Our last night in Jaco, CR

Hello Everyone,
We have just been relaxing and getting rest here in Jaco, Costa Rico. Today we went to a local laundry mat and did some laundry and walked around town a bit and saw what a saturday is like here. But tomorrow we leave Jaco. We will catch a bus at around 9:00am tomorrow morning. The bus ride will take about three hours and we will be taken to Monteverde, CR where we will see what is referred to as the Santa Elana Cloud forest and check out the town of La Fortuna. We will spend the night there and then take a three hour boat ride to Arenal where we will see the volcano and spend some time in the Tabacon Hotsprings. We will be two days in that area and will then catch a ride to San Jose on Thursday to fly back to the states. We will try to write and post pictures over the next few days but are not sure that we will have internet access where we are going. If not we will update as soon as we can...and of course we love and miss you all!!!!!

Hermosa Beach

Today we woke up and decided to catch a taxi for the seven mile ride to Hermosa Beach. Hermosa Beach is one of the most famous beaches for surfing in Costa Rica. It is known for the most consistent waves. We did not surf there. Hermosa is not an area to be surfed by beginners. The waves are large and there are many rip tides. The town of Hermosa is very small and yet undevloped. A couple of small restaurants and hotels/hostels, but mostly there is black beach and waves as far as you can see in either direction. We took a long walk on the beach and then decided to head back towards Jaco. We were going to check out a bigger store in Jaco and look for materials for me (Sam) to start making some necklaces and various gifts from shells and rocks we had found on the beach in Montezuma. On our walk back we saw a group of construction guys taking a break and I saw a cement mixer next to the small slab they had just poured. So dad i had to take a picture for you. it made me think of all the work we have done together...and how much i know you would have loved to have had a cement mixer in some of the countries you have built churches in = ) Hope you like the picture. We continued walking back on the road and were waiting to flag down a cab when a man with a pick-up truck stopped and asked if we were going to Jaco. We said yes, and he told two of us to get in the bed of the truck and one up front. We are told that it is to assertive if women sit up front, so sandy and i got in the back of the the truck with his load of rough cut planks of wood. the rails on the side of his truck (which we ended up having to hold onto very tight) were hand made and beautiful. we took off down the road, up the mountain, around the curves...at speeds that made russel a little nervous even while sitting inside the cab. = ) it was quite an adrenaline producing experience and one we will never forget. it was the very first time sandy has ever hitch-hiked. we made it to a gas station about a mile from where we stay and we got out. we tried to give him a few dollars for the ride, but he refused to take it. just a really nice guy!!! so we continued our journey towards jaco. we caught a cab for two dollars to the bigger store we wanted to check out. once there we discovered that it was a store that was (not so cleverly disguised) owned by WALMART...yes folks Walmart is taking over the world!!!! We did not find anything for me to make gifts with, but we did grab a few groceries and left. We decided to walk the mile back to where we stay. On the way back we passed a hotel that had been shut down, but on a wall enclosing an area of the hotel there were pieces of glass sticking out of the top so no one could climb over. as we walked back we could see the rain clouds coming over the mountains...even beauty is to be found in the rain. here are som pictures of the day. the picture of sandy and i on hermosa beach is funny. if you look at it closely it looks like we have been digitally placed in the picture...but it is just that beautiful. hope all is well back home. Love and miss you all!!!!
xoxoxxo

rough water and hot sun

Hello everyone. Well we spent today, day eight in jaco. we slept in a bit, sandy went for a run, and then russel and i went in search of surf board rentals. after renting the boards we all three headed out to the ocean. we had decided to try out the short boards today. we are told they are harder to ride, and it turned out the water would be rough and difficult to manage as well. the tide pulled us so bad to the right that we would take five minutes to walk out to catch a wave and then would be lucky to catch one. russel and i both tried very hard...russel caught a few, and i mostly got rolled over and over wave after wave = ) but we still had lots of fun. it was a cloudy day so none of us realized how much sun we were getting. we all got a bit red, but unfortunately sandy got the worst of it. she had sat on the beach and watched us, to make sure we did not drown most likely. and tonight she has been taking some pain medication and applying aloe every hour of so. we had an excellent diiner of pan fried tilapia and stewed potato's, onions, and carrots. today was the first day with no rain. tomorrow we will be surfing in the morning and then we are not sure of our plans for the rest of the day...the greatest part is...it doesn't matter = ) we can do whatever we want!!!! sandy saw a flyer for a 10k race being put on by nike here in jaco on the 31st of august. this is something we are considering doing while we are here. however the race does not start until three and it will be very hot. so we will see. well today was not too terribly exciting to write about, but drank a lot of coffee so decided to blog a little before bed. hope this finds all our friends and family back home healthy and happy. we all send our love and miss you!!!!

Days 5-7 - Montezuma

on friday morning we set out to find our way to Manuel Antonio for the day, but aftern talking to a travel agent in Jaco, we were convinced to go spend the day and one night in Montezuma. We ended up spending three days. we only had one change of clothes and limited cash. There is no ATM in Montezuma. we were recommended a hostel down by the waterfall we would explore "hotel lucy". it was within just a few feet of the ocean. you woke up in the morning and fell asleep at night to the sound of the ocean..the water crashing against the rocks. after checking in we headed back to the waterfalls. there was somewhat of a trail, but the fun part was when you had to make your own. the first waterfall we found was small and beautiful. the second was tall, powerful, and breathtaking. there was even another fall to the right of it that was less powerful. we were also told that had we kept climbing up we would have found three more falls. we swam in the pool of water beneath the fall, and jumped from the rocks beside the fall, and even went almost behind the falls and jumped off. That night we went out to the only bar that stayed open at night...chicos. We played pool with a nice TN boy that was also staying at our hostel. we watched some locals do some salsa dancing and then headed back to our hostel. we loved it there in montezuma that we decided to stay another night. the next day we got up and ate breakfast. we saw that a local had caught a stingray...we went down to see it and he was gutting it...a little disturbing but interesting. we relaxed most of the day and later took a walk down the beach towards a hotel/resort that you can only reach by the beach. it was so sad.... massive amounts of trash had been washed up onto the shore. we are not sure where it came from, but we had passed most of it just floating in the ocean on the hour long boat ride from Jaco to Montezuma. Further down the beach though we found pools of water among the rocks that were like hot tubs, and thousands of tiny hermit crabs. we ate dinner and relaxed the rest of the night. on our third day in montezuma we took a local bus that dropped us off in the middle of a small town called cabuya. there we got lost a little walking around, but finally found "rain song sanctuary" this was a privately owned animal sanctuary. there we got to see beautiful views of the country side, we were able to play with ant-eaters, baby deer, porcupines, kinkachoo's, monkey's, and so much more. it was amazing, and something we could have never done in the states. after we had finished we realized that the next bus would not be by for at least two hours. so we decided to start walking back the seven miles back to montezuma, and catch the bus as it came by later. on our walk back we found a small river that emptied into the ocean. you could rock hop, or just sit in the clear cool water. there we also began to hear howler monkey's and later were able to see about 15 fully grown and some baby howler monkey's watching us, just as much as we were watching them = ) we then resumed our hike and caught the bus back to montezuma. once back in town we had to find a new place to stay that would accept credit card. we met a wonderful couple that owned a house right in town, right by the ocean. she had come from australia and married a costarican man and together they had built this house. it was beautiful! it could have comfortably housed four people, there was a ladder that led to a small balconly upstairs that overlooked the ocean. we ate dinner at the "pizza connection" and loved it! we relaxed the rest of the evening and the next day caught our boat back to jaco. we were all sad to leave. when any of us return to costa rica we all agree that montezuma would be the place to go and stay. it is so beautiful, and has a sustainability focus and all organizations seem to work to support the local economy. we absolutely loved it!!!! we got back here to jaco and all showered and put on clean clothes = ) we took a trip into town and dropped off our laundry. for 18 dollars all of our laundry was washed, dried, and folded! we went to the market for groceries, made a delicious dinner, and are just sitting around enjoying costa rican coffee and costa rican life. we love and miss you all!!! will write again soon.

3 days in Montezuma

More pics!!!

Day 3 and 4

Hey everyone,
We went to Jaco Surf School yesterday and they guarantee that you get your money back if you can't stand up on the board by the end of the lesson.....so we all were able to actually stand up on the board and ride waves. We have been surfing for the last two days and the sun got us today...it can really wear you out!!!The sun goes down around six o'clock so we generally are not out too late. Plus we have not got used to the time difference yet so we have still been going to bed early. Surfing was amazing and we all did pretty well!!!! Not sure what is on our agenda next but we will try to keep you posted!!!Love you and miss you!!!-Sam, Sandy and Russell

Made it to Costa Rica!!!! Day 1 and 2

Hello Everyone,
We have made it to Costa Rica!!!! We had to make a stop in Nicaragua because the rain was causing poor visibility! But they quickly had us back in the air and we landed in San Jose, Costa Rica around 8:00pm. After we made it through customs and immigration we found Nabor waiting outside to take us on the two hour trip to Jaco, Costa Rica. Nabor was a sweet heart. He told us places to visit, about the culture, things to do, and not to do...Driving/riding in Costa Rica is very different then in the states. There are written rules for the road, but everyone just drives how they wish. Passing on curves on two lane mountain roads, any speed necessary, but no one seems to get upset...they just move out of the way and everyone keeps going. A little scary at first, but we made it to Jaco safely. In Jaco, we were met by Bob who showed us where we would be staying. It is an adorable little place with a small kitchen , one bedroom, bathroom, and a futon for Russel to sleep on. However the futon in that unit was broke, and a few other minor problems, so today we moved to another unit that has wireless connection so we can start this blog. It is beautiful here! We woke up to mountains, a beautiful sky, the ocean, and a new kind of living. Jaco is fairly westernized...even down to a subway and kentucky fried chicken = ) today we walked the town, went to the market to buy groceries, walked the ocean, and signed up for our surf lesson tomorrow. Just like many of the natives told us, it was beautiful all day....no hotter than eighty degrees, and it did not start raining until late afternoon. The sun rises about five thirty and goes down around six. All of the electricity in Jaco went out for about forty five minutes, but it came back on and we were able to fix an amazing dinner and just enjoy each other, the sound of the rain, and costa rican coffee. Will try to update the blog daily...but we all know it may not be that often = ) We love and miss you all!
-Sandy, Russell, Sam