Today is my last day in Costa Rica… having spent the last year and half here I decided it was time to reflect a bit on how crazy the past 20 months have been.

-In March of 2009 I was a few months away from graduating college and had no idea what my post-graduation life might hold. While browsing P5’s one night I came across this thread:

http://www.pocketfives.com/f7/job-op...1/#post3995640

Having no other job leads (History major… bleh), I decided it was worth a shot and sent in my application.

-On April 18th I asked my long time girlfriend to marry me, she said yes.

-On April 30th I was offered the job with PocketFives, and after a number of long conversations with the future wife, we decided to give it a go and move to Costa Rica.

-On May 9th, I graduated from college. Gooo JMU.

I spent the next month and change at home, visiting with family and friends and preparing for what was sure to be an interesting experience. Having only left the country once, I wasn’t really sure what to expect in Costa Rica or with the new job.

-On June 23rd I said my goodbyes and set off for Costa Rica. I went down initially for three months by myself to get settled -- During my first three months I did my best to adjust to my new surroundings. It was tough to get my bearings, but overtime I became familiar with the Escazu area and began to feel more at home. One of my biggest early moments was when I successfully walked from the house I was staying in to our office, proving to myself that I did in fact know where I was going (sort of). View looking out of said office:



My first priority was to find a place to live. Security was my number one concern when apartment hunting; virtually every business and residence I had seen was guarded around the clock by men with shotguns… I decided this was for a reason and wanted my new place to be no different. If Costa Rica was going to feel like home, I would need to feel safe in my home. I settled on a nice furnished one-bedroom apartment in a gated community, about 1.5km from our office.

(came equipped with that beastly plasma)



Before I knew it, it was September and time to fly home to get married. While I had been in Costa Rica, my fianc� had been at home, planning for our wedding.

-On September 19th, I got married!


-On September 22nd, we left the country for Costa Rica

-On September 23rd, we started our Honeymoon at an all-inclusive resort on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. It was pretty awesome.

Picture from a day cruise we took:


-In October, we were fortunate enough to make our first visit to Quepos, a stones throw from Manuel Antonio National Park. The wildlife was incredible, iguanas, monkeys, birds… If you’re visiting Costa Rica, Manuel Antonio comes highly recommended.

Playa Tres, in Manuel Antonio National Park:


Enjoying the sunset from the condo balcony:


In November we successfully cooked a turkey for thanksgiving... not bad for two inexperienced cooks:


-In December we had a blast at the company Christmas party. I got very drunk and sucked out on a lot of people to win the freeroll. *Note to self, don’t swap %’s with Dan:





The day after the Christmas party we went back to the Manuel Antonio area for a few days with Nat and some friends:



We climbed some rocks and got an epic view:



-A week later we flew home for Christmas. As luck would have it, the night we flew in the D.C. area was experiencing record snow fall. The friend we were staying with in Georgetown was unable to come get us at the airport due to the inclement weather, so we had to take the metro. Once we got to Georgetown, we ended up having to walk up Wisconsin in the snow, carrying a ton of luggage. Every car that tried to go up was losing traction and sliding back down. I was wearing my heaviest set of clothes… a light hoodie and jeans. It was cold.




We were holed up in D.C. for 2 days before we could make the 2.5hr drive back to our home town in Virginia.

-Our next adventure was in February, we visited the Doka Estate coffee plantation, made our first attempt at seeing the Poaz Volcano crater, and saw an epic waterfall garden. Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate at the volcano; the clouds refused to move and the crater eluded us. Even during the dry season, there is no guarantee you’ll see the crater:



The waterfalls made up for it:


-In March my sister in-law was traveling to Nicaragua with a group from her college to help local orphanages. We thought it would be a great opportunity to see a new country, and see some familiar faces – so we took an 8 hour bus ride from San Jose to Managua.
On one of the days we took a group of kids from a local orphanage to a beautiful beach on the Pacific:



The wife and I took one day apart from the group and traveled from Managua (the capital) to Grenada, an awesome town on Lake Nicaragua. If you find yourself in Nicaragua, be sure to make it to Grenada – it’s a diamond in the rough, so to speak.
Grenada town square:



Famous church, with bell tower:


View from the bell tower, towards the lake:


-In March I watched the first day of the NCAA basketball tournament at Calvin Ayre’s house. It was….. awesome:


-In April my parents came to visit and we got up close and personal with some monkeys in Manuel Antonio:


They warn you in the guide books that monkeys will steal stuff from your backpacks, we just didn’t think it would actually happen. There were people within 5 feet of our bag on either side, but the monkeys slipped down out of the tree, unzipped the bag, dug through and found a box of granola bars and then made for the trees. They ate the bars right above us, and then kindly dropped the trash for us to clean up. Enjoying some bananas they stole from another tourist:

If you bring bananas as a snack, you’re probably asking for it.

View from the condo, with monkey:


In June, one of my Wife’s friends got married in the Bahamas, every aspect of the trip was great

Shark Tank:

This was taken on the day of the USA vs Ghana World Cup game… watched from a private cabina about 30 yards from the Caribbean... it was a pretty sick wedding. Despite how awesome the atmosphere was, I still feel sick to my stomach when I think about the result of the game though.

At the wedding:


Continued~

FU

sick brags all around, looks like you had a blast

Awesome pics, best of luck with everything you do in the future!

solid

Awesome pics, great post.

CUT YOUR HAIR HIPPIE!

HAHAHAHA

Read the whole thing and even watched your youtube video. My attention span does not last long unless im intrigued. WP and glad u had a blast

I really enjoyed the read and pics, good luck, may the force be with you :)

great post man, enjoyed reading it

Moving from Costa Rica to Houston? Ouch.....

what did you do for p5's?

read it all, enjoyed it all.

these kings of experiences are always great. Not sure what you have planned next in life but good luck

Looks like you had a lot of fun. Safe travels back to the US

Great pics. Thanks for sharing..

P5s hiring?