New Blog Site

Please visit me at http://movedtocostarica.wordpress.com. Google Blogger does not work anymore and I can not access it from my computer for some reason. A lot of other people are having the same issue, but it seems like Google is not responding so I started a new BLOG, one that works!

Thanks.......... See you on the other side!

Trying something new

Over the past year I have been using Windows Live Writer to upload my blogs. The only problem is that it does not work very well. I usually have to restart it about 5 or 6 times before I can upload my article. It is a real pain to use. All of the "Help" that Microsoft offers is well, you know, not w orth the effort to look it up, as it seems it is always your fault and never Microsofts. I googled blog client and came across this one, Zoundry Raven which is a free open source software.

So I will put this thru its paces to see how it works or doesn't.

As they say, down the hatch.

July Day

Well I guess there is no such thing as July Day, maybe Canada Day since it is their birthday today.  This month marks our first year without working (for the mon).  We have done a lot of work since we have moved down here, for sure, but all has been on and around the house trying to make it work just a little bit better.

Over the past month we had a visit from my oldest daughter and granddaughter for a week.  A week sometimes is too short, especially since a couple of those days are spent traveling to and from San Jose.  Almost all of the flights back to the US are at the crack of dawn and there is no way to get there except by spending the night in San Jose.  A small draw back to live on the Carib.  No way do I drive the roads without it being light out (a 12 hour window).  We still had a great time, but miss them both.

June was a very dry month, only six inches of rain.  Not exactly what you would expect in a rainforest.  The other good news is we only had one report crime all month.  You can tell that it is not tourist season now, not sure why the weather has been perfect.

Rainforest Moon

It is not very often that you get a chance to see the moon at night here in the rainforest.  By nature as the air cools, clouds form and they block the view of the sky.  There are times when the sky is clear and you get to see things that normally you don’t.  On this night, the almost full moon was peaking over the tree tops on its way to circle the earth.  Each full moon I am hoping for a clear night, but that doesn’t always happen so you take what you can get.

Walk in the Park

Yesterday we went on an adventure to Cahuita National Park.  We went via the park entrance in Cahuita since it only requires a donation to enter as opposed to the Punta Vargas where it costs non-residents $10/ea to enter.  Along the way to the park we passed a tree full of nest of the Oro Pendola.

The trail starts out by either walking in the trees along the beach or walking on the beach itself.  We chose the beach.

As you walk about 2 Km’s the trail turns back into the trees.  Along the way you  get to see some interesting things.

Here is a small yellow eyelash pit viper waiting for supper to pass by.

There is even an elevated section to get over the water prone areas.  It hasn’t rained here in quite some time so everything is really dry.

This is a shot of the Jesus lizard which can run across water, an adult male.

Some rather large trees along the point, usually full of monkeys waiting for handouts from the tourists, but not today.

There were hundreds of these little hermit carbs all fighting over food found on the ground, the biggest ones always seem to win, hum.

Shay is leading the way back home.

This big iguana was hanging out way up in a tree, these guys get to be around 4 feet long and this one is close to that.

On our way home I just wanted to include the typical Cost Rican hazardous road sign.  The tape says precaution.

This will probably remain like this for some time to come or when the palm leaf rots and falls over.  It is kind of hard to see in the dark but if you are from around here you know it’s there.  Anyway, it was a good road while it lasted.

A Little Before and A Lot After

The lot that we purchased in between the two houses that our builder built was quite the mess when we took it over.  The lot was full of old material and many Cacao trees, not to mention the billions of mosquitos that lived in those trees.   So this is what it looked like before we started the process.

And this is what it looks like now.

It has been a lot of hard work, I just hope that it starts to rain soon so we don’t loose all of our plants we have planted.  Cloudless skies and bright hot sun does not work well with these plants.   It never rains in the rain forest when you want it to!

Summertime

I know that here in Costa Rica everyone always talks about summer, but that’s in December not June.  I guess that’s because the school kids are out of school during that time.  Now, in the morning the temperature is around 80 degrees and with no clouds to stop the sun it raises up to around 92 degrees.  For here that is HOT!

Looking at the wave report it looks like we catch a break since we will have 4 to 5 foot swells by Sunday, lately there has been no (zero) waves to speak of.  You can’t even hear the ocean it is eerie quiet at night.

One thing one can do when it is this hot is hit the beach and feed the little flies that want to bite the livin crap out of your legs as you sit there enjoying the shade. 

But you know as you sit there all is good you just deal with the bites later.

When the water is this calm it is very clear and is super warm (which is why most of the coral has died here).  The coral does provide hiding places for the smaller fish and adds backdrop to the pictures.

Great day for the water.