Swarming Crocodiles on Mother's Day

This morning at 6 a.m. I woke with a start to explosions down the street.  Turns out it was the church setting off firecrackers to celebrate Costa Rican Mother's Day!

Click on the photo to see the crocodile video!

We set off to the beach at Jaco, which turned out to be a flooded flat of mottled grey sand, attacked by tourists (she said with disdain), and overrun with tchotchkee shops selling hammocks and Pura Vida t-shirts. The lunch spot we picked hocked a single grilled snapper for $20 bucks, which barely filled the void.

Fortunately, the day got exponentially better, quickly.  Our new friend Bill and his wonder-dog, Oliver suggested we join him at a nearby beach, Herradura (Horseshoe Beach), where we frolicked in the playful surf for hours.  The body-surfing was exceptional, the water was warm and inviting, and the sea floor soft and sandy.

Sated and sun-burned, we drove home, but paused at a bridge where we had seen folks collecting on the way in.  "I bet there are crocodiles down there," I suggested.  We parked the car and walked along the bridge and holy hand-grenades, Batman...there was a veritable herd of thrashing, writhing, behemoths. 



The bridge began to fill with locals and tourists.   A tica (Costa Rican woman) told me of a drunk who threw himself over the bridge once, and all that was left was his throat.  Or that they went for his throat.  Fortunately, my Spanish is not that good.

Soon I heard a voice beside me ask in Spanish, "Would you like to buy a chicken?"  I raised my eyebrows in morbid curiosity.  He explained that the chicken was for throwing over the bridge to incite a frenzied croco-riot.  I politely declined, without asking whether the chicken was dead or alive.  Hmmmm.  PETA would have a field day here.

Market flowers

Marina with her market coco

Marina in front of our house.

Market Vendor

We Swore We'd Never Buy an SUV

Never say never.  During a walking tour of downtown San Jose, we noticed a sparkling white Rav4 with the traditional  "Se Vende" sign written on the driver's side window.  Steve knocked on the window, and the driver rolled down the window.  Some subtle negotiating took place right there on the street, and, within minutes, my husband took the driver's business card.

The next day, the owner brought the car to school, where we had a mechanic check it out.  He gave us the thumbs up, The only catch was the funds, which we had to have wired from the States.  Word to the wise:  when you move abroad and are buying a car; bring cash!  We lost quite a bit in the transaction...both on the exchange rate and on the wire fees.  However, there is a lot of freedom in having a car: that's for sure!  And a big car will allow us to travel over some of the rugged, Costa Rican countryside.  

We have a housekeeper!  Yes, one of the luxuries of living in Costa Rica is that school teachers like us can afford household help.  Vir helps out a couple of hours on weekdays, cleaning and preparing a dinner.  I'm embarrassed to say I'm getting used to the convenience and the pampering of the situation.   

Vir called me at school today.  I had left her a note asking her to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for our lunch the next day.  "What else goes on the sandwich?" she asked.  "Peanut butter and jelly," I answered.  "But what kind of meat?  What else goes inside?"  "Nope, that's it..."  I continued explaining the process of spreading peanut butter on one side of a piece of bread and jelly on another piece to our perplexed housekeeper.  Thinking about it now, it does seem kind of weird!

Tonight, we drove our honkin' big car to the director's house for a terrific staff party.  Benji and Marina had a fiesta  playing spoons and dancing to "Thriller" with Mr. Mac's kids.  We grown-ups had a blast, too.  Steve obsessively competed in a "swing the ring onto the hook" game, with no success, but that didn't stop him from trying for at least a couple of solid hours.  Looks like we'll have to outfit the house with the contraption.

As I write this blog at 11 pm, there is a dog outside making a sound like a tragically wounded sea lion.   He will be joined by roosters and motorcycles revving their engines at approximately 4:30 tomorrow morning, when the light starts to creep into our windows.  I better get to sleep.

Two Favorites: Wild, Capuchin Monkeys and a Rubik's Cube

 "It's a flat hike," the head of our middle school had assured us.   Yet there we were grunting up and slipping down the clay, muddy trail.   We trudged through some considerable humidity and even waded across a river before our fair leader announced, "Hmm, I must have remembered this being a lot easier last year!"

Before the hike, we had eaten a delectable breakfast at the home of Bill, our elementary principal, who lives out in the boondocks, near the national reserve owned by the University of the Peace (La Paz).   The countryside is lovely, and his home filled with bold artwork.

With full bellies, we hiked.   Some time into our trek, the call of "Monkeys!" came from the front of the group.  A troupe of Capuchins---white faced monkeys ---bounced from tree to tree, even throwing a branch down toward us!  We were entranced, and stood snapping too-distant photos and grinning from ear to ear.

Afterward, we drove to the country home of two teachers at our school, who fed us a spaghetti feast complete with fresh watermelon juice while we took in the remarkable vista from their balcony. 

Yesterday, in San Jose, Benji bought himself a Rubik's cube.  Lauren, the high school chemistry teacher, is some kind of Rubik's savant, and patiently showed Benji her savvy methodology.    Tonight, I noticed he was playing with something under the dinner table, and caught the reflection in the mirror of the Rubik's cube, which he cannot put down.

The one that he bought was stuck and tricky to twist, so Bill gifted him with a new one today, which he toyed with throughout our hike.  He still wanted the one that he bought himself, so Steve took it apart, lathered it with Chapstick and then put it back together.  Now it moves smoothly, and with SPF 15, it will never get chapped or sunburned!

Benji and Marina take a ride on the Country Day School mascot!

San Jose Walking Tour

 Today, our group of newbies took a short bus ride into San Jose, and visited the National Theater, perused the open market, checked out a cork tree (who knew?!) and enjoyed some folkloric dancing in the central square.   As you can see, the kids ate their way through town, savoring fresh coconuts cracked open by a machete wielding woman, frozen bananas covered in chocolate and peanuts, and a casado tipico; a typical lunch - rice and beans, plantain, salad and roast chicken -  in the heart of the busy market.  

Earthquakes, Texting and Mangos in Escazu

“Earthquake,” Steve shouted, bounding out of our bed and jumping into action.  Grabbing Marina from her bedroom, he threw her onto his lap and entrenched himself in her doorway.  “Grab Benji!”

It was 2:50 in the morning, and we had moved to Costa Rica three days earlier.  Minutes before, my dreams were interrupted; not by the usual car alarms, roosters or baying hounds, but by a 4.4 on the Richter scale.

I made my way down the treacherous, winding staircase, sans glasses, which I cursed myself for leaving on my nightstand.   I wended my way into Benji’s small room/cave, and saw him lying there like Sleeping Beauty, stone asleep.  I shook him tenderly.  He didn’t move.  “Benji,” I whispered.  “Earthquake, Sweetie, come sit with me in the doorway.”   I half dragged him out of bed, and he continued to snore while I waited for aftershocks.  When none came after a few minutes, I dumped him back in bed.  

Steve and I lay wide awake for an hour or two afterward that night.

In the morning, Benji was surprised to hear that there had been an earthquake.

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As an incentive to move to another country, leave their friends, and start over again in a new place –we offered our twins a carrot:   Cell phones for all!    Marina was truly ecstatic about her new phone.  She remarked:  “Now I’m going to call all of my friends and talk for hours.   Wait.  I wish I had some friends here.”   Wow.  That’s so sad, isn’t it?

Instead, we suggested that she take advantage of the introductory offer of three days of free texting.  “Who will I text?”  she asked.  Well, the only folks whose number you have:  your family! 

Thus began the waterfall of texts that we received every few minutes.  “Where r u?”, “I’m in my bedroom.”, “I have shelves in my closet,” and a hundred other fascinating insights.  Just wait ‘til we let her get a Facebook account.  I’m sure the updates will be scintillating.

In our yard, on our walk to school, and in the school courtyard, mangos drip from the trees in luscious bouquets.  The school maintenance staff showed the kids how to pick up buggy, green mangos; launch them with force and good aim at the tree; and then delight in the fallen treasures.

The staff at Country Day School has been so welcoming, professional and accommodating.  And they’re not even paying me to say that.  Today, Benji and Marina helped me place hundreds of books into my classroom bookshelves.  So many books, so many students, so great to be living in Costa Rica!

Getting Settled In

We have arrived! Our school director picked us up at the airport and we shot across the busy city of San Jose eagerly wondering what Escazu, our future home and our future jobs would look like.  We stopped for a late night dinner of succulent shrimp tacos and batidos (smoothies).  Then we wound our way higher and higher into the hills.  Our first impression was holy cow, it's cool at night!

Our home has character.  If nothing else, it has character.  Rooms twist and turn and there are tons of little alcoves.  But, we have also found the house to have a myriad of problems ranging from mildewy carpets, electrical, plumbing, serious leaks, stove top not working, and problems getting in and out of the gate.  Yesterday (day 3), the landlady come over to make a list of things that needed to be repaired and then her repairman came later that evening. She's a nice lady and she's really trying to accommodate us.  But, it's an older home and we might need to find something a little more modern.

From the very first day, the school has been wining and dining us and taking amazing care of us.  They've taken us out for breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks, parties, trips to Walmart, etc.  And, they've been great about helping us set up our banking, internet, and cell phone.  This is only our 4th day in the country and we've got our cell phones, our bank accounts set up, our internet.  And, with the help of a couple of employees of the school, we'll hopefully pull the trigger on buying a car in the next few days.

Blattastic!

All the pieces are finally falling into place. The jigsaw that is our preparation is nearly complete.  Our rental house is finally sold.  Rascal has a devoted caretaker.  Cars are sold.  Country Day School has found us nice housing only a 1/2 mile from the school.  And, we've recently found great renters for our Phantom Lake house.

 
And so we celebrated during our annual party, Blattastic on Saturday, August 12th with friends and family.

The kids played a myriad of games, organized zealously by Marina and Benji.  There were sidewalk chalk drawing competions, three-legged races, faces thrust into whipcream in the search for M&Ms, and the ubuquitous summer favorite, the water balloon toss.

On the adults side, aside from a rousing game of Volleyball, there was drinking, eating and lots of conversation.  The food was spectacular and culminated in S'mores around the campfire.

Thanks to everyone for sharing in our summer celebration.  We hope to see you all next year, in Costa Rica.