Day 11 - A day of travel, reflection and adventure until the end - The End

The church that we would pass daily on the 2.5 mile trek up
the long hilly gravel road from the Villa

The crazy curve and curb at the intersection of the main road
and our gravel road to the Villa

Our GPS as we travelled through the highest mountain range
in Costa Rica on our way to the Airport in San Jose

As we got higher in the mountains, we started to go through the
clouds

Above the clouds

An oasis on the top of the mountain!  Cafeteria style Costa Rican
breakfast!  With fried plantains! YUM

Funny GPS... very accurate

Adios Costa Rica - It was better than we could have ever imagined

 The ride home started about 6am this morning with sleepy 11 yr olds and slap happy 14/15 year olds.  We sang and joked while travelling from 1,500 feet from the Villa to 10,000 feet at the highest point in Costa Rica on the mountain range on the way to the airport.  The terrain was beautiful and ever changing, truly breathtaking at every turn.  We came upon a large restaurant on the top of the mountain side, it had many cars out front, which is usually a good sign.  We took a shot and went inside and to our amazement was a cafeteria style breakfast buffet Tico style!  We had some help from an english speaking patron who helped us decipher what the buffet had to offer and it turned out great!  Onward we headed down the back side of the mountain to more and more civilization and eventually through the rough city of San Jose which was riddled with garbage, squalor and tons of traffic... but with a few prayers, locked doors and a lot of faith in the GPS, we made it to the Hertz office and returned our cars.  We were greeted with lines at the ticket counter, lines at the security and crowds at the gate - the same when we landed in Ft. Lauderdale but with the added delay of our flight to Chicago, it cooled our nerves and we were able to have juicy cheeseburgers and fat greasy fries before boarding.  We all snoozed uncomfortably on the plane and like zombies, went and retrieved our luggage.  The Limo van was prompt and we flew home at 1 in the morning via the empty roads to Naperville.  We said goodbye quickly trying not to get too melancholy, a firm hug said more than words as we all separated for the first time in 11 days.  We share so many wonderful memories from this trip... we are already brainstorming where we should go together next ;)  This was truly our TRIP OF A LIFETIME