SURPRISE!!!!

Today my dad was suppose to arrive and visit me for 2 weeks, after having a meeting in San Jose with the largest cellphone provider in Costa Rica. He is going to hang around in Costa de Oro for a couple days and then we are going to Panama for my visa run. Costa Rica only allows people to stay in the country for 90 days with a tourist visa, so most foreigners make visa runs. A visa run requires you to leave Costa Rica for 72 hours and then when you return your visa is renewed for another 90 days.

All day, I impatiently waited to hear from my dad. He landed at 11:30 AM and I expected to be him here by 4. But hours passed and I still hadn't hear anything from him. My mom even called worried because she hadn’t heard from him either, but the tone of her voice made me think there was a surprise for me. I continued to pace around for another 3 hours, doing odds and ends just to contain my excitement.

Dad's picture of the sunset at the Bridge of Amistad

Same sunset on Costa de Oro

Then around 8PM, I hear Mama barking. So I go outside and find my dad walking towards the house. "Where is the car", I ask him. He promptly tells me that he wasn't sure he was at the right house, so he left it outside. Right then, I see a tree walking towards me and hear giggles. 2 of my younger sisters, Kym and Katrina, were hiding behind a tree branch. I couldn't believe it!!! They both were able to come and visit me and surprised me.

Kym admiring a large avocado from Ingrid

My dad moved the car into the yard and carried in 2 huge suitcases full of goodies for Kayla and I. They included all sorts of yummy brownie mixes, my mom's homemade passion fruit jam, pesto, candies and the list goes on.

Hatching babies

After a quick review of all the treasures, I asked if they wanted to see babies. Kym and Katrina's eyes widened, which I took for a yes. So we headed out to the hatchery. We found that there was one nest that had already come up and the other was hatching. We sat and watched as 30 more babies crawled out of the nest.

Once it appeared that all the babies were up, I handed them each a glove and a bucket and asked them to count the babies. They carefully picked each baby up and placed them in the bucket. Once we had a total of 70+ babies, they carried the babies to the beach. We walked a couple sectors away from the house, to where one of the nests was originally laid and released the babies. The babies saw the white of the ocean's waves and made a B-line toward the mellow surf.  20 minutes later, none of the babies were left on the beach and we walked back to the house.

I packed up my latest care package and then we all headed up to Laguna Mar, where Michael had a cold drink waiting for us. We were escorted up the penthouse room and quickly put our stuff down and cleaned up. Then we headed back down to the bar to get some bocas and an Imperial, Costa Rica's most famous beer (BevMo now carries it in The States now and my favorite is Imperial Silver).

Pineapple shrimp fajitas

We visited for just a short time before deciding to head up to the room and get ready for bed. I think this is going to be a GREAT trip! But I am sad that my mom and Caylin couldn't take time away from school to come. We are going to miss them this trip.