Our Adventure Begins!

Hola Familia y Amigos!

A week ago yesterday, we celebrated our wedding with all of you and had an unbelievable time. Now, we´re well into our Costa Rican adventure and doing great! This is truly a dream honeymoon. For the sake of your reading time and our internet charges, I´ll try to summarize some of the high points.

We got into Costa Rica Wednesday night, and nearly slept through our hotel pick up at 6:20 (we woke up at 6:12). We were then taken to the Pacuare River where we rafted down and spent two nights in what can only be described as paradise. In order to picture the Pacuare lodge, simply imagine that the Ritz Carleton opened a hotel in the middle of the jungle, and to top it all off, hired the best chef in New York City to cook guests three meals a day. It was wonderful. We relaxed, went on hikes and swims, and napped to the sound of the river running in front of our bungalow. I could go on and on, but don´t want to make those of you in the working world too jealous.

The only way to get out was also by raft, and we enjoyed a much longer trip out. Our 15 miles on the Pacuare River was filled with class four rapìds (class five in the US) and was by far the most intense whitewater experience of our lives. To top it off, we had a great guide who, among other feats of daring, made us stand up and for a "circle of trust" where we did an entire rapid standing up and holding each other. Somehow, we survived the river.

We are now just south of the town of Puerto Viejo, on the Carribean coast. Today we have basically been relaxing on the hotel´s beach. It has almost no other people around, and looks exactly like the beach in Corona Beer ads. Our hotel is located where the rainforest meets the beach, so we have the best of both worlds.

Yesterday, however, was quite eventful. It started at 5:30 when we were abruptly awakened (this is no small feat, as we are not an easily awakened couple). Monkeys were suddenly screaming and roaring outside our bungalow, and Nina was able to spot one in a tree. In fact, we have seen a lot of interesting wildlife in addition to monkeys. There have been lots of lizards. iguanas, gigantic toads, crabs, toucans, hummingbirds, and a sloth!

We then spent most of the day on a horseback riding tour of the area with our new friend, Joseph. Joseph, or "Mister Big J" as he is called by everyone, owns and operates a tour business. We went on a three hour tour with him, and because it is the low season, it was just the three of us. It was one of the best tours of our lives, and something that could only occur without the burden of law suits. Mr. Big J gave us no training, no safety talk. and no helmets. We basically just hopped on horses and started trotting through town. Riding through town was great because Joseph was a genuine celebrity. Literally everyone that we passed knew him and greeted him with a hearty "hola, Mister Big J!" Once we got out of town, we did miles and miles through the beach and jungle, mostly at a steady trot. If you have ever hear the song lyric "where have all the cowboys gone," I think I have an answer. Riding all day everyday, they were simply unable to reproduce! Now remember, Nina and I have basically no experience at all with horses. Mister Big J simply didn´t care, and most of our tour was done at a trot. A few times on the beach, we rode at a full gallop! Nina´s horse would occasionally take off at full speed, and my horse was a complete follower.

Tomorrow, we will go kayaking and snorkeling at a nearby reef, and then the next day we are off to Arenal Volcano, which will be the last stop of our dream honeymoon. We really miss everyone, and hope that we will have frequent internet so that we can update often!

Love,

Paul and Nina

P.S. Our one picture in this post took a really long time to load, so when we get a faster connection we´ll post pictures of all of this...and more!