pura vida mae!

this is the common greeting for anyone who lives close to the beach and is costa rican. just throwin' it out there :)

i don't have internet close by until dennis and kyle get it in their house which won't be for a couple weeks...so my updates might not be as often as i would like or as you would like either. but ENOUGH of explaining...let's get updating huh?!

i arrived no problem to san jose with dennis, super pregnant-kyle, and their adorable son elias waiting for me. they just got an older land cruiser a week ago and so it wasn't a problem to strap my 10 foot hard case surfboard coffin on top of the vehicle :)

we stopped at a local restaurant where i got my first gallo pinto con pollo...mmmmm!!! that's black beans and white rice with chicken. we made our way home which was about a 2 hour drive but stopped a couple places for fresh fruit and other things. our home is in esterillos oeste, close to quepos and jaco. the house is on a hill overlooking the beach and is AWESOME! it's all hardwood floors and wood paneling. it's really open and totally has a beach feel. i love it. the leon's have what they call 2 and a half dogs...boomer, their dog from home, sasha, a german shepherd that came with the house, and sasha's brother whiskey who is supposed to be living somewhere else but pretty much resides at the leon's always. it already feels like home. i love it.

in the afternoon i took a little snooze then headed down to the beach to meet up with the leon's where dennis surfed and kyle and elias played in the sand and i got to take some pictures with the canon 10D tj let me borrow! WOO! the night consisted of dinner, meeting some of the guys that go to the house church, who are all teens and amazing surfers, and then a local soccer game before crashing by 10pm...which is late for us :) bedtime will be 8:30pm and wakeup will be 5:30am. oh yes...oh yes.

this morning we drove to jaco for breakfast at dennis' mom's house where 7 people live in a tiny tiny spot. they have very little money but of course are very hospitable, as is traditionally true of costa ricans :). great breakfast and now running errands around town...which reminds me, i better go meet up with everyone because they are waiting on me! yikes!

sorry for the brief, not exactly exciting post :) hopefully next time i'll have more time to be creative and take time to share more of my thoughts and feelings. at this point things are great, i feel at home, and love it so far. as usual, i covet your prayers :) miss you all! PURA VIDA!!!!!!! con mucho amor.