A New Life In Costa Rica

Hola

Hola blog readers! We're all happy and healthy for those who are wondering. Our lives have been rather full lately with friends visiting. We've hosted a family from Colorado and now have a wonderful extension of our family here from Florida. I say family but in reality we're not related at all.

Our current guests are friends we actually made here in Costa Rica when they traveled through our area shortly after we first arrived. Since then we've become great friends and I'm not kidding when I say they have been a real pleasure to have around.

I'll write soon about all that's been going on in our lives lately like Bill helping the neighbors to repair the pot holes in the neighborhood for example but for now wanted to just get something posted so you all know we're alive and well and just too damn busy enjoying life to sit at a computer.

PURA VIDA!

Playing around

One of the guys working on our house recently brought his boys to work with him.

Bill, Callista and Mara had a great time flying Arrowcopters with them on the property behind our house.

After a little instruction the boys were experts!

Monkey Man

A new home means new things to learn and new things to watch out for. We have a number of  trees in the garden area. The benefit of having mature fruit trees is having an abundance of fresh fruit as well as the pleasure of watching the birds that’ve come to know these trees as food sources over the years. The birds pose a problem as well. They bring with them seeds for a plant called matapalo. While they eat from our trees they “drop” the previously eaten seeds on the branches of our trees. The seeds germinate and start growing. One might think it’s a new type of parasite plant and let it go but matapalo is dangerous. Matapalo translates literally to kill tree and that’s just what it does. It´s actually a type of mistletoe that grows and grows until it chokes the hosting tree to death.

Once we were shown matapalo, Bill was on a mission to rid our trees of it. An impossible task but none the less one he wanted to attempt. Anything that could be reached by ladder from the main yard was extricated. The tropically landscaped hill with the guava tree was another story. They only way to get the bad plant out of the big tree was to climb it. Bill having not climbed a tree in over thirty years decided this was his mission. No talking him out of it. At least I convinced him climbing with a machete in his hand was a bad idea. I used the fruit picking pole to pass it to him once he was in a stable position.

 

My monkey man had a few moments that scared the both of us but when the job was finished and he was back on tierra firma he was absolutely glowing at his accomplishment. An added benefit was the two branches he had to chop down actually opened up our view a little more.

Luna Llena Bendiciones

 

I finally got to see the cactus flowers bloom. After missing the bloom last time I was blessed with 9 buds on one cactus. What a treat! The last full moon I trodded out in the rain with my umbrella to shoot them in all their glory. These flowers are a true gift from nature.

New life, new views

It was pointed out to me that I apparently posted a photo I hadn't intended to on the last post. Oops, see what happens when you don't check your work. I challenge any of you to try to answer emails and post a blog with a 45 minute time limit sitting in a car with a spouse asking if you're finished yet while the battery on your laptop is dying.

Today, I'm at a local wi-fi restaurant trying to get some work, (yeah...I call this work) done. The cafe doesn't have any electrical outlets in the dining room that work so I'm still struggling with the battery running out while I'm working to get some decent photos posted. I've sent Bill off on a wild goose chase, I mean errand so he won't be pestering me for a little while.

For inquiring minds...this is the new house. We've been holding off on the photos as we just got the primer on. Previously, the house was a shiny orange. We're using a colored stucco on the outside, mas or menos this is it. 

Views at sunrise, different days.

These are the views from the front of the house.

Hills surrounding the house. At times you can see the cattle grazing.

A new day dawning. Bill's view of city lights in the early morn.

Still here...

Hola everyone! No...I haven't decided to stop blogging. We've just been incredibly busy. I thought I'd still be able to keep up blogging with all that's going on but the truth is it isn't easy. We've recently moved. Moving is never easy or painless no matter how far you move or how much prep work you do. Moving is not fun but being in a new place is.

We spent our first two years in Costa Rica in the same home. Moving on was not without emotion. It was a big thing even if we didn't think it would be.

At any rate, we're in a new place and happy to be. Life is rather chaotic at the moment so bare with me as my posts will be infrequent due to lack of internet at the house.  Ok, lack of internet and my not having much desire to leave the house. There is soooo much to do. Besides that, it's nice to just sit and enjoy the peace and quiet. Yes, I take time to stop and enjoy the surroundings.

For now, enjoy the new views and look forward to more photos of our new life the gardens as they continue to flourish.

Changes

The other day we noticed changes taking place in our central park. These trash can/lighted advertising signs were being installed.

We saw the blue flag and wondered if indeed our park had been awarded the blue flag by the powers that be (AYA, the water company) for cleanliness. It sure deserves it, or rather the maintenance guy deserves an award. He works his butt off keeping our park spotless. Bill & I joke that a leaf doesn't hit the ground long before he's there to rake it up.

I'll have to do a little research and find out the details on the blue flag. It's possible as the blue flags are awarded to communities and schools as well as beaches. Callista's school has been awarded one. On line research proved fruitless as the only winners of the flag listed on AyA's website are from 2006.

As for the new signs... I like them better than the black metal ones that have already been installed but hope that no more are installed. Enough is enough. We've now seen them being installed on the corner by Banco Nacional as well. Haven't been in town much lately to see where else they've been put up.

I'm all for added trash cans and encouraging people to use them instead of throwing trash on the streets but do they need to be accompanied by the signs. I imagine advertising will be put in them as the company installing them is an advertising & promotions company. Oh well...it's progress.

Resurrection Plant

These plants started popping up literally everywhere around Easter time. As we drive through neighborhoods they seem to be everywhere, paths, side roads, even in our garden. Yesterday, a local told us they're resurrection plants. They come back to life at Easter just like Jesus did. WOW, who knew. We don't recall seeing them last year but this year they're hard to miss in the garden.

First the little pink tips of the buds popped up, then the flowers opened and now other leaves are popping up along side them. Can't wait to see what develops. I love little surprises in the garden. It's like getting gifts from nature every day.

Hortencias

Hydrangea, hortencia, Martha Stewart flowers...all the same. These are flowers I've always loved but wasn't able to grow in my past life. Too hot and dry. Since we've been watering the yard and with a little help from the recent rains they're now sprouting up all over the yard. I'm thrilled.

The challenge now is to keep the blooms on the plants. Callista likes to pull them off as soon as they flower. She loves flowers and is forever making little arrangements to adorn the dogs with or some kind of blend to dewcorate her mud pastries. Future florist or cake decorator, maybe?

I'm looking forward to the day when I have enough big blooms to actually make one of the arrangements similar to those in Martha Stewart Living Magazine. A photograph of hydrangeas recently won a photo challenge I participated in so you can look forward to more photos of these beauties as I perfect my technique.

Any tips on how to care for and make these and make them bloom more would be greatly appreciated. I'm sure the daily rains will help out quite a bit. Many of my neighbors have huge bushes but mine are in the staring stages as we cleaned and cut back the garden at the beginning of the dry season.

Cactus Flower

These don't flower often. I've been waiting nearly a year to see the blooms again on the three plants I've got. This particular cactus had two blooms earlier in the week. One was blown away in the fierce winds as well as another on a different plant. I figured I'd better get some shots of this one before it is gone all too soon.

I do believe it is a cactus but could be wrong so don't be afraid to comment and tell me what it really is if you know. I'm not able to get to my plant book at the moment for verification.

The flower shoots come out of the leaves of the plant.

The first two shots were taken Tuesday. This, Friday evening.

Look how it's grown!

General update

Our technical difficulties have been repaired. It looks like the third visit to the ICE, internet powers that be, did the trick. They still couldn't/ wouldn't tell me what the problem was. They didn't need to enter the house to fix the problem that affected both the computer and phone lines so I'm guessing it had something to do with the outside wiring. Who knows? The important thing is that we're back on line, for the moment anyway. No red lights from noon yesterday til now...keeping fingers crossed.

Since I really haven't written in a while I'll just do a basic update on what's been going on.

On the weather front, we've been having a lot of fierce winds of late and occasional rain. Been rather cool as well.  I actually had to wear a jacket for the first time in I don't know how long for the wait in line at ICE.

Callista is thrilled to be finished with her first round of exams this year in school. She did outstanding. Bill and I couldn't be prouder. People often think she would naturally excel in her English class but speaking the language doesn't give you knowledge of parts of speech, grammar, etc. She has to study things like predicates just like all the other children. Her advantage is that she does understand the teachers instruction in this particular class as it's taught in her native language.

Other than academics, Cal has been forging new friendships as new students joined the class this year. She's really bonded with a couple of new girls and we're looking forward to seeing how the friendships blossom. It seems Bill and I have common interests with one girls parents so we'll see what kind of relationship evolves there as well.

Things are constantly changing while seemingly not in our new lives. Life is still a learning process every day. Just when you think you've figured out the learning curve a monkey wrench is thrown in. I don't know that any foreigner really figures out life here. The best we can do is live our lives for ourselves and deal with the obstacles one at a time as they present themselves. In the meantime, we enjoy all the little things.

For example: an unexpected horse parade...

or an awesome view...

or simply relaxing with eachother or as in Mara's case a friend.

Flowers

Fucsia

Having ridiculous problems with the internet the past couple of weeks. You wouldn't believe how long it took just to post these photos. Headed back to ICE, God's of the internet in Costa Rica this morning to find out what the heck the deal is.

Hopefully, we'll be back online and posting soon.  Jen

Great Costa Rican Smoke Out

Cough, cough, cough! Ah my lungs are aching...

Yes, we live in coffee country but there is also a fair amount of sugar cane in our area. The sugar cane is cut the first few months of the year. After cutting some of the fields are burnt. Some. We've been lucky the past two years. This year, not so. We watched the past week as the fields behind our neighbor were burned and wondered. Yep, sure enough yesterday the fields right behind our rental were incinerated. We were out most of the morning so it wasn't too bad but when we got home for lunch the smoke was suffocating. We collected the dogs and left for the rest of the day.

Callista started her mandatory after school workshops yesterday so school wasn't over luckily until 4:15. By then the fires were smoldering. In Costa Rica fires are not put out, they're generally left to burn out. One of the difficult things we fire cautious Arizonans have had to learn to accept. It's not been easy for this former Girl Scout.

As has been previously mentioned our rental is not a closed house. We see daylight through 1/4 inch cracks where the ceiling and walls connect. Our windows have sideways louvers that make it impossible to seal the windows shut. The result, a house full of smoke when we returned. ARGH! You make the best of things and just deal with it. Where are those winds when you need them?

We watered the lawns when we returned, just in case. The fire had already crawled uncomfortable close to the house while we were gone as evidenced but the burnt grass and fence posts. We realized by the air in the lines the water had been out while we were retreating from the smoke as well.

Poor Callista sneezed herself to sleep last night. The warm shower and allergy medicine did nothing. Snorting salt water helped a little. Finally, a cup of chamomile & hibiscus tea helped her to drift off to sleep. Poor red nosed baby.

This morning I awoke with aching lungs...bleh, cough, sputter! No one else is awake yet. Feels like we've been camping in a burn zone. Oh no, that's right...we live in one. Life in Costa Rica is often like camping. :)

Fascinating

 

Why did the iguana cross the path?

To get his daily bread, of course.

A face only a mother could love.

Preview of what's to come

Or...is the rainy season coming earlier than expected this year?  Bill and I have been watching the clouds roll in lately in the afternoons. Yesterday while dining al fresco at a local pizza place near the university the sprinkles began. We got home before the downpour. Dare I say it was nice to see a good rain again.

This was only the second time the pup, Mara had seen rain. This was a good one with thunder & lightening to boot. She kept running to Bear for an explanation of what was going on. He isn't much support in a storm. A great large, fuzzy body to snuggle with but moral support you ain't gonna get from our chicken dog in a thunder storm. He's usually looking for somewhere to hide his head and wants others to comfort him. I have to admit, yesterday he was better than we've ever seen him in a storm. Perhaps because it was during the day or maybe he's actually getting used to it. I doubt that. More than likely he's putting on an act for the baby. You know, playing the supportive big brother.

I've not seen or read any news about the rains. Bill has read a little and spoken to several locals who've said the rains would be coming early. I don't think they're expected this early but as with every other detail of life in Costa Rica one never really knows.

Orchid Showers

Sprays of miniature orchids raining down from a tree.

Aren't natures little surprises beautiful!

Another type of mini orchid.

Look at its size compared to my fingers.

So tiny and so perfect.

 

Comments & blog plugs

First of all, thanks again to everyone who takes the time to read our blog. An added thanks to those who go the extra mile and send comments. For those who don't already know all comments are seen/approved by me before they're posted that's why there's a delay. Sometimes I'm quick about posting them other times, well life gets in the way.

As those who've previously commented know I usually (not always) send an email to the person, respond personally to the comments I post. Sometimes I reply on the blog post as well. The reason is simple, it's an added step or two for me to comment on my own blog. It's quicker to respond to the commenter and I like adding a personal touch. Just me.

Lately there have been a rash of commenter's plugging another blog using false emails so personal responses aren't possible. To those commenter's, give it up...your comments will not be posted. Because of the annoyances of late I will no longer post any comment with a link to anything. The plugs on my blog and those listed in the sidebars are ones I decide to put there. They are blogs I actually read some daily others occasionally. But I read them. The blog being plugged I have read and do not wish to plug therefore I will not mention it's name here. 

I think of my web page as my personal favorite's page. Yes, a lot of the information is helpful to others but I use the info as well. The page isn't, wasn't designed as a lure for people to read my articles and purchase something from me. I now have the real estate link which yes, if something were to ever purchase I would make a small commission. Any number of people could be advertising the same properties but anyone whose contacted me knows I advise against purchasing anything until someone has lived here 6 months to a year, at the least. I post properties as a service to friends not to make a profit.

My recommendations for places to eat or stay are because we've had a good experience. I don't mention places to get a kickback from the owners if people mention my name or a free stay in payment for advertising.

In closing...comment, please comment as they are a tremendous source of encouragement to all bloggers not just me. If you wish to plug your own blog send me a link and I'll check it out. If it's one I like, if I feel like it I'll link to it. If not, give it up and find another place to advertise your blog.

If you truely are someone who has 'stumbled across my blog'  you need to realize that I live here and have for long enough that I'm no longer looking to read everything ever posted on the internet about life in Costa Rica. It may sound harsh but I don't really care what someone else has to say about the fruit market in a town unless that person is a friend(virtual or real) and I want to read what they write for personal reasons. If my blog readers care to read about other people's experiences they're intelligent enough to find the info for themselves.

Life's to short for little annoyances... I'd rather be enjoying paradise.

Serious Partying

We ended our Semana Santa with some serious partying, 4 year old style. Yup, we had a blast at a birthday party for a 4 year old. Our neighbors know how to throw a party. They even constructed a covered outdoor area just for the occasion. We partied with the neighbors, their relatives and even a princess. Blanca Nieve, Snow White happened to be in Costa Rica that day. Let me tell you, hiring a princess to be your childs personal companion all day is a wonderful idea. The birthday girl was attended to and the games facilitated by Snow White leaving her parents free to visit with the adult guests and take care of refreshments. Nicely done.

You may think I'm kidding about having a good time with April Fools just a day or two away but we really did enjoy ourselves. Bill was even dragged into a mean game of musical chairs. The children went through the group of adults and chose someone to play for them in the second round. Bill didn't win for his partner but at least he wasn't the first to go out.

You've not really partied until you've participated in a pinata break with a group of Costa Ricans. Pinatas are not just for kids. We've been to several parties where there is one for children and a second for the adults. All the children know to clear out when it's the adults turn. It's serious, people can get hurt.

The party was the perfect way to wind down our holiday week, relaxing and enjoying the company of good people. We hope everyone enjoyed their Easter or Sring Break as much as we did.

Phone number changes

Everyone living here has already experience the change. I figured a public service note couldn't hurt. Besides I needed let friends and family who may have an occassion to call us know that all phone numbers in the country have changed to eight digits as of March 20, 2008.

To phone a land line you must now add a 2 in front of the original number. For cell phones add an 8. For example 888-0000 becomes 8-888-0000. I'm adjusting to the system by now hyphenating all phone numbers in groups of two. The same number becomes 88-88-00-00. Easier for me to remember. If you don't know whether the number a cell or land line a general rule is cell phone numbers begin with either an 8 or a 3. Not always. If the number you're calling doesn't work when you add an 8, try again adding a 2.

Electrical irritation

It's not that I haven't been writing lately. I haven't been saving after every sentence. The winds have kicked up quite a bit in the past few weeks and it's wreaking havoc on our telephone & internet lines. I've written four blogs in the past week or so and lost them to either power surges or sudden loss of internet connection before I hit the damn save button. It's difficult to write or complete a thought for that matter when your mind is thinking you've got to save as soon as you finish the current sentence. Re-writing the same stuff isn't fun, at least not for moi.

The winds are not only causing sporatic telephone service at our house they're messing with the the electricty in general. Maybe we're a little slower than most but after the forth carton of milk in a row went bad we had to examine the fridge. Powersurges, yep causing the fridge and every other appliance in the house to freak out. So far nothing has fried but all non-essential electrical items are being unplugged when not in use.

Yes, even life in paradise has it's bumps and bruises.