Sloths are cute! Who knew?

Saturday we went to La Paz Catarata (the Peace Waterfall).  We being the family from Florida which consists of a doctor, his wife and their 4 kids (16, 14, 9, and 7), Eric, Jenee, and I.  (And our awesome tour guide Anna Maria, her son, and our driver Guillermo.)  We met at the school at 8, loaded in the van, and after waiting for another student who didn’t show, we took off. 

It was a really pretty drive up there.  Today was the first day we really got out of town.  And the first time that it really hit me how pretty Costa Rica is. We stopped at one lookout over the central valley where San Jose is.  We look over a field of coffee plants into the Central Valley.

The family and the coffee plantation.

There are lots of earth quakes here apparently. They are caused by one plate going under another one here.  (I think Pacific Plate going under the Caribbean Plate… I can’t swear to the names, even though I was told this morning.) Two years ago was the last big one. It actually raised Costa Rica several meters.  The road to La Paz also fell into a valley.  So parts of it are still being rebuilt and were a little rough.

Most of the road DID NOT look like this, but this was part they hadn't totally repaired yet.  I'm sure the tourism board would appreciate me using this.

The La Paz Waterfall used to be this waterfall that Costa Ricans would stop on the road and look at.  Well an American and Guatemalan saw an opportunity there and bought the land on either side of the river and set up pathways and a zooish area with native animals and birds.  So you can see lots of stuff… for a price.  There is also a nice hotel there. 

We first went through part of the zoo and saw birds, butterflies, monkeys, and my favorite, the two-fingered sloths.  Apparently the difference is the number of fingers not toes.  They were so cute!  They did readjust their sleeping positions, so we got to see them move slowly.  

Two two fingered sloths

Isn't she cute???

Jill, the 7 year-old, has a toy monkey named Banana that she carries with her.  When we got to the monkeys, she showed Banana to the monkeys.  They freaked out, it was pretty funny.  With another set, Anna Maria stuck her finger through the first layer of fence and the monkey reached through and grabber finger.  She said later her finger smelled like banana.  I thought she was pretty lucky that that was the smell that transferred.

Banana and the monkeys.  They really did freak out.

Anna Maria making friends with a monkey.

We then went through an area with a bunch of hummingbird feeders.  There were hummingbirds everywhere.  They are tough to get a picture of.  They move fast.  There was a big (for a hummingbird) purple one I never could get a picture of.

We then ate lunch at a restaurant on the grounds.  It was nice.  They had a big open patio.  After lunch, we headed to see the jungle cats.  There was a jaguar that was stalking fish in a pond.  It was pretty fun to watch. I didn’t get particularly good pictures of it though. 

Then we went into a traditional Tico house.  We were served a very, very sweet warm drink made of I think molasses or something and milk. 

Trying out traditional Tico drinks and food.

We then went into the frog house.  It was very cool.  We got to see a bunch of frogs that you always see when people do stories on tropical areas.  Anna Maria got to talking to one of the guys that worked there and he took us into a little room and showed us some big frogs.  (We had already seen tiny ones.)

A really small frog.  For scale reference, this is a huge leaf... the frog was less than an inch long.

I like this frog... but its a poison one... so I was grateful for a telephoto lens

At this point, we headed down to the falls.  It was so green everywhere!  After the very dry spring in Abilene, the green in New Zealand and Costa Rica has made a huge impression. 

Walking down to the falls

We saw 3 waterfalls.  I’m told it was three although I’m only sure about two of them.  I even know their names (Templo, Magica Blanca, and La Paz) and I saw the signs.   But I think Magica Blanca and La Paz are the same in my mind.  When we were walking to/ by the waterfalls we got to talking to Eduardo, Ana Maria’s son some.  (In English I’m ashamed to admit.) He’s a university student studying culinary arts.

El Templo?

We could kind of get behind one... I think it was La Paz

La Paz

I just liked this plant.

After the waterfalls, we took a bus up to the top again, loaded into the van, and headed home.  It’s amazing how much quieter it was on the way home.  Most people slept.  The view was still beautiful.

The central valley from the van.

 When we got back, Eric, Jenee, and I went to the grocery store near the school.  I mainly went to look around and see what there was.  They actually bought some stuff.  (Crazy.)  I then caught the bus home, edited pictures, ate dinner with Isabel, and then worked on uploading stuff while the internet was on. 

There was a neighborhood party that was pretty loud.  I kept hearing “chug, chug, chug” … not the sound… the words… in English.  It mainly sounded like one guy.  Ah well…  I was very grateful for the earplugs my mom gave me before I left.  Isabel said she couldn’t sleep because they were making so much noise.

Sunday I got up and got ready for church.  I had not communicated a time that I wanted to leave to go to church, so I was a bit late getting away from the house.  A taxi got me close to the church.  He kept getting lost and when we got close I paid him and told him I’d find it on foot.  Luckily Jorge had understood the directions and had told me what to look for.

Church was fine, but in minding melting fast Spanish.  There were five of us from ACU there.  Two girls are working with the church this summer.  One is a former student and goes to Minter Lane (the church I attend in Abilene.)  The other two are a couple.  He is from San Jose.  So it was fun to be together.  In class, I had totally zoned out.  The guy teaching the class asked the four Americans a question.  None of us had any idea what he asked… I think we were all zoned out at that point.  I tried harder to pay attention after that.  I think I followed pretty well.  The girls were impressed that I had a Spanish only Bible with me.

After church, I went to a nearby store and looked around, got some lunch, and grabbed a taxi back to the house.  It was nice going back because I knew what we were looking for.  When I got back I did some homework.  Then Isabel’s sister and brother-in-law came over.  (I have GOT to figure out their names.)  I visited with the sister.  Then they invited me to go with them (Isabel, the sister, brother-in-law, and grandson, Matias).  No one was sure where.  Just for a drive and to get something to eat or something.  We ended up on the opposite side of town at a Mexican restaurant.  We visited and ate and ate and ate.  I was very full and my head was full of Spanish… so I’ve been sleepy ever since.  But I think I finally have the word for full down… which is important to know when Isabel feeds you.  When we got back in the car to come home Isabel made a comment about how she couldn’t breathe because she was so full.  It was a joke of course, but Matias, who is four didn’t know this, and rolled down the window so she could get some air… we got pretty tickled over this.

When we got home Isabel and her sister decided to go to a store kind of lioke an informal Sam’s near the house.  They invited me to go with them again.  So I did.  It was nice they had the names of most stuff displayed with the prices, so I could work on vocabulary. 

My brain is now very tired because I probably only spoke 15-20 minutes of English today.  Tomorrow my friends at school and I are going to speak only Spanish with each other.  (We probably should have done that all along… but it really only came up on Thursday and Friday that’s what we all wanted to do.)  Don’t worry I’ll still blog in English.  J