Pura Vida, Costa Rica, and other words I don't know the definition of

Seriously, what does Costa Rica even mean? By the coast? And the entire time we were there, people kept yelling Pura Vida at the most random times. It has me very confused.
But anyway...

Long time no see! I bet you've all been wondering... Where in the world is Carmen, Sandiego Audrey? Texas. But in an seriousness, on restriction, and then on vacation, obviously. But to make up for my 21 day absence, I have the chronicles of my vacation to Quepos, Costa Rica :D (And yes, ACTS, and all. I know. It gets even better.) Beware. I'm a terrible poet. You'll see why. Oh, and I don't really have any photos, because my dad took all the electronics I had away for the vacation.

SUNDAY
Pack up my 30 pound suitcase (I didn't even know I had this much stuff!) and head off to the airport, where we took a 3 hour flight to San Jose. From there, we take....a death plane.

I should probably explain this a bit. The only way to Quepos from San Jose is to either drive 4 hours on perilous mountain roads, or take a very, very small plane and fly there, which takes about 20 minutes. I have always told myself that I will never ever get on one of those tiny planes. But guess what? I did. And God was looking out for me, seeing as we flew in the middle of a LIGHTNING STORM. IN A CLOUD. WITH NO VISIBILITY WHATSOEVER. I was right behind the pilot, and let me tell you, when you're already scared of going on a tiny plane, hearing the guy flying that plane say "Uh oh" and "Oops, sorry" is NOT GOOD. In fact, as we were in the middle of a cloud, the plane STALLED. Only for like a second, but still, my heart dropped.

Anyway, against all odds, I made it through alive. But it was close.

We finally made it to the hotel, and it was SO AWESOME. The resort had pretty steep walkways, so if you needed to get somewhere, you could call for a golf cart to drive you there. Let's just say I had a bit too much fun.

Me: Jeeves, call a car. I wish to dine at the resturant this evening. And do ask for the car with the white seats? It goes with my outfit.
Brother: My name is Abdul, and call the golf cart yourself.
Me: *glares* I can dream, okay?

Yeah.....

MONDAY
Ziplining! In the Costa Rican rainforest!

150 feet up. And landing on platforms with no railings, 8 by 8 feet, 200 feet up, with 12 people on it. I was terrified. But it was so. much. fun. Except for the Tarzan swing. No, I'm not making that up. You swing on a rope, 200 feet in the air, over to the next platform. I can't even tell you how scared I was. But my brother? Instead of landing on the platform like everyone else, he swung back and forth, then landed. It was fun after I was on the ground.
But seriously, if you ever have the chance to go ziplining, I highly recommend it.

That night, however, was not good. Why? Two words: bug bites.
I didn't see a single mosquito bite in the flipping rainforest, but at dinner? As I was attempting to not itch, I wrote a haiku. Because I'm totally a poet.

Mosquito Bites: A Haiku

Mosquitoes sure suck.

I have bug bites everywhere.

Why must I taste so darn sweet?

That's not even the worst poem in this post. Believe me. I think the only poem I've ever written that I didn't immediately hate was my homework limerick. My teacher kinda got mad. (In case you want to read it, here it is.

Homework is stupid and terrible

For teens it is completely unbearable

It should be abolished

And all homework demolished

The damage it does is irreparable.

This is what happens when my teacher tells me to write a poem about homework. Anyway...)

TUESDAY

Beach day! It is so pretty there; it's even better than the picture.  And it was completely empty. There's two beached near us; one was a public, crowded beach, and then there was a small, secluded, hotel owned beach. We went to the latter, obviously. But the waves are CRAZY. Omygosh, we got knocked down just by the force of them at least 20 times. My poor mother was worried sick; she couldn't take her eyes off of us. And there was so much sand. I wrote a poem about it as I attempted to scrub the sand out of my hair.

Sand: Another terrible poem by me

Sand, sand, everywhere

Sand, sand, in my hair

Sand, sand, it's all over

Sand, sand, on my shoulder

Sand, sand, I hate it

Sand, sand, I'm a horrible poet

I told you.

WEDNESDAY

(Spare me the ACTS teasing, will you?)

White water rafting! 

I was soaked. That might be because of the waves, or because I decided to go swimming in the river. Totally meant to. Yeah. No, I really did. It was getting back into the boat that was less than graceful. I'd call the rafting the best part of the vacation. It was from about 8 to 4, so we were gone most of the day. But my transportation curse continued.

What, you say?

Well, the bus that we were taking was 2 minutes away from our hotel when it ran out of gas. ON A HILL. Luckily, it didn't completely roll backwards or anything, but we did have to wait a bit for a new bus to arrive. We also had to listen to angry Costa Rican's attempt to go around us on a crowded hill. But hey, we survived. ;)

THURSDAY
In the morning, we walked along the beach over to a tiny little town mostly filled with tourist shops. We got bombarded a few times walking; people kept trying to sell us anything from pots to parasailing tours. (Which I really wanted to do, but sadly, you have to either A. be over 18, or B. Go with someone who is over 18. My dad hates heights, and my mom would never do that. So unfortunately, I guess I'll have to wait a couple years. =P ) We did get a few things at the shops, though. After that, we went over to the beach again, and then took a free tortilla making class. Conclusion: I will never be a chef. But my family seemed to enjoy it.

FRIDAY
In the morning, we went swimming again. On the far side of the beach, there was a bunch of rocks that were crawling with hundreds of hermit crabs. So what were us kids to do? Make a hermit crab racetrack, of course! We got around 20 hermit crabs, spent half an hour on a structure that could resemble a hermit crab track if you looked the right way, and watched the hermit crabs immediately try to escape. After we made the walls higher, we actually managed to race them. We got a few stares as we cheered our favorites on, but it was fun. That is, until the tide came in and the racetrack were brutally demolished, while the hermit crabs were swept out to sea. It was fun while it lasted.

Later that day we went on a Hanging Bridge tour. See the photo to your left. They're pretty much bridges all throughout the rain forest that are hundreds of feet in the air. It was gorgeous! And at the end, you can go swimming in a small river. I wasn't planning to go in, but you guys know how graceful I am. Of course I slipped on the rocks and fell in. *bows* Thank you, thank you. I know.

Even later, we went on a night hike at a nature reserve. Night time happens to be when all the creepy crawlies come out. And I am NOT a fan of bugs. I give you this example from a few days ago:

Me: *walks into room*  *sees cockroach on ground*
Me: OMYGOSH OMYGOSH OMYGOSH ABDUL GET IN HERE RIGHT NOW LOOK THERE IS A ROACH KILL IT KILL IT WITH FIRE I WANT TO WATCH THAT THING BURN * jumps up on table*
Brother: I can just squish it. It's just a roach.
Me: I WANT TO WATCH THE LIFE BLEED OUT OF ITS TINY ROACH EYES JUST KILL IT
Brother: *squishes it* You happy?
Me: LET ME SEE THE CORPSE
Brother: *shows it to me*
Me: OMYGOSH IT JUST MOVED KILL IT IT'S NOT DEAD
Brother: *flushes it down toilet* You done?
Me: Fine.

But I lived through it. I'm only squeamish about roaches. =P

SATURDAY
The last day. *sobs* We packed up all of our stuff and left for the death plane, which I miraculously survived. Then another plane ride back to *coughs*, and I'm home!

Of course, that's not all.
I am leaving for Kentucky on a missions trip for a week, starting Saturday. I'm off to paint houses and run a vacation Bible school! I can't wait! So, I will see you guys in a few weeks! Maybe before, if you're lucky. ;)

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
~ Audrey