Pura Vida

It has been six years this month since my sister and I went to Costa Rica together... so I thought I would do a post about it. Even though this trip was six year ago, I still talk about it all the time. It was a big part of my life. Really, it was my first time away from home, and although two months doesn't seem like a long time to be away from home... in a different country when you don't really have a plan from day to day... it's a long time. I am really thankful that not only my sister planned the trip and wanted to go, but that she wanted to take me, her little sister, with her. Even though we had hard times, I came back from that trip understanding my sister more and feeling a lot closer to her. What a special thing that we got to do together. Not everyone just has that kind of experience with their sister (backpacking in a foreign country). I kept a journal on that trip. I wrote in it every night, about every detail of my experience there. I am glad I did.I learned so much about myself on that trip, it opened my eyes of what the world is like outside of our country, I was humbled and realized how blessed my life really is and how much that I have that I take advantage of. And mostly, It made me want to travel more and see the rest of the world. It was something that I always said that I wanted to do, but never something that I made happen. My family didn't travel much when I was younger, so it was always "someday". Thanks to my sister... when it opportunity comes... I take it! If I want to go somewhere, I make it happen. I am not scared to travel places just because it is not familiar to me. I would not trade the experience that I had there for anything. I saw beautiful sites.

Met some awesome people, some to this day I still keep in touch with. Went to Nicaragua for a week, walked through the rain forest, which is quite amazing, saw some cool animals (I even was able to pet a howler monkey in the wild), learned some Spanish, and so much more. Hopefully there will be many more adventures in my future and I will have many more places to add to my travel log. The world is a big and beautiful place, and I would like to see as much of it as I can.