Butterfly Garden

Last night a few pharmacy students took us out to dinner. We are so happy that we got to know some local Costa Ricans that could show us around. They took us out for a dish called "Chi-frijo" which is grilled pork and beans. It was delicious!

Today I went with a couple friends to a Butterfly Garden.

It was pretty incredible!
This is Minera from Switzerland, Bradley from Texas, and me inside of the butterfly garden. It was so beautiful! I met these students at the Bed and Breakfast that I have been staying at near San Jose. It was a wonderful way to spend the weekend!These are the caterpillers getting ready for a cacoon! These are cacoons! So cool!

After about 100 photos.. I caught a picture of a butterfly!

I spent some time in San Jose waiting for my parents to arrive! It was a great day! More to come with my parents visit... bye for now.

Puerto Viejo

We had a fabulous weekend in Puerto Viejo!!

So our trip started out with a bus ride where we were told there was "standing room only". In one word, 'awesome'. We knew that it was going to take us 4-5 hours to get to the beach... and standing was not going to be fun. Luckily, Mags and I were the LAST on the bus and we scored the Cockpit and the Steps! Wooo!

So there is Mags up front

and Debs with her Cheetos, ready to go!

Driving to the Caribbean Coast felt a lot like the Caribbean = HUMID! But, it was beautiful and full of lots of fruit plantations. These are some banana trees, so cool!


So, our first day in Puerto Viejo, we decided to rent bikes. This seemed to be the main way that everyone gets around. So we joined right in...



This is Maggie merging into traffic... haha.
We rode our bikes about 10 miles along the coast. The entire ride was through the rainforest with stops along the beach. We spent some time at Punta Uva and Manzanillo Beach.Mags and I layed out on the beach here at Punta Uva which means Grape Point (not really sure why). But it was an awesome beach. We used someone's snorkel to take a peek in the water and the entire coastline is a coral reef! We saw lots of fish and coral out there!


We continued our ride to Manzanillo where the rainforest meets up with the beach. It was awesome!
Mags and Debs in Manzanillo....

This was part of our trek through the rainforest... The pictures don't even begin to show you how gorgeous it was!!
While on the Caribbean Coast... I decided that I should try some local flavor. All the restaurants rave about their seafood and fish tacos. They were nothing short of amazing!

Mags trying to wipe off the bugs and humidity... haha.

We had a wonderful time riding bikes and exploring the eastern side of Costa Rica. It was a great weekend!!

"Home Sweet Home"

We had a wonderful time with Chris coming to visit us in Costa Rica. Unfortunately, we had to come back to San Jose for another week of work. This week we are working in our local barrio/town of Escazu. The pharmacist is very friendly and helpful with us and the patients. It turned out to be a nice relaxing week.

Soo... Maggie and I are staying at a Bed and Breakfast where people constantly come and go. One guy left behind a jar of NUTELLA which sparked the idea that we should make crepes! Thank goodness Maggie has some sweet cooking skills and knew exactly how to make them..

We added bananas, nutella, dulce de leche, and ice cream to our delicious crepes!
Notice the empty bar of Nutella in the photo above.. hahaha. This is a Dulce de Leche crepe! Maybe if pharmacy doesn't work out, we can open a CREPERIE! yummmm! Well, not too much is going on this week. We are preparing for our travels to the Caribbean Coast this coming weekend and we are super excited! Bye for now!

Manuel Antonio Beach Park

We continued our road trip to Manual Antonio National Park. This is located on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. We spent our time relaxing at the beach and hunting for wildlife. Manuel Antonio is filled with lush rainforest that meets up with some beautiful beaches. We saw frogs, iguanas, lizards, crabs, slugs, a rodent, and a three-toed tree sloth! It was a great time!

White tree frog.. Pretty cool!

Chris and I spending some time at the beach.. quite lovely!
We stayed at a local hostel near the Manuel Antonio Park and this was our view. The hostel is called Vista Serena (Serene Views)... and I think you can see why!

On the patio of our hostel. Amazing!We went out for some Mexican food in the small beach town of Quepos. It was great! This is us at the open air restaurant.

Mags and I at sunset at Manuel Antonio Beach.

The honeymoon before the wedding! We absolutely loved our week vacation here in Costa Rica. Our week was the perfect mix of touring and relaxation. We are so excited to explore more countries together in the future. I love you Christopher!

The beautiful sunset from Manuel Antonio. A taste of heaven!

Pura Vida = Life is Good!

More at Arenal

Our afternoon continued with a tour of the rainforest and volcano area. There are so many different things to see in this part of the country! Chris and I found this local swimming hole a few miles from our hotel. The rivers and waterfalls are absolutely gorgeous!

The afternoon tour consisted of a driving as close as possible to Arenal Volcano, then a hike through the rainforest, swimming in the waterfalls, and ended with a natural hot spring. Here is a glimpse at our afternoon..

This is Chris in front of some birds nests...

This is our little friend a coati which is like a raccoon found in Costa Rica..

Chris and I at the Arenal Exo Lodge which is the closest that we could get to the Arenal Volcano

Here we are in front of an amazing waterfall... This is Maggie and I on one of many hanging bridges that they had all throughout the rainforest. We are also posing after our swim under the waterfall!

Arenal Volcano area.. A Costa Rica Gem!

1st Time on Horseback!!

So even though I have been dating Chris for almost 8 years, I had no idea that he has NEVER been on horseback! This was an awesome sight to see! He did a great job!

We are ready for some horsebackriding!

Caballeros = Cowboys & Cowgirls!

Mags - A true cowgirl!

Debbie loving the horseback ride.

Our Wonderful Horses! Bonito, Paloma, and Colorado! They were soo sweet!

It was a great morning with a zip-line, repel, and horseback ride. This is only the beginning of our adventure! More to come!

Zip Line and Repelling!

We continued our weekend with a day full of adventures! Our morning started with a Zip-Line through the rain forest, followed by a repel down a 70ft wall, and then a horse-back ride! We are in the Northwest region of Costa Rica near Arenal Volcano. This area is also known as Monteverde which means "Cloud Forest"... I think you will soon see why it is called Cloud Forest! This is Chris anxious for the day ahead!!!

Chris, Maggie, and I pre-zip-line. We are ready for 9 different zip-line cables through the rain forest! This is the best way to see Costa Rica!

Love you babe! Check out the zip-liners! This is Maggie...

Debs loving the zip line!

Chris... First time on a zip line!

Chris slowing himself down on the zip-line... Like a pro! Hooking on and off of the zine... so awesome!

For Maggie and I, this is our 2nd Zip-Line here in Costa Rica and we plan to do some more while we are here! It is so much fun!

After the zip line... we walked through the forest and prepared for some repelling down into a river bed. We were guided down a 70 foot bank into the bottom of the rain forest!

Chris was the first to start repelling!

Debbie repelling down to the river.. A ways to go!

Maggie following careful repelling instructions...

After the repel.. we jumped on horseback and traveled back up to the top of the rainforest... I will include the horseback ride in the next post! This was the start of a day we will never forget!