Rainy Season

I just took a look at the national weather here and it seems like the rainy season isn’t quite over as of yet, except for the far northern part of the pacific.  All those who have come hoping for a sunny and warm Christmas might be a little disappointed this year.  Forecast calls for more clouds and rain tomorrow too.  Since we do live in a rain forest you kind of have to expect that at some point in time.

With the rains comes the wind; which happens to whip the waves up a bit, making it not so nice for swimming. Surfing is good and you really don’t mind the rain since you are wet anyway.  Umbrellas and rain jackets are the main wardrobe garb during these days.  Since most people who come here don’t have a car, walking or taxi are the only options for most getting around town.  Standing in line at the ATM machine this time of year can be trying to some also since the line can extend down the road a ways.  That’s why I get up early in the morning and not  have to wait, usually everyone is still in bed sleeping off the night before.

PV is like the tide, when it goes out it is calm and quiet, but when the tide comes in it is a whole different story.  People cram the little main street making it almost impossible to drive any where.  The good news is that they paved all of the back streets in town so you can go around main street without loosing your teeth bouncing up and down and by pass the crowds.

Well it is the season to be jolly and so I’ll end on a jolly note,  NO SNOW!!!!! in the forecast.  Pura Vida, gota love it.

Wild Goose Chase

After talking with a number of local folks here we kept hearing about this place called “Chase”, how great it was and that you could find anything you wanted.  The deal is that it is located in Panama.  So yesterday we took off with some friends and started down the long bumpy road.

We kind of knew where it was but not the exact location and thought it was at the end of the road (18Km worth).  Driving at top speed of 10km/hr you can imagine how long it took to get there.  Once we got there we asked if anyone knew where “Chase” was.  Yes they said, go back about 10 km and it’s on the right.  Great, back to the car and down the bumpy road.

Well, when we got there we were really shocked at what we saw.  Nothing like any one had told us about.  A crowded store with clothes a few TV’s.  There was no beer or wine or any such thing since that was the main reason for the trip.  Only came back with some cheap christmas lights.

                                                The road

                     The Bus that almost ran us off the road

     The Soda where we should had turned left in the first place

The boat dock with Panama across the river.

Saw this on the way home, a Mal in the back of the truck.

I doubt we will be visiting Chase again any time soon, not until some body can verify that the goods are there.

Joyful Holidays

As part of the Holiday sprit, ICE (pronounced E-Say, the country’s monopoly for power and communications) has come up with a friendly reminder for your cell phone.  Just so you don’t go and blow all of that Christmas bonus on presents, a call to your phone is automatically made to remind you to pay your phone bill.   I paid ours 5 days ago and I got 5 calls this morning reminding me to pay mine.  I wonder how many I would get if I hadn’t paid.  Maybe it works a bit too well.  Besides I can’t imagine a Tico letting something so close and dear like their cell phones to be turned off.  Isn’t that a human right that should be brought before the supreme court?  How dare they even think of such a thing.  For sure the cell phone has changed everyone's lives, it is probably the one big techno deal that will go down in history.

The holidays here are warming up and we are glad of that.  It’s been even chilly at times with all the rain and cloud cover, aka Pacific Northwest, but blue sky is right around the corner, along with all of the new wave of tourists.  The raining season has been really hard on Costa Rica this year, eliminating dozens of bridges, closing many roads (many of which are still closed) making it hard or impossible to get to your favorite traveling destination.  But if it wasn’t for the influx of the tourists a lot of things would not be fixed or mended, so we are thankful for something’s here.

I just can’t wait to sink my teeth into my Christmas chicken, unlike our Thanksgiving chicken, this time I hope to do it beer can style just like back home.  At $70 for a 16 pound turkey at Pricesmart (aka Costco) we will have to wait for Santa to bring us one.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining we love it here and wouldn’t change a thing, well maybe our diet and some expectations.

When it Rains

When it rains, it pours.  In the last three days we have had 10 inches of rain from this low pressure system.  Today it is not raining yet so I went down to the beach to take a look and see if we still had a road to drive on.  Luckily we do, the beach on the other hand is filled with debris from the rivers.  Huge trees and old trees fill the sand.

 

It will probably take a week for the ocean to clean all of this up.  It is amazing how things change within just a few days.  With the ground already saturated, I hope the rain stays away for a while so things can dry out a bit.

Tropical Low

What happens when a tropical low pressure sits off the coast?  Well, it rains!  It has been raining since Monday evening and so far we have around 6 inches of rain fallen and it is still coming this way!  Good things it is 75 degrees other wise we would have around 5 feet of snow on the ground! 

The other good thing is we really don’t need to go anywhere right now so we are staying put until this passes over.  That could be a couple of days or so.  Needless to say, we are in for a green Christmas, not a white one.

Travels to San Jose

We took off to San Jose on Sunday.  As soon as we pulled out of the drive it started raining.  I mean it really started to rain!   The road to San Jose goes through a big national park and has been known for landslides, which ends up closing the road for hours to clear.  As we got the the bottom of the hill to start our descent into the hills, many people were stopped and waving at us.  I thought how nice is that, they really do like gringos.  A couple of seconds later we turned around and asked someone if the road was closed.  Sure enough, a big landslide had just happened

.

So we head back in the same direction to take the only other road to get to San Jose, which is a small two lane road that twists and turns through the mountains.  The trip that usually takes about 3 to 4 hours took almost 6 hours by the time we arrived at our hotel.

Going down route 32.

Coffee Fields

Turrialba

Cartago

Heading home thru San Jose

Tico house ready for Santa

Store front

New street signs in Puerto Viejo, go figure......

I think we are done for now!

One of the main reasons for our trip back to the US was to pick up all of our documents needed for residency. Once we arrived back, we met with ARCR who will handle the process. We had most of the documents we needed except for a letter from Social Security and fingerprinting. So last Monday we were in San Jose to finish up some of the paperwork for residency.  First thing in the morning we went to the US Embassy to get a letter from Social Security confirming my monthly amount (to meet the requirements of the new law).  We got there around 8:20 AM and were on our way to Casa Canada by 8:50 AM.  Once we got there and presented them with our letter, we then left to go get finger printed for an Interpol search on us to make sure we are not wanted by any other country.  We got there around 930 AM and were headed back to Casa Canada by 10:30 AM. 

Once there, we met with our lawyer who had us sign our application and pronounced  us done with all of the paperwork.  He will submit our application (as soon as the documents are translated into Spanish) and once Immigration has received our documents, they will provide us with a File Number which will enable us to stay in country (without having to leave every 90 days to renew our visa).  After reading all the horror stories from other people who have gone through the process I was expecting it to be more of a hassle.

The only thing left to do is get my driver’s license (maybe next month).

24/7

Granted I am not awake 24/7, but living here is like watching the Discovery Channel, 24/7.  Our living room is our TV that we watch most of the day (without any political ads for people who can not keep any of the promises they have made in public) seeing new things and wondering sometimes if it isn’t all a dream.  We have only really watched about 10 hours of real TV over the past three months.  As we prepare ourselves to head back to the northern frozen tundra to collect our important paperwork, I am sure that once we return and get thrown into the Costa Rican governmental process we will be wishing we still could be back home (Puerto) dreaming. 

We know that this will be a long haul, many trips to and from San Jose, but I am sure that in the end it will have many more rewards than not going through the process to obtain residency which will allow us a lot more freedom to move about the country and see some of the places we have yet to see.

Trusting

The other day we were watching this couple (of sloths) as they moved around the canopy.  I think this is mating season since we have seen them in the same spot a couple of days before.  Anyway, the big male (this shot was taken from a long ways away) was out grabbing a bit to eat (sort of speak).  If you notice you see the bright orange and black strips on its back (female does not have this coloring), if you look real close you can see the female hiding in the leaves just off it’s right.

After a while, the male sees some really good leaves down below.  So what does he do?  He hangs upside down from this little limb as he reaches for the prize.  There is nothing between him and the ground at this point.  I wonder if he had an engineer inspect that limb before doing this or maybe he just trusted that it would not break and have him and the limb go down.

These creatures have survived for a long time and I guess they know what can and can’t be trusted. 

Banditos

Yesterday afternoon I spotted a bunch of thieves up in the tree, our papaya tree.  These guys were going to town on all of our fruit.  Now I guess I don’t have to worry about how we were going to get the fruit off the tree, there won’t be any left after these guys get through.  I am sure they will be back to finish what they started.

Something else appeared yesterday that we have never seen before in the wild, a two toed sloth.  This one was in a hurry to climb up since there were three squirrels harassing it.  The tree was in our yard.

This sloth is more genetically advanced than the three toed variety and is much more aggressive. 

Migration of the Birds

This is the first time I have lived in an area where we are directly in the path of migrating birds.  The only thing is these birds are vultures.  Hundreds and thousands of them almost blackening out the sky (well may be not that bad), but you get the picture.  If you are dead somewhere lying around these guys would be picking you clean in no time.  With all of these birds, how do they eat and where?  They roost in the trees at night and turn the green to black.  They all seem to get a long.  The Talamanca canton has been recognized as a key site to track and study raptor migration, which takes place August to December, with October the peak observation period. Between 50,000 and 500,000 birds of prey, of as many as 17 species, pass by the Kéköldi observation towers in just one day.

 

The other thing I have noticed (now that the sun is back with us today), is the angle of the sun.  As the earth tilts northward the sun changes a lot in a short time here.  I remember living up north and it would usually take a week or so to see a dramatic change but here it is only a few days.  We used to get sun in our living room in the morning now it is all in the shade. Soon it will be long pants and long sleeves (not)!

Just Hangin Out

Nothing else better to do on a Friday afternoon than just hangin out and chewing on a few tasty leaves.  This female was right across the road from us and spotted her while sitting in our living room.  She was kind enough to pose for a few shots.  Shortly after this it started to rain and rained for most of the night.

 

Some Observations

After living here a very few months, there are some things that stick out in your head and wonder.  Not being completely fluent in Spanish it strikes me as odd as when you go to a governmental office or bank you are talking to people behind glass windows.  Most of the time you can not hear what they are saying since there is no amplification of their voice.  Maybe this is why so many things get done wrong since no one understands what the other is saying and leave thinking that what they said was understood.

Another thing is that there are some many things that live here in Costa Rica that you do see, mainly since they live in the upper reaches of the canopy.  One such creature, a very seldom seen Canopy Lizard is just one of those things.  This one just happened to fall out of the tree right in front of us.  Had we not been there it too would have gone unnoticed.

 

We have seen and recorded some 40 different kinds of birds that visit our area and as the seasons change so will the birds.  Yes, the seasons do change here, they go from warm to not  quite as warm.  Mainly it’s the fruit in the trees that bring in the various kinds of birds and each tree has its own time table.

I know that as time goes on there will be many more observations to report on and I hope to bring those to light as they happen.  Ah, but for now it’s back to Pura Vida!

News from around our rainforest

A few things have happened in the past few days, our neighbor’s house was broken into and things were taken. Their house is located at the end of the road and is hard to see, but there is also nothing else around it. Their house sitter was at work and away from the house. I feel really bad for them. We all live and learn from others experiences, may they be good or bad.

On a lighter note, we have discovered the wonders of fresh black pepper, and I am not talking about the stale stuff you buy at the store. I am talking about it being picked off the vine, ground and sold the next day at the farmers market. I have never tasted anything quite like it before since I am used to the stale old pepper you buy at Safeway. This stuff adds a whole different dimension to food. It has a very distinctive taste to it and lingers for quite some time after eating it.

Some of the trees are also bearing fruit that is bringing in a lot birds. The other day we saw 5 new birds we have not seen here before. Right now the birds are migrating so we expect to see a lot of new ones. Some of the clowns of nature always have to act up. Here a Toucan is trying to get the best one.



Almost falls out of the tree.



Comes up with the prize.



And yes they can fly as odd as they are.

Doctor Visit

We had asked some friends of ours who work closly with the local BriBri tribe if they would introduce me to the local BriBri medicine man, Don Candido to see if he could help me with my hands. I had suffered some nerve damage from using an orbital sander (for a long time) while refinishing all of our kitchen cabinet while getting our house ready to sell. Good thing is it sold, bad thing is now I have damaged nerves in both palms of my hands.

After a full examination of pressure points both on my hands and feet, Don Candido said that I was "en bienestar" and the nerves were damaged and said he would be able to cure them within a month of treatment. Even after the first application of plant material, my hands do feel better. For the next few days I will do a mixture of different plants in water, boil them, breath in the vapors and once it cools put my hands in the water and then apply more plant material. My next appointment is next Tuesday when he will assess the progress. As things progress the treatment will change. He has been able to crue many different types of illness and cured two people who had Parkinson's Disease. The jungle holds many crues that can not be found in the pharmacy.




The Office


Checking out the application of plant material.


Got my drugs to take home.

Calamari

Normally you only get to see these on your dinner plate, so I thought I would share. Pass the sauce please!

Giant Things

Moving to a new place provides you with the opportunity to see many new things. One visited last night, the Giant Toad (aka Pet Killer). One lick off the back of this toad will kill a large dog, the toxin is even strong enough to kill a human. The extended sacks behind its head contains the toxin. Just one more reason to keep the pets inside at night as these things roam around your living room finding things to eat.

Feeding Time

It is truly amazing sometimes. Although it is a little cloudy today it allows the birds to come out in force and feed off the fruit that is ready for the picking. Today about two dozen green parrots are feeding off the small avocados while making a tremendous amount of noise. Not only where they feeding, but also the toucans and Oropendola’s. It was kind of like a big breakfast for 30 or 40.



Once they have had their fill, they move on and everything is quiet again.

Things around the House

Here are a few shots from around the house while sitting in our living room. Jana and I took these (mostly Jana) while sitting in the comfort of our chairs over the past couple of days. No we did not go to the zoo, we LIVE in one!!