The Lesson

Nobody could have told us what this experience would mean in our lives. It would not have been possible for anyone to say how living in Jaco would change our lives.

Now, only a few hours before leaving this place, we can understand only a small bit of how we ourselves, have changes by living here. Jaco has taught us so much about who both of us are, how we see the world and what we choose to do as we move forward.

I believe that both us of will embrace life with more vigor and passion than we have ever before. Maybe after being home we will drastically change our direction in life.

Where else will we be able to feel so much like ourselves? Where else will we sweat so much that we feel alive? Where else will we see nature in it's most virgin state? Will there be another time in our lives where we will experience such new and scary things that we will be challenged to look for the best in each other?

Travel, culture and language differences have opened our eyes to another world. And that's what we came here to accomplish. We came here with no preconceived notions, no expectations, other than to live and enjoy life in another part of the world. And after 37 days in Jaco, we can both say with pure conviction that we 100% accomplished our goal. We accomplished more than we could have imagined.

I think that we won't truly know what we accomplished until we have been home for a few days, or a few weeks, and we can honestly look back on our experience and draw the meaning from it.

It's something that only Stacy and I can know. An experience that even after talking about it on multiple occasions, and telling our stories, only the two of us will truly understand it.

Arenal Volcano

Last week in between the surf competition craziness we took a trip through the countryside to Arenal Volcano with Melissa and Bryan, of course. Arenal is one of seven active volcanoes in Costa Rica and last erupted in 1968. The drive took a little over 4 hours, stopping along the way to eat some comida tipica. Along the way we saw how beautiful Costa Rica is outside of Jaco and also passed through a few cool little towns. Driving through the cloud forrest on a winding road was quite and adventure, luckily we were not driving. One of the bridges we drove over literally looked like it was about to fall into the water below with huge potholes on either side but when we looked over and saw a long flowing waterfall surrounded by lush green trees, you seem to forget about the bridge that may collapse under you. Unfortunately once we got closer to Arenal the rain picked up and it became gray and overcast. We arrived at Los Lagos, a hotel, spa and resort that sits at the base of the volcano, for lunch and some relaxation in the hot springs. Unfortunately we only caught a glimpse of the volcano in between rain storms/clouds. The grounds of Los Lagos was amazing, hot springs, water slides, swim-up bars, a butterfly farm, turtles, crocs, waterfalls, water slides and amazing views!
We spent several hours relaxing in the natural hot springs, with a swim-up bar of course and flying down the water slides. The combination of the cold rain and the hot water was fantastic. Also on our trip was a wonderful Iranian family (the father and 3 grown children) and an Argentian couple and their two children that we spent part of the day with. After leaving the resort, disappointed in not seeing the volcano, we stopped at Lake Arenal for some photos, before going to dinner and heading back to Jaco. The drive home seemed to take forever, through the hills, rain and cloud forrest. It was a long day filled with lots of driving and we didn't even see the volcano, but it was all worth it!

Surf Competition

Last Friday was the start of the 2009 Billabong World Surf Tour hosted in playa Hermosa. We started our morning with Bryan watching the parade here in Jaco. We followed the end of the parade on our bikes to the park where all of the teams were introduced, the crowd went nuts for the Costa Rican team! After checking out the scene there we decided to ride to south Jaco to the farmers market that is held here every Friday. Any kind of amazing fruit or produce you can imagine, all Delicious! We also tasted and bought fresh cheese and fruit juice. It had been raining and overcast most days since we've arrived and on this day the sun was shining bright and not a cloud was in the sky. It was beautiful, but HOT and we decided to come home to cool off for a bit.

Kathia came home and yelled for us to go for a ride with her and her son Gabriel to the food stand at the surf competition. The man who owns our house, Ray, is here for two weeks to work at the surf competition selling in the food court. Ray is also Kathia's american lover man and they have a child together, but we won't get into that :-). It was pretty cool to see the set up of everything involved for the competition and how absolutely nothing was ready for opening day on Saturday...TICO TIME! After hanging around there for awhile we all piled in the car and came home to make signs for Ray's food stand. We now have 3 signs that are being displayed at the Billabong World Surf Tour folks!

Friday night Bryan and Melissa stopped by and talked us into going out for a few hours. It was the first weekend everyone is in town for the competition so we decided to check it out. We also invited our new neighbors Julio and Douglas who are working with Ray this week. We started off the night at Los Amigos with a few friends Melissa made at her new job here, Sergio and Rachel. Monkey bar came next then Le Loft and Vibe. Vibe does not close until at least 5 or 6 in the morning, making it very easy to party all night here. Aaaannd, thats just what we did! After being up all night we then decided to take a cab to hermosa beach to see the start of the first day of the surf competition! The beach was empty, it was cloudy and cool and we got a great spot in front of the competitors booths. A few surfers were out getting ready for the competition, but it was not very crowded. We all took a nap on the beach and while sleeping someone turned on the sun and it got hot! The sand in hermosa beach is black so that does not help at all with the heat situation. Luckily Ray fed us some food and gave us a ride back to Jaco.

The next day we met Bryan and Melissa at Jaco 360, where Bryan works selling tours. Melissa was handing out coupons and koozies for Jaco 360 at the competition, so that meant a free ride over to hermosa. We were supposed to meet her there and leave around 9....hopefully you're getting the idea of tico time because that didn't happen. Finally make it over to hermosa and it looks completely different! Things are for the most part set up and ready to go. There are actually people directing traffic (they had to close the road the day before due to so much traffic) and telling people where to park. One tico man in charge of overseeing everything is NOT a good idea! On the beach, they actually had announcers with speakers set up everyone so we knew what was going on (something we didn't see the day before). The beach was packed with people watching the surfers. We burned our feet through the black sand and found a spot while Melissa and Bryan went to work handing out their koozies.
The sun was still shining bright, no clouds in the sky, people everywhere and black sand....not a good combination. There comes a point when it is so extremely hot that you stop caring what you look like and your only concern is staying somewhat cool. Regardless of the heat, we had a great time and met some awesome locals. When leaving, there were no cabs in site and tons of traffic so we decided to hitchhike our way back to Jaco. It didn't take long for a few locals to pick us up and bring us back to Bryan and Melissa's apartment. There we showered and hung in the pool trying to cool off. We were all a little delirious from day drinking in the sun!


After relaxing at their apartment for a bit we made our way to Jaco 360 to pick up our bikes and bring them back to our apartment. It was then that someone fell off their bike, we won't mention any names. No one was injured and it made for a great laugh, for everyone around! Now off to El Bohio, a bar on the beach in Jaco. We all hung there for a bit and ran into a few people we knew but we had enough and made our way back home with Melissa. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing in the a.c. and watching our sunburn slowly appear.

We haven't made it back to the surf competition so far this week, heard its pretty slow now. We will go back again before it ends but we've been involved in lots of other adventures that we will be sure to blog about soon!