Costa Rica

In 2004, I won a scholarship through PASSHE (Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education). I adored this place and can't wait to go back, so if you're planning a Costa Rica elopement, I am extremely your girl. I spent some time studying at Slippery Rock (watching Flash cartoons) and some time in Costa Rica. It occurred to me at some point that these photos never really made it onto the internets. Partly because they're badly scanned - I remember doing them in a photo lab at Cal, between classes, and I couldn't seem to get the scanner bed clean before I did them. Also, I didn't have Facebook and Twitter and what have you then, and it was just a much bigger pain to get them posted somewhere. I shot all of these with my dad's 35mm Minolta.The view from our roof, at the hotel we stayed at our first night in San Jose.   Jes, kindly giving some perspective on how huge these things are. Our professor, haggling.   I turned this in for my photo class, and was accused of scanning a postcard. This lady was dressed as a lizard. Thanks to the language barrier, I have no idea why.  We woke up one day, somewhere in the area of 5:30 in the morning, to hike up this volcano. Supposedly, the fog is so thick most of the time, that people can stay for weeks and never see the thing. We hiked up, and just as we got to the top, bam. This would be a rad spot for a Costa Rica elopement. The same day, we went horseback riding and swam under a waterfall. All before noon!  I have never been rained on like I got rained on in Costa Rica.   We had to wear these boots so that we wouldn't get bitten by Bullet Ants. The rainforest has some pretty crazy stuff in it, but these buggers are terrifying.  Welcome to Nicaragua! According to my passport, I was never there (the guy that was supposed to stamp them was... out?) Something happened to this roll of film, and this is the only one of the sloth that turned out. The slowness isn't exaggerated a bit, by the way. One of the girls said she'd seen it, and I should go get a picture. I said "Eh, I'll get it after dinner".   Yes, this is exactly what it looks like. An accident waiting to happen.  If I've ever told you about Costa Rica, you've heard about Shantytown. This is it. Now, this might seem like a perfectly nice place to spend the night, but it looks a little bit different when it's raining sideways into the walls (and by walls, I mean mosquito netting), and you're trying to sleep in a hammock. It's actually a lovely spot when the sun is out and you aren't super exhausted from traveling. If you're doing a Costa Rica elopement, and are interested in lodging there, it's actually called Almonds and Corals resort. Selve Verde is also amazing, and has a little more amenities, if you're into that. We were actually supposed to go to these guys' village, but it rained so badly that the village flooded. They were nice enough to come out to us. This is from Limon. Since they were having a garbage strike at the time, and it was 100 degrees, most of my shots are from my hotel window. 

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