COSTA RICA | PART 2

December 29:
Today is a new day - rejoice and be glad in it!! Golden sunlight, warm breezes and a songbird who was indefatigably cheerful.
A foxy looking squirrel is sitting in the crook of a tree eating his routine breakfast orange. He nibbles at the peel until there is a hole wide enough to drink the juice inside. The fruit is too big for him to manage gracefully and he often drops it on the ground.
(EVENING:) The jungle was beyond my wildest dreams: palm trees, banana trees, lizards, birds, ferns, mosses and rivers made up the delicate ecosystem we were able to admire. I only took about 2,000 pictures. Mountain hiking is tough man! Or maybe I'm just out of shape -- but I was winded for shore. We forded rivers, sloshed through deep mud and slipped around on wet rocks. Having a clear cut path made it easy for us (thank you National Park system!), but I would never have made it through the raw jungle.
I had never seen so much GREEN in my life! I was afraid to touch anything for fear I might contaminate it; I had to watch my step in case there was a frog or parade of leaf cutter ants. There were wet, decomposing dead plants matting the ground + yet everything was so vibrant and alive. The experience was just as I had hoped -- I worshiped God the more for his glorious creation.

December 30:
Last night was spaghetti dinner + poker. I won quite a few poker hands - mostly because I had no idea what I was doing + Charlie and Ben kept helping me. Once I had a full house - ace high and I didn't even know it.

• Excitement of the day: Charlie found a scorpion in our bedroom before we left this morning. The poor little fellow was scared and hid under a leaf.
• The volcano crater we visited was closed because another volcano had recently erupted and they didn't want people to smell the sulfuric acid. We didn't care. We poked our heads out to take in some hefty whiffs of sulfur. Ash fell on the windshield. It was all very rebellious and exciting.
• During our harrowing road trip through the mountains, we stopped to take pictures. There was a breath-taking view of the mountains at sunset. The air was so thin I started wheezing. But MAN OH MAN LOOK AT THE VIEW.

          Clouds poured over the mountains, bathing them in pinkish-golden light. There are no words.
We finally reached out hostel on Uvita Beach. Lover and I threw on our Tevas and followed Josh's flashlight glow to the Pacific Ocean. I'd never seen the Pacific till that night. It was low tide and the multitude of stars were mirrored on the glassy wet sand -- it truly felt like we were walking on the sky. Romantic. Until Ben mentioned there were crocodiles. (We were only able to see a small one.)
Also, we weren't entirely sure we were supposed to be on the beach at night, so when a police car with flashing lights started following us we all freaked out and started running away. Turns out the copper wasn't after us at all.

December 31:
Last day of the year and I am spending it with family on the beaches of Marino Ballena (the sand bar that looks like the tale of a whale.)

COSTA RICA | PART 1

Whaddya know. I'm back from Costa Rica! The Herrick family disappeared sometime after Christmas for two weeks and returned to Missouri - travel weary, hungry and very sunburned. I'll be writing a series of blog posts over the next week to summarize the highlights of our journey. You'll get to see pictures and read snippets from my travel journal; all very casual, so pour some tea, sit back and scroll as quickly or slowly as you'd like.

December 26: 
"At this moment, we are at gate C18, sleeping, reading, eating and generally neglecting all manner of sophistication. Matt is passed out on the floor. Our flight goes from St. Louis to Charlotte, NC to San Jose. By dinner tomorrow we will be walking the streets of Costa Rica."

December 27:
"Mark + Charlie + I are watching planes landing and taking off through the big glass windows. We're trying to enjoy the process of waiting. There are three different sizes of passenger planes: small, medium and ginormous and they all look like toilet paper tubes with wings."
(EVENING:) "We've arrived. Juan's Papa is taking us to the supermarket to buy food. Everyone is enjoying the twilight, resting under the pavilion, smelling of citrus mosquito spray. Ben says that Costa Rica is the happiest country on earth and I can understand why; the green here is brighter than anywhere else + the mountains stand guard practically everywhere you look. Crickets and insects hum peacefully. It is already Pura Vida and we've only been the country 1 hour."
("Pura vida" means "pure life" and it represents the relaxed, sunny lifestyle of Costa Ricans.)

December 28: 
I woke up to the tune of a different songbird. I'm living under the colors of another sky.
Ben and Andy saved the day. Enterprise had no cars for us to rent, so Ben caught a ride with Juan's Papa and brought home an 8 passenger van. Andy bravely drove us to downtown San Jose (pop. 3 million). Ticos drive like chickens with their heads cut off, and most of the roads are hairpin, mountain passes. It didn't help that the GPS was more obnoxious than helpful: "Turn left, turn right, in 600m turn right, go north. GO SOUTH!"
Downtown San Jose reminded me a lot of Chihuahua City; swamped with people, modern retail shops mixed in with local restaurants and street vendors. Bands on every corner playing on homemade instruments. A mosaic of colors. Break dancing in the main plaza. Pigeons and parrots. Vehicles plowing through crowds of pedestrians.
We made it through alive with sore feet, full hearts and strawberry smoothies :) The best part of it all was the butterfly house, filled with caterpillars, banana trees, jungle plants and bright blue Morphos. They were a breathtaking color -- like the ocean mixed in with the stars.
(EVENING:) We are now reclining under our favorite pavilion next to the B&B, invigorated by the pleasant cross breeze and eating rice. Tomorrow we drive to the jungle. Buenas Noches.