My Trip to Costa Rica

I took Spanish from a friend's dad, Ivan, for about 5 years all the way up to my 9th grade year. That Christmas as a sort of grand finale we took a 10 day trip to Costa Rica. We left on Christmas day and got back on January 3.

We flew to Costa Rica on the airline Lacsa. This wasn't the company we were originally going to fly with. A while before we left the travel agent informed us that she'd gone to get our tickets and hadn't been able to get them. It turns out that the airline we were to fly had gone BANKRUPT!! Its probably a good thing that we hadn't actually got our tickets yet and that we didn't end up flying with them.

I know most of you are used to arriving at the airport and going to the carousel to watch you luggage come down the chute. Not so at this airport. Your luggage comes out on a conveyor belt and is taken off and set on to the floor. You have to pick your way over all the other luggage to get to yours.



Ivan had made arrangements to stay with a man named Walter Sanchez. He had come to UTM to study and then moved back to Costa Rica. When we arrived, they promptly feed us some traditional Christmas day food. ENCHILADAS!!! Walter is busy explaining to Berk how much that sauce he's got in his hand is going to burn but Berk doesn't seem to care.



That's Walter in the middle and his wife is on the left. The woman on the right is the grandmother of the famliy.


My mom, my sister, and I stayed with his brother Carlos. All of these people in the picture did not live in the house. They had just come over to see us.

On the first full day there we decided to go see a volcano whose name escapes me at the moment. Not only was it hot out, we were also up above 6,000 feet so we got lots of sun. We ended getting a little toasted and it only got worse the longer we spent in Costa Rica. This is a picture of all of the kids who went on the trip. From left to right they are Marta, Stephanie (my little sis), Sarah, Berk, me, and Kris (Berk's little brother). The kid that Kris is holding is Walter's son, Juan Gabriel.


There was this nice fence that you could walk up to and see the crater (no pictures of it have been scanned yet). There was also a sign telling us not to go over the fence and near the crater. Everyone seemed to ignore it (including us).

The reason the sign was there became clear once you saw the path around the crater rim. Not only was it uneven and narrow but you also had a good drop on either side.

If you look at this next picture closely you'll notice that the clouds are behind and BELOW us! Little Juan Gabriel was giving us fits by letting go of our hands and running along the trail.


Near Cartago, there was a beautiful orchid garden. There were also an abundance of gorgeous butterflies that were attracted to these flowers. Of course, a place like this has to have a greenhouse. Sarah, Berk, and I went in to look at the flowers in there. All of a sudden Berk calls to us and says, "Look at this flower. Its kinda of like Myaaah." All things considered, I think he did a pretty decent impression of that orchid.



After that we generally loafed about the city and visited various places. Most of the population is Catholic and they have some magnificent churches there. The insides are beautiful and around the edge they usually have a series of paintings or stained glass windows depicting the life of Jesus.





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