Josh visits and the avoidance of school

While in San Jose I tried to come up with things to entertain my guest with, though for me proving dificult since I am not a fan of the city. About 2 blocks from the hotel there was El Teatro Nacional, meaning The National Theatre. While not quite as exciting as anticipated, it proved a least a little entertaing for me and my camera. Not to worry though, once out of the city the beaches were very worthwhile indeed, and we had a great time.
4 or so levels of seating.
Don't know why, but I like this one.

Statues everywhere.
What seemed to be a party/waiting room for persons attending a show.

Ceiling chandelier.
Not looking quite as entertained as I was.

Monkey man scaling rocks to jump from at the waterfall.

At Montezuma we took a boat trip to Tortuga Island where Josh did his first snorkling. Unfortunately, due to my situation of having an open wound, I couldn't get into the water above my waist, which meant for sure no snorkling. Que lastima...
Yippie!

The beach I was "forced" to lay about while the others played with the fish.
This one isn't too relavant, besides the fact that we ate 6 of our 8 meals in Montezuma at this restaurant. Yes mom, this is in fact the same one you and I ate at a lot too.
Pretty sunrise, though it pales in comparison to Jacks sunset...

Puerto Viejo

I had my second visitor of the semester and so in order to make the trip worthwhile, we spent 2/3 the time on the beach, and the other third in San Jose pretending we wern't in San Jose. I had 2 test to take or we would never have stayed as long as we did in the city. The first place we went though was Puerto Viejo, which never lets me down.
The sun casting interesting lights and darks onto the beach.

Josh going to play in the water just before what looks to be a thunderstorm.

Testing out the water.

Saprissa!

Saturday night Luis and I went to a Saprissa fúbol game(i.e. soccer). Let me tell you, those Saprissa fans are nuts. We played against Alejuela and beat them 3-0. Wooo-hoo!


Some saddened Alejuela fans mixed in with excited Saprissa ones too.
For the 1/2 time show, there were these drum men, fake kung fu fighters, pretty women and people on stilts.
Towards the end of the game, the enormous suprissa crowds started to become quite exhilarated, and what you see here is a group of fans, sitting in very close vicinity of one another, shooting off fireworks. I think my favorite part of Saprissa though are the jerseys that the stores sell for the average Jose to buy. Due to the fact that they of course have several sponsors, they have to have a logo on the front displaying one of these such businesses. The funny part is that the sponsor they chose to place front and center on these T's is the bread company, Bimbo. So to an outsider, such as the thousands and thousands of tourist that run through Costa Rica each year, it merely looks as if men, woman and children of all kinds are rooting for their favorite team, the Bimbos. Luis and I super stokes at our team winning.

La Feria

About a 15 minute walk from my house on Saturdays takes me to this produce market that sits in the shade of the Saprissa stadium. Normally I am reluctant to take out my camera, or even bring it to such crowded public areas, but I decided it was high time I got some photos of surprisingly one of the only markets in San Jose.

Kate with her coconut...

Yup, people with grocery carts.
The man with the small machete that sold the coconuts.
They actually called these plum sized things soaking in water coco, because they are in the family of the coconut.

Supposedly the flower of a cauliflower? I think I misheard him.

A new vegetable to me(and trust me there are a lot of these, a lot of new fruits too) called yuca. I find it to be similar to a potato, but chewier. It's weird.

Ultimate

Well here's a little taste of Costa Rican Ultimate from when the news people came and filmed us. All I'm doing in it is poaching and smiling, but it's always a good time. Beware though, it's all in spanish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEjXhhf1AMU

La Finca de Mariposas

On mom's last day down here in Costa Rica, we went on over to a butterfly garden near Alejuela. It had lost of beautiful butterflies, but obviously they are quite difficult to photograph due to the fact that they never stop moving. It was a very interesting and educational experience though.
Of course the Monarch.
This ones name is the Sara Butterfly.

Passion Flower.


I think this is the Owl Butterfly, or something.
Two butterflies mating.

It turns out that this plant is a hallucinogenic, and when it's too muggy they close their windows to the building so that the strong sweet smell it emits doesn't "get to them."

Incredible gold pupa of a butterfly.
More pupas.
The pupa of a Sara Butterfly.
Pupas waiting to be boxed and shipped to other countries for educational purposes and more.