We left San Jose around 6:30 AM to head to a town called Manuel Antonio. It was about a four hour drive but on our way, we made a few stops. First, for breakfast. This restaurant was built right on the side a mountain. It was an open air restaurant with this incredible view of the whole valley allowing us to see the ocean from miles away! Our second stop was at a tourist spot where people could zip-line through the Costa Rican rainforest. I almost didn't do it because it cost 80 bucks American. NO WAY!!!! When we got there, because we were such a large group they cut the price. If you had your student I.D., they cut it even more. So for only 40 bucks I was able to zip through the jungle! WOW...tha's all I can say. Wow! It was so much fun! There was one line where you went four probably three hundred yards and were moving around 30 mph! It was such a blast! The only thing was the humidity...near a 100%. I was feeling pretty dehydrated. So I loaded myself with three water bottles worth of H20 in about 5 mins. We headed to the beach. I ate some chicken for lunch and headed for the water. I did not wait 30 min afterwards to go in...I got in the water in the only dignified way possible...running as fast as you can till the water is too deep and then you fall flat on your face! I swam and played in the waves until the salt water made it impossible to open my eyes. We got back on the bus and headed to our new hostel. This wasn't as nice as the first one but it was mostly open air which made for a much more unique expeirence. We grabbed some grub and went to bed. It was like ten o'clock but everyone was so hot from the humidity and tired from the travel.
Friday:
We got to sleep in for the first morning all trip on Friday. We took a tour of the national park in Costa Rica in Manuel Santonio. We saw sloths, toucans, and monkeys. It was a cool place. Along the trail of the park there was a small cove where we stopped to cool off in the water. Clear blue water and warm temps made for a relaxing two hours. Around 12:30, these monkeys I saw started showing up near the beach. The monkeys got so close to people .I was standing inches away from one. They were so much fun to watch. We continued on our way down the trail. THe trail ended on a public beach where we scattered for food and shopping. At the beach, I did some boogie boarding. THis beach was full of surprises. I got board, sun burn, and caught in a rip tide. It happend so fast. One minute, I was riding over a wave that hadn't broke and the next I was 70-75 yards out from the beach. I tried swimming but the waves were too choppy and the board got inthe way! Some surfers and a life guard came out to help me and my friend who were stuck out there. It was a bit intense but I actually laughed about it. It was just another story I have to tell. After we got our breath back, we ran back into the water to catch more waves. It was our last night of our trip so we went out for a great dinner to cap of our trip. We stayed up till 1 A.M. that night because we had to drive back to San JOse for our 7 am flight. We stayed up swinging on a rope swing tied to atree at the hostel. We actually got pretty high up. I was called the sloth when I did it because of my long legs and arms. I got the highest on the rope and people thought I was swinging in slow motion. We did that for acouple hours...it was fun!
Saturday:
This day started early...we drove from Manuel Antonio to San Jose. It was a four hour drive. The bus we were in was not very big so everyone was cramped and because of all 22 people, the humidity, and the close quarters, the windows were condensating when we arrived in at the airport! It was gross!!!! We got our tickets, security, and got to our gate. We just chilled in the airport...i toured the duty free shop...pretty intereting stuff in that store.
We flew from San Jose to Costa Rica...I mostly slept on the flight. We landed in Phoenix around noon. We had 8 hours to kill while we waited for our flight to Boise. What could I do while waited for our flight. Lets see here, im in phoenix and its spring training for Major League Baseball. Teams play in the phoenix and there was a stadium only 5 miles away. If you haven't figured out already, I went to spring training game between the Anaheim Angels and the Seattle Mariners. My friend Andrew and I arrived by cab to find that the game was sold out! Shoot! So we scalped some tickets. 6 dollar tix for 20 bucks a pop! The seats were for sitting on a lawn out in left field. Through out the game though, we made our way closer to the field and by the ninth inning, we were sitting right behind homeplate. It was so much! Lots of homeruns and hits! I have never been to a spring training game so it was a great experience. We made it back to the airport by cab and hung out till our flight. I could have given up my spot because the flihgt was over bookd. I would have had hotel accomidations and a free round trip flight to anywhere out of phoenix. I went home though. It was too important to me to sleep in my own bed. I slept the whole way on the flight last night. We landed about midnight in Boise.
The whole trip was an incredible experince. I felt God stretched and tested me! I felt like I am closer to God. I was happy to share with people that didn't speak the same language as me. My faith has grown tremendously! I had so much fun. I did things I would never been able to do if I did something else for spring break. I shared God with people, ziplined, got stuck in a riptide, and watched baseball. It was awesome!
Rip Tides? :O SCAREY! Glad you are home safe!
ReplyDeleteJessi*