Life in the Slow Lane

Moving to Florida

2009-06-02T14:20:00.001-06:00

Wow! Has it been forever since I’ve written on this blog, or what?!

I’d really be surprised if anyone told me they are still reading this thing, but thought I’d update it just in case…

Our newest adventure pertains to our decision to move to Florida. Yes, we’re planning a move back to the States. Patrick is itching to get back to work (go figure)! So we did a bunch of research and found that both Broward County and Palm County Florida have a couple of great schools (believe it or not- I was shocked). Azure will be able to attend a public school again but they have magnet programs for teaching. These programs will allow her to begin student teaching at the local elementary schools while still in high school and also earn college credit! Since she really wants to be a teacher, this will be an excellent opportunity for her to get her feet wet.

We’re all pretty excited about the move but a little sad to leave our beautiful property. If anyone happens to be interested in this great place (1/3 acre plus two houses), we’re selling it for only $152,900 plus we’ll throw in our 4x4 car with a closing before June 30th!

We have four pages of pictures on Photobucket:
http://s687.photobucket.com/albums/vv235/crhome4sale/

Just email us at crhome4sale@yahoo.com for more info.

Summer Break

2008-07-02T09:17:00.002-06:00

I obviously haven't posted much lately. For those of you still checking, I just want to let you know that I'll be taking a break from this site for a while since Azure is out of school right now and we don't have internet.

Please check back in early August.

Thanks!
Jodi

Replacing the muffler- vehicle inspection part 2

2008-06-16T14:58:00.004-06:00

As most people know, if a business is busy they probably sell a good product. Patrick and I always keep this in mind especially when looking for new restaurants to try. We actually spent an entire vacation in Germany just eating from the busy street vendors instead of spending a fortune at sit-down places. But I am getting off topic aren’t I? I should be telling you about picking a place to get our muffler replaced. Every day we drive by this tiny hole in the wall shop with a sign hanging out front that says “muflas”. This garage always has cars parked outside and people pulling in and out. Therefore, I knew when we needed to get our muffler replaced that Patrick should stop by this place.

As is his practice lately, Patrick asked a couple locals for recommendations for a mechanic anyway. Both guys he asked recommended this tiny no-named garage. So, a couple days later on the way back from dropping Azure off at school, Patrick pulled up to the muffler shop and asked the guy when he could work on our car. The guy told Patrick 30 minutes so we had time to get gas and then Patrick drove me home. He left me alone about 8:35am and I figured I had some time to read and then get housework done. Boy was I wrong!

Patrick drove up to the house at 9:20am with a huge smile on his face. He made it back so quickly I thought for sure there was a problem but he said the guy actually replaced the muffler and tailpipe. Plus, he was second in line since by the time he got back to the shop a tourist bus had pulled in before him! I couldn’t believe it. Nothing ever happens that quickly here in Costa Rica. The mechanic charged him about $60 which we realize is probably a gringo price but then again probably cheaper than going to a more Americanized garage with English speaking mechanics. Patrick thinks the guy intended to also keep the old muffler to fix and then sell to another customer but he threw it back into the car when the guy wasn’t looking.

I also found out later that we have a used muffler which seems typical around here to buy used products since the hot water heater we bought back in Sept. turned out to be old also but since they are cheaper and work fine I'm not complaining!

(Not sure what we’ll do with this rusty old muffler?)

Vehicle Inspection -Part One

2008-06-12T14:05:00.002-06:00

As lucky owners of a vehicle in Costa Rica, we need to have our car inspected yearly by the MOPT (not sure what this stands for but translates into the government’s transportation dept). We’d heard stories about how difficult it can be to pass the inspection so Patrick decided to go a couple weeks early in case we fail we would have time to make the repairs and test again. Inspections are designated by the number of your license plate and ours needed to be completed by end of June.

So, a few weeks ago, we drove to the inspection center near Tibas. About a twenty minute drive through mostly rural area. I love this drive. We arrived slightly before 10:30 in the morning to find a woman sitting outside at a folding table under a canopy. She checked our paperwork against a list of license plates she had typed and attached to a clipboard. Apparently we were supposed to have scheduled a time for our visit. Despite the fact that we didn’t have an appointment, she handed us some papers and sent us into an office. We again handed a woman our paperwork and a few minutes later she handed us an inspection sheet and told us to pay at the next window. The gentleman charged our Visa about $20 and told us to drive around the building and get in line.

Once to the far side of the building, we were unsure which line we should wait in so we just picked the first (and longest line). Luckily, an inspector walked up and told Patrick to go to an empty lane (I think there were six altogether). These lines went through a long garage and appeared to have several “stations” each. I figured I didn’t want to sit in the car during the inspection so I hopped out to read a book at a nearby cement table/bench.

I hadn’t even finished reading one paragraph when I saw Patrick driving around the building. I hopped in the car and waited for him to tell me how in the world he had finished so quickly.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have good news. The car failed the very first part of the inspection –the visual part. He had been told that the car needed a new muffler and tailpipe. Also, the car’s tires were wide and needed to be covered with fenders –this posed a hazard according to Costa Rican laws.

After being told how long of a process this whole thing could be I was quite surprised that we were back home only 70 minutes later. Granted we had work to do on the car and had to go back but like I said – I love the drive!

Next time: replacing the muffler and adding fenders

Type of Tree?

2008-06-06T07:53:00.002-06:00

I know it’s been a while since I last posted to this blog. We continue to have bad weather here. Lots of thunder and lightning accompanied by several inches of rain per day. Luckily this happens mostly in the afternoons and evenings with our mornings be somewhat “dry”. But it’s still impacting our use of the computer and internet connections.

I’m hoping someone can help me identify this tree. The branches and even the trunk are not very wide –I can almost get my hands around it. The tree is very spongy reminding me of cork yet I’m almost sure it’s not. Last month the tree started to flower and now it’s covered in tiny clumps orange berries (green when not ripe). I have no idea what this could be but the bees love the flowers and birds & squirrels love the berries. I’ve noticed in my bird book that some of the birds say they enjoy mistletoe and the photo shows them eating what appear to be these same orange berries…

Rainy Season is here!

2008-05-26T15:10:00.004-06:00

I think it started sometime last week because ever since then we have been averaging about an inch of rain each day. Today it’s really coming down. Our rain gauge is reading 1½ inches already in just the last half hour!

Patrick says that the weather men are predicting more than the usual number of hurricanes to hit this summer so we are sure to have lots more rain to come (Costa Rica never actually gets hit by hurricanes but we get the effects of the rain). Patrick made sure he went down into the trench and removed all the fallen tress from last season’s storms. He also did some more trenching around our house and cleaned the gutters a few times. Hopefully we’re prepared…

**Note:

I wrote this post on Friday but due to internet connection problems couldn't post it until today. We ended up with 2 1/2 inches of rain on Friday and both Saturday and Sunday we received about the same amount. "They" blame tropical storms...

The photo shows the run off from our gutters into a barrel to help slow the erosion.

First movie in Costa Rica

2008-05-19T15:28:00.000-06:00

We attended our first movie in Costa Rica yesterday! We met some of Azure’s friends and their parents in Escazu to see the new Narnia movie –Prince Caspian. We were lucky enough that Cinemark was showing the movie both subtitled and dubbed since the Flores mall only had the dubbed version. The movie was busier than we expected and we didn’t get the best of seats but we all enjoyed the movie very much and I’m sure we’ll do it again.

I liked seeing the Spanish subtitles –it actually helped me understand the movie more since I’m slightly hard of hearing. The best part had to be ticket prices. At approximately $3.40 we can’t stay away anymore.

New "toy"

2008-05-15T14:12:00.003-06:00

Patrick finally bought himself a machete yesterday. He’s been jealous of the men in town that walk around proud to have a machete slung around their shoulder or hanging from their waist. Of course, we went the cheap route and Patrick didn’t get the scabbard…

As soon as we arrived home from the store, Patrick was outside wailing on the dead banana trees (after they produce fruit, the tree dies and a new one springs up in it’s place). To his delight, the blade was too dull to use. I watched him a few minutes later sparks flying everywhere as he used an electric grinding stone to sharpen the blade. I didn’t even realize he had brought my Grandfather’s grinding stone but I know he was loving every minute of it. Then he really went to town on the trees.

Now we need to mulch some of the trees and we’ll have some great fertilizer. Then hope some of the new trees grow quickly to fill in some gaps (the trees mature after only one year!).

Anyone need a haircut?

Fire at Paseo de las Flores Mall

2008-05-14T11:37:00.004-06:00

Yesterday we needed to make a school payment so we drove to our bank (which happens to be in the local mall). When we arrived around 3pm, we noticed several fire trucks. Then we saw that many store employees were gathered outside the mall. Next we were unable to even enter the mall parking lot because the gates were closed and chained.

Unsure what had happened but sensing it not a huge emergency due to the laid back attitude of the fire dept., we parked outside the gates waiting to get in. Eventually (about 30 minutes later), a security guard told us that the mall would not be opening until the next day so left to pick Azure up from soccer practice still unsure what had happened at the mall.

When we arrived home, we didn’t have any water. We did the usual troubleshooting by checking the guest house and the meters but found no water available and the meters on. We waited to make dinner until 6pm and with still no water finally decided on simple peanut butter sandwiches. We still didn’t have any water when we went to bed to read at 9pm but fortunately about 9:30 we heard a faucet that Azure had left on dribbling. Yeah! We had water again! I quickly took advantage and filled an empty pitcher and the coffee pot with water just in case the water was off again in the morning. But luckily we had water when we woke up this morning.

I still don’t know why we didn’t have water last night, but I was able to find out about the mall online. One of the local papers, La Nacion, posted an article about a fire at the mall that started at 12:20pm yesterday. Apparently the fire started in a storage area and burned out 3 stores. No one was hurt and the fire dept is investigating the cause of the fire.

We still need to make our school payment so hopefully the bank is open today. At least I feel better knowing what happened at the mall since normally I feel in the dark about the things happening around me.

(photo from La Nacion)

Baby Robin

2008-05-08T14:05:00.003-06:00

We've had a lot of baby Robins in our yard lately. Ilike watching the Mom and Dad feed the babies.

This morning I heard a thump in the kitchen window. I found a baby Robin just sitting there staring at me. I think he was stunned but he flew away soon after I shot this picture.

Poas Volcano

2008-05-07T12:02:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since we traveled around Costa Rica but I would finally like to post some pictures from our trip to Poas Volcano. We went in January with my Mom and brother. Although we didn't see any wildlife other than some squirrels and a few birds, I really loved it and will definitely take more visitors there to view the active volcano.

The chilly breeze made beautiful ripples on the lake!

My Mom and Azure were happy to have warm clothes for our hike that day.

Spiders in and around our house

2008-05-05T15:44:00.006-06:00

This post is dedicated to my cousin, Heather. I know you hate spiders but that shouldn't stop you from visiting us!

They are so cute!

Wearable Art

2008-04-29T05:25:00.014-06:00

Last week Wednesday Azure's entire school performed what they called Wearable Arts Program. Patrick and I asked Azure to keep the details a secret so we would be surprised during the performance.

I loved the program and thought everyone did wonderful and looked amazing!

Basically, each class designed costumes and a few props to act out the elements and how they evolved to create the plants and animals. Other than the 3rd-6th grade principal as narrator, the classes only used music and action to convey their part of the program.

I know my pictures don't do justice to the time and energy spent but hopefully you'll see some of the beauty of this program.

Sharing the road in Costa Rica

2008-04-22T15:41:00.005-06:00

Most roads are two car widths wide but it can choke down to 1 ½ car widths in places without warning (especially rural towns). Also, you will be sharing the road with not just other cars and trucks but also motorcycles, scooters, bikes, pedestrians, dogs, chickens, ox carts, and the occasional runaway cow. And be aware that no one uses the sidewalk. Considering cars have the right away here in Costa Rica, it’s surprising that the pedestrians don’t move out of the way. Often we see groups of six or more in the middle of the road walking side by side (and cars forced to go around them)!

There are pretty views all around you. But if you’re the driver, please keep your eyes on the road because there is a homeless dog wandering around every blind corner.

Oh yea, and just one pet peeve (of Patrick’s). I like the fact that many people pull over when they are talking on their cell phone but can they please pull all the way over and not just stop in the middle of the lane?

Squirrels Gone Wild

2008-04-21T15:25:00.004-06:00

No, I don’t mean naked squirrels at Mardi gras. Everybody knows that squirrels never wear clothes- duh! I’m talking about the squirrels in our yard going crazy. Figure this one out.

Last week Patrick told me he heard a noise at our front door so he went to check and said he saw the squirrel in between the gate and the wooden door. We tried to figure out what he would be doing there. Chewing? Tunneling? Trying to pick the lock? What could he be doing?

A few days later, I’m in the shower and Patrick peeks his head in the door to grab some mouthwash. Then I hear a shriek. Well, it sounded like MMMPHH! I holler out to ask him if he’s okay and he yells back telling me the squirrel was sitting in our bedroom window just staring inside. Is he a voyeur or what? How did he get in the window and why? Then we realized he was really just sitting on the patio chair sitting outside the window. Still, what in the world is this crazy squirrel up to now?

Today, we’re sitting on the couch and I heard another funny sound from the front door. I slowly unlock the door (we always use the side door) and yank it open. There was the squirrel again -sitting right on the middle bar of the gate door. I expected him to be there somewhere yet I think he scared me as much as I had scared him (if at all). He jumped down and dashed to the nearest tree and up into the canopy of our “jungle” while I slammed the door shut and jumped around. Like I said, I really did expect to see him but then again my adrenaline level skyrocketed since he was at eye level and he could easily have jumped at my face instead of the ground! I always have that darn Christmas Vacation movie in my head when I think about the squirrel.

So, what’s next with this silly thing? And how do I know it’s only one squirrel gone crazy and not the lot of them?

What's so exciting about this door?

Power Problems in Costa Rica

2008-04-18T13:59:00.000-06:00

Most of you know about the power problems is Costa Rica. The country relies on a hydro-electric power source which is great but the problem occurs during the dry season when a lot of the rivers just trickle. We tried to prepare ourselves by buying a crank system radio and stocking up on flashlights and candles. The radio turned out to be worthless and we’ve only used the flashlights a couple times now.

I can’t speak for everyone in Costa Rica but let me tell you about our experiences with the power issues here. First off, mostly they are brownouts not blackouts. We generally only lose power for 5-10 minutes. This occurred more when we first moved here. Then we received a newsletter from the water and electric company stating that they were working on a new substation to relieve the outages in San Rafael and it would be completed by January.

Well, I didn’t believe the news but sure enough sometime around January we stopped experiencing so many brownouts. BUT we were warned by some people that during the dry season the water would be turned off for many hours during the days to help conserve. Then I read in the Tico Times that the government was trying to prepare for the water/electric problems during the dry season by purchasing more generators.

So, now it’s April and the dry season should be ending soon. The last two Sundays our power has been out from 2-3 hours. I kind of liked the quiet but this past Sunday when the power wasn’t on by 5pm and the sun was setting, Patrick started to worry a bit. The power did come back on by 5:30 so all was well.

Now I would suppose these were planned outages but since we don’t read the local newspaper in Spanish and the Tico Times doesn’t carry this kind of news, I can only guess. The outages don’t bother me as long as they are during the day. The thing that did concern me happened Wednesday when the power kept turning off and on again for several minutes. That can not be good for the appliances! As a matter of fact, I’m sure this is why our computer died last fall.

I hope the country can figure out a good solution to this power problem.

Caution

2008-04-15T14:18:00.006-06:00

Does this mean caution fat kids running?No wonder the kids are fat if the park is locked all the time!

Stop sign update -ALTO

2008-04-14T14:24:00.001-06:00

Do you think someone at the San Rafael Municipality reads our blog? Sometime over the weekend someone painted the intersection we posted about on Friday afternoon. I would guess this means someone really did steal the signs so this is the solution.

Patrick’s thoughts on Road Rules in Costa Rica

2008-04-11T14:35:00.004-06:00

We noticed something different last week at an ordinary 4 way intersection. Normally we have the right of way turning left because the other direction has stop signs. At least that was the case.

So starting last week, people were blowing through the intersection (not always uncommon) but it was happening all the time now and right in front of us. Twice we were almost hit by cars turning in front of us and missing by what seemed like inches. A few days later when we took a closer look, we realized that the intersection only has one stop sign left and that one is barely hanging on by one screw.

We wondered what happened to the other sign and in fact, the whole post is gone too! Maybe someone scrapped it for the 28 cents that they could get from the metal buyers? Maybe the city took it to make sure people were paying attention? Or they had a different intersection that it was needed at more?

That started me thinking, who makes the street signs here? No one is put in prison long enough to make a sign. Maybe that’s why there are so few signs around?

**UPDATE** We went back this afternoon with camera in hand to take a picture of the upside down stop sign and someone has taken it already! You can see the last remaining post in the photo but no sign.

Hostile Hummingbirds

2008-04-10T14:06:00.006-06:00

I love hummingbirds and Costa Rica is a great place to see many varieties. I knew we would have hummingbirds in our yard before moving here. Sure enough, Patrick and I spotted them moving from flower to flower quite often but they were always so quick that it didn’t quite satisfy my desire to see them more often.

So in October I bought two hummingbird feeders. I purposely had Patrick place one directly outside our living room window and the other one I hung from a shepherds hook outside our bedroom window but further into the yard. I had read that hummingbirds are very territorial so I knew I had to place the feeders at least 10 feet apart.

It took a couple weeks before the first hummingbird started using the feeder located in the garden and then maybe a week after that and he was using the one in front of the living room window. Then a week or so later another larger hummingbird (almost twice as large and of a different variety) found the feeders and decided they were his (or hers). So when the smaller hummingbird would try to drink from the feeder the larger one would chase it away.

At first this was kind of funny but the chases became more violent. The birds would literally slam into one another and then the chase was on. One day while sitting in the living room, one of the hummingbirds smacked the other one into the window! We heard a thump and looked to see the hummingbird trapped between the glass and bars. He did find his way out after a several seconds as we watched in shock.

I don’t see the tiny hummingbird in our yard so much anymore but when he does show up he seems to win the battle which I love since he was here first. The larger hummingbird actually sits in a couple different trees in our yard from which he has a view of both feeders. When he sees another hummingbird at a feeder he immediately chases it away. I hate the violence but sometimes these antics can be quite amusing! Recently the large hummingbird would allow another bird to drink from the feeder while he (or she) watched and I only believe this happened because the other bird was either its mate or an offspring.

I do want to mention that I’m not worried that I am upsetting the ecosystem by having a feeder because I do still see several hummingbirds going from flower to flower. It also seems they like to eat bugs that are trapped in spider webs which I had never heard of before but Patrick and I do enjoy watching them scout for bugs.

Another scorpion sighting!

2008-04-07T14:15:00.003-06:00

A few weeks ago we spotted a scorpion and this time I was able to get a picture before Patrick flattened the scary thing. I had just finished clapping Azure's shoes together and Patrick spotted the scorpion scurrying for cover. I guess the scorpion was in a shoe again and good thing I was prepared for it this time!

3 quarters down, one to go

2008-04-04T14:45:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was the end of Azure's third quarter of school. Today we met with her teacher for a conference. Unlike the States, teacher conferences are mandatory at the end of each quarter. I like this method. We always have things to discuss with Azure's teachers!

For those interested, most of Azure's grades have gone up. Most importantly, she has been doing better in Spanish. Her teachers say she understands enough but needs to put her knowledge to use because she just doesn't want to speak Spanish (I wonder where she gets that from?) LOL!

Alll in all, things are good!

Field Trip

2008-04-03T14:21:00.001-06:00

Azure has a field trip today. Both 6th grade classes will be going to Los Chorros de Tacares. I can’t say I know anything about this location. I checked my Lonely Planet guide and there isn’t any information inside.

I do know they are going hiking then a picnic lunch and swimming in a river. Other than the two teachers, I’m not even sure if there will be other chaperones. But I trust that the kids will have fun! I like that the European School allows for frequent interesting and educational field trips. I think this will be her 6th field trip this school year including the Israel Museum and a working farm.

There is no way the public school system in Big Lake would permit so many field trips let alone a potentially unsafe one such as an unsupervised swim in a river!

The Big Lake Schools took the kids to the MN Zoo every spring as a special treat! Poor kids were divided into small groups of four per adult. The kids were told they needed to stay with the adult for the duration of the time at the zoo which amounted to less than 2 hours including lunch! They could have left earlier in the morning and spent more time at the zoo but decided against it for one reason or another –it probably cut into the total of the amount of time spent in class so they would be shy the allotted time they needed to get their federal funding or some nonsense (maybe they shouldn’t have had so many days off during the school year for supposed teacher workshops!). Anyway, Azure missed most of the animals at the zoo including the dolphin show because the mother she was assigned decided she would rather shop and eat ice cream in the food court! I don’t know why they didn’t give the kids some more freedom? They could have had an adult stationed at each area of the zoo and allow the kids to wander a bit more. But I guess I am too trusting…

All I have to say is that I am glad we left Minnesota!
and
Thank you European School for giving the students more responsibility!

Financial Advice for moving to Costa Rica from Patrick

2008-03-31T14:21:00.001-06:00

For those of you thinking of moving to Costa Rica, be advised that financially it is getting harder to live here. First, the US dollar is falling as a currency across most other currencies including the Costa Rican Colon. Since the Costa Rican’s tie their money to the US dollar in hopes of keeping the Colon stable, they are buying the excess US dollars in circulation causing inflation here. The government is reporting about 11-12% annual inflation but on some items it is closer to 20%. Last but not least, if your invested money is in the US, which should offer more stability, you have seen a fall in your portfolio value or you are locked in at 2.5%. So there are three things working against you on your potential move: the falling US dollar, inflation in Costa Rica, and a lower return on your investment. All of these might affect your standard of living in Costa Rica. These things may eventually change, but in the short term it could be a big concern.

Grocery store concierge

2008-03-28T14:04:00.001-06:00

Something I find funny here in Costa Rica is when you’re grocery shopping and women stand in the aisles and try to sell you certain products. Patrick used to always be convinced they were there as a form of theft prevention.

One day in December while in the Escazu Hipermas, I wanted to try some different coffee and two women were in the aisle pushing different brands. I had one brand in my hand but it seemed more expensive than other brands even though it was on sale. The woman trying to sell it only spoke Spanish and I didn’t care enough to try to translate so I politely ignored her. Another woman pushing a different brand spoke some English. She was more aggressive and eventually convinced me to buy the brand she was selling. I put back the original bag of the sale brand I had in my hand and grabbed two of the other brand.

When we left the coffee aisle, Patrick said the woman that couldn’t speak English was so upset I didn’t buy her brand of coffee that she was nearly in tears. I thought he was kidding but when we got home that afternoon he was snickering as he put the coffee away. I asked him what was so funny and he said he didn’t know why I didn’t just get that more expensive coffee so the woman wouldn’t be so upset. I was furious and feeling horrible because I really thought he was joking while we were at the store. If I knew I had made that woman cry, I would have at least bought one of each coffee.

I guess they must work on commission? Did I mention they sometimes give samples of alcohol in the middle of the weekday?

As a side note, after Patrick read this post he pointed out that he still thinks the women are there to prevent theft.

Playtime

2008-03-27T14:14:00.006-06:00

Patrick and I always try to coax Azure outside to play. She usually complains that it’s too hot (at 95 degrees this week I hardly blame her). But some days we are lucky enough to find something outside to interest her. Yesterday happened to be one of those happy days.

I noticed two walking sticks on the side of the guest house and knew immediately that Azure would love them. As soon as she arrived home, she rushed to grab them. I made her pose for a few photos and then she let them crawl all over her. I took a few more shots but they were quick devils! I hope the pictures give you an idea how large these things are here. I have seen walking sticks before but the one we found yesterday was gigantic. Plus, I’ve never seen a green one before. Azure said the green one was cooler because it felt squishy like a baggie full of Jell-O.

Sliding Gate Installed - New Gate Part Five (finally the conclusion!)

2008-03-24T14:09:00.002-06:00

We felt pretty silly (and even more unsecured!) having a new cement wall in front of our property for two weeks but still having a huge gap where anyone could walk or even drive right up to our home. After the crew finished the wall after the first week of work, we thought for sure our gate would be up quickly. We were dead wrong.

On the following Monday (the beginning of work week two), only two of the three men crew arrived. They spent the entire week building the side walls and then covering the cement block in a second cement coating for texture. The men kind of stalled toward the end of the week but we knew the money was coming out of our contractor’s pocket not ours since we were paying by the project not the hour. Friday around noon Enrique came by and inspected the work. He paid the two men and said he would be back on Sunday to install the actual gate which was fine by us since we had a school picnic to attend on Saturday. Please note that we had not paid Enrique a penny yet (we did pay for the supplies) although he paid his crew for two weeks worth of work!

Sunday went by with a no show from Enrique and finally Monday evening he arrived around 6PM with two of his sons. This surprised me since it gets dark here in Costa Rica by 6PM but I knew we had a streetlight right above our driveway which provided pretty good light. Around 9PM we started to become nervous that they were still out there welding and making various grinder noises since most of our neighbors (and even us) go to bed early on weeknights! Finally at 10PM, Patrick discreetly asked them to leave.

Enrique said he didn’t have much left to finish and he would return the next day by 2PM. Around 4PM Patrick told Enrique we really needed to leave so we could pick up Azure from soccer. He had mostly finished and actually gave us a set of keys for the gate. When we returned, Enrique was gone and I opened our new gate for the first time! How sweet and well worth the wait!

The following day Enrique arrived to pick up some of his tools and receive payment. I thought for sure he would change the amount due to him based on the length and added hassle of the project but Patrick said he paid him exactly the amount agreed upon. So, after four months of hoping to have a new wall and gate, the project was completed without too much stress –yeah right!

Oh, by the way, after the crew left and the project was “completed”. We spent a day cleaning up the mess. Supposedly their plan included throwing all the debris including old boards and left over cement into the river! Patrick told them we would handle the clean up “thank you”. We still don’t know where to take some of the refuse and looking at other homes that have been remodeling lately the common practice is to leave everything next to their home until “someone” takes it away.?

Notice in the photo that Patrick even sanded and painted the mailbox so it looks like new-thanks, sweetie!

Next step is painting the wall but we’re still indecisive about the color since typically the wall matches the house but we really don’t want pink!

Construction begins – New Gate Part Four

2008-03-19T06:37:00.007-06:00

Thursday afternoon before construction was scheduled to begin, Patrick and I haphazardly found our way to the correct “hardware store” to purchase the supplies for our new wall and gate. After we paid for everything, we needed to explain that we wanted everything delivered. We drew a map to our home and gave the cashier our contractor’s phone number. As we departed, the owner of the establishment approached us for more details about the delivery. After much discussion, I think I made it clear to him that he should call our contractor, Enrique, whom he assured us he knew. I guess everything worked out ok because Friday afternoon the hardware store dumped a load of rocks –one pile of small rocks and one pile of crushed rocks- in front of our driveway (as seen in photo). We heard the next load of supplies would be delivered Monday morning.

Bright and early Monday morning (7AM) Enrique arrived with his crew of three men! I expected two but maybe three meant the gate would be completed sooner. Patrick and I had spent a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday cutting back the garden and transplanting a few of the larger nicer plants. I guess we didn’t quite grasp the scope of the project because within a few hours of working on Monday the small crew had the entire garden ripped up and trenches dug so they could begin pouring cement. Oh well, I think roses are somewhat over-rated anyway (both photos show the pile of leaves that had once been in a nice garden).

The supplies were actually delivered by 8:30AM Monday morning (seemed unusual to me for an on time delivery!) and the guys made a ton of progress. The crew of three men (Enrique still had his other project to work on) worked daily from 7AM to approximately 5PM with an hour lunch and a couple short breaks in between. They had the entire wall built by the end of the week but no mention of the gate going up.

The only problem so far with the construction happened to be the destruction of the natural fence that already existed. We originally only asked Enrique’s crew to build a front wall since we had plenty of trees and flowers and barb wire fence on the sides. BUT because in the hacking of plants to build the wall the crew destroyed the natural fence and now we had six feet gaps on both sides of our property. This was not the security we were looking for at all! So, we spoke to Enrique and ended up purchasing more supplies and requiring his crew to build sides to the wall. In the end with the sides to the walls and repositioning of some plants and trees all worked out almost better than originally planned.

We still needed a front gate, though, so one last installment to this long story should provide my Mom with THE photo of the finished wall and gate she has been waiting so patiently to see!

Squirrel Shenanigans

2008-03-17T13:05:00.004-06:00

I’m interrupting my story about our new wall and gate (which I know must be killing my Mom since she’s dying to see photos – sorry Mom!) to wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

As many of you know, we have dozens of banana trees in our yard. We continue to cut bunches down but mostly the bunches of bananas on our trees tend to be too heavy for the trees and eventually the entire bunch falls or the tree tumbles (we’re talking at least 50 bananas per bunch). This tends to happen before the bananas are ripe so we have taken to leaving the unripe bananas under our car port to ripen. We hose down the bunch to ensure there are no spiders then cut the large bunch into smaller bunches of 5 or 6 bananas.

Several times we have been overwhelmed with too many ripe bananas at once so I would leave some out for the birds to enjoy. Eventually, the squirrels noticed all the bananas sitting around under the car port ready for the taking. We would wake in the morning to find an entire bunch of five or six bananas missing! At first we found this hilarious but as our banana supply would dwindle we decided we should hang some from the car port to keep the squirrels out. Besides, it’s not like we’re starving the squirrels since I watch them eat green bananas right from the tree all day long. They don’t really need to take our ripe bananas too!

Of course, being squirrels, they can’t be satisfied until they eat everything. In other words, the squirrels have figured out how to get into the hanging bags of bananas under the car port. Patrick and I have observed all their acrobatics from hanging upside down and grabbing from the top of the bag to jumping from a cross beam onto the bag in order to rip it and enjoy the entire bag’s contents!

Even though the squirrels can very entertaining - one day they even employed a diversion tactic! I watched one squirrel jump around from branch to branch while another swooped in from the other direction to jump at the bag of bananas! – I find I must often scare them to discourage them from eating my “special hoard”.

Darn squirrels! They have even started to fight back! One day they dropped an orange on Patrick’s head when he walked under a tree. Saturday they pelted the roof of the carport with pits from some unknown fruit. Patrick said next they’ll learn to use tools and then we’re really in trouble!

Paperwork - New Gate Part Three

2008-03-14T14:23:00.000-06:00

If you recall from the last post, an unknown man sauntered up our driveway and scared the bejeebers out of me. He seemed friendly enough with a huge smile on his face but I still didn’t appreciate the fact that he didn’t wait by the “gate” for us to walk down and meet him. So, who would do such a thing? The guy our friend, Rafael, sent by in early December to build our gate. It was now the beginning of February and he thought he would stop by with some other ideas for our wall and gate. How nice of him to think of us finally! Patrick told him we still weren’t interested in an electric gate and to please get us an estimate of costs.

By Friday of that week, Enrique (the contractor referred to us by our contact at Azure’s school, Bob) had gotten us an estimate which seemed reasonable. He said work could begin the following Monday and the work would take one week. We agreed to the terms and requested that we pay for the materials with our credit card and the balance in cash.

On Tuesday we realized the work on the gate would begin the following week because our contractor, Enrique, needed to file paperwork with the city of San Rafael to get a permit. Originally Enrique asked Patrick to fill out the paperwork and file everything himself. After discussing this with Bob, he agreed Enrique should file the paperwork since he understood the requirements more than us. Especially since we can’t read Spanish easily. Although, we were expected to come up with several official government papers we supposedly received after purchasing the house. It took us a while to sort everything out and we still aren’t positive we gave Enrique the correct papers since everyone we spoke to had a difference of opinion on what was mandatory, but we made several copies and handed them over. We did go to the local municipal building to try to get some of the official documents we needed but they handed us another pile of forms to fill out. Plus, on top of everything else, we needed a signature from an engineer. I thought that meant Enrique our contractor but Bob just laughed at the mention of that and said “engineers in this country don’t work. It is very hard to find an engineer.” Bob made some calls and informed us that his engineer would sign the paperwork for us and that Enrique would handle that for us also. Of course the engineer never had to see the project.

WHEW! What a hassle! After more conversations with Bob, he admitted that Enrique probably wouldn’t even submit the paperwork to get the permit. Bob told us that here in Costa Rica they don’t worry so much about permits. He said the municipality would probably never even notice and if they did all they could do was warn us the permit needed to be posted. He said that if that happens we should just say that the paperwork is already filed and everything was “in process”. If it came down to a fine, it would be no higher than 1% of the cost of getting the permit (in other words 50 cents!). Okay we can handle that so what’s the point of getting the permit?

Well, our gate is done and we still have no idea if Enrique ever did get the permit. BUT we did have an inspector stop by during the project and give us a five day notice. Again, Bob and Enrique told us not to worry because once work is completed here in Costa Rica the municipality can’t fine you for never filing for a permit. How ridiculous! No wonder this country has no money!

Finding a contractor -New Gate Part Two

2008-03-13T14:07:00.002-06:00

In late September we started discussing the necessity of a stronger gate but didn’t know how to go about the process of hiring someone. By late October we felt ready to invest in the gate so by early November we actually started talking to people about getting the right crew to build the wall and gate.

We don’t know that many people and our Spanish isn’t strong enough to fully understand everyone so this whole idea was easier said then done. We did ask our neighbors if they knew anyone to help but with no results. We asked a local Tico we met at Azure’s school, Rafael, and he said he knew a few good men and would send them over to discuss the project.

After 2 weeks and no show from the recommended Tico, Patrick again asked Rafael for a suggestion. Rafael assured us he knew another guy and would bring him by since he didn’t own a car. Another week went by and when quizzed, Rafael claimed he brought his friend by 3 times and we were never home. What? We are ALWAYS home unless taking Azure to and from school or picking up groceries. So, we made a definite plan for a date and time to meet his friend about the gate.

This time his friend showed up and actually took measurements. He said he would return the following day with an estimate. Of course he never showed. Later the next week we questioned Rafael and he said it was too close to Christmas and his friend would come by again after the holidays. Note that this was mid-December already –six weeks had past since we started looking for someone to build the wall and gate. We joked about it with our contact at Azure’s school (let’s call him Bob). Bob confirmed that no one ever wanted to work in December and probably someone would be able to help us in mid-January since that’s when bills were due again.

January 15th came and went with no one accepting our proposal to build a wall and gate. Finally in February, Bob said he knew a contractor that would probably agree to build our wall and gate. Bob knew this contractor could do the job right and would charge us fairly but he was already involved in a project. Bob would ask this contractor, Enrique, to see if he was interested. The next day, Bob told us Enrique would stop by at 6pm to discuss the logistics and costs.

Wow! Enrique really did show. He measured and discussed what we were interested in with Patrick. He said he would give us a quote the next day. The next day Patrick and I were sitting in the house enjoying a salad for lunch when a man walked up to the house and scared the heck out of me! Usually we hear when someone is by the gate at the lower house because they will holler up “UPE!” (anyone home?). This guy just hopped the gate and strolled right up the driveway!

Stay tuned for the next post to find out who our visitor turned out to be.

Choosing our new home - new gate part one

2008-03-12T11:40:00.003-06:00

I know those of you reading this post that knows anything about living in Costa Rica will find my next statement absurd. When choosing our home here in CR, I mostly declined to look at homes that were part of a gated community. I didn’t want to live in one of the new cookie cutter complexes and I didn’t (and possibly still don’t) see an advantage to having a guard shack only to allow every Tom, Dick, and Harry to drive through. It seems like a false sense of security when truly these neighborhoods seem to be the first ones targeted for theft. All Ticos know if you can afford to live behind a wall with a guard you obviously have something that would be worth stealing.

But the real reason I didn’t want to live in a gated community like most gringos and rich Ticos related to small yards and no privacy. I wanted a large yard with fruit trees and a sense of ownership. I wasn’t looking for a spectacularly large yard which would need to be maintained by gardeners or a tiny plot surrounded by a brick wall. I wanted something that I could fumble around in trying to learn how take care of the plants since I’ve never had a real garden before and I find fruit trees fascinating. I wanted a tropical feel to the yard not a manicured niceness. That’s just not me.

I spent hours and hours searching the internet and narrowing down our choices. We were looking for something “special” but yet affordable. Plus, all the schools we chose for Azure were in the Central Valley. I thought this task would be easy but it turned out I was wrong for several reasons. One reason being that most Ticos don’t list their home with a gringo therefore their home could not be found on the internet. Another reason related to one of our realtors not grasping our requirements for a home and he insisted on showing us homes in gated communities or ones with walls around a small yard. I’m sure he thought we were crazy (and maybe we are!). One last problem seemed to be timing. The real estate market here was/is on the upswing and people selling to gringos know they can ask more for their home than the gringos would pay (this is nothing new) but more gringos are moving here and prices were moving higher (that seems to be different again depending on the location of the home). So, a lot of the homes fitting our requirements were now out of our price bracket.

What is my point here? I found a home that would work (it’s not perfect so we’re already planning some remodeling) but our security factors are lacking. Our plot of land is literally wedged between two coffee plantations. It seems someone “dug” out a triangle which has high slopes on both sides. Our western plot line actually has a deep ditch which flows with water during rainy season while our eastern plot line is not so pronounced. But it does mean trying to access our property from the back or sides is not easy and even trickier during rainy season when the ground is slick. But the access from the front of the house at the driveway was hilarious. The previous owner had a small white fence (desperately in need of paint) with a tiny metal gate connecting the two sides with a chain and no lock. All you needed to do to access the house was step over the chain or if you wanted to drive up, unhook the clasp. Needless to say, after moving in we did not feel very safe. We would wake at all hours of the night to check noises certain someone wanted to rob us. The good part of the scenario is that we do not live near enough to town to make us a huge target since most gringos in our area live up a different hill altogether and they have target written all over them since there is even a country club up that way. BUT we know everyone is a target and determined to build a stronger gate to make us feel more secure.

See my next post for a follow up on the gate.

By the way, I LOVE my yard! Patrick doesn’t like the fact that it’s on a hill which makes it difficult to mow and not much flat area so we can’t play Frisbee. But boy do we have fruit trees.

Spring has sprung

2008-03-10T14:14:00.004-06:00

I admit I still don’t quite grasp this season thing here in Costa Rica. Everyone refers to the current season as summer. Now I do understand that this is the dry season as opposed to the rainy season but that still doesn’t translate for me. Let me explain why.

Last year in October I posted how it felt like fall. The weather turned a bit cooler and the leaves on the trees started turning color and falling gently to the ground. Just like Fall back in Minnesota. Now don’t get me wrong, the daytime temperature still hovered in the 70’s and at the same time some of the trees in our yard were losing their leaves others were budding (but I think that may be due to the fact that the caterpillars ate all their leaves –I’ll fill you in on that phenomena in another post).

So, on to my point. This entire week has so felt like spring I’m just a “smiley button” as Patrick puts it. We received a few light rains this week and two full inches on Wednesday afternoon. The mornings have been gorgeous. I generally sit outside and read in the mornings but this week I have been busy trying to identify the new bird songs and catching glimpses of birds mating (including owls and hummingbirds). All the trees in the yard are budding, flowering, or fruiting. Even the coffee plants flowered into a beautiful white “puffball” which made the fields around us look like it had snowed (top photo). Plus we have been noticing more/different butterflies floating around.

Spring never held the appeal for me that fall offered while in the States because I enjoyed the color of the leaves and spring always meant dirty puddles of melted snow. But this year I’d have to say that this has been my favorite spring and I am happy it’s not over yet especially given that the rainy season will be upon us soon and I can start planting more flowers in my gardens.

Uninvited visitor

2008-03-07T14:27:00.005-06:00

Late yesterday afternoon Patrick and I heard a loud sound which seemed to have occurred right outside the living room window. Since moving here, we have become accustomed to strange sounds but we still check into the source and besides this one definitely was peculiar.

Patrick offered to do the “walkabout”. Our version of walking the yard to see what we find. Several minutes later he hollered in through the window “you have to come out here AND bring your camera”. I love hearing that familiar yell. It’s becoming a hobby in the family to find something odd or fun to watch.

At first I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Then Patrick tells me to look under the chair. OMG!

I snapped some quick photos and then informed Azure she wouldn’t want to miss this one. When she ran out we told her to make sure she had her glasses on.

She begged us to hold the enormous toad. At first we figured it probably wasn’t a good idea but eventually she wore us down.

She played with her new “pet” for at least 30 minutes before we insisted she finish her homework. She begged to keep him but of course we said a firm “NO!”.

He’s no where to be seen today but he’s definitely invited back anytime!

See what happens when I don't watch!

2008-03-05T12:13:00.005-06:00

Patrick and I both miss watching our favorite sporting events. Those of you who don't know us have no idea the magnitude of our love for sports. I am literally a fanatic not just a fan.

I missed the entire football season which makes me feel even worse about hearing the news. Yes, I heard Brett Favre retired. I guess I shouldn't be surprised but I am VERY happy he went out on a high note.

Anyway, if you are reading this Brett (and I know you are) just a reminder that you are welcome to stay in our guest house while contemplating your next move.

Go Pack!

Expenses

2008-03-03T14:12:00.000-06:00

Since my last post related to paying our water and electric bill, Patrick felt this next post should pertain to our monthly expenses. I know we live frugally so this won’t relate to everyone living in Costa Rica but this will at least give readers another perspective.

food - $300
water and electric - $50
gasoline- $80
property taxes - $18
private school $400
car insurance $50

Our taxes are based on the last bill we paid of $106 in January and the registrar told us our next payment would be in June. Now I have to admit we are not quite clear on how taxes work here since our receipt says we paid the first trimester although everyone we speak to about taxes claim they are quarterly. While still in the States, our realtor contacted us explaining that the seller asked us to pay our portion of last years taxes which were due in June -our portion being $15 for half of May and all of June (presumably). Then when we arrived in July, both our realtor and our lawyer said our next tax payment would be in September and we should just go to the municipality and pay them. We made a payment of approximately $76 in late September and then in the beginning of October received a bill stating taxes of $60 something was owed by October 31st. After consulting our lawyer again, she stated that the bill was probably printed before we paid our taxes and she was pretty sure based on our receipt that we had paid all of 2007 property taxes. Well, we never followed up and still don’t know if the taxes we paid this year included a penalty from last year or if our taxes just increased that much more. Whatever since they are still cheap!

Back to monthly expenses, our food bill of $300 really is an accurate figure but we know most gringos spend more than us. We have a very limited diet and I am trying very hard to keep a $10 per day spending limit. Keep in mind, though, that Azure gets lunch at school everyday but Wednesday and Patrick and I generally have leftovers for lunch.
Also, we try to stick to local products and avoid most imports to keep costs low.

So there you have it, a monthly spending total of $898 which includes everything since we have no phone, cable, or internet. Is this impressive or what?

Paying water and electric bills

2008-02-27T11:58:00.001-06:00

I love the process of paying bills here in Costa Rica. I guess when you only receive one bill a month it’s not so bad. Well, actually we receive two water and electric bills since we own two houses on separate meters but they arrive on the same day so I sometimes consider it only one bill.

Like almost everything else in Costa Rica, the water and electric company is run by the government. We receive our bills in what I assume is our mailbox (a little black metal “box” with a rusty door at the bottom) but since we have never seen a mailperson in our area we aren’t quite sure mail delivery is an option in our neighborhood. Anyway, the bill generally covers 28 days of service and for both houses our highest total in charges has been this past month for a cost of $54!

So, onto paying the bill. I know it’s possible to pay online but since we don’t have internet service this seems like a ridiculous process for us. We prefer the “in person” payment method. Payment made simple means when we go to one of our larger grocery stores like AutoMercado or Pali we just hand the bill to the cashier and it’s handled immediately. Mas X Menos stores have a separate window for payments which can be easier if timed right but sometimes the lines outweigh the benefit.

For Life in the Slow Lane, I am shocked at the ease of payment. Way to go Costa Rica!

Car accident confusion

2008-02-25T14:05:00.001-06:00

Last night there was a car accident on the hill outside our house. This happens to be the third one since we moved in and all have been only fender benders and seem silly. Let me explain.

In Costa Rica when you hit someone’s car, the law states you must leave the cars where they stopped and wait there until the police arrive. This seems logical enough except when you consider the implications.

Each accident near us occurred after dark but quite early in the evening –usually around 7pm. The first accident didn’t cause nearly the commotion as the following two but each consecutive accident literally stopped traffic.

Last months incident probably involved a drunk driver since the car heading west took the blind turn wide and tagged the car heading east going up the hill. Considering the location of the cars after the accident, I was shocked no one else hit the parked cars especially after they turned off their lights! With no street lights nearby, the cars were almost impossible to see until right next to them. I couldn’t understand why they didn’t at least use their flashers. Then about 30 minutes later the police showed up and eventually even they turned off their lights! In the mean time, cars would fly up and down the road notice the accident at the last possible second then slam on their brakes and slowly drive into the ditch past the two cars and continue on their way. I kept thinking how lucky those passing drivers were to be able to use the new concrete ditch to be able to get past the accident. Patrick and I chuckled at the stupidity of the accident victims and the police for not leaving their lights on but all worked out ok in the end.

Last night’s incident took the cake. The cars must not have believed the sign stating the bridge was narrow because neither vehicle appeared to stop to let the other pass (the bridge is only wide enough for a single car and cars headed west are supposed to yield). They hit on the west side of the bridge. After we noticed traffic stopped for 15 minutes, cars began to back up and head back the direction they had come. I’m not sure where they went since our road happens to be the only one I know of that goes east/west for miles. Anyway, an hour later and the police still had not arrived. Patrick noticed a bus parked at the top of the hill and several minutes later huge groups of people were walking down one hill across the bridge and up the other hill presumably to catch another bus on the other side since their bus had no way to continue on its route. Soon I noticed a car passing the accident victims on the north side of the road. I was certain the car would get stuck since the ditch on that side happens to be very deep. Somehow the car completed the pass and more cars followed. Now the lines of cars on both side of the bridge seemed long but at least they figured a way around the vehicles. Another bus came down the hill and I felt compelled to watch even though I had a bad feeling the driver couldn’t make the pass. Moments later the driver put on his flashers and started to back up the hill in the direction he had come. I knew he couldn’t make that pass but backing up the hill didn’t seem like the best idea either. Two hours later, the police finally showed. Immediately the owners of the cars pulled over to the side of the road. Traffic started flowing almost normally again. I’m not sure how long they stayed there since I finally went to bed but I did see and hear a group of men pushing a jeep up the hill as a tow truck flew past with no intention of stopping to help. I don’t know why the police took so long to get here and I never will since there is no communication regarding local news in this country (that I know of anyway).

As far as the law to leave the cars exactly where they are after an accident, it’s not clear how that helps the police. It’s not like I ever see them taking photos or anything. When we were in St. Petersburg, Russia we observed the police measuring skid marks after an accident. Now that makes sense. But here it seems like people do it for no apparent reason. Especially when there is only one government run insurance agency and most drivers don’t even own insurance in the first place!

Photos -ditch upgrade

2008-02-21T08:02:00.005-06:00

I intended to add photos to yesterdays blog about the ditch upgrade but I experienced laptop problems. So, here's what you missed.
Here's the ditch and cut line.

As you can see, this new culvert already has become a garbage dump of sorts. How will this help the run-off?

Update to our ditch upgrade

2008-02-20T12:07:00.002-06:00

Soon after the completion of the ditch upgrade, a manager of the project stopped by to speak to us. He explained that they would be ripping up our driveway to place a new wider culvert underneath. I immediately worried we would be stuck either in or out of our driveway since I know that government workers here don’t tend to be in a hurry to complete their work. The manager assured us they would be completed in one day.

The following week they started work (on a Monday). They seemed to work quickly and I thought they may actually finish in a day. Every time we wanted to leave or enter the driveway, the crew would move all their equipment to make room for us. They did have the tube placed in a day (Tuesday) but the entire project took four days.

The very first day, they dug some big holes and severed our water line. Water sprayed everywhere. I kept waiting for them to fix the leak but no one seemed to care. I managed to calm down since we still had running water and we determined the leak was not affecting our water meter so the city was taking a beating but we weren’t paying. They actually left the cut line as is, over night. Something else I found odd was that this was not a pipe like I would expect to see in the States but a black plastic tube about 1 ½ inches wide.

Tuesday morning I watched as a couple guys jumped into the hole which had filled ankle deep in water and attempt to stop the leak. I don’t know what they did or if they even fixed the leak, but soon the front end loader brought the cement tube for the new culvert. They had it placed and covered by the end of the day. Wednesday and Thursday they spent connecting the new cement ditch (which I described in an earlier blog) to the new culvert and finishing off the unfinished west side of the culvert using wood forms.

Late Thursday afternoon after picking Azure up at school we noticed we didn’t have any water! The entire crew had already left for the day. We weren’t pleased but the water at the lower level house still worked. We figured they had actually shut off the water at the meter to complete their work and then forgot to turn it back on.

Friday morning none of the crew showed up to the house as usual. We wanted our water turned back on so Patrick walked up the hill to hunt them down figuring they had returned to finish the upper portion of the ditch. Sure enough, he found the crew and explained we had no water. Of course, they didn’t seem surprised! Patrick waited while one of the crew workers called the city water and electric company to report the problem. The crew worker mentioned it was an emergency and then wrote a report number down for Patrick so he would know the city had the problem logged.

We waited all morning and part of the afternoon until we realized no one would be coming to turn the water on. We decided to take the matter into our own hands and go directly to the water company. Unfortunately, it wasn’t located where I thought I had seen the building. We stopped in town to speak to one of the gringos we know thinking we would get directions. He actually had a better solution for us. He described to Patrick how to make a “key” so Patrick would be able to open the cement closure covering our water meter and then turn our water back on by ourselves. He said people here do it all the time. Besides, our water happened to be off by mistake not because we weren’t paying our bill.

Once we arrived back home, Patrick immediately found a piece of rebar he could bend into a “key”. He pulled off the cement piece over the meter and the two of us tested the on/off situation of the meter. Unfortunately again, we determined the meter was on and that our lack of water at the main house must be a severed line. Just our luck. We waited out the rest of Friday and still no one from the water company showed up.

By Saturday, we were all tired of using the lower house to shower and wash dishes. The worst part of the misfortune of having our water turned off occurred in the middle of the night when I had to use the toilet at the lower house. I know we were lucky enough to have any water and I shouldn’t complain but since the city screwed up and should fix the situation I became determined to make them resolve the problem.

At 10am Patrick and I walked next door and asked our neighbors to call the water company for us explaining we had been out of water since Thursday. Vicky called them and after only a few minutes on the phone told us the water company would be right over. Well, we’re in Costa Rica so we knew “right over” meant maybe by Monday. :-)

Fifteen minutes later we were shocked to see a water and electric truck in our driveway! Patrick discussed the work crew and subsequent leak with the lead man and the other two men started to dig. We know they were not happy to be digging at 11am on a Saturday but by noon they had the problem solved and our water restored.

Azure wasn’t completely happy because she arrived at her friend’s party almost an hour late but we had water again and who could complain about that? So, the moral of the story, if you want something done right, ask a woman!

Scorpion Sightings

2008-02-14T07:56:00.001-06:00

I have read many people’s blogs stating that they have problems with ants and spiders in their home. Most people even mention a scorpion or two. I had never seen a real scorpion before so I wasn’t sure what to expect- I only know they are dangerous. One evening shortly after the dry season began in December, I witnessed this tiny little thing running across our patio. I followed it trying to get a better look until it scurried into a crack in the cement. I became excited and told Azure and Patrick how tiny the thing was and mentioned I thought looked like a scorpion but I thought it would be larger.

A few nights later, Patrick found a much larger scorpion outside under the car port. He smacked it with his shoe and showed me but it was quite dark. We decided to leave it there and inspect it further in the morning. That turned out to be a bad plan. By morning, the only thing left of the scorpion appeared as a shadow that the ants left behind. The ants completely devoured the scorpion over night.

Several weeks later, my Mom and brother came to visit. My mom happens to be slightly squeamish so we didn’t want to tell her about the scorpions until after we picked her up at the airport. We figured we should at least warn her to keep an eye out just in case because I’m always of the philosophy better safe than sorry. She didn’t seem too shocked about scorpions in the area so we left it at that.

The next morning, we prepared to leave for an outing to Britt Café. I put on my most comfortable walking shoes and while tying the laces noticed something black sticking out of the tongue of the shoe. Nothing felt out of the ordinary, but I am pretty particular about tying my shoes tightly so I decided to take the shoe off and find out what object impeded my shoe laces. Next thing you know I am screaming as I realize a scorpion just fell out of my shoe. I jump around and Patrick whacks the thing. It all happened so quickly that I don’t know how large of a scorpion almost stung me but it sure appeared to be the largest one I’ve ever seen. Of course everyone laughs and says “oh, so that’s what we do if we find a scorpion!” Ha ha.

Since that day, we are all vigilant about checking our shoes before we put them on. I’ve seen a few more scorpions in the house but the good news to point out is that they always seem slow and easy to kill. Also, we verified that Costa Rica does not have any dangerous scorpions –nothing fatal anyway.

I found this remedy for a scorpion sting on a website that I thought would be good to share:

Make a paste from water and baking soda on a soft cloth or kleenex, apply it firmly to the sting and leave it on for 30 minutes to an hour. It will stop the stinging and itching and draw the venom out -- you will see a yellow spot of venom in the soda when you remove the patch. This works for wasp, yellowjacket and non-poisonous scorpion stings."

I haven’t had the need to try this out yet but I will let everyone know if I do and if it works.

Rainbows

2008-02-11T14:41:00.000-06:00

Have you ever seen it rain while the sun shines? We are lucky lately to experience days like this a lot during the “dry” season. The most unusual part is there isn’t a cloud in the sky. Granted the rain is more like a light mist which Patrick describes as wispy snow. But the best part would be the beautiful rainbows!

Wish I had a photo :-(

Passing Parrots

2008-02-08T14:36:00.000-06:00

One of the first things I noticed when I moved to Costa Rica was the huge flocks of birds flying over our property. They were hard to miss since the birds constantly made so much noise you could hardly hear the person next to you speak. Sometimes these flocks consisted of well over 50 birds.

One day I finally was able to get a good look at one of the birds in the flock and was surprised to see that it was bright green. I immediately knew it was a parrot and began to hope that they would land in our trees so I could get a closer look. Several weeks later I received my wish and boy was it something. Green parrots everywhere. They blended right into the background of our “jungle” but I did get a few pictures. The flock ate their fill of fruit and haven’t been back since.

Update to leaf cutter ants

2008-02-06T12:16:00.000-06:00

During our break, we were able to find more information regarding leaf cutter ants. We queried a scientist at INBIO Park and a naturalist at the Rain Forest Aerial Tram. The scientist at INBIO explained that leaf cutter ants as a whole are indestructible. The only way to wipe them out would be to kill the queen but since she is hidden in the nest that would be impossible (I knew this already). Basically he said the only way to keep the ants from a garden area would be to create a moat around the garden. I don’t think I want to go to that extreme but I will keep it in mind. According to the naturalist, ants use a sense of smell to find their way around. I used this information along with something I read previously about them not liking citrus to come up with a new plan. I cut a lime in half and simultaneously squeezed and scraped the lime along the bark of a tree the ants had been destroying. I made an entire circuit around the tree trunk heavily spreading both the juice and pulp everywhere –it took to limes. The ants immediately became lost going back up the tree instead of down. By the next day the ants were gone entirely. It’s been two weeks since I spread the lime juice and I haven’t seen any ants on the tree since. Patrick says it’s a fluke but I plan to try this process on another tree this week. It can’t hurt, right?

Coffee Picking Season

2008-02-01T14:26:00.000-06:00

I really enjoy learning about traditions in other countries and one that happens to be close at hand here in Costa Rica is the coffee picking season. The season begins around November and continues through February for most plantation owners although we learned that those plantations at higher altitudes can extend the season until May.

Before we had moved to our new home, the only thing I knew about coffee I learned from reading the labels on all the different brands I bought and watching a special on the Discovery Channel. Being here in Costa Rica and living amongst the coffee fields, I now understand a whole lot more but I still feel I have a ton more to learn.

Towards the end of October, I became anxious to see the coffee pickers in action. Every time we would be near a coffee field I would stare at the beans and wonder when they would be red. I know that only the red beans are considered ripe but the beans in our area never seemed to turn red. Most appeared to still be green while a few would be yellow.

I don’t think I am exaggerating when I say that on early morning on November 1st I heard singing and family chatter outside our bedroom window. I looked outside to see an entire family in the coffee field. A father, mother, and two young children were walking between the plants. While the parents picked beans, the children would run around and play. They weren’t there long, for as I said not many beans were ripe.

As November progressed I began to see trucks full of people driving past the house in the morning and then back again in the afternoon. I knew these people must be picking coffee somewhere but still didn’t see them in the fields next to us. I wish I had a picture to post of these trucks full of people but I never happen to have my camera in hand when I see them. They are quite a sight to see, though. Imagine a truck with a large back end and fencing around the sides. Now fill that truck full of people usually packed in like sardines. Now imagine seeing trucks similar to this one several times a day (one day we even saw one in a downpour and the people wore everything from nice raincoats to garbage bags). Also picture these same trucks late in the day filled with coffee beans. Amazing!

Eventually one day, the entire field next to us teamed with pickers of all ages (Patrick said kids are allowed to pick at age twelve but some parents bring younger kids and allow them to play as I mentioned before). I enjoyed watching them pick. Some obviously handled the plants much quicker than others. The faster pickers used one hand to hold the plant sideways while the other hand would fly through the branches pulling all the beans into their basket. Others seemed to use both hands to pick. The baskets they used generally were ordinary laundry baskets tied around their necks and/or waists. Then we would watch some of them hike up the hill to another field possibly to pick more or to get paid for their baskets. All the pickers also carried a bag of one sort another presumably full of their clothes since the majority of pickers in Costa Rica come here from Nicaragua.

We personally have coffee plantations on two sides of our property and the pickers have been to both fields several times now. Each time they come only some of the beans are ripe so the process takes several trips to each field. As a matter of fact, the field to the east of us was being picked this morning. They started around 6AM and seemed to be finished by 9AM. I never know quite how many pickers there are at any given time but each time they’ve picked they have been done by noon.

I find it quite interesting that the pickers always seem to be happy. They sing loudly, whistle while they work, and joke and laugh with one another. It always makes me giggle. Anyway, I’m glad to see them smiling even at the end of the day they will wave to me from the truck as they pass. I’m sure it’s not the best job in the world but they are with their family so things could be worse!

I really didn’t want to pry and take pictures of the families picking but one day a young boy thought he was being wickedly funny by throwing handfuls of green coffee beans onto the roof of the lower house. The sound of beans hitting the tin roof echoed throughout the valley. He and his buddy would laugh and throw another handful. But since no one lives there I guess the joke was on them. Also, since the young boy didn’t mind being destructive, I felt okay about sneaking photos of him while I stood on the balcony watching him throw the beans. Eventually his buddy noticed me taking photos and the boy started making rude gestures but since I have pictures to capture the event, I think I got the last laugh…

San Jose's Traditional Tope

2008-01-30T12:07:00.000-06:00

I’m not sure what I expected but ever since I read about San Jose’s Traditional Tope (horse parade) I was determined to attend. The event takes place every year on the 26th of December. Perfect I figured, since we had no plans for Christmas.

Since I wanted to avoid driving downtown and possible huge crowds with no idea where to park, we decided to ride the bus into San Jose. The scheduled start time for the parade happened to be noon. Like typical Americans, we thought we should be early to get a good spot on the parade route. We drove to the Flores mall and left our car. After asking 3 bus drivers if they were driving past La Sabana Parque and having all 3 drivers say yes but passengers tell us no, we finally felt confident we chose the correct bus when a large group of people carrying tiny plastic stools and small coolers jumped on our bus 3 stops later. We arrived downtown even earlier than planned sometime before 11AM.

After grabbing a huge orange juice from the AM/PM, we found a spot on the road right next to the rope and approximately 4 blocks from La Sabana Park which the papers claimed was the beginning spot of the parade. So, picture us camped out on a blanket next to a roped off area of Paseo Colon (a major thoroughfare downtown San Jose) waiting for the start of some strange parade with buses and other traffic flying by us missing our feet sometimes by what seemed like less than 12 inches. The diesel fumes were starting to choke us when the police finally blocked the entire street to all traffic.

Hooray, the parade must be starting, right? People started filling in the gaps around us. Vendors of all sorts were yelling or ringing bells to draw attention to their products- everything from homemade chips to sunglasses (but no drinks!). We felt like the only parents not buying something for our kid. Strange because I really thought we were getting away from consumerism by moving to Costa Rica! Most kids had an icee in one hand and a bag of chips in the other. The mother next to us bought her toddler a cowboy hat and a tiny horse on a stick. I finally caved and gave Azure some coins to buy an ice cream bar.

Anyway, around 1pm I began getting anxious for the darn parade to start! For the past two hours, we had been watching the comings and goings of the BCR (Bank Costa Rica) parade organizers. They were trying to line up groups of cowboys with a banner in front of them declaring their title. One block down, a semi-truck blasting bass oriented dance music sat ready to pull a float with scantily clad girls advertising one of the local beers(see photo). Family men of all sorts ogled the women and snapped pictures. I just couldn’t wait for the thing to pass us.

Finally, the groups of horses began to move. Only the more they moved the more crowded the area became. The organizers weren’t doing a good job of pacing the riders so more and more headed forward until there was no where for them to go. The horses began to spook. Then one of them pooped next to us and started to prance around in the mess. The next thing you know, we were sprayed in horse dung.
We decided to move back to the sidewalk and immediately a family behind us moved forward. Why would they put themselves in jeopardy? At that point I thought for sure someone would be stampeded and then the real disaster would start.

After another 15 minutes we decided to move down the street toward the park thinking we would avoid the peril. Only to have several riders jump the curb and come directly toward us! Wow! We knew we had a enough and headed back toward the bus stop. I do admit if we ever go back to that parade, the safest area seems to be directly across from La Sabana park but I think we encountered enough excitement to last a few years. Maybe if we have company we’ll take them to enjoy the fiasco!

Long Break

2008-01-28T14:54:00.000-06:00

I never intended to stop writing this blog. It just became more difficult while Azure enjoyed her “summer break”. She’s back in classes now so I will continue updating this blog. First I will try to catch everyone up on all our excitement over break and then I will fit back into a regular groove again.

My next entry will cover the San Jose Tope. Then I have updates to the ditch story and the leaf cutter ants. Also, we explored more of Costa Rica during a visit my Mom and brother made earlier this month. So, I do have plenty of stories to tell.

For now, I’ll leave you with a photo taken Christmas Eve. Our Christmas here in Costa Rica turned out to be peaceful but slightly boring. We’re so used to spending Christmas with my enormous family that it seemed odd to be on our own this year. I guess the most important thing for us happened to be that Santa found our new home. It could have been disastrous otherwise because Patrick and I didn’t do much Christmas shopping (we didn’t get each other anything since we don’t need anything and only bought 3 small things for Azure). Since imports are taxed heavily, we designed wrapped file cards for Azure which described her future presents to be purchased while in Florida next trip. It all turned out ok…

Ditch upgrade or disaster?

2007-12-21T11:38:00.000-06:00

The past few weeks we’ve had a crew of men working on the ditch that goes past our lower house and heads into the river at the bottom of the hill. At first Patrick and I sort of panicked. We weren’t exactly sure what the crew had planned since it appeared that they were just adding a driveway into the coffee field. We were thinking someone had purchased the land and intended to turn it into a huge condo project since there would be amazing views of the valley and San Jose.

Then the crew headed further up the hill - first framing then filling the entire ditch with concrete. Friday night Patrick and I took a walk up and around the hill to check the progress of the crew. They had a few frames filled with concrete but most of the top of the hill appeared to be big massively deep holes. There seemed to be no real way the water would rush from the top of the hill through the newly created triangular concrete ditch. Most likely what will happen will be the water at the top of the hill will pool up in the deep holes and then overflow and rush everywhere but the newly intended culvert.

The really sad thing about this entire project would be the fact that the rain water flowed fine on our side of the river. The real problem was on the other side of the bridge. The ditches on that side were collapsing and the water wasn’t flowing into the river fast enough so the water would pool up and start to flood the bridge. The neighbors on the other side of the bridge were always trying to dig the ditch deeper and remove all the big stones.

Hopefully this project doesn’t screw up the water flow badly enough that it causes a flood at our lower level house. And hopefully for our neighbors’ sake, the city fixes the other side soon!

Fingers crossed!

I loathe leaf cutter ants!

2007-12-12T12:14:00.000-06:00

The first time I visited Costa Rica I found the leaf cutter ants amazing. The second time I visited C.R., I found a huge trail of the ants in Manuel Antonio National Park and found them amusing. Sometime after that, Patrick and Azure watched a show about leaf cutter ants on Discovery Channel and explained to me how these miracle ants take the pieces of leaves they cut back to their ant hill and use the pieces to make a fungus which they then live on for years. Patrick also said the scientists researching these ants found that their ant hills are actually massive. They poured cement into one ant civilization and continued to pour until they used tons of cement. It cured to the size of most people’s living rooms. Huge!

According to this show, these ants are important to the eco-system. I’m all for that but since I’ve been living in Costa Rica, I believe these little things are one of the most destructive things I’ve come across. They tore into my lower front garden a few months ago and stripped the whole thing bare. I definitely was not happy about this situation but I focused my attention on the upper garden and hoped that the lower garden would grow back by the time I wanted to start showing it some affection. Eventually, the lower garden did grow back and maybe even looked better than before so I happily ignored the ants. Big mistake!

These ants came back with a vengeance about a month later. The lower garden has not even been able to recoup since then. Each time a leaf grows back an ant is waiting to haul it away.

Yesterday I pointed out to Patrick an old rose bush in the front yard that I have been trying to “save”. Stunning red leaves covered the stems and the beginnings of buds peeked out. I was proud of my effort and gardening skills. Only, later the same afternoon, the entire bush had been stripped bare by leaf-cutter ants. I’m so peeved!

Then Azure noticed more leaf cutter ants carrying flower petals and stems through my newly planted upper flowerbed! Luckily, the flowers in that bed are too young and the ants are just marching thru instead attacking some plants somewhere under the car port and in the ditch. Whew!

I’ve done some research on the internet trying to find some suggestions on how to get rid of these pests. Unfortunately, no one has reliable information except for some organic pesticide I haven’t found here that uses citrus juice. Using the citrus juice theory, I started cutting limes in half and juicing them near the ants but it only causes a slowdown for a short period of time then they are back to full force garden demolition.

Can someone please help me with ideas to destroy these ants?!?

Cheap Date

2007-12-10T14:04:00.000-06:00

I’m not surprised to find that Costa Rica has plenty of Christmas events. We took advantage of this (and socialistic government which supports the arts) and thoroughly enjoyed going to the National Theater Sunday to see the Nutcracker Ballet.

I read about the performance in last weeks Tico Times and looked forward to seeing the ballet again since I just finished reading the original Nutcracker story by E.T.A. Hoffmann. After some persuasion, Patrick agreed to drive us to San Jose and attend the ballet. So, I logged onto the Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica’s website Thursday with Azure only to find our favorite seats already taken. No surprise there but I made Azure believe we weren’t going (I can be such a sneaky mom) and then logged back on Friday morning and purchased three tickets.

I am happy to report that the theater’s website works great and makes purchasing tickets easy. The site shows a seating chart and marks seats sold in one color and seats available in another. You can scroll over a seat to see the price of the ticket then click on the seat you want to purchase. Then you enter your info and the site gives you a receipt. Actually two receipts since one if for your purchase and one is from the theater.

When we arrived at the theater on Sunday before the performance, there was a separate table with two people checking id’s and receipts then passing out pre-paid tickets. The whole process was extremely simple and the best part of the deal was that they didn’t charge any service fees. The site doesn’t allow for any discounts which meant we paid full price for Azure’s ticket but since tickets are cheap in the first place and with no service fees it still beat driving down to San Jose to buy tickets in person!

So to wrap up, we enjoyed the Costa Rica children’s ballet company perform with the Cuban Ballet company for a total of 6000 colones (just over $12). Plus $2 parking and $5 for three slices of pizza and strawberry drinks means we had a great day on the town for under $20! I love Costa Rica!

Still no white sheets

2007-12-07T14:36:00.000-06:00

Just a quick update to my previous white sheet story. Azure's soccer game was canceled again. What does this have to do with white sheets. Well, nothing except Azure's teacher has French classes Tuesday afternoons and we had planned to speak to her after the game which would coincide with the end of French. Since there was no game, we couldn't speak to her teacher. Anyway, Heredia's central market happened to be the teacher's recommended spot to buy sheets. Patrick and I headed over there Wednesday morning. We walked the entire market twice - no sheets in sight. We finally ended up buying two meters of white fabric which cost us about $4.

Azure said that only one student actually brought a sheet on Thursday. Everyone else had fabric or nothing. Azure's piece of fabric worked out well because she only needed half and she shared the other half with a student in her class.

Who buys white sheets?

2007-12-04T15:32:00.000-06:00

Azure’s school will be performing a play next week based on a book they have been reading about African Folklore. She doesn’t have a big part but is excited to be playing a king.

Sunday evening she told me she needed a white sheet that she planned to cut a hole in the middle so she could wear it as a tunic. She also informed me she would be painting designs on the sheet.

First of all, I don’t have any plain white sheets. Next, even if I did, I wouldn’t want her cutting a hole in it for a play that will last about 10 minutes. So, I sent her to school with the next best thing. I had an old fitted sheet that happens to be white with some large light blue flowers on it. Then I reconsidered and told her I didn’t want her to look silly. Azure agreed that she didn’t want to ruin a new white sheet and the one I sent with her would be fine.

Unfortunately, her teacher didn’t see it the same way we did and yelled at Azure. So, Patrick and I spent a few hours this morning shopping for a plain white sheet. I’m sure part of the problem is that we are unsure where locals would buy such a thing but the problem we are running into seems quite reasonable. Who wants white sheets when they can have beautiful ones that match their bedroom décor?

So, we’re off to speak to the teacher about not having a plain white sheet. Wish us luck!

Government Lawn Mowers

2007-11-30T14:42:00.000-06:00

The purpose of today’s post happens to be more of a observation Patrick and I have made which compares and contrasts our old life to our new one.

When we lived in Minneapolis as owners of a house in the city, we were required by law to maintain our front sidewalk and gutter area. This meant mowing in the summer and shoveling in the winter and ensuring none of the lawn clippings, snow, or other debris ended up in the gutters. As a matter of fact, after living there a few years, the city started charging us (everyone) a city sewer few based on the size of our driveway (this was separate from our typical sewer usage few) to cover the expenditure of added debris in the sewer system. How rude!

In Big Lake, we lived in a subdivision without sidewalks or extra fees.

This morning we Patrick and I heard a loud whirring noise (like a chainsaw) coming from the area of our lower house. We headed up to the balcony to take a look. From that vantage point we could see four city workers with weed eaters cutting down everything and anything in site. This is the third time they have been in our neighborhood trimming our front drive. At first I thought it seemed crazy that the city does this for us, but I’m starting to warm to the idea. If they charge us for this service, I have yet to see the bill.

We have paid our taxes for the year and I’ll try to remember to cover that in a later post.

Frantic Friday - Part Two – OR- Where’s Azure?

2007-11-29T14:43:00.001-06:00

Recap: We decided to go shopping in Escazu before Azure’s soccer game. We arrived at the school 30 minutes early to find the school closed and the gates locked. Holy …. Where is Azure?

Patrick resolves the car alarm problem but by this time he is starting to unravel. We explicitly told Azure we would meet her at Blue Valley school and not to accept a ride with anyone (the school hires a bus to take the kids to their games and they must take the bus even if their parents plan to attend the game).

I walk confidently into the indoor soccer area and ask some kids if they speak English. They point to a woman who appears to be setting up for a party. I ask her if she knows anything about a game between Blue Valley and European Schools. She confirms that she is setting up for her son’s birthday party and she doesn’t know anything about a school game. She shrugs and directs us back to the first indoor soccer place we had stopped at with sincere apologies that she couldn’t help.

By now Patrick is in a tizzy. I’m actually trying to stay calm. I keep thinking to myself that I have been in this situation before – some sort of déjà vu. We head back to the first indoor soccer place thinking we should check it out since we never did go inside. There are a group of guys conversing with the security guard so I explain our situation to them and ask if they have any ideas of other places the girls could be playing soccer. They tell us the indoor soccer place we are standing next to closed but one guy thinks there is another one about half mile down the road. Patrick and I have doubts but at this point we have no choice but to check.

Of course we never found the place down the road. Patrick is panicking. He doesn’t know how we will ever find Azure. Maybe there is a different Blue Valley or maybe they gave the coach a game location and that information didn’t get passed to us. Or maybe they are playing a different school. ETC I suggested we should drive back to the school but Patrick disagreed figuring if we arrived there and couldn’t find Azure on the school grounds then what? We agreed that our best bet would be to call the school and hope someone was still around to answer the phone – after all it was a Friday and about 30 minutes after the last class.

Here is another problem. The payphones in Costa Rica don’t take coins (they use a card you have to buy at certain stores) . We head toward the mall looking for an internet place since they typically allow you to make phone calls. We don’t see any internet places since I suppose most people in Escazu can afford to have internet at home. We do see an AM/PM (mini-market). We pull in and ask to buy a phone card. The cashier has to ask his supervisor and then says they don’t have any. What’s up with that? According to all the info we’ve read, all markets should sell phone cards. Okay, let’s not panic. We leave the car in the parking lot and run around for a few blocks trying to find a phone we can use. We even considered asking the agents and Coldwell Banker to use their phone but the office was closed. Figures! (I guess Costa Rica agents don’t work on Fridays just like in Minnesota)

I calmingly tell Patrick we should head back to Blue Valley School since it was almost 3:30. Maybe the girls really were playing there –yeah right. Otherwise, I figured we should get the security guard to call European School and find out what happened. Good plan so I thought until the guard tells us he doesn’t have a cell phone. Now what? Panic strikes!

I tell Patrick that I knew the other security guard had a cell phone. I bet he would let us use it since he knows we are worried parents. We head back over to the indoor soccer field yet again hoping it’s not to late to reach someone at the school. By now the security guard is not surprised to see us. We’re almost friends J I ask if he would call the European School for us and hand him one of their business cards. He obliges and calls them then hands the phone to Patrick (I always forget that this is still a man’s world here in Costa Rica…).

Patrick asks the receptionist if she knows anything about the girls’ soccer game at Blue Valley. She puts him on hold for only a moment and returns to say the game was cancelled. Whew! Patrick asks her if she happens to see Azure Jones to tell her that her parents just received the message and we’re on our way to pick her up.

Now to get back to San Pablo de Heredia during Friday rush hour. On a good day it takes 45 minutes! Patrick handles the traffic well but obviously we are both relieved to know where our daughter is so the panic attacks have subsided!

We actually make it back to San Pablo quickly (about 45 minutes!) and locate Azure sitting under a tree outside the principal’s office. Her principal, Ms Cristin, yells to us from her window apologizing for the misunderstanding. She said they didn’t know how to reach us but she emailed and hoped we would figure it out. She said the coach also said she would wait as long as it took for us to get Azure. We walked past the front office and waved to the coach. She immediately ran out to apologize. She said the school only had a half day and no one bothered to tell her. She called around noon to talk to the other coach and found out the game was cancelled. The other school knew all along the students wouldn’t be there. Azure’s coach says “This is Costa Rica after all… “

So, I have to wonder, what did parents do before there were cell phones????

Frantic Friday

2007-11-28T12:06:00.000-06:00

First, I would like to start out by stating that we don’t have a cell phone. I thought it would be easy to live in Costa Rica without a cell phone. I don’t like conversing over the phone much and my old job consisted of customer service type calls which I could do without for a while. Besides, my Spanish sucks so what’s the point of having a phone if I have no idea why the caller called and vice versa. It’s not like I’m going to call for take-out pizza, right. (Well, I have thought of that…)

Okay, on to our frantic Friday.

Azure’s soccer team had a game scheduled for Friday against Blue Valley. I recalled that my blog buddy, Jen poco loco, had originally planned to send her kids to Blue Valley so I knew that the school would be in Escazu. When we met Jen a few weeks ago, I mentioned the soccer game and asked her for directions. Surprisingly, I knew the area she mentioned so I confidently told Patrick I could get us to the school. (By the way, I’m happy we finally met Jen and her family. They are great people. Patrick and I enjoyed our chat and Azure really had fun playing with her kids. We can’t wait to get together again.)

Since we knew where to meet the team for the game this time, we decided to get some errands done first including a little gringo shopping at Hipermas and a huge hardware store I spotted nearby the last time we were in Escazu. We breezed through Hipermas noticing the store in Escazu stocks a lot more gringo style products than the one we normally shop at in Heredia. We still didn’t buy much but Patrick replaced the jack, lug wrench, and tie down which were stolen out of the car the week before. Next we headed to the hardware store across the highway. The name of the place was EPA and it happened to be very similar to Home Depot (I kept looking for Tony Stewart ) which isn’t typical for Costa Rica most hardware stores require you to know what you want and a gentleman will go in back to get it for you. I’m embarrassed to say that we loved the place. We found much needed kitchen cabinets that are more affordable that all the other stores we have shopped in and I actually like them more. I thought I would have to settle but I guess not! We also found some bamboo blinds I just have to buy for the empty windows. We plan to go back with measurements but I did end up buying a vanilla plant and some chiles for my growing garden.

We left EPA about 2:30 figuring we had plenty of time to drive to the school. We knew we would even beat the school bus since the game didn’t start until 3:30. So, we drive past the school and notice no one is there. I don’t mean that there are no people we know there; I mean there is literally no one there. No kids, no teachers, no bus drivers –wait! -there is a guard dozing on a folding chair against the fence. I leap out of the car and verify with him that this building is actually Blue Valley School (since there is no sign labeling it). Yes, it is Blue Valley. Where is everyone I ask him in my crappy Spanish. He tells me nothing is going on there until Monday. What? Where do the girls play soccer? He mentions something about down the road. I do remember an indoor soccer place we passed about two blocks down. So, we head over there. Another security guard stops us and we explain that we are looking for a girl’s soccer game between Blue Valley and European Schools. Of course he has no clue what we are talking about but like all helpful Ticos, he directs us to another soccer field down the block.

On the way to the other indoor soccer field, our car’s security alarm wouldn’t turn off (remember our previous story about this subject?). so our car locked up. Patrick had to disengage the car battery and fiddle with the alarm wires. Meantime, I walked up the hill to check out the facilities and to see if I could find either of the teams. I didn’t see any girls but the woman working the place claimed they were in the back. I walked back down the hill to wait to check things out further with Patrick.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the conclusion of Frantic Friday or Where’s Azure?

two for one day

2007-11-23T08:06:00.000-06:00

I already published a post today but I wanted to add some photos to go with the car/theft blogs. I figured no one would realize I added them unless I put them in a new post so here is the map we tried to use for Tibas, missing stereo, and the car window (newly fixed).

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-23T07:59:00.000-06:00

I realize this happens to be a day late but I’m sure all my American readers are enjoying their 4 day weekend and won’t even read this until Monday…

Since Azure didn’t receive any time off for Thanksgiving, the Jones Family spent the day at home. This was a change of pace for us since the last five years we’ve taken advantage of the school break to travel and the years previous we had always spent with family. Oh, well. I miss my family but it’s also nice to garden in mid-November when I heard it was snowing in Minnesota!

Some people have asked me if Ticos celebrate Thanksgiving. The answer, my friends, would be “maybe”. Thanksgiving really is not a national holiday here in Costa Rica (and it shouldn’t be). BUT, due to all the influence the Americans hold over the locals, some of them seem to feel obligated to celebrate especially the rich ones. Even the kids at Azure’s school teased her when she asked if they celebrate Thanksgiving. Yet we know most locals don’t celebrate.

Local high-end grocery stores offer imported turkey for about $50 per bird. (Patrick and I still can’t figure out why they don’t have turkey farms here). They do stock “turkey” lunchmeat on a daily basis but we aren’t exactly sure what type of meat it is –perhaps iguana?!? Also, some of the local restaurants cater to Americans and offer real Thanksgiving dinners for an average of $20 per person. I love turkey but given our budget we couldn’t afford the prices for a typical Thanksgiving meal and instead we settled on spicy spaghetti and delicious fresh baked garlic bread.

Anyway, if you are reading this today and you live in the US, have fun shopping on Black Friday and don’t be tempted to buy something just because the price is unbelievably low! You don’t have to be “good consumers” to have a great holiday!

Just another day in the slow lane OR how to find auto parts in Costa Rica

2007-11-20T15:12:00.000-06:00

Obviously since we were driving around with a missing side window and it rains everyday, we figured it would be a good idea to replace it as soon as possible. Our first stop was Joel’s Used Car Parts which is right around the corner from Azure’s school and as it happens, the only place we’ve noticed for used car parts. I figured it would be too good to be true if “Joel” actually had what we were looking for - a rubber piece to hold the piece of glass into the car. The place always has several cars parked around the entrance so my fingers were crossed; guessing he must have a lot of the right parts or it wouldn’t always be so busy. Unfortunately, it turned out he didn’t have the correct part.

But, Patrick met a gentleman that explained that he knew exactly what Patrick needed and drew him a map to a place in Tibas that he usually goes to when he needs this part. Patrick appeared happy when returning to the car with the hand drawn map and said we would drive to Tibas on Friday since the drive there and back would take a while and he doesn’t like to drive in the dark. After I saw the map, I expressed my concern that we would never be able to find the correct place. Patrick, undeterred, spoke to his bus driver friend Friday morning who agreed with Patrick that there should be no problem finding this place. I still was unconvinced…

So, after dropping Azure off at school in San Pablo, we drove to Tibas and attempted to locate this mysterious auto-parts store. We stopped at many potential places and no one had the part or could make heads or tails of the map. The first place we stopped had given Patrick the name and address of a Suzuki parts store in San Joaquin de Heredia. This seemed like a likely place to find the part but we were currently way south and east of Heredia and figured we would head back that way if we exhausted our current search.

After driving around Tibas and then Santo Domingo for 2 hours we were quite grumpy and hungry. We grabbed a quick lunch of plantain chips and orange juice at Mas X Menos (grocery store) in San Pablo and headed for the Suzuki parts shop.

We easily located the Suzuki parts place a few kilometers west of Hipermas and Heredia. But again they didn’t have the part. A young guy gave Patrick a phone number for a guy named Leo that may or may not have the part. Patrick’s lunch didn’t help his mood and he was about to leave when I said that we should have the store call Leo for us since we didn’t even have a phone. I was quite determined to end this fiasco instead of prolonging it another day or more. Grudgingly, the young kid at the store called Leo. Apparently, Leo could help!

Long story short, we met Leo at the gas station in San Pablo –he actually waited for us to drive over there. Then he took us to his shop which was the backyard of his house. An associate of his directed Patrick to a store that sold the exact rubber piece he needed by the length while I waited at his house and tried to converse with Leo’s wife in Spanish. Shortly they appeared with the part and grabbed tools to install the window. A quick 10 minutes and 4000 colones ($8) later, the window was installed and looked as good as new.

The whole incident cost us $4 in parts, $8 labor, and $10 gas. The funniest thing happened to be that Leo’s shop was about 4 blocks from Azure’s school and 1 block from Joel’s where the whole adventure started!

Unlucky November in Costa Rica

2007-11-19T14:55:00.000-06:00

I’m not sure what it is about November in Costa Rica, but this is the second time we’ve been robbed. Last year we had our backpack stolen while waiting for the bus in Jaco to take us back to San Jose. It was quite traumatic because our passports and car keys were in the backpack along with all our cameras, mp3 players, money, and credit cards.

This time (yes it happened again), Patrick noticed the passenger car door open before we headed down the driveway Thursday morning. We all knew immediately that someone had broken into our car. Patrick was furious. Azure was upset. But I didn’t really let it bother me. So, once we were at the bottom of the hill, we noticed that the thief or thieves had cut away the back/side window to get into the car. They took our Pioneer stereo (probably the only part of the car worth anything) and Patrick’s tools.

Okay, so we’ve been hit again. I’m not surprised and the best part is that the robbers were very nice about the whole thing. I’m sure you’re thinking, “what do you mean nice? They stole your things!” Yes, but it could have been a whole lot worse! They left the window intact sitting on the ground next to the car. They took the stereo out without breaking the plastic surrounding it and left all the parts in the car so it could be put back together nicely –just a hole where the stereo used to be and some carefully cut wires. They left Patrick’s jumper cables and only took some wrenches, two jacks, and some tie downs. They could have just driven off with the car or even slashed the tires and the seats. So, all in all, we were lucky.

We had the neighbors call the police for us and they came quickly. Unfortunately, they didn’t do much other than refer us to the OIJ (basically the detective department) in Heredia. Patrick headed out to report the incident to the OIJ immediately. I stayed behind just in case the thief knew we would be leaving to report the theft and then decided to come back to hit the house. Patrick was gone 4 hours and it was very nerve wracking for me but I got a lot of gardening done!

Anyway, it turned out he had to wait one hour to report the theft. Then the OIJ inspected the car and the pane of glass which they dusted for fingerprints- which took one hour! Since they dusted the car they also needed to fingerprint Patrick which took another hour. The whole scenario seems quite funny since we know this is a typical theft and there is no way the OIJ will do anything with the report let alone the evidence. But, we thought we should report it as a formality if nothing else, since we are pretty sure our insurance will not cover theft of personal items. Oh well, who needs the daily radio news anyway?

Stay tuned tomorrow for the adventure of replacing the window in the car…

First soccer game

2007-11-14T11:59:00.000-06:00

Azure’s soccer team had their first game Friday. The game scheduled for 3:30pm took place at the International Christian School.

Since we had no clue where ICS was located, Patrick and I decided to follow the team bus. We arrived at European School early hoping we were in time to see the team leave. We waited and watched and never caught sight of any of the players or the coach. Finally, Patrick walked down to the bus loading area to see what was holding up the team. Apparently, both the boys and girls team were headed to ICS for a game and only one of the two buses showed up to carry the teams there. Everyone waited until finally the coach loaded the boys into any available cars and we all tore off to ICS in Santo Domingo in a long line. The bus in first place drove awfully fast for the narrow winding roads but Patrick managed to follow ok.

Even though the team arrived late and didn’t get in much of a warm up, they played much better than I expected. The day was cold and rainy but the girls handled it well which I guess made sense since most of their practices occurred during major rainstorms.

Azure played center defense the second half of the game and the other team didn’t get an opportunity to score the entire second half since the girls from the European School managed to keep the ball in the offensive end most of that half. The score ended with European School winning 6-2. Patrick and I both enjoyed the game and are excited for the next one.

We watched the first half of the boys’ game but then headed out since it was already getting dark and we weren’t sure we could find our way home. Obviously we made it home safely but we heard the boys lost their game. Better luck next time.

Azure and Patrick worked on some more defense over the weekend and Azure looked much improved yesterday at practice. We are all hoping she gets more play time during this week’s game. I will keep you updated what happens against Santa Monica at home.

By the way, I do know it is futbol here in Costa Rica but it’s so difficult for me to refer to soccer as futbol when I love American football so much!

Bleaching the driveway-what are you crazy?

2007-11-07T12:36:00.000-06:00

Our driveway is on an extremely steep slope. Basically, the drive up to our house is far too difficult to make not only because of the angle but also to go back down backwards is much more complicated than should be attempted for no good reason. This means, we leave our car at the bottom of the hill under the lower level car port instead of the upper one.

The hike up the hill a few times a day provides a good work out but also happens to be hazardous. Due to the constant rains, there are permanent grooves in the driveway from the run-off. From trial and error, we’ve determined that walking on the outer portion of the grooves could prove dangerous to your health. The outer part seems to be covered with something similar to slime and moss. So, to prevent major wipeouts or even pulling a hamstring, we stick to the inside of the driveway. We also make sure to keep the driveway clear of wet leaves by sweeping.

The last few months had brought so much rain that the driveway never found much time to dry and the inside part of the drive turned black and slick as oil. Finally afraid someone would end up in the hospital, I decided to scrub the driveway. I took a scrub brush and pail of bleach water outside. Then I literally got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed the driveway. Not the whole thing (that would be almost impossible for me) but the key points that we continued to slip on while walking up or down the drive.

Yes, I’m crazy but at least the driveway is now safe to walk because before I bleached the driveway there were days I felt like a sober Bode Miller at the Olympics –way out of control!

Another hurricane and more flooding

2007-11-02T14:55:00.000-06:00

I’ve posted about the hurricanes affecting us here in Costa Rica with major rainfall. Unfortunately, the rains continue and a major portion of Costa Rica has been declared natural disasters.

Only last week Azure’s class at school held a food drive for flood victims in Alajuela. This week hurricane Noel hit flooding our own neighborhood. The newspaper reported 180-200 homes in a community of San Rafael de Heredia were damaged. The homes were all in a single neighborhood and were flooded when the storm sewers failed to remove the large amount of rain that fell in such a short period of time. Patrick and I have actually been worried these past few days but so far we have been lucky. I feel awful for all the victims of the floods and mudslides here Costa Rica.

Our own home is trenched out between the coffee plantations. We aren’t concerned about the back yard since the original builders planted trees in a terraced affect. Luckily, the planting will prevent erosion and the trenching will prevent flooding. BUT, the side of the trench on one of the sides of the coffee plantation is beginning to collapse and some small trees have fallen into the trench. So far, nothing critical but we happen to live below a huge tree that will fall right into the house IF we get much more rain and the tree loses its hold…

I wish I had taken some photos Wednesday while we were watching all the rain rush through the trenches and running into the river but all I can do is tell you about the weather. Wednesday morning I emptied our rain gauge of over 3 inches of rain - the majority of which fell in only a two hour period on Tuesday. When we left to pick Azure up at school Wednesday, I felt excited because the sun was blazing hot so I figured it would be a great Halloween. By the time we arrived home at 1pm, the sky was almost black and the rain started falling. By 4:30pm the gauge once again had over 3 inches of rain water inside. The rain continued to fall all evening and was still falling when we woke at 5:30am Thursday morning. I wasn’t shocked to find the rain gauge was full at
5 ½ inches and each new drop just spilled over the side.

Good thing the dry season will be here soon! In the meantime, if anyone feels like doing a good deed, the people here in Costa Rica could use some help. Please make donations to the Red Cross. Thanks!
This is a photo of our backyard trench.

Halloween in Costa Rica

2007-11-01T14:44:00.000-06:00

Well, it’s officially November and I still don’t know how Tico kids in Costa Rica celebrate Halloween. Patrick and I had been debating for weeks whether or not we needed to buy candy for little trick-or-treaters. Since Azure had a school party and we wouldn’t be home most of the evening anyway, we opted not to buy any. Besides the fact that we went to Hipermas last week to buy Halloween items and they had Christmas decorations everywhere but nothing for Halloween. We purposely chose Hipermas thinking if any store would carry Halloween items it would surely be one related to Walmart - but zip!

Azure’s party was a touch and go situation since we received over 3 inches of rain from 1pm until we left at 4:30. The bridge was slightly flooded again but I was determined to get Azure to school for her first Halloween party in a new country. So, I wasn’t surprised when we were one of the first families to arrive. Even her teacher admitted some of the roads were washed out which meant the party might be a washout. But, 30 minutes later the place was packed with kids running around and parents standing in the way…

Several classes had been in charge of creating a game for the kids to play like musical chairs, piñatas, darts (ones with sharp points even!), and mazes, etc. The kids were then supposed to get stamps in their passports which could be traded in for a cookie treat.

All the kids seemed to enjoy themselves and Azure “won” 3 cookies. Of course there were some left over so everyone enjoyed the extras. We arrived home safely and I never saw a single trick-or-treater anywhere along the route there or back.

By the way, I forgot to mention Azure made her own broom for her Hogwarts costume.

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T12:46:00.001-06:00

I will post pictures from Azure's party tomorrow so hang tight and don't let the monsters bite!

Making Cookies

2007-10-29T14:55:00.000-06:00

Azure brought home a note from school last week explaining to the parents that the school will be celebrating Halloween with a party. The children are requested to bring a dozen homemade cookies with them to the party.

I read this note with glee excited for Azure since we weren’t sure if the kids here in Costa Rica went trick-or-treating or not. But at the same time I thought, homemade cookies? Very cool and against everything we have learned about the American school policies. I remember when Azure first brought home a note from school back in the States explaining that kids would be allowed to bring treats to school to share for holidays and birthdays but NOT homemade items. I had felt a sigh of relief since I hate baking but at the same time I felt sad for all those children who would never enjoy homemade chocolate chip cookies at school.

So, being Azure (those of you who know her know what I mean), we endured several days of her looking at every recipe she could find for baking cookies. Finally, we decided on a recipe of my Great Grandma C.‘s rich sugar cookies. I remember these cookies from my childhood as being thick and soft and melt in your mouth delicious. MMMM! I could only hope ours would taste as good.

After some trouble finding the correct ingredients, we were set start. We began mixing the ingredients and the mixer decided to overheat since the margarine wouldn’t soften enough. I ended up mixing everything with my fingers (which didn’t work too well). I worried that the cookies would be a disaster but figured it couldn’t hurt to bake them and find out.

Sunday we baked the cookies after allowing them to chill overnight per the recipe. Here was another dilemma since the card said to bake 10-20 minutes. That’s a huge timeframe! I set the timer for 12 minutes figuring that would be safe. The cookies appeared to be done at 10 minutes. We started singing “making cookies, making cookies” which was a twist on the song from Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas movie.

Luckily the cookies didn’t taste too bad but they definitely were not my Great Grandma’s cookies. Plus, singing that song reminded us that the movie would compliment the occasion so we watched it during dinner.

Azure enjoyed baking the cookies so much (and Patrick enjoyed eating them) that we have decided to buy a new mixer and make cookies more often. There goes my diet!

The guy living in the attic

2007-10-23T15:49:00.000-06:00

I’ve thought about writing this story for several weeks now but never felt the time was right since it never really had an ending - until now. So, please indulge me on this one since it is part learning to cope with a new move and part silly story (but entirely true).

The very first week we moved into our new house we began hearing noises. Now all houses have their strange noises but some of these we couldn’t identify. First we needed to adjust to the sound of the metal roof. During all times of the days the roof makes different sounds –adjustments to the heat during the day and cool air in the evenings, fruit falling from the trees, animals scampering, etc. Speaking of fruit falling, the sound of the thud on the ground is something that still startles me!

But clearly the sound we heard one particular night appeared to be scraping from the other side of the wall close to the floor of the second level family room that we happened to be using to sleep in until our furniture arrived. The sound occurred near our heads since we were laying on the floor reading. I immediately began pounding on the wall and floor thinking that the mouse on the other side of the wall would be frightened enough to leave until we had a better opportunity to “get rid of it”. Well apparently the rodents here in Costa Rica do not frighten easily.

A few nights later while sleeping, I heard the stairs creak. Convinced that someone broke into the house I ran through the house searching for the intruder. After searching everywhere, which was easy since we still only had dirty clothes in the house at the time, I didn’t find a thing. Patrick giggled and insisted it must be the mouse. Whatever! A mouse could NOT have made the stair creak (by the way the stairs are VERY creaky when Patrick and I walk on them and not so much when Azure uses them –hint –weight).

So, that evening I determined we had a “guy living in the attic”. This guy theory would explain why we heard all these strange noises and why things were always misplaced. Especially clean clothes and cookies J

In the meantime, Patrick decided it was time to investigate the attic. I seriously was terrified for him. I kept envisioning the squirrel from the Christmas Vacation movie that attacks the family and leaps at Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s face! I love that scene yet wouldn’t want it to happen to Patrick while he was up in the attic and by rats teaming with rabies! I waited patiently outside and watched through the window. After safely exiting the attic, Patrick admitted that he found no signs of any rodents in the attic. Yet, we continued hearing scratching noises.

Finally, he decided he better put some poison in the attic. Unfortunately, we still heard noises and even though we tried banging the ceiling the noises continued. Patrick said we must have squirrels in the attic and sought to find a solution. One lady suggested mothballs. She swore that squirrels hate the smell.

We bought two boxes and Patrick headed up to the attic. By this time, I didn’t panic anymore when he headed into the attic. But, a few minutes later I thought the world was coming to an end. I looked up and Patrick had missed a step and his foot went through the ceiling just like in Christmas Vacation! Well, not quite but almost. Luckily only one foot fell through and he was okay. If he had lost his balance completely, the fall to the tile floor could have been deadly.

So, the story ends with mothballs in the attic and no further scratching. Yeah! Plus, a lot of busy work repairing the hole in the ceiling… Bonus would be that we get to pick new color paint for the living room. But that is another project for another day.

Fall Here in Costa Rica

2007-10-22T15:00:00.000-06:00

I was under the impression that the weather here in this part of Costa Rica would be Spring-like all year round. This sounded good me. Actually to the entire family since we were anxious to leave the Minnesota winters behind us. Even Summer in Minnesota never was quite perfect with the high humidity and army of mosquitoes which made it difficult to enjoy the evenings outdoors.

Fall has always been my favorite season. I’m not sure why except that as a kid I would always look forward to playing in the leaves and of course I anticipated Halloween even more than Christmas. But I truly enjoy the weather of Fall, too. I love the crispness and the heat of the sun on my face even with the chill in the air. Some may say that Spring is the same but I disagree. So, I expected to miss the Fall season dearly.

Well, I am happy to say that this past week has been very much like the Fall I love so much. In between all the rain (1 ½ inches yesterday and 1 ¾ inches the day before) the sun has made the cool air feel wonderful (for a short period of time). I even get to wear my favorite long sleeve t-shirts without over-heating!

I have been doing a lot of gardening and the leaves are falling from some of the trees in the yard. Yet some of the other trees are starting to blossom which I admit is all too confusing to me but I definitely enjoy the mixture.

Tackling the Mold

2007-10-18T14:56:00.000-06:00

Within the past few weeks, we have been trying to get a handle on the mold problem that has crept up on us. Patrick noticed the “plague of blackness” first. Honestly, I thought he was imagining the spots at first. Having moved from the upper Midwest, I have only seen the green form of mold before this move. Now I know it also has a more subtle black color that can be deceiving at first glance. Some of the mold I believed to be dust but upon further inspection and Patrick’s insistence, I gave in to my fear and had to admit that we have a problem.

The biggest concern turned out to be Azure’s bedroom. Even though we had initially cleaned all the walls in the entire house with disinfectant before the furniture arrived, Azure’s bedroom wall had turned black. Not entirely of course, but enough that Patrick had to hard scrub two walls. Then he changed out her light bulb from the energy saving then to a 60 watt. So far, it seems to be helping.

The strangest place that we have found abundant amounts of mold growing has been on the back of the tv. The hardest things we have found to clean and somehow prevent the mold from growing on again has been our shoes. Patrick’s Birkenstocks were horrendous.

The best thing we can hope for would be to keep better control of the mold by opening and closing the windows at the appropriate times of the day (which is harder than you would think because of all the rain) and getting more light in the rooms and closets.

Wish us luck!

How about some more photos from the Independence Day festival and parade (which I promised to post for my Mom a long time ago)!

Laptop repaired

2007-10-08T11:36:00.000-06:00

We finally have our laptop back. Yeah! We went down to San Jose last week after receiving an email saying the laptop worked. Turns out they replaced the entire system board - which is cool since it works better than ever now.

When we arrived at the shop, I turned in our receipt and waited a while. Finally, a woman arrived with the laptop and told us to turn it on. It seemed it took a while to boot up but all was fine. Then Patrick signed something and we left. Simple as that. None of the hidden charges that we were worried about and no hassles at all. We are very lucky that we found complete warranty coverage here in Costa Rica and are very pleased with the result.

I’ve been meaning to post these photos for a while now, but never got around to it…
This MotMot enjoys some of the fruit in one of the trees in our yard.
I’m proud to show the first bunch of bananas we enjoyed – these were picked right in our yard from one of the trees behind me.

Still hanging in there and enjoying life

2007-09-28T12:38:00.000-06:00

I know it´s been a while but we still haven´t gotten our laptop back from the repair shop and now our desktop has ¨died¨. Otherwise, things are going well.

We met Azure´s teacher for a conference today and she had high praise for Azure´s adjustment to our new life.

Nothing else new to report. Same old same old. Rain, learning Spanish slowly, and as always Patrick has been dodging cars, motorcycles, dogs, and walkers on the roads!

I hope to have more time to email everyone soon!

Happy Independence Day, Costa Rica!

2007-09-20T14:21:00.000-06:00

Saturday September 15th Costa Rica celebrated it’s Independence from Spain. Azure’s school invited parents to enjoy a kid’s parade followed by a program of singing, dancing, and refreshments Friday morning. Each elementary class performed something different. Azure’s class performed a traditional Costa Rican song on the ocarina and then sang a song. Patrick and I had been listening to Azure practice her song on the ocarina for weeks but when the class started to sing, I was shocked. Azure loves to sing and this was the first time I knew about the song. She told me later she had been trying very hard to keep it a secret. Nice job, Azure (she can never keep secrets)! I enjoyed the entire program!

Saturday the three of us walked downtown because we heard every town in the entire country would be having a parade at 10am. We arrived in town shortly before 10am and were lucky to catch the beginning of the parade. After 90 minutes into the parade with no end in sight, we decided to head to the church. We all loved the parade but it seemed almost every school in the entire area attended which wouldn’t be so bad but they all played the same song on the drums and wore almost the same costumes. The strangest part - which I feel inclined to share because I need to know from the readers if this is something that happens everywhere or just in Costa Rica - the kids were roped off with parents holding the ropes and walking alongside the kids. They literally blocked the kids making it impossible to get good photos! Why? Only a handful of schools didn’t do this…

Sunsets

2007-09-14T08:22:00.000-06:00

After all the storms these past few weeks, we finally had two days in a row without any rain. It seemed very strange indeed. The best part as far as I was concerned were the gorgeous sunsets. I love sunsets which you can probably tell by the header photo. Anyway, since nothing much else is happening here, I thought I would share my most recent photo.

Azure would like me to let everyone know that the next blog post will be regarding Independence Day so stay tuned!

It’s always something…

2007-09-10T15:32:00.000-06:00

I feel bad that once again I have dropped the ball and not kept up with my blog. Hopefully you’ll understand when I explain that we haven’t even been to an internet café since last week Tuesday. I will however recap for you our past week.

I’m sure everyone heard about Hurricane Felix? Well, we did feel the affects of that storm. We were hit here the hardest on Monday afternoon. The drive to get Azure after school was interesting considering we drove through one street and I was positive the water would start to flood into the car, We made it safely to the school but the on drive back home we noticed a van full of students stuck in the ditch on the same stretch of road we had just passed. Needless to say, we turned around and took a different road home.

Wednesday we planned to pick Azure up at school at her normal 12:15 early release time and head to the US Embassy to get our passports renewed. After enjoying a quick lunch at Campio Pollo, a local fast food chicken place, in San Jose, the heavy rains turned to hail! I don’t think they get much hail here in Costa Rica because half the cars on the road pulled over and stopped. The guy in front of us actually got out of his car and grabbed a handful of hail! We weren’t sure if he thought he was going to show his buddies once he got home or just wanted to touch it (since no one was in the car with him)… Azure didn’t get it since she knows it just melts immediately. Anyway, we found out the Embassy only processes passports from 8am-11:30am!

Okay, so it’s always something. If it’s not one thing it’s another. Our hot water heater was leaking at it got to the point where we had to replace it. Thursday we went to the local hardware store to try to explain what we needed. After some time, everyone understood one another and we purchased the “new” hot water heater and the pieces of pipe we needed. A plumber recommended by the hardware store told us he would be by later that day to help with the install. He didn’t show and so Patrick installed it by himself. Good thing is that we now have a larger tank and therefore more hot water! Yeah! Thanks, Patrick!

A funny thing happened on the way to the ….

2007-09-03T08:34:00.000-06:00

Thursday after leaving the internet café, we were all in a good mood. Laughing and joking until all of a sudden, our car alarm went off and wouldn’t stop. With the horn honking loudly and all the car lights flashing, we panicked. People passing stared but no one said or did anything out of the ordinary. Finally, Patrick turned off the car but it was too late. There was no turning off the alarm.

I kept praying a policeman wouldn’t pull up next to us asking (in Spanish of course) for proof of registration. Since we just received an email from our lawyer stating she had the document at her office and when would we like to pick it up, it was not in our possession. I was sure I would be making a call to our lawyer from the nearest police station!

I was busy standing on the corner trying to push all the buttons on the key chain when Patrick screamed, “hand me my tools”. Azure dug them out of the back and passed them out to Patrick. He screamed, “Pop the hood” and then next thing I know Patrick was removing the battery cable. Sure enough, the alarm stopped. Convinced that the alarm would start again the second he made the connection, I tried to cover my shock when he started the car and we drove home, nervous but all laughing again. Until…

Friday morning, sure enough, the alarm started again as soon as we pulled out of the driveway. After some hassle (of removing and reconnecting the battery cable) and screaming at each other, we all made it to Azure’s school with time to spare.

BUT, Patrick had to turn off the car so he could speak to Jeremy in accounting since he was helping us get a bank account started here (long story). I definitely was much more embarrassed when the car alarm went off in the school parking lot. Plus, Patrick removed and re-connected the battery cable SEVERAL times but the alarm just wouldn’t stop! I tried to stay out of his way and keep my mouth shut but I have to admit I wasn’t very hopeful about getting home. While pretending to read my book, mentally I went through all our options - call a tow truck, walk to the mechanics? What exactly were our options when neither of us could explain in Spanish what the problem was?

Finally, I noticed that there was a wire to the alarm cut-off that was not connected. I pointed out the potential problem to Patrick and immediately he went to work trying to connect the wire again. At this point, the school guard figured he better check with us to make sure everything was ok. Again, we can’t speak Spanish so Patrick tried showing him the loose wire and just said “esta bueno”. The guard appeared to understand and he walked away.

After about 15 minutes and lots of cursing, Patrick started the car. No alarm sounded this time (which was good because it probably went off 5 times before). We left the parking lot with a wave to the guard and my fingers crossed. Even though Patrick pronounced the situation permanently resolved, I asked if we needed to stop at a mechanics on the way home. He firmly said “NO!”
He was right. It’s resolved and the car doesn’t even beep anymore which was not the case when we purchased it 2 weeks ago. At that time, we used to have to wait until the car alarm started beeping then push a little button to signify it should stop. Now when starting the car, Patrick can push that button before the beeping even begins. Therefore, in the end, this experience actually resolved a slight problem….

Wow!

Finally an Update!

2007-08-30T15:42:00.000-06:00

I know it’s been a long time since I have written. I’ve meant to write a few times and have had some stories all mapped out in my head but between unpacking, reading some good books, and competing for time on the computer, I just haven’t gotten around to it. Remember that we don’t have internet at home so it’s not so easy… Rest assured that no news generally means good news from me.

First, I thought I would like to let everyone know that we signed a purchase agreement for our house in Big Lake. We faxed off ten pages of documents Thursday (costing $23) agreeing that the family could rent our place starting that weekend and up to the closing date of November 30th. Friday we heard back from our realtor that all terms of the rental were agreed upon and he was meeting the family over the weekend to sign final documents and give them the keys. Fingers crossed that this transaction goes smoother than the duplex. All seems okay, though.

Next, I did add several posts today so just scroll down to see more regarding the rain, Santo Domingo, and the symphony.

Santo Domingo Saturday and Symphony Sunday

2007-08-26T15:45:00.000-06:00

I had been looking forward to this weekend for a while. Why you may ask. Well, I purchased tickets to the symphony back when we were in San Jose the day we dropped off the laptop for repair. Ever since I read an article about the amazing process of building the National Theater and how acclaimed acts perform often, I’ve been dying to take the family to a real cultural event. Azure thought I was joking and figured it would be boring but I continued to pump up the experience. Patrick expressed slight interest but I knew he would enjoy it also he just likes to make me work for things sometimes.

We were not disappointed. The place was beautiful and our seats were perfect. I purchased first row balcony seats (only $15 for all three tickets!) since Azure and I have hard times seeing around people. We heard the orchestra play Rachmaninoff, Dvorak, and Castro and it was wonderful. I am psyched to go back again sometime.

Now since we went to the symphony Sunday, I made Patrick take us to the farmers market in Santo Domingo on Saturday. The market was much larger than San Rafael and again we scored some delicious fruits and vegetables for cheap. Can’t wait until this next weekend!

Bridge washout!

2007-08-24T16:00:00.000-06:00

Something we hadn’t considered before we moved sort of shocked us when we arrived. There appears to be a large complex being built on the hill to our West. Due to the construction, the ditches were dug deeper and some cement culverts were placed at the bottom. BUT no one finished the project and now with the awful downpours we’ve experienced lately (due to Hurricane Dean as I understand it) the runoff has been running right into the road and flooding the bridge. It is the rainy season here now but some of the downpours have been incredible. We are too far south for hurricanes but we can get their rainy effect. A couple weeks ago, the water built up so deep the cars could hardly cross the bridge and the spray was heading right into our neighbor’s house. Patrick and I watched from the balcony as Don Isidro went out in the storm to dig the ditch deeper. Being the “nice neighbors“, Patrick decided to go out to help (even though our things hadn’t arrived yet so he didn’t even have a shovel). Even though Don Isidro appeared to be surprised to see Patrick, he still wouldn’t give up his shovel so Patrick could only pick up large rocks and move them. I’m not quite sure their efforts paid off or not. The bridge did begin to clear of water but then again the rain slow downed at about the same time also. Anyway, ever since then, there have been many crews trying to correct the runoff into the river. It’s better but not perfect. I’m just glad our house is up hill and not down -although the lower house seems to be avoiding the runoff just fine!

I hope you enjoy the photos I so happily took while staying dry (mostly) on our balcony!

Oh, happy Day!

2007-08-21T14:23:00.000-06:00

We had a great Thursday! We purchased a GEO Tracker and had our lawyer submit all the necessary paperwork so we´re legal. We paid our broker and received our first delievery of four!

Because of our low carport and steep incline to the main house, the guys had to load their trailer instead of a huge truck. They brought a load Thursday, Friday, and two on Saturday. They were trying to be kind and bring our bed on Thursday but since they didn´t realize our bed was actually in boxes, we received the final bed box Saturday morning. Even though we didn´t have our bed Thursday or Friday, we still slept much better with a sleeping bag and thick blankets!

Saturday afternoon Patrick hooked up all the appliances and we now have clean clothes. We even had mac & cheese and popcorn this weekend. MMM! But now we are back to salads and fruits since we want to stay healthy and continue to lose weight.

Last bit of good news: we have received an offer on our Big Lake house. I think we may accept but it is sticky since the person wants to rent until November. I´ll keep ya posted.

Happy Mother´s Day!

2007-08-15T08:43:00.000-06:00

Where do I start? First, we still haven´t received our things. The customs inspectors supposedly want to look through everything again? Also, we are struggling to ensure our broker receives payment. We sent the wire back on July 23rd but it still hasn´t credited to his account yet. I hate banks!

Next, our laptop definitely is dead. I did some research and luckily we found a place here in Costa Rica that does warranty work. We took it into their ¨office¨ in San Jose yesterday. We weren´t sure we wanted to leave our laptop somewhere unknown but on the other hand, we do want to get it fixed. We received a receipt so we´ll see what happens. They quoted us two weeks for repair since they need to get the part from the States. Probably more like one month, right?

Azure attended her first soccer practice yesterday after school. She came out to the car soaking wet and muddy but said she had a great time. Now we need to find her some cleats and shin guards. We probably should have bought them before we left home since we have no idea where to buy them here. Yes, it should be easy in a soccer country but remember we won´t pay top price...

To close, today is Mother´s Day here in Costa Rica. I´m so lucky to get two this year! Anyway, most of the country is celebrating on Monday even though it is officially today. It is so confusing but Azure has Monday off which is nice (I think). haha

Oh, one more odd thing I need to mention before I forget. We have been struggling to figure out what to eat every day since we don´t have a stove or fridge. Mostly we have been enjoying fruits and salads. Yesterday, Patrick noticed some toast in a package. What? Truly, toasted bread packaged in 7 or 14 slices for your pleasure. Why?

Nothing exciting

2007-08-10T13:44:00.001-06:00

I don´t have anything exciting to post. Our container should arrive Tuesday (fingers crossed). Until then we will continue to enjoy the hard floors and cold nights without beds and blankets.

Our duplex should be finally closing as I type this. We are hoping it goes off without a hitch.

Azure still loves school. She has been putting in many hours of homework already. She enjoyed her first week with a tutor. We´ll see how that works out. Tonight she has a sleepover at the school. She has been excited all week so hopefully it lives up to her expectations.

Tomorrow we are meeting a couple to potentially buy their GEO Tracker. Hopefully it´s as nice as they describe. First thing Patrick asked while talking to the guy ¨what´s wrong with it¨. Not very subtle but I think he got his point across!

I´ll try to get more photos up but it appears our laptop has died already. It´s still under warranty since we just bought it in June but who knows what will be honored down here...

Have a good weekend everyone!

Squirrel Saturday and Farmers Market Sunday

2007-08-06T15:27:00.000-06:00

Saturday started as any other day this week except I planned to sleep in and ended up sitting outside with my cup of coffee at 5:30AM. One thing was different, though. Squirrels. A little after 6, a saw something out of the corner of my eye. I turned left and there prancing down the side of the house was a tiny orange, black, and grey squirrel no bigger than my hand. He didn't seem to be in any hurry as he made his way through the front garden and across the driveway to the palm trees on the other side of the yard. Then I watched him jump from branch to branch. As I watched him, I noticed several other squirrels in the trees- mostly grey ones. I know this doesn't strike anyone as strange but today is Monday and I hadn't seen these guys before or since Squirrel Saturday. As a matter of fact, they were gone by the time Azure woke up at 7:15. Strange! I hope that every Saturday will be Squirrel Saturday!

Later Saturday, we went for a walk through the coffee plantations and tomato fields surrounding our property. When the rain started, we jumped in the car to pick up a Tico Times and happened to find our way to San Pablo and Azure's school by taking the back roads. We actually drove directly to the school without getting lost which is amazing here in Costa Rica! Now we can make it to school in only 11 minutes!

We all anticipated Sunday since we heard San Rafael has a good farmer's market. We decided to walk to town and clocked the mileage in the car at 1.5 kilometers. Simple enough, right? Well, the farmers market was everything we hoped. Fruit and veggies galore. We made out like bandits! This is what we took home with us after spending only $3.65 (approximately):
1/2 kilo green beans
big pint of strawberries
1.3 kilos watermelon
3 large cucumbers
small (whole) pineapple
6 small pineapple empanadas

Okay, now the walk home. We (meaning me) were huffing and puffing on the last hill before the decline to our place. I really need to get into better shape so we will be making the hike into town at least once a week from now on! There are lots of hills in our neighborhood!

not the same

2007-08-03T15:49:00.000-06:00

I thought I had finally found an internet cafe that had a USB port on the computer so I typed up a long post on the laptop and copied it to my memory card. Now I´m at the cafe and I can´t get the card reader in the slot so everyone will have to wait until next week for an update...

First Report From Down South

2007-08-02T08:55:00.000-06:00

This is the last place I thought I would be today but it turned out McDonald's was the best place to get Wi-Fi (until we figure things out).

I know everyone has a million questions for us so I will try to cover most of them but my battery is dying so I have to make this quick. I'll do this in order:

1. We had one piece of luggage (a hockey bag) which weighed in 16 pounds over the limit. We sweet-talked the guy into not charging us the mandatory $50.

2. Our airline wasn't supposed to let us out of the country with only a one-way ticket. Again I managed to sweet-talk the woman checking our passports. She actually booked us a fake return flight so if anyone at Costa Rica customs asked we could show them the flight number.

3. The airport/customs in San Jose went smoothly other than we had SO much luggage and didn't know if Colin, our realtor, was meeting us or not.

4. Colin did show up but we couldn't find the shuttle to our car rental company which may or not have been a sham- we reserved a car with Excellent car rental but Payless said they were affiliated and rented us a car for $85/week. Unfortunately yesterday I looked at the signed agreement and it says $175 (I don't know how they switched the price when I made a point to go over the costs before Patrick signed the document!)

5. Since our container hasn't arrived yet, we followed Colin to Hipermas on the way to our house so we could buy pillows and some food to get us through until morning. Warning- don't go to Hipermas on a Sunday afternoon because I think the entire Tico population was shopping there with their families- blocking aisles and all...

6. We arrived at the house at sunset Sunday. The neighbors who we hired as caretakers were there and greeted us like long lost relatives. BUT we were tired and the houses were full of dead bugs. YUCK!

7. We cleared a small space in the loft of the lower house and slept (not really) on the floor. All three of us huddled together trying to share one blanket. We found out the evenings are extremely cold in the hills of San Rafael!

8. We met Colin at the church in San Rafael so he could help us find our way to Azure's school the first morning. Plus, he had broken the faucet of the shower and needed to help us find the hardware store so we could replace the part.

9. We met the Director at the European school and her and the staff helped us get Azure settled in. Azure loves school except for Spanish class since she is so far behind and the teacher doesn't speak English. We will be finding a tutor soon!

10. Our neighbors, Donya Vicky and Don Isidro, both sweet Ticos, gave us a tour of their home so she could show us how she makes fresh tortillas. I thought she would invite us for lunch but instead Donya Vicky stopped by with her daughter and "kidnapped" us to go blackberry picking! We had no idea where we were going or why since we don't speak much Spanish and they don't speak any English. It was fun but we couldn't make Vicky understand that we had LOTS of cleaning to do!

I need to finish this later so please check back tomorrow. I would like to thank everyone at this time for their wishes of good luck to us on our new adventure. We feel lucky indeed!

see ya Minnesota, hello Costa Rica

2007-07-28T19:48:00.000-06:00

WOW! We did it!

We left our house in the dust this morning for the long seven hour drive to Chicago. I'm trying to wind down after repacking all our bags (twelve of them including carry-ons) so that none of them are over the 50 lbs. limit. I think I may have found the correct balance finally.

I would love to fill everyone in on more details but we need to catch the airport shuttle at 3:30 AM. Therfore, I am signing off and hope to have internet access soon. Maybe from the airport if I'm bored?

Trash or Treasure?

2007-07-26T19:09:00.000-06:00

The past few days have been spent emptying the garage of all the items that never sold at our garage sales. I always intended to have a couple more sales but it rained one weekend and two others we were out of town or had showings of the property. Needless to say, we had a lot of "crap" still hanging around.

Tuesday evening I happened to see my neighbor and hollered over thinking that I would offer her whatever she wanted to take for free. Well, one thing led to another and soon our doorbell wouldn't stop ringing because all the neighbor kids wanted something, anything! In a way it saved us a lot of hassle because we only needed to take one van load full of stuff to Salvation Army. But at the same time, they were destroying all the order in the garage. They would actually open boxes, pull out all the contents, then decide they didn't want it, so it would be left on the ground for someone else to walk on. I couldn't watch the chaos so I left that role to Azure. She would dole out the good stuff and holler if the kids got out of control. Some kid even took my record player (which should have been worth at least $30) even though he had no idea what it was for...

Now the garage is empty (Patrick put a lot of effort into this project-Thanks, sweetie!) and we know it's time to leave. How many people actually have an empty 3 car garage?

This is Costa Rica!

2007-07-25T08:43:00.000-06:00

We received an email from Charles Zeller yesterday to let us know our container would be delayed 2 more weeks. My first reaction wasn't normal because I wasn't surprised or upset. I figure I just need to expect these types of things now. Charles even concluded the email by stating "This is Costa Rica!" I wasn't looking forward to sharing the good news with Patrick, though. When I did finally tell him, he just laughed.

I guess our attempt to avoid sleeping on tile floors didn't quite work. I told Patrick this just means he'll have to put up our hammocks sooner instead of later. He said he planned to purchase an air mattress. We'll see who wins...

making our list and checking it twice

2007-07-24T08:21:00.000-06:00

I spent the majority of last weekend doing last minute things before our departure to San Jose. We found out that CarMax in Chicago will be open until 9pm on Saturday and they will inspect our vehicle and make us an offer on the spot. We have decided to do this route since the flights out of Chicago are much cheaper than Minneapolis and being able to sell our car the same day makes more sense than a rental. Since Azure starts school on Monday, we couldn't delay any longer. I purchased tickets for Sunday on US Airways to arrive in San Jose at approximately 1:30pm. YEAH!

This past Sunday I started stressing out again. Patrick and I figured it would be best to sit down together and make a list of all the items we need to finish by the end of the week and assign tasks to each day. That way we should be able to have everything done before we leave and not too much left at the end. Of course, there will still be things we forget...

The important items were making sure all statements (credit card, bank, mutual funds, etc) are paperless PLUS giving our new address to these places. We spent time making sure we will be able to access our money while in Costa Rica. Our credit union set us with a credit card that only charges $1.75 for cash advances! This should help since wires can take up to a week and the fees are steep.

I also checked in with Azure's school so they would know we aren't getting in until the day before school starts - she won't have the school polo shirt and we never turned in all the documents required. The principal emailed back almost immediately ensuring me it would be okay to just show up 20 minutes early on Monday. Great! One less thing to worry about!

I must be signing off. My list for Tuesday is quite large and I must cross items off so I know I am making progress. Later!

the rest of the story

2007-07-21T07:57:00.000-06:00

Ok, so some kids stole my backpack because I was relaxed and stupid. Actually, that's pretty significant because I am generally not very relaxed. I tend to be stressed out a lot and not always for great reason. Even on vacations I make the family run around and see as much possible before leaving for home. We've taken a couple of beach vacations and the one to Cozumel Azure absolutely hated because all we did was snorkel which she found too boring (I'm rubbing off on her). The point is that I need to relax more and I'm hoping our move to Costa Rica will resolve my problem since I have found it possible to relax there.

On to the rest of the story. After the guys stole my backpack, I found some policemen and reported the crime. They interviewed some of the people in the vicinity to no avail. One of the policemen spoke English which helped tremendously when it came to taking our statements but they never once asked me to describe my backpack which made it clear they had no intention of trying to find it. Patrick even drove down to the station to fill out an official report but not until after he personally made a sweep of the area checking to see if possibly my backpack and a pile of the stuff inside were dumped somewhere (we were the only ones looking around the perimeter).

The entire time he was gone, I sat at the bus station worried we would miss our bus to San Jose. Since we had an ARCR seminar to attend at 8am the next day and the 3pm bus out of Jaco was our only opportunity to be in San Jose on time it was important we catch the bus.

Upon arriving back from the police station, the English speaking cop told me they had the roads leading out of town blocked and they would definitely catch the culprits. HA! I knew already that I would never see my backpack or its contents again and since no one could give a good description of the two guys that stole it, they would never catch them either.

We did catch the bus to San Jose and then I immediately called the credit card company to report my card stolen. By the way, this is harder to do from Costa Rica than I imagined especially since the hotel room was paid for with the card that was stolen so I had to make the calls from the front desk.

Here's where the problem lies. It seems that I gave the thieves too much time before reporting my card stolen. They used my card to make a purchase at Penny Lane- $149.56 worth plus international transaction fees. Personally, I'm not sure why the card was ever accepted since it clearly was a gringo card AND I never signed it on purpose! I'm guessing a friend of theirs ran it through? Anyway, I have been fighting with Bank Of America ever since. I finally thought I had it resolved in March and then on June 13th they debited my account for $449.19 saying it is for duplicate adjustments previously made to my account. I have been furiously trying to get this resolved ever since I noticed it on my online statement but with all the time spent visiting lately this is proving more difficult than I imagined. Yesterday I expected a call from a manager and when no one called by 4:30pm I called them AGAIN. This time the call reps wouldn't even listen to me and basically hung up on me even though I was being very civil. I have worked in call centers before and I know it doesn't pay to be irate. They claim they have sent me a new statement and won't discuss this matter with me until I receive it and call back then. WHAT? I explained I am moving and need to get this handled now and they didn't care. I plan to call back every day until I get some consideration since several call reps have already agreed with me that this charge should be reversed but no one will do it...

enough ranting for today- I must relax ;-)

Great disappearing act

2007-07-19T09:38:00.000-06:00

I know I promised this story yesterday but we went to see Harry Potter. Patrick and I enjoyed the movie but Azure complained that they left out pertinent info that will screw up the next movie. I guess we'll have to wait and see...

Onto the incident in Jaco:

During our November visit to Costa Rica, we decided to encompass not just the moving aspect but also get in some relaxing beach time. I planned a few days in Jaco at the beginning of the trip (but after our tour at Lincoln School) because we had been to the Caribbean coast but not the Pacific. The big draw in my mind was Manuel Antonio Park so we could see squirrel monkeys -one of only a few places in the world to see them in their natural habitat. Anyway, our car rental deal fell through and we decided to take the bus for the duration of the stay. The ride to Jaco seemed dangerous with all the steep mountain roads and the bus driver handled it well so we're glad we decided to take the bus. Our accommodations for the four nights suited us well. Clarita's turned out to be a tiny motel on the north end of the beach which served good food in their sports bar. We found a terrific bakery in Jaco called Pachi Pans that makes the most amazing chicken and potato empanadas. The bus to Quepos picks up right outside their doors so that worked out well. We didn't happen to see any squirrel monkeys but the sloths made up for that!

Back to the point of the story, the day we were to leave Jaco, we had to be out of the motel by noon but the bus didn't come until 3pm. The bus terminal was close by which was good because we had what seemed like a lot of luggage (12 days worth of clothes for 3 people). We didn't want to walk to town with all our luggage so we decided to just pick up food and eat at the bus terminal. Since we needed to purchase tickets for the bus before they sold out, this made the most sense. The bus terminal in Jaco basically is just a window in a building shared with a bank and a Pizza Hut next door all sharing a dirt parking lot. Patrick purchased tickets for us and we "camped out" on the retaining wall next to Pizza Hut. We piled all the luggage between us and started to dig into our lunch. I wasn't extremely hungry so I decided to write in my journal. A young kid (twenty-something) asked us what time it was so I looked at my watch and told him. He seemed nervous like he thought he was late and told me he didn't understand (in Spanish of course). I knew my Spanish wasn't great so instead of trying to tell him the time in Spanish, I leaned over and showed him my watch. (DUMB!) He said thanks and left. The three of us discussed what time it was in Spanish and laughed about it. I started to say the whole thing seemed weird like he wanted something from us. "It's not like we have anything to steal" came out of my mouth as I reached for my backpack - and found it missing!!! I looked at the old lady sitting next to me and she just shrugged. I hollered to Patrick "they stole my backpack" and he took off running. Of course, it was too late.

After all of our traveling, I made the dumbest mistake ever. I know not to tell people what time it is and I know that I always need to keep my hand on my backpack. I blame the whole thing on my trust of people and that Costa Rica makes me feel so at ease - unlike some other countries we have visited. Even so, we were sitting in a space that only had one access point because Pizza Hut was behind us AND a security guard was standing within 15 feet of us PLUS an elderly woman sitting right next to me. Those guys were pros! After questioning the woman, she admitted seeing the whole thing but said it happened so quickly she couldn't say what they looked like. Obviously though, she could have yelled at them or me or something. We've been told since this happened that Ticos believe it is okay to steal from gringos. I'm over being mad at them and just want to let others know how easy it is to have your personal stuff stolen.

You may be saying to yourself, "ok they took the backpack, so what? At least they still had their luggage for the rest of the stay." True. But the two guys that took my backpack knew what they were doing. We figure they must have seen Patrick go into the bank and come back out and hand me his passport (you need a passport for all bank transactions in Costa Rica). We think they were really only interested in the passport because we've been told they can be worth 10k on the black market. Plus, maybe you've guessed by now that I'm not the type to carry a purse. Everything I needed for the vacation besides clothes was in that backpack. I was even carrying some of Azure's things. All in all, they got all my money, credit cards, all 3 passports, drivers license, 2 digital cameras, 2 MP3 players, medicine, several books and maps and my car key which turned out to be one of the most important items to us. We easily received new passports the next day at the Embassy. Patrick had some money and credit cards in his pocket. Because we took the time to file a police report, our home owners insurance covered most of our monetary losses. But because we didn't have a car key, Patrick had to convince the car dealership we purchased the car from to make a duplicate key. Then we had a courier service take the key to the Park N Fly at the airport. Luckily we had just barely enough time to do this before arriving in Minneapolis because we live 90 minutes from the airport and we didn't get off the plane until after midnight.

Whew! Enough of this story for one day. Maybe I will fill in the blanks later.

Now you see her...now you don't.

Time to organize

2007-07-18T13:58:00.000-06:00

Please bear with me while I try to consolidate/organize my labels for this blog.

I will post my Jaco story later today (I hope).

home again, home again, jiggety jig

2007-07-17T20:00:00.000-06:00

We left Denver Monday afternoon around 1:30 after a delicious lunch with Sean at Tuk Tuk. I love Thai food and Pad Thai tops the list. We drove straight thru only stopping for gas and a meal to go at Sonic in Kearney, Nebraska. I'm not a fan of Nebraska but extremely happy to have a cream slushie! Anyone guess what time we pulled into our driveway in Big Lake? The winner would be the person guessing 5:36am! Obviously, we slept until almost noon....

Today, in between all the loads of laundry, we made lots of phone calls to try to get things wrapped up to leave for Costa Rica. Besides trying to get our properties sold, I have been trying to resolve a credit card issue that started back in November when I had my backpack stolen in Jaco. It's a somewhat long story that I would rather describe tomorrow since Patrick is just finishing up our dinner and I should change wash loads before eating.

Until tomorrow then...

Entire Jones Family at Red Rocks minus Sean since he was working :-( (and I took the photo)

more waiting -we're starting to get used to it!

2007-07-15T12:43:00.000-06:00

We're starting to get nervous about the move but not in the way you would think. We are excited to get down to Costa Rica but things don't seem to be going our way. We haven't sold either of our properties in Minnesota yet and therefore have not yet purchased tickets to San Jose. I keep finding really good deals but since we are afraid as soon as we book something the date won't work because we will need to sign paperwork, we postpone the purchase until we are positive we are picking a good move date.

The original plan was to fly down to Costa Rica the week before Azure starts school so we have plenty of time to settle in. We need to sign for the keys to our new property and transfer the name of the corporation into a name of our choice ( I think we finally settled on a name). Then we need to ensure our container arrived as scheduled and have everything delivered to our place (we haven't heard anything from Charles Zellar in a while?). Of course, unpacking will be fun! Also, Azure needs to get her new school uniform and I have to complete all the application paperwork. Then there is the matter of purchasing a car. Plus, did I mention we don't know our way around very well? I know we'll need to get things set up such as electric, water, cable, etc. and that will be an adventure all of it's own, I'm sure!

At least we are trying to relax here in Denver for the time being -we will probably be leaving Monday morning for the long drive back home.

This is a photo of the Jones Family on top of Lookout Mountain in Golden, CO

more driving to visit family before we move

2007-07-12T08:37:00.000-06:00

Since we didn't need to be in Minnesota for any particular reason, we took off early yesterday morning (Wednesday) and drove straight thru to Denver to visit Patrick's brother, Sean. We made it in one piece after only a 15 hour drive but had a close call coasting into one gas station on fumes!

I must sign off - we have places to go, people to visit, etc.

Azure typed up something in the car yesterday that she asked me to post. I don't quite follow it but here goes:

Hello bloggers,
This is a very slow day it is 11 pm and we have been on the since 9 am it is totally absurd. To me that makes no since, but driving from MN to CO in one day is just too weird to imagine. We were going to leave on Thursday, but all of a sudden (flash back to yesterday Tuesday and this morning) I got up in the morning from just getting back from WI and I hadn't seen my friend Sam for a long time soo anyways I went over to play and all of a sudden my parents came over and said that I needed to come home because we were leaving in the morning.
"Mom, why!?!?!" I asked.
"So if we leave now we can to CO then can be back if something happens." Mom explained.
"OK," and that's all I could say.
So mom was being really nice and Kirst (Kirsten my bff from 1st grade and still is). When we woke up mom was on a rampage because I forgot to put my backpack together that I was saposta put together last night. That meant I had to put it together in the morn (lest time for other stuff I needed to get done).
Now we're here and duh I should have known lots of lightnin'.
Bye talk soon,
Azure

The heat is on!

2007-07-10T10:52:00.000-06:00

My brother, Troy, and cousin, Rob, attended Summerfest with us Sunday to see INXS. We staked out a picnic table up front for 3 hours taking turns running for water and the cool down tent where they spray mist so you don't pass out from heat exhaustion. The band put on a GREAT show which made the wait in 103 degree temps worthwhile! (JD was sporting a full beard and long hair!)

Then Troy stayed with Rob at his apartment in West Allis while we went back to the airport Radisson. We picked Troy up Monday morning to take him back to Rapids since he had rode down with Rob Sunday morning. The drive from Rapids to Big Lake is 4 hours making a total of almost 7 hour drive for the day. We eventually made it back to our empty house in time to get some of the 8 loads (or so) of laundry started! Whoo hoo!

We thought for sure our lawn would be burnt to a crisp like last year when we went to Summerfest for the week but luckily it must have rained a bit since we still had a bit of green (mostly weeds, though) and some water in the one bird bath we didn't pack. Patrick is out mowing the weeds right now. I regret not putting in the in-ground sprinkler system we discussed adding 2 or 3 years ago but obviously it's too late now.

Not much is happening with our properties here in Minnesota. Patrick has been diligently trying to get the duplex to close but the mortgage officer won't call back the buyer or Patrick. Also, the young couple we would like to sell our Big Lake home to can't get approved for the loan so we are discussing a carry-back option. It's nothing I'm excited about but we do need to sell so something is better than nothing, right?

As far as our place in San Rafael (Costa Rica), the previous owner moved out at the beginning of July and worked out a deal with the neighbor who owns the coffee plantations. He is staying at our place and we are paying him $50 per week until we get down there. It's not quite the arrangement I was hoping for (again) but hopefully it will help our standing in the community and we won't be the "awful gringos". Making friends with the owner of a coffee plantation can't be all bad! I can't wait to enjoy real coffee again (we have Yuban at home but we had plenty of crap while vacationing).

Oh, by the way, the Weird Al concert exceeded my expectations so I would highly recommend checking him out next time you get a chance! We missed the Asia concert due to a slight family melt-down and huge crowds. Cat Empire funked and jammed. Patrick and Azure thought Spoon was too mellow but I enjoyed them and at least caught "I Turn My Camera On" and "The Way We Get By" before we left.

Typical good 4th of July in Milwaukee

2007-07-05T08:45:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone had a good 4th of July! I realize not everyone reading this blog celebrates Independence Day on the 4th but that doesn't mean you couldn't have a good day, right?

One of the Jones Family traditions on the 4th of July is to go to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. I know this may sound crazy but in Milwaukee most places are closed on Independence Day and we can always count on the Mexican restaurants to be open. Our favorite of them all is Conejitos. Thanks to my cousin Heather, we found this "dive bar" which serves the most amazing Mexican food. I always order the plate lunch. They serve rice and refried beans with beef, potatoes, and green beans all in a sloppy mess usually on a paper plate. Then you get 4 tortillas to make your own tacos. I can't even begin to tell you how delicious this simple meal tastes except to say that we crave it all year and can't wait for our yearly visit!

By the way, did I tell everyone that we actually sold Patrick's car right before our long drive to Wisconsin. Yeah. Now if only we could sell our Minnesota properties.

Another personal update

2007-07-03T08:35:00.000-06:00

I'm thinking of changing the description of the blog since this has become very personal and won't necessarily help anyone planning a move to Costa Rica. If anyone is offended by the fact that this blog is losing focus, please let me know. Thanks.

So, on to our latest adventure: We spent some time in Wisconsin Rapids with my family. My Mom wasn't satisfied with our last goodbye in the mall parking lot so she drove down for a visit also. We had a pizza dinner Saturday night and breakfast Sunday morning. I'm glad that we had the opportunity to enjoy another get together with everyone again. The impromptu barbecue at my Grandparents will be one I'll remember for a long time. (It might be the last time I will get a real Wisconsin brat on the grill. MMMMM!) I showed everyone pictures of our property and made them all promise to visit sometime.

Monday we met my Aunt Patti, Uncle Todd, and cousins Joe and Alex for a day in the Dells. Alex lives and works in the Dells so he was able to score some free passes for the Chula Vista waterpark. The climb up all the steps killed me but coming down thru the tubes rocked so I think I managed to burn a ton of calories :-) Afterwards, we debated what to do and I guess I won because we went to Riverview Park and purchased a night pass for only $9.75. This allowed us to ride almost everything but the point of going there was for the go-carts. I love to race! I won or came in second almost every time. Maybe I took it to serious but we all had a blast! My Uncle Todd and I were racing furiously at one particular track and turned the corner to find Azure putzing along. Needless to say, she end up sideways and needed to get an attendant's help to get going again. I thought her eyes would pop right out of her head while she was spinning!

So, now we are in Milwaukee for Summerfest! Weird Al is tonight and of course we are excited. I have to sign off now so we can go swimming for a bit before we leave for the concert.

Later!

I know this picture is blurry but I didn't take it so what can I do-it's all I've got...

A word or two from Azure

2007-06-30T14:01:00.000-06:00

Azure wrote something for this blog last night while we were driving to Wisconsin from our home in Big Lake. I told her I would post it as written so I hope you enjoy her viewpoint:

Today my parents called me a "butt". I still really don't wanna move, so i was just siting on the floor doing nothing. The reason my parents were made was because we were packing to go to SUMMERFEST. The best part is weird al is going to be there and INXS today, probably at this exact moment Chris Daughtry from AI (American Idol). We get to for the first time to Summerfest stay at a good (like rich people) hotel called the Radisson dad said we might see some of the artist from the concerts. Last year we saw Yellow Card at the mall :^0 !!
We are also getting to stop in Rapids (thats where my mom's family lives) and this time my uncle Troy is going to be there (he is like almost never there) I am sooo excited!! Now we're finally here and it is 9:22pm so it's not late but we left at like 3 something (we had to stop a few times). This is probably the last time I'm going to be here ever in my life so I need to log off to look around.
bye,
Azure Trio Jones

Photo taken of Azure next to the pool at Samoa Lodge Tortuguerro

what next?

2007-06-28T19:39:00.000-06:00

Where do I start? We still didn't have our duplex closing today and it doesn't look to be closing soon. The title for Patrick's car still hasn't arrived in the mail (but we did receive $400 down payment from the woman whose husband is in Iraq). The couple who want to buy our Big Lake house were unable to reach the loan officer until yesterday so we still don't have a purchase agreement. Since we are waiting on everything here in Big Lake we are still sleeping on the floors instead of enjoying the beds at my grandparents as planned last week (what next?)

Good news is that Azure has spent everyday this week with one friend or another so she is VERY happy. My Mom has decided to meet us in Wisconsin this weekend for one last visit.

I need to go because we are having a big fire with all our old paperwork so no one can get hold of our social security numbers (I burned out our paper shredder!)

I wanted to put up a new post before I'm gone again with no Internet access. fun

more hassles but mostly good things happening!

2007-06-25T18:13:00.000-06:00

(Patrick would like me to point out that this post is slightly off-topic since it is more about us and how the move is affecting us than about Costa Rica so those not interested in our lives don't have to read the entire post. Good Point!)

Patrick had a good response to his ad on Craig's list about his car. He is currently showing it to a woman whose brother is in Iraq and wants to buy the car since he is coming home soon. I am against wars which is one of the reasons I love Costa Rica (they don't have an army), but I feel for the guys who are fighting and hope we can give this guy a good deal.

Anyway, Patrick realized last night that he accidentally packed the title for the car (another duh!) so we went to the State registrar today. She took our money and said "thanks. you should have your title in 5-7 days." Whoa! We won't be here then. She said they don't expedite them anymore due to budget cuts. ? What a dumb thing to get rid of.... Hopefully, they print it, get it in the mail, and we can receive it before Thursday!

We showed the house last night to this young couple that have been clients of Patrick's since last year. They really like the house (especially the low price) and are contacting the mortgage broker Patrick recommended to them. I have a good feeling about this and would love for a quick close. The guy actually said "is Uhaul still open?" before he left last night because he knew he wanted to move in right away. That's a bonus!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that our duplex still has not closed! We now have our fingers crossed that this fourth closing date for Thursday will be "the one".

I refuse to stay in town and miss Summerfest! Azure is counting on seeing Weird Al, Patrick wants to see Asia, and I am patiently waiting for The Cat Empire and Spoon!! Woohoo! I still have to remember to change our Milwaukee hotel stay dates so we can stay through Sunday. I haven't told Azure who will be there that day but it's someone we will all enjoy! Anyone interested in concerts should check out the Summerfest website cuz once you see the lineup, you won't want to miss the festival!

Still no time to relax - well maybe a little!

2007-06-24T09:25:00.000-06:00

Everyone must be tired of me talking about how busy we are by now. Truth is that we've been trying to relax these past few days in between our bursts of madness. Yesterday we even attended the local Spud Fest parade and I had a good sugar buzz from all the candy!

Patrick was busy cleaning the carpets here in the house Thursday and Friday since we knew it would be easier after everything was moved out. He also cleaned out his car and shampooed the entire thing while we had the Rug Doctor. We put the car for sale on Craig's List yesterday morning and already have had several interested parties. This is cool cuz we would like to have it sold before we head back to Wisconsin later this week for our second visit and Summerfest.

We've slowly been buying some of the items we packed and actually still needed like a coffee maker. Yesterday while trying to put pictures of Patrick's car up on Craig's list, we realized how important it was to have a USB cable for the camera (we packed it -duh). So after several trips to Walmart, I finally remembered to buy a card reader. So, now I can post some more new pictures. yeah!

Here is Patrick hiding behind some plastic containers on Wednesday, June 13th. This is the day before the "big move" and we are busy organizing everything, labeling, and creating our inventory list. Fun!

Patrick asked me to add this next photo of the inside of our garage to illustrate how everything you own can fit in a three car garage (except your furniture).