Weeks 5, 6 and 7

3-2-14  through 3-23-14
Weeks 5, 6 and 7

How can it possibly be three weeks since I've written? I certainly can't share a day-by-day as I have in the past, so I think I will start by sharing a list of things we have said or heard since moving to Costa Rica, that we never imagined ourselves saying or hearing.

1. Is that monkey poop by the pool?
2. There is a scorpion in the shower!
3. Did the neighbor kill the boa constrictor or let it go?
4. There is a gecko in my cookies!
5. Please keep Elly away from the crocodiles.
6. I think I like this better than chocolate (me, referring to another thirst quenching michelada).
7. I need 29,000 colones for beer. The beer truck is delivering two cases today.
8. Catch the vegetable truck, we are out of cilantro.
9. My neighbor to me, about her dog..."poor guy, an iguana took a bite out of his ear today."
10. A local to me, in response to my fear of snakes, "There is no need to worry because there are so many poisenous snakes here that antivenom is very easy to come by."

My favorite:

11. Kyle to me, "Is there something on my back?" Me, "Oh gosh, YES!" Kyle, "Well get it off!" Me, "No, it is too big!"

And most recently...

12. Me to the kids, "Please get the lizard egg off of the kitchen counter."

Three weeks in a nut shell -- let's see.

Elly had to go to the vet. She had patches of lost hair that didn't look very good. The vet said it was a bacterial infection caused by the salt water and the heat combined. I was so afraid she would say Elly could not go into the ocean anymore. But when I asked she said, "That would be mean to do that to Elly." I was relieved. They kept her all day, gave her a special bath, shaved and treated the spots and gave her an antibiotic injection. They sent her home with some pills and ointment. We were pleasantly surprised that the bill was only $120. We do have to wash her really well everytime we get back from the beach, but that's all. She is looking better :-)

We bought a motorcycle. It was our first transaction that required an attorney, so it was a good learning experience for us. It has a storage trunk on the back so with that and two back packs we can easily ride into Tamarindo for groceries. I love riding, but not sure I want to learn to drive it yet.

Our friends Jen and Greg Brauser and their sons Ethan and Ben (Tristan's good friend) and Alex Clapper, Ryan's best bud, came to visit. That was certainly the highlight of the last three weeks. We did an all day adventure together that included zip lining, horseback riding, tubing on a river, mud baths and hot springs. We took a sunset cruise and went snorkeling. Kyle and Greg took a day to go fishing and Jen and I took the kids on an estuary tour.  We visited a new beach, played cards together and enjoyed the pool.

And now a few photos...

 Kyle and Tristan in the surf.

Tristan

 Ryan

 Ryan and Alex

 Kyle teaching Ryan to read the waves.

Happiness!

 Tristan and Ben

 And even more happiness!

 Kyle gets creative!

Kim and Elly

 A bat making itself at home on our patio. I have to admit that he's cute.

 I love monkeys. A howler near our house. I will share a video next time.

Our new family vehicle and Ryan's first ride.

Cookie gecko get's a real name! Meet "Tiny Tim". 

It'll get confusing when my brother-in-law arrives in June!

Jen and I having a beer on the beach.

Days 25-27 Snakes, Cookie Geckos and Termites

Day 25
2-27-14
Thursday - Kyle went fishing today, I went for a long bike ride and the kids did school work and swam. While Kyle was fishing, he spotted two big snakes swimming toward Playa Tamarindo. When he came home he told me about them and we asked our neighbor if he knew what they were. Then that evening there were posts all over facebook about these highly venemous snakes that were coming up on the beaches and there was photo of the same snake Kyle saw that day.

Below is a link to an article that was on usexpatcostarica.com "Strange Appearance of Sea Snake Causes Terror in Playa Flamingo in Guanacaste".
http://www.usexpatcostarica.com/strange-appearance-of-sea-snakes-cause-terror-on-playa-flamingo-in-guanacaste/

Before sunset, Kyle took me out for a ride on the boat in the estuary. It was high tide, so we didn't see a lot of wildlife, but we did see a very cool bird, called the Motmot Bird. Before we learned what it was really called, Kyle named it the "tick tock" bird becase its long tail feather goes back and forth like a pendulum. It was beautiful.

Day 26
2-28-14
Friday - Spent the day in Tamarindo, just Kyle and I. The kids stayed home and did school work and took swim breaks. We took the water taxi over and walked the beach, then went out to lunch for "gringo tacos" and a michelada. Here if you order a taco, you get what we would call a taquito at home. So if you want a taco like we are used to, you order a gringo taco. I also had my first "michelada" and I am hooked. It is simple but so refreshing. Michelada = salted pint glass, fill with ice, add 2 oz lime juice and fill with beer. (FYI - this is different from a michelada you would order in Mexico, where they are made with various spices and sauces.)

We walked to the auto mercado, filled our backpacks with groceries and then walked to the water taxis to come home. Enjoyed another beautiful sunset together, had dinner and then....there was.....a gecko....in my..............cookies!

Since the kids will eat the entire baguette when it is delivered, I make them tear off a piece and put it in a bag for Kyle, so that he is sure to get some. This is why the bag is labled "Dad". I opened a package of these nilla wafer kind of cookies and they were all broken, so I grabbed the "dad" ziploc bag, since it was "empty", and poured my cookies into it. I ate a few cookie bites and then I thought I saw something moving in my cookie bag. Of course I screamed and everyone came running and we found a little baby gecko in my cookie bag.

Day 27
3-1-14

Saturday - an easy, lazy day. Elly and I went with Kyle to the estuary early in the day to hang out with him while he was fishing. First he caught lots of sardines with his net. I didn't let him brag too much about this catch, because there were big schools of them everywhere. I took this photo from the edge of the water...

I was worried about crocodiles but it was hot enough that even I waded briefly in the water. Kyle caught one red snapper and that made him feel ambitious, so he waded out further into the estuary. I was getting nervous about how far out he was going, so I took Elly and headed home. Kyle ended up seeing a croc on the opposite bank - very near to him - so got smart and headed back to knee deep water.

When I returned from the estruary, I did a google search to find out what the brown masses are in many of the trees here in Playa Grande. They are termite nests of "Arboreal Termites".  Here are two that were in trees by the estuary. These are small ones - some are enormous.

I was surprised by what I learned. The U.S. Department of Energy is studying these Costa Rican termites. By studying the guts of the termites, which digest incredible amounts of cellulose in a very short period of time, scientists are hoping to find the formula to eliminate our dependence on oil. Wow. Something else I never really thought about....Termites create billions of dollars of work for people throughout the world every year, in the form of construction restoration and pest prevention work. If you are interested in learning more, here is a link to the site where I got my information.

http://news.co.cr/costa-rica-the-worlds-geographic-hotbed-of-biodiversity-for-termites/12660/

The kids were looking forward to "american food" tonight. Bob and Alice, some very nice people we met from Massachusetts, gave us a small charcoal grill they had purchased while they were here for an extended vacation. The plan was to have bbq chicken, potatoes, corn and salad. But we came back from watching the sunset and the power was out. So instead we had guacamole that Ryan made and ceviche that Kyle bought that morning from the fish truck. We played cards by candle light and had a lot of fun. In fact, when the power came back on we turned off all of the lights so we could keep the mood.

Funny side note...Kyle and Ryan were partners in the card game and at one point in the game Ryan said to Kyle, "you are a nut job" and he said, "yes, I am untouchable." Well, I suppose you had to be here to find the humor in this. But the kids and I laughed very hard and very long at how Kyle misunderstood Ryan's insult to be a compliment - because it was just so Kyle. It was a great family night!