Costa Rica: La Fortuna

Letter to the familia:

6/5
We just got back from Arenal Volcano ( an active volcano, although there hasn't been any lava flowing from it since December). It was amazing!!! We went with our friends Sarah, Victor, Jen, and Tanner who live with us at Alijandro's. We rode on a bus (the gross, old, no ac kind, I didn't dare touch the seat head rests) for 5 hours (it only cost $4 a person) and got to La Fortuna which 

is where we stayed at a hostel. It was a really nice hostel, we stayed in tents like the kind you can stand up in, they even had outlets in them and a light. There was a really nice pool and restaurant that wasn't too expensive. The food was the best we have had while in CR. On Friday when we first got there we went zip-lining, which we got video of and pictures of  course. And then we went to Baldi Hot springs, which are springs that come from the volcano that have been made into a resort. It was paradise in there. The pictures we have don't do it justice. There are 25 pools and 3 water slides. It is all warm/hot water. And the coolest part is you can relax and look up at the volcano, it is so beautiful there. And then we ate dinner there at a buffet it, was pretty good. The next day we went water rafting, which was great fun, even though Tyler wanted to fall out and he didn't. Then we relaxed by the pool until our night hike. We had a guide take us into the rain forest at night and we got to see lots of cool animals that he spotted/ caught for us to see. We saw several frogs, a viper snake, a sloth, a few lizards, and a whole termite nest. We also saw a rubber tree and got to play with the bark, so cool. Oh and Tyler ate some termites. This morning we packed up our stuff
and headed for a waterfall. It is pretty large, but you can swim at the bottom, which most of us did. There were tons of people there so we didn't stay too long. Then we headed back to San Jose, of course the bus we were on broke down on the way, but they sent another one pretty quick. We got home ate some kind of rice with veggies and tuna in it, which was not so good, very fishy. And our juice tasted like cough syrup. No more good food :( Last Wednesday we went to the movies and saw Pirates of the Caribbean. It is played in English with Spanish subtitles, or you can go to see it dubbed over in Spanish. All of the pastries and stuff here don't have much sugar, so they are kind of bland too. I hope all is going well with you guys. Tyler is using his Spanish A LOT, it would be really hard if he didn't speak Spanish. The pic of Marta was cool. I'm so proud of her for doing that. And as for skype, we can try to set that up, I don't think we have an account. We love you all. Take care!

Clare&Tyler

Zip lining was fun until the Tarzan swing when I got pushed off a ledge by one of the guides. Sorry no pictures of my frantic face on here.  

Baldi Hot Springs- The water is naturally heated by the volcano. There are also huge nasty bugs around here. Some that can swim in the hot water. Besides the bugs I loved this place. 

Arenal Waterfall - The water was so cold, but Tyler still got in. Oh and we had to
go down about a mile worth of stairs which means we had to go up them too.

Costa Rica: Casa De Los Ninos (The House of the Children)

We sure love these kids! We had a lot of fun with them. I wish I could go back and see how they are doing. It is incredible how different my circumstances were growing up compared to these children. They sometimes go to school, but it is not enforced. They live in shacks that look like they will fall down any moment. Many of them wear the same clothes everyday, all of which look very used. Inside the Casa the tables and benches are made of tile, which is extremely slippery when it rains, which is almost every day. The children could not comprehend that I didn't speak Spanish, but somehow we still were able to communicated well enough that I could play with them and have a good time. Tyler enjoyed playing with the kids a lot except for when they cheated at Uno which they did every single game. The workers (usually about 3 women) all volunteered there, most of them did so in order to get a free meal for themselves. Jorge was the director and he even was a volunteer and would come every single day. He cared so much for these kids and did his best to teach them manners and be a good role model to them and at times be someone for them to answer to when they were not behaving. He did not allow any cussing, stealing or fighting. He also did not allow any males over the age of 16 to be there. We loved our time there and we both agree it was the best part of our trip.
Here is another email sent to our families:

5/31
So yesterday was just wonderful but very tiring which you could probably see by my lack of grammar and spelling. Something I forgot to tell you... it rained here harder than I have ever experienced rain before. Only for about an hour but Tyler and I got stuck in the rain walking to the bus stop. Our shoes were soaked through even though we bought umbrellas.  Another thing that is somewhat disturbing is you cannot flush toilet paper down the toilet. The pipes are too small and so it will clog. Every bathroom has a trash in it that you put your used toilet paper, gross huh? There is no such
thing as pedestrians have a right of way here. The driving is crazy and you pretty much cannot expect a car to slow down for you. This morning I was awoken by a lot of talking, like A LOT...it could have been in our room it sounded like but no it was right outside our widow. The walls here are paper thin you can hear everything through them. Well anyways I go to look outside our window and there are like 20 taxis covering the street and all the drivers standing around chatting. I had no idea why either. OH by the way this was 2:30 in the morning. Later Tyler and I found out that a few houses down they have parties sometimes and so the taxis wait to see if people need rides. But they have no consideration for people sleeping. They finally left around 3.
The food here is alright... its nothing gross or fancy, pretty bland though. We had hot dogs for the meat in the stew. Lots of rice and black beans. Even the punch is different. The milk it cold, but it lasts for for well over a month, kind of weird. For dinner tonight we had rice with black soup(its like bean broth or something) and then there are hard boiled eggs that are in the soup. Interesting, but bland still. Today it rained the majority of the day, but just lightly. We went to the grocery store this morning and found out the some things are more expensive here than in the states like shampoo it cost like $5 for a smaller bottle that what you would normally get. Cereal is also around $5. Crazy huh? of course we are in a nicer part of the city which makes it more expensive. We were able to get ice cream pops for 25 cents though. The children today were a little different. Some that came yesterday weren't there which is too bad. Tyler and I realized how much these children need guidance in their lives. We tried to play Uno with them but they are cheaters and play by their own rules and it is just chaotic. Even in dominoes this one boy cheats all the time, its really sad they can't even enjoy an honest game, they really try to get away with anything they can. The Uno cards and a set of dominoes were both stolen by the end of the day. It was too bad. But we still enjoyed seeing the kids smiling faces and try to help them show respect for one another.
That's it for today. Love from Costa Rica!

Clare&Tyler

Costa Rica: The Beginning

In late May of this year Tyler and I headed to Costa Rica for 3 weeks. But this is not where this story begins. Since the year before I had been bugging Tyler about going on an adventure. I really really just needed to use my passport. My goal was to get us to Europe and for months I planned budget trips to Europe that still cost over $6000. That wasn't going to fly with Tyler so we made a compromise. We decided to go somewhere closer, for an extra week, and to volunteer during the trip.
So May came around and I was so excited. We graduated at the beginning of the month from the University of Utah in Community and Consumer Studies. Yes, we both graduated in the same degree and both were on the Dean's list and Tyler had honors. We moved down to Saint George, UT for a couple days and then left from Vegas, connected in Florida and then landed in San Jose, Costa Rica. Here is an email we sent to our families the first day:

It has been an exciting and eye-opening first day. I woke up at 5 this morning because that is when the sun comes up. One of our walls in our room is all widows so you can see how this is something to get used to waking up to. We are staying with Alejandro and his son Felipe who is 9. We live in a very nice middle class home. It is all gated and we have a our own room with a lock. There are other volunteers that are staying here to. One couple who just left today is from Hurricane, UT and then another couple who just came today is from slc both are LDS. We had orientation this morning then in the afternoon we went to Casa de los Ninos. The children are not orphans, but they are severely impoverished. There families are mostly from Nicaragua and near their homes are places that have problems with drugs and such. The little building we go to feeds the children a meal in the afternoon and gives them a place to play safely. We play with the children and help serve the meal and clean up. I was nervous at first because I couldn't speak with them, but the children are so kind and friendly and just wanted me to swing the around, I even won at a game of dominoes. Unfortunately, the director of the program said we couldn't take any pictures right now. So hopefully we will be able to later. Some of the kids we even found out are LDS, that was a lot of fun to connect with them on that level. I'll write more about CR tomorrow. Love you all!
Clare&Tyler

This is the place we stayed for two weeks while volunteering.
The walls are paper thin and the floors are all cement.
But it is the nicer part of the city.