Costa Rica: Part Uno

We spent Sunday in El Salvador, a town of 350 people in the mountains near the Pacific Coast. That evening, we stayed with families throughout the community, experiencing life in small-town Costa Rica.


The town welcomed us at the school with food and music.

The local futbol team challenged us to a game. Our team looked clumsy and doughy out on the field, but they let us a score one goal to their seven.


The most challenging part of the game, aside from physical activity none of us are used to back home, was the fact that us Minnesotans left -20 degree temperatures for El Salvador's 90+ degrees.



I spent most of my time photographing, which was a nice icebreaker with the kids. They liked looking at the photos after I took them.


The little girls cheered on the El Salvador team. They were somewhat camera-shy, but warmed up quickly. The lighting was tricky, so my photos didn't turn out as well as I would have hoped.


I was amazed with how much fun we had with simple items. We spent hours walking on stilts made of sticks, and "moon shoes" made of old paint cans.


We also spent time walking on home-made stilts and jumping rope.


I was not impressed with this snake—mostly because I hate snakes. This was the third day of the trip, so I expected to see many more. Pleasantly, this was the only one I saw the whole trip.


After our day at the town square, a.k.a. the soccer field, we split up to go home with our host families.

Lisa and I stayed with the Munoz family, a father, two sons, and a grandmother who lived next door to the school.


Austin, who was staying with our family's sister next door, had fun showing Alejandro how to use his camera.

My two-year-old host brother was very shy, but also eager to hang out with us.


At sunset, our host father brought Lisa and I to watch the sun go over down over a gulf on the Pacific coast. As cliche as sunsets may be, it was nothing short of spectacular.