Summer Vacation Road Trip: Playa Hermosa

Above: Lucy and Lindsey watching a beautiful sunset.

The second leg of our road trip brought us through the beautiful Costa Rican province of Guanacaste to some of the best beaches in the country. Astute blog readers may remember that we have already been to Playa Hermosa, but that was a different one. This one is located in the northern part of the country, is on the Pacific coast, and consists of of a small bay with calm, warm water.

Above: Here is our only attempted family shot with the camera timer overlooking the sunset. Caleb, Uncle B, Aunt KK, Lindsey, Sean, Lucy, Necy, and DaBo.

We reserved a small sweet for the whole family and from there we could see the bay and the beautiful sunsets. We enjoyed some fun times on the beach, great food, and more fun swimming in the pool for the cousins.

Above: And of course, the new BFF’s.

The trip was quite a relaxing time of seeing the country and spending needed time with family. Although we are sad to see them go, we are excited about starting our last trimester at language school next week.

Summer Vacation Road Trip: Volcano Arenal

Above: Lucy grinning in front of the beautiful Arenal Volcano.

Two days into our summer break from school, Lindsey’s family all flew down for a whirlwind tour of Costa Rica. We rented a van, loaded up, and headed for one of the most famous spots in Costa Rica, Vocalno Arenal. The volcano is active and you can see the steam coming off the top during the day and the red lava shining at night. We stayed at a hotel at the foot of Arenal for two nights and enjoyed hot-springs heated pools, beautiful wildlife, and the constant view of the massive volcano.

Lucy of course loved the time with family, especially her cousin Caleb. Though the hadn’t seen each other in 6 months, Skype kept them close and they were soon bonding like siblings. The loved chasing each other around, mimicking what each other said, swimming together, and talking about “big volcano.”

This first part of the trip was great, and we loved seeing more of our temporary home country.

Above: Lucy and cousin Caleb playing on Caleb’s bed on morning.

Hot Summer Days

Above: Lu playing in a field near our house.

We’re two days into our two week summer break and we’ve been having some great family time together. We’ve done some shopping, gone to lots of parks, slept in, hung out with friends, and played a lot with Lucy.

The weather here has been hot lately. It really heats up early morning, so we like to get up and go early. Then after lunch it usually starts to rain, so we all relax and nap, still recovering from a long semester.

Lindsey’s family is coming into town tomorrow, so we’re going to have a little driving tour of Costa Rica, with pictures to come soon.

Spanish Word – Mono

Above: Lucy riding with our buddy Pratt checking out some friendly monos in Manuel Antonio National Park.

A couple weeks ago, while we were at the beach, we met tons of monkeys (monos). Now Lucy has always loved monkeys the zoo, on TV, or in books, but we weren’t sure how she was going to react to monkeys in the wild. Turns out she had a mixed response.

The good: We saw a cute little squirrel monkey outside our room the first day to whet her appetite. Then over the next few days we encountered many traveling packs of white-faced monkeys both on the beach and up on the hill where we were staying. They were friendly and active and Lucy loved them. We sat out on our porch for almost half an hour watching 20 monkeys move through the trees below us, and the next day we got face-to-face with some on the beach (pictured above).

The bad: The third type of monkey we saw was the howler monkey. These guys are HUGE, as big as a big dog, and move slowly but loudly through the trees. They are intimidating and unleash some very loud roars that scared Lucy.

The ugly: On our last morning at the beach, the howler monkeys set up shop outside our room around 4 AM and started going to work. We found out later the the howlers are the loudest of the land animals and their howl can carry up to 3 miles. We of course were woken up terrified, and Lucy work up in abject fear that her short life was drawing to a quick end. She got in bed with us and somehow managed to sleep with us the rest of the morning.

Our monkey experience was fun, but Lucy will no longer think of cute little Curious George when someone mentions mono in her presence.

Vacation to Punta Uva

Above: Lucy and Sean on the small stretch of beach between the Caribbean ocean and the jungle.

This weekend we went on a trip with other missionaries at our language school to a beach on the Caribbean coast, Punta Uva. Punta Uva is a small beach town on the northern coast of Costa Rica, near the Panama border (to the west). The school set up the trip and the bus travel (6 hours each way) and we had a great time on a much needed break.

Lucy especially loved the water. It took her a little while to get used to the ocean, but soon she was swimming and squealing with joy. She also enjoyed the pool and the bathtub, only her second “real” bath since we’ve moved here.

Although the beach was small, and the water was filled with coral, we had a great swimming spot. We also got to do some snorkeling, played on the beach, and enjoy some fun time with friends.

All in all a great trip, and a beautiful place for Lucy to have her first ocean swim.

Spanish Phrase: Sin Agua

Translation: Without Water (seen ag-wa)

Every once in a while, about ever few weeks or so, we loose water in our home. It is not a big deal, it only goes off for a few hours, and usually by the time we go to bed, the water has been turned back on.

We thought this was the case Thursday morning when the water shut off around 9 AM, so we didn’t think anything of it. Unfortunately, is was a big deal, as we still have yet to have water restored, at 6 o’clock Sunday night.

Some guy with a backhoe was working outside Thursday morning when he struck a water line and cut off water for over 400,000 homes in San Jose for over three days.

We’ve been all over looking for water, putting out buckets for rain, and even joining 50 other Tico’s chasing down a water truck, as you can see in the above picture.

Today around 12 a water truck parked on our street (the picture is taken from our front porch) and we all lined up with jugs, bottles, pitchers, trash cans, coke bottles, Tupperware, whatever would hold water. We got about 25 liters and used it to flush our toilet, do some dishes, and give Lucy a bath.

Water is supposed to come on tonight, we’ll keep you posted…

Mountain Vacation

Above: Lucy, Sean, and Lindsey in front of Volcano Poas.

Sorry for the lack of posting early this week, we’ve just returned from a family vacation to the mountains and volcanoes above San Jose. Sean’s parents, Gannie and Mac, flew down Thursday for a quick vacation and some much needed time with grandparents. We rented a car, escaped the San Jose traffic and rain, and made it out of the city and into the hills.

One of the stops on our trip was Volcano Poas, a volcano with a huge crater, aqua blue lake, and constant steam rising from the depths. Despite the constant sulfur smell, we had a great time hiking around the Volcano.

Above: The family huddled together under one of many waterfalls at La Paz.

Another morning, we headed to La Paz, a park full of gardens, animals, and trails along many waterfalls. Lucy loved especially enjoyed the bird and butterfly houses, the monkeys, and the soothing sounds of the waterfalls, which put her right to sleep. The park is filled with all the nature and wildlife Costa Rica has to offer, and we throughly enjoyed hiking around and exploring all morning.

Above: Mac, Gannie, Sean, and Lucy in front of the toucan cage in the bird house at La Paz.

Despite all the beautiful sights and fun walks, the best part of the weekend by far has been time with family. Lucy has truly loved being around her Gannie and Mac, and we cherish the time we can all spend together as family.

Hace Frio!

Translation: It’s cold!

Above: Lu in her warm, short-sleeve sweater.

Well it appears that the rainy season has also brought in a cold front. Who would ever have imagined that we would report back that it is cold here in Costa Rica, but that day has arrived.  Now cold is all relative here, I think the low today was around 15 C (60 F) and breezy.  We always thought it was funny how the local Tico’s would dress their kids in jackets, hats, and gloves whenever the weather dipped below 70 F, and now we are the ones running for our jackets and long-sleeve shirts!  I told Lindsey today that we know we’ve adjusted to the weather when 65 degrees and a slight breeze makes us want to go inside!

Rainy Season

It appears the rainy season is upon us. Beautiful, hot mornings morph into wet, cool afternoons/evenings starting around 1-2 pm. We’ll let these photos do the talking.

The mountains from our back porch.

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Here is the view from our front porch. Keep in mind this is not just one rainy Sunday, but every day!

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Spanish Word – Pájaros

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Above: A couple birds outside our door.

Simple translation: bird. There are lots of birds here in Costa Rica and we have gotten used to seeing them everywhere. One of our first weeks here we heard some loud squawking up in a tree and looked up to find some parakeets like the ones pictured above. We thought it was so cool to see such pretty birds out in the wild that we stopped and watched for 5-10 minutes. Unfortunately, the novelty soon wore off. We originally thought these were parrots, but upon further research, they look to most likely be parakeets, Crimson Fronted Parakeets to be exact. Though we are not entirely sure what they are, what we do know is that they are loud and apparently never sleep! I cannot tell you how many mornings we have been awakened by a pair of these green guys screaming away outside our window. They usually travel in loose flocks, so where there is some noise there is a lot of noise. The other day in the rain these two guys settled on the power lines outside our front door and proceeded to let the world know they had arrived. We still love to see them and try to take pictures (they are lightening fast), but their squawk is something we could live without.

Above: The Yigüirro, or the Clay-colored Robin, the national bird of Costa Rica.

This bird above is essentially the polar opposite of a parrot/parakeet. Compared to the brilliant green and red of the parakeet, this bird looks downright dull. But what is lacks in beauty it makes up in song. There are lots of these guys around school, so we hear their song while are in classes and it is a great relief from the ugly sounds of our struggling Spanish. And after the squawking of the green terrors, we can see why this unassuming yet beautiful bird is the national bird of Costa Rica.