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