Fishing in Punta Uva

Here is Dave with teammates Marty and Cam on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. They travelled three hours by car to Caño Blanco and then taxied via a small boat to some cabins along a system of rivers. You can only travel in this part of the country via boats and the community (about 450 residents) live fairly isolated from the rest of Costa Rica. Although we wouldn't want to live there, it makes for great fishing!

This is Arnold, the taxi driver and tour guide for the two day trip. This was his main source of income. Although he took us to the best fishing holes, the big ones seemed to have gotten away. We caught enough for supper and a few for Arnold's friend Gerardo as well. He and his father built and manage three cabins in the middle of 'nowhere'.

Although they had no photos of the fish, they came home with some photos of other 'wildlife' in the area! Here is a baby cocodrillo (crocodile) out for a tan in the warm sun. Below, mama wasn't to far away - of course they were a bit farther away when they took this picture!



Here are two crocodiles laying next to each other. As you can see by the large lump, one of them had just enjoyed a large meal! Fortunately, there were no reports of missing children that day!



Here is a photo of the largest crocodile that they saw. It swam underneath their boat and when it surfaced, Arnold said it was the largest he had ever seen! It was at least 8 meters long by the look of it but no one really wanted to get closer to measure it. Steve Irwin would've been "really excited!"

Easter in Paradise

Although Easter is not a traditional holiday here in Costa Rica, we celebrated Easter Sunday with a baptismal service at a quinta (small property) with our church plant in Paraíso (which means "Paradise"). Eleven members were baptized and a few more are interested. Above is Carla, one of the members who was baptized along with her husband. What an exciting way to remember Christ's resurrection this past weekend. In most Catholic churches, the celebration seems to stop on Santo Viernes or Good Friday. Wouldn't it be terrible if we were left celebrating only the death of Christ and not the resurrection! Common traditions include processionals of the cruficied Christ carried by priests or on the back of a truck followed by mourners from the church.

After the baptismal service, people were welcome to stay around for a time of fellowship and games. The kids really enjoyed the open area of grass (not found in the city!) and the men took advantage of it as well with a game of futbol. Despite tearing his foot open (they all play barefoot) Dave was complimented on his soccer talent - I guess those years of soccer in high school paid off! It really was a great time for us to enjoy the beauty of the Orosi valley and the new friendships we've made over the last few months.

Whale Watching in Uvita

While we visited the coast this past weekend, we had the opportunity to visit Parque Nacional Marino Ballena (Whale) and take a whale and dolphin tour. After seeing the boats parked on the beach the day before, I was a little hesitant to take three children on the floatable hulls covered with a small canopy. Andy, our friend who invited us to vacation with them, bartered with the owner of the largest boat - a 35 footer with a cabin! With a good price in hand and the best boat around we were excited to venture out for 4 hours the next morning. Reports from others at the 'hotel' were exciting as we learned that they had seen 2 whales that day!


The next morning we awoke for our typical tico breakfast of gallo pinto and scrambled eggs - something Andy would regret later. We hiked out to the beach to find that the 'largest boat with a cabin' was in fact the same shell of a boat but with a hard windshield and was slightly larger (maybe 25 feet instead of 20 feet!) We waded out to climb aboard and began our tour. After almost three hours, we met some dolphins while enjoying the fresh fruit and water that acompanied our great price! Andy and his daughter decided not to partake since they couldn't keep their last meal down either. Next we were off to a small island to snorkle. However, due to the inclimate weather, we were not permitted to snorkle. Lastly, we travelled along various beaches including Playa Ventanas (window beach) where we saw the Gran Ventana or Large Window - a cavern in which depending on the tides, you can drive a boat through.

Overall, the kids had a good time. Olivia loved to hang over the side to feel the water and breeze in her face. It was a little scary for Mom to see how fearless she really is when it comes to the water. A rain storm hit just as we reached shore so we ran for cover in the palm trees

along the dirtroad to the where we had parked. The night before we visited the beach known as the Whale's Tail to walk along the sand bars at lowtide. When it is lowtide, the sand bars and some rock formations follow a line shaped like the tail fin of a whale. Abby and Olivia stayed behind with Mom to play in the sand and hunt for sand dollars.

Fearless Olivia gets a better view!


Aidan and Abby pose on a large piece of driftwood!

Aidan, Abby, and Olivia building sand castles (or atleast the moat)!

Abby and I played games drawing in the sand.