Last day in the Garden of Eden, massaje & caliente agua

(The volcano chose to make an appearance.  I don't think we saw it the whole time we were hee last year.)

   Today is Sunday. It is our only full day at La Fortuna, so church services are scheduled for later in the evening.

Several of our group chose the option of taking a ziplining tour.  Torch members from as young as 12 (I'm guessing), to as old as 60+ (Ricky & Freda Butts from Gulf Shores, AL) flew through the jungle.  I decided to save my $$ and treat myself to a massage later.

Terry had arranged for us to have day passes (lunch & dinner buffet included) at Baldi Springs.  Last year, I chose to stay at our hotel, little did I know what I was missing.  Just imagine a Garden of Eden theme park.  That's the best way I can describe this place.

(Chillin' on the back porch of our room.)

In the middle of beautiful tropical vegetation you have heated lagoons & pools of varying degrees of warmth.  Many of us had sceduled massages, but we whiled our way hiking up and down sampling the many pools.

Several of us had appointments for 4:30, but Diane and I headed to the spa around 3:30.  They had an additional heated pool on what seemed to be the roof.  We relaxed there and enjoyed the quiet.  We headed down tot he spa and they treated us to hot tea and cookies.

One of our leaders had bargained for us to get a free facial if we selected certain packages.  I accepted the deal and got a full body thermal mud massage.  Let's just say it was heavenly!!!  Each massage room was partially open to the lush jungle.  When my massage was over I was directed to a shower.  In  CA is it very common for showers to be cold and this was no exception.  There was a filled tub built in to the concrete that I was hoping was warm water and it was.  After we got out, we got to lounge in our robes and were treated to either tea or water!!  Heavenly!!!

We ended the evening with our church service.  Singing here is what I imagine heaven to be like.  Except, I'll be a beautiful singer in heaven.    Our collection (it was a surprise) went to Cristian and his family who will be moving to the states in a few weeks for Bible college..  The family was moved to tears by this gesture.

Friends, I hope you have enjoyed following along with me on this trip.  Torch Missions 2015 as always has been one epic trip!!      

(Restaurant at Baldi, It was basically like an enormous tree house in the jungle.)

I have some great spa pics, but the internet is so slow right now that I'll have to share them later!!

Over and out!!! xoxo

Saturday..leaving Camp Jennie Sue

(Do you know why it's called the rain forest?  It rains a lot!)



Friday I ended up the night playing cards and then turned in for bed early.  The longer I stay here the better I sleep.  Our cabin, with about 20 bunks for ladies was surprisedly comfortable.

I awoke early, as usual, and go ready quietly so as not to disturb the later sleepers.  I put on my makeup on the porch of the cabin and watched the ducks doing their morning routine.  This routine seemed to consist of morning stretches, some chatting and chastising, before jumping back into the stream for a swim.  (Kind of like our life.)

I worked on Friday's blog while waiting for breakfast.  We would only be at this camp through early afternoon before we would have to say good-bye to most of the church members who had come for the retreat.  Cristian, the minister, and his family would be going with us to our final retreat at La Fortuna.

We finished up our Bible retreat with one more split class.  Margaret Reeves lead ours and had us share our thoughts, feelings and good-byes to our Costa Rican sisters.  She shared that from her own experience that we have no guarantees that we would be back next year.  (She couldn't come last year.)  It is also always emphasized that this team this summer will never be exactly the same again.  She also exhorted us to do everything possible to make sure that we would all be reunited in heaven one day!!

Several of us shared and our hearts were full.  I shared that this experience, I felt, was the most like heaven there is on earth.  That is being surrounded by like-minded Christians while we totally focus on praising God, serving Him, helping others, sharing and learning more about the Bible, and being the hands and feet of Jesus!!!

There also was additional sadness because Cristian and Yendry will be leaving soon to move to the US for two years. Cristian will be attending the Southwestern Bible College and his family will be living in Texas during this time.  Yendry's mom, Maribell, cried and expressed her sadness about not seeing her daughter and granddaughters for two years.  (People in other countries, especially Central America, don't have the freedom to fly to the US.  In fact, Yendry shared how they had been trying to get a visa to study in the US for 8 years.  Each time they apply their is a hefty fee and most are often denied.  They had been denied until this last time.)

Not only that, Maribell was worried because her other daughter and son-in-law had gone to Panama to study.  While there, they had a terrible experience.  As a mother, she felt so bad because she wasn't able to help them as much as she wanted to.  We all assured them that their experience in the US would be much better.  In fact, if it wasn't, several of us said we would go to TX and help.

We packed up and left the camp after lunch around 2.  We hugged and said our good-byes and "Proximo Anos" to the church members that had to leave.  It is great that we can at least stay in touch via Facebook.

We boarded our buses to head to our final destination, La Fortuna. Our rided lasted several hours, but was filled with lots of sights to see has we headed over the moutanins that had been in the background the whole time we were in San Jose.  I will stop here for now, but try to add pictures that will tell the rest of the story.

(Sorry for the crazy selfie.  We made it to La Fortuna and Arenal Paraiso, where we are staying.)

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