Pura Vida!

June 14-22 was my big adventure for the summer...I went to Costa Rica with some friends. It was seriously the best vacation I've ever had! Even with all of our adventures and problems we still had lots of fun. Too much happened to put it all in one post though!

The trip started for 3 of us with a long drive to Denver on the 14th (the other 2 went a few days before us). You might wonder, why Denver? Well, we got a better package deal flying out of Denver. Anyway, we arrived at our hotel close to midnight and checked in for a short nap. We were supposed to be on the 4am shuttle to the airport but it left us...even though we were standing in the lobby! That was the first of many problems with the hotel "park and fly" service. More to come about that.

We arrived in San Jose early in the afternoon
and this is what we saw:

After clearing customs and renting a car we experienced a miracle. The 3 of us realized we were relying on our cell phones (which didn't work!) to be able to meet up with the other 2. We hadn't really set a meeting time or place other than the airport. On our 3rd time circling the airport I said a quick prayer to myself that if they were there to help us see them and a few seconds later we saw one of them walking down the sidewalk!

After lunch we had a beautiful drive to Arenal which took a few hours on the narrow, windy roads. That night we went to the Baldi Hot Springs, a resort with pools filled with water naturally heated by the volcano! All I can say about their water slides is they don't make them like that in America! They were steep, fast and the kind that makes you check to see if your swim suit is still on at the end. It felt great to relax after so much traveling.

That night we stayed in a hostel in Arenal after finding out our hotel was a 40 minute drive from where we were! The door lock broke on my room and the security guard told me to climb in through the window and they would fix it in the morning.
Yes, it's true!
The next morning we went hiking at
the base of the Arenal Volcano.

This is what we were hoping to see:

This is the view we actually had (thanks to the clouds):

We also missed our "yellow arrow" the trail guide told us to turn at
and ended up hiking through the jungle with several large spiders like this:

We joked that it was like hiking in the fire swamp (Princess Bride). There were strange popping sounds from the volcano and some loud rumbles that sounded like thunder. Plus we saw spiders of unusual size. We went back to the beginning, crossed this bridge:

After finding the right trail this is the view we had:

We saw butterflies, a huge frog, monkeys, lizards, and even a wild boar! It was a beautiful hike and it was much better that hiking with the spiders. Yuck!

That day for lunch I had the best piña colada ever! The fruit is so fresh in Costa Rica! That afternoon we hiked to La Fortuna. After going on what felt like a million stairs we arrived at the waterfall (notice the people, it gives you an idea how big it is):

That night we drove to Monte Verde. It seemed like it took forever! Mostly because the roads weren't paved. During our trip the GPS took us on some interesting routes and that night it took us up a hill so steep we had to get out an push! We checked in at the Hotel Montaña and then went dancing at the local bar. We didn't stay long because the 5 of us made up almost half the crowd and the guys there looked like they were maybe 12!

See what I mean about too much for one post. This is a long one and I've only covered the first 2 days! It only got better!
I'll post more another day.

Thoughts

Today I have a lot to think about. I'm excited for my trip but at the same time I've never been so nervous. I guess leaving the USA can do that to me. I like the comforts of home. I'm sure I'll have all kinds of fun adventures in Costa Rica though and I'll post some of those here.

However, that's not the only thing I've been thinking about today. At church today one of the speakers talked about being a good judge without being judgmental. He based his talk on a recent general conference address (sorry, I don't remember which one). I really liked his main point about how sometimes people we love do dumb things but that doesn't make the person dumb. We need to learn to separate the actions of a person from them as individuals. For example, when someone does something that hurts or offends do you say "I can't believe how stupid they are" or do you say "I can't believe it, what a stupid thing to do." Can you see the difference? Holding judgment isn't an easy thing to do.

Recently I've thought a lot about forgiveness too. I remember reading a quote a few years ago that said something like "Not forgiving someone is like drinking poison and waiting for them to die." Obviously you are hurting yourself more when you don't forgive, if you take offense, or if you hold on to negative thoughts about a person. Not being judgmental is a hard lesson to learn and it's one I'm still working on.

I sometimes wish forgiveness could come easier but I think the deeper the hurt, the longer it can take to recover. I'm grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ. I know at times in my life I've only been able to forgive a person through the help of my Savior. Through His gospel and the scriptures I can also find comfort. And because of the knowledge I have that we're all children of God, I can still love the people around me even when I may not like what they do.

Smile!

Did I forget?

I love this! I'm not getting old...

I'm just getting too many things to remember. Haha

Failure is the Only Option

Ok, so this week I read an article in O magazine with the same title I gave this post, failure is the only option. The title caught my attention but I couldn't help laughing as I read the article. It's so true! Women in general tend to be too hard on themselves. The author emphasizes how we all need to lighten up some and not be so worried about what other women are or even aren't doing and focus on living our best life. I wanted to share some of the article here because I like how the author Elizabeth Gilbert expressed some of these emotions. Here are some highlights from the article:

So, here's what I want to know: Can we lighten up a little?
As we head into this next decade, can we draft a joint resolution to drop the crazy-making expectation that we we must all be perfect...with perfect bodies who dedicate ourselves to charity and grow our own organic vegetables, at the same time that
we run corporations and stand on our heads while playing the guitar with our feet?

We each race forth blindly into this new maze of limitless options. And the risks are steep. We make mistakes. We take sharp turns, hoping to stumble on an open path, only to bump into dead-end walls and to have to back up and start all over again...we constantly measure ourselves against each other's progress, which is a truly dreadful habit.

I fear that-if we continue this mad quest for perfection-we will all end up as stressed-out and jumpy as those stray cats who live in dumpsters behind Chinese restaurants, forever scavenging for scraps of survival while
pulling out their own hair in hypervigilant anxiety.
So let's drop it, maybe?

Blow it all catastrophically, in fact, and then start over with good cheer. This is what we all must learn to do, for this is how maps get charted--by taking wrong turns
that lead to surprising passageways that open into
spectacularly unexpected new worlds.
So just march on. Future generations will thank you--trust me--
for showing the way, for beating brave new footpaths out of wonky old mistakes.
Fall flat on your face if you must,
but please, for the sake of us all, do not stop.
Map your own life.