Costa Rica wrap up...for now.

It's been so long since Costa Rica (maybe only two weeks in "real" time but in "I've-been-at-work" time that makes it feel like at least another lifetime) that I feel a little late in speaking more on the subject. So I'll probably pass on recaps of each amazingly fun activity (though I reserve the right to change my mind and/or refer to Costa Rica often in stories years from now the way missionaries refer to their time on "the mission.") and will summarize a few highlights and move on. I'm a little sad to not give the very first family reunion its due justice, but on the other hand....it's too late. There's a window for due justice and I believe it has passed already. sigh.

The recap/highlights/lowlights:

1. On the way there we had a 4hr (3hr?) layover in Florida (yes, going to FL affords us the chance to take an air-tour of sorts and see a bit of America before leaving it). It was a redeye flight so by the time we got to FL the airport was basically empty. And we were tired. So we stretched out on a few seats in the terminal (much better than the time Bryn and I had to spend the night in the TX airport) and went to sleep. Then they turned up the A/C to recreate the sensation of being on the polar ice caps. We started layering. I grabbed random clothes out of my suitcase (hooray for carrying on) but they weren't a ton of help since I packed for COSTA RICA and not Antartica. My mom bought blankets for the littlest ones. It was a rough start.

2. Somehow we managed to fall asleep anyway in that airport. And awaken to a now jam-packed airport full of people staring at us bundled up and hogging all the seats. I glanced over to see if my cousin was awake and saw her sitting up still half-asleep listening to an obviously hilarious story being told by a big Latino guy in Spanish. She looked so attentive to the story (even with that "I-just-woke-up" look) that if I didn't know any better I would've thought she spoke Spanish.

3. One night a lightning storm took out the power to our town. Since we couldn't see much in our

pad we hopped into our bus (which was awesome) and Felix (our driver) headed into town to a restaurant we were assured would be open despite not having any electricity. We only got to the top of the little private road we lived down before we were stopped by a tree that had cracked in two and blocked the road. So out we got and tramped on down the dark road till we got to the restaurant. Reading menus by candlelight is really fun for older folks. But that's why they had kids. To help them out in these situations. We met some Tongans there who knew people we knew so, of course, we invited them to join us at our place for dinner the next night.

4. Flash forward to almost dinner time the next night:

Rel A: Those people aren't really coming to dinner are they?

Rel B: I hope not.

Rel A: How did we end up inviting them again?

Rel C: Yah that was weird.

It was widely determined that we hoped they wouldn't show up but we ought to send someone to meet them at the designated place just in case (they were related to our friends, we couldn't have them run back a bad report). They didn't show up. We ate all of Pato's (our chef) grilled steak, chicken and mahi mahi by ourselves. More for us!

5. One morning the howler monkeys were being so loud (thankfully we were already awake) that it sounded like they were RIGHT outside our wall (I'd say "window" but the whole wall was glass). I yanked back the curtains and oh. They ARE right outside our wall. Fighting over a tree branch. Silly monkeys.

6. My mom ate a termite. It was small (thankfully) and she said it tasted like green beans. I think I'll just stick with actual green beans.

7. At the waterfall we rode our horses to our guides set up a rope to help you climb up in case you wanted to jump off the falls like a crazy person. After the youngest in our group took the lead others had to follow (but not me, I'm above peer pressure. ;)). The guides were at different points heading up the falls (you climbed right up the water pounding down on you) to help you. One of my cousins headed up, lost her footing but was still clinging to the rope and the guide's hand, couldn't let go and scrape her whole body down the rocks but probably could've used a free hand to pull up her bathing suit bottom which had fallen down to upper thigh area. Probably the hardest I laughed the whole trip. And all's well that ends well - she made it up and jumped off like a champ. Bathing suit on.

8. On our first day in Costa Rica we stopped off in a poor little area (not even a town really) and ate at a woman's house. May sound weird but it was actually awesome. She lived right on the beach so we had fresh fish they had caught that morning and the best bean dip and fried plantains I've ever had. And I don't even like beans. Anyway after we ate we explored the beach a bit. Cousins found shells. I found a vertebrae. It was large and intact (not, like, whale large, but probably slightly smaller than human size). That concluded my beach exploration that day.

9. On the way home we took this little airplane from Quepos to San Jose. Our guide Eric's wife Gabby was going to meet us at the little airport to take us to the international airport. Sounded like a good plan. We got there with basically no problems (except being weighed before the flight to make sure the plane could handle all of us. This is when I discovered I gained 10lbs on vacation) and when we arrived in San Jose there was Gabby and Marianna (her little daughter). They loaded us into a van and off we went. For 2 minutes. When Gabby pulled into the terminal right next to the one we had just left I thought "it must be that she has to help us get through customs or something." Nope. She just came down to San Jose to give us a 2 minute ride from building 1 to building 2 next door. Guess we REALLY seemed like helpless Americans. Ah well. I like to not use my feet whenever possible.

10. I've already made this really long. So I'll spare any thoughts on walking through the conservatory of butterflies, getting stung by some enigmatic but painful little creature while snorkeling, creating our own movie theater in house #1, and playing Signs late at night. But know that they all happened.