Sealed the Deal!

On May 24, 2008 I headed back to Costa Rica to visit with Leo and meet his family. We spent the first week of my trip in San Jose, where Leo's Mom and Dad live and where he grew up.
It was a great week, meeting his parents as well as his brothers and their families. It was a little bit of a challenge, since they all speak Spanish, and I do not! But Leo got his practice as a translator for the week and we got by.

While I was there, Leo applied to the Canadian Embassy to try and attain a Visitors Visa to come and visit me and meet my family in Canada. We went through a lot of hoops to get everything that he needed and he went through a 3 hour appointment at the Canadian Embassy. The week later, we found out they had declined him which was very disheartening. We found out, through an immigration consultant, that this visa is very difficult to attain unless you have strong ties (ie. a job that you have had for 10 years, wife, children, lots of money in the bank, properties and business that you own) to the country you are from. It makes it almost impossible for anyone to visit because the Canadian government feels that if you do not have those ties to your own country, you will come to Canada and never leave.

Well, the rest of my visit was fun... we rented a house at the beach and had a visit from one of Leo's brothers and his family for a few days. We traveled around to some local beaches and just had a nice time being together. We also got to celebrate my birthday together, which was really nice.

Unfortunately, while I was there it was rainy season and Costa Rica experienced very untypical rain storms. There was flooding in some areas and it was very wet which meant that we were going in and out of the heat and air conditioning and getting soaking wet, and of course.. I got sick. And then... Leo got sick. We spent the last two days of my trip sleeping, with fevers and swollen glands, sore throats... the whole nine yards. Luckily in Costa Rica, you can go to a pharmacy and get over the counter antibiotics so we both were able to get something. I had to delay my flight home since we were both so ill, and this is when we saw eachother at our worst. I found out once I got back to Canada, I had bronchitis and an ear infection and we were both sick for a few weeks afterwards.

After that experience, we both still felt like we had an amazing time together... even after all the obstacles and things that did not go our way. This is when we realised that we want to be together for a long time... for better or worse!