Costa Rica, April 2016

Costa Rica

Our trip was unlike any of the ones I have been on before. We rented a home away with the Rosens, but it was different than what I originally expected. The house was mainly outdoors. The corridors were paved and separated the rooms. My room was farthest away from everyone, but I got to keep it to myself. Since we were in a forest canopy, we got to see some animals like the sloth and Jesus Christ Lizard. It felt like we were really deep into the Costa Rican Jungles. I even got a sound recording of the monkeys howling at night. It was a very immersive experience. We also had our own personal chef who made us Costa Rican delicacies for breakfast and dinner. We usually ate lunch with our excursions during the day. The house hosted many commodities like a pool table, a terrace, 2 hot tubs (one outdoor and one indoor), and a pool. It was very lavish, but still felt as if we were in the forest due to the openness of the house. Our days were filled with adventure, though, and I enjoyed every bit.

Ziplining

       We ziplined with El Santuario Canopy Adventure Tour and it was a blast. I was in a bad mood because Nathan kept annoying me, but I still enjoyed my time on the ropes. The ziplines got progressively longer. We were able to zipline spinning around our tether or even go upside down. It was exhilerating. Mrs. Rosen was anxious, but that only added to the experience. At the end, we rappelled down one of the trees which was something I had never done before. We then ate a traditional lunch with the ziplining crew and that was all.

Surfing

       We spent one of the days learning how to surf. It was difficult to maintain balance and keep up with the waves, but it was still fun. Learning how to surf with people equally unskilled makes the excursion all the more entertaining as you all fail together. I really enjoyed myself and began to get the hang of it after a while. However, Jamie got stung by a jellyfish. It seemed to hurt her a lot and she ended up having to pee on her leg to alleviate the stinging pain. It spiced up the trip. In general, surfing is something I would like to try again in the future and the excursion itself is something I will look fondly on.

  

River Tubing

       The river tubing filled the whole day. We got in our rafts and set off. It was a pretty standard river tubing experience at first. Then we got out and visited a waterfall. We took a picture by it, ate lunch, and then went back to tubing. Nathan fell off his tube and Mom was scared for him. It was fun, but there isn't too much more to say. 

Downtown San Jose

       There isn't too much to say about our experience downtown in San Jose. There were street performers like in most cities and we mainly just walked around. While in San Jose, I realized how much I enjoyed foreign culture and immersion. This was the first time I had to converse with a native in a different language. The group had to contact our driver to get back home, but we didn't realize that none of us had service because we were in a foreign country. We were basically stranded in the city of Costa Rica with no way of contacting anyone. We didn't know where the payphones were so even though we knew the driver's phone number, we had no way of reaching out to him. To solve this problem, I put my spanish speaking skills to the test. I asked if we could borrow a stranger's phone to contact our driver. I explained our situation to the nice stranger who then gave us the means to organize a ride back to our house. I was the only one able to speak and understand spanish in our group and it instilled a newfound importance to understand different culture and languages in me.

Wilderness Hike

       The wilderness hike was interesting. I don't know if I could call it "fun" since the temperature was excruciating which really put a damper on my mood, but the activities themselves were exhilarating and filled the day with adventure. We started out the day with a hike. I don't know the distance, but it took a few hours. The uphills were annoying, not only because of my lack of physical fitness, but Kori's nagging didn't help. We learned about a lot of the vegetation and even came across a natural waterfall. As we hiked we came across a man-made ferry that transported us over a stream with a self-propelled pulley system. We completed the hike when we got to the Eco-lodge.

Eco-lodge

At the Eco-lodge we immediately climbed a giant Banyan Tree. It was fun and not too hard due to the notches in the tree. After that we had a traditional Costa Rican lunch. The house was very open and surrounded by many large trees like the one we climbed, a rocky stream, and more. We then went on a rustic zipline over a lake. We had to stop ourselves with a leather glove. Once we were all done with this activity, we then went swimming in rapids. We were all pretty competent swimmers except for Mom so it wasnt too bad. However, I lent Kori my water shoes and she lost one down the river. That was pretty annoying, but I digress. Mom was worried we would crash into a rock due to the force of the water. We all ended up okay and then hiked back.