Nothing Goes As Planned

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It seems to be one of the great laws of the universe that nothing goes as planned. This is not always a bad thing as I have learned in the past and was reminded of a couple weekends ago. The plan was this: Travis and I were going to meet up with a group of teachers from Saint Clare on Friday night to cook dinner and to present a slideshow of pictures from Travis’ trip to the top of Chirripo, Costa Rica’s highest peak at 12,530 ft. Summiting Chirripo is an event that many Costa Ricans spend months training for and then must enter a lottery to obtain permits. So Travis and I went to the market after school to pick up the groceries we were going to use to make the food. Everything was going to plan but here is were we went wrong. We didn’t really know how to get to the home where we were having the party but that didn’t seem to occur to us until it was too late. We did however have a cell phone number of one of the teachers that was going to be there. We would later find out that her cell phone doesn’t work at that particular black hole of a house. We had no other numbers and no idea of which direction to go so we went home. We put away the groceries, grabbed Steve, and then went to Pepe’s where we had dinner and listened to some great music. The night turned out to be great. With all of the groceries we had we decided to make the dinner for Emilia and Elvia, Travis’ host mom, on Sunday night. On Saturday Steve and I had PLANNED on going on a coffee and fruit tree tour but it was cancelled due to the large amount of rain they were going to receive. So instead we met up with Travis, Andrea, and her boyfriend Diego and went to a little town called Orosi. The town sits in the gorgeous Orosi valley and is home to the oldest Catholic Church, the Iglesia San Jose de Orosi, which was built in 1743 and is still in use in Costa Rica. While we were there we had the chance to go inside the church and look around but were unable to take photos. We then walked to a great little restaurant that was perched in the hills and felt like a tree house. On our way there we had the chance to eat ripe coffee cherries, which were amazing. The cherries are really sweet and once you get to the seed (coffee bean) it has a slimy covering on it that is removed in the processing of the coffee beans. We were going to check out the local pool while we were there but it started to downpour. So we made our way back into town where we played Frisbee in the rain until our bus came. It was a great weekend even if it wasn’t what we had planned.

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Photos

Iglesia San Jose de Orosi
This is the oldest Catholic Church in Costa Rica. It was built in 1743.

Orosi Valley
Here is a view of the Orosi Valley. Some say that this is the most beautiful valley in Costa Rica.

Tree House Restaurant
Here we are after our meal.

Plan B Dinner
Here is the dinner we made for Emilia and Elvia. We prepared enchiladas with sweet potatoes, black beans, and cheese on the inside. They were great with fresh Pico de Gallo and Guacamole.