La Paz Waterfalls & Zoo

Last weekend our friend Molly Pearce came to town to visit us for a week. It was so great having her here! She pretty much just hung out and saw our life for a while, so we wanted to do something fun with her on the weekend. I mean, she had to see a little bit of cool Costa Rica! Our life consists of school, sitting on the balcony, studying, doing homework with Emma, then studying a little more...not much to see. We had heard about an incredible place only about an hour away called La Paz Waterfalls and Poaz Volcano. The volcano had gaseous fumes coming out of it, so it was closed, but we spent all day at the waterfalls and the zoo.

Think about a normal zoo...then triple the coolness

So there were normal animal cages, but you could walk in them! Here is some random bird

And a beautiful Toucan

Then the guy handed me some food and said to hold out my arm...I'm petting a Toucan! I want one.

Then we thought it was going to attack Molly's face

Not many 7-year-olds get to do this!

I love its little head cocked to the side

Scarlet Macaws...I recognized these from "Go Diego Go"

Random fact: they mate for life!

Normal roach on the right...Costa Rica roach at the top

Next we walked into a butterfly sanctuary

They were hatching from their cocoons...amazing

There were tons of different species flying everywhere

And landing on us constantly

beautiful

Next we walked to the monkey cages. This one just ran up, stuck his hand through the cage and held hands with Jack

And they sat and talked for a while

It was wild...Jack would make faces at the monkey

And the monkey would make faces back! Jack wanted to take this little guy home. I want a Toucan, Jack wants a monkey. We would have quite the Costa Rican jungle in our backyard wouldn't we?

Then we saw tigers and leopards. I've never been this close to one before. They were just behind some glass...no big deal

Then we saw an old-tyme Costa Rican farm house where a lady was making some bread on a fire stove, some hot apple cider and making cheese from the cow out back

On to the crazy frogs. Once again, they were in a room, and we just walked in to look at them in their natural habitat. The frog on the right is called a Glass Frog...you can see right through it!

Eating lunch in the rain forest

Random ox cart...we took a ride around in that wagon...seriously

Beautiful waterfalls

Beautiful plants in the rain forest

It started pouring down rain right as we were leaving. La Paz was such an incredible experience and we would love to go back sometime. Visitors welcome!

It was so fun having Molly here for a visit and we were sad to see her go. We kept her busy...took her to class, introduced her to new friends, had dinner with other missionaries, walked 45 minutes to church, hung out downtown, taught ESL classes and pretty much drug her around with us everywhere. It was the first time our two worlds have collided. Oh yeah, here is a picture of all the goodies she brought us from friends and family back home! We feel so loved and blessed. God is good.

Gymnastics Class

Emma is taking gymnastics class after school for an hour on Mondays and Wednesdays. She is really liking it and learning a lot of things! At first she was really timid and unsure of herself, but she's getting better each week. I even saw her practicing cartwheels in the den last night.

They warm up at first going around the gym walking, hopping, skipping, running

Then do some wall push-ups

Then some heel stretches

Poor Jack gets really bored

But he's a good sport about it

And likes to goof off with Dad

Arabesque?

It's a good time for the parents to get together and study on the bleachers. I guess I refused to study this day...but see everyone else? They're such good students.

Emma and friend Marcy

Front Rolls

Back Rolls

Hand stands

Trampoline Jumps

Back walk-overs

With bad lighting it was tough getting good action shots, but you get the idea. They actually do new things each week and she likes changing it up some. I'm glad she has an exercise outlet that's also fun for us to watch. Sojourn Academy also offers soccer on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but we thought we would just stick to one thing for now. It's plenty for us to handle.

Amoxicilina

Starting last Wednesday, Emma was coming down with a cold. Not completely sure if it was a sinus infection that was getting worse and worse or just a cold. But all we knew is each day she had her ups and downs with how she felt. She never had swollen lymph nodes in her neck (which usually happens when she's sick) and she never had a fever, so we just thought we would give it time. On Monday night, Emma came into our room and said her ear was hurting...should have known. This is typical Emma sickness...having a sinus-type infection that turns into an ear infection. So what are we to do?

We knew there is a doctor at the language school two days a week and Tuesday was one of those days. Will woke up early and went up there to sign her up for an appointment only to find that his appointments were full. Now what? We thought we were going to have to go downtown to the Clinica Biblica for an appointment sometime that day...and Will and I both had huge tests.

We filled Emma with Tylenol and went to school to take our tests. When we got there, we were told by other students that there was a pharmacy up on the corner by school and in Costa Rica they sell a lot of prescription drugs over the counter. Okaaaay. So we skipped chapel and went up there to check it out. Here's how the conversation with the pharmacist went:

We walk in the door..."Tiene amoxicillin?"

"Si...un momento"

He walks to the back and brings back a box of Amoxicilina

"Por mi hija. Ella tiene siete anos y ella tiene ojo infection...verdad?"

"Si....Feaghdfiaohgagfnaighai" he says

"Como?" we ask

"Ghudfahbiufaduhaahbh" he says again just as mumbled and fast

Will and I stare at each other

"Bfdsiuahbfudahguidah" he says again but louder

"Uuuuuuhhhhhhhh" we say

He stares at us

I want to pee on myself

"He's saying they have a medicine that works better" says nice guy behind us

"Gracias nice guy"...."no gracias" to aggravating pharmacist

Let's be honest, the last thing we need right now is Emma having an allergic reaction to some herbal jungle medicine. The amoxicillin usually works, so we went with that.

It came in two boxes of a 5-day supply in powder form. So all we had to do was mix it with bottled water and kind of guess how much to give her (should have asked the pharmacist, but we were so nervous by the time we actually got the medicine that we just ran out the door). Total cost of over-the-counter antibiotic?

$6

She's feeling much better now, but Will is starting to feel weird