Day Eight- Beach, Bus Ride, and Goodbye Dinner

The group at Manuel Antonio Beach.

Friday, March 16th

Today we woke up at our very nice hotel and ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Some students were lucky enough to see a monkey at breakfast trying to steal some bananas! After breakfast we walked less than 50 meters from the lobby of our hotel to enter the Manuel Antonio National Park. Our hope was to find some cool animals, like sloths and monkeys, but when we arrived at the first beach of the park we ended up spending most of our time there hanging out, swimming, and playing ultimate frisbee.
Ronald and Enrique modeling in front of our hotel. 
Iguanas by the pool. 

Cameron Iguana hunting. 


Logan trying to rock ultimate frisbee on a sprained ankle. 

Mr. Boer has hops! Too bad his team lost in ultimate! :)

Enrique, the bus driver does it all! 

Enjoying one last coconut water! 

After beach time we came back to the hotel to pack up and hit the road to head back to San Jose. It was quite the trip and we were stuck in an incredibly long traffic jam going through San Jose, but it allowed for us to play some fun games on the bus and enjoy some of our new favorite Spanish Pop songs.

For dinner this evening we walked down the hill from the HPS hotel to the Rodriguez Family's home for dinner. Ricardo and Wendy Rodriguez own the property that we have been staying on and have started many businesses, including HPS (High Performance Sports). Throughout our meal at their house Ricardo shared his heart about having groups into Costa Rica and hoping that we could take back a new perspective on what we have in the States. He shared with the kids that when we are playing our sports to glorify God it is the best combination, which is why HPS is such a huge passion for him. He would love for more and more teams to travel to Costa Rica to train, play, and serve and hopefully experience life change. After dinner Ricardo presented us all with an HPS polo, such a generous gift, that we will all wear with pride. We were also able to give some of our blue VCHS shirts to Ricardo, Enrique (Bus Driver), and Ronald (Translator/Guide) as well as some handwritten thank you cards. I think I can speak for everyone on our trip when I say that our experience was great because of the work that these three guys put into it. They were welcoming, gracious, patient, and FUN hosts and it wouldn't have been the same without any one of them. I am looking forward to bringing back more VCHS groups to meet the Rodriguez Family. Their generosity and hospitality has impacted my life and I know that it impacted another 15 lives on this trip as well.

Going away dinner at the Rodriguez House
The boys looking good in their new HPS shirts

The girls loving on Santi and Sebastian! 

Jules and Enrique
Never forget: Eye Contact! 
Mis Amigos! 

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