Zippilli's Do Costa Rica!

Last week the Zippilli clan was reunited here in Costa Rica for the first installation of Spring Break 2012 visitors. Emily was on break from St. Joe's so she, Mom, and Dad flew down on Friday March 2nd. They spent one night at the friary in San Jose we had a lovely late dinner with Fray Jorge. He was such a wonderful host and told them all about life here Moravia. On Saturday morning we took off for La Fortuna, the small town near Arenal Volcano. We checked into a beautiful resort that was tucked away from the town and appropriately named The Lost Iguana. Our room was spectacular and had this breathtaking view of the volcano from our window:

View from our hotel

 On Saturday we enjoyed the pool's swim up bar for happy hour and dinner at the hotel. Sunday morning we left early for a day with a Naturalist. Jose, our tour guide, took us on a four hour tour of the hanging bridges. We saw all sorts of bird, plants and animals (though the monkeys and sloths were certainly the highlights!). He told us we must have been lucky, because we saw so many types of animals, even some that aren't usually active at that time of day!  Later he took us to hike down to La Fortuna waterfall, which was beautiful.  The hike back up the 450 steps was breath-taking in the most literal sense, but fun nonetheless.

sloth!

The next day, we made the five hour trip in van from La Fortuna to Manuel Antonio, a national park south of San Jose. (Our very first excursion in September was here but I was excited to go back and spend more time in the area since our last trip was quite short.) We arrived at the Parador Hotel, which is situated on a cliff that overlooks the Pacific Ocean and has a beautiful view of the park. The hotel was fantastic! We enjoyed the beach and took a walk down rather steep path to the local beach upon arrival.

made a pit-stop to see some crocs

Hotel Parador 

On Tuesday we were met early in the morning in the lobby by Andres, who was to be our tour guide for a tour of the park. With a group of tourists, we followed Andres along the parks trail to the beach, stopping along the way to see all sorts of birds and wildlife that call the park home.  There were groups of white-faced monkeys literally putting on a show for the tourists walking by (but let's be real, they were all stopped snapping pictures). After the tour, we dropped out stuff on the second beach. Apparently there were rip tide and poisonous tree warnings that we didn't heed, but we were perfectly fine...and had the entire beach to ourselves!
 

Later in the afternoon we got on board a small boat and took a tour of the mangrove. We learned all about
 a sunset catamaran tour out on the ocean. We went snorkeling, had dinner, and enjoyed a beautiful sunset. Our guide was intent on providing entertainment too, so he pulled out his banjo and bag of instruments and we had a little reggae-style sing-a-long. I'll be honest - it was hilarious for the first 10 minutes and I was really into shaking that tambourine. But I got tired of it pretty quick and just wanted to enjoy the sunset! We saw the sun set and moon rise simultaneously; it was absolutely gorgeous.
 

The next day we headed back to San Jose so my family could see the city before they went home. We walked up and down Avenida Central, explored some churches and visited the artisan market. Emily went crazy buying souvenirs in her sorority colors for her friends at St. Joe's and my mom got some really beautiful artwork. Everyone was pretty exhausted from all the walking around the city so we hung out at the hotel for a bit before dinner. Funnily enough my parents booked the night at a place that shares a fence with Margie's worksite...I could practically hear the kids at the daycare screaming! Later we met up with my housemates and the directors of our program who were in town for our retreat. We met them all at a restaurant downtown and shared a very delicious meal. I had a blast and really enjoyed bringing my FrancisCorps family together with the Zippilli's.

My families!

I think once I'm back in the states, the Zippilli's will be stateside for a bit, unless Emily decided to go abroad and send us all on yet anouther cross-continental adventure :) It's been a big year, having Emily in Galway and me in San Jose, and having the four of us together here reminded me just how exciting it will be to be closer to them - and the rest of my family and friends - come July. However, before that can happen, there are still three more installments of SB2K12! My friend Emily, from JVC, comes next week; 4 of the FrancisCorps Volunteers from Syracuse come for Holy Week; and all 4 members of Casa Dorothy Kazel from my JV year in LA come in May! Have I mentioned lately, I love my life! :)