Adios Costa Rica

Day 7: Jan. 15, 2010

Today is our travel and tour day.  We have a 6 hour trip to make back to San Jose today and an early flight Saturday morning.  The plan for today: sleep in the van (if at all possible with these terrifying and highly uncomfortable roads), zipline canopy tour, some souvenir shopping, and dinner at the Grumbles once we make it to San Jose.

I still wish we had one more day with the kids...but alas...we must go.

OK, so the zipline canopy tour initially really had me freaked out.  Not because it's high, not because I was going to be hanging by a harness and a cable (working at Busch Gardens has developed an innate sense of trust in me for machinery...), no, I was terrified at the idea that we would be traipsing about in the wild of Costa Rica...and I could only imagine what snakes, spiders, or other critters I might encounter.  (That was truly my biggest fear!)  But I told myself...I'm never going to have this opportunity again and what would I tell people back home if I bailed on this once in a lifetime opportunity over a silly little fear of critters that I may or may not run into...so I decided to just do it!  Once I got there and got all harnessed up I was starting to feel a little better...granted having to hear the whole liability statement thing read to me and then signing it was a bit intimidating.  Then our guide started hiking us up a trail, and we landed at the first platform on a cliff just behind the welcome center.  The view was incredible and suddenly I realized we were going to be climbing trees and roughing it the way I imagined...and all of a sudden I was totally excited!!!  With our group on this adventure was also a family of four that had gotten of their cruise ship for the day to have some adventures at port.  I was probably somewhere in the middle of our group in terms of going.  Actually, I think the scariest part is standing on the ledge while the guide hooks you up to the cables...there's a brief moment during the hooking up process when you're really not connected to anything and yet the guide is kinda tugging at you and the cables to get everything hooked up and if you were to slip or get tugged or pushed just a little too much...you'd be off the side of that cliff...at least that's how it looked.  But once you're all hooked up and you get the go ahead...you're off and it is a BLAST!!!!  The first zipline, I was too worried about doing things right to really pay attention to the view all that much, but man after that one...I just enjoyed the ride and it was awesome.  Also, a significant lesson learned on the very first zipline, NEVER put any part of your hand down on the cable that does not have leather protecting it!!!! They give you these work gloves, and the glove that goes on your strong hand has leather covering the palm and thumb...this is the only part you EVER use to touch the cable and break yourself while ziplining! On the very first one, I started to spin a little bit and it scared me and I just carelessly put my finger down to try and stop the spin from happening, and in about two seconds, my finger was on fire, and a hole had been burned through the glove.  I got a nice little blister as a souvenir.  So, folks, listen to your friend here...don't ever touch the cable!

Anyway we did a course of 8 ziplines and it was awesome.  The family we were with also gave us our first wind of the tragic events that occurred in Haiti.  We were shocked, a) at the situation and b) at the thought of just how cut off we were the whole week, we had been clueless!  And even this update didn't really give us any idea of how serious it was, most of us didn't really understand until we got to San Jose and were able to use a vonage phone to call home.  I know my mom gave me a lot of details about it right away, and I definitely had no idea of how bad it was till I talked to her. Unbelievable!

Anyway, back to the zipline tour...the guides on the tour were really friendly, and they gave us a couple pointers on some local catch phrases and terminology.  Additionally, one of the guys had a phone with a music player on it...and we found ourselves jamming up in the trees to "I got a feelin....woohoo....that tonight's gonna be a good night!....Tonight's gonna be a good night....Tonight's gonna be a good good night!" SO much fun!!!

Once we finished the ziplines, a truck was waiting to driving us back up to the welcome center...we crammed in like sardines and road back up to the center.  On the way back we saw about three iguanas...they really are everywhere.

Back on the road...at some point we crossed some bridge over some shallow water with some sandbars where crocodiles were sunbathing (my first time ever seeing those creatures in the wild).  Eventually we ended up in the town of Sarchi.  This town is a bright and colorful area, host to the emblematic painted oxen cart.  (I'm not really sure of the story there...BUT) These HUGE painted oxen carts are EVERYWHERE!  And they are beautiful!  We got to go shopping at this shop/factory where we could watch them hand paint the carts...it was pretty cool, and beautiful!  So we spent an hour or so there around the shops picking up souvenirs and thank you gifts for our sponsors.  Then, back on the road for the last leg of our journey to San Jose.  When we arrived in San Jose, I was never more glad to get out of the car in my life!!! The roads and locals driving scared the daylights out of me in addition to making me sick (and I rarely feel motion sick...so it was BAD!)  Our accommodations for the evening, the baptist missions guest house a block away from the Grumbles house.  We were so excited to be in this place.  Set up with tons of beds and hot showers!  Computers with internet and a vonage phone to call home on!  It was paradise lol!  We all got sorted and I was able to shoot a few e-mails and call the rents before we walked around the block to the Grumbles for dinner where I had the best tortilla chips I've EVER tasted!  I wanted to take tons of them home with me.  Anyway, after dinner the Grumbles took us out for ice cream, banana ice cream dipped in chocolate for me, YUM!!!  Then it was back to the guest house...for my first even lukewarm shower in a week and bed...up at 4 to be outside ready with suitcases at 4:30am...

It has been an adventure for sure...but I am excited to go home.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this...but we stopped off at Jurassic Park too!!! Check it out!

 

So that wraps up Costa Rica.  Last night, at the BCM house, we had sharing time for all the team members who went on the Costa Rica trip.  Someone put together a slide show, it was a compilation of pictures from everyone and I just couldn't hold it together...I couldn't help but cry, I really miss those kids, and just having all those flashbacks really got to me.  I don't know if I will ever get to go back, but I certainly hope I get the chance one day.