El Sal

I visited my friend Brandon in El Salvador, and it was one of the greatest weekends I've had. First, on the flight I sat with a very friendly Salvadoran who noticed I was reading and writing in my journal. He pointed to his own and mentioned that he was journaling too, and I showed him how I was actually writing thoughts and quotes from the book I was reading (Knowledge of the Holy, Tozer). He asked me what my favorite quote was, and I excitedly flipped through my book, trying to decide. We got into a discussion about beliefs and backgrounds and stories for most of the flight, and then went our separate ways.

Brandon and a few of his friends picked me up at the airport, and that night I got to know some of the incredible girls on STINT with him. The next morning, we went to Ciudad Victoria to paint a school and put together a VBS for the chiquiticos. Some of the university students that Vida Estudiantil (which is like Campus Crusade, Latin America) has been working with came along, and I really enjoyed getting to know and working with them. That night we went out to dinner to celebrate Brandon's birthday and then we went home for banana bread cake and lightning storms. If you've never experienced a tropical rainstorm, you haven't lived.

The next day we went to a beach before I had to leave. In the car ride, I learned a lot about the political history of El Salvador (violence, civil wars, social unrest) and the significance of the recent elections. The FMLN (basically former Marxist guerillas) and the military government (Arena) fought a a 12 year civil war (1980-1992) in which 75,000 people died. Mauricio Funes, leader of the FMLN, has just won presidency, making him the first left president in twenty years. No one is exactly sure what Funes' reforms will look like, and there is concern about the reaction of the Salvadoran people. There's SO much more detail behind this, but the bottom line is that El Salvador is in huge need of our prayers and support.

I mentioned that this was one of the greatest weekends I've had, and it's because of the people I spent it with. There is so much love and truth being lived and discussed and poured out of the El Sal STINT team. It was so encouraging and refreshing to spend time with such a closely-knit family of students who love the Lord and each other with all of their hearts, souls, and minds.

Playa Conchal II

When we came back to Costa Rica, our friends from ASU had finished their program and left. We had all had a goodbye dinner before we left for graduation, but it was still very disquieting to come back to Lincoln without them. This weekend we had wanted to go to Montezuma, but we missed our bus and went to Playa Conchal again. Deb and Heather hadn't been, and they really enjoyed it.
Namesake

Graduation

My family came to Santa Barbara for my graduation! It was a whirlwind.  

My parents, four uncles, two aunts, two cousins, and grandmother all cameLiberal studies majors!Dr. G, my professor and advisor of the Costa Rica ProgramFriends for life, sent overseas (Africa, Middle East, and Central America)


When I came back to Lincoln, this was waiting for me on my desk:

Puerto Viejo II

A BUNCH of us went to Puerto Viejo one more time as a goodbye celebration for Alyssa. She'd raved about this hammock hostel called Rocking J's that is totally covered in mosaics and poetry.

Tanner offered to drive, which was luxurious. 
Climbing trees


We went to a bar where there was a woman with an INCREDIBLE, rich, gorgeous voice. The whole band was pretty great, actually. Great enough to get everyone to dance!
Rocking J's has house dogs. I love it.

Manuel Antonio II

My friends, Alyssa, Casey, and I went back to Manuel Antonio for the weekend because Alyssa had never been. It was ridiculously hot, but beautiful.

Casey suggested we check out Iguana Beach, which sounded great because it's a little locals-only beach inside the park and I'd never been. For lunch, we got some fruit at a little stand and I made the horrendous mistake of buying a mango. Apparently, mangos are the primary staple of iguanas. As soon as we started eating the iguanas came out. I think they're pretty cool guys, iguanas, but when they're creeping out of rocks everywhere, staring at you with this hungry intensity and suddenly you're surrounded by crooked, pointy teeth and cold, yellow eyes...it's not so great. I started getting nervous and began throwing scraps of mango peel away from us, and sure enough, that's what they were after. We lied down to nap but I couldn't. 

I kept imagining the iguanas coming for me.  

Pacuare River Rafting

"El río Pacuare es considerado uno de los cinco mejores ríos para hacer rafting en el mundo por su belleza natural y espectaculares rápidos." Which means, the Pacuare is intense. I mean, Class III/IV intense. Unfortunately, it hadn't rained for a while so the river wasn't as llena as it could have been.

Deb and me

Everybody

As you can see, it's probably a good thing the river wasn't much more full because I fell out. (Twice.)
Deb, being the kind woman that she is, tried to help me back into the raft.
But failed.
:o)

Semana Santa

Over Semana Santa (Holy Week), my parents came to visit!!! I'm sad to say I failed on the picture-taking for that week. (Most of the pictures I took were with my Mom's camera, and the card isn't compatible with my computor.) BUT it was really wonderful to see my family. I surprised them by meeting them at the airport, and the following morning we went ziplining in Monteverde. I was thoroughly impressed, not only that my parents wanted to go ziplining but also they BOTH did the Tarzan swing!!!! That's where you're harnassed to a tree and jump off a high tower and free fall for a moment before swinging out over the valley. Despite my apprehension, my parents insisted that they could do it, and they DID, which means my parents are cooler than yours.

After Monteverde we went to Manuel Antonio, which was really exciting for me because I had never been there before. We sprung for a guide which was WAY worth it because he knew a ton about everything. We saw lots of sloths and howler monkeys and white-faced monkeys squirrel monkeys and iguanas and bats just all kinds of animals. Thinking about it now I really should have taken more pictures. And there are beaches inside the park, too, which are beautiful and WARM. If you ever find yourself in Manuel Antonio, I suggest you skip Playa #1 and going straight for #2 or #3 (or Iguana Beach) because they're much less crowded.

Capuchin monkey (I took these through our guide's telescope)
my parents in front of a bamboo tree bats, incognito
My family and I then went south to the Osa Peninsula which is one of the most bio-diverse places on the entire planet, according to National Geographic. It was GORGEOUS, absolutely breath-taking. We even saw Macaws on the beach. The beautiful, huge, EMPTY beach. I really need to get those pictures to show you what I mean...

Mom and me with Gera, our guide