Monday in Costa Rica........

When it was official that we were coming to Costa Rica one of the first things I did was look online to see if there was a temple there. I was excited to see that there was one right in San Jose and I was excited to at least go the temple grounds and see it. When we arrived and our plans started changing due to luggage delays and finding out from Elder Robinson that the temple was located in kind of a more remote part of the city I gave up on the idea of us trying to find it because it would take up so much or our time. When we started our journey to Arenal we were pleased to see that we were on a highway and not through the city too much. About 45 minutes or so into our drive we had to take and exit and starting driving through a little town . We were driving along this road.....

And then out of now where we saw this big gold statue looking thing sticking right up into the sky. We both said out loud "what in the world is that?" and then in usison we realized that it was the angel Moroni and that temple was just right in front of us. Right there in the middle of this little run down part of the city. The picure right above is what you see standing out side the front entrance of the temple. I can't even describe to you what I felt right at that moment. I had chills. Isn't it strange that a vacation can strenghten my testimony? It was so random that we would just get of the highway right there and see the temple. I really think it was one of my favorite parts of this vacation. It was Monday so the temple was closed, but the guard in front opened the gate and let us park our car in the parking lot and walk around. It was definitely a highlight for me!

This was the veiw we saw of the temple was we were driving up to it....

Sharon and I in front of the temple....

Me at the front entrance of the temple......

Dedicated in 2000....

Arent these flowers beautiful? They were all over the temple grounds. There were some that were light blue and some that were light purple.

Right after we left the temple we took a few turns through the town and got onto a different highway.
As we were driving along a small stretch of the highway there was the most beautiful scenery and signs for a zoo so we decided to venture off our path and check it out. As we were driving along the road we noticed that there were what looked like little gardens with shops in front. I saw a few little road side restaurants so we decided to stop. When we got out became a little worried about how I was going to order in Spanish but it worked out pretty good. We order some Agua's con Frutas and Empanadas con Pollo and a fruit plate that had frech pineapple, papaya and bannans. It was quite good! Sharon liked it so much that we now have a favorite in our GPS labeled good fried food and fruit!

There were these crazy bird nest looking things haning right in front of the counter and almost right over where our table was. We were a little worried about a bird attack or getting pooped on :)

I don't know excatly why, but I just liked this picture. Our drinks were so yummy and it is a rare occasion that I enjoy fruity drinks, but I drank this down with no problem!

Empanada's con Pollos = delicioso

After we ate our delicious lunch we headed up the street to the zoo. The pathway right when you walked in was lined with Parrots just chillen on each side of the path. It was really cool.

Introducing Julie the Peacock.....
Me next to some really tall bamboo growing in the zoo

Look closely and you will see the snake....
I bought this cool bird whistle for Ava outside of the zoo. It makes the coolest sound and it is really easy to play..... I provided a little mood music for us on our drive with it :)

There were these giant spider webs with huge spiders living in them all over the zoo. I almost walked right into a few of them. They were a little freaky and I was ready to be done with the zoo when it was time because after my close calls I was becoming a little paranoid of giant spiders crawling on me.

The country side on the way to Arenal was breathtaking! I can't even do it justice with words. I have never seen anything like it. This is a picture of some feilds we thought were kinda cool. This was the veiw from the mountainside just across from them, but we actually drove right next to them about 20 minutes after we took this picture.

We drove past waterfalls...... some were actually very close to the car, like this one
Our GPS would beep and give us warning for speed bumps and upcoming attractions but we felt really concerned when this appeared: warning: dangerous bridge ahead. We had a TON of these on our journey to Arenal. Some definitely felt more dangerous than others, but mostly because they were one way. At times we had to wait our turn. This one in the picture below was interesting to cross because we had to go on a small unpaved part of the road that was quite bumpy and rocky. It was actually quite beautiful though with the river below and the waterfalls on the other side.

We finally made it to the hotel! By the time we made it there we were so tired and READY to get out of the car. A four hour car drive at 40mph is much different than a four hour car drive at 75 mph. The road was very curvy and narrow and I was so glad to have me feet on the ground again :) We got to our room and just layed down and slept for about 2 hours. After we were rested we explored the hotel then set out for some dinner. We ate at Luigis pizzeria and had a delicious shrimp calzone. It was quite tasty. This is me by the pool at our hotel. It had beautiful water falls and water slides. There was one "cold" pool and then on the other side there was the natural "hot" pool. We relaxed there after dinner.

This was the cool little bridge we had to walk over to get to the pool area. It was so beautiful :)

Me with my pina colada in the hot spring......

I got my suitcase!!! We had Delta deliver it all the way to the new hotel we were at which was perfet cause we actually got to do stuff other than waiting around for my bag to come in. I was so excited to be able to shave my pits, arms and legs and have some stuff to tame my hair a little bit. A shower never felt so good!