A time of Rest!

Jeff and Tammy after we brought horses to the beach!

 During our break from Barefoot Program and our   first week of Language School we got to go to the Pacific and the Caribbean.  In the Pacific, we went to the Beach in Esterillos Oeste.    Our time there was shared with two other families  from our organization.  It was a blessed time of rest, fellowship, adventure and new acquaintances.    Our leaders Mark and Pam helped us get connected to an old friend of theirs in Esterillos and we were able to stay at  her house on the beach for a very reasonable price.
The first day was relaxed and we were able to enjoy the quiet time at the beach.  The second day we rented two horses for the day, we all pitched in, and it became quite the  inexpensive equestrian experience in a beautiful beach setting.  We are thankful to the family who is magaging the facility there in Esterillos for recommending us the place where we rented the horses.    In this process, we were able to get close to Keyla,  the daughter of the Managers of the place in Esterillos and a girl who works in conservation of marine life in the area of Limon with her boyfriend. She invited us to spend time in the Island of Uvita in the latter part of our time away.      

It was good for Kaila to have a little bit of home!

This is Kaila's buddy Ruthy.

Well, there are many more pictures, but I must continue with the story.  The day of the horses (second day) was a real joy.  Everyone was able to get confident in their skills with the horses by the end of the day.  The three families had a wonderful time.  The next day we decided to stay put, enjoy the ocean and the pool, and see about finding the Turtle Eggs Preservation sight in the Esterillos area.  Early that morning, the three ladies of the Mission, (Tammy, Noemi and Ruth) after a walk with husbands in the beach, went for a nice long walk on the beach and found all kinds of great things including the crossing of an astuary and the enjoyment of a beautiful farm setting right on the beach.  God gave us some good praying time sitting on a log as we enjoyed the beauty of the waves.  It is wonderful to enjoy God and have those quiet moments to hear His voice!

Our view from the home!

Later on that day, we visited other colleagues that were in the area and a group of us went searching for the conservation point on the other side of the beach where the hatchery of eggs were.  We learned that there is a government house that houses volunteers from all over the world that come and spend time collecting the eggs that the turtles lay and these volunteers rebury the eggs with protective cages to guard the eggs until they hatch from predators and such.  On the way back from a long journey to find this place, after determining that we were not going to cross another astuary that was quite deep and broad and did have crocodiles in it, the guard of the conservation governmental house called us in to let us know about their program and invited us to come that night at 8 p.m. (three hours before high tide) and at 4 a.m. in the a.m. the next morning ( 3 hours after high tide) to collect the eggs and see the process of reburying them.

Well, we split the team in two and the first group went back that night via road through the jungle to search for the same place via land.  Except, he did not tell us that we needed to cross wooden bridges that did not have guard rails.  Well, the first team returned home without finding the place.  They felt that those bridges might not have been safe to cross.  We all had our brownies with ice cream that night and to bed we went.

The second team with one of the members of the former team got up at 3 a.m. to go and search for the mysterious sight.  Well,  it was interesting!  We did get to the same bridge and were hesitant, but as most of you good friends know, we just had come too far and too early for Noemi to just give up finding the place.  So, Jeff and Josiah decided to go by foot as we left the van lights on to see if they could get to an area where there was a light in the distance, we thought that the beam would be where the famous volunteer home might be.  After Josiah thought that they heard crocs on the area, they decided to come back to the van.  On the way back Jeff decided to jump on the wood bridge to see if it was stable so we could cross with the vehicle.  Indeed, it was.  So, on our way as fast as we could we went.  Not only did we pass one bridge, but three.  And the drops were not quite so low.  Thank the Lord, we made it.    Finally, when we made it to the camp we found out that the team that was there had been told during the night that there was not going to be a collection that morning because there were  not going to be enough rangers to go out.  The team that was there was from England.  I (Noemi) went knocking on every door to make sure that the Costa Rican rangers were not there since the English gentleman did not know if they were around or not.  Well, it was true.  For some odd reason, the rangers were not there that morning.

We concluded that at least we got to see the sunrise from the camp and it was beautiful!  And at the end of the journey, we came back with the pictures from the hatchery that we had taken on the last afternoon's journey.  It was fun to return through the jungle after the sunrise in the day light and see what we had gone through in the night!

Our lovely kitchen where we had great meals!

Our team was a real joy.  We took turns cooking and making desserts.  There was never a dull moment while in Esterillos.

Mr. Tony was quite the entertainer and our children really enjoyed him.

A group of 13 people shared wonderful memories in this living room!

The kids really had a restful and playful time before getting back to school and we are thankful for  time of rest and adventures!


On the next blog, we will give you more details about Saturday and the next part of the rest in Limon, the Uvita Island, and Cocles.
Thanks Mark and Pam for recommending us this place.