Costa Rica Dog Lover

The last couple of weeks at work have been very unusual.  I have noted before that I sometimes wish I could have had the detachment that I now feel the entire four years I have been here so that I would have not become so caught up in the nonsensical politicals and small mindedness of what is going on.  There are truly some of the most wonderful people I have ever met working at the University of Idaho as well as some of the most annoying and irritating people I have yet encountered.  I know that it will be not too long after I leave that I will completely forget the annoying, irritating ones and only remember those who I really admire and respect.  I will miss them – but I will not miss the others.  I will never cease to be amazed at the time these people (that I won’t miss) spend working on trying to “one-up” everyone else.  What a waste of time!!  I will take the earthquakes, volcanoes, torrential rains, bugs, heat, humidity, as well as the wonderful birds, animals, flauna, flora, no stress free existence in Puerto Viejo any day…………

This weekend we watched a movie called The Blue Butterfly about a boy who has been told he is dying and wants, as his last wish, to go find the blue butterfly.  He convinces a renowned scientist to take him to the rain forest and they do find it.  The movie was filmed in Costa Rica, right in our new neighborhood.  It was such fun to watch and it actually made me homesick – even though I don’t yet live there.  The film showed all the animals and birds we have seen as well as the rain forest itself. 

It is now nine weeks before we will be living there permanently.  It was just a year ago that we closed on the house we bought and, at that time, still thought that we would not move for at least two years.  However, once we got the bug to make the move, it seemed silly to put it off any longer.  Now – just nine weeks out – we are almost there.  Tom and a friend will be heading down with four more duffle bags on June 29th.  Needless to say I am a bit jealous but it won’t be long until I am there for good.  I am ready……..

I came across a website while googling one day – www.onehumantribe.com – and ordered a DVD about a Bri Bri medicine man who uses plants in the rain forest to heal diseases.  His name is Don Candido and I have heard of him from a number of different people.  The movie is interesting in that it talks about the life of the Bri Bri to some degree as well as Don Candido.  When we were in Puerto Viejo in February we talked to Barry Stevens and his wife Nanci who work a lot with Don Candido. Barry swears that his leg was saved because of the medicine he received that came from the plants in the rain forest.  He had cut his leg and developed a terrible infection and the doctor told him that he would have to have his leg amputated.  He went to Don Candido who  gave him a tea to drink every day and in six months his leg was better.  Others talk about how he has used plants to cure cancer, high blood pressure, and diabetes.  have heard that the movie “The Blue Butterfly” which was filmed in Costa Rica is based on someone who went to see Don Candido.  I’ll have to see the movie…….

Lately there have been lots of earthquakes (two 6.1 magnitude in the last four days) and the volcanoes are really active.  There has been no real damage from them but lots of internet chatter.  In addition, two of the major volcanoes have been very active.  The lava flows from Arenal are near record and the ash spewing from Turrialba is covering the villages below causing the cattle to be moved to new locations.  In addition, the rains on the west side of the country are causing mud slides and closing roads all over the country.  The route that we have to take from San Jose to Limon has been closed off and on all month due to the slides. 

So why are we so crazy about this country?  Because the very things that can cause life to be difficult on occasion are the very things that make the country so diverse and interesting.  To be able to watch Arenal at night as the lava flows down its side is a sight that will never be forgotten.  It is the second most active volcano in the world but is not considered to be dangerous.  The earthquakes are a nuisance but so far have not caused any damage.  We are not in the hurricane zones so while we get the rain, we don’t get the terrible winds that cause so many problems.  I won’t be a pollyanna though – odds are that we will experience a strong earthquake that does cause damage or a volcanic eruption that disrupts the country.  But that is the small price we will have to pay for being able to experience this remarkable country.

Several years ago (1999 to be exact) I asked Tom if there was anywhere he would want to go in the world, where would that be? Without hesitating, he said Costa Rica. A person he worked with had been there and had come back raving about how beautiful it was. Tom had gone to high school for three years in Sao Paulo, Brazil and I had been sure he would say he wanted to go back there. However, Costa Rica won and I promptly went to my time share site to see what might be availabe in CR. We found a place at Playa Hermosa in Guanacaste and off we went in May of 1998 to spend a week in a condominum in a country we had never seen. By the time the trip had ended, we knew that we would be back as often as we could.

In the ensuing years we discovered so many different areas of Costa Rica that we loved and we tried to visit as many places as possible. We have stayed at a variety of and houses (Hotel Grano De Oro, Vista Del Valle, Hotel Pura Vida, Hotel Milvia, Hotel Si como No, Tres Banderas, Villas Calletas, Villas Escaleras, Tree House Hotel to name a few) and have visited much of the country. We have been to Manuel Antonio, Arenal, Dominical, Uvita, Jaco, Grecia, Monteverde and points in between. On our second trip down we spent two days rafting down the Pacuare River and spent the night in the rain forest with just the two of us and a guide. On another trip we watched a potter in a small village work her magic on clay and she showed us the kiln sitting in her back yard that she used to fire the pieces.

Last year we visited Puerto Viejo for the first time and, even though we love the entire country, this was the place that really felt like home. The area is so laid back yet there is so much to do in a small area. There are a few wildlife refuges, places to scuba and snorkel, and amazing birds and wildlife everywhere. The restaraunts are wonderful – uniformly the best across the board of anywhere we have been in the country. While we won’t be spending lots of time in restaraunts, we are glad to know that we have the option of so many.

This is our new home and we are so happy that we are going to be able to live our dream.

On Wednesday we took the dogs to the veterinarian to get them the shots that they will need before they can get into Costa Rica. Two of them were normal rabies and distemper but one was something they hadn’t had before and they are suffering for it. They are having serious gastrointesinal issues which isn’t fun for them or for us…… They had to get the shots at least 30 days before we arrive in Costa Rica. So that is done and hopefully they will feel better in the next day or so.

It has been so cold here that we have tied records the last couple of days. It just makes it harder to hang around but we don’t have a choice. If we could I know we would head out sooner than planned but, since we have the travel plans all completed we can’t. Plus we both made committments to our work to stay until the end of July and we will do that. It is harder and harder to take it all seriously, although we still do. But I wish sometimes that I had had the objectivity and sense of disassociation that I now have – it truly has made life much easier.

We have been busy the last several days working on the move. This weekend we made airline reservations to come back to the States in November to bring some of the things we are going to store in Denver back to Costa Rica. We also made reservations at the hotels we will stay in during the time we leave Moscow at the end of July to August when we fly out. We made appointments to get the dogs into the veterinarian in Moscow (tomorrow) to get all their shots and made an appointment with a vet in Denver to get a checkup and the paperwork completed so that we can get their health certified with the USDA in Lakewood in the ten day time period required by the Costa Rican government.

The timing is going to be tight. We will leave Moscow on July 31st and drive to Casper Wyoming to visit mom. We will stay there until the morning of August 3rd and drive to Denver. The appointment with the vet is that afternoon at 3:15. We will have to get the information faxed to the USDA that afternoon so that it can all be verified so we can pick up the veterinarian certification right before we leave. Tom will probably fly out of Denver on August 4th to go to Washington DC to get all of our documents needed to apply for residency certified at the Costa Rican embassy. He will return on August 6th. We were able to get reservations at a new hotel with a room that has a full kitchen, living room and separate bedroom for around $70 a night!! It borders a large open space so that I can take the dogs for a walk while Tom is in DC. On August 8th we will head to Gunnison and stay a few days and set up a bank account so that my son can have access if need be. We will use his address for the mail that we need to receive in the U.S.

I have to quit because I am out of breath 🙂

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It is just ninety days now that we will fly to Costa Rica and begin the new phase of our life. It is so weird that this is such a momentous move when it is really not that far away. I guess the fact that we are leaving the United States and are not planning to move back makes it seem more exotic to everyone. To me, moving to Florida or Canada would be just as much of a change as moving to Costa Rica. However, it is very apparent that we are not staying in the U.S. There is so much work to be done as far as ensuring that all our documents are properly verified and attested to – at times it seems overwhelming. We have pretty much decided that Tom will fly to Washington DC in late July/early August to go directly to the U.S. Embassy to get all of our documents certified. If he does not, then we will have to send the documents we collect (birth certificates, marriage license, etc.) to two different regional emabassies (California and Illinois) and hope that we get the certified copies back before we leave on August 13th. Neither of us are comfortable thinking that we will be able to get that all done before we fly out. We really want to be able to get our documents in order and filed so that we don’t have to leave the Costa Rica every 90 days. Becoming a resident (not a citizen) is our most important short term goal. Everything else can wait 🙂

Since the title of this blog is “Costa Rica Dog Lover” I thought I would give some insight as to why I chose that name. Two of the reasons are in the photo to the left. We have two siberian huskies who will be traveling with us to Puerto Viejo in 96 days 🙂 Wiley will be seven years old this summer and Kaya will be three. We got Wiley from a rescue in Colorado six years ago when he was eight months old. We had taken our HUGE (170 pounds) alaskan malamute named Neo with us to make sure that a new dog would interact well with the dominant malamute. All of the huskies were nervous and scared with him except Wiley. Wiley just thought that Neo was playing a game when he growled and just jumped and ran around Neo and had a great time. Although it took Neo a while to warm up to Wiley, he eventually did. Our third dog, Bentley, who was a boxer/pit bull mix, just kind of hung out and did his best to put up with both of them.

Kaya was a completely unexpected addition to the pack. After Bentley died in November of 2007, we had decided to just stick with two dogs. However, that darn Petfinder website got the best of me. I was just browsing one day and came across a picture of the cutest dog I had ever seen. She was about seven months old and her story was unbelieveably sad. She had been part of a 54 dog rescue in Washington State in the Fall of 2007′ the owner of the dogs thought that it would be a great idea to have a dog sledding business and so kept breeding huskies. Twice a week, the owner would throw food out for all 54 dogs and they would fight over it since they were so hungry. Kaya had both of her back legs broken during one of the fights by the older dogs – she was only three months old. The humane society came and picked her and four other puppies up but didn’t have enough evidence to take the others until a few months later. Kaya was taken by a wonderful rescue in Spokane and it was from that rescue that I saw her picture and adopted her. Even Neo accepted her and, although Wiley was a bit unsettled by not being the new guy any more, they have become inseparable – especially after Neo died a year ago.

Wiley has epilepsy and I have been worried about how he will do in Puerto Viejo. He has not had a seizure in over two years now so I think he should be fine but I won’t be comfortable until they are both there and settled and he continues to be seizure free. Kaya will be fine. Even though she started out with a difficult life, she has had absolutely no ill effects from it. She is incredibly forgiving and is an absolutely joy to be around. She reminds me everyday that holding a grudge does no one any good. She loves everyone and pretty much everyone loves her.

I’m thinking that it is not a coincidence that two of my favorite songs are “It’s my Life” and “California Dreaming”. My life has been one where I am always looking for the next adventure even though my career is one which most people view as conservative and stuffy. I have worked as an accountant most of my life and am presently (although not for long!!!) the controller at a university. My days are filled with numbers, regulations, and policy – a bureaucrat by most people’s standards. However, most people think of me as the “out-of-controller” because my personality doesn’t seem to fit the green eyeshades stereotype. I have moved on an average of every five years although have only lived in three states. But I don’t think I have ever lived in a house for more than four years in my adult life.

I contrast this with my mother who just closed on the house that I grew up in today. Mom and Dad bought the house in 1960, raised five kids and continued to live there until my dad died almost a year ago – almost 50 years. They were also married over 65 years and even though there were many issues associated with raising five kids, they had the strongest marriage I have ever seen. My life has been quite a bit more hectic than theirs when it comes to houses and relationships……

So this brings me to Costa Rica. Will this be the ultimate adventure that allows Tom and me to stay in one place and just enjoy ourselves? I believe that it is. There are so many amazing things to see and do in this tiny country. And while I never thought that I was much of an ocean person, I found out in February when we stayed at the house that I must have been a closet ocean lover all along. I have found myself missing the sound of the waves and the cool breezes. I guess I’ll just have to report back on my success in staying in one place a few years from now 🙂