COSTA RICA — Jared Anthony Metz, 35, of Islamorada, Florida and Cartago, Costa Rica and Mercedes Vargas Blanco, 38, of Cartago, Costa Rica were married on October 15, 2011 on the bride’s family ranch at the base of the Arenal Volcano in Fortuna, Costa Rica. Shared with and surrounded by loving friends and family, the wedding ceremony was a celebration of an enduring friendship and a rekindled love that started 15 years before when the two met while Mr. Metz was an exchange student with AFS studying and working in Costa Rica. The night ceremony was filled with delicious Costa Rican cuisine, music, dancing and laughter.

The two were engaged on Table Mountain in South Africa on December 28, 2010 while Mr. Metz was completing a successful circumnavigation with the World ARC Rally aboard his family’s sailing vessel “Brown-Eyed Girl.”

Mercedes Vargas is a graduate of the University of Costa Rica with a doctorate in Pharmacology and is an oncology specialist with Asofarma Centroamerica.

Jared Metz, formerly of Pittston and Boothbay Harbor, Maine, graduated from Governor Dummer Academy in Newburyport, Massachusetts and is an honors graduate of Unity College with a B.S., and owner of Mintaka Fashion, a clothing import business located in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Their first honeymoon took place at the base of Arenal Volcano where the couple had often ventured 15 years before, while a second honeymoon was shared with the groom’s parents, Dr. Joseph and Judith Metz of Boothbay Harbor, Maine and Vero Beach, Florida, while exploring the verdant jungles and lazing on the sandy beaches of Corcovado National Park on the Osa peninsula in Costa Rica.


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