Well folks, as Katie mentioned earlier, we made it into Bagaces safe and sound despite our best efforts to get kidnapped and sold on the black market.

We showed up on our host family’s doorstep late Monday night exhausted, sweaty, and smelling like animals at the county fair.  And, for some reason, they still let us in.  Partly it’s because they’re the nicest people on Earth.  And partly it’s because they knew we wouldn’t last an hour out in the Costa Rican wilderness on our own.

There seems to be a vast assortment of wildlife just waiting for a couple of clueless gringas like us to try to befriend it–and, considering my appalling lack of survival instincts, I probably would’ve been mauled by parakeets and lizards by the time I reached the end of their driveway.

Anyway, we’ve been extremely busy since we got here (hence the embarrassing lack of posts from me) getting to know our gracious host family, learning what we’ll be working on while we’re here, scoping out the area, settling into our super-sweet digs, and maintaining a code-red level of alertness for all potentially sting-y/bite-y things.

So busy, in fact, that we haven’t really had time to take any pictures.  Gulp.

But we will.  And toot-sweet.  Promise.

In the meantime, you’ll have to settle for my first impression of Costa Rica, which is:  It’s beautiful, humid, breathtaking, unpredictable, buggy, wild, quaint, laidback, green, quiet, noisy, and rugged.

And here Katie and I are, living all up in the mix.

On any given day, we see birds and volcanoes and horses and cows and huge thunderstorms and green fields and dogs and friendly locals in old pick-up trucks who wave and honk hello as they nearly run us off the narrow dirt roads.  And that’s just on our mile-long walk to and from work.

Still, by far, the best commute than I’ve ever had.