Weekend with my parents - Part 1

I think that this weekend can best be explained in pictures.

My parents arrived Thursday after lunch time, and Gerardo brought them to my class! My teacher was kind enough to let me leave, so I did and I took them to Claudia's apartment where they would be staying for the weekend. We got all of their stuff there and then headed back to the U so that I could go to dance class. They watched us dance, and I had to hit dad a few times so that he would stay awake. They had had a long day of traveling and little sleep the night before, so I could understand. After class, we stopped at a nice restaurant to eat. Dad had fettucini alfredo and mom and I had shrimp and rice. It was delicious, and the waiter was nice too. Afterwards we went back to the apartment to rest. I went to meet up with my friends for a while, but came back soon because I was tired too.

On Friday, we got up and went to Soda Lucy down the road to have breakfast. I ordered gallo pinto for them with coffee, and they seemed to like it okay. We then walked all around San Ramon, to the church, to the park, the hospital, the stadium, down to my house and then to the University. I showed them around and let them see some pretty views of the city from there. We hung around there until lunch time or so, and then continued walking around. Around 2 pm we headed back to my house so that they could meet my family. My host mother had volunteered to take them on a scenic ride of San Ramon. We ended up riding around for two hours! We saw some beautiful views of the city and all around town, parts that I haven't even seen before! She took us to a poorer part of town as well. We came back after that and ran into some of my amigos, and so they met my parents and we all decided to walk to the farmer's market together. They had all kinds of fruits and veggies for sale, in addition to underwear. Interesting. We then decided to go get some coffee, and sweet KL went with us to Aroma's! We all had coffee or hot chocolate and a little snack, and talked for a while. When it got dark, we headed back to the apartment for a while. I went by my house to get some more clothes and stuff. We hung out at the apartment and then I went to meet up with my friends for a while. I came back within an hour though because I was TIRED, and we all went to bed early.

We woke up early Saturday morning and were picked up by a ride I had arranged for us to have all day. We spent the day traveling around several smaller cities outside of San Ramon: Sarchi, Zarcero, Naranjo, Grecia, San Carlos. The pictures below are in kind of random order, but they basically show the highlights of what we saw all day: lots of churches, lots of flowers, and lots of cute little cities in the mountains of Costa Rica!

View of San Ramon

Look closely just beside the tree and you can see Arenal Volcano!

Cute garden in Zarcero, a town that reminds me of Gatlinburg, except it's in Costa Rica, obviously! This garden has all kinds of trees cut into various shapes! Look at my facebook or my mother's for more pictures of this!

Beautiful church in Naranjo

Mom, me, and Dad

Sarchi is famous for these decorated carts used in Costa Rica. The colors are so vibrant and beautiful on all of them which are always hand painted! We saw a workshop where these are made and sold, and they are all beautiful.

Stay tuned for Part 2!