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Published: December 15th 2011
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So aunt Cheryl and mom came to visit for a week, and it was awesome! It was so cool to be able to share Costa Rica with my mom, and my experiences and current life with both of them. A friend of Lorena's, Antonio, took me to the airport Wednesday night to pick up the ladies. Dinner was kind of chaotic as I attempted to switch back and forth between speaking English and Spanish. My brain was quite jumbled 😊 it was fun to have mom and aunt Cheryl stay a night in my home here and really see how I've been living. Thursday morning I went to class as usual, and Lorena took mom and aunt Cheryl around Heredia for the morning which I was told was fun and interesting as they attempted to communicate in broken Spanish and English. Thursday afternoon we took off for Orosi, a little valley town south of Cartago. Orosi itself was beautiful, and our hotel Rio Perlas was a definite retreat. There was hardly anyone in the hotel, so we enjoyed a hot spring pool and the surrounding beauty to ourselves. Friday morning we hung in the pool, enjoyed spa treatments, and then headed
to Ujarras to see the ruins of the oldest church in Costa Rica. The park with the church had closed for the day, so we snuck in with a local family to see the church. The guard caught us though but still allowed us five minutes to see the church haha. We also stoped by the "House of the Dreamer," a little family owned shop where father and sons carve figures out of coffee wood. Very cool. We had dinner in town which was delicious and then stayed our second night in Rio Perlas. We got up early Saturday morning to drive up to Guanacaste. Our first stop on our road trip was in Cartago to see the Basilica. Later we pulled off the side of the highway for a lunch of delicious casados (meat, rice, beans, salad, platanos) Then we stopped in Nicoya to check out the town Cheryl, Abe and Natalie lived and studied in eight years ago! Somehow we stumbled upon Cheryl's old host home and actually got to stop and visit with her host mom and son, so crazy!! We finally made it to Flamingo Beach in Guanacaste after driving all day. We headed right to
the bar for dinner and some drinks where we flirted with the cute waiter Oscar and mom learned how to order vodka on the rocks in Spanish haha. Sunday was a mellow day which mainly consisted of beach walks and lounging. Aunt Cheryl participated in an epic water arobics class which had me about peeing from laughing so hard. You go Aunt Cheryl! We drove into Tamarindo for lunch and then checked out some of the other beaches on our way back up to Playa Flamingo. Monday morning we left early for La Fortuna where I took a bus back into Heredia after lunch (as I had classes to attend). Mom and Aunt Cheryl stayed in La Fortuna both Monday and Tuesday nights, one night in a gorgeous little spot that Cheryl, Abe, and Natalie had stayed in on their trip, and the other night in the cute little B&B called the Lucky Bug. The Lucky Bug gallery and shop was beautiful, filled with mosaic art and other beautiful nicknacks. Wedneday the ladies came into Heredia to pick me up and we went to their final hotel, Finca Rosa Blanca in Santa Barbara. The hotel was quiet and gorgeous located
in the mountains on a coffee plantation. We had an absolutely phenomenal dinner and of course had fun our last night together. Unfortunately mom and aunt Cheryl had to leave on Thanksgiving day, but I think we all felt thankful for our vacation together.
I spent Thanksgiving with my group of friends and members of our host families. We each cooked something and honestly accomplished a pretty amazing Thanksgiving dinner. I made stuffing (mom's recipe) and was thrilled that it tasted just like mom's! I also made "cranberry" sauce with blackberries because I couldn't find any cranberries. The blackberries here though are VERY sour, so my sauce actually tasted quite a bit like cranberry!! We also had turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, salad, bread, platanos, pumpkin pie, and Charis made a Nigerian rice stew that was to die for! I was impressed. It was kind of weird spending my first Thanksgiving without the family, but being in Costa Rica the past four months has given me a lot to be thankful for, so all in all I felt very happy and appreciative.
Another update of this same week, I took a Costa Rican baking class where
we made delicious bread and cinnamon rolls. Also, Nneka and I went to see Damian Marley in a reggae festival! The music was amazing... the down fall was that we were standing in a field, in the pouring rain for about 6 hours for the whole festival. All I had was a little zip-up sweater and hood, and my flip flops in the mud. I have never been so cold, nor soaked to the bone in my life. I'm not going to lie, the whole experience was miserable. But hey another adventure, and the music was great!
What an awesome week!
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