I may go to Costa Rica this summer

12 years ago

My church is planning an intergenerational mission trip to Costa Rica in August. They welcome all ages and abilities for service. I am going to an informational meeting tonight. In the mid 90s, I went on a mission trip to Nicaragua and really enjoyed it. Costa Rica is on my bucket list. I really enjoy interacting with the people in other countries. That way I get a better flavor of the country than I do just being a tourist.

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Comments (12)

chisue
12 years ago
Just finished a package of coffee from Costa Rica -- the most flavor I'm likely to get. It was delicious. Hope you decide to go; you can take your KT cyberfriends along with you. (I've never traveled so much!)
glenda_al
12 years ago
It's beautiful there. Been there twice!
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We love Costa Rica! We stayed at the (Marriott) Hotel Los Suenos which is right on the beach on the Pacific side and is a very good hotel surrounded by a network of pools. It is very pretty and has good food. We went on a zip line canopy tour and on a kayak trip that included snorkeling off some rocks. The fish were incredibly colorful! One of our best memories was a visit to Villa Caletas which is one of the most romantic and beautiful places you can imagine. They have a Roman style amphitheater built into the hillside where you can sit, enjoy a drink and watch the most fabulous sunsets over the Pacific 1000 feet below, while listening to stirring music. The restaurant is good too. We intend to return to Costa Rica and would love to stay at Villa Caletas! Please check out the photos on the link below. Here is a link that might be useful: Villa Caletas Costa Rica
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"what I object to is trying to convert people from their "home" religion to something else..." I understand this view, though fundamentally that's what missionaries do. In Central America, I'm not sure what you pick as the starting point. The indigenous people didn't have a Western religion until the Spanish conquistadors came, at which point the padres introduced Catholicism. The Protestant missionaries came later. What do you call the "home religion" under such circumstances? What I find a bit more puzzling - if the desire of the congregation in accumulating donations and doing fund raising, etc, is to help impoverished people (which is of course a most noble cause), why waste the funds on airfare and travel? Send down the money instead and make sure it's spent honestly and wisely. Allow a few people to go to supervise and let the others go on another trip. Apply as much money as possible to spend locally on whatever projects are identified. That would do a lot more good, wouldn't it?
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You need to get "just a little" fabric while you're in Costa Rica. Then, keep the fabric in a bag set apart labeled "Costa Rican fabric" so you will know which is which. I've got 2 pieces of silk from Kuching, Malaysia (on the Island of Borneo) set aside from that trip in 1999. I made some shorts for my boys from the cotton batiks that I bought then.
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Comments (6)
We went to Costa Rica in 2015, and the highlights of our trip were the La Paz Waterfall Gardens (huge collection of bromeliad, which I grow a lot of), Selvatura Park, and the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve, which has great ziplines. The zip lines at Selvatura are in Monteverde, and the jacket I bought there said Selvatura. You will need windbreakers or raincoats, and we went in the dry season but it still rained every day. The only beach we went to was Jaco, which had great seafood but not that great of a beach, but then we spent most of our time in the mountains. Here are some photos from our trip:Here I am just before I got thrown from this horse.Howler monkey at Monteverde. One of a pair of Quetzals birds that we saw. We hired a guide for this who was recommended to use by the hotel manager - he was a free-lance guide. Hummingbrid at La Paz Waterfall Garden. Coati Mundi crossing the road. We had to stop while they blocked the road. While I enjoyed the trip for the most part, I would probably not go back because my allergies bothered me there more than any place else I've ever been - much worse than Brazil. If you do have allergies, take a huge supply of allergy medicine with you as it is much more expensive there, and the drug stores run out.SStairs between zip lines.Waterfall at La Paz park. We rented a car while we were there; in fact we bought a travel package that had hotel vouchers that included the car rental. The car had GPS, and we would not have found anything without it because streets and roads are poorly marked, if at all. We were there for 12 days in all, and the volcano erupted right after we got there, and the airport closed right after we arrived. Some of the sights will be difficult to see if there is too much rain or fog in the mountains, especially at Arenal Volcano. Do visit a chocolate factory there if you find one - the chocolate is the best (and freshest) I've ever had, but the coffee was disappointing. I had better coffee in Hawaii, Italy, and Guatemala. I normally don't drink coffee unless I am in a special place. Shrimp is great wherever you go in CR, and in general we had excellent food there, but then I'm partial to seafood, which is abundant there. The beaches may be a bit of a disappointment to you if you are used to the white sands of the Caribbean. The sand is dark (like Hawaii) and not cool.
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ellendi
12 years ago
I agree with Glenda. We are leaving tomorrow for a second visit there.
Please let us know about your trip as it is quite different what you will be going than just being a tourist.
OT Glenda what areas did you visit?
nanny98
12 years ago
That sounds really cool.... and you are so right about really seeing a different country by 'living/working with the people. I often feel that it would be a 'good thing' for many more Americans to experience another country/culture by living there for a time. Gives one a new perspective about our planet and its inhabitants. Hope you go..... and have a great experience.
fran1523
12 years ago
You will love it. I enjoyed Costa Rica very much.
littlebug5
12 years ago
I was there on vacation, not a mission trip. We flew into Liberia, which was weird. It's out in the jungle, practically. No developments (or people) hardly at all around it.

The thing I most remember about Costa Rica was the iguanas. They were everywhere. And BIG! It was disconcerting to be lounging by the pool and have a 5 foot iguana come strolling by. And monkeys in the trees.
susanjf_gw
12 years ago
that's where my mother was "put off" the cruise ship when she fell on board....they treated her like a queen at the hospital there...should have left her there longer! but you know how you panic, and the ins co flew her home to vegas and the care was terrible!

she wasn't used to the local foods, so she asked the nurse for some fruit, lol...well the darling nurse brought her enough for 3 people and all different kinds! I guess the place they took her was the local one for American ex-pat's who live there now....
linda_in_iowa
Original Author
12 years ago
I am definitely going. We fly out of August 2 to San Jose, Costa Rica. We will be in the mountains in a small town named Carrillo. During the 9 days we are there, we will have 3 days to do fun things like zip lining, snorkeling, white water rafting, etc. We have a fun group of people going. Now we have to organize our fund raising.
jim_1 (Zone 5B)
12 years ago
The real heat is on the coast. Up in the mountains, it is nice weather. However, there are some occasional rainy days (and I mean rainy).
Take lots of pictures and keep us up to date. Lots of time to plan for this trip.

Jim
glenda_al
12 years ago
My memory maker was as I was traveling to the rain forest and saw a sloth, baby one, hanging from a telephone line. Had a picture, but somehow deleted it, wah

Plus a butterfly garden experience was awesome!
linda_in_iowa
Original Author
12 years ago
Glenda, we have a butterfly garden here in town. It amazes me all the different kinds and colors of butterflys there. It is fun to walk through it with precious Finn.
jemdandy
12 years ago
Costa Rica sounds really good right now - I'm freezing my tail off and I hear that you do not have to shovel rain.

I may go to Costa Rica this summer

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chisue

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I may go to Costa Rica this summer

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