journal entry - July 4, 2005

In 2005, after graduating high school, my younger sister (then 8) and I took a trip to visit some of our family who live in the tropical paradise, Costa Rica. This summer many members of my extended family will be in Costa Rica, to celebrate my Abuelito's (grandfather's) 80th birthday. Because I can't be there, I thought I would go back and read about some of my experiences from my trip there 5 years ago. And I've decided to share some of my old journal entries with you.

This morning we all got ready and, after a few [hiccups], were off. Our plan: a picnic, waterfalls and a river to play in.
We stopped at the Bishop's house on our way, to invite him and his family to join us. As soon as they were ready, we left again, on our way to the falls.
When we got there I learned there was a bit of a hike to get to where we wanted to be (which was fine, because it was beautiful.)We found a spot and started playing in the water. Then we went exploring. We'd had all of our things on some picnic tables, with a good view of a waterfall, but found a better spot while exploring.After we'd moved our things we got to play in the water. Tio Randall, Sarah, one of the Bishop's daughters and I decided to cross the river and, once on the other side, I started to climb up a rocky, watery incline. At the top we found water just coming out of the ground. Randall told us that the water we saw coming from the ground was in it's purest state, then we all drank some.A while later we were by the waterfall, and we were all standing under it. That hurt! The water comes down so hard, it feels like giant needles falling into your skin and it stung! But it was so cool to stand under a waterfall!I also went behind the fall. There was only a small amount of space between the falling water and the rocks behind hit, but there was enough space to stand and see behind the waterfall. It was such a cool, fun day.