Family time!

Our family finally took us on their beach trip, last weekend. All but 2 of the daughters came....and about 13 gringos as well! They were mostly Steve's friends, two of which were celebrating their birthdays, so it was just a big party weekend. The gringos taught the ticos how to play college drinking games like beer pong and flip cup. Super fun!

I stayed in a little compound with all the other gringos, about 5 minutes down the road from the rest of our family. The place was still technically "under construction", but we stayed there because our family's cabin didn't have enough room. We occupied 2 of the 6 colorful cabins that were JUST built. The landscaping wasn't even finished around the pool,but it was still a great set-up with the individual houses and common pool/hangout area.

The beach wasn't that spectacular, in fact it was kind of dirty, because a lot of garbage gets washed up in that area :( There was this really fascinating rock plateau, though. My friend Kristi and I had an adventure, walking between the ocean and the sheer rock cliff, trying to reach the other end (where we could safely climb up) before the tide came in....it was a close call!

So overall, this weekend was pretty relaxed, we mostly just hung out, switching between the beach, our pool, and the pool at our family's cabin. I should mention, though, that Ticos are the most disorganized people in the world. Our family left for the beach the day before us and forgot literally everything...ALL the meat, ALL the toothbrushes, their dvd play, karaoke equipment, etc, so they were frantically calling Steve and I before we came to meet them. While we remembered to bring almost all of their ridiculous requests, we forgot the meat and one daughter's toothbrush. SO of course, that was OUR fault, and we were kind of chastised for the first day. Seriously, though, how can you go to the beach for 4 days and not have ANYONE in the family remember to bring the meat or toothbrushes? They are kind of stressful to travel with because of that....and they also caused QUITE the fiasco when we were trying to get back to San José (think lots of crying, praying, name calling, flying down dirt roads in a rickety van, and watching the bus that we should have been on pull out three cars ahead of us, forcing us to chase it down...) Okay maybe I just had a mini-venting session about them, haha. It all worked out, though, and we are a happy family again.


Our cute little cabins!


The pool...as you can see, my life is awful here.


The beach. Not the prettiest, but the rocks/tide pools are fun.


Sunset, as seen from the plateau above the beach.


Bonus picture: Monday was my sister Ely's birthday, so we had a delicious kahlua cake from Spoon :)

Soon to be posted: my trip to the cafetal (coffee plantation)!