Pura Vida

While I was between jobs, I left the country for a 3 week Costa Rican adventure. Here are some of the highlights:

Day 1 and 2: "Too Much Drama up in 'da Club"

I met Dea (a friend from UGA and CO) and Lindzi ( a new friend from North GA) in San Jose.

From there we set off in a rental car...Economy rental car gave us a great rate for a week, but now we know why...the only instructions they gave us were "San Jose is that way" and "pull over in a gas station if you get a flat tire." So we set off.

It definitely took us 3 hours to find our hostel because we took a wrong turn somewhere along the way. Thankfully, a lady and her son were nice enough to get in their car and lead us to the exact street. We had a great night in the Tranquilo Backpackers Hostel ($7 per person for 1 night, clean rooms, free Internet and breakfast dinner...I would definitely recommend this hostel). There was "too much drama" in the club that first day, so we went to sleep that night thinking Day 2 would be better.

We set off bright and early for our first destination: Volcanoe Poas. We were having a blast listening to Sister Hazel as we drove around the Costa Rican roads. We suddenly heard a "thud,thud, thud." We pulled over and noticed that we had a flat tire. The country road that we found ourselves did not have a gas station in site. As we were looking for the jack, a Costa Rican man came walking down the street. He insisted on helping, and before we knew it our car was up on a wobbly jack. Our "friend" started walking away with apparently 3 small bags. So the rest of Day 2 was spent filling out a police report and canceling credit cards. Our wonderful Costa Rican parents (my 2nd cousins who live in Atenas) came to our rescue.

We hung out in Atenas for a couple of days. This small town just 45 minutes west of San Jose is a nice getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city. It has gorgeous hilltops and forests, but also some cute places to eat. The best part about the Atenas was our time with Jim and Lois. They were so helpful and great conversationalists!

Manuel Antonio: Our search of the White-faced Monkey

This national park is a must see in Costa Rica. It is located about 100 miles south of San Jose on the Pacific Coast. It's a tropical forest and white beaches all in one location. Here we stayed at the Costa Linda Hostel. The owners were super, but the actual facilities were probably my least favorite.
The first day we tackled the park after our public bus ride from San Jose. The best part of the park was the waterfall that we jumped in as a way to cool off due to the Costa humidity. The funniest/riskiest part happened while Dea was attempting to boulder up this rock to get a good picture. She ended up hitting her head "really hard." Her symptoms that followed resembled those of a minor concussion. She did get a scrape on her head too. As she jumped down from the rock she asked..."am I bleeding?" as blood gushed down her neck.
The next day we went whitewater rafting down the Naranjo River, a class III, IV rapid. It was a half-day trip. The path to get to the river led past an organic farm, so the guides showed us peppermint, cinnamon, vanilla, and other interesting plants, trees and insects. The river was very enjoyable. I never really feared for my life, but I did realize how much I love being on the water. It was so calming even in the middle of the rapids I was refreshed. We had a nice picnic halfway down the river.

Here I tasted my first manachino (not sure if that is the correct spelling, but check out the picture of this fruit...It was like a sour grape on the inside). We actually enjoyed this tropical fruit the whole trip. Bee really liked it...

Next, I took a surfing lessons. Note to self, make sure your instructor speaks fluent English. I did have fun with the little surfer dude that had dread locks all the way down his back, however. Some of my favorite lines of his "Get on the board" "Paddle, paddle, paddle....get up" and his encouraging scream when I did actually ride a few waves in to the shore.

Mission Trip in Puerto Viejo: Not everyone gets a chance to be in high school again

The three of us caught the bus from Quepos at 12 pm on Saturday, July 21st with our only goal being to make it to Puerto Viejo by 8pm. Once again we hopped on the public bus, no AC once again. I don't think I got my sunscreen off in the shower that morning, so it felt like the dirt just stuck to my skin. Three hours later we were in San Jose. Then we jumped a bus to Puerto Viejo and made it to the El Bamboo Hotel. The scenery was much like that of Atenas, beautiful jungles along the rolling hillsides.

The group of 70 high school students arrived after we got there. The kids were great. They brought Ken Weatherford to lead worship, check him out on Myspace...he's an up and coming Christian music singer and songwriter. So every night we sang worship songs under the stars and heard a short message from one of the leaders about the Bible verse for the day.

On Sunday we went to a Methodist church that looked a lot different from our churches in the US. There was a roof, but no walls. They did have a full band that led us in worship, but we were also able to look over the beautiful countryside throughout the service. We discussed a lot about the faith of the Costa Ricans. It seemed as though they relied on God. In contrast, we talked about how our faith mirrors a belief in God, but not a reliance.

We split up into 3 work site groups Monday through Thursday. My group did primarily maintenance and laid a big cement slab where the kids could play. It was my first experience mixing and wheelbarrowing cement. I really liked getting my hands dirty with the manual labor. The youth group's company was great and it was neat to work and see progress. The pastor was there by our sides the whole week. It was so neat to see his face after we finished little jobs. There was a group of kids that hung around the site the whole week. These faces established community at the site and gave us a sense of purpose.

Arenal Volcano: "The volcano is like our faith...it's there, we know it's there, but sometimes the clouds cover it up "

We loaded up the bus on Friday morning and headed to La Fortuna at the base of the Arenal Volcano. We shopped and had a picnic in the park and then headed over to the volcano for a guided tour . We stayed that night at Parisio Lodge. It was a great spot on the backside of crater D, which means at night against a black sky you can see the lava spitting out of the active crater...very cool.

Some favorite God moments: Owwww....ahhhh

So one of my favorite moments while we were at the Parisio Lodge was sitting on the hillside with the group and looking at the full moon and the stars....and a volcano...and watching little spurts of lava come out of the crater. It was amazing to experience all these different aspects of God's creation.

Once the girls got there we were looking for something fun to do and found this sign at Gringo Pete's Hostel. It said "Free swimming hole with rope swing. Don't bring anything valuable with you." So we set off with some Imperials and a few towels. As the rain clouds got closer and closer, we kept trudging along. We finally arrived at the swimming hole and suddenly no one wanted to jump in the water. I asked one of the Costa Rican kids to show us how it was done and then I decided that I would be the first one of the girls to jump. I stood there shaking while I grabbed the slippery rope. I knew I could not let go too soon or I would not make it to the water. After a few moments of self-preparation I jumped...and it was so fun! The other girls jumped in and those few moments together with some of my dearest friends amidst the beautiful forest river....I knew God was saying...this is life...you just got to jump in it...."I will never leave you," "I have laid my hand on you," "Hold unswervingly to the hope you profess."

Meeting in LaFortuna: Where my girls at???

Bronwen and I hung around the amazing lodge until we had to check out and then we headed to La Fortuna. We did more shopping to my dismay and waited for Marisa and Cherry to arrive. It was a little difficult to communicate while using cell phones sparingly, but we all were finally together and then the final week in Costa began.

Ziplining through the Rain Forest: Me, Jane....where is my Tarzan???

We woke up on B's birthday morn and caught a shuttle to the Sky Tram and Arenal ziplining adventure. The sky tram took us on a areal view of the rain forest. We did see a sleeping sloth in a tree, a tree that resembled a broccoli, and some beautiful views of the Arenal Lake. Once we were at the top we posed for some more pics and then were learned how we would be ziplining down. I definitely recommend a ziplining experience while you are in Costa. We loved this experience because it was the perfect way to wake up as you go flying through the rainforest. Then we found this awesome waterhole...see God moment #2.

Tamarindo: "Under my umbrella...ella...ella..."

We rented this adorable beach house from Monday to Saturday in Tamarindo. We took a shuttle from LaFortuna to the Pacific Coast. Tamarindo is in the Guanacasta region of Costa Rico. It is a very busy surfer town. It did have a lot of construction and growth occuring while we were there, but it was still small and quaint enough for us. We had private access to the beach, and we were walking distance to any restaurant in town. There was a pool right across the way that we visited frequently. It had a pool basketball goal, a monkey, an awesome view of the sunset and a swim up bar!

Activities at the beach: Never have I ever...

...rented surf boards or gone deep sea fishing off the Pacific coast. We did rent surf boards for the week, but we weren't as successful with our surfing endeavors at this beach. I probably road a total of 3 waves in to the shore and Sarah broke her nose on the board...woops. We also went on a deep sea fishing trip. The guy from the fishing company literally drove past us 3 times because he had never picked up a group of just girls. We had a good time. The captain and the first mate spoke little English, so the snorkeling trip that was suppose to be in the package got lost in translation. But we caught 8 Mahi Mahi. The water was a beautiful blue and when we couldn't bring in anymore fish, we just laid out on the boat and enjoyed the ride. We did take 4 fish home with us to cook that night...but somehow we forgot our catch on the shuttle...I just hope someone got to enjoy the fish! As the saying goes " You can teach a man to fish, but if he forgets the fish he will still go hungry," or it says something like that....

New friends: "Do y'all want to go deep sea fishing?"

Traveling with Sarah Cherry and Marisa you are guaranteed to meet some new people. You always meet interesting people while staying in hostels. We had some interesting convos with people from Israel, South Carolina, Arkansas, Canada, and England. We also met some fun people in Tamarindo. We were trying to find an extra two passengers for our deep sea fishing excursion when we met the New Jersey surfers. Since they were staying at the hotel with our favorite pool, we ran into them several more times throughout the week.

Dancing: "you keep your shoulders still and just move the hips..."

We made a pact at the beginning of the week at Tamarindo...we must dance every night. After all we had a lot to celebrate, it was B's 25th birthday week, JTodd's 24th bday and Cherry's bachelorette party. We found out that there were theme nights throughout Tamarindo. Tuesday was Latin Dance night. At La Barra, I asked the first cute Latin American I saw to show us a few salsa moves. He was ready and willing. So we stepped out on the floor. He shared his moves with all of us as he continued to remind us..."keep your shoulders still and move the hips." Thursday night was Reggae night and we ended the week on Friday night dancing to this great Latin band...so more salsa was required.

The company you keep: My friends made my time in Costa

As you can see, this trip was a huge blessing particularly because I was surrounded by great company for my entire 3 weeks. There were definitely moments I will never forget. In the real world we keep moving and just don't "have time" or take the time to get to know people. A lot of times, I'm too scared to let down my wall and let God shine through me into other people's lives. There were several moments in Costa Rica where I had to just take a moment and thank God and ask Him to help me not to forget His goodness because He is good, He is faithful and He has blessed me with such amazing friends and family. As I jump into this next phase of life, I hope that God will continue to bless me with good company and that when I am doubtful of his goodness I will look to Him, but also to my friends who He has given me as a constant reminder of His goodness.