This is much delayed update, it is longer than normal, so get comfortable.
We became aware that vortexes rotate in the opposite direction down here.
An omen, perhaps…..
While continuing our search for a house, we came across a lead. A couple we met from Boston had a guy in their office, who new someone’s sister who’s boyfriend’s friend’s girlfriend was renting a place. She spoke no English, and he was kind enough to help us broker a deal.
Finally, we have a house. A little cottage-like place that’s a gigantic improvement and much more accommodating for us. It has 4 bedrooms and windows in some of the rooms. In front we have a wonderful collection of beautiful plants that surround our patio. We have it set up with tea-lights, rocking chairs and a small wooden table built by descendants of the carpenters who made Noah’s Ark. It has a dirt floor which keeps the Costa Rican flair. There are many random dogs. Two in particular have adopted us. We descriptively named them Underbite and Dirty Dog. We also have a one eyed cat,,,, really. Its name is (you’ll never guess) is- One Eye.
It is very secure and we are surrounded by the family whose houses border ours. There is the occasional herd of cows, or we think maybe they are oxen, roaming our yard. At dusk there are bats diving around us at dinner time on the porch, feasting on the mosquitoes. They fly so close you can feel the wind of their passing. We have equipped our yard with hammocks between coconut trees and a giant dirt area for Soren’s excavation habits with the shovel he got for his birthday.
New Years Eve was spent hanging out in Montezuma, a laidback-funky and very popular little ‘town’. It was warm and beautiful that night, with the streets packed with dancing people getting crazy and having a great time. Sitting on the beach watching the people and fireworks and just thinking of all of our friends and wondering what ya’all were doing just then. (It was 10pm your time, you were probably drinking)
I’m off to San Jose on the 1st to meet Jazmyne at the airport late that evening.
I spend the day running errands including Hypermas (Latin American Wal-Mart) to find items like real peanut butter and jelly. I’m also looking around town for Bonnie’s Birthday present. It’s hard to find a Dollar Store in Costa Rica. I was robbed in the Hipermas. Some very fast and fearless thief, managed to open my pack (which was under the cart full of goods) take the wallet, rezip the bag and flee. The cart was never more than ten feet from me. I think a small child on roller blades raised by circus performers may have done it. I lost $400 cash, my passport and my dignity.
Jazmyne’s flight gets in at 9:30. I’m at my hostel with nothing. My host is very gracious and takes me to the airport and I’m praying that Jaz brings some cash. Our life depends on it!
She arrives! There is a warm and joyful reunion followed by me calmly asking if she has any money. She looks quizzically at me and says yes. OH THANKGOD!
WELCOME TO CENTRAL AMERICA!
Ironically, Jazmyne has brought a strange form of bad luck in the form of massive biting spiders and scorpions. We have seen none of real significance so far in all the time here up til now. Jazmyne has Arachnophobia and we’ve been assuring her that the spider lore she’s heard from everyone isn’t true. The day she got here this was proven wrong by a large, gnarly looking spider that is sighted to their horror, and is brutally crushed with my flip-flop. This is followed a day later when I unearthed a giant Tarantula from under the laundry pile. I didn’t let her see this one, or she’d be on the next plane out of here.
Later that month, I’m roused in the middle of the night by a sharp and excruciating pain in my forearm. I know something has bitten me, Bonnie gets the lights and we lift the sheets and a huge, downright prehistoric looking Scorpion runs under the blankets. Bonnie goes off with the most savage screams and flailing I've ever seen, and I start punching the bed hoping to kill it. It dies. I pull the bedding away to reveal a real specimen, this thing is big, and majorly ugly. Bonnie then goes into the freaking out part of the healing process. Let me just say that I’ve been subjected to many a painful smashed thumbs, torn flesh, and punctures with pneumatic nail guns. The pain of this scorpion sting ranks up there. While telling our hostess Mary, she informs me in barely discernable, rapid-fire Spanish, that oh yes they hurt, especially when you get stung on the head! This is no comfort to me. I fake a smile and walk away. All day I’m contemplating just how one gets bitten on the head. Sweet dreams.
We take the kids to see their school which starts mid-January. The girls are unimpressed. We take that with a grain of salt. We assume that they wouldn’t show any interest unless some of the teachers were bare-chested beach hunks with chiseled abs. The school is comprised of small bungalows, adjacent to a large soccor field and tennis courts. There is a gym in an open air building that has one of those punching bags that looks like a pissed off guy without arms. No matter how many times I pass it I think there is a dude in there working out, but wait, freaky man, he’s got no arms! Oh yeah.
Two weeks into her stay, Jazmyne makes it known that she feels she is better off back home. With a budding art career and the momentum she’s created in Portland, it’s difficult to say so, but she will be happier if she goes. Jazmyne is a brilliant soul.
I am so proud of her. She has won awards in Portland for her artwork and has been chosen by Portland’s Mayor to have her work displayed. Bravo Jazmyne! We were able to play in the beautiful turquoise water, on our favorite white sand beach, and enjoy the time we had. She will be missed.
School starts with a bit of a stutter. The staff is still unpacking and sorting thru boxes. The headmaster assures us that she has some books for Catherine in one of her closets, she thinks. They talk a much better game than they play. The boys take awhile to settle in, but they do. Soren makes some good friends after some sorting, which can get kind of ugly at that age. Lucas is pissed that he’s in with the little kids and none of the teachers speak any English. He moves up a level which makes for a longer day, but he is happier.
For all of its foibles we know that the diversity and newness that this will offer is the kind of education that is hard to come by, and will be an asset to them over the long haul. The benefits we think will balance out the deficiencies, and make it worth all the expense. We are sure that Catherine has begun to like the school. This is evidenced at the corner bus stop, where the cute boys that sit there being young, single and foreign. She is a beautiful, very bright girl in a very small field of play. It is a joy to see her be happy and have much to look forward to. She now lives to ride the bus. I think we could be living in Beirut now and she’d be ok with it as long as she has the bus ride.
Daily life here is pretty great, especially when we have perspective. We were talking the other day about how the things that we tell people about are mostly some of the downside stuff. Probably because it is so dramatic, and makes a good story. The reality of how we live day to day, and the smaller joys go unreported.
We have a bunch of coconut trees in our yard that we harvest and drink the coconut water. The boys love the process of getting them out of the trees with a long piece of re-bar with a hook on the end, hacking at them with the machete and drinking straight from the coconut. It’s so cute seeing Lucas drinking them because they are as big as his head. We have strung two hammocks between some of the palms, a great place to relax, read and play with the kids.
We had big plans to run everyday and get totally in shape for ultimate and maybe some triathalons. We have run some mornings, before the heat and its been hard. The dirt roads are rough and when a car passes you are smothered in a cloud of dust. Bonnie has been attacked a couple of times by a demon Pigeon. Really. The last few times she’s gone out she has been assaulted by this pigeon, who seems to be waiting for her. The first time it happened it was scary and she was yelling and swinging at it. She actually hit it off her as it dive bombed and eventually it left. The neighbors were staring, having heard her battle cry and yelling. After a few more attacks she ran with a stick, but it’s a little unnerving to run and prepare to be attacked from the air at any time. And as soon as she decides she’s in the clear and drops the stick, demon pigeon attacks! We decided just to run together. The bird apparently is afraid of bald men.
During the week we get the kids off to school, have tea and breakfast on the patio. Later in the morning we either go into town to do shopping or errands or we head to the beach. We live near many of the best beaches and frequent these often to lie around, read, swim, and lately, surf. Our surfing is coming along, being that we have been sporatic with it. Surfing is very physically demanding. After taking a sound beating by a wave, you just jump back on and paddle, paddle, paddle. We just bought a board and are getting up much more now and have ridden a couple of open face waves.
It is an understatement to say that the beaches here are beautiful. Our favorite is a small beach called Playa Mancha. It is a small cove with white sand and very clear water. When the tide is right it is absolutely stunning to swim there. The sunlight plays through the water on the white sand making these undulating webs of light. Just floating face down, letting the swells lift you, the sun on your back, looking into the clear sea is really something. Good snorkeling on this beach and it’s calm enough to swim out to sea for some exercise. Coming to Mancha on a clear night with a full moon is just unbelievable and surreal.
Playa Hermosa is another favorite of ours. Very fine sand, the perfect size waves for surfing, and very picturesque. The kid’s school is a five minute walk from Hermosa, and they come to the beach every Friday. Soren and Lucas are getting into boogie boarding here and Catherine is becoming an adept body surfer.
We have a tiny bookstore in Montezuma where we can trade and exchange books. Reading is an essential element of our tropical immersion program. There is a very decent cappuccino to be had here, and our favorite ‘Cappucino Chiller’- frozen vanilla yogurt with espresso, in the nearby Sano Banano restaurant. A local fisherman a few km down the Cabuya road sells freshly caught Mahi, Tuna, Sea bass, and Snapper. If timed right, the boats pull up on the beach behind his house and they fillet them right there. Eight dollars buys a kilo of fresh tuna!
Laundry is done in this little machine that has a washing drum and an extractor side by side. All the laundry is hung to dry, and the clothes never really return to their normal proportions after a while. The house requires constant cleaning because of the dust coming in from the road, and it’s good practice to sweep just in case of any critters hiding in the corners. The wind chimes sing, the cows bray, beans and rice are on the stove and all is well.
In late January we had our first visitors- Audra and Hayes from Bend! It was so great to have Audra come out and bring Hayes with her, she also toted along a huge bag of immensely longed for tasty treats from the U.S. She can attest to the challenges of traveling with small children and massive luggage. Audra is a trooper and we all enjoyed playing with Hayes. Sadly, Tucker couldn’t get away from work and wasn’t able to come along.
We planned a trip with them to Playa Grande, which is north about 180km. The Leatherback Turtles nest there four months out of the year; it’s one of only a handful of places in the world that they nest. Being the turtle fanatics that we are, we felt we had to make it there during the nesting season. Bonnie has determined that the turtle is her spirit animal, a good compliment to my spirit Rhinoceros.
Bonnie and Audra were to meet at the airport and then go to Playa Grande via Liberia. The kids and I were to take a route recommended by our neighbor and meet them in Playa Grande the next day. I had no idea what we were getting into. The standards held by the locals here for what is a good road and which is the fastest route to take are questionable at best. The route we took was crazy! We crossed I don’t know how many rivers, and came to dozens of intersections in the middle of nowhere with no signs anywhere. You can’t get around here and be shy about asking strangers standing in their field for directions. But you never know if the directions are right. Ticos (Costa Ricans) never want to disappoint, so they will give you an answer even if they don’t know.
We had just crossed a wide river and were barreling along when the temperature gauge was pegged. I stopped and lifted the hood and could hear the radiator hissing and the oil boiling in the engine block. Not good. Somewhere along the way we lost a motor mount and the engine had lunged forward and jammed the radiator fan into the housing. You kind of need that fan to cool the engine. I filled a 10 gallon water bottle from a river and we limped along, stopping every ten minutes or so to add more water and let it cool down. This road climbed and traversed mountains and valleys far, far away from anything.
Next, the car died on a steep descent, the power brakes and steering failed and we came to an emergency stop in a shallow ditch on a switchback. The road there pitched about a 30 degree decline. The motor showed no oil, and we were almost out of water. Just me, three kids,a broken down car, and the prospect of a 30 kilometer walk. Perfect. I finally got it started again and we continued, but the brakes never came back, we just had the E-brake.
Needless to say we were a bit late making it to Playa Grande. Bonnie was very relieved when we finally arrived. We immediately headed to the beach and started enjoying our mini-vacation.
The next night we were lucky and got to see a leatherback nesting. It was a warm night, with about fifteen of us in our group, walking down the beach to the sight where the laboring turtle was spotted. Leatherbacks are huge! We saw one last time that had to be 4ft by 3ft and 800lbs.
The turtles go into kind of a birth trance while they are digging their nest. The guides have red lenses in their headlamps and we have to stand behind the turtle out of sight so we don’t disturb her. No photos allowed. The turtles have articulating fingers in their flippers, they cup and dig the sand out of the hole scoop by scoop, switching sides each time. They are amazingly patient and deliberate. The nest is more than 3ft deep and the turtle takes deep breaths occasionally, exhaling loudly. Bonnie, who loves birth in all forms, was very moved by the turtles’ labor.
We were close enough to see the turtle drop her eggs into her nest. They are soft and wet and come out 3 or 4 at a time. One of the park volunteers laid on his belly inches behind her, actually lifting her flipper to see better. After she’s finished laying her eggs, 60 -100!, she methodically pushed sand into the hole and patted it down with each stroke, switching sides each time. At the end she flings sand over it with her front flippers which are very long, and then labors, slowly, back into the sea. It was incredible, well worth walking a mile in the sand, at night to see.
We left for home the following day, after having the car repaired. Miraculously, we found a shade-tree mechanic who replaced the missing motor mount in the dirt driveway in front of his house. Costing a whooping $34 dollars- and a few days off my life. The journey home was only slightly better. We were told by the hotel reception of a “faster” route, which of course ended up taking twice as long. We made it home after a harrowing race to catch the last ferry in Puntarenas. Once again a Costa Rican episode of the Amazing Race. They say never to drive in Costa Rica at night. The reason for this we discovered is that there are NO lines on the roads, they are too narrow, there are no shoulders, and people drive insanely.
Back home, we showed Audra and Hayes the local beaches, monkeys, toucans, and lots of mosquitoes. We had picnics, sampled rice and beans at many local restaurants and caught up while hanging out at the house. Audra even joined us for our first surf lesson. It is an awakening to have a fresh set of eyes here to help us appreciate things for what they are. We had a great time with Audra and Hayes and wanted it to last longer.
Life has a way of following you wherever you go. And amidst the lessons that have become salient and challenges we’ve invited into the light, we have stillness and beauty all around us. It is truly a trip to be crabby and surly, to grudgingly take out the trash and look up to find an amber moon rising behind wild black trees in an amethyst sky. Just then I realize, that the cows standing there chewing their cud are in that moment, far more evolved than I.
We became aware that vortexes rotate in the opposite direction down here.
An omen, perhaps…..
While continuing our search for a house, we came across a lead. A couple we met from Boston had a guy in their office, who new someone’s sister who’s boyfriend’s friend’s girlfriend was renting a place. She spoke no English, and he was kind enough to help us broker a deal.
Finally, we have a house. A little cottage-like place that’s a gigantic improvement and much more accommodating for us. It has 4 bedrooms and windows in some of the rooms. In front we have a wonderful collection of beautiful plants that surround our patio. We have it set up with tea-lights, rocking chairs and a small wooden table built by descendants of the carpenters who made Noah’s Ark. It has a dirt floor which keeps the Costa Rican flair. There are many random dogs. Two in particular have adopted us. We descriptively named them Underbite and Dirty Dog. We also have a one eyed cat,,,, really. Its name is (you’ll never guess) is- One Eye.
It is very secure and we are surrounded by the family whose houses border ours. There is the occasional herd of cows, or we think maybe they are oxen, roaming our yard. At dusk there are bats diving around us at dinner time on the porch, feasting on the mosquitoes. They fly so close you can feel the wind of their passing. We have equipped our yard with hammocks between coconut trees and a giant dirt area for Soren’s excavation habits with the shovel he got for his birthday.
New Years Eve was spent hanging out in Montezuma, a laidback-funky and very popular little ‘town’. It was warm and beautiful that night, with the streets packed with dancing people getting crazy and having a great time. Sitting on the beach watching the people and fireworks and just thinking of all of our friends and wondering what ya’all were doing just then. (It was 10pm your time, you were probably drinking)
I’m off to San Jose on the 1st to meet Jazmyne at the airport late that evening.
I spend the day running errands including Hypermas (Latin American Wal-Mart) to find items like real peanut butter and jelly. I’m also looking around town for Bonnie’s Birthday present. It’s hard to find a Dollar Store in Costa Rica. I was robbed in the Hipermas. Some very fast and fearless thief, managed to open my pack (which was under the cart full of goods) take the wallet, rezip the bag and flee. The cart was never more than ten feet from me. I think a small child on roller blades raised by circus performers may have done it. I lost $400 cash, my passport and my dignity.
Jazmyne’s flight gets in at 9:30. I’m at my hostel with nothing. My host is very gracious and takes me to the airport and I’m praying that Jaz brings some cash. Our life depends on it!
She arrives! There is a warm and joyful reunion followed by me calmly asking if she has any money. She looks quizzically at me and says yes. OH THANKGOD!
WELCOME TO CENTRAL AMERICA!
Ironically, Jazmyne has brought a strange form of bad luck in the form of massive biting spiders and scorpions. We have seen none of real significance so far in all the time here up til now. Jazmyne has Arachnophobia and we’ve been assuring her that the spider lore she’s heard from everyone isn’t true. The day she got here this was proven wrong by a large, gnarly looking spider that is sighted to their horror, and is brutally crushed with my flip-flop. This is followed a day later when I unearthed a giant Tarantula from under the laundry pile. I didn’t let her see this one, or she’d be on the next plane out of here.
Later that month, I’m roused in the middle of the night by a sharp and excruciating pain in my forearm. I know something has bitten me, Bonnie gets the lights and we lift the sheets and a huge, downright prehistoric looking Scorpion runs under the blankets. Bonnie goes off with the most savage screams and flailing I've ever seen, and I start punching the bed hoping to kill it. It dies. I pull the bedding away to reveal a real specimen, this thing is big, and majorly ugly. Bonnie then goes into the freaking out part of the healing process. Let me just say that I’ve been subjected to many a painful smashed thumbs, torn flesh, and punctures with pneumatic nail guns. The pain of this scorpion sting ranks up there. While telling our hostess Mary, she informs me in barely discernable, rapid-fire Spanish, that oh yes they hurt, especially when you get stung on the head! This is no comfort to me. I fake a smile and walk away. All day I’m contemplating just how one gets bitten on the head. Sweet dreams.
We take the kids to see their school which starts mid-January. The girls are unimpressed. We take that with a grain of salt. We assume that they wouldn’t show any interest unless some of the teachers were bare-chested beach hunks with chiseled abs. The school is comprised of small bungalows, adjacent to a large soccor field and tennis courts. There is a gym in an open air building that has one of those punching bags that looks like a pissed off guy without arms. No matter how many times I pass it I think there is a dude in there working out, but wait, freaky man, he’s got no arms! Oh yeah.
Two weeks into her stay, Jazmyne makes it known that she feels she is better off back home. With a budding art career and the momentum she’s created in Portland, it’s difficult to say so, but she will be happier if she goes. Jazmyne is a brilliant soul.
I am so proud of her. She has won awards in Portland for her artwork and has been chosen by Portland’s Mayor to have her work displayed. Bravo Jazmyne! We were able to play in the beautiful turquoise water, on our favorite white sand beach, and enjoy the time we had. She will be missed.
School starts with a bit of a stutter. The staff is still unpacking and sorting thru boxes. The headmaster assures us that she has some books for Catherine in one of her closets, she thinks. They talk a much better game than they play. The boys take awhile to settle in, but they do. Soren makes some good friends after some sorting, which can get kind of ugly at that age. Lucas is pissed that he’s in with the little kids and none of the teachers speak any English. He moves up a level which makes for a longer day, but he is happier.
For all of its foibles we know that the diversity and newness that this will offer is the kind of education that is hard to come by, and will be an asset to them over the long haul. The benefits we think will balance out the deficiencies, and make it worth all the expense. We are sure that Catherine has begun to like the school. This is evidenced at the corner bus stop, where the cute boys that sit there being young, single and foreign. She is a beautiful, very bright girl in a very small field of play. It is a joy to see her be happy and have much to look forward to. She now lives to ride the bus. I think we could be living in Beirut now and she’d be ok with it as long as she has the bus ride.
Daily life here is pretty great, especially when we have perspective. We were talking the other day about how the things that we tell people about are mostly some of the downside stuff. Probably because it is so dramatic, and makes a good story. The reality of how we live day to day, and the smaller joys go unreported.
We have a bunch of coconut trees in our yard that we harvest and drink the coconut water. The boys love the process of getting them out of the trees with a long piece of re-bar with a hook on the end, hacking at them with the machete and drinking straight from the coconut. It’s so cute seeing Lucas drinking them because they are as big as his head. We have strung two hammocks between some of the palms, a great place to relax, read and play with the kids.
We had big plans to run everyday and get totally in shape for ultimate and maybe some triathalons. We have run some mornings, before the heat and its been hard. The dirt roads are rough and when a car passes you are smothered in a cloud of dust. Bonnie has been attacked a couple of times by a demon Pigeon. Really. The last few times she’s gone out she has been assaulted by this pigeon, who seems to be waiting for her. The first time it happened it was scary and she was yelling and swinging at it. She actually hit it off her as it dive bombed and eventually it left. The neighbors were staring, having heard her battle cry and yelling. After a few more attacks she ran with a stick, but it’s a little unnerving to run and prepare to be attacked from the air at any time. And as soon as she decides she’s in the clear and drops the stick, demon pigeon attacks! We decided just to run together. The bird apparently is afraid of bald men.
During the week we get the kids off to school, have tea and breakfast on the patio. Later in the morning we either go into town to do shopping or errands or we head to the beach. We live near many of the best beaches and frequent these often to lie around, read, swim, and lately, surf. Our surfing is coming along, being that we have been sporatic with it. Surfing is very physically demanding. After taking a sound beating by a wave, you just jump back on and paddle, paddle, paddle. We just bought a board and are getting up much more now and have ridden a couple of open face waves.
It is an understatement to say that the beaches here are beautiful. Our favorite is a small beach called Playa Mancha. It is a small cove with white sand and very clear water. When the tide is right it is absolutely stunning to swim there. The sunlight plays through the water on the white sand making these undulating webs of light. Just floating face down, letting the swells lift you, the sun on your back, looking into the clear sea is really something. Good snorkeling on this beach and it’s calm enough to swim out to sea for some exercise. Coming to Mancha on a clear night with a full moon is just unbelievable and surreal.
Playa Hermosa is another favorite of ours. Very fine sand, the perfect size waves for surfing, and very picturesque. The kid’s school is a five minute walk from Hermosa, and they come to the beach every Friday. Soren and Lucas are getting into boogie boarding here and Catherine is becoming an adept body surfer.
We have a tiny bookstore in Montezuma where we can trade and exchange books. Reading is an essential element of our tropical immersion program. There is a very decent cappuccino to be had here, and our favorite ‘Cappucino Chiller’- frozen vanilla yogurt with espresso, in the nearby Sano Banano restaurant. A local fisherman a few km down the Cabuya road sells freshly caught Mahi, Tuna, Sea bass, and Snapper. If timed right, the boats pull up on the beach behind his house and they fillet them right there. Eight dollars buys a kilo of fresh tuna!
Laundry is done in this little machine that has a washing drum and an extractor side by side. All the laundry is hung to dry, and the clothes never really return to their normal proportions after a while. The house requires constant cleaning because of the dust coming in from the road, and it’s good practice to sweep just in case of any critters hiding in the corners. The wind chimes sing, the cows bray, beans and rice are on the stove and all is well.
In late January we had our first visitors- Audra and Hayes from Bend! It was so great to have Audra come out and bring Hayes with her, she also toted along a huge bag of immensely longed for tasty treats from the U.S. She can attest to the challenges of traveling with small children and massive luggage. Audra is a trooper and we all enjoyed playing with Hayes. Sadly, Tucker couldn’t get away from work and wasn’t able to come along.
We planned a trip with them to Playa Grande, which is north about 180km. The Leatherback Turtles nest there four months out of the year; it’s one of only a handful of places in the world that they nest. Being the turtle fanatics that we are, we felt we had to make it there during the nesting season. Bonnie has determined that the turtle is her spirit animal, a good compliment to my spirit Rhinoceros.
Bonnie and Audra were to meet at the airport and then go to Playa Grande via Liberia. The kids and I were to take a route recommended by our neighbor and meet them in Playa Grande the next day. I had no idea what we were getting into. The standards held by the locals here for what is a good road and which is the fastest route to take are questionable at best. The route we took was crazy! We crossed I don’t know how many rivers, and came to dozens of intersections in the middle of nowhere with no signs anywhere. You can’t get around here and be shy about asking strangers standing in their field for directions. But you never know if the directions are right. Ticos (Costa Ricans) never want to disappoint, so they will give you an answer even if they don’t know.
We had just crossed a wide river and were barreling along when the temperature gauge was pegged. I stopped and lifted the hood and could hear the radiator hissing and the oil boiling in the engine block. Not good. Somewhere along the way we lost a motor mount and the engine had lunged forward and jammed the radiator fan into the housing. You kind of need that fan to cool the engine. I filled a 10 gallon water bottle from a river and we limped along, stopping every ten minutes or so to add more water and let it cool down. This road climbed and traversed mountains and valleys far, far away from anything.
Next, the car died on a steep descent, the power brakes and steering failed and we came to an emergency stop in a shallow ditch on a switchback. The road there pitched about a 30 degree decline. The motor showed no oil, and we were almost out of water. Just me, three kids,a broken down car, and the prospect of a 30 kilometer walk. Perfect. I finally got it started again and we continued, but the brakes never came back, we just had the E-brake.
Needless to say we were a bit late making it to Playa Grande. Bonnie was very relieved when we finally arrived. We immediately headed to the beach and started enjoying our mini-vacation.
The next night we were lucky and got to see a leatherback nesting. It was a warm night, with about fifteen of us in our group, walking down the beach to the sight where the laboring turtle was spotted. Leatherbacks are huge! We saw one last time that had to be 4ft by 3ft and 800lbs.
The turtles go into kind of a birth trance while they are digging their nest. The guides have red lenses in their headlamps and we have to stand behind the turtle out of sight so we don’t disturb her. No photos allowed. The turtles have articulating fingers in their flippers, they cup and dig the sand out of the hole scoop by scoop, switching sides each time. They are amazingly patient and deliberate. The nest is more than 3ft deep and the turtle takes deep breaths occasionally, exhaling loudly. Bonnie, who loves birth in all forms, was very moved by the turtles’ labor.
We were close enough to see the turtle drop her eggs into her nest. They are soft and wet and come out 3 or 4 at a time. One of the park volunteers laid on his belly inches behind her, actually lifting her flipper to see better. After she’s finished laying her eggs, 60 -100!, she methodically pushed sand into the hole and patted it down with each stroke, switching sides each time. At the end she flings sand over it with her front flippers which are very long, and then labors, slowly, back into the sea. It was incredible, well worth walking a mile in the sand, at night to see.
We left for home the following day, after having the car repaired. Miraculously, we found a shade-tree mechanic who replaced the missing motor mount in the dirt driveway in front of his house. Costing a whooping $34 dollars- and a few days off my life. The journey home was only slightly better. We were told by the hotel reception of a “faster” route, which of course ended up taking twice as long. We made it home after a harrowing race to catch the last ferry in Puntarenas. Once again a Costa Rican episode of the Amazing Race. They say never to drive in Costa Rica at night. The reason for this we discovered is that there are NO lines on the roads, they are too narrow, there are no shoulders, and people drive insanely.
Back home, we showed Audra and Hayes the local beaches, monkeys, toucans, and lots of mosquitoes. We had picnics, sampled rice and beans at many local restaurants and caught up while hanging out at the house. Audra even joined us for our first surf lesson. It is an awakening to have a fresh set of eyes here to help us appreciate things for what they are. We had a great time with Audra and Hayes and wanted it to last longer.
Life has a way of following you wherever you go. And amidst the lessons that have become salient and challenges we’ve invited into the light, we have stillness and beauty all around us. It is truly a trip to be crabby and surly, to grudgingly take out the trash and look up to find an amber moon rising behind wild black trees in an amethyst sky. Just then I realize, that the cows standing there chewing their cud are in that moment, far more evolved than I.
6 comments:
wow, quite the adventures. Enjoyed the pictures, it looks like beautiful surroundings!
I just love hearing your stories...highly entertaining! Take good care and keep us posted!
I love Underbite! Where is Dirty's picture?
The kids all look great - the coconuts look fun.
Happy to hear about some of the good times too - although the demon pigeon is about the funniest thing I've read in a LONG time. (Sorry Bon) I might have to rip that and post it on my blog b/c everyone should read that. :)
Dear everyone (especially Soren!)
Jenny (our mutual neighbor) sent me the info about your blog earlier today. Jose and I have been looking at all the wonderful pictures and reading some of your stories about beautiful beaches and scorpions and one-eyed cats. Sounds familiar to us from our time in Mexico.
Jose wants Soren to know that he misses him and wants to play as soon as you come back to Eugene.
We hope you have a great time in the weeks and months ahead and look forward to reading more about your adventures.
Abrazos, Ellen and Jose (and Lynn and Gabi too).
Oh my gosh! The stories you have are incredible. I'm unbelievably jealous even about the horrible things that might happen like getting stung by an ugly scorpion. Aren't they poisonous? Sounds like things are going well and I can't wait to see more pictures and here more stories.
Jeremy
Que vida rica. Las aventuras son increible y nunca van a olvidarlas. Gracias por las noticias. Me hace mucha falta por la vida latinoamericana -- la gente, la comida, los caminos, las playas, los cocos, el tiempo libre. Ay amigos, disfrutenlo.
Hasta pronto, Sito
Post a Comment