Cheeseburgers in Paradise

Hey all! My mom and I got back yesterday from our week long trip to Costa Rica that was my graduation present. It was a pretty amazing trip, although I spent way too much money, including buying a cedar chest that had to be shipped to the US. It is a beautiful piece of furniture though, and I was planning on buying myself an MP3 player for graduation, so I decided to just buy that instead.

Anyways, we spent the first couple of days in Manuel Antonio, which is a beautiful beach on the Pacific coast. It really was like being in paradise. Mom and I both had cheeseburgers the last day so that we could say we had cheeseburger in paradise, like the Jimmy Buffet song?

Anyways, after that we caught a bus back to San Jose, where we spent a day exploring the sights there and seeing the museums. I was pleased, I remembered the city pretty well. San Jose doesn't exactly have tons to do, so we spent lots of time that day shopping for wooden salad bowls. My mom was determined to buy a wooden salad bowl but she had to see every one in Costa Rica before deciding which one she wanted to buy.

The hotel in San Jose was less than perfect. It was clean and safe and in a good location, which I guess is the most important thing, but it was pretty sparse. My favorite part was that there were windows in the bathroom wall and door so that you could see everything going on inside the bathroom from the bedroom. I mean, it's not like Mom hasn't seen me naked a thousand times, but nonetheless, she hasn't recently and it's nice to have some privacy when your using the bathroom!

The next day, we went out to San Ramon to see my host family. They are all doing pretty well, Anto is a dentist who is saving to start her own clinic, Carol is a partner in her father's law practice, and Esteban is married with a 2 year old daughter who is just about the cutest thing that you've ever seen in your entire life. Esteban is still studying at the university, but is living down the street about half a kilometer next door to his in laws. His parents are helping him so that he doesn't have to work while finishing school. Mami and Papi are doing well too, they dote on their new granddaughter and are very happy to see their children doing well. It was great to see them, but also very strange. I felt like I fit right back into the family dynamic, and they all seemed really happy to meet my mom.

Also, San Ramon is quite a bit different than when I was there. They built a mall out on the main highway that has maybe a dozen stores in it and a three screen movie theater. I know that doesn't sound like much, but it's a BIG deal. Carol and Papi have moved offices. The house has a big stucco wall out front where there was just a little wrought iron fence and a balcony where there used to just be a window. I almost didn't recognize the house.

So with my host family we sort of toured San Ramon and then went back to the house and watched the US- Costa Rica soccer game, which I didn't even know was going on that day until I got there and my host family told me. US won 3-0 but luckily they weren't cranky sore losers, like they were the last time I was in Costa Rica and the US beat them in soccer.

The next day we went to Arenal Volcano, which is an active volcano, and hot springs. It was sort of cloudy, so we didn't get a really good view of the volcano, although we could see where half the mountain was missing vegetation because of the activity. Then when we were coming back from the hot springs, it was dark and we stopped at the side of the road and you could see little red lights on the mountain from the lava coming down the mountain. It was pretty cool.

Last day we went back to San Ramon and my host family took us souvenir shopping at Sarchi. We ate lunch at a restaurant owned by Mami's brother, which was quite yummy, then stopped by coffee fields owned by Mami's family. It was really hard to say goodbye to all the family again, they are such good people and I really do miss them.

Anyways, yesterday we came back to the US and now we are going crazy getting ready because my uncle is coming to visit. So now I have to go help my mom, this ended up being longer than I thought it would be anyways. Hope everything is going great with all you guys!