Beach!

This morning, we left Monteverde. We left going down that one same road out, and unfortunately for us, they had shut that road down. So we just had to sit there on the mountain until they opened it back up again, about an hour and a half later. Oy. So we finally got out of that road and onto paved roads, and all of a sudden, the road was closed again. We then learned, down here was some sort of bike race, so they closed the road down for that. Great. Luckily for us, there was a coconut stand next to us on the road. We bought some coconuts, which they promptly opened for us with a machete and stuck a straw in to drink the sweet juice.

Y'all, coconut milk is gross. Did not like. Was not refreshed. But anyway. Finally they opened the road back up, and off we went. We stopped at this sign for a pic. 

Then we stopped in Jaco. There was a beach there, and we wanted to at least see the beach once while we were in Costa Rica, since it is a tropical, beachy place. 

 It was lovely. The water was so warm, and we stayed in as long as we could until we had to leave. Unfortunately, the hour drive back to San Juan (where our flight is leaving at 6:55 tomorrow morning) took about 3 hours due to garbage traffic. But we finally made it and are ready to go home. The trip was too short, but very awesome, and I am ready to go home. Being in foreign countries makes me so homesick so fast!

Monteverde

You guys, Monteverde is lovely. Was it hard to sleep with this wind? Yes. But, we still tried. The next morning, we set out to the "Cloud Forest". What this means is basically, the mountain we were in was so high we were pretty much even with the clouds. It was super windy still (apparently this is the windy season, I googled it) but it was lovely, it kept it from being too hot. It only took us about an hour to get to the top.

 Here's the view from the top, very nice

 This is us, with Steve, Adam's co-school-worker-guy. Unfortunately his family couldn't come, but we had a great time still.

There was a waterfall near the end of the hike, it was so lovely. We couldn't get in the water at all, but it was still nice.

After the hike, we went zip-lining, and went to the longest zip line in Latin/Central America. There was one that we went on that was 2 kilometers long! We did that one Superman style, on stomachs with arms out. It was amazing. I finished that by doing a sort of bungee-jumping thing called Mega Tarzan Jump, which you just straight up jump out of a 75-meter tall building, and just fall until your harness catches you, about 40 meters down. It was TERRIFYING but so amazing! I wish I had a picture or something of it, but alas, no phones! But it was the greatest thing ever.

Hola from Costa Rica!

You guys, I made it to Costa Rica! After my last post, when I was feeling down and depressed, I just went right to bed. I woke up the next morning, and luckily, the sickness had seemed to pass. (I should have mentioned, the kiddos had been throwing up the previous few days, so I knew it would be quick, I just didn't know it would be that quick) After laying in bed for a few minutes that morning, I had a voice...prompting...thought... that said, okay Vieve, head out to Costa. I called the airline, and they got me in a flight last night at 8:00! It was an overnight flight, I would wake up at 6:00 in Costa. I said absolutely, book me in. I spent the day running errands and doing necessary things, and then got a lift to the airport from Rory. After breezing through security (In which SLC security tried to steal my iPad maybe? I luckily barely got it back before the flight took off, I happened to try and read it before I left, and learned that they had taken it out without my permission, I have no idea why or what happened or why they didn't put it back)
But anyway! I had no luck in sleeping during the overnight flight (Despite taking Benadryl haha) but luckily, it wasn't a super long flight. I made it there around 5:30 AM, and then Husband picked me up and took me to the hotel. When we got there, I laid down for a few minutes, and ended up sleeping for a couple hours, thank goodness! But anyway.
Here we are at the first hotel in San Juan

After we were in San Juan for a couple of hours (just long enough for Husband's conference to wrap up) off we went to Monteverde. Let me tell you - it is hard to get here! There is only one road in - 20 km up a straight up hill, that isn't paved. Basically, it was about an hour of just bouncing around and trying not to die by other cars or falling off the cliff to the side. But we made it. This has got to be the windiest place I have ever been to , and the cabin we are staying in keeps none of the wind out, so wish us luck we can actually get some sleep!

Adios, Costa Rica

My finals are done. I took the last one yesterday, and I took the one that I was supposed to take today on Tuesday, so I have finished! I'm done! The reason I took it early is because today, Husband and I were leaving for Costa Rica! Husband had a paper submitted to a conference down there, and of course I was going to tag along. So I made sure all of my finals were done so that we could leave this morning. Our flight was set to leave at 8:00 this morning. Naturally, last night we went to bed at like, 9:30, since we would have to be at the airport a little after 6:00.

After going to bed, I awoke at about 11:30, feeling pretty sick. And then, it happened. I spent all dang night throwing up. I was so bummed! There was no way I could take a 9 hour flight to Costa, with how I was feeling. I was so sad, I just cried for so much of the morning. Husband Skyped me tonight when he got to Costa, and said that we could still use my ticket and fly me down tomorrow, but when I was thinking about it, I didn't feel great about it. Let's see how we feel tomorrow, and figure out what to do!