretty friendly - Sarah loved them.

^^We needed to get a new rental car before leaving La Fortuna (Mom backed into a tree at the chocolate farm).  They dog followed up right into the rental car place.^^

Mom, Grandma, John, Sarah, and I left mid-morning to drive to Manuel Antonio (Julie, Peter, Jakob, and Oskar left after going to the doctor).  That is where we were going to be staying for the rest of our time in Costa Rica.  It is a beach town on the Pacific coast.  Wow, this was quite the day of traveling.  Long and trying.  But also one of a kind and funny.

One thing that I REALLY wanted to make sure we did while in Costa Rica was eat at a soda.  Sodas are all over the place and are little restaurants.

As we were driving down the road, we just picked a random soda to eat.  It's a good thing we stopped at the one we did because I don't think we would have found another for a while.  Stopping at this soda was probably my favorite thing about Costa Rica.  The waitress (probably also an owner) couldn't speak any English. But, she was so helpful in making sure we were taken care of.  She used Google translate to communicate with us.

We ordered.  Then John and Sarah found a trail behind the soda and started to explore down it as we waited for our food.  The waitress quickly communicated to us that she needed to go with - they could get lost.  I went with too.  She walked us down a path that went along a creek.  We got to pick some really unique yellow flowers.  Then there was a farmer down there.  He let us try water apples, and he showed us his plants - avocados, bananas, lemons/limes, peppers.  I can't remember it all, but there was a lot and it was so fun to see someone farming there.  We got back to the restaurant and our food was there.

^^I got to try an empanada.^^

We drove a while longer, but then were stopped on the highway because of protests.  The next thing we knew was that there were people walking up and down the road selling snacks.  Like at a baseball game.  We bought lots of snacks.  Snacks help pass time.

^^The plantain chips were so good!^^

^^Our turn to cross the bridge that the protesters were at.^^

We stopped at a town along the Pacific Ocean to meet up with my aunt and uncle.  This was my first time seeing the Pacific Ocean!

We hit the road again, only to get stopped by more protesters.  We were stopped for a couple hours.   It was quite the experience.  I remember some guys in a car somehow driving by and get were wearing head horse customs.  At one point it started to storm hard.  We got out of line and tried to find other way to Manuel Antonion.  But there wasn't, so we had to get back in line.  At one point, while it was storming still, we got out of the line of cars to walk around in a grocery store.  At one point, we parked the car in line, and got food to eat at a soda.

^^All the cars in line.^^

When we finally started moving again and driving, I actually fell asleep in the car and didn't wake up until we were just about to our rental house.  But, I guess there was another time that we were stopped behind protesters and it was quite the trek to get up to our house.

^^The view from our house in Manuel Antonio.  We had a view of the ocean.^^

It was late and dark when we got to the house.  So, waking up and seeing the view was fun.  I honestly can't remember how many nights we stayed in Manual Antonio.  I preferred this part of the trip better, but I think most of my family preferred the mountains.

^^Queapos Beach, Manuel Antonio^^

I actually never got in the water while at the ocean.  Yeah, I just don't really like getting wet.  I did enjoy walking up and down the beach, and wading in the water.  The beach was beautiful and the water was pretty warm (I did think it looked a little dirty though).  But, my family loved boogie boarding.

It was crazy at how fast the tide could change from high to low.  There were times when there was no beach because the tide was so high.

We basically just hung out, went to the beach, ate, and played cards while here.

On two nights, my uncle and I tried cooking.  Really, we didn't really know what we were doing or what we were even making.  My uncle got theses sausage things, rice, beans, vegetables - I thought they were actually pretty good.  One the fourth of July, I tried to make fish tacos.  Only, after about 10 minutes of cooking the fish, I realized that I got calamari, which only needs to be cooked for like 5 minutes.  Lets just say the fish tacos didn't turn out, and I'm glad there was left over pizza in the fridge.

^^The waves got a little higher than I expected.^^

There were cafes and some fun restaurants in the town!  We went to Cafe Milagro and Emilo's a couple times!

^^One night we went our for pizza at La Lambretta.  It was delicious!^^

Oh, Grandma....

Our house was down a little road, off the main road that went through town.  There was a soda on the way.  We went there once for lunch.  It was very good and the owners were very nice.

On the last night we were in Costa Rica, we went our for a nice dinner at Emilio's.  It was delicious!

One afternoon, we went on a river boat tour to see some wildlife.  The best part was seeing the monkeys and having them come on our heads!  Bananas were used to get the monkeys to come on our heads.  (We all had a monkey on our head.  I just don't have pictures of them all.)

^^It was such an interesting feeling to have a monkey on your head!^^

^^We found a sloth in a tree on the beach!^^

^^It's fun to try different candies in other countries.^^

The fruit in Costa Rica was AMAZING!  I ate so much mango and pineapple there - the best ones I've ever had.  Mangos and pineapples just aren't the same in the U.S. 

Also, one morning a few of us were at Cafe Milagro.  We were sitting in the back patio area.  A mango fell from the tree and my grandma decided that she wanted it.  And, the waitress went and picked it up and gave it to her!  It was so sweet!

We left one morning to the airport and got back in Minneapolis late that night.  It was crazy, but good, to be back after being gone from the midwest for so long.  It was fun seeing Costa Rica, but after being in New Jersey for six weeks, I was honestly just tired.  Exhausted.  It was good to be home.

Once back, I jumped right into support raising so that I could do a year of ministry in Paris, France.  I had one month to finish rising support and move out of my apartment in Ames.  It was a crazy time.  But, I am now in France for a year - CRAZY!