La Playa Pacifica

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Friday morning we loaded onto the bus, as shown in the previous post, and headed out to sea. For one of us, this was going to be her first glimpse EVER of an ocean. Excitement does not come close to adequately describing her emotions.


As we traveled, we saw amazing sights. I plan to dedicate a post to what we see out of the bus windows, but let's just have this one tantalizing shot here.


At one point, our bus driver pulled off the road. I thought at first it was a little "rest stop" - - - but no. Mihai told us the bridge was too weak to support the weight of a fully loaded bus and that we would have to WALK across.

I knew Mihai was joking about the bridge for SOME reason - - - but what that reason was I could not guess.

So, even though NONE of us had a CLUE as to why we must walk across that bridge - - -

We trusted Mihai and started walking. Remember - - - we are missionaries who can be flexible and do so with a cheerful spirit.

Suddenly, in the water FAR (don't worry moms - - - not even ONE of us became chopped liver) below we spied this:


Mr. Crocodile. And if that didn't get us excited ENOUGH, we soon noticed there were huge scaly creatures EVERYWHERE.


I dubbed this the crocodile parking lot, and I counted at least 14 right in that lot.

On the other side of crocodile bridge, we got back on the bus and continued on our way to the Pacific.

Once we arrived at our resort, it was too early to check into our rooms so - - -


We were each given a lovely picnic lunch.

There were two sandwiches in each lunch - - - one on brown bread, and one on white. Ms Agness loves brown and I love white, so we traded and were each pleased as punch.

Cassie came to join us at our picnic table, and she indicated that she didn't like brown bread either. She and I had a little chit chat about what we DON'T like about brown bread, and the scratchy rough texture was numero uno on BOTH our lists.

I said, "What, you don't want a sandwich on a brillo pad?" To which she gave me THIS reply:

Pretty eloquent, wouldn't you say? Notice, she's eating the lovey WHITE bread sandwich.


When we were finished eating, Ms. Agness and myself set up "base camp" in the shade of a palm and what I believe to be a sea grape. (Grammy Jenkins, can sea grapes grow up into trees???? I mean, this IS tropical Costa Rica)


Notice the water bottle. Ms. Lou Ann brought that to me, and do you see how it made me smile????? OK - - - let me just say - - - the Pacific in Costa Rica is HOT. Literally.


The kids spent the afternoon trooping between the pool, our base camp, and the sea.


You'll be sooooo proud to know that we ALL remembered to use sun screen. LOTS and LOTS of sun screen. While some of us are a bit pink, we have no serious, blistering burns.

Now back to the part about trooping to the sea. And WHAT a sea!!!


Kristie and Charlene wanted to share the moment with all of you.


The beach was a quiet cove.


The sand was not totally white, nor was it black. Andesitic magma formed it would be my guess!! (Oh yes, the science teacher is still in me, even at the beach!)


Whatever kind of magma God used to form the sand that formed this beach, it was a lovely, lovely beach.


One of our resort pools by night. And speaking of our resort, it was the:


This is a lovely place on the edge of the sea and carved right out of the rain forest. It includes three meals a day in this restaurant:


Now THIS my dear friends IS a rainforest eatery!!! It is open air dining with silver and china on table cloths right in the midst of the jungle. Made me think of the British safaris of movie lore.


The food was yummy. Salads - - -


Desserts, and - - -


Entrees.


And since it is al fresco dining, there are some friendly little visitors who appear overhead.


We spent the night in these bungalo style rooms.


We were all extremely THANKFUL that inside these hardwood doors (which were actually metal) there was AIR CONDITIONING.


And all around us - - - - more of the lushness for which the tropics are known.

Now a word or two or ten thousand from Kristie:

I finally saw the big, blue, beautiful....OCEAN!!! =] It is so awesome! I can't believe I went my whole life without seeing it. I got a little dehydrated at first because of the heat and all of the excitement but once I drank some water and was feeling better I dove right in. I learned quickly that you can't keep your mouth and eyes open in the water like you can in a pool. And the waves pushed me under several times but at the end of the day I LOVE the ocean!!!!!!
- - - Love, Kristie

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