#23 Mysterious spheres & our trip to the National Museum

We enjoyed a field trip today to the National Museum of Costa Rica and we able to learn about and see #23 on our scavenger hunt... The Mysterious spheres. 

These spheres are said to date anywhere from 300BC to 1500. There is really no explanation for how they were made.... or why. (See the MacKinnon family guesses below!)

Watch this 1 minute video for a quick overview:

http://www.weirdandunexplained.org/long-ago-in-a-land-far-far-away/plot-thickens-in-riddle-of-ancient-stone-spheres/

In front of the National Museum

There were lots of Pre-Colombian (We learned that
pre-columbian means the time period before Christopher Colombus'
 discovery in 1492) artifacts at the museum as well.

Pre-Colombian gold artifacts.

Gold medallions used for chest decoration.

How the spheres were made.... according to the MacKinnon family:
Ethan says: God created some extra small planets, didn't like them and threw them down to Earth.

Joshua says: (Mom's note: It is driving Joshua crazy that he doesn't know the factual, actual answer to this question... ) I am sure the indigenous tribes made these using tools to shape them. Really, though no one will ever know. It is possible. 

Amelia says: They grew under the ground. 

Mason says: They are from a spaceship.

Maddie says: What they said. :) 

Mom says: Perhaps they were formed by a really active volcano that spewed the igneous rock up into the air in this almost perfect spherical shape?

Dad says: God loves to juggle... and he stores his juggling balls in Costa Rica.

#21 The Marimba

The Marimba is the national instrument for the country of Costa Rica. We love the way it sounds!
We think you will enjoy it as well. Ethan is seriously interested in taking marimba lessons....

Digging up dead roots - Devotional thought by Maddie

Our day guard for our neighborhood here in Costa Rica is very diligent. A while back, we noticed him spending tireless hours digging up a dead bush in the hot sun in our neighbors front yard. Hour after hour he spent, digging and digging at the roots until finally he got them out of the ground. He didn't stop the work there. After the root had been dug up, he planted a new bush. The new plant is a bougainvillea, bearing precious pink flowers that add much beauty to this neighborhood. There might be a day when there is another dead plant somewhere, and he'll probably have to restlessly repeat the exact process of digging and replanting.

It made me think about the dead roots I may have in my heart, that my dear Heavenly Father is restlessly trying to dig up and get rid of. I know that I have some and that God is digging up those "dead" roots that have been planted in my heart and getting rid of them. Have you ever felt the hand of God removing a particular sin out of your heart? A dead root perhaps? 

What is a spiritual root? There are many of them and they can take deep root into our hearts when we allow them to. There are roots such as fear of man, selfishness, jealousy, self pity, and anger. Yes, sadly, there are more.You may think that there is no hope for digging them up and getting rid of them- but there most definitely is! God is the master gardener.... replacing dead plants with beautiful ones that bear much fruit. 

Replacements of sinful roots may be:

Instead of:

Fear of man-  Fear of God

Jealousy-        Joy for our Brothers and Sisters

Anger-             Patience

Selfishness-   Humbleness 

"Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

You see, God will not stop molding, changing and growing us more like Him-He will carry on the good work that He started in each one of us until the day of Christ Jesus! Praise God! 

The Ruins of Ujarras & the Reventazón River

Located in the Orosi valley are the beautiful ruins of Ujarras. The church dates back to the 1580s and is located in a beautiful valley. We loved imagining what the church was like back when it was first built. 

Maddie took this amazing picture and added a few effects... The
beauty of Costa Rica has really peaked her interest in photography!

For some reason it was also "hat day" in the MacKinnon family...

After our time at Ujarras, we headed to an amazing viewpoint overlooking the Reventazon River.

#41 Eating Chayote

#41 on our scavenger hunt list was eating a wonderful vegetable called chayote. We have enjoyed eating chayote regularly since we moved to Costa Rica. It is delicious and super inexpensive because it is grown here. Last weekend we set out to explore the province of Cartago and while enjoying a beautiful view from a mountain top we noticed some amazing farm land down below. We set out to explore what the crops were and we were so surprised to discover chayote growing. We didn't realize it was a vine crop and we loved seeing how it was growing. 

View of the valley of Orosi. Notice the farmland below. 

Chayote growing on vines.

Upclose... chayote

#37 Eating Chorreadas & Celebrating Costa Rican Independence Day

#37 on our scavenger hunt... eating chorreadas. We were so excited to see that Mason's school was serving chorreadas at their Independence day celebration. Chorreadas are sweet corn pancakes and they are delicious! They can be served with sweet cream on top... or if they are made salty instead of sweet they can have sour cream on top. 

Small History Lesson.....

Costa Rica’s Independence Day is celebrated on September 15 which commemorates independence of the entire Central America from Spanish rule in 1821. Like the rest of Central America, Costa Rica never fought for independence from Spain. On September 15, 1821, after the final Spanish defeat in the Mexican War of Independence (1810–21), the authorities in Guatemala declared the independence of all of Central America. This date is celebrated as Independence Day in Costa Rica, even though, technically the news of the declaration of independence of Costa Rica had reached the people of the nation only a month later.
The country’s Independence Day celebrations begin on September 14th, when the Torch of Freedom arrives in Cartago. This symbolic torch represents Central America’s sovereignty from Spain, and every year it makes the journey south from Guatemala to Costa Rica. When the torch reaches its final destination of Cartago – the Costa Rican provincial capital when Central America declared independence – Costa Ricans stand to sing the national anthem. Following the anthem, the popular ‘faroles’ parade begins – homemade lanterns symbolizing the original freedom torch.  Children in traditional costumes perform typical dances and march with their homemade torches and then the fireworks begin.

Mason made a farole in school and then the school had an independence
day celebration for families to participate in. 

Mason dressed in traditional Costa Rican costume.

Parade of the faroles the evening of the 14th. It was raining, but our
kids still joined in the fun with their homemade lanterns.

Runners carrying the flag in the parade.

Día del Niño... Day of the Child

Every September 9th, Costa Rica celebrates "Day of the Child"... think Mother's day but to celebrate kids. Mason is attending a Montessori school across the street from our house for a few hours every morning.... and they threw a big party to celebrate! We were so glad they invited all of the kids to come! It was wonderful.... and a beautiful idea to remind us that children are really to be celebrated. Children are a gift from the Lord! 

Our big kid!

Captain America!

Frozen....

Mason's turn to hit the piñata!

"Take my yoke upon you" - a devotional thought by Maddie

 Saturday we made a trip to a town called Sarchi. It is most famous for building beautifully decorated ox carts which are used mostly for transporting coffee. It is said that their design was inspired by the carts the Spanish for transporting canons. In the center of the town there is a huge ox cart that actually was built specifically to be put in the Guinness  Book of World Records. Of course to be useful, ox carts must come with a yoke for the animals to wear so that they can pull the cart. As we were walking past, my dad pointed out the huge yoke (that came with the BIGGEST ox cart in the world, so you can imagine the size of this yoke!) 

Immediately, I thought of the verse in Matthew 11:29-30 that says "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest in your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Often we carry the massive yoke of sin and evil things of this crooked and depraved generation, and they become so heavy we can barely move. Sometimes the yoke may be the burdens and concerns of this world. We have the option to let God take these crushing yokes off of our weary shoulders. Not only does He want to do that, but He also says He will replace our heavy "yoke" with His easy and light one! What a marvelous blessing- that only our marvelous God can give to us!

The worlds largest yoke

So here is my encouragement to you, brothers and sisters; next time you are falling to the ground because of your heavy yoke, right then and there - STOP and surrender - give everything up to Jesus- and let Him replace your yoke with His! Blessings come out of surrender. Surrender means truly, wholeheartedly obeying, and giving up yourself, your ways, and your life.  Lay your yoke down at the feet of Jesus and have faith and trust that God is good!

In front of the worlds largest ox cart. 

We enjoyed watching the hand-painting of the ox cart wheels.

# 22 Guayabo de Turrialba

# 22 On our Scavenger Hunt....The Guayabo archeological site is locoated in the town of Turrialba . It's the site of an indigenous  settlement that was occupied between 1000 BC and 1400 AD after which it was mysteriously abandoned. There are huge round stone bases left that had conical structures (that were communal homes) on them. We had an awesome tour guide that taught us so much! (school field trip again!) Original aqueducts still bring water from high in the mountains to the settlement and beautiful stone carvings are still studied by archeologists to determine their significance. 

This picture was taken on our way to Guayabo. We were high
above the clouds! It was beautiful! 

                               

An up high view of the round stone bases that the communal
houses were built on. The largest circle was for the
most important person in the community. About 10,000
people lived here. 

Our tour guide taught us so much! 

Checking out the aqueduct...

Ethan says: I loved learning that the people who lived here 3000 years ago were good engineers and that the size and height of their house showed how important they were. I really liked the petroglyph (I learned that is a prehistoric rock carving)  stone that had a jaguar carved on one side and an alligator on the other. (In the picture below) We learned that it symbolized unity (land animals and water animals living together.)

This is a picture of what a smaller house would have looked like.  The
way they know this is that there are some indigenous tribes still today
who use similar structures and who have explained a lot of what has been
found at Guayabo.

Mom says: I love learning about all of the different flora. This plant pictured below is solid green on the top but has what looks like drops of red blood under the leaves. The locals call it the "Blood of Jesus Christ" plant. They say it grew near His cross and His blood dropped unto the leaves and all leaves have grown with this ever since. We know that God created this amazing leaf to attract pollinators with the red color. 

One of Amelia's favorite things at Guayabo was this glass winged butterfly. Can you see that the wings are transparent? It was beautiful! And she loved the flowers and BIG leaves!

A beautiful dragonfly

Together in Guayabo

Joshua says: It was so neat seeing the bases of houses that were over 2000 years old and I loved learning about their culture.