Costa Rica - Final Post!

Yes, believe it or not, this will be my final post on our trip to Costa Rica. Day nine is our final day in traveling Costa Rica; our true final day is day ten but we're just traveling home that day. Once again I have to say what an incredible experience this was for me and Todd and what a beautiful country. I highly recommend traveling there.

Our final day was spent seeing the sights of San Jose and the nearby city of Orosi with a side trip to visit the Bomberos. If you don't know what a Bomberos is, you'll just have read this post to find out.


















Our day started in the capital city of San Jose. A big, busy, crowded city. Our tour guide mentioned that 1/2 the population of Costa Rica lives in the city of San Jose and the surrounding cities, which I believe is around 2 million. The remaining 2 million live spread throughout the country. It really was quite crowded but still had it's own beauty. I'm standing in front of one of their theaters, built many years ago but maintained beautifully.


















This is the central park within the city. We thought this structure was cool. Spread throughout the park are a variety of metal oxen. I think I mentioned that the ox and oxcart are important symbols in Costa Rica. The ox and oxcart were an important part in building this country.

Here's one of the metal oxen. Each oxen is painted to portray various things that are important to the country. I have no idea what this oxen is supposed to portray.

Here's another metal oxen. I believe this one is portraying something to do with politics. (really have no idea).

Before I go much further with my post, I had to show a picture of the bus we traveled on throughout the country. This was a really nice bus and I shouldn't complain.. but let me tell you... it was freakin' scary to ride this bus through those narrow roads and across those narrow bridges over extremely deep chasms with rushing rivers below. Whew! Ok, I feel much better. On to more of the beautiful country of Costa Rica.





















From San Jose, we traveled to Sanchiri Lodge overlooking the gorgeous valley of Orosi. What a perfect location to end our travels. The valley of Orosi was just breathtaking. It was hard to believe that it was just a few minutes outside bustling San Jose.




















We ate lunch at Sanchiri lodge and enjoyed every minute of it. The lodge was perched on the edge of the valley and was open to the outside. The temperature was perfect, around 80 degrees, with a slight breeze and relatively low humidity. It was just a perfect day.



















This is our view during lunch.

















From the lodge we could see this strange triangle house. We asked our guide, Paul, about the house and he said this house belongs to Michael Landon's family... you know .... "Pa" from Little House on the Prairie. Michael Landon used to live in the home before he died and now his family owns the house. He didn't know if "Pa" had the house built or if it was built by a previous owner. Interesting shape for a house.

















Here we are in Orosi Valley. Next to their church is a park with this painted mural. Much of the export from Costa Rica is coffee. This mural depicts the early people of Costa Rica harvesting their crop of coffee.

















Orosi was really a beautiful little town. Surrounding the town were beautiful rolling hills with houses and small dirt roads all over the hills. This was our view from the Orosi church. The picture does not do justice to the beauty.

















I took this picture for my Dad. You can't see clearly, but there is a lone house at the top of the hill. This home and the beautiful valley made me think of Papacito and his love of Costa Rica. I imagine this house as my Dad's dream home.. maybe someday huh Pop?

















Orosi is really a small town but within the town they had this gorgeous church.
























A beautiful church and beautiful valley. I must say that in my opinion, Orosi valley was the most beautiful little town. It was a town that made me wish I had a better camera to better show off the beauty. A perfect place to end our Costa Rica travels.





Before we say farewell to Costa Rica, here's some final pictures. The entire trip, Todd was hoping to visit the Bomberos, firefighters. After returning from San Jose and Orosi, Todd and I got a taxi and took a trip to visit the local fire house in San Jose. The men there were so kind and friendly. Todd brought a couple extra shirts from his fire station hoping to exchange shirts with them. They not only exchanged shirts but gave him a great belt buckle and badge.








It was really cool to see the camaraderie between the firefighters and you could feel the brotherhood between them even being from different countries and cultures. Todd enjoyed this final adventure.
Adventure is the best way to describe this entire experience. It was fun to relive it all through my posts. I'm now done and loved reliving every minute. Adios Amigos and Amigas!

Costa Rica - Day Eight

On the eighth day of our incredible trip, we left beautiful Arenal Springs hotel. It really was a nice hotel and a needed improvement from the sparse Buena Vista Lodge. Buena Vista lodge had no tv, extremely remote, lots of wildlife, lots of insects, but very beautiful vs. Arenal Springs hotel with a tv, variety of food, chocolate in the gift shop, towns nearby, AND very beautiful. Both are beautiful but you can tell my preference... did you catch the chocolate in the gift shop part? hmmm mmmm

















So, our travels from Arenal back to San Jose brought us through the lovely town, of Grecia. What's unique about Grecia is that they have a gorgeous, red, metal church. Yes, the church is metal, it's made of steel. There's a long story behind this church and I don't remember all of the particulars but basically it's a prefabricated church that was made in Germany, I think, and was shipped to a destination other than Costa Rica. By a series of mistakes it ended up in Costa Rica and in the town of Grecia. It's really a beautiful church and it really is made of steel.


















Here's me preparing to enter this unusual church.


















Sorry for the fuzzy picture, I am just using a basic digital camera after all. Oh, I didn't use the flash in the church out of respect for the worshippers and was very discreet only taking pictures in the back. :-)

My handsome husband being dragged into yet another church. :-)

This was behind the church and I thought it was interesting ... so I took a picture. Simple as that.

After touring the red, steel church in Grecia we hopped back on the bus and traveled to another lovely little town. I don't know the name of this town but we stopped at the central park for a tour of the amazing grounds. Throughout the entire park the bushes are shaped and sculpted in incredible shapes.

Cool, huh? Wish I had taken more pictures. There were so many cool shapes.

These archways lead to the church. My understanding is that couples preparing to marry in the church travel through the archway up to the church steps where they are met by the preacher and ushered into the church to be married.

Here's the inside of the church. The light through the stained glass windows was just beautiful. It made a beautiful pinkish, purplish glow.

This is the outside of the church. The interesting thing about this shot is the poster behind the angel holding the fish. I took the picture because I thought the angel holding the fish was interesting but my brother-in-law, Jared, pointed out to me that the poster behind the angel holding the fish (you can tell I think the angel holding the fish is interesting) is actually a painting done by LDS artist Greg Olsen. Interesting!

Here's the view of the town from behind the angel holding the fish. :-)

Cute town, huh? This is typical of most towns we drove through in Costa Rica, very quaint.

A final picture of the cute town with no name. We thought this plant was interesting and just had to snap a photo.

Our next stop was the town of Sarchi. This town is known for many things and one of them is their crafts and artists. They have a unique style of painting and detail done on the wood oxcarts and furniture.

Here's a sample of some of the artwork done on some cute wood chairs.

















The national symbol of labor in Costa Rica is the oxcart. Here's a large oxcart wheel painted in their unique style of painting. The detail and colors are just beautiful.

















Here's an oxcart that was pulled by prehistoric, giant sized oxen back in 5,000 B.C. Just kidding.... just a giant sized oxcart on display for silly tourista's like me to take pictures of and put on their blog.


















One of the roads in the lovely town of Sarchi.


















Todd and I checking out all the little shops in town and enjoying the artwork on the furniture and buildings. After Sarchi, we then made it to our final destination, San Jose. We will now spend two last nights in San Jose before flying home.

Costa Rica - Day Seven

I'm so enjoying posting all our fun times in Costa Rica. It really was the best! Day seven finds us still at Arenal Springs hotel, which was a beautiful, very nice, hotel. From our hotel we had a fantastic view of Arenal volcano.
















Here's a sample view. I just love this photo but it doesn't really do justice to the beauty of the area. It's really just a beautiful country overall.


















Each hotel room was really more of a separate bungalow. We walked down these little roads to our individual bungalow.
















I don't know what kind of plant this is but it's a sample of the many exotic plants around the hotel.


















Here's another beautiful, exotic flower.


















I think these are called plantanos, a type of a banana.




















Another sample of the gorgeous flowers around our hotel, Arenal Springs.



















Each little bungalow had a set of these super comfortable rocking chairs. I really wanted to bring one home with me, fairly inexpensive to buy, but much to expensive to ship. So, I just enjoyed the chairs as much as I could while I was there.



















We're on our way to breakfast. What an incredible experience walking through the gorgeous hotel grounds with such a breathtaking view in front of us. :-)


















This is the balcony and a walkway just outside the eating area. The eating area is open to the outdoors.



















While eating, we had a chance to do a little bird watching and were able to capture this beautiful hummingbird.



















After we enjoyed our breakfast, we took a taxi into the nearby town, La Fortuna, to do some shopping. It was a great little town and we sure had fun buying gifts. This is where we found Evan's lucky machete.

















Here's the central park for the town with the Arenal volcano in the background.


















After our shopping fun, we headed to some real fun. We spent the rest of the day at this amazing resort. I wish I could remember the name, but this place had about 15 different pools of natural spring water heated from the volcano. The temperatures ranged from "cold" to "super hot". One pool you weren't allowed to get in because it was 152 degrees (Yikes!) but it had massage tables all around this pool and you could get a massage while enjoying the steam. This place was incredible. Here's Todd enjoying a nice warm pool. Within this pool were smaller hot tub like pools of cold water.


















Around all the pools were gorgeous plants and rock formations. They were fake rock formations but they looked cool all the same. :-)

















As we gradually made our way through the pools we discovered they had two waterslides. These were mega, monster, fast waterslides that I don't think would be legal in the states. You went down them so fast you skidded across the water like a skipping stone. Todd LOVED it... me.... not so much.


















Here's a sample of the "rock formations" found in various pools. Fun, huh?

















As you walked from pool to pool you walked along this paths landscaped with gorgeous plants and exotic flowers.





Here's a video of Todd's first try down the straight slide. It was incredibly fast. The slide next to it is even faster and just crazy!



We video taped some of the students who traveled with us going down the crazy, twisty, fast slide. There was a large crowd at the bottom of the slide with everyone just amazed that no one was hurt going down the slide. It was fun to watch! :-)


Last but not least.... here's a video of an older gentleman that traveled with us, someone who became a good friend of ours. We taped him going down the slide and just crack up each time we watch it. It really is just hilarious to watch him flop like a fish down the slide. :-) Another great day in Costa Rica!