The Sawinskis

We headed to the children’s museum yesterday via bus. Here is our little adventure.

Classic picture that shows Sully and Isaac’s personalities. Taking a break in a central park to wait for Papa and Diddie.

Here they come. Somehow I thought it would be a good idea to have Kiera only bring one pair of flip flops to “save space” in her suitcase. After 4.5 weeks of straight walking I would say the old navy flip flops have served their purpose. We bought a new pair 2 weeks ago at the local department store but they broke the next day. Hopefully we will have better luck this time. We spent a whopping equivalent of $3.00.

Walking past a bus stop.

Nani, Kiera, and Issac wading through the people in the city. We took one bus and then walked many blocks to the museum. Kiera’s little spirit was greatly impacted by the street people. She had lots of questions: What were they doing, why were they on the street, why were they asking for money, why were they so smelly and messy… big questions for a sensitive and compassionate 5 year old to take in. She is processing many things grown adults in the states never have to process.

Children’s museum in sight!

“I am happy”

As with any children’s museum- bus loads of kids on field trips get dropped of. Their school year starts in February.

Nearly there!

We made it— ironically enough the children’s museum is the old penitentiary. The museum is huge- we were there for hours and didn’t get close to finishing it. The old jails cells were converted into a wide array of exhibits. Some simple, some technological, some in between. So worth the $2.50 for adults and $.75 for kids (Sully was free).

One of the exhibits— space!

A mural depicting the beauty of pre colonial Costa Ricans. I love the freedom to show breasts and privates.

In the kitchen!

Just in case you didn’t know- the “final product” of the food we consume is poop:)

There was helicopter and airplane to tour.

Digging up fossils.

Dancing. How sweet and simple. Music, mirrors, lights— cheap fun that had Sully occupied for ages! Other exhibit names: Earth, ecosystems, marine life, doctors office and dentist office, human body, technology, radio studio, water and bubbles, bananas and coffee, electricity and magnets, tribute to costa rica, the bank, the police station, art center, light and color, orchestra, music room, construction, playing with numbers and letters, ancient Egypt, aviation, little gym for babes to climb and play on, Once Upon a Time, and a huge play space to rent out for parties with blow up things and a mini park. WOW! We were all exhausted. Just goes to show you don’t have to have a lot of money to make really cool exhibits! AND there were a ton of young staff to answer questions.

It was raining when we left so we ran as fast as we could to the bus stop (15 minute run). Of course it stopped raining halfway through— we didn’t end up getting to wet. Here is Sully making use of the bus ride to Dona Roxy’s house for dinner of beans, rice, chicken, broccoli salad with lime mayonnaise, and ice cream!

A sweet day! Thanks Nani!

Monday was Mother’s Day in Costa Rica:)

Sully passed out quickly once we left Santa Theresa. We headed down the road a ways and stopped and asked for directions. We were told we had to turn around because the road to Montezuma was not passable because of the rivers flooding on the road.

Montezuma is a bit more “built up” then Santa Theresa. Reminds me of my previous travels- backpacks, fun people, and adventures. Not much has changed today except I have traded the backpack for a suitcase- the fun people and adventures remain.

We started up the rocky path to the waterfall—- but didn’t get very far. Too much water, not safe. Water swollen river 1, Parents with kids 0.

Sully and Amanda making their way back to the car.

The sky was acting like it was going to rain— we trudged down the beach with our lunch items anyway. Pretty beach- very rocky, crazy waves.

Fun little pockets of rocks for the kids to play on.

Refried bean and veggie tuna sandwich with fresh papaya. YUM.

We packed up, made our way to the car and went in search of some agua dulce. We asked a few hotels but with no luck. We drove back into Cabano and had some luck. We washed up and made our way back to the car to get to the ferry to take us to Punta Arenas- a one hour ferry ride that would safe us 5 hours of driving. Sounded like a good plan to me. Long story short- tico time ruled and we didn’t make it to the ferry on time. With the kids again asleep in the car we turned up the music for our long ride. Shortly after driving we came to a fork in the road- I took the opportunity to pee in the rain (pouring rain) behind a truck. I ran back to the car and was instructed to once again ask directions from the guy behind us. The soaking wet gringa that just peed behind (sort of) the truck went running up to the car. I asked if we were going the right way. He asked why we didn’t take the ferry and I just chuckled. He said, follow me. So follow him we did! He flew down the road, signaling with his blinkers or flashers for every possible thing- biker on side of the road, one lane bridge, etc. Did I mention how fast we were going? This guy flew down the road. It was gravel but in much better shape then the previous day’s roads. We made the first leg of the trip in one hour and twenty minutes (Walter predicted it would take us 2.5 hours!) At dark we came to the turn where the guy was going to leave us. We thanked him and asked what he does. I work for rent a car, driving vehicles from place to place. AH, that makes sense. He was in a rent a car so he didn’t care if he beat the hell out of the car and because he assumed the gringa was in a rent a car, that we wouldn’t care if we beat the hell out of our car. Alas, we weren’t in a rent a car, but we did make good timing! We stopped for a typical dinner around 9pm and continued our journey to San Jose. We made it safe and sound and all very glad to be in bed. What a weekend full of adventure it was!

The remains of the good time!

Rainy rainy Tuesday morning- Kiera and Issac watching Jorge el Curioso.

Abuelo giving Sully a little ride. Emilio was coming back from a hour and a half bike ride (he’s 82!).

Not sure what the rest of the week will bring. We have less then two weeks until we leave- time will fly!