Pura Vida!

Pure Life. Definitely our trip to Costa Rica fits. We had a great time (well, we won't talk about Friday's migraine and subsequent throwing up . . .TWICE . . . in the car with Andy's boss, his wife, and the business rep we were with. Or the horrible, horrible, it still hurts a week later, sunburn I got last Monday).

After things finally got rolling, we went out on a sport catamaran and dolphin watched. There were tons of dolphins out. They'd swim right up next to our boat and stay with us. We learned there are birds that fly right around them . . .they work together to catch and eat fish. The birds, unless the accent was WAAAYYYYYYY off were "brown booby birds". tehehe Haven't verified that. We also snorkeled and watched the sunset while on the water. We were suprised at how quickly it sets. Not the slow setting of the Texas sun for sure! And while we were there, one of the other passengers (Edgar) proposed to his girlfriend. We were glad to be there to take pictures for them (see below). And we had an enjoyable tour guide who taught us things like Pura Vida and that Costa Ricas call each other Tic0 (male) or Tica (female).

We stayed at a Marriott resort. . .it was gorgeous! Think I linked it in an earlier post. The rooms were great, the people were great . . .we had a great time!

Sunday we went horseback riding. . .rode through the rainforest like areas, up on high hills, on the beach. Saw avocado trees (did you know there are green avocadoes and purpleish/red ones?), guava trees (Can't tell you how many times we pronounced things with the wrong sound at the beginning. They actually pronounce this Huava), and banana trees. Andy loved the riding on the beach because they let us run the horses. I'd forgotten how fast they go! Think I might've broken a finger in the process. . . tehehe, can you say accident prone? We also went on an aerial tram in the transitional rain forest on our way from Jaco to San Jose. Not so much going on at the transitional rain forest. . . I think we saw 3 butterflies, a toucan (I didn't see it waaayyyy up high in the tree, but another gal from our group did), 1 iguana, and snakes in cages. And a lot of trees. Panama Hat trees. . . .banana trees. . . I know a lot about the trees that are found in Costa Rica!



Monday . . .Andy had meetings, so I read some books. Sat outside with the boss's wife at the pool for about 1.5 hours. Note to self (and others). . . reapply sunscreen every 30 minutes when sitting out at the pool in San Jose! I have a horrible sunburn . . .so bad that a few days ago, I started turning purple (No fear, I checked with my sister the PA and she says as long as a leg doesn't fall off, I'm okay! {snort})

Tuesday we went to a waterfall and butterfly garden place. It was gorgeous. . as much as it hurt to walk, and how many stairs we had to climb! We also went to a coffee bean plantation. And a souvenir place where I'm pretty sure that our tour guide was getting kick backs from what we bought (not sure that isn't true of the coffee place too. Someone asked what his favorite coffee was . .. surprise, surprise it was a regional coffee that was produced at the plantation we went to! We didn't realize this until we tried to get 3 Generations coffee somewhere else!).

In between, we ate peruvian food, cuban food, a lot of fruit, and well . .. I ate a cheeseburger. I just needed a taste of home.

And Wednesday . .. we flew home .. .first class. Ahhhhhh . . .

It was amazing to me how Americanized it was. The mall . . . almost all of the stores were places you could find here in the states. The fast food places at the airport . . . burger king, subway, and about 10 other American fast food joints.

We had a running joke about the conversion rate. Their money is in Calones. It takes about 500 of them to equal $1. Can you imagine what our hotel bill looked like??? ROFL