Costa Rica and Peru .::. Summer 2005

After getting two hours of sleep the night before, we thought that we could sleep on the plane to CR...boy were we wrong! On our flight to Guatemala, there were three little hyper girls seated next to us. We spent the entire 5 hours monkeying around with them. They wouldn't let us sleep! Then on our second flight to San Jose, during the landing, our heads felt like they were going to explode from the pressure. It was a little scary. When we arrived in San Jose, we waited for our 60 pound box of donations for Peru to arrive but it never did. They told us that for some strange reason, our box is still in NY and will arrive in CR within 6 days. At least we didn´t have to lug it around yesterday. We're just hoping that it makes it here before we leave for Peru.

After that ordeal, we picked up our rental car. It's a white 4-wheel drive SUV with some pretty good pickup. We took the Pan American highway west to the gorgeous town of San Ramon. We could not wait to see the family! We beeped the horn as we drove up their dirt road and they came running out of the house and hugged us. Dona Ana served her famous chorreadas (corn pancakes), which were delicious. We gave them the clothes and gifts we brought and played cards and giggled all night. We had a blast with them.

This morning we woke up early and went for a long walk around their neighborhood with Felix, Karlita and some of their cousins. When we finished our hike, we had a huge breakfast - gallo pinto (rice and black beans), eggs, pineapple, coffee and juice. Then it was off to the Tico shower, which was incredibly ice cold. The warm shower machine they got when Michelle lived with them broke so they didn't replace it since they don't like warm showers anyway. We eventually got numb to it! This afternoon we went to visit our friends at the Habitat office and also ran errands in el centro (downtown San Ramon). Tonight we´re going to watch the CR, Canada soccer match with the Habitat crew at a restaurant.

Early tomorrow, we are heading to Monteverde to do some hiking in the cloud forest. We're not looking forward to the drive as it is notorious for jacuzzi-sized potholes! Let's see how the 4-wheel drive works.

We will be in Costa Rica! We have soooo much to do today - between packing and running errands. We spent this past weekend at Rich's parents house. We had a great time hiking, spending time with family and relaxing at the lake. Then we dropped the car off at Michelle's parents house. The trip seems like more of a reality now that we dropped the car off. Our living room is overflowing with donations that we somehow need to pack into 2 large cardboard boxes. We also have to pick up our malaria pills. We can't wait until the packing and errands are all done. It will feel great when we are driving on the Pan American highway toward San Ramon.

The day we've been dreaming of is finally here! Today we said farewell to our students, classrooms, and schools for the summer. We are finally free....YiPEEEE!!!!

We've been trying to figure out whether or not we should get vaccines for our travel in Peru. There is a risk of malaria, yellow fever, dengue....etc. But, we're not sure if we're going to head into the Amazon Rain Forest. We might just stick to the Andes and areas of higher elevation (which are safe from pesky mosquitoes) however, we might want to go to the jungle?! The yellow fever vaccine is $250 each! That price is somewhat ridiculous. We might just get our vaccines in Costa Rica (hopefully they will have them and they'll be cheaper). Knowing Michelle with her Chicken Pox this year, we should try to get them just in case. We'll keep you updated!

We ONLY have a couple days left of teaching and grad school. Then we have 2 months of vacation! We will be leaving NYC on July 6th to go to Costa Rica. We'll be staying in San Ramon with our Tico family and Habitat for Humanity amigos. Then on July 13th we're off to Peru for an entire month! We plan to volunteer as English teachers at a school/orphanage in Huancayo, a city in the Andes mountains. Our itinerary is still up in the air, we'll let you know about the rest of our trip when we're there