Finally made it

I guess after my fifth time of coming to Costa Rica my parents finally decided they needed to check it out . What it is that I love so much? On Saturday, February 3rd my parents arrived for a two week visit. This is the first time they have ever been to Costa Rica and the first time we have seen each other since September 17th, 2006.

I planned as much as I could ahead of time and had an itinerary for each day. I wanted them to see as much of Costa Rica's places and people as they could.

They came through the airport about 1130 after having arrived at about 945, let's just say it's kind of slow and leave it at that. But I was worried that I might have missed them as Jose & Fabi's car broke down the freeway on the way to the Airport. But I arrived about a half hour before they came out. We took a taxi home and Jose had his car taken to the shop and was fixed the following day. On Sunday, we went to Cynthia's parents church in the morning (an amazing 2.5 hour service). Jose's Mom made us Pozol soup for lunch and then we headed to the Volcano, unfortunately we arrived and it had closed just 10 minutes before. But we did truly enjoy just being together.

We spent the next morning with Cynthia's mom and dad (Pastors Rafael and Terecita) and in the afternoon we headed to Orosi Valley to look at some ruins of a very old church back from the time of the Spanish Conquistadors (my dad loves to look at old ruins). On Tuesday we headed to Jicotea to spend the day with Josiah, Cynthia and baby Joel. My parents were able to see my room being built as well as their home and the ministry building that were built by Northside teams a few years ago. Josiah spent hours given my dad the royal tour while my mom made a quick friend with baby Joel.

On Wednesday we visited the Guyabo National Park (with ruins of an old city) and had dinner with pastors Mauricio and Marjorie Lopez.

Early Thursday morning we left Turrialba (where we were staying; about 1 hour from Jicotea) to head to Quepos. Playa Quepos is a mere 6 hour drive from Turrialba (oh yeah, I had never driven there before) but we thought we'd just take an extra hour and quickly head up to see the Volcano that had been closed on Sunday. It said it was only 26 kms up but we didn't relaize how WAAAAAAY up it was. My little Pajarito (my great car) did really well but I think at parts we were moving about 10 kms an hour; not quite as powerful as Jose's V6 engine. It probably wasn't a brilliant idea to add onto a 6 hour drive. But we made it up took a quick look and some photos and headed back down.

We arrived in Quepos at about 5pm after some pretty steep hills and rough curves (oh ya, no air-conditioning which hit my parents (&me) about 1.5 hours outside of Quepos). Needless to say we were ready to relax once we arrived. A friend of mine in Quepos arranged a home for us to stay in and it was absolutely beautiful. What a blessing to relax and spend time with my parents for a full week. We visited the Manuel Antonio National Park and took a Mangorve tour by boat thru the Mangrove Forests.

We had planned to stay the last two nights between Quepos and the airport but plans changed and we ended up staying at Jose and Faby's again for 2 nights. It was really cozy and was just a great way to end the trip.

We had a great time but 2 weeks sure went by fast. I would love to show them more so please give them a little nudge to come and visit again soon.