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It has been a busy nine months since I last posted.  Last June we decided to build a small casita to rent out to vacationers and to have for friends and family who want to come visit. Our carpenter/fisherman friend, Marvin, came to Tom with the idea and after much discussion we decided to go for it!  It was a long process as only Marvin and his brother Bismark worked on it, although Tom worked a lot toward the end.  Construction was delayed in July and August because of rain and then again in September and October because those are prime fishing months for Marvin. But finally in mid January it was done and it is beautiful!!  It has been rented out to vacationers since the end of January but starting the first week of April, family will be visiting – my nephew and his wife in early April, my son in late April/early May, and my cousin and his girlfriend at the end of May.  So it is working out just as we hoped!!  The website is here if you want to check it out: Casita Alegre .

We had sad news in December.  Our wonderful neighbors Ron and Don sold their house and will not be returning.  We all moved in at almost the same time in 2010 and although we are permanent residents and they came and went, we became fast friends.  I always would count down the days to their return and it is depressing to know they won’t be back.  But that is a common theme here in Puerto Viejo and Costa Rica.  It is a transient culture – some people end up leaving because the reality of living here was not the same as the dream of paradise and others just decide that they want something else – often just the life they had before.  The good news is that we are always meeting new people and making new friends and for us, the dream is the reality 🙂

We also have adopted another rescue dog bringing the total to six which is definitely the limit of what we can take care of.  Our new dog Steggie was one that I found a home for five years ago.  He had a great home and great life up the road on a farm in San Clemente but last year his owner was deported.  He wasn’t allowed to go back to his farm and so Steggie was running in the jungle and on the beach for eight months.  We tried finding him a home but had no luck.  By the time I got him he was literally dying.  The vet figured that he had been poisoned and his liver was in bad shape.  He also was blind in one eye.  But after four months of pretty intensive treatment he is all well and looks great.  He even got his eyesight back!!  He and the two little ones wrestle all day long and now Thelma and Louise would not know what to do without Steggie.  So definitely a very happy ending!!

Finally – my Mom turned 90 last August and was there ever a grand celebration.  Family and friends came to Casper, Wyoming from all over the United States (and me from Costa Rica) to give her the best birthday ever!  She just keeps getting better 🙂

Some photos……..

Construction

Critters

Garden

Dolphin

Closeup

Yesterday I went for a walk on the beach and ran into some friends sitting on a log that had washed up.  I stopped to say hello and they pointed to the ocean and said “Look at all the dolpins!”.  There were several dolphins jumping and diving including at least one baby.  It was such a thrill – in the five years I have lived here this was the first time I saw the dolphins and they were really close to the shore.

Last week was Semana Santa – Holy Week – here in Central America and for Ticos that means it is time to go to the beach!  Between Palm Sunday and Easter, the town is literally filled with people.

Easter pinks

Parked on Beach

Driving is not even an option and walking or biking is an adventure.  During a normal week I can take a walk on the beach and will see maybe five people spread out all along the beach.

Fishermen bringing in the boat

However during Semana Santa, the beaches are packed with families playing in the ocean, camping on the beach, enjoying barbecues, and listening to music.  It is a party all the way from Cahuita to Manzanillo.  Cars began streaming into town on Wednesday morning and did not stop until Friday afternoon.  By Sunday morning – Easter Sunday and the day of the dolphins for me – the beaches in my area were almost back to normal with just a few people hanging out.

Kids Playing on the beach

Opi

Last Tuesday, four friends and I went to entertain a group of elderly people in a nursing/retirement home not far from Puerto Viejo in a small town called Bambu.  We just showed up with no notice and sang Easter songs and then spent some time talking to the people who came to listen.  It was such an uplifting experience.  There were smiles and laughter all around.  We were lucky enough to see a wonderful man by the name of Opi from Puerto Viejo.  He had been in a terrible accident about a year ago when he was hit by a car while standing by his bicycle.  When we said we would see him next time he said “Not unless you sing to me in Puerto Viejo – I will be home and walking by then!!”.

The grounds and the home itself were just beautiful and the staff seemed to really enjoy working there.  In Costa Rica, most people grow old and are cared for by there family but when that is not possible this is a wonderful alternative with a warm and caring environment.

For those who are curious, the new puppies are great!  Tom and I are loving watching them grow and honestly spend much of our day laughing as we watch their antics.  They completely entertain themselves wrestling and chasing each other and the other dogs and have won over our hearts – we cannot now imagine life without them.

Growing up

Crashed

It it hard to believe that we have been living in Puerto Viejo for four years.  On Wednesday, August 13th we celebrated our arrival in 2010.   It is strange to me how time has gone so fast and so slow at the same time.  Life here is so laid back and calm – no one is in a rush.  For some who move down here, that is frustrating but for some reason I fell right into the lifestyle   The lack of stress is what is most wonderful – I can see why this little country is often #1 on the polls for the “Happiest country in the world”. 

Since I last wrote we have had a few major things happening but by far the most exciting was that Costa Rica made it to the final eight in the World Cup.  Everyone was NUTS!!!  Everything in the country stopped when Costa Rica was playing and the President even gave time off to all of the workers.  There is just something about being in the middle of a crowd of people yelling and singing “Ole, Ole, Ticos, Ticos” that make life feel very good.  Puerto Viejo had its own celebrity, Dave Myrie, who was a bench player who ended up playing in the second to the last game.  There was a huge parade for him and then a welcome home party at Hot Rocks, one of the main bars in town.  He was so generous with his time giving photographs and posing with the fans. 

We also went to the annual 4th of July party at The Point and met up with most of our friends, neighbors and dogs in our little corner of PV.  The Point always has a free barbeque for the neighborhood and there is always a band and fireworks at the end of the day.  It was just a great time! 

Last but not least we have filed for permanent residency!!!  After you have lived here for three years you can apply and so we drove to Limon last week and got all the paperwork filed and paid the $100 per person.  Hopefully in three to six months, the application will be approved.  There will definitely be another celebration when it is

A few pictures…….

Iguana way up in a tree

Sofi with treasures from the beach

Neat looking grasshopper

  Our first Passion Flower!

After a drought the rain came

And continued………

Tom and crew coming back from the daily walk to the beach – these are happy puppies!!!

It has been quite a while since I wrote – about two months.  The main topic of conversation around here during that time was the terrible drought that had been going on since July.  Water wells were drying up and those places that were serviced by the city water had to ration – most areas could only use water two hours every other day.  We were lucky because our well is quite deep and we continued to be able to have water every day, although we did conserve.  This is one of the huge trees near our yard that shows the effect of the lack of rain.  Rain forests don’t do too well without water.  The good news is that we finally started getting rain a couple of weeks ago and last night we had over five inches.  Everyone is breathing a big sigh of relief.

For us the most important topic of conversation has been Kaya’s knee surgery.  She has been limping for several months off and on and a few weeks ago when Tom took her to the beach she did something to it and could no longer put any weight on her back leg at all.  Our vet here recommended a specialist in San Jose to repair what turned out to be a torn ACL.  Things went okay until a couple of days after she got back.  The stitches came out and the wound was gaping.  We called our vets here in town on the Saturday before Easter and they came over and fixed her right up.  It actually was pretty hysterical. They put her on the table in our outdoor living room, gave her an anesthetic to put her to sleep and then completely redid all the stitches and cleaned it up.  Tom got to hold the flashlight so was a surgical assistant   It will be several weeks before she is able to get back to running around but she is already so much better – she doesn’t even mind Wiley laying his head on her.  And I have to add that the entire cost was 1/10th of what it was when we had the same surgery done on our Alaskan Malamute when we were living in Idaho.  Pretty interesting.  I absolutely love these veterinarians here!!  Excellent care for a very reasonable price.

We did have a couple of sets of visitors in March which was nice.  We haven’t had many at all this year so it was good to see friends and family from the states.  Clive and Lori, our friends from DC came at the beginning of the month for their third visit and my cousin Rich and girlfriend Candace came at the end of the month for his second visit.  It was such fun to see all of them even though I had to work and we didn’t get to spend as much time with them as in the past.  Still fun to catch up and spend time together.

We have had lots of wildlife visitors too – right in our yard the last couple of weeks.  Two snakes, both harmless but really long – a green vine snake that wanted to go into the bedroom and hang out with Wiley, and a bird eating snake that was huge!! 

An iguana hiding from Sofi and Kaya in the wheel well of our car

A brown wood turtle – that was completely unexpected!!  We have no idea how it got here……

A green honeycreeper – we have seen them but have never gotten a good picture until now

A praying mantis that thought maybe it would like a sip of Tom’s beer

And last but not least a sloth who has been living in a tree in our backyard who evidently just had a baby – you just never knows what you will see in this place

That’s it for now.  Till next time……….

Last week a friend came to visit for a few days.  Tom and I met Kimberly Beck Hovland, who writes the blog 10 Degrees Above, in Cahuita a few months ago.  Casey Bahr – A Dull Roar – and his family were visiting Kimberly and her husband Barry on their 22 acre farm a couple of hours away and they came to Cahuita to hike and hang out.  We drove up and met up with all of them for lunch at a restaurant in Cahuita and had a terrific time.  I told Kimberly that she would be welcome to visit any time so she took us up on the offer to have a short vacation from her working life at the farm.  As you can see from the picture we weren’t the only two happy to see her – Kaya was in love

The first day Kimberly was here she was talking about how she makes tea every morning by collecting lemon grass, guanabana (graviola/soursop) leaves, hibiscus leaves, and mint from the farm.  As it turned out, we had everything in our garden except the mint so she showed me how she made the tea by throwing everything in a pot to boil and then letting it steep for a while.  The first batch was a little bit weak so the next batch I made sure to have more of the lemon grass and less water.  I also added ginger, which we don’t grow,  and turmeric  (which we do) roots and a bit of lime and it is delicious!!  I am not one for sweet drinks but for those who are (namely Tom), I add some of the raw honey I have in the cupboard.  Just one more benefit of living in this great spot! 

Last weekend we went to see Luis Angel Castro who is a singer/songwriter in Costa Rica.  My Spanish teacher will often have me listen to his songs and try to understand them and by doing so, I have become a huge fan.  He was playing at one of our favorite restaurants – Stashu’s Confusion – which is small and intimate.  We got to meet him and ended up buying a couple of CD’s.  His music was even better live    Evidently he is moving  back to this area from the city and so I am hoping that we will get to see many more of his performances.  Here is one of my favorites: 

Finally – a couple of weeks ago our friend Marvin and his wife dropped by to show us their new baby.  She is adorable and has the fattest little baby cheeks ever!! 

So that is it for now from my little corner of the world.  I hope that friends and family in the states are surviving the brutal winter up north………………

On Friday Tom and I headed off to Limon to renew our drivers licenses.  We got them initially three years ago in San Jose and it took forever and seemed really complicated.  This time we thought it would be a breeze since renewing our residency in Limon in October had gone so well. 

We got to the place in Moin, outside of Limon, at about 8:15 and first had to get a ‘physical’.  The doctor was in an old school bus that was in bad shape.  I think it used to be a roaming bus for a dentist since the ceiling was all decorated with cartoon teeth   The doctor took blood pressure readings and listened to our chests and gave a bit of advice and sent us on our way $80 poorer ($40 each). 

We took the card he gave us saying that we had passed our physical and went to a small building to wait to be called.  There were only a couple of people ahead of us and it was going fast so we were happy to think we would be back on the road to Puerto Viejo in a short time.  Oops – wrong………. 

Tom went in first and found out that because our drivers license had our passport number on it and not our cedula number, we would have to get a piece of paper from immigration saying that we really did have residency.  We knew that the law had changed and brought our cedulas with us to show them.  But even though we had our cedula with us, we still had to get the piece of paper.  So we climbed back in the car and drove into Limon to the immigration office.  Traffic was nuts since it was rush hour so it took a while to get back to Limon. Luckily there was no line at immigration and the person who helped me with my residency paperwork in October was the one to help us again.  She knew exactly what we needed so printed off two copies, signed them and sent us on our way.  So, fifteen minutes later we headed back to the drivers license office.

Once there it went very smoothly.  There was some additional paperwork needed so it took more time for each of us but within 1/2 hour we were done and had new licenses good for six years.  Yahoo!!

One day last week we had two new raptors hanging out in the yard. One – a Laughing Falcon – we had seen before but could not get a good picture of.  This time we did.  The other bird is a Black Hawk Eagle and it was gorgeous!!  Tom got a couple of great shots.  It evidently eats other large birds like Toucans and Chachalacas as well monkeys and large rodents.  It was wonderful to see but I’m glad it didn’t stick around and eat all my animal and bird friends

Other than that, it has been an uneventful couple of weeks.  I’ve been working longer days at my job and Tom has been spending most of his time working on the house.  Even though it is only four years old, living in this climate takes it’s toll and there is always some kind of upkeep to be done.  The weather has been unbelievably gorgeous but we have had some rain which we are glad about. 

Now it is time to go hang out on the back deck and pretend I am like my sloth friend who was sleeping on her back in a tree in our yard yesterday.  It’s a tough life……………

It is hard for me to believe that we just celebrated our 4th Thanksgiving here in Puerto Viejo.  Actually celebrated is probably not the correct word.   We had a giant tree fall across the road and into our yard so Tom spent most of the day

with neighbors as they cut it up and tried to repair the damage.  Luckily our wonderful gardener Pedro was scheduled to be here on Friday so he brought a couple of guys and they got everything cleaned up.  While this is a common occurrence when you live in the rain forest, it is the first time we have a a tree fall into our yard.  We were so lucky – no damage at all to structures – just to our fence and the hibiscus hedge that surrounds the property.  All easily fixed. 

The last couple of weeks have been eventful.  Last Saturday there was a Tope horse race in our little town.  Horsemen and women come from all over the country and race their horses up and down the beach and around the town.

It is such fun to watch.  It reminds me a lot of growing up in Wyoming and going to the county fair and rodeo – without the ocean of course   These races occur all over Costa Rica throughout the year and they are a big deal.  There are literally hundreds of people who go from town to town and race, have fun, and party all weekend.

Sunday was the launching of the PARTY BARGE!!!  The owners of our neighborhood bar The Point – Tiffany and Popeye – decided six months ago that they were going to build a barge that people could be taken out to from the bar and hang out and party.

A lot of people donated to the effort and although it often looked like it was not going to happen, Popeye never lost faith.  After hours of delays due to the difficulty of getting the barge off of the sand and into the ocean, it finally happened around 4:30 pm  on Sunday.  Honestly, it was hysterical to watch!  It now sits quite a ways off shore and I am not quite sure what the plan is but it doesn’t really  matter.  They had a vision and they saw it through – pretty cool!!! 

Other than that, things here in my little corner of the world are pretty much the same – kickin’ back and enjoying life

Pictures from the yard

Hawk screaming

Vultures roosting

Poison green dart frogs

Cool bug with fluorescent green eyes!

Brown Jay

Oriole

Newspaper moth

Cool lizard

Baby bird just fledged

Pronthonatory warbler