Last Sunday Blog

I know this is the third blog of the day, but I wanted to write a little on our daily lives, not just the trips.

The rain has really been coming down lately. It feels like fall, although today it was 77 F, apparently. It has started getting foggy in the afternoon/evenings, as well.

Jordan and I have been cooking up a storm! Today I made squash enchiladas and yesterday we made mole. Yum! Thanks to Dad and Pam for bringing us the sauce! We currently have a big batch of pico de gallo in the fridge to go with our fresh chips from the market. I have made special whole wheat, banana pancakes, veggie enchiladas, minestrone soup, chili, breakfast bars, biscuits, etc, etc... Actually, Jordan makes the chili. Its really good! With all the fresh ingredients we get here most things task really good.

The produce is also really cheap. Take a look at what $20 buys you a the market. That's peppers, onions, jalapenos, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, bananas, zucchini, carrots, radishes, cucumber, cilantro, pineapple, lettuce, spinach, celery, apples, corn, avocados and chips. Few!



More good news. I have been running again! I bought new running shoes last month at the Adidas outlet in San Jose that one my students told me about. They are white and pink and make me run fast! Well, not really seeing as there are so many hills up here on the mountain. All my routes include at least 1/3 hills. Its good for my health but my face sure gets more red here than it did running in Washington. I learned that it means my body's cooling mechanism is working correctly by bringing blood to the surface of my skin. Interesting... I am semi-training for a 10K that supposedly happens on December 7 in San Jose. I say semi-training and supposedly becuase I can't find any more information about it than the date so far. I am planning to run it, if there is a race.

We have been bonding with the dogs of the owners of our casita. They are Canela, Milor and Pinto. The neighborhood is gated so when anyone or anything passes along the street all the dogs go the fences and bark. When the dogs are barking up a storm, they sometimes come visit. They will come up to the windows of our dining room area and put their faces up. We will usually let them in to say hi. They stick around for a bit and then go back outside to bark some more. That's Canela in the picture.



We also figured out why our room smelled so much like mold. Last week I was laying in bed and the morning light hit the closet doors differently. I noticed some mold on the edges. I stuck my head in the closet and looked at the insides of the doors. Low and behold, this is what I found. Our landlord graciouslly took them off that day so now our room smells a lot better!


All in all we are doing really well. We like the place we are in right now but we are looking forward to moving closer to town in December. It will help both of our non-existent social lives and give us closer ties to the community.

Just a quick reminder to those who know/love Jordan. His birthday is the 23rd of this month. He is sad to be away from his friends and somewhat depressed about turning 27 (old, I know). So, if you feel so inclined, send him an email to let him know you're thinking about him. If you need his email address, just ask!

Thanks for reading! We miss everyone!

Granada Trip

This post is all about our recent trip to Granada, Nicaragua.

Every 3 months we have to leave the country for at least 72 hours in order to renew our visas. For our first "visa run" we decided on Granada, Nicarauga. It is a beautiful colonial city about 2 hours across the border.

The trip started with a late night expedition to San Jose. Our bus left at 6 am, so we needed to stay in San Jose the night before. That day we were planning to go to the hostel, book our room, and find the bus terminal while it was light out. However, this plan did not take flight. That morning Jordan got very sick (the projectory kind) and so we didn't make our pre-trip to San Jose. That evening he was feeling better so we decided to go anyway.

Jordan came to my school at 9pm and we headed to find a taxi. We had to make one crucial stop first- the pharmacy. Not for Jordan, but for me. I had developed pink eye! Great timing! So we go my medicine and found a taxi.



We went to the hostel in San Jose and hung out in our room until we were tired enough to sleep. The bed was not so comfortable. It sunk in in the middle so I kept rolling into Jordan. It was not fun, but we were only there for 5 hours anyway.

We got up and headed to the bus stop at 5am. The bus ride took about 4 hours to the border. At the border we got off and stood in line to get our passports stamped. This part took about an hour and then we got on the bus again. "That was really easy," we were thinking. Not so much... That was just the Costa Rican side. The stamps we got were to say we left Costa Rica. We then rode the bus the Nicaraugan side and they collected our passports. We got off the bus with all our luggage and played "red light-green light". You press the button- if you get green you are good to go, if you get red they search your bag. Of course I got red! I was the only one in our little group. So I went into the building and the official looking guy looked at me, touched the side of my bag and said, "Have a nice day." Man! I should have brought some illegal stuff if that's their idea of security!

We made it to Granada at about 1 pm and found our hostel. Two teachers from my school, Tausha and Jodi, were also doing the same border run. We ate (breakfast in the middle of the afternoon) and then explored around the city a bit. It has beautifully restored colonial buildings. The colors and details are lovely.



The next day we spent the day exploring the city. We found a really nice convent-turned- museum and explored around there for a while. It had an amazing courtyard that let a nice breeze come through. We sat in some rocking chairs and enjoyed that for a while because it was so hot. There were a lot of pre-Hispanic artifacts, like huge statues with strange faces.



On Saturday we went to Laguna de Apoyo. It was the highlight of the trip! Our hostel had a shuttle that took us to the hostel on the laguna. Its in the middle of no where. The lake was created in the crater of an old volcano. It was so beautiful! The rain forest came right down to the water. We got to swim in the lake, eat lunch, take out kayaks and have massages from a blind man. It was so amazing! We wish we would have stayed overnight, which we might do next time! The lake was a perfect temperature and the staff was very helpful. And the hammocks! There were hammocks at Laguna and our hostel in Granada. Jordan and I spent so much time enjoying the hammocks and good books!





On Sunday we went on a guided tour to Volcan Mombacho. We took a car to the national park then a huge old army vehicle to the top of the volcano. We stopped at a coffee plantation and had an amazing view of most of Nicaragua. We then hiked through the rain forest and saw the crater. The crater has been inactive for a long time so all the vegetation has grown over it. We also stopped at a viewpoint that allowed us to see both lakes in Nicaragua, Laguna de Apoyo and a lot of the countryside. It was so amazing!







On Monday we headed home the same way we came. It's very weird to be seperated from your passport and then see the guy walking to the bus with 40 or so passports and no protection. It made me wonder how much my passport is worth on the black market. Hmm...

This trip had a longer buffer time and I didn't have to go back to work until Tuesday, which was nice. The bus on the way home didn't have air conditioning so we were sticky and stinky and hungry.

We haven't decided where we will go next. Maybe the beach in Nicaragua or Panama.

Manuel Antonio Trip

Today is Sunday and Jordan is at a fiends house watching NFL, so I have time to sit down and update my blog! The first thing is our trip to Manuel Antonio and a visit from Dad and Pam.

On September 11 Jordan and I got to play hosts for the first time here in Costa Rica. It felt surreal to have people from our old lives in our new lives. Having them here was really nice- it was good to talk to people who already know us. We didn't have to explain everything!

They stayed with us for a few days and then we headed to Manuel Antonio/Quepos for 3 days. Manuel Antonio is one of the big tourist destinations here. The closest town is Quepos and then there is a winding road strung with hotels and restaurants leading to Manuel Antonio National Park. It was about a 6 hour drive on the way there because a bridge was under construction and there was traffic.





We stayed at a nice hotel on the beach. It had a small pool and a path to the beach. The first day we were there we headed to the National Park. We hiked up through the rain forest and saw a few sloths. We ended up at a small beach. We played in the water and enjoyed the scenery. We then went to another beach that is better for swimming and spent some time there. It was a beautiful day and the water was wonderful!



The next day we went to the beach in front of our hotel and hung out there. It was very relaxing! This beach was great and there was a soda nearby that brought us food on our beach chairs! I had a really good burrito. MMM...

Each night we ate really good dinners. I enjoyed enchiladas and fish. It was a nice change from the usual food we eat in Heredia!



All around it was a great trip. After Manuel Antonio, Dad and Pam went to Volcano Arenal for a few days. We met up with them for a last dinner and then they headed back to the US.

It was really hard adjusting back to working. I went from semi-resident to tourist to semi-resident again in 3 days. It wasn't long before I was back in the swing of things again, though.