Last Day of Work and Trip

The last day of work was December 5th.  Since we don't fly out till the 17th we took 12 days to relax and spend time together before we hang out with family through the holidays.  On Saturday we took off in our little 4wd rental car and headed for a night in Santa Teresa before a week in Tamirindo.   Thats Mery standing outside her house.

We took a ferry to Naranjo and it was a little different than the ferry's we're used to in Seattle.  There was no rope or fence across the openings.  Here is Julie standing at the front.  

Driving in Costa Rica was quite an adventure.  We we're going to take smaller roads up the coast but ran into a river that was too large to cross.  We could find any Indians to hire for 3 sets of clothes.  So that put us back about an hour and a half on the way to Tamarindo on the 7th.  

In Tamarindo we hung out with Ryan and went to the black sand beach Playa Carbon.  

We also tried out surfing.  It was kinda a disaster.   We got very salt and exhausted.  The waves at Playa Grande were about 10 ft tall during our surf lesson so when you get pounded by one it takes a little too long to surface.   Julie bottomed out her head on the sand twice.  We'll stick to boogie boarding.  

Last times at Hogar de Vida and the new office

We haven't been able to post a blog in a awhile, because our new office did not have internet for the week when we were there.  Here are some belated photos we thought you may enjoy of the new office, Andy's talents, and the kids at Hogar de Vida.

Andy set up camp in one of the rooms in the new office for our last week in Atenas.  My desk s right next to his.

Our calender that the guys would always ruin.  This was version 1.  of it, from November to the end of December.  As you can see, it is color coordinated.  This is basically what I would do all afternoon in the office.

Andy showing off his talents in the office.  The guys got a lot of work done there.

Dogs near our house.  The brown one would bark at us almost every day and I always thought he would try to bite at my ankles.  But he was a scaredy-cat.  He would run up the grass hill to his house if I even took one step toward him.

One of the babies, Brenda, at Hogar de Vida.  She just turned 1 on November 17th.  We started walking a couple weeks before her birthday, but still is not confident with her walking.  I saw her go about 10 or so steps though before I left.

Emmanuel, my 4 month old baby boy.  

Mar Darling and Emmanuel.  

She's a little confused of the camera.

The crazy 2 year olds in casa 1

The waterfall on the way to Hogar de Vida.  

Hogar de Vida

Last Friday the guys helped out at Hogar de Vida and then came to play with a couple of babies with me.

I am handing out some DumDum's to the kids. Barb, next to me, received flowers in celebration of Teacher's Day.
Mar Darling and me - She was a little confused of the camera and slightly frightened of the guys

Andy and Emanuel

Britany was smiling so I decided to take a picture, but I think she is camera-shy.

Grecia

This last Saturday we went to the exciting town of Grecia known for it's all steel church. We didn't know what else we would see there, and there actually wasn't much else exciting, besides the giant egg. We ate at Church's Chicken, Costa Rica being the first time either of us have ever gone there. It took extra long to get there as we were stopped for a half an hour by a bicycle race.

Bicycle race

The steel church - I think Andy is knocking on the wrong door

The park outside of the church

The gross pond with algae-feeder fish

Andy posing in front of the giant egg and church.

Andy wanted me to climb the egg.

Pool party and "make believe Thanksgiving"

This Saturday we made it to the pool before the crack of 9am and enjoyed the cool water as the sun was blaring down on us. Tom and Debbie, the EMI director and wife, hosted a "make believe Thanksgiving." I would usually just call it an early Thanksgiving, but Ryan insisted that it is not was not real. There were actually quite a few people as a family checking out Costa Rica and a family in language school came over as well as Ryan's host family. It was definitely Costa Rican style with rice and beans, but I did get my mashed potatoes and hummus!

This is Rex outside of Henry's (Medi's nephew) store. We told him to come and that was all the further he made it.

Someone had a paint-sprayer accident

This is Andy's corner in the office. Jenni sent us some pictures and Mom made us a Thanksgiving card. And of course, what desk would be complete without Botonetas?

Andy diving into the pool

The dive using the multi-blast option on the camera

"Yo quiero nadar" - Andy

The boys are watching some of "Casino Royale" as we are waiting for Tom to pick us up. This is our room, by the way.

"Make believe" Thanksgiving

First weekend of November

This weekend Andy and I made an trip to Alajuela on Saturday and went to the zoo as well as the international mall to see James Bond: Quantum of the Solace. DaDadaaadaaaaaaaaaadada! It was good, I highly recommend it to everyone. However, since we weren't able to take pictures during the movie, I have provided you instead with pictures from the zoo plus bonus pictures from the truck parade.
This is me actually outside the zoo, called Zoo Ave. We actually found it easily from the bus, which is pretty unusual in Costa Rica.

Andy's favorite macaws are the blue ones that are not actually native to Costa Rica.

Me with the red macaws, even though my favorite are the green ones.

I am the monkey.

I tried to scare the peacocks to show their feathers, but all my attempts failed. Here they are anyway.

The turtle was under the walkway. I was scared to stand over it.

The lizard was in our walkway, so we had to wait until it moved to pass it. Don't these lizards remind you of a mini-Jurassic park?

We passed the lizard and Andy is brave enough to take a picture with it.

Andy is literally inches from the crocodile.

Baby turtles

Some monkeys that actually are from Africa. They had 5 different types of monkeys at the zoo, 3 of Costa Rica and 2 of Africa and South America. For some reason they had about 5 or 6 different cages of squirrel monkeys and we thought they were trying to trick us saying they were all different types.

A big turtle with his friends: an iguana and a lizard

Tinsel-town in Alajuela. They are ready for Christmas.

On Sunday afternoon there was a truck parade in dedication of Red Cross. The trucks eventually drove by our house too. More trucks than Atenas can handle.

We heading down to see if the pool is open, trying to avoid the parade for few minutes. This is our favorite street in Atenas.

Transformers truck (Optimus prime) - well, it was the closest truck to the actual Optimus Prime and it has the Transformers sticker on it

I am putting in earplugs on our porch while watching the parade.

Construction site in Atenas that Andy looks at everyday we walk by it.