Our Last Trip -- El Caribe, Otra Vez

Dad, this pic's for you.  We saw these huge logs
on our drive down.

Day 1: Punta Uva Beach (where the locals hang out) and Puerto Viejo

Punta Uva - Taking pics of the adults is hard sometimes!  Trying
to make more of an effort!

Stopping at "McDonalds" between Punta Uva and Puerto Viejo :).

Gnarly tree

L sandcastle-building at PU.  E and I swam out to the far point
to look for fish; she is such a tough swimmer.

H getting ready to rope swing into a river feeding the ocean.

Luke in mid-swing over the icy water.  Brr!

Puerto Viejo - This gentleman from Nicaragua cut a hunk off of a log and
proceeded to make souvenir boats in the traditional Costa Rican style.

Of course we had to buy some!

H and L loved watching the man work.

The Ticos are all hanging out in the abundant shade.
We noticed everyone brought giant pots of rice
for lunch -- it is a staple at every meal (and maybe
the meal in and of itself).

His imaginary play usually involves whacks,
ka-thumps, and sounds of attack.  I can
practically hear him when I look at this. 
Love it!

Always creating, touching, fidgeting, exploring . . . being AWESOME!

E taking a break from exploring the coral and tide pools.
This trip, she found several different types of eels
and was able to trap some fish.

Mini-fish habitat created by E.

Que linda!

 

H and L drawing pictures in the sand.

Doesn't get much cuter!

While everyone was getting ready for dinner, H fashioned a
number of different dresses out of this wrap J and E bought me
on their early morning bike ride.  Precious!

We don't have too many photos of all of us together -- it's hard to make them happen. 
This pic was taken at a delicious restaurant called De Paso.  We had a fabulous night!

Our food -- red snapper and pork ribs -- was grilled right next to us. 
The restaurant had no walls and was less than 100 meters from the ocean.

Day 2: Jaguar Reserve and Puerto Viejo Beach.
 

Early morning adventures



The second day started off with a visit to an animal
rescue center.  E was in heaven!  First stop -- pericos.

Finally, we got to see a toucan!  H was ecstatic; this was
the one animal she'd been waiting to see.

This guy was just hanging out while we were on our tour.

Los monos

 This is as close as L got to a monkey.

One little fella just made himself at home on E's shoulder.

Then he decided to hang by his tail from her neck.  Eek!

My turn

H getting up close and personal with a perezoso (sloth).

Hee, hee . . . how cute!

L got into a wrestling match with this deer.

Super cool!

Day 3: Crazy waves at Cocles Beach.





 

 

Casita Tica

We moved into our new house almost two weeks ago!  It has been a fun experience living in a more traditional Tico house.  As you can see from the pictures, it is fairly small (maybe 900 square feet, which is actually pretty big by CR standards) and is a lot more open than our other house.  The front door opens to a living area which is connected to the dining and kitchen area.  Behind the kitchen is a laundry-type room that just has half-walls and then chain-link fence up to the tin roof.  The right side of the house is comprised of a bathroom and three bedrooms. 

The bugs always have access to the house, and we've certainly seen plenty :).  I even had a bat fly through one night while I was up on the computer. 

Only two rooms have beds, so our sleeping arrangement varies.  Fortunately, the queen bed is firmer than in the Casa Grande, so J can sleep a bit better.  Unfortunately, L always wants to sleep with J so J deals with a tornado and piece of burning coal all night long.  If I don't want to sleep the with spiders on the ceiling near the top bunk in the kids' room, I sleep on my side on the other side of the coal-tornado. 

While we have to deal with lots of roach poo in our kitchen drawers, the upsides are that we are closer to the school and don't have to traipse through the mud everyday, that the house is more open and airy, that the bathroom/bathroom doesn't reek of sewage fumes from an improperly installed sewage line, and that the kids really like to play in the yard and laundry area.  There is also a papaya tree right of the laundry steps, and throughout the yard are several lime and banana trees. 

Hosting people is a bit different as we don't have as much seating or cooking utensils/dinnerware.  Two new families arrived about the time we moved -- another family from Texas and one from Holland -- and we had the TX kids over to play this week and the European family over for dinner.  Everything worked out well, and we've enjoyed getting to know these new people with hearts to serve the Lord while we get to know our new house. 

Our last beautiful view from La Casa Grande. 
Good-bye sewage smelling house!!

Love this bush!  Avocado tree behind.

This side of the house is where the kids played all the time.
It's also where the robbers broke in.

Studying at the new house.  As you can see, we have a Tico
sized refrigerator.

The kids are in their red, white, and blue for the fourth of July.

Since all the animals in CR wake up around 4 am, our kiddos still rise early.
Some days they do their American work before Spanish school, as is the case
in this picture.

Our kitchen -- so glad to have tile that can be sanitized.  The wooden
counters in the other house were hard to clean!
The stove is hooked up to a gas can (i.e. for a grill), but it's not pictured.

El cuarto de pilas.



The view from our kitchen.  As is typical, the back part of the house is half wall/half chain link. 

And there's the living room.  Add a few bedrooms on the left side,
and that's the house.