A month down celebrated with a trip to the beach and a boys vs. Mom futbol match!

From a wall painting at Soda Jaco Rustico

We celebrated a month down and my birthday by trying out a brand-new 'beach highway' that put us on the Central Pacific in an hour.  The new Caldera highway is fantastic. Because we had to wait until school was out at 3pm, we headed to the nearest beach town to San Jose, a place by the name of Jaco. It's improved over the years. Still just a small town, it was loaded with the classic surf shops because Jaco is justifiably known far and wide for its surf breaks. 

J couldn't get enough.

                                                                 We had a great time.

The view of the beach outside our place.

We stayed down at the quiet South end of Jaco and it was really uncrowded, clean, low-key and plain old fun. I had happened to meet a Mom at Baby-O's school last week who had just left Jaco after living there for a decade; she pointed us to great condos, La Paloma Blanca, that we were able to score at a good price.

Gigi spent a hunk of time sorting out synthetic division (?????).  They were given three pages of equations to do do over the weekend. Here's a peek:

A break after an intense month getting settled and starting school.

Gigi assures me Baby-O is going to kill me in the future for posting the following however a good laugh is never to be wasted!

The next laugh is at my expense. J joined the local futbol school in our town and on Sunday morning the boys played the Moms to celebrate Costa Rican Mother's Day. 

It was a blast!

                                               We even had a shoot-out! J and I both scored!

We finished with a BBQ on the sidelines. 

Coach Mario of La Escuela de futbol de Salitral

Coach Mario has been super kind to J and invited him to play up on Thursday evenings with the 'big boys'. J towers above his age group in height but I think it's J's handy left-footedness that was cause for the invitation. He said, 'You know J's surdo? (lefty) That is hard to find!' This Thursday will be his first practice with them, rain witholding.

We've been here for a month now and I'd say our laughing is increasing by the day. A good sign. The kids received their progress reports from Blue Valley and are doing an outstanding job. I've found a butcher, a baker not a candlestick maker. . .yet!

We miss you!

You know you're in Costa Rica when. . .

So we definitely know we're living in Costa Rica when

Photo by Jean Christophe Prunet

 we have to wipe toxic frog residue from Casper's (the rescue dog) mouth right before he throws up. . . I've since gone on to fish a frog out of the pool and tonight nearly stepped on one as I stepped out the door to change the laundry.  I had to break it to Baby-O that although a good idea in theory, the razor-thin smashed one she found on our road, was not a good addition to our 'bug board'.

Photo by Ucumari

Green parrots wake you up every morning. Their shriek is not altogether pleasant but seeing neon green birds swoop,  swarm and glide into the same tree (outside our bedroom) every morning never ceases to feel at once annoying and exotic!





The moth's here are bigger than my hand. We had been tracking a gigantic moth; one so big, each of us had been startled at different times thinking it a small animal of some sort.  So we were sad to find it sucked into the refrigerator filter this morning.  :( Gigi was the brave soul who did the extraction.
We are definitely more connected to nature here love it or not.  We love it.

Take a look at that spear this bug is packing!
Every day brings a new  insect.

Ok, I'm trying to blend the following admission into the tropical fauna so skim over the following 'you know you're in Costa Rica when'. . .

You have to hike away from your car and call a tow truck because the ruts are just too scary and your hands are shaking too hard to hold the wheel.

But before the tow truck (finally) arrives,  a  Costa Rican contractor in a giant and gleaming Montero decides he needs to take a look and declares it, "nothing serious" while informing me that "everyone does it all the time."

 "In fact," he declared, "just last week I had to rope my car to a tree to keep from sliding off the road." Comforting. No more shortcuts. No more unpaved roads.

Then the 'tow truck' arrives only to be an ancient old-school jeep, no matter.

You're happy when he drops to the ground after the 'extraction'
(I felt not unlike the moth in the refrigerator filter) and declares with a grin, "You're fine. You're not leaking any oil or fluids." At this point, I'm ready to drop to my knees or roll into the flora.

 Note to self: NEVER follow iPhone GPS in a Central American country and believe a gray line equates to a road.
I felt better when he told me that he had pulled multiple people up from the same stretch of road. . . one last week.


An ironic thing about this idiotic episode, is that I vividly remember reading a book about an expat in Costa Rica  right before we left and snickering knowingly when she admitted that while taking a shortcut to get a pizza,  they had had to chain themselves to the side of a mountain 'road' as their vehicle teetered on two wheels and very nearly flipped off.  I didn't know whether to feel better or in more foolish company when a kind Brit Will, driving a massive Landrover, stopped by and reported that the week before he had rolled it completely over on. . .that same stretch of land.






On a more memorable note (I hope!) you know you're in Costa Rica when all three of your kids suit up in khakis and a polo to head off to school.  One of the things I like about being here is seeing the swarm of navy-uniformed kids moving around the streets and parks. I must be getting old.

Baby-O in her 'mini-forme' and Bobby--- the dog she describes to everyone as, 'the sausage'.



You meet a group of fascinating expatriates working in Costa Rica for companies from Intel to Proctor and Gamble and the kids. . . play cards. Later, they would be joined by a pack of about seven expat boys and outdo the adults in laughter and hollering.

Everyone we've met has been incredibly kind, gracious and welcoming.

One of the things I've always loved about traveling is running into the craziest things  around any corner. Below see the menagerie that came to check me out as I turned around in their very urban 'driveway'- I felt like Pippi Long stocking might follow at any moment. 

You know you're trying not to worry that your 13 year old is going away for the weekend to another province with all of her grade for a field trip. Stay tuned and pray for our girl that it all goes well.*


* I dropped her off at school this morning at 6:30, she was as exuberant as the mess of kids that were gathered. Along the way she told me that she loved working with Bunsen burners. Yesterday in science class they had been told to separate a mixture of sand and salt and had been given water, a bunsen burner and something else I can't remember. The thing I like about their school, Blue Valley, is that they often aren't given the answers or even clues; the point is for the kids to figure it out. Yes their group blasted the heat up all the way and yes there were flames. Gigi's account? "It was awesome."

J was as thrilled to dissect muscles and tendons on a chicken. The kids seem to have as much fun recording their work with the iPads as doing it. It'll be interesting to see how the school, students and teachers' pull it all together.

Missing you all.

Moving to Costa Rica. . .finding a school, a car, a house and a dog

This was the view that awaited us our first morning in Costa Rica. What I thought was the hum of traffic in the distance was in fact, the sound of rushing water flowing at the bottom of the canyon. The small hotel sits perched atop the canyon housing Steve and Rita, one of those competent, uber-connected couples that are full of useful counsel and never obtrusive. I'm all for auspicious beginnings and staying at Casa Bella Rita provided us with a hearty one.

The fact that they have three incredibly charismatic rescue dogs named Tin Tin, Ratatouille, and Topo ("speed-bump" in Spanish) didn't hurt. The kids were in heaven.

Tin Tin, the man

Ratatouille better known as "Rata" who resembled a rat. . .

It would be through Rita that we eventually (we had planned on 4 days and stayed for 10. . .) found our house and car.   Neither are what we had planned on, both are working out beyond expectation.

View from our new home

It would be a lie to say that the first weeks were easy.

"A lot of waiting" said J of the first days as duly noted in this candid shot (I wish it were posed!)

The car we'd planned to buy and pick up our second day evaporated. We couldn't find a house (turns out there's tons of unfurnished places but not so many furnished houses). At one point, as we drove up and down roads looking for a place to live, Gigi shouted out 'Se Alquila!' (it means 'For Rent' in Spanish) so we promptly U-turned only to find what at best might be described as a shack. Isabel shrugged her shoulders and said, "you asked for 'se alquila' and you got 'se alquila'". The kids later took to chanting 'Se Alquila' as a rap of sorts as Rick and I tried not to lose our minds.

When doubt creeped in as if to ask "why exactly are we doing this"?  Answers whispered in from all directions. Finding a young woman, Oona, who bakes Gigi the most delicious custom baked goods- she specializes in Gluten-free, Artificial and Preservative-free products. . .

Picking up Gluten-Free, Agave brownies & cookies

Visiting the Toucan Rescue Ranch where the kids had a chance to visit with monkeys, sloths and owls- all rescued and sheltered by Leslie and her husband.

Izzy, found chained up as a baby, living a second chapter

Baby-O so proud to have run to the car and gotten bananas to share with Izzy, the monkey.

 Shopping at the Sunday market.

More on this later. . .our purchases from the market pictured below. . .cost $24. We joked that the ten ears of corn and two papaya would have totaled that back home.

One huge change was the kids' school- the school we'd chosen turned out to be a fabulous place to learn English and not miss a beat back in the US. After some hand-wringing we all decided that wasn't why we had moved to Costa Rica. More to follow but after extensive exams and more waiting we learned the kids had been accepted at Blue Valley School.

Taking a tour at Blue Valley School

The kids started on Friday and by Friday night Gigi was already out with a pack of girls until late. J came home ecstatic because he would be dissecting a chicken in his science unit. So far so good. The math is terrifyingly advanced (for me!). Even with Gigi having taken 7th grade Algebra she's working. The materials are clear and the kids seem excited by the challenge. Today, they received iPads that a young alumni secured for the school. J was studying Dickinson poetry today and last night Gigi interviewed me for an auto-biography she is to write. She's reading The Color of Water for English class. The kids will receive intensive Spanish tutoring and are expected to get up to speed in the next six months. J reported that he read his fiction book during social studies today (with the teacher's blessing) because he couldn't make heads nor tails of the lesson. Here goes the great experiment. . .

The last major thing to check off of our list was finding Baby-O a preschool. Today, I found it. More to follow but suffice it to say, that it was pretty shocking to see the plethora of quality early childhood education options. Montessori became popular in Costa Rica in the 1920's and the legacy is strong. 

Finally, we adopted a rescue dog today---his nickname is "Bones" because he's so skinny. The shelter named him Gaspar which we changed to Casper given his waistline. It's incredible to see emotional terrain develop before your eyes. Even though he resembles a 7 month old pup by weight, he's probably around 3 years old.

We don't know yet how it will all turn out but so far so good. 

We miss everyone to bits. Come hear the roosters crow as soon as you can.