Finally, Costa Rica

I am sorry that it has taken me so long to post these last pictures. Enough time has passed that I doubt anyone sees them, but what the heck.

These pictures are from the last part of my trip in Costa Rica. Most of the trip was spent in, or around, San Jose. I visited PCUSA mission personnel who live and work in the area, and had one day of getting out a little and seeing some Costa Rican country side.



We spent the first two nights in the dorm of the Latin American Biblical University (UBL) http://www.ubila.net/. It is a small, but pretty incredible school. They have sites in different countries in Central and South America. Much of this artwork was created by different student projects. Unfortunately, enough time has gone by since I heard what each was, I can no longer remember. The wood sculpture of the woman was to commemerate an event/fundraiser that the university put on with the goal of raising awareness and support for women in ministry.



So while we were there I had the chance to visit with the mission personnel and learn about the the classes they were teaching. I also had a chance to meet with some of the leaders of the school and hear about the work that is happening there.

Later on Thursday we were brought around to a couple of the churches of the Presbyterian Church of Costa Rica. It is a relatively small denomination there and has not been around for too long. They receive a number of groups from churches in the U.S.



On Friday we spent a little bit of time driving around the country outside of San Jose. Unfortunately it was pretty fogging, so the pictures aren't great.



While we were driving back we happened across a little town. We walked around the church and went inside. We discovered later that there used to be a Catholic seminary on the grounds as well, but it has since closed.



I am not entirely sure, but I think this is what poinsettia plants look like in their natural, none Christmas environment.



On our drive back I also got to see a lot of coffee. It was growing on the hillsides, and even up to the ditches next to the roads. I had heard about the process for growing and harvesting coffee, but until one actually sees the hillsides where the coffee is grown, and how labor intensive it has to be to harvest the beans by hand, it is hard to understand really how cheap coffee is. The hillsides are steep and hard to get to. The beans are all picked by hand and carried back down the mountains to be put in trucks where they are hauled away to be processed. It was interesting to hear about how Starbucks has supported certain towns as the economy has declined to insure that their coffee supply would not be interrupted. In a couple of the pictures, you can see the larger trees that provide shade to the coffee plants. Other pictures show a field that is being prepared for new coffee plants. Coffee plants will grow for a couple of years, but eventually need to be replaced with new plants.

Nicaragua

Well, I thought I would post pictures from the first part of my trip. These are all from my time in Nicaragua. I have lots of pictures of meetings and presentations as well, which is actually what I spent most of my time doing. I say this just so folks don't see these pictures and think that this is all that we did while in Nicaragua.


This is Lake Apoyo, which is the lake that the resort that we were staying at was on. It is a volcanic crater and the lake is approximately 900 feet deep. I never actually had a chance to swim in it, but I understand that it was quite nice. It gets deep very quickly though. The rainy season in Nicaragua was just ending, and I guess that had a lot of rain this year. I will show pictures later of another lake the show just how much rain they have gotten. More info about where I stayed at http://www.noromevillas.com/.



This is the path that I followed up to my room. It was a pretty steep climb, which reminded me every day how completely out of shape I am.






This was the view from my front door.
This is the building where I and two others stayed. We each had our own room and there was a little shared kitchen that was shared by the three rooms.



These are a couple of critters that I shared my room with. The bottom one is a scorpion. Sorry that they are a little blurry. I obviously wasn't interested in getting too close to the scorpion. I was told tat it wouldn't kill me if I was stung, just numb me out and hurt a lot. I have no idea what the other bugs were, but they didn't look too friendly either.


More wildlife from the area. These are howler monkeys that were in the trees above where we were staying. I only saw them once or twice, but you could always here them.

We visited an active volcano. There were several volcanoes in the area, this was the only active one though. We did this as an evening tour. At one point, they let you hang over the ledge, holding on to a pole, and you can see the red glow. It is no bubbling magma like Lord of the Rings, but it was impressive.



We took a boat ride around Lake Nicaragua. It is a pretty huge lake, with lots of little islets in the middle of it. As you can see from some of the photos, some people have houses on them. The water level was several feet above normal though, and as you can see, some of the houses are flooding. The picture at the top is of some of the other folks on my boat.



Just so I can make a couple of appearances on my blog. This bottom picture is of me and Lis, who is a co-worker in Louisville. This is near the restaurant that we ate at on Lake Nicaragua.


Four of us took a horse ride around Granada. The pictures from that are below. This is myself and Susie, she is a mission personnel serving in Mexico.


Here are a couple of pictures from the horse ride around Granada. Folks said that it was a fairly typical colonial town. It was pretty interesting, with lots of museums and what not. We only had like an hour in the town though, so I didn't get to explore much.

The photo at the top of this section is of the horse carriage. I believe the horses names were Dog and Bird or something. Maybe Dog and Cow, or Cat and Cow. Anyway, they were animal names.

Right as we were leaving they were having some sort of service in front of one of the churches. They were firing off cannons, which were obviously loud. I don't think that there were actual cannon balls or anything being shot. I don't think that we were under attack or anything, but I might have been mistaken.

Tomorrow I will try and post some of the photos from Costa Rica.

Home Safe, Not Sure About Sound

Well I got home a little bit ago. So this if will be my first post that has the assistance of spelling check. 

Generally speaking, there were no problems with any of the flights. Got through the airport fine in Costa Rica and our flight left on time. The only problem was the on board movie was Journey to the Center of the Earth staring Brendan Fraser. I think that the only reason anyone will see this film is because they are locked in planes around the world being forced by Delta to either watch this film, or focus on the annoying passengers who are sitting behind them kicking them in the back.

We did miss our connecting flight in Atlanta, but sadly, I can only blame myself. We were having dinner and not paying attention to time, and didn't get to the gate in time. Thankfully, there was another flight an hour later, so I got home at 6:45 instead of 5:30. Annoying, but not problem in the end I guess. My only complaint is that Atlanta isn't a great airport to run around in, way to spread out.

Anyway, I will try and do a couple of posts of pictures now that I am home and have computer access again. Maybe tomorrow, but for sure by early next week.

Homeward Bound

Well my trip to Central America is approaching its end. I have one
more night in Costa Rica. Our flight leaves at 9 a.m. and I get back
to Louisville at about 5:30. That is pretty nice.

Today was another fairly busy day, but it was abscent of meetings,
which was a welcome change. The morning was spent exploring the
country side about an hour outside of San Jose. We drove on the Pan
American rode for a while, which was interesting. On can take this
highway from mexico to Panama.

While driving around I had the chance to see what a less urban Costa
Rica looks like. This was a direct contrast to where I had been the
night before, sitting in the middle of a Ramada conference room after
driving through what looked like a very heavily ex-pat area. What I
was doing in the Ramada is a pretty randim story that includes the
Rotary Club and a Scotch tasting. Johnny Walker blue is pretty good,
but I still prefer Kentucky Bourbon.

Oh yeah, back to the drive through the country. I got to see the steap
Costa Rican hillsides where very good coffee is grown. I knew in
theory what to expect with coffee farms, but until one sees the steap
hills that these farmers must work to hand pick each individual bean,
let's just say that for what you get for the amount of labor that goes
into it, coffee is cheap.

Afterwards Stan and I took a bus from San Jose to a town closer to the
airport were some friends of Stan live. Staying with them makes the
trip to the airport in the morning much, much easier. We explored a
little of the town and I had a chance to buy some last minute gifts,
as well as a few packages of coffee. We later had dinner at a
restaraunt with an amazing few of the Central Valley of Costa Rica.

I finished the day trying to use a computer that was set up in Spanish
to checkin for my flight. I never could figure out how to change it to
English, and rather than just guessing answers to the yes and know
questions, I decided that it would be best to just wait until the
morning.

In less than 24 hours I will be leaving the summer/spring weather I
have been in the past week and going to what will surely feel like
winter. At least I hope it isn't snowing. Oh well, I miss my wife, so
seeing Skye is surely better than freezing my butt off.

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Costa Rica

We landed with no problems yesterday. Although, because of rush hour
traffic, the drive to where we were staying actually took more time
than the flight. Air travel really is a strange and unnatural
activity. A couple who were at the retreat and live here actually
drove back and beat us here.

Today has been a busy day. We spent some time with our mission
personnel who live and work here in San Jose. The university where
they work is pretty remarkable. We are actually staying in their dorm
I took some picures of art work that was done by various classes and I
look forward to eventually posting it. I think I might get internet
access at the university tonight. If I do, I might try and post a
couple of pictures. I know this has been a pretty text heavy blog so
far so I should try and change that. At the very least, I have next
week off, so I will spend some time posting pictures.

This afternoon we have been running around San Jose. We have someone
who is currently working part time here who is going to be appointed
as a mission worker in January. He brought us by a Presbyterian Church
of Costa Rica Church as well as the national office. The church is
small and young compared to some. I believe there are like 24
churches. Tomorrow we are going to get out of town a bit and see some
of the country side.

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Leaving Nicaragua

Sorry that I missed a couple of days of blogging. I had very limited
access to cell phone coverage and ended up usually just going to my
room at night instead of going the opposite direction to do a post.

The last couple of days have been very busy. On Sunday, after worship
we took a day trip to Lake Nicaragua and the city of Granada. I have
decided that my Central American geography is mostly based on the old
computer game Pirates. Steve, Pat and Alex should all remember that
one. Anyway, I think Granada was one of the cities you attacked in
that. It was a little different in reality. No sword fighting block
figures.

The lake was fun, we took a boat tour. When I get home I will post
some picures. The lake is filled with little islands, many of which
have homes on them. The rainy season is just ending though, and it
appears many of the houses were flooded.

We just spent a little bit of time in Granada. Myseld and three other
mission personnel took a short horse ride around town. It was a good
way to see a bit of the town. I also got a little cental american
history. I saw one of the homes of William Walker. He was an American,
funded some by Teddy Roosevelt, who wanted to set up his own kingdom.
He started in Mexico, and eventually ended up in Nicaragua where he
and his mercenaries tried to rule. Good ole American militarism at
work.

Yesterday was our last day of the retreat, so it was mostly meetings.
It is funny, I was just sort of getting the hang of the place and now
we are moving on.

During a presentation yesterday by one of the partners that the church
works with, we were topld that in Managua there were political
demonstrations taking place as a result of a recent local election.
The outcome of which is in dispute. This caused us to end up spending
more of the day at the airport rather than exploring town. I don't
know that there was any danger for us. It was more of an issue of not
wanting to get stuck on a road while a demonstration happened which
might make us miss our flights.

We are getting ready to board our flight to Costa Rica. Three nights
there and then back to Louisville on Saturday.

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Ben vs. the Volcano

We had a group trip today. We spent all morning and half the afternoon
in meetings, but we took a trip for the afternoon. We went to an area
city to visit a market, and then a evening tour of a volcano.

I market was fun, and I helped support the local economy a little.

I am now sort of live blogging since I have cell phone coverage.

The valcano is vey cool. It is a little spooky to watch smoke rising
from the volcano. We got here right before sunset. We starterd hiking
up the mountain while it was still a little light out. It was a steap
climb, with loose gravel paths. We didn't really think much about it
on the climb up. The climb down was a little less fun. It was pretty
much just a do your best to not fall on your butt.

We are now sitting in the bus waiting for something. Not sure what. I
do know that they told us that we had close the windows on the bus a
bit because of the fumes.

So I now know what we stopped for. We hung over the edge of the
volcano so that we could see the glow. Pretty cool. Not Lord of the
Rings cool, but pretty cool. Next stop is the "bat cave." Although I
hear that "bat and Snake cave" is more accurate.

Okay, back from the cave. Lots more walking in the dark. It was good,
but all of the discription was in spanish, so I didn't get much of
what they said. A couple people translated for the couple of
nonspanish speakers. I did find it ironic that I went to visit a cave
in Nicaragu when I have never been to mammoth cave. We did see bats,
which you could see in Kentucky. But we were told that the cave was
used for deciding who to throw in the valcano. I don't know if the
last part was actually said. I might have made it up.

Well we are loading the bus again, so I think we are heading back now.
Which is good. I am ready for supper.

Tomorrow we only have a couple of meetings. It is mostly free time
after morning worship.

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