Road Trip

Okay all, I apologize that I haven't sent any updates your way for awhile. I got back from my trip on Sunday and have spent the last two days trying to upload video onto my blog and it hasn't been working. So agian, I'm sorry, and here is my update. Finally.

Monteverde translates as "green mountain," and that's exactly what we found at the end of the steep and windy rutted dirt road that our bus took to get there. Due to a three-day weekend, myself and 10 other students from ILE decided to take our first "paseo" into the mountains of Costa Rica. Monteverde is Costa Rica's most internationally recognized ecotourism destination, and it was only a 5-hour bus ride from San Jose.
We met at 5:00am on Friday to make it to the downtown bus station for our 6:30 bus. In Costa Rica, they oversell the bus, so there were people packed into the isle for the entire five hours. Fortunately we all had seats. We arrived at 12:30 after having to stop several times to move fallen trees off of the road, and immediately checked into our hostel. This was my first hostel experience, and I had a blast with the other students. Apart from communal bathrooms, the place was pretty sweet, decked out with hammocks and a kitchen. We ended up cooking more meals than we ate out! Check out this video of the hostel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1we_QuK2sM

There is a lot that you can do in Monteverde, both for free and for a price, but since the weather was so crummy, we spent more time together in the hostel than we did out doing things. But, the one thing that we all had our hearts set on, was going on a Canopy Tour. That's right, we wanted to risk our lives zipping through the rainforest canopy and over valleys and rivers! And it was AMAZING! It was probably the coolest thing I've ever done. Some of the cables were between 500-700 meters long, and went between two mountains. The most amazing cable went out into a valley, and because of the wind, rain and sunshine combo, we zipped ourselves right through a rainbow. It was incredible. I could go on and on about what a unique and utterly exhilarating experience it was, but I'll just let you check it out when I get my video posted (it's not working at the moment, so I'm afraid that pictures will have to suffice).
Beyond that the weekend was very tranquilo, and we left Monteverde at 6:30am on Sunday to return to San Jose. Arriving on time at 12:30, I was able to get back to my host family and relax a little bit before finishing up my homework assignments for the weekend, and preparing for the week ahead. The trip, even though it didn't go the way we originally intended, what a complete success, and I'm very glad that I went.

This week has been pretty normal. Class as usual, and Tico life as usual. Overall life has worked itself into a very nice flow. I'm spending more time with my host family, and learning more and more about the culture and the language everyday. God continues to open my eyes to the work he is doing in my own life, and I try to give myself as a canvas to his artistic design. It's my hope and prayer that God will use this time in Costa Rica to continually mold and shape me into the woman I need to become in order to have holy and effective ministry in Peru. And I believe he's already started :)