TravelBlog » Struthers Family

Struthers Family - Steve, Nancy, Kyle, and Sam Struthers

We are off on a family sabbatical - leaving our hectic but comfortable lives in Minnesota to experience a whole new culture in Costa Rica. Nancy and I will be volunteering at a clinic just outside of San Jose run by the Foundation for the International Medical Relief of Children (FIMRC) while the boys attend school - with many family excursions to explore this great country. If you would like to know more about FIMRC and their work in Costa Rica, go to http://fimrc.org/projects_alajuelita.php.

Feel free to leave comments if you have reactions or questions about our adventure.

Steve, Nancy, Kyle and Sam

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Joined on: June 28th 2007
Last Login: July 26th 2008

Blog Entries: 29
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Blogs & Travel Journals

by Struthers-Family, order by Date newest first.

By Struthers Family
May 4th 2008

Keeping busy even when we are not traveling

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » San José » Ciudad Colon

Kyle and Sam teaching Sergio & Saret how to color Easter Eggs

Beyond our travels to the various parts of the country, lots of other stuff has been happening in our lives. School: The boys continue to enjoy Pinewoods. They did quite well on their first trimester midterms (yes, they have midterms and finals in 7 different subjects every trimester!!). Their finals are coming up next week, so there will be lots of studying at our house. The school put on skits and songs for the celebration of the Battle of Rivas, where Costa Rica turned back a mercenary army led by an American named William Walker back around 1850. The dramatic point [View Full Entry]

One of the oxcarts on its way to be blessed

By Struthers Family
May 4th 2008

At the beach with the Wildcreas

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Puntarenas » Manuel Antonio

The boys welcoming Peter to our home

The boys were so excited to learn that one of their best friends from home, Peter, and his parents were going to leave the cold weather in St Paul and come down for a week-long visit during the first week of April. Unfortunately, their trip coincided with the first trimester's midterms. So, the boys buckled down and studied early so that they could play with Peter when he arrived This included introducing him to the various mascotas (pets) at our house. During the week, the boys took their tests while Peter and his family toured the volcanos. Then, for the weekend, [View Full Entry]

By Struthers Family
May 4th 2008

Tortuguero

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Limón » Tortuguero National Park

Our transportation to Tortuguero

Hi it's Kyle again.This time I get to tell you about our trip to Tortuguero. After driving a long way to a little place called La Pavona you have to catch a 2-hour boat ride to Tortuguero. It winds through the jungle on a narrow river; it was really cool. Once you get to Tortuguero you have to water-taxi all over the place to drop people at their hotels. When we got to our stop we had to get all of our bags off of the boat and haul it to our hotel 200 meters away. After we got checked-in to [View Full Entry]

One of many bends in the river through the jungle

By Struthers Family
May 4th 2008

Semana Santa

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Heredia » Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí

Sam at the entrance to the Serpentario

In Costa Rica, there is no debate about when schools in Costa Rica take their "spring break." Everyone is off for Semana Santa - the week before Easter Sunday. So, with the boys off school and some friends from Minnesota (Dave, Naomi, Nicole, Abby, and Allison) down for their kids' spring break, we decided to do some traveling. Our first stop was Puerto Viejo de Sarapiqui. This is located in the north central part of the country, about 2 hours drive from San Jose. The town itself used to be a major inland port for the banana and coffee trade - [View Full Entry]

Hmmm, this thing is heavier than I thought it would be

By Struthers Family
May 4th 2008

Another set of catch-up blog posts

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » San José » Ciudad Colon

Wow, it has been 2 months since our last blog posts. Everything is fine here - in fact, we have been so busy with stuff at the clinic, school, out-of-town visitors, and family life in general that we haven't been able to sit down and reflect on our recent adventures. So, this weekend with no visitors and no big plans, we committed to getting things caught up. We have broken things up into distinct posts, which you can reach by clicking on the links below: Click for Nancy's account of her trip to the Bri Bri indigenous area on the Caribbean [View Full Entry]

By Struthers Family
May 4th 2008

Bri Bri

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Limón » Bri Bri

Rio Sixaola, with Panama in the background

Ok, almost 3 months after returning from a trip to Bri Bri, I am finally getting this blog-post done. Apparently, I have adapted well to “Tico Time”. At 4am on a Wednesday morning in late February, 13 sleepy medical students and a volunteer psychologist from Japan boarded a short bus with me, Dr. Christian, Dayan (our health education coordinator), Tatiana (our psychologist) and Dr. Rae Schnuth (a Med School Dean at Michigan State). We were off to Valle de Talamanca to host 2 mobile clinics for the indigenous Bri Bri tribes there. After an 8-hour drive with stops for breakfast in [View Full Entry]

The Conical Hut- Unloading supplies for the mobile clinic

Location of our first mobile clinic at Bri Bri

By Struthers Family
March 3rd 2008

6 months

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » San José » Ciudad Colon

6 months ago today (September 3, 2007), our family woke early and boarded a plane for Costa Rica. Our adventure started on a bit of an ominous note - because of the crash of a small plane at the San Jose airport, we had to be diverted to the Liberia airport, a 4-hour bus ride away. Well, we survived that little ordeal just fine and have enjoyed an amazing adventure since then. We have experienced unbelievable natural beauty - from volcanoes to cloud forests to beaches, birds, lizards, dolphins, and amazing flowers and trees. We have met wonderful people and made [View Full Entry]

By Struthers Family
February 29th 2008

When the cat's away, the mice will..... catch up on the blog posts

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Limón » Puerto Viejo de Talamanca

The church at Cartago on a beautiful day

Nancy, Christian, Dayan and a group of about a dozen medical students from Michigan State University are spending 2 days on the Caribbean coast working with an indigenous community called the BriBri. So, one of my responsibilities while they are gone is to get some blog postings up - I am sure Nancy will do one on her experience there some time soon. In addition to this one, there are 2 others So, when we last left our heroes.... we had visited Manuel Antonio with our friend Robyn. Well, after spending 2 days at the clinic and seeing some sites around [View Full Entry]

Sam scanning the tide pools for signs of life

By Struthers Family
February 29th 2008

El Presidente

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » San José » Ciudad Colon

Steve and Kyle getting into the Tope spirit

In Costa Rican political news.... Kyle came home on the second day of the new school year and casually announced that he had been elected class president. Apparently, his responsibilities include sitting on the school wide student council and being "in charge" of the class when the teacher has to leave the room. He also claims that he has the authority to hand out "boletas" (demerits) if he sees kids acting contrary to school rules. However, Sam wants everyone to know that Kyle's powers do NOT apply when he is at home! School overall is going well. The boys have gotten [View Full Entry]

The "Tico Mounties" - the only semi-organized part of the tope

This guy sang as he rode, using a wireless mic connected to a big speaker in a trailing truck

By Struthers Family
February 29th 2008

Volcan Arenal

Central America Caribbean » Costa Rica » Alajuela » Arenal

A nice family photo - likely coming to a Christmas letter later this year!

Our friends from California, Todd and Nancy, arrived last week for a 20-day vacation! We decided to join them for their first stop - Arenal Volcano. It had been dormant for 300 years until it erupted unexpectedly in 1968 (killing 85 people in the process). Since then, it has been spewing lava, gas, ash, and hot boulders off and on. It is apparently the largest or second largest active volcano in the Western hemisphere. So, one of the attractions is to hopefully see a live volcano in action. This depends on luck in 2 ways simultaneously: 1) the clouds aren't covering [View Full Entry]

A cool topiary sculpture at Zarcero - monkey on a motorcycle

TravelBlog » Struthers Family

Struthers Family | Steve, Nancy, Kyle, and Sam Struthers | Travel Blog

Struthers Family - Steve, Nancy, Kyle, and Sam Struthers

Blogs & Travel Journals

Keeping busy even when we are not traveling

At the beach with the Wildcreas

Tortuguero

Semana Santa

Another set of catch-up blog posts

Bri Bri

6 months

When the cat's away, the mice will..... catch up on the blog posts

El Presidente

Volcan Arenal