A very good day... :)

Today was an awesome day! This morning I went to church with Gracy and Aaron. We knew an area of Santa Elena (close to Monteverde) that was supposed to have a few churches, so we headed that direction...We stopped to ask a woman walking by where the nearest church was, and she told us she was on her way to one, so we just followed her :) She took us the the Monteverde Iglesia de Dios (Church of God). It was very different than the Friends Church from last week, but I loved getting to see the variety between the two :) They even had a guy playing accordion during worship, which was cool.

I was surprised that I was actually able to understand most of the message! My Spanish has improved so much since being here :) At the end we had communion, and it was awesome to feel so welcomed into this community...We had basically nothing in common, but we were still connected through God. Aaron, Gracy, and I all left feeling so refreshed :)

After lunch, we got to go ziplining! We drove back over to Selvatura Park and went on their "Extreme Canopy Tour" :) There were a total of about 11 ziplines, and a "Tarzan Swing" that was one of the scariest/most fun things I have ever experienced! One of the ziplines was really long and went across a ravine, so you were way above the trees...You couldn't see the forest ahead of you because there was so much fog, so it was like flying through a cloud :) So much fun!

We went back to the station after that, and it was back to work, but it was so nice to have that time to take a break from school! One more week and we'll be traveling the Atlantic Coast :)

Inside the church

Aaron outside the church with Rebecca, the
lady we met on the way :)

Ready for some extreme ziplining!

It's REALLY hard to see, but there is a Quetzal
in between the branches...It's brighter green
than the other green :)

La Iglesia de Los Amigos

Today was the first Sunday that I have been able to go to church since I have been here, so I was very excited to go! Gracy and I didn't know where to go, but we knew there was a Quaker (Friends) church in Monteverde, so we decided to check it out. I had never been to a Quaker service before, but it is a bit different than what I am used to...Instead of having a sermon, their services are simply a time of silence, during which members of the congregation can stand and share thoughts. Even though it was different than my experience, it was very nice to be there with the body of Christ.

During the service, one man stood up and shared a story about a stray dog that he helped nurse back to health. He said that many people told him that it was a bad idea, but he persisted. The comment he made that stood out to me was this (rough quotation): "The more you show your love for something, the more other people will begin to love it." Eventually, the dog recovered, and it is now happy and healthy. 

This story made me think about what Steve Irwin once said...He believed that if he could help someone connect to wildlife and  love it, then they would care enough to conserve and support it. He lived his life so passionately so that others would see the love he had for animals in hopes that they too would grow to love them. I hope that in some way my passion and love for reptiles an amphibians will help you to appreciate them as well...

La Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles

On our way down the country to Sierpe/Corcovado, we stopped at this incredible cathedral to experience some of the Costa Rican culture. It happened to be on a Sunday morning while they were having mass, so we got to go in and see some of the service. I hadn't been to church in 2 weeks at this point, and it was so awesome to get to experience the body of Christ here in Costa Rica. I was really thankful for the chance to stop and experience this place!