Costa Rica Trip--March 2008
As I probably told most of you, my dad and I took a short weekend trip to Liberia, Costa Rica to do a little diving. I think we chose Liberia as a compromise between my first choice, Libya, and Glen's preferred vacation spot, Siberia—-I hadn't heard of Liberia before going there. Here is a link to the pictures.
Friday: Travel
Saturday: Scuba Diving & Bull run
Our most active day was Saturday. We spent the morning scuba diving off the pacific coast. Glen warned me that visibility is low and the water was cold when diving in the pacific--he was right. We were lucky enough to see some silt covered rocks, a few sting rays, a sea turtle and multiple varieties of sushi swimming in schools. As a rookie diver, I just enjoyed floating around, fighting the current, trying to clear my ears, and keeping my wetsuit as warm as possible.
The highlight of the trip was the afternoon/evening of Saturday. We went into Liberia for their annual city carnival. The spotlight of the carnival--in addition to a concert, carnival games, and sundry deep-fried pork parts-- was a WWF-style bull fight in a hand-made arena (see pics). In this event, the whole town shows up and piles into a huge, rickety, multi-level arena made from the plywood stripped off their own houses. All the macho youth of the town (boys ages 15-50) get drunk and pile into the middle of the arena, and then they release an angry, wild bull that is wearing a flank strap around its 'waist' to ensure it is in the worst temperament possible. The boys take turns trying to slap the bull's butt without being gored. Those who are gored by the bucking bull get carried and shoved through a lunch-tray-deposit style medic box on the side of the rink (again, the picture says it best). The game goes on until the bull slips into a learned helplessness state and gives up; then they bring out the next bull.
If that weren't fun enough, in the dead center of the rink (while the bull is busy stomping on people), the have a finely sanded, 50 ft tall telephone pole covered in lard; a 200$ prize safely awaits anyone that can scale to the top of the pole. Those who are waiting their turn to be gored by the bull take turns unsuccessfully trying to climb the buttered pole. The smart kids--those who have rolled themselves in dirt to make sure they stick on the pole--slide down the pole slow enough to avoid the bull's sharpened horns. The unskilled climbers slide down right in front of the charging bull, then do a short pole dance for the bull before being carried to the medic drop box.
Sunday: Church & Nicaragua
On Sunday we went to church in Liberia—it was a Central-America-wide area conference and two of the 12 apostles, Eyring and Ballard spoke via satellite. It was sweet to see the church in full speed operation in the middle of smallville Central America. After church, we drove the coast up to Nicaragua. We didn't stay for very long (3 minutes total)... it was just enough time to see Nicaragua's highlights including a border crossing, money exchangers and an immigration center. We turned around after deciding the view wasn't worth the climb.
Monday: Mount Arenal – Volcano & Hot Springs
Monday was the other high-adventure highlight of the trip--a visit to Mt Arenal Volcano. Although the volcano was 'active' it was mostly smoke--not a lot of fire. We did see a few molten boulders thrown down the hill and felt a mighty rumbling (although, I'm still unsure if the rumble was the volcano or if it was my stomach after 2 days of poor dietary judgment). In the afternoon, we took a zip line Canopy Tour. It was AMAZING! One of the lines was 1/2 a mile long another was 650 ft above the ground. We ended the day with pork ribs dipped in pace-picante salsa for dinner and a stop at a natural springs hot tub at the base of the volcano (not on the side of the volcano that was hurling balls of molten magma).
Tuesday: Home
Anyhow, that is it for the trip. It was an eventful and adventurous way to skip town, spend some time with my dad (the "old, grey haired mountain-climbing, ocean-swimming dog"--Glen's name from the natives) and see a part of the world I look forward to visiting again.
As I probably told most of you, my dad and I took a short weekend trip to Liberia, Costa Rica to do a little diving. I think we chose Liberia as a compromise between my first choice, Libya, and Glen's preferred vacation spot, Siberia—-I hadn't heard of Liberia before going there. Here is a link to the pictures.
Friday: Travel
Saturday: Scuba Diving & Bull run
Our most active day was Saturday. We spent the morning scuba diving off the pacific coast. Glen warned me that visibility is low and the water was cold when diving in the pacific--he was right. We were lucky enough to see some silt covered rocks, a few sting rays, a sea turtle and multiple varieties of sushi swimming in schools. As a rookie diver, I just enjoyed floating around, fighting the current, trying to clear my ears, and keeping my wetsuit as warm as possible.
The highlight of the trip was the afternoon/evening of Saturday. We went into Liberia for their annual city carnival. The spotlight of the carnival--in addition to a concert, carnival games, and sundry deep-fried pork parts-- was a WWF-style bull fight in a hand-made arena (see pics). In this event, the whole town shows up and piles into a huge, rickety, multi-level arena made from the plywood stripped off their own houses. All the macho youth of the town (boys ages 15-50) get drunk and pile into the middle of the arena, and then they release an angry, wild bull that is wearing a flank strap around its 'waist' to ensure it is in the worst temperament possible. The boys take turns trying to slap the bull's butt without being gored. Those who are gored by the bucking bull get carried and shoved through a lunch-tray-deposit style medic box on the side of the rink (again, the picture says it best). The game goes on until the bull slips into a learned helplessness state and gives up; then they bring out the next bull.
If that weren't fun enough, in the dead center of the rink (while the bull is busy stomping on people), the have a finely sanded, 50 ft tall telephone pole covered in lard; a 200$ prize safely awaits anyone that can scale to the top of the pole. Those who are waiting their turn to be gored by the bull take turns unsuccessfully trying to climb the buttered pole. The smart kids--those who have rolled themselves in dirt to make sure they stick on the pole--slide down the pole slow enough to avoid the bull's sharpened horns. The unskilled climbers slide down right in front of the charging bull, then do a short pole dance for the bull before being carried to the medic drop box.Sunday: Church & Nicaragua
On Sunday we went to church in Liberia—it was a Central-America-wide area conference and two of the 12 apostles, Eyring and Ballard spoke via satellite. It was sweet to see the church in full speed operation in the middle of smallville Central America. After church, we drove the coast up to Nicaragua. We didn't stay for very long (3 minutes total)... it was just enough time to see Nicaragua's highlights including a border crossing, money exchangers and an immigration center. We turned around after deciding the view wasn't worth the climb.
Monday: Mount Arenal – Volcano & Hot SpringsMonday was the other high-adventure highlight of the trip--a visit to Mt Arenal Volcano. Although the volcano was 'active' it was mostly smoke--not a lot of fire. We did see a few molten boulders thrown down the hill and felt a mighty rumbling (although, I'm still unsure if the rumble was the volcano or if it was my stomach after 2 days of poor dietary judgment). In the afternoon, we took a zip line Canopy Tour. It was AMAZING! One of the lines was 1/2 a mile long another was 650 ft above the ground. We ended the day with pork ribs dipped in pace-picante salsa for dinner and a stop at a natural springs hot tub at the base of the volcano (not on the side of the volcano that was hurling balls of molten magma).
Tuesday: Home
Anyhow, that is it for the trip. It was an eventful and adventurous way to skip town, spend some time with my dad (the "old, grey haired mountain-climbing, ocean-swimming dog"--Glen's name from the natives) and see a part of the world I look forward to visiting again.
