Costa Rica.

My Mom, my Sister and I all went to Costa Rica for a week. It started off with us getting lost on the way to our hotel and not arriving until 2am only to find that the front desk was closed down for the evening. After that there was no where to go but up! We explored the area, relaxed, ate and talked and tried to improve on our Spanish skills. The water was the same temp. as the air, it was so relaxing to lay on the raft in the ocean and get fried! We had a fun time.

Jungle Zipline.

We went on a zipline through the jungle. Before we arrived we had anticipated seeing monkeys, tropical frogs, beautiful butterflies, etc. We didn't see a single thing because we found out that we were in the "Dry Forest" and all of those things live in the "Rain Forest". That was too far away so we settled for a hair raising ride on the zipline. Somehow I didn't quite follow the instructions on the proper way to ride and I would get stuck in the middle of the zipline and then have to turn around and pull myself in. By the 10th jump off I had it down pat!

Where are we?

We were CONSTANTLY having to stop and ask for directions because there was rarely a road sign to indicate where we were. The tough part was that between the three of us we only knew a handful of spanish words - usually the directions managed to get us more confused. It was always a welcome sight to see someone who looked like they spoke english!

Emergency!

The bathroom's were few and far between and even when you saw one you didn't dare use it. The first time Alexa had to stop alongside the road I snapped a picture - later she got back at me because I said I would never go alongside the road. Never say never!

Local Gas Station.

This was the closest Gas Station - there were some relatively normal gas stations but they were further away. You can't really fill up at a place like this because you would use most of their supply of gas for the week. Most of the locals drive motorcycles - it makes it much easier to navigate the roads!

Road Conditions.

The top picture is a REALLY GOOD road. We were complaining about this one (you can't really see all the huge potholes in this picture) until we drove further and encountered some of the other roads in the area. It is a little un-nerving to drive through water (in a Toyota Corolla) when you don't know how deep it is and aren't sure if you are going to sink in the mud. Alexa started wading across some of the small rivers to test the depth - I wasn't as brave. Afterall, you never know what is going to be lurking in the water in the middle of the jungle.

Small problem.

It's hard to tell in this picture but the back end of the car is roughly a foot off of the ground and the front bumper is smashed into the ground. We weren't sure which was more of a problem, the fact that the people trying to help get us out were incredibly drunk OR the fact that we had likely just lost the deposit on the rental car. Needless to say, I was hysterically laughing when I took the picture - clearly my mom didn't see the humor in the situation.

Just a few of the locals....

Everyone knows how much I love reptiles and bugs so you can imagine my pleasure when we saw these friendly creatures for the first time. The last picture is a grasshopper - its hard to tell in the picture but it was at least six inches long. The monkeys were cute but the amount of noise they made was QUITE surprising. We thought it sounded more like a gorilla - needless to say we were a bit alarmed the first time we heard one.