Luna de Miel

One of the many reasons I felt Emily was special was because of her love of Spanish language and culture. There have been many posts regarding her mission work in the DR and all of the lives she touched while she went there. Her work continues to live on as Kate and Mama Specs make their annual pilgrimage to Santo Domingo. As someone of Hispanic decent myself, I always appreciated how she managed to put forth the effort in learning the Spanish language and culture.

I was in charge of planning the honeymoon since I took a hands off approach in planning the wedding. After doing much research, I came to the conclusion that Costa Rica was the place for us. There was a good mix of adventure and lush beaches. There was also enough culture to imbibe making it a learning experience. Plus, Kate and I could always use some practice with our Spanish. On top of all of this, I thought that this would be somewhere that Em would want us to travel to.

As it turns out, our trip to Costa Rica was everything we could've hoped and wished for. For the first time in a long time we were stress free. There was a lot of down time by the pool and beach, but we did manage to get into some adventures. One of which was a sunset cruise in which we managed to see a humpback whale. This was a rare sighting considering it was the first time our captain had seen a whale in his six years of running these cruises.



Along with this we managed to see a beautiful sunset. There is no explanation needed as to why this was special for us.



We also took part in a 2 hr. beach tour via ATV. Kate was a little nervous about this due to the fact that it was not something that the Specchio clan had much luck with in the past. After calming her nerves she was fine and we had a blast. No scars this time, but a lot of dirt.


All in all, it was the best week of my life and I hope Kate feels the same way. They have a saying in Costa Rica that the locals say: Pura Vida. In its literal context it translates to "pure life" but it really means "full of life". The people of Costa Rica feel this expression embodies the country. Somewhere Emily is smiling.

Tu cunado,

Jose Antonio