I will always remember... The three legs of the tripod.

It was perhaps stated best in the movie The Girl Next
Door:

Eli: Okay, you know what the three of us are? We're a tripod.
Klitz: A tripod?
Eli: Yes, a tripod. Which means that if you knock out one of our legs, WE-ALL-FALL!

The Tico Tripod is our attempt to blog (me, for the first time) to keep all of you back home up to date on our adventures in Costa Rica and Nicaragua over the course of the next few weeks. As of now, our travels will take us from San Jose to the east coast and then back to the Pacific. Somewhere in the middle of all that we hope to tackle Costa Rica's tallest mountain (which boasts a view of ocean in both directions), white water rafting, watching a volcano spew lava at night and of course master the art of surfing: in no particular order. Oh yeah, and Chris wants to get tan. On the 17th of January we'll take a break from relaxing and head north to Nicaragua for 10 days to make the world a better place, hopefully. In all seriousness, it will be my 3rd trip (the 1st for the others) to the remote city of Jalapa, Nicaragua. Apparently it even has its own Wikipedia page now, go figure. Located on the Honduran boarder, the three of us will be joining a team of about 25 (including 3 other Oles) in Managua and then will be making the journey north by bus. Our hope is to survey a number of small villages with health questionnaires prepared by the University of Minnesota so future groups of doctors will know the greatest needs of the Nicaraguans there. Following that we'll make our way back to San Jose (if my math is correct- about 400 miles) and have yet to determine how exactly to spend our final few days. If all goes well we'll be back just in time to watch the Vikings win their first Super Bowl in early February.

For now David, Chris and I are still here in the frozen tundra that is Minnesota, due to leave mid-morning on Thursday. Lets hope that none of us are suspicious enough to be kept from boarding the airplane- thanks a lot Bin Laden (and now Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab). With sub-zero temperatures greeting us the past few days, its hard not to be excited for a change.
If I figure out how to map our trip on Google Earth or MapQuest I'll be sure and add that. I wouldn't hold my breath though.

One last thing. Because I am obsessed with the weather, I decided to attach a link for the 10 day forecast for San Jose. I'm not sure if it will update or work- I can't even make it a hyperlink just copy and paste it i guess: http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/tenday/CSXX0009?from=dayDetails_topnav_business

I'm not sure how entertaining this blog will ever become, but feel free to share it with anyone who you think would enjoy it. I'm sure that we'll forget to tell (accidentally of course) some of you who we really do care about. No doubt David and Chris will add their two cents at some point.


-Luke