2-6-14
Kyle woke to find that the pineapple I purchased from the vegetable truck was devoured by a local critter while we slept. We had used it as our center piece at dinner and forgot to bring it in. We were left with a juicy, sticky mess on the patio! It is common here for the dining table to be outside and not inside. We love it.
Again we started the day with Kyle and I having coffee on the patio, listening to the jungle. Howler monkeys were really loud and close this morning. It is wonderful, but also a little scary when they are so close - especially when it is still a little dark and you can't see them, but hear their growl. A beautiful blue bird was hanging out around the patio all morning. I learned it is the Costa Rica Blue Jay.
After coffee, Kyle and kids off to the beach and Elly and I off on a run. Today Ryan waded into the ocean up to her knees! Her first day getting wet :-)
Kyle and Tristan went on a sim card mission today. We have been without phones since we arrived and it has been fine. The kids have skyped with friends every night and I have skped with my mom and my sister. Skyle is free and so is Facebook, so we haven't had much of a need for a phone. We will need to communicate by phone locally though, so we decided for now we will just have one phone and see how it goes and what it costs. The sim card was about $5 US dollars. We will update later on the actually cost of usage.
Kyle also surprised Ryan with a new bike. She hasn't been excited about the idea of surfing, so he wanted her to have something she could do in terms of exercise. She was quite happy!
Forgot to mention that we picked up some locals who were hitch hiking yesterday, a mom and her son who had been selling their handmade goods at the beach - colorful wooden bracelets and birds. The kids and Elly scooted over and they climbed in - all smiles. Kyle spoke with them easily in Spanish and the kids and I listened, doing our best to understand what they talked about. They were so grateful for the ride. Kyle and I commented that they never asked us to buy what they were selling, they were just appreciative. The boy and Kyle talked fishing - that made Kyle's day.
by Kyle
Let's talk about the gecko. This is one reptile you want in your house and as close to where you sleep as possible. Ok Deana, Angie, Bobbie and others - this might freak you out. But when Kim woke me in the middle of the night to tell me there is something in our kitchen, I listened to hear the sound she was talking about only to here the call of a gecko. I told her it was only a gecko go back to sleep. But in my mind I was imaging the old Godzilla movie and your gecko fighting a giant spider that has somehow got into your room See that's what geckos do they eat all the bugs they can. Believe me they can eat! I watched one eating one night and as far as I could see he never got full. He would just grab a large bug half his size and pull his neck in and out and the bug would be bent in half and half way eaten. So when your living in the jungle these little guys keep you from waking up in the morning with a red bump with a little blood coming out of it, and you asking what bit me last night?
Yesterday was a hot one and Tristan and I went on a little shopping adventure. Here things like that are not as easy as they might sound. I was looking to get my phone to be able to work here in costa rica. We made stop after stop looking for a chip to put in my phone. We call it a sim card, here it's called a chip. Well if you dont have a good grasp on Spanish try listening to instructions.... @$@%*. I would stumble on words to describe what I am looking for and they would come back with fast directions for how to get to a place that sells a chip. By the way, we are talking km and meters mixed in with hard to understand directions. The good thing is, after they would speak I would give eye contact and smile and that's the international sign for I have no idea what you just said! They then would smile or a little laugh and we would start again. Great people here, always willing to help and have a lot of patience. Well after a couple of tries Tristan and I found a computer store and a sweet girl that only spoke Spanish. Now pause for a minute and ask yourself when you took a language class in school did you learn words like, signal, data, sim card, talk time, pin number ....... ? Once again, I had a mind challenging adventure. After installing the card it was not working so I thought that it was my phone and Verizon did something that would have to make me return to them and beg them to turn a switch back the way they found it. (You know, all powerful). Turns out it takes time. She told me they are backed up on activating the card and 20 minutes later it was working.
Next stop getting Ryan a bike. Last year we went to the beach with our friend's the Atwill's and there were cruiser bikes at the beach house that she loved, so that is what I was after. Found a bike shop and you guessed it they didn't speak English so my tongue was up for another conversation in Spanish. A few more words not learned in school: chain, sprocket, handle bars and bike rack. But after 45 minutes we walked out with a new shinny bike for Ryan.
Bobbie and Tim you will laugh about this one. Kim and I are sitting outside having coffee together as the sun comes up writing about our adventures from yesterday and I feel something big on my back. So I jumped up and tried to shake it off and it would not come off. I said to Kim, is there something on my back?, as I turned so she could see. Yes, she said. Well.... are you going to smack it off? No, she said, its really big. Great, I said as I quickly tried to remove my shirt without it stinging me or trying to jump on my skin. After I pulled the large bug off me I said to Kim you better hope this doesn't happen to you because your on your own. (she laughed but I could see in her face that it just might and you know who will be laughing... Me, Tim and Bobbie )
Ok there's more to write about but I am out of time this morning - surf is calling me.
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