Yes, gentle reader, I have been away for quite some time. I admit it...I got spooked. The blog started out as something of a journal, and a way to keep others up on what we are doing and what new and crazy turn our lives have taken. But I didn't expect that people would WANT to hear from me. When I discovered that people were actually reading the thing, I got a little bit of stage fright. It's the same thing that drove me away from playing the piano when I was 14...
Well this month marks two years of this Costa Rica living experiment, and life has certainly changed since I last blogged. After the McKnight family returned to the beach and to their own house (Suzette is fine and Eva is perfect), Tim and I moved into a house called Casa Loggerbarber (I know), where we lived for six months. It was a very cute place and served us very well, but it was so small I had to go outside to change my mind. After that we moved to Casa Destino Pacifico, where we spent the next six months. It was much roomier than Casa Loggerbarber, but had no real windows, no air conditioning, and no hot water for the first 2 months we lived there. It sat in the middle of a field, so we also had no cell phone signal except for a specific part of the yard; when we could get signal it was often too hot and sunny to stand in the field and talk on the phone. Our cell phone bill went way down, but our communication with friends also dropped off a cliff.
In April we moved into Casa Miramar, in the development of Tierra Pacifica, and life has been great ever since. The house is beautiful: 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, mountain and ocean views, air conditioning, telephone, wifi. How did we manage to pull this off? We are live-in property managers for the place. We act as caretakers for the house and property, and when there are vacation renters, we move out for the duration of their stay. I know it sounds like a huge deal, but keep in mind that we don't have any of our own furniture here, so we only have to move our meager personal belongings into the garage. It also doesn't rent very often, so to date it has not been a problem.
I don't want to go overboard on my first post back into the blogging world, so I'll save some of the story for another post at another time. There is lots of ground for us to cover, gentle reader, and I've got to start slow this time. Lesson learned.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Monday, April 7, 2008
If it's not one thing it's ten...
I admit it. I've been in a funk. I haven't had much to write about and if I did write it, it might not have had the positive cheerful spin I'm known for. :\
Since I last blogged a lot has happened but not so much...hopefully I can make that sentence make sense. We are still house-sitting for Steve and Suzette on their 5-acres of beachfront property. If you've been keeping up, you know we moved in here the weekend after Valentine's day. Eva, their daughter, is now over a month old and doing great. Suzette, on the other hand, has been dealt another heavy blow on her long road to recovery.
She developed an allergic reaction to one of the medications they administered while she was in the hospital following Eva's birth. The type of reaction she is having is known as Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, and it is life-threatening. She was re-admitted to the hospital for a couple of days about two weeks ago, but was released. About 5 days later she was admitted again, this time to ICU, where she still is. At this point the reaction is so severe and involves so much of her skin that she is being treated as a burn victim, and the risk of infection is very high. We have both talked to her on the phone and Tim saw her this morning, and her spirits are high and her strength is amazing. This entire ordeal has been very hard on Steve, the boys, Eva, their extended family, and --selfish as I am -- us too. We are happy to do whatever we can in a time of need, so I keep that as my focus. Nothing else matters as much as Suzette's recovery, so we are all still praying for her.
I've tried to upload videos of monkeys for the last 1 1/2 hours, to no avail. I'll try again when I have a better connection. This is a photo from earlier tonight. The scorpion was on the other side of a screen, and it is BIG. This was in the outside bathroom, where I came across a venomous snake on Friday evening. I'm sticking to the indoor bathroom now! :)
Since I last blogged a lot has happened but not so much...hopefully I can make that sentence make sense. We are still house-sitting for Steve and Suzette on their 5-acres of beachfront property. If you've been keeping up, you know we moved in here the weekend after Valentine's day. Eva, their daughter, is now over a month old and doing great. Suzette, on the other hand, has been dealt another heavy blow on her long road to recovery.
She developed an allergic reaction to one of the medications they administered while she was in the hospital following Eva's birth. The type of reaction she is having is known as Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, and it is life-threatening. She was re-admitted to the hospital for a couple of days about two weeks ago, but was released. About 5 days later she was admitted again, this time to ICU, where she still is. At this point the reaction is so severe and involves so much of her skin that she is being treated as a burn victim, and the risk of infection is very high. We have both talked to her on the phone and Tim saw her this morning, and her spirits are high and her strength is amazing. This entire ordeal has been very hard on Steve, the boys, Eva, their extended family, and --selfish as I am -- us too. We are happy to do whatever we can in a time of need, so I keep that as my focus. Nothing else matters as much as Suzette's recovery, so we are all still praying for her.
I've tried to upload videos of monkeys for the last 1 1/2 hours, to no avail. I'll try again when I have a better connection. This is a photo from earlier tonight. The scorpion was on the other side of a screen, and it is BIG. This was in the outside bathroom, where I came across a venomous snake on Friday evening. I'm sticking to the indoor bathroom now! :)
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Road to recovery
Suzette is making an amazing recovery! She had another surgery on Sunday, and since then has been rapidly recovering. She is up and walking around, and has been moved from ICU to a regular hospital room. She is having regular visits with the baby. We are so happy to know that she is getting better and spending time with Eva!
Friday, March 7, 2008
Prayers
Don't know where to start. I seem to have that problem a lot...maybe I should blog more regularly!
We've now been at Steve and Suzette's, house sitting and dog sitting, for almost 3 weeks. We keep in regular contact with Steve since we are filling in for him as salespersons at Tierra Pacifica until he can get back. Tierra Pacifica is a development nearby, and Steve is the sales and marketing manager. Well, luck placed us in the right spot at the right time, and during the first week on the job, we (well, Tim mostly) managed to get a house and lot under contract! If all goes as planned and hoped, this will be the first money we've made since arriving in Costa Rica. We have been following up a couple of other leads since then and trying to occupy the sales office for something close to 40 hours per week. Since Steve's house is unsecure (no bars on the windows and lots of screened areas), one of us has to be home at 2 pm when the workers leave, and then the house has to be occupied at all times until the workers come back at 6 am. It's a bit of a juggling act and kind of sucks being tied to the house in the evenings, but we're happy to help out friends.
As you know from my last entry, Suzette started having contractions the weekend after Valentine's day. The doctor in San Jose wanted to keep the baby in the womb for as long as possible in order to allow her lungs to fully develop, so Suzette spent the next 2 1/2 weeks on medication to stop the contractions. On Tuesday of this week, her doctor said the baby was developed enough to deliver and they scheduled a C-section for Thursday morning. Eva was born at 1:00 pm and is perfect in every way. However, there were some complications afterward and Suzette lost a lot of blood, and also had a pulmonary embolism. She was in the OR for 3 hours and then moved to ICU, but in the middle of the night had to go back to surgery in order to stop more bleeding. She is stable today but in critical condition, and faces another operation on Sunday.
Tim left this morning to go to San Jose with our friends, Jarrod and Meagan, to do whatever they can to help Steve. Tim is great with Sean and Noah, and it will probably do them good to hang out with "Uncle TD" so Steve can get some rest and be with Suzette and Eva. Please keep the McKnight family in your thoughts and prayers; we are all waiting to hear some good news.
We've now been at Steve and Suzette's, house sitting and dog sitting, for almost 3 weeks. We keep in regular contact with Steve since we are filling in for him as salespersons at Tierra Pacifica until he can get back. Tierra Pacifica is a development nearby, and Steve is the sales and marketing manager. Well, luck placed us in the right spot at the right time, and during the first week on the job, we (well, Tim mostly) managed to get a house and lot under contract! If all goes as planned and hoped, this will be the first money we've made since arriving in Costa Rica. We have been following up a couple of other leads since then and trying to occupy the sales office for something close to 40 hours per week. Since Steve's house is unsecure (no bars on the windows and lots of screened areas), one of us has to be home at 2 pm when the workers leave, and then the house has to be occupied at all times until the workers come back at 6 am. It's a bit of a juggling act and kind of sucks being tied to the house in the evenings, but we're happy to help out friends.
As you know from my last entry, Suzette started having contractions the weekend after Valentine's day. The doctor in San Jose wanted to keep the baby in the womb for as long as possible in order to allow her lungs to fully develop, so Suzette spent the next 2 1/2 weeks on medication to stop the contractions. On Tuesday of this week, her doctor said the baby was developed enough to deliver and they scheduled a C-section for Thursday morning. Eva was born at 1:00 pm and is perfect in every way. However, there were some complications afterward and Suzette lost a lot of blood, and also had a pulmonary embolism. She was in the OR for 3 hours and then moved to ICU, but in the middle of the night had to go back to surgery in order to stop more bleeding. She is stable today but in critical condition, and faces another operation on Sunday.
Tim left this morning to go to San Jose with our friends, Jarrod and Meagan, to do whatever they can to help Steve. Tim is great with Sean and Noah, and it will probably do them good to hang out with "Uncle TD" so Steve can get some rest and be with Suzette and Eva. Please keep the McKnight family in your thoughts and prayers; we are all waiting to hear some good news.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Viva Nicaragua!
Here's a little Costa Rica flavor, since I've been remiss about posting pictures lately.
This picture was taken on the main highway just south of the Nicaraguan border, and we counted 8 people in this trailer. We were going about 60 mph...safe.
This was from early last week and was Tim's first success at catching fish. He cleaned the fish and gave them to one of Steve's workers, since we already had a freezer full of fish thanks to the fish truck.
This is a picture from the sunroom upstairs at Barry's. It looks out on the ocean from the front and the estuary from the side. Beautiful.
Last week we were outside on the patio at Barry’s when a van pulled up on the road and out hopped Barry and all his gear (we got an e-mail on Monday that Barry sent on Saturday, saying he might be dropping in for 24 hours or so at some point during the week). So we had Barry as a guest in Barry’s house for 2 nights before he left again for another 10 days or so. It was really great to hang out more with him and get to know him better; he’s a really good guy and we like him a lot. We were discussing the 90-day tourist visa situation with Barry and decided it was probably best for us to go to Nicaragua before returning to the states at the end of April (our next scheduled trip home), so our tourist visas wouldn’t expire. Once we decided to go we realized we had to leave ASAP because of Suzette’s pregnancy; once she left for San Jose to have the baby, we would be house sitting and dog sitting for at least 4-6 weeks. We quickly planned to leave on Thursday in order to be back by Sunday so that Steve, Suzette, Sean and Noah would then be able to leave for San Jose whenever they needed to.
On Thursday morning we took the dogs over to Steve’s house, said our goodbyes, and headed for the Nicaraguan border for the 2nd time in 3 weeks. This time we knew better what to expect at the border, since we had just been there to get the visa for the truck extended. For those of you wondering why we didn’t just drive the truck into Nicaragua and spend 3 days at that time and renew our tourist visas as well as the tourist visa for the truck all at once, there are 2 reasons: 1) We have heard it is easy to drive a vehicle into Nicaragua but can be very difficult to drive it back across the border into Costa Rica, and 2) had we spent 72 hours in Nicaragua in January (when we had to renew the truck visa), our visas would have still expired before we returned to the states at the end of April. Needless to say, we are learning as we go and as such, seeing these things and planning for them in advance is difficult.
We arrived at Penas Blancas just after 1 pm on Thursday afternoon and called our “helper,” Eric, to let him know we were arriving. We met him on our last visit and he helped us get all the necessary documents and stamps to extend the visa for the truck. First, though: the road into Penas Blancas. The road is only 2 lanes, with deep ditches on either side, and absolutely no shoulder. On one side of the road there are culverts across the ditch in front of every house, but they are very narrow and require pointing the truck straight to go across the culvert without falling into the ditch – hairball. In the one lane heading into Penas Blancas there were diesels lined up for about ½ mile, sitting and waiting for clearance to go from Costa Rica to Nicaragua. There were several cars and trucks that had gone around the waiting diesels and so we did the same, which meant that we were all going against the flow of traffic coming into Costa Rica since there was only one lane going each way. As we approached the gate going into the no-mans-land between the 2 borders, we were stopped by a bus in the road; the bus had done as we had done and attempted to pass up all the parked trucks in the other lane, and had come upon a diesel headed out of Nicaragua and into Costa Rica. Since we were in the diesel’s lane, both the bus and the diesel had stopped and either the truck had to back up or the bus (and all of the cars behind it) had to back up in order to let the other pass. After 15 minutes or so the bus started up and the reverse lights came on, so that meant we would be the ones to back up to let the diesel past. We backed up for 200 yards or so and tried to turn into one of the driveways, across one of the skinny culverts. Since we only had one lane and no room to point the truck straight, it was impossible. Tim pulled over to the precarious edge of the road and we sat tilted at a crazy angle to allow the trucks by with only inches to spare. We couldn’t pull off the road any further without tipping into the ditch, and the trucks couldn’t cut any closer into the other lane because of all the parked trucks, so it was scary. I had to pull in the rearview mirror to allow enough room, that’s how close it was. And it wasn’t just one truck that needed past, it was about 15 of them. We finally had a chance to get back on the road and head to the gate and both of us breathed a huge sigh of relief. I really wish I had pictures of the border crossing and the roads going in and out of no-mans-land; the truth is I get so freaked out and intimidated by everything there that I wouldn't be able to hold the camera still enough to snap a picture...you should have seen how many shaky pictures I took the day the snake was on the door handle.
When we got through the gate into no-mans-land, we met up with our helper Eric, who directed us to a 24-hour secure parking lot where we left the truck. From there we grabbed our backpacks and walked to the Costa Rica immigration office. There were lines going out the door and Eric instructed us to get in line; outside the office, he got on his cell phone and called one of the immigration officers behind the counter, and in only 2 or 3 minutes he motioned for us to jump ahead of all the people waiting and go to a specific counter, where our passports were stamped and we were on our way. A little payola goes a long way. Eric handed us off to a kid named Jonathan, who told us he was 14 years old. He led us to the point where an official checks passports and you cross the actual border into Nicaragua, which is a small palapa that you would expect to see at a flea market instead of an international border crossing. After that we had to go to the Nicaragua immigration office, where there were more lines. He said it would cost $7 each to get the official stamp we needed to enter Nicaragua, but if we paid $10 each we wouldn’t have to wait in line. We gave him our passports (don’t try this at home, boys and girls) and he took them inside the office and presto! he came out with our passports stamped in about 10 minutes. He led us through a gate where they checked our passports one last time and we were in Nicaragua. There is just as much activity on the north side of the border as there is on the south, so it was still a maze of people, buses, food vendors, helpers vying for your business and diesels waiting to be cleared to go into Costa Rica. We told Jonathan we needed a taxi to take us to San Juan del Sur, and he found someone he knew and off we went.
The ride from the border to San Juan del Sur takes about an hour, with roads comparable to Costa Rica…maybe a little worse. Santo, the driver, played a CD mix of Freddy Fender, Credence Clearwater Revival, and Kenny Rogers songs at full volume along the way and we sang along in the back seat. As we drove into San Juan del Sur, we knew we had made the right choice. SJDS sits on a large picturesque horseshoe bay with a large beach. There are huge hills (or small mountains, depending on your perspective) on either end of the bay, and dozens of fishing boats and sail boats bobbing in the bay. The town is small enough that you don’t need a car. We checked into the Park Avenue Villas, a new hotel built up on a hill about 2 blocks from the beach. It is owned by a couple from Waxahachie (just south of Dallas), and they were wonderful. The beach road is lined with restaurants and bars, all with beautiful views of the bay. We spent the afternoon and evening exploring SJDS, and had dinner in one of the beach restaurants. We turned in early, tired from the trip and the stress, and eager to take in a little satellite TV while we had the opportunity! :)
This is the view from the deck of our hotel, looking at the north end of the bay.
This is the view looking south over San Juan del Sur.
Sunset over the bay.
That's me, watching aforementioned sunset.
This picture was taken on the main highway just south of the Nicaraguan border, and we counted 8 people in this trailer. We were going about 60 mph...safe. This was from early last week and was Tim's first success at catching fish. He cleaned the fish and gave them to one of Steve's workers, since we already had a freezer full of fish thanks to the fish truck. This is a picture from the sunroom upstairs at Barry's. It looks out on the ocean from the front and the estuary from the side. Beautiful.2/18/08
This is a REALLY long post...sorry, there's no way around it.
Last week we were outside on the patio at Barry’s when a van pulled up on the road and out hopped Barry and all his gear (we got an e-mail on Monday that Barry sent on Saturday, saying he might be dropping in for 24 hours or so at some point during the week). So we had Barry as a guest in Barry’s house for 2 nights before he left again for another 10 days or so. It was really great to hang out more with him and get to know him better; he’s a really good guy and we like him a lot. We were discussing the 90-day tourist visa situation with Barry and decided it was probably best for us to go to Nicaragua before returning to the states at the end of April (our next scheduled trip home), so our tourist visas wouldn’t expire. Once we decided to go we realized we had to leave ASAP because of Suzette’s pregnancy; once she left for San Jose to have the baby, we would be house sitting and dog sitting for at least 4-6 weeks. We quickly planned to leave on Thursday in order to be back by Sunday so that Steve, Suzette, Sean and Noah would then be able to leave for San Jose whenever they needed to.
On Thursday morning we took the dogs over to Steve’s house, said our goodbyes, and headed for the Nicaraguan border for the 2nd time in 3 weeks. This time we knew better what to expect at the border, since we had just been there to get the visa for the truck extended. For those of you wondering why we didn’t just drive the truck into Nicaragua and spend 3 days at that time and renew our tourist visas as well as the tourist visa for the truck all at once, there are 2 reasons: 1) We have heard it is easy to drive a vehicle into Nicaragua but can be very difficult to drive it back across the border into Costa Rica, and 2) had we spent 72 hours in Nicaragua in January (when we had to renew the truck visa), our visas would have still expired before we returned to the states at the end of April. Needless to say, we are learning as we go and as such, seeing these things and planning for them in advance is difficult.
We arrived at Penas Blancas just after 1 pm on Thursday afternoon and called our “helper,” Eric, to let him know we were arriving. We met him on our last visit and he helped us get all the necessary documents and stamps to extend the visa for the truck. First, though: the road into Penas Blancas. The road is only 2 lanes, with deep ditches on either side, and absolutely no shoulder. On one side of the road there are culverts across the ditch in front of every house, but they are very narrow and require pointing the truck straight to go across the culvert without falling into the ditch – hairball. In the one lane heading into Penas Blancas there were diesels lined up for about ½ mile, sitting and waiting for clearance to go from Costa Rica to Nicaragua. There were several cars and trucks that had gone around the waiting diesels and so we did the same, which meant that we were all going against the flow of traffic coming into Costa Rica since there was only one lane going each way. As we approached the gate going into the no-mans-land between the 2 borders, we were stopped by a bus in the road; the bus had done as we had done and attempted to pass up all the parked trucks in the other lane, and had come upon a diesel headed out of Nicaragua and into Costa Rica. Since we were in the diesel’s lane, both the bus and the diesel had stopped and either the truck had to back up or the bus (and all of the cars behind it) had to back up in order to let the other pass. After 15 minutes or so the bus started up and the reverse lights came on, so that meant we would be the ones to back up to let the diesel past. We backed up for 200 yards or so and tried to turn into one of the driveways, across one of the skinny culverts. Since we only had one lane and no room to point the truck straight, it was impossible. Tim pulled over to the precarious edge of the road and we sat tilted at a crazy angle to allow the trucks by with only inches to spare. We couldn’t pull off the road any further without tipping into the ditch, and the trucks couldn’t cut any closer into the other lane because of all the parked trucks, so it was scary. I had to pull in the rearview mirror to allow enough room, that’s how close it was. And it wasn’t just one truck that needed past, it was about 15 of them. We finally had a chance to get back on the road and head to the gate and both of us breathed a huge sigh of relief. I really wish I had pictures of the border crossing and the roads going in and out of no-mans-land; the truth is I get so freaked out and intimidated by everything there that I wouldn't be able to hold the camera still enough to snap a picture...you should have seen how many shaky pictures I took the day the snake was on the door handle.
When we got through the gate into no-mans-land, we met up with our helper Eric, who directed us to a 24-hour secure parking lot where we left the truck. From there we grabbed our backpacks and walked to the Costa Rica immigration office. There were lines going out the door and Eric instructed us to get in line; outside the office, he got on his cell phone and called one of the immigration officers behind the counter, and in only 2 or 3 minutes he motioned for us to jump ahead of all the people waiting and go to a specific counter, where our passports were stamped and we were on our way. A little payola goes a long way. Eric handed us off to a kid named Jonathan, who told us he was 14 years old. He led us to the point where an official checks passports and you cross the actual border into Nicaragua, which is a small palapa that you would expect to see at a flea market instead of an international border crossing. After that we had to go to the Nicaragua immigration office, where there were more lines. He said it would cost $7 each to get the official stamp we needed to enter Nicaragua, but if we paid $10 each we wouldn’t have to wait in line. We gave him our passports (don’t try this at home, boys and girls) and he took them inside the office and presto! he came out with our passports stamped in about 10 minutes. He led us through a gate where they checked our passports one last time and we were in Nicaragua. There is just as much activity on the north side of the border as there is on the south, so it was still a maze of people, buses, food vendors, helpers vying for your business and diesels waiting to be cleared to go into Costa Rica. We told Jonathan we needed a taxi to take us to San Juan del Sur, and he found someone he knew and off we went.
The ride from the border to San Juan del Sur takes about an hour, with roads comparable to Costa Rica…maybe a little worse. Santo, the driver, played a CD mix of Freddy Fender, Credence Clearwater Revival, and Kenny Rogers songs at full volume along the way and we sang along in the back seat. As we drove into San Juan del Sur, we knew we had made the right choice. SJDS sits on a large picturesque horseshoe bay with a large beach. There are huge hills (or small mountains, depending on your perspective) on either end of the bay, and dozens of fishing boats and sail boats bobbing in the bay. The town is small enough that you don’t need a car. We checked into the Park Avenue Villas, a new hotel built up on a hill about 2 blocks from the beach. It is owned by a couple from Waxahachie (just south of Dallas), and they were wonderful. The beach road is lined with restaurants and bars, all with beautiful views of the bay. We spent the afternoon and evening exploring SJDS, and had dinner in one of the beach restaurants. We turned in early, tired from the trip and the stress, and eager to take in a little satellite TV while we had the opportunity! :)
This is the view from the deck of our hotel, looking at the north end of the bay.
This is the view looking south over San Juan del Sur.Over the weekend we strolled around the quaint little town, checking out other hotels, restaurants and businesses and just taking in the wonderful culture and vibe. On Saturday afternoon we were having lunch in yet another beach restaurant when we overheard a couple from Wisconsin talking to some other tourists, and they said there was going to be a “Harley party” (biker rally as the rest of the world knows it) that evening. Sure enough, before sunset Harleys and other motorcycles started rolling in and by dusk the beach road was lined with probably a hundred bikes! The hotel owners recommended a restaurant called El Pozo for dinner so we headed that way. We were absolutely blown away with the food and the atmosphere. It is owned by a young American couple, and the food was like nothing we’ve had since we moved to Costa Rica. We had an appetizer of crostini with arugula and fresh strawberries glazed with balsamic vinegar, main dishes of filet mignon and Mahi Mahi with mushroom risotto, and dessert that was orange and chocolate custard, plus a bottle of great wine, all for about $65. The name of the restaurant is El Pozo and it is not to be missed. Because of the crowd in town for the biker rally, the hotel was booked and we had to move to one of the upstairs suites which the owners gave to us for the same rate of $75 we were paying for our small downstairs room. The new room had a private deck overlooking the bay, and was a wonderful treat we wouldn’t have splurged on otherwise. I can’t say enough about how beautiful San Juan del Sur is and how much we loved it there; the people were great, the prices were at least half of what they are in Costa Rica, and there is just a great vibe in the small town. Go there if you ever get the chance.
Typical Nica store front.
See if you can count the number of meters and wires coming from this pole...
Biker rally, Nica style.
Sunday morning in San Juan del Sur.
We left this morning to return to Costa Rica, and since we knew the routine had no problems. The taxi driver who took us to SJDS on Thursday picked us up at the hotel and took us back to the border, where we found Jonathan again and had him help us to the other side. When we crossed the border we called Eric, who met us and helped us through lines and such again. We got the truck from the parking lot and got back on that crazy two-lane road where all the trucks are parked in the northbound lane. AGAIN we met up with a northbound truck in our lane and had to back up to allow it and about 8 diesels to pass; luckily we found a wide culvert and I hopped out of the truck and directed Tim across it and onto a dirt road that runs parallel to the main road, and we snaked our way back onto the road after we passed the entire line of waiting diesels. Why there is no traffic cop directing that madness at the border is well beyond both of us.
When we started getting close to Junquillal, we tried to call Steve and Suzette at their house numerous times but got no answer. Tim said he had a feeling they had to leave because Suzette went into labor and when we reached their house to pick up the dogs, the gates were closed and locked. We parked on the road and walked up to the house where Eduardo (one of Steve’s workers) told us to call Steve on his cell. Tim called and found out Suzette had started having contractions yesterday afternoon and they had to make an emergency trip to San Jose a week ahead of their schedule and 5 weeks before the baby is due. We persuaded Eduardo to spend one more night house sitting, and tomorrow we will start packing up our things at Barry’s and move over to Steve’s for the next 4-6 weeks. On the road again, this is move #6 since last July.
Typical Nica store front.
See if you can count the number of meters and wires coming from this pole...
Biker rally, Nica style.
Sunday morning in San Juan del Sur.We left this morning to return to Costa Rica, and since we knew the routine had no problems. The taxi driver who took us to SJDS on Thursday picked us up at the hotel and took us back to the border, where we found Jonathan again and had him help us to the other side. When we crossed the border we called Eric, who met us and helped us through lines and such again. We got the truck from the parking lot and got back on that crazy two-lane road where all the trucks are parked in the northbound lane. AGAIN we met up with a northbound truck in our lane and had to back up to allow it and about 8 diesels to pass; luckily we found a wide culvert and I hopped out of the truck and directed Tim across it and onto a dirt road that runs parallel to the main road, and we snaked our way back onto the road after we passed the entire line of waiting diesels. Why there is no traffic cop directing that madness at the border is well beyond both of us.
When we started getting close to Junquillal, we tried to call Steve and Suzette at their house numerous times but got no answer. Tim said he had a feeling they had to leave because Suzette went into labor and when we reached their house to pick up the dogs, the gates were closed and locked. We parked on the road and walked up to the house where Eduardo (one of Steve’s workers) told us to call Steve on his cell. Tim called and found out Suzette had started having contractions yesterday afternoon and they had to make an emergency trip to San Jose a week ahead of their schedule and 5 weeks before the baby is due. We persuaded Eduardo to spend one more night house sitting, and tomorrow we will start packing up our things at Barry’s and move over to Steve’s for the next 4-6 weeks. On the road again, this is move #6 since last July.
Sunset over the bay.
That's me, watching aforementioned sunset.Sunday, January 27, 2008
1/22/08
Ahhhh, another exercise in patience. We have now been here 3 months, and so we needed to extend the tourist visa on the truck. What we had been told by multiple folks was that the truck, even though it arrived a month later than we did, was subject to the same visa dates as Tim’s tourist visa (since we imported it in his name…the title was in his name so it was easiest to do it that way). Tim’s original tourist visa was set to expire today, so yesterday we set out for the Nicaraguan border. We took the dogs over to Steve’s around 8 in the morning, since we had heard that we could spend anywhere from a few hours to a few days trying to work the magic needed at the border. We set out around 9 for uncharted territory. I was anxious about the whole thing since there were so many unknowns…what if we couldn’t get in touch with our customs agent? What if the computers went down and we had to spend the night? What if something that I couldn’t even imagine happened? It is amazing how much ground you can cover when you’re measuring it in kilometers instead of miles! We arrived at the border about 11:30, and could instantly see the complications that may lie ahead. For starters, 18-wheelers lined the road approaching the border for about a mile; we thought “What have we gotten ourselves into, and how long might this take?” when we saw all the truck drivers getting out of their trucks and milling around. We skirted around the trucks and headed on to Penas Blancas, and the actual border crossing. When we got there, there were about 1,000 people milling about, everyone waiting to “help” with whatever you need. People were all over the road, offering to help find a parking space, a customs agent, to bribe an official, or whatever. There were buses creeping along the narrow road in the opposite direction that we were going, forcing us to pass with only a fraction of an inch of clearance; the road itself has been paved so many times that there was about a foot of asphalt, with zero shoulder on the sides. The immigration office was packed with people and had a line coming out the door. We met a guy who said he could help us get the visa, and presto! he was our man. We were ready to head back after only about an hour and a half (and a bribe, of course -- anything can happen if you pay to make it so), and now we have until April 21 to pay the import taxes on the truck.
On the way back to Junquillal we tried to find roads that were less traveled than the highway (since we have both spent lots of time going to and from the airport recently), but ended up on a dead end road that took us through Playas del Coco and Playa Ocotal…we didn’t like either one at all and couldn’t get back to the highway fast enough. The roads were narrow and winding (given), and had TONS of construction traffic everywhere; condos and houses are being built at a crazy pace, even though the hillsides they’re being built on are already eroding. And even though Tamarindo has the exact same traffic and erosion problems due to the same lack of care about the future and has had them for years now, the building continues at wildfire pace. I think the same will eventually happen here too, it just hasn’t gotten here yet. We were back from the entire border adventure before dark! I think we both slept better knowing it is taken care of for 3 more months.
1/25/08
As another example of how things seem to work themselves out, last Monday morning we were sitting on the front porch after walking the dogs and Barry came over (he’s the next door neighbor who is a helicopter pilot). We chatted with him for a while when out of the blue he said, “Hey, I know you guys are looking for a place to live for the next month before you can move into your new house, and I wanted to tell you you’re welcome to move into my place for February if you want.” We just about fell over. He’s going back to Peru to work for 5-6 weeks, and so no one will be in his house. We can just move all our stuff over to his garage, and have just the bare essentials in his house. Since his house is at the end of the road before the estuary, the view out his upstairs bedroom window is amazing – you can see mountains, acres and acres of grassland, the estuary and the ocean. Plus a pool!!! His house sits right on the 50 meter mark on the beach (the law prohibits any permanent buildings less than 50 meters from the highest high tide mark), so it is even cooler than the house we are in now! We are moving in on Thursady or Friday of this week.
Our new landlords seem to be very cool and laid back. They are from Canada and have spent their winters here for the last 6 years. The house is tiny but really cute, with lots of shady porch on the front and back, plus a large yard for the dogs.
1/26/08
Today we went to Santa Cruz because we needed cash and gas, plus we have heard that there’s a farmer’s market every Saturday morning so we wanted to check that out. When we got there, we couldn’t believe that we haven’t been going there for the last 3 months! There was so much produce, and everything was dirt cheap. We bought more than we can probably eat in the next week, and I think we spent around $5.
I hope Barry’s house doesn’t have bats in the roof like this one does. It will be nice to sleep the whole night through every night. I have to admit, though, that the noise has quieted down a lot since Tim poured Creolina (creosote, the local remedy for bat infestation) in the rain gutter right outside the point where they were the loudest. We still hear them in the roof, but it sounds like they’ve moved somewhere other than right over the bedroom so it’s a lot better than it was.
Tim and I both have a couple of irons in the fire regarding work possibilities, but right now they’re a little unfocused. Tim is bidding some small-scale construction jobs now that he has some tools down here, and I have been hired part-time to be a marketing assistant for a development near here, I just don’t know exactly what I will be doing or what days/hours I will work. Things here happen slowly, so I’m not too stressed out about the fuzziness right now.
I think that’s about all that’s going down at the end of the road this week. Next week we move over to Barry’s, and so good bye telephone but hello Sky TV (just in time for the Super Bowl). Life is good.
Ahhhh, another exercise in patience. We have now been here 3 months, and so we needed to extend the tourist visa on the truck. What we had been told by multiple folks was that the truck, even though it arrived a month later than we did, was subject to the same visa dates as Tim’s tourist visa (since we imported it in his name…the title was in his name so it was easiest to do it that way). Tim’s original tourist visa was set to expire today, so yesterday we set out for the Nicaraguan border. We took the dogs over to Steve’s around 8 in the morning, since we had heard that we could spend anywhere from a few hours to a few days trying to work the magic needed at the border. We set out around 9 for uncharted territory. I was anxious about the whole thing since there were so many unknowns…what if we couldn’t get in touch with our customs agent? What if the computers went down and we had to spend the night? What if something that I couldn’t even imagine happened? It is amazing how much ground you can cover when you’re measuring it in kilometers instead of miles! We arrived at the border about 11:30, and could instantly see the complications that may lie ahead. For starters, 18-wheelers lined the road approaching the border for about a mile; we thought “What have we gotten ourselves into, and how long might this take?” when we saw all the truck drivers getting out of their trucks and milling around. We skirted around the trucks and headed on to Penas Blancas, and the actual border crossing. When we got there, there were about 1,000 people milling about, everyone waiting to “help” with whatever you need. People were all over the road, offering to help find a parking space, a customs agent, to bribe an official, or whatever. There were buses creeping along the narrow road in the opposite direction that we were going, forcing us to pass with only a fraction of an inch of clearance; the road itself has been paved so many times that there was about a foot of asphalt, with zero shoulder on the sides. The immigration office was packed with people and had a line coming out the door. We met a guy who said he could help us get the visa, and presto! he was our man. We were ready to head back after only about an hour and a half (and a bribe, of course -- anything can happen if you pay to make it so), and now we have until April 21 to pay the import taxes on the truck.
On the way back to Junquillal we tried to find roads that were less traveled than the highway (since we have both spent lots of time going to and from the airport recently), but ended up on a dead end road that took us through Playas del Coco and Playa Ocotal…we didn’t like either one at all and couldn’t get back to the highway fast enough. The roads were narrow and winding (given), and had TONS of construction traffic everywhere; condos and houses are being built at a crazy pace, even though the hillsides they’re being built on are already eroding. And even though Tamarindo has the exact same traffic and erosion problems due to the same lack of care about the future and has had them for years now, the building continues at wildfire pace. I think the same will eventually happen here too, it just hasn’t gotten here yet. We were back from the entire border adventure before dark! I think we both slept better knowing it is taken care of for 3 more months.
1/25/08
As another example of how things seem to work themselves out, last Monday morning we were sitting on the front porch after walking the dogs and Barry came over (he’s the next door neighbor who is a helicopter pilot). We chatted with him for a while when out of the blue he said, “Hey, I know you guys are looking for a place to live for the next month before you can move into your new house, and I wanted to tell you you’re welcome to move into my place for February if you want.” We just about fell over. He’s going back to Peru to work for 5-6 weeks, and so no one will be in his house. We can just move all our stuff over to his garage, and have just the bare essentials in his house. Since his house is at the end of the road before the estuary, the view out his upstairs bedroom window is amazing – you can see mountains, acres and acres of grassland, the estuary and the ocean. Plus a pool!!! His house sits right on the 50 meter mark on the beach (the law prohibits any permanent buildings less than 50 meters from the highest high tide mark), so it is even cooler than the house we are in now! We are moving in on Thursady or Friday of this week.
Our new landlords seem to be very cool and laid back. They are from Canada and have spent their winters here for the last 6 years. The house is tiny but really cute, with lots of shady porch on the front and back, plus a large yard for the dogs.
1/26/08
Today we went to Santa Cruz because we needed cash and gas, plus we have heard that there’s a farmer’s market every Saturday morning so we wanted to check that out. When we got there, we couldn’t believe that we haven’t been going there for the last 3 months! There was so much produce, and everything was dirt cheap. We bought more than we can probably eat in the next week, and I think we spent around $5.
I hope Barry’s house doesn’t have bats in the roof like this one does. It will be nice to sleep the whole night through every night. I have to admit, though, that the noise has quieted down a lot since Tim poured Creolina (creosote, the local remedy for bat infestation) in the rain gutter right outside the point where they were the loudest. We still hear them in the roof, but it sounds like they’ve moved somewhere other than right over the bedroom so it’s a lot better than it was.
Tim and I both have a couple of irons in the fire regarding work possibilities, but right now they’re a little unfocused. Tim is bidding some small-scale construction jobs now that he has some tools down here, and I have been hired part-time to be a marketing assistant for a development near here, I just don’t know exactly what I will be doing or what days/hours I will work. Things here happen slowly, so I’m not too stressed out about the fuzziness right now.
I think that’s about all that’s going down at the end of the road this week. Next week we move over to Barry’s, and so good bye telephone but hello Sky TV (just in time for the Super Bowl). Life is good.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Lame, I know...
Hi everyone, it's been a while since I've been able to do this. December was sort of a crazy month, so I didn't get much of a chance to write. We received an offer on the house in Dallas, so I changed my already-scheduled trip home to accomodate the closing; the buyer wanted to close in 2 weeks. The offer ended up falling through (because the buyer was a jerk), so instead of closing on the house I had to list it and get it rented while I was home. I'm really excited about the renters, and believe that it's not totally a bad thing that the house didn't sell. It simply isn't the right time to sell a house. I got back just in time for New Year's Eve, and Tim was happy to have some home-cooked meals again!
Following are some posts that just haven't made it onto the blog yet. I apologize for being remiss about posting, I can't tell you how complicated it is just to respond to e-mails let alone post pictures and blog content. Lame, I know...
12/12/07
So last Saturday we went to Steve’s house to do some laundry. Steve & family are in San Jose at the moment, and we took advantage of their absence to use their washer & dryer for some of the hard-to-hand-wash items like sheets and towels. I have learned that towels end up stiff and rough if there is no breeze blowing to dry them! And washing king sized sheets in the kitchen sink is a nightmare I don’t want to repeat anytime soon… Anyway, we were hanging out at their house, enjoying the view and the cool ocean breeze while doing laundry. While we were hanging out, a group of girls and a woman cut through the property on their way to the beach (most of them are the daughters of one of Steve’s employees). One girl was holding a green bucket that contained well over a hundred baby turtles! They came from the beach at Junquillal, where there is round-the-clock protection for a turtle egg nest. The eggs are rescued from nests on secluded beaches, where they are more likely to be poached by Ticos looking to sell the eggs and taken to the protected nest until they hatch. When they hatch, they are returned to the beach they were gathered from and released into the ocean by the volunteers who collect the eggs and guard them. Tim and & asked if we could follow them to the beach and take pictures and they said sure. The volunteers measured each turtle, documented the measurements, and released them one by one onto the beach to make their way to the ocean. I think the woman with the group was a volunteer for the WWF, and the volunteers are teaching the younger generation to help protect the turtles. Turtle eggs are thought to be a powerful aphrodisiac and a delicacy, plus they provide income for many Ticos, so it’s tough to change people’s thinking. The going rate is $6 for one hundred turtle eggs.
So last Saturday we went to Steve’s house to do some laundry. Steve & family are in San Jose at the moment, and we took advantage of their absence to use their washer & dryer for some of the hard-to-hand-wash items like sheets and towels. I have learned that towels end up stiff and rough if there is no breeze blowing to dry them! And washing king sized sheets in the kitchen sink is a nightmare I don’t want to repeat anytime soon… Anyway, we were hanging out at their house, enjoying the view and the cool ocean breeze while doing laundry. While we were hanging out, a group of girls and a woman cut through the property on their way to the beach (most of them are the daughters of one of Steve’s employees). One girl was holding a green bucket that contained well over a hundred baby turtles! They came from the beach at Junquillal, where there is round-the-clock protection for a turtle egg nest. The eggs are rescued from nests on secluded beaches, where they are more likely to be poached by Ticos looking to sell the eggs and taken to the protected nest until they hatch. When they hatch, they are returned to the beach they were gathered from and released into the ocean by the volunteers who collect the eggs and guard them. Tim and & asked if we could follow them to the beach and take pictures and they said sure. The volunteers measured each turtle, documented the measurements, and released them one by one onto the beach to make their way to the ocean. I think the woman with the group was a volunteer for the WWF, and the volunteers are teaching the younger generation to help protect the turtles. Turtle eggs are thought to be a powerful aphrodisiac and a delicacy, plus they provide income for many Ticos, so it’s tough to change people’s thinking. The going rate is $6 for one hundred turtle eggs.
1/6/08
Hello and feliz ano nuevo to everyone! I realize I’ve been horrible about blogging but it’s a new year, entonces estoy empezando una nueva etapa en mi vida. Okay, okay, that was cheating…Tim’s sister bought us a Spanish calendar, and that just happened to be yesterday’s phrase. Mi espanol es muy mal!
For those of you who don’t know, I went back to Texas for 11 days to close on my house; ultimately the offer fell through but I was able to rent it so everything worked out in the end. Tim leaves on Wednesday to spend a week at home so expect to hear lots from me in the near future! J It was cold in Texas the whole time I was there, and I couldn’t wait to get back to the beach (and where people drive very, very slow). It was nice to spend the holidays with family, albeit unexpectedly, but it was a different kind of Christmas. Since I hadn’t planned on seeing family for the holidays, I didn’t have any gifts for anyone. While everyone ran around spending money and shopping like mad, I relaxed and made the most of my time with my family. As corny as it sounds, it was nice because it was the way Christmas is supposed to be – my focus was on spending time with folks I won’t see again for several months and not on gift-giving and receiving. By the time I got back, Tim had been cooking for himself long enough that his shorts were falling off!
We spent New Year’s Eve with the McKnight family (our friends who moved here a couple of years ago). While I was gone, Tim and Steve had a grate made and built a barbecue pit on Steve’s property, and bought half of a freshly slaughtered pig. On NYE, we cooked the pig all day long while enjoying the beach, the scenery, the company, and lots and lots of ping pong. We left their house around 10, but couldn’t stay awake long enough to ring in the new year. I’m pretty sure that means we’re old.
I was able to talk lots of friends into sending me back with their DVDs, so it’s almost like we have television now! I scored the first season of Lost and we are hooked. I’ve heard it turned all kinds of hokey in the second season so I’m glad we don’t have it! I also brought back my bike, which didn’t quite make it here without incident. I drove myself to the airport because I had a rental car, and the bike was in a box in the backseat. I had a full backpack on my back and one on my front, and was pulling a Roxy suitcase that was stuffed the point of exploding, as well as maneuvering a 37-pound bike in a box. I got the rental car returned and managed to make it from the shuttle bus to the terminal with all my gear (it wasn’t easy or pretty, mind you). When I went to check in I was told I needed to go to the excess baggage line. I got up to the counter and the Continental employee checking me in told me there was an embargo on excess baggage at the Liberia airport until January 15th, so I wouldn’t be able to bring my bike. I’m sure I looked like I was about to spontaneously combust when I asked, “Why do you suppose the person I talked to on the phone about flying with my bike wouldn’t have told me this information?” He said, “We need a supervisor.” After explaining my situation, the supervisor agreed to override the embargo for me, and the guy checking me in said, “Thank you for not yelling at me.” When I arrived I loaded all my luggage onto a cart at the airport and sailed through customs and found Tim outside waiting for me, with Zac in the truck! My bike doesn’t exactly shift the way that it did before the trip, so we are now trying to find information about rear derailleur repair online. I hope Tim’s bike fares better!
On Friday morning, I was gathering up towels that had been scattered around outside and I opened the back door. I went to open the latch on the burglar bars (our doors and windows all have bars, but the doors have locking latches on them) and saw a snake coiled all around the latch on the inside of the bars. I closed the door and made a sound that was a lot like something Curly from the 3 Stooges would make, and Tim asked me what was the matter. I told him there was a snake on the latch, so he grabbed a stick and we went around from the front. Sure enough, there was a baby boa constrictor! Tim poked at it until it dropped down onto the tile, and then picked it up on the end of a stick and took it across the street to the estuary and let it go. Now I’m on the lookout for snakes everywhere!!!
Hello and feliz ano nuevo to everyone! I realize I’ve been horrible about blogging but it’s a new year, entonces estoy empezando una nueva etapa en mi vida. Okay, okay, that was cheating…Tim’s sister bought us a Spanish calendar, and that just happened to be yesterday’s phrase. Mi espanol es muy mal!
For those of you who don’t know, I went back to Texas for 11 days to close on my house; ultimately the offer fell through but I was able to rent it so everything worked out in the end. Tim leaves on Wednesday to spend a week at home so expect to hear lots from me in the near future! J It was cold in Texas the whole time I was there, and I couldn’t wait to get back to the beach (and where people drive very, very slow). It was nice to spend the holidays with family, albeit unexpectedly, but it was a different kind of Christmas. Since I hadn’t planned on seeing family for the holidays, I didn’t have any gifts for anyone. While everyone ran around spending money and shopping like mad, I relaxed and made the most of my time with my family. As corny as it sounds, it was nice because it was the way Christmas is supposed to be – my focus was on spending time with folks I won’t see again for several months and not on gift-giving and receiving. By the time I got back, Tim had been cooking for himself long enough that his shorts were falling off!
We spent New Year’s Eve with the McKnight family (our friends who moved here a couple of years ago). While I was gone, Tim and Steve had a grate made and built a barbecue pit on Steve’s property, and bought half of a freshly slaughtered pig. On NYE, we cooked the pig all day long while enjoying the beach, the scenery, the company, and lots and lots of ping pong. We left their house around 10, but couldn’t stay awake long enough to ring in the new year. I’m pretty sure that means we’re old.
I was able to talk lots of friends into sending me back with their DVDs, so it’s almost like we have television now! I scored the first season of Lost and we are hooked. I’ve heard it turned all kinds of hokey in the second season so I’m glad we don’t have it! I also brought back my bike, which didn’t quite make it here without incident. I drove myself to the airport because I had a rental car, and the bike was in a box in the backseat. I had a full backpack on my back and one on my front, and was pulling a Roxy suitcase that was stuffed the point of exploding, as well as maneuvering a 37-pound bike in a box. I got the rental car returned and managed to make it from the shuttle bus to the terminal with all my gear (it wasn’t easy or pretty, mind you). When I went to check in I was told I needed to go to the excess baggage line. I got up to the counter and the Continental employee checking me in told me there was an embargo on excess baggage at the Liberia airport until January 15th, so I wouldn’t be able to bring my bike. I’m sure I looked like I was about to spontaneously combust when I asked, “Why do you suppose the person I talked to on the phone about flying with my bike wouldn’t have told me this information?” He said, “We need a supervisor.” After explaining my situation, the supervisor agreed to override the embargo for me, and the guy checking me in said, “Thank you for not yelling at me.” When I arrived I loaded all my luggage onto a cart at the airport and sailed through customs and found Tim outside waiting for me, with Zac in the truck! My bike doesn’t exactly shift the way that it did before the trip, so we are now trying to find information about rear derailleur repair online. I hope Tim’s bike fares better!
On Friday morning, I was gathering up towels that had been scattered around outside and I opened the back door. I went to open the latch on the burglar bars (our doors and windows all have bars, but the doors have locking latches on them) and saw a snake coiled all around the latch on the inside of the bars. I closed the door and made a sound that was a lot like something Curly from the 3 Stooges would make, and Tim asked me what was the matter. I told him there was a snake on the latch, so he grabbed a stick and we went around from the front. Sure enough, there was a baby boa constrictor! Tim poked at it until it dropped down onto the tile, and then picked it up on the end of a stick and took it across the street to the estuary and let it go. Now I’m on the lookout for snakes everywhere!!!
We also found a scorpion in the bathroom this week, so I’m afraid to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night without shoes! Also this week, Tim was on the front porch when Zac went after something on the side of the house. Whatever it was made a horrible screeching noise, then I hear the next-door neighbor say, “He’s friendly, don’t worry!” Tim yelled at me to get Zac in the house, and when I went outside there was a little monkey on the side porch with a rope trailing behind him. He turned out to be our neighbor Wayne’s monkey (Wayne’s pet youngun’, anyone?), and so Tim took the rope and led him down the road to Wayne’s house. Always an adventure here at the end of the road.
That’s about it for now, I’ll try to get this posted with some pictures ASAP. Thanks for tuning in.
1/11/08
Day #4 on my own. Tim left on Tuesday to go to San Jose, and then flew home on Wednesday, so it’s just me and los perros until next Wednesday. Our next door neighbors have finally moved into their house, but they still have no kitchen cabinets or countertops, and workers are still finishing up the outside of the house. Bruce and Sheila invited me out to dinner on Wednesday, and also took their general contractor and one of the workers. It was a nice evening. Yesterday, Sheila came over and invited me over for chili. I said OK, and THEN she said, “Well, I don’t know where my crock pot is, so I was thinking I could come over here and cook, and we could eat over here.” At the time she invited me, I had already cooked some chicken breasts with the intention of making chicken enchiladas later in the day; I said, “Since I’ve already started cooking, why don’t I make chicken enchiladas, and you can come over and eat them with me.” Sheila said, “OK, that sounds great. By the way, we are feeding Diego and Leonardo for one more night.” So I spent the day cleaning and cooking, and ended up hosting dinner for 5. Sheila and Bruce have invited me over for chili tonight (they bought a new crock pot), and then to go with them to Santa Cruz tomorrow. I am going to have to find a way out of this. I think they don’t want me to be alone, when I actually like it. They even offered to set up an inflatable mattress for me in their office, in the event that I get scared here by myself. It really is a nice gesture, but I don’t spook easily.
I went to Santa Cruz today for gas, my biggest outing on the roads alone. It is 45 miles round trip to the nearest gas station, so we can’t wait until we’re on empty to fill up. Since I will have to drive to Liberia next week to pick Tim up (about 50 or 60 miles one way), I wanted to make sure I didn’t get too low over the weekend. Like everything here, even getting gas requires planning and patience. On the way to Santa Cruz I saw a girl who had just been hit by a car, lying on the side of the road, unconscious. She looked about 10 or 12, and her bike was crunched between the car that hit her and a guardrail on a small bridge. I passed an ambulance heading in the direction of the ambulance a few minutes later, and a few minutes after that I saw the ambulance heading back to town with its sirens and lights on. Very sobering.
For those of you who wonder what has happened to my blog, I am in the internet café writing this, but once again, there is no internet access.
That’s about it for now, I’ll try to get this posted with some pictures ASAP. Thanks for tuning in.
1/11/08
Day #4 on my own. Tim left on Tuesday to go to San Jose, and then flew home on Wednesday, so it’s just me and los perros until next Wednesday. Our next door neighbors have finally moved into their house, but they still have no kitchen cabinets or countertops, and workers are still finishing up the outside of the house. Bruce and Sheila invited me out to dinner on Wednesday, and also took their general contractor and one of the workers. It was a nice evening. Yesterday, Sheila came over and invited me over for chili. I said OK, and THEN she said, “Well, I don’t know where my crock pot is, so I was thinking I could come over here and cook, and we could eat over here.” At the time she invited me, I had already cooked some chicken breasts with the intention of making chicken enchiladas later in the day; I said, “Since I’ve already started cooking, why don’t I make chicken enchiladas, and you can come over and eat them with me.” Sheila said, “OK, that sounds great. By the way, we are feeding Diego and Leonardo for one more night.” So I spent the day cleaning and cooking, and ended up hosting dinner for 5. Sheila and Bruce have invited me over for chili tonight (they bought a new crock pot), and then to go with them to Santa Cruz tomorrow. I am going to have to find a way out of this. I think they don’t want me to be alone, when I actually like it. They even offered to set up an inflatable mattress for me in their office, in the event that I get scared here by myself. It really is a nice gesture, but I don’t spook easily.
I went to Santa Cruz today for gas, my biggest outing on the roads alone. It is 45 miles round trip to the nearest gas station, so we can’t wait until we’re on empty to fill up. Since I will have to drive to Liberia next week to pick Tim up (about 50 or 60 miles one way), I wanted to make sure I didn’t get too low over the weekend. Like everything here, even getting gas requires planning and patience. On the way to Santa Cruz I saw a girl who had just been hit by a car, lying on the side of the road, unconscious. She looked about 10 or 12, and her bike was crunched between the car that hit her and a guardrail on a small bridge. I passed an ambulance heading in the direction of the ambulance a few minutes later, and a few minutes after that I saw the ambulance heading back to town with its sirens and lights on. Very sobering.
For those of you who wonder what has happened to my blog, I am in the internet café writing this, but once again, there is no internet access.
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