Down in the Butterfly Gardens

On Wednesday the 26th, we went to the Butterfly Conservatory. To get to there we had to take a long bumpy ride in our rental car to the village of El Castillo. We started off by seeing the laboratory that had the caterpillars and eggs. After that we went down to see the butterflies. We had a guide named Isaac who was a volunteer there for the month of January. It was a bit like a natural zoo. We saw nine different types of butterflies. One type was a Rusty Tipped Page that landed on my finger. There was also Blue Morphos that looked like puppets when they flew. The Tiger Swallowtails we saw were yellow and black, one had a broken wing. It was exciting to see the common Monarch Butterfly down here in Costa Rica. My favorite was the Glass Wing Butterfly who's wings were transparent. There were also poison dart frogs, fish, birds and lots of tropical plants. One plant was called "Hot Lips". The best part was being able to experience these butterflies, frogs, fish, birds and plants in real life not on TV.

Respectfully submitted,

Gracie

Volcan Arenal

Our Cabanita

Last week we went on a vacation and we stayed at a hotel called Las Cabanitas (the Little Cabins). There are three things that I am going to highlight about this hotel that I liked.  One of them was breakfast.  There were three choices for breakfast.  There was a tropical breakfast which was fruit and orange juice.  And there was American, which was ham, eggs and toast. And there was Typical. It had Gallo Pinto with a fried egg, white cheese and fried plantains.  My favorite breakfast was the Typical. I have a pinto belly!

Jeff

 

The second thing I want to highlight for this hotel is the very sweet-hearted dog that we met and named Jeff. But an hour later we found out she was a girl, so we named her Jeff Lynn, and we called her Jeff for short.  We liked her so much because she kept coming to our door and nuzzled us - but she never came in our cabin.  She also us reminded us of our black lab, Java. 

Standing on top of the igneous

And the third thing I would like to highlight is the awesome volcano view.  Speaking of the volcano, we went on a trek to go to Arenal Volcano (not to be confused with the volcano in Turrialba that we see on our way to school).  First of all, it is an active volcano, so nobody can climb it.  But there was a very long trail to get close to the base of Arenal Volcano.  On this trail we saw two turkeys (one male, one female). And we also saw some sort of squirrel like creature.  When we finally got close to the base, it took a while to climb up all the igneous rock.  Igneous is cooled and hardened lava.  Speaking of lava, we were on an igneous perch and we used the binoculars to see the old lava flows that the volcano made. It was amazing!

respectfully submitted,


Jaimito (aka James)

The Casado

The concept is simple, a plate of food with a little meat, some rice, vegetable product, perhaps some beans and whatever else the cook dreams up to make this their signature dish. Generally you can order your casado with chicken, beef, pork or fish. The fun part is you never really know what you are going to get until it arrives. Some casados are very basic, a little bland but still quite edible. And sometimes, when you least expect it, you are served a feast!

Take for instance the casado in the picture below that was served at a roadside "soda". The "soda" didn't look like much from the outside, but it was clean and the people were friendly. In the picture you can see the grilled chicken at the bottom and the rice in the middle of the plate. The beans are on the left and the salad on the far right. But what else? There is a corn tortilla, fried plantains, some green beans in an egg batter and piccadillo (a succotash type dish made with ground beef and a potato like vegetable known as chayote. You can order a casado at just about any place that serves food and generally it is only about $2-3. Quite a bargain either for lunch or dinner. My hope is to sample as many casados as possible in our visit here.

Transportation

Whenever I have traveled before, transportation has been a big part of the experience.  In Venezuela, it was the winding roads through the Andes and my host father's love of driving fast, really fast.  In Europe it was the trains, and the tiny cars to fit on the tiny streets. In Cape Verde it was the cobblestone streets, the totally unpaved and then washed out roads, and the Toyota Hiace vans as public transit.  And waiting for transportation. And waiting. And waiting.

So when we were planning this trip to Costa Rica, I imagined all sorts of traveling nightmares with the three small children (barf bags, waiting in kinda-scary places for buses or taxis, buses so full that we can barely fit, etc.).  Thankfully, I have been pleasantly surprised.  Sure, we have to look carefully before crossing any street (a motorcycle or tourism bus can appear out of nowhere and take you out in a heart beat), and we have given the kids dramamine before any major rides.  And yes, the bus we rode to a party at Gerardina's house last week was standing room only.  But overall, it has been pretty smooth sailing.

This past week we took a trip to the Arenal Volcano area.  Because we don't have a car of our own here, we were forced to use a combination of transportation methods.  We started at our house in Turrialba and walked the 800 meters (uphill) to the bus station (five people, five backpacks, three booster seats in a big bag).  Then we took the bus to San Jose - 2 hours.  Then we took a taxi to the rental car office where we rented a car complete with GPS unit (a must in a country with no street signs).  We managed to fit the three required booster seats across the back seat of the Nissan Sentra and took off for La Fortuna. Several hours and many GPS related wrong turns later, we managed to find our hotel and start the vacation part of the trip. After three wonderful days of exploring the Arenal area, we completed our journey in reverse (rental car - with fewer wrong turns, taxi, bus, walk home).


The best part of the transportation story - aside from the fact that all of our traveling went smoothly - was that on the final 800 meter walk home (downhill this time), no one complained.  The whole walk home was spent recognizing sights and sounds in this new town that now feels like home.

Hanging out in the bus station in Turrialba

Maggie sleeping on the bus.  Thank you, Dramamine!

Maggie's Musings

I love the fresh mangoes in Costa Rica.
There are a bunch of dogs next door, and they are noisy.
I will wear a yellow t-shirt and dark navy blue shorts, navy blue socks and black shoes for my school uniform.
We've seen lots of birds. I would like it if we could see a toucan.
We've met lots of different people.
I like some rice, especially the arroz con carne that Gerardina makes.
There's a bakery next door and I get to eat cangrejos. Don't worry, they aren't real crabs - they are crab shaped pastries.
I love being in Costa Rica. It's fun!

I love the fresh mangoes in Costa Rica!

Los Empacadores

What a grand day of adventure in the shadow of Volcan Turrialba. I'm not sure I'll ever quite get used to the idea that we are living and playing in the shadow of an active volcano. While playing shortstop in the neighborhood baseball game today, I was amazed by the sight of white smoke gently spewing from the volcano framed by the backdrop of a perfectly clear blue sky. Truly breathtaking.

Did you watch the Packer game today? We managed to invite ourselves to the home of a friend of our housemate's where on Fox Sports Mexico we watched Los Empacadores defeat Los Osos. The game was just one of the many interesting aspects of the afternoon. Marty (the friend) is an expat who retired from his life as a PhD attorney to run a chicken farm in the foothills just outside Turrialba. He generously showed us his pineapple garden and allowed us to join him in his afternoon egg gathering. Each of the kids were able to pick a nice warm freshly laid chicken egg to add to his stores. I do not recommend walking around a chicken coop in sandals. Not for the reason you may be thinking, rather the chickens enjoy pecking your toes - step lively y'all.

There are many traditional halftime activities during the big game. In the past I have grilled brats in the snow and tossed a football around to burn off some nervous energy. Today we picked fresh lemons, saw where macadamia nuts were harvested and walked to a waterfall in search of poison dart frogs (no luck on the frogs, alas). The vistas from the hillside were wonderful and quite relaxing.

Not only are we gaining confidence riding the local buses we are also beginning to gather the all important connections between people in our new town. Marty, our football host, is also pals with Maggie's kindergarden teacher. This can only mean good things are on the horizon.

We are off to see more of the country this week so stay tuned.

The comfort zone

Part of the joy of international travel is stretching the boundaries of experience beyond time and space to a place known as "The Comfort Zone". The comfort zone is defined as one's level of comfort in a given situation. Take for example shopping for school supplies. Normally, the teachers gives you a list of familiar items and you go to Target and get what you need. Here, we were given a list of school supplies in such excruciating detail that even our fluent Spanish speaker and self-proclaimed lover of school supply shopping was left incapacitated. Instead of twin pocket folders for each subject, we had to buy subject color-coded file folders with matching two holed clasp thingies with instruction to label and wrap each individually in plastic wrap contact paper adhesive type stuff. Whew! The upside is we now know how to say "glitter glue" in Spanish and where to buy rubber boots for "Agriculture Class". We were definitely pushed outside our comfort zones.

After art camp on Friday, we treated the kids to "Copas" sold by a street vendor in the park. These are sugary concoctions made with shaved ice and sweetened condensed milk. Mmmmm, yummy.

Last night while the soccer game blared on the TV in the background, we munched on excellent pizza at a downtown restaurant. So what's the catch? An alley, after dark in Central America? Certainly a family-friendly experience, right? But it was. We enjoyed a lovely meal and walked back home through downtown and up into our neighborhood as kids played and families watched the game together. It was a great way to experience life after dark. And a great opportunity to begin to see how we have adapted to and begun to expand our "comfort zones".

"I take it he found the fuse box."

There's a strange dichotomy at play here in our little world.  It's the tug-of-war between the aspects of Costa Rica that are still part of the developing world and the pervasiveness of technology.  It's the satellite dish on the rusting, corrugated tin roof.  It's the bank that has two ATMs that can give me dollars or colones, but not today because the system is down. 

Take for example the fact that we are keeping this blog.  We obviously have great internet access - wifi in our rented home with the ability to post regularly, send emails and even skype.  In fact, I had a wonderful skype conversation with a friend last night, and today was able to complete a work interview through the same fabulous technology.  At the same time that I was "skyping", a young electrician had come to the house to fix the showers.  An electrician fixing the showers?  Yep.  There are no water heaters here - so if you want a warm shower, you have this heater thing installed right in/on the shower head.  When we arrived, it wasn't working, and we told Jan that it was not an issue - we were fine with the lack of hot water.  But when Greg reached up to move something and it shocked him, we decided that having an electrician make sure we could safely take a cold shower was probably a good idea.

The shower head/water heater

So the electrician came to fix the shower while I was skyping. And when I had to stop my conversation to show him where the fuse box was, I didn't give it a second thought...  until he turned off the power and I lost my internet connection.  When I finally reconnected with the person on the other end of my skype conversation, her response was, "I take it he found the fuse box."

I, for one, love the little inconsistencies. I like being able to surf on-line while my clothes are drying on the line.  Or reading to the kids on the Kindle because the paper copy of the book got wet when the roof was leaking.

It is keeping me on my toes, not letting me take anything for granted, and giving me (and the whole family - I hope) some pretty amazing perspective.

Off they go!

Because it is technically still winter break for the schools here, we took the opportunity to enroll the kids in a week long "Art camp" at the Waldorf School, just a short bus ride from downtown Turrialba. So this morning we fed the troops, marched them downtown and put them on the bus for camp (we rode along for the first time just in case). The school was situated in a beautiful lush green clearing and the staff was cheerful and encouraging. Our group seemed awfully wide eyed but OK with the setting. Janet and I managed to fritter away the hours while they were gone. What returned from camp? They were a little dirty and bug-bitten, tired but otherwise no worse for wear. Tomorrow, yes they are headed back. This seems like a great introduction to life in Tico school.


Here is something curious: there are no street addresses here. Even in print you will see the location of a business or a house as "100 al Este y 50 al Norte del Salon Comunal." The address is literally "100 meters east and 50 meters north of the community center." Close enough I guess.

A pilgrimage to mecca

What joy it was today to wake to warm breezes and brilliant sunshine! We took advantage of the dry air to regroup, do laundry and play baseball. Yes, baseball. I was invited to join a neighborhood group for a little pick-up ball. While the ball itself was nothing exceptional unless you consider batting and infield practice in mid-January exceptional (which you should by-the-way); the locale of said game was indeed a pilgrimage to mecca. Because of all the recent rain the regular field was too muddy for a game so we walked over to the Rawlings Baseball factory where they have a small field. The Rawlings factory is where dreams begin. It is the site where all major league baseballs are hand made. So to play there was indeed something special. Supposedly there is a kid's game on Saturday and I should get to play again next week (provided my much appreciated sunburn is better by then.)

Pantalones en Fuego!

Our housemate, Jan, has made a wonderful friend here in Turrialba - a woman by the name of Gerardina. They met because Gerardina was recommended to Jan as a great house cleaner (which she is!), and they have become quite close.  Today, Gerardina came over to teach me how to make Gallo Pinto (the wonderful rice/black beans mixture that you have surely tried if you've been to Costa Rica). 

A quick side note: it is still raining.  In fact, it has not stopped raining for more than an hour since January 10th.  So when Jan missed the bus from CATIE yesterday (3 km outside of Turrialba), she got quite soggy on her walk home.  And since nothing is really drying out on the lines these days, she stuck her jeans in the warm oven for a few minutes to dry them off.  It's a little trick she uses.

OK, back to the main story...  So Gerardina, Gracie and I started making Gallo Pinto in the kitchen. It involves sauteing vegetables, adding in cooked rice and black beans, chopping cilantro, etc.  It's quite easy, really - but then you have to fry the eggs to put on top.  So Gerardina was mixing Pinto, frying eggs and handing me plates to serve the kids (who were all asking for different egg styles), when it started to smell like something was burning.  I turned down a burner.  More eggs were fried. It got smokier.  Suddenly I looked down at the controls and realized that the oven had gotten turned on in all the confusion.  So I opened the oven -and smoke came pouring out.  Jan's jeans were more than a little warm!!  Gerardina grabbed the jeans and yanked them onto the floor.

At this point, Greg started hopping up and down, yelling from the other room, "pantalones en fuego! pantalones en fuego!" which literally means "pants on fire!" (this is one of the few Spanish phrases he knew before getting here - a favorite he likes to hurl at the children if he suspects that they are pulling his leg or telling a little white lie).  The kids joined in - and Gerardina and I were laughing so hard we could barely carry the plates of food to the table.

Thankfully Jan's jeans were not ruined, just a little toasty.  And the Gallo Pinto?  Delicioso.

Cooking BEFORE the "pantalones en fuego" incident.

It's Raining, It's Pouring

It's raining, it's pouring, etc.   It has been raining for 4 or 5 days now.   Turrialba is soggy and muddy.
This morning Grace and I went to the abastecedor to get a loaf of bread and a coke.  We did it
perfectly.  We're just settling in.

Respectfully submitted,
Jaime (aka James)

This is me standing outside the abastecedor just down the street from our house.

Did I mention the rain?

Not only did it pour all night, it also made a pretty good attempt to make today a complete washout. I'm not talking about showers here, this is Biblical-style rain folks, the kind of rain that make you wonder if you should start Googling "Ark plans". It is amazing how loud rain can be when it impacts a corrugated metal roof. We are warm, dry (still itchy) and looking forward to the reappearance of the sun.

Then the cop said...

Who would have thought that the bookstore being closed could have led to the events that made up our morning? Just a block or two from the town square in Turrialba is the used book store run by our favorite book/fruit/mental health salesman. Since he was closed this morning we backtracked to the square for a little large motor activity on the park equipment. Our timing was perfect as it was the two hours today when it wasn't raining. After getting reasonably muddy the kids befriended a local kid and they engaged in some creative play. While they were engaged, a local policeman rode up on his motorcycle simply to chat...and chat...and chat. It was great to practice a little Spanish and feel welcome in the community. We learned that there is a perezoso living in the park - a big one too! We were thrilled but despite our best efforts we were unable to spot it on this particular morning (have you looked it up yet?). We also learned that come April the mangoes rain from the trees here in the central square.

The Rainy Season

The simple explanation for all the wonderful lush vegetation is the fact that it rains a lot here. Never before has our birthday girl's (yes, she's 41 today!) parade been rained upon with such vigor. We tried to make the best of it by visiting CATIE, walking by the kid's schools and observing some of the wonderful birds that inhabit the area. We saw cattle egrets, boat billed herons and the northern jacana. Additionally we saw stands of bamboo, "flame of the forest" trees, wild ginger and the "sensitive plant"-that closes when you touch it (see photo). Despite what sounds like life in paradise we also have experienced some ferocious itching, unexplained rashes and a few creepy crawly things in places where they were not invited. We are all suffering from culture shock fatigue but are soldiering on with well-caffeinated enthusiasm.

A quirky neighborhood

There are few things finer than the local farmer who sells fresh produce door-to-door. I had just written "cilantro" on the shopping list when we heard the familiar call of "oooo-pay" (the Costa Rican version of "yoo-hoo") at the front gate. Here was a farmer-peddler type with a sack of fresh greens. For $0.20, I purchased a beautiful bunch of fresh picked cilantro. We also bought some apples and passion fruit from a fruit slash used book vendor slash psychiatrist. Yes, indeed a quirky neighborhood. Oh ya, there is a steaming volcano in clear view too!

Welcome to Turrialba!

Our first full day in Turrialba has definitely been full.  We started off with a morning visit to the local open air market to buy some produce.  We also visited a couple of stores in town to get some of the basic supplies we needed (like bread, milk, sugar, bath towels, etc.).  Later on we discovered a neat little park at the end of our street.  We especially liked following the leaf-cutter ants on their "highway".  Most of the afternoon was spent playing games on the front patio.  We also watched a pair of horses walk up the street and then come running back down a few minutes later.  We found out later that their owner was busy looking for his lost cows.  Dinner was down at the little "soda" (a word that means corner restaurant) at the end of the street (the other end from the park). 

The new routine

We have begun to settle into a new routine, meaning some concrete school work (math, reading and writer's workshop) in the morning with specials (music, art and PE) in the afternoons. There are plans for a few little field trips this week (science museum, orange grove and the beach). It is cloudy and cool here in Florida but quite pleasant. We all have a little anxiety for our departure on Friday, but it ebbs and flows depending on time of day and level of fatigue.