John Allen Costa Rica: Family!

I was only home for two days before I caught the early bus to Liberia to greet my family at the airport for their long-awaited vacation!

bustling airport...

they made it!

After a yummy lunch and getting lost while driving on miles of TERRIBLE roads, we finally made it to Rincon de la Vieja volcano, where we hiked to a waterfall before enjoying the relaxing hot springs. Spent the night in Tamarindo, our base for a few days. Friday morning, Caroline took an early flight from San Jose to the local airport, so we picked her up and then met our deep sea fishing crew for a long day of fishing (or so we thought). We caught absolutely nothing for the first several hours, and ended up catching five fish, only one of which was edible. Basically a $900 fish. Which was a little bit of a problem because I had hired a husband and wife couple as our private chefs to cook all the fish we were planning on catching for dinner! But luckily they were able to pick up some last minute fresh fish for our already-planned menu, and met us at Pedro’s house after our joyful reunion with Pedro and Norma, María José, and Daniel. In addition to the delicious food, Mom especially loved that Juan and María Luisa were happy to answer all her questions and even teach us some of their culinary tricks.

this fish later became:

ceviche!

On Saturday morning we took Pedro’s family ziplining (it was their first time!), and then we were planning on swimming in the ocean until sunset, but we got stormed out… Still met up with them for dinner though at the beachfront restaurant Nibbana, featuring “live” entertainment – this dude was singing and switching back and forth between like 10 musical instruments – or so we thought at first. We began to grow suspicious when David and Dad saw him mess up and put his drum down too soon, yet magically the drumming noises continued, and as we observed more closely, we realized that he wasn’t actually doing ANYTHING other than pretending. So we had fun laughing at that all meal, and additionally a mariachi band came over and asked if we had any requests. Pedro always listens to music while driving, and there was one song in particular that I LOVED, a happy Colombian song (the chorus translates to “How beautiful is life!”) called Esta Vida by Jorge Celedon that I later found out Caroline had heard from her Spanish teacher Professor Jordan. So the mariachi band gathered around our table and played that for us while we sang! What a happy memory J That song and another song by the awesome Costa Rican band Malpais will for the rest of my life remind me of our time in Costa Rica.

I love when Pedro lifts his tequila on cue :)

that's a power strip he's "playing"

Sunday was church at St. Paul’s By the Sea! A reverend from Texas was in town so she gave the sermon, and I was glad my family got to meet the Ottleys plus Stephanie and McKenzie. The whole crowd migrated over to Longboard BBQ for lunch, then we said goodbye to Pedro and his family before boarding the Hibiscus, a 48 foot catamaran, for a sunset cruise. Drinks in hand, we sailed north for an hour to a coral reef, where we snorkeled for a long time. Compared to the snorkeling in Manzanillo, this was incredible – picture the community in Finding Nemo. Everywhere you looked there were different kinds of fish swimming around, and even some starfish. By the time we got back on the boat, they had yummy fajitas all ready for us, and more drinks as we headed back to Tamarindo. Last night in Tamarindo L

On Monday we hit the road for the mountains and Monteverde. Only about a hundred miles, but the drive takes close to four hours because of how bad some of the roads are. First activity was horseback riding! It was a little uncomfortable, but we saw some beautiful scenery, including mountains, farms, lots of hummingbirds, and a rainbow, and Caroline even got to participate in a horse show with the owner. Unlike the other places we rode in Costa Rica, we all got to experience galloping, which was scary at first but so thrilling!

Tuesday was an early morning for most of us. Mom and Dad and I went on what turned out to be a four hour private cloud forest tour with Rafael, who must be one of the best guides in the country. Poor Caroline had to spend the whole day working. We all met up for lunch, and then David and I went 4-wheeling while Mom went to a coffee and chocolate tour. For dinner we got to treat Caroline’s Monteverde host family at a fancy restaurant.

Then Wednesday after another amazing breakfast, it was time to say goodbye to Reina and Leo and Naci, our wonderful hosts, and head back to the Central Valley. We went by way of Puntarenas to see the Gulf of Nicoya up close after viewing it from afar in Monteverde. Got Caroline back in time for class, ate lunch at Doña Adela’s house with some of her friends and family, explored Heredia by foot, and then ate dinner at L’Antica Roma.

David had to fly out Thursday, so we got up really early and drove up to Poás Volcano, which has the second widest crater in the world filled by one of the most acidic lakes in the world. Unfortunately, it was really foggy and cloudy. However, it cleared up a couple times for a few seconds so we did get to see the crater! On Friday we took a road trip. First destination was EARTH University, a world-renowned sustainable agriculture school in the Caribbean province of Limón where Mom and David have spent some time on past mission trips. A Kenyan student showed us many of the fascinating growing experiments, and we got to see the famous banana train in action! Then we drove north to the Sarapiquí River, which we toured via boat and saw all kinds of sweet birds, lizards (we were lucky enough to see a Jesus Christ lizard run across the water!), and mammals! We ate dinner with Caroline’s host family, followed by a game of Settlers of Catan.