visa renewal trip to Costa Rica

We are not residents in Honduras so we need to leave the country every 3-4 months for 72 hours in order to receive permission to stay another 90 days. And because of an agreement between four different Central American countries, we need to go outside of Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador. So off to Costa Rica we go.

In the past we have gone to Liberia, Costa Rica, the first nicer town you come to (in our opinion) about an hour after crossing the Nicaragua/Costa Rica border at Las Manos . And we have always gone to the same hotel, without reservations, without problems. Well, this time because of some anniversary of some region becoming part of Costa Rica and some kind of festival, there was no room in the usual inn or any other inns for the weekend. We were able to find a room for that night (Thursday night) a little outside of town, but were told we would have to leave the next morning. We weren't sure where we would go from there, but prayed about it and left it in God's hands. After packing up the next day, we went for lunch at the restaurant of our usual hotel, I checked in with them at the front desk and they gave us a room for the rest of our stay. We were all thrilled and thanked God!

The festival or celebration that was going on was kind of a "farm show" and many ranchers had brought their horses for the big horse parade. It was interesting for awhile, but most of us were ready to get back to the pool because of the heat, which we are not accustomed to!





























The room we were given did not have enough beds so they gave us a cot. It practically swallowed Ali, but she preferred it to the other beds!














We all enjoyed ice cream, but Zack found the most interesting seat!














On the way back we spent an afternoon and night in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. It was a pleasant little town with a nice "black" sand beach. Harlan, Ali and Zack had a lot of fun playing in the ocean, while Angelica and I enjoyed sitting on the beach and looking for shells and interesting stones.


























































Some of the coastline














Statue of Jesus overlooking the town and ocean


















Night on the beach, in the rain... :)































The next morning before breakfast




















































We would have all enjoyed spending more time in San Juan, but it was time to head back to the Finca. We thank God for safety while traveling, relatively easy border crossings, new visas for 90 more days, helping us "find" a place to stay in Liberia, and a fun/restful/relaxing/renewing time with our family.