Birthday!

Today was muy feliz as birthdays go!  We had a day full of fun and so much variety it made me think of Ferris Beuller’s Day Off, only the 40-something Costa Rica edition.  I think the photos included in this blog post will attest.  There has been a lot of rain lately, but today was perfect, sunny and warm.  We started off with breakfast at Cafe y Macademia, a cute little restaurant we have driven by many times between Nuevo Arenal and Tilaran.  Its view of Lake Arenal is stunning, and the food was a great match.  We shared three of the generous brunch plates, full of fruit, gallo pinto, eggs, bread, cheese and cake, oh my!  We ended with candied macadamia nuts, completely unnecessary, but we were celebrating!

Our first stop for the day

Hungry?

Hard to beat the view

We drove on to Tilaran to pick up Henry’s new glasses.  They look great, and he can enjoy a crisp clear view, much better for spotting toucans in the trees, not to mention the board at school.  

Our little man, looking muy guapo!

I was thinking that going windsurfing would be a fitting thing to do on my 44th birthday, something I have never done, out of my comfort zone, adventurous but not too crazy.  Lake Arenal is billed as a world-class windsurfing spot, thanks to the very consistent winds.  We stopped at the first “learn to windsurf” place, but it was deserted today.  We enjoyed the view from lake level however.  We went on to the Tico Winds windsurf place that was really hopping and enjoyed watching the mostly experienced windsurfers and kite boarders.  The winds and whitecaps were a bit intimidating however, and the 3-hour beginner course seemed too long for today.  So stay tuned!  Madeleine and I will go another day, and Henry and Nik will take their turn too.  I think I need to work on my upper body strength first.

A cove in Lake Arenal.  The windmills above attest to the consistent wind.

Panoramawow!

At Tico Winds, a bit intimidating for a beginner.  Kite boarders are in background.

We decided that a refreshing family swim was in order, so we headed back toward Nuevo Arenal.  Madeleine’s friend had shown us a hotel near town with a pool that lets you swim for a small fee.  We detoured first to Villa Decary, a B&B near Arenal, that I had heard offers yoga classes in a treetop yoga space.  Our plan for a quick stop to inquire about the schedule turned into an hour and a half of conversation and a jungle hike.  Ready for a coincidence story?  Nik had met the owners of Villa Decary in October at the airport in San Jose when he was waiting for his flight back to Portland, and he had told them of our plans to move to Costa Rica.  Just yesterday, the owners had heard from their guests (who I met at the pizza place last night) that they had met a family living in Arenal (us).  The Villa Decary owners, Susie and Dan (who must be blessed with excellent memories), had wondered if we were the family of the guy they had met at the airport (Nik).  Then the very next day (today) we show up at their hotel.  If you actually followed all of that, you might agree that it is strangely cool, no?  We chatted for a while about gringo emergency care and other topics while Henry spotted toucans in the trees, thanks to his new glasses.  Susie and Dan set us up with hiking sticks and bug spray and sent us along their jungle trail, the scenic route to the yoga space up the hill.  Their dog, Olivia, is usually the volunteer tour guide, but she seemed to think it was too hot to join us, or maybe she figured we could find the way just fine on our own, which we did.  The yoga space is lovely, and we will probably go back this next week to try one of the classes, which are offered Monday and Friday mornings.  After more chatting and bird watching, including marveling over the oropendola nests, we headed off for our swim at Hotel Lago Arenal.

Praying mantis at Villa Decary

Oropendola nest on display.  This was one of last year's models.
The many nests in use now were hanging high in a nearby palm tree. 

Henry displays yet more nests.  Pretty amazing construction.

Once at Hotel Lago Arenal, we had the pool and adjacent game room to ourselves and spent most of the time in the “hot” tub that was actually a perfect tepid temp.  As I made the effort to do several times today, I mentally stopped to savor the moment.  We were all laughing together, our kids were asking Nik to tell story after story of the wicked things he used to do when he was a kid.  We were in an outdoor swimming pool in the middle of March!  It’s a good feeling when there is nowhere else you’d rather be.

Henry shows the only way to enter the main pool that was a bit chilly.

The tepid hot tub with swim up bar (a Flintstone-esque cave)

Lovely M, refreshed.

Around 5, we packed up and moved on toward town and the gymnasium.  Some of Madeleine’s classmates were going to be performing in an international dance performance that we did not want to miss.  Wow.  Her classmates, led by her 6th grade teacher who apparently doubles as a dance teacher, were great.  There were also dance groups from Peru, Ecuador and Mexico.  At first we thought they were all Costa Ricans, doing traditional dances from these other countries, but no.  These were dance groups visiting from their home countries.  So much talent and energy!  The Peruvians were my favorite, with their splendid costumes and amazing energy.  We saw lots of familiar faces from school, including many of Madeleine’s classmates looking gorgeous in their traditional dance costumes and makeup.  For dinner, we enjoyed the food being sold by the sixth grade moms as a fundraiser: arroz con pollo, arroz con leche, tacos (more like little empanadas) and fried pork, rather like pork rinds but tastier and served with cabbage, salsa and yucca.  Since our oven was still not working and baking a birthday cake was out of the question, we instead bought 5 pieces of queque chocolate (cake!).

Pre-performance parade of nations

Madeleine with her good friend Kelly, pre-performance

Kelly in action.  Lovely.

The 6th grade crew

Group from Peru

Group from Ecuador.  The guys especially could really dance!

Peruvians, after costume change.  This was my favorite.

Group from Mexico included awesomely talented kids and these women who demonstrated
the many uses of scarves through this dance/ fashion show.

Whew, it was a busy day, but not in an exhausting way.  Rather in a tranquil, pura vida kind of way.  I feel very lucky to be in such a friendly, beautiful place, in the company of my sweet family.  Life is good.  Thanks to my friends and family who sent along birthday wishes.  Each little message and phone call was a gift for me.  And the electricity in our house has been fixed; we owe Ed, our property manager a nice bottle of pinot noir.

- Erica

Home life, Haircut & Football

Beautiful summer day in Nuevo Arenal

It's beginning to seem like we're straddling two worlds:  the domestic life with school, homework, shopping and cooking during the week punctuated with weekends of adventure and exploration.  The kids are likely more sensitive to this dichotomy, as they're the ones going to school.  This morning we were greeted by the warm sun.  While Madeleine was at school, the boys were quite productive.  We've been quizzing Sullivan on Spanish words and phrases where he'll tell you the Spanish equivalent of the English word or phrase.  Today we did this for at least a half hour, of course while he was building legos.  It is truly remarkable what his five year-old brain is able to learn.

Hard at work

The only exciting tidbit from school was that the religion teacher is back, apparently from maternity leave.  Madeleine wasn't terribly forthcoming with details about this, however.  Kelly again joined us after school, as the girls are studying for exams that start next week.  Armed with a stick, I went for a run up the dirt road towards Lake Cote and fortunately didn't have to threaten or swat any dogs with anger issues.  It was beautiful but more than a little warm.

My grandest accomplishment of the day was finally having my hair cut.  Lorena at the shop in town was as efficient as she was friendly and charged me 2,000 colones, or $4.  Sometimes it's hard to reconcile the low cost of services with the relatively high cost of food.  How do people make enough money to live?  Of course I couldn't not give her a nice tip.

The place for a haircut

After picking up the boys we took full advantage of the weather and kicked the football around in the park.  This simple life is treating us well so far.

After school football in the park

Running off some energy

Let's go play in the mud!

The lovely Blue Morpho

Our big adventure this weekend was to the Blue River Hotel, a hot springs resort in the middle of nowhere near yet another volcanic national park, Ricon de la Vieja (old hag's cauldron?).  This was a surprise trip for the kids and they barely could handle the anticipation.  The journey was well worth it, as it turned out.  The pictures can almost speak for themselves.  

Drinking and driving, pipa fria-style.  

Welcome to the cabina

One of the four volcano-fed hot springs pools.  All were cooled down a bit from the 158 degree "hot river".

The "bullet" slide

Torch Ginger in the amazingly stunning botanic garden

The mariposario was filled with large Costa Rican butterflies.  Due to popular demand, we visited three times in 24 hours.

An extensive canal system takes hot and cold spring water through the resort.

Watching the 20+ hummingbirds in the hummingbird garden buzz around, feed and jab at each other from feet away was an experience we will not soon forget.

One of the non-fuzzy Heliconia plants we saw

Just a bit of drama when smelling the volcanic mud bath mud for the first time

Clean those pore and lose those toxins!

Two weeks ago we said "stay out of the mud" but not today

More tropical color

Sully heads down to the Blue River

Rincon de la Vieja and some local admirers on our way home

Internet, Lago Cote & Guaro!

Fortunately today was a day with more progress in addition to some fun for the crew.  Sullivan and I began our post-breakfast day together in the sun enjoying even putting up clothes on the clothesline.

Renewable energy, Tico Jones style.

I made the 30 minute drive back to Tilaran alone and enjoyed every minute of driving with the windows down and the music loud.  Couldn’t believe none of the kids wanted to tag along, even with the promise of doing schoolwork at home if nobody joined me.  Managed to successfully buy a USB modem and some usage time for the internet for the computer.  A SIM card fits into the modem, which was new to me.  Bryan, the super friendly and eager clerk at Gallo (a local appliance store) told me that this prepaid internet costs 1 colon for 3 minutes of time which works out to 1500 minutes per US dollar.  Seems too good to be true but time will tell.  The most valuable other items I managed to find were some more clothes pins (prensas de ropa FYI), as the dryer in the house is currently out of commission.  Hard to imagine why anyone would use one anyway, at least in the dry season.  Yes for a laundry basket and no for another kitchen sink stopper in the plastics store (!) which carries all types of plastic things and household items.  A dozen bananas later, I was on my way back home.  Brief interruption on the way back home where a couple of small busloads of tourists were gathered along the road taking pictures of a bunch of howler monkeys in the trees.  I’ll take tourist/monkey delays over snow delays any day.

While I was gone, a neighbor’s puppy bounded over and came on into our living room.  Sullivan, who normally LOVES dogs, was not pleased when the ferocious beast accidentally scratched his leg attempting to jump up on him for some attention.  The kids have defensively armed themselves with sticks to use if needed.  Although the dog apparently doesn’t even listen to his owner and is exceedingly enthusiastic, he’s just a puppy at heart and when I go to pick him up to move him just flops down on his side for some love.  It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

Gratuitous Costa Rican animal picture.  What we think is a stick spider on the garage wall.

After some work, we have internet access to the computer though it’s a bit slow.  But a necessity.  We took the crew for a little drive up a fun rock-strewn dirt road a hundred meters or so from the turnoff to our house.  Up the hill to try and get down to Lago Cote, a lake where UFOs are purported to frequent.  Madeleine and Henry were arguing that our chances would be better if we instead showed up in the middle of the night.  No lack of sense of adventure here.  Had some great views of the lake but no easy swimming access nor UFO sightings were to be had.  This will be a great mountain bike ride when I get my hands on my bike again.  Looking forward to having everything set up so we can spend more free time exploring and exercising.

Lago Cote

This afternoon a handmade Costa Rican bed was delivered for Madeleine’s room, as she’s been sleeping on the couch.  Despite how it sounds, it’s a more rustic than romantic but will work just fine.  After dinner, Erica and I shared another cocktail made from Guaro, the local fire water.  It’s made pretty close to here and comes from sugarcane.  Tastes similar to vodka and is pretty darn cheap.  This bottle was about $3 and goes nicely with pineapple juice and ice.  A fitting end to the day. 

Salud!