Spring Break 2010! Costa Rica baby!

Costa Rica has come and gone in a blur, and now I get to share the highlights with y'all. Now we get to travel back in time to...last weekend!

I was very happy to be done with school on Friday afternoon. Mike's crazy "spring break 2010...wooooo!" scream went echoing through my mind many times the week before break. However, I still had a lot to do before break could finally begin. I spent the entire afternoon and evening grading projects and tests for history class. I still can't believe how long that took me! But, I finished them all late Friday night and then packed my suitcase for Costa Rica.

Mike, Gina, Kaitlynn, Emily, Rebecca and I set out early Saturday morning for the Tica Bus station. This bus ride was supposed to take about 10 hours. However, because it was the first day of Semana Santa (Holy Week) everyone was traveling on that day. We ended up spending about 2.5-3 hours waiting in lines and getting on and off buses at the boarder. We had a long and HOT wait in line that day and it didn't help that the air on the bus was pretty much non-existent. When we finally pulled into San Jose that night, we were so ready for our hotel and the air conditioning.

We did come to notice some interesting things on our long bus ride to San Jose. I knew Costa Rica was beautiful, but i wasn't really expecting to see how different is is than Nicaragua. I was surprised to find out that there are a lot of differences between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Even within the first hour, I could tell that the Costa Rica is a richer country. There were beautiful little farms along the road with developed land, fences, and water ways. The homes looked decent and the stores and vehicles looked like they were in better shape too. We also noticed that it was cleaner in Costa Rica. There were areas, of course, that still had garbage, but in general there was less liter. When we got further into the city we saw things such as overpasses, high rises, and Denny's that we had not seen in months. The whole structure of the country was on a stronger foundation, and this was evident everywhere. Us adults talked about how we felt like we were in the U.S. I guess you could say that we were in Culture shock. After coming from a country like Nicaragua with a capital city like Managua, we were very reflective of what Nicaragua is missing out on. Those first couple of days in Costa Rica really made us think about these two countries right next door to each other. We thought to ourselves, "why can't Nicaragua be more like Costa Rica and have a better standard of living for it's people?" "why do Nicaraguans have to suffer from bad governmental leadership and structure?" Mike even mentioned that he thought that many of the Ticas (Costa Ricans) looked happier than some Nicaraguans. And why wouldn't they if they have more of their needs met?

I also felt some culture shock when we checked into our hotel. Everything was so beautiful at the hotel. We had hot water in our showers, a T.V. with multiple channels, and big comfy beds. I truly felt out of place at a hotel. Even though we live in a beautiful complex in Nicaraguan, being at the hotel just felt different. After living in central America for a few months, I was finally being a real tourist. It was harder for me to transition than I thought it would be. I didn't feel like I belonged at the hotel or that I deserved all of its luxuries. I thought back to the Nicaraguan people who spend their whole lives in one area of the country, never having the freedom or money to even explore the beauty of their own country. These thoughts eventually lead me to a place of deep thankfulness for the blessings and opportunities I have been able to experience in my life.

Back to the vacation....

We spent the first night at the hotel and then went downstairs to a beautiful and delicious buffet breakfast the next morning. I got to try Costa Rican gillo pinto, which I really enjoyed. We spent the better part of our day at a huge mall in San Jose. We did some shopping and bought some food for our trip to Volcano Arenal the next day. That night we ordered pizza and watched a movie on T.V.

Monday morning we waited an hour for our shuttle to come and ended up calling another shuttle guy to take us to our next destination. We spent the next four days of our trip at Los Lagos resort near the town of La Fortuna and at the foot of the lovely Volcano Arenal. This is the most active volcano in Costa Rica. Our drive took us through the winding mountains north of San Jose. We saw beautiful farms, rivers, and rain forest along the way. The weather was also cooler, which was a nice change from hot Managua!

Our hotel, Los Lagos was a beautiful garden resort set on a hill side. There were flowers and trees everywhere. The best part of the hotel was the hot springs. There were several different pools of different temperatures, as well as two cold pools and 3 water slides in total. It was so much fun to hang around the resort. Some of the highlights of the resort were: the crocodile farm, frog garden, butterfly garden, fish ponds, and the suspension bridge. Because the rooms were spread out all over the property we would either take a 5 minute walk up/down the hill or call a shuttle when we wanted to go somewhere. We had a lovely view of the volcano right outside our front door.

The second day we arrived, we all took a ride into town to buy some food for the week. We discovered that the hotel restaurant was very expensive, so buying food was a better choice for us. After our trip in town, we came back to the hotel and hung out at the pools for the next couple of hours.

The next day, Rebecca and I decided to do a day on our own. Unfortunately, this was the one day when it rained all day. I guess that is what you get when you go to the rain forest right? In the morning, we went horse back riding. My horses' name was Tito, and he was always in competition with Rebecca's horse for the front. This ride took us on a neat trail next to a river and through some pastureland and forest. When we got to the end of the trail, we went for a short hike to some gorgeous waterfalls and I swam in the chilly river water. The surrounding jungle was amazing! I loved seeing all the different plants. On our way back to the ranch, we stopped by a Indian settlement where there were some people who told us about the native history of the area.They were wearing grass clothes and had grass huts set up. Rebecca bought a cool mask from their lovely collection of hand-made items. When we were almost back at the stables, Rebecca's horse started running and a bunch of our stuff started flying out of the bag and into the mud. Our nice tour guide picked the stuff up for us. After this, we took a quick look at the butterfly and frog gardens, and then caught a shuttle into town.

In town, we had lunch at a nice little restaurant and then looked around at some shops. We took advantage of our time and a local laundry shop and had some of our wet clothes dried. It felt so nice to put on a warm sweater!

Our second tour of the day was a small hike through a nature reserve on the other side of the volcano. Just in time, it started to rain when we left for our tour, so we were glad to have some dry clothes. A guide took us on some neat paths in the rain forest. The rain forest was amazing! I couldn't stop looking all around me. Although our guide mentioned snakes and spiders, we didn't get to see any. :) We did, however, get to see some howler monkeys way up in the tree. And, I got to swing on a vine, like Tarzan!!!! Only, I didn't go far, but it was a dream come true. I saw so many huge beautiful trees that could use a good tree fort. After our hike, we drove further down the road in hopes of seeing the lava flow on the other side of the mountain, but it was completely clouded over, so I guess we have to trust the post cards on that one.

The next day we spent back at the hotel. We looked at the frogs, butterflies,turtles, lizards, and crocodiles that they have at the resort. It was fun to walk through the beautiful gardens and to see all of these beautiful creatures. For the rest of the day, we hung out at the pool, reading our books, and going in and out of all of the beautiful pools. That night, we had our typical evening of sandwiches and movies in our room.

In the morning, we took a shuttle back to our hotel in San Jose. Since we still had some of the day left, we had lunch at Subway (can you believe it?) and took a walk to a park near by. Then, we went back to the hotel and enjoyed our last night together.

Saturday morning, we took the Tica Bus back to Nicaraguan. The ride back was thankfully, less hectic than the ride down.

It is nice to be back home, but it is always hard to get back to work after Vacation. I have already been doing lots of planning today as I prepare to go back to school on Tuesday.

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter!