Pura Vida: Day 6-8

Day 6: Zip-Line!
We started the day with some of the best pancakes I've ever had and amazing fresh orange juice. Then we drove a couple minutes to zip-lining! Through the jungle on the side of the volcano. I have never done this before, and it was pretty awesome! Well, to be totally honest, I was kind of scared the whole time, but I was so glad I did it. Again, I don't have any pictures of this because we had to purchase pictures, and we haven't been given the copies yet. However, I did steal some of my students' pictures from Facebook. I also did the Tarzan swing, which was incredible. It's like the rope swing I grew up with... on crack. My hands are getting clammy just thinking about the first few seconds of free fall, at which point I think I was yelling, "SWEET MOTHER" because I thought I was going to die. But once the rope caught, it was awesome.

After the zip-line, we had lunch and began our trek back to San Jose. This was the most beautiful drive we took. The sun was on the way down, so the lighting was beautiful, and farmers were irrigating their coffee... fields? It was absolutely breathtaking. Unfortunately, I was so overtaken by the combination of the dulcet tones of Mumford & Sons combined with the glorious scenery that I neglected to take any pictures. We stopped on the way home for barbeque dinner at an odd little western joint playing Black Eyed Peas, Justin Timberlake, House of Pain... it was weird-slash-awesome. We got back to our hotel, did devos & crashed.

before

 before, pt 2

during!

after: i can't believe we just did that!

Day 7: BEACH.
This was the most relaxing day. We drove about an hour and a half to a boat that took us out to Tortuga Island, where we lounged on the beach, went snorkeling, and rode a banana boat, and then lounged on the beach some more. My irrational fear of sharks surprisingly did not surface, and I was able to enjoy snorkeling... despite one student who kept swimming under me, pretending to be a large fish. Banana boating was a fun experience - it's easier and less painful than tubing. When we got back to the hotel that night, we did a class bonding activity, where each student says something nice about another student. My co-worker facilitating turned it over to my co-sponsor and me at the end, and we basically told our kiddos how blessed we've been by the past 4 years, and I told them this was my last year at PCA and started crying in front of them (awesome), and then there were more tears and we all prayed together and that was that!

our place of departure

what would i have done without this friend the past 4 years?!

yes, of course that's the island boar running right under my seat at lunch.

incredible.

Day 8: Departure
We enjoyed a slow morning, then sadly bade farewell to our now beloved Costa Rica. We spent our time at the airport running from gift shop to gift shop, trying to get as many of the free samples of chocolate-covered coffee beans as possible.

I absolutely loved Costa Rica, I love my seniors, I love my co-sponsor... what a trip!!