Day 16 - Monday March 17th

:( :( :(..........you get the point. We'll be back.
Well, here we are at the airport. We were able to see Megan coming off the plane. She was so happy to see Chastity! She's here for 2 weeks, basically taking me and Chastity's place. This has been such a great experience. Last night, I saw Bro. and Sis. Phinney at the house and they both gave me a big hug and said, "please come back". We are already planning on how we can afford to go back but for a longer period of time and actually support the congregation more. They are truly in need of brothers and friends to help cover their massive territory, it is 1/6th of the country! We have a 6 hour flight to NYC and from there we hope to make our next flight on JetBlue to Burlington. We only have an hour layover in NYC, so hopefully that will be enough time to get our luggage rechecked and make it to the JetBlue gate. If not, Carmen who lives in NYC and left yesterday, said that we were welcome to stay with her. Well, they are calling us to board, gotta go!

Day 15 - Sunday March16th

I'm getting tired of writing blogs. My camera is broke and I'm not happy about that. We have one more day..........today......breakfast, beach all day-rented a surfboard and actually got up several times....Chaz rested all day on the beach......went out to dinner at the El Grande Escape....helped Chaz pack luggage.....:(

Day 14 - Saturday March 15th

This morning Chastity, Amanda and I were going to be taking care of the table at the beach. We had to go to the Kingdom Hall, pick up the table, chairs, and literature and be at Manuel Antonio by 9am. We didn’t get a chance to talk to very many English-speaking people but a few of the locals did stop and pick up some of the Spanish literature that we had. Our table was right next to a pay phone and a local man that was working at the beach was on the phone and became very upset and began cursing in English on the phone. When he realized that Chastity was sitting right next to him he apologized for his language and then introduced himself as Butch. We also talked to a man named Marvin when we were leaving and made said he didn’t speak much English but that if we spoke Spanish he would be happy to talk to us about Jesus. I left him the Watchtower and Awake in Spanish and he said he would visit our table and hope to speak to someone in Spanish. We came home at around 2pm, got a bit to eat and rested up a bit. We have our meeting at 4pm today.

After the we took a picture of ourselves with the rest of the congregation and lots of other pictures of the friends. It was very sad knowing that we won’t see many of the friends there for awhile (I say “for awhile” because we do plan on coming back). After leaving the Kingdom Hall we went to Pizza De Marco with the Nelsons, Ingred, Carmen, Nancy, and our gang. The pizza there was some of the best I have ever had. I got the Hawaiian pizza with white pineapple, ham and COCONUT!
Back at the house we all set around and talked about our goal of serving where the need is greater. and how we are going to reach that goal. Start saving more, less spending, and more simplifying.

Day 13 - Friday March 14th

This morning we met the group for service and went up to Jaco, about an hours drive north of Quepos. There were 4 car groups that went up. Me and Brother Nelson stayed downtown Jaco at the bus stop, the congregation sets up a table with literature there every Friday. What an interesting experience! We had so many people that we had nice conversations with. At noon I went with Sam, Chaz and Amanda to work some of the territory in town. We found so many English-speaking people and they were all so very nice and receptive.
One nice experience we had was when we were working a street right downtown and Chastity saw what looked like an American sitting on a bench in front of a motel. When Chastity went back to talk to her, she noticed that the lady was reading the 2008 yearbook! She was a sister who spotted us first and thought, “if they are witnesses then they will recognize the yearbook and come over”. Her name was Laurie and her friend Betsy was actually on the phone inside of the motel’s office with the branch, asking them if they could give them the name of a nearby English congregation. The man working there overheard her conversation and said, “your people are outside right now”. The 2 sisters are both from Alaska, but now are serving where the need is greater in Hondorus and were here on their 3 day vacation that you have to take every 3 months (you have to leave the country for 72 hours before reentering). They asked if they could join us in the ministry and within 15 minutes they were in their service clothes ready to go out in the ministry with us! They helped us finish the town of Jaco. We got their emails and addresses and want us to come visit them in Hondorus sometime. We may just take them up on that invitation. They said they rent a 2 bedroom brand new house for $75 a month with a $4 electric bill!
We didn’t leave Jaco until around 6pm. It’s now 9pm and we are back home about to eat a late dinner. I’m hungry and tired and I’m going to go now! Good night!
Oh, by the way, my camera is broken. It didn't handle the monsoon that we got in the rainforest on Thursay. So if I post anymore pictures, they will have to be older ones. Sorry!

Day 12 - Thursday March 13th

This morning with the kids before our walk.


This morning Chaz and I woke up before the others so we decided to go for a walk. We didn’t make it down the driveway though because the kids were outside playing with their paper airplanes and when they saw us they came running. Issac wanted me to throw his airplane back and forth to each other and when I threw it, it landed on top of the neighbors house! I felt so bad. He didn’t seem to mind though, he just started laughing. They all took turns taking pictures with my camera and then looking at their pictures and laughing. These children here are always so happy, they just laugh at anything. After about 20 minutes we tried to explain that we were going for a walk but they wouldn’t let us. They started jumping on our backs and hanging onto our legs. They followed us down to the end of the driveway and just stood by the road as we walked up the hill, they all looked so sad. We’ll surely miss them when we leave.


After everyone woke up we had an amazing breakfast that the girls prepared and then Sam and I went into Quepos to hit the internet cafe. At 12:15 we picked up Carmen and headed to the house. The tour company picked us up at the house at 12:30 and we were off to the rainforest to do the zipline tour. We had 4 guys with the tour company, one to take pictures, 2 to help us on the zipline and one to stay behind and take the bus to the finish. Our main tour guide was Thomas, who was from California. He's been here a year and a half, a really nice guy and very knowlegeable about the area. On the second platform it started raining, and I mean pouring. The cameraman had to leave to protect his camera. Did I mention that the rain makes you go faster on the cable and harder to slow down or stop. We saw a sloth up in the tree sleeping on the 3rd platform! Chastity did great, she was alittle afraid of the zipline but all in all she did spectacular! The 2nd to last zipline is 1/2 a mile long and you get up to a pretty fast speed! After the tour they took us to this house with a big covered patio and kitchen and fed us. They even served us coffee because we were all so soaked and cold. Yes cold....up in the mountains and especially when your wet you get cold. I think my camera is dead after getting so wet. I am letting it dry out and hoping that is will revive itself, if not we still have Sam and Amanda's camera. We were back home by 4:45. After changing into some dry clothes we all went to a nice restaurant in Manuel Antonio and had a bite to eat and watched the sunset. Good night!

Day 11 - Wednesday March 12th

Downstairs: Amandas bed in on the right and Chaz and I sleep on the king size on the left.

Top pic: Jen with more of the neiphborhood kids.

Bottom pic: Sam about to catch a wave bodysurfing.

This morning we got up and went out in service. We worked the Manuel Antonio area near the beach. We found quite a few English speaking people, all of which were very hospitable and one man who said he would be there for the memorial! During service, we needed to use the restroom so we decided to stop at the Gaia Hotel, a five-star resort on the top of a mountain. You park your car at the bottom and then they take you up in a electric-powered cart. The views from the resort were incredible. We visited the gift shop there as well and I purchased a beautiful wood cutting board with 3 different types of wood from the area. We stopped service at about 11am and went back home to rest and study for the book study which is at 1pm. Actually, Amanda didn’t stop, she went to the bus station to be with the Phinney’s where they have a table set up with literature to witness to the locals catching the buses.
The book study was great, it was abbreviated for the Service overseers talk. It was a really encouraging talk outline from the branch on what career will you chose. It was encouraging the friends to consider the full-time ministry if at all possible. They had 2073 publishers serving as aux. or reg. pioneers last year and 170 reactivated pioneers. The branch mentioned that for those that do make room for the pioneer service that they never look back and regret the choice they make……I would agree with that.
After the meeting, we went and reserved a zip-line canopy tour with Dream Forest canopy tours here in Qeupos. They are known to have the longest, fastest zip-lines in Costa Rica. They will be picking us up tomorrow at 12:30 to zip through the rainforest hanging from a cable! Can’t wait! The rest of the crew headed down to the beach while I stayed behind for a few minutes to catch you all up on our blog. Right now I am sitting on the porch of the Phinney’s place picking up wifi from someones computer nearby. The breeze is blowing and it is really nice outside. Sister Phinney keeps coming outside to make sure I don’t need anything. What a nice couple they are! Guess I better get going though, gotta catch the bus and meet everyone at the beach. See ya!

Day 10 - Tuesday March 11th

Top pic: Actually should be the last pic, taken at the beach of the beautiful sunsets they get here. Even more beautiful than Texas, believe it or not.
Middle pic: Arriving at the secluded beach to do some snorkeling. Jen is waving at Carmen, who had already been there for awhile.

Last pic: All of us chatting with our brother Heiner at the restaurant.

I went outside this morning before breakfast and checked my email, I found a spot a stones throw from our front door that I can get wifi, so no more need for the internet café! This morning we got up, ate breakfast and then headed down to a beach that Jen found in service yesterday. It is suppose to be really secluded and great for snorkeling. We had to park on the road and walk down but before we headed down we saw monkeys in the trees. That was Jen and Sam’s first contact with them! The beach was beautiful but on heading out to the reef where the snorkeling was suppose to be the best we realized that it might be too dangerous because it was low tide and the waves were coming in over the rocks, which could easily cause you to slam into them. After getting out a ways we decided it would be wise to call it off and head back to shore. At the shore were 2 good old boys from San Antonio, Texas who said they’d been to Costa Rice now 6 times and this is were they always come to snorkel and that they were going to attempt it. Sam and I watched them thinking they were going to get pounded, but they made it! So Chastity, Amanda and I went for it. There was a local out at the reef who had some food that he was feeding the fish . There were hundreds of these beautiful fish surrounding us. It was great!
From there we went to Costa Verde, a restaurant with this incredible view and a nice breeze. After eating we were taking some pictures and our waiter came over and asked me if we were brothers. Looking at Sam I said, “no, he’s just a friend, this is his wife Jen, that is my Chastity, and she is our friend Amanda”, he was still looking kind of confused when I realized he was asking if we were spiritual brothers….lol. I said, “oh, wait, you are a brother?” He was a local brother in the Spanish congregation named Heiner. After lunch we went down to Manuel Antonio beach and I rented a surfboard. After getting up on the board twice, I realized that the waves were just not for beginners so I switched to a boogie board. The waves were the biggest that we have seen yet, some of them were probably up to 10ft swells. Sam and I stayed in the water until sunset, as you can see in the pictures, just having too much fun!
After the beach we came home to change and then head to Nancy and Carmen’s place. On our way out all the local kids were outside playing and when they saw us they all came running. They practically attacked us. They all came running up and hugged all of us and then wanted to play. They were jumping on our backs and yelling, “no happy……si’ happy”. It was sad to have to leave them but we were already running late for the girls. Nancy and Carmen’s rental is very nice. We ate and played cards until 9:30pm. It started pouring rain just before we left and it is still pouring at 10:30pm. Time for bed!

Days 9 - Monday March 10th

Today Chastity, Amanda and myself are going on a fishing tour in the mangroves. Jen got up and went out in service with her friends Carmen and Nancy and Sam drove us down to the mangroves and then rested in the A/C all day due to his heat rash. Alex, the presiding overseer here, arranged the trip for us with a local brother, Marco, who works for one of the tour companies. It was a blast! The mangroves gone on forever here. It truly feels like you are in the jungle with the vines growing overhead to provide nice shade. There are crocodiles in the mangroves, even though we never got a chance to see any. We did spot some monkeys though. After they spotted us and our bananas they came running to the boat, jumped on and started eating the bananas right out of our hands. They peel your fingers back to get to the banana. One of them, probably the head one, was getting alittle irritated with the other monkeys and started growling at them. He got a banana from Alex and when Alex turned to get another banana he came on the boat and slapped Alex on the butt! It was hilarious!

Amanda and I didn't catch any fish, but the others did. They caught a couple of pufferfish, cute little guys that puff up when they get their belly's rubbed, a grunterfish that makes this weird grunting sound, a soapfish that when you massage it's tails secrets a jelly that then turns to soap when you rub your hands together, and a red snapper. It was such a great time!

The meeting was at 7pm last night and afterwards we had refreshments for a sister that is moving. Met a nice brother who was visiting from San Jose, Scott Moore. He use to be at the same table as James when we was at bethel! He couldn't believe I was James' brother. Went home afterwards and called it another night.

Day 8 - Sunday March 9th

Our group that went up to Tarcoles, except for Ryan who
is taking the picture.

This morning we got up and went out in service. There were 12 of us that met. Brother Phinney, the service overseer said that it made him want to cry seeing so many here to help the congregation cover their territory. We took two car groups up to Tarcoles (about an hour drive north of Quepos) and were able to complete 2 territories. All the English speaking people that we talked to were very nice.The Americans here most all live in very nice houses, often in gated communities that sometimes allow us in and sometimes not. Usually even if we can't go in, the local spanish security guard will take literature from us and then distribute it for us to all the houses in the complex! They all accepted invitations to the memorial and at least 2 said they very well may attend! We quit at around 4pm, ate a little lunch at a "soda" in Jaco and then hit the beach for about an hour until the sunset. The waves were huge, and there were quite a few surfers. We headed home after that, took a shower and then headed to the internet cafe. Now we have to go buy some groceries for our crocodile and fishing boat tour that a local brother is taking us on. The presiding overseer here, Bro. Luiz, arranged it for us and is coming with us. Should be adventurous!

Day 7 - Sat. March 8th

Me and Brother Nelson on stage before my talk. He set up the mics and the fan for me.

Well last night after I got home from posting online, Sam and Jen had made it safely home from San Jose. They stopped on the way and took a hike up into the mountians to a waterfall and on the way saw a sloth in the trees right next to the path. Sam told this funny story about it grabbing ahold of a branch and it breaking, causing the sloth to fall on it's back. He said it slowly reached up to grab a leaf to pull itself up but then that broke off too, causing him to tumble down the hill.....lol....he said he just wasn't moving fast enough!

This morning we made breakfast at home again and then the four of them went into Quepos to the market, which is every Saturday on the waterfront. I stayed home for about an hour and timed my talk for this afternoon. At the bus stop to head into Quepos, I ran into Michael and Rocky on their way home from the market, they had seen the rest of the gang there. At the market, Chaz and the rest of the gang were already gone. That didn't stop me from browsing aroung though. I bought another fresh coconut for it's water and jelly, much cheaper at the market, it was only 50 cents. I also bought a miniature coconut pie that was amazing! They are cooked and sold here at the market by the Quakers. From there I went to the internet cafe which is were I'm at now. I will post more of our day later. I'm going to try and post a few more pictures as well. See ya!


At the meeting, everything went well with my public talk. The little fan they put on the speaker helped keep me cool but it was tough trying not to let my notes blow away. We had 31 in attendance, not bad being that they only have 18 publishers (really on 13 permanent - 2 just moved back to the states and 3 are on the construction crew building kingdom halls around Costa Rica. After the meeting, 11 of us went out to dinner at El Avion, an nice place that we had already been to the first night here. The girls all bought some jewelry from the girl that will make it for you while you have your dinner. She was cheap and did amazingly good work. After that it was back home and bedtime.

Day 6 - Friday March 7

Getting ready to ride some waves at Manuel Antonio Beach!
Amanda with the kids on our driveway. Several of them are studying the Bible with some of the Spanish-speaking friends! They were so cute and friendly. Issac is the youngest one in the green shirt.

This morning we made breakfast, studied our Watchtower lesson for Sat., cleaned up the house a little, and then headed down the driveway to catch the bus (the girls first time, and Blake.....Chaz did great, no screaming out loud or nothing!). We took it to the end of the road (about a 2 mile ride) where it stops at the entrance to Manuel Antonio park. You don't have to go into the park to visit the beach here, the one we have been at the last few days. I decided to rent a boogie board today since the waves were suppose to get bigger as the day progressed. We first stopped at a little store next to the beach were I bought a new pair of sandels, a must for around here. We met up with another sister here that we met at the bookstudy on Wednesday. Her name is Desiree, a single pioneer sister from Colombus Ohio. She told us that she was going to be at the beach early in the morning to catch some waves with the "need greaters surfboard" (that's the surfboard that some brother bought while he was here some time back and just left it behind and said that the friends who came here to work were the need is greater could use it and pass it around). Desiree also introduced us to another brother and sister from Holland. He is just here for a week on vacation, but his sister who can speak Spanish is here for a year, working with one of the Spanish congregations. He had rented a board and graciously let me take a few turns on it. The waves were pretty big (probably about 6-7 foot swells), but I was able to get up twice and ride it a little ways. It was a blast! I also must have got touched by a jellyfish. I started all of a sudden feeling a burning sensation on my side, and when I got out of the water and took a look at it, it was red. A nice guy at the outdoor restuarant gave me some vinegar to put on it. That healed it right up and I was back in the water within minutes! While we were having lunch at the beach a huge iquana came walking up (probably about 3 feet long) he was eating the food that people had dropped on the sand. No one seemed to pay him much attention. We caught the bus home at around 4pm and when we were walking up the driveway one of the little neighbor boys was standing in the middle with his hands out as if he wasn't going to let us by. He followed us up to our house and kept talking to us in Spanish. I took my camera out and asked if he wanted his picture taken and he said, "Si!" so I took it. Before long two more little girls came over, also speaking only Spanish. I went into the house to get them each a granola bar but by the time I came back to the porch there were 6 kids total! I told them they had to share the 3 bars. They were all so happy. I got a picture of Amanda with all of them with their granola bars. They kept playing this game were they would say "Si happy!" and I would make a big smiley face, then they would all say "No happy!" and I would make a sad face, and then they would all just laugh so hard......all the children here are so friendly and happy, they are always outside playing with one another......no xbox's here to keep them indoors, in fact they were all so intrigued by my digital camera. I took a video of them and then played it back and they all just started laughing at it and pointing at the camera and speaking lots of Spanish that I couldn't understand. The girls decided to stay home tonight and just relax and I went down and caught the bus up to another internet bar that I found about a 1/4 of a mile from the house, a good busines with all the American vacationers here. Think I'll go grab a cold beer at the restaurant up the road after this and then catch the bus back down the hill. As you see, the pictures are uploading fine now, though they do take awhile and I have to pay by the minute here so I'll try and post at least one picture for each day we are here. More to come!

Day 5 - Thursday, March 6th

Amanda and Chastity with their fresh coconuts and the friendly man selling them. He cuts them open with a machete for you, gives you a straw to drink the coconut water inside and then slices the coconut in half so you can eat the coconut jelly inside...it's was very yummy!!!

This morning Sam and Jen are leaving for San Jose to pick up another sister, Carmen. They will be back sometime tomorrow, which means that Chastity, Amanda and I will have to experience the bus. I rode into Quepos this morning with Sam and Jen to the internet bar, they have already left so I have to figure out the bus to get back to the house. Fortunately the owner here speaks great English so I plan on just asking him to help me get back, should be fun. I posted one picture for Sunday as you can see, but it takes awhile and I on a second, third and fourth attempt I kept getting an error, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to post anymore pictures. Next update on the blog will probably be in a couple of days, being that it's not easy to get here. Chastity, Amanda and I are planning on snorkeling today at the rainforest beach in the Manuel Antonio park. Sam and Jen have left to go pick up the sister, Carmen, in San Jose. They will be back sometime Friday night.
From the internet bar I walked down to the bus station. After waiting about 10 minutes for a bus to get back to the house in Manuel Antonio I decided that I would just take a taxi instead. The taxi cost me 1000 colones ($2 dollars) and it was air conditioned - I think I made the right choice, even though it was only about a mile ride. Back at the house, the girls were ready to go get a bite to eat but they really wanted to walk so we could get some exercise. We had our backpack stuffed with all our beach attire. We walked all the way to Café Milagro which is probably about a ½ to ¾ of a mile, but it’s all uphill and in hot and humid weather. Just as we got to the café I realized that both of my flipflops had fallen out on the way! Seems we can’t keep a hold of our shoes around here. The girls stayed at the café and I took off to backtrack to see if I could find them. I walked all the way back to the house and never found them, guess somebody got them a nice pair of J.Crew flipflops! I decided to catch the bus back to the café since it only costs 25 cents. From the café we agreed that we would take the first to come, either the bus or a taxi. Taxi won!
At the beach, we decided to go into Manuel Antonio Park, being that there is suppose to be good snorkeling and a white sand beach. To get to the beach you have to walk through parts of the rainforest which was really beautiful. We saw hermit crabs by the thousands, iguanas that are up to 2 ft. long, a variety of birds, and yes…..monkeys! They came down low in the trees right by the beach and someone was feeding them, a no-no around here. They were really cute and after getting their food ran back up the trees. The beach here was truly amazing, white sand and turquoise-blue warm water. The snorkeling wasn’t good though because the water was too rough, making it not so clear and too scary to go out very far to actually see some fish. Amanda did spot one fish though. We took a taxi back to the house and Chaz and Amanda cooked rice & black beans, fried plantains, avocados, and corn tortillas. Just as we were getting ready to set down and eat the electricity went out, which by the way happens pretty often around here. This was the first time it went out during the evening, it is usually during the night. So we lit some candles and had our dinner anyhow. It came back on in just a few minutes. The girls went to bed, but I'm up working on my public talk for Saturday( I have to rework it since it's designed to be especially for the youth, but there are not youth in this congregation, a few young couples but no youngsters or teens. The meeting is at 4pm, we are going out in service first, then the meeting. Oh yeah, dad would love this about Costa Rica.......no ties in service, only at the meetings and no suit jackets even at the meetings.....too hot for them. They have a box fan that is next to the stage that blows on the speaker and ceiling fans for the audience. It's about 10 pm, the girls are already asleep. Amanda went to bed at 7:30pm and Chaz soon afterwards. Guess it's time for me to retire. Buenas noches!

Day 4 - Wednesday, March 5th

After the bookstudy, in front of the Kingdom Hall in Quepos, the other brother and sister by the car is Bryn and Nancy from New York City.


This morning Chastity got up and made us breakfast - eggs, corn tortillas, papaya leche (fresh papaya and milk blended together) and coffee. The four of them went out in service but I stayed home due to not feeling well. Not drinking enough water and staying out in the sun for too long tends to do that to you - I think they call that sun poisoning - whew, I won’t let that happen again - not fun!
The guys came back at around 11:30 for lunch. They had a great time in the ministry. They explained that it’s basically a search work, looking for English speaking people. You go to the door, ask the householder in Spanish if they know of any English speaking people around. Then if you get an address, you go talk to them.
At 1pm is the book study. There were 14 in attendance with Bro. Smith conducting. As of now, he is the only elder because the PO is gone for a few months to take care of his sick mother. There are also 2 ministerial servants, but they are only here temporarily until probably about May. The Kingdom Hall is bright yellow with large open windows up front. I was distracted several times during the meeting due to the neighbors walking by and talking or the cars and motorcycles zooming by, I actually got interrupted during one of my comments when a loud motorcycle went by. After the book study we went to another grocery store that has a much better selection than the other one. It had a lot more American foods that we know how to cook. The brothers also showed us were an internet café is and a laundry mat that will do your wash for you for $3! We’ll be dropping of our clothes tomorrow.
Back at home, we had our daily rain shower that lasted 20-30 minutes.
We went to dinner tonight Babba Rojo, more of like an American establishment in Manuel Antonio, with a bunch of obnoxious Americans with their cigarettes and swirling their wine in the glasses. They did indeed have the “World’s Greatest Nachos” though. Sam stayed home in bed, the consequences of, like myself, not having enough water during the day. Back home at around 8pm, Sam feeling a little better. We all go to bed early.

Day 3 - Tuesday March 4th

The gang getting ready to hit the water at Manuel Antonio beach. As you can see we are in the shade, the sun is too intense.


I woke up last night at around 12:30am to the sound of a sudden downpour of rain. It seemed like it rained really heavy for about 30 minutes then stopped. I woke up this morning at 6:20am and went for a walk before anyone got up. I walked down the driveway to the main road and the schoolchildren and their mothers were watching as they waited for the city bus. One little girl on the other side of the street was waiting patiently with her hands crossed and a slight smile on her face as a man on my side of the street playfully tossed pebbles at her feet. It was warm outside and humid. There are all kinds of little bugs and flying insects here. We even have a gecko inside our house that lives up in the rafters.
After everyone got up, we headed out to go eat breakfast. As we were going down the driveway, we noticed a woman’s shoe hanging on the fence. It was Jen’s! When we were unloading the SUV the evening before, I had taken 2 of her shoes and one of Amanda’s and put them on the roof of the car and forgot them! About a ¼ of a mile down the road we found Jen’s other shoe laying on the side of the road. Amanda’s shoe has yet to be recovered.
We had breakfast at Café’ Milagro in Manuel Antonio, a wonderful place known for their coffee. On to the beach after that. The beach was more beautiful than any of us had expected. The black sand is so fine and soft, the water is warm and the waves……huge! We decided not to rent a surfboard or boogie board today and instead just bodysurf. We never went to far out because the waves are so powerful and the rip currents are deadly. Thankfully there are lifeguards posted at this beach and they are quick to spot a rip current and tell everyone to move down to a different area.
After our day at the beach we went into town (Quepos) to eat at a little soda (an expensive eatery). Again, great food and large portions for about $20 for the 5 of us! From there we went to the grocery store, Pali. We had a whole grocery cart of food and when we went to leave, the security guard shut the huge steel doors in front of us and would not let us leave. He took the receipt, looked at it and started speaking to us in Spanish. Jen tried her best to understand what he was trying to say to us. We thought he was telling us that we couldn’t leave the store unless we paid some sort of tax or something. Finally after getting someone else who worked at the store who could speak a little English they explained to us that because of what we had bought, we had earned a credit toward our next shopping trip there! They just wanted to make sure that we knew that before we left.
Back at the house, most of us were in bed by 10pm.

Day 2 - Monday, March 3rd

This is the opening at the branch that I mentioned!

Morning at the hotel:
We started the day out this morning with a rooster waking us up at the crack of dawn. The B&B offered a wonderful complementary breakfast of eggs, rice & beans, pancakes, fresh watermelon & papaya, etc. and of course fresh Costa Rican coffee. While I was checking out, I mentioned to the owner that we were Jehovah’s Witnesses and that the local branch office had suggested her B&B as a place to stay. After a minute, a lady who had been swimming in the pool walked up and began talking to the owner and myself. The owner proceeded to say something in Spanish to the lady, who then looked at me with a big smile and said, “you are my brother?!!!“ She gave me a big hug and began to tell me all about herself. Her name is Sis. Carpenter, and she grew up in Costa Rica, married a brother from NJ who had been sent there as a missionary and they are presently living about a half mile down the road (they go to the B&B in the morning for an exercise swim). She and her husband invited us to their house, but unfortunately we had to get going to have time to tour the branch offices. They said that we could stay with them anytime and in fact said that when Sam and Jen come back into the city to pick up the other sister, Carmen, on Thursday that they were welcome to stay the night before they headed back to Quepos. They gave us their email and phone numbers to contact them later.
At the Branch Offices:
We were welcomed at the branch by Felix, one of the 38 Bethelites, and he gave us a wonderful tour of the facilities. One of the beautiful features of the branch is that in the middle of the building is a huge opening were the sun is shining in upon a large cluster of plants and flowers. The rain, as well as the birds come right into the office! The branch is located about a mile or 2 from a little area called San Antonio which is known as having the best weather year around in Costa Rica.
Our drive to Manuel Antonio:
We headed out of the San Jose area at noon and we were all starving! We decided to wait until getting out of the city before stopping for a bite to eat. The road from San Jose to Quepos (Manuel Antonio) is anything but what we Americans are used to. The roads wind back and forth and up and down the mountains, oftentimes with no guardrails to stop you from plummeting hundreds if not thousands of feet down the side of the mountain, oh, and did I mention the crazy drivers on the roads here. We stopped at a little open air restaurant just before the little town of San Mateo that was practically hanging on the side of the mountain. The food was delicious and cost the five of us $16 total for food and drinks! The countryside here is amazingly beautiful and the people are so friendly that it’s easy to see why so many people are retiring here. About a half hour from Jaco is a bridge that had many tourists gawking and looking over it’s railing. Down below were 15-20 huge crocodiles, some of which looked like they were at least 15ft long. Finally after about 3 hours of driving we saw our first glimpse of the beautiful blue waters off the coast of Jaco. There were several surfers out in the what looked like 8-10 foot swells. From Jaco to Quepos are a couple of one lane bridges made of old railroad ties that seemed sure to give way at any moment. We survived though. There are miles and miles of palm tree plantations here that the road runs through.
Destination Manuel Antonio:
We made it to Manuel Antonio at around 5pm and after stopping and asking for directions several times finally found our little bamboo house where we will be staying. The little road to the house is straight up the side of the mountain and next door is a brother and his family who are locals and attend the Spanish congregation in Quepos. Our house is really nice! Downstairs is one big room with 2 beds and a bathroom, the main floor has a living room, dining area, kitchen and another bathroom and upstairs is a loft with another bed. It even has an air conditioner! I hear those are luxuries around here. After unloading, we were off to dinner. At the end of the driveway we saw a nicely dressed, happy couple waiting for the bus and guess what, they were Witnesses on their way to the meeting. Their names were Michael and Rocky Phinney, both pioneers from Tennessee and they moved here to help the English congregation 10 months ago. He serves as the Service Overseer, Secretary & a book study overseer. There are 18 publishers in congregation.
We ate at a nice restaurant that was frequented by all the tourists here. The Manuel Antonio area is a very touristy place and much more expensive here than in the rural areas. We stopped at a grocery store on our way back to the house and before we knew it Sam was talking to a group of 5 guys in one of the aisles. Four of them were brothers from Brooklyn Bethel that Sam recognized from when he served at Bethel. They are all here on vacation for a few days! The other brother, Franklin, is a local brother from the town of Jaco. Our second day here and we’ve already ran into 11 other brothers and sisters by chance. Such a small world in Jehovah’s organization! The brothers from Brooklyn invited us to come down to the beach tomorrow and do some surfing with them. Being that Wednesday will be our first day in the ministry, we accepted and will be meeting up with them to soak up some sun. Sorry for such a long post, but as you can see, I’m pretty excited about our trip thus far. Adios - more to come!

Day One - Sunday

PIC: We found our B&B! Relaxing at the pool.

Hello everyone,
Just a quick hello to let you all know that we arrived safe in San Jose this afternoon. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon. After picking up our rental 4x4 we began a search for our bed and breakfast in Heredia. After driving around for about an hour we finally found the place. A very nice little B&B tucked away among the residential homes here (it was suggested by a brother at the branch offices). While looking for the B&B we also passed the branch offices which are about a mile from the B&B. What a beautiful branch! We will be touring there tomorrow and then heading onto our final destination in Quepos. We left our B&B around 4pm to look for a place to eat and after driving for about an hour and getting lost in.... I don´t know exactly were we where but we were able to find our way back home. None of the streets have names here so you have to have a good sense of direction. We settled on a nice BBQ (not Texas style though!) restaurant not far from the B&B that was suggested by the management and it was delicious.....fried plaintains with refried black beans.....big bowl of white beans......BBQ pork tenderloin....hmmmm. The weather was probably about 80 degrees this afternoon when we got here but now at 9pm it´s probably 60 degrees and windy outside. There are mango trees outside our window and what sounds like hundreds of birds around the place. Anyhow, I could go on but I should go for now. I will try to update yoú all later on. Buenos noches!