fly away with me

Not much of a story for today. the most excited thing that happened today was at the San Jose Airport. In Costa Rica, when you leave the country, you pay an exit tax. It's 26 dollars a person. we waited in line and paid for ours using a credit card. Next to us was an American girl (early 20's) and her boyfriend. they couldn't pay for their tax because she only had her dad's credit card and they wouldn't accept it because the name on the card wasn't the same as her passport. she was in tears, and couldn't get a hold of her dad. She was stuck, and crying, and was pretty sure she was going to miss her plane. We paid her taxes and gave her our address, we'll see if she sends us the money!
Got home at 4 am after traveling what seems like forever- but it was a once in a lifetime trip!

White sand, monkeys, and tourists- oh my!

We got up early today and drove down to Manuel Antonio national park. It only took about 45 minutes from the condo. We past by groves of palm trees. British lady told us that they are African palms used for palm oil- we use it in butter, soap, I guess from the look of how many trees, it's used a ton.
We parked in a lot close to the park and paid for our tickets in (10 us dollars a piece). there were tons on tour guides, but kinda expensive. So many tours, that if one was pointing out an animal, you just stopped with the crowd. We saw sloths, iguanas, and a monkey. We saw bamboo that was the size of Guam. It grows to be about 30 feet tall.
At the end of the hike are the beaches. White sand and very pretty. We swam here for awhile and it was perfect for swimming. chelsea and Corey made sandcastle for judging (chelsea's was arenal volcano and corey's was la fortuna waterfall). Seems to be place to bring kids, more families here that anywhere else we have gone. Also, a ton of American teens on tours, and so I was glad that we could leave middle school teen hangout and go back to our beach.
We drove back to the condo and had lunch at Mike's. So good!
We changed at the condo and saw that our maid had been there. Everyday she would come to the condo, hand wash the dishes, clean up, and do all the laundry. when you walk in and the clothes are all folded and but on your bed, you can't help but think- could I fit her in my carry on?
In the afternoon, the kids tried to Bogey board, but we never got the hang of it.
Packed our bags, and went into Playa Hermosa for the best pizza I've had in a long time. the owner was obviously a surfer, but we ordered a couple of small pizzas, and gobbled them up. Last day- que lastima- tomorrow we travel home!

Zipity Do Dah!

Today we went up into the mountains to do the canopy. The name of the company was adventure park.
First we started with a 55 minute horseback ride. I knew I was in trouble when I got the horse that decided to take the shortcut into the holding pen. I haven't been on a horse in years, good thing these are old, super calm. Not shocking enough Chelsea's horse decided it needed to be in the front the entire time.
After we climbed to the top of the canyon it was time to start the zip line. It was great. I was worried that I wouldn't remember what to do, how to stop, but the instructors were very good at reminding us what to do, and when to "brake". you brake by squeezing and pulling down on your back gloved hand.
We went on 25 zip line, zipping past 11 waterfall, and rappelling twice. I thought that the rappelling was the hardest. At one point we rappelled down to the bottom of a waterfall and stopped to swim in the pool at the bottom. Okay-it was like jumping into a creek full of snow runoff, super cold. but by then it was hot by then and felt nice.
Near the end of the zip line tour, one of the zip lines was about 400 yards- you got going pretty fast, but my favorite was one that started at the top of a waterfall and went directly over top of it.
At the end of the tour we loaded into vans and headed back to the starting point. they fed us lunch. We headed back in the car (again) and drove back to esterillos este. it took about 1 and 15 minutes one way.
We stopped on the way back at a bridge overlooking a freshwater river. When you look over the edge of the bridge, surprise surprise! Huge American Crocs (the British lady told us they were American-). What? lined up in the mud or taking a swim- we counted at least 15. One was big, maybe 10 feet long. Doesn't make you want to talk a long walk along any river that's for sure.
Went to the grocery store for more mango nectar, zippys, and coke light- does it get any better?

Surfing Costa Rica Style

This is Kerry. I guess it is my turn to write the blog today. We woke up really early. It is hard to sleep past about 5:30. It is bright by then and for some reason you wake up refreshed pretty early. Our Condo is a few blocks from the beach. Actually I went running this morning and it took me just over 6 minutes. I ran 4 to 4.5 miles along the beach. Corey ran about 10. The humidity is so high that my shirt was completely drenched. I am not sure why Kim or Chelsea didn't want to hug us. The beaches here are completely empty. I saw one person during my whole run. I think Corey saw 3.

All of us walked to the beach after our cereal breakfast that we bought the night before at the local grocery store Sandra (the lady over the development) said she would arrange for us to get surfing lessons for Chelsea and Corey. There are a lot of houses and lots for sale. Right now would be a good time to buy. We saw a 1800 square foot house about 200 yeards from the beach in a gated community for $200,000. We played in the ocean for an hour or so. The signs say there are dangerous rip tides but the locals tell us we are ok and like most of this trip we are just going for it. We taught the kids how to get out of a rip tide and they didn't go to far out.

Once we got back to the Condo. Sandra said she arranged Phil to teach the kids and she thought it would be about $25 an hour. We were supposed to meet him at the beach at 3:00 Pm. We decided to travel in to Jaco (it is pronounced Hawko), Jaco is a little surf town. It is not the prettiest town we have seen in Costa Rica but it is very lively. There are tons of little shops, surfers etc. We bought some cool wooden pools, Chelsea bought a purse, Corey bought a bracelet (for a girl) and we bought some gifts. Driving in Jaco is a little crazy. We say a motorcylce get hit. On the way we saw a car pulled part way off the highway. The hatchback was open and they were having a picnic.

It was hotter in Jaco than in Esterillos Este (probably because there is more pavement). We stopped and got a bunch of drinks to take back to the condo. We ate lunch at a little place in front of the Condo. It was really good and cheaper than most. I had Mai Mai wrapped in bacon. There was a pinnapple salsa that was really good that they put to eat with the rice. I think Corey had a Mai Mai noodle dish. Chelsea had tuna fish in a typical costa rican style dish. They put black beans, salad, salsa and rice with the main dish. Kim had Arroz con pollo but it had a good creamy mushroom sauce.

At 3:00 we went down to the beach to meet our instructor. Typical of Costa Rica he didn't get there until 3:15. I thought we had the wrong place and was getting ready to go back and check with Sandra when he drove up. There was one other car on the beach with surfers in it but Chelsea went to see if it was Phil and they were having a good time drinking and not really worried about the surf. Phil came with a native Costa Rican surfer. Phil had hair down to the middle of his back and looked like what you can imagine. Kim said she was sure that the money we gave him would be put to good use partying that night. We will upload video but he gave Chelsea and Corey a few pointers, had them practice in the sand and they were off to the ocean.
The waves are pretty big here for non surfers (bigger than I remember them in California).

Usually the goal of an instructor is to get the student at least up once. Chelsea and Corey both got up and were riding waves within a few tries. They both caught lots of waves and Phil said they were natural surfers. I think their wakeboarding probably helped. Corey always says that he doesn't have balance but he didn't have any problem. Phil was helping Chelsea; Corey's trainer didn't speak English and Corey can say Si, No, Izquierda, derecho and about 5 other words but somehow they communicated. Chelsea told Phil that she spoke a little Spanish and Corey did not but for some reason Phil wanted to train the young American girl instead of the teenage boy. Corey said that if he had wanted to train him instead of Chelsea he would then have really rather not have him help him. Corey's trainer had him do all the paddling, while Phil was more than willing to ride on Chelseas board and help her get out to the big waves. He kept hitting on Chelsea and told Chelsea that the next lesson she would be intemediate and that she would have to go topless or wear a bikini. Needless to say, Chelsea is going to stay a begginer for awhile. He did give Chelsea a kiss on the check as they left. He told Chelsea that I looked scary which I was ok with.

We got to keep the boards for 24 hours so Kim and I tried to get up with Corey and Chelsea helping us. Kim only tired it a few times but managed to get up for a short ride (she has better balance than I do). The waves started getting bigger and I could get to my knees and kind of knee surf but I was pretty bad. If we have time, we all want to try it again. It is nice because no one is on the beach so you don't feel self conscious.

We discovered that surfing is hard. It hurts your stomach/chest area where it rubs on the board. Corey and I would wear a shirt next time. We were all pretty tired so we came home, showered and crashed.

day4-Is every costa rican beautiful?

We got up early today so that we could go to la fortuna waterfall before we had to check out of the hotel. break feast was rice and beans, fruit (pineapple, guava), eggs, and other american breakfast item. We hurried over to the start of the waterfall.

Driving is nuts here. One thing that we learned is that you can do anything in a car as long as you have your hazard lights on- you can stop in the middle of the road and take a picture, talk to the next car, look at a monkey in a tree on the side of the road-whatever.

I'm glad that we asked directions to the waterfall, because I am in charge of navigation. In Costa Rica, there are no street signs, no addresses. Seriously, how are you suppose to follow directions that include going over a certain number of bridges ( and every 10 feet there is a one lane bridge). We couldn't find it using our "british lady", but found it with help from the front desk.

We arrived at the waterfall, and we read in the travel book, that it was a steep hike- no kidding! the hike was 1/2 mile straight down via steps, straight down the side of a cliff. I was worried that the hike couldn't compare to rio celeste, but I'm glad that we took the time to go this morning. The two waterfalls are like comparing guava to pineapple- both yummy but different. The waterfall was gigantic. Corey and Chelsea went for a short swim, but they said that the water was pretty cold. I couldn't believe how many older people made down the steps-kudos to them, it was pretty intense.

Spent most of the day in the car. "british lady" told us the way to Esterillos Este, and it took about 4 hours in the Car. the "highway" here is not what we would think of as a highway, let alone the main road north and south. One lane on each side (sometimes two) with the speed limit of 80 kph (48 miles per hour). People passed us a lot- but since they raised the price of a speed ticket from 100 dollars to 600 dollars-(yikes!) we just decided to take our time. We passed the time listening to the radio- I was a little disturbed when Miley Cyrus came on- I always thought that she was trying to take over the world, and now I know.... the song? You guessed it- "Party in the USA"- what???? Are we not in Costa Rica? the station was a mix of latin and american pop. Chelsea kept asking us to stop on all of the way down to stop at every fruit stand ( and there are too many to count), and we were starving.

The condo is the best- it's two stories, two bedrooms, kitchen, and the best- laundry. The beach is about 2 minutes away. We drove over to a hotel (the pelican) for lunch right on the beach. Chelsea, Corey and I had arroz con pollo (rice with chicken) and Kerry had a a fish burger with fresh tuna. It hit the spot.

The beach is empty. I mean wayyyy empty- we went for a walk and as far as you can see, and counted maybe 6 people. I am soo glad that we are staying down away from Jaco beach. We drove down to get some groceries and drove thru town. Nuts! It looks like this is the place for kids on spring break, and way too touristy. We didn't even stop, but drove thru and went to the supermarket. Going to the supermarket makes you appreciate how many choices we have at a store in the states. Not a ton of choices, like veggies. Potatoes, onions,tomato, lettuce (one kind of each). Kerry bought a kind of cookie that is like a little debbies wafer bar (called Yipy) in la fortuna, and we bought another box today. We also bought pineapple, mangos, cereal stuff for break feast, juice, ice.

I am also thrilled that the have coke light here. It must be the same formula as we had in France- it's tons better that the american kind. I have it every time we go anywhere and we bought a couple of bottles today. A small carton of ice cream cost 3,000 colones ( about 5 dollars) A lttle expensive, but was way tasty for a treat.

After we got back to the condo, we watched the U17 girls USA against Costa Rica. Our tour guide yesterday even talked about what a big deal the game was. We wanted tickets, but it's been sold out for weeks. If the match was in the U.S., we would have maybe 50 people in the stands, here it's on national television. Not to brag, but as I write this blog, we are winning 10-0, go USA. oh and to answer the question is every costa rican beautiful? yes- it seems every young person here is downright gorgeous!

Day three Double line : Double look

Chelsea and Corey again! We were also put in charge of day three J so here goes nothing. We woke up at our amazing hotel and ate breakfast. After that we started our interesting ride to Rio Celeste. We started our drive just like every other drive psycho people stopping randomly and the occasional cow walking by… but nothing could have prepared us for what was to come.(Corey) We started listening to our favorite British lady(or gps) to tell us to turn at this unpaved road. We actually missed it the first time. We turned on this road that wasn’t too bad at first but then our gps told us that we had to take it for 19km. Then all of a sudden it turned from a gravel road to a dirt road with massive divets and rocks. We were going so slow because it was so bumpy. Chelsea and I were getting tossed around in the back. We kept asking mom how much further we have. It seemed like a cannery assignment it would seem like we went 12km when we had only gone 1km. When we finally got to the reserve where the trail starts we could hardly believe that we actually made it.

We started our three hour long hike with our tour guide man from Belize. He had studied college in Tulsa. He knew so much about the plants and wild life in the forest. He taught us about plants that can do everything from wrap you fractured leg to help with your tumor. The best animal we learned about was the animal called the Tampere ( don’t quote me on the spelling for that one). It is a mix between a Rhino and a horse that live in the rain forest. We saw tracks from one so don’t think I’m crazy! We walked to a lago and waterfall that were bright blue! This is because of the chemicals that come from the magma from the volcano right above. We were able to sit in a part of the river. Not only is it bright blue but It is also warm. It bubbles like a Jacuzzi ! We also were able to walk down to the bottom of the waterfall and take some pictures. When we got back to our car our tour guide grabbed us (we were giving him a ride back to his village) to show us that there was a toucan in the tree.

(Corey)Our tour guide then hopped in the car with us and showed us a way that was less bumpy. He also showed us this cool magnetic field. Dad put the car in neutral and took his foot off the brake. The car started going up the hill at 20km an hour. The car was moving by itself. We then tried it going backwards. We dropped off our guide and started heading back for our hotel. Our guide told us to go through a town named Tenroi. We couldn’t find it so we ending up using our handy british lady, but it took what seemed like forever. Ok it was like an hour more than our guide told us, but we were all tired from the hike already.

This where we figured out a good saying for costa rica driving. It is called double line double look. If there are two solid lines then you look twice before you would pass the person in front of you. If it is a dotted line then you don’t even look you just pass. People also just randomly pull off the road and the only warning is they put their hazards lights on. It is crazy though because they are halfway out in the road. People always drive way fast(even though speeding ticket are around 600 dollars) passing all the time. Even dad starting doing the same thing.

This is Chelsea again! After we dropped off our tour guide we drove back to la fortuna which took like three hours because our tour guide told us some random road that we couldn't figure out. when we got back it was 6 and we hadn't ate all day... so we went to this restaurant that was called las brastillas (or something like that) . It was YUMMY! my mom corey and I ate some dulce de leche ( which is rice and milk ) . We came back to the hotel and basically crashed. That is day three for you!

Day two : mi camisa es muy... sweaty?

Hola everyone! this is corey and chelsea updating "the blog to end all blogs". We were put in charge of day two of this awesome adventure.
Well the day started out like everyother day... well sorta? Corey went running in the gym at the hotel except his shirt was drenched in sweat because it was so humid. Then was the real fun part. We left the hotel and headed to la fortuna also know as the active volcano that could go off at any minute! We headed out of san jose and with our little gps ( we call her the british lady) we started a CRAZY drive.
The people were all over the place with their cars. We were driving on the main highway which turned out to be a one lane road. We started to wind through these random villages. There was always (skinny)cows and kids walking to school. By the way, when kids go to school they walk like right on the white line. Also all around it is lush, green scenery. We imagined that it is what California looked like before people moved there. Then the best thing happened. There was men working on the road, so we had to slow down. And then dad accidently ran straight through where they were working. They were going crazy.
This is chelsea again, you can probably tell by the way we write ( Im the psycho one that doesn't pay attention to grammar on a blog :) ). After that little adventure I think something inside dad snapped! He turned into a Costa Rican driver!!!
We checked into our hotel and decided to go onto our new adventure the hanging bridges. To start out our story you need some background. The bawled man in our group, hates bridges. Not only hates bridges but REALLY hates it when a woman ( aka his wife) bounces up and down on them.
The hanging bridges tour is a place where you can hike through the forest of Costa Rica and see all of the natural habit and views ( of the volcano and other things). There were 6 hanging bridges . Some were hundreds of feet off the ground. (Corey) We saw some sweet lizards and this huge trantula. We also saw this blue bird that didn't ever move. I questioned whether or not it was alive or not. Then we saw this squirrel eating a nut. Then a snake almost ate Chelsea. Ok it just popped out of nowhere and scared her out of her mind. It was hilarous.
Chelsea again :) after we did the hanging bridges tour we came back into the town of la fortuna and eat dinner. It was really good local food. After that we decided to wander around the shops and see what the town had.
One of the funny things about this whole experience is that people mistake us all of the time for being able to speak spanish. All we can say is Hola and Buenas in really funny american accents so after we say anything people just know that we dont know anything. Maybe after Lake Powell me and corey should come back and see if we can trick more people.
After corey needed to go on another run so we went together around the hotel on a path. It was pretty funny because there is one part where you are suppose to look for monkeys. Corey jumped and screamed when a leaf fell from a tree and landed on him. I can't really mock him though because I was sweating hardcore by the time we got back.