Pura Vida (Hike in the Rain Forest, Shower in a Waterfall & Boatride at the base of the Volcano

Pura Vida

(Amazon 6, you are welcome to add to my attempts to describe our hike!!  Words don’t do it justice!!)

 

 

That is the expression that they say all of the time here and the best I can tell it means, “The pure life”.  All of the workers at this resort say it all of the time.  You also see it on billboards and t-shirts.  I equate the phrase with my experience here…..chill, go with the flow, enjoy.

small part of the breakfast buffet

 

 

Last night, I had really planned on going on a horseback riding tour, as well as a canopy tour.  As always I was up by 5 am and walked down to the lobby to work on posting my blog. (That’s really the only place with a good Wi-Fi signal.)  I went on up for breakfast way before anyone in my group was up.  The meals are always huge, all-you-can-eat buffets with many choices.  I’m glad to see all of the fruit and vegetables.  We haven’t really had that the last few days.

 

I didn't have to twist too many arms to go with me shopping for shoes.

 

As I was finishing, some of my group said that the horse backing riding was canceled because of the rain.  Steve Johnson, one of our leaders from Tampa, had checked into hiking trails and he found one for us.  I had already decided that flip-flops and Toms wouldn’t really work for any of the tours, so our friendly bus driver Jose, took a few of us down the road to some shops and I found some reasonably priced hiking boots.  We had a quick Spanish/English lesson with Jose.  (Hoy = Today, Ayer = Yesterday, and Manana = Tomorrow)  Also…. (Aqui=Here, Ayi=There, Aya=over there.

 

 

Steve had found out that the first part of the hike was down and it was the worst part.  Let’s just say I was glad I had my hiking boots on!!  There were 6 of us and I’m pretty sure I was the oldest one there.  We climbed over slippery stones, branches, mud, mossy rocks and everything else.  It was often necessary to hold onto small trees, and I was hoping I didn’t grab anything else.  It was steep enough that some of us kind of crab walked down.  We got to one point and it seemed as if we had lost the trail or had gone the wrong way.  We thought we saw it below us, so Steve ventured down.  He said he didn’t recommend that way because he slid down a steep hill.  Rachel, the daredevil, insisted on going that way and slid far enough that she was afraid she wasn’t going to stop.  I think she earned a raspberry on her bottom.

Most of the way was steep with wet leaves, rocks, roots, etc.  I was not too proud to crab crawl all of the way down.



 

 

 

Steve found the trail below and the rest of us went another way that was completely over grown with vines, which we had to push our way through.  We finally made it to the bottom were we found the river and that is where we named ourselves “Amazon 6”, a little ways further we found the waterfall.  Rachel, always the daredevil says, “I’m going in” and then, everyone one else took their shoes off and waded through rushing water, and climbed over slippery rocks to the waterfall.  They all convinced me it wasn’t too hard of a climb, so I joined them.  Steve went back and took a great picture of us doing posing.  I did the yoga tree pose and believe it or not, I had better balance in rushing water than I do at the yoga studio.

 

We were rewarded with this at the bottom of the mountain.



Here is some of our group touring the canopy.  They were finishing just as we got to the end of our hike.


 

Boat selfie

I had also planned on doing the canopy tour, but after my hike I decided I had seen it all from the ground and I would  just get in the hot springs pool and treat myself with a massage.  Now, it seems some of us are going to go on a boat ride….I will let you know!!  Pura Vida!!

 

 

 

I can’t remember if I told you that the preacher and his family from Purral came with us.  They are Costa Rican, but had never been to this area.  He and his wife have two daughters and they seem to be enjoying this mini-vacation.  At lunch, he and some others were discussing a boat tour on a lake at the base of the volcano.  It just so happens that Jose, our bus driver, knew Anthony, the owner of the boat.  So, at 3:30 about 10 of us got on the bus and headed down the road to the boat tour. 

 



 

The boat ride was very pleasant.  The area was very secluded, beautiful and peaceful.  Even though, the temperature has been mild, of course there was a nice breeze on the boat ride.  The tour gave beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and valleys.  As far as we can tell, the area is either a national park or is protected.  We did see the location of a village that was destroyed by an eruption in 1968.  Needless to say, it was desolate, but beautiful.  At one point, the pilot of the boat stopped and we were able to get out and look around.  Right before we got back on the boat, someone was saw a small snake. 



This is the Arenal volcano, the top is almost always covered with clouds.


 

 

Volcano selfie & yes, the sun is out!!

In this picture, you see the bus driver, Jose, with gray hair, Christian, the preacher in green, his wife, Gendry in hot pink, and his two daughters.



 

The guys immediately ran over to take pictures and the snake was too happy.  It was small, but it was striking like a rattlesnake.  I didn’t get a picture, but I’m sure I’ll be able to grab one from somebody. (No one has posted a picture yet.)  All of us who went enjoyed our trip and thought it was well worth the $15 we paid.

 

Since I had saved money on all of the tours I didn’t do, I was bound and determined to get a massage.  I decided I would even if I had to forgo dinner.  (Lunch was huge and delicious!)  I had just enough time to get in the hottest hot spring pool for a while and then I had an hour massage and a facial.  It didn’t disappoint!!

Riding along on the boat, you could see the layers of the rainforest. ( the canopy and the emergent layers).

 

 

I’m early writing this blogpost and we had a major storm last night and it seems like it may rain hard all day.  God blessed us with a great day to be here yesterday because I think many activities will be rained out today.  The plan today is to head back to San Jose and stop and tour a coffee plantation (A young guy from Tampa and his wife are living and working there.) and eat lunch there.  Then we were supposed to do some souvenir shopping before we headed back up to our B&B for the night,  Sunday we all head home.

 

 

Depending on how things work out with Wi-Fi___33 and the weather, I may not have a post tomorrow.  So…..

 

Hasta luega!!

 

PJ  xoxo

 

PJ  xoxo

 

Door knocking & Bible studies

Leydi & Michelle, my beautiful sisters, let me take a selfie with them!!

Today was another great day in Costa Rica!!  Our schedule was the same as the last few days.  I helped Diane in the Ladies’ Bible class again and her lesson was about prayer.

 

Do you remember how yesterday four of the ladies got a free gift from me, but I misplaced the earrings I was going to give them?  Well, I just knew I would find them in the hotel room, but I didn’t.  After I had looked all over everything in my hotel room, I said, “They must have been stolen.”  I didn’t really believe they were, I was just repeating the joke.  We go down to the load the bus and low and behold the bag that held the earrings was sitting on one of the seats.  So, it worked!!!

 

Terry, our leader, and Jessica Nivens, from the Keys, are enjoying popcorn and M&Ms during the reception time.

 

 

 

I told that story to our sisters in Bible class and let the four ladies choose the earrings they wanted.

 

 

 

You may remember how she bought nice Spanish Bibles and had the ladies of her church write a prayer request in the Bible.  Diane then took the ladies’ pictures and taped them in the Bibles.  Diane had already done this lesson with the church in Choluteca and the ladies who worked at Mololoa.  She had enough Bibles for the ladies of Purral Church of Christ.  These ladies also wrote cards for their new “prayer sisters” and we took pictures to put with the cards.

 

 

We ended the class by having a prayer chain.  About 25 ladies held hands in a circle and each person would say a prayer in English or Spanish.  As each person finish, they squeezed the next person’s hand.  This went on for about 15 minutes and it was a powerful way to end the class!

 

 

We had lunch and some fellowship and around 2 pm, the VBS class for children began.  The rest of us went door knocking to invite people to the rest of our classes.  We went to a new area that seemed even poorer than where I had been the day before yesterday.  Diane, Kim, Bev and I headed out with Diego.  Diego is a Costa Rican youth minister from another city.  I knew him because he worked as an interpreter with us a few days last year in Honduras.

 

The new area that we door knocked. 

 

We had only been to maybe 1-2 houses, when we went to a door where an older lady lived.  (I say older, by US standards she appeared to be in her late 60s or 70s.  By Latin American standards, she could possibly have been younger than me!!)

This little dog that looks like it is part Cocker Spaniel, is so sweet.  It follows it's "children" everywhere they go, even into the church building.  Today they shut the door, see her looking in and waiting!!

 

Diego starts starting to her and then he tells us that she had turned off her stove and she wanted to have a Bible study.  All of us go into her house and the room we were in was about the size of a closet.  Diego gets out his Bible and starts sharing the word with her.  She explains that had not been to church in a long time, but she had been praying to God and reading her Bible.  She had many children and one was in jail and the other lived on the streets.  She said that she was thankful for her home and her life.  We gave her contact information and she said she would come.  It was an amazing experience and I was very impressed with how talented Diego was at sharing the word!!

 

 

 

We had some time to spend having dinner and fellowshipping.  Some of our group had discovered a pulperia around the block that made homemade bread.  I walked with the group and we all bought and shared the bread.  The best that I tried had cream cheese and coconut on it!!

The famous pulperia with delicious bread!!  Chase interpreted for us.

 

Here was the men at the Bible Study today.  There is a women's group picture too, but I'll have to wait until someone posts it on FB.


 

Evening services started at 6:30 and guess who came???  The lady we studied with!!  Everyone from our Bible study greeted her and gave her hugs.  At our reception tonight, we served popcorn, M&Ms and cookies.  Tomorrow will be our last day here and I know there will be many sad hearts.  The minister, Christian, has already started talking about coming back next year!! 

This is Dennis, he always has a smile on his face!

Jenga in CR during fellowship, this was a legendary tower!!


 

 

The lady in hot pink is Gendry, she is the preacher's wife.  The lady in green is Crystal, the preacher's sister, she translated for us.



Thad, Terry, and Steve decided to choose another form of evangelism!!

Hasta luego!!

 

PJ  xoxo

Muchos gracias, mi hijo!!!!

Well yesterday I was sick, but I started antibiotic.  I was a little concerned about how I would feel today.  I had decided I would build the third house, but hoping the conditions would be great. (Group, chiefs, site, weather, etc.) 

 

 

 

 I have been on some very difficult ones, so now I know the obstacles that you can face:  mountains to climb, slippery slopes, sometimes you have to carry all of the lumber to the site, sometimes you have rocks to dig up to put the footers in, sometimes you have too many “chiefs”, or sometimes you have too many people who don’t chip in.

 

 

Needless to say, since I hadn’t been feeling well, I was a tiny bit concerned.  I have been on many house builds with Pat Gutherie and I knew if he went everything would be fine.  Well, at devo time, he tells me they need him to be somewhere else.  Then when it is time to choose teams, hardly anyone raises their hands.  They asked for more people, so we got a few more.  You really don’t want too many because then you can get in each other’s way.

This is Jose, I have known him and his brother Cristian a few years.  Their mom is in the US now, so I always say, "Mi hijos".  Cristian has grown up so much since last year, he worked really hard on the roof today.



 

mi otra hijo (My other son)

 

We also had a group that would go to Didasko Orphanage and take food.  Another team would make lunches and feed the people at the dump.  Diane was going with Terry to pick up three people from the airport and run errands.

 

 

 

 

As I started getting my things packed to go worked, I decided this house would be the one that Lucas’ funded and that renewed my spirit and I got more enthusiastic. 

 

 

Well, God taught me another lesson.  Our group had the perfect site, it was a beautiful day with mild temperatures, all of the wood was at the site and it all combined for a “perfect storm” for a house build.

 

Across the dirt road, there was a construction crew building a really nice, expensive block and stucco house.  It was so funny, they pretty much stopped and stared at us all day!!!

 

We were up close to El Tigre Park, which is a "cloud forest", I believe.  I could live here!!!!  Muy bonita!!!


 

 

I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.  The rest of the teams had great days, I’m sorry, but I don’t have pictures of their days.  You can check out these blogs:  www.childrenoftheking.blogspot.com and www.jewelryprojecthonduras.blogspot.com . 

 

 

This is Oneyda. I think she is about 21 and is now in college.  She and her three brothers lost their parents several years ago.  Mark Connell, a missionary here, and his wife, took them under his wing and helped them out.  They always help us with house builds.  She is a beast,we can always count on her to do the hard stuff!!!




 

Tomorrow is church and a day of rest!!!!

 

GOD IS GOOD, ALL OF THE TIME!!

Everywhere we go we hear sad stories.  This old man saw the bus and hobbled to our site.  He told us he was sick and he thought we had medicine.

 

PJ  xoxo