costa rica – Teachers Have Lives Too!

It’s been weeks since we got back, but I’m just now getting through the photos from B’s camera. So a few more bits:

1) Vulcan Arenal — We took the usual touristy “Lava Flow Hike” through the rainforest and saw a lot of rocks. We ended that hike with a seriously luxurious honey-moon like soak at the Tabacon Hot Springs (no pictures, we were busy being amazed by the pools)

Vulcan Arenal Hike

2) Monteverde — B and I took the Jeep-Boat-Jeep transport (no actual Jeeps) from La Fortuna to Monteverde. The transport itself was ok, but we got stuck with a family of 13 from San Diego who were jaw dropingly annoying, horrible and ridiculous. They were those types of travelers who packed 2 large suitcases each (you really only need a backpack), are loud, obnoxious and treated the drivers like crap, and worst of all, threw things and yelled at the sloth we saw in a tree to try and get it to move. I wanted to throttle them. B and I shared a coconut and tried to ignore them for most part.

The cloud forest was pretty awesome – it made me feel like I was in a San Francisco park (Mt. Sutro open space reserve or Mt. Davidson) with all the fog. In the town of Monteverde, we also wasted some time and money taking a coffee and chocolate tour.

3) Playa Samara — A gorgeous quaint beach town and completely worth it. B and I stayed there for 4 days, 2 days too long. We got bored and we got burned. We went surfing one day (I’m ready for bigger waves and a smaller board!) and the snorkeling the next. The last two days we just sat on the beach and read (and were bored). We saw iguanas munching away in trees, ate at an expensive but seriously good steak house, and followed one of the three wild horses on the beach.

4) San Jose — We spent our last night in San Jose which was a huge, huge mistake. We were nervous about getting to the airport in time if we left from Playa Samara, so we decided to check out the capital city before we left. We had a horrible experience at the hostel we were at (Hostel Pangea – do not recommend), and the most expensive ($80!) but completely inedible meal at La Estancia Argentina. Our one day in San Jose completely soured the end of our otherwise great trip. Boo.

I woke up this morning (as in… noon. It’s SUMMER and I can sleep in like a sloth if I want) to a string of notifications from WordPress about new followers – 5 new readers! It’s summer (as if we all need a reminder) so I’ve been seriously lazying it up these past couple of weeks. My lack of productivity is getting to the point of embarrassment, so I figured I needed to kick myself in the butt to start getting some things done. Only fun stuff though, I haven’t hit boredom rock bottom quite yet. First up, a revisit to the world of blogging: to get my brain somewhat moving again and to spew my life out onto the interwebs. Next up, a short backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail, a road trip to Savannah with fellow teacher Grace and learning a bit of code with help from CodeAcadamy/Treehouse/Codeschool and B. By the time that’s all done, it will be time to put my sloth-ish tendencies on the back burner and gear up for the new school year (and back to teacher outfits).

As proof that teachers do indeed have lives outside of the classroom (and for some internal validation that I haven’t completely disappeared into the couch with the Game of Thrones books), here are a few highlights of the summer thus far.

1) A pair of Aussie visitors, aka B’s mom (also a teacher!) and Peter! They came all the way out to Brooklyn just to hang with us for a week. They were fresh off a vintage Bentley car rally through the west coast and Montana (for real) and flew over to the east coast on their way back home to Perth. We took them on a modified tour of NYC (they’ve seen it all before) and spent a lot of time just chatting it up. I loved them and it was especially cool to hear B’s mom talk about teaching in Perth. B had the job of deflecting all comments/hints about marriage or grandchildren.

highline park

9:11 memorial

2) The real vacation, aka Costa Rica – B and I shelled out the big bucks for a trip to Costa Rica. 11 days, three towns and a lot of advice from Lonley Planet took us hiking, white water rafting, surfing, ziplining and left us with sunburns. Totally worth it, even with the sting of the high prices.