Crocodiles, monkeys, and. . . Scorpions

Our great family friends arrived last week and promptly met a mother scorpion carrying 9 babies on her back. By the time my talented photographer friend Carol took the above shot, the tail had been snipped off.

But before that, they met William, our neighbor and taxi driver extraordinaire. The man runs like a Swiss train and has been a tremendous person to call a friend. Like many Ticos, he is eager to help, philosophical, kind and if you come and visit you will meet him at one time or another. He is full of hilarious aphorisms like, "the worst thing you can do is give up before you try" or "better to arrive slowly than never arrive at all". A personal favorite, "the milkman is not going to tell you he has watered down his milk." (!)  He even has this handcuff type 'puzzle' that he has been known to throw to passengers to see if they can solve it.

The kids are on a two week semester break and what a time we've had. J's bosom buddy Sam has been reminding me through his eyes what an incredible place of beauty Costa Rica is and how exotic it can be at every turn.

From snakes

to toucans

to sailing North Pacific waters

and taking in these kinds of sunsets

  a lot of fun has been had. We will miss Sam.

 We had an up close and personal experience with white-faced monkeys this week.

and 100 year old crocodiles. Yes. They are as creepy as they sound.

Picture a small dog and you get how big this iguana is- it looked like a small dinosaur!

 This fellow was motionless in a river bramble. Our boat captain was leery- turns out porcupines really can shoot!

We saw a zillion crocodiles, one after another. . .

Back at our temporary ranch, simple pleasures reigned supreme.

 As beautiful and majestic as the surroundings are,  and Guanacaste is ruggedly beautiful. What none of us will soon forget is the sacrifice being played out by the caregivers of the house we rented. The couple had left behind their 6 and 9 year old children in Managua to be cared for by a grandmother so they could come and work. The sadness in the Mom was impossible to ignore.

Photo by Carol Waldenberg


It made it an even greater gift to see our kids playing in the surf and radiating joy;

Carol and I couldn't help but to imagine what if it had been us? Still trying to wrap my mind around the hardship and feeling very lucky.

On the road in Nicaragua

We’re back on the road again. We’ve arrived at La Mariposa Spanish School in Nicaragua after an uneventful 14 hour trip, we’ll stay for 3 weeks. 

We chose La Mariposa because the kids could receive Spanish instruction in the morning and help out with different chores on their off time. La Mariposa has rescue animals ranging from dogs, monkeys and parrots as well as 2 organic farm plots. 

Baby-O is enthralled with all of the animals and they with her.

Helping wash one of the 4 puppies!

La Mariposa provides the meals which are eaten family-style with the other students who have come from all over to learn Spanish. The food has been a hit. 

The staff makes special juice for Gigi made with Agave and last night even made her her own agave cake. Paulette, the tour de force behind the school said would accept nothing else but equity for Gigi's dessert experience. It somes up Paulette's politics, spirit and style. We've spent just a little time with her so far but it's clear, she's a visionary and one of the rare who makes impossibilities happen. She employs over 50 locals in an operation that runs like a Swiss train. 

Paulette has trained locals to serve as patient teachers. Clusters of people gather all over the property to have their classes.

In the first minutes of our first morning we were thrilled to learn that Zoe from Philadelphia is also 12 a ball of charisma and staying on for two more weeks. She and Gigi were playing cards within seconds. They’re still at it! They’ll be mates in Spanish class, apparently it went well this morning. J was able to hook up with several boys from CA who trooped down to the town soccer place- the basketball court, they played for several hours.  The locals were playing each other for money so our guys waited their turn, hopefully we’ll see some international team blending in the weeks to come.

They even play cards in class!

 

 Seeing Gigi after the morning class for the juice break.

Cards are played even during the break.

La Mariposa is packed with goings-on. Today there was Salsa at 1pm and a talk on the Central American free trade zone at 5pm. This afternoon you could visit a reading library funded by previous students and volunteer to read to the kids. The kids mostly hunted frogs, played cards and got acclimated. Baby-O has a friend too. Jeremy , Zoe’s 4 yr. old brother. While Baby-O took her nap he would run around and call    “Baby-OOOOOOO” since he wanted to play with her.

Jeremy doing a play for Baby-O!

Gigi helped feed the monkeys in the afternoon. More on these orphans’ story later. 

Everyone has slept like a log, eaten well and reveled in card tricks, the animals and the joy of being in a place that is one in a million. Early report is that La Mariposa is everything I had hoped for- a place for the kids to learn Spanish actively, interact with locals, eat locally, play locally and think globally.

A dreamscape: Cortijo Balzain

"Balzaín is a white country house protected by its old chestnut trees, its paths lined by walnut trees and the small water canals flow with the countryside peace. A spring brook, born among the rocks softly murmurs a song of things and memories. And the almond groves on the slope and the high topped pine trees, give the lanscape a sentimental and delicate enviroment." 


-P. Ferrer, Jesuit Mountaineer 1971

To see the terracing up close is a phenomenal sight. On each terrace lies neat rows of Almond trees.

The 1000's of Almond trees that surround Cortijo Balzain are just about to bloom

Cortijo ("place consisting of farm buildings and cultivated land as a unit") Balzain held a lot of intrigue for us from its website. Only 8k from Granada but billed as a country refuge complete with animals for the kids to see, we went for it. 

The 'farm' (it would likely be considered a ranch in the U.S.) actually sits plum in the middle of a U.N. declared biosphere. The biosphere is really the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas (yesterday's hike was only a 10 minute drive) on up through the peaks- a gem of a location. What really grabbed our attention was the idea that it had been a complex of 17th Century buildings that had been restored for rural tourism in an attempt at preservation. They've succeeded.

It's a trip to read that your 'house' used to be a 17th Century sheep shelter and giggle about the house up a dirt trail that looked interesting and upon a further read used to be the pigpen (we lucked out I think!). The complex itself saddles a beautiful rift and outcropping that has crescent after crescent of terracing. There is no doubt that you are standing on land that has been used for centuries. It looks well. . .old. Not old in a worn way but ancient because it's simply a winner of a spot. 

The sun is blinding all day long. The trees are amazing for climbing (anyone who knows Gigi knows she's a climber. This is a kid that climbed atop our roof in Tucson when she was 4. . .no; her parents didn't sanction this). We keep losing track of her and find her in a tree.

It's stunning and the trees aren't even in bloom. Traces of what's to come are everywhere.

Can you guess what fruit that is? It begins with a P and they are not peaches. First kid-friend to guess correctly earns a Spanish souvenir.

The sheep pen we were assigned (it's a lovely restored stucco structure) has been great. It's definitely been big enough for our pack of seven. The walls are thick stucco, the roof timber with cane (it so reminds me of Tucson).

This giant 'fork' on the wall has become a family joke-Baby-O says it's for a giant (we've been reading too much "Seven at One Blow"). The pitchfork is carved from one piece of wood and if you imagine the ceilings are about 11 feet high you get the idea.

Just behind our 'casa' is the birth of a spring. If you look closely you'll see the rocks below are submerged in water. Check out the Moorish exterior design (see the Moorish 'keyhole' design?) with the Virgin of Balzain presiding inside. No wonder shepherds chose this place. We're glad we did.

Speaking of shepherds J had a journal entry about them.

"Do you know how hard it is to shave in public? Well, I guess you haven't been a shepherd. If you were a shepherd you wouldn't have a bathroom. Therefore, guess what you wouldn't have? A mirror!

There was only one and only one mirror on the farm and guess where that was? On the front door!"

It's been an understatement to say that we're learning something new everyday. The British philosopher Bertrand Russell said, "A certain amount of boredom  is. . .essential to a happy life." I wouldn't say we're bored by any stretch of the imagination but what we seem to have acquired is TIME. 

Tales from the first week

Homeschooling can be hard:

Sometimes you hear Flamenco guitar on top of a castle and you feel like dancing.

Sometimes the food is yucky.

Sometimes the food is so good you can't believe it.

Even when you pack two to a suitcase and rent a 'big' European car your trunk looks like this:

Sometimes a turkey bites your finger when you least expect it.

It's ok because it's down the way from your 'hotel' that looks like this:

Sometimes you have to lie down on the ground to get your shot.

Jet lag doesn't wear off quickly.

Sometimes the best thing that happens to you in a day is finding out you can Skype in to your friend's birthday party.

Thanks for keeping in touch!

 Sophia- how is Don Quixote? 

Maddie, yes there are mountains everywhere! We found out today that the mountain range behind our 'hotel' (it's the 17th Century sheep pen, more on that later), the Sierra Nevada- the name means 'snowy range'  has a mountain that is almost 12,000 feet high. The snow is shocking to see because it is warm and sunny- it looks like meringue.

We're heading to the cave dwelling and archeology site next.

Oh. One last thing. Our favorite and most important app? Facemelter.