Día 7 - domingo, el 15 de enero:

(about 8:00 in the morning):  We are experiencing true rain forest weather--rain!  We were very fortunate to have such sunny, dry weather the first few days.  This is a little more of a reality check, I think.  But, to quote Mrs. Webb, “There is no such thing as bad weather, only insufficient gear.”  So, it’s a little chilly and very wet.  We weren’t able to spot any toucans on our little outing this morning, most likely because they come out when it’s sunny & warm.  Oh, well.  At least we tried.

(about 9:00 pm):  Well, we have gone full circle today weather-wise.  What was rainy and chilly this morning has turned into humid Pacific heat.  We had a big day of travel from the Arenal area to the Pacific Coast, to the Manuel Antonio area.  Along the way we stopped for several small outings: El Cocuro hummingbird and butterfly house in the Monteverde cloud forest, a short hike in the Monteverde cloud forest, stopped for lunch at a little restaurant, stopped along a bridge to see some crocodiles (we saw 25 of them!), then pulled off the road because Jimmy spotted some Scarlet Macaws.  Every time we got off the temperature was a little warmer, which was great.  I think we were all excited to see blue skies and sunshine!

The blue Morpho butterfly

"El espejitos" butterfly (clear-winged butterfly)

Near the Continental Divide, a perfect view of the cloud forests of the Caribbean side transitioning to the clear blue skies of the Pacific side.

Living fences, one of the many environmentally-friendly common practices of Costa Rica.

Mikayla & Kayla in front of un carrito, one of the traditional Costa Rican ox carts.

Costa Rican crocodiles!

A perfect view of a Scarlet Macaw

We got to the hotel, got settled, and some of us went for a swim in the pool, which felt fabulous in this hot, humid weather.  Then we ate supper across the street at “El avión”, which is open-air and right on the Pacific Ocean.  (Except we couldn’t see the ocean because it was dark already.  We’re going to try to catch the sunset there tomorrow night.)  Pretty soon it’ll be time to do room checks and then to hit the sack!  I’m tired and I’m sure I’ll sleep well.

¡Hasta mañana!

Día 6 - sábado, el 14 de enero

Today was another great day!  It was SO nice to get a good night’s sleep in the hotel and to take a hot shower!  I feel clean again.

Supper last night was really, really good.  It was paid for (included in the price of our trip) and we could order an appetizer, entree, and dessert.  It was all really good, especially the banana split I had for dessert!  (Big surprise that I ordered ice cream.)

This morning we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant again.  The usual - a buffet with fresh fruit, fried plantains, gallo pinto (beans & rice), eggs, but also pancakes & toast, cereal, etc.  I was especially excited about the peanut butter toast!  While we were eating breakfast an agouti (a raccoon-like animal) came wandering up onto the deck and got really close to us.  I’m sure he was looking for food.

Then we departed to go zip-lining at the “Sky Trek” adventure company.  It was awesome!  First of all, our guides were great.  Three young Costa Rican guys who were  really good at what they do and who know how to have fun.  (And they might know how to flirt with some “Gringa” girls, too.  But nothing inappropriate, of course.)  There were 7 cables that we went on.  The longest was half a mile in length, and the tallest was 600 meters from the ground.  What a rush!  On the longest cable, you could get going up to 50 mph.  It was very, very fun.  We had some rain showers, which wasn’t ideal, but we are in a rain forest, after all.

After that we drove to La Fortuna and had lunch.  My dad, Dudley and I ate at a very good restaurant (I had the best grilled chicken sandwich I’ve had in a very long time), and Dudley picked up the bill for us, which was very nice of him.  Thanks, Dudley!

After that we went to the Danaus Eco-center, which is a nature reserve that has some very interesting wildlife.  We saw two sloths, some interesting birds, some large iguanas, and lots of beautiful flowers.  It amazes me how Jimmy is able to spot wildlife!

From there, we went to the “Eco-termales” hot springs.  What a relaxing treat!  It was great to just hang out in the warm waters (and then to go to some hot waters, then some cooler waters, and back to the warm again).  It was also great to get to chat with everyone.  One thing that has been great about this trip is how well everyone is getting along and how respectful everyone is of each other.  They’re really having a lot of fun together.  It was raining on & off during the hot springs, and very overcast.  This was probably the best weather we could have had for this, because if it was hot & sunny it would have been way too hot to be in the the warm waters.

Then we came back to the hotel.  I took a nice, long, hot shower and now I’m in the lobby, catching up on my emails and blog.  I miss Josh & Lucas & Leah, but it’s great to know that they are in such good hands at home!

One thing that is driving me nuts is how I can’t seem to be able to add pictures to my blog!  I can get them onto the page where I edit it exactly the way I want it to look, but then when I go to publish it, it just spins & spins and tells me it’s lost the script or something.  So, to those of you who are reading this (I’m sure it’s a huge number) :) I’m very sorry I haven’t added any of the great pictures I’ve taken to go along with the text.  Hopefully I’ll manage to do that soon.  (A few days later - Hooray!  I finally figured out what I was doing wrong.  Go back & check out all the pics from the last few days!)

Soon we’ll head to the restaurant for another delicious supper.  Tomorrow we’re going to Manuel Antonio, which is on the Pacific side of the country.  This means that we should be able to have some dryer weather.  (The Caribbean side gets all of the winds and humidity from the Caribbean, but by the time this air crosses the mountains all of the moisture has either fallen as rain or evaporated.) 

Until tomorrow, when I’ll be posting again . . . ¡Pura vida!

Día 5 - viernes, el 13 de enero

This is the first time we've had internet access in 3 days, so I just got done adding my posts from while we were in El Roble for the family stay.  It was nice to check emails and just get in touch with family at home.  I miss them very much!

This morning we said good-bye to Marzarella, Norberto and Douglas, our Costa Rican family.  We had another delicious breakfast - basically ham, lettuce & tomato sandwiches on toasted bread.  We also had watermelon and bananas, hot chocolate, and soda crackers with guayábana jam and slices of their homemade cheese on top.  Delicious!

We got in the bus and started heading towards the Malekus Indian reservation.  The roads were extremely curvy, and I was just waiting for someone to get motion sickness.  Of course, it happened.  One student got quite sick and threw up, so we stopped, gave her Dramamine and water and had her get out of the bus and get some fresh air for a while.  When she felt a little better we had her sit in the front of the bus next to the driver, and she did much better up there.  Two other girls started getting queezy and clammy hands, but we were almost to our destination, thankfully!  They took Dramamine, as well.  We have learned our lesson - Take Dramamine before we leave every morning!

The Malekus Indian reservation was interesting.  I thought the most interesting part of the demonstration was how a young man would have proposed to a young woman, and then been married right there on the spot by their families.  Interesting.  I think I'm glad that we have our customs instead of theirs.  We also got to try out their traditional bow & arrow.  We have some good archers in our group!

From there we went to the town of La Fortuna, ate lunch and did a little shopping.  My dad, Dudley and I ate together, and I had a Hawaiian pizza.  It was nice to eat some food that’s a little more familiar to me. :)  Then we stopped in a shop and I found some souvenirs to buy.  Then it was time to head to the waterfall, which was spectacular!  After a steep hike down into a ravine, we were able to get up close to the extremely tall “La Fortuna” waterfall, we waded in the water by the actual water fall, then went down to the lower pools and climbed along the rocks, took some pictures, and Scott swam.  We were in the middle of that when a huge rainforest down pour hit!  I tell you, it rained hard in a short period of time.  We took shelter down by the water under a little cave-like structure.  Apparently a few weeks ago it rained like that for 3 days straight--I think we’re lucky to be having the weather we’re having.  So, when the rain calmed down, we started hiking back up to the top.  It was a good hike - nice to get some exercise again!

From there, we headed to our hotel, the Arenal Observatory Lodge.  It’s a nice place that is completely off the beaten path - the road literally ends at our hotel, and there is no way I would have navigated that road in my own car, but our amazing driver, José, did it in a mini-bus.  Awesome!  It’s a nice place with great views of the volcano, except it’s been cloudy so far so we can’t see much of it.  There’s a beautiful lake in the distance, as well.  I hope it clears up so we can get some more great pictures.

I can’t wait to take a long, hot shower!  We’re going to eat supper at 7:00, and I’m guessing after that we’ll have a quiet night.

Time to start heading to supper at the hotel restaurant.  ¡Hasta mañana!

Día 4 - jueves, el 12 de enero

Today was another great day.  There was a lot less animal noise last night, which made it a lot easier to sleep.  We woke up and had another good breakfast - sort of re-fried beans that we spread on bread, with an egg and meat mixture that you put on top of it.  It was pretty good!  And of course, fresh fruit, coffee, and fresh-squeezed juice.

Then it was off to the Tirimbina Reserve area for a cacao tour and another hike through the rainforest, this time with hanging bridges.  The cacao tour was interesting.  We saw the traditional way of getting chocolate from the cacao bean and learned some of the history of the cacao bean along the way.  We even made our own chocolate - ground the cacao beans, mixed it with sugar and cinnamon and tempered it.  It was delicous!  At the end, we got to eat cacao as the indigenous Costa Ricans would have eaten it, and then some chocolate that they make at the reserve.  It was delicious!

Then we headed off to their hiking paths for about a 2-mile hike through the rainforest.  There were amazing hanging bridges, that tested my slight fear of heights!  We saw lots of different types of birds, including two toucans.  We saw several others that were very exotic-looking, as well.

After that, we headed back to El Roble (our family-stay community).  We had the idea of all of us going down to the river (the Sarapiquí) with the members of our families that were able to go and just enjoying the river.  It was very fun!  A lot of the kids were able to go along, so we got to meet some other young people that we hadn’t met yet.  It was fun for me to visit a little with Melissa (Sarah & Mikayla’s “mom”) and with her two little boys, Esteven (4 years old) and Dílan (7 years old).  They are so cute, and they make me miss Lucas & Leah so much!  We had fun down by the river.  Most people just put their feet in the water to relieve the heat, but Douglas and Darwin (two of our hermanos) were swimming quite a bit.  The rest of us were a little afraid of the current.  Everyone had lots of fun splashing, skipping rocks, and just hanging out.

We walked back to my family’s house, and along the way enjoyed showing everyone their pepper plants (and tricking them into biting in the pepper corns) as well as talking to the cows.  Scott pretended to be a bull-fighter, which was pretty funny.  When we got back to our house, it was time for the community soccer game.  Some went back to their houses first to change clothes.  Lots of us stayed at our house and played catch with the Spirit Lake football I had given our family, and we introduced them to the game “500”, which was lots of fun.  Once all of the kids were there we divided into teams (USA, or the “Gringos”, vs. Costa Rica, the “Ticos”) and played a very fun and lively soccer game.  All of the moms were preparing supper, a pot luck of all sorts of delicious Costa Rican food, and everyone had a FABULOUS time!  It was so cool to see all of the students having fun with our new Tico friends.

After supper the students and young Ticos went inside to play cards, which was also really fun.  I stayed outside on the porch for a while and visited with a few of the moms.  It’s amazing how they welcome all of us into their families and truly love sharing their culture with us.

Once everyone left, I took another (cold) shower, and then we made some more bracelets with Marzarella.  We’re getting better!  We were also able to show Norberto our photo albums (he was gone the first day when we did it the first time) which was really fun.  He’s a really nice guy.  He was especially interested in Amanda & Scott’s photos, since he’s a farmer and is very interested in agriculture, and lots of Amanda & Scott’s pictures were of their farms in Iowa.

They showed us their pictures of their land when they bought it.  It was completely empty except for a little shack of a house, which they tore down and built the house they live in now with their own hands (and many family members’ hands, as well).  They have completely made their home and the land on their own.  Pretty amazing.

Time to go to bed.  Tonight is our last night with our host families.  As awesome as it has been, I’m really looking forward to a warm shower and sleeping without any farm animal noises. :)

Buenas noches y ¡Hasta mañana!

Día 3 - miércoles, el 11 de enero

We started out the day by waking up very early to roosters cock-a-doodle-dooing and cows mooing, and then I took a nice cold shower.  After getting ready we ate breakfast - gallo pinto, fresh pineapple and bananas, homemade cheese and some Costa Rican coffee with milk (squeezed from the cow this morning) and plenty of sugar.  I was impressed by the Costa Rican coffee - it was good!

Then we walked to the bus to go white water rafting.  What a great morning!  Our guide in our raft was named James (“James Bond” according to him) and he was a lot of fun.  He gave great instructions and was interesting to talk to.  He’s been guiding for 10 years and speaks very good English (which he learned on the job).  The rafting was so much fun!  It was a perfect day - hot & sunny, but the water was refreshing, and we got very wet. :)  At one point there was a calm stretch that was also shallow and he told us we could jump out & swim for a while, so Mikayla B. and I went for a little swim.  We stopped at a half-way point, where there was a small cliff (about 15 feet, I think?) that led to deep water that we could jump off of.  I actually did it twice!  Everyone in our group except one person did it--even Dudley and Bernie jumped into the river from there!  Then we ate a snack of fresh-cut pineapple and continued to the end point.  (We rafted by the spot we were at yesterday with Douglas and Marzarella, too.  It was a great morning!

After that we rode back to the starting point, changed clothes and ate lunch at the restaurant - arroz con pollo.  (I think I will have had enough rice by the time we leave.)  Then we came back home and hung out for a while.  I talked to Marzarella for quite a while, and then we played some more cards with Douglas.  Then Marzarella brought out some Costa Rican hot chocolate (right up my alley!) with crackers for an afternoon snack. 

After that, Marzarella showed us how to make the bracelets that she and some other women in her women’s group make.  They’re several steps more difficult than the friendship bracelets I used to make in elementary school!  It was fun to learn. 

We ate an early supper of olla de carne, which is basically Costa Rican pot roast, but with some different vegetables - carrots & potatoes, like at home, but also plátano, yucca, and something else that I can't remember.

Then we left for the bat program at Tirimbina Reserve.  It was very informative, and at the end we got to see bats and even touch one.

At this point in the day I was ready for bed!  We rode home, visited with Marzarella for a while while we finished making our bracelets (she had the tv on for the first time since we’ve been here - she was watching the news), and now I’m ready for bed. 

Tomorrow will be the cacao tour, hanging bridge walk and a hike through the Tirimbina Reserve area, and in the afternoon we’ll have a soccer game with our host families.  It should be a fun day!

¡Hasta mañana!