Sarapiqui

Todo el dia era una adventura con mi iglesia!
The entire day was an adventure with my church!

Primero que nada, nuestro bus quito a funcionar solo treinta minutos despues empezamos el viaje. Entonces, nos enviaron un bus nuevo. Pase un tiempo bueno para conocer otro gente de la iglesia y tambien tenemos mas tiempo para escuchar a la musica. Ensene la gente de la universidad como bailar con YMCA.

First of all, our bus broke down only thirty minutes into the journey. So they sent us a new one :)
The hour and a half of waiting was a great time to get to know more families in the church and listen to music, and I even taught a few of the college students the YMCA dance.

Cuando llegamos, comimos y despues nadamos en una piscina fria. Menos mal que hacia llovando.
When we arrived, we ate lunch and swam in a cold pool.
It's a good thing that it was already raining.

Algunas personas y yo fuimos a explorar la area.
Some of us walked around a bit to explore!

Un puente de meditacion, pero no pudiera cruzarlo. Pone a pensar, verdad?
A meditation bridge, but you couldn't cross it. Makes you think, right?

Cuando mire a esto, le dije, "Mira al perrezoso!"
When I saw this, I said, "Look at the sloth!"

Tambien, cuando mire a esto, le dije, "Mira a la perrezosa!"
When I saw this, I said, "Look at the sloth!" Que wow!

Chicas fantasticas que conocia mas hoy :)
Fantastic ladies that I got to know more today.

Una familia bilingue que vivieron en Michigan por 6 anos.
A bilingual family in the church that lived in Michigan for 6 years.

Otra familia fantastica en la iglesia. Todas las semanas la esposa me pregunto: "Cual es mi nombre?" hasta el momento cuando yo puedo recordarlo.
Another fantastic family in the church. Every week, the wife would ask me: What is my name? up until the moment that I could finally remember it/pronounce it correctly. That is to say, I will never forget them.

La iglesia tuvo un culto corto sobre cuando Jesucristo habia lavado los pies de los discipulos. Por fin, el pastor dio una invitacion a bautismo. Ocho muchachos eran bautisado.

The church had a short service on the theme of Jesus washing the disciples' feet. At the end, the pastor gave the invitation to baptism, explaining it is a proclamation of our faith in Jesus Christ. Eight teenagers went to the front, and we prayed for each of them before walking with them down to the river.

En el nombre del Padre, del Hijo, y Espiritu Santo.
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Rambo esta aqui?
As we are about to head back after the baptisms, a man comes thrashing through the path wearing mud smeared on his face, camo pants, and a knife in his hand. I was a little unnerved, until I realized it was a member of our church pretending to be Rambo. We all had a good laugh.

Rally
Following the Rambo incident, everyone was ready to get muddy and do the obstacle course on the grounds. Having recently completed one of these crazy courses earlier in the month and having been sick recently, I decided to pass and instead serve as the rally photographer.

Here are some clips from the church trip:
(Top: One of the rally games; Bottom: Baptizing students in the river)

Volcan Poas

I've been wanting to go to Volcan Poas for a few weeks now, especially knowing it's only a day trip away and one of the most majestic views into a volcano crater. Eleven other ILE associated folk helped to make this dream a reality. Saturday morning, we rented a private van for the day and headed out to the Volcano.

It was a beautiful drive, sobre todo as the van made it's way up the mountain, and you could look out and see the clouds touching the ridge of the neighboring mountain, farms and little towns filling the gorgeous green valley below. Not to mention, we were surrounded by coffee fields and acres of strawberries. Along our route, we passed many touristy stands with large signs reading, "Souvenirs," looming above their boldly painted walls. Women stood by the side of the road holding styrafoam boxes filled with the largest, ripest strawberries you've ever seen. Our mouths watered, but we knew buying some fresas would be a sweet reward after summitting the volcano. Plus, we were on a time schedule to race up the mountain before the morning clouds rolled in and blocked the view.

We entered the park, walked briskly by the museum/shop and followed the mob of other visitors up the path to the crater. When we arrived to the crater look-out point, I was just stunned. There, only a few meters below us, was an active volcano. Talk about being in awe of God's power visible through His creation. The clouds rose steadily from the turquoise colored lake. It looked tranquil underneath the smoke; little did we know it was one of the most acidic "lakes" in the world. We could definitely smell the sulfur (and by that, I mean we kept blaming the smell on one member of our group). Also, we were pleasantly surprised by how sunny, clear and warm the weather was at the top. We were told to bring heavy jackets and umbrellas, but fortunately, we were blessed by better weather than we could have ever asked for.

Continuing the explore the area, we followed a well-developed trail through a tangled archway of trees to get to the second crater, Lake Botos. Here the air was cooler and thinner, and as we walked up the stairs, it felt like you couldn't completely inhale enough air. We took it slow, had great conversations, and took a ton of pictures.

Lake Botos was lovely in a different sort of way, with sparkling blue water filling the inactive crater. The cloud forest encircled the lake on all sides, and I wished I could row across the lake in a boat. But I guess it's still considered part of the volcano, so maybe that wasn't the best idea.
After our hike and our visit to the very informative and interactive Poas visitor's center, we headed down the mountain to find a good, cheap place to eat. Where we ended up eating was very touristy but had some pretty amazing strawberry milkshakes. The best part of eating there was discovering a really beautiful garden across the street.
Cuando era la hora de comprar fresas, we convinced our driver to head back up the mountain to the stand with the styrafoam boxes. We each bought a box, along with some other unique Costa Rican bocadillos. Then on the way back down the mountain, we had the chance to stop at the Doka Coffee Estate and walk alongside the coffee fields. Starbucks just doesn't even compare (although they still might get their coffee from there). What amazed me more than the coffee though were the brilliantly colored flowers/plants along the hillside. God is so creative!

Winding down on the van ride back, the group reminisced on our great journey together. Volcan Poas, incredible views, restaurant/garden, fresh fresas, coffee plantation, taking silly pictures and sharing in the grand adventure of renting a van and having the freedom to direct the driver where/when to go.

Thanks to everyone who was a part of creating these memories!

"The Poas Eleven"