Que rica es Costa Rica!

I've been back to the real world for three full days now and I have one thing to say: This sucks! Five days in sunny, steamy Costa Rica last week was amazing, but leaving left much to be desired: first and foremost, warm weather. Rischard and I came back to snow and rain after Chicago had enjoyed temperatures up to 70 while we were gone. No trouble finding the irony there, but as many of my fellow northerners would say "that's Chicago for you". But enough complaining, let's talk about our wonderful trip.


So we landed on Tuesday morning after leaving Chicago at 5am, connecting in Atlanta, and forgetting to grab food for the plane; thus we landed hungry and tired. However, the heat wave once we got off the plane was like a smack in the face- a good one. Our cab driver Mario and his wife picked us up and I began to take advantage of my first time in a spanish speaking country since I lived in Spain. Rischard was left to wait every few mintes to hear a breif translation of what we were talking about. With in the first 30 mintues of out hour and a half drive I had successfully made my first joke in Spanish- I was feeling good. (Mario and I are in the picture below)



We arrived at the our hotel just outside of Jaco. Set on a hill, there were great views, sunshine and breezes. We spent the rest of the day getting food and lounging by the pool.


The next day was our first adventure: ziplining!! Something I've always wanted to do and I had sold Rischard on the idea as soon as I found out we were going to Costa Rica. Little did he know, we would be several hundred feet in the air, hooked in only by a tight fitting harness and we zipped through trees and in between wide open mountain valleys. Heaven for me, a non stop stomach clentcher for Rischard. He was a great sport though, and after the first couple, he was pretty fearless.


The next day we went ATVing- on the top of Rischard's list for our trip. Another adventure, both of us were not quite prepared for. The roads were very steep and there was sometimes oncoming traffic, which was a little scary when it would be a big truck. Rischard got spooked by some on coming traffic and ended up in a ditch with the bike on top of him! The guide and I had a few gut wrenching moments were we didn't know if he was ok (we couldn't even see him because the ditch was so deep). Luckily, the ditch was deep and skinny so the bike couldn't fall completely on him. He pulled himself out with on a small wound and a few bruises (mostly to the ego). After the guide established that first Rischard was ok and second, the bike was ok, he informed us that any damage would be paid for by us. LOL! Now you tell us!! We finished the two hour ride which was fun and we saw beautiful scenery and some parrots- but Rischard never fully mentally recovered from the scare and was very cautious for the rest of the ride. Still, we had fun and it was a great story.

The view from the top of mountain on the ATV tour.


That night we cleaned up (they are not kidding when they tell you you'll get dirty) and headed to watch the sunset at Villa Calletas in their amplitheater with a gorgeous view of the ocean. Some friends had gotten married there last year and I could see why when we arrived. We had a very romantic dinner on the patio and I had lobster- it was orgasms for the taste buds! YUM!




Our last full day was spent doing a day trip to Manuel Antonio National Park. The rain forest goes right up to some of the most gorgeous beaches that you will ever see. We stopped at a fruit stand on the way and I had maybe the best mango of my life. I will really miss the fruit in this country. We saw two different kinds of monkeys, frogs, parrots, a stick bird, iguanas and a crazy spider that almost made me pass out (it was maybe the ONLY thing I DIDN'T take a picture of).







When Saturday we were both sad to go. We made friends with the family of Canadians staying at our hotel (and the owners), a group of Florida law students, and any person that let me speak Spanish for more that two minutes to them. All in all, a success.

Costa Rica, you were wonderful. No puedo esperar volver a visitarte. Ya hecho de menos a tus playas y sol y gente moja. Thanks for the memories!

I'm a professional

I travel for a living... it's what I do. So it goes without saying that I know how to pack a bag. But there is something about going on vacation that puts me in a packing panic. Which bikini? Do I bring all of them? To check or not to check the bag... One pair of pants or two? Dresses or skirts? Will I want to wear shorts? Should I pack for a workout? And then the granddaddy of all questions: What shoes to bring?! I know that all females (I won't judge if the males can too) can identify with this dilemma. How many shoes? Flat shoes and heels? Then you've got the functional heels and the sexy heels and for flats there are tennis shoes, sandals, flip flops and water shoes. And don't think that I couldn't go on! And as if my stress load was acne inducing enough (the dreaded vacation pimple!!- that will show up in all vacation pictures), I can hear my dad's voice in my head: "Be prepared!" Suddenly I pulling out wet gear and possible cold weather gear.. what if it's unexpectedly freezing? (Did I mention I'm going to Costa Rica, climate tropical?!)

But alas, I finally shut off the frantic female voice in my head telling me that it's OK to check three bags and I get down to business. One pair of pants (wear them on the plane), three bikinis, one pair of sexy heels, flip flops and one pair of flats (wear them on the plane). Oh, and one small jacket in case it gets cold (that's for you dad!). See how it's done? What did I tell you? I'm a professional!

(And there's even room to spare for Rischard's stuff!)


Roma's buddies this week who will be coming over to feed and torture her.. thanks again to my bestie Nicole and Maia and Sebastian!

Take me with you

I hate to see a blog with no pictures, so here are a few for fun until I get things going... last year two of my cousins and a friend met up in San Diego over the summer. I had thought I would be able to meet up with them, but it didn't work out- so to lessen the disappointment, I sent them a picture of my face which they, in turn, cut out and took with them on the trip. The result is a few hilarious shots of my head. I would have given anything to know what people around them were thinking as they were standing there taking pictures with my face!

Disclaimer: Cut out of Raine's head is not actual size. Image may have been enhanced by parties involved. No heads were hurt in the making of this picture.

Introducing Raaaaaiiinnne's BLOG!: The new age diary

It's a Sunday and I have a to-do list that could keep a person busy for a week (and only 48 hours in which to complete everything), but what am I doing?? I'm in my pajamas on the computer reading other people's blogs. Then LIGHT BULB! (Inner monologue)"Why don't I just start my own blog?! Everyone else is doing it.."

So here I am, officially a follower and I'm jumping on the bandwagon. Why should everyone else get to have all of the fun? So with this new venture, I feel I should compose a mission statement of sorts, i.e. what are my intentions as a blogger? I can hear Rischard already, so let me just say right now, this will not be a relationship "tell-all" ;). But as a kid, I was an avid writer, poet and diary keeper. As an adult, I find it's something that I miss: a place to talk about my travels, my job, and the craziness of life in other places than just my Facebook status updates. And as life hurls itself towards my third decade (AAAHHHH!) on this planet and it gets harder for me to remember my first decade, I have a nagging feeling I either need to buy a video camera or... start a blog. Something tells me my friends/boyfiend/family would not all be as enthsuastic about being part of my "selfumentary". And this being a recession and all it looks like the latter (and for my friend(s) who never understand that word- BAAWWGGSS- option two) is the cheaper and wiser choice. And the fun beings....