Over the last month Frances and I have had the privilege to travel a little bit in this beautiful country of Costa Rica. We had two weeks of vacation from school in July. On July 4th we went to Manuel Antonio on the west coast, Pacific side of CR and, although we weren’t able to go into the beautiful national park (it was closed that day), we found a nice beach nearby.
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| River full of crocodiles on the way to the beach |
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| Just outside of Manuel Antionio - the waves were great! |
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| Sunset over the Pacific |
A few days later, we traveled to the Arenal volcano, hoping to see some red lava flowing. Unfortunately, the volcano was clouded over that night, but it still looked amazing (and we have no pictures, so here’s a generic photo of it from the internet)
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| Arenal |
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Swimmin' hole on the way to Arenal.
That's me on the rope swing! |
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Iguana place on the way to Arenal.
There are hundreds of huge iguanas outside this restaurant. |
We also went to a river with hot springs near arenal, which we don't have pictures of, and we saw some monkeys with their babies along the way.
The next week we took a trip to visit a town called Sarchi, which is a woodworking artisan’s town. There are dozens of stores selling handmade wooden furniture and other wood arts and crafts. On the way we visited a sugar cane processing factory because Frances’s great-grandfather and great uncle worked in a sugar cane factory in Puerto Rico. This one happened to be a cooperative that also processes coffee. It was a very interesting place and a great way for Frances to reconnect with her family roots.
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| Sugar cane factory |
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| Sugar cane factory |
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They lift whole trucks full of cane and drop it
into the bin on the left |
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(L to R) Ben, Frances, Angeley, Lindsey, Lauren, Leigh Anne,
Jacqueline, Tomás |
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| The world's largest ox cart in Sarchi |
The last week of July we went on a cruise to the Bahamas with the Santiago family – Jorge, Francis, Cristina, Danny and Carmen Michelle. Frances’s mom and dad took the whole family on the cruise to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary!
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(L to R) Jorge, Frances, Francis, Cristina,
Carmen Michelle, Danny, Ben |
Finally, the first weekend of August, we took one of our interns to visit her family in Limón, Costa Rica (on the east coast, Caribbean side of Costa Rica). We got to spend a little time on the beach, see some howler monkeys, and eat some good Caribbean food. It reminded Frances of Puerto Rico.
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| Frances at the beach in Limón |
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| Caribbean chicken with coconut rice and beans |
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| Howler monkey |
It is nice to live in such a beautiful country and be able to travel and see some of its sights, even though we’ve been so busy working up in the mountains. I'm often reminded of these verses when I look around: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” Psalm 19:1-4.
