V: The Visitors Part II (Lost Visitantes Parte Dos)

Our next visitors arrived mid-April. Tim and Margaret Martin and their children Ned (10) and Andi (7) came from Plymouth, Massachusetts along with Tim's sister Linda and her two daughters Mia (11) and Tess (14) from Waltham, Mass. Another excuse to travel. Yeah!

MONTEVERDE


First stop, Monteverde. Founded by a group of U.S. Quakers, avoiding being drafted in the 1950's. Lots of dairy farming. I think I mentioned Monteverde in a previous blog, so I'll try not to repeat myself. Anyway, this time we went up the Selvatura Adventure Park and did the Zip-lining above the cloud forest canopy and walked on the sky bridges. It was awesome! Sidne and Leif both refused to zipline at first. But we talked them into it and it helped that all of the rest of the kids were up for it from the start. And now they are both glad they did it. I have video that will be a part of the 10 hour slide show that I know you are all looking forward to when we return.

ARENAL VOLCANO

Next we stayed two nights near the volcano Arenal. We stayed in a terrific hot springs hotel called Los Lagos. There were a number of hot pools and a couple of cool pools with water slides. The hotel also included a butterfly garden, a frog garden, an ant house, and crocodiles. The kids would probably say that they hotel was the highlight. But in my opinion, the hike up to a volcano lava bed was the best part. At the lava bed you looked one direction and stared up the side of Arenal volcano. You could hear and see rocks rolling down the side from the constant small eruptions. Turn around and there was a gorgeous view of Lake Arenal.

MANUEL ANTONIO NATIONAL PARK

Our last planned stop was Manuel Antonio. The monkeys were out in full force this time swinging from the trees, climbing on the restroom roof and even walking between people's legs on the path. Leif and I watched a monkey steal a lady's package of crackers on the beach and Sidne spotted a female carrying her baby. Again we saw sloths and iguanas. A deer even stepped out of the forest right next to us. We had a great day on the gorgeous beach and in the cooling water of the ocean. Back at the hotel swimming pool, we saw endangered squirrel monkeys in the trees, a first in our eight months in Costa Rica.

AN UNPLANNED, BONUS ADVENTURE

On our drive back to Miramar, we stopped in Jaco for lunch and souvenier shopping and then we stopped at a bridge over a river swimming with crocodiles. Upon returning to Miramar, we found that our electricity had been cut off. Somehow with the excitement of visitors, due date mix-ups and the weight of all of our responsibilities (that last one is sarcasm, in case you couldn't tell by my tone of voice) we forgot to pay our bill. We also found that our car (that we had left at home in favor of the Martin's rental van) would not start. We decided that we did not want to stay in a hot, dark house without the luxury of fans, so we loaded back into the van, jump started the car and caravaned to Alajuela to stay at a hotel near the airport. The Martins got to experience an authentic Costa Rican experience as we added an extra hour onto our drive, trying to find our hotel on twisting, turning, unmarked roads in the middle of the night.

The Martins left yesterday and we returned to our home in hot, hot Miramar. Sidne and Leif are experiencing sadness at facing three more weeks of school with no visitors or travel adventures to look forward to. Gary and I are facing a mountain of laundry and the chore of selling our car, appliances and furniture and packing our belongings as we come to the end of our time in Costa Rica.

See all of you Portlanders in three weeks!

V: The Visitors (Los Visitantes)

After seven months in Costa Rica, we received our first visitors. Bret and Quin Wonderlick came down at the end of March and gave us an excuse to travel around Costa Rica.

We started out in Playa Grande, on the Pacific Coast in the Guanacaste Province. We slathered on sunscreen and played on the beach and swam in the hotel pool (see photos above).

Our next stop was Montezuma at the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula. We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast with a butterfly garden that Leif loves. We played on the beach, saw monkeys and hiked to a beautiful waterfall with a deep pool and a rope swing. (photos above)

Our third stop was Manuel Antonio National Park which is a "must see" if you are ever in Costa Rica. Manuel Antonio is also on the Pacific Coast, farther south in the Puntarenas province. The beaches are gorgeous and there is amazing wild life to be seen. We went in thinking maybe we would see monkeys and, if we were lucky we would spot a sloth. We ended up seeing four or five sloths and being close enough to touch monkeys (Although we didn't touch them. We hear they can be pretty fierce.) On the beach we had to scare off huge iguanas with a stick so that they wouldn't steal our lunch. (photos above)

Plymouth, MA: A Drastic Change In Temperature!

Earlier this month we spent ten great days in Plymouth, Massachusetts with our good friends the Martins. We went from 90+ degree weather to snow and we LOVED IT!!!!! We spent a night in Boston where we visted the Museum of Fine Arts (with the freaky giant baby head) and saw a few historical sites on the Freedom Trail. Then we spent the rest of the time in Plymouth where we played in the snow, watched movies, played video games, watched an awesome fashion show put on by Sidne and Andi, listened to Ned perfect his rendition of Miley Cyrus' Fly on the Wall on Disney Wii Sing, tried unsuccessfully to remove the word "crap" from Leif's vocabulary, celebrated Garin's 41st birthday and ate very, very well. Has anyone ever heard of a Whoopie Pie? A delicious New England treat. Google it.

When we returned to Miramar around midnight on the 22nd of February the temperature was in the mid 80's AT MIDNIGHT!

A huge THANK YOU to the Martins for such great hospitality and a fabulous time (as always). We are looking forward to showing you guys a great time in Costa Rica in April! We're counting the days!

Playa Grande Feb '10 (116 photos), by Laura Birt

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
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In the beginning of February, we spent three days and two nights in the Guanacaste Province. I think we had driven through a part of this province on our way back from the volcano Arenal, but this was our first time actually staying in the Province. Guanacaste has a reputation for being very dry and hot during the dry season and having gorgeous beaches. We can attest to the truth of that reputation. It was HOT and DRY and Playa Grande was GORGEOUS. We also had the awesome opportunity to watch a giant leatherback turtle (the size of your average dining room table) lay eggs on the beach one night. We were all pretty impressed. My mother asked me if my kids realize how unique that experience was. I think Sidne may have an inkling, but I'm not sure 7-year-olds think that way. I think that as far as Leif is concerned, anything that happens to him is normal, average life. He actually told someone that the highlight of our trip to Playa Grande was catching hermit crabs! Unfortunately you are not allowed to photograph the turtles laying their eggs as this might frighten them. Because the number of turtles returning to this beach to lay its eggs is rapidly declining, they don't want to do anything to prevent what few turtles there are from laying their eggs.

Photos for this post are at Snapfish. I believe there is a link above. If you do not want to register with Snapfish and would like me to post or email some photos, let me know. I usually have plenty of time on my hands and now that the kids are back in school, I get a little more computer time too!

-Laurie

Settling In and going Home-Then There Were Two (Jan 2-29) part 5 of 5

There really should be many more pictures of these days and that there are not I apologize.

We settled in to a nice slowly paced routine over these weeks. We would wake, eat a simple breakfast (toast, oatmeal, or eggs with a fruit shake usually pineapple or papaya since mangos have been late coming back into season) and then some math lessons on the computer. After this we usually found ourselves, more often than not with Isue's kids in tow, on our way to the river where the kids spent more and more time trying to catch the little river fish and less and less time actually in the water except for Jimena who loves the water and doesn't care too much for fishing until we are trying to round everyone up to leave. We then come home prepare a snack or early dinner and then fight to see who gets to use the computers. We still had a netbook at this point one that we bought after both Caroline and Jana left taking their computers with them.

The family-less holidays really took a toll on Laurie and she booked herself and Sidne plane tickets back to Portland for the end of January. It wasn't that I didn't miss everyone too but the thought of spending and extra thousand dollars for two more tickets against getting to spend some really good Father/Son alone time and the decision was an easy one.

We spent a night in San Jose the night before Laurie and Sidne left and dropped them off at the airport very early the next morning. Leif was extremely bummed by this and wanted to change plans and just go home to wait by the computer so we could SKYPE them when they arrived. Very sweet but very boring and potentially emotionally painful too. Instead we kept to the agenda and dropped the car off at the mechanics for a minor valve replacement (the machanic kept telling me it wasn't necessary but I had done some research and thought it best for the car and the environment if I had the work done). While the car was being worked on Leif and I went to the bank and then to Micky D's for a coffee and a soft drink. We picked up the car (they cleaned the valve but didn't replace it thinking that would suffice) and headed out for Orosi, the location of our first week in Costa Rica and the home of Leif's friend Andres and my mom's friends Debbie and Gary. We spent a nice day visiting, going to the pool to swim and play a bit of hoops, and then eating a very nice meal with Flor, Rudolfo and Andres. We left fairly early as we wanted to be home: Leif to talk to his mom and sister and I so I wouldn't be driving in the dark. It was a good thing we start out earlier than planned as we spent a good 45 minutes driving through seemingly every neighborhood of San Jose trying to find our way through. I still have no knowledge of where we were even after looking at a map. It was also on the drive home that the check engine light came back on meaning some day I will have to actually get the valve replaced.

The next few days we spent around the house with Natan spending a couple of nights with us doing the usual routine. We added in building a portable chicken coop for variety. Leif spent Sunday with Isue's family as I had a soccer tournament and he would and did have more fun with them than sitting on the sidelines, bored, watching his old man getting to enjoy himself runnnign around the field.

On Thursday we spent the day alone and headed for the beach at Jaco. We had an awesome time as the waves were calm and the water was nice. We played in the surf for a good three hours before heading into town for a bite to eat. We ate at Subway and then got a fruit shake at the Taco Bar so everyone was happy. While we were at the beach Leif spent some time on the shore looking for crabs while I swam out beyond the break. The scene was picturesque as I was floating at sea when out of the corner of my eye I saw a pelican swoop down toward me getting about 10-15 feet directly above me before realizing I probably wasn't going to fit in its bill no matter how large it may have been. It was quite spectacular especially since I didn't have time to get scared.

The next day, Leif and I joined Karoy and his three charges for a drive on the new freeway to San Jose on our way to the National Park of Diversions (the country's amusement park). the new freeway is AWESOME! It is fairly flat and fairly straight and I have no fears of driving on it in the dark which I ended up doing later that day as we got very behind schedule. before actually arriving at the park we had an errand to run for Karoy's work. Any errand you run with Karoy invariably ends up taking, at no fault to Karoy, three to four times longer than it should. We spent the best part of an hour playing in a parking lot as he waited for some company to load him up with some bags of their product. The transaction could have literally be done in five minutes. Anyway, we made our way to the amusement park and met Wagner a good friend of Karoy's and Wagner's wife and daughter. Karoy had to work but he didn't want me to have to be in charge of four kids all be myself. It was a great idea and I welcomed all the help they provided. Laurie and I had met Wagner previously and he seemed like a very nice guy. He proved this estimation true throughout the day. We did all the things you do in an amusement park: wait in lines, buy cheaply made crap, eat unheathly crap wait in more lines, go on a few rides some of which are great others that aren't so great, and then end up losing half of your group at the end of the day and even though you have made contingency plans to meet at a certain location in case that happens, no one has the patience to see them through ending up with both parties stating they were at that location waiting for the other. Besides the soccer game I was going to miss before we got lost, there was no real rush, so getting lost kind of added to the day's adventure.

The day of Laurie and Sidne's re-arrival into Costa Rica, Leif and I spent cleaning house driving into town. We again got lost trying out a new exit off the new highway but after asking a few people found our way. If we had gone the old way we would have made better time. We found the pet store Karoy gave us crude directions to having asked just one person and we were just two blocks away from where we asked (we actually asked someone at the store we stopped at much earlier but since I souldn't pronounce cemetary correctly to Leif's amusement we flustered the clerk and she ended up being no help and we disregarded her information entirely.

We bought a very inexpensive and as it turns out cheap aquarium, filter and rocks at the pet store then headed back to get a bite to eat. We finally made it to the hotel with enough time to swim for an hour or so even thought it had cooled down more than we would have preferred.

We picked up Laurie and Sidne, a truly wonderful moment in Leif's brief life, and headed back to the hotel for take in pizza from Papa John's better than any Costa Rica pizza we have had but not up to snuff with the nearby Pizza Hut we thought we were ordering.

The next day we went to pick up our computer from PriceSmart begrudgingly. We had some intermittent problems with it and tried to return it but they said the best they could do was to have a service tech take a look at it and if something was wrong replace it with another. From what we have heard, it is very difficult to get your money back once it has left your hand. Anyway, they called to say nothing wrong could be found and it was ready to be picked up so we went with feelings of disappointment to collect it or maybe at best to see if we could at least change it for a new one as per their written exchange policy. When we got there I noticed that they were not displaying that particular computer anymore so any hopes of a change seemed out the window. However they apparently could not find our computer anywhere and there clerk embarrassingly asked if she could offer us a refund of our money. After thinking about it for about 0.00004 microseconds we thought that would be okay. Lucky us. What we think actually happened is that in a serendipitous turn of events, they misplaced the computer when the day before Karoy went in for us to pick it up and they retrieved it from the claims area in the back of the store and almost gave it to him until they saw it was Laurie who had signed for it. Instead they set it behind the customer service counter where it probably sits to this day.

The ride home on the new highway was definitely more enjoyable because of this turn of events, as well as because we learned the correct route to and from the highway to the airport but most importantly we were all together again.

Holidays In The Heat (Dec 24-Jan. 1) part 4 of 5

After dropping my mom off at the airport we made a quick run to PriceSmart (think Costco) then headed off for home. We ended up having dinner with Isue and karoy's family at Isue's parent's home. We had a few glasses of wine with some appetizers and then the main dish of pork roast. DELICIOUS. The kids opened a few gifts, exchanged between the two families and headed off for home. The next day we had visions of sitting around enjoying quality family time when we got a call asking to come down to help as Isue's grandma had just passed away. We spent the entire day down there being as helpful as we could but in reality the most the we could offer was our kids helping with diversion for their kids. Actually, we got a few big packages a few days later in the mail and had Christmas a few more times.

We spent New Year's Eve with the neighbor family after a few hours cooking chicken on the barbeque. It turned out beautiful, so much so that they have wanted more of my famous b-b-que chicken. Actually, it is all in the special sauce supplied by Kraft. There is only one store in town that offers barbeque sauce and it is either Kraft or some god awfully tasting other brand that I have seemed to block, maybe Heinz. Yet everyone I ask seems to really like the taste of barbeque sauce; go figure. After another delicious holiday meal we sat around talking and listening to music (very loud reggaeton {google it}). The neighbors have a computer DJ program that Leif and Sidne enjoyed playing around with. At midnight, we gave our kisses and ate our twelve grapes hoping that the twelve wishes for the new year that we wrote down would come true (later that day one of these had already gone by the wayside) then went outside to watch the fireworks (imagine your neighborhood on the Fourth of July). We (and by that I mean Laurie and a very little bit Leif and Sidne and me not at all) then danced some salsa and merengue.

Its the Holidays that really let you know how much you miss your family and friends.

Then There Were Four (Dec. 18-24) part 3 of 5

On Dec 24th at five in the morning, we said goodbye to mother number 2. For better or worse we were now alone. In the past month we have come to realize how much my mom helped out around here but we have also returned to nuclear family life we have known these past ten plus years.

In the week before her departure we learned through the neighbors that there is a river here in town. It is tucked away ssnd accessible only if you know where it is, one wouldn't stumble upon it accidentally on a morning walk. We know this because we took that morning walk and after descending the long hill in the hot sun, we turned around probably just 200 meters shy of the river. When we asked our Cuban friends why they have been keeping the place a secret from us, they told us that after four years they didn't know anything about this river.

Since then we have have been there 3-4 times per week. There is a little pool that has five or six varieties of fish which we enjoy watching and trying to catch but they are much too quick and smart for us. There were monkeys over head one evening and we also found a nest of some sort of eggs (lizard most likely) dug into an uncovered hole. The best part is that the water is cold, refreshing and clean which is not always the case at the pool we are members of (but that is what you get for only five dollars per month of membership fees). Wish we could have found it a bit earlier but unfortunately for my mom she only got to visit it once or twice before she headed out.

The day before she left we headed into town to spend the day and night in a little oasis in the city. We ate lunch in a little mall and spent time swimming in the hotel pool's cool water. Laurie, Sid and my mom went back to the mall to watch New Moon at the theater and brought back pizza. Karoy and Isue with kids in tow came along as they had some business in town to take care of. Since the the hotel doesn't allow more than four people per room and there were five of us, we asked if their three kids would like to stay with us; which they did. For the three to four hours the others were at the movie it was just me with four crazy, wild and eventually very hungry monsters. I was never so happy to see a box of Pizza Hut in my life.

After dropping my mom off at the airport in the morning and getting in a quick nap, the kids getting in a quick swim, we had a great breakfast then spent the day shopping and heading home for the holidays. We started as six but were now down to four, ready or not to tackle the second half of our adventure.