It's Not My Fault, It was the Landslide!

I realize it has been over a month since I've last updated and a ton has happened in the meantime. I have been trying to get into Turrialba to post this and some photos, but the less-than-stellar road from Turrialba to San Ramon is under a little dirt at the moment. It was under a LOT of dirt...it looked as though half a mountain fell across the road. Now it seems that every few hours or so, some more dirt falls and the bull dozer has to come back. Albertina and Mayela got stranded in Turrialba yesterday so I had, I mean got, to watch all the kids yesterday for approximately 12 hours. I am tired today.

Anyway, in Costa Rica, the first two weeks of July are always vacation. My parents and my sister arrived in Costa Rica on July 2nd and I surprised them at the airport. From then on, it was non-stop adventures for the next 10 days. I think the pictures are the best way to explain it.

We stopped at school for a little meet and greet.

We had cafecito with my Costa Rican family.

We toured a coffee plantation.

We sat around in the Tabacon Hot Springs. (All the steam does not make for a good picture.)

We saw the Arenal Volcano erupt! (No one was ready with a camera though, so here is a non-erupting picture.)

We went to a cheese factory in Monteverde.

We got pampered at a resort in Guanacaste.

And of course, we did the Adventure Canopy Tour in Monteverde.

On one of the ziplines, you have to go in pairs in order to have enough weight to make it all the way...I was paired with a guy from London who probably weighed the same as me. So during our pretty awkward zipline (the person in back-him, has to wrap their legs around the person in front-me) we got stuck. This is the rescue in progress:

The crowning jewel of the tour was the Tarzan swing. Here's the video of my jump...you might want to turn down your speakers, I do scream.

Even better than my jump, was when my 64 year old father did it and had all the 20 somethings from England that we were with yelling, "Go old man!" Sadly, I only caught the end of it.

When it was time for my family to go home, I still had another week of vacation. Some of the other volunteers and I went to Bocas del Toro, Panama. I'm saving that for my next entry...but be sure to check the photo/video site for more pictures of my time with my family.