Photo blogging... becaust it's easier than writing about it

Sometimes when I travel around the world... actually most times, the experience is so overwhelming and demands so much of my immediate attention that I have no time to process it. And since blogging is one of the ways I process my world my poor blog gets neglected and slowly grows cobwebs. At one point my blog went through three-ish years of being neglected because I was traveling ALL THE TIME. It was too much traveling. But I did get a lot of stamps in my passport. Which is fun.

Anyway, I've been gone to Costa Rica for the last two weeks enjoying a hectic work schedule, new friends, fresh fruit and a beach with big waves and beautiful sunsets. My time there was as lovely as it was busy. I shall post some pictures. Disclaimer: sunsets are pretty and I like taking pictures of them.

Sunset from Jaco's main beach. We spent a lot of time swimming here... until we saw a sting ray and two of our friends got stung!

The city of Jaco from above. It's a small place... only one main road but it's a major tourist trap and has world class surfing waves.

Ange, Megan and I looking oh so glamorous in the 98 degree humid weather. Don't look too close or you may see us sweating...

Another sunset! Because sunsets are pretty.

This is the little condo where we stayed for two weeks. There were seven (yes SEVEN) women staying in this one little place. But you know what. It worked out just fine. Cuz we're awesome like that.

We went to a national park and hiked to this beach (by hike I mean walk and by walk I mean slogged through the sun and heat until we found the ocean and jumped in). It was great. We didn't have to spend all our time trying not to be smashed by huge surfer waves.

Aaaand another sunset! Because I like them and you should too.

The missionaries who invited us to Jaco had four little boys. At eight years old, Kai is the oldest and already a great surfer. Way better than me. But that's not hard. I think this photo of him is so great. He's dwarfed by the wave but unafraid.

And yes we did do work while we were there. In this photo, two of my colleagues are working on a teaching project.

The crew! This photo includes the students and teachers from the week of training we lead called Celebrating Children. About fifteen of these students also attended the afternoon sessions on women in prostitution that our smaller anti-trafficking team lead (of which I was a part of). Good times!

Costa Rica food! Fried fish and fried plantains. Yum. And no, I did not lose weight on this trip. 

Ange, Megan and I again. This time on a beach after our hike to through the national park.

And last but not least; A Sunset! Yay! You know... the colors of this pic look so much cooler on my computer before I upload it to the internet. Does anyone know why?