I’m going home……
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A slice of heaven (Vista Atenis) |
Saturday we traveled from La Fortuna back towards San Jose
and the airport. Our plan was to tour a
coffee plantation and have lunch there.
It so happens that a young couple from the Tampa area (some of our group
go to their church)work and volunteer there.
I don’t really know all of the
details, but they both speak Spanish and they hung out with us the first few
days at the Bible camp.
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| Rainy travel day |
Well, there was a miscommunication and our bus driver made a
wrong turn. I think he assumed we were
touring a different well-known coffee plantation. When we figured this all out, we were over an
hour away, so we had to forgo that trip.
Many of us were not disappointed because we are tired and weren’t really
up for another excursion.
We did make a stop off in a little town called Zarcero. Most every town of any size has a central
park. This town has a really unique and
beautiful park. It has landscaped
gardens as well as shrubs that have been clipped into cool shapes. Check out all of my pictures.
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| church by the park |
We stopped off at the town of Sarchi for lunch and souvenir
shopping. Costa Rica is known for its
painted ox-cart wheels and this town is well known its giant painted
ox-cart. Most of us ate a delicious
lunch at a restaurant called La Finca and then looked at a souvenir shop
afterwards.
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Sorry, I took a bite out before I remembered to take a picture! |
The next stop was our B&B, Vista Atenis. It was great that we didn’t do the coffee
plantation because that meant that we got there before dark and had several
hours to enjoy the 360 degree views. We
found out that the mountain as wells as several of the others around us were
called, “Gringo Mountains” because many “ex-pats” lived there. Our B&B was run by a lady from
Belgium. The grounds were beautifully
landscaped, there was a great breeze and we had the whole place to ourselves.
Some of us enjoyed the pool (even Jose, our bus driver, not
me though), but all of us enjoyed the views and cool breeze. We ordered pizza to be delivered for dinner
and we all had fun sitting in Steve and Janet’s larger room. The room was equipped with dishes, but since
there was more than 20 of us, people were drinking out of anything they could
find!!! (Shot glasses, measuring cups,
wine glasses, etc.) It made for lots of
laughs. We ended the evening with some
kind words from our leaders, “Bind us together”, “Get Right Church”, “Greatest
Commands”, a prayer, and cheers for our leaders and bus driver.
My flight departs at 8:40 in the morning, so that puts me in
the early flight group. That means we
are to leave at 3:00 am!! I made it
though and I’m sitting in the CR airport typing this on free Wi-Fi!!
I’m sure I might have a follow-up post once I’ve had time to
process all of my feelings. All and all,
it was a great mission trip and it’s been a long time in my 8 years since I’ve
gotten to end with a retreat. This was
my first year to come to Costa Rica and I’m positive that it will now be part
of my annual trip!!!
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| It's after 3 am and I'm waiting for the slowpokes to get up!! |
Pura Vida y Proximo Ano!!!
PJ xoxo
Nice way to end a very busy month.
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