October 6th was our last day of vacation. Our flight was at 3:30 in the afternoon, so we didn't really have a lot of time to do anything in the morning.
We got up early, got all packed up, and ready to go. Then we watched the morning session of conference online, where we were completely shocked at the new missionary announcement.
After the first session we headed out to the airport, so that we could return the rental car and get there in plenty of time. We didn't want to risk missing our last flight of the vacation.
We had to pay a hefty exit tax at the airport, which always puts a damper on the vacation. They really should just change it to an entry tax, it makes it easier to swallow.
We had a short flight to Panama City and then onto Washington D.C. Dulles.
We arrived in Dulles at 12:30 a.m., and when we got to the immigration line in the airport, there was no one there to check in the citizens. The non-citizens had a couple of people checking them in and their line was moving along nicely. We citizens had to stand in line for a good 15 minutes before even someone showed up to man the desk to welcome us back into our own country. What are the benefits of citizenship, I ask you, if not speedy check in at the airport? They also asked us a lot more questions than any other immigration desk, making our foggy night brains a little nervous.
Our bags made it, meaning we officially made it around the world without losing any of our bags once, which seems like a small miracle in and of itself.
After making it through immigration and customs we gave ourselves some high fives, for having a trip completely free of any major incidents. No lost passports, no major illness, no getting pickpocketed; I think that is pretty successful. Since we got in so late, my parents had just left a car in the parking lot, so we drove ourselves home and let ourselves into the house. Sort of an anti-climatic ending to the trip, but oh well. We got home and just went to bed, it was weird after traveling to be home and it was incredibly sad to know the trip was over. We had been looking forward to the trip for so long, and it was such a fun trip, I think we were both sad that it was over. I miss vacation already.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
October 5
Friday, October 5th was our last full day of vacation so we were determined to finish strong.
First on the agenda was Volcano Poas. The Dorseys let us borrow their navigation system to get there, but unfortunately, not being used to the navigation system I managed to get us more lost than I would have if we had just followed the street signs. So after some major detours, we finally got on the right road and made it to the volcano. You have to drive all the way to the top of the volcano, where you park, and then you only have to walk about a half mile to the look out point. Since we were so high up we had been warned that it can get pretty cloudy, which makes it impossible to see anything, but we were told to be patient because usually the wind will blow away all of the clouds and you can get a clear view of the volcano for a few minutes.
When we got to the top not only was it freezing, but it was also completely cloudy, you couldn't see further than a few feet in front of you. It was pretty interesting but also pretty disappointing. So we hung around and were wishing the clouds away. For a minute they blew out a little bit and we got a small glimpse of the volcano, we felt pretty lucky at that point. Pretty soon after that it started raining, this made me feel pretty disappointed in our volcano experience. We hung around under a tree, since Joseph had left his rain jacket in the car with the prophetic words "I don't need it, it's not going to rain" haha, I secretly love it when he is wrong.
After the rain, we were ready to just walk away, but I said "let's just go look over the edge one more time, maybe it cleared up." And I was right. All of the clouds had disappeared and we could see everything. It was clear and awesome. We just sat there and stared at it. You could see the steam rising from the pool, and you could smell the sulfur, it was incredible. The volcano was definitely a highlight of the trip and a good start to the final day of the vacation.
After the main lookout we walked on some trails to another lagoon, that used to be a volcano and is now just a pond, but it was really pretty, and the hike through the jungle was nice.
After the volcano, we drove to a nature park, that was expensive and touristy but also awesome. They had an aviary, with neat birds. We got to hold and feed Tucans, which was another major highlight. They also had a cool butterfly garden, with so many butterflies, we even saw some emerging from their cocoons. There were also some of the biggest butterflies I have ever seen. They also had, Jaguars, and some other exotic animals. After looking at all of the animals, we went on a little nature hike, to see some waterfalls. All in all, despite the expense the park was awesome.
On the way home, driving down the mountain, we stopped and bought a huge case of strawberries that were freshly picked off the side of the mountain where, because of the ideal climate, they are grown year-round. They were delicious.
After, our adventures on the mountain we headed back to the house for the evening to relax. Our last day of vacation was a total success.
First on the agenda was Volcano Poas. The Dorseys let us borrow their navigation system to get there, but unfortunately, not being used to the navigation system I managed to get us more lost than I would have if we had just followed the street signs. So after some major detours, we finally got on the right road and made it to the volcano. You have to drive all the way to the top of the volcano, where you park, and then you only have to walk about a half mile to the look out point. Since we were so high up we had been warned that it can get pretty cloudy, which makes it impossible to see anything, but we were told to be patient because usually the wind will blow away all of the clouds and you can get a clear view of the volcano for a few minutes.
When we got to the top not only was it freezing, but it was also completely cloudy, you couldn't see further than a few feet in front of you. It was pretty interesting but also pretty disappointing. So we hung around and were wishing the clouds away. For a minute they blew out a little bit and we got a small glimpse of the volcano, we felt pretty lucky at that point. Pretty soon after that it started raining, this made me feel pretty disappointed in our volcano experience. We hung around under a tree, since Joseph had left his rain jacket in the car with the prophetic words "I don't need it, it's not going to rain" haha, I secretly love it when he is wrong.
After the rain, we were ready to just walk away, but I said "let's just go look over the edge one more time, maybe it cleared up." And I was right. All of the clouds had disappeared and we could see everything. It was clear and awesome. We just sat there and stared at it. You could see the steam rising from the pool, and you could smell the sulfur, it was incredible. The volcano was definitely a highlight of the trip and a good start to the final day of the vacation.
After the main lookout we walked on some trails to another lagoon, that used to be a volcano and is now just a pond, but it was really pretty, and the hike through the jungle was nice.
After the volcano, we drove to a nature park, that was expensive and touristy but also awesome. They had an aviary, with neat birds. We got to hold and feed Tucans, which was another major highlight. They also had a cool butterfly garden, with so many butterflies, we even saw some emerging from their cocoons. There were also some of the biggest butterflies I have ever seen. They also had, Jaguars, and some other exotic animals. After looking at all of the animals, we went on a little nature hike, to see some waterfalls. All in all, despite the expense the park was awesome.
On the way home, driving down the mountain, we stopped and bought a huge case of strawberries that were freshly picked off the side of the mountain where, because of the ideal climate, they are grown year-round. They were delicious.
After, our adventures on the mountain we headed back to the house for the evening to relax. Our last day of vacation was a total success.
October 3rd - 4th
Today we left the villa and drove about 45 minutes down the road to another beach town, where we were going to be staying for one night on our way back to San Jose. We had an odd number of nights left, so we figured one more night at the beach with a change of scenery would probably be good. We cashed in some of our points for a free hotel night that we had earned from all our travels.
Once again, we were the only people in our hotel, so we had the place to ourselves, which worked out to our advantage since the owner ended up giving us an upgrade to the nicest room.
We toured around the town a little bit, but were sort of worn out from traveling at this point, so we just sort of hung around our hotel room, swam in the pool, and watched HBO. We went down to the beach for dinner in time to see the sunset which was pretty, and we got some traditional Costa Rican food for dinner, followed by some gelato, and some souvenir shopping. We were looking for a CR magnet, but didn't find any that weren't tremendously ugly.
We went back to the room in time to watch the first presidential debate. We were glad to get regular American TV at our hotel.
Thursday morning we woke up, had breakfast, and hung around the pool until it was time to check out. Then we packed up and drove up the rode to Playa Herradura to hang around for the day. We walked along the beach, sat on our beach mat, played some cards, and laid around for a while until we were too hot, and just decided we had had enough and we were ready to go to San Jose.
On the drive back to San Jose we stopped at the Crocodile Bridge. Under this bridge is one of the largest herds(?) of wild crocodiles in the world. The crocodiles were gigantic. It was cool to be able to see them from afar.
After the crocs, we continued on our drive and made it to San Jose a little earlier than we had planned so we figured we would go on a little tour of the downtown area. It was slightly frightening. The roads were crowded and narrow, and Joseph had read that it was a common scam people would run where they would slice your tires without you knowing, and then, when you had to change the tires they would offer to help and then just steal your stuff out of the car, so I was on edge the whole time hoping that wouldn't happen. Luckily it didn't. There wasn't a lot to see downtown, but I am glad we got an up close view of the city.
We were staying the next two nights with some family friends, the Dorseys, who are currently living in Costa Rica, in Escazu, right outside of San Jose. So, after our little tour of downtown, we headed back to the Megaplex mall where we were planning on meeting them. Since once again, it would have been impossible to find the house with only the street directions.
Luckily, we found a pay phone and were able to meet up with them, with very little hassle. So we headed to their house where we just hung around chatting and catching up all evening.
Once again, we were the only people in our hotel, so we had the place to ourselves, which worked out to our advantage since the owner ended up giving us an upgrade to the nicest room.
We went back to the room in time to watch the first presidential debate. We were glad to get regular American TV at our hotel.
Thursday morning we woke up, had breakfast, and hung around the pool until it was time to check out. Then we packed up and drove up the rode to Playa Herradura to hang around for the day. We walked along the beach, sat on our beach mat, played some cards, and laid around for a while until we were too hot, and just decided we had had enough and we were ready to go to San Jose.
On the drive back to San Jose we stopped at the Crocodile Bridge. Under this bridge is one of the largest herds(?) of wild crocodiles in the world. The crocodiles were gigantic. It was cool to be able to see them from afar.
After the crocs, we continued on our drive and made it to San Jose a little earlier than we had planned so we figured we would go on a little tour of the downtown area. It was slightly frightening. The roads were crowded and narrow, and Joseph had read that it was a common scam people would run where they would slice your tires without you knowing, and then, when you had to change the tires they would offer to help and then just steal your stuff out of the car, so I was on edge the whole time hoping that wouldn't happen. Luckily it didn't. There wasn't a lot to see downtown, but I am glad we got an up close view of the city.
We were staying the next two nights with some family friends, the Dorseys, who are currently living in Costa Rica, in Escazu, right outside of San Jose. So, after our little tour of downtown, we headed back to the Megaplex mall where we were planning on meeting them. Since once again, it would have been impossible to find the house with only the street directions.
Luckily, we found a pay phone and were able to meet up with them, with very little hassle. So we headed to their house where we just hung around chatting and catching up all evening.
The next couple of days
The next couple of days in Costa Rica were basically identical to each other, so I will spare you four boring posts.
Saturday - We had intended on going to a different beach just down the road, but after getting a slow start on the day we decided it wasn't really worth it. Especially since we knew the beach would look pretty much the same as the beach we had just a few feet away. So we just parked ourselves at the pool in the villa to relax for the day.
Sunday - We started the day by walking on the beach for a few hours. Joseph said he found me incredibly attractive when I said "let's go for a walk for exercise". Ha, just kidding, he said that was probably the most grandma thing I have ever said. We attempted to find church in a nearby town, but when we were there a few days earlier we drove around forever and couldn't find it. The church didn't have the exact address listed online, and Costa Rica doesn't really have very good street signage, so that was a bust, Joseph stayed down by the pool most of the day watching football on his phone.
Monday - We had planned on going horseback riding or riding ATVs, but since it is the low season none of the usual people around where we were staying were operating, so, once again, we just opted to go for a long walk on the beach and hang by the pool.
Tuesday - This was our last day in Parrita, and we just did basically the same things that we had done the other days that week. We started the day with a long walk on the beach, followed by hanging at the pool. We liked sitting by the pool since we had it all to ourselves, and it was really pretty with nice flowers and you could watch the monkeys running around. It also had Wifi, which our villa did not so it was pretty convenient for looking stuff up.
It was nice to sit around and not really do anything for a couple of days. We ended up playing probably hundreds of games of speed and solitaire. We learned how to lose and not get angry at each other - a giant leap forward in our marriage. We went out to eat at our favorite restaurant in town every other night, and then made dinner at our villa on the other nights.
Saturday - We had intended on going to a different beach just down the road, but after getting a slow start on the day we decided it wasn't really worth it. Especially since we knew the beach would look pretty much the same as the beach we had just a few feet away. So we just parked ourselves at the pool in the villa to relax for the day.
Sunday - We started the day by walking on the beach for a few hours. Joseph said he found me incredibly attractive when I said "let's go for a walk for exercise". Ha, just kidding, he said that was probably the most grandma thing I have ever said. We attempted to find church in a nearby town, but when we were there a few days earlier we drove around forever and couldn't find it. The church didn't have the exact address listed online, and Costa Rica doesn't really have very good street signage, so that was a bust, Joseph stayed down by the pool most of the day watching football on his phone.
Monday - We had planned on going horseback riding or riding ATVs, but since it is the low season none of the usual people around where we were staying were operating, so, once again, we just opted to go for a long walk on the beach and hang by the pool.
Tuesday - This was our last day in Parrita, and we just did basically the same things that we had done the other days that week. We started the day with a long walk on the beach, followed by hanging at the pool. We liked sitting by the pool since we had it all to ourselves, and it was really pretty with nice flowers and you could watch the monkeys running around. It also had Wifi, which our villa did not so it was pretty convenient for looking stuff up.
It was nice to sit around and not really do anything for a couple of days. We ended up playing probably hundreds of games of speed and solitaire. We learned how to lose and not get angry at each other - a giant leap forward in our marriage. We went out to eat at our favorite restaurant in town every other night, and then made dinner at our villa on the other nights.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Friday in Costa Rica
Today we started the day with a jungle hike, at a place called Rainmaker Park.
We had do drive up this crazy road with so many holes and hills (I thought we were going to get stuck) to get to the park in the mountains.
It was a hike through the jungle with some bridges through the canopy, and you pass several different waterfalls, which was pretty cool. We saw some poison dart frogs, some huge lizards and other cool jungle flowers. No tucans though, to Joseph's dismay.
Following the theme of this leg of the vacation, we were the only people there so it was nice to be able to take our time and take it all in.
After the park we headed back to the Villa to hang by the pool.
Have I mentioned that we have made friends with the gardener who totally thinks we speak Spanish, which is funny to me. Well we have, and he is all about chatting it up. Today when we were at the pool he was showing us the different fruits that were around the grounds, and he would just cut them open with his machete and give them to us to try. He gave us two different kinds of limes and grapefruits and coconuts.
He was really funny because he was obviously using a multi-purpose machete, and he just looked and me and rubbed it on the grass and said "it was clean" (in spanish, but I cant remember) it was hilarious, but I thought it would be rude to point out that it wasn't actually clean.
He also cut up a bunch of coconuts and put them by the pool and called in a bunch of monkeys. Within a few minutes there were tons of monkeys running for the coconuts, at one point we counted ten different monkeys, it was so cool, and they were so close to us. He kept trying to get me to feed them out of my hand, but I wasn't going for that.
It was really neat to see the monkeys walk on their hind legs, grab as much coconut as they could handle and then jump from tree to tree.
We had do drive up this crazy road with so many holes and hills (I thought we were going to get stuck) to get to the park in the mountains.
It was a hike through the jungle with some bridges through the canopy, and you pass several different waterfalls, which was pretty cool. We saw some poison dart frogs, some huge lizards and other cool jungle flowers. No tucans though, to Joseph's dismay.
Following the theme of this leg of the vacation, we were the only people there so it was nice to be able to take our time and take it all in.
After the park we headed back to the Villa to hang by the pool.
Have I mentioned that we have made friends with the gardener who totally thinks we speak Spanish, which is funny to me. Well we have, and he is all about chatting it up. Today when we were at the pool he was showing us the different fruits that were around the grounds, and he would just cut them open with his machete and give them to us to try. He gave us two different kinds of limes and grapefruits and coconuts.
He was really funny because he was obviously using a multi-purpose machete, and he just looked and me and rubbed it on the grass and said "it was clean" (in spanish, but I cant remember) it was hilarious, but I thought it would be rude to point out that it wasn't actually clean.
He also cut up a bunch of coconuts and put them by the pool and called in a bunch of monkeys. Within a few minutes there were tons of monkeys running for the coconuts, at one point we counted ten different monkeys, it was so cool, and they were so close to us. He kept trying to get me to feed them out of my hand, but I wasn't going for that.
It was really neat to see the monkeys walk on their hind legs, grab as much coconut as they could handle and then jump from tree to tree.
Thursday in Costa Rica
Today we thought we would take a little trip to check out some of our surroundings. We headed to Manuel Antonio National Park, where you can go to the beach and also hike around in nature.
We were more interested in just going to the beach. We had reports it was very lovely.
Getting into the park was frustrating because there are a bunch of locals who have taken over the side of the road, dressed up to look like official park rangers and then try to scam you into paying for parking, a tour, and tickets to the park. After not being able to find any other parking we ended up just paying some guy who wasn't being too annoying.
After paying the legit park rangers to get into the park, we walked about 30 minutes through the jungle to the beach.
On our way to the beach we saw some deer, an amazing huge bright blue butterfly, and a sloth in a tree, along with other plants. But let's be honest plants aren't that exciting, but the sloth was.
The beach experience today was not as enjoyable as we had been anticipating. The beach itself was beautiful and not very crowded, which has the makings of a wonderful day, except for one small problem. Since we were in a national park we had the problem of wildlife, mainly overly aggressive raccoons, that weren't scared of us at all. So someone had to be on guard at all times. At one point I was laying on the mat and Joseph was in the chair and we had admittedly let our guard down, when one of the raccoons walked right up to the mat and grabbed one of our bags. I almost surrendered the bag until I remembered it had our camera, Joseph's phone and Joseph's kindle in it (I had removed my belongings from this bag but had left Joseph's to fend for themselves), so we had to run after the raccoon throwing sticks at it and hitting it until it finally dropped the bag and ran off. It was unbelievable. After that we were really careful, but we still had to be ready to scare them off every 5-10 minutes, which just made the whole morning less than relaxing. We spent the rest of the morning watching for the raccoons and watching them get into other peoples things who weren't paying attention. I think there were only 3 adults and 2 babies but they just stalked up and down the beach all day, and usually they would split up and so it felt like a lot f raccoons. I am obviously slightly scarred from the experience.
Plus since someone always had to be on raccoon watch, only one of us could go swimming at a time which is pretty lame.
We called the day a little early since we just weren't feeling it, which worked out in our favor, since it started raining shortly thereafter and that would have just been too much.
We headed back towards our town. But first we drove around from 30 minutes trying to find the church so that we could go on Sunday, but apparently it is either hidden or it doesn't actually exist because we couldn't find it. Although, in a funny little coincidence, the address and directions that you get from Mormon.org do lead you straight to the Kingdom Hall of JW's. So there's that option.
On the way back, we tried to find an ATM without a line of 10 people but failed at that as well, so we cruised on to Parrita. When we got to Parrita we had to go to the ATM and that one had a line too, which is crazy. I have never seen a line for an ATM before. Joseph waited in line. I sat in the car with the AC and listened to Spanish radio.
After showering and getting dressed we headed back to town to try and find a Restuarant that was showing American football, or had the capacity to show American football. That didn't work out either, although that didn't stop Joseph from scrolling through everyone's channels.
So to make up for not getting to watch football we went back to our favorite place, Soda El Tucan, which was delicious and the lady there totally thought we could speak Spanish which is fun.
Today was an adventure that's for sure.
We were more interested in just going to the beach. We had reports it was very lovely.
Getting into the park was frustrating because there are a bunch of locals who have taken over the side of the road, dressed up to look like official park rangers and then try to scam you into paying for parking, a tour, and tickets to the park. After not being able to find any other parking we ended up just paying some guy who wasn't being too annoying.
After paying the legit park rangers to get into the park, we walked about 30 minutes through the jungle to the beach.
On our way to the beach we saw some deer, an amazing huge bright blue butterfly, and a sloth in a tree, along with other plants. But let's be honest plants aren't that exciting, but the sloth was.
The beach experience today was not as enjoyable as we had been anticipating. The beach itself was beautiful and not very crowded, which has the makings of a wonderful day, except for one small problem. Since we were in a national park we had the problem of wildlife, mainly overly aggressive raccoons, that weren't scared of us at all. So someone had to be on guard at all times. At one point I was laying on the mat and Joseph was in the chair and we had admittedly let our guard down, when one of the raccoons walked right up to the mat and grabbed one of our bags. I almost surrendered the bag until I remembered it had our camera, Joseph's phone and Joseph's kindle in it (I had removed my belongings from this bag but had left Joseph's to fend for themselves), so we had to run after the raccoon throwing sticks at it and hitting it until it finally dropped the bag and ran off. It was unbelievable. After that we were really careful, but we still had to be ready to scare them off every 5-10 minutes, which just made the whole morning less than relaxing. We spent the rest of the morning watching for the raccoons and watching them get into other peoples things who weren't paying attention. I think there were only 3 adults and 2 babies but they just stalked up and down the beach all day, and usually they would split up and so it felt like a lot f raccoons. I am obviously slightly scarred from the experience.
Plus since someone always had to be on raccoon watch, only one of us could go swimming at a time which is pretty lame.
We called the day a little early since we just weren't feeling it, which worked out in our favor, since it started raining shortly thereafter and that would have just been too much.
We headed back towards our town. But first we drove around from 30 minutes trying to find the church so that we could go on Sunday, but apparently it is either hidden or it doesn't actually exist because we couldn't find it. Although, in a funny little coincidence, the address and directions that you get from Mormon.org do lead you straight to the Kingdom Hall of JW's. So there's that option.
On the way back, we tried to find an ATM without a line of 10 people but failed at that as well, so we cruised on to Parrita. When we got to Parrita we had to go to the ATM and that one had a line too, which is crazy. I have never seen a line for an ATM before. Joseph waited in line. I sat in the car with the AC and listened to Spanish radio.
After showering and getting dressed we headed back to town to try and find a Restuarant that was showing American football, or had the capacity to show American football. That didn't work out either, although that didn't stop Joseph from scrolling through everyone's channels.
So to make up for not getting to watch football we went back to our favorite place, Soda El Tucan, which was delicious and the lady there totally thought we could speak Spanish which is fun.
Today was an adventure that's for sure.
Wednesday in Costa Rica
After sleeping in like a bunch of teenagers on the weekend, we acquired some bikes from the friendly property manager Patrick, for a morning ride along the beach. We ended up riding for two hours on a gravel road and my hands hurt from the vibrations by the time we were done. It was a nice bike ride though, and the beach is beautiful.
After returning home and having lunch, we took it to the pool to work on our suntans. We saw some of the biggest lizards walking near the pool today, and there was a friendly little monkey that was hanging out right next to the pool and jumping between the palm trees. So that was pretty neat. I was a little nervous the monkey would jump down on us but thankfully he wasn't interested in that.
We hung at the house tonight making dinner, and of course making more flan and watching more BBC.
We also played cards, the game Speed, where after Joseph won the first two games, I ran off a streak of 4 in a row. Joseph was not thrilled and we didn't talk for about an hour afterwards. As it turns out, 1-on-1 games aren't very good for our marriage. We already knew this though, because of the Great Scrabble Prohibition of 2008.
After returning home and having lunch, we took it to the pool to work on our suntans. We saw some of the biggest lizards walking near the pool today, and there was a friendly little monkey that was hanging out right next to the pool and jumping between the palm trees. So that was pretty neat. I was a little nervous the monkey would jump down on us but thankfully he wasn't interested in that.
We hung at the house tonight making dinner, and of course making more flan and watching more BBC.
We also played cards, the game Speed, where after Joseph won the first two games, I ran off a streak of 4 in a row. Joseph was not thrilled and we didn't talk for about an hour afterwards. As it turns out, 1-on-1 games aren't very good for our marriage. We already knew this though, because of the Great Scrabble Prohibition of 2008.
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