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

Murphy's law, new friends and electricity problems

Today Madeleine rode the school bus for the second time and uttered not one complaint.  The fare to her school is 200 colones, or 40 cents.  This saves us a round trip into town and is a much better use of time and money than driving.  All three kids had been instructed to wear regular clothes today, as all the school kids today were meant to help out working on a new building that will house some special education classes.  Sullivan (age 5) was honestly concerned because he can't nail a nail into a piece of wood.  It turns out that all his fears were unfounded as none of the kids worked on the new building.  We're not exactly sure what they were going to do and I was somewhat disappointed not to find out.  In addition, it was requested that each child bring a donation of 300 colones (60 cents) to help fund the building.

Sullivan inspects the new school building

More significant exam studying happened during the day and Erica started some contract work online.  She is enjoying the intellectual stimulation again after a hiatus for Sullivan's early years.  We delivered chicken and garlic to Madeleine's class for the much-anticipated tamales that will be made.

Several days ago, we'd invited one of Madeleine's friends and her family over for dinner tonight.  Today they confirmed that they could make it.  We were excited and eager to make some new friends, language barriers be damned!  As luck would have it, though, as Erica was starting to get dinner together about an hour before they were scheduled to arrive, the stove stopped working.  We also noticed that the drier was spinning but it wasn't heating.  After discussing this with some of the neighbors, we surmised that one leg of the power must be out!  Flipping all the circuit breakers unfortunately didn't help.  Of course this has to happen just before we're having our first dinner guests.  Welcome to Costa Rica!

When our guests arrived, there were some slightly awkward minutes of explanation.  After some drinks and initial pleasantries, we headed out to a local soda (typical restaurant).  .  .  where there was no power.  It turns out that the third time really was a charm, when the local pizza place was open.  We ended up having a great time and made some new friends.  After dinner, Kelly's dad said that being together was more important than having all the electricity.  And so it goes.  Tomorrow we've already planned on going out for breakfast, as it's Erica's birthday!

This self portrait of this crazy boy seems appropriate for today

Less stuff making us happy

Today I worked on our taxes and tallied up donations for 20 trips to Goodwill during 2012.  It reminded me just how much stuff we used to have.  I did not see one item in my lists that we have missed.  There was some good stuff there, and at the time, I may have had a little trouble just giving it away.  It makes me happy now to think of who may be using our good stuff.  We didn't need it, but maybe they do. 

Nik and I recently watched a TED talk about how less stuff equals more happiness (thanks, Teness).  Here is a link if you want a little inspiration:   http://www.ted.com/talks/graham_hill_less_stuff_more_happiness.html

We have found what he says to be true.  Having less stuff has definitely given us the freedom to pick up and live somewhere else for a while.  Feeling lighter has opened the possibility in my mind to go back to work (telecommuting of course!).  Without so much stuff, we spend less time being frustrated by messes of toys and random clutter, and definitely less time organizing and cleaning up stuff.

I assume there are many who think that they could never part with their possessions, let alone house, that it is just too radical an idea.  How to know unless you try it?  It was a crazy idea for me in the beginning, and the thought of getting rid of our stuff just too daunting.  But step by step and with much help from friends, Craig's List, Goodwill and SCRAP, we whittled it down to what we fit in our suitcases and our 5x10ft storage unit.  

Now we are living in a rented house with someone else's stuff, with just a bit of our own mixed in.  We are lucky that the house we are renting is well equipped, so we have not been tempted to buy much.  After spending much time and energy paring down our stuff, we are trying to be more aware about not acquiring things.  So far it has not been hard.  We did buy a hammock, but with this weather and the perfect spot to put it, it seemed to fall in the Essential category.  And we should be able to squish it in a suitcase when it's time to move on.

- Erica

One of Sullivan's favorite things is collecting things from our house to put in his store and sell back to us.
 I bought my phone yesterday for only 10 colones!

Sully meets one of his classmates in town.

Henry and his perfect score on math homework… in Spanish!  Way to go!

Sunshine, bugs and school: Our Costa Rica right now

In the land of the eternal spring

Recently we have been blessed with some more of the beautiful tropical sun.  Our rate of new critter discovery has taken a little hit as we've been working pretty hard at the school routine.  We are definitely feeling less like tourists, at least during the school week.  School is keeping us all pretty busy lately.  Both Madeleine and Henry have their first set of exams coming up next week and both are experiencing some angst about it.  They each will have an exam in each one of their subjects.  This'll be a new experience for each of them, not to mention the fact that they'll all be in Spanish.  We're encouraging them to do their very best and to be proud about it.  This is a new challenge for them both that will hopefully ultimately build some character!

Henry's list of what will be covered in his exams next week.  He's most concerned about having to explain the geologic origins of Costa Rica.

Today we had a "reunion" for Madeleine's class.  It's kind of like a meeting for all the parents and the teacher.  I have to admit to feeling like somewhat of an outsider initially, especially because I wasn't understanding a whole lot of what her teacher was saying, in part complicated by the loud kids and machinery outside the echoey room.  Somehow I also just have more trouble understanding Madeleine's teacher.  Fortunately one of the other fathers could help fill in the gaps of my comprehension.  The loud and fast discussion was filled with a lot of emotion and laughter that typifies the local Latin culture, in my opinion.  Essentially, a large portion of the meeting was spent discussing ways to raise money to pay for the graduation "packets" for the end of the school year in December.  Each packet will include some type of diploma, a tie to wear and some other costume pieces.  We're going to work together to raise the $20 required for each.  One of the big fundraisers will be making the special Semana Santa tamales.  Apparently these are special and quite large tamales traditionally eaten in the week before Easter Sunday.  We're bringing chicken and garlic.  Also, I volunteered Erica for a shift during this same week when the parents of the class will be manning the bathrooms at a popular local park, charging admission to use the facilities.  The class apparently has to provide the toilet paper.  I'd be helping, of course, but I'll be hard at work myself during that week, bringing home some bacon.

The "reunion" of the sixth grade parents in Madeleine's classroom

Every time we walk or drive by Sullivan's kindergarten class, he seems to be happy and really enjoying himself.  Today we saw him skipping around the schoolyard, again completely oblivious to this major life change.  He is sufficiently tired at night, likely a result of the fact he wakes up around 6 am and that his brain is working hard to learn Spanish, even though he isn't consciously aware of it.  There is also a lot of running around going on.

Sullivan's kindergarten homework from yesterday.  Note Sponge Bob as his favorite TV show (!?!), birdwatching as one of his favorite activities and pizza as a favorite food.

The only recent new and exciting creature was discovered on our bird feeder.  I'm not convinced these guys are indigenous just to Costa Rica but I've not seen one quite like it.  Not that there is a shortage of beetles around.  .  .

Snout beetle, most likely.

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