Monteverde

Today was such an amazing day! I didn't want the two awesome zip lining pictures to be buried, so I'm putting them first. I'll still have them in the blog, but these pictures are awesome enough to be seen twice.

Jorja

Mike

Okay.... to the regular blog... We had breakfast at the hotel, which was really good. They had this house-made jam that I loved. It was chunky, kind of looked like salsa. I couldn't place what was in it. I found out that it was pineapple, papaya, orange juice and cinnamon. Really good. It was so awesome to place our breakfast order from our room. We walked in, they sat us at a table and brought the food to us within a few minutes. Perfect!

View from Jorja's patio

View from our balcony

Outside the bungalow. You can see Jorja's shower through the window.

Path we walk to the lodge

I was pretty excited about today. We went zip lining in Monteverde. The zip lining place picked us up and took us straight there. (Sky Adventure Monteverde Park) First they put the equipment on us. 

Then we did a small zip line.

Jorja ~ small zip line

Next we took a tram to the top. There was a father/daughter from the US with us. She lives in Boston and he lives in San Francisco. We were talking on the ride up and found out the girl did a study abroad in Hong Kong. She told Jorja she was going to love it there! Jorja was able to ask her some questions about living there. It was pretty random and cool.

Jorja 

For some reason Jorja got obsessed with taking pictures that made Mike look like an alien.

Then she couldn't stop laughing about it. Mike & Jorja

Alien Jorja

Alien Stephanie

Mike, Jorja, Stephanie

View

At the top of the mountain there was a look out spot and some trails, also a little cafe. We looked around a bit and then did the zip line. It was so fun and pretty.

Jorja, Stephanie, Mike

Alien-ish Stephanie & Mike

Stephanie & Mike

Stephanie, Jorja, Mike

Stephanie

Jorja

We attempted jump pictures. We are not pros. Haha ~ Jorja

Stephanie's attempt

Jorja

Jorja

Mike

The second line down I was walking up the stairs to get to the next spot. I felt a pain in my neck. I stopped where I was and kept saying ow-ow-ow. I thought there was a fire ant on me and I couldn't find it. Mike asked if I was okay, but I couldn't really answer him. I just kind of shook my head. He came down to where I was at and saw I had a bee (or something like that) in my fingers. I did not even feel the bee in my fingers. How weird is that? Mike couldn't get the stinger out so the zip line guy came down and got it out. Meanwhile Jorja was hooked up and waiting to be sent. She said when he finally sent her she was so scared because he had gotten distracted with me she was worried she wasn't all the way hooked up. She is already afraid of heights. My throat hurt for a long time after that. It hurt to breathe and turn my head. The first ride down with the wind on it really hurt too. I was worried the stinger was still in me. The rest of the zip lining was awesome. The last line down you ride with two people. When the father/daughter got hooked up, his phone fell out of his pocket. He didn't notice. I picked it up and asked if it was his. He had zippered pockets, but forgot to zip it after snapping some pictures. It was the most perfect place to lose a phone. If it had fallen 10 seconds later it would never be found again. When it was our turn, Mike was in front and I put my legs around him. Jorja went down with the worker.

Stephanie, Jorja, Mike

Stephanie & Jorja

We then walked to the last spot and found out it was a bungee jump down. Just a short jump, but still! Jorja was so scared. I videoed her and it was so cute. She was talking to the camera about how scared she was. Too bad I did the classic think I was recording when I wasn't. My stopping the 'recording' only started it. So the video is just of my feet and me laughing. Lame!

Mike about to fall backwards

Jorja before I started "videoing"

They had professional photographers take your picture and random parts. We could have gotten all of them for a lot of money. I bought two pictures for $10/each. I love them though.

Mike

Jorja

Our last thing was a Sky Hike. We walked across these suspension bridges. They were up so high and would hobble while we were going across. We had a guide that absolutely loved birds. He would get so excited about them. Made me laugh.

Jorja

Stephanie

Stephanie & Jorja

Jorja & Stephanie

Stephanie & Jorja

Stephanie

Jorja

Stephanie & Mike

Stephanie, Jorja, Mike

Spider......

That hike was about an hour and a half. The shuttle to the hotel would go every hour. We got back right at 1:00. The guide yelled down to the shuttle  people and asked if they could wait three minutes. They said yes. Jorja and I ran into the gift shop. She really wanted a hat she had seen. I really wanted to get Maysen a shirt. Too bad the sloth one I wanted didn't come in her size. I hurried and picked out a shirt for her, bought the stuff and hopped on the shuttle and then they pulled away. I didn't want to chance not getting Maysen a shirt. She loves shirts from different places. Years ago when Mike and I went to Paris I saw a shirt the first day that I thought Maysen would love. I didn't buy it because it was Sunday. I looked for it every day after and never found it. I kept passing up other shirts because I wanted that one. Then I ran out of time. I thought I could get one at the airport, but that didn't work out either. So, no shirt for Maysen. I didn't want that to happen this time.

Anyway... We had lunch at the hotel and it was sooooo good. I had these mini hamburgers that were delicious. Then we came back to our rom and took a nap. We had a lazy rest of the day. It was glorious.

Jorja

My lunch

Stephanie

Mike

Mike and I went on a hike around the hotel. We didn't make it through the entire thing because we didn't want to be caught out in the dark. Glad we turned around when we did because we just made it before the sun set.

Stephanie

This little guy was nearby his statue. Haha

Mike

There was a random clearing about halfway up.

We kept talking about how Maysen would love this, and would imagine dragons living here.

Mike

We borrowed a game from the hotel. I think it was called Stampede. We played that until dinner. Mike took his leftover pasta in a to-go box last night, but the kitchen doesn't have a microwave. The hotel has us text our dinner order and then it is waiting for us when we get there. It is so cool! Mike sent the order and then asked if they could warm up his pasta. They told him they would have a new plate for him. Hahaha. I got the soup I had yesterday, but it wasn't as good. It was kind of gritty this time, like it hadn't been pureed long enough. Still, dinner was great. We came back and watched some Seinfeld episodes with Jorja in our big giant bed. Stockton sent pictures of the kids out to dinner. Looks like they went to Leatherbys.

Alyssa, Stockton, Preston, Maysen

They have done really well this week. Preston has two tests tomorrow. Math and geography. He has a 99% in math right now, but missed two full classes for this unit. (Chinese field trip and AP test) I hope he understands it better now. Ahhh. Good luck to him! Anyway, in summary, today was a really good day.