A Few Detours Before Supper

Vern promised Caleb that he could catch a big trout in one of ponds here, and then we’d get Mario to cook it for our family for supper at his restaurant.  For a boy who loves fishing and eating fish, that sounded like a great plan! But even a good plan can have some detours, especially around here.

Yesterday after lunch the kids and I headed down the road on foot to meet up with a playmate (Nathan).  That turned out to be fun for both Claire and Caleb, until other neighbourhood boys showed up, “stealing” Nathan’s attention (at least in Claire’s opinion).  It was pretty hard for her to compete with other kids that can converse fluently in spanish.  Caleb wasn’t bothered in the least, since he could always resort to some form of boyish wrestling when communication broke down.  Eventually, a game of soccer began, and the boys all hit it off.  I enjoyed a visit and coffee with Nathan’s mom and several of her friends (who spoke zero English).

Shortly before 5pm, we decided to start walking home for supper, since we’d arranged with Mario to have Caleb catch one of his fish and then eat it at his restaurant, or so we thought.  As we were leaving, there was some discussion about Nathan joining us for the walk.  We soon found ourselves with our kids, plus Nathan and two other kids!  This was the first bump in our plan – how did we end up with so many kids?  Were they joining us for supper?  This was a good example of the language barrier leading to a few adventures and some confusion.

By the time we’d reached our cabin, and Claire and Caleb had proudly showed their new friends our home (including our trout pond – see photo below), one of the boys had peed his pants.  Argh. This was the 2^nd detour – repair the damaged ego of a 7 year old boy and give him a pair of Caleb’s pants and underwear.  (Claire’s very concerned about how we will get them back).  We filed all the kids through our tiny bathroom, to prevent further accidents. 

Thankfully, I remembered Nathan’s mom saying that his friend (who we thought was named Julio) lived nearby, and he could be dropped off there.  Nathan seemed to know where Julio lived, so Vern dropped off the kids there.  Phew, down to just our two!

We’d actually extended an invitation to another family (ex-Texans!) to join us for supper, and I was now wondering if they might be waiting for us at the restaurant. Who knew supper plans could get so complicated?!

By now it was getting dark, and Caleb still hadn’t caught our supper. We headed straight for Mario’s restaurant, Caleb and Vern with fishing rods in hand.  When we arrived, Mario proudly held up 2 big trout that he was going to cook for us.  Our 3rd detour  – Caleb wanted nothing to do with fish that someone else had caught!  HE wanted to catch the fish!  (I often admire Caleb’s determination, but not this time…). Mario has an obvious soft spot for Caleb, and graciously accommodated our determined boy; he piled Claire and Caleb onto his quad and headed off in the dark, with a very tired Vern following on foot, to some pond with big fish.  They returned happy, with two big trout!

After all that, supper was especially delicious!  As we were getting ready to walk back to our cabin, Caleb spontaneously jumped up and gave Mario a big hug!   

We are frequently reminded to go with the flow out here.        

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P.S. Caleb’s hunter-gatherer mentality also has positive spin-offs....we had fresh blackberry juice for lunch today.  He’s been very diligent in checking the ripeness of our blackberries every day, and was determined to turn today’s little crop of berries into juice!  Delicious!

A Typical Day -- part 2

We returned from our trip to the coast several days ago.  We felt like we were coming home to a familiar place here.  A nice feeling!  Caleb even said he missed Mario (the owner of our cabin, who has the best laugh around, and seems to really like the kids).  

We are reminded daily of the many blessings we have here – not only the beautiful surroundings, but also the wonderful community of people.  We are making friends with the local families, not because we can communicate fluently, but because they open their homes to us. One family down the road about a 20 minute walk have fed us and helped us with our Spanish several times.  Claire and Caleb have really enjoyed playing with their 7-year old son, Nathan, and their puppy. What’s remarkable is that this family makes a living running quite a nice restaurant, and we have yet to pay for a meal (we’ve tried!).  We’ve wanted to provide some business for their family by eating at their restaurant, but they insist that they are sharing a meal with friends. 

Now I’ll finally continue my description of our typical days here in San Gerardo de Dota.  I think I only got about as far as breakfast last time. 

I’ve been homeschooling the kids in the mornings after breakfast, usually for about an hour.  They relish the fact that they get to be done school after only an hour and then they get to play; to be honest, I don’t know how kindergarten teachers can keep the attention of a 5-yr old boy on learning for any longer than an hour! That being said, I see evidence the kids are learning.  It’s also been interesting, since I’m schooling them in English and German, but they are surrounded by Spanish speakers when they step out the door.  The other day the kids laughed when I was working on numbers with Caleb in german and threw in a Spanish number without realizing it.  This week we worked on squirrel monkey projects -- Caleb’s practiced his show-and-tell, and Claire created a Powerpoint presentation and written report. She is learning how to type with correct finger placement, so this was good practice. Vern will be the lucky audience tomorrow. 

After homeschooling on weekdays, the kids and I have the day together to do what we want while Vern’s at the field station.  Without wanting to sound too much like Swiss Family Robinson, here’s some things the kids enjoy doing around here and that keep us busy:  hiking up to the horse pasture behind our cabin; walking down the road to meet up with new friends; visiting the trout pond (sometime the kids get to feed the trout); climbing on the rocks by the river; treasure hunts in the yard; playing games in the cabin; playing soccer; buying food from the produce/meat trucks.  The kids have taken it upon themselves to plant some seeds around the yard: mango, papaya, oranges, and garlic cloves. When we told the kids there wouldn’t be fruit before we leave, Caleb suggested Mario mail the fruit to us. 

The kids have yet to say they are bored, thankfully.  I am enjoying a lot more time to read books that I normally wouldn’t have time to.  And the plain truth is, without a dishwasher, I spend a lot of time preparing and cleaning up meals. 

Costa Rican food is enjoyable.  Lunch is their main meal, and ordering a “casado” at a restaurant will get you an affordable and very diverse plate of food: rice, black beans, fish or chicken, a corn tortilla, stir-fried squash mixture, and fried plantains. Here’s a photo of my first attempt at a local dish (gallo pinto). 

The manager of the quetzal field station (Michael) has also been very generous with us, sharing food when we are in a pinch, allowing us to eat some meals there, and passing on copious amounts of advice and information.  He is American (living in Costa Rica for several years), so speaking English with him makes things easy. 

The cook (Nancy) at the field station has also been wonderful to Claire and Caleb, allowing them to play with her 3 daughters and feeding them lunch at her house.  Claire and Caleb seemed quite proud that they’d “survived” a Costa Rican lunch on their own and had eaten what they were given.     

Vern’s enjoyed getting to know the students at the field station, and has done several hikes and orientation sessions with them.  He is also trying to figure out where they are at in their academic programs, so he knows how to develop the material for the ecology course he’s teaching them in early April.   

On the home front, we now have internet in our cabina!  Latin American style -- Mario came and drilled a couple holes to run an internet cable from his modem into our cabin.  So we now have an internet cable coming in through our bedroom window.  That’s a big improvement – now my hikes to the field station and elsewhere can be for pleasure, instead of necessity.  Vern usually returns from the field station at 4pm, and then I’ve been doing some exploring on my own for an hour or so before supper.

I’ve been asked about how I do laundry, so I’m happy to say that I have access to real laundry machines!  It was a relief to find that out.  Mario and his wife let us use their machines.  Seeing many crinkled-up jeans and shirts on laundry lines, leaves me with the impression that most locals hand-wash and dry their clothes. Yikes.

The sun sets around 6pm, and it gets very dark because street lights are few and far between!  We don’t go anywhere in the late afternoon without packing our headlamps!  We could effectively market Petzl out here!

Several people have asked what time zone we are in – one hour ahead of Edmonton, so the same as Manitoba.

I think that’s it for now.  I have so many photos I want to share, so here's a mixture of shots you'll enjoy.    

Hike up to the pasture behind our cabin

Flame-coloured tanager, shot from our kitchen window!

Lizzie the emerald swift lizard, who lives in our yard



Horseback riding



The Savegre River, which runs through San Gerardo de Dota.

We hiked to some local waterfalls with the students from the field station. 





San Gerardo's main road



San Gerardo with clouds rolling in



At the beach last week, in Manuel Antonio National Park

 

A white-throated capuchin monkey at the beach -- one stole part of our lunch!  They work in pairs, with one doing the  distracting and the other stealing food.  Not our favourite monkeys....

A squirrel monkey at our hotel in Manuel Antonio; the troop moved through every morning and early evening.  They were fun to watch!

Mommy and Claire outside our hotel room during trip to Manuel Antonio NP.

Manuel Antonio National Park

This week we are at the beach!  We are in the coastal town of Quepos, beside Manuel Antonio National Park, on Costa Rica's Pacific coast (map of Costa Rica; click the map on the right).  This is an early birthday adventure for Caleb, because for so long he talked about wanting to see monkeys for his birthday.  There are plenty of monkeys here!  Our hotel is nestled into the forest, and every morning and late afternoon the squirrel monkeys move through.  They hop from tree to tree right above our heads!  They even have monkey "bridges"  made of thick rope going over the roads here to prevent them  from being hit by cars.

We've been busy, in a very good sort of way -- swimming at the beaches and in the hotel pools, hiking, and zip-cording through the jungle canopy! The kids were thrilled that they were old enough to do it.  They started off riding with a guide, and then could go on their own.  Caleb was very serious the whole time, until the very last ride, when he turned around as he was zipping away and flashed a smile and hollered with excitement.  Our guides surprised us with a couple of repels down from the canopy….they were apparently also mandatory, since there was no other way down! 

We did a hike to a beach at the national park yesterday.  Between that hike and our zip-cording trip, we've spotted 3-toed sloths in the forest, a poison-arrow dart frog, numerous tropical birds I can't name, owls, white-throated capuchin monkeys, agoutis, northern racoons, iguanas, geckos, and more.  Very cool. 

Today we are nursing our sunburns by sticking around our hotel. Right now, Vern's reading The Adventures of Huck Finn to the kids on our Kobo eReader, in the shade by one of the pools.  Our hotel is very kid-friendly (Hotel Mono Azul, Blue Monkey Hotel), so they also have games and books for us to borrow. 

And to make sure I don't leave you with the impression that everything is easy, I should mention that it was quite the bus ride to get here!  It's not that far from where we're living in San Gerardo to Quepos, but it took one van ride to get us up the mountainside, and then 2 buses, and ~ 6hrs to get here.  This was the affordable way to travel.  We were the only gringos on the first bus, and the 10-yr old boy in front of Vern and I literally sat backwards on his seat and stared at us for an hour!  And everything is very sensory (at least for me with my way-too-sensitive nose); think strong smells mixed with lots of heat and humidity. 

I've got tonnes of photos I want to share, but that'll have to wait until I can download them on my laptop back at our cabin.  In the meantime, here are a few shots of us going zip-cording through the jungle canopy.  Our guide took them and we were admittedly suckered into paying for them.  Enjoy!

Some photos!

It's taken awhile, but today I can finally try adding some photos to our blog.  Here goes:

First a couple pictures from our first days in San Jose. 


A very short doorway down the street from our hotel.



Swimming in the mini pool at our hotel.

The zoo was a short walk from our hotel.  Claire looks nervous about the caymen behind her.  Caleb's sporting his Manitoba farm-boy hat. 



Walking around at the zoo.




















Here are a few photos of our cabina and surroundings:


Our cabina!



The inside of our cabin.  We figure somebody liked the colour peach!  The owner (Mario) has put in some shelves for us, which has come in very handy. 

Fresh flowers the kids picked in our yard.

Our yard is great -- the kids enjoy the teeter-totter

Our gate.  Notice the bakery sign?  The cabin owner's wife sells baked treats to tourists on the weekends (she's been away since we got here, unfortunately.....)

Our picnic table, around the side of our cabin. 

I think that's it for now.  The kids are clambering to do something.  We have a dinner date tonight at a little restaurant down the road and they are excited b/c there's a puppy and a boy there who they've made friends with.

I'll post more photos of San Gerardo de Dota (it's beautiful!) and continue my description of "a typical day" soon. 

A "typical" day - part 1

Can I say that after only a few days here?  I'll try to summarize what our day typically looks like. 

The sun is up at 6am, and so are the Costa Ricans.  There's no use fighting it, so that's our wake up time. After breakfast (fried "toast" [because we have no toaster] and PB, which is a North American treat out here, and fruit), Vern's been heading off to the field station (Quetzal Education Research Centre).  The university students (from the U.S.) have arrived and begun their semester here.  Vern is mostly using the field station as a place to write up his research papers, but will also serve as a student project mentor and will be teaching a one-week course in March.  It's a beautiful half hour hike each way to the field station down the gravel road through the town of San Gerardo de Dota.  This is also where I have been coming to check emails; we're hoping to have internet access at our cabin soon.

The mornings and evenings are cool (long pants and sweater) because we are at high elevation, and houses here are far from air tight!  During the day, the sun is very hot, and being closer to the sun the UV is strong, so we have to be diligent in using lots of sunscreen.   The Savegre River runs right through town, so water is fresh, plentiful and cold -- we can drink it straight from the tap, thankfully!   Speaking of water, water for showers here are heated with electricity.....dangerous?!?  

Our cabin is comfortable and small (~400 sq. ft).  Caleb's told us that he loves his Costa Rican bed, which is completely shocking, because it's a hammock!  But we won't say anything.  Our bed is fine, but way too short (Vern is "muy alto" as they say out here), so our cabin owner is planning on getting us a new bed. 

The people in San Gerardo are very friendly and often try to help us with our spanish (we need it!).  We feel very safe here, which is great.  Claire had her first "playdate" yesterday with 2 local girls, and loved it.  She was nervous at first, because she just couldn't figure out how she'd have fun with kids who don't talk english.  Within minutes, she said they were playing hide and seek. 

Caleb hasn't had quite as much fun, since he had a stomach ache one day (no surprise, since he's not a fan of hand washing) and today he ran into a wall and ended up with a headache all day. 

I see the time, and better walk back before it's completely dark!  Before I forget, I'll pass on our mailing address for anyone who wants it:
Quetzal Education Research Centre
Vernon and Susan Peters
7050-1913
Cartago
Costa Rica



Stay tuned -- I'll finish my description of a typical day soon.  I didn't get very far today!  

The produce truck came through town

The first few days here felt a bit like we were on a backpacking trip and hadn't brought quite enough food.  There's no grocery store in town, so we waited eagerly for the produce truck we were told would come through San Gerardo yesterday.  And it did!  I ran out right away, to make sure they stopped.  Fresh fruits and vegetables were packed into the truck, most with spanish names I didn't know.  But it was fun to shop with 2 Costa Rican guys rattling off names of fruits and veggies in spanish (I looked them all up in the dictionary afterwards and wrote them down so I can be more informed next time they come).  I told them we are here for 4 months, so I'm pretty sure they'll stop again (I bought a lot!). The meat and dairy truck comes every Monday, so our milk-drinking habit shouldn't have to be curbed too much.

Speaking of food, we ate the toughest chicken ever last night for supper -- Costa Rican chickens have a much harder life than our fat Canadian chickens! 

Our backyard is amazing and has lots for the kids to do and see...hummingbirds and colourful tropical birds everywhere, a stocked trout pond (the cabin owner has a restaurant that serves fish) the we can fish in, a teeter-totter, a picnic table, and hiking trails right out back.  The kids have been bringing me flowers from the yard daily.


I'd like to pass on a big thanks for the travel-friendly Christmas gifts we received before coming here -- the kids have been enjoying them all, especially since they have lots of time to play.  Even the sweets that made it into our travel bags have been enjoyed (Smarties were very helpful to motivate the kids to hike up the big hills between our cabin and the field station, something they'll have to get used to!). 

Through the clouds to San Gerardo de Dota

We've made it to San Gerardo de Dota and have started to settle into our cabina! 

Yesterday at our hotel in San Jose, we met up with the manager of the Quetzal Education Research Centre (QERC, or the "field station") and had lunch together.  We packed all of our gear into his 4x4 and onto the roof. We thankfully wrapped our luggage in plastic to keep it dry, because it rained on the way up to San Gerardo.  After a  quick stop to buy groceries (....what exactly does a person buy when you have nothing and have no idea what will be available and what you will be cooking?....), we were off through the maze of San Jose streets and up into the mountains.  At this point, we were very thankful to have someone driving us  to San Gerardo.  We literally drove through the clouds (and rain) and emerged on top!  For awhile, we had no visibility on either side of the road (but we knew it was a steep drop on either side).  We were even more thankful for a driver when we started traversing the switchbacks on the gravel road down into the valley where San Gerardo is situated.  Caleb enjoyed the ride with eyes very wide open in amazement, whereas Claire snoozed. 

The kids were very excited to arrive at our cabin.  It's very quaint and is in a great location!  The couple that own it were very accomodating, moving in a small gas stove for us and helping us set up.  The kids were very happy to set up house, after so much conceptual talk about where we would be living in Costa Rica.  The wife of the couple is actually a Canadian (english!) who married a Costa Rican, and runs a little bakery out of her home which is right behind our cabin.  There's plenty to explore for the kids in our new backyard--trails, a trout pond, a stream, endless forest.  The village of San Gerardo de Dota is really neat, with lots of little cabins for rent (take note John and Heidi!), and restaurants to check out, and of course lush vegetation.  Tourists come here to see the quetzal bird. 

This morning, after a very successful fishing excursion at the trout pond just behind our cabin (Caleb's first words this AM were "lets go fishing Dad") and an hour of "jungle school" with me, we walked to QERC.  The field station is a 30 min walk down the gravel road through the village, and is where Vern will be doing some work, including writing research papers and some teaching for the university students here.  I will also be helping out with some projects, assuming the kids go the the local school which is conveniently located between our cabin and the field station.  The Costa Rican school year starts in February.  The kids have chosen to start homeschooling this week, so that they don't have to do school while we are on our beach vacation Jan. 14-20 in Manuel Antonio. 

Setting up house and figuring everything out has kept us quite busy, so setting up our new camera software will have to wait. I look forward to sending photos!

I can hear the kids running around the field station like banchees, chasing a dog they've found and name "Scruffy" (the manager here says the dog won't be around long.....) so I'd better go.  

Hola San Jose!

Seeing the lights of San Jose in the distance from our airplane last night was a very welcome sight.  And seeing all of our luggage (and there was lots of it!) arrive at the San Jose airport was even better.  After getting up at 3:30am yesterday, and surviving 3 flights, we were happy to settle into our taxi to head over to our hotel late last night.  We chuckled at ourselves for lugging around a booster seat for Caleb all day, only to ride in a taxi with no seatbelts and a driver who was very eager to get to our destination and get paid! 

Caleb's first comment at the airport was "are those huge palm trees really real?!"  Oh yah! 

Our hotel is in an interesting, historical area of San Jose, so we headed out for a walk this morning after breakfast (which, not surprisingly, was more diverse than usual and included black beans and rice).  After a completely sedentary day yesterday, the kids were thrilled to run around.  Caleb bolted down the sloped sidewalk, stopping just before the street corner.....inches before a large waist-deep hole in the concrete for collecting rainwater!  We walked around and found the local zoo, which we will visit tomorrow, and the kids enjoyed a long swim in the hotel pool, which nobody else seems to have discovered.  Things are very quiet here, with it being New Year's day.  

On Jan.3 we are getting a ride over the San Gerardo de Dota, where we will be staying for most of the next 4 months. I will post some photos once we are settled in our cabina.