It’s always something…

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!

Bridge washout!

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!