On New Year's Eve, we piled into our friends’ jeep and went to their home in Monteverde, Costa Rica. A town in the cloud forest on the Pacific side of the Continental Divide, it was settled by American Quakers in 1950 fleeing religious persecution in Alabama during the Korean War (Quakers believe in non-violence). Costa Rica had recently abolished it’s army, had amazing weather, and at the time, land was cheap.
Our friends’ home is beautiful with an even more beautiful view which looks out over the Gulf of Nicoya and the Nicoya Peninsula! On a clear day you can see the Pacific Ocean beyond. Austin is a student in my department and a documentary filmmaker. His wife Wendy is a teacher, but is taking the year off to be a full-time mom. Their daughters Anna (11) and Bella (8) are Autumn and Chloe’s ‘BFCR’ (best friends in Costa Rica). They get along great and have so much fun together!
That night we were all tired so the girls, thankfully, decided that they wanted to celebrate New Years at 11pm, which is midnight in DC and NYC (our friends are from the Newark, NJ area). We watched the ball dropping live in Times Square online then went outside where the girls ran around banging pots and cheering (they don’t have many neighbors on their side of the mountain). Then the hotel down the road put on an amazing fireworks display – at 11pm! We guessed this was probably because they cater to tourists, mostly from the States. It was great, although it was all too much for the dog, Nene, they were ‘dog-sitting’ who took off into the woods – they found him the next day across town at his house.
Other things we did while in Monteverde included lots of hiking through the forests, visiting waterfalls, eating ice cream, and attending a Quaker meeting (that’s what they call their church services) and potluck. We also visited a café that had dozens of hummingbirds flying around feeders – man, are they fast and quite beautiful! The girls got their fill of cute animals while we were there, too. Anna and Bella have a dog and the girls had fun dressing up the her and Nene for a ‘doggy fashion show’ (as you can imagine the dogs were just THRILLLED about that!) We also visited their friends’ farm where the girls got to see dogs, cats, chickens, turkeys, guineas, and goats – including a baby goat born on Christmas Eve! They also got to pet horses all around town.
The daily sunsets from their front patio were amazing and so was hanging out with our friends. The bus ride home was long – 4.5 hours to San Jose and then another 45 minutes to Ciudad Colon – but it was worth it!
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