A day off with the "stragglers"

This year after the two-weeks of team ministry was over, a couple of the members ("stragglers") of the team stayed one extra week hoping to see another part of the country. Ken and I felt that it was our "duty" to take them to the Carribbean side of the country to a small town called "Cahuita" (Kae-We-Tah) well known for it's waterfronts and national parks. Here's a few pictures of our travels there!

While we are very blessed with beautiful flowers right in the campground, whenever we get a chance to be out and about in other areas I always try and look for ones that I've not seen before. We have this type of flower, though I do not know the name, in the camp, but we have a different color combination. This flower was outside a hotel. I just thought the colors were so pretty!

Living in N.C. for a little over 12 years and traveling to Cape Cod, Mass. as a child; Ken and I have always been big fans of beaches. I have now lived in this country for two years and one thing that always captivates me and takes my breath away is the lack of commercialism along the beaches. This is actually what we would consider a "rest area" at home in the States. We just pulled the van off the road and into the sand, and we set up our tailgate lunch! When we came through the next day to return home, there was a tent set up in this area with a family sitting around a campfire. They had spent the night sleeping there. I wished I had a folding chair to sit in because I could have sat here all day just watching the waves.

Having been to Honduras, sugar cane fields always bring back fond memories for Ken. I love the shade of green leaves and beauty of the plant. In our travels to the beach we drove along roads with miles and miles of this sugar cane growing with an occasional processing plant off in the distance.

Ken took this picture of this monkey ironically perched upon this sign with a "What-Evah" attitude on his face! This is in the national park in the town of Cahuita right along the ocean. You just pay a donation to come into the park.

And apparently our family cannot read English or Spanish! Really though, everyone comes here to "feed the monkeys"! We watched various people feed the monkeys bananas, but Jordan, having been here last year knew exactly what these monkeys liked most. Creme filled cookies! This little guy has watched an Oreo commercial or two. He took the cookie apart and licked out the creme!

Our family has had the opportunity to see McCaw's here in the wild and also like this. When we passed this small reserve, I made Ken turn around and go back so our stragglers could get some pictures! There were rows of very clean cages with McCaw's, only two to a cage in them. You can actually go in and get a guided tour and learn more about these birds at this location, but it looked like we came through on a day when it might have been closed. What they are doing is actually mating them and returning them to the wild. I believe that they are becoming extinct in this country.

This was on our way out of Cahuita coming upon the Port of Limon. It is one of the only stops for cruise ships in the Carribbean and here they are in the distance at Port.