Costa Rica

I know its been a while, but I have been rather busy with the whole wedding thing and all. Aside from a minor rain shower (in the desert of all places!) teh wedding went perfectly. She said I do, we had a really great bunch of folks there, and we were blessed with an incredible sunset before driving ioff into the night. There are pictures on Facebook if you care to look.
Since I am in Costa Rica right now, I'll tell you about that too. We are here for the honeymoon and I took all my yearly vacation and lumped it together for a 3 week long trip. This place is great! Below are the two update emails I sent out, so I'll let them do the telling.

7/6/08 We are nearing the end of the first portion of our honeymoon in CR and it has been exceedingly relaxing. We are in an americanized beachtown, Tamarindo, that is the surfing capital of CR. First off, thank god Colleen speaks spanish, because I would be so lost with out her translating. Col instructed me on the finer points of surfing, and I am now hooked on it. I got one perfect big wave and a few other pretty good ones and that was the end of it. I think I can understand a little of why people like surfing so much. I also went for two scuba dives yesterday at an island chain off the coast and swam with a bunch of sharks. Other than that, we have been doing a LOT of lazing on the beach and drinking coctails at the happy hour at Joe´s Bar (reccomended spot if you ever come to CR). We are heading off to the jungle for a 4 day raft trip on tuesday on a river typically rated in the top 5 rivers worldwide for rafting. Cant wait for that! Then it is off to La Fortuna for a few days of lounging in hotsprings, then hiking in Monte Verda, where monkeys, kinkajus, toucans, zillions of frogs and butterflies, and sloths live. That should be the highlight of the trip (if we dont get too sick before that). We will check in after the raft trip to see if you guys would like any souvenirs. Pura Vida -Ian and Col

7/11/08 We survived rafting quite well, and this morning ran my new favorite stretch to date. We did a 3 day on a short, mellow scenic river first, and then this morning spent one hour on a helluva run. In that hour we ran 12 class 4s and 4+s, traveled approximately 12 miles and didnt have a single swimmer. The river never slowed down, there was maybe 1 100 yd stretch where we werent paddling and got to take a break. The rest of it was constant class 2 and 3. The trip is supposed to take 2.5hrs, but the water level was ´good´ according to the guides, which means it was quite high. here is a kayak video from youtube of the run (we were in a raft)Day after tomorrow, we head off to Monte Verde Cloud forest to check out the rainforest and wildlife! Talk to you soon!
Sorry, no pictures to oupload yet. They'll be up eventually.