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.