October third My son Brian, daughter Krista and I met up with another CWE team in Miami. Brian's wife Sharron and daughter Haley dropped us off. Here is Haley carrying PawPaw's bag up through the check-in line.
Here we are after arriving in San Jose Costa Rica a few hours later.
We spent the night at a rented house. We awakened in the morning to this view behind our house. There was a nice sized stream flowing beyond the trees. It was nice to hear while sleeping with the windows open. The temperature was in the 70's most of the time.
We had breakfast and got to know each other for a while then went to church. This is the small church we attended.
These are the women that went. Krista, her friend Leeanna, Kimberly from North Carolina and Helen from New York.
We went back to the house for some lunch then decided to check out the area. Our driver suggested the ruins of the first Catholic mission in Costa Rica. We thought it sounded good so away we went.
This is a photo of a plaque at the site. It was built in the late 17th century and abandoned about 150 years later in 1833.
Each of us took some neat photos there. Here is mine. Notice the house up on the hill in the background. While at the site, I wondered what it must have been like almost 350 years ago in this valley, surrounded by forests and mountains. It must have been an amazing site.
Here is Brian's photo. These birds are sitting on the ledge below the double windows and above the single that you see above.
This is Krista's photo. The black and white is nice.
While we were there we had a photo taken with our friends the Watsons that had come on the trip with us. In this photo is, Brian, Me (Kevin) Krista, Tim Leeanna, and Jesse.
Monday morning we went to work early. The weather was beautiful, temperatures were in the 70's and the sky was overcast.
This is John from Tampa sifting sand with a couple of Costa Rican's.
Jesse cutting block.
Brian mixing mortar as I watch in the background.
Brian shoveling sand into the mortar mix.
We stopped for lunch when the girls arrived with the food.
During lunch it began to rain. We had to cut our work day short, it ended up raining until well into the night.
As the week went on, we continued working on the building. Here I am working on the front wall.
This is Travis in the foreground and Jeff in the back. Travis and Brian did a lot of work together during the week. They were about the same age and had a few things in common.
While Krista was at the job for lunch, she took a few photos.
Brian smiling from the top of a stack of block.
Me.
Tim helping Dennis.
Brian and Travis filling the top of the walls with concrete. A lot of concrete went into this job due the the risk of earthquakes in the area.
Brian and I posing for a photo after a light rain.
Brian had heard all about the many trips we'd done in the past and how, often we encounter children that often don't have much in the way of toys. He and his daughter Haley decided that she could part with a few toys and Brian would find worthy children to be the recipients of them. While working on the building Brian made a new friend in Santos. I didn't hear much conversation between the two, perhaps because neither spoke the other's language, I did however hear a lot of laughter. It turned out that Brian's laughter was one of the highlights of my trip. I feel that I didn't laugh with him enough as he was growing up, we had a tensioned relationship that I regret.
Brian asked Santos to bring his family out to the job and there he gave them Haley's toys. This is Brian with Santos and his family.
Since it rained Monday, we were behind schedule and had to work a little on Friday. This is how the building looked after 4 and a half days of work.
We worked a few hours Friday morning, went back to the house, cleaned up then headed go KFC for lunch.
Krista smiling over a pepsi.
Hanging out with the Colonel.
We had made reservations to ride zip lines in the mountains that afternoon. Upon arrival at the destination, a man walked up to our bus, I heard our driver ask "Donde esta el pollo?" I thought to myself, why is he asking where is the chicken? Then after we got off the bus, this arrived.
His job was to get us all excited about the adventure ahead. He sang and did the chicken dance in Spanish. I had trouble following him/her/it.
The name of the place was "Fossil Land"
The three of us pose for a photo before we get started.
We were all given dorky helmets to wear, then began the walk up the mountain, first up a creek.
Krista backing up traffic.
Once out of the creek, we encountered an Indian?
The Indian had us pull sticks to see who would become the leader of the group. I pulled the winner. We started with a race up a steep incline on a rope. There were two teams, mine and one led by Travis. Of course. my team won.
We were then given harnesses and began riding the zip lines. The first was the most tame. Here you can see Krista nearing the end, there is what looks like an orange dot in the trees above her and to the right, that was the start.
The second one was a little faster and longer. Here I am coming in wearing my cool helmet which at this point I hadn't found the need for.
This photo shows line two coming in on the right and line three going out to the left.
If you look closely, you will see someone coming in on the right.
We were waiting for the rest of the group to arrive when up walked this white horse.
We walked out a little on this somewhat steep cliff. You can see Krista looks a little apprehensive. There was not much under our feet and a steep drop below.
They allowed us on the third line to ride upside down and backwards. Here is Jeff doing just that.
The below files will open in a new window and may take a little while to load.
Click here to view a short video Brian took while riding upside down.
Click here to view the video of the last line. Over 1000 feet long and a 300 foot drop.
I took the photo below with Krista's camera left handed while out over the trees. It was a little more difficult that I thought it would be. Off in the distance you can see San Jose, the capitol of Costa Rica.
The three of us in our dorky helmets. I did find out why we wear them, at least twice I bumped my head on the steel cable as I was riding in. I think that without the helmet, I may have lost some hair and maybe even some skin.
As we were leaving the park, this woman and her daughter came up to us and talked for a while. They were nice people, I would recommend this place to anyone looking for some clean fun for an afternoon.
That night we went out to dinner at a nice restaurant in San Jose, notice the playoff game on the TV in the background. I personally was more interested in the food and atmosphere.
We had a fun trip as usual and can't wait for the next great adventure.
Kevin