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.