Acting Like Tourists

We took the day off yesterday and drove 1.5 hours North to Jaco beach, a popular beach town and surfing destination. The waves aren't much right now so it wasn't overrun with surfers as far as we could tell. To get there you pass through Quepos then a typical Costa Rican town called Parrita. I spyed this babe on the street in Parrita and couldn't resist taking here photo. The hair really sets off the colors in her blouse don't you think?

We walked around Jaco for a while looking in shops. We drove to the beach and decided it was simply too hot to go in the ocean, though the beach in Jaco is lovely. Then we drove a little further to visit the resort community and marina of Los Suenos. Los Suenos is probably one of the most expensive areas in Costa Rica at least on the Pacific side. They have a golf course, restaurants, a prive beach club. You get the idea I am sure. Here are some shots.

Golf course just beyond the road with large homes and condos beyond.

Very high tech lift pulling this boat out of storage. I wonder if they drag them in and out daily as requested? There are so many all stacked like books on a shelf.

Mike and some gringos walking along the boardwalk.

Los Suenos is situationed in a bit of a sheltered cove rather that sitting on the straight edge of coastine open to the sea directly. Most of the beaches here are just straight without shelter. Since it is lunchtime we decided to head back to Jaco for fish tacos. About 4 years a go signs for a fish taco restaurant started appearing everywhere. The signs put the idea in our heads so of course we have to go.

 

Jacobar turns out to have great tacos and an all you can eat salad bar to go with it. My favorite part is the seating. Notice that I ams sitting on a swing with my feet resting on a bar. The breeze was blowing, we were in the shade and cool. Ahh..

Road Trip to Jaco

We are heading up the coast for a vacation from projects day today. Jaco is a beach town North of us and this is our destination. Ricardo does not have a vacation day however so he is already hard at work sanding our metal security shutters and preparing to paint them the color of a red roof.

Mike thought we needed a more complete recording of our project work here so here are more photos. He especially wanted to include his upper screened in windows since they have been somuch work. Only 4 more left for the next trip!

 

If you think you look ok from the front always look at yourself from the back and you will see that you need to completely give up bread in your life. Painting an interior wall for a change, in this case, the great room which includes the ktichen.

 

 

And lastly a beautiful clean floor around the outside pila (sink). The paint repels water and should make it easier to keep the mold down in this area.  I don't like the color though so I am painting it again. It is incredibly hot and dry right now and therefore the best time to get outside painting done.

 

 

Time to check out of here and get on the road. I'll take some pictures of Jaco.

 

Projects

We have about 2 and a half weeks remaining here. We are pleased to report that we have finished at least 3/4 of the projects we planned for this trip and are looking forward to kicking back and just being on vacation for at least some of the time remaining. Mike's big projects were to redo 5 upper story windows (sand, paint bars, varnish frame and install new screen) and to replace the hand rails along the bridge. He has finished the windows and the hand rails are well along the way. Our friends Scott and Joyce provided the teak from their teak plantation. Ricardo is sanding the post after stripping off the bark.

My project is always painting. I have nearly finished the whole house and the little wall behind the house. Only one house wall remaining. Here are some before and after shots.

 

This little wall gets a final coat of paint after the primer but I don't have a picture.

The rebar is sticking out of this side of the house so we could tie into it when we were ready to add another room. It isn't going to happen though. It might be nice to have a roof that created a shaded open outdoor room, but then how would we get up to those upper windows to repair them and paint the next time??

And the reward or a job well done, macarron cookies with a bit of chocolate.

 

 

 

Origami Moth

Half of what I think are dead leaves are actually moths, like this one here. Mike is sacrificing his finger so you can see the size. With her wings folded she looks like a study in origami. Actually she is just trying to avoid detection by pretending to be an old leaf, not very tasty to predators. I nicknamed her Origami Leaf Moth.

While we are sort of on the subject of leaves, I picked up this beautiful red one on our walk down the mountain a few days ago. I gave it a position of honor in our display niches in the kitchen/dining room area.  I have to admit that we have been working first thing rather than walking first thing. it is a bit of a choice since it becomes too hot to do anything after 11 am. Depending upon where you are planning to work, you have to chase ahead of the sun. We'll get back to walking this week after tomorrow when I still have a sun location project do complete.

Super Bowl Sunday

Yes, I know that SB was last Sunday. I'm a little tardy posting to this blog.

 

We dropped in at our friends Betty and Eddie's place on the beach. We didn't get there early enough to be in the front row with all the old gringos as you can see from the photo. We ate a hamburger and checked out the game. I guess we didn't stay long enough to get to the interesting part.

Betty and Eddie have had this place forever. Since Costa Rica now tax bars and little restaurants a crazy high tax every month just to be in business, they have gone bootleg. So all of us are just friends who they like to cook for.

Palm Oil Plantation

Big "farms" raise palms and extract palm oil from them. It is a major industry in this part of Costa Rica. The workers live in company housing and get goods from company stores. It has always seemed to me that this is a colonial holdover from days gone by. Still, they continue here and the palms seem to be marching south getting closer and closer to our little town. I wonder if the holding company will begin buying or leasing land in our little pueblo?

This is an example of the company housing that has been used for some time, but it is now going out of fashion in favor single story structures.

Typically the houses are painting bright colors. Here one is blue and the one on the right that you can barely see is green. They are built around a soccer field which is one recreation in which everyone can take part. Little equipment is required.

Water Park, Fiberglass Furniture and Pigs

I bet that you are thinking these three topics are unusual companions. Well, they are, but not here. On the way to Rafiki we stopped to see Walter who makes custom ordered fiberglass furniture. It is really very nice stuff, as long as you don't opt for a color like green. Gitti and Bob are thinking of buyig some. Here there are checking out come completed pieces.

It turns out that Walter also has some good looking pigs right next to his mini factory. Jordan and I greeted the pig moma, and her 3 offspring, two smallish and one medium sized.

 

 

Walter is quite the entrepreneur. Furniture and pigs are not enough. He also has built and extensive water park. He has large tanks where he raises talapia. You can fish out one and he will prepare it for you in his restaurant. Or you can just enjoy the pool or play soccer in the field. He has a camping area. He told me that the week of Semana Santa he has more than 200 people a day entering the water park. Below is a picture of one of the fish pools, followed by the swimming pond. The water is fresh from the mountain, not treated in any way.

Rafiki Excursion

On Sunday we took a day trip with Jordan, Bob and Gitti to Rafiki Safari Lodge up in the mountains along the Savegre River. We had lunch, poor quality but beautiful view.

 

Bob and Mike enjoyint the view.

 

 

Jordan the fish insisted on trying out the water slide. Eat your heart out Greg. She went down 3 times and she is a mere 20 year old girl! (Greg opted out last summer, wisely I might add.)

 

The slide is made of concrete and looks as if it could easily strip off a lot of skin.

 

 

The reward at the bottom is a nice cool swim. The water is from the mountain and is completely natural without chemicals. Rafiki is an Ecolodge, supplying its power hydroelectrically.

 

Adios a Suzanna

We have been friends and customers of Suzanna and her Express Restaurant for many years.

 

With the recent death of her husband, Jean Louis, Suzanne will return to Switzerland perhaps as early as April. This is the last week that her bar and restaurant will be open since her license is expiring at the end of the month. We will miss her and her memorable meals.

This photo of Suzanna is funny, no? She has on this special and unusual cooking outfit. It look like she is cooking for Mao and his Communist cronies. Things certainly are changing here in Costa Rica.

Homemade Ice Cream

Years and years ago I bought an old fashioned electric ice cream machine at a yard sale in California. I dragged it down here along with some rock salt. We have never used it. Jordan and Bob lobbied for ice cream so we dragged it out to see what we could do. The pictures below describe the process in action. We are in our outdoor room upstairs which we call the Rancho. Gitti is the blur on the right.

 

Mike is keeping track of the chilling time. It is supposed to take about 20 minutes.

Bob is smashing up ice. Mike is pulling the cord out whenever the ice jams around the edges because the chunks are too big. Jordan is loosening the jammed ice. Then Mike plugs it in again. Except for the ice smashing, the processing isn't too bad.

It took maybe 30 minutes in the end. We added cracked up chocolate chips and set the mixture into the freezer to harden. Yum. We still have half a bucket to eat today.

El CEN (The Center)

Gitti's grandaughter, Jordan, earned a grant for a community project in Costa Rica from MIT where she is a sophomore. Jordan went to grammar school here in the pueblo for a semester so she is well aware of the needs of the community. El CEN is The Centre, where children who need one are provided a free, nutritious meal at midday. Their amount of food they receive is based on their age and general condition. Some need more than others. Their stove was broken and in general the kitchen was no longer functioning. The local druggies break in and steal the kids food rations which makes it really hard for El Cen to accomplish it's mission. It is run by a board of 4 volunteers and is funded mainly by contributions. So, Jordan wrote a proposal to remodel El Cen and build them a security wall to keep out the bad guys. She lobbied the MIT student body for money at her student union with other students who had other proposals. Two would be chosen. She gained the most votes. Hurrah for Jordan!

So here she is posing in front of the CEN's new security wall. The wall is concrete block, topped with fencing and then razor wire on top of that. Let's hope that this along with the new Police Station next door is enough to discourage the culprits.

Mike is examining the new range while Jordan looks on.

 

Jordan, Rosa, the only full time employee, and another woman volunteer who worked for days to clean up.

Trip to Quepos

We made an excursion to the seat of our Canton (like a county) to pay our annual property tax and do a few chores. It is so wonderful that we can now get there in less than 30 minutes on a smooth fast road. We thought an actual paved road would never be available here.

In the Muni office I took a photo of this Portal. I was surprised to see it still in place now at the end of January. It is common to see these Portals (nativity scenes) in public places and private homes through the Christmas season. The Costa Ricans must leaves them up through January.  Some are really elaborate with secular objects, like a toy airplane, in addition to the standard religious character. This one is traditional.

Little Projects Settling In

 

 Before

 

 

And After

 

This project was reminiscent of canvas stretching but much easier. We have two little chairs like this. The bamboo seats are beginning to give way to Greg and Mike cut up some plywood when we were here last to give them new seats and we hope extend their life a bit. My contribution was covering them with vinyl to save us from getting splinters. Next I have a cushion to cover with pretty fabric and only then can we declare this project done. You will see these again that means in a future blog post. I'm just not in a mood to sew right now though. It is really hot here and we are busying ourselves with a lot of little projects that simply make our lives here a little nicer. Mike put up some new hooks for me for example. Not remarkable work and not too much exertion until we get used to the climate. It takes me about a week to accept the heat. We are starting our morning walks though and that is a good sign.

First Sunrise - Jan 19

We arrived in Costa Rica on Thursday afternoon and made our way by bus to San Isidro, arriving rather late and after dark. American Airlines AGAIN lost one of our bags. Miami American Airlines staff is now 2 for 2 and we vow never to fly via Miami again if it can be avoided. The good news is that they managed to get our bag to us by 10 am the next day. This is remarkable since the bag, like us, had to travel 3 hours by bus to get to us. We did our San Isidro chores and were off to Matapalo a little after noon to unpack and move into our house.

This picture is from the next morning sunrise. It was a cloudy day but there was still a little color. All was once again good with the world.

That is, it was good until Mike came down with food poisoning on Saturday that layed him low for a good 24 hours. He tried to blame my pasta bolognesa from Saturday but that didn't hold up since I ate the same thing and was perfectly well. So now he is thinking it was the fish restaurant where we ate on Friday night. Oh well, he is back to normal now.

It is unseasonably rainy here for mid January. No one knows what to make of it. Personally I think it is great since the rain means that it is cooler overall.

Also, Mike has not been able to get into our normal Roadrunner mail in the U.S. So we are moving to gmail I guess. If you want to communicate with me, I am at driftwoodtxartist.gmail.com.