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Last week one of our neighbors, Jeffrey who has lived in Puerto Viejo since he was a child and who owns a restaurant at the end of our road, brought by several fruit trees for us to plant in our newly cleared lot.  He also brought some Cas fruit which is a citrus fruit that tastes somewhat like a cross between an orange and a lemon although even more tart than a lemon.  I read up on how to make a juice drink using Cas (love the internet!) and so made some.  It was wonderful!  Very refreshing and light.  Since some of the trees he gave us were Cas trees, I am looking forward to when I have them to pick fresh right off our own tree

Since I was in the experimentation mood, when I went to the farmers market on Saturday I picked up some passion fruit so that I could try making some juice from it as well.  Passion fruit looks pretty normal from the outside but when you open it up it looks like a glompy, oozy, gray mess.  However, I didn’t let that deter me and I once again looked up passion fruit recipes on the internet and decided to try another fruit drink.  Once again I was delighted with the outcome.  The juice was not nearly as tart as the Cas drink but wasn’t too sweet.  I can’t really compare the taste to anything but it kind of tasted a bit like a cross between a pineapple and a peach.  Pretty yummy!! 

Whole passion fruit

Passion fruit pulp

Our friends Clive and Lori from Washington D.C. arrived last Friday afternoon and left on Wednesday and three of the days they were here were rainy and cloudy.  We have had gorgeous weather for the last several weeks so I fully anticipated it to be nice during their visit.  That’s what I get for anticipating…………..  However, all was not lost.  We haven’t seen them in several years so we spent most of the time just catching up and relaxing and that was great fun! 

We went to our friends’ house one night and Tom was jammin’ with the best of them   We did go out to lunch and dinner several times and I have to say that the Flip Flop restaurant in Puerto Viejo is my favorite.  The prices are very low and the food is fantastic!!  Lori and I also went to the Jaguar Rescue to see the monkeys, sloths and other assorted animals they have.  It was rainy but Lori did get a chance to hang out with the monkeys for a bit and we did get to see the national icon – a red eyed  tree frog .  We also went to Manzanillo and had lunch at Maxi’s and then walked on the beach and in the ocean for a while.  All in all a very nice day. 

Since they have gone the weather has been nice once again and we have been able to work in the newly cleared lot in back of our house.  Tom has been planting new bushes, trees, and flowers and I have been weeding and chopping in the established yard.  This is work that is never ending – ensuring that we will never be bored!!

Clive, Lori and Kaya

Clive and Lori on his birthday at Loco Natural

Lunch at Banana Azul before they left for the airport

It has been so beautiful here the last week or so.  We have had rain at night on occasion but the days have been sunny and not too hot for the most part.  I went to the Punta Uva beach with Rene and Sarah on Sunday and Sarah and I snorkled which was a blast once again!!  We also watched a pelican who would dive into the sea and catch fish and then fly back up and perch on a tree over the beach just a few steps away from where we were.  The pelicans and other shore birds were all over that day.  There were also lots of people out enjoying the day but not so many not it felt crowded.  Just one more reason it is so nice to be here – there is always room on the beach

On Sunday, our gardener started clearing the lot adjacent to us that we had purchased when we moved down.  It had been full of cacao trees that were diseased and could not produce good fruit so he cut the majority of those down leaving us with some gorgeous trees that we had not really been able to see before.  One of them had a sloth that was just hanging out like it owned the place.  We also found that one of our banana plants has bananas that are almost ready to harvest – probably on Monday. So our guests – Lori and Clive – who are arriving tomorrow will have fresh bananas from our yard to enjoy all week. 

Sarah and six (or seven) baby monkeys!!

Yesterday I went back to the Jaguar Rescue Center to volunteer once again.  We started our day cleaning out the cages that hold the sloths, a hawk, and an iguana and then worked on the grounds raking and cleaning up.  After a couple of hours of that, it was time to babysit the baby sloths who are brought out to show the tours that come through twice a day.  The people on the tours learn all about the lives of all of the animals at the rescue and everyone walks away knowing something they didn’t when they arrived.  I spent a lot of time with Chocolate Chip, a five month old two toed sloth, and DJ, a two toed sloth who is about a year, in the morning and then watched Bella, a three toed, who came in not too long ago with a fungus infection and can’t hang out with the other sloths, in the afternoon.  She climbed around a bush for about two hours and ate a bunch of leaves and had a great time. 

Now I have to get going – my therapeutic masseuse is about to arrive – he comes to my house!!  If you have anything at all wrong with your body that causes pain then come on down to Costa Rica and have a few sessions with him.  He is a miracle worker!!  I have not felt this good in thirty years!!  Of course I’m sure the environment and lack of stress helps too  

  Enjoying the day

Dog on the beach

Rene and Leno the squirrel

I’m obsessed with sloths!!  Today Sarah and Rene took me with them as a volunteer at the Jaguar Rescue Center in Puerto Viejo and I took this video of a tiny two month old baby sloth. 

My job today started with cleaning the outside glass in the snake area and then raking the grounds for what seemed forever.  When I was done with that I spent most of the rest of the day with the animals – primarily the sloths.  Three of the sloths were old enough to be out climbing on the tree where we were but two were too little.  I fed one for about an hour and then they brought out this tiny one so it could have some sun. 

I also got to have Al Pacino – a baby howler monkey – crawl around on me for awhile.  That is until he tried to get away and climb a tree and then one of the more experienced volunteers took over. 

All in all it was just a great day but I am totally exhausted tonight.  Definitely an early bed

Six months ago today on August 13th, we arrived in Costa Rica with our wonderful friends Susan and Rex who helped us with the move, and our dogs Wiley and Kaya, to begin our new life.  Right about now we were pulling into the gate of our new house after a gorgeous drive through the mountains and valleys of the country.  We decided that we would make our permanent move to the Caribbean coast after visiting almost every part of Costa Rica over the last twelve years.  The affordability of a house near the ocean in the middle of the rain forest could not be matched anywhere else that we had visited.  We also fell in love with the town of Puerto Viejo and the small coastal towns all the way to Manzanillo almost immediately.

In these last six months we have adapted quite well to our new home.  The first couple of months, we spent most mornings drinking coffee in the living room and finding new birds every day that were coming in to our yard to feed on the different fruits and seeds in the bushes, flowers and trees on our property.

In the succeeding months, we have broadened our horizons and have left the outdoor living room and started getting to know the towns nearby and areas nearby.  We attended a Christmas festival in Bri Bri, a surfing competition on a beach in Puerto Viejo, went snorkeling at Playa Punta Uva for the very first time, hiked in Cahuita National Park, and sang in a choir in the gorgeous cathedral in Limon. 

Shortly after we arrived we decided to buy the lot right next to our house which effectively doubled our property.  Our plans are to plant fruit trees and more flowers as well as build a small cabina that can be used by our friends and family when they come to visit.  We will be getting started on the planting in the next month but the cabina will have to wait a year or so.  But that is the wonderful thing about Costa Rica – we are on Tico time!!!

Wiley and Kaya are acclimating very well.  I think we were all concerned about how they would take the change in climate but so far they have held up well.  They have had minor problems but nothing that wasn’t cleared up immediately with a quick visit to the vet (which, by the way, is amazingly affordable).  Kaya has decided that laying in the leaves at the base of the giant trees is just the ticket to a relaxing day.  Wiley likes hanging out in the family room when he is not getting his twice daily walk on the beach – he has decided inside is better with no flies buzzing around

I was telling a friend this morning that our expectations of what our life would be like here have so far matched the reality.  Now I can’t wait to see what the next six months will bring!!!

Pictures from our first months:

Susan and Rex – our #1 moving helpers!!

Bananas in our yard

Cacao fruit in our yard

Snowy Egret on the ocean

Trees with oranges flowers blooming now

Church in Cartago

Male Trogon right outside our living room

Pretty much everyone who knows us knows that we love watching movies.  One of the things we left behind in the U.S. was a theater set up with a 110” screen.  We sold the theater with the house and sold all of our DVD’s in our moving sale.  We did, however, bring along an older projector that we had bought a few years ago on the off chance that we might be able to figure out a way to watch movies on the “big screen” once in a while.  Last night we did just that.  Tom put a sheet up in the living room, hooked up the projector and we watched True Grit with our neighbors Sarah and Rene.  The photograph doesn’t do the experience justice – it was really quite nice.  Once we work out the kinks, you won’t even know that we are watching movies on a sheet

Our first visitors left yesterday to finish up their Costa Rican adventure and I have to say we had a wonderful time.  We have had a couple of other people come down but they came specifically to help us move rather than just vacation.  Betty and Bill live in Spokane, Washington and have known Tom for over 20 years.  I just met them when we moved to Moscow, Idaho and we discovered we were only an hour and a half a way.  When they heard we were moving to Costa Rica and that we had set a move date, Betty booked their flight.  And I’m glad she did!!

They arrived here a week ago and we spent the ensuing week relaxing and seeing the sites.  We went snorkeling at Playa Punta Uva, even though it was way too rough to see anything; had lunch in Manzanillo and people watched; attended the annual surfing competition and watched some great dancing up on stage; took a hike through the Cahuita National Park and saw howler and capuchin monkeys, sloths, raccoons, lizards, and gorgeous coral reefs; toured the Jaguar Rescue Center where they take in orphaned and injured animals of all kinds and then release them to the wild when they are rehabilitated; ate wonderful food – both at restaurants and at home; went shopping at the funky stores in Puerto Viejo; and talked and talked and talked.

It has been nearly a month since I posted something.  On January 5th Tom and I headed to San Jose so that I could catch a flight to go help take care of mom after she fell and broke her hip in mid December.  We went a day early so that we could spend one day getting our Costa Rican driver’s licenses.  After reading what some people had written about the experience, I expected it to take most of the day.  However, we were done in about two hours which I thought was great!!!  Now we have valid identification and can legally drive our car – what could be better?

I got to Casper the afternoon of January 7th and was greeted by my son Jordan who had driven up from Gunnison, Colorado to help me get mom situated and to hang out with me for a couple of days.  We went immediately to the rehabilitation center where mom was recuperating and found her to be in excellent spirits and very happy to see us.  She came home the following Monday, January 10th, and began the long process of recuperating at home.  I stayed for a little over two weeks and then was relieved by my sister Jerilyn who came for a week.  She was followed by Rachel, a very good friend of mom’s from Denver who will stay this coming week.  By the time Rachel leaves we are hoping that she can be on her own and that my brother Tom and his wife Shirley can manage the care until she is back to picture perfect health.

I came back to Puerto Viejo on Tuesday and it is so good to be home!!!  The weather has been absolutely gorgeous – mild temperatures, sunny, humidity not too high – really just perfect.  After the cold and blizzard conditions that we had off and on in Casper, I have to say that I really do prefer this climate     Tom came to San Jose to pick me up and I was able to get some photographs of some of the trees blossoming in bright orange flowers along the way.  It is summer now in Puerto Viejo (although I have to say that it is hard for me to know the difference between one season and another yet) and there are new sounds all around. 

We went out to dinner with friends Sarah and Rene and Rene’s daughter Julia and had a great time. We ate at a pizza place in PV that was wonderful.  The owner is from Italy and makes delicious thin crusted pizzas.  After dinner we went to a bar called Mango’s which is evidently one of the major happening places in our little town.  We drank some beer and listened to the band before we headed on home.  It was a really fun evening. 

Yesterday we were surprised by a couple of huge Iguana’s who are living in the trees next to our property.  We have been hearing them but this was the first time I got to see them.  They actually were mating – quite an interesting sight – so perhaps we will see some little iguana’s in the not too distant future………… 

I have been reporting on the rainy weather we have been having and we fully expected for it to continue on New Years Eve and New Years day.  Instead it started clearing up on New Years Eve and New Years Day was absolutely perfect!!! 

We had planned to go to a party to bring in the New Year but I opted out at the last minute because Kaya and Wiley began acting pretty nervous about all the fireworks.  Also, we had a visit by a couple of dogs who somehow got through our double fence and plopped themselves down on our deck like they owned the place.  When we opened the door to the kitchen and walked out there they were to greet us.  We had heard Kaya and Wiley barking for a short time but figured that they were just talking to people walking down the road.  Wiley, who can be very dog aggressive, acted like he wasn’t even noticing these two dogs.  They were absolutely the most docile dogs I have ever seen.  Clearly they were someone’s pet as they were well fed and very comfortable with humans.  Wherever we would sit, they would both come and sit right next to us.  Tom went on to the party with Sarah and Rene and I stayed home and watched all the dogs.  The visitors stayed all night on the deck and then left in the morning.  I looked for them on the road and down on the beach but couldn’t see them.  So I am sure they found their way back home.  They really were just wonderful dogs.

Tom said the party was great fun and I will definitely plan on going next year.  There were a bunch of musicians there and so people were playing guitars and drums and the women were dancing.  The party started at 9:00 so that people would still be up at midnight    As soon as the clock struck twelve everyone started heading home. 

Yesterday, New Years Day, I noticed that cars were streaming in on the road from Limon.  It was amazing.  Since it was such a beautiful day the beaches were full and the town was rocking!!  Tom and I went into town to have lunch and people watch and it was great fun.  We ate at a restaurant called Café Ivon that was quite good and a perfect place to watch people come and go.  There were people from all over the world as well as from all over Costa Rica.  Across from us was a couple who have a business braiding hair.  They didn’t have any business while we were there so their very cute kids were having a great time playing in the sand and just hanging out.  When we were done, we wandered over to the wonderful ice cream shop in town (honestly out of this world!!) and then headed back home to sit out in the living room and finish enjoying the day.  Sarah and Rene stopped by after spending the day on Playa Chiquita so we have a few beers and did a lot of chatting and laughing.  I honestly could not have started the New Year any better.  Pura Vida!!!!

Pictures from the day:

Boats on the beach

Horses on the road

People on the beach

Kids playing

Visitors

Ice Cream Shop

Of course – the required VW bus!!

As I sit listening to the fireworks beginning to go off to celebrate the new year, I am amazed to think back on where we started and where we ended this year.  At this time last year, we were living in Moscow, Idaho and working at the University of Idaho.  We had our house in Costa Rica but at that time we honestly thought it would be a couple of years before we were able to actually make the permanent move.  In February we came down to stay for a couple of weeks in our new house and by the time we left we knew we had to figure out how to get here sooner than later.  We had put our house in Moscow on the market to sell in late January and the first offer came in within a week even though our realtor and pretty much everyone else had said it would be at least six months before it would sell due to the downturn of the market.  Once we closed on the house in April and had rented a short term house (the “barn” ) we had changed our date to leave the university to the end of July.  

We left Moscow the last week of July, drove to Wyoming to see mom and brother Tom and other friends, then went on to Colorado to see all the kids.  After about 10 days in Colorado we boarded the plane to Costa Rica – dogs and all – and have not looked back.  Nothing to date has been much of a surprise.  The flora and fauna are amazing, we love our house, and we have begun making wonderful friends in our new little town.  In addition, some health issues that have plagued me for years are beginning to abate due to the amazing work of a therapeutic masseuse.  I also started taking yoga classes and my teacher is perfect for me.  Love your body!! she says and I try to do just that   

It is not all idyllic – theft is a major concern here and it is important to not take safety and security too lightly.  It also has been raining pretty steadily for the last month although today the sun has been out and we are reminded how gorgeous it is when the rain stops.  Actually, although it is getting a bit old, I still don’t mind the rain.  I love to read so I have spent a lot of time reading over the last month.  Although books are not easy to come by here, I have a Kindle and have about 300 hundred books downloaded that I have not yet read.  Now – once those 300 are read I might be singing a different tune.

Today (since it is not raining) the birds are out, the sloths are drying out in the trees and the howler monkeys have been howling.  I just don’t think I will ever take for granted the amazing diversity of the wildlife, the flowers and other plant life.  While I was never one to want to live near the ocean, I have found that listening to the varying tempos of the ocean at night is something I miss very much when I go away.  And the ocean tells us when the weather is changing.  During the stormy and rainy season, the oceans waves are huge and the beach has debris (I prefer the term “treasures”) all over it.  As the rain abates, the ocean becomes very calm and the beach is busy with people walking, swimming, and playing volleyball. 

Next week I will be going back to Wyoming to take care of mom for a couple of weeks.  She broke her hip a couple of weeks ago and so will need some help after she comes home.  This is just one more reason retiring early was such a good idea.  I no longer have to worry about trying to get off of work when I need to take care of family or just visit.  Sure takes the stress off………

So – next year I can only hope that it will be as amazing as this one was.  I am pretty sure that it will be!!!