Nosara

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Posing at the blowhole on Playa Pelada

Posing at the blowhole on Playa Pelada

For the past 10 days we’ve been in the Nosara in the western state of Guanacaste.   Since we left Turrialba we haven’t had a lot of practice speaking Spanish, since Nosara is big with American expats and is a surfing mecca.  The drive here was trial by fire with a standard transmission and Costa Rican roads.  Erica manned the wheel for most of the drive thankfully.  Not long after I took over driving the afternoon deluge began that required pulling off the road until our windshield wipers  could keep up.  Not long after that we took a wrong turn in Samara and were subsequently led across a river fjord by a very nice German guy who clearly wondered what the hell we were doing.  Think 3 young kids, Dad who can’t drive a stick to save his life, water up to the doors.  No biggie.  Thankfully I didn’t stall in the river.

Nosara has been wonderful and exactly what we were looking for before we head on to Cordoba.  It’s a pretty primitive surfing town south of much more visited Tamarindo.  We’ve been surprised at really how little there is here.  As the sticker on our fire extinguisher in our house says, “you are the fire department, think about it!”  There are essentially two main beaches, Playa Pelada and Playa Guiones.  Since it was Sunday yesterday, Guiones was “crowded” with maybe 200 people.  We rented a house from VRBO about 200 meters into the jungle on Playa Pelada.  The kids have had a great time exploring all the creatures in the tide pools at low tide.  The roads here are crazy!  Just dirt tracks in the jungle really.  We’ve had our token flat a few days ago.  Somehow we haven’t broken an axle.

There are some nice restaurants in the area but we’ve cooked in most of the time to save.  Lots of pasta with red sauce until we finally found some dorado to grill the other day!  Our efforts to find meat to grill in the Super have ended with a hotdog-like product that was coveted by the boys but left Erica and I a bit disturbed.  Elliott has developed an addiction to Nutella and all the kids are digging all the pineapple.

After a few days here we discovered some blowholes on the beach and a giant tree in front of the house that was home to about 4 iguanas.  We have regular visits from a troop of howler monkeys and the biggest bugs we’ve ever seen!  The boys and I had a great time learning how to surf together a week ago.   Since then we’ve rented boards a few times.  Since we seem to wear out after a few hours on the beach or the rain starts, so we’ve also taken a liking the pool and cocktails at the Guilded Iguana.  Buy a drink and the kids can swim in the pool!  We attempted a grownup activity the other night when we visited Lagarta Lodge to watch the sunset.  Our fellow tourists at the Sunset Bar were quite glad to the Vaughn family depart since apparently kids don’t seem to cherish a quiet, romantic sunset like adults.  Tonight we went to check out the seemingly abandoned Nosara Beach Hotel (otherwise called the Scoobie Doo Hotel by me) and ended up getting a personal tour of the renovation by the laborer and his 10 dogs.  Elliott thought it was hilarious that he asked why our Spanish wasn’t as good as Elliott’s.

We’ve had a ton of beach time and it pains me to admit we’ve all gotten our fill of beaches and inhaled enough saltwater to move south into winter in Cordoba.  Our tans, burns and rashes are complete.  Ben’s lost two teeth (by natural cause not by accident).  We’ve realized that kids still fight and argue in paradise!  Who knew?  Time to go to Argentina!  We leave Nosara tomorrow and spend a few days collecting stored luggage in San Jose before our flight Thursday.  Ciao!

9 Reasons to Visit Costa Rica

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Touring Guayabo National Monument

Touring Guayabo National Monument

Here are the kid’s top 3 highlights each from our trip so far in their own words!!  Believe me getting this done was no small feat.  Last day of classes tomorrow because of a national holiday on Friday; El Dia de La Virgen de los Angeles.

Elliott

1) Friends:  I’ve met 5 new friends and their names are David, Thomas, Ari, Vivi and Carlos.  David cool and fun.  Thomas is weird and fun.  They are neighbors.  We play lots with them.  Today we played for 2 hours with them.  We played at the park and played soccer.  Ari is nice. She lets us watch movies and play her phone.  Ari is the host family’s daughter.  So is Vivi and Carlos.  Vivi is the oldest and I don’t really know her.  Carlos speaks English and Spanish.  He’s a really good translator and fun.

2) School:  I’ve had two teachers at school.  Their names are Evelyn and Oscar.  We work on Spanish games and vocabulary.  We also go to play.  Yesterday I went to a fire station.  Fireman are called bomberos.  We got to put on a fireman’s suit and we got to go in the fire truck.

3) Animals:  In Costa Rica we’ve seen lots of animals.  The first thing we saw was an iguana and turtles.  We saw wild duck and sloths, monkeys, tucans, snakes and lots of ants.  I got bit on the finger by an ant.  I also almost got bit on the leg by a baby monkey at the Jaguar Reserve.

Ben

1) Beach:  Playa Blanca was my favorite beach because there were bigger waves and it was shallow.

2) Ariana:  Ari is fun because she always let’s Molly play her phone.  Molly plays it a lot, more than me!  I’ve only played it like two times.  She is a really nice person.  She’s part of our host family.  We were playing a lot in the pool and she pulled us around in an inner tube, we loved it, but Elliott kept flipping me over.  I thought I was going to die!

3) Carlos:  Carlos throws Molly up in the air and give her candy most of the time, and Carlos has given me cookies.  He never got in the pool.  Carlos is part of our host family just like Ariana.

Molly

1) Waterfall trip: I liked going in the water.  I liked seeing birds and butterflies.  The water felt good.

2) Beach: I liked both beaches we went to, the black beach and the white beach.  I swammed and I made holes in the sand.

3) Host Family: Sonia painted my nails and my toes. I love them so much.  They give me food.  They let me watch TV and play phone.  I love Ari so much.  She lives here.  She let me play with the Barbies.  I love Carlos so much.  He does so much fun things me.  He makes me jump up in the air.

Rain, ants & costumes

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Brave Molly at Playa Negra

Brave Molly at Playa Negra

Two weeks down, one to go of Spanish classes here in Turrialba.  We can’t believe how fast it’s gone so far.  Since Erica and I are getting one-on-one instruction, we’re  in class for only 3 hours per day, but still exhausted from the effort.  It’s amazing how much progress we’ve all made (even me!!).  Dana and the folks at www.isls.com are highly recommended.  Despite a rough few days last week from Ben in protest-mode, the kids did pretty well in their classes.  It’s wonderful to see Elliott’s jump into a conversation with our host family to tell them what we did over the weekend.   Boredom in the afternoon is our greatest challenge so far with the boys.  Boredom = crazy boys = crazy parents.  The local pool at the university and a nearby park have been a blessing.

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Thursday was a national holiday in Costa Rica in celebration of the annexation of the state of Guanacaste.  All schools, including our language school, were closed on Thursday and Friday.  Before heading out of town for a long weekend, we attended a celebration at Ben and Molly’s school.  The whole week their classes had been practicing traditional dances and songs.  Molly spent the prior night prancing around the house twirling the dress we’d borrowed for her for Ari and Sonia, but much to our surprise, it was Ben who actually followed through and participated in the activities.  Molly claimed to be shy and refused to leave Erica’s ankle.  Rough parenting moment.

Our long weekend plans came together literally the day before we left.  The taxi driver who takes Molly and Ben to their school drove us by van to Cahuita, on the Caribbean.  We had been researching lots of options on the east coast before settling on Nosara on the west coast ultimately for our final week in Costa Rica, so we were excited to still be able to visit, if only for a few days.  It’s about a 2.5 hour drive from Turrialba to Cahuita.  We had been under the impression that Turrialba was hot, until we dropped down off the rolling mountains onto the coastal plain.  Wow, the heat and humidity were incredible.  We stayed at the Siatami Lodge right next to Cahuita National Park. and heard the famed howler monkeys the moment we stepped out of the van.  The bungalow we rented was pretty basic but had a kitchen and mosquito nets, key!  Their coffee and breakfast that came with the rental was great!  Unfortunately this is the rainy season in Costa Rica, and we had about 5 hours of spotty sun over 4 days.  The first night we experienced the most violent thunder and lightening any of us had ever seen.  Somehow Molly slept through it all, but the boys were in our bed seconds after the first thunder crashed right overhead and shook the bungalow.   The proximity to the Park and wildlife drew us to Cahuita, but it tended to be very “backpacker” and a little sketchy in our eyes.  Lots of budget accommodation and just a gut concern on safety.   The restaurant and grocery selections were limited, so we’re glad to be spending a longer spell in Nosara later.  The rain started Thursday night and didn’t stop until late afternoon the following day, which allowed for some beach play despite the clouds.  We scheduled in a trip south to Puerto Viajo by taxi and the Jaguar Rescue Center during a particularly wet Saturday.  The rain and dark made for pretty bad photos unfortunately, but the kids loved it.  We saw sloths, spider monkeys, tons of snakes and birds.   We were escorted in the monkey sanctuary where monkeys actually jump on you!  After Elliott had one pried from his ankle and Molly’s curly hair became too interesting to the monkeys, we had to exit.   The rain let up a little that afternoon again so we could walk to neighboring Playa Negra for a few hours of splashing around, followed by lots of whining about saltwater chafing.  Wouldn’t you know that today, we had the best weather in Cahuita?  We ate breakfast and grabbed our beach gear to finally do a jungle walk in the Park to a beach to play in the sun for a few hours before heading back to Turrialba.  We spotted 3 sloths not 10 minutes into the walk, including a baby!  The ants here are crazy and numerous.  Erica and Molly both were bit just when walking.  Elliott had a monster bite into his flipflop and not let go.

Self defense bark

Self defense bark

On Saturday we pick up our rental car, say our goodbyes to the Sanchez family, and drive to Santa Ana (just west of San Jose).  We’ll arrive in Nosara the following day after a long drive amid Tico drivers.  Wish us luck.

Fun Time In Costa Rica!

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At the falls

At the falls

This last weekend we went to the falls and got all of our shoes wet and it was lots of fun.  Here’s a photo of me and Ben playing by the waterfall.  We swam in a pool and played king of the mountain and built a dam.  We saw lots of bugs and I think I got stung in the ear by a bee.  My ear feels better now.  We also saw a huge beehive way up in a tree.  Our taxi driver said to watch out for snakes because if you annoy them they will bite and sometimes kill you, but we didn’t see any.  Our driver pointed out a huge fly that looked like a huge bee.  You could see its eyes.  That’s my adventure at the falls on Saturday.

Playing in the pool on Sunday

Playing in the pool on Sunday

On Sunday we went to our host family’s friend’s house for the day.  They had 4 dogs, 3 were boxers and one I’m not sure the name.  Two were nice, the others were not so nice.  The boxer girl was buff and strong and the boxer boy wasn’t that buff.  It sort of looked like a jungle.  We saw a black cow and huge fish in their lake, we didn’t get to catch any but we got to feed them.  Sonia (the owner of the ranchero) said maybe another day we could fish.  Ariana is our friend, we call her Ari.  She said we should make a chain with Ben holding my feet and me in a tube in the pool.  They had two pools.  One was freezing but the other was better.  We ate tacos with chicken, pig and cow in the tortilla. It was good.  I took some pictures of the plants we saw.

And that’s the journey of going to our host family’s friend’s house.

The honeymoon is over

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…..for the kids at least.  Everyone woke up this morning proclaiming that they would NOT be going to school today.  Because that wasn’t really an option, there was a lot of squawking and complaining (all the way around). It should come as a shock to no one that everyone ended up going to school, and somehow made it though.

All three kids are now picked up by the school director in a taxi, and she drops Molly and Ben off at kinder (the baby school, as Ben likes to call it), and then takes Elliott to the language school.  Rob and I follow later on foot.  It’s about a ten-minute walk, and not too bad as we are getting to know some faces in a very small town.  The man at the candy store on the corner near our house likes to practice his excellent English, and the banana man down the street always greets us with a hearty “Bueno!”

At school, we have two coffee breaks during the morning, and now that Rob and I are in different classes (we started out in the same class), we are getting private instruction. My teacher today seemed a little surprised and put out that I felt like I could work all the way through the 2nd coffee break. In fact, many of the other instructors kept knocking on our door, “You’re not going to take a break?” I wanted to say, “I think I can handle another half an hour without a break,” but of course, I can’t say that in Spanish, so there you are.   I should also mention that our day STARTS with a coffee break.  We are supposed to be there by 9:30, but class doesn’t actually start until 9:45. 

This is the rainy season in Turrialba, and yesterday afternoon was a doozy!  I have never seen rain like that before, and we live in Portland, so I thought I had seen rain.  Tropical rain is a completely different animal, though. In a house with a metal roof, you really hear the rain, too. We had a “Sound of Music” moment when the lightening and thunder started, and suddenly, all three kids were in our room because they didn’t like the sound.  It shook the house, and I couldn’t help but wonder why people who live in a place with lightening and thunder storms like that one have metal roofs.  That’s just a friendly “wonder,” and not a judgemental “suggestion.”

Every day we’re learning more about each other, and of course, Spanish.  I told Molly today that “caballo” means “horse,” and she told me, “No, Mommy!  ‘caballo’ means ‘hair.'” Close, but not quite.  I am thrilled that in just a couple days, she is picking up so much of the language.

I wish I could tell our host family how much we already adore them.  They are wonderfully patient with us, and have shown us so much kindness.  So instead I do dishes, we keep our stuff tidy (and then Sonia comes around and cleans everything up again while we’re at school) and say “Gracias!” about a million times a day.  It’s a start, at least.

Moving Day

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Movers at the house all day today dodging kids underfoot.  The Vaughn family spent our last night at Castle Ave on Tuesday night (until someday).  We move in with the Krogh’s for the next 2 nights and get some quality cousin-time in before Friday afternoon.  Flights confirmed and bags mostly packed.  Kids are either unusually cranky and crazy or beginning to act out on the unsettled nature of our life right now.  We’re hoping to reestablish a routine of sorts in a week as school in Turrialba gets going.  It’s been a massive yet satisfying project to purge and pack.  Erica and I can’t believe how fast time if moving these last few days.  We’re getting pretty anxious and hope the real excitement kicks in on the plane Friday.  Last night on the way to yet another goodbye dinner with friends, Elliott observed that we’re sure having dinner with a lot of people lately.  The goodbyes are getting tougher and frequent, but this still doesn’t faze the kids.  Rodrigo (his 3rd grade teacher) asked him if he was excited.   He said yes, but was referring to the upcoming sleepover at his cousin’s house.  Ah to live in the moment as a child.

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For Real

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Our next adventure is rapidly becoming reality.  The week has been a whirlwind of emotions and activity.  Last Friday was my last day of work after over 12 years at the Portland Business Journal.  I do feel like I’ve learned a lot as a manager over the last few months.  It’s probably a combination of having a weight off my shoulders and having more fun at work.  Hopefully it’s a lesson I can carry forward.  I spent a while staring my last direct deposit on my phone Thursday morning.  Last paycheck.  It’s probably a little like bungee jumping I suppose, but I’m afraid of heights.  Earlier there was a lot of anxiety, now we’re too busy to think about it.  All the worry and planning are done.  Now we finally get to act on plans made ages ago.

Saturday we had a great party with friends and neighbors and began some difficult goodbyes.  We love our neighborhood and have tremendous friends, making the next few weeks a tough time.  Sunday we dropped Elliott off at his first overnight camp in Purdy, Washington with his cousins, while Ben and Molly will stay at Camp Grandma & Grandpa in Gig Harbor for a few days.  It’s wonderful that the kids get to spend some quality time with Dave and Cathy before we head south.

Erica and I raced back to Portland to truly begin packing.  Despite beginning months ago, it feels like we’ve got days of packing and cleaning still to do.  Today we began actually laying out belongings for packing.   We’ve got a crazy assortment to consider packing.  We’ve started a “maybe” pile as we consider weight and number of bags.  More on the packing list later.  We’re cleaning, packing and organizing as we dodge potential tenants checking out the house.  (No it’s not rented yet and no we haven’t found a place in Cordoba to rent yet, but why worry!).

The kids are taking it all in stride.  Ben said goodbye to his great friend Zé the other day and neither seemed fazed.  We think the kids just aren’t able to wrap their heads around the scope and duration.  All seem so absorbed by the moment that we’re much more upset by their farewells than they are.

The movers come on 7/10!  We’re hoping to have our junk gone and stuff packed before heading north to rejoin the kids for the 4th.  Our 14th wedding anniversary tomorrow will be short on romance long on packing!

Bring and Take

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It’s funny the things we think about, and the things in which we find value.  I find myself looking at things very differently as we near our departure for Costa Rica and Argentina.  But WAIT!  Before you start thinking that I’m getting sentimental (I am), and all missy-missy for our friends and family (I am), let me explain what “things” I’ve been thinking about, and looking at lately:  food and napkins.  Sad but true, these things have held a pretty high spot on the totem pole of my brain lately.  I am sorry to say that when I mention food, it’s not even like I’m thinking about world hunger.  The other day I went to the grocery store, and with only 23 days before we leave (23!!!!!), I’m starting to really think about what I buy, and if I’ll use it before we go.  “Should I buy one pound of butter, or two?” I asked myself.  I went for two…..my friend Ingrid gets whatever I don’t use.  I’ve been trying to use up food in our freezer, which is a challenge when your husband is a big game hunter and had a good year last year, and someone who takes pig butchery classes for fun (actually, I got that for Rob as a gift–very “Portland DIY”).  I came across my freezer bag of Parmesan rinds recently, and have promised to give them to my friend Geoff when we go.  Those things are like GOLD to any cook worth his or her salt.

As far as napkins go, I keep wondering if I should bring some cloth napkins.  “What a ridiculous thing to think about!” you may say to yourself, and I completely agree!  The thing is, I keep thinking about this, and I keep going back and forth.  I think, “Well, it’s not like they take up a lot of space, and wouldn’t it be nice to have just a set or two of cloth napkins?  What if we have someone over? I like cloth napkins!”  When Rob and I were in Argentina they had the most silly, ineffective paper napkins (it was like trying to wipe your hands with one-ply toilet paper!), so I’m not completely crazy.

I’m reminded of an NPR show I used to listen to that was basically three or four adult sisters who would get on the radio and just chat about what they were up to.  It was basically a radio blog—fantastic!  I loved it:  Satellite Sisters.  Anyway, on one particular show, one of the sisters was getting ready to move her entire family to Shanghai or Bangkok or something.  The sisters were having an in-depth conversation about whether or not the one sister should bring her gravy boat that matched her set of china.  She pointed out that she was not, in fact, bringing any of her china, but wondered if she would be able to find a gravy boat in Shanghai or Bangkok if she didn’t bring her own. They probably discussed it for a good six to eight minutes when one sister broke in and said, “Look, do you think you’ll even be able to FIND a turkey?  And if you do, will your oven be big enough to roast it?”  The traveling sister then replied, “I have no idea!  THIS is EXACTLY the wacky kind of stuff I’m thinking about these days!”  Well, I get what she’s talking about.  So in a never-ending effort to avoid thinking about all of the wonderfully amazing people at home who I love so dearly, and am going to miss so terribly, I think about how much butter I should buy when we’ll only be here 23 more days, or if I should bring cloth napkins to Argentina.

1 month!

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We fly to San Jose, Costa Rica on July 12th!  Lots to do still, but to mark the one month mark I thought I’d have Ben and Molly practice their Spanish.  

Last week of school for the kids here in Portland.  Busy, busy packing and planning still.  Erica and I are ramping up our search for a rental home in Cordoba.  Our house here in Portland hasn’t rented yet, but the car is gone!  Last day of work is 6/28.