Daniel and Alex Post

Aloha!  Que pasa? Happy Fat Tuesday!

Ohh Ahh, screamed the monkeys at 4:30 this morning.  We were up and running for breakfast at around 7:30 A.M.  We had a delicious meal consisting of One-Eyed Jacks with cheese on top, delicious fruit, and wonderful, crispy biscuits!  We then set off on a beautiful beach hike on the Tamales beach.  We walked about two kilometers down to the reefs.  While we were walking we stopped to watch Adonis, our guide who can speak about many fluent languages including Hebrew which he learning now and French, Italian, Japanese, English, Spanish, and German, climb a coconut tree bear-footed to cut down coconuts for us to try.  Many enjoyed the coconuts and many did not.  I, Alex, could not put my finger on the taste on the coconut milk.  When we got to the reefs, we scuba dived, swam in the ocean, and looked for many creatures, including octopi, sea horses, lobster, starfishes, and many more.  What an experience!  It was gorgeous.  About an hour and a half later, we headed back to the lodge to take another twenty minute hike through the jungle.  We all tried some nutritious termites.  Many enjoyed these live creatures.  They tasted like carrots!  We then hopped back to consume a delicious lunch consisting of macaroni and cheese and vegetables made by the one and only, Laura Marx.  It was scrumdiddilyomptious!  The crew then had to waddle to their cabinas to pack up there stuff to head home.  It was very hard to pack up.  We also had to say goodbye to a dear friend of ours, Adonis.  

Tonight we are planning on having a grand Mardi Gras party, a talent show, and a delicious dinner of hamburgers and fries.  Hope everyone is staying warm while we are reapplying sunscreen about every twenty minutes so we do not burn.  Be safe and see everyone sooner than later! 

Lots of love, 

Daniel Lantz and  Alex Britt

P.S.   We  will be home closer than you know it!  Also, tomorrow will be an early one.  The bus will be  rolling out of the jungle at 5:30 A.M. to get to San Jose .  It is an eight hour bus ride!   Wish us safe travels and that nobody is under the weather like Curran today! 

Hello Cincinnati!

HEY HEY HEYYYY
While you guys are getting  the cold and icy stuff we got a taste of the wet stuff. This morning at 4:30 A.M. everyone was wide awake. A mini tropical storm swept through the area and dumped lots of water. Most people fell back to sleep, while other were awake for the day. After the few that went back to sleep woke up, everyone joined for a delicious breakfast made by Jackie, but inspired by Rosemary. Breakfast included pancakes with chocolate syrup, Bob Evans sausage, and fresh fruit. Following breakfast, Tim was in for a surprise. While talking to Greg,  a monkey decided to dump its poop on Tim’s head, EWWW.  After Tim’s got cleaned up we headed to the town of Puerto Jimenez. Greg spotted a cyclone and Laura and Marvin (bus driver) were on storm patrol. Thank goodness for Laura. When we arrived to the town library we met Ifi. She is the head of ASCONA (asconacr.org) *Feel free to make a donation, it is much needed and appreciated* ASCONA is an organization that helps the people of the OSA. We helped the community by participating in the beautification of the village. We also toured the local school and dropped off donated soccer uniforms. Hopefully next year’s group may see some kids running around in St. Mary uniforms. We then headed to the beautiful Iguana Lodge. Some headed straight to the beach while others went to the luxurious pool. The waves were HUGE. We all had a variety of different lunch options. From fresh fish to chicken fingers, we all managed to squeeze at least 10 orders of fries. Literally. Following lunch we had mini photo shoot on the shore. We all were dying to go back into town to buy our Imperial shirts and little souvenirs. You will love them. Once all of our bags were in the bus, we headed back to Morgan’s Lodge. Dinner was later than usual because we were all so full from our delicious lunch. Aunt Randy cooked up a make- your-our burrito bar that we all devoured. Currently, Rose is belting some Wicked songs and brownies are in the oven.  We had a wonderful day today and hope that you liked reading about it.  We’ll keep you posted with more comments.  Love and miss you, but we’re not looking forward to leaving and coming back to cold weather.  Buenos Noches!
Avery, Kate, Sam

P.S. Since our weather people in Cincy like to name storms….we named ours “tropical storm gigante"

Pics of the Day

yada, yada, yada.

Buenos Noches Madres y Padres;

Today we awoke to a fantastic breakfast from Aunt Randy.

Then we headed into town where we participated in a community project-  yada, yada, yada.

We went to the biblioteca and worked with Ascona (google it).

Then we took the SMS uniforms to the local escuela, and presented them to the gym teacher.  Their volleyball team from the school was the National Champions- blah, blah, blah.

Finally, made our way to the Iguana Lodge for something to eat and to hang out on the beach.  Lunch was great, water was wet, it was fun - see pix.

Other notable activities -

After the lodge we went into town to spend some dinero - Please send money.

Laura Marx bought 4 machetes- she seems very angry.  We don’t let her around the kids anymore.

A monkey threw poop on Tim Fallon.  What a great learning opportunity for the kids.

Perry and Clint teamed up against the locals on the hoops court.  White men can jump…I think gravity has less effect the closer you get to the equator.

On a serious note, we are sad that Greg Andsager (aka the most interesting man in the world - stay thirsty my friends) left today.  I think Ricardo Montalban(check spelling) was the pilot. de plane, de plane…

We checked our flights for Thursday…looks like they are canceled.  We’ll let you know when we reschedule.

We miss you all.  Wish you were here!

Con Amor, Los Chaperones!

PS: As a result of winter storm Titan, the kids are trying to catch up.  I saw a few of them around here today.  Kids blog to follow later.

Hola!

Hola! Familia y Amigos! Como Estas?

Hello family and friends, how are you? Today was a fabulous day! We started our day off with the screaming sound of Howler monkeys. Unlike our other days we had one more hour of sleep today. We woke up to the great aromas of Jackie’s breakfast. Breakfast included traditional Costa Rican eggs with pesto and an optional salsa on the side, we also had toast, bacon, sausage, and fruit. The majority of people were asleep while Greg, Perry, and Clint loaded the bus to go deep sea fishing. The rest of the students and chaperones headed off to a primary rainforest. Our guide was Adonis and his two children Fabiola and Jordan joined us. He showed us around the property that belongs to his uncle. Adonis is able to sense what type of animals are near by his sense of smell.  Today he smelled a herd of over 100 wild boars. He showed us three main different types of trees. These trees are part of a primary rainforest which means that have existed since the “dinosaur age”.The first tree was large and its roots were above the ground, the wood was worth over 10,000-50,000 dollars. This tree, as Adonis said, is over 300 years old. The second tree was a “healing tree.”  This tree has a healing milk inside that can cure a hurting stomach. Adonis said that anytime we ever have a stomach ache to call him and get some of the healing milk. The third tree was a “Tarzan” tree which had many vines coming from the canopy, we all had a great time swinging. Not only did we run into awesome trees but we saw a snake big that was wrapping around a tree and a crowd a spider monkeys that were jumping from tree to tree. Sadly we had to leave the amazing primary rainforest and head home to the lodge for lunch. Mrs. Marx (Laura) and Auntie Randy made us wonderful grilled cheese and ham and cheese sandwiches. After we finished up our lunch we had a relaxed day. Some people slept in the hammocks (Avery and Curran were out cold!), some people did their homework, and others went swimming or kayaking. The men came home in one piece, and brought home another! Mr. Como (Perry) brought home an amazing Mackerel that we ate for dinner. Greg and Clint caught Rooster fish but they had to let them free due to being endangered. To add on the amazing dinner, two ladies made traditional tamales that are usually are served on special occasions. (They were SOO GOOD!) The rest of our dinner was rice and beans, and a delicious vegetable  salad. After dinner we had a prayer service, read our nightly blog, and played a friendly game of bingo. Everyone enjoined the great cookies Aunt Randy hooked us up with. We are currently ending the night with Goodbyes to Mr. Andsager, who will be departing tomorrow. We are having the time of our lives and don't want to leave, but we miss you all! 

XOXO

Annaliese and Avery

~Thank you to the 2013 Costa Rica girl travelers and we appreciate your wise words of wisdom!

PS Kate J says hello and love to her big sis maggie and kitty cat Tangy!! and mom and Dad!

 MESSAGE FROM CAPTIN MORGAN

Hang in there and honker down! I will see you soon!

Pics of the day

Boat Day

Today we started our day with a very delicious breakfast consisting of One-Eyed Jacks, Randy’s special breakfast potatoes, fresh fruit, and coffee.  We then had to leave the lodge earlier than usual to make it to the boat dock by 8:45 AM.  When we walked on the broken and dangerous dock, we realized that the tide was so low.  It was so low that the docked boats were literally sitting on sand with no water underneath.  As we were walking on this extremely rickety bridge,Captain Morgan, the best captain in all of Costa Rica, was informing us students that in the morning the tide is so low, but by the time we return to this amazing area the tide will be so high we will not be able to walk on the sand.  

Not too long after we got on the boat we headed for the green screen looking lands across the beautiful blue-green ocean.  Everyone was so anxious the have fun under the sun, although we were pasteurized about every 5 minutes to reapply our lotion!  We were all having a splashful time in the burring and raging sun!  There were more than about 300 dolphins at one time right in front of our bulging eyes.  How majestic!  As we watched the dolphins glide through glistening water, we took photos of the great mountainous views we could see from the boat.  It was then time to gear up for our adventure in the water.  We needed snorkel masks and life vests.  Some of us were nervous about getting stung by the stray tentacles of jellyfish, but we all sucked it up and jumped in the water.  Annie felt a little motion sickness, so she stayed on the boat.  Jumping into the warm, blueish-green water, was an experience that everyone enjoyed.  We put our mouthpiece in, we saw schools of fish, eels, and coral.  It was a little foggy because last night we experienced a torrential down pour that fogged up the clear blue ocean.  Many of us also experienced the feeling of getting stung by tentacles.  The feeling was not too bad, only slight sting for a bit and the feeling goes away.  When we were finished with snorkeling, we jumped in the boat to eat our PB & J lunches.  Our boat then went into Mangrove Trees that were growing in salt water with their very long roots.  We finally got back to the dock where we hoped into the van and flew back to Peurto Jimemez. We went to cool off with delicious refrescos before we shopped until we dropped.  Everyone was having a ball!  We finally had a fabulous dinner of pizza on the beach before we hit the lights for bed.  Miss everyone at home! lots of love!

Jombo, 

Alejandra Britt and Curly Murray

Pics of the Day