Uptown and Up-rooting

It’s funny how it’s taken us 3½ months to explore some parts of San Gerardo.  And now that we are counting down the days until we leave, we are trying to pack in as many experiences as we can before we go.  So this past weekend our family and the local English teacher (an adventurous American gal who is volunteering here for the year) hopped in our vehicle and explored “uptown” San Gerardo.  Before we had our car, we couldn’t physically make it up to the start of the town—the kids would have likely complained that their legs were falling off, if we were to hike up that far.  And they have a point, since the road climbs ~3000 ft from the far end of San Gerardo to where the gravel road meets the highway about 9km later. I often feel my ears popping when I hike. 

We had a lot of fun exploring! And it didn’t rain!   



First we checked out Dantica Lodge, which has a very nice restaurant and over-priced gift shop. 



Then Claire, Caleb and Melissa (english teacher) made very good use of the trampoline at Dantica Lodge. It was fun to discover a little playground tucked away amongst the cabins and trees.



We made a tasty lunch stop for some Costa Rican food....rice, beans, fish, salad, stir-fried squash and blackberry juice. Caleb now eats copious quantities of rice and black beans by choice!  Claire still won't touch it, but has learned to like other new foods. 

We found these cabins tucked in amongst the clouds, and stopped there to use the trails.

On the way to the waterfalls....

Why build a bridge when you can just use a log?

God's handiwork

The kids enjoyed the jungle playground on the hike back.

This weekend we are uprooting ourselves from San Gerardo de Dota.  Soon we will be packing, organizing, and re-packing, similar to what we did 4 months ago.  We’ve started giving back things (books, games, DVDs) that we borrowed from generous friends here, and donating things we can’t take back with us (like a large bottle of chocolate sauce) to happy recipients. 

Claire hangs her little heart on things, so during this last week in San Gerardo we're trying to fulfill Claire’s “things I want to do before we go” list, which includes extra playtime with special friends.   

Playtime with a friend (Nathan) who's been special to Claire and Caleb.  I've enjoyed visiting with Nathan's Mom, Scarlet, who runs a restaurant here in town with her husband.

The kids will be happy to finish up Spanish school this Thursday. I managed to gather the whole school (Gr. 1-6) for a photo yesterday, so the kids can remember their schoolfriends. 

Escuela la Lidia, Grades 1-6. The teacher is on the right, in blue. 

Claire with her teacher.

The Kindergartners were more difficult to corral for a photo....

Caleb with some of his fellow Kindergartners and his teacher.

We leave for San Jose on Saturday morning.  We will be in San Jose for a couple of days, where Vern has arranged to meet with the director of the Latin American Studies Program to learn more about their environmental concentration.  This is another fascinating study-abroad program (similar to that offered by the Quetzal Education Research Centre here) offered by the Council for Christian colleges and Universities. Who knows, maybe one day he’ll be sending King’s University students to Costa Rica!  

Next Monday (April 23) our family will take the bus to the Pacific coast again to de-brief as a family before travelling back to Edmonton on April 28^th and jumping back into "new" schedules again.  We appreciate your prayers as we uproot from our Costa Rican home.

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P.S. We had 2 successful entries to last week’s contest!  The correct answer was…..coffee and sugar! Stephen & Kirsten Epp and Josh & Vicki Noble have won bottles of Costa Rican Lizano sauce.  Delicious!  (Josh and Vicki are living in our house and keeping our dog alive, so we’re happily allowing a 2^nd place winner this time….)