Day One- Into the Great Wide Open!

4 am this morning we found ourselves in the lobby of an empty hotel, waiting to board the shuttle to the airport. We were tired, but we piled on the bags and packs and began the long process required to board a plane. Amazingly we did not have a single problem, and the clear skies gave us some truly awesome glimpse of the world below. Our real adventure started upon landing in Costa Rica, in the city of San Jose. With no cell service, barely discernible Spanish, and no idea where to go we still managed to meet up with our host and guide while we’re here, Lindsey. We were all very tired, but our day was just beginning. First we headed off to a local market with a huge list of items needed by various members of our little village in the mountains. It is hard to describe this market- walking inside I experienced the most extreme culture shock I have ever felt! This place was huge, like a really big farmers market. Everywhere you turned there were exotic (to us!) vegetables and fruits of all kinds; some we recognized but most we didn’t. Here we had our first of many rice, beans, and meat meals. We followed Lindsey around and around for over an hour as she checked prices and bargained with sellers. The concrete floor was covered in produce debris and every booth we passed someone began shouting at us to buy their food. Once they realized we were American we heard a great deal of “My friends buy my food! Buy my food!” On one side of the huge market were booths selling, and openly displaying, women’s under garments! Who knew that in one place you could buy tons of produce and undies!

The View from our House

We piled back into our van, loaded with food, and headed out of the city. Vera Blanca is about a one hour drive outside of the city, but we hit some major traffic. People here are crazy drivers! The streets are tiny, and we were all very impressed with Lindsey’s ability to maneuver this great big van past all kinds of obstacles. Once we were out of the city we began the steep climb- up up up! The van being what it was and the mountain being what it was it shouldn’t have surprised us when our stick-shift van stalled out on number of hills. We got our first glimpse of the real jungle as we roared up tiny roads with steep drops on one side.  We passed banana trees and coffee plantations, some which are exclusive suppliers for Starbucks J

At this point we experienced a classic Carrie moment- passing by a steep field Carrie gasps, pulls out her big fancy camera, and shouts “cows!” She then proceeded to take pictures. Apparently there is something very special about Costa Rican cows, although I still have yet to figure it out! Ears popping, rain pouring, we arrived at our destination- almost. We once again loaded up our bags and HIKED back down the mountain to get to our little house tucked away in the jungle. The rest of the day we talked, met Lindsey’s team, ate good food (rice, beans and meat!) and started trying to recuperate. We are all still in a little bit of shock I think, but we are looking forward to tomorrow- lots and lots of walking and wetness!

Our Little House in the Jungle

Please keep us in your prayers, especially as we face facilities that are a little more rustic then we were expecting and bugs that really actually do get much bigger in the jungle- who knew?