Hola! Over the last weekend, we went to visit my host grandparents house in La Suiza (about 1 hours drive away from San Isidro). No it’s not really in Switzerland… just given that name because of its location high up in the mountains across the state border into the San Jose province.

On Saturday afternoon we hiked up the 10km road for 4 hours to their house. I brought a GPS along with me to record the trail which I have mapped on GIS below.  The wet season began as we started climbing and it poured down rain so the steep dirt road became slippery mud! Finally the rain stopped halfway and we saw an amazing rainbow – so close you could almost touch it! We arrived at 7pm after the sunset at 6pm so walked the last hour by the natural moonlight – it was just beautiful.

My host father had driven 2 hours with the kids up for the visit so we all spent Sunday together. Being in a small village, it was a chance to see the Costa Rican Pura Vida (Pure Life). From hand-making tortillas, cooking on a wood-fire stove, having to boil water for showers and milking the family cow….. La Suiza is a paradise escape! Spending time visiting relatives and taking in the beauty surrounding us – saw a sloth hanging in the backyard, visited the local soccer field and watched the sunset over the mountains.

On Monday morning we began the hike home at 8:30am – the fog up in the mountains meant poor visibility again but when we got half-way down the sky cleared and we had amazing views out towards the ocean and of the whale tail! Today we hiked all the way from La Suiza to Bahia Ballena – 15km journey over 5.5 hours! It was amazing experience to visit relatives and celebrating Semana Santa with them.

Hasta Luego! But I’ll be back with more of my adventures soon!

Fiona