New Foods in Costa Rica

I can't say I was overly impressed with the availability of 'new foods' in Costa Rica; however, part of this may be that I grew up in a Spanish home and was used to many of the foods we ate. There were several new fruits we tried--Maracuya, GUANABANA, PAPAYA, TAMARINDO, and another small fruit with a white flesh and large seed in the middle--Mom, can you help me out? Anyway, here is the Maracuya. Pictures of other fruit can be found here. We have a good video of mom exposing us the fruit and because you can see the fruit better in hers I am showing you hers instead of mine. It tasted sweet like a fruit; however, it had a crunchy seed like a sunflower seed but it wasn't salty. But, because it looked like fish eggs and as slimy like an over ripe mango or cantalope I couldn't keep it in my mouth for long.



I don't remember if Emily tried it.

Zip Lines

One of the 'adult' things we wanted to do in Costa Rica was experience the zip lines--a high adrenaline route to soaking up the rain forest--zipping along on cable hooked from tree to tree. One of Costa Rica's selling points is ecotourism so each zip line operator wants to show you some of Costa Rica's hidden gems and how then help keep the rain forest in tact. The route we took had 11 lines on it, and while pricey at $35 bucks a head, we enjoyed it and wanted to do the 26 line course some time in the future. Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to watch the kids and take the video. Wait a second for the video--the cable is really long.



Elaine said she wanted to go and I told her I would take her next time. :)

Birthday Party

I am having a birthday party on Friday evening on June 15th from 5PM until dusk in shelter 7 at Dorey Park. You are invited. Hope to see you there.

Carlos

Costa Rica

ok, so I said I would get working on my Costa Rica trip and here it is. Reviews, specific details, and talking points will come later.

We left Wednesday May 2 and had to fly out of Dulles. Sarah drove us up and we got the airport around 1pm. We said our goodbyes and went through security. Like a good father(and like my wife told me), I took the girls to the bathroom before we got on the plane. We boarded the plane, began to taxi, Elaine informed me she had to go potty again, and then stopped--for about 3 hours. We missed our connection to Costa Rica so we spent the night in Atlanta.

Thursday May 3 - Left Atlanta in the AM and got to Costa Rica about 1pm. Mom and Dad picked us up and we went to the neighborhood my dad grew up in. We went to see my Great Uncle--the first member of the church on my dad's side of the family. He told us some stories about my dad growing up and growth of the church in Costa Rica. We ate dinner and went to the temple. While we wanted to do a session, it was late and the girls were antsy; however, there was a youth temple trip and we helped do some confirmations. The temple is beatiful and we enjoyed the spirit there.

Friday May 4 - We spent the night in San Miguel, where my grandpa lived years ago and had purchased a home there. We ate breakfast at my dad's cousin house--platanos, fried yucca, gallo pinto, eggs, cheese, bread, and agua dulce. it was delicious. We spent a lot of time in the car and saw lots of the moutain ranges, tried to see a waterfall, and went to a stocked pond--only we were too full to eat.

Saturday May 5 - We spent the night in Esparza, home to my parents, and enjoyed the area. Miriam and I played a game of mini golf. Emily and I went on the zip lines. We went to a small fair like event, but did not stay long. Saprissa, my dad's favorite soccer team, was playing in a tournament and we went to a sports bar to watch the game.

Sunday - Time for Church, and we enjoyed going to the branch. The rustiness in my Spanish really came out; however, everyone was glad to meet us. We laid low and spent the afternoon with grandma.

Monday - Time to get in gear. What was supposed to be a day beginning at 5AM saw us leaving about 9AM to head for the beach--playa cochal. Our travels took us over puente amistad, the largest bridge in Costa Rica. We got there in the afternoon and spent the rest of the daylight time we had on the beach. There were rocks about 15-20 feet off the shore and we snorkeled and saw some amazing ocean life. My wits were tested when schools of fish swam right in front of me--shouldn't there be a glass in between us?

Tuesday - camped out there just off the beach and went snorkeling again. I saw a sting ray in the water and later Emily and I saw the sting ray jump out of the water--again where is the glass? We left about 11AM and headed for Nicoya, our stop for the night. We did a little sightseeing around Nicoya; however, it was raining and we were all tired so we went to sleep early.

Wednesday - After another great breakfast, we went to the biological reserve where we saw lots of beautiful animals. An emu kept following us around. We took the 'carriage ride' pulled by water buffalo and went to see a river (whose name I don't recall). It could have been the nile as there was lots of life in the water. While standing on a floating dock we noticed the river would grow to about 6 feet higher at the peek of the rainy season, which had just begun. We missed our opportunity to take the ferry home and got home in time for a late dinner.

Thursday - We toured around Esparza and took a bus to Puntarenas to get some touristy things to take back with us. We had breakfast in the panaderia or bakery and enjoyed some more drinkable yogurt. We all played Putt-Putt that afternoon and left for San Miguel that evening.

Friday - Early morning as we headed for the airport to catch our 8AM flight back to the states.

Third times a charm

Well, we all do things we wish we hadn't; things that we must bear a difficult consequence for and Friday night at the airport I did one of those things--I left my work laptop at the baggage claim of the Dulles Airport. I had the girls with me and Sarah had come to pick us up. I put my laptop by the carts you can rent to take your things to your car, our luggage came, the girls went crazy, I grabbed the luggage, we got several "they're so cute" comments, and we were out the door. It was not until Sunday evening that I realized my mistake. Oh the cruel reality of my mistake. I was sure I would never get it back; I started thinking of ways to explain to my boss what had happened.

After we had called airport security and they told us they did NOT have a bag matching the description I gave them, I decided it was worth at least investigating for myself. I drove up to Dulles airport at about 7:30PM. I did not have enough gas to get there so I had to fill up and who should notice that my car did not have an inspection sticker (I got rejected before we left for Costa Rica) on it but Henrico's finest, who quickly gave me a ticket and reminded me to 'take care of these things' before I leave the country next time. Yeah, got it.

My drive up to Dulles on Sunday was uneventful and to no ones' surprise I did not find my laptop. I tried calling security again to see if I could come and look at what they had; however, they had gone home for the night. I drove my dejected self home and managed to get in bed a little after 1:30 AM.

I had a personal experience that led me to believe I would see my laptop again, so I called the security desk on Monday morning before I went to work. I approached my description slightly different and the officer must have asked me to hold at least 4 times. After several attempts to find my bag, I almost hear the words "I'm sorry, we don't have a bag that matches that description"; however, my inner voice deceived me--the officer said, "Yes, we have your bag, when can you pick it up?" It was a feeling of pure exhilaration. I almost did not believe what he was saying, perhaps there was a mix up and there was some other bag they found; however, I arranged to pick it up after work--around 9pm. Emily agreed to go with me this time.

My mood was upbeat, but subdued as I made my second attempt. We arrived at the security desk and gave them the claim number given me earlier. "I'm sorry, that package was given to lost and found this morning. They are only open from 9-5, M-F". I almost slammed the glass window that separated us from the guard. Impossible!! They told me this morning they would have it. We even had her check the room just in case, but my bag was no longer there. Another 260 miles in vain.

Yesterday I called lost and found and they informed me I had to make an appointment if I wanted to 'obtain my item'. As luck--or the lack of--would have it I would up feeling poorly today. I usually work from home on Wednesdays and today was no different. Since I really wasn't feeling well, I called the lost and found and tried to see if I could get up there today and they agreed so I took a sick day and drove up there a third time to get the laptop. This time I took the girls with me, which they were really happy about, but I managed to get it. What a hassle; however, alls well that ends well.

Let me tell you I learned my lesson this time and I won't let it happen again.--next time I go somewhere, I'm flying Jet Blue. :)

Ok, now that my life is getting back to some kind of order, I will start working on my Costa Rica report.

!Pura Vida!

Well after a overnight delay in Atlanta, we are finally in Costa Rica!! It has been fun--and bumpy these last two days; however, we are getting to see some cool things. The mountains are beautiful. More is sure to come--!Pura Vida!

PBS Documentary

We watched the PBS documentary entitled "The Mormons" last night. I enjoyed it; for some reason I have this fascination about seeing other people's perception and thoughts on something near and dear to my heart. I agree with the the New York Times that "It’s great to hear people who believe in something and can articulate it without sounding crazy or defensive." Amen. Why can't we just explain our beliefs without feeling like we have to defend them? Every month we have testimony meeting and get to say I know; however, when talking to people not of our faith we sometimes feel the need to be apologetic. I thought Terrel Givens was excellent--I could listen to him all day.

If you missed it, you can catch it here. The second part is on tonight.