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.

Videos from time with parents

Wayne is showing how the leaf turns things red.
Andy showing off his hat in the pool.
Driving over the bus bridge.

Long weekend with Andy's parents

Last Wednesday to Sunday we were able to spend time with Andy's parents, who are in Costa Rica until this Friday. We rented a house nearby Playa Esterillos Oeste and made day trips to Manuel Antonio and Jaco beach. Here are some pictures of our time with them.

There is a river on the way to Playa Esterillos where crocodiles live. We checked them out from the bridge.

Connie and I taking the view of the crocs from afar.

We took a guided tour of Manuel Antonio national park. The guide, Coco, was really good at taking pictures through his spotting scope.

Here is a sloth smiling at us. Aren't they so cute?

A tree crab that eats parts of these flowers.

Jungle crabs that are red and purple. They only go to the beach to lay their eggs.

The rainbow grasshopper

A frog hiding from us

White-faced monkey. This one actually ran out right in front of Wayne and I!

Wayne and Andy did a couple short hikes at Manuel Antonio national park. They found this hat on one of them. Andy is showing it off in the pool at our rental house.

Here is a better picture of our pool that had a built in bar with stools in the water and everything!

We got lost trying to find the waterfalls near Jaco, but we did find this amazing bus bridge. As you can see, the bottom of the bus is closest to us and the top is further away.

Our second car (I miss the "silver bullet") is attempting to ford the bridge.

Instead of having to deal with us and try to make room for each other, the jeep rides down the river. I think a jeep is a better option for these dirt roads than our sad Suzuki.

On the road down from the waterfalls that we weren't able to see. In the background there is the ocean.

On the way to Atenas going up the mountain. The car needed a break halfway up.