Rafting Rio Pacuare

What an adventure!



We went with Stacie, our school friend, and headed out for a day trip to the Pacuare river. It was a 2 hour bus ride to the river and breakfast was included. We were famished and could not wait for the gallo pinto and fruit, which is our staple food group here.

We rode with 3 people from Denmark and 2 local Tica women. We were paired with the 2 Ticas in the rafting. One of the girls from Denmark had dreds and Stacie took the opportunity to ask how long she had had them, how to make them, and necessary requirements of maintaining them. Quite interesting really. We exchanged information with the 2 Tica gals to meet up for dancing and speaking Spanish!

Now to the river. We thought we had accurately applied sunscreen to our bodies, but efficiently missed our legs as both of our legs are red from knee cap to mid thigh.. quite funny actually! We our also quite sore as the river rafting was a four hour ride. We stopped for lunch on the shore half way through and gorged ourselves on peanuts, turkey and ham, bread, tortillas, vegetables, fruit, and iced tea.



We passed an old train track where Ticos were jumping off into the river. It was quite impressive and daring as the train track must have been around 30 to 40 feet in the air! Our guide was 18 years old, the baby of our raft considering the average age of the passengers was actually 22 or 23. He told us he had been doing it for a year.



Another one of the guides enjoyed flirting with Stacie and was a enjoyable fellow to be around. We got his contact information as well and may connect with him around San Jose sometime as he lives near us in Sabanilla.

Partido de Futbol

On Wednesday 3/24 Jordan and I played soccer with some people from school and some of the teachers (Ticos). It was a lot of fun and a great work-out.

Jordan was super amazing goalie (portero) and pretty much nobody could score on him. He also did awesome on the field! We were on different teams for most of the games. There were probably 5 girls playing and the rest guys. I scored 4 goals, and one was with my left foot, into the opposite upper corner of the goal, on a Tico!!! I was pretty happy about that. We both played great and it was a great work-out.

However, its been at least 6 months since I have played soccer (I play my alumni game ever year) so my body is really feeling it. I am so incredibly sore!!! haha Its pretty funny though.

Hopefully we can get another game in before we leave the school because it was a lot of fun. Jordan and I have also been trying to run a lot in the mornings before school. There is a park near our house that is part of the big university (University of Costa Rica) and there is a nice long track there that we like to run at. Anyway, just thought I would let everyone know that we got to play soccer.

We are also planning on going to watch one of the soccer games at the big stadium here in San Jose. We watched one game on tv and it was a lot of fun. So I have been looking at the schedule, and we are giong to try and go to one. It would be so crazy to actually be there in person when the craziness of the soccer games happens!

Ok that is the end of my first post. :) Hope you all enjoy it, know that we miss you all so much!!!

Spanish classes

Spanish is getting alot easier, or at least we are learning more. learning more and more everyday. This is the first week, fifth week overall, we are doing 3 hours a day for 4 days a week. This allows us to study in the afternoons and practice speaking and listening to each other. Great for the marriage and learning the language.

This whole experience really has been a dream come true. The environment of learning abroad and acquiring a new language has illustrated the limited perspective we have taken in life at times. Opening my mind and eyes to other options has been refreshing for the soul.

Have a blessed day everyone

Irazu Continued

Here is the beautiful Basilica de Los Angeles.




The Basilica de Los Angeles, as common in catholic history, is glorified by the people because of the sacredness of the Virgin Mary and a sign from God. Legend has it a rock that appeared to be the virgin holding a baby was found in 1700s and has been believed to do miracles. The river and rock that it was found by is protected underneath the church, and every year on August 2 the whole country tries to visit this church to give glory to God and receive a healing or blessing. There were a room filled with silver items (and displays of silver objects near the rock) because the church required the people to give a piece of silver if God answered the prayer or gave a miracle. Interesting to say the least. Even the Catholic Church hasn't figured out a healthcare plan.




We met some friends on our trip! Paul from South Hampton in England and Juan from Puerto Rico! Both offered to let us stay with them anytime we visit! Obviously we will have to take them on their offers!




We visited the Lankaster Jardin. It was a garden of beautiful plants and specifically research and protection of orchids. In the raining season it has alot of blooming flowers, but during this time of year it was barren of color.




Unrelated: the genuine orange juice has returned!

Irazu Volcano

Krystle and Stacie




The volcano was beatiful! There were 3 large crators we could see and another crator/opening that was letting off sulfuric smoke! It was quite beautiful! As we walked across one of the crators I just imagined what would happen if the volcano erupted! Despite the low odds of survival I thought it might be pretty cool! Pura Vida!!



We saw a very cute animal, which I am still unsure of what it is called. I didn't look it up, so anyone feel free to offer suggestions to what it is. A ground squirrel or a gopher? It might remain a mystery for all time!



On the way down the Irazu mountain, there is an abandoned hospital that had originally been used for tuberculosis patients. It was on the mountain itself, and they decided to move it after an eruption and the potential risk!



We saw the oldest church in Costa Rica. In a small city near Cartago at the base of a mountain.




This is a picture of the valley the church is in.

Orange Juice

Since day 1 at our homestay, we have gotten freshly squeezed orange juice with our breakfast. And since we get fruit and 2 slices of bread every morning, it is the highlight of our breakfast.

I've been thinking that I would never want to go back. I want fresh orange juice for ever! Then yesterday and today, we got some manufactured orange juice and honestly, it does not taste good; not in the slightest. My brother would compare this to his addiction to mayo. If you try to give him Miracle Whip, he'll let everybody know it's not the real stuff.

Missing: Freshly squeezed Orange juice; if found, return to Jordan!

Request

I have a request.

Praise the name of Jesus for me! He's legit!

Please ask Jesus for our house in Mesa to be rented.

As well as that Krystle and I would have a greater understanding of our roles in this world as servants and living with an eternal-mindset.

Muchas Gracias! Alabado sea Jesus

Options for Living in Costa Rica

These are options for the near future once we travel to Spain, see the US east coast, and return to AZ.

1. Have a baby. Or invest $50K in a business. We spoke with an american woman living here who had gained her citizenship by having a child here. Once you have a child here, the child become a citizen and gives the parents citizenship as well. Another option that the woman was telling us about was to invest $50K into a business (cannot be real estate). Her husband, an argentinan, were living here and had a restaurant in Tamarindo. They operated a taco shop and seemed very content, busy and relaxed. Quite exciting.

So either we make our first child a Tico or we invest in a business! And seriously, how fun would it be to operate a small restaurant or bed&breakfast!

2. Teach English-native speakers desired greatly. A guy from louisiana had plans to stay down here for a year, he did the language school for a month, and just obtained a job to teach English at a school in San Jose to teach business professionals better English. He has a Teach English as a Foreign Language degree and a undegraduated degree in Anthropology. Krystle received a reference for a school nearby the language school we are attending that perfers native speakers. So this is definitely an option.

3. Enroll at Univ of Costa Rica! $4000-5000 US dollars for a graduate degree in 2 years! So a chapter in the book of our Spanish school provides information in comparing social aspects of the Costa Rica to the rest of the world. Economy, population, education, etc. One of these factor was compare the cost of education to your home country. Which for Costa Rica is amazing cheap, perhaps a bit less prestigious as well. But something Krystle are thinking about is to return someday and practice our spanish in a college by obtaining a degree here. It's cheap; gets us a student visa; allows us to study a new subject(linguistics, anthropology, computer science-these are my ideas; Krystle would probably just do nursing grad) and the spanish language!

Manuel Antonio

This was a beautiful town near Quepos. It had beautiful beaches, a national park full of animals, and we at dinner at a restaurant with an enormous plane into it!

Hotel we stayed at.



The national park had slothes, snakes, weird birds, and MONKEYS! We hiked for about 2 hours before succumbing to the reality that we were not going to get to see any monkeys! So we swam in a beautiful beach in the national park.





It was about 300 meters and surrounded by rocks! Gorgeous! So we packed up and showered, dredding the long trek back to town... and found ourselves surrounded on the path by 20 MONKEYS! they were jumping between trees and running across the path! Our friends Stacie had one run at her and another person in another group had one run at her; a satifactory ending to a long day!



Though it was more humid than our previous beaches/excursions the monkeys made up for it! We also got to eat in a restaurant with a grand view of the ocean and tropical forest! I was also thrilled because the plane had an interesting history! Anyone remember the Iran-Contra Catatrophe! A C-123 cargo plane, the twin to the plane in this restaurant, crashed in Nicaragua and set off a serious of shameful lies and coverup! Check out the restaurant: El Avion!

Krystle's Birthday!

Krystle's birthday was on Tuesday!!! Here are some pictures!!



This is us running across the street to get to the only Mexican Restaurant in town.



Krystle wearing a sombrero and for her birthday, a Pink Hippo from our German friends! Should appear in more pictures of our crazy adventures!!!



Birthday Cake!!!!



randomness!