Indiana Box and the Jungle of Doom

I thought I'd tell you all about my wild weekend adventures in Costa Rica. I did feel a little like Indiana Jones at times because my weekend involved both ancient artifacts and tropical jungles. On Friday, I went to downtown San Jose with a couple of my classmates. First we went to the National Museum which is housed in this amazing Spanish fort:


They had a great collection of ancient artifacts, including gold and jade pieces, pottery and metates.


Metates are used for grinding corn, but these intricate metates were buried with the dead so that they would have food in the afterlife. They are made of volcanic rock.



Some of the English translations in the Museum were pretty interesting, but this was my favorite.


This is the view of downtown San Jose from the balcony of the fort. You can tell that is is almost lunch time because it is so cloudy, but generally it doesn't start raining until around two or three in the afternoon.


This is a beautiful statue in the plaza in the middle of the fort.


After visiting the museum, we ate lunch and then starting walking around downtown. In the parks and pedestrian streets of San Jose, they have a bunch of cows that have been decorated by various local artists. This is a Frog-Cow:


This is the Cow Diva. Isn't she fancy?


There were also some beautiful artistic cows:




And some goofy cows:


I loved the Taxi Cow, complete with license plate:


Next, Cow Kabob and Butcher Shop Cow. These two are a little morbid, but so funny:



And that was basically the end of Friday. After spending the whole day in the city, my classmate, Bette, and I decided to get out of town on Saturday. Our tour left at six in the morning for breakfast in a coffee plantation. This is a picture of how they lay the coffee out to dry:


This is a picture of a coffee plant. Can you see the little coffee beans? They are green, like almost everything else in Costa Rica.


And in between the rows of coffee plants, they plant banana trees to take up the extra moisture from the ground.


After Bette, the coffee aficionado, loaded up on coffee to bring home, we went to the crater of Poas Volcano. Here is a picture of the crater:


Don't worry! Although the volcano is active, it's main form of activity is emitting a fumarole, not lava. And here is a closer picture of the fumarole:


After visiting the volcano, we went to La Paz waterfalls. They have very pretty recycling containers there. After all if they can recycle here in the rainforest, can't we be better too?


This is a picture of the very awesome bathroom sink! You turn the little rock with a frog on it, and the water comes down the little waterfall. I thought it was so cute, but I can only imagine what the bathroom attendant was thinking as she showed every single person who used the bathroom how to turn on the water.


At La Paz, we went to the aviary where we saw some beautiful little birds:




And some beautiful big birds. I was three feet away from this toucan, and although there is wire behind him preventing him from flying away, there was nothing between me and the bird. His huge beak made me a little nervous, but isn't he beautiful?


After the aviary, we visited the butterfly garden where there were hundreds of butterflies fluttering by the lovely flowers:




There was also this friendly little monkey who wanted to say hello:


After the butterfly garden (can you tell this was a really long day?), we went to the hummingbird garden. Unlike the other gardens, this garden was not surrounding by any kind of net or wire to keep the hummingbirds in. There were just tons of feeders that attracted them. So all the hummingbirds flitting around were native to the area, but only one of them would hold still long enough for me to get a decent picture:


And during lunch, I had a little visitor. Mmm. . . tasty!


Here is a cute little (not poisonous) tree frog we saw:


As you can tell from the pictures, we really were in the jungle. Here is one of the three incredible waterfalls:


And here is a cute little guy (I can't remember what the name of the animal is, but our guide said he is in the raccoon family) who decided to say hello:


And last, but not least, we ended the day by taking a boat ride down the Sarapiqui River. We saw a lot of iguanas and howler monkeys, but none of the pictures turned out very well.


I guess I'll have to try next weekend for some good monkey pictures. I hope you enjoy these pictures, and I'll keep them coming!

Now I know the way to San Jose!

Here are the promised pictures! This is a photo of the most tropical bird I have seen so far. It is made out of a tire and hangs in the back patio of the Costa Rica Language Academy.


This is a cute fountain that is also in the back patio of CRLA. It's so green here!


This is the back of CRLA, which is kind of our home base. My law class is actually at the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights, but we have a one hour Spanish class here in the afternoon. There are lockers, the internet and a cafe, so it's pretty much where everyone hangs out during the day.


I love that here, in the eco-tourism capital of the world, there is recycling. My host Mom recycles too. I love it.


Also, the fabulous exciting thing I did last week was get a pedicure. I tried to take a picture, but it didn't turn out very well. They are pink with white tips and cute little white flowers, AND it only cost six dollars! I was so happy when I found that out. If only they were the same price at home.

I haven't made it into downtown San Jose yet, or ventured farther away, but I am hoping to plan a fun excursion for this weekend. For now, I spend most of my evenings reading for class, so I don't really have a lot of free time. It is starting to thunder now, and the rain will probably start in about twenty minutes. Right on time.

My First Days in Costa Rica

¡Hola! First of all, let me apologize for the lack of pictures. I haven´t been brave enough to venture to school with my laptop yet, and this computer doesn´t have a usb port. So no pictures... yet. To clear up some confusion, here are some facts about Costa Rica:

Costa Rica is a country in Central America in between Nicaragua and Panama. It is not an island, but there are some islands that are part of it. I am staying in San Jose, which is in the middle of the country and surrounded by mountains. It is winter here until about November, which means that it is hot in the morning and rains like crazy in the afternoon. It also gets dark very early. Costa Rica is not a commonwealth of the U.S., but it is the oldest democratic government in Central America. The currency here is the colon, and the exchange rate is about 520 colones to the dollar.

It was dark when I flew in to San Jose, so I didn´t get to see anything. At the airport, a driver from the school met me and drove me to my host family. My Costa Rica mama is Maritza, and she takes very good care of me, especially when we cross the street. The drivers here are a little crazy and there are not very good sidewalks or crosswalks. Her son, Manuel, is 20 and is studying business. He speaks English very well. Utako is another girl who is staying with my family, and she is from Japan. She is very nice, but she doesn´t speak very much English and I have a hard time understanding her Spanish.

On my first full day here, I visited the school where I will be taking Spanish classes. Then I had lunch with Maritza, her brother, her sister and her mother. They are all very nice and Maritza makes me feel very welcome. I have had a hard time getting used to the food here, and it isn´t all rice and beans (I haven´t even eaten one bean here yet, though Maritza says some people have rice and beans for every meal). It rains a ton every afternoon, and the thunder is REALLY loud. I jump when it is so loud, but no one else does. I guess they are all used to it.

Today I went to the place where my law classes will be held, and then Maritza and I had lunch at the mall. Quizno´s tasted so good. We had a long day walking around and riding the bus, but it was fun. I hope everyone is doing well, and I will try to post some pictures soon!

Into the Abyss...

We've had a pretty adventurous past week, which is probably fitting considering that the new Indiana Jones movie also came out this last week. After Arches, our next adventure was Timpanogos Cave. The caves are another amazing Utah wonder that Garrett hadn't seen yet. The downside of being the only one in my family who hadn't been on the tour was that we made Garrett pose for an embarrassingly large number of pictures.


Lanna was great on the hike, both the 1 1/2 mile trek up the steep mountainside and the 1 1/2 mile run down in the pouring rain. Her strong little legs and cheery attitude confirmed our suspicions that she is at least one fourth mountain goat.

We all really loved seeing the cave formations. They have such a delicate beauty, and I think Garrett enjoyed the cave even more than he thought he would.


This is the heart of Timpanogos. At 5 1/2 feet long, this stalactite has only grown about 3/8 of an inch in the last fifty years. Imagine how long it must have taken to grow! I learned on the way down the mountain that Garrett has just such a large and steady heart (how was that for a cheesy transition?!). It had been just one week since I left my nose (pride, and reputation for sure-footedness) in Arches, and Garrett was so worried that I would fall on the way down that he held my arm, switching sides on every switchback, all the way down the mountain in the pouring rain just so I wouldn't impale myself on a sharp, wet rock.
So now the countdown to Costa Rica begins and in one week I'll be leaving on a jet plane. Do you know the way to San Jose? Hopefully Garrett won't be too sad all by himself. Ha, ha, ha.

I left my heart (and my nose) in Arches Nat'l Park

This weekend, Mom, Lanna, Garrett and I went on a weekend trip to Arches National Park. Garrett had never been there before, and we decided it was a shame to live in the same state as this beautiful world famous geological marvel and not enjoy it. I think Garrett was a little surprised by all the people from different countries. We heard French, German, Russian and some other languages. But with over 2,000 arches, there really is nowhere in the world quite like Arches.
However, for all my praise of Arches, I think I was a bit too enthusiastic while I was there because I ended up getting pretty beat up. I was so worried about my nose getting sunburned that it seems a little ironic that I ended up falling and scraping a decent amount of skin off my nose. What is even more ironic is that at the time, I was wearing my "Bleed Red" t-shirt from the U blood drive. I really was bleeding red.


I love this picture of Garrett and Lanna standing underneath Delicate Arch. Somehow the license plate doesn't seem to do it justice. It is so big, and it is both a humbling and terrifying experience to stare up at it.


We also made a point of seeing Landscape Arch because we don't know how much longer it will be there. Even though this picture doesn't really show it, this arch is longer than a football field. They don't let anyone stand below this arch because a little more than 15 yrs. ago, a 72 ft. long piece fell from the arch. Now the top part of the arch is only 6 ft. wide, and there is no knowing how long it will be before the top falls.


So now we're home, Garrett is back at work, and I am home taking Ibprofen and trying not to bend my knee or ankle, put pressure on my three blisters, touch the scrapes on my hand or scratch my nose. But we had a great time, and we can't wait to make it to the next national park (Yellowstone is next on our list).

Garrett's Graduation!

Garrett graduated last Friday!!! It was so exciting to see him receive his degree during the College of Humanities Convocation ceremony. Garrett's parents, his grandparents, my mom, sister and I were all in the Huntsman Center cheering Garrett on. Lanna was especially excited and drew a cute picture of Garrett in his cap and gown with stripes on his sleeves for when he gets a doctorate degree in the future (according to Lanna). I think Lanna thinks that everybody goes on to get stripes on their sleeves because of the programs Heather and I are in. When we told her that Garrett was graduating, she asked where he was going to school next. I love that Garrett can be such a great example to my sister and show her how important education is.


The day after Garrett 's graduation ceremony, we had a fabulous graduation party for him. Garrett's aunts, uncles, parents, cousin, grandparents, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephew, friends and in-laws all came to support him. Mom made Garrett a funny red velvet graduation cake that was so delicious! If you can't read it, it says, "No more tuition! no more books! no more parking services' dirty looks! Congrats Garrett!"


We also decided to do something fun for the kids, so we had a graduation piñata. Garrett, as official "Graduation Boy," got to go first (blindfolded, of course) and all the kids got to take turns next.


It worked out pretty well, until we got to Kaden. He was so cute blindfolded, but he was drawn to me like a magnet, swinging the stick as hard as he could. We decided to un-blindfold him before I lost any limbs. What a cutie!


Then Garrett went again and cracked the piñata wide open! I'm sure all the kids ended up with enough candy to last the weekend, at least. All in all, it was a great party. So many people came out to support Garrett. We are so proud of you, Garrett!

It's been a while...

So...it's been a while since I've posted. As I'm sure all of you have guessed, Garrett and I are smack dab in the middle of finals. Garrett actually had his last test yesterday, but he still has a paper due next Thursday. I, however, still have three more fabulous four hour finals to go. I'm glad Garrett can see some light at the end of the tunnel. He is so excited to graduate! Now we just have to make it through the rest of this week and next week so we can finally have some time together. We're hoping to go on a camping trip with my family before I leave for Costa Rica in June. Hopefully everything will work out...after so many days inside studying, I think we could both use a little sun and outdoors.