Our last days in Costa Rica--La Finca!

Final travel blog

One of our last days in Orosi we drove out to Tapanti National Park. We hiked two trails and half of the biggest and longest one, 2 ½ hours for a hiker. It was very steep and dark in the rain forest, but sometimes as we climbed there were great views of the mountains and waterfalls and all the other trees. We only did half because a big storm came and it started to rain and the trails were really steep and with all the water they became like a river—very slippery and you didn’t know what you were stepping on. The other two trails were a little more calm, but not too calm—there were big spiders, lots of trees, slippery suspension bridges and raging rivers with huge rocks and clear, clear water. It was really sunny on those trails and we went swimming and you could let the current carry you along. It was really quiet and there were hardly any people, only maybe two other families.

The next day we went to Finca de la Flor (Farm of the flower). At the farm there were goats, horses, chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, roosters, and best of all lots of baby animals—a baby horse, baby chicks, and best of all baby goats. Every day we would wake up and then work on the farm. We took care of the goats and fed all the animals, cleaned out the pens, shoveled ca ca and poked goat poop with sticks through wooden slats in their pens. There were two collies there and they were very frisky. There were some other people working there at the same time. Yong, Jason, and Rebecca were all very nice and we had so much fun playing and working with them.

We also got to work with people from Costa Rica. Wilbur, Henry, Francisco and Gustavo were all in charge. Francisco was a lot of fun and would sing us songs in Spanish. We usually worked with Francisco and Henry and the goats. They eat a lot of grasses and plants that we would cut and chop up and also a mix of corn and oats and vitamins. Every morning Wilbur would milk them and we would help get them out of the pens and take care of the babies. Later they would make cheese with the milk or we would drink it warm from the stove. We all ate together in an open air kitchen and the food was all fresh from the farm.

This is what we did for my birthday and it was a fantastic time. But then, it was time to go home and we drove back up to Alajuela to see Yvonne, Ronnie, and Kim and stay at their hotel. Ronnie drove us to the airport very early in the morning, it was still dark and all the streets were quiet.

We came back to the USA and drove to Minnesota to see our Nona and Poppie and uncle and cousins. We saw caca de oso (that means bear poop) and it was full of berries. We went swimming, canoeing, kayaking, and fished and we went tubing and played with our cousins. And we swam out to the raft and had campfires and s’mores. When the boat was parked along the dock, we jumped off the boat and climbed up the ladder behind the boat. We had so much fun. We left the cabin and are now back home and waiting for school to start. But that is not the end of our wild traveling adventure. We’ll do much more next year and keep on writing it all down. So stay tuned for more tales of adventure…