Saturday, April 07, 2012

HOLY WEEK

Here’s the truth of the matter:  we live in a beautiful, friendly, and even exotic country—but, we are not on vacation.  I work, the kids have school, Dayna goes pretty much non-stop.  Duty ever beckons, and stress is a constant companion.  So as we approached “Semana Santa” (local version of “Spring Break”), we were more than ready to “do as the Romans” and high-tail it out of the large city that has been our home for nearly a year (when the mountains that surround our valley start to feel like walls keeping us in, it is time for R&R).

Crazies at Uvita Beach

Fantastic Five at Uvita Beach

Two problems got in our way—first, fulfilling a promise made months ago to take some of the young men from the ward (congregation) to go camping on a beach for two nights during Semana Santa; and secondly, the fact that any place with a bed in it seemingly fills up far in advance of Semana Santa, and we did not start looking for digs until a few weeks ago.

Uvita Beach

Compromise Camping

Thank heavens for small miracles, the internet, and last minute deals.  Without all the sordid details:  Monday morning, Keaton, Dalton, three young men from the ward (Kevin, Anthony, Beto) and I packed up the car and headed to the southern Pacific coast of Costa Rica.  I like the outdoors, and readily agreed to camping.  But, I have my limits, and after a weeks of trying to find a place that would both allow them to camp/have access to the beach, and for me to enjoy the Costa Rican outdoors without 20,000 Costa Rican teenagers as my camp-mates (all sharing the same public bathroom), we settled on two small cabins owned by a Dutch couple in the hills near Marino Ballena national park, with easy access to several beaches, just a few minutes drive away.  The cabins had a "scout camp" kind of a feel--but with private baths. 

Brynne, Chillaxin' in Manuel Antonio

Some serious jet-skiers

Our Semana Santa get-away oasis near Manuel Antonio

Lizard in the Pool--
does it walk on water?

"El Avion" Restaurant--
The "avion" in this case is a relic from the Iran-Contra era

We had a great time.  Beach hanging, jogging, “water rugby”-slogging in the pool,  waterfall swimming and even watching “Barca” beat “AC Milano” in a championship series in a local helped bring down the stress level considerably.

Squirrel Monkey near the pool

Then Wednesday midday, we put the non-Karlinseys in the group on a bus, sent them home, and drove north an hour-and-a-half to meet up with Dayna, Brynne, and Braden near Manuel Antonio national park.  We found a last minute “deal” on a home located right on the beach, but with its own pool, gardens, and enough space for us to spread out and “chillax”.

Iguana in Manuel Antonio

In the vernacular of our teenagers:  “I’m not going to lie, it was amazing.”  More beach hanging, augmented by pool lazing, video gazing, book escaping, jet-ski crazing, beach walking, late night talking, national park wild animal stalking, and sunset entertainment watching the monkeys descend into trees and gardens around our property.

Dalt and Brynne boogie boarding at Manuel Antonio

Ditching the hot tub late last night for a spontaneous walk up and down the beach--utterly drenched in moonlight from the full moon--was as spectacular as it was unforgettable.

Killer Bees
in Manuel Antonio

Wish we could have stayed longer, and I hope that the magic will linger.   Now that we are back in Sa Jose--

We are looking forward to Easter tomorrow, and are grateful to remember Why we celebrate it. 

Monday brings high-ranking corporate visitors to our operations.  Dayna and I will be hosting a dinner on Monday night.  Then Dayna and Brynne head north to niece-Karalee’s wedding on Friday.  Keaton leaves the following Thursday to the same wedding, and then is off to Portugal and Spain to work for a month (filming a movie).  He will be submitting his mission papers (application) before leaving, and expect his call may arrive while he is there (we’re working on the video-skyping to share that one).  We are all anxious (if not placing bets) on where he will end up.

Two other noteworthy happenings that should have been blog entries, and were overtaken by events in the past few months:

Soccer game at La Copa Nefi

COPA NEFI

This was the focus of our Church service since December:  a three-month competition between ten wards/congregations in San Jose to win the chest-thumping title of the Nephi Cup Champions.  Points were won through soccer games, scholastic bowl matches, and genealogical indexing.  (This latter was slow in getting off the ground, but heated up tremendously in the final month with the help of some extra incentives, and a few motivated teams (remember the camping commitment . . . ?)).

Nerd Bowl as part of the Copa

Was a lot of work, and a bigger production than we should have undertaken.  We were thrilled with the results, though:  lots of reports of increased unity, activation, and cohesiveness (were also happy that it resulted in more than 25,000 names being indexed).  Importantly, it gave many of the youth leaders focus, and hopefully taught them a little in the process.  If nothing else, it fully engaged us with the leaders and youth, and that is proving to be quite useful as we work with them in other aspects of training and service.  

GRANDPARENT VISIT

Obviously a team of professional
Zip-Liners

Lake Arenal from our Hotel

Dayna and Shirlene

Dale and Shirlene came down in January—a couple of weeks following Christmas.  Had a wonderful time with them here.  We finished off the kids’ Christmas break then by traveling inland to the Arenal Volcano and surrounding area.

Stayed at a place overlooking Arenal Lake (formed by a hydro-electric dam).  Beautiful area.  (No kidding, I swear the lake area looks like Scotland).  Hiked around the volcano, did the canopy tour thing, canoeing, waterfall hike, and found some great food.

Arenal Volcano

If I had the time, I would write much more.  Hopefully the pictures will do that for us.  

The Swimmin' Hole

That’s all for  now.  We miss you, and we welcome visitors—so don’t hesitate to come.

PURA VIDA!

The Karlinseys
Glenn, Dayna, Keaton, Dalton, Brynne, and Braden