Family Vacation

Mario, his mother, brother, niece, and I took a trip to visit his aunt and uncle in the Talamanca mountains of Southeastern Costa Rica.

Tia Flor and Tio Pedro have lived in their home without electricity on their farm for over 20 years. They have cows and chickens, organic pineapple, timber trees, and recieve a pension from the Costa Rican government to protect the fresh water springs on their propery.

Braving the mud and the snakes in my borrowed rubber boots we explored the rivers and mountains of the farm. The farm encompasses 150 hectares of land so we had plenty to explore! When we got hot we climbed down to the waterfall to swim under the canopy of the forest. I also spent some time horseback riding with Chola, the one horse on the farm.

Along the rivers there were also many fossils! These are mostly of shells from when these mountains were on the ocean surface, before the tectonic plates collided to push the land into mountains, forming the isthmus that is now Costa Rica and Panama. I carried one back with me. Hopefully I will have space for it on the airplane!

We made it back to Puerto Viejo on Friday night, after a short misadventure in Limón. We will leave tomorrow to stay with our friends Afshan and Jalil in San Jose.