Rise & Shout the Carters Are Out: February 2013

Costa Rica

Pictures are at the bottom (I tried to move them into the paragraphs, but couldn't figure it out)

It all started when Dallin brought home a little note from his intro to Spanish class last fall. The Spanish Class is taking a trip to Costa Rica.   Dallin begged to go. Taylor too. I read all about it and was starting to get as excited as they were. Then I hit the bottom of the page where the pertinent info was, like the price. And my first thought was $2500 each is a lot for a field trip for a 12 year old who still can’t count to 10 or ask for a bathroom in Spanish. If I give my 7th grader 2500 what will he want in 9th grade. I could just see him hitting me up for a trip to the moon for his senior trip.   I wanted to do it, he wanted it so bad, the trip looked so fun. But for the sake of saving something for a senior trip I had to say no. He was pretty disappointed kind of moped around for a day or two. But then he got mad - I don’t really blame him.   I went online and read all about Costa Rica, and saw they were having a special sale. So I bought two tickets - problem was his name wasn't on either one. We’d been talking about taking a vacation with our friends the Petersons- told them about Costa Rica and they were in. So in mid January we all flew south.

Now the special sale we bought got us a nice 25 hour layover in Houston. The Petersons got a better - more direct flight. So Rick and I spent a day in Houston. At first I wasn't super excited about that but it actually turned out pretty good. We rented a car and drove down to Galveston. At the car rental desk we found out that Houston has more than 1 airport, in fact it has 4. I would have never guessed. We were pretty surprised and embarrassed to find out that the airport our rental car was in and the airport our plane flew into wasn't’ the same one. But the Budget lady fixed us all up and we punched Galveston into our gps and headed out. Somehow Siri got a little confused and started multitasking. She was taking us to Galveston and to a restaurant for lunch at the same time. It took a little while to sort that out - we recalculated - around Houston for a lot more minutes than I would like to admit but we finally turned off the gps found some signs and headed south.

The drive was a couple hours, and we spent a couple minutes on the beach - but it was wonderful all the same. Although it was kind of chilly - it was still the beach. The sun was out, the water glistened, the air smelled salty, the sand felt sandy and I was really happy. Funny how the ocean does that to me. But it always does. We stopped and ate some good old southern fried chicken at Popeye's and talked and laughed and made that transition from real life to vacation. That ride took us from responsible adults who go to work and do the dishes, who pay the bills and run the carpool. Parents who sometimes-if their lucky- meet in the middle for a little business lunch to discuss how to get the family back on track. To a couple in love who laugh and joke and feel like their 20 again. Who run and play and laugh at things no respectable parent should. Who count themselves lucky that their married to their best friend and look forward to spending every minute together.

The next morning we hopped on the plane to Costa Rica. The ride into San Jose was amazing. The water was beautiful, the sun was out, the ground was green, steam was rising from the volcanoes. It looked like the tropical paradise Dallin’s Spanish Class brochures promised it would be. Got through customs with no problem and opened the door to Costa Rica. Scott Peterson was there waiting for us. He had a shuttle ready and we threw our stuff in the back, picked up Bonnie from a little “Soda” (our Spanish vocab already increasing) and headed for the Rental Car office. They had planned on getting the car before we got there but decided it would be better to wait for us - that way they could also put Rick on as a driver. That would have worked great if Rick would have had a current Drivers licence, but they wouldn’t accept a temp. Rick realized a few days before we left that his license had expired. So he went in and got it renewed but takes the good old DMV 3-6 weeks to mail out the new card. So lucky Scott got to be our driver.

Our first stop was La Fortuna in the Mount Arenal area. The man at the rental car office plugged the address into our GPS and away we went. Actually it wasn't the address because they don’t have addresses in Costa Rica - they just have directions.

We made a quick stop at Walmart to get a sim card for Scotts phone, some water and a few snacks. The Walmart was pretty much the same as ours. We learned that in Costa Rica you need a parking pass to get in to the parking lot. Other than that it was pretty much the same.   It was comforting to see those blue vests with How can I help you (in Spanish) on the back.   We got our stuff and headed out.

Our hotel was 300 meters south of the soccer fields. The drive to La Forutna was only like 75 miles but it took us about 4 hours to get there. We had read and heard that driving in Costa Rica is slow going - and it was. Getting out of San Jose wasn't too bad - there was some traffic and a lot of Policia standing around. La Fortuna is on a mountain at a much higher elevation than San jose is.   So we drove up a little windy road. We were following a big truck for a while which slowed us down a bit. After a few miles, or kilometers, he stopped and flashed his lights several times. We thought he was being kind and letting us get in front of him. As Scott started to pass he started going. Kind of crazy - couldn't figure out what he was doing, just playing with us or something. We got passed him and sped away. When the sun started to go down the clouds started to roll in. Costa Rica is known for its cloud forests. Jungle topped mountains so close to the sky the hide in the clouds. Its true. It got so foggy we couldn't see the road 2 feet ahead of us. It got to be pretty scary.I kept watching the garmin screen and that little car following the purple squiggle. It felt like a video game where you just had to keep the car on that purple line even though you couldn't see the actual road. We finally came upon a car and were able to follow his lights. It made it a lot easier to stay on the road - although every car we got behind started going faster and it seemed like they were trying to lose us. Scott really had to turn into a Mario Andretti to stay on their tail. After a while we realized our lights weren't really pointing to the road - they were up way too high - brighting the guy in front of us. No wonder that trucker got irritated with us and no wonder every car we got behind tried its hardest to pull away from us. About 4 hours later we pulled into our hotel. Good thing for that GPS, I don’t think there is anyway we could have found the hotel without it.

The Hotel was hidden back off the main road on a dusty bumpy gravel road. Didn't look like much when we pulled in - my heart kind of sank. But after 4 hours of driving on a roller coaster road in the middle of a cloud we were just glad to be there. We unpacked our car and they had dinner ready for us. The food was pretty typical, or “tipycal”, rice beans, chicken and fruit. I was pleasantly surprised. It was delicious. There was a mound of black tar looking stuff - looked exactly like what you find in a newborns diaper. I was a little hesitant to try it- but I loved it. It was just black beans they had refried and spiced up just right. We had the same type of thing several more times over the next couple weeks but this time was by far the best. Mario, the guy who owned the hotel, came and introduced himself and offered suggestions on what we should do while we were in the area. When we told him we planned to stay just one night he shook his head and said it would be impossible to see and do everything in just 1 day.

After listening to him and reflecting on our drive up here, - we decided to change our plans and stay a few extra days. We had made reservations through Hotels.com which we had to try and cancel. Changing 1 reservation messed up the rest of the trips so we had to change about 5 hotels.   We got it done, but it was no small task. First we had to call the individual hotel and ask if we could cancel - in Spanish. Our muy, muy poco spanish didn’t include that type of vocab. Luckily many of the hotels had an English speaking employees - so for the most part that worked out ok. Then we had to call Hotels.com and tell them that we had spoken with the hotel and they had said we could cancel. Then Hotels.com had to call the Hotel and speak with the manager and verify we had his permission to cancel. Then they would cancel our reservation and refund money. After a several hours on a couple different nights we were able to do this for all but one of our hotels that simply refused so we had to eat the cost of that night, it of course had to be our most expensive hotel too.

The next morning we got up to a very tipycal costa rican breakfast. First they bring the fruit, watermelon, pineapple and papaya. I love watermelon and pineapple but I just can’t eat papaya without being reminded of dirty socks. Then they bring the rice, beans, eggs and toast. They also always have coffee and juice. We go for the juice - which gave us reason to discuss being mormoms with Mario. He was very supportive of that and even tried to help us find a church to go to on Sunday- more on that later.   After breakfast we went to the La Fortuna waterfalls. We drove in a big tractor up to the falls - we could have walked but we opted to spring for the $10 tractor ride. After driving there I realized what a great deal we got - even though the ride was pretty bumpy it was a lot better than walking would have been. Rick complained the whole time - the bumps were so bad we often caught air, so with every other bump up we also had to fall down - continually landing on himself which was apparently not all that pleasant.. Good thing the waterfall was icy cold-it helped to take the swelling down. (if there was any, which I doubt- mostly I think it was just a good excuse to talk about his hinder regions) We hiked a little ways to the waterfall which was a beautiful hike through the jungle. We kept our eyes up hoping to spot a money or a toucan or something exotic- but all we saw was a lot of green leaves, vines and beautiful flowers. We crossed a hanging bridge which was pretty cool. Reminded me of the swinging bridge near my home in Cottage Grove - except this one was like 10 times as long and 10 times as high. The water fall was beautiful. We waded across the river to get up near the water and then tried to swim over to the falls - the current was pretty strong -but we got as close as we could.

We hiked back and again rode the ball breaker back. We stopped at the Maleku Indian village - where we had a short history/culture lesson and pounded each others chests in greeting with a “Copi Copi”. We bought a little carved mask as a souvenir and took some pictures. Our driver showed us a fern that if you lightly touch it all curls up to protect itself. Pretty cool - I kept an eye out the rest of the trip looking for the curling fern. I stroked a lot of ferns but didn't find many that would curl.

We stopped at the butterfly and frog gardens on our way home. The frogs were bright just like all the travel pictures show - but really tiny. I never knew they were like the size of my thumb. I guess I always figured they were more palm sized, like the frogs we have here. The butterflies were beautiful. I was really impressed. They had big beautiful blue ones I fell in love with and knew Rachel would go crazy over so I wanted to get a picture. I walked around snapping pictures at the air for quite a while frustrated that one just wouldn't land so I could get a good picture. There were lots of butterflies that were sitting on flowers or eating fruit but they were all the ugly brownish ones. Finally I happened to see a brown one take off and fly - as she opened her wings the brilliant blue appeared. I guess they were all the beautiful butterflies after all - they just have to be flying to show their colors.

We stopped in town for some lunch. The food was great and it gave us a chance to see a little Costa Rican town. I was pretty impressed. The roads were small and mostly not paved but they were clean and the people looked friendly. I read as many signs as I could racking my brain for all those Spanish Vocab Senior Wagner drilled into me during High School. A lot came back- but not enough I could converse with anyone. We did learn what “Prohibido girar a la izquierda” means - probably should have picked up on that from the arrow with the line through it.

After lunch we went back to our hotel and then headed over to Baldi. Baldi is a nice resort with 25 different pools - all hot springs. It was beautiful. Well kept gardens, swim up bars (not that we used them) unbelievable trees and flowers, and some pretty interesting artwork.   Some of the pools were scorching hot and they had a couple cool pools but mostly they were just a really nice warm temp. There were signs all over that said no swimming, or “nadar prohibitar:. I actually did remember that vocab - but the little picture of the swimmer with the line through it was pretty self explanatory too. So the pools were just for soaking.

Mario had told us that the slides were pretty crazy. He had warned us to make sure and hold on to our tops and bottoms because it wasn't to uncommon to lose both going down one of the slides. After his description I was a bit nervous but tried them out. There were 3 slides. The first slide we came to I dipped my toe and pulled it right out. It was scalding. You could see steam rising all down the slide. One little boy ran up and sat down and took off - he kind of jumped and screamed. Rick and Scott braved it and Rick told me he thought he blistered his sphincter (once again I doubt it - its just that 12 year old in him that loves to talk about his hinder regions). I skipped that slide and went on up. I got on another slide and cautiously started down - apparently this one wasn't’ suit stripper because I had to kind of push my self a couple times. It was fun though. I took a minute to watch others come down and quickly realized what slide Mario was talking about. So we went back up and tried that one. I was pretty crazy- by far the fastest slide I have ever been on- but I managed to come back up out of the water everything covered that should have been. We spent the rest of the day there moving from pool to pool relaxing. They had a dinner buffet that we went to. The food was good, lots of different choices. Several of the pools had waterfalls- laying under them letting the warm water pound my back was one of the most relaxing treats of our trip.

The next day was Sunday. We looked on LDS.org and found a church in a little town a little more than an hour away. Mario told us about a shortcut which cut it back to about 45 minutes. We gave ourselves 1 hour and a half to make sure we could find it. Mario gave us directions, plugged things into our gps and then wrote down for us “Donde esta La inglesia Mormonia” so we could show it to someone to get directions to the church once we found the town. Once again there wasn't really a specific address just directions. We found the town ok and then started looking for the church. We drove around for a while trying to figure out the LDS.org website directions. We tried using the GPS, we pulled over and asked several people. About 15 minutes after church would have started we finally found one of the landmarks we were told about in the directions given, a big white church. We pulled in and were quickly followed by more cars. Church was just starting and people were flowing in. All the spaces in the parking lot were full and so cars were driving through the isles and just stopping and parking there. We were behind a parked car and when the guy in back of us turned off his engine and got out, we knew this was the church we were attending that day. It was catholic. Pretty similar to the other catholic churches I had been to. I tried hard to understand what was going on and being said - and I could pick out a few words but not many. It was a really interesting experience. We tried to just do what every one else was doing. Sit, stand, sing etc. I didn't kneel or cross myself but Rick did. He really got into the whole thing. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming - smiling and shaking our hand in the greet your neighbor part. I got the impression that the church was filled with good people who loved God.   It was a very interesting experience I very much enjoyed, especially when comparing it to church the next Sunday.

Skipping ahead to the next Sunday. We staying in Montezuma Saturday night - which is on the Nicolya Peninulsa. We had to take a ferry from Punteranus to get there. So we debated about going to church and how we would manage it. From Montezuma it was about 1 hour drive to the ferry the ferry was 70 minutes across and then the church was in the same town as the ferry but we knew from past experience that it would still take a while to find. In order to get there by 9:00 we figured we would need about 2 ½ to 3 hours. Leaving around 6 would be doable. But we learned the ferry only left at 6am or 9. No one wanted to get up at 4:30 to make the 6am ferry, and no one wanted to drive in the dark either. So we opted for the 9:00 ferry and figured we’d get there for Priesthood and Relief Society. Our plan worked out great, we found the church without to much trouble at about 10:40. We sat and visited with some members form the states while waiting for Sunday School to get over. Bonnie wanted to go to Young Womens since she is the YW president in our ward. I decided to go with her. There were 3 girls - all beehives and the President. There was also a young lady who was the adviser. She spoke pretty good English and helped us know what was going on. After the opening song, the theme and some announcements the President started teaching the lesson which was watching a conference talk on tv. I listened for a while trying to figure out what was being said and then realized I had the talk on my ipad. So I looked it up and read it as the girls were watching it. It was on the Holy Ghost. The teacher then spoke about the Holy Ghost and feeling the spirit. I really didn't understand any words that she was saying but i did feel the spirit. It was a good reminder and strengthened my testimony. The spirit was there - while I understood about the same amount of words being spoken in the Mormon church as I did in the catholic church, the feeling that accompanying those words taught me so much more. I felt the Spirit testifying to me that the Holy Ghost is real, that the church is true, that Christ lives and that I am blessed beyond belief to have knowledge of that and to be a member of the church with the privilege of having the gift of the Holy Ghost. Anyway - enough of that. But the contrast in the experiences was a big testimony builder to me. We really do have the truth and we really greatly blessed because of it.

So back to the week before. After church with the Catholics we drove back to La Fortuna and had lunch in a little restaurant. The owner of the restaurant was a big burly kinda older American from New Jersey. He had a tattoo of an american flag on his arm and was just a little creepy looking. We kind of joked at how these American who were living down here in these small costa rican towns were probably there running from the law. We joked that this guy was probably some child molester who skipped bail and was hiding out in costa rica. Well anyway that little joke caused me some embarrassment later.

The guy gave us all kind of “advice” on being in costa Rica like , make sure to get out of your car and watch them pump your gas to make sure it is going into the tank and not into a bucket they have hidden behind your car. Make sure to get to the airport 3 hours early and have enough cash to pay your exit tax or you will miss your plane. Also never buy tours from your hotel - only buy them from my friend across the street who will give you the best deal. And the last one was to make sure and call our credit card and get the money we paid for rental car insurance back because in Costa Rica they make you pay for rental car insurance even though we already have it through our credit card. Well this little tip did pay off because Scott was able to get the money he had to pay for insurance refunded. He forwarded me the email from the rental car place confirming the refund. I was excited and replied, “that is awesome - I guess the child Molester must have been good for something.” Unfortunately I replied to the wrong address. I was so nervous some foreign police or FBI agent was going to come and arrest me for accusing someone of being a child molester.

After lunch with the creepy New Jersey child molester we drove off to the Sky Trek. We had a reservation to do a canopy tour with zip lines. We drove and drove and drove and finally realized we had missed it like 70 km ago. We turned around and finally found the place about an hour late. We got in on the next tour and got all suited up. I was really excited. We were in a group of about 20 which was mostly adults with 1 family with 4 kids. The kids were pretty funny and really excited to do it. They were outgoing and talkative. We got a little crash course in how to hold on and how to brake etc and then were started in and a little practice line. There were 10 lines total.   Some much longer than others. The longest was 200 meters high and 750 meters long. You get going pretty fast too. The tram ride up was pretty amazing itself. It was thrilling be climbing up through the jungle - so far above the ground in the tops of the trees. The zip lines were a little intimidating. I will admit that my heart was in my throat but I was excited too. The little kids were almost wetting their pants they werr so raring to go. The youngest 3 had to go tandem so they would be heavy enough to get all the way across. This upset them at first but by the end I think they were glad for it. The oldest boy, about 12, got to do it alone. He was pumped at first but by the last couple lines he had his head between his legs panting and trying not to cry. He got a little more scared with each line until he was freaked out. But once you get up there -there is no way else down. He made it - we all did. It was awesome, a big adrenaline rush with spectacular views.

On Monday we got up bright and early to catch the van for our Cano Negra tour. They drove us up near the Honduras border and we took a little river cruise to look at all the wildlife. It was also really beautiful. We saw lots of iguanas, caimans, monkeys, sloths, lizards, all types of birds, turtles etc. We had lunch and then headed back.

Tuesday we left La Fortuna and drove to MonteVerde. This was also quite a windy bumpy road up across the mountains. It was all daylight and no fog though that made it a very enjoyable drive. It was amazing to see the countryside. We went through foresty jungle type areas, and rolling hills with pasture type land and little villages. We stopped to take pictures and walk around a little roadside cemetery. We arrived in Monteverde and checked into our hotel. It was a small town cut into the mountain. The roads weren't paved and it was mostly hotels and restaurant. We took a short little hike down to a waterfall where we met a guy from Amsterdam. He was a young kid who had just come backpacking across Costa Rica. We talked with him for awhile and then ended up sitting next to him at the airport when we were leaving. After dinner that night we went on a Night Tour. Our guide took us through the jungle and showed us all kinds of nocturnal animals. It was interesting to see. We definitely needed a guide to be able to spot them. The next morning we went on a tour through the Biological Reserve. Once again our guide showed us several birds and things that we couldn't have spotted on our own. We were in a cloud forest although it wasn't too cloudy that day. By this time we had seen almost all the animals we had come to see except a Scarlet Macaw and a tocuan. After the tour we stopped for lunch at Stella’s Bakery. The food was excellent and the garden we ate in was beautiful. They had a big trees which were filled with birds. They put out fruit to tempt the birds to fly in and land so we could get a better look at them. On our tours they were all so high up in the trees you needed binoculars or a spotting scope to get a good look. We saw so pretty birds and even a toucan at Stella’s.

We then headed out back down the mountain and down the coast to Quepos which is a little town right outside of Manuel Antonio national park. The town of Quepos was just a bit sketchy. I hadn't really felt unsafe anywhere up until this point - and even there wasn't bad but we definitely wanted to park where we could keep an eye on our car. The next day we went to the Manuel Antonio park. This was our first real beach day. We entered the park and had to walk about 15 minutes through the park to the beach. It was a pretty walk although we had already seen a lot of jungle and a lot of animals so we were anxious to get to the water. Also it was HOT. So far we had mostly been up in the mountains where the temperature was very pleasant, nice and warm but not hot - sea level was a much different story, I was dying.   We finally arrived at the beach. As we stepped out on the sand and looked around a raccoon darted past us carrying a bag - a little boy was chasing it trying to get his lunch back. Rick and Scott took off after it and got it cornered - they picked up a stick to try and reach in and pull the bag out of his little paws but everyone started yelling at them to drop it. So they did and the raccoon took off again. They finally got the bag back. We had to really watch out for those sneaky raccoon and make sure and hang ALL of our stuff up in a tree. Reminded me of swiper except they were raccoon not foxes.

We got in and swam around a bit. The water was warm. Not like a swimming pool warm but like a hot bath warm. In fact there were areas of the water I would have turned it down a couple degrees if I could. It was also a lot less clear than the Caribbean. There is more waves in Costa Rica which keep the water turned up more so visibility is a lot lower. We still saw lots of fish while snorkeling. The fish were bright and beautiful but there was no colorful coral or big waving plants or anything like that. Just grey rocks with tropical fish swimming around them. We hung out at the beach all day.

At one point we moved over to a different beach and went to hang our stuff up and I looked up to see a sloth about 3 or 4 feet above me just eating a little piece of fruit or something. Kind of shocked me at first but he was really cute. He ate for a minute then climbed up a foot or two and went to sleep. He was there the rest of the day. They really don’t move much at all. We got some good pictures of him and Rick kind of climbed up to try and get a picture with him and the sloth. There claws are quite long and a bit scary looking so he was nervous to get too close just in case the sloth decided to wake up and take a swipe at him. He never even opened his eyes though.

When we got hungry we decided to walk out along the beach and get some lunch. A park ranger told us we could go back the way we came and it would take about 25 min or take a different trail and it would take about 5-10. We took the shorter trail and ended up at a gate leading out. We told the guard that we wanted to have lunch and come back in. He said we couldn't come back once we left. We kind of complained at that and told him we were told we could sign a book and come back in. He said yes but that book was at the other entrance. Finally he told us we could kind of cut across a little river and pointed to a little alley that would lead back up to where we could sign the book. So we started off that way. He told us to hop in a boat because there were crocodiles in the river, he went and talked with the man who had the boat and the man nodded and waved us over. They boat guy was obviously drunk, but we got in the boat anyway. Scott asked how much it would be and the man answered “you have a beautiful wife”. Scott asked again and he finally replied 1 dollar as he was pushing us in and pushing the boat out. It wasn't really a river it was just a little stream not even a foot deep. The guy walked most of the way across. I was thinking he would take us all the way down to the other end but he didn't. He walked us across about 8 feet and stuck us up on shore and demanded his $1 each. Rick and Scott got mad and argued about paying for practically nothing but he demanded the money. We didn't have the right change so we ended up costing us way more than it should have. We saw some kids playing in the water not to far down from where we were so the story about crocodiles was a little hard to believe. But that was really the only time when we really got taken advantage of (at least that we know).

We took the little alley up and stopped to watch some monkeys eating coconuts and running from a dog. The monkeys were really cute to watch. They would try to come down from the tree and grab a coconut before the dog saw them. At one point one of the monkeys fell off the branch and hit the ground, the dog immediately ran over and several monkeys all ran down and hissed at him until the fallen monkey got get back up in the tree. It was fun to watch.

Finally we found the gate where we could get in and sign the little book. But the gate was closed. It was 4:05 and it closed at 4:00 - so we just gave up and decided to go have lunch. We stopped at our car and were going to just grab something before going to find a restaurant on the beach. The parking lot guy ran over to us as we were walking away and told us we had to leave. He said we couldn't park there anymore. Scott argued that when we paid he told us we could park all day. The guy said all day - until 4:00. Anyway we ended up just leaving and finding a restaurant in town and then going back to our hotel. The next morning we left and drove up to Puntarenas.

Rick had woken up with his ear really hurting. It was really clogged up with wax - which we all got to hear about in great detail. He of course shared his favorite story about how when on his mission some of his investigators were ear doctors who cleaned out his ears for him and were impressed with the massive amounts of black wax that they found there. Rick and Scott went to a pharmacy to try and buy an ear candle - describing that in Spanish was pretty entertaining. They didn't have any- they did have some penicillin we could buy, but it was expensive, so we didn't. I had thought it would be nice to stock up on some - so when we lose our insurance we can have a supply at home. The pharmacist said it was best to go to Hondurus or Columbia for that. Rick tried pen caps, bobby pins, and anything he could find to try and dig some of that wax out. Nothing worked and the problem got progressively worse. Bonnie suggested we squirt some of her homemade insect repellent in there. She makes it out of peppermint oil, which apparently cures everything. The insect repellent worked pretty good for keeping the bugs away but not so much for the ears. Rick said it kind of burnt but didn't end up helping that much. Rick pretty much just had to wait till we got home to go to the doctor and get it taken care of.
Right outside Jaco, a town we were told was good for nothing more than bars and hookers, was a bridge overlooking a river where the crocodiles like to congregate. We took turns going out on the bridge to take pictures. There were tons of them - a lot bigger than the caimens we saw at cano negro. Pretty impressive looking - and even a bit scary even though we were quite a ways above them. We got to Puntarenas just in time to make the next ferry. A guy came by and gave us a ticket for the ferry and told us to do something having to do with a wallito. We couldn't quite figure it out although I was guessing it was go by your ticket. We waited until we got almost to the front of the line and then realized we needed tickets. Rick hopped and and ran over and bought the tickets. The ferry ride was about 70 min of slow going. The boat was pretty nice but very hot. We were all dying - sweating up a storm. I don’t know that I would have been any wetter if I had jumped in the ocean.

We finally arrived and found Scott with the car and started our trip to Montezuma. The revenge here was that montezuma was 70 km away on a very dirty dirt road. The road was lined with bushes and trees that were a fuzzy light brown from the dust. Everyone we passed had a bandanna covering their mouth. We made it to our hotel and stepped out of the car into a sauna. I don’t know if it was just going from the air conditioned car but I don’t know that I have ever felt so hot. Our hotel was called the Sano Banano -the clean Banana? weird name, cool hotel. It ended up being my favorite hotel.   Our rooms were a bit odd - ours was our center room with no window. It was pretty small but nice. The shower was pretty big but crappy. First time we tried to shower we got in and turned on the water - nothing happened - at all. Tried to turn it every way we could think of nothing happened. Rick was playing around with it and I turned on the sink - water came out of the shower. Ah ha - you just have to run the sink in order to take a shower - a cold shower. But a couple minutes into the freezing shower a burst of scalding water would shoot through. Actually that’s not true because the water never really shoot it always just kind of trickled. But it went from icy to scalding to icy without any warning or reason. Mostly icy. Then we went to get out and found that there were no towels. I am not sure why this was my favorite hotel.

Montezuma is really a fun little Bohemian own. Really relaxed fun loving little party town. The center of the town was a bar. Chico’s Bar. We never went in - but it seemed like a happen en place. There were dozens of cute little souvenir shops and restaurants. Our favorite was the Loca Vaca. The food was excellent. The lady who owned it came to Costa Rica to learn a little Spanish - got a job working in the restaurant, a couple months later the owner skipped town and she ended up with the restaurant. What a story.

The beach was pretty- lots of rocks and white spray. We took a walk down the beach that evening to find the Ying Ying hotel, which is Sano Banano’s sister hotel. The Ying Ying looked to be super nice - we got the poor sister. We went to try out the pool - we had it to ourselves. It was really nice, cool and relaxing after the stifling heat of the day. After a nice swim we walked on back and went to bed.

The next day Rick and I decided to go to Tortuga island for a little snorkeling - it was a little last minute so we ran over and got signed up to go on the next tour. Scott wasn't feeling well so they decided to stay at the hotel. But right before we left they came out and were able to get a spot on the boat. We took a small little speed boat out to the island. I really enjoyed the ride, it was about 45 minute up and down in the water. Our captain seemed to enjoy hitting the waves just right so the couple in front got drenched - I think its because they kept motioning for him to slow down.

Once we got out to the island we all jumped out and went snorkeling. The snorkeling part was great - the jumping in part, not so much. I hate jumping out of a boat with flippers on - I feel like such a whale. For one thing I have to strip down to my suit sitting on a little bench on a crowded boat. With everyone jostling about trying to pull on flippers there really is no way to avoid the awkward jabbing into one another. Then once I got the mask and flippers on - I have to stand up in the rocking, crowded boat and somehow make my way to the side and jump over. Now some people- probably most people, are coordinated enough to jump over the side starting with one foot on the rim of the boat and the other on the seat, and just “jump” the other foot over the side. Not me - see I was too scared I wouldn't be able to lift my foot up high enough clear the side with that big old flipper. Anyway it was mighty awkward but somehow I hauled myself in the water - splashed down hard and my snorkel fell out and started drifting down. I happened to look down and saw it a couple feet below my just lazing sinking. I dove and barely grabbed it. It was the gear that came with the tour I didn't really like it and I was scared I’d lose the snorkel again so I went back to the boat and got my own gear I had brought (it is a little cracked- but better than theirs). So with all that done I found Rick, who of course had no problem sliding his stuff off and jumping in the water, and off we went to explore. Once again - lots of fish but not a lot of color in very warm water.

It was really nice - so nice we didn't really notice everyone else heading back to the boat. They had to call us over - I’m not sure how long they were waiting for us, one guy said “hours” but I am hoping he was just being sarcastic. Not only did I feel bad making everyone wait for us - being the last one’s on board also meant everyone got to watch me climb on. For the amount we paid for the tour you’d think the boat would come with a ladder. But no - the ladder was the propeller. The captain leaned over and gave me his hand but I just couldn't haul my leg up enough to get it on the propeller. It was pathetic. He had to lower the propeller - a couple times- before I finally got my foot up and he pulled me in. I am sure he was breaking a sweat from the exertion of pulling me in. While trying to flounder myself in I slipped several times banging my leg. It left a nice bruise and hurt pretty good- but not as much as my pride.

We docked at Tortuga island and had lunch, which was some nice fish they had prepared for us. We swam around a bit and looked around the island. Outside a gift shop there were some perches with some Scarlet Macaws. We had been searching for them our whole trip. They are often found in Costa Rica but for whatever reason we had yet to spot one. These birds were injured so they kept them out in front of the gift store - not exactly wild, but they were beautiful. We went snorkeling one more time - both getting out of and into the boat went much better the second time.

After getting back from the tour we went to the hotel to get cleaned up. This time the shower cooperated a little better but just a couple minutes after getting in someone knocked on the door. We ignored it at first, we thought it was Scott or Bonnie and assumed they would go away but the knocking got more persistent. We yelled for them to wait but then we heard keys in the lock. Great I thought someone is going to come. Rick went to the door and told them, through the door, he was in the shower and ask them to wait a few minutes. A lady answered back in Spanish and maybe didn't understand because she kept trying to open the door and knocking. Rick yelled several times and knocked back and finally we thought she went away. By this time I was done I got out and was getting dressed when she came back again. Maybe she went to get another set of keys. Once again I told her to wait, I even tried using my limited Spanish - but she kept trying. I threw on some clothes but by the time I opened the door she was gone. This wasn't such a big deal - except I am guessing it was the cleaning lady and she never came back- so our room didn't get cleaned, and it needed it. There was sand and water all over the tile - and we still needed towels. Oh well - even after all that it was still my favorite hotel.

We found a nice little restaurant, with all kinds of different ethnic foods. It was really good - really fun to sit and talk too. Scott and Rick compared stories of all the crazy things they did in High School and the troubles they got themselves into. Rick started out the conversation with “So what’s the worse thing you ever did”. To be honest I was a little nervous when he said that - see I kinda think you shouldn't ask a question you aren't willing to answer- and that is one question Rick shouldn't be willing to answer.   I’m so glad they had enough stories to fill the time because I didn’t have anything to contribute. I pretty much never did anything even remotely crazy. The most trouble I ever really got in was one time when Kristin and I went skinny dipping with the Gifford girls out at Cottage Grove lake and some boys showed up and we had to stay in the water till they finally left which meant we got home a lot later than planned. My Dad was mad, really mad, I think madder than he had ever been at us. But mostly I think that was just because my Mom had gotten worried about us and had made him go out looking for us and he hadn't wanted to - so he was taking out his frustrations on us.   Anyway that is about it when it comes to getting in trouble during High School. After we finished dinner and the High School confessions we finished up a little shopping, stopped and had some ice cream and went to bed.

The next morning we headed back to the ferry and found the church. After church we started back towards San Jose. The trip back was pretty nice- all paved roads moving fairly quickly. We stopped and had lunch at a little restaurant along the beach. We were able to put the hotel in the gps, which was very lucky because I don’t think there would have been any possible way we could have found it without the gps. We really wondered a few times if the garmin was just playing around with us - because it had us turning this way and that - apparently to avoid one way streets etc. The area we drove through was much more ghetto - there were so pretty slummy neighborhoods filled with dirty shacks. It tough to imagine how people live like that. Obviously we have some pretty slummy ghetto’s in the states too - we are just really blessed not to have to live in them.

Our hotel was a little sketchy but luckily it had a underground gated parking. It was a garage of sorts filled with boxes and washing machines and other storage stuff with room in the center for a car or two. We pulled in and had to leave the keys with the desk. We walked a few blocks - through lovers park - and did some more shopping. When it started to get dark we went back to the hotel and got the car and drove over to see the temple. It was closed and gated but the security guard let us in to walk around and take pictures. It was beautiful. Always amazes me that no matter what is surrounding it the temple is always beautiful and peaceful. We stopped at Walmart on the way back to the hotel - stocked up on some Costa Rican snacks and had dinner at the deli.

Next morning it was time to head back to the states. We wanted to give ourselves plenty of time so we decided to leave the hotel about 4 hours before our flight. We got up and enjoyed the worst breakfast of the trip and and then grabbed our suitcases and brought them out to the garage. When they opened the door we saw someone had parked right in back of us blocking us in. Scott went to get someone to come move the car - they didn't know where the owner was but the desk guy gave Scott the keys and ask Scott to move it since he didn't have a license - and either did the only other guy working for the hotel. Car wouldn't start - the battery was dead, no one had jumper cables so we tried to get the car out of gear to push it but without being able to start it , it wouldn't go into neutral. It took a while but we finally knocked it out of gear and were able to push it off to the side enough to get our car out. We’d given ourselves plenty of time so even with that we were still were easily able to make it to the airport, pay our airport tax and get through security with about 2 hours to wait.

I sat near a cowboy - he was all decked out with boots, vest and a big hat. You couldn't really call him thin - or anything close to it. He had on some tight wranglers that he tucked into his boots.   He spent most of the time on his phone - it was pretty entertaining to listen to him call up his friends and tell them all about his conquests with really hot women and how he’d gone to clubs and met these women who all wanted him so bad. He said if he would have been a little younger he could have had himself some really nice nighttime adventures. It took a lot of self control not to bust up laughing at his drawl and stories.

When we arrived in Houston we had to go through customs.    Mr Cowboy Casanova was right in front of us in line. There was a TSA agent who was supposed to be directing us which line to go to. She took one look at the cowboy and kind of started giggling and telling him how cute he was. She was Asian and kept saying - “Oh Mr. Cowboy - you are so cute, a really life cowboy” she kept it up and was obviously really annoying him. She took a look at our passports and sent us to a line - still going on about the cowboy. The reaction he got from her made me wonder if all his women stories were for real. The line we got in appeared to be one of the shortest but it took forever. Scott and Bonnie got though in there line in just a couple minutes - it took us about 30. After a while, we got up close enough to see what was going on we noticed that everyone was getting their pictures and fingerprints taken. We double checked and we were clearly in the line marked US citizen but these guys must not have been citizens. The man behind us was complaining about how much slower our line was going and when he figured out it was because our line had both citizens and guest in it -he got all mad and started talking about how much trouble our country was in - if the government couldn't even separate citizens from non citizens in the customs line how would they ever be able to handle our health care under the new Obamacare laws. He obviously wasn't’ a big Obama fan. His political rant kept us entertained till we finally got up to the desk flashed our US passport and couple questions later walked on through - in a fraction of the time at had taken the 20 people in front of us. I am guessing the Cowboy had gotten the TSA agent all distracted she got the lines all messed up. Good thing we still had a couple hours till our next flight landed.

Rick and I had dinner in a little airport diner. It was nice - the food was great. Couple things I noticed about being back in the United States, it was nice to order a glass of tap water and not wonder if I should drink it or not and Rick’s data plan on his phone was back. So my 2 week break from competing with Rick’s phone was over and I ate dinner and listened the the conversation next to us while he played with his phone and mumbled and occasionally uh huh to act like he was paying attention to me. Sure was nice to have things back to normal.

We landed in Salt Lake city without any problems but as I walked off the plane and the below freezing weather hit me I just couldn't come up with one good reason we call Utah home. I know there are some - one or two anyway - but at that minute I couldn't come up any. Scott and Bonnie’s son, Austin, came to pick us up. It was almost midnight and I felt really bad that he had to drive so late - especially when he showed up and he was sick. He crawled in the back and went to sleep while Scott drove us home. We made it back around 12:30.

Just like any trip we've taken it’s been hard to want to get back to real life. It was great to see the kids - but other than that I would have gone back in a second. It truly was wonderful.

Baldi

Rick Rappelling down waterfall

Amy Rappelling

La Fortuna Falls

Butterfly - You can see a bit of blue between the wings -when flying the whole butterfly looks that blue color

little frog - I think it is called the blue jeans frog

One of the many fish we saw. I don't think I had ever seen this before - the little neon dots really glowed , picture doesn't really do it justice.

Hanging Bridge

Beach in Montuzuma

Rick looking at the crocodiles from on top of the bridge

One of the ziplines we took on our canopy tour

In iguana - they were all over the place-

A toucan eating some banana at Stella's Bakery. The birds our hard to spot up in the trees, so they leave fruit out so they will come down so you can see them better.