Progress!

Today our house search continued, as we saw two more houses.  The first was a super-luxe expat house with a killer view of Lake Arenal between Tilaran and Nuevo Arenal in the little town of Aguacate (means “avocado”).  It is owned by a retired couple from Michigan who spend a few months here each year.  It was almost too nice for our crew, and it turns out it would not be available for rent until April, and it might be sold by then anyway.  Oh well; it was fun to look.  

Deluxe, but not meant to be for us.

Lake-viewing spot.

We drove around Tilaran some more, looking for any other “se alquilar” (for rent) signs and found one more house that we were able to look at.  This was a more modest Tico (typical Costa Rican) house for only $300 a month, however it was not furnished.  We asked at a furniture store about renting furniture, but this was not a possibility.

During our house search we found the bull ring in Tilaran.  We will need to come back!

Nik spoke to Martin, the owner of the larger Tico house in Tilaran that we saw yesterday, and learned that the cost of furnishing the house would amount to a significant increase in the rent.  He also would require a one-year lease, which is more than we want to commit to.  This less than ideal news helped tip us toward the expat house near Nuevo Arenal, despite its more isolated (yet lovely!) location.

So we are going to move into our new house tomorrow!  We are very excited about the house and being able to unpack and do laundry and cook again.  We are thinking we would like to stay there for 6 months and then possibly try again to find a furnished house in Tilaran.  In the meantime, we will do our best to find opportunities to meet locals and speak Spanish.  Although we want to resist too much gringo socializing, perhaps making friends with our new neighbors with a pool would be ok…  While Nik and I would like to dive right into the culture by living in town, our kids are less enthusiastic, and we do want to make this a comfortable transition for them.

We returned to our new favorite restaurant in Tilaran, Sabor Tico, for dinner.  We all shared a big salad, 2 casado plates and a big fruit plate for dessert.  All for $24 including pineapple juice drinks.

Generous casados at Sabor Tico.

Sully with his first straight-from-the-coconut experience.

Finally, I have to put in a plug for the dogs in Costa Rica.  They are everywhere, usually small and so darn cute!  We saw this guy the other day when we were eating lunch in the central park in Tilaran.  He watched us patiently until we were done, then once we got up he moved in to clean up the crumbs we had left.  The travel nurse in Portland had warned our kids well about rabies, so nobody is tempted to pet dogs here; we just admire their cuteness and good manners.

Tilaran perro

 - Erica