Zippity Du Da, Zippity Day

Day 2 Costa Rica


• Started off the day working out in the fitness center with the t.v. playing Frashier, “with subtitles.”

• Food-Breakfast included beans & rice again (try with scrambled eggs). I picked fish for lunch although this time we had a hard time guessing what kind of fish. Everyone thought it was Salmon. Correct answer = trout. You would think all of us Montanans would have figured that out. Fruit of the day was mamone, a small fruit with a huge seed in the middle surrounded by a slimy texture like a slug. Needless to say, not everyone enjoyed the sweet & sour taste. However, we each had fresh mangos after our game. That pleased everyone’s palette.

• First activity of the day was to pick up Tish. She had a standing ovation on the bus. She was exhausted but made it.

We drove to a coffee field that was as majestic scenery as they come. The coffee doesn’t have as much caffeine as ours at home. Most of the children begin drinking coffee when they are 6 months old mixed in their bottles. Ellen’s way to counter was to have 7 cups.

Today was the first day of adrenaline rush sponsored by 12 zip lines. Coach Scanson and Tom were the most nervous especially when we were told that last line was a quarter of a mile long. What an amazing experience, zipping with views of the volcano, cloud forest, or in Tom’s words “orange.” He only looked at the instructors wearing orange shirts and didn’t look down. The best zip line form has to go to Katie Bussey. She looked like a compact battery.


As we rested for the game at our hotel, a 5.2 earthquake hit, the first experience like this for most of us. I just looked at Todd in our room while our t.v. was rocking back and forth. We then walked out to the hallway as did everyone else in shock. The good news I guess was that we didn’t have any traffic heading to our game.


• Costa Rica differences-Traffic –Common courtesy doesn’t exist when you are crammed nose to nose. The most common car here is the Huyndai or as Danny would say the “belly button” because everyone has one.


Home insurance includes barbwire over your house and bars on the doors and windows. However, this didn’t keep the lizard out of Mandy’s and Ashley’s room today.

• Game tonight was a spectacular 60-22 victory by the Bobcats. The floor was cement so the rule was no diving for loose balls or taking a charge. We still had three falls to the floor. I only had one FIBA rule mistake on the evening when calling a timeout. I now know to walk to the scorer’s table and call it there.

• Danny’s line of the day-He told Mandy she looked like Gene Simmons from Kiss when she tried to kill a fly.

Who knows what is in store tomorrow. With the watches off, the cell phones nonexistent, it’s once again, “pura vida!”

Coach Bin