Welcoming Old Friends and a New Year!!

The holidays have come and gone but it is not at all quiet here in Puerto Viejo.  This has been the busiest I have seen this little town and the restaurant and hotel owners happily are in agreement.  It has been CRAZY!!

The beaches have been packed

and the streets in town are barely passable by bicycle or foot even though there has been a lot of rain.  But I am not complaining.  The energy is great and it is fun to talk to some of the people who are experiencing Puerto Viejo for the first time.  Like my friend Dan and his two daughters Kim and Kristina.

I worked with Dan at the University of Idaho and he emailed me a couple of months ago saying that he and the girls were going to come to Costa Rica for a week in late December/early January and asked for some suggestions.  I told him of the places we had visited throughout the country and in the end he decided to come here.  He rented the main floor of a house way down the Playa Negra beach and spent time going out and seeing the sights.  For being here only a week they packed a lot in.  They hiked to a beautiful waterfall; learned how chocolate was made from the pods of cacao trees; toured Manzanillo National Park and saw tons of flora, foliage and animals; visited the Jaguar Rescue Center; and managed to get in a few yummy meals as well as a bit of shopping.

On Saturday before they left the sun was out and it was gorgeous and they were able to hang out on the beach all day before we headed to Stashu’s Con Fusion for a great meal.

 

 

 

 

 

Tom and I had a wonderful Christmas day – several friends came over for a late afternoon potluck and we all caught up on each other’s lives.  It was very different from other Christmases we have had here and I really enjoyed staying home and just relaxing.  New Years Eve we also stayed in.  The fireworks were just too much for the dogs,  They were petrified so we decided that a night in was best.  And it turned out to be a great decision because there was a torrential downpour later in the evening.  We just got cozy and listened to the rain, thankful that we were not outside.

 

Sofi gave us a scare last week. She almost killed one of the Basilik lizards that lives in one of the giant trees in our yard.  We had seen the lizard earlier sitting on a bush enjoying the sun. While I was working in my office I heard a bunch of commotion outside my door and went out to check it out.  There was Sofi with the poor lizard in her mouth.  I yelled and she dropped it and it climbed up on one of the screen doors.

Tom picked it up and we checked it and didn’t find any damage so he put it back in the tree and it scurried up to safety.  We are constantly on watch to try to make sure that the dogs don’t harm the jungle animals but that was definitely a close call.

So that is all the excitement in my life for the last few weeks.  We are going to enjoy the sun for a while today and then kick back and watch the NFL football wild card matches.  Life goes on here in my little corner of the world – Pura Vida!!

A few photos: