Palm trees, monkeys & public transportation

Well, it’s over. After nine months of work (and some stress…) Brian and I are officially a married couple. It was an amazing wedding, although it went by way too fast and both of us wished we had much more time to talk to our friends and family who made such an effort to be there on our special night. We are so lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives, and appreciate all your love and support.

After a whirlwind wedding week and eleven nights in Costa Rica on our honeymoon, we are officially back to reality. It was quite a trip – we had a great time, but I think it was a little more than we both bargained for.

I had been to the Pacific coast of C.R. a year or so ago with my parents and loved it, but I don’t think Brian had much of an idea of what we were getting ourselves into. I forgot that he’d never even really been to Mexico before, and I think he was a bit shocked by the slightly third world nature of the country with its unpaved roads and shack houses… Plus, neither of us really did the best job planning for the trip since we were so busy moving to Amsterdam and making sure the wedding was put together by the 13th.

As a result, we took way too many public busses lacking air conditioning and a sufficient number of seats for the outrageous number of passengers on them, stayed in a few less-than-honeymoon-like hotels, did some unnecessary zigzagging around the country because we didn’t have our route totally planned before we left, and got a little sunburned along the way.

But despite our unplanned adventures, we both had a great time. We had some great weather (although it did rain quite a bit, as it tends to in rainforests), and our days were filled with activities like relaxing on beautiful beaches, attempting to surf, biking the dusty roads, hiking in the jungle, hanging out with monkeys, eating great food (I think we’re both sick of rice and beans for a while), ziplining in the rainforest canopy and exploring several tiny towns.

We had never been on a long vacation together before, and it was nice to get to spend some time together after being apart for a month and then having the chaos of the wedding to deal with. Plus, we both agreed when we originally planned the trip that we didn’t want a purely tourist experience – and we definitely got our adventure!

I’ve posted a couple photos from the trip below, but I’ve also put the majority on a Picassa web album so feel free to check those out as well. The link is here.

Brian surfing on the Caribbean coast of C.R.

At a reggae bar in a town called Cahuita

On the beach

Ziplining in our dorky outfits

- Krista